Oops! Not so nice after all.

[kurds at gn.apc.org]

This article is imported from mideast.general where it was posted
by igc:pnmideast 10:14 pm  Mar 14, 1991

Originally written  7:14 am  Mar 13, 1991 by branis in
cdp:soc.culture.turkish

   ---------- "NYT article 12/3/1991" ---------- 

         A TURKISH GESTURE TO KURDS FALTERS

   Proposal to Ease Restrictions Over Language Flounders.

                 By Clyde Haberman

ANKARA, Turkey, March 9 - A Goverment plan to soften language
restriction long imposed on Turkey's Kurdish minority has
stumbled in Parliament and may die there, a victim of nationalist
fears and political maneuvering.

With some fanfare and with hopes of improving their SHAKY
HUMAN-RIGHTS image abroad, turkish leaders announced in late
January that they would lift a ban that had made it a crime for
Kurds to speak their language in public or to listen to their
traditional songs.

The prohibition denounced as "stupid" even by some Cabinet
ministers, had been ordered in 1983 while Turkey was under
military rule. Even before then, Kurds had been subjected for
decades to a harsh campaign of assimilation that had denied tham
official minority status accorded to much smaller groups like
Greeks, Armenians and Jews. Instead, they were referred to as
"mountain Turks".

In Turkey's population of around 56 million, there are about 8
million to 10 million Turkish Kurds, tribal Muslims of
Indo-European stock who dominate the country'd vast southeast and
who rank among its poorest people.

                Separatists Fighting 7 Years

The Goverment has tried to ease its "Kurdish problem" with big
development projects. But it has run into strong local resistance
and growing sympathy for separatist guerrillas who have battled
the Turkish Army for the last 7 years - with ample viciousness
displayed by both sides- in a campaign to create an independent
Kurdish state in the southeast.

Theoretically, the January proposal to give the Kurds back some
of their cultural rights should have won the necessary
parliamentary approval with ease. The governing Motherland Party
has a solid majority, and its lawmakers have an acquired habit of
rubber-stamping whatever Pr. T. Ozal wants.

Moreover, by modifying the language ban, the Turks, would have
eliminated measures that in practice were already largely
ignored. They would also have scored public-relations points in
the West, including the US, where the State Dept. last month
listed cultural restrictions, along with torture and prison
overcrowding, among persistent human rights abuses in Turkey.

But the Goverment bill has been held hostage in the National
Assembly, partly because deep rifts have developed in the
goverment camp and partly because many Motherland deputies have
serious doubts about the proposal.

Theirs is a strongly nationalist view, born not so much of racism
as a foot-in-the-door fear that yielding language rights today
will lead inexorably to demands for independence tommorrow. In a
country still seared by memories of the Ottoman Empire's
dismantlement after WWI, that worry is not regarded here as mere
paranoia.

        No easing of Teaching Ban

Underlining the issue's sensitivity is the fact that there is no
mention of the word "Kurdish" in the bill. In addition, the
proposal does nothing to amend rigid restrictions against
teaching Kurdish in schools or publishing books or newspapres in
Kurdish. As a result, many Kurds are unimpressed.

"The contents of this bill are nothing," said Prof. Ismail
Besikci, a proseparatist sympathizer who used to teach Kurdish
affairs at Erzerum University in Eastern turkey. "They do not
bring anywhere near enough innovations".


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Spiros
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