Thursday, May 10, 2012

If not Kurds, who? If not now, when?

In 1960, ethnic Turks of Turkey, in the name of both Turks and Kurds, maintained that a balanced constitution for a neighboring country hosting a major ethnic minority circa 15-20%, is a Presidential Republic with a majority President and a minority Vice-President, both with the right of final veto, with equal political status for the minority community, where all aspects of the Republic are bilingual (including the currency, passports, IDs, etc.), where the minority is constitutionally guaranteed representation in government structures far exceeding its population strength, with ethnically divided parliamentary chambers, municipalities, courts, etc.
Even today, Turkey's [ethnic Turks'] fundamental positions in addressing the so-called "Cyprus problem" remains the same, based on [a] political & cultural equality between majority and minority & [b] ethnic separation.

I am dumbfounded.

If Turkey's Kurds don't ask the majority Turks to apply their own philosophy inside Turkey too, why should anyone? If not now, that a constitutional overhaul is debated, then when?