The History Repeats in Turkey

• 03.16.2015, 20:03
•  Region,  Near East,  World

The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned away from his historical statement made in Diyarbekir in 2005, when he first acknowledged the existence of the Kurdish problem. This time Erdogan declared that there is no Kurdish problem in Turkey, and Kurds have the same rights as Turks. "There has never been any problem called the Kurdish issue in this country. Yet, there are intentional efforts to keep this on the agenda. We ended it [the problem] in a speech I made in Diyarbakır in 2005 and that is it. My Kurdish citizens could have problems. They could have problems just like the problems of Turkish citizens. Thirty-six ethnic groups in the country have their own problems. There is constant talk about the Kurdish problem," – Taday’s Zaman quotes Erdogan’s words.

The news agency reminds that still in 2005 Erdogan – Prime Minister at that time, acknowledged the existence of the Kurdish problem and promised to solve it in a peaceful and democratic way. "The Kurdish issue is the issue of the entire Turkish nation. We will solve it through more democracy and greater welfare," – Erdogan declared in 2005.

Now the Turkish President says that the Turkish authorities have built roads in the southeastern Kurdish districts of Turkey, but they have faced obstacles made by PKK. According to Erdogan, any ethnic group in Turkey can have its problems, but "some people are playing a political game with their insistence on the existence of a larger Kurdish problem in the country."

It should be mentioned that the denial of the existence of the Kurdish issue has become one of the components of the Turkey’s politics. In January 2015, the Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called those who draw distinctive lines between Turks and Kurds, "treacherous people."

Davutoglu even declared that he would like to learn to speak the Kurdish language the way he speaks Turkish. "Despite the fact that speaking and singing in Kurdish language was banned in prisons, today I'm here to change all those rules. I want to learn to speak Kurdish the way I can speak Turkish," - he said during his speech, which he began in the Kurdish language.

History has a habit of repeating itself. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, when the armed struggle of the Kurds for their independence started, the Treaty of Sevres recognized the creation of the state of Kurdistan in the territory of the former Ottoman Empire. However, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later Ataturk), stating that Kurds are allegedly their brothers in faith, promised to fulfill all their requirements and thus secured the support of the Kurds. And then ... refused to recognize minority status and imposed a ban on any manifestation of national identity of the Kurds. As Inosmi reports, in particular, the use of the Kurdish language and wearing national clothes were banned. Now, the same is being done by the ruling AKP party.