KURDISH NEWS UPDATE, 1 October 2013
Turkey presents reforms aimed at pressing Kurdish peace process
30 September 2013 / ReutersTurkey on Monday announced reforms seen as designed to salvage a peace process with Kurdish insurgents, including changes to the electoral system, broadening of language rights and permission for villages to use their original Kurdish names.
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said the proposals, presented by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, were not enough to satisfy Kurdish militants who this month halted their withdrawal from Turkish territory. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) insurgency has tarnished Turkey's human rights record and crippled the economy in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country. More than 40,000 people have been killed in fighting since 1984. Other reforms include allowing election campaigns to be conducted in languages other than Turkish and decriminalising the use of Kurdish letters not found in the Turkish alphabet. All primary school students in state schools will now also no longer have to recite a deeply nationalistic vow at the start of each week, which begins with the words: "I am a Turk".
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/uk-turkey-politics-reforms-idUKBRE98T0HP20130930
Turkey's Kurds say reforms do not go far enough
30 September 2013 / ReutersTurkey's proposed reforms aimed at addressing some Kurdish grievances do not go far enough to advance the peace process with militants, the head of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said on Monday.
The package of reforms, including lowering an electoral threshold and allowing for Kudish-language education at private schools, did not meet the BDP's expectations, co-chairwoman Gultan Kisanak told a news conference. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan presented the much-anticipated proposals earlier on Monday.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/uk-turkey-reforms-kurds-idUKBRE98T0GC20130930
What do New Judicial Reforms Include?
30 September 2013 / BianetAnnounced by PM Erdoğan this morning around 11 am local time, new judicial reforms - known as democratization package - offer three alternatives for electoral threshold, state aid to political parties and facilitation on political party organizations.
While the speech was simultaneously translated to English and Arabic, TRT Şeş - Turkey’s Official TV network in Kurdish - aired the speech live in Kurmanji, Sorani and Zaza dialects. Some of the highlights from PM Erdoğan's statement included:
“We are laying the ground for the discussion of three alternatives to the electoral thresholds. The current systems stir criticism. However, this system is not something that AKP brought. In 2002 elections, we came [to power] with the same system. Even at the time we founded our party, we brought the need to change this system. At our 4th Grand Congress, we already declared that we would change this as a part of our 2023 vision. Several reports including the one by Wise People Commission mentioned this. Now we are taking a step forward to resolve this.
http://www.bianet.org/english/politics/150293-what-do-new-judicial-reforms-include
Turkey's pro-Kurdish party rejects govt. reforms
30 September 2013 / Press TVTurkey’s pro-Kurdish party has rejected a recently unveiled reform package by Ankara, saying it is not enough to advance the ongoing peace process with the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants. On Monday, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Gulten Kisanak, said the reform package "didn't address any of their expectations." The reaction comes shortly after Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan proposed long-awaited reforms to enhance the rights of Turkey's Kurdish community. The reform package is seen as key to the continuation of the peace process aimed at ending the decades-long insurgency of the PKK. Under the reforms, Kurdish-language education will be permitted in private schools, and candidates in elections will be allowed to campaign in Kurdish. The reforms will also aim to ease rules preventing pro-Kurdish and other smaller parties from entering parliament. Women have been also granted permission to wear headscarves in state institutions.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/30/326900/prokurdish-party-rejects-govt-reforms/
Government takes steps on headscarf, Kurds, electoral system
30 September 2013 / HurriyetThe Turkish government will lift its much-debated ban on wearing headscarves in public offices, permit education in mother tongues in private schools and commence a debate on the country’s much-criticized electoral system with a long-anticipated democratization package announced yesterday. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the package was a result of Turkey’s "democratization history," particularly over the last 11 years. “This package is not a first and will not be the last package of such reforms,” Erdoğan said, stressing that the package was not the “final point” of a reform process that he claimed the ruling party had been pursuing since coming to power in 2002.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-to-lift-ban-on-headscarf-introduce-kurdish-education-with-democracy-package-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=55393&NewsCatID=338
‘Historic’ package not ordered by jailed PKK leader, genuine AKP project: Turkish PM
28 September 2013 / HurriyetPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has brushed aside opposition criticism about a much-anticipated democratization package that will be made public Sept. 30, saying the reforms were not ordered by the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party’s (PKK) jailed leader as claimed, but were genuine government projects. Erdoğan then returned the accusations, slamming the opposition parties for having “agitated against any reform” undertaken by the government since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came into power.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/historic-package-not-ordered-by-jailed-pkk-leader-genuine-akp-project-turkish-pm.aspx?pageID=238&nID=55323&NewsCatID=338
Armed feuds increase in the southeast following PKK withdrawal
27 September 2013 / SE TimesSocial conflicts that were suppressed during the army-PKK conflict are resurfacing in the wake of the ceasefire, with violent confrontations between families becoming more frequent in the southeast. Dozens of people were killed in land disputes and blood feuds this summer. Earlier this month, five people were gunned down in front of Mardin prison as they went to visit relatives. The southeast is no stranger to such incidents, but local experts and civil society leaders say the problems have become aggravated since the PKK's withdrawal to northern Iraq. They say social and economic precautions are needed. Rustem Erkan, head of the sociology department at Diyarbakir's Dicle University, attributed the uptick in feuds to changes in the countryside. Feuds decreased with migration to cities and a drop in the value of land caused by the war. Thanks to the peace process, people are moving back to their villages, and competition for resources is increasing.
http://turkey.setimes.com/en_GB/articles/ses/articles/features/departments/society/2013/09/27/feature-01
Iraq Kurd opposition party consolidates position in regional vote
28 September 2013 / ReutersIraqi Kurdistan's main opposition party has come in second in the autonomous region's parliamentary election, according to preliminary results on Saturday that left the shape of the government still unclear a week after the vote.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) share power in the previous cabinet with a combined 59 out of 111 parliamentary seats, having fought out their rivalries in a civil war during the 1990s.
But from its genesis ahead of the last election in 2009, the Gorran (Change) party has rapidly built a following among those disenchanted with corruption and the lack of transparency, particularly around revenues from the region's oil.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/28/us-iraq-kurds-vote-idUSBRE98R0EJ20130928
When demagogy replaces democracy. Or, the empty package
30 September 2013 / ANFThe AKP propaganda machine had been working for weeks. And finally the day of the announcement arrived. The "religious" character of this "democratisation package" which was presented as a "revelation" was quite unsettling. Skepticism was the most prevalent attitude and not only among Kurds. Indeed the "surprise" promised by Prime Minister Erdoğan proved to be as inexistent as the content of the so much boasted about "democratisation package" unveiled today. To begin with, looking around the room of the press conference, one could not stop thinking and feeling quite unsettled about the fact that most of the Kurdish (and left) journalists who would normally have attended PM Erdogan's presentation were not there. The contradiction about the PM presenting his "democratisation package" and the absence (not because of their will) of these journalists was painful: these journalists were not there today because they are sitting in prison.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/when-demagogy-replaces-democracy-or-the-empty-package.htm
Erdogan Democratization Package: What Does it Offer Minorities?
30 September 2013 / Al MonitorTurkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his long-awaited "democratization package" in a press conference on Monday, Sept. 30. He said the announcement of the package was a "historic moment for Turkey." He sent a message to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish movement by saying that new reforms will follow as long as politics are used as a means of solving issues.
In his talk, Erdogan frequently referred to the 1960 military coup. He said that the coup had broken the mechanism of a well-functioning democracy, and that the shadow of that coup has obstructed change in Turkey since. This was an indirect allusion to the Gezi protests. The 1960 military coup followed intensive protests by university students, secular and urbanized segments of the population — a bit similar to the makeup of the Gezi Park protests.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/democratization-package-kurds-turkey-minorities.html
Erdogan's reforms - how does the West see it?
1 October 2013 / World MonitorTurkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's democratic reform package has a mixed reception from the foreign press. Most picked up on the lifting of the headscarf ban in state institutions and education in Kurdish language in private schools as the key areas of reform. "Erdogan eases headscarf ban as Kurds say reform plan falls short" was the Bloomberg Businessweek headline. Kurdish human rights lawyer Sezgin Tanrikulu also quoted, says the reforms "fail to amend anti-terror laws and other legislation used to jail Kurdish politicians." Most of the press linked the introduction of the Kurdish language reforms to the peace process with the outlawed PKK, and its political wing, the BDP. Some of the other reforms include the llifting of restrictions on using Kurdish alphabet and place names which will be able to revert back to their orginal Kurdish place names.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=119522
How Turkey blew its chance to lead this troubled region
29 September 2013 / IndependentWhatever happened to the idea that Turkey was the coming power in the Middle East, with its surging economy and stable democracy under a mildly Islamic government which might be the model for Arab states as they ended decades of police state rule in 2011? Turkey seemed perfectly positioned to lead the way, with no serious enemies in the region and with good relations with the US and the EU. Oversimplified headlines comparing modern Turkey with the Ottoman empire in the days before it became a great power in the 16th century did not seem wholly exaggerated.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/how-turkey-blew-its-chance-to-lead-this-troubled-region-8846456.html
End of empire: The glory of the Ottomans - and the devastation wreaked since they lost power
29 September 2013 / IndependentThere are few things more profoundly dead than an ex-empire, but around the time that the Soviet empire came apart at the seams, I became aware that the ghosts of a much older one – that of the Turkish Ottomans – were still haunting its former domains.
It was in the spring of 1990. All Europe's communist dominoes had already fallen over, the most recent being Romania, whose dictator Ceausescu had just been executed. The only one left standing was tiny, reclusive Albania. Every half-serious newspaper in Fleet Street wanted a bite of it, but foreigners were barred from entering – not only journalists, but even ordinary tourists. The only outsiders admitted were archaeology enthusiasts who were occasionally permitted to undertake study tours.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/end-of-empire-the-glory-of-the-ottomans--and-the-devastation-wreaked-since-they-lost-power-8842053.html
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