Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: Kurdish Conference Marked with Controversy over Zana

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: Kurdish Conference Marked with Controversy over Zana

    Zaman, Turkey
    March 12 2006


    Kurdish Conference Marked with Controversy over Zana
    By Erkan Acar, Cagri Cobanoglu, Serbest Ozden, Istanbul
    Published: Sunday, March 12, 2006
    zaman.com


    A panel discussion on the Kurdish issue in Turkey was hosted amid
    hot and strange opinions on the Dolapdere campus of Bilgi University
    in cooperation with the Helsinki Citizens Assembly and the Empathy
    Group.

    Described by some as the Southwest issue, and described by others as
    the Kurdish problem, participants struggled to find a common ground
    to share. There was hot debate between Ahmet Turk, the former deputy
    of the defunct Democratic Party (DEP), and Umit Firat, one of the
    organizers of the conference during the second session titled
    `Organizations and Experiences' that took place in the morning. Mr.
    Turk criticized Umit's interview with Hurriyet, a Turkish daily, that
    contained angry statements over the refusal to invite those who chose
    violence to the conference: `Not long before the conference began,
    discussions began over Leyla Zana being refused an invitation to this
    conference.' Firat responded by refuting Hurriyet's news report. Sefa
    Kaplan, a Hurriyet reporter, who interviewed Mr. Firat, and who also
    attended the conference, claimed he had evidence to confirm the news
    article was true.


    Sertac Bucak, the founder and former president of the International
    Center for Human Rights of the Kurds, pressed the terror organization
    PKK, the Kurdish Worker's Party, for disarmament during the first
    session titled `The Evolution of Kurdish Issue and its Historical
    Background' when he said: `Armed resistance fits well in with the
    policies of status quo in Turkey. The last three days of bombings,
    like those in Van, are a clear indication of what I just said now.
    However, anyone who acknowledges the existence of the Kurdish issue
    should not be claimed a separatist.' When Ali Bayramoglu, a
    journalist, asked about the allegations that the Kurds committed the
    murder of a massive number of Armenians, sociologist Ismail Besikci
    responded by saying: `The Intelligence Service contained many Kurdish
    people. Freed from the prison, promised possession, the Kurds were
    coaxed by the then government into participating in the Armenian
    genocide. The Kurds then did not act on their own free will. In the
    killing of many Kurds such as Musa Anter, the Kurds were again used
    to trigger violence.'


    Professor Ahmet Insal argued during the session on nationalism that
    nationalism is an exclusionist discourse when he said `nationalism is
    impossible to integrate with peace." Mumtaz'er Turkone, professor at
    Gazi University, and a Zaman columnist, argued in response that the
    Turkish nationalism is not propelled by the Turks. `Perhaps the Kurds
    contributed more to the Turkish nationalism than the Turks did,' said
    Turkone, `It is the Macedonians and Circassians who founded the
    Republic and they created the nationalism in order to protect the
    state. Ziya Gokalp, the author of The Basics of Turkish Nationalism,
    was also of Kurdish origin.'


    On their way to Bilgi University, the participants were protested by
    Artist Bedri Baykam and members of the Patriotic Movement, a radical
    right-wing movement in Turkey.
Working...
X