Sunday’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 20 2009

Turkey’s recruitment policy against minorities brought into spotlight

An unofficial policy of discrimination that has kept members of
minority groups out of state posts has been brought into the spotlight
after a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, Leo Süren Halepli,
recently passed a written test and interview to enter the EU General
Secretariat’s office in Turkey.

A security investigation to be carried out by the National
Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) will have the final say over whether
the young man will start his new job. Halepli’s success made its way
into many Turkish dailies, most of which termed it `a first in the
history of the Turkish Republic.’ According to most observers, the
wide newspaper coverage of Halepli’s story highlighted the flaws in
Turkey’s recruitment policy against members of communities other than
Turks.

According to Mustafa Å?entop, a professor of constitutional law at
Marmara University, there is no law that prohibits non-Muslims or
members of minority groups from being employed in state institutions
provided that they obtain Turkish citizenship. `With a Constitution
prepared in 1924, all Turkish citizens were declared equal. There is
no legal obstacle before people’s recruitment at state institutions as
long as they are Turkish citizens. However, when it comes to
unofficial practices, the case may be different,’ he said.

What Å?entop was referring to as unofficial practices were
long-established but not lawful applications by the state. Members of
the Greek or Armenian communities or non-Muslim individuals are rarely
employed as civil servants even if they are official citizens of
Turkey. Their job applications are rejected for one reason or another.

`Until the 1960s, non-Muslims or minorities were more active in
politics and the bureaucracy. There were, for example, 50 or 60 of
such deputies then. This number decreased over the years and
eventually became zero,’ Å?entop added.

Halepli was born in Ä°stanbul in 1981. He attended an Armenian primary
school and then Robert College in the province. He graduated from a
university in the United States and preferred to return to Turkey for
his career. The young man reportedly speaks Turkish, English, French,
German and Armenian.

Mehmet Altan, a Star daily columnist, said the Halepli case requires
Turkey to announce a `citizenship initiative’ before all other
initiatives. `Who is Leo Süren? He is a citizen of the Republic of
Turkey. If he is our citizen, why do we make his exercise of his
citizenship rights news? Because he is a Turkish citizen of Armenian
descent. And his successful score on the test for the EU General
Secretariat’s office is announced on the front pages of newspapers.
This means being a `citizen’ is not enough,’ he noted. Altan added
that other criteria sought for employees at state institutions are
being a Turk, Muslim and Sunni. `We are talking about a Kurdish
initiative, an Alevi initiative, an initiative for Roma people and an
Armenian initiative. Why do we need so many initiatives? Because many
citizens are not citizens in the real sense on the 86th anniversary of
the republic,’ he noted.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in summer
announced its intention to prepare a massive democratization package
through which it hoped to settle several of the country’s chronic
problems. Among those were the years-long problems faced by the
Kurdish, Alevi and Roma populations. Most of those problems stemmed
from discrimination against these groups. Through the democratization
package, the government hopes to grant broader cultural rights and
freedoms to its citizens.

Eser KarakaÅ?, another Star columnist, wrote earlier this week that the
Süren case has proved that Turkey is a state based on race. `Turkey is
a country of lies; almost all of what the state has taught us since
primary school is a lie. What is the worst lie is that every citizen
in this country is a first-class citizen. If this were not a lie, then
would the application of one of our citizens of Armenian descent to a
state position make news?’ asked the columnist.

KarakaÅ? also drew attention to a striking point and asked why it is
not possible to see a Turkish citizen of Armenian, Greek or Jewish
descent as a captain or major in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). `The
TSK states on every possible occasion that the principle slogan of
[Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk [the founder of the Republic of Turkey]
nationalism is `Happy is he who says he is a Turk.’ But we have not
seen a Turkish citizen of Armenian, Greek or Jewish origin among TSK
staff for years. Is it meaningful for a state to say this so many
times to its citizens?’ questioned KarakaÅ?. Turkey has been working to
thaw the ice between the state and ethnic and religious minorities
since the AK Party was swept to power in 2002. Since then, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an has underlined on various occasions that
the government is against both ethnic and religious nationalism,
adding that his government maintains an equal distance from every
ethnic and religious group in society.

Similarly, President Abdullah Gül told Parliament in October while
addressing deputies on the occasion of the start of the new
legislative year not to fear diversity in the country since the
process of respecting differences will serve to strengthen Turkey as a
nation.

20 December 2009, Sunday
BETÃ`L AKKAYA DEMÄ°RBAÅ? Ä°STANBUL