TURKEY LOOKS TO EASE MINORITY TENSIONS WITH ONE EYE ON EU
BY Michel Sailhan

Agence France Presse
November 29, 2009 Sunday 5:53 AM GMT

Turkey is making moves to reconcile with the country’s minority
communities, but analysts are divided on whether this new form of
openness indicates a seismic shift in policy.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to heal the sectarian
wounds that run deep through Turkish society as he looks to take
his country closer to European Union membership — Brussels wants
democratic reforms and improvement of human rights before Ankara will
be considered for entry.

The Turkish premier has been looking to make concessions to the
Kurdish, Armenian, Roma and Alevi (Shia Muslim, practicing a modern
tradition of Islam) communities over the past year.

"Not long ago, this was all taboo," said Mehmet Ali Birand, a political
commentator with Turkey’s newspaper of reference Hurriyet.

Turkey and Armenia have been at loggerheads for years over the killing
of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Ankara still rejects Yerevan’s genocide label, but the two countries
inked a deal on October 10 to establish diplomatic ties and open
their shared border.

Earlier that month, Erdogan addressed his Justice and Development
Party’s (AKP) annual conference in which he named 13 people who have
made telling contributions to Turkish society.

He cited left-wing singer Cem Karaca, communist poet Nazim Hikmet,
Armenian musician Tatyos Efendi and two Kurdish poets, Ahmet Kaya
and Ahmed Khani, as being among the most influential Turks.

The Turkish government has also been keen to win over the Kurds as
it looks to boost its bid for EU membership.

Erdogan recently announced a "democratic opening" for 12 million
Kurds living in Turkey, which led to the Kurdish language being used
for the first time.

He also released a group of pro-independence Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK) rebels at the end of October, who were arrested after
they re-entered Turkey from their base in Iraq.

Just three years ago, the Turkish army vowed that it would vigorously
defend the country from any threats made by the PKK.

The Islamist-rooted government hopes fresh gestures to the Kurds will
erode popular support for the rebel group, which took up arms against
Ankara in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

Opposition lawmakers say these overtures could risk national unity,
while some critics say these moves have garnered no concrete results
and are merely aimed at pleasing the European Union.

Hugh Pope, a senior analyst specialising in Turkish affairs at the
International Crisis Group, disagrees.

"The fact that AKP leaders have chosen this year to push forward with
these openings – at a time of discouraging, cynical and misguided
opposition to Turkey’s EU convergence from key EU powers — strengthens
the argument that AKP and Turkey are genuine in their attempt to
assert universal values, rights and freedoms," Pope said.

For Hurriyet’s Birand, this is merely a cynical ploy by the government
to defend its own policies — such as freedom of religious expression.

"By citing a variety of names, recognising the rights of other
communities, the government puts itself in a strong position to defend
its own demands, such as lifting the ban on wearing the veil at the
university," he said.