Kurdish Demands Ahead of EU Summit
The "list of demands," published in the International Herald Tribune on December 8, and France's Le Monde on December 9, was signed by 200 people, including internationally known Kurdish intellectuals and politicians like the former Diyarbakir lawmaker and writer Tarik Ziya Ekinci; Tunceli Mayor Songul Erol Abdil; writer-translator Nurettin Elhuseyni; singer Nilufer Akbal; former Mardin lawmaker Ahmet Turk; former minister of public works; former Mardin lawmaker Serafettin Elci; former Diyarbakir mayor Mehdi Zana; writer Mehmet Uzun; former Diyarbakir lawmaker Leyla Zana, head of the Paris Kurdish Institution Kendal Nezan; member of the Berlin State Parliament, Helin Evrim Baba; and editor-writer Umit Firat.
Turkey's Kurds, who asked for their demands to be regarded as preconditions to Turkey's accession into the EU, and to be met for "regional peace and stability," will also deliver their list of demands to relevant Turkish and European Union administrations before December 17.
The announcement titled, "What do Kurds Want in Turkey?" was prepared with the initiative of the Paris Kurdish Institution and signed by 200 Turkish Kurds. The following are the main measures the Kurds called for, for the democratic solution of the Kurdish problem:
* The preparation of a development plan with Europe's support for the rebuilding of more than 3,400 Kurdish villages that were evacuated in the 90s and for the encouragement of about 3 million Kurds to return to their villages;
* A general amnesty for the establishment of peace and stability and the complete closure of the era of clashes;
* The preparation of a new, modern and democratic constitution that recognizes the existence of the Kurdish people, and which grants Kurds the right to give and receive education in Kurdish, have Kurdish broadcasts and publications, set up associations, institutions or political parties and express their culture and political wills freely and defend themselves.
* The full text signed by people who represent the political and cultural diversity of the Kurdish community was as follows:
What do the Kurds Want in Turkey?
The Kurds make up about a quarter of the population of Turkey, numbering between 15 and 20 million, according to the October 2004 Report of the European Commission.
Like all historically constituted human communities, they have the right to live in dignity in the land of their ancestors, and to preserve their identity, culture and language and hand them down freely to their children.
Having been victims of great injustice throughout the 20th century, the Kurds now pin their hopes for a better future on the process Turkey must undergo to become a member of the European Union, which they perceive as being, above all, a multicultural area of peace, democracy and pluralism.
To join this family of democracies, Turkey itself must become a true democracy, with respect for its own cultural diversity and political pluralism. In particular, it must guarantee its Kurdish citizens the same rights that the Basques, Catalans, Scots, Lapps, South Tyroleans and Walloons enjoy in the democratic countries of Europe - and which it is itself demanding for the Turkish minority in Cyprus.
Public conscience will not abide a policy of double standards, which would eventually under- mine the moral credibility of the European Union and tarnish the image of the Turkish government in European public opinion.
The European process offers both Turks and Kurds new and promising prospects, and gives them a chance for reconciliation on the basis of a peaceful settlement of the Kurdish question, with due respect for existing borders. This opportunity must be appreciated at its true value. We the undersigned, representing Kurdish society in all its political and cultural diversity, consider that such a settlement calls for: a new and democratic Constitution, recognising the existence of the Kurdish people, and guaranteeing it the right to a public school system and media in its own language and the right to form its own organizations, institutions and parties with the aim of contributing to the free expression of its culture and its political aspirations. a general amnesty in order to establish a climate of confidence and reconciliation and, once and for all, to turn the page on violence and armed conflict; - the implementation, with European support, of a vast programme of economic development of the Kurdish region, particularly including rebuilding the more than 3,400 Kurdish villages destroyed in the 1990s, and incentives for the three million displaced Kurds to return to their homes.
We ask the Turkish authorities and the European leaders to do justice to the Kurds in Turkey by acceding to their legitimate demands in order to ensure regional peace and stability, and to consider the fulfilment of those demands to be an essential criterion by which to measure Turkey 's progress along the road to membership of the European Union. (EA/YE)