Gulan: Kurdish civil society and Turkish civil society

This article was published in Gulan in Hewler the 12th February 2007. Due to technical problems there is this week no link to the text in Kurdish.

KURDISH CIVIL SOCIETY AND TURKISH CIVIL SOCIETY

I have been wondering the state of civil society in Turkey when following the public discussion after the murder of Hrant Dink, the chief editor of Agos. It is positive that so many people in Turkey have condemned the murder of Dink. And there has been much bigger meetings in Istanbul than there was in Moscow after the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaja last October.

Murders of journalists and absence of freedom of expression are two issues where Turkey and Russia are similar. The weakness of civil society is another thing what binds these countries together. Here in Finland we follow closely the political development in Russia. The news from there are alarming especially when it is question of the weakness of civil society.

Is the civil society in Turkey yet strong enough to change the military rule to a democratic system? I doubt this. The news from Turkey are not encouraging.

The rights of a minority are difficult issue in a country where even the rights of the majority are limited. During last eighteen months Prime Minister Erdogan has not got much support from his citizens because the generals have made it clear that the army does not accept Erdogan’s plans.

But the Kurdish civil society in Turkey is developing rapidly. Kurdish cultural and political associations have benefited the changes in Turkey’s law due to EU negotiations. Kurds have opened new associations to demand change. Turkish people are afraid to do so. Kurds believe that change is possible in Turkey but Turks do not. They concentrate on their families and private lives instead of doing something that would benefit everyone.

Can a minority change a country democratic when the majority does not have the same goal? It is easy to answer this question: No. This is what the Kurdish movement has tried to do in Turkey since 1999.

Still I believe that the future of Kurds is good. But I can not say the same about the Turkish civil society. If the crisis in Turkey will develop to a Balkan style ethnic conflict the future of the Kurdish civil sector looks much better than the one of the Turkish side. Kurds in Turkey have been questioning their identity through discussing the roots and targets of their movement. This makes the civil society stronger.

Problems are expected to increase when the political crisis in Turkey deepens. Now the Kurds are the weak partner facing so many problems. But in a long perspective the situation can turn to the opposite: with their weak civil society Turks can not find other ways than Kemalist slogans to political problems. The Turkish identity is based on these slogans which everyone has repeated since the primary school. Turks should have now flexibility to act in changing situations. But they do not have any abilities for this.