MINORITIES SEEKING A SAY IN AFFAIRS OF LAND

Hurriyet
March 17 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – After years of barely making their presence known, a
record number of candidates in the upcoming local elections hail
from minority communities across Turkey. Many are running for seats
on municipal assemblies and some are running for mayorships, but all
of them are hitting the campaign trail to raise awareness and give
voice to their communities’ concerns

Minorities in Turkey are stepping up to make their voices heard in
Turkish politics, with a record number running for municipal posts
in the upcoming March 29 local elections.

Past local elections have seen on average five minority candidates
nationwide but this year there are 30, showing both an increase in
the interest of minority communities toward Turkish politics and an
effort by political parties to seek their votes. There is especially
a significant rise in the number of Turks of Armenian descent running
in the elections, with most preferring the leftist Republican People’s
Party, or CHP, or Democratic Left Party, or DSP.

There is no organizational or social backing for these minority
candidates, with most oblivious to the others’ existence. There have
been minority candidates who have run for municipal assembly in the
past, but in this year’s election, one municipality will feature
two minority candidates running for the same mayoral post in Adalar,
the islands of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

DSP’s Dr. Karabet Yayla, who is of Armenian descent, and Yusuf Bahar,
a Jewish Turk, are both running for Adalar mayor. The race appears
to be between the two because most of the residents of Adalar are
Turks of Greek, Armenian or Jewish descent.

The candidate from the center-right Democrat Party, or DP, 37-year-old
Bahar, told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review that he saw
no negative or positive reaction from the Jewish community on his
candidacy.

"My grandfather was elected to Parliament in the 1950s from the
DP. My interest in politics comes from the family. More importantly,
I am a citizen of Turkey and want to have a say in the running of
the country." Bahar also said mistaken state policies were to blame
for the largely apolitical minority communities.

His main competition, Yayla, said the Armenian community was slowly
becoming interested in politics and predicting more members of the
minority communities would run in the next election. "As a mayoral
candidate, I started with Adalar Municipality. This is the perfect
place for a first step because it has a much more cosmopolitan social
structure," he said.

Also, Turkish Jew Emin Levi from the Motherland Party, or ANAVATAN,
will run for a seat on the Adalar municipal assembly.

The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has selected eight
members of minority communities to run for municipal assemblies
in Istanbul.

Definition of minority in Turkey

In Turkey, the word "minority" is a subject of sensitivity and
ongoing debate. While the word in common usage can refer to any
distinct social group whose numbers are relatively small, there are
three legally established, statutory minorities in Turkey: Greeks,
Armenians and Jews.

This definition was written into the Lausanne Treaty in 1923 at the
behest of Western powers and obligated the new Turkish Republic to
acknowledge the special status of these groups. Some small groups,
notably the Ancient Syriac Orthodox community, rejected the status at
the time as divisive and remained outside the legal definition. The
Jewish community also rejected portions of the Lausanne designation
as a violation of social cohesion. Reflecting the sensibilities
of the time, Lausanne regarded all Muslims in Turkey as a single
"majority." But the Constitution does not recognize religious or
ethnic affiliation in defining citizenship. Under the law, the word
"Turk," while regarded in some quarters as an ethnic label, does not
mean anything more than a person of Turkish citizenship.

In the cultural realm, the many groups that demographically or
culturally can be described as minorities in Turkey include the Alevi
religious sect, the ethnic Kurdish population and many others, ranging
from the Black Sea region’s Laz population, to a large Arab-speaking
community in southeastern Turkey, to the Roma population who have
lived in Istanbul since Byzantine times. Raffi Hermonn, who is a CHP
candidate for the Adalar municipal assembly, said the increase in the
Armenian community’s interest in politics is a reaction to the murder
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. "The mentality
that murdered Dink thought Armenians would just cower or even leave
the country. But the gun misfired and these elections are the best
proof. Armenians want to have a say in politics. The participation
rate is quite normal because Armenians are more numerous compared to
other minority communities," he said.

Vasken Barın, a Turkish Armenian who has served as the deputy mayor
of Mustafa Sarıgul for the past decade in the Istanbul municipality
of Å~^iÅ~_li, is running with Sarıgul for the DSP in these elections.

Turkey’s first Turkish Armenian deputy mayor, Barın said from the
moment they started to run Å~^iÅ~_li Municipality they started to
restore schools, cemeteries and hospitals in the community. "Before
us, nothing was done for them," he said.

Syriac-Christian Selim Malgaz is running for the CHP for the Bakırköy
municipal assembly while Turkish-Armenian Haco KeleÅ~_ picked the
far-right Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, to run for a seat in
the same assembly. Attempts to contact KeleÅ~_ proved unfruitful,
with the press secretary of the party saying that due to reports in
some dailies he had been turned into a target.

Minorities in politics

The introduction of minority, or non-Muslim, communities into politics
started with modernization efforts during late Ottoman times.

Professor Ayhan Aktar from Istanbul Bilgi University said between 1876
and 1908, the portion of non-Muslims among Ottoman politicians had
increased to 29 percent. "This process ended in 1912," he said. "The
Ottoman mentality was more inclusive, while the nation-state
is exclusive, with ethnicity a primary determining factor," he
said. After the founding of the Republic in 1923 until 1935, no
minority community member occupied even the lowest-level civil servant
job, said Aktar. He also said minorities were discriminated against
throughout the Republican era. "According to the civil law enacted in
1926, the most important characteristic of potential civil servants
was being of Turkish origin, preventing minorities from seeking a
state career," Aktar said, adding this obstacle was removed in 1960.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress