Turkish opposition leaders speak out against Kurdish initiative

The Turkish government on Friday released more details about its much-debated Kurdish initiative, which the ruling party has billed as a solution to the country’s 25-year struggle against an outlawed Kurdish group in the Southeast.

In an address to Parliament, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay said the government’s initiative would not divide the country but strengthen it under the slogan “more democracy for everyone.”

He said the government’s initiative, which the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has said will bring to an end the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, was a project “for brotherhood.”

“The democratic opening will not harm the country but consolidate it,” he said.

Atalay said the government had increased the freedom to use different languages and dialects, adding that a commission would be created to combat discrimination, torture and mistreatment.

Another part of the initiative would be to restore the former Kurdish names of villages, he said.

He said that as part of the initiative, the government had been dealing with martyrs’ families and their concerns and that the “return to the village” project – aimed at urging PKK members to return from PKK camps in northern Iraq – would continue in 14 provinces.

“We’re preserving everyone’s rights,” he said. “This has to be done in order to fulfill the criteria to join the EU.”

The way that past governments have handled the Kurdish issue in Turkey created the problems that the country now faces, said Ahmet Türk, leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP.

 “We’ve endured these policies for years, and we want to protect ourselves from it,” he said. He suggested for a commission to be established which would look at which mistakes have been made.

“The problem here is not the Kurdish-Turkish question,” Türk said. “Neither is it a stance against the Turkish people. This is a stance against the policy of assimilation."

“The fight against terrorism has stopped, and negotiations with the PKK have begun,” said Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, leader Devlet Bahçeli. He accused the government of politicizing the Kurdish initiative instead of promoting it as a tool to fight terror.

"This country is called Turkey and the people who live in it are the Turkish nation,” he said.

Deniz Baykal, leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, which has staunchly opposed the initiative, accused the AKP of secrecy and pleaded for a slower approach.

He also referenced the “show at Habur” near the Iraqi border, where thousands gathered last month to welcome PKK members returning from camps in northern Iraq. The celebration, organized by the DTP, caused an uproar across Turkey.

“The PKK has not promised to lay down their arms,” he said. “Does the Spanish government make the ETA its counterpart? Of course the PKK is going to have a party!”

Parliament was set to discuss the initiative on Tuesday, the anniversary of the death of Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The timing prompted CHP and MHP deputies to protest Atalay’s address.

CHP deputies raised banners reading, “My leader, we will make your Republic live forever,” and later requested that the debate be postponed.

Much of the controversy surrounding the Kurdish issue stems from PKK attacks in the country's Southeast. More than 45,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the PKK picked up arms in Turkey's Kurdish-populated Southeast and east. Turkey, along with the United States and the European Union, classifies the PKK as a terrorist group.