They explain that the nature of the conflict in Turkey is not one between Turks and Kurds. Now with a political solution to the Kurdish question approaching, meaning the security dimension will no longer be significant, the conflict has begun to acquire an ethnic component, agitating not only the opposition but the government as well. The society’s inability to empathize also contributes to this dangerous process.
The government in July launched a democratization initiative in order to solve the decades-old Kurdish question. The details of the plan are not yet clear, but one tangible result has been a recent surrender of a group of 34 people affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The group turned itself in to Turkish authorities last week after imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving a life sentence in prison on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara, asked it to do so.
The group was received with great enthusiasm at the border after it was released, leading to public outrage. The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society (DTP) was strongly criticized for organizing the reception, and the government has since declared that it has halted the arrival of further PKK-affiliated groups.
Meanwhile, the CHP and the MHP claimed that what happened at the border was the government turning itself in to the PKK. They both accused the government of treason. CHP leader Deniz Baykal said the public should provide the necessary answer to the events while MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli talked about going to the mountains.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, DTP leader Ahmet Türk said the attitude of both parties is racist. “Do you want to lynch the Kurds?” he asked.
International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) Vice President Yusuf Alataş said the DTP’s attitude during the reception provided the government with a pretext to give up its democratization process also deepened an already existing ethnic rift.
“This problem was not a Turkish-Kurdish conflict. But circles not happy with the government initiative are trying to transform it into an ethnic rift. In my opinion, such a possibility unfortunately is not out of the question,” Alataş told Today’s Zaman.
Sociologist Tanıl Bora, the author of “Türkiye’nin Linç Rejimi” (Turkey’s Lynch Regime), underlines that the CHP and the MHP are aggravating the situation, but the problem is that there is already a powerful source for racism. “It is almost as if the nation has the right to be provoked, and there are no efforts to reverse this. Just the opposite, new fuel is being added to this already burning flame from time to time,” Bora told Today’s Zaman.
He added that the government, if it desires to save itself from becoming isolated, has to implement measures to increase empathy and tolerance among the people. “Telling those who engage in provocation not to do so is not enough. Everyone, starting from the government, has to work to ensure common sense prevails,” he said.
Human Rights Association (İHD) Chairman Öztürk Türkdoğan said the CHP and the MHP are provoking the people and trying to create ethnic conflict, but there is no place to complain about what they are doing.
“We are always afraid that the conflict may turn into an ethnic clash, as there have been attempts in the past to do just that. The Kurds were attacked in western cities just because of their ethnic identity. There should be laws against these kinds of provocations,” Türkdoğan told Today’s Zaman.
Yılmaz Ensaroğlu from the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) underlined that in the past the conflict was never between Turks and Kurds, but is now turning into that as the problem becomes more politicized. “I see a huge risk here and if it is not prevented, it will be a fertile ground for provocation. The CHP and the MHP may not be doing this deliberately, but their role is undeniable -- especially their talk of treason, separatism and so on. The government has to take measures against such provocations immediately,” Ensaroğlu told Today’s Zaman.
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