Kurdish question for Erdoğan: A changing discourse over the years

"Democratic resolution for the Kurdish question"

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In a documentary that came out on September 18, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said, "If the Kurdish question is to be resolved, you can do it with a legitimate body" and pointed at the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Since then, politicians have been discussing "who the interlocutor is in resolving the Kurdish question" or "whether there is such an issue at all."

While the HDP has welcomed Kılıçdaroğlu's statement, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a statement after attending the 76th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York and said, "There is unity, solidarity and fraternity in our book, we are moving on on our path with this. 'Solving the Kurdish issue and all...' There is no such an issue in Turkey. We have already resolved, overcome and ended this issue."

Berivan Altan from Mezopotamya Agency (MA) has compiled the contradictory statements of Erdoğan about the Kurdish question over the past 19 years, when he and the AKP have been in power in Turkey:

2002: 'If you say there is not'

While examining the construction works of the Turkish Trade Center in Russia's capital city of Moscow in the year 2002, Erdoğan talked to a worker from Kars about the Kurdish question and said, "If you believe that there is a problem, it will be a problem. If you say that there is not, the problem will disappear. We say that there is no such a problem."

2005: 'It is my problem, too'

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the then Prime Minister, spoke at the AKP rally in Turkey's Diyarbakır province in 2005 and said: "You don't have to give a name to every problem. Because the problems are of us all. But if you really want to give it a name, Kurdish issue is the problem of not only a part of this nation, but the problem of all of them. It is my problem, too."

2009: No matter what we call it

In 2009, the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "You may call it the Kurdish issue, the Southeast issue, the East issue... Or you may call it the Kurdish resolution, as we have recently named it. No matter what we call it, we have started working on this."

2010: I defend the Kurdish issue

Making a speech on December 27, 2010 as part of the above-mentioned works, Erdoğan said, "Our 73 million people are one under the supra-identity of the Republic of Turkey. The supra-identity is the citizenship of the Republic of Turkey. There are several ethnic elements under it. I defend the Kurdish issue as the Prime Minister and we will keep doing so."

2011: There is no Kurdish issue

Speaking at a rally in Muş on April 30, 2011, Erdoğan said, "Let my citizens give their votes with their own will. Do they do it? You see, threats... This is not democracy, this is not freedom, these are not basic rights. There is no longer a Kurdish issue in this country. I don't accept it. My Kurdish brothers and sisters have an issue in this country, but not a Kurdish issue."

Speaking to reporters following Friday prayers on July 15, 2011, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said this time, "There is no Kurdish issue in this country, there is a PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] issue in this country. We have given the biggest support to our Kurdish citizens."

2013: There is a Kurdish issue

As part of the "Resolution Process" for the Kurdish question, which officially began with the letter of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan read at Diyarbakır Newroz on March 21, 2013, Erdoğan took to the stage with Masud Barzani and Şivan Perwer and said, "There is a Kurdish issue".

At the resolution process rally, he said, "Just as they cannot separate the Turk from the Kurd, they cannot separate the Kurd from the Turk. What is a bigger torment than a mother being unable to speak to her child in her mother language? We will see that the ones at the mountains leave, prisons are empty, 76 million embrace one another and be a new Turkey together."

2015: What else do you want?

With the resolution process "freezed", Erdoğan spoke at the "Economy Awards 2015" ceremony of the Balıkesir Trade and Industry Chamber on March 15, 2015 and said, "Now, you see that they are constantly talking about the Kurdish issue. What Kurdish issue are you talking about? There is no such thing anymore. What is missing? You have a Prime Minister and a Minister coming from there, right? You are in the Turkish Armed Forces, right? What do you want? What else do you want?"

2018: There is no Kurdish issue

On June 3, 2018, President and AKP Chair Erdoğan spoke at the Diyarbakır İstasyon Square, where he had mentioned the Kurdish question for the first time: "We say that there is no Kurdish issue. We have assured your freedoms, just as we have done for everyone. Whoever wants to seize the right of my Kurdish brother or sister, they will confront me.

"Is there an obstacle? You can practice your religion, faith and traditions freely. There is no ban on your identity or faith."

2019: An insult to say there is 

In July 2019, President and AKP Chair Erdoğan said, "We have done everything for Kurds. Saying that there is a Kurdish issue means insulting me, it means insulting us. There is an issue of Turkey. We need to handle Turkey as a whole. I cannot separate the Kurds."

2020: What Kurdish issue!

Speaking at the AKP group meeting, Erdoğan said, "They are talking about a Kurdish issue. What Kurdish issue? In my speech in Diyarbakır in 2005, I said, 'There is no Kurdish issue in this country; if there is, I am responsible for it and we will resolve it.' We have resolved these. There is no Kurdish issue in this country. There had long been a problem with freedoms suffered by Kurds in this country. We have broken the chains of backwardness."

2021: We have already resolved it

Upon his return from the US, Erdoğan said on September 23, "There is unity, solidarity and fraternity in our book, we are moving on on our path with this. 'Solving the Kurdish issue and all...' There is no such an issue in Turkey. We have already resolved, overcome and ended it. If there are those who believe in unity, solidarity and fraternity, we can move forward together." (NÖ/SD)