Cyprus-Forum.com

[Saint Jimmy]

Personaly I would love for Turkey to unilateraly grant Turkish Kurds the kind of rights and protections as a community that the TC want in Cyprus.

???
Like... veto power on matters that affect the majority, as well as the minority?
I believe the accurate term for that would be... 'not in a million years'???

I think that such a move would bring much credit to Turkey, ease it's EU entry and also be the biggest support possible for the TC communites cause both internally to Cyprus and externally. Not likely to happen though.

Interesting...
You would love for Turkey to do that, because, among other things, it would support the TC community's cause... But the fact that Turkey doesn't do it (and is most probably not going to do it), tells you absolutely nothing...
It doesn't sound good, erol...

[erolz]

I agree with you erolz. However, at least half of the Turkish Parliament already comprise of Kurdish origin RoT citizens. There are so many high ranked Kurdish origin RoT citizens in army. Turgut Ozal one of the most famous RoT Pm and president was a Kurdish origin RoT citizen. In big cities of Turkey, most of the richest businessmen are Kurdish origin RoT citizens. I don't think those who want autonomy or a seperate Kurdish state constitutes majority of Kurdish origin RoT citizens. The Kurds who provoke some ordinary RoT citizen Kurds are the Kurds of neighbouring countries, imo. Some groups of Hellenes and Armenians give big support to those seperatist Kurds.

And I have to admit that I know very little of the realites of Kurds in Turkey. Certainly my 'speculation' above was based on a premise (than from Insans post is not a very solid one) that the majority of Turkish Kurds actually wanted some form of self determination - as the TC do (and always have) in Cyprus.

[erolz]

You would love for Turkey to do that, because, among other things, it would support the TC community's cause...

I would like them to do it because I believe in the principal of self determination. However that is based on there being a desire for self determination amongst a majority of a given group. I do not know enough about the Kurds in Turkey - but take the basques in spain. The reality is that the vast majority of spanish (or french for that matter) basques do not want self determination for themselevs and are content as Spainsh or French citizens. Thus I do not think minority basque seperatist should be able to impose it on them. That may well also be the reality for Turkish Kurds (I do not know but value Insans greater knowledge of the situation than mine). The point about poliitcal representation that Insan made is also well taken and noted. Similarly in Spain (and France) there are people of basque descent at all levels of Spainsh (and French government). Compare that with no representation of TC in any levels of Cypriot government from 63 onwards.

But the fact that Turkey doesn't do it (and is most probably not going to do it), tells you absolutely nothing...

It tells me I probably do not know enough about the realites of Kurds in Turkey.

It doesn't sound good, erol...

Well contrary to what you might think I am not here to try and 'sound good'. I am not a politican. I am not looking for votes or to score points. I am simply expressing my views and why I hold them - regardless of how good they might or might not sound to any audience.

[insan]

While there is visible political, economic, and cultural discrimination toward the Kurds, there is little consensus on what the Kurdish people want as a group. This is because there are many Kurds who are already well integrated into Turkish society.[65] Some simply demand basic freedoms to claim their Kurdish identity or the use of their own language in the media without discrimination or severe punishment.[66] When the Turkish President Turgut Ozal (who also happened to be a Kurdish descendant) took office in the late 1980s he began addressing the Kurdish demands for the first time in modern Turkey’s history. In 1989 he began lifting some of the language restrictions by allowing limited usage of Kurdish in conversation and music, and eventually legalized the language in 1991 by abolishing a law forbidding other languages.[67] According to Gurbey, Ozal wanted to achieve peace by forming a partnership with the Kurdish parliamentarians through a cease-fire and negotiations with the PKK.[68] However, finding a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem all ended when Ozal died suddenly in 1993 while still in office.
The Alliance and Irredentist Triggers
The presence of the underlying conditions alone would not escalate the conflict to involve other states like Syria. The fact that the Kurds have always been a minority at risk, straddling the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and identifying with ethnic-kin all four of those countries is not enough to trigger war. For years the Kurdish problem was a domestic issue for Turkey. However, this all changed and tensions started to build between Turkey and its neighbors when one of the triggers began to emerge.

Throughout the eighties and nineties the alliance trigger has been clearly visible in the Kurdish case. All three of Turkey’s neighbors that share the Kurdish population, as well as other countries like Greece and Armenia, have been known to assist the Kurds in the latter half of the twentieth century.[69] Greece has approached the Kurdish issue as a welcome opportunity to weaken its neighboring rival in the fight over the island of Cyprus.[70]


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A well documented analysis about Kurdish problem.



http://www.isanet.org/noarchive/gokcek.html