A new era of recognition
November 11, 2007
Kurdishaspect.com - By Raz Jabary
Deniz Baykal, the party leader of the Turkish CHP party, told media
yesterday that it is necessary for Turkey to improve its relationship
with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and that the country
should consider diplomatic ways of solving political issues affiliated
with the Kurdish cause.
Last Wednesday Kenan Evren, the Turkish ex-general who was in charge of
the military coup in Turkey in 1980, said it was a wrong step to have
implemented the forbidden use of the Kurdish language in Turkey.
Earlier this year, Evren urged the implementation of federalism in
Turkey and the granting of equal rights to the Kurdish citizens.
Where the public use of the Kurdish language in Turkey was officially
forbidden until even the very end of the `90s, and anyone who would
have taken the word `Kurdistan' for granted would have been considered
an affiliate of the PKK guerrilla movement, nowadays we can see clear
progress in the recognition of the Kurdish identity in Turkey.
In my opinion, two major events have been the cause of this fact,
namely the rise of the Kurdistan region in Iraq as a regional power
with its own military, flag, government and borders, and secondly the
arise of the Internet era that allowed the free spreading of global
reports where in certain places journalists and media were previously
restricted to take messages to the outside world. The Internet has
clearly also allowed for an increase in Kurdish nationalism and more
awareness of the Kurdish cause amongst non-Kurds.
Turkey cannot deny the KRG and the virtually independent status of the
Iraqi Kurds, along with the recognition of its own Kurdish population
and their rights because it is already trying to show the Kurds that it
does not look at them and the PKK with one eye, in an effort to try to
increase the gap between PKK militants and Kurdish citizens.
Iran, with its own Kurdish minority population and battle against PJAK
guerrillas who are fighting for Kurdish self-governance, recently
opened its consulate in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region in
Iraq.
A situation which clearly indicates the importance of the media in
politics is the issue of the Armenian genocide, which remains
unresolved and highly sensitive due to a lack of media reports back at
the time when it took place, where nowadays political issues are
brought out to the world immediately and it is impossible for a power
to commit crimes against humanity without the spread of public
awareness.
With all the respect, armed struggle has so far directly remained
indecisive in the Kurdish issue and all that the Kurds have achieved in
the last couple of years due to diplomacy in terms of building up an
autonomous region in Iraq and entering Turkish parliament in Ankara
makes up one of the very few success stories in Kurdish history and the
Kurds' struggle for self-governance. If the Kurds were to achieve their
ultimate goal of having an own independent state, it would be in this
new era where recognition is the key to solving the Kurdish cause.
About the author :
Raz Najat Jabary is a Contributing Writer to Kurdish Aspect. He is a
prominent youth debater in Wales and was chosen one amongst the top-21
best national Welsh youth debaters in October 2006 by the CEWC-Cymru
debating board. He participated in several CEWC debates as well as in a
session of the European Youth Parliament in the Welsh National Assembly
in Cardiff, Wales.
To learn more about the author see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raz_Jabary
November 11, 2007
Kurdishaspect.com - By Raz Jabary
Deniz Baykal, the party leader of the Turkish CHP party, told media
yesterday that it is necessary for Turkey to improve its relationship
with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and that the country
should consider diplomatic ways of solving political issues affiliated
with the Kurdish cause.
Last Wednesday Kenan Evren, the Turkish ex-general who was in charge of
the military coup in Turkey in 1980, said it was a wrong step to have
implemented the forbidden use of the Kurdish language in Turkey.
Earlier this year, Evren urged the implementation of federalism in
Turkey and the granting of equal rights to the Kurdish citizens.
Where the public use of the Kurdish language in Turkey was officially
forbidden until even the very end of the `90s, and anyone who would
have taken the word `Kurdistan' for granted would have been considered
an affiliate of the PKK guerrilla movement, nowadays we can see clear
progress in the recognition of the Kurdish identity in Turkey.
In my opinion, two major events have been the cause of this fact,
namely the rise of the Kurdistan region in Iraq as a regional power
with its own military, flag, government and borders, and secondly the
arise of the Internet era that allowed the free spreading of global
reports where in certain places journalists and media were previously
restricted to take messages to the outside world. The Internet has
clearly also allowed for an increase in Kurdish nationalism and more
awareness of the Kurdish cause amongst non-Kurds.
Turkey cannot deny the KRG and the virtually independent status of the
Iraqi Kurds, along with the recognition of its own Kurdish population
and their rights because it is already trying to show the Kurds that it
does not look at them and the PKK with one eye, in an effort to try to
increase the gap between PKK militants and Kurdish citizens.
Iran, with its own Kurdish minority population and battle against PJAK
guerrillas who are fighting for Kurdish self-governance, recently
opened its consulate in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region in
Iraq.
A situation which clearly indicates the importance of the media in
politics is the issue of the Armenian genocide, which remains
unresolved and highly sensitive due to a lack of media reports back at
the time when it took place, where nowadays political issues are
brought out to the world immediately and it is impossible for a power
to commit crimes against humanity without the spread of public
awareness.
With all the respect, armed struggle has so far directly remained
indecisive in the Kurdish issue and all that the Kurds have achieved in
the last couple of years due to diplomacy in terms of building up an
autonomous region in Iraq and entering Turkish parliament in Ankara
makes up one of the very few success stories in Kurdish history and the
Kurds' struggle for self-governance. If the Kurds were to achieve their
ultimate goal of having an own independent state, it would be in this
new era where recognition is the key to solving the Kurdish cause.
About the author :
Raz Najat Jabary is a Contributing Writer to Kurdish Aspect. He is a
prominent youth debater in Wales and was chosen one amongst the top-21
best national Welsh youth debaters in October 2006 by the CEWC-Cymru
debating board. He participated in several CEWC debates as well as in a
session of the European Youth Parliament in the Welsh National Assembly
in Cardiff, Wales.
To learn more about the author see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raz_Jabary
