Sunday, December 2, 2012

Incompetence by the International Crisis Group?

It is impressively puzzling that the International Crisis Group (ICG) analysts/ Director for the Republics of "Turkey" and Cyprus have not managed to-date to utter a single word about the glaring hypocrisy of "Turkey" and ethnic Turks by studying side by side "Turkey" 's espoused principles in Cyprus and those back at home.

A hypocrisy lasting since "Turkey" started meddling in Cypriot affairs decades ago about how ethnic Turks see their own double digit (circa 25%) ethnic Kurdish minority & the ethnic minority community of Cyprus, the 12% (18% at their peak) Turkish Cypriots, where "Turkey" wishes to impart its wisdom on majority-minority relations by the use of its military might!


Why, for example, were Cypriots willing to grant the Turkish Cypriot minority certain rights as far back as in 1960 or 1963 but Turks cannot contemplate granting Kurds even a subset of those rights 50 years later?
Doesn't the ICG have an obligation to study questions such as these? After all, its mission states that it "is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict." Given that so many Kurds and Turks die every year in the Republic of "Turkey" for decades on end doesn't the ICG need to look a little deeper as to what really drives this conflict? If the ICG considers that 1974 ended conflict successfully in Cyprus, a preposterous albeit widely made disingenuous propaganda, why does it not propose a similar solution for "Turkey" 's woes?

"Turkey" in essence needs to decide which rights it supports for ethnic minority communities within unitary states & apply them equally at home and abroad, if it feels it has a say. Is that not the only way to achieve "peace at home and peace in the world"?

I am truly curious as to when the ICG will have the guts to raise the analogy. I say guts because it takes guts to upset ethnic Turks (trust me they will be upset), for when they get upset, they threaten with bodily or military harm, or at the very minimum they give stern warnings and they concentrate their efforts to discredit those who dared upset their "Turkish" vision of things!

The ICG covers both countries together (I don't understand it, but I accept it) and yet its so-called analysts cannot / have not introduced into the public dialogue the different principles that "Turkey" employs to address two of its most pressing problems: Cyprus on one hand, and Kurdish demands for political recognition and equality within "Turkey" on the other.

Is it sheer incompetence? Or something more sinister?

ICG - Turkey’s Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır
Eurasia Review - Turkey’s Kurdish Impasse: The View From Diyarbakır

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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.