Turkey admits its "mistakes" toward Kurds

[bemildred]

ANKARA, Turkey — The prime minister acknowledged yesterday that the Turkish government had mishandled its relations with the nation's minority Kurds, saying their long-running grievances need to be addressed through greater democracy, not repression.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's admission, believed to be the first by a Turkish leader, came during a speech in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the troubled Kurdish southeast region and a hotbed of Kurdish nationalism.

The crowds applauded wildly as Erdogan termed the Kurdish issue "my problem, our collective problem."

"Mistakes have been made," he said. And to ignore past mistakes, he declared, was not "fitting behavior for great nations such as Turkey."

Seattle Times

[SouthernDem2004]

1. Guess its a start...

[bemildred]

2. I'm impressed. nt

[Julius Civitatus]

3. Ok, now they should recognize Armenian genocide n/t

[YOY]

4. their denial of that one is on the level of the Japanese

and the rape of Nanking

[Julius Civitatus]

20. Indeed. Quite shameful in both accounts. n/t

[bemildred]

5. Yeah, and there is that business with Cyprus. nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. the greeks are no less complicit in Cyprus

Two sets of hotheads, each ready to throw spears at each other.

Pity that most americans do not recognize how intertwined Turkey, the Kurds and Iraq are. The complications are huge, the issues extremely complex. In some ways the Kurds and the Turks have been battling since WWI.

[bemildred]

10. True. Their conflict goes back a long way, too. nt

[Inland]

6. And it's "oopsy daisy" with regard to Armenians. nt

[fshrink]

7. Sign that, on the other side of the border,

Kurds are gaining power. And, considering the symbolic importance of the move (which would amount to the Idiot publicly acknowledging that WMDs were a pretext) the power in question must be sizeable.

[bemildred]

9. Yes. That was my take.

He needs to try to make political amends in Turkish Kurdistan.
I expect we may see Iran and Syria reacting too.

[K-W]

11. They dont want another rebellion, its as simple as that. EOM

[54anickel]

12. Sign that it's best to resolve their own issues rather than risk the US

using your differences against you. See, Shrub IS a uniter.

Interesting commentary here:

http://www.turkishweekly.net/comments.php?id=1639

“Before yesterday’s Turkey-US-Iraq tripartite security meeting, I spoke with former President Suleyman Demirel about our rejecting a motion on deploying US soldiers back in March 2003 before the war in Iraq. He said if the Parliament had passed the motion, today we wouldn’t be suffering from the problem of the terrorist PKK. According to some, if Turkey were to support unconditionally the US’ policy in Iraq, we would be strong. This way of thinking is the result of what has happened to us. Creating domestic enemies and getting rid of them through the support from outside is a desperate policy. The PKK isn’t separate from the Kurdish issue, which has been continuing for more than 80 years. In addition, we should never have reached the point where we were seeking a joint operation with the US. Every country has security problems and it’s the right of each to take measures. However, there are other deep problems underlying every security problem and without analyzing them, they won’t be solved. Secondly, countries can cooperate with each other on security, but the cost of trying to solve Turkey’s problem of the PKK with US cooperation should be considered carefully.

Currently, the cost of Turkey’s trust in the US will be our entrance into the US’ foreign policy in Iraq and the Middle East. In addition, the PKK’s policy of violence serves to ensure this. Those who speak on behalf of Kurds should hinder this way.
In an atmosphere of violence nothing can be discussed. Rejecting the motion should have encouraged us as an important point of resistance so we could stay outside the maelstrom in the Middle East which some people are trying to push us into. Don’t be afraid of those who are strong enough to act maliciously, but be afraid of cooperating with them. Cooperation wouldn’t prevent them from acting maliciously, but will make you malicious too. This situation is valid for Turks, Kurds, Arabs, etc. Let’s try to find a way out, otherwise somebody will start a slaughter. They have done it before and will do it again, unless we cooperate with each other.”

[MADem]

18. My thoughts, exactly

I think they smell a nation of Kurdistan in the wind...it will be a bitch for them if they end up losing the the eastern end of their nation to the new Kurdistan. But hey, they treated those folk like crap--outlawing the language, not permitting Kurdish names, even Kurds who serve in the conscript military get discriminated against. And then, there's their actions against the Kurdish population...the phrase "jack booted thugs" comes to mind. Amnesty International compiled reams of info on those abuses.

For the longest time, nations and leaders (Saddam and the assorted Ayatullahs were masters of this game, to say nothing of some of our own presidents, going back to FDR) have played Kurds against each other, in Iran, Iraq and Turkey, but perhaps now they are once again seeing the advantages in a unified front. They may well get back their "lost nation of Kurdistan" and that process would probably be accelerated should chimpy go into Iran...and frankly, if they don't go for it now, the climate may not be supportive of such an effort in future, should that region ever stabilize.

[davidinalameda]

13. is this the first step in an independent Kurdish state

in Iraq?

maybe this is the beginning of the end of Iraq as a unified country

very interesting

[IndianaGreen]

14. No, Turkey will never allow the Kurds to form their own country

but there is nothing to stop Turkey from addressing past grievances short of Kurdish independence. Iraq and Turkey are not the only countries having a Kurdish "problem." An independent Kurdish state would have to be carved from several countries, and the newly independent Kurds will have problems with other ethnic minorities that would be living among them, including people of Iranian, Iraqi, and Turkish descent.

Some problems have no solutions, and this could be one of those!

[MADem]

19. If a Kurdistan is formed out of chunks of Iraq and Iran, they may not have

..a choice. They are in a position now where they MUST placate Turkish Kurds, else the long repressed "eastern Turks" may start taking a page from the insurgency book that is doing so well in Iraq. And Turkish Kurds have an advantage--because the Turks were so onerous with them, in terms of language, education and even their NAMES, they can slip in and out of Turkish society, damn near sight unseen. They can slide between the cultures, a lot of them. And they are already there.

Also, if they need help, it's an easy hop over the borders for their fellow Kurds-- those Zagros mountains are like nothing to those guys--they live there, that is their stomping grounds. They're a real bitch to the uninitiated, seemingly impassable in places, but that's the Kurdish back (and front) yard.

The Turks are trying to soothe the Kurds because they HAVE to, not because they especially want to. They don't want buses blowing up in touristy Istanbul or business-minded Ankara...it just won't do...

[Uncle Joe]

15. While they have a long ways to go on the journey of reconciliation.

This is a major and most welcome development.:)

[H5N1]

16. Kurds - do not get your hopes up: you get nutheen!

Endless violence is all I see in the future for the
would-be Kurdish empire-builders.
It is simply not to be.
The Kurds will keep rebelling, as they must,
only to be put down hard, as it must be.

[Javaman]

17. Okay, I didn't get the memo: mistakes = genocide...

Are we all clear on that now?

colossal failure*