There is no ‘Kurdistan’ in Turkey, president Erdogan says
ISTANBUL,— Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that there is no such place as Kurdistan in Turkey and criticized the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker for using the word.
Erdogan reiterated his criticism of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for its cooperation with the pro-Kurdish HDP.
At the center of the criticism, there were the words of a HDP member, who referred to southeastern Turkey as “Kurdistan,” during a joint event with CHP members. Erdogan blasted the speech, underlining that there is no such region in Turkey.
Speaking at the central Yozgat province at a rally for the March 31 local elections, Erdogan said that the CHP is acting with Qandil, referring to the mountains where the Kurdistan Worker’s Party’s headquarters are located.
“You want Kurdistan, you can go to the north of Iraq,” Erdogan said during an election rally for his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Yozgat province in central Turkey.
“They say that in ‘Kurdistan,’ they will give their votes to the HDP and in the west [Anatolia] they will cause the failure of the AK Party and the MHP [Nationalist Movement Party, the partner of the AK Party in the People’s Alliance]. Since when was there a region in Turkey called ‘Kurdistan?'” Erdogan asked, adding that the ones who try to divide the country will fail.
Yesterday, during a joint event organized for the CHP’s ?i?li district mayoral candidate, Muammer Keskin, the HDP’s ?i?li district head, gave a speech in which he expressed his support for Keskin while referring to eastern Anatolia as “Kurdistan.”
“In ‘Kurdistan,’ we will take back all the municipalities that have trustees. In the other part of Turkey, on the other hand, we will not let the AK Party-MHP coalition win,” the HDP member said, mentioning the country as if it consists of two separate states.
“They claim that they will take back the provinces with trustees. If my citizens would give you the chance to take those provinces back, and if you try to support Qandil with the state’s own means, then we will designate trustees again,” Erdogan said as a response.
Turkey is gearing up for local elections on March 31, with the worries growing for the AKP that it might lose mayoral contests in several major cities.
The local elections are especially important for the Kurdish HDP. Many of their elected municipal officials have been arrested by the Turkish government and replaced with caretaker appointees.
The Turkish government has long accused the HDP of close links with the PKK. The HDP is known for its support of autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan (Bakur), the regions where large Kurdish populations live. Some of its members have also been charged or accused of having links to the PKK organization.
Former HDP Co-chairman Selahattin Demirtas was arrested in November 2016 for alleged PKK propaganda. Many of its members have often voiced overt support for the PKK.
The use of the term “Kurdistan” is vigorously rejected due to its alleged political implications by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize the existence of a “Turkish Kurdistan” Southeast Turkey. The word ‘KURDISTAN’ is strongly prohibited in Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media.
The use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet are prohibited in Turkey and has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003. Kurdish Newroz must be written as ‘Nevruz’ with Turkish alphabet.
In December 2018, Google has deleted a map of Greater Kurdistan from its My Maps platform after the Turkish government had requested Google remove the map, objecting to the depiction that outlined the lands inhabited by Kurds that encompass territories within Turkey.
The Kurds remain the world’s largest stateless ethnic group. Estimated to over 40 million Kurds live in “Greater Kurdistan” which covers an area as big as France.
More than 22.5 million Kurds live in southeastern Turkey (northern Kurdistan), estimated to over 12 million Kurds live in northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan), nearly 3 million Kurds live in northern Syria (Western Kurdistan) and 4 million Kurds live in northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan).
In 1925, the country of the Kurds, known since the 12th century as “Kurdistan”, was forcibly divided between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. And for the first time in its long history, it was deprived of its cultural autonomy.
Ever since that date, Kurds in Turkey have been denied their basic rights and freedoms at the hands as the state attempts to assimilate them.
Tehran and Ankara fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations. There is also a significant Kurdish population in Syria.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
Kurdish is not an official language in Turkey despite having a roughly 22.5 million speakers in the country. Kurds are allowed to speak in their mother tongue at home, although the government has allowed some pro-government TV channels to present programs in Kurdish.
Read more about Kurdish language in Turkey
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | dailysabah.com | Agencies
Comments
