Bahçeşehir University International Security and Strategic Studies Center (BUSAM) President Ercan Çitlioğlu presented some of the study’s findings at a press conference held at the university yesterday. Calling the product of the year-long research effort the broadest, most academic study completed on its topic to date, Çitlioğlu explained that as part of the study 4,761 face-to-face interviews were conducted in 29 provinces divided into two categories: provinces in Turkey’s East and Southeast, and provinces further west that have received large numbers of migrants from the East and Southeast in the past 20 years.
The study results, released amidst a period in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) launched a historic democratic initiative to address the Kurdish problem, are intriguing to say the least. Some of the findings support assertions made by academics and civil society representatives during the new period of discourse ushered in by the democratic initiative, backing up messages in academia that are only now beginning to reverberate with the public.
For example, 47.5 percent of respondents from eastern and southeastern Anatolia disagree with the postulation that the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) “represents all Kurds”; only 23.5 percent agreed. Asked about the importance of the Turkish Republic, being a Turkish citizen, the Turkish flag and the Turkish national anthem, the same respondents overwhelmingly said these things were important to them -- with margins over 99 percent for each question.
Similarly, 41.4 percent of respondents identifying themselves as ethnic Kurds or Zazas said that the mention of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was associated with terrorism and separatism in their minds; only a marginal 9.9 percent responded that the PKK was a defender of Kurdish rights.
Other results, however, seem to contradict what some civil society leaders, academics and members of the public have been saying for years. For example, the study results claim that the reasons driving migration West from the conflict-torn, destitute eastern and southeastern provinces are mostly familial/personal reasons (61.8 percent). Following this are economic reasons (16.2 percent), while reasons of safety/security account for only 9.4 percent. In addition, the study says only 75.1 percent of respondents felt they had ever been subject to discrimination.
The full title of the study is the “Study on the Socioeconomic and Sociocultural Makeup of Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia and the Socioeconomic and Sociocultural Makeup of the Regions Receiving the most Migrants from Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia: Problems, Expectations and Solution Recommendations.”
