Patrick Seale: Turkey, the Kurds and Israel
In launching his ‘Democratic Opening’ towards Turkey’s 15 million Kurds earlier this month, Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has embarked on possibly the most perilous phase of his political career.
His Kurdish initiative could lose him precious votes at the next election. If it misfires, it could even bring an end to the AKP’s domination of the Turkish political landscape, which began with its first electoral victory in 2002. The initiative has already aroused the fierce hostility of diehard Turkish nationalists, who condemn it as a treasonous plot to dismember the country.
This is a charge which carries a big punch since the territorial integrity of Turkey is something of a national obsession.
Erdogan knows, however, that reconciliation with the Kurds is a must, which cannot be avoided however difficult it may be. It is an essential element of the ambitious diplomatic campaign -- spearheaded by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu – to make Turkey a key player in the Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus, by mediating conflicts, promoting economic and trading ties with neighbours such as Syria, Iraq and Iran, and generally spreading peace and stability across the region.
Atatürk’s slogan of ‘peace at home, and peace abroad’ has been adopted by the AKP as its own. Without peace at home, there can be no long-term peace abroad. Having recently made dramatic progress abroad, the Erdogan government is now determined to address the first part of the equation, even if it means a potentially bruising battle with its domestic critics.
Erdogan’s long and emotional speech in parliament on 13 November, in which he launched his Kurdish reform programme, was hailed by his supporters as an historic event. Many Kurds welcomed the new conciliatory approach, but the more militant among them felt that the concessions being made to them were still too timid. This is Erdogan’s dilemma: his opening to the Kurds risks antagonising many voters, but he may not have gone far enough to persuade the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to lay down their arms and end a conflict which has caused some 40,000 deaths over the past quarter of a century...
... The inescapable conclusion of these developments is that Turkey is thinking creatively and actively about how to resolve its internal problems and improve its external relations, while Israel seems stuck in a sterile and outdated mindset.
Read entire article at Dar Al Hayat
His Kurdish initiative could lose him precious votes at the next election. If it misfires, it could even bring an end to the AKP’s domination of the Turkish political landscape, which began with its first electoral victory in 2002. The initiative has already aroused the fierce hostility of diehard Turkish nationalists, who condemn it as a treasonous plot to dismember the country.
This is a charge which carries a big punch since the territorial integrity of Turkey is something of a national obsession.
Erdogan knows, however, that reconciliation with the Kurds is a must, which cannot be avoided however difficult it may be. It is an essential element of the ambitious diplomatic campaign -- spearheaded by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu – to make Turkey a key player in the Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus, by mediating conflicts, promoting economic and trading ties with neighbours such as Syria, Iraq and Iran, and generally spreading peace and stability across the region.
Atatürk’s slogan of ‘peace at home, and peace abroad’ has been adopted by the AKP as its own. Without peace at home, there can be no long-term peace abroad. Having recently made dramatic progress abroad, the Erdogan government is now determined to address the first part of the equation, even if it means a potentially bruising battle with its domestic critics.
Erdogan’s long and emotional speech in parliament on 13 November, in which he launched his Kurdish reform programme, was hailed by his supporters as an historic event. Many Kurds welcomed the new conciliatory approach, but the more militant among them felt that the concessions being made to them were still too timid. This is Erdogan’s dilemma: his opening to the Kurds risks antagonising many voters, but he may not have gone far enough to persuade the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to lay down their arms and end a conflict which has caused some 40,000 deaths over the past quarter of a century...
... The inescapable conclusion of these developments is that Turkey is thinking creatively and actively about how to resolve its internal problems and improve its external relations, while Israel seems stuck in a sterile and outdated mindset.