Gov’t readies for Nov. 10 meeting

Days before the crucial debate in Parliament over the ongoing Kurdish initiative, government members held a preparatory meeting to discuss the current state of the campaign and future strategy.

Chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the meeting featured the justice, interior, foreign and defense ministers as well as deputy prime ministers and some top Justice and Development Party, or AKP, officials.

The Kurdish issue will be largely discussed by the General Assembly on Nov. 10. Erdoğan and the ministers agreed that Interior Minister Beşir Atalay will brief the Parliament on the ongoing efforts to address the Kurdish question.

Atalay will summarize the current status of the initiative and will also inform the lawmakers of the possible legislative steps to be taken in the short, medium and long term. However, government sources said that this will not include any classified information.

Later in the day, Erdoğan met with Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ.

Meanwhile, refugees in the United Nations-run Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq told the France-based Agence France-Presse they dream of coming back to Turkey, but that they will not return unless Ankara grants extensive political and cultural rights to Kurds.

The inhabitants of the camp, set up in 1998 in a dry and arid zone about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Arbil, want to see concrete guarantees before they make their way back home.

"We are here for a cause and as long as we do not get what we want, we will not come back," says Makbule Oren, a 29-year-old mother of six.

Their demands – constitutional recognition of the Kurdish identity, Kurdish-language education, regional autonomy and an immediate end to the violence – are exactly the same as those of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

"We are all supporters of the PKK even though we are not members," said Mahmud Manav, a member of the camp's administrative council. "We are the families of the PKK; our brothers and children are currently fighting within their ranks."

Turkey has long been pressing for the closure of Makhmour, charging that the camp is controlled by the PKK and serves as a supply base of fresh militants to the organization, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR took charge of the camp and the refugees built houses, schools and coffee shops. They now work in nearby fields and construction sites.

Even if they emphasize their devotion to the "cause," the inhabitants of Makhmour nonetheless express a strong desire to return home.

"Of course, I miss home a lot... Many members of our family who stayed in Turkey are now married; they have children who we have never seen," Oren said.