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.