Honest talk from Turkey?

Abdullah Gül with journalists

"When they ask me to apply my Cyprus logic at home my arguments seem inadequate" he said. "Why should a 10% minority of the Cyprus Republic enjoy rights that we are not willing to give our Muslim brothers, the Kurdish ethnic minority which makes up almost 25% of the nation? How would you answer them?"

And he continues "The fact is we made a very big mistake in Cyprus and we need to reconsider our entire strategy. Less than 400 Turkish Cypriots died in Cyprus, I won't even mention our role in inciting the violence, and 10 years later we declared war, admittedly having been given a perfect pretext, causing many-fold deaths and destruction, and to this date we carry the burden of Cyprus. If only we could realize that if as a result of 400 deaths our Turkish Cypriot brothers deserve equality with the 90% Christian majority of Cyprus and veto rights or a separate state altogether, then for sure almost 50.000 deaths of our Kurdish Muslim brothers entitles them to at least as much. Are we strong enough to face this comparison? Why there and not here? Is this our kind of justice or is there a Turkish justice and a different kind for non-Turks?"

He concludes "After more careful consideration I feel we, the ethnic Turks of Turkey, have more in common with the Greek Cypriot majority of Cyprus, in our thinking and arguments over power sharing, than either they or we do with our respective minority communities."

NOTE: The conversation with the journalists is based on rumor. But then again, so are a myriad of things in Turkey, not excluding this recent event: Istanbul police detain 20 for cemevi vandalism. Here are just a couple of the comments that were allowed to be posted:

Guest - lars 2011-1-26 10:27:55
It is not true, it is a false accusation. I hope that the EU helps these young people that they do not have to be tortured, or killed. Thanks HDN

Guest - Sandpiper 2011-01-25 23:51:25
Divide and rule? Sounds like it, this report is premature and highly inflammatory. Please wait for some facts before telling us the PKK is attacking Cemevi's.

Make sure you share Antifon's blog with friends and foes! Let's spice up the discussion on Cyprus and Turkey. Who knows, perhaps one day soon we will all, Turks, Kurds, Cypriots, et al be reading from the same page.