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ISTANBUL: New constitution embracing all ethnicities

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  • ISTANBUL: New constitution embracing all ethnicities

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    March 31 2013

    New constitution embracing all ethnicities

    MERVE BÃ`Å?RA Ã-ZTÃ`RK


    Turkey's bid to hammer out a new constitution, though presently
    blocked by divisions over the definition of citizenship, could boost
    efforts to solve the country's Kurdish question and end a conflict
    with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with whom the
    government is currently conducting settlement talks, by affording them
    greater rights. Turkish columnists largely suggest eliminating the
    emphasis on "Turkishness" in the current Constitution, which has long
    been a sticking point for Kurds.

    Roni Margulies in his article in the Taraf daily suggests changing
    `Turkish flag' to `Turkey's flag.' Quoting from a letter one of his
    conservative readers sent him, the columnist said: `Even if we say
    that we are equal, we subconsciously think that we, Turks, are
    superior. We live as if we have the right to force Kurds to act in
    certain way. We tell them to hang Turkish flags and we tell them to
    learn Turkish, whereas we do not even attempt to learn their language
    or respect their flag. If we are equal, then what right do we have to
    interfere with them? I think it is because we have been poisoned. We
    were poisoned with nationalism following the Tanzimat era.' If the
    Turkish flag had embraced everyone in the country equally, it wouldn't
    be a problem for Kurds to hang it, the columnist notes.

    Hilal Kaplan from Yeni Å?afak also says if a flag is a symbol that is
    supposed to make every citizen feel he belongs to the country, then
    she suggests calling it `Turkey's flag.' People may object to this
    suggestion, saying `'Turk' is not an ethnicity, it is the name for
    everyone living in the country,' and they are right, in a way, she
    says. However, there is also a sociological reality in that our
    history shows that Turkishness was used as a tool of discrimination in
    this country in the past and it is hard to associate this word with a
    super-ordinate identity now. If we insist on using the current terms,
    including `Turkish' in it, people will continue to believe that the
    differences among society are a reason to separate from the country.
    There are two options ahead of us now: We should either do away with
    the ethnicity-centered perception or we should allow equal spaces for
    each ethnicity in the country, Kaplan argues.

    Ferhat Kentel, another Taraf columnist, says now is a historic moment
    for Turkish democracy and true justice in the country due to the
    ongoing efforts to draft a new constitution for Turkey. Kurds will not
    be the only ones to benefit from a more democratic constitution.
    Looking at some of last week's court rulings: Although everyone in the
    country knows that Pvt. Sevag Å?ahin Balıkçı was killed because he was
    an Armenian, a court ruled that his death was an accident and
    sentenced the man who shot him to four years and five months in
    prison; the boss of 13-year-old Ahmet Yıldız, who was killed when his
    head was struck by a hydraulic rubber molding press at a factory, was
    sentenced to only two to six years in prison; a man in Denizli who
    raped a 15-year-old girl three times was released, with the court
    saying, `If the girl was raped three times, then she must have been
    willing.' Kentel asks, `Can't we see that we urgently need a new
    constitution to finally bring true justice to the country?'

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