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TURKEY'S KURDISH IMPASSE: THE VIEW FROM DIYARBAKIR Europe Report N°222 – 30 November 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................. i I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 A. BETWEEN KURDISH PROBLEM AND PKK CONFLICT ....................................................................1 B. A SOUNDING-BOARD FOR REFORMS.............................................................................................3 II. THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL DIYARBAKIR ...................................................... 4 A. CENTRAL AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES: COOPERATION AND RIVALRY ............................................4 B. GOOD COP, BAD COP...................................................................................................................5 C. THE HEAVY HAND OF THE LAW...................................................................................................7 D. "DEMOCRATIC AUTONOMY" AND ITS DISCONTENTS ....................................................................8 III. KURDISH TRIES TO FIND ITS VOICE .................................................................... 10 A. SHIFTING THE DEAD WEIGHT OF LONG OFFICIAL BANS.............................................................10 B. KURDISH MEDIA PARADOXES ....................................................................................................11 C. RE-INVENTING THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ...............................................................................12 IV. PRIME LOCATION, ECONOMIC BLIGHT ............................................................. 14 A. A CRUSHED ECONOMY ..............................................................................................................14 B. IN THE CROSSHAIRS OF CONFLICT..............................................................................................17 C. SMALL STEPS TOWARDS ECONOMIC PROSPERITY ......................................................................18 V. POLARISED POLITICS ................................................................................................ 19 A. AKP'S DECLINING APPEAL .......................................................................................................19 B. REPRESENTING THE KURDISH MOVEMENT: BDP .......................................................................20 C. THE GÜLEN MOVEMENT TRIES AN ALTERNATIVE WAY ............................................................21 D. TURKEY'S KURDISH ISLAMISTS REGROUP .................................................................................22 VI. FITTING IN WITH TURKEY ...................................................................................... 23 VII. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 26 APPENDICES A. MAP OF TURKEY ..............................................................................................................................27 B. MAP OF DIYARBARKIR CITY .............................................................................................................28 C. GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................29 D. ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP ....................................................................................30 E. CRISIS GROUP REPORTS AND BRIEFINGS ON EUROPE SINCE 2009 ....................................................31 F. CRISIS GROUP BOARD OF TRUSTEES ................................................................................................32 Europe Report N°222 30 November 2012 TURKEY'S KURDISH IMPASSE: THE VIEW FROM DIYARBAKIR EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS As Turkey's biggest Kurdish-majority city and province, The current government has done more than any previous Diyarbakır is critical to any examination of the country's one to permit Kurdish language use in Diyarbakır and Kurdish problem and of the insurgent PKK (Kurdistan elsewhere, but most Kurds want nothing less than a com- Workers' Party). The armed conflict has deteriorated in mitment to education in their mother language. The gov- the past year and a half to its worst level in over a decade, ernment's initiative on optional Kurdish lessons should with increased political friction and violence leading to be fully supported as a stepping-stone in a structured plan the deaths of at least 870 people since June 2011. While as to achieve declaration of that goal as a right. many Kurds live in western Turkey, particularly in Istan- bul, as in the south east, grievances that underlie support Once Turkey's third best off economic centre, Diyarbakır within Kurdish communities for the PKK's armed strug- and its surrounding province have fallen to 63rd place at gle are more clearly on display in predominantly Kurdish last measurement. Investment has long been low due to areas like Diyarbakır: perceived and real discrimination violence, flawed government policies and PKK sabotage, in the local government and economy, alienation from kidnappings, terrorist attacks and extortion. But residents central authorities, anger at mass arrests of political rep- show their faith in the city's future through their invest- resentatives and frustration at the bans on the use of Kur- ment, particularly in marble quarries and the booming dish in education and public life. Yet Diyarbakır still offers real estate sector. Diyarbakır's location at a regional his- hope for those who want to live together, if Ankara acts toric crossroads still makes it an important hub for elements firmly to address these grievances and ensure equality and of the service sector, such as courier businesses and hos- justice for all. pitals. Thousand-year-old monuments could make it a tourist magnet. Across the political spectrum, among Kurds and Turks, rich and poor, Islamic and secular in Diyarbakır, there is a Fighting between the security forces and the PKK, mostly shared desire for a clear government strategy to resolve in the south east, is rising. While Diyarbakır has mostly the chronic issues of Turkey's Kurdish problem. Official been spared the worst of the recent violence, the civilian recognition of Kurdish identity and the right to education population and local politics are nonetheless increasingly and justice in mother languages is a priority. The city's stressed and polarised by events. The AKP is losing its Kurds want fairer political representation, decentralisation appeal, and the BDP, while uncontested as the strongest and an end to all forms of discrimination in the laws and political force in the city, has yet to prove its political ma- constitution. They also demand legal reform to end mass turity and ability to be more than a front for an increasingly arrests and lengthy pre-trial detentions of non-violent activ- violent PKK. The moderately Islamic Gülen movement is ists on terrorism charges. trying to offer another way, and as a negotiated settlement seems less likely, Kurdish Islamic groups are boosting Control of Diyarbakır is contested on many levels. The their already substantial influence. state wants to stay in charge, channelling its influence through the Ankara-appointed governor and control over Yet, voices from Diyarbakır insist that common ground budget, policing, education, health and infrastructure de- exists, as it does throughout the rest of Turkey. Crisis Group, velopment. The municipality, in the hands of legal pro-PKK in two previous reports in 2011 and 2012, recommended parties since 1999, most recently the Peace and Democra- that the government announce a clear strategy to resolve cy Party (BDP), is gathering more power against consid- the conflict, focusing in the first instance on justice and erable obstacles. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) equal rights for Kurds. It suggested that the government that rules nationally has ushered in a more progressive work pro-actively with Kurdish representatives on four lines approach to police, but this has not ended confrontations of reform: mother-language rights for Turkey's Kurds; and defused local hostility. Turkey as a whole, and Kurdish- reducing the threshold for election to the national parlia- speaking cities like Diyarbakır in particular, need a coher- ment to 5 per cent from 10 per cent; a new decentralisa- ent, informed debate on decentralisation and a strategy to tion strategy; and stripping all discrimination from the implement it. constitution and laws. Once these steps have been taken, Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page ii it could then move to detailed talks on disarmament and To ensure a fair debate and eventual demobilisation with the PKK. In short, both sides need consensus on decentralisation to exercise true leadership, by eschewing violence, com- mitting to dialogue and achieving the Kurds' legitimate 5. The Turkish government should lead a debate in aspirations through Turkey's existing legal structures, Diyarbakır, as well as nationwide, about municipal especially in the parliamentary commission working on a governance and decentralisation. new constitution. 6. Local government leaders should cooperate and meet with central government representatives who vis- This companion report additionally offers recommenda- it the province and clearly express their commitment tions specifically for urgent action by the government and to achieving Kurds' democratic demands legally. legal leadership of the Kurdish movement in Diyarbakır to strengthen Kurds' trust in the state by working to resolve To assist Diyarbakır's economic, social pressing local problems and to ensure the long-term devel- and cultural development opment of the city and province. 7. The Turkish government should ensure that Diyar- RECOMMENDATIONS bakır receives a fair share of public funds, particularly for education, international airport facilities, railway To the Turkish Government and Diyarbakır connections and industrial zones, equivalent to that community leaders, including the Kurdish of comparable cities elsewhere in Turkey; and pro- movement's legal leadership: actively promote domestic tourism to this and other historic cities in the south east. To establish mutual trust between Turks and Kurds 8. Community leaders should reach out to Turkish main- stream opinion to help overcome prejudices about 1. The Turkish government should pass and implement the Kurdish-speaking south east through the exchange legal reforms to allow the use of mother languages in of business delegations, school trips and professional trials, shorten pre-trial detentions and ensure that conferences. Kurdish and other suspects are taken into custody in Istanbul/Diyarbakır/Brussels, a humane manner. It should encourage local police 30 November 2012 to continue improving engagement with the Diyar- bakır community and end use of excessive force, even in response to unauthorised public meetings and demonstrations. 2. Community and Kurdish movement leaders should comply with procedures on public meetings and dem- onstrations; renounce all PKK violence; and continue civil society efforts, such as the recently established "Dialogue and Contact Group". To guarantee use of mother languages in education and public life 3. The Turkish government should complete the im- plementation of optional Kurdish classes in the 2012- 2013 academic year transparently; define a timeline for full education in mother languages wherever there is sufficient demand; continue to prepare teachers and curriculums for this transition; allow local elected offi- cials to change relevant laws and regulations so as to restore or give Kurdish names to local places; and re- lax the ban on the use of Kurdish in public services. 4. Community and Kurdish movement leaders should acknowledge the government's positive steps in these areas, and stop boycotts of optional Kurdish classes. Europe Report N°222 30 November 2012 TURKEY'S KURDISH IMPASSE: THE VIEW FROM DIYARBAKIR I. INTRODUCTION tives of the Kurdish Islamic movement, including Mus- tazaflar Hareketi (until recently Mustazaf-Der) and the new Azadî initiative (see Section V.D below).4 Turkey's south-eastern province of Diyarbakır (Amed in Kurdish), with a population of some 1.5 million people, There is no province-wide study on ethnicity, but studies including around 840,000 who live in the city of the same of mother languages help demonstrate who is Turkish or name, has been a political centre for the region's Kurds Kurdish.5 Although the majority of Kurds speak Turkish, since before the Ottoman Empire.1 Over 30 statelets and only about 10 per cent of residents say Turkish is their fiefdoms in the Kurdish areas of that empire had varying mother language.6 Similarly, in a 2011 survey of over 3,000 degrees of autonomy until the Republic's foundation in Diyarbakır women, 12 per cent said their mother language 1923. Diyarbakır was frequently referred to by the word was Turkish, while 76.5 per cent said it was Kurmanjî and paytaht (the capital).2 Since antiquity, a ring of thick black around 11 per cent Zazaki.7 basalt walls has surrounded what is now the old city, their 5.5km length, great bastions and height a surviving testa- A. BETWEEN KURDISH PROBLEM ment to the province's historic, geographical and political AND PKK CONFLICT importance.3 Today, many Kurdish civil society groups and political Diyarbakır has spent many decades under various forms factions still base their decision-making bodies there. It is of emergency rule.8 The military played a dominant role, a key focus of the Kurdish movement – a broad structure particularly during the emergency rule between 1978 and including the banned, foreign-based Kurdistan Workers 2002, when the city's jail became infamous for its atro- Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, PKK), the banned pan- cious conditions, and there was a plague of unresolved Kurdish umbrella organisation Kurdistan Communities Union (Koma Ciwakên Kurdistanê, KCK), Turkey's legal 4 Peace and Democracy Party (Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, Parties are required by law to have their headquarters in An- BDP), and a major Diyarbakır-based civil society platform, kara, but its Diyarbakır co-chair said the main pro-Kurdish par- ty (Peace and Democracy Party, BDP) considers Diyarbakır its the Democratic Society Congress (Demokratik Toplum base. Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, 16 May 2012. Kongresi, DTK). Diyarbakır is also home to representa- 5 State officials make up most of the Turks, but a small group is locally born. Historically Diyarbakır was multi-ethnic, but a 2005 survey in Suriçi district inside the old city walls (population 1 For previous reporting on the Kurdish movement in Turkey 157,000), found only a handful of Chaldean, Assyrian, Yezidi and related matters, see Crisis Group Europe Reports N°219, and Romas as well as some 40 Armenian families, unlike the Turkey: The PKK and a Kurdish Settlement, 11 September 2012; nineteenth century, when over half the district's population was and N°213 Turkey: Ending the PKK Insurgency, 20 September non-Muslim. Nonetheless, there are still functioning Chaldean 2011; and Middle East Report N°81, Turkey and Iraqi Kurds: Catholic, Armenian, and Assyrian churches. A large Armenian Conflict or Cooperation?, 13 November 2008. church, Surp Giragos, was opened for worship in October 2011 2 The word means centre of government or capital in Ottoman and renovated in 2012. 6 usage. Known as Amid or Amedi under the ancient Assyrians, In reality it may be below 5 per cent. Crisis Group interview, and as Diyarbekir after the Muslims took over the province in Kurdish pollster, Diyarbakır, September 2012. 7 the seventh century, the city received its present name in 1937 The survey was mainly concentrated in the northern areas of after the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ata- the province. "2011 Yılı Alan Çalıșması İstatistikleri' [2011 türk, visited on 15 November 1937. On the history of the prov- Field Research Statistics], Women's Support Centre (KAMER). ince see Vedat Güldoğan, Diyarbakır Tarihi (Ankara, 2011) and Nonetheless, 87 per cent of respondents answered in Turkish, Cuma Karan, Diyar-i Bekir ve Müslümanlarca Fethi (İstanbul, only 13 per cent in Kurdish, almost all of those in the Kurmanjî 2010), both in Turkish. version. 3 8 Believed to be built 4,000 years ago, the walls were restored Martial law was instituted in the region in 1978. A State of and extended by the Romans in the fourth century. The only Emergency installed in eight provinces (later increased to thir- gap was cut in the 1930s, when a Turkish governor blew up a teen) in the east and south east in 1987 was lifted by the AKP on 300-metre section, apparently to increase airflow into the city. 30 November 2002. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 2 political murders.9 Ankara forcibly evacuated rural areas From a Kurdish perspective, the rift with the rest of Tur- of the south east in 1990-2000 in an effort to cut supplies key has been further widened by the crackdown on public to the outlawed and armed PKK, resulting in a tripling of demonstrations, the military's unapologetic bombing of the city centre's population, unplanned urbanisation, severe civilians in what has become known as the "Uludere" or strains on local services,10 and major changes in local so- "Roboski" incident13 and mass arrests of Kurdish political ciety, economy and cultural life.11 Neighbourhoods where activists (see Section II.C below). such internally displaced persons (IDPs) concentrate are often recruiting grounds for the PKK, which has been de- Diyarbakır city has been mostly spared the recent surge in clared a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the U.S., the violence that has affected rural parts of the province's Hani, European Union (EU) and most European countries, and Lice, Kulp and Silvan districts.14 Nonetheless, since June are often the stage for confrontations with state authorities, 2011, there have been at least 27 incidents in and around including stoning of police cars and violent demonstra- it, resulting in over 44 dead, several wounded, and 21 kid- tions. Diyarbakır is also one of the PKK's main recruiting napped, including civilians, according to Crisis Group's grounds.12 informal count.15 While clashes are usually between mili- tants and the police or army, militants shot at a civilian When the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) vehicle that refused to stop at a PKK roadblock in Hani undertook its Democratic Opening in 2005 a period of hope district on 19 September 2012, killing one civilian and began. Foreign and domestic tourists became more com- wounding two. Moreover, two teachers and a student were mon, good hotels became available, and cleaner streets wounded in a Molotov cocktail attack on a Diyarbakır high and parks made the city look better. Since 2009, however, school on 9 October. The assailants were not identified, pessimism has set in again: most Turks associate Diyar- although national media attributed the incident to the PKK. bakır and its residents with the war between the PKK in- surgents and the army. The stigma is such that few local On 12 September, 64 pro-PKK Kurdish inmates began a drivers get Diyarbakır licence plates, because the police hunger strike, 24 of them in Diyarbakır's two prisons. By stop such cars so often elsewhere in the country. mid-November, nearly 700 in over 60 prisons nationwide had stopped eating. Joining them were seven deputies from Diyarbakır life is still dominated by the armed forces, with the Kurdish movement's Peace and Democracy Party fighter-bombers often roaring overhead from a major air- (BDP), including Diyarbakır deputies Emine Ayna and base that also functions as the city's small domestic airport. Leyla Zana (the latter a leading independent) and Diyar- Army operations are frequent in the province, and the bakır Mayor Osman Baydemir. Demands include allowing barracks and officers' clubs are prominent in the town. jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to meet his lawyers – barred since mid-2011 – and giving Kurds the right to use their mother language in court and education. On 2 No- 9 See Crisis Group Report, Turkey: The PKK and a Kurdish vember, after the governorship denied a BDP request for Settlement, op. cit., pp. 5, 14. permission to hold a demonstration in support of the hun- 10 Around 90 villages and over 300 hamlets were abandoned in ger strike, clashes broke out between the police and Kurd- Diyarbakır province. The population of the city centre was ish protestors.16 The police detained several, and the local 275,000 in 1990. Deniz Yükseker, "Internal Displacement in the Province of Diyarbakır: Return, Urban Issues and Imple- mentation of Compensation Law", Turkish Economic and So- 13 cial Studies Foundation (TESEV) August 2007. In December 2011, the air force mistaking 34 Kurdish villag- 11 A Kurdish businesswoman from an old Diyarbakır family ers for PKK militants, bombed and killed them near the Ulu- reminisced: "Diyarbakır was very different when I was a child dere (Roboski in Kurdish) village on the Iraqi border as they 40 years ago. People dressed in modern styles; there were ele- were smuggling oil products on mules and horses. See Crisis gant house parties. Me and my sisters stayed outside until late Group Report, Turkey: The PKK and a Kurdish Settlement, op. at night and rode our bicycles safely. [By contrast] in the 1990s, cit., p. 2. 14 at the peak of unresolved political murders, we used to take our The PKK has long used terrorist methods as one of its tactics children inside after 6pm. People were very scared. People are to force the government to take it seriously and become the also more conservative now". Crisis Group interview, Diyarba- dominant element of the Kurdish movement. For more on its kır, 5 September 2012. offensive since mid-2011, see Crisis Group Report, Turkey: 12 A U.S. official who had studied PKK casualty reports said 17 The PKK and a Kurdish Settlement, op. cit., p. 1. 15 per cent of PKK recruits overall came from Diyarbakır. Crisis According to an informal minimum tally of official statistics Group interview, Washington DC, November 2012. A break- maintained by Crisis Group since 12 June 2011 parliamentary down of 7,869 deceased militants since 1984, out of 18,000 that elections, at least 870 people have been killed nationwide by PKK says have died, indicates 845, around 11 per cent, came end-November 2012, including 298 soldiers, police and village from Diyarbakır, making it the second largest source of recruits guards, 491 PKK fighters and 89 civilians. 16 in Turkey after Mardin province. "Kurdish Insurgency Militants A BDP representative appreciated the justice minister's con- (KIM) 1976-2012 v1 dataset", Güneș Murat Tezcur, academic, structive approach on this issue, but felt degraded by Prime Loyola University, 2012. Minister Erdoğan's dismissive tone. He was referring to Erdo- Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 3 state prosecutor began to investigate the mayor for cursing a multi-party parliamentary commission, which BDP has the police. Responding to BDP calls in November, Diyar- in the past boycotted.18 The BDP's participation in this bakır residents, mainly in the central Baǧlar and Yenișehir commission, even when there are disagreements with the districts, repeatedly staged strikes and showed solidarity AKP, is essential. But debate of these demands in Diyar- with the inmates by switching lights on and off for fifteen bakır is stilted at best. The legal, pro-Kurdish BDP's attempt minutes. In some instances street clashes broke out. to start a signature campaign in March 2012 to convey the demands to parliament was denied by the Governor as Diyarbakır civil society, including the bar association, the "unconstitutional".19 This prompted a Kurdish political ac- AKP's local branch and BDP, mobilised to persuade the tivist to retort: "This is ridiculous! They reject our campaign, government to compromise. On 5 November, Deputy Prime saying it is unconstitutional, but it is that very constitution Minister Bülent Arınç said lawyers' visits to Öcalan could that we are trying to change".20 resume, subject to justice ministry approval, and on 13 November, the parliament started debating a criminal pro- cedure amendment to legalise Kurdish in courts. Showing his continued grip on the Kurdish movement, Öcalan called the strike off in a message conveyed by his brother, Mehmet, who made a rare 16 November visit to him in jail. Though the hunger strike ended nationwide the next day with no fatalities, the government should fully accept Kurds' right to their language in schools. Indeed, the rea- sonableness of the strikers' demands highlighted the way abandoning the Democratic Opening has left government policy in a dead end, in need of developing a comprehen- sive reform package. B. A SOUNDING-BOARD FOR REFORMS Crisis Group has outlined in two previous reports, in 2011 and 2012, the main issues fuelling the PKK conflict and urged Turkey to commit to a conflict resolution strategy dealing with the violence and the underlying Kurdish prob- lem separately. Those reports also called on the Kurdish movement to end terrorism, abandon attempts to create a parallel state and clearly articulate and explain its goals.17 This study examines Crisis Group's previous findings in the context of Diyarbakır. It shows how Kurds' grievances, demands, hopes and fears play out on the ground in Tur- key's main Kurdish-speaking city and province, a sound- ing-board for the country's 12-15 million Kurds. Specifi- cally, it looks at how these fit with the four main lines of 18 A typical formulation of these demands includes: recognition reform: the right to mother-language education and public and protection of Kurdish identity; free use of Kurdish in all services, fairer political representation through lowering areas of life, including education, and making Kurdish an offi- the vote threshold to enter the national parliament; decen- cial language; a political status involving self-governance; and tralisation after a full national debate; and removal of all the right of organisation, including of political parties with "Kurd" discrimination in laws and the constitution. and "Kurdistan" in their names. Letter to the Turkish parliament from Kurdish organisations, including several political parties, made available to Crisis Group, Diyarbakır, May 2012. Others The Kurdish political movement wants its demands ad- add reducing from 10 per cent to 5 per cent the national vote dressed in the new constitution currently being drafted by share a party needs to enter parliament. 19 A March 2012 letter from Diyarbakır police headquarters in- formed BDP's Diyarbakır office that its demand for booths to ğan's statement in Germany on 30 October 2012 in which he collect signatures went against the unitary nature of the Repub- said there were no widespread hunger strikes in Turkey, and lic, was divisive, echoed terrorist organisation (PKK) propa- those striking were putting on a show. Crisis Group telephone ganda and was aimed at exerting pressure on the public. Letter interview, Diyarbakır municipality official, 5 November 2012. made available to Crisis Group, Diyarbakır, May 2012. 17 20 Crisis Group Reports, Turkey: The PKK and a Kurdish Set- Crisis Group interview, Kurdish movement political activist, tlement; and Turkey: Ending the PKK Insurgency, both op. cit. Diyarbakır, 18 May 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 4 II. THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL These parties came to power in local elections with 46 per DIYARBAKIR cent of the votes in 1999, 52 per cent in 2004 and 66 per cent in 2009. The BDP prides itself for, among other things, providing access to purified drinking water to 98 per cent Turkey's highly centralised government, the traditional pre- of the city and sewage connections to 99 per cent, while dominance of western Turkish officials serving in the east carrying out urban transformation projects, assisting the of the country, restrictive laws, ideological taboos and fears needy through charity organisations and food banks and of Kurdish separatism have long stifled debate on local renewing the city's cabs. governance reform. While Kurds have risen high in the re- publican system – members of parliament and the Cabinet Governor Toprak and Mayor Baydemir cooperate in such usually reflect their 15-20 per cent share of the population areas as urban transformation projects and organisation of – in the past this generally meant accepting an ideology fairs, and some locals acknowledge that recent governors that specifically minimised Kurdish identity or demands. have a much better approach than in the past. But the gov- ernor and mayor often also engage in blame games, for Turkey signed the European Charter of Local Self-Gov- example over responsibility for frequent power cuts in the ernment in 1991, but put reservations on nine of its arti- city.23 Municipal officials complain about having to receive cles that would otherwise strengthen local authorities by permission from the governor for "everything".24 District involving them in the central decision-making process; and metropolitan mayors in the province were at logger- allow them to determine their own internal structures; give heads with the governor in November 2011 over the im- them more freedom over financial resources; permit them plementation of a nationwide law allowing the transfer of to associate with other local governments, both domesti- excess municipal employees to other institutions.25 cally and internationally; and give them the right to judicial recourse if barred from exercising their powers.21 Over 75 per cent of the metropolitan municipality's budget in Diyarbakır comes from the central government, with the governor's approval.26 While the municipality provides A. CENTRAL AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES: some important public services, basic and costly provin- COOPERATION AND RIVALRY cial infrastructure like major roads, railways and airports is paid for by the central government.27 The city and prov- Turkey's 81 provinces have centrally-appointed governors ince remain deeply dependent on outside funding since and elected mayors; both are limited by ambiguous and their own revenue-generating capacity through taxes and often uncoordinated decision-making by ministers and bu- fees is very low.28 reaucrats in the capital. Ankara appoints provincial and dis- trict governors, police chiefs, judges, teachers, and heads of such local administrative departments as education and media supervision. Elected mayors and municipal councils have authority over water, sewage, garbage collection and 23 local transport, but little say with regards to other core ser- The municipality expects a solution from the governor: "The vices, including health, education and major infrastructure. dams are here, power stations are here, but electricity is under the governorship". Crisis Group interview, Osman Baydemir, Diyarbakır mayor, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. A Diyarbakır Provincial Governor Mustafa Toprak, as the supreme local deputy governor said networks are overwhelmed by 70 per cent representative of the state, heads the government's execu- illegal electricity usage in the province. Crisis Group telephone tive branch in the province, and is responsible for state interview, Cemal Hüsnü Kansız, 1 October 2012. officials except those in the judiciary and military. He has 24 Crisis Group interview, municipal official, Diyarbakır, Sep- mostly supervisory powers, but the municipality says it tember 2012. "The governors act like municipalities. The gov- needs his approval for even minor administrative decisions ernment and governors get the final say on all of our projects. like naming parks, streets and squares. Municipal council Municipalities are dependent on Ankara". Crisis Group inter- decisions have to be submitted to the governor to be put view, municipal official, Diyarbakır, 4 September 2012. 25 into effect, and while the governor cannot legally block "Diyarbakır'da ișçi krizi", Gazete Diyarbakır, 21 November them, municipal officials say the courts can do so for ad- 2011. 26 In 2011, 125.5 million Turkish Lira ($70 million) of a 167.6 ministrative reasons, based on the governor's input.22 million TL ($93 million) budget came from Ankara. The ratios were 77 and 79 per cent in the previous two years. Crisis Group Diyarbakır's municipality has been run by the BDP and its email correspondence, municipal official, 7 September 2012. predecessor legal Kurdish movement parties since 1999. 27 In 2012, the state set aside one billion TL ($556 million) for Diyarbakır's highways alone. Crisis Group telephone interview, Mehmet Aslan, secretary general of Diyarbakır Chamber of 21 Turkey ratified the charter on 21 May 1991 but put reserva- Commerce and Industry (DTSO), Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. 28 tions on Articles 4.6, 6.1, 7.3, 9.4, 9.6, 9.7, 10.2, 10.3 and 11. Crisis Group interview, municipal official, Diyarbakır, 4 Sep- 22 Crisis Group telephone interview, November 2012. tember 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 5 Locals' views of the governor and central state authorities funeral coming into town, we have to cancel any festivals are generally dismal. An August 2012 survey found that or anything else we have planned". His solution is not to only 9 per cent of Diyarbakır residents trust the governor distance himself from the Kurdish movement, however. to contribute to a Kurdish settlement; 64 per cent said they "The ultimate solution of the Kurdish problem is status did not trust him at all. A government executive in Diyar- for the Kurds", he said. That means "a federal system and bakır was in turn sceptical about the Kurdish movement.29 regional governments where each region has its own par- Locals' lack of confidence extends to all central govern- liament, its own administration and one representative ment bodies: only 18 per cent said they trust the ruling AKP that is in the federal parliament".35 on the same issue (68 per cent had no trust), and only 15 per cent expressed faith in the national parliament.30 Critics The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has tried of the pro-Kurdish BDP say its political ideology comes at reforms in local government since 2003.36 A current pro- the expense of meaningful cooperation with the governor, posal, dubbed a "super municipalities law", could extend or solving city problems like traffic, the environment and the reach and power of metropolitan municipalities. Di- drug abuse.31 yarbakır's pro-Kurdish BDP metropolitan municipality backs it, because it would mean, at least in theory, an in- Increasing Turkish-Kurdish tensions also undermine mean- crease in jurisdiction and assets.37 ingful cooperation: "Every time there is a guerrilla funeral, it affects how governmental agencies look at us. During The Turkish government should lead a debate in Diyarba- heightened conflict, we see a difference in how they ap- kır and nationwide about local government, including in- proach our project proposals", Mayor Baydemir noted.32 ternational models, inform public opinion and set out plans Further, the state has blocked municipal relations with for- for strengthening elected local bodies. The goal should be eign entities. A €100 million loan from a German founda- eventual decentralisation of authority over education, po- tion for a garbage separation and reuse project fell through licing and budgets. For its part, the Kurdish movement in in October 2011 after Prime Minister Erdoǧan alleged Diyarbakır should clarify specific demands and complaints, that such German foundations were sending money to the meet and collaborate with central government representa- PKK through BDP municipalities.33 Diyarbakır can only tives who visit the province, and respect Turkey's laws even get small amounts of foreign credit because the central as it tries to amend them by working through existing legal government does not guarantee its debt.34 structures. (See also Section II.D below). Mayor Baydemir admits the war frustrates his own efforts, too: "We are trying to make Diyarbakır a culture and tour- B. GOOD COP, BAD COP ism centre in the Middle East. [But] when there is a [PKK] Another manifestation of Kurds' animosity towards the state has been fear of the police, who are generally perceived 29 as more political and anti-Kurdish than the army.38 In the "They are a terrorist organisation. KCK [Kurdistan Commu- nities Union, the umbrella organisation including the PKK] and DTK [Democratic Society Union, a legal civil society platform of the Kurdish movement] are being run from the same centre. 35 They throw Molotov cocktails. They give guns to people and Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. 36 make them do what they say. They give bombs to children; these An AKP law to strengthen local special provincial admin- don't come from heaven. They should pick up rubbish. But they istrations and municipalities in many areas, from health to edu- leave it there to be burned on the days of demonstrations". Cri- cation, passed in parliament in 2004 but was partially vetoed by sis Group interview, Diyarbakır, May 2011. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who said it undermined the state's 30 "Kürt Sorununun Çözümünde Kiși ve Kurum Deǧerlendir- unity. Other parts of the law were annulled by the Constitutional mesi" ["Views by individuals and institutions on a solution of Court in 2004 and 2005. Nonetheless, in 2005, AKP abolished the Kurdish problem"], Centre for Social and Political Research the central village administration and transferred its assets and (SAMER), August 2012. duties to the special provincial administrations. 31 37 Crisis Group interviews, Yunus Memiș, head of Diyarbakır Crisis Group interview, municipal official, Diyarbakır, 4 Sep- branch of the government employees union (Memursen), Di- tember 2012. The metropolitan municipality would take control yarbakır, 5 September 2012; and former senior Diyarbakır po- of some assets of special provincial administrations, which cur- lice officer, Istanbul, September 2012. rently do local public works in areas outside the municipalities' 32 Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. 20km radius, and would answer both to the governor and to the 33 Crisis Group interview, municipal official, September 2012. democratically elected provincial councils. 38 See also "Alman vakıflar PKK'yı fonluyor" ["German founda- All men in Turkey, Kurdish or Turkish, must do military ser- tions fund the PKK"], Yeni Șafak, 2 October 2011. vice. "Soldiers from western Turkey can easily go out in public 34 The municipality has been able to use foreign credit for sew- in Diyarbakır; the locals are good to them". "Right now, there age and drinking water projects in the past, but not since their is no discrimination against soldiers, but if things continue at second term in office started in 2009. Crisis Group interview, this rate, I am afraid there may be". Crisis Group interviews, municipal official, Diyarbakır, 4 September 2012. local officials, Diyarbakır, September 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 6 past decade, sentiment has improved somewhat.39 A for- it. I am here to serve you. Work with me, and we'll mer senior police officer said half of Diyarbakır's 5,000 fight together against those responsible".43 police are now Kurds.40 Triggering a national debate but also repudiation by the prime minister and a criminal in- Nonetheless, the public still mostly sees the harsher face vestigation by the interior ministry, a new chief, appoint- of the security forces in their aggressive crackdowns on ed in September 2012, took an immediately empathetic demonstrations. Most recently, a BDP deputy suffered a approach: broken leg during clashes with the police in Diyarbakır during an unauthorised demonstration on 14 July 2012.44 If you don't cry for a dead terrorist, you are not human. BDP members claim they are constantly harassed by the We are all responsible for the children who go up to authorities and point to their headquarters' broken windows: the mountains [to join the PKK] …. We knew [in the "Even if we hold just a press conference outside our door, 1990s] that each evacuated village was a threat against the police break it up with high-pressure water hoses and our future …. I know well that a security-focused ap- tear gas".45 Among harder line activists, there is still fear proach will not solve this [Kurdish] issue …. If there and resentment: is a problem in society, how are we going to solve it if we don't talk about it?41 When we look into the eyes of policemen, there is noth- ing – no modicum of compassion, no affection .… I see A former senior Diyarbakır officer argued that the mental- them at demonstrations; they are not there to peacefully ity of the force has changed.42 Proud to represent a new, dispel people; they are there to kill Kurds .… Maybe more progressive approach to policing, he spoke basic there is no longer torture like there used to be. But they Kurdish with residents, attended their funerals, suggested [still] keep us in jail. It is a slow death.46 that a solution to the Kurdish problem could only be achieved through an end to violence, with dialogue and At the same time, police say most of the time people gather compromise, and voiced compassion for the families of without getting governorship permission, or engage in killed PKK militants: actions not covered by the permits given to them, thus necessitating intervention.47 I have given my condolences to the families of 650 deceased. I don't care if they had been in jail or not; as long as it is not a terrorist's funeral, I go. I wish we could also go to [PKK] funerals; they are our citizens, too. 43 But there would be too much media and public back- Crisis Group interview, Istanbul, September 2012. 44 lash .… The majority of the Diyarbakır police force are Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators demand- like me. I tell the locals who are initially hostile towards ing an end to jailed PKK head Öcalan's isolation on Imrali is- land; 87 people were detained. The national Human Rights As- me, "if your village was burned, it wasn't me who did sociation (IHD) said the police intervention amounted to "tor- ture" and claimed pepper gas was fired into mosques. "İnsan Hakları Derneǧi Gözlem Raporu" ["Human Rights Association 39 "Our relations with the police have improved in the last three Observation Report"], 17 July 2012. 45 to four years; we work well with them". Crisis Group inter- Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, BDP Diyarbakır view, Nilgün Yıldırım, civil society activist, Diyarbakır, May co-chair, Diyarbakır, May 2012. A former Diyarbakır senior 2012. "The police here are now better, more educated. Ten years police officer, however, pointed out that the police interfere in ago you couldn't speak with the police … but [normalisation] is press conferences and other public events because the organis- still a long way away". Crisis Group interview, local small busi- ers intentionally do not obtain the necessary permission from ness owner, Diyarbakır, 17 May 2012. the governor, "so that when the police interfere, they will be the 40 "Children are surprised when the police speak Kurdish with victim. And it's not like the police charge on them immediate- them. They don't know that Kurds can become policemen". ly. What the news doesn't show is that usually there is about an Crisis Group interview, Istanbul, September 2012. hour of negotiations between the police and demonstrators. At 41 Recep Güven, Diyarbakır police chief, quoted in "Her terö- the end of this, only the hardliners remain and engage in clash- riste içim ezilir" ["I grieve for every terrorist"], Taraf, 8 Octo- es with the police". Crisis Group interview, Istanbul, Septem- ber 2012. Prime Minister Erdoǧan replied that day: "We will ber 2012. 46 not cry for terrorists who killed our children and died in the pro- Crisis Group interview, daughter of arrested KCK suspect, cess. I am clear about this .… [One] needs to know [one's] place. Diyarbakır, September 2012. "Us Kurds, we try to solve things Let the politicians handle politics". "Bașbakan Erdoǧan'dan Di- among ourselves; we don't trust the police". Crisis Group inter- yarbakır emniyet müdürüne mikrofonda ayar" ["Prime Minister view, Mazlum-Der human rights organisation lawyer, Diyarba- Erdoǧan fine-tunes Diyarbakır police chief on the microphone"], kır, 14 May 2012. 47 Milliyet, 9 October 2012. According to a former senior police officer, 2,000 people at- 42 Police officers in Diyarbakır go through a week of orientation tacked police vehicles and stoned the main court building dur- upon arrival, take training courses including public relations, and ing a 2009 demonstration against the "KCK operations"; the participate in public projects such as writing and acting in free next time a permit was requested and denied. Crisis Group in- theatre plays about domestic violence. terview, Istanbul, September 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 7 To increase Kurds' trust in the Turkish state, the govern- including its president.53 Mayor Baydemir is also a suspect ment should further encourage the more empathetic ap- in the state's case against the KCK, has not been allowed proach of the local police, train them in community policing to leave the country since 13 January 2010 and protests and punish instances of excessive force used to stop public that constant legal harassment prevents his party from run- gatherings. For their part, the Kurdish movement and Di- ning the city effectively: yarbakır community leaders should comply with all laws and procedures on public meetings and demonstrations. I spend most of my time preparing defences for in- spectors and attending court hearings. We constantly feel pressured by the judiciary and interior ministry. C. THE HEAVY HAND OF THE LAW We are operating at a disadvantage compared to local governments in western Turkey.54 The greatest blow to Kurdish citizens' trust in the state has been the countrywide arrests over the past three and a half Many see the judiciary and prosecutors as politically bi- years of several thousand Kurdish politicians, officials and ased and do not trust them.55 A KCK suspect's relative said activists, mainly from the BDP, in operations against the judges treat their lawyers almost like suspects.56 Local offi- PKK-linked Kurdistan Communities Union (Koma Civa- cials call the KCK indictments revenge for Kurds' success kên Kurdistanê, KCK). Some were later released or sen- in the 2009 local elections, a "legal comedy", or "an at- tenced, but most remain in preventive detention, charged tack on local governments".57 with membership of or aiding a terrorist organisation, but not with committing a violent act.48 Even moderate Kurds The arrests have crippled BDP's ability to generate politi- see these "KCK operations", as they are known, as the cal responses and reduce tensions with the state.58 The government's attempt to eliminate an entire political move- provincial BDP co-chair said constant legal threats stop ment.49 The Diyarbakır governor, however, calls the KCK the party from maintaining a normal membership roster.59 "a criminal network using violence" that must be "prose- cuted using the law".50 53 Crisis Group interview, Osman Baydemir, Diyarbakır mayor, Detentions began in Diyarbakır in April 2009, and BDP Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. says that more than 1,000 have been arrested in the prov- 54 Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. ince.51 The co-chair of the party's local branch was detained 55 Many locals instead take advantage of a parallel, informal for four days on accusations of leading a terrorist organi- judicial system, now referred to as "alternative law" but with its sation and is still a suspect.52 Two local mayors, Fırat Anlı roots in social tradition. Seeking retribution by violent action or (Yenișehir district) and Zülküf Karatekin (Kayapınar dis- in blood feuds is more common in the east and south east than trict), are in jail, along with members of the city council, elsewhere in Turkey. To resolve some disputes, ad-hoc local assemblies choose three arbitrators, and whose decision the par- ties in dispute accept to implement. Sait Șanlı, a butcher from Diyarbakır's Lice district who was caught in a blood feud at the age of five, initiated a voluntary Peace Committee and arbitrat- 48 Charges are often based on statements implying support for ed hundreds of such family feuds, kidnappings and property one or more of the goals of the KCK and its Turkish Assembly disputes for eight years, before his death at 67 in 2009. Dis- offshoot (KCK/Türkiye Meclisi, KCK/TM). For more on the putes may also come to Mayor Osman Baydemir for arbitration. KCK, see Crisis Group Report, Turkey: The PKK and a Kurd- Crisis Group interview, municipal official, Diyarbakır, Sep- ish Settlement, op. cit. tember 2012. 49 56 Crisis Group interview, Vahap Coșkun, Kurdish academic, The daughter of a KCK suspect said evidence against some Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. was simply that PKK propaganda could be heard playing in the 50 Crisis Group interview, Mustafa Toprak, Diyarbakır gover- background of a phonetap. Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, nor, May 2011. September 2012. 51 57 Many top-level activists at the Kurdish movement's civil so- The now defunct pro-Kurdish DTP increased the number of ciety platform Democratic Society Congress (DTK) have been its municipalities from 54 to 99 in the 29 March 2009 local charged with membership in or aiding a terrorist organisation, elections. "The AKP government tried to take revenge for its or with carrying out propaganda for it. In January 2012, more electoral failures". "Background, Aftermath and Evaluation of than half of the delegates were arrested under "KCK operations", the 12th June 2011 General Elections", Diyarbakır Metropolitan including 32 from the 101-person permanent council. Those in Municipality, 5 October 2011, made available to Crisis Group. 58 jail lose their delegate status because they cannot attend meet- "Old cadres were taken in for KCK trials. These were the re- ings. Activists also allege that constant police harassment – in- sponsible, sensible ones. The new BDP cadres are inexperienced; cluding phone and vehicle surveillance – amounts to "psycho- they can't do much in terms of preventing the escalation of vio- logical pressure". "It would be better if they just arrested me!", lence". Crisis Group interview, Mazlum-Der human rights or- one said. Crisis Group interviews, Kurdish movement political ganisation lawyer, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. 59 activists, Diyarbakır, May 2012. BDP signed up 10,000 members in Diyarbakır in seven months, 52 Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, BDP Diyarbakır but stopped because memberships are annulled after each party co-chair, Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. closure. A member can donate up to 15,000 TL (around $8,300). Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 8 The BDP feels neglected, she added, accusing fellow pol- The Diyarbakır branch of Turkey's Human Rights Asso- iticians of turning a blind eye: ciation (IHD) also feels targeted. Its deputy president has been arrested and its premises raided twice since 2009. Its When my apartment was raided and searched eight head asserted that oppression is worse than in the 1990s, months ago during a police operation [against KCK], even though there is nothing like the death squad killings my neighbours from AKP and CHP [Cumhuriyet Halk that then targeted his organisation.63 A human rights law- Partisi, Republican People's Party] acted like nothing yer said that victims shy from coming to the IHD because happened. They sent their kids off to school with a kiss private information may be compromised in raids, and she in the morning as if everything was normal. They did herself has reservations about working there.64 not talk to me. They are from this region, too, so they should understand our suffering.60 D. "DEMOCRATIC AUTONOMY" AND A March 2012 survey in Diyarbakır found that 68 per cent ITS DISCONTENTS thought the KCK operations had increased pessimism about a solution to the Kurdish problem.61 The daughter Meeting in Diyarbakır on 14 July 2011, the Kurdish move- of a suspect held in pre-trial detention since April 2009 ment's civil society platform, the Democratic Society recalled the stress induced when her father was taken in a Congress (DTK), declared "democratic autonomy" for 4:30am raid along with 42 others. She said he was active Kurds in the south east.65 However, most Kurds do not in BDP but not charged with an act of violence and that know what this means.66 The original formulation by PKK though there have been more than twenty hearings, his leader Öcalan described a confederal future for all the re- cross-examination has not begun, since the court is still gion's Kurds that "will start a new phase in Kurds' relations reading the indictment's hundreds of pages aloud. Refusal with states not only in Turkey but also Iran, Syria, and to allow suspects to testify in Kurdish adds to the delays. The family, which thinks he may have to remain in jail another two years until the trial ends, suffers emotionally, 63 "During the KCK operations in 2009 our deputy president financially and physically. The disheartened and bitter Muammer Erbey was detained, our premises were raided, elev- daughter commented: en computers and all our documents were taken. We got them back six months later, but police had copied all information, We didn't see him for a month after he was arrested. including identities of people coming to us and their applica- We couldn't get his retirement salary from the state for tions, which should have remained confidential. We had another six months. My mother has high blood pressure and raid on 30 January 2012. They took twelve computers. We got her health deteriorated. My sister had to leave univer- them back four months later, and only because a colleague went sity because of psychological problems caused by the to the courthouse every day for four months …. Our association was shut down for a total of three years between 1997 and 2002 trauma. When AKP started a Kurdish [Democratic] but even then there were no raids. Since 2002, they allow us to opening in 2005, we thought things would change, work on paper, but they have been raiding our premises and that we wouldn't be arrested or beaten any more. … taking all our information. They want to make us useless". Cri- But now I think there is a deliberate policy of destroy- sis Group interview, Raci Bilici, head of Human Rights Asso- ing and eliminating the Kurds.62 ciation (IHD) Diyarbakır branch, Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. 64 "I am worried I will be sent to prison for working here. But To tackle such resentment toward the state, the government someone has to defend these people's human rights". Crisis needs to undertake reforms urgently to end middle-of- Group interview, Human Rights Association (IHD) lawyer, Di- the-night raids and lengthy pre-trial detentions, and allow yarbakır, May 2012. 65 suspects to use Kurdish in court. Founded in 2007, DTK is a platform of some 700 civil socie- ty organisations, as well as individuals, businessmen and farm- ers, mostly active in Kurdish-speaking areas. A permanent council of 101 is elected by 850 delegates in a General Assem- bly, and there is a fifteen-person coordination board with two chairs and nine permanent commissions. General Assembly "If we tried, we could get 100,000 or 150,000 members in a meetings are every six months, often in BDP premises. Smaller month". Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, BDP Diyar- Kurdish parties, such as HAK-PAR and KADEP, are not repre- bakır co-chair, Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. Several Kurdish move- sented in it. 66 ment parties (notably HEP, DEP, HADEP, DEHAP, and DTP) "It is not clear where democratic autonomy begins and where have been closed in Turkey. it ends". Crisis Group interview, Ümit Fırat, Kurdish intellectu- 60 Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, BDP Diyarbakır al, İstanbul, May 2012. "Among all of PKK's demands, demo- co-chair, Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. cratic autonomy is the one that least resonates with the Kurdish 61 "Mart Ayı Gündem Anketi" ["March Agenda Survey"], population". Crisis Group interview, Vahap Coșkun, Kurdish SAMER, Diyarbakir, 6-7 March 2012. academic, Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. Öcalan first mentioned it 62 Crisis Group interview, daughter of arrested KCK suspect, in 2007; in 2010, the PKK adopted it, and what is now the BDP Diyarbakır, September 2012. included it in its party program. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 9 Iraq".67 But confederalism, viewed with scepticism by thorny issue of taxation is to be negotiated with the Turk- many experts, is a non-starter for Turkey and the other ish state and any outcome put to a referendum. The state states.68 DTK activists admit the model is only at a concep- would be made responsible for transferring funds to the tual stage and needs to be more empirically grounded.69 region to overcome national inequalities. The model has more gaps than specific policy elements.70 The Kurdish movement's vagueness about "democratic For instance, it is silent on specific powers to be assigned autonomy" provokes fears in mainstream Turkey that it is to the confederal "Democratic Autonomous Free Kurdi- code for an independent Kurdistan. Most Kurds appear to stan". Assemblies at different levels of local administration want much more than just powerful municipalities, but not would gather in a regional parliament. The confederal en- a separate state.73 Their movement should clarify its goals tity would also elect representatives to a joint parliament beyond any doubt, while the government should ensure with Turkey. Kurdish would have official status alongside that debate on all possible arrangements – including inde- Turkish, and the entity would have its own self-defence pendence – is decriminalised. mechanism. However, despite these demands for a status that looks close to independence, the Kurdish movement denies that it wants to redraw boundaries or create a new state.71 The activists' view of an economy under "democratic au- tonomy" rules out capitalism, industrialism and monopolies, but Turkey's Kurdish business circles find the proposals "romantic" and "naïve".72 It is unclear how the model's "small state, big society" principle can at the same time provide free, equal and easy access to health care and free "democratic academies" to answer education needs. The 67 "Demokratik Özerklik Çalıștayı Sunumlar" ["Presentations from the Democratic Autonomy Workshop"], DTK, Diyarba- kır, 12-13 May 2012. 68 "A federation like this would substantially limit the sover- eignty of the states concerned and would therefore have no 73 chance of being implemented". Protection of the Constitution In an August 2012 survey, 48 per cent of respondents wanted Report 2010, German interior ministry, Berlin, 2011. democratic autonomy, 18 per cent independence; only 9 per 69 "We try not to sound like old Marxists but realise that our cent said increased powers for local government would answer ideas are a bit [unrealistic]". Crisis Group interview, member of their needs for legal status. "Kürt Sorununun Cözümünde Kiși DTK's economic committee, May 2012, Diyarbakır. "It is not a ve Kurum Deǧerlendirmesi" ["Views from Individuals and In- parallel state. It is a mechanism that will exert pressure on deci- stitutions on a Solution to the Kurdish Problem"], SAMER, sion-makers". Crisis Group interview, Kurdish businessman August 2012. An earlier survey in Diyarbakır had similarly found and political activist involved in DTK, Diyarbakır, May 2012. that 41 per cent backed democratic autonomy; 18 per cent in- 70 Activists define democratic autonomy in nine categories that dependence; 7 per cent increased local government powers; and match the DTK's nine commissions, namely: politics, society, 5 per cent federation. "Mart Ayı Gündem Anketi" ["March Agen- diplomacy, economy, culture, ecology, law, self-defence and da Survey"], SAMER, 6-7 March 2012. A survey in the wider women. For example, democratic autonomy foresees women's east and south east found that 41 per cent wanted democratic assemblies, communes, cooperatives, congresses, conferences, autonomy; 19 per cent independence; and about 12 per cent a "free women academies" and "gender equality boards". "Dem- federal administration; 9 per cent said they would be happy with okratik Özerklik Çalıștayı Sunumlar", op. cit. They say they are increased powers for local municipalities. "Toplumsal Sorunlar "working to fill in the blanks" in each area. Crisis Group inter- ve Yeni Anayasa: Algı, Beklenti ve Talepler Ön Rapor" ["So- view, Kurdish movement political activist, Diyarbakır, May 2012. cial Problems and the New Constitution: Preliminary Report on 71 "This would not be an armed structure like the KCK or PKK, Perceptions, Expectations and Demands"], SAMER, February but [refers to] people ensuring their own safety", ibid. and March 2012, Diyarbakır. A survey by an Istanbul research 72 The activists who met in Diyarbakır were lukewarm toward organisation in August 2012 found that only 15 per cent of technology, frowned on consumerism, disliked private proper- Kurds would be satisfied with strengthening municipalities. ty, opposed hydro-electric dams and ruled out interest rates and "Terörle Mücadelede Toplumsal Algılar" ["Public Perceptions stock markets. They wanted to encourage communes and coop- in the Fight Against Terror"], Bilgesam, 12 September 2012. eratives and prioritised environmental concerns. Ibid. "DTK/ According to a Turkish academic and PKK expert, a larger per- BDP has a romantic, left-wing tendency. This shows they don't centage of Kurds than the polls reveal favour independence, but read the region. They mean well, but they are not grounded in most do not want to make the economic sacrifices that an inde- reality". Crisis Group interview, Mehmet Aslan, secretary gen- pendent state would require. Crisis Group interview, Güneș eral, DTSO, Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. Murat Tezcur, Loyola University, Istanbul, November 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 10 III. KURDISH TRIES TO FIND ITS VOICE for official registration discourages Kurdish shop signs or its usage in business life. Municipalities have put up some Kurdish street signs and park names in and around Diyar- In Diyarbakır, integrating Kurdish into daily and official bakır, but these cause controversy, with the governor say- life is the strongest demand across the political spectrum. ing that until the law changes, "place names are the busi- Many use Turkey's main Kurdish languages, Kurmanjî and ness of the interior ministry".77 The state used to reject Zazaki, at home and in public, but the psychological effects Kurdish names for children, but now they are allowed as of the 1920s-1990s bans on writing, singing or speaking long as they do not include letters not in the Turkish alpha- in Kurdish linger. There are still very few Kurdish shop bet (X, Q, W, Î, Ê, and Û). signs, and one rarely hears songs in Kurdish. When the state finally set up a Kurdish TV station in 2009, the lan- The ban on Kurdish in local administration sometimes guage turned out to have been suppressed for so long that undermines access to equal services.78 When in 2004, the a Kurdish news producer complained only one in twenty Mediterranean coast municipality of Alanya realised that Diyarbakır interviewees spoke enough to sound good on the many expatriates living there could not read basic air.74 Now there are two different newscasts to address communications, they started printing water bills in Eng- differences between Kurmanjî and Zazaki, the former lish and German. When Diyarbakır's Suriçi Municipality, spoken by perhaps two thirds of Turkey's Kurds.75 De- however, adopted a similar multi-lingual approach to its velopment of an academic, common Kurdish that can be services in 2007, a court case was started against district formally taught is only now being discussed. Mayor Abdullah Demirbaș, and the municipal council was dissolved. A municipal worker said he uses Kurdish when citizens come into his office, but only Turkish in official A. SHIFTING THE DEAD WEIGHT OF communications.79 LONG OFFICIAL BANS Bans on the public use of Kurdish have stifled the language since the "East Rehabilitation Plan" of 1925. Law 2932, ing songs in four languages. Its provincial head said he regular- adopted in 1983 by the military junta that came to power ly gives speeches in Kurdish, and AKP ministers who came for in the 1980 coup, made illegal all expression of thought in the inauguration ceremony of Silvan Dam in May 2012 greeted languages other than "the primary languages of the states the public in Kurdish. Crisis Group interview, Halit Advan, recognised by Turkey", which left out Kurdish. It was re- head of AKP Diyarbakır branch, Diyarbakır, 4 September 2012. voked in 1991 by then-President Turgut Özal. The phrase In a 2009 report, IHD said Constitutional Articles 3, 4 and 14 "language prohibited by law" remained in Articles 26 and have also been used to bring lawsuits against mayors. "Kürtçe'nin 28 of the constitution until AKP removed them in 2002 as Kamusal Alanda Kullanılması Önündeki Yasal Engellere İlișkin part of a European Union (EU) harmonisation package. Özel Rapor" ["Special Report on Legal Obstacles to the Use of Kurdish in the Public Sphere"], IHD Diyarbakır branch, 20 May However, Article 3, paragraph 2 of the constitution still 2009. 77 Crisis Group interview, Mustafa Toprak, Diyarbakır gover- states that Turkish is the only official language. Constitu- nor, Diyarbakır, May 2011. A case was opened against Suriçi tional provisions and other laws limit Kurdish use in gov- Mayor Abdullah Demirbaș for hanging a Kurdish banner cele- ernment or municipal offices, courts or schools.76 The need brating human rights week in his district in 2006. In 2007, he was removed from duty for naming three streets in his district after Kurdish, Armenian and Assyrian writers. Crisis Group in- 74 Crisis Group interview, Istanbul, September 2012. terview, Abdullah Demirbaș, Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. In July 75 Diyarbakır's primary Kurmanjî dialect is also "Turkified" 2012, the Diyarbakır state court banned names of nineteen parks and difficult for locals on the eastern rim of Turkey's Kur- in Diyarbakır as well as the proposed new name of the Kaya- manjî-speaking areas to understand. Crisis Group interviews, pınar Youth and Culture Centre because they used Kurdish let- Nebahat Akkoç, Kurdish civil society activist, Diyarbakır, 4 ters not in the Turkish alphabet. The decision cited a 31 July September 2012; Ercan Akkar, editor-in-chief of the local Gü- 2006 law on addresses and numbers, as well as a 23 May 2011 neydoǧu Ekspres newspaper, Diyarbakır, 5 September 2012. publication by the state's Turkish Language Board specifying 76 These include the penal code's Article 222 on the Turkish which words can be considered Turkish. "But Show TV [a main- alphabet and Article 257 on public officials' malpractice; Arti- stream Turkish TV channel] also has the letter 'w' and is a for- cle 42 of the 1982 Constitution which says "no language other eign word. No one is banning them". Crisis Group interview, than Turkish can be taught as a mother language to Turkish cit- municipal official, Diyarbakır, September 2012. 78 izens in education institutions"; and Law 805, requiring the use "Some women who come to our centre because of domestic of Turkish in economic enterprises. Article 81/c of Law 2820 violence speak very little Turkish. It's difficult for them to get on political parties bans parties from using any language other assistance from the police or the justice system". Crisis Group than Turkish, but this has been relaxed in practice after Article interview, Nilgün Yıldırım, civil society activist, Diyarbakır, 4 58 of Law 2839 on elections was amended in April 2010 to al- September 2012. 79 low Kurdish during elections. AKP conducted its propaganda Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, September 2012. Inves- in Diyarbakır in Kurmanjî, Zazaki, Arabic and Turkish, includ- tigations were opened against Suriçi Mayor Demirbaș in 2007 Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 11 While Turkish nationalists fear that allowing the free use channels.84 At least one local channel, pro-Kurdish move- of Kurdish in official paperwork would advance separatist ment Gün TV, does regular Kurdish broadcasting and sentiments, lifting restrictions sometimes has the opposite complains about harassment.85 The government's 24-hour effect. For instance, a well-known Kurdish musician said Kurdish channel, TRT6, began broadcasting in January her album sales dropped after the state lifted the ban on 2009 and has studios in the government channel's reno- Kurdish music.80 Not only Kurdish movement representa- vated building in Diyarbakır. Programs are mainly in Kur- tives, but also other key actors in Kurdish-speaking areas manjî but include some in Zazaki and Sorani.86 Kurds often – the ruling AKP, the former Mustazaf-Der Islamist group say the programming is poor, outdated and boring. It in- and, to a degree, the moderate Islamic Gülen movement – cludes no Kurdish education shows for children, because agree on the need to allow Kurdish in all areas of life. these are still banned. The channel has overcome the para- The government should relax the ban on its use in public noia that a Kurdish-language channel would split the coun- services and allow local elected officials to restore or give try, but its personnel say they are ostracised by the pro- Kurdish names for local places, changing relevant laws Kurdish movement because they work for state salaries.87 and regulations where necessary. The Kurdish movement has its own Roj TV, known since March 2012 as Nuçe TV, which broadcasts in Kurdish and B. KURDISH MEDIA PARADOXES Turkish from Denmark with studios in Brussels and has a wide audience in Diyarbakır.88 But its focus on insurgency Kurdish does not dominate Diyarbakır media, even after propaganda provokes mixed feelings; a Kurdish human the lifting of the ban on Kurdish-language publications. rights activist said he does not let his children watch, be- Continuing distrust of state policies, combined with a lack of experience with written Kurdish, have prevented it from becoming the main language of publication in the prov- ince.81 Of the eight major, registered local papers, none are 84 Local channels are Gün TV (and radio), Dicle TV, Can TV solely in Kurdish, and only a couple have Kurdish col- (and radio), 21 (and radio) and Söz TV. Satellite broadcasters are umns.82 Local newspapers' daily circulation is estimated Amed TV (and radio) and Uzay TV, while pro-Hizbullah Çaǧrı at a meagre 6,000, including free copies.83 Ironically, TV and radio station also broadcast over the internet. Fetullah some of the most radical papers, like Demokratik Vatan, Gülen's Dünya TV, based in Gaziantep, broadcasts 24 hours in are in Turkish, printed in Istanbul. Despite strict Turkish Kurdish via satellite and has some audience in Diyarbakır. Cri- laws against PKK propaganda, these often carry long, sis Group interviews, Diyarbakır, May-September 2012. 85 ideological interviews with PKK leaders, and are mostly Some 60 to 70 per cent of programs are in Kurdish, mostly found on the desks of Kurdish movement sympathisers or Kurmanjî, with commercials in Turkish. Some local companies waiting rooms of their offices, not on newsstands. Other advertise in Kurdish. Gün TV personnel say police raided their national pro-Kurdish movement papers like Özgür Gündem premises in April 2009, took all their archives and hard drives, and returned them blank. Several people associated with them, in Turkish and Azadiya Welat in Kurdish can be found including reporters and legal council, were arrested in KCK op- more easily in Diyarbakır. erations during the past year. "We are an opposition channel .… Our news manager had asked the crew to cover a demon- There are five private local TV channels and three private stration, and this is used as evidence against him in the indict- ones broadcasting via satellite, as well as seven local radio ment". Crisis Group interview, Gün TV manager, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. 86 Sorani is a Kurdish dialect that predominates in Iraqi Kurdi- stan. 87 for also hanging "welcome" banners in Kurdish, Assyrian, and Crisis Group interviews, Diyarbakır, May-September 2012. English at the entrance of the city, and for demanding that mu- "There is a lot of religious programming, and the programs are nicipality personnel speak Kurdish, Armenian or Assyrian (along- dubbed into poor Kurdish, with Turkish thrown in". Crisis Group side Turkish). Crisis Group email correspondence, Abdullah interview, U.S. researcher on Kurdish, Istanbul, 30 May 2012. Demirbaș, 13 November 2012. "We invite BDP members to talk to us. One of them told us 'I 80 Crisis Group interview, Istanbul, September 2012. don't have anything against you personally, but we have taken 81 A local paper's editor was hesitant about publication in Kurd- a decision as a group to boycott your programs'. The public ish. "We are talking about starting a quarter page in Kurdish. won't let us interview them on the street". Crisis Group inter- [But] there is a trust issue [towards the state]. I often auto-censor. view, TRT6 journalist, Istanbul, September 2012. 88 Everything gets politicised here, even sports news". Crisis Group A Copenhagen city court ruled that Roj TV and its parent interview, Ercan Akkar, editor-in-chief, Güneydoǧu Ekpres, company, Mesopotamia Broadcast A/S, had connections to the Diyarbakır, 4 September 2012. outlawed PKK and fined them to 5.2 million Danish Krones 82 The registered Diyarbakır papers are Olay, Güneydoǧu Ek- (around €700,000) on 10 January 2012. Eutelstat removed the spres, Öz Diyarbakır, Yenigün, Diyarbakır Söz, Yeni Yurt, Di- channel from its signal. On 26 September 2012, Denmark's yarbakır Haber and Mücadele. Radio and Television Board suspended the channel's licence 83 Crisis Group interview, Ercan Akkar, editor-in-chief, Güney- for two months for non-compliance with court orders to submit doǧu Ekpres, Diyarbakır, 4 September 2012. recordings. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 12 cause it "disturbs their psychology".89 Most Kurds say Because there are not enough schools and teachers, there they do not trust or watch Turkey's mainstream channels, are over 50 students on average per classroom.94 The prov- even though national news channels like NTV or Haber- ince uses a "two-shift" system, meaning one group of stu- türk are the ones most often playing in local restaurants. dents comes in during the morning and a second group in The public resents Turkish media not least for the sim- the afternoon, so that half of all schoolchildren are out of plistic way it portrays Diyarbakır.90 school half the day.95 Around 1,500 new classrooms are being built, but a local union chief said that even doubling the number would not be enough to switch to a one-shift C. RE-INVENTING THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM system.96 Diyarbakır needs 2,673 additional teachers, according to the education ministry.97 Private schools fill In a March 2012 survey carried out in the predominantly some gaps, but are expensive and few. The government Kurdish-speaking east and south east, a majority support- should ensure that Diyarbakır has fair access to state in- ed some kind of mother-language instruction: 35 per cent vestment in education and consistently inform local lead- wanted education in their mother tongue, with other lan- ers and public opinion about its plans to remedy current guages to be offered as electives; an additional 21 per cent shortcomings. favoured bilingual education in Turkish and Kurdish.91 Another 42.5 per cent wanted Turkish to remain the main Turkey's Kurds and the Kurdish political movement are language in education, with one third of this group saying unwavering on their demand for education in their mother Kurdish should be an elective. A Diyarbakır survey found language. Other influential actors in the region, namely the that an overwhelming 83 per cent of respondents thought ruling AKP, the Mustazaf-Der Islamist group and Fetullah Kurdish should be an official language alongside Turkish.92 Gülen's Hizmet movement, agree on this, although the latter's focus has been on elective courses.98 Local experts However, language is only one of many educational short- comings in Diyarbakır, as in the rest of the south east. A December 2010 survey found over 17 per cent in the prov- lar ve Çözüm Önerileri" ["Developmental Differences in East ince illiterate, compared to 8 per cent nationwide; a separate and South-east Anatolia and Recommendations for a Solution"], 2008 study found the literacy rate was 70 per cent, com- Union of South-east Anatolia Municipalities, November 2008, pared to a nationwide 88 per cent, and that the rate fell to 56 p. 56. per cent among Diyarbakır women compared to a nation- 94 There are around 460,000 students from kindergarten to high wide 81 per cent. In 2008, 26 per cent of youth between school, 17,000 teachers, and a little over 9,200 classrooms in the ages of five and nineteen had no access to education. Diyarbakır. According to a Turkish primary school teacher, until The western province of Kocaeli, with around the same recently the state assigned new teachers every two years. Now population as Diyarbakır, received three times more pub- they stay for four years, which means they can be more com- lic investment in education between 2002 and 2007.93 mitted to their schools and students. Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, May 2012. "It used to be 100 students per class ten years ago; now it's 50. Relatively speaking, it is getting better". Crisis Group interview, Vahap Coșkun, Kurdish academic, Di- yarbakır, 16 May 2012. 89 95 Crisis Group interview, Mazlum-Der human rights organisa- "These children may join gangs and get into trouble if they tion lawyer, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. Many say Roj TV is the are on the streets for half the day. As the state, we need to em- favourite of Diyarbakır Kurds, mainly because it updates issues brace them, build more libraries, gyms and parks for the youth. not sufficiently covered by national media, including the fight- These children have not lived through the region's traumas. We ing and developments regarding court cases against Kurdish can win them over". Crisis Group interview, former senior Di- movement figures. A resident explained: "My uncle is in [the yarbakır police officer, Istanbul, September 2012. 96 PKK]. A couple of years ago, Turkish media reported that he Crisis Group interview, Yunus Memiș, head of Diyarbakır was killed in an operation. Within hours, Roj TV ran a story in- branch, government employees union (Memursen), Diyarbakır, cluding a statement from him, saying he was well". Crisis Group 5 September 2012. 97 interview, Diyarbakır, September 2012. "2010-2014 Stratejik Plan" ["2010-2014 Strategic Plan"], 90 "Whenever they are giving news about Diyarbakır, even available on diyarbakır.meb.gov.tr. 98 when there is no violence here, they show as a background [the "Mother language should be used in all areas of life – judici- rundown] Fiskaya neighbourhood. As if that is all Diyarbakır is ary, education, health". Crisis Group interview, Halit Advan, about". Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır resident, May 2012. head of AKP Diyarbakır branch, Diyarbakır, 5 September 2012. 91 "Toplumsal Sorunlar ve Yeni Anayasa: Algı, Beklenti ve "Mother language should be used in education, and Kurdish Talepler Ön Rapor", SAMER, op. cit. should be the second official language. All the rights Turks have 92 "Mart 2012 Gündem Araștırması" ["March 2012 Agenda should be extended to Kurds. That is how you end the Kurdish Survey"], SAMER. problem and end the PKK". Crisis Group interview, Hüseyin 93 Kocaeli is one of Turkey's major industrial (and tax-paying) Yılmaz, head of the Islamist former Mustazaf-Der group, Di- centres. "Kürt Meselesini Yeniden Düșünmek" ["Rethinking yarbakır, 14 May 2012. "Why wasn't the opportunity given to the Kurdish Issue"], Konda research company, December 2010, teach Kurdish in our schools? Turkish is given as an elective and "Doǧu ve Güneydoǧu Anadolu'da Sosyo-Ekonomik Sorun- course in our schools abroad, even in the U.S. This is what be- Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 13 underline the need for a model based on social and re- and there are many issues inside the families like child gional characteristics, as well as a legal and constitutional brides and blood feuds".104 guarantee of the right to education in mother languages.99 A pro-Kurdish movement official blamed central govern- In a surprising but positive move, Prime Minister Erdoǧan ment policies for Diyarbakır's low success rates in national in June 2012 announced that Kurdish would be taught as exams: "We Kurds surely can't have such low IQ as a an optional course in public schools if enough students group! The government has to ask itself what is wrong. requested it.105 In September 2012, it was offered to fifth We say we want to be in charge of our own education. grade students,106 and the education ministry announced They say: 'But you can't teach in Kurdish'. Well, let us that around 21,000 fifth grade students nationwide – of over decide that!"100 1.25 million – had signed up for the "Living Languages and Dialects" course, which includes Kurdish and Circassian. Not being able to use their mother language in early educa- But out of 3,500 students starting fifth grade in Diyarba- tion holds students back.101 Most teachers are from the re- kır, only 132 chose to study Kurdish.107 A Kurmanjî dic- gion, many from Diyarbakır. In practice, they already use tionary for primary students will soon be published. Kurdish in classrooms if they can, even though it is offi- cially forbidden.102 But not all teachers assigned to public A Kurdish expert and academic involved in this process schools in the area speak Kurdish. A Turkish teacher said several factors contributed to the low sign-up rate. The remembered with grief trying to teach Zazaki-speaking last-minute introduction of the elective without having students: teachers or books in place led parents to doubt its effec- tiveness. The Kurdish movement called for a boycott, The kids did not understand me, and I did not under- claiming the courses were a government tactic to delay stand them .… I would write "door" in Turkish and hang full Kurdish-language education. Kurds said they were it on the door. The first year of education is wasted. not satisfied with the elective option, since they consider There is no time set aside for the kids to learn Turkish. full mother-language education a basic right:108 They have to learn a new language and catch up with their peers elsewhere in Turkey .… I am [ashamed of] Kurdish kids start school in Turkish, which is not their having taken part in this system. But [unlike others] I mother language. Even though they are not Turkish, did not use violence towards kids who could not speak they have to recite the pledge every morning, which Turkish.103 starts with "I am a Turk". Prime Minister Erdoǧan told [German Chancellor] Merkel [during a visit to Germa- The region's abysmal performance in education has many causes. A Turkish teacher, married to a local Kurmanjî- speaker and working in Diyarbakır, said other problems 104 Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, May 2012. were that "people are unemployed, teachers are unmoti- 105 AKP amended Law 2923 on teaching foreign languages in vated, parents are not involved in their kids' education, 2002 as part of the EU harmonisation package, so as to allow private instruction in Kurdish. 106 In 2013 it will be offered to sixth graders, in 2014 to seventh ing a great state means". Fethullah Gülen's statement on his graders and to eighth graders. This corresponds to the middle website, www.tr.fgulen.com, 25 October 2011. "4" in Turkey's new "4+4+4" (years) education system. It is 99 Crisis Group interview, Vahap Coșkun, Kurdish academic, not certain when the Kurdish classes will be included in the Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. first or last of the four-year tranches. Crisis Group telephone 100 Crisis Group interview, municipal official, Diyarbakır, Sep- interview, Kadri Yıldırım, head of Mardin Artuklu University's tember 2012. Living Languages Department, 27 September 2012. 101 107 "The young student feels more comfortable in the classroom "Diyarbakır'da Kürtçe dersine ilgi az" ["Low interest in if the teacher speaks some Kurdish. Otherwise he or she is pushed Kurdish classes in Diyarbakır"], Doǧan Haber Ajansı, 17 Sep- to silence". Crisis Group interview, Vahap Coșkun, Kurdish tember 2012. 108 academic, Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. See also Vahap Coskun, "We prepared two books that will be used in Kurdish courses, Șerif Derince and Nesrin Uçarlar, "Scar of Tongue", Diyarbakır in Kurmanjî and Zazaki, in the span of two months from July to Institute of Social and Political Studies (DISA) March 2011. the end of August, working day and night. They have not been 102 "When the kid doesn't understand what I am saying, I have printed yet. The ministry has also cut the number of trainee to explain it in Kurdish; what else can I do?", Crisis Group in- teachers from 500 to 250". Crisis Group telephone interview, terview, Turkish primary school teacher working in Diyarbakır, Kadri Yıldırım, head of Mardin Artuklu University's Living May 2012. Languages Department, 3 October 2012. "I should be able to 103 Crisis Group interview, Nebahat Akkoç, Kurdish civil socie- have my kid educated in my mother language at a state school ty activist, 4 September 2012. A Kurdish high school teacher in with the taxes that I pay!", Crisis Group interview, Mazlum- Diyarbakır's Hani district agreed that lack of bilingual educa- Der human rights organisation lawyer, Diyarbakır, 14 May tion contributes to lacklustre student performance, and added 2012. "The government is trying to stretch out the process so that not a single child from his school got into university in that the language will die by itself". Crisis Group interview, 2011. Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, September 2012. Kurdish movement political activist, Diyarbakır, May 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 14 ny in October 2010] that assimilation is a "crime against IV. PRIME LOCATION, ECONOMIC humanity". But no one tells him he is guilty of assimi- BLIGHT lation, too.109 On the other hand, AKP defends its policies and asks for Diyarbakır residents' strong sense of being held back eco- time to see them through: nomically by Turkish governments over the years adds to their distrust and resentment toward the state. The city was We know that we need to integrate mother-language a major economic and administrative centre from ancient into educational life .… But we can't do this without times until the early twentieth century advent of the Re- laying down the groundwork. We don't have enough public of Turkey. But it has suffered a precipitous decline [Kurdish language] teachers. We have projects under- due to the 28 years of PKK conflict and lack of investment way [to train them] .… We are building the foundations but also, Kurds say, because of discrimination against first. We ask [the Kurds] to allow us to finish the job.110 them and their biggest city. Kurdish intellectuals and activists have already voiced many proposals and ideas.111 A Kurdish specialist agreed A. A CRUSHED ECONOMY that even if the decision were announced today to start education in mother languages, with full financial and psy- In 1927, Diyarbakır ranked third in the country's socio- chological backing from the government, five years would economic development index. It steadily fell every five be needed to put the foundation in place.112 A Kurdish years, all the way to 63rd place out of 81 in the last avail- academic suggested: able study (2003).114 In 2009 its per capita income was estimated at below $1,500 – less than a fifth of the $8,200 We can start with Turkish and then switch to a bilingual national figure, though just eight years earlier it was system, or vice versa. We can discuss different methods better than half the national figure: $1,313 to $2,146.115 …. It is embarrassing to discuss whether or not to give In general, all 22 provinces of the east and south east lag people the right to education in their mother language. behind the rest of the country, with about half the popula- Let us recognise this right first, and then we'll talk about tion living in poverty.116 About twelve of these provinces how to implement it.113 are majority Kurdish-speaking, and another six have large Kurdish populations.117 Diyarbakır's unemployment rate is between 15.5 and 20 per cent, and the province relies sig- nificantly on remittances from young men who go to west- ern Turkey for seasonal jobs, four to five months at a time. Divisions based on wealth are endemic. Modern malls, new residences and luxury SUVs contrast with shanty homes and utter destitution in several downtown districts where poverty is a leading problem, especially among women. 114 "Bölgelerin Sosyo-ekonomik Gelișmișlikleri" ["Socio- 109 Crisis Group interview, Osman Baydemir, Diyarbakır mayor, economic Development of Geographical Regions in Turkey"], Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. State Planning Organisation, www.dpt.gov.tr. 110 115 Crisis Group interview, Halit Advan, head of AKP's Diyar- "Gelișmișlik Farklılıkları, Doǧu Anadolu'nun Gelișmișlik- bakır branch, Diyarbakır, 4 September 2012. teki Yeri ve Çözüm Önerileri" ["Developmental Differences in 111 For instance, the Diyarbakır Institute for Political and Social East and South-east Anatolia and Recommendations for a Solu- Research (DISA), suggests four alternatives: providing educa- tion"], Development Bank of Turkey, April 2012; Crisis Group tion in the mother language until fifth grade and then switching interview, Kurdish business executive, Diyarbakır, September to a mixed-language education system; a balanced and phased 2012. 116 multi-lingual and multi-dialect education in both Turkish and "Doǧu ve Güneydoǧu Anadolu'da Sosyo-Ekonomik Sorun- Kurdish; a phased, multi-lingual and multi-dialect education lar ve Çözüm Önerileri", Union of South-east Anatolia Munici- with Turkish as the main language; a "revitalisation" program palities, op. cit., November 2008, p. 5. The lower unemploy- for Kurds whose main language has become Turkish. "Anadile ment figure is from Turkey's State Statistical Institute, 2011, 4 farklı model önerisi" ["Four different suggested models for the higher from Mehmet Aslan, Secretary General, DTSO. Cri- mother-language"], Taraf, 8 October 2012. sis Group interview, Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. The national 112 Crisis Group telephone interview, Kadri Yıldırım, head of average is estimated at 10 per cent. 117 Mardin Artuklu University's Living Languages Depratment, 3 Turkey is divided into seven geographical regions: Marmara October 2012. and Aegean to the west, Mediterranean to the south, Black Sea 113 Crisis Group interview, Vahap Coșkun, Kurdish academic, to the north, Inner Anatolia in the centre and East Anatolia and Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. South-east Anatolia to the east and south east. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 15 A 2011 study of over 3,000 Diyarbakır women found that had even uprooted the grape vines so people would not 53 per cent were married before the age of eighteen; 88 return. I was a high school student at the time, I had to per cent married within the extended family; and on aver- quit my education and move around Turkey to find age they had their first child at nineteen.118 For women, work .… Now only fifteen to twenty families have re- the situation is only starting to change (slowly) among the turned, mostly elderly people or those that couldn't elite. Prominent Diyarbakır businesswoman Filiz Bedir- make it in the big cities. The village guards have taken hanoǧlu said people encouraged her in a 2012 bid for the over some property .… My brother was beaten by vil- presidency of the Diyarbakır Chamber of Commerce and lage guards in broad daylight because of a dispute over Industry. Although her husband is also a business leader, our land. We were too scared to go to court.122 she said "women used to merely represent their spouses in the chamber, but are now slowly asserting themselves Many internally displaced now also prefer urban life and in their own right".119 to be compensated for lost property. This is difficult. One who has lived in Diyarbakır for twenty years told Crisis A cultural clash accompanies the economic divide, espe- Group he tried for six years and finally gave up.123 cially between the poorer population living in dilapidated houses concentrated in Suriçi and Baǧlar districts, as well Although the east and south-east combined make up 28 per as the Gürdoǧan and Fiskaya neighbourhoods – where cent of Turkey's land mass and house 16 per cent of its monthly income for a family can fall below 500 Turkish population, on average just 8 per cent of total public in- Lira (around $280) – and the affluent segment that lives vestments reached them in the two decades to 2011,124 in newly-built luxury developments where villa prices can and their share in national GDP was just 9 per cent, when go up to 500,000 TL ($280,000). As poverty and crime regional data was last published in 2001.125 While more have risen in the city, capital and brainpower have mi- public investment has been allocated to them in recent grated. Original residents blame the villagers displaced to years – over 10 per cent went to the east and 16 per cent to Diyarbakır by the conflict for undermining traditional hab- the south east in 2011, mostly due to hydro-electric dam its, norms and values.120 investments – they still fail to attract much private capital. Ankara lifted the state of emergency in 2002, and the dis- Diyarbakır has also fallen behind in competition with the placed can theoretically go back home. But the interior cities of Gaziantep and Șanlıurfa, both of which are further ministry's "Return to Villages and Rehabilitation" project west, have majority Turkish-speaking urban populations since 1998 has had only minor impact. Some claim that and are considered safer.126 For instance, it needs a new the incentives given to return to ancestral villages – raw materials rather than money – are not enough. Security is another concern. Houses, fields and highland grazing 122 Crisis Group interview, May 2012. pastures have been taken over by the state-backed Village 123 Crisis Group interview, IDP living in Diyarbakır, May 2012. Guards militia that has sometimes attacked returning fam- According to a 2012 study by a Turkish think-tank, between ilies.121 A displaced person in Diyarbakır said: October 2004 (when the law came into effect) and December 2010, around 257,000 applications for compensation were pro- My village had a population of 1,500 in 1992 when it cessed out of some 359,000 filed. A little over half were ap- was evacuated and burned down [by state forces]. We proved, for 2.2 billion TL ($1.2 billion) in total compensation, a were not allowed to return until 2003. The village guards 15,000 TL ($8,300) average, according to the study, for a six- to eight-person household and seven to seventeen years of ma- terial losses. "Adaletin Kıyısında: 'Zorunlu' Göç Sonrasında Devlet ve Kürtler/5233 Sayılı Tazminat Yasası'nın Deǧerlen- 118 Nearly half of all women interviewed in Diyarbakır said dirmesi" ["On the Shores of Justice: The State and the Kurds poverty and unemployment were their top worries. "2011 Yılı After 'Forced' Migrations/An Assessment of Compensation Alan Çalıșması İstatistikleri [2011 Field Research Statistics]", Law 5233"], TESEV, 2012. 124 Women's Support Centre (KAMER). Women are generally dis- Investment data from "Gelișmișlik Farklılıkları, Doǧu Anado- advantaged in Turkey – for instance, not one of 81 provincial lu'nun Gelișmișlikteki Yeri ve Çözüm Önerileri", Development governors is a woman. Bank of Turkey, op. cit. The local governments of the two re- 119 Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, 5 September 2012. gions received 8.5 per cent of the central budget in 2008. "Doǧu 120 A young man said, "[the immigrants] completely destroyed ve Güneydoǧu Anadolu'da Sosyo-Ekonomik Sorunlar ve Çözüm the fabric of this city. We used to live in Baǧlar with my family. Önerileri", Union of South-east Anatolia Municipalities, op. cit. 125 We had to move because [the IDPs] took over, and it's in ruins GDP data is calculated from "İllere göre GSYIH [provinces' now. They are uncivilised; they live like animals". Crisis Group GDP]", Turkey's State Statistics Institute (TUIK), www.tuik. interview, Diyarbakır resident, May 2012. gov.tr. 121 126 Interior Minister Idris Naim Șahin said there were 45,181 Around 6 per cent of total investments under the incentives such guards as of April 2012, and they are paid around 860 TL went to the south-east region between 2002 and 2006, but with- ($475) per month. "Türkiye'de kaç korucu var?" ["How many out Gaziantep, the number drops to 1.5 per cent. "Doǧu ve Gü- village guards are there in Turkey?"], Sabah, 6 September 2012. neydoǧu Anadolu'da Sosyo-Ekonomik Sorunlar ve Çözüm Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 16 industrial zone, but differences over where to build it mean ian airport promised by Prime Minister Erdoǧan during that the current zone must accommodate new compa- his June 2011 visit would be completed by June 2013, nies.127 In 2009 this sole zone employed just 3,500 people though construction had not begun by September 2012.131 in 68 firms, while Gaziantep's multiple zones had jobs for Meanwhile the army has ruled out adding proper interna- 70,800, and Șanlıurfa's employed 8,500; even the indus- tional services to the civilian terminal of Diyarbakır's mil- trial zone in nearby Mardin, a province half Diyarbakır's itary airport. The BDP's local branch, municipal officials size, employed 4,000.128 and local businessmen all believe the central government intentionally holds Diyarbakır back. The head of a local business chamber complained that in the last five years, the state has pulled back from large, While Diyarbakır's Kurdish movement can be fervent when politically-motivated investments in the province.129 One asking for political autonomy from Ankara, when talking of its biggest investments, a new prison that reportedly about the economy, it wants closer ties to the centre.132 cost 100 million TL ($55 million), attracts much sarcastic The municipality's long wish list includes that budgets be comment.130 Locals were shocked to learn the state was also proportional to a province's population; and that the na- planning an open-air prison on the site of the old state to- tional budget's allocation for local governments rise to 20 bacco factory, despite local business community proposals per cent from the current 5 per cent and be adjusted further to turn it into a textile and clothing complex with jobs for upward for less-developed regions.133 As everywhere in 5,000. On the other hand, the governor said the new civil- the country, local businesses want bureaucratic decentral- isation. A Kurdish executive described the burden under the current system: Önerileri", Union of South-east Anatolia Municipalities, op. In order to get a permit for an [industrial] plant, I have cit., p. 64. Between 2006 and 2011, only 6.7 per cent of invest- ments taking advantage of government incentives went to the to send a file to Ankara three times and wait for months south east, and 4.8 per cent to eastern Turkey. "Gelișmișlik for a response. It's not like they have the best engineers Farklılıkları, Doǧu Anadolu'nun Gelișmișlikteki Yeri ve Çöz- there. It is the same thing when schools here have to üm Önerileri", Development Bank of Turkey, op. cit. wait for teacher assignments. Everything has to be co- 127 Some 300 hectares will be added, but up to 1,500 are needed. ordinated by Ankara.134 Around 150 small- and medium-sized local enterprises, each representing $5 million to $10 million in new investments, have Other problems discouraging economic development, de- already applied to join the extended zone. Crisis Group inter- spite government incentives, are lack of a railway link to views, Șahismail Bedirhanoǧlu, head of South-eastern Industri- the industrial zone and of full, normal international access alists and Businessmen's Association (GÜNSIAD), Diyarbakır, to the airport, and high energy prices that add to already 5 September 2012; Kurdish business executive, Diyarbakır, 6 high transportation costs.135 A local executive suggested September 2012. 128 "GAP Bölgesi Sosyo-ekonomik Göstergeler" ["GAP Region the government suspend taxes on investors for a few years, Socio-economic Indicators"], prime ministry's GAP Regional Administration Directorate, September 2010. Gaziantep has the 131 same population as Diyarbakır but five industrial zones and Crisis Group email correspondence, Mehmet Aslan, Secre- $4.2 billion in exports. tary General, DTSO, 13 November 2012. He cited government 129 "The state used to think that economic development [of the statistics that Diyarbakır airport had per apron in 2010 the most south east] would solve the Kurdish problem. But Ankara no planes and second most passengers in Turkey. 132 longer believes this, so it probably sees no point in burdening A Kurdish business executive pointed out the irony: "If we the [national] budget with investments [to the region]". Crisis say 'we want independence', the government can tell us 'fine Group email correspondence, Mehmet Aslan, Secretary General, then, why should I invest?'" Crisis Group interview, Diyarba- DTSO, 13 November 2012. kır, 6 September 2012. 130 133 In a September 2010 speech at a party congress in Diyarba- Crisis Group interview, municipal official, Diyarbakır, 4 kır, Prime Minister Erdoǧan promised to tear down the infa- September 2012. 134 mous Diyarbakır prison and build a new one: "If only this Di- Crisis Group interview, Kurdish business executive, Diyar- yarbakır prison could speak. If only it could recount what hap- bakır, September 2012. 135 pened in the 12 September [military coup] era .…We are clos- A deputy governor said work is under way to nationalise ing down the Diyarbakır prison. We are speedily building a land to build a 2.2km railway link to the industrial zone. Crisis new one .… We don't want [the old prison] to remind our city Group telephone interview, Cemal Hüsnü Kansız, 1 October of 12 September". "Erdoǧan Amed'e verdigi sozu tuttu!" ["Er- 2012. Transport costs are a major problem, particularly for the dogan keeps his promise to Amed"], Firat News Agency, 29 high-value marble business, whose 49 quarries and 23 factories February 2012. But his message to leave the past behind was earn half the province's export income. One third of the marble lost on many in Diyarbakır. "Erdoǧan's 'big investment' to Di- goes to China. "To export, I have to reach the ports, namely yarbakır is another prison. He announces an industrial zone for Mersin port on the Mediterranean. The cost of getting my mar- [Gazi]Antep and a prison for Diyarbakır. For him, it's a five ble to Mersin port from Diyarbakır is almost the same as get- star hotel for Kurds". Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, ting it from Mersin to China!" Crisis Group interview, Kurdish BDP Diyarbakır co-chair, Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. mining executive, Diyarbakır, September 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 17 extend the incentives' scope to cover earlier investments least 65 PKK kidnappings of civilians in the south east and subsidise energy prices.136 over the past seventeen months have included several state workers. Trucks on main roads east of Diyarbakır have been stopped and burned. B. IN THE CROSSHAIRS OF CONFLICT The PKK/KCK also orders shop closures and school boy- Diyarbakır's biggest economic handicap however, is spill- cotts and at times burns schools and kidnaps teachers to over from the PKK conflict. Even routine delegations of disrupt education.142 Some of the public supports PKK- businessmen from other parts of Turkey fear to visit the staged protests voluntarily, while others do so from fear of city.137 A local executive explained: punishment, but most of the city, except a few better-off areas like the Ofis district, goes along.143 However, such Private capital does not like risk. We had a mining deal protests increasingly frustrate local businesses and cost the with a Canadian company two years ago. They put it PKK support, according to some locals. A one-day Octo- on hold when the violence intensified. Then we heard ber 2012 Kurdish-movement strike in support of jailed they had taken their investment to Kayseri province pro-PKK hunger-strikers was widely obeyed, closed shops, [in central Turkey] instead. Only locals make sizeable schools and bus services and signalled dangerous new investments here.138 levels of tension in the city. While it is clear that the PKK The PKK deliberately targets infrastructure and invest- wants to weaken the state's hold on the local economy, ments.139 Insurgents have blown up trains to Diyarbakır Kurds are unsure about what it proposes instead.144 A res- and burned machinery belonging to the biggest local min- taurant owner complained: ing and marble company four times since 2010, causing Whenever there is a guerrilla funeral, KCK hands out over €3 million in damages. The targeted company says it a statement ordering shops to be closed. Stores are fed tries to stay out of politics, but the first attack may have up with it. But it's hard to defy [the PKK/KCK]. They been linked to its chairman's stand against the PKK/KCK could attack your store. Our restaurant employs ten peo- call on people to boycott the 12 September 2010 referen- ple and pays their social security. Our revenue is 1,500 dum to change the constitution. The company has reluc- to 2,000 TL per day. Will they give us this money?145 tantly halted some of its operations in Diyarbakır.140 The upsurge in violence since June 2011 is a serious con- cern in a region where terrorism insurance and government support are in short supply.141 Some businesses say that the PKK targets companies/individuals who refuse to pay extortion money. Employees are threatened, and the at 142 Three teachers were kidnapped on 29 September 2011 in 136 Crisis Group interview, Kurdish business executive, Diyar- Lice district and two on 22 September 2012 in Șenyayla dis- bakır, September 2012. trict. In both cases, they were released a few days later. On 9 137 "The head of [Black Sea province] Çorum's chamber of October 2012, groups allegedly linked to the PKK attacked commerce and industry bid his family 'farewell' before coming schools in Diyarbakır and Șırnak with Molotov cocktails, with a delegation to Diyarbakır. People think they are entering wounding at least five. 143 a combat zone". Crisis Group interview, Mehmet Aslan, Secre- Bread shops and pharmacies are exempt. 144 tary General, DTSO, Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. "The PKK and BDP have to make clear how they plan to 138 Crisis Group interview, Kurdish business executive, Diyar- structure the economy under democratic autonomy. Does it bakır, September 2012. count on tax collection only? Or will it run it together with the 139 "The PKK wants to control the economy". Crisis Group in- central government?" Crisis Group interview, Kurdish business terview, Kurdish business executive, Diyarbakır, 6 September executive, Diyarbakır, September 2012. 145 2012. Crisis Group interview, local business owner, Diyarbakır, 140 The company also thinks competitors may be deliberately September 2012. "Sellers used to voluntarily shut their shops and falsely denouncing them to the PKK. "We are from this [in protest] before; now they don't want to. They do it under region. We chose to invest in Diyarbakır and created a new in- intimidation from PKK. Some don't do it at all. They're at an dustry here. But now we have to move the bulk of our invest- economic choke point. If they close their shops for each protest, ments elsewhere". Crisis Group interview, Kurdish business who will take care of their families? They want the PKK to un- executive, Diyarbakır, September 2012. derstand this. They shut stores at Newrouz for instance but then 141 "Prime Minister Erdoǧan said, 'if [the PKK] burns one ma- quickly re-opened". Crisis Group interview, Mazlum-Der hu- chine, we'll send two more!' We got a few courtesy calls in 2010, man rights organisation lawyer, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. A but no one has even called us after the [last three] attacks". Cri- former senior Diyarbakır police officer said if the PKK orders sis Group interview, Kurdish business executive, Diyarbakır, people to close their shops for three days, they open after one. September 2012. Crisis Group interview, Istanbul, September 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 18 C. SMALL STEPS TOWARDS ECONOMIC A burgeoning culture of breakfast cafes – as Diyarbakır PROSPERITY hitches itself to a Turkey-wide fashion for cafés serving full breakfasts typical to the Kurdish-speaking east – The city's prime location, at the heart of the fertile plain demonstrates an aspiration for a more prosperous life- south of the Anatolian plateau and on an ancient crossing style. Restoration in the heart of the old city has turned the of the Tigris River, still persuades courier companies and grey basalt stone arcades of the once derelict Hasan Pașa home appliance manufacturers to choose it as their south- Hanı into a lovely meeting place. In the han's vaulted base- eastern Turkey hub. Diyarbakır has the most hospitals and ment is one of the largest and best-kept bookshops in Tur- beds in the region.146 Possibly this is because people in key, and probably the only one built inside a 500-year-old the area lacked proper health care during the 1990s state structure. Its wide-ranging, multi-lingual selection further of emergency and are now overcompensating.147 More testifies to the city's ambitions. than 500,000 people in Diyarbakır – a third of the prov- ince's population – have health care cards provided by the Some continue to hold out hopes for a strong, positive fu- state to the poor, which helps cover their medicine and ture impact from the government's south-eastern Anatolia treatment.148 Project (GAP) irrigation scheme, started in 1977. Out of 1.8 million hectares that its dams on the Tigris and Eu- At the same time, a building boom in the suburbs caters phrates will eventually irrigate in the region, 681,000 are to those ready to spend up to 250,000 TL for a flat and in Diyarbakır province. However, while most of the dams 500,000 TL for a villa ($140,000-$280,000). About 30,000 and 90 per cent of the electricity projects are done, less new residences have been built in the last five years, in- than a fifth of the irrigation is completed, and only 4 per creasing Diyarbakır's housing stock by 43 per cent.149 cent of the irrigation goal has been reached in Diyarbakır Half-finished apartment complexes line highways leading province.152 out of town, with activity down only slightly in the last few months. Two new shopping malls are joining the existing Connecting Diyarbakır's fertile, rolling hills to GAP's ir- three, where international and Turkish brands compete. rigation canals would boost employment, given that the Stores, from music to home textiles to clothing, said sales farming sector employs 63 per cent of the province's work- are good.150 force, around twice the national average.153 The govern- ment plans to complete the canals in 2013, but local busi- Alongside a more obvious traditional, conservative make- nessmen's best estimates range from 2015 to 2017.154 up, Diyarbakır's slowly modernising face is becoming There are problems with transferring water from dams to evident in lively bars in the Ofis district that advertise fields and with nationalisation of properties. The most im- weekly tango nights and in its increasingly bold – albeit portant GAP project for Diyarbakır is the Silvan Dam, small – community with different sexual orientations.151 which was not in the original scheme and construction on which started in early May 2012. The PKK has attempted to sabotage it, both to damage the state's investment efforts and because the parts of the district it would flood include 146 Eighteen hospitals and 3,262 beds, as of 2007. By 2011, Di- some of its hideouts.155 yarbakır had more health facilities – four private hospitals, nine medical centres, 59 other clinics and facilities – than all the other provinces in the south east combined. The private hospi- tals alone employ 2,000 people. "Diyarbakır'ın Mevcut Duru- mu ve İlin Talepleri Raporu" [Diyarbakır's current situation tive locals. "Flamamızı anlamadılar, bizi Avrupa'dan geldik and demands], DTSO, February 2011. sandılar" ["They didn't understand our flag, they thought we 147 Quoting a military officer in 1996, Turkish writer Hasan came from Europe"], Hürriyet, 3 April 2011. 152 Cemal wrote that around 500 health centres were closed in the "Presidency of GAP Administration 2011 Annual Report", south east, and hundreds of thousands of people did not have www.gap.gov.tr; "Diyarbakır'in Mevcut Durumu ve İlin Talep- access to healthcare, Kürtler (İstanbul, 2003), p. 300. leri Raporu" ["Diyarbakır's Current Situation and Demands"], 148 Health ministry data quoted in "Doǧu ve Güneydoǧu Ana- DTSO, February 2011. 153 dolu'da Sosyo-Ekonomik Sorunlar ve Çözüm Önerileri", Union "Diyarbakır'ın Mevcut Durumu ve İlin Talepleri Raporu", of South-east Anatolia Municipalities, op. cit., p. 27. DTSO, op. cit. A local businessman cited studies showing each 149 Metin Can, "Ekonomi kimliǧin önünde" [Economy comes irrigated hectare added a job. Crisis Group interview, Mehmet before identity], Sabah, 11 May 2011; Șahap Cengiz, "Diyar- Aslan, Secretary General, DTSO, Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. 154 bakır gayrimenkul piyasasının gelișimi" [Evolution of the Di- Crisis Group interviews, local businessmen, Diyarbakır, Sep- yarbakır real estate sector], www.anreva.com.tr, 2012. tember 2012. 150 155 Crisis Group interviews, Diyarbakır, September 2012. Crisis Group interview, Șahismail Bedirhanoǧlu, head of 151 For instance, the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual South-eastern Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (LGBT) community took part in Newrouz celebrations in 2011 (GUNSIAD), Diyarbakır, 5 September 2012. The government and 2012. But participants reported that they had to pretend to apparently foiled a PKK attempt to sabotage Silvan Dam's open- come from western Turkey to avoid being harassed by conserva- ing day on 4 May 2012 with two kilograms of explosives. "4 Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 19 The government should help Diyarbakır make better use of V. POLARISED POLITICS its status as a centre for the region by pro-actively encour- aging and advertising tourism to the many monuments in and near the city. Tourism is currently limited, but Iraqi Diyarbakır's Kurdish-speaking majority feels relatively Kurdish visitors have become numerous, and domestic united in its grievances and demands despite hard lines tours are now common to historic sites and cities even far- between competing organisations and visions of how to ther east, indicating significant potential if tensions subside. achieve change. As the fighting worsens between security forces and the PKK, polarisation between the ruling AKP and the Kurdish movement has sharpened. Still, compared to the most violent years in the 1990s, a wide middle ground and many more nuances in community leaders' positions remain.156 The legal wing of the Kurdish movement is represented by the BDP, whose activists are pre-eminent in Diyarbakır; but the AKP still wins an average one third of the vote in the south east's twelve majority Kurdish-speaking prov- inces. Turkey's main opposition parties, including the CHP and the Turkish nationalist National Action Party (Milli- yetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP), have only a marginal pres- ence in the city and region.157 Fetullah Gülen's Hizmet (service) movement and Turkey's Hizbullah, represented by Mustazaf-Der (association of the oppressed), the latter until closed by the court in May 2012, compete for social influence but are not directly involved in party politics. A. AKP'S DECLINING APPEAL AKP's votes in Diyarbakır went down from 42 per cent in 2007 to 32 per cent in June 2011, giving it five members of parliament.158 A Kurdish commentator explained how, caught between the PKK's violent approach and the radical Islamism of Hizbullah, Kurdish voters initially supported the AKP but are now withdrawing: The AK Party's new relationship with Kurdish society starting in 2002 is a very valuable legacy, but it's a real- ity that this has stalled in the past year. Calling the BDP "backstabbers" is [a threat to push millions of Kurds out the door] …. The warplanes in the skies above Di- yarbakır and Hakkari only remind Kurds of their be- 156 "Even though I have relatives who have joined the PKK, I don't want to support BDP. I don't want to support AKP either. Both derive their power from weapons. I want a new party that renounces all violence, but it does not exist yet". Crisis Group interview, civil society activist, Diyarbakır, May 2012. 157 In June 2011 general elections, they won 2 per cent and 0.8 per cent of Diyarbakır's vote respectively. CHP's leader until 2010, Deniz Baykal, resolutely opposed Kurdish rights, but this has been changed by the new leader, from the Kurdish-speak- ing province of Tunceli, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who has tried to rebuild its position in the region by promoting Sezgin Tanrıku- lu, a former president of the Diyarbakır bar and a tireless Kurd- ish rights activist, to party vice president. 158 Bakana yönelik bombalı saldırı önlendi" ["An attack targeting It currently has six members of parliament from Diyarbakır four ministers was prevented"], Anatolian Agency, 6 May 2012. due to the disqualification of a BDP member. See below. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 20 sieged state and fear of death: "you are our prisoners, even those that have never been involved in violence – and we can destroy you anytime we want".159 about being taken into police custody".163 AKP's provincial head says democratisation can help solve In the 2011 general elections, AKP put forward new, little- the region's problems and that AKP has moved from "as- known candidates from Diyarbakır, whom pro-BDP circles similation and denial" to recognition of Kurds' culture and accused of being "new model Kurds", who toe the gov- identity. The party abolished the State Security Courts, ernment line.164 BDP supporters were particularly angry lifted the death penalty after Öcalan's conviction and re- after AKP's Oya Eronat, a political novice, took the par- moved restrictions on Kurdish language and broadcasting. liamentary seat of independent Diyarbakır candidate Hatip The Diyarbakır public still praises the government for de- Dicle, who came in first in the city with 11.6 per cent of livering services like modern passport procedures at po- the vote but was disqualified due to the sudden upholding lice stations and better local highways, but many also feel of a court verdict against him.165 that Prime Minister Erdoǧan failed to follow through on key initiatives.160 This was most reflected during his June The PKK has, in turn, targeted AKP. A district official, Vey- 2012 visit, when many shop owners obeyed a Kurdish sel Çelik, was kidnapped on 13 May 2012 and released movement order to close in protest. But reflecting divisions on 29 June through mediation of several NGOs, including in the city, and AKP's continuing strength, several loca- the Diyarbakır bar association and human rights organi- tions had multi-lingual "Welcome" banners in Turkish, sations.166 An attack on AKP's unassuming, run-down Kurmanjî and Zazaki.161 Diyarbakır office on 21 March, the day of Nowruz (New Year celebrations for Kurds and other regional peoples), AKP's image has been especially tarnished by the rising left a policeman injured and windows shattered but has death toll from PKK-military clashes and its endorsement apparently not hampered the party's efforts in the province. of arrests of several thousand BDP activists accused of ter- rorism or PKK affiliation.162 While the government claims it has expanded rights and access to media, Kurdish poli- B. REPRESENTING THE KURDISH ticians and activists say they feel more threatened. A local MOVEMENT: BDP human rights organisation said, "there is no change for the better in Diyarbakır in the last year. Everyone is afraid – The Kurdish movement put forward independent candi- dates for the 2011 parliamentary elections, the only way it could get past the high 10 per cent national vote threshold to enter parliament. Winning 62 per cent of the vote in Diyarbakır initially gave the main Kurdish party, BDP, six members from the province.167 159 Orhan Miroǧlu, "AK Parti ve Kürtler" ["AK Party and the Kurds"], Taraf, 4 June 2012. 160 Crisis Group interviews, Diyarbakır, September 2012. "Ak 163 Party can't stand behind its actions because it is afraid of public Crisis Group interview, Mazlum-Der human rights organisa- opinion .… Prime Minister Erdoǧan wanted to solve the Kurd- tion lawyer, Diyarbakır, May 2012. 164 ish problem. But some circles blocked the process". Crisis "We don't expect anything good to come from those Kurd- Group interview, Yunus Memiș, head of Diyarbakır branch, ish MPs". Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, BDP Di- government employees union (Memursen), 5 September 2012. yarbakır co-chair, 16 May 2012. A local journalist disagreed: 161 "Erdoǧan protestoyla karșılandı" ["Erdoǧan was greeted "The MPs AKP puts forward from Diyarbakır are usually clan with protests"], Yüksekova Haber, 2 June 2012. His speech did leaders or rich businessmen. They are chosen because they get not mention, let alone explain or apologise for, the deaths of 34 good votes here". Crisis Group interview, Vecdi Erbay, jour- Kurdish civilians in Uludere in December 2011, or detail any nalist, IMC TV, Diyarbakır, 17 May 2012. 165 plans to solve the Kurdish issue. Instead, he talked about in- Three days before the 12 June 2011 elections, the Supreme vestments planned for the city. "Erdoǧan's Diyarbakır address Court of Appeals upheld a lower court conviction holding a falls short of expectations", Today's Zaman, 3 June 2012. "Di- 2007 speech was "terrorist propaganda". A political unknown yarbakır Erdoǧan'ı üç dilde karșılıyor" ["Diyarbakır welcomes before AKP chose her for its 2011 election list, Eronat's seven- Erdoǧan in three languages"], Vatan, 2 June 2012. teen-year-old son died with several students in a 2008 PKK 162 "With the 'Kurdish opening' and [anti-coup] Ergenekon op- bomb attack in front of a private school in Diyarbakır. 166 erations, Kurds were hopeful that Erdoǧan and [his] AKP were On 30 June he announced his resignation from the party, going to solve the Kurdish issue. Now, after KCK arrests and saying no one from AKP called his family or relatives after his increasing military operations, most Kurds would say they re- abduction. "Partimden istifa ediyorum" ["I quit my party"], gret voting for him". Crisis Group interview, Vecdi Erbay, Vatan, 30 June 2012. 167 journalist, IMC TV, Diyarbakır, May 2012. "You can't say 'I The number of parliamentarians from Diyarbakır fell from will give your rights' but continue to kill PKK [insurgents]. six to five after disqualification of Hatip Dicle, who had won Their parents are your citizens, too!" Crisis Group interview, the largest share of votes (11.6 per cent); Nursel Aydoǧan and Vahap Coșkun, Kurdish academic, Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. Leyla Zana received 10 per cent each. Three joined the Peace Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 21 The BDP sees Diyarbakır as its base and the inhabitants held.172 Baydemir denied the allegations, and a municipal as its "natural members". Occasionally residents accuse official said the photo was taken much earlier after a hos- the party of not working hard enough for a settlement to pital visit by the mayor and his bodyguard.173 end the violence, but open criticism is rare. While defend- ing Kurdishness is the BDP's defining cause, it tries to As the Kurds' major legal party and with clear popular represent the interests of all minorities and is unusually legitimacy, BDP needs to overcome questions about its in- progressive on the rights of women, who play an important dependence and commitment to non-violent, democratic role in the Kurdish struggle and make up 20 per cent of the politics. The Kurdish movement should end any kind of PKK.168 The party has women's councils that choose their illegal political organisation in Turkey that could be con- own candidates for high office, and its Diyarbakır, Mersin, strued as a parallel state and remain committed to ending Ankara, Istanbul and Van branches have women co-chairs. attacks on civilians, working for a ceasefire and eventually disbanding insurgent units.174 Those who vote for it in the Criticism of the BDP is muted, partly because its constit- province do not necessarily support the PKK's violent tac- uency overlaps with the PKK's, whose intolerance of dis- tics. And they deserve legitimate representatives who will sent is notorious.169 Both laud Öcalan, and local officials, be accepted as credible negotiating partners for a sustain- while insisting the organisations are separate, do not deny able solution to their grievances. multiple ties with the PKK.170 An ex-senior policeman is convinced the PKK calls all the shots in Diyarbakır: C. THE GÜLEN MOVEMENT TRIES The BDP cannot free itself from the influence [of Qan- AN ALTERNATIVE WAY dil Mountain, the main PKK base in northern Iraq]. The PKK even determines BDP's elections candidates. The moderate Hizmet (service) movement of Fetullah When [Mayor] Osman Baydemir was on his way to Gülen – a Turkish religious leader who lives in exile in the greet the prime minister during his 2002 Diyarbakır U.S., partly for health reasons and partly due to past charg- visit, the PKK called him and told him to turn back. es of an Islamist agenda – is relatively new on the Diyar- And he did.171 bakır scene and primarily seeks to promote dialogue and reconciliation through education. It brings Turkish teach- Many in Turkey would agree with this view following na- ers and administrators from other parts of the country to tional media broadcasts of sound recordings in 2010, appar- Diyarbakır and gives Kurdish students opportunities to ently of Mayor Baydemir being accused by a KCK tribunal study in western Turkey. Teachers often have international of not taking part in 2008 demonstrations demanding experience, appreciate Kurds and their culture and support Öcalan's release, along with a photo showing him leaving Kurdish-language courses.175 a building Turkish media said was where the session was The Hizmet movement runs 27 free reading rooms in Diyarbakır for children from lower-income families.176 Courses are in Turkish, but students come from Kurdish- speaking families, and the teachers often speak Kurdish and Democracy Party (BDP) in parliament; Șerafettin Elçi with their parents. Investors associated with the Hizmet stayed with another small Kurdish party, KADEP; Leyla Zana have opened five private primary schools and fourteen pre- remained an independent. 168 Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, BDP Diyarbakır co-chair, Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. 169 172 See Crisis Group Report, Turkey: The PKK and a Kurdish Baydemir's KCK prosecutors reportedly included a junior Settlement, op. cit. A former municipal employee from the pro- municipality employee. A recording in Turkish can be found at Islamic Welfare (Refah) Party said, "Diyarbakır is a highly po- http://on.fb.me/VtZ9UW. 173 larised city. Everyone has an official and an unofficial opinion. Crisis Group telephone interview, 5 November 2012. 174 But they will only tell you the official [BDP] line; they can't See Crisis Group Report, Turkey: The PKK and a Kurdish openly criticise it". Crisis Group interview, Kurdish lawyer and Settlement, op. cit. 175 former municipal employee, Diyarbakır, May 2012. The "hoca [Fethullah Gülen] had been supporting Kurdish 170 "We are not the same organisation [as the PKK], but we share elective courses before, but it wasn't the right time [to go public]. the same base and constituency. BDP MPs attend guerilla funer- Now he can say it openly …. We should kiss the hands of the als. Some of these [guerillas] may be relatives of BDP mem- Kurdish public. Even though they have been through so much bers". Crisis Group interview, municipal official, May 2012. A pain, only a small percentage of them went up to the mountains human rights worker said, "BDP came out of the PKK, not the [to join the PKK]". Crisis Group interview, Turkish teacher as- other way around, so they can't do much to end the violence". sociated with Hizmet movement, Diyarbakır, May 2012. 176 Crisis Group interview, Mazlum-Der human rights organisation Some 4,500 students use these reading rooms, and the group lawyer, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. receives two or three times more applications than it can accept. 171 Crisis Group interview, former senior Diyarbakır police of- Crisis Group interview, Turkish teacher associated with Hizmet ficer, Istanbul, September 2012. movement, Diyarbakır, May 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 22 paratory courses (dershane) for university and high school a lull, in 2004, it began to operate through a number of entrance exams.177 Charity projects are part of the move- organisations, particularly the former Mustazaflar Derneǧi, ment's Kimse Yok Mu? (Is anybody there?) humanitarian or Mustazaf-Der (association for the oppressed), now organisation that gives aid in Turkey and abroad. referred to as Mustazaflar Hareketi (movement for the op- pressed). A Diyarbakır court ordered Mustazaf-Der closed Though Hizmet is not directly engaged in politics, some in 2010, citing its ties to the outlawed Hizbullah; the Su- Kurdish activists see it as firmly behind the government's preme Court approved the decision on 11 May 2012. anti-KCK operations and crackdown on Kurdish dissent, because of its alleged influence on the judiciary and the Mustazaf-Der has been most effective, and visible, in or- police and ties to the AKP.178 Pro-PKK media reflects the ganising mass gatherings in Diyarbakır. It brought together scepticism: "[The Gülen movement] has a project to rede- hundreds of thousands of people on 22 April 2012 to cel- sign society. They got rid of the army, the [staunchly sec- ebrate the Prophet Mohammed's birth and gathered over ular] Kemalists, now the only remaining opposition group 10,000 in İstasyon Square on 27 May to protest the Supreme is the Kurds. They want to delay resolving the Kurdish Court decision to uphold its closure and announce its issue".179 decision to create a political party before the 2014 local elections. According to its leader, its popularity is increased Hizmet representatives say the PKK harasses their institu- by its charity and outreach programs.182 tions in Diyarbakır, for example in a series of five attacks on a dershane since September 2009. Though BDP denies Hostility between the PKK and Hizbullah has never ended, that the PKK attacks Gülen institutions, Hizmet teachers though the two organisations overlap in some families, believe they are targeted because they "take away PKK's with Mustazaf-Der's head saying he has a nephew in the base among the poor and uneducated".180 "mountain", a euphemism for the PKK. Mustazaf-Der blames the PKK for stirring up new tensions. There were seventeen attacks on its Diyarbakır branch and between D. TURKEY'S KURDISH ISLAMISTS REGROUP 60 to 70 attacks on its association in the region in general since 2006; the perpetrators have never been found. Hizbul- Another group may soon try to win Kurdish Islamists' lah warned the PKK in a statement on a friendly website on votes. Turkey's Hizbullah – not connected to the Lebanese 22 June 2012 that it has avoided conflict to protect fellow Shia community's Hezbollah militia – began small in Muslims but would respond to continued provocations.183 Diyarbakır in the early 1980s and was associated in the 1990s with state-sanctioned killings of PKK members as Further complicating the picture, a faction has broken off well as dozens of other murders mainly in the south east, from Mustazaf-Der, led by one of the main lawyers in the for which 27 members were put on trial in 2000.181 After Hizbullah court case. Based in Diyarbakır, the Azadî (free- dom) Initiative describes itself as "a congregation of indi- viduals with Islamic responsibility in northern Kurdi- 177 A full-year dershane course costs about 2,000 to 2,500 stan".184 Its goal is "justice" and "freedom" for Kurds, with Turkish Lira ($1,100 to $1400), and 95 per cent of the students a focus on the language, recognition of green, yellow and are Kurdish. About 25 per cent of their teachers are from Di- red as Kurdistan flag colours, creation of a local parliament yarbakır. Crisis Group interview, dershane director, Diyarbakır, and an end to "assimilation". Renouncing all violence, its May 2012. Private primary school fees are around 8,500 TL leader said, "violence is not the only solution. I believe ($5,000). A headmaster at one school says the majority of stu- twenty million people can get their rights through passive dents are Kurdish, and there are no tensions. Crisis Group in- terview, Diyarbakır, May 2012. 178 Critics of the Gülen movement accuse its members of a years- long campaign to infiltrate the courts, the civilian security forces and other Turkish institutions once dominated by adherents of 182 the secularist, Kemalist ideology of the early Turkish republic. Crisis Group interviews, Diyarbakır, September 2012. Their Crisis Group interview, Zübeyde Zümrüt, BDP Diyarbakır co- Diyarbakır branch helps 500 families regularly, others on a need chair, Diyarbakır, May 2012. basis, and distributed meat to 16,000 during the Muslim sacri- 179 Crisis Group interview, manager of a pro-Kurdish move- fice holiday. Crisis Group interview, Hüseyin Yılmaz, head of ment TV station, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. former Mustazaf-der Islamist group, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. 180 183 Crisis Group interviews, private course manager and prima- Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012; "Hizbul- ry school teacher, both associated with Hizmet movement, and lah Basın Bürosundan Kamuoyuna" ["To the public from Hiz- Zübeyde Zümrüt, BDP Diyarbakır co-chair, Diyarbakır, May bullah's press office"], http://huseynisevda.biz, 22 June 2012. 184 2012. Information available on its website, www.insiyatifazadi. 181 The number later increased to 31. The cases, carried out com. A key figure in the initiative and former Hizbullah lawyer mainly by Istanbul and Diyarbakır courts, ended for 24 of the Sıdkı Zilan, a Zazaki Kurd from Diyarbakır, said it is an Islam- suspects in February 2012 with life sentences for eight and be- ic party that believes in compromise and alliances. Crisis Group tween six to twelve years in prison for sixteen. interview, Diyarbakır, 5 September 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 23 resistance".185 It plans to form a political party but is in no VI. FITTING IN WITH TURKEY hurry to complete the process.186 While the Kurdish Islamic movement's decision to enter Suppression, discrimination and paranoia have led to deep politics is based on the conviction that Islamist Kurds will Kurdish distrust of the state, a feeling that has grown over choose a Kurdish alternative over AKP and Gülen, many the past six years.189 Symptoms range from suspicion of Kurds are sceptical about its strength,187 even though some immunisation campaigns to occasional PKK allegations local AKP supporters fear that a new Islamic party would about Turkey's supposed use of chemical weapons that are divide the ruling party's voter base.188 The Kurdish move- widely believed in Kurdish movement circles despite lack ment is also trying to appeal to Islamic sentiment. Since of any credible evidence.190 Escalation in violence since April 2011, it has organised Kurdish-speaking imams and 2011 has aggravated the sense of alienation and injustice. scholars to hold alternative Friday prayer services, called Kurds are angry with the government for denying them "Civilian Fridays", in several provinces in the south east, recognition and equal rights: including Diyarbakır. These can attract thousands of wor- shippers in large public areas like city squares. Why is Prime Minister Erdoǧan calling us "my Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin"? Why can't he just say "my Kurdish citizens"? I am a legal citizen of this country. I did my military service; I attended its schools, and I worked for its government. I fulfilled all my duties to the government. Why can't the government fulfil its duties towards me [by recognising my identity and language]?191 Even Kurds resolutely opposed to the PKK complain of 185 "We are different than the PKK and Hizbullah in that they discrimination, as a pro-AKP academic explained: are both hegemonic and to an extent illegal forces. Although Hizbullah laid down arms ten years ago, it is still associated I live in Ankara. My neighbour and his wife were visit- with illegality in people's minds". Like Turkey's Hizbullah, its ing as I was about to leave for a trip to Istanbul. I said idea for a solution overlaps with the Kurdish movement's de- I was going to do my program. My neighbour's wife mands: recognising Kurdish identity in the constitution through asked, "oh, which channel"? I said TRT6 [the Kurd- neutral wording, allowing mother-language education and mak- ish-language channel]. She then said, to my Turkish ing Kurdish an official second language. "Then, the PKK will wife, "Oh, I see you have him domesticated"!192 not be able to find supporters so easily". Crisis Group inter- view, Sıdkı Zilan, Kurdish lawyer and leading Azadî initiative Similarly, a young civil society activist in Istanbul was figure, Diyarbakır, 5 September 2012. astonished to be asked to leave a taxi after the driver heard 186 It is a de facto organisation rather than a formal political her talk in Kurdish and mention Diyarbakır.193 Western party because the proposed name, "Kürdistan İslami Insiyatifi", Turks' alienation from the Kurds seems to be growing; a includes the words "Kurdistan" and "Islam", which are not al- lowed for official entities. Ibid. 187 "The Kurdish public is not fundamentalist. Even though [pro- 189 Islamic] groups get support from the government, they are not IHD argues that 28 March 2006, when a PKK funeral led to strong here". Crisis Group interview, Kurdish movement politi- clashes with police that killed ten, was a breaking point for cal activist, Diyarbakır, May 2012. "The numbers showing up Kurds. Crisis Group interview, Raci Bilici, head, Diyarbakır for [Mustazaf-Der's] events for the Prophet's birth are mislead- branch, Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. For more on that event, see ing. My mother and my sister went, too, because they love the "28 Mart 2006 Diyarbakır Olaylarına İlișkin İnceleme Raporu" Prophet, but they vote BDP". Crisis Group interview, Diyarba- ["Investigation report into the events of 28 March 2006 in Di- kır correspondent, international news agency, Diyarbakır, 18 yarbakır"] IHD (in Turkish) on www.ihd.org.tr. At the time, May 2012. A Turkish observer on 22 April said most participants Prime Minister Erdoǧan said, "my security forces will do what- were bussed in: "All of a sudden, these women in black çarșaf ever is necessary, [including against] women or children". Op- (garment covering full body and face) and men carrying Islam- position Republican Peoples' Party (CHP) parliamentarian ic banners came out; it was like someone had flipped a switch, from Diyarbakır Sezgin Tanrıkulu, "Yalancı deǧil kalıcı bahar" they were nowhere to be seen before". Crisis Group interview, ["A permanent, not a fleeting, spring"], Radikal, 10 June 2012. 190 Istanbul, May 2012. "The state provided free tetanus shots. Some people here 188 "Mustazaf-Der has a good cause here; they do good work said 'they are trying to sterilise us'. I was scared, and didn't get for the Kurdish problem. But I don't approve of their decision one". Crisis Group interview, Kurdish business person, Diyar- to form a party. It will cause a split in Ak Party votes. Even if bakır, September 2012. 191 Ak Party has shortcomings, they are still [the best]". Crisis Crisis Group interview, IDP in Diyarbakır, May 2012. 192 Group interview, Yunus Memiș, head, Diyarbakır branch, gov- Crisis Group interview, Istanbul, May 2012. 193 ernment employees union (Memursen), Diyarbakır, 5 Septem- Crisis Group interview, Nilgün Yıldırım, civil society activ- ber 2012. ist, Diyarbakır, May 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 24 survey conducted in August 2012 found that one in four If the government continues to give priority to a military Turks does not want to live with Kurds, compared to only solution, clamp down on political dissent and postpone re- 2 per cent of Kurds who did not want to live with Turks.194 forms, it risks losing a generation of young Kurds whose Outside the public sphere, Kurds are engaged in wide parents found common cause with the Turks on the polit- discussions of whether they can go on living with "the ical left. Nationalism is on the rise on both sides, with the Turks".195 The head of the Diyarbakır bar, Emin Aktar, young becoming particularly radical.198 A Kurdish mayor told the following story of his attendance at the May 2011 has first-hand experience of how change for the worse national congress of bar associations: has influenced his son: When I started my speech by saying "hello" in Kurd- I have been elected by 66 per cent of the people here ish, half the 500 there protested. They swore, shouted to serve a second term in office. I don't even own a "get him off the platform"!', "what are you saying"?, pocket knife, let alone engage in any violence. None- and so on. These included people I knew. They tell us theless, there are 73 cases against me for a total of 480 "take your rights", but this is what happens when we years in prison. Seeing this, my sixteen-year-old son do. It makes you wonder what they mean …. I've lost went up to the mountains [to join PKK] in 2009.199 seven, eight members of my family in this war. Try to understand us! Otherwise we have no reason to live The sharpening atmosphere of discrimination, is again together.196 strengthening support for the PKK, just as the PKK of- fensive since 2011 has brought back polarisation reminis- Every time a militant is killed or a person is arrested the cent of the worst years of violence in the 1990s. trauma resonates through large families and communities. In the Kurdish movement, a 30-year-old, educated Kurd- My family lived in central Turkey when I was a child. ish woman – married, pregnant and gainfully employed – Because they were scared of the state, my parents can be unapologetically in favour of the PKK's armed never instilled in me a sense of Kurdishness. I didn't struggle: know what I was, but some of the kids in my school started calling me "dirty Gurd [Kurd]". I didn't under- I don't want the PKK to put down arms before the state stand why. Then they began demanding that I show them officially gives me my rights as a Kurd .… I support a my tail. That summer I had to go swimming [naked] to separate Kurdish state. We don't need independence, show them I didn't have a tail. I regret the suffering of but [autonomy within] our own boundaries. I don't trust the past 30 years. But if it wasn't for [the PKK], I would the Turkish state. Even if it codifies my rights in law, be a 42-year-old man still trying to convince people I I feel like it can still kill me in my sleep. We can't de- didn't have a tail.200 fend our lawful rights in Turkey.197 But the majority of Kurds continue to want to live in Tur- key and more than 71 per cent of Turks and 90 per cent of Kurds said they can have a common future.201 Diyarbakır's Mayor Baydemir explained: 194 Some 16 per cent of Turks said they did not want to live with Kurds; another 9 per cent said they would not want to live in We don't want separation. That would be the biggest the same neighbourhood or apartment. By contrast, 78 per cent unfairness to Kurds economically. Everything has been of Kurds showed willingness to live next to Turks or be related taken away from us for years. We only want to be a part by marriage. "Terörle Mücadelede Toplumsal Algılar", Bilge- of the civilised world. We don't want to redraw the sam, op. cit. Some 3,000 people were interviewed online. borders; we just want to make them softer and more 195 "People here don't feel like they belong [with the state] any flexible.202 more. They need to be reminded that it was the Kurds and Turks together that won Turkey's war of independence [1918-1923]. After that, the Kurds were pushed aside. Now is the time to rem- 198 edy those mistakes. Open the parliamentary archives. Let's face A young local Kurdish official said, "we have been treated the past. People are already talking about it behind closed doors; as a step-child for so long. Especially the younger generation let's talk about it openly". Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır has a very clear Kurdish identity. We have everything we need correspondent, international news agency, Diyarbakır, 17 May here. And the central government's policies have kept us living in 2012. "Emotionally, the Kurds have broken from the state and misery". Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, September 2012. 199 have attached themselves to [BDP Diyarbakır mayor] Osman Crisis Group interview, Abdullah Demirbaș, Suriçi district Baydemir. They have high expectations from DTK and BDP. mayor, Diyarbakır, 15 May 2012. 200 They want Baydemir to solve everything from the city's traffic Crisis Group interview, Kurdish lawyer and local official, problem to their kids' drug addictions". Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, 5 September 2012. 201 Vecdi Erbay, journalist, IMC TV, Diyarbakır, May 2012. "Terörle Mücadelede Toplumsal Algılar", Bilgesam, op. cit. 196 Crisis Group interview, May 2012. But see Section II.D, fn. 71, above for different poll results. 197 202 Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, September 2012. Crisis Group interview, Diyarbakır, 14 May 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 25 The Kurdish movement's civil society platform, DTK, Take the Kurdistan Regional Government [in northern wants the status issue put to a referendum but repeats Bay- Iraq. Turkey's] Kurds feel proud perhaps when they demir's point it does not seek an independent Kurdish visit, but none of them want to move and live there. If state: "We want to live with the Turkish people together in you ask them where they want to live, they say Ankara an equal, free environment .… Our reasons for not want- or Istanbul, not Erbil. But the state has to do something ing a separate state are [also] ideological [since] we say the to strengthen their sense of belonging to Turkey.206 state is mother of all evils".203 Mostly, Kurds want respect and empathy from the govern- ment and the rest of the country, and a better life for their children.204 In a clear sign that the local elite wishes to ease escalating tensions, and in reaction to apparent policy pa- ralysis in Ankara, well-known Diyarbakır figures came together in September 2012 to offer to mediate a solution between parliamentary parties, mainly BDP and AKP. Calling themselves the "Dialogue and Contact Group", they included the chairman of the regional businessmen's association, the head of the bar association and the heads of two leading human rights NGOs, as well as journalists and academics.205 In addition to broadening a Kurdish middle ground between the PKK and the government, other civil society initiatives, such as business delegation exchanges, school trips and professional conferences, could also be used to reach out to Turkish mainstream opinion and overcome prejudices about Kurds. The government should seize on the Kurds' desire to remain in Turkey by first winning back its estranged citizens' hearts and minds. On the other hand, to overcome the public's paranoia that Kurdish organisations are working for an independent Kurdistan, the Kurdish movement must clearly explain its specific plans regarding decentralisa- tion or a federal option, underlining that they are different from independence. As a Kurdish academic put it: 203 Crisis Group interview, Kurdish movement political activist, Diyarbakır, May 2012. 204 A local taxi driver who had worked for two straight days and nights said, "I work for my kids' futures, so they have an education and don't go up to the mountains". Crisis Group in- terview, Diyarbakır, May 2012. 205 An organiser of the group described the initiative: "Turkey is going through difficult times. We have been meeting and talk- ing among ourselves and with activists and academics for over a month. We had a meeting on 2 September in Istanbul with the government and established this group. Before that, we had asked AKP and BDP whether they would be open to the idea, and they said 'yes'. We are focusing on three areas, namely es- tablishing dialogue between political parties, speeding up talks on the new constitution and reducing tensions and the environ- ment of violence". Șahismail Bedirhanoǧlu, head of South- 206 eastern Industrialists' Businessmen's Association (GÜNSİAD), Crisis Group interview, Vahap Coșkun, Kurdish academic, Channel 24 interview (in Turkish), at http://bit.ly/QcB9W3. Diyarbakır, 16 May 2012. Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 26 VII. CONCLUSION Diyarbakır, once a commercial bastion that led the nation's development indices, has been battered by decades of con- flict and injustice. A budding economic revival risks being undermined by the non-resolution of the nexus of issues known as the Kurdish problem and the resumption of PKK-related violence that has reached levels not seen since the 1990s. As Diyarbakır struggles to find ways to escape being dragged back into that grim, violent period, the Turkish state has a responsibility to help, by offering equal rights in mother-language use, local governance and identity and political representation. Despite sharp divisions among local political camps and between the state and Turkey's Kurds, Diyarbakır shows that these basic goals are sup- ported across the local political spectrum and can best be addressed through reforms, as long as there is the political will to implement a comprehensive package. Turkey's Kurds have a minority nationalist faction, prom- inent in Diyarbakır, but its hardline views should not be attributed to the Kurdish population as a whole. While there is again a growing feeling of alienation and injustice, a majority, as seen in Diyarbakır, still wants to be part of a more democratic, inclusive Turkey. The Kurdish move- ment owes it to Kurds to set out clearly a political agenda that reflects this reality. The government, other parties in parliament and Turkish media should distinguish clearly between political activists and violent fighters. Both Turks and Kurds should build on the common-sense preference for a prosperous, united future, before the trend to polari- sation and radical rhetoric sets in deeper. The struggle for the hearts and minds of Diyarbakır resi- dents – and of Kurds at large – is not yet lost. If central state policies can be refocused on creating a more equal, democratic Turkey, and if the leaderships of both sides place more emphasis on fostering realistic discussion of differences than populist rhetoric, there are still many rea- sons to hope that Turks' and Kurds' millennium-long com- mon history can continue more harmoniously. Istanbul/Diyarbakır/Brussels, 30 November 2012 Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 27 APPENDIX A MAP OF TURKEY Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 28 APPENDIX B MAP OF DIYARBAKIR CITY Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 29 APPENDIX C GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS AKP – (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development MHP – (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, Nationalist Action Party), Party), Turkey's ruling party, led by Prime Minister Recep Turkey's main right-wing opposition party, won 13 per cent Tayyip Erdoğan. It enjoys a strong parliamentary majority of the vote in June 2011 elections. It currently holds 56 of the and popular support; its ideology mixes conservatism, reli- 550 seats in parliament. gious piety, populism and economic development. The party Mustazaflar Hareketi – (Movement of the Oppressed, former- won 50 per cent of the vote in the June 2011 parliamentary ly Mustazaf-Der), the leading legal organisation of Turkey's elections. It currently holds 326 of the 550 seats in parliament. (outlawed) Hizbullah, based in the predominantly Kurdish BDP – (Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, Peace and Democracy Party), south east. It was set up in Diyarbakır in 2004 as Mustazaflar the main legal Kurdish movement party in Turkey. Its six pre- Derneǧi (Association of the Oppressed, or Mustazaf-Der for decessors were closed by courts for links to the PKK. Thou- short) but was shut down in May 2012 by Supreme Court de- sands of BDP activists are currently charged with, or jailed cision. The group is in the process of establishing a political on suspicion of, links to terrorism and PKK/KCK member- party under the new name. ship, though there are almost no charges of actual violent acts. PKK – (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, Kurdistan Workers' Party), BDP-affiliated candidates won 6.5 per cent of the vote in June founded in 1978 by Abdullah Öcalan, it started an armed in- 2011 elections. The party has 29 members in its parliamen- surgency in Turkey in 1984. The PKK has 3,000-5,000 insur- tary group and the support of several independents. gents based in northern Iraq and in Turkey and substantial CHP – (Cumhuriyetçi Halk Partisi, Republican People's Party), minority support among Turkish Kurds. It is banned as a the main left-of-centre opposition party; it has a new interest terrorist and drug-smuggling organisation by Turkey, the EU, in Kurdish reforms and a deep-rooted loyalty to the statist, the U.S. and a number of other countries. nationalist heritage of republic and party founder Kemal Ata- türk. The party won 26 per cent of the vote and 135 of the 550 seats in parliament in June 2011 elections. Dershane – Private courses for high school and primary school students nationwide to prepare them for university and high school entrance exams. DTK – (Demokratik Toplum Kongresi, Democratic Society Congress), a legal platform for Kurdish movement political parties in Turkey, non-governmental organisations, associa- tions and prominent individuals; while broad-based, many of its decisions are strongly influenced by Kurdish movement politics. GAP – (Southeast Anatolia Project), a Turkish state irrigation scheme, started in 1977 and covering 1.8 million hectares in the south east. Hizmet (Service) movement – Turkish religious leader Fetullah Gülen's moderately Islamic, international initiative that pri- marily establishes educational institutions and involves hund- reds of foundations, companies and professional associations. KCK – (Koma Ciwakên Kurdistanê, Union of Communities in Kurdistan), created by the PKK in 2005-2007, this is an um- brella organisation for all PKK affiliates in Kurdish commu- nities in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and the diaspora. The Turkish chapter is known as the KCK/TM (for Türkiye Meclisi, or Turkey Assembly). Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 30 APPENDIX D ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an inde- Europe, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyp- pendent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, with some rus, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, North Caucasus, Serbia 130 staff members on five continents, working through and Turkey; in the Middle East and North Africa, Algeria, field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, resolve deadly conflict. Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Western Sahara and Yemen; and in Latin America and the Caribbean, Colombia, Guate- Crisis Group's approach is grounded in field research. Teams mala, Haiti and Venezuela. of political analysts are located within or close by countries at risk of outbreak, escalation or recurrence of violent con- Crisis Group receives financial support from a wide range of flict. Based on information and assessments from the field, it governments, institutional foundations, and private sources. produces analytical reports containing practical recommen- The following governmental departments and agencies have dations targeted at key international decision-takers. Crisis provided funding in recent years: Australian Agency for In- Group also publishes CrisisWatch, a twelve-page monthly ternational Development, Austrian Development Agency, bulletin, providing a succinct regular update on the state of Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Canadian International play in all the most significant situations of conflict or po- Development Agency, Canadian International Development tential conflict around the world. Research Centre, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union Instru- Crisis Group's reports and briefing papers are distributed ment for Stability, Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ger- widely by email and made available simultaneously on the man Federal Foreign Office, Irish Aid, Principality of Liech- website, www.crisisgroup.org. Crisis Group works closely tenstein, Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New with governments and those who influence them, including Zealand Agency for International Development, Royal Nor- the media, to highlight its crisis analyses and to generate wegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swedish International support for its policy prescriptions. Development Cooperation Agency, Swedish Ministry of For- eign Affairs, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, The Crisis Group Board – which includes prominent figures Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Kingdom De- from the fields of politics, diplomacy, business and the media partment for International Development, U.S. Agency for – is directly involved in helping to bring the reports and International Development. recommendations to the attention of senior policy-makers around the world. Crisis Group is chaired by former U.S. The following institutional and private foundations have pro- Undersecretary of State and Ambassador Thomas Pickering. vided funding in recent years: Adessium Foundation, Car- Its President and Chief Executive since July 2009 has been negie Corporation of New York, Elders Foundation, William Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Humanity United, Henry Rights and Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Luce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foun- Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. dation, Oak Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Plough- shares Fund, Radcliffe Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Crisis Group's international headquarters is in Brussels, and Stanley Foundation, The Charitable Foundation, Tinker Foun- the organisation has offices or representation in 34 locations: dation Incorporated. Abuja, Bangkok, Beijing, Beirut, Bishkek, Bogotá, Bujum- bura, Cairo, Dakar, Damascus, Dubai, Gaza, Guatemala November 2012 City, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Kabul, Kathmandu, London, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Port-au-Prince, Pristina, Rabat, Sanaa, Sarajevo, Seoul, Tbilisi, Tripoli, Tunis and Washington DC. Crisis Group currently covers some 70 areas of actual or potential conflict across four continents. In Africa, this includes, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbab- we; in Asia, Afghanistan, Burma/Myanmar, Indonesia, Kash- mir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan Strait, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; in Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 31 APPENDIX E CRISIS GROUP REPORTS AND BRIEFINGS ON EUROPE SINCE 2009 Balkans Setting Kosovo Free: Remaining Cyprus: Six Steps toward a Settlement, Challenges, Europe Report N°218, 10 Europe Briefing N°61, 22 February 2011 Macedonia's Name: Breaking the Dead- September 2012. (also available in Greek and Turkish). lock, Europe Briefing N°52, 12 January 2009 (also available in Albanian and Aphrodite's Gift: Can Cypriot Gas Power a Macedonian). Caucasus New Dialogue?, Europe Report N°216, 2 April 2012 (also available in Greek and Bosnia's Incomplete Transition: Between Georgia-Russia: Still Insecure and Danger- Turkish). Dayton and Europe, Europe Report ous, Europe Briefing N°53, 22 June N°198, 9 March 2009 (also available in 2009 (also available in Russian). Serbian). Nagorno-Karabakh: Getting to a Break- Turkey Serb Integration in Kosovo: Taking the through, Europe Briefing N°55, 7 Octo- Turkey and Armenia: Opening Minds, Plunge, Europe Report N°200, 12 May ber 2009. Openings Borders, Europe Report 2009. Abkhazia: Deepening Dependence, Europe N°199, 14 April 2009 (also available in Bosnia: A Test of Political Maturity in Report N°202, 26 February 2010 (also Turkish). Mostar, Europe Briefing N°54, 27 July available in Russian). Turkey and the Middle East: Ambitions and 2009. South Ossetia: The Burden of Recognition, Constraints, Europe Report N°203, 7 Kosovo: Štrpce, a Model Serb Enclave?, Europe Report N°205, 7 June 2010 (also April 2010 (also available in Turkish). Europe Briefing N°56, 15 October 2009 available in Russian). Turkey's Crises over Israel and Iran, (also available in Albanian and Serbian). Azerbaijan: Vulnerable Stability, Europe Europe Report N°208, 8 September 2010 Bosnia's Dual Crisis, Europe Briefing Report N°207, 3 September 2010. (also available in Turkish). N°57, 12 November 2009. Georgia: Securing a Stable Future, Europe Turkey and Greece: Time to Settle the The Rule of Law in Independent Kosovo, Briefing N°58, 13 December 2010. Aegean Dispute, Europe Briefing N°64, Europe Report N°204, 19 May 2010 Armenia and Azerbaijan: Preventing War, 19 July 2011 (also available in Turkish (also available in Albanian and Serbian). Europe Briefing N°60, 8 February 2011 and Greek). Kosovo and Serbia after the ICJ Opinion, (also available in Russian). Turkey: Ending the PKK Insurgency, Europe Report N°206, 26 August 2010 Georgia: The Javakheti Region's Europe Report N°213, 20 September (also available in Albanian and Serbian). Integration Challenges, Europe Briefing 2011 (also available in Turkish). Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – A N°63, 23 May 2011. Turkey: The PKK and a Kurdish Settle- Parallel Crisis, Europe Report N°209, Georgia-Russia: Learn to Live like ment, Europe Report N°219, 11 Septem- 28 September 2010 (also available in Neighbours, Europe Briefing N°65, 8 ber 2012 (also available in Turkish). Bosnian). August 2011 (also available in Russian). Bosnia: Europe's Time to Act, Europe Tackling Azerbaijan's IDP Burden, Europe Briefing N°59, 11 January 2011 (also Briefing N°67, 27 February 2012 (also available in Bosnian). available in Russian). North Kosovo: Dual Sovereignty in Armenia: An Opportunity for Statesman- Practice, Europe Report N°211, 14 ship, Europe Report N°217, 25 June March 2011. 2012. Bosnia: State Institutions under Attack, The North Caucasus: The Challenges of Europe Briefing N°62, 6 May 2011 (also Integration (I), Ethnicity and Conflict, available in Bosnian). Europe Report N°220, 19 October 2012 Macedonia: Ten Years after the Conflict, (also available in Russian). Europe Report N°212, 11 August 2011. The North Caucasus: The Challenges of Bosnia: What Does Republika Srpska Integration (II), Islam, the Insurgency Want?, Europe Report N°214, 6 October and Counter-Insurgency, Europe Report 2011 (also available in Bosnian). N°221, 19 October 2012 (also available Brčko Unsupervised, Europe Briefing in Russian). N°66, 8 December 2011 (also available in Bosnian). Cyprus Kosovo and Serbia: A Little Goodwill Cyprus: Reunification or Partition?, Could Go a Long Way, Europe Report Europe Report N°201, 30 September N°215, 2 February 2012. 2009 (also available in Greek and Bosnia's Gordian Knot: Constitutional Turkish). Reform, Europe Briefing N°68, 12 July Cyprus: Bridging the Property Divide, 2012 (also available in Bosnian). Europe Report N°210, 9 December 2010 (also available in Greek and Turkish). Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 32 APPENDIX F INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR Samuel Berger Wim Kok Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group LLC; Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Thomas R Pickering Former U.S. National Security Adviser Former U.S. Undersecretary of State; Ricardo Lagos Ambassador to the UN, Russia, India, Israel, Emma Bonino Former President of Chile Jordan, El Salvador and Nigeria Vice President of the Italian Senate; Former Minister of International Trade and European Joanne Leedom-Ackerman Former International Secretary of PEN PRESIDENT & CEO Affairs of Italy and European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid International; Novelist and journalist, U.S. Louise Arbour Micheline Calmy-Rey Lalit Mansingh Former UN High Commissioner for Human Former President of the Swiss Confederation Former Foreign Secretary of India, Ambassador Rights and Chief Prosecutor for the International and Foreign Affairs Minister to the U.S. and High Commissioner to the UK Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda Benjamin Mkapa Wesley Clark Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Former President of Tanzania VICE-CHAIRS Sheila Coronel Laurence Parisot Ayo Obe Toni Stabile Professor of Practice in Investigative President, French Business Confederation Legal Practitioner, Lagos, Nigeria Journalism; Director, Toni Stabile Center for Inves- (MEDEF) tigative Journalism, Columbia University, U.S. Karim Raslan Ghassan Salamé Dean, Paris School of International Affairs, Mark Eyskens Founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive Sciences Po Former Prime Minister of Belgium Officer of KRA Group Nabil Fahmy Paul Reynolds EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE President & Chief Executive Officer, Canaccord Former Ambassador of Egypt to the U.S. and Japan; Founding Dean, School of Public Affairs, Financial Inc. Morton Abramowitz Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State American University in Cairo Javier Solana and Ambassador to Turkey Former EU High Representative for the Common Joshua Fink CEO & Chief Investment Officer, Enso Capital Foreign and Security Policy, NATO Secretary- Cheryl Carolus Management LLC General and Foreign Minister of Spain Former South African High Commissioner to the UK and Secretary General of the ANC Liv Monica Stubholt Joschka Fischer Former Foreign Minister of Germany Senior Vice President for Strategy and Commu- Maria Livanos Cattaui nication, Kvaerner ASA; Former State Secretary Former Secretary-General of the International Lykke Friis for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chamber of Commerce Former Climate & Energy Minister and Minister of Gender Equality of Denmark; Former Prorec- Lawrence Summers Yoichi Funabashi tor at the University of Copenhagen Former Director of the US National Economic Chairman of the Rebuild Japan Initiative; Former Council and Secretary of the U.S. Treasury; Editor-in-Chief, The Asahi Shimbun Jean-Marie Guéhenno President Emeritus of Harvard University Frank Giustra Arnold Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University; Former UN Under- Wang Jisi President & CEO, Fiore Financial Corporation Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Dean, School of International Studies, Peking Lord (Mark) Malloch-Brown University; Member, Foreign Policy Advisory Former UN Deputy Secretary-General and Carla Hills Committee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Administrator of the United Nations Development Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and U.S. Trade Representative Wu Jianmin Programme (UNDP) Executive Vice Chairman, China Institute for Moisés Naím Lena Hjelm-Wallén Innovation and Development Strategy; Member, Senior Associate, International Economics Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Foreign Policy Advisory Committee of the Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Minister of Sweden Chinese Foreign Ministry; Former Ambassador Peace; Former Editor in Chief, Foreign Policy of China to the UN (Geneva) and France Mo Ibrahim George Soros Founder and Chair, Mo Ibrahim Foundation; Lionel Zinsou Chairman, Open Society Institute Founder, Celtel International CEO, PAI Partners Pär Stenbäck Igor Ivanov Former Foreign Minister of Finland Former Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation OTHER BOARD MEMBERS Asma Jahangir President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Kofi Annan of Pakistan, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Former Secretary-General of the United Nations; the Freedom of Religion or Belief Nobel Peace Prize (2001) Wadah Khanfar Nahum Barnea Co-Founder, Al Sharq Forum; Former Director Chief Columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel General, Al Jazeera Network Turkey's Kurdish Impasse: The View from Diyarbakır Crisis Group Europe Report N°222, 30 November 2012 Page 33 PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL A distinguished group of individual and corporate donors providing essential support and expertise to Crisis Group. Dow Chemical George Landegger Shearman & Sterling LLP Mala Gaonkar McKinsey & Company Ian Telfer Frank Holmes Ford Nicholson & Lisa Wolverton White & Case LLP Steve Killelea Harry Pokrandt Neil Woodyer INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL Individual and corporate supporters who play a key role in Crisis Group's efforts to prevent deadly conflict. Anglo American PLC Neemat Frem Harriet Mouchly-Weiss Nina Solarz APCO Worldwide Inc. FTI Consulting Näringslivets Horst Sporer Ryan Beedie Seth & Jane Ginns Inter¬nationella Råd (NIR) Statoil – International Council of Stanley Bergman & Edward Alan Griffiths Swedish Industry Talisman Energy Bergman Rita E. Hauser Tilleke & Gibbins Griff Norquist BP George Kellner Kevin Torudag Ana Luisa Ponti & Geoffrey Chevron Faisel Khan R. Hoguet Yapı Merkezi Construction Neil & Sandra DeFeo Family Zelmira Koch Polk Kerry Propper and Industry Inc. Foundation Stelios S. Zavvos Elliott Kulick Michael L. Riordan Equinox Partners Shell SENIOR ADVISERS Former Board Members who maintain an association with Crisis Group, and whose advice and support are called on (to the extent consistent with any other office they may be holding at the time). Martti Ahtisaari Victor Chu Miklós Németh Grigory Yavlinski Chairman Emeritus Mong Joon Chung Christine Ockrent Uta Zapf George Mitchell Pat Cox Timothy Ong Ernesto Zedillo Chairman Emeritus Gianfranco Dell'Alba Olara Otunnu Gareth Evans President Emeritus Jacques Delors Lord (Christopher) Patten Kenneth Adelman Alain Destexhe Shimon Peres Adnan Abu Odeh Mou-Shih Ding Victor Pinchuk HRH Prince Turki al-Faisal Uffe Ellemann-Jensen Surin Pitsuwan Hushang Ansary Gernot Erler Cyril Ramaphosa Óscar Arias Marika Fahlén Fidel V. Ramos Ersin Arıoğlu Stanley Fischer George Robertson Richard Armitage Malcolm Fraser Michel Rocard Diego Arria I.K. Gujral Volker Rühe Zainab Bangura Swanee Hunt Güler Sabancı Shlomo Ben-Ami Max Jakobson Mohamed Sahnoun Christoph Bertram James V. Kimsey Salim A. Salim Alan Blinken Aleksander Kwasniewski Douglas Schoen Lakhdar Brahimi Todung Mulya Lubis Christian Schwarz-Schilling Zbigniew Brzezinski Allan J. MacEachen Michael Sohlman Kim Campbell Graça Machel Thorvald Stoltenberg Jorge Castañeda Jessica T. Mathews Leo Tindemans Naresh Chandra Nobuo Matsunaga Ed van Thijn Eugene Chien Barbara McDougall Simone Veil Joaquim Alberto Chissano Matthew McHugh Shirley Williams
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