08 December 2004 KurdishMedia.com
Observations on the situation of the Kurds in Turkey and comments on the EU Regular Reports on Turkey 2004: A draft

Introduction
Turkey’s possible EU membership is a multidimensional question. In this report I concentrate on questions which are important from the point of view of the Kurds. I analyse the 2004 Regular Report on Turkey’s progress towards accession [1] and the Recommendation of the European Commission (from now in this report: Recommendation of the EC) [2] on such issues which are important for the Kurds residing in Turkey. I will follow issues presented in the 2004 Regular Report on Turkey and in the Recommendation of the EC. I have sought information about these questions during an observation visit to Turkey from 22.10 to 10.11.2004.

This report is a draft and will be replaced by a more detailed account in due course. The preparation of this report (as well as my life) was threatened very seriously when the bus in which I travelled overturned in the mountains between Van and Tatvan on the 30th October. Fortunately the bus fell on the mountain side of the road, rather than the gorge side. I was not seriously hurt, but no one is in proper working mood after a serious accident! This obviously has affected the writing process after my return to home. I would not have made this draft public if it were not a very special time for the Kurds - the last weeks before the 17th December 2004 deadline when the EC will decide whether it starts membership negotiations with Turkey.
I wish to thank all the people who helped me during the journey, as well in collecting information as if it were an everyday life issue. Especially I wish to thank the busy staff in Tatvan hospital who took care of me after the accident. Despite being a very traumatic experience, the accident showed me also how well Turkish/Kurdish people work under very difficult circumstances.
In this report, there are examples of police routines that do not meet the EU standards, but in Tatvan hospital I saw that Turkish policemen can be also very polite and helpful when doing their work. It is natural that policemen are not brutal when they help victims of traffic accidents - they should behave the same way also when undertaking other duties. Financial support from the Ministry of Education to the Peace for Kurds Forum in Finland made this observation journey possible.
Important issues for the Kurds regarding Turkey’s membership negotiations with the EC
The European Commission pays attention to various components through which Turkey’s development will be monitored. I see especially these things as important for the Kurds. They are all from the 2004 Regular Report on Turkey and the Recommendation of the European Commission: They are:

- human rights
- freedom of _expression
- Kurdish language
- situation of minorities
- internally displaced persons

Human rights
The improvement of human rights is one of the key issues when talking of Turkey’s EU-membership. In the EU there is a zero tolerance policy towards torture. For Turkey’s membership, the EU demands that in Turkey human rights should be reinforced through determined efforts at all levels of the Turkish state.
The state of Turkey has started to work to end practices of torture - although this work is still at the beginning stage. The rules for pre-trial detention have been improved. Medical examinations of detained persons can now be carried out without the presense of the security forces and the medical examination reports need not be copied to law enforcement officers. On these issues, detainees are not always made aware of their rights by the law enforcement bodies. Also Turkey is adopting legislative measures to limit de facto impunity of the perpetrators of torture and under the new Penal Code such perpetrators will be more severely punished. (EC 2004a, 17, 33-34.)
Mazlum Der representatives in Diyarbakir say that there are many changes in the constitution, but the state has not undertaken them voluntarily. They are only to please the EU. In solving human rights problems, Turkey has tried to follow a European model and manage these issues under the responsibility of the Prime Minister [3]. The state has formed provincial and sub-provincial Human Rights Boards where the chairman is the governor (in cities e.g. Vali and in towns e.g.Kaymakan).
Representatives of the Van Women’s Association (Van Kadin Dernegi) and advocate Murat Timur in Van say that despite the change of the law, authorities continue to work in the same way. According to them, there is still torture and bad treatment in Van. Mazlum Der representatives say that torture is still in use in Diyarbakir.
"IHD has now a campaign against torture in Van and Hakkari. Authorities do not accept this campaign, they impose many restrictions." (Interview in Van Women Association 27.10.04).
"In mid October, a 16 years old child, Tacettin Kurt, was arrested in Van because police suspected that he smuggled cigarettes from Iran. He was tortured during his arrest. When he was in court,he was given permission to go home. But police took him to the police station,where he was not permitted to call to a lawyer, and he was tortured. I heard later that his clothes had been made very dirty with blood, and he was told to wash them before he met a lawyer. When police released him, they arrested his father and said that he is responsible for what his son was doing." (Timur 2004)

Murat Timur says that health checks of detainees are only a formality in Van:
"Detainees do not remove their clothes, so doctors are not able to see the condition of their skin. Police are still present in the room where the health controls are conducted. Statements are inaccurate, for example, when Tacettin Kurt was tortured, the medical statement said that he had injuries only to his head." (Timur 2004)
According to the EC (EC 2004a, 34), pocked-sized cards setting out a suspect’s rights, including his right to see a lawyer, have been distributed to police officers, who have been instructed to read the rights to a suspect immediately upon an arrest.
When I asked about this practise in Van, everyone laughed.
"Maybe government makes such things to show other countries, but it is only a formality. In Van there are no changes in the behaviour of policemen." (Timur 2004)
In Istanbul, the situation is better than in East-Turkey. I spoke with two men who had recently been arrested in Istanbul. One of them told about his experience:
"The policemen were polite but they didn’t say a word about the rights of detainees. They didn’t say their names. But they were polite, they even gave me tea. The policemen were joking that three years ago they would not have behaved like this but now they have been educated because of the 17.12. I heard the reason for my arrestt only when I was released, I received also a paper about it. (Interview in Istanbul 23.10.04)
According to Turkish law, when detainees are released, they have the right to obtain a paper detailing the reason for the arrest. Advocate Timur says than in Van police do not give such a paper to the detainee, and police only write the document if the advocate of the arrested person goes to the police station to ask for it.
With the aim to promote human rights in Turkey, a number of monitoring bodies [4] has been established. But according to the European Commission, the impact of these bodies is still very limited. Their independence has also been questioned. For example, the provincial and sub-provincial Human Rights Boards are chaired by Governors and they include participation from the Governors’ administrators. The Human Rights Association (IHD) and Mazlum-Der, two major human rights NGOs, refuse to participate in the work of these Boards. (EC 2004a, 32.)
In Van, there are Human Rights Boards chaired by the Governor. IHD and Mazlum Der do not participate in its work, but Murat Timur as an independent advocate, is a member of the Board. He provides details about it:
"Our governor created a local organisation to survey human rights in Van. Some lawyers who follow Atatürk’s ideas participated in it. This organisation is only a formality. In a month only three people presented an application to it, the others (IHD and Mazlum Der) receive about 50 cases every month. When this body of lawyers receives an application they do not treat it properly." (Timur 2004)
Also Mazlum Der representatives in Diyarbakir critizise the Human Rights Boards. They say that human right issues do not receive much attention by these committees. When people complain to them, the Boards tell about other problems, like unemployment or quarrels with neighbours. (Mazlum Der 2004)
According to Mazlum Der representatives the main problem in Turkey is that there are two power forces: the army and the government.
"Most of the problems in the country are caused by disagreement between them. The army says that the process of modern republic building is not yet ready, but it continues. The army still claims that "colorful" country (multiethnic) would lead to separation of the country. At present, the government cannot stand against this power but with the support of the EU it can succeed." (Mazlum Der 2004)
Mazlum Der representatives in Diyarbakir hope that the EC will make positive a decision on the 17th December, because this would give the Government greater strength to confront the army. Many big and small incidents show how weak the Government is in Turkey. One small example of this is that the wife of the Prime Minister, Erdogan, can not participate in official celebrations 22.10.2004 because she was wearing a head scarf.
The recent report by the Human Rights Group of the Parliament shows how complicated and multi-dimensional these issues are in Turkey. The group, headed by Professor Ibrahim Kabaoglu, reported in October 2004 [5] an incident which caused an open conflict between the Human Rights Group and the Government. For example, the lock of the door to the Group’s rooms in the Parliament building was suddenly changed. The report has caused very strong feelings and this shows that much public discussion about these topics is necessary in Turkey. (Erkin ve Tezerer 2004.)

Freedom of _expression
Press freedom in Turkey has been improved via the adoption of a new Press Law. But according to the European Commission, the frequency of prosecutions against journalists is still a cause of concern. (EC 2004a, 17.)
I could see, even during a short visit, that journalists face the same problems and restrictions as earlier. Also journalists of large Turkish newspapers have these problems if they write about the Kurdish question, and not only in Kurdish newspapers. For example, the journalist Sebati Karakurt’s article about Kongra-Gel was published in Hürriyet 17.10.2004. Karakurt had travelled to North-Irak, to the Kandil mountains and conducted an interview with Kongra Gel. This article caused a storm in Turkey and Karakurt was arrested the day after his article was published. Police wanted to know how he had travelled to Kandil. Karakurt explained that he had crossed the border in Habur and then taken a taxi and told the driver to take him to Kandil. This explanation was accepted, and police released Karakurt. Now it is up to the prosecutor whether this case will go to the court.
For Kurdish newspapers (for example Ulkede Ozgür Gündem and Azadiya Welat) and the newsagency DIHA (Dicle Haber Ajansi), such problems are part of everyday life.
Journalist Vedat Kursun from DIHA was arrested in Hakkari 22.9.2004 when he tried to get information about the Turkish army operation against Kongra Gel taking place near Hakkari. When I left Turkey 10.11.2004, he was still in a Hakkari prison. Police confiscated Kursun’s camera.

A journalist who works in Ulkede Ozgür Gündem was arrested in Van 25.10.2004
when he observed a public meeting which demanded the release of Abdullah Ocalan. Police threatened Kurdish journalist Ubeydullah Hakan in Van 3.9.2004 that he will be killed. Hakan has tried, with his lawyers, to bring this case to the court, but by the end of October, the court in Van had not appropriately handled his claim . Hakan has had difficulties with police earlier when he has taken pictures in Van.
Resat Ok, a journalist working for DIHA, was arrested in Silopi 27.10.2004 when he wanted to travel to North Irak. DIHA journalists both in Van and Diyarbakir told that police treat them like suspects all the time and impose restrictions on their work. Journalists from other news agencies do not have restrictions to cross the border to Iraq, but for DIHA staff it is always difficult.
Broadcasting in the Kurdish language is now permitted and broadcasts have started but on a restricted scale (EC 2004a, 12-13).
Turkey has announced to the European Commission that measures have been taken to end the systematic recording of all meetings and demonstrations and to prevent and punish the disproportionate use of force by security forces (EC 2004a, 18.)

Situation of minorities
The rights of the Kurds in the EC’s "2004 Regular Report on Turkey" are named as minority rights. Many Kurdish organisations critizise the term "minority" - they don’t see themselves as a minority in Turkey, but as the majority in Kurdistan. The Kurdistan National Congress critizises the report for using the term "Kurds" instead of "Kurdish people". According to them Kurds are a people (Colak 2004).
This opinion was repeated to me several times in South-East Turkey. For example, the representatives of the teachers’ trade union Egitim Sen in Diyarbakir told me that they do not accept the EC opinion that Kurds are a minority. Kurds should be regarded as a people, a nation and they should have the same rights in Turkey as Turks. Egitim Sen has demanded that every child should get education in state schools in his/her mother language. Because of this, prosecutors started a closure process against it. The situation healed only when Egitim Sen received much support from various organisations in EU countries.
The EC sees the human rights in Turkey only as the rights of individuals. For many Kurdish organisations this is not enough: Kurds should not be regarded as a group of individuals, but as a people where the rights of the group are based on their mutual rights as a nation, not on the individual rights of the members.

Internally displaced persons
During the war 1984-99, the army destroyed three thousand villages in South-East Turkey. There are now about three million internally displaced persons in Turkey. Their return to their villages is an issue which has been under discussion for years. Until now very few practical steps have been taken. In the constitution, the state should repay war damages to the victims (Constitutional law 5084). According to Mazlum Der, compensation of the losses and returning to villages are two separate issues and this law deals only with the first one. There is not yet any full scale plan as to how the great number of internally displaced persons could return to their villages.
According to the European Commission, it is of great concern that Turkey has not executed many judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (from now: ECHR) by means of ensuring payment of just satisfaction, or reversing decisions that have been made in contravention of the ECHR. (EC 2004a, 12).
Advocate Murat Timur says that the state has paid according to the decisions of ECHR. If it had not done this it would have immediately hampered Turkey’s negotiations with the EC. (Timur 2004). But it is very difficult to get any court decision about the damages, either from a Turkish court or ECHR. The main problem is that when a villager would like to make an application to court to get compensation according the law 5084, it is very difficult to show that his property was destroyed by the army. There are no public documents about the warfare. (Gِc Der 2004, Mazlum Der 2004.)
According to law 5084, for example, the price of human life is 8 000 Euro. If the relatives can prove that an innocent person was killed by the army during the war, the state must pay them 8 000 Euro. Mazlum Der and Gِc Der find this a very cheap price for human life. The killed persons were often family fathers who took care of three generations in joint families. 8 000 Euro does not compensate the economical losses of the family when they lost their bread winner.
When the state talks about the return of the immigrants (as they are officially called in Turkey) to their villages, it assumes that everybody wants to go back to their village. According to Gِc Der this is not the case. Most of them want to return, but not all. Elderly people who have spent most of their life in the village want to go back. But many of the teenagers who have grown up in slum areas in cities find rural life very strange, and they do not have any abilities in agricultural work. Gِc Der says that help to the internally displaced people must be arranged in two categories: help for those who want to return to the country side and for those who want to stay in the cities.
Kongra Gel ended its ceasefire in June 2004. During my journey there were almost daily news about battles and army operations against the guerillas in the South-East (Tunceli, Sirnak and Hakkari areas). Gِc Der states that peace is a necessity before people could return to their villages. It hopes that the EC would understand that the problems of the internally displaced persons cannot be solved without solving the Kurdish question. Many people hoped that the Kurdish question would receive as much attention as the Cyprus situation in the EC, because the various problems of the Kurds are connected.

Kurdish language
The situation of the Kurdish language is a key issue in relation to the Kurdish question in Turkey. Kurds have been assimilated by force into the Turkish culture and language since the creation of the Republic of Turkey. This process has intensified since the 1950s by systematic use of education: especially in boarding schools. Kurdish children are continuously supervised to ensure they use only the Turkish language. Because of this practice, many educated Kurds have forgotten their mother tongue and become unvoluntarily speakers of only one language, Turkish.
Language is related to identity in many ways. The national awakening process of Kurds in Turkey started to rescue both national identities – Kurds and Turks. Under
pressure from the EU, Turkey has made some formal changes to the legal status of the Kurdish language, but these changes are insufficient. Many people to whom I spoke during the journey said that the changes were one step in the right direction, but this was only the beginning. I see the language policy within the Turkish state as a test of the minimum level which the EU will accept. Despite the changes in law, the mentality of the state remains the same as earlier. There is an absence of any reform spirit to encourage Kurds to develop their language.
"Earlier the state denied the existence of Kurds. Now it admits that there are Kurds in Turkey, but they have no rights."
Language is a multi-dimensional question. Here are some aspects which show that the issue is very widespread and it is not solved by opening a few private language schools.
There are Kurdish language schools in Diyarbakir, Van, Istanbul, Urfa and Batman. All these schools have a very weak financial base, and they have gone through a very long and difficult bureaucratic process before getting permission, from the local authorities, to open their language courses. For example, in Diyarbakir the permission was denied for a long time, because the doors in the building were 5 cm too narrow. Some participants join the courses, but many are afraid to do so due to the intensive police interest in attendance at the schools: police photograph people who go to the school buildings. During the opening ceremonies in some Kurdish schools most of the people who participated in these occasions were local policemen.
I visited schcools in Van and Diyarbakir. In both places people were commenting to me that five small shcools was not enough for mother tongue education for millions of people. In Van, the school had been recently opened. There were six teachers who did not take any salary for their work. Students numbered 73, some of whom were foreigners who needed the Kurdish language in their work. People with whom I spoke felt that it was impossible to learn a language by participating in 2-3 courses. The language of education of Kurdish children in primary and secondary government schools should be Kurdish, so that all subjects were taught in Kurdish and Turkish was considered a foreign language.
In Van the participant fee for a two months evening course is 100 million Tl (54 Euro) which makes it impossible for most people to participate. The average salary in this area is 300 million TL per month - and the unemployment level is very high. Often there is only one working person taking care of a big family.
The first Kurdish language newspaper in Turkey - Azadiya Welat - has stabilised its position after many difficult years and moved its headquarters from Istanbul to Diyarbakir. Now it is legal to publish newspapers and magazines in the Kurdish language, but it cannot be used in financial matters. So Kurdish newspapers cannot publish advertisements which hampers their economy. It is also forbidden that shops have names in Kurdish. (Azadiya Welat 2004.)
The constitution was changed in Turkey in August 2002 so that it was possible to make TV programmes in the Kurdish language. In practice programmes started only two years later and only on a very limited scale. People said to me that despite parliament having made changes in the constitution, the censorship office RTUK continues its control practices in the same way as earlier.
Only the state TV can air Kurdish programmes other than music. It is showing Kurdish language programmes for 30 minutes each day (from 10 a.m.) and in addition the state radio airs 30 minutes of Kurdish programme daily (from 6 a.m.). People complained to me about their dissatisfaction with these programmes: they are aired at such a time that many people are unable to listen to them. People do not like the content of the programmes and the Kurdish dialect used is not good.
Journalists who make Kurdish programmes are not permitted to wear Kurdish clothes. The state TV also requires journalists to conform to a criterium which is impossible to fill: they should have a certificate that they know good Kurdish. But foreign certificates are not accepted and in Turkey no institute is giving such papers.
In Diyarbakir there is local commercial TV channel, Gün, which broadcasts Kurdish music videos. Local security authorities are controlling strictly its programmes. For example, it is forbidden to play two Kurdish language music videos next to each other, every Kurdish song must be followed by a Turkish song. Some Kurdish music videos which get permission from RTUK in Ankara for nationwide distribution are not accepted by Diyarbakir authoritites to be shown in Gün TV.
A recent example is Aynur’s album "Kece kurdan". It can be shown on national channels, but not on Gün TV. The album is available in music shops in Diyarbakir. The staff in Gün TV told me that there are 263 Kurdish music albums and cassettes that are not permitted to be shown on Gün TV. On the 1.11.2004 Gün TV got a reply from RTUK for its application to air programs in Kurdish language other than music. The answer was negative: only the state TV can air such programs. It took RTUK eight months to make its desicion. (Gün TV 2004.)
Despite the problems and limitations people were happy in Diyarbakir that they had Gün TV. Some people told me that there would be big demonstrations for the support of the TV if the authorities tried to close it.
Registration of Kurdish names is still difficult. Many Kurdish parents register their child with a Turkish name, but use a Kurdish name at home. Many children face psychological problems, when they grow up with two names, two languages, two cultures and two identities. (Van Women Association 2004.
However, I did see also some positive developments. For example in Diyarbakir, where the mayor is Osman Baydemir, from Dehap, the municipality is publishing a weekly bulletin "Diyarbakir Belediye Bülteni" where one page is in Kurdish.

Conclusion
What conclusion can be drawn from all these changes?
There is a profound change going on now in Turkey. The majority of the population want Turkey to be a member of the EU.
Turkey’s possible membership is a very difficult decision for the EU to make. If Turkey’s membership negotiations will not start on the 17.12.2004, or they will not progress in the normal way, the EU will have on its borders a very difficult neighbour - a big, poor and unstable country. If the EU will not start negotiations with Turkey, the political and economic crisis in Turkey will deepen.
If the EU starts membership negotiations, it promotes positive development in Turkey and strengthens the position of the civil, compared to the military, sector; for example, it strengthens the position of the government against the National Security Council.
If Turkey will be a member in the EU without the Kurdish question being solved, the situation of the Kurds will be problem for the EU. There have been examples of countries joining the EU with serious conflicts with their own minorities, for example Spain and the Basques, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. But the case of the Kurds in Turkey is different. To solve the Kurdish problem, a radical change is a necessity in Turkey’s constitution and in the whole way of thinking in Turkey.
All of modern Turkey is based on the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his ideology of one country, one nation, one language and one culture. If the rights of Kurds as a nation will be accepted, Turkey cannot be a republic of "one nation and one culture". When this is compared to Spain and the United Kingdom, it is clear that solving the problems with their own minorities does not need so radical a change to their administration as in Turkey.
It is self-evident that when a country is based on such ideas which are untenable today, it is only a question of how long it can last. The national awakening process of Kurds started in Turkey during the 1980s and there are no signs that it would subside. Various Kurdish organisations have made it clear that they do not accept the EU’s opinion that the rights of Kurds are only the rights of individual people. Kurds want themselves to be treated like a nation, not like a group of individuals. When it is a question of a big group (30 million people), it is unlikely that they would give up and change their minds on such an important issue after many positive developments in other areas.

Notes
[1] 2004 Regular Report on Turkey’s progress towards accession. Commission of the European Communities. Brussels 6.10.2004
[2] Recommendation of the European Commission on Turkey’s progress towards accession. Communication from the Commission to the Council and the Parliament
[3] Comment: Mazlum Der representatives told that in EU countries, human right issues are under the responsibility of the Prime Minister. Turkey has tried to follow this rule. I have never heard that there would be a directive in the EU that human right issues are under the management of the Prime Minister. Human right problems in the EU and in Turkey are at a totally different level.
[4] the Reform Monitoring Group, the Human Rights Precidency, the provincial and sub-provincial Human Rights Boards, the Human Rights Advisory Committee, the Genderarmerie’s Human Rights Violations Investigation and Assessment Centre, the Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Committee
[5] Azinlik Haklari ve Kültürel Haklar Calisma Grubu Raporu

References
Azadiya Welat: Interview of the staff in Diyarbakir 2.11.2004
Colak, Mahmut: interview 18.10.2004. Colak is representative of KNK in the Northern Countries
EC 2004a: 2004 Regular Report on Turkey’s progress towards accession. Commission of the European Communities. Brussels 6.10.2004
EC 2004b: Recommendation of the European Commission on Turkey’s progress towards accession. Communication from the Commission to the Council and the Parliament
Erkin, Aytunc ve Tezerer, Umut: Lozan’a ve Kemalist Devrim’e saldiri! Aydinlik 24.10.2004
Gِc Der: Interview of the staff in Van 27.11.2004 and in Diyarbakir 8.11.2004
Gün TV: Interview of the staff in Diyarbakir 2.11.2004
Mazlum Der: Interview in Mazlum Der Diyarbakir office 8.11.2004.
Timur, Murat: Interview in Van 28.11.04. Timur works as an advocate in Van.
Kristiina Koivunen completed her PhD thesis in Helsinki University about the civil war in North Kurdistan during the 1990s. She currently works as a freelance journalist, and occasionally as a social worker. She is a member on the board of the Peace for Kurds Forum in Finland.
Click to access Dr Kristiina Koivunen’s thesis titled "The Invisible War in North Kurdistan"