Kurdish National Congress of North America
P.O. Box 90823, Nashville, TN 37209
USA
Mrs. Kariane Westrheim, Chair of the EUTCC
Brussels 5th International EUTCC Conference 2009
EU Turkey Civic Commission
European Parliament, Brussels
January 25, 2009
Dear Mrs. Westrhein:
The Kurdish National Congress would like to extend our best wishes and congratulations to you on holding the fifth historic conference on the EU, Turkey and the Kurds.
Turkey, like the Ottoman Empire, has been a multi-ethnic state. Nevertheless, since the inception of the new Turkish state, the Turkish leadership has disregarded such a reality in which Turkey lives and adopted a Constitution that is premised on the mono-ethnic identity, which is esteemed by the school of thought of Ataturk, “He is fortunate who calls himself a Turk.” Such an idea was integrated into the Turkish Constitution.
In Article 66, Turkish Citizenship, Chapter Four, it reads, “Everyone bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship is a Turk.” Such an unrealistic Constitution and narrow nationalist mentality has created a socio-political plague that has prevented the Turkish society from growing into a tolerant society. Consequently, they are unable to see other ethnic groups equal to themselves.
Mentalities that are nurtured by such a Constitution have been legitimizing their oppression against the Kurds in Northern part of Kurdistan. Policies supported by this Constitution have kept the Turkish political mentality in the cycle of fear and hate, which have contributed a lot to the rise of animosity between various segments of Turkey’s society with no end in sight, and squandered Turkish national resources in vain. Therefore, for any drastic civilized and democratic change to take place in the socio-political system, the Turks must amend their Constitution, where all her citizens are treated with respect and equality before the law.
While encouraging Turkey to amend its Constitution, we are equally persuading the PKK to choose a different peaceful means to continue its struggle for the people of Kurdistan in Turkey. It is time for the PKK to adopt a non-violent political means to make its voice heard. It is the only avenue to bring the bloodshed of innocent Turks and Kurds to an end.
Turkey has a promising dream--a dream of becoming a member of the European Union. It is a dream worthy of support by all of her friends including the Kurds in all parts of Kurdistan, because Turkish membership in the EU benefits all, Turks, Kurds, and the entire Middle East.
While Turkey has shown signs of changes in its policies vis-à-vis the Kurdish issue, nonetheless contradictions are noticed in the way the Turkish authorities have been behaving. Whilst Turkey establishes a new Kurdish TV channel (TRT 6) to broadcast in Kurdish, which was considered as a good gesture to normalize Turkish-Kurdish relationships, they have been doing their utmost to go after a prominent Kurdish figure, Mrs. Leyla Zana, to prevent her from running for the office of mayor in her city. Such a behavior by the Turkish authorities creates doubts in minds of people as to how sincere they are.
Furthermore, the Kurdish issue in Turkey may never be resolved unless the Turkish authorities show more transparency and sincerity in their approaches and amend the Constitution in order to be able to start the serious reform needed to undertake the complex socio-political situation in Turkey.
Once again, we wish you all the success for the conference and hope to see its realistic approach become a reality on the ground in Turkey.
Sincerely yours,
Kirmanj Gundi,
President
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