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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Why not apply your Cyprus logic to your Kurdish problem?

“We hope the visit of the president [Gül] will be a start, a step to prepare the conditions in which our people can govern themselves freely within the realities of Turkey, including, firstly, education in mother tongue and using Kurdish in the public sphere,” Aysel Tuğluk, co-head of the Democratic Society Congress, or DTK, an umbrella organization of Kurdish groups, Diyarbakir December/2010
“I don’t have a high expectation for his [Gül] visit to Diyarbakır since a single word from the president will not have a magic-wand effect on the Kurdish problem. However, the visit can create a positive impact if the president uses inclusive language for all the citizens of this country. A tone of language that is a continuation of the state language [used for] years would be exclusive. Gül should give a message that everything can be discussed without violence. One side [ethnic Kurds] says something and the other side [ethnic Turks] immediately refuses the idea without considering it. Mutual refusals should be eliminated. Otherwise we cannot build a dialogue.” Emin Aktar, chairman of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, Diyarbakir December/2010

“We expect a message from the president different than [that from] the government,” Bilici said. “We expect him to say that all the problems can be solved with more democracy.” Raci Bilici, the Diyabakır branch secretary of the Human Rights Association, or İHD, Diyarbakir December/2010

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Turkey's Kurds & Cyprus' tCypriots

As either unitary state or federation solutions are discussed as replacements to Cyprus' 1960 and Turkey's 1923 unworkable constitutions, should we abide by "if a right is a right too many for Turkey's Kurdish community (circa 23% of population) then that right is a right too many for Cyprus' tCypriot community too (circa 15%), and vice versa." Is the adoption of this fair logic the catalyst to securing just solutions for both UN countries.