Antifon: "Aren't we pitiful allowing ethnic Turks to assume the moral high ground and preach us on how to treat our ethnic minority while their thinking vis-a-vis their own 22+% ethnic minority is light years behind? Aren't we pathetic for not having turned this analogy into our flag in raising awareness about Cyprus' Turkish issue in the western world? Perhaps it is not too late."
Şahin Alpay: "In order to resolve the Kurdish problem, what Turkey really needs is to renew itself on the basis of liberal democratic principles. If Turkey is to preserve the principles of “one flag, one nation, one homeland and one state,” as in the latest statement by the National Security Council (MGK), the state, the nation and the citizenship of Turkey has to be redefined. The constitution to be adopted should define the state not as a “Turkish state” but as the “state of Turkey” and the nation not as “the Turkish nation” but “the nation of Turkey.” The definition of the citizenship of Turkey should refrain from making any reference to any ethnic identity."
Şahin Alpay: "Turkey needs to be restructured not as a “nation-state” but as a “country-state.” This restructuring would actually mean a return to the founding philosophy of the Republic of Turkey as established at the end of the War of Independence. This war was not fought by the “Turkish nation” but by the “nation of Turkey” -- by the various ethnic groups that made up the population of the country at the end of World War I -- that resulted in the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. And the state they founded was not a “Turkish state” but the “state of Turkey.”"
A comment by shubert , 22 August 2011 @ 09:30 "@necati: The issue is not who is in the editorial section in Todayszaman. You and your arrogant politicians just don't get it. This writers are telling the truth. Turkey is denying the existence of kurds, is denying kurdish identity, is banning them from education in mother tongue and is assimilating them. These writers are just trying to do you a favour. They are trying to put it through your head that you are wrong and kurds are right. Please don't just complain, read, get educated and accept the truth. shubert"
Şahin Alpay: "In order to resolve the Kurdish problem, what Turkey really needs is to renew itself on the basis of liberal democratic principles. If Turkey is to preserve the principles of “one flag, one nation, one homeland and one state,” as in the latest statement by the National Security Council (MGK), the state, the nation and the citizenship of Turkey has to be redefined. The constitution to be adopted should define the state not as a “Turkish state” but as the “state of Turkey” and the nation not as “the Turkish nation” but “the nation of Turkey.” The definition of the citizenship of Turkey should refrain from making any reference to any ethnic identity."
Şahin Alpay: "Turkey needs to be restructured not as a “nation-state” but as a “country-state.” This restructuring would actually mean a return to the founding philosophy of the Republic of Turkey as established at the end of the War of Independence. This war was not fought by the “Turkish nation” but by the “nation of Turkey” -- by the various ethnic groups that made up the population of the country at the end of World War I -- that resulted in the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. And the state they founded was not a “Turkish state” but the “state of Turkey.”"
A comment by shubert , 22 August 2011 @ 09:30 "@necati: The issue is not who is in the editorial section in Todayszaman. You and your arrogant politicians just don't get it. This writers are telling the truth. Turkey is denying the existence of kurds, is denying kurdish identity, is banning them from education in mother tongue and is assimilating them. These writers are just trying to do you a favour. They are trying to put it through your head that you are wrong and kurds are right. Please don't just complain, read, get educated and accept the truth. shubert"
