Well said. It is sad that we had to be adversaries with the Iraqi Kurds.

rights come by civilization
civilizations come by education
where education is given it is taken*
some who has right can be spoken

I share many of the sentiments, and assessments expressed in the article. However, I not have as optimistic of "thy neighbor's Kurdistan" for both of "thy".

On Turkish Kurdistan: The real picture is not as rosy I am afraid. True, Kurds in Turkey are dispersed and PKK, its sympathizers do not represent the majority of the Kurds (albeit a sizable minority). However, in the feudal system prevalent n Kurdish areas the head count do not account for much. PKK is the de-facto ruler in many Kurdish populated areas.

Among those whose allegiance does not lie with PKK, it lies with the their tribes. I visited the area a few month ago. On thing I noticed was that even the most desolate hamlets were well lifted; giving from a distance the appearance o prosperity. I was gas stations lighted brighter than Las Vegas casinos. "Because the electricity is stolen" explained my niece. I was reminded of a news bin I had read a few years back: In Hakkari, for every lira of tax collected 79 liras come in from the government coffers. whether that is accurate or not today is not is beside he point, which is: Turkey does have valid reasons for its worries of is own Kurdistan.

I am also in agreement with Mustafa Bey on the assessment of how we got here. But we are here.

"This doesn't mean that we should not have concerns about Iraq — of course we should — but these can only be worked out by diplomacy and cooperation, with the international community, and, of course, the Iraqi leaders, whoever they are and will be" (M. Akyol).

Sounds good on the surface but then one wonders "which international community"? Let's name it, Mustafa Bey is referring to USA. Then the next question is "does US believe in the territorial integrity and unity of Irak? Moving forward we cannot base our policies on the most optimistic assumptions. Territorial Unity of Irak is a big baloney. I have not heard of any Washingtonian even using the expression anymore.

"the international community" created the chaos. Turkey's actions or lack thereof, alone cannot be the determinant. When diagnosing Turkey paranoia, one must consider the facts on the ground. You play the cards you are dealt. Creating order out of chaos is a tall order for Turkey, even with the best of intentions. Only when the "international community" removes its bloody, dirty hands out of thy neighbors house, can the process begin in earnest.

Mr Akyol,

Thank you for turning your flashlight on this topic, again. Like you, I too was all too naïve about the “kurds” growing up. I had thought “kurdish” was a dialect that was spoken only in rural areas by the villagers.

Turkey will not join the ranks of the powerful countries unless she stands with (and for) the least powerful. Help those who need help. Stop the creation of two Turkey (Poor East and Rich West Turkey) while pretending to champion only one Turkey and ask everyone to embrace “Turkishness”.

In order to create one Turkey, its citizens should not be asked to deny their own heritage, culture, history. Yes, to establish national unity, every citizen should learn Turkish, in order to take advantage of opportunities, go to school, obtain employment; But to ask Kurds to deny their “Kurdishness” is to deny them of their basic human rights.

In order to create one Turkey, the Turkish Government should help the citizens in east and south east areas with natural disasters. Make them feel like, the Turkish Government care about them. Protect the kurdish villages when confronted with earth quakes, floods, bird flues. Act of helping hand in time of need, will lead to more loyalty than simply waving Turkish flags and the portrait of Ataturk.

Despite the past, Turkey’s Unity must be preserved. But Turks need to realize that the ethnic minorities add even richer content to its proud history. Denying them their identities is to deny Turkey the rich history it deserves.

Regards,
Celal

Kurds do not have any reason lest they feel they are not first class citizens.

They are not negros of our community.

They very well have got every citizen right.

Let's have a look at Istanbul as Mr. Akyol said. The percentage of rich people who originally derive from Kurdish ancestors is much more than Turkish ones.

In the show-world of Turkey, let's mind some of the most popular and richest persons. How many of them are Turkish and how many of them are Kurdish?

Has this Turkish nationalist based state ever been able to deprive Kurts of being a bureaucrat, one of the most and richest singers, minister, member of parliament, or a president?

Has this state the system of which can be criticized because of its lack of sufficient freedom ever been able to prevent some elites originally derived from Kurdish parents from being a harsh Kurdish nationalist?

Has this Kemalist state ever been able to stop that some intellectuals arranging international press meeting and fearlessly claiming that Turks killed thousands of Armenians and Turks?

Some Kurds have not been able to speak in their own language? For those who utter such a sentence
I firmly recommend that they well be attuned to all Turkish areas in this country. In some cities of Turkey you might even have some difficulties to find anyone speaking in Turkish as a Turkish citizen, let alone those people who cannot speak in Kurdish.

Kurds are happy in this country. I think Mr. Akyol's saying that too.

Are Turks happy in this country?

Now that is the main question.

Are all Turkish originated citizens of this country of rights and privileges as much as their Kurdish brothers'?

Who can be luckier in terms of being a superior civil servant, famous singer, or an investor being incented by the laws established by Turkish Great Assembly?

By the way do you have any idea concerning the proportion of Kurdish members of Turkish Parliament?

So, where are Kurdish, second class, anguished citizens of this country?

If I were firmly inclined to contend that "in terms of meaning, the people who some environments call 'White Turks' might now actually be Kurds", would i be so unrealistic?

Argumennts on social realities cannot be based on anecdotal evidence. As not all blacks are basketball players or superstar musicians, not all Kurds are Ibrahim Tatlises. (To protec mysel from the boumerang , I did not base my argument above on the prevalence of electricity waste in the Southeast 'because it is free' not only the personal observation , but existing data.)

These are undeniable histric facts:

The Holy state after MKA denied them many of thir human rights like it did with the mo f the polulaion. It bu a -ne reflection of the schizophreniz state withic does not like, trust its people. They always saw enemies when they looked around them in all shades colors, religions. The sick mind who opined that the muslims "would be drawned in the sea of Anatolia" (aren't these generals wordsmiths?) pearl of wiosdom is thje same one who produces the patritic slogans like "a turk is ew=qual to th world" and ":a Turk has no friend, but a Turk" (except of ocourse, she wears Turban, from ghettos, Eastern Tukey, not reactionary, and few others..)
We, as a nation are paying for Inonu and the rest of the Kemalist oligarchy that has been ruling, by schizophrenia and amnesia ever since.

Things are changing in Turkey however.
People are beginning to refuse to be regimented and sing "long live the king" (i.e. in ten years we created 10 million..) in unison anymore. These generals who see the whole country as their officer's mess and the nation as the foot soldiers, are benin labeled appropriately.

Stick o fork in the republican elite. They are done. They need not go in S, Arabia, Moscow or NY. But they must play on the side with their ERKE or other toys.

Now, let the grown-ups discuss the matters.

Yes, Kurds are happy in this country without any doubt.
When I was in one of the southeastern province of Turkey, in accordance with my duty, I visited one of the small villages. The problem was that families living in this village were having much more children than they actually could meet the basic costs of maintaining them. Approximately each family had children more than seven which was clearly pointing to unwanted and unexpected situation in terms of contemporary life indicators. My duty was simply to endeavor those people to persuade to use some basic population planning materials, as they unanimously took these measures against their belief. I questioned one of the fathers of these families why he had that much children and offered him to contemplate using some family planning materials freely provided by the provincial state health authority. “God gave those kids” he replied back to me. “God gave those and that kind of things were not the state’s business”
Well, now I am considering, he was right. He was happy with his family. He thought, god gave him that amount of kids, besides he probably was thinking that having more than 7 kids was a sort of guarantee for his type of life.
Most Kurds in this country can live however they wish. Even if the style of life they prefer is stark against some characteristics of contemporary social order.
Others, who are economically luckier, can prefer different styles. As I cited formerly, they generally are rich, have firm correlations between each other, got the right to become superior civil servant, soldier, minister, or a member of the Turkish Great Assembly. The rest who also live in the most metropolitan areas is living in better conditions as well, given that their traditional, ethnic and tribal relations which always support their positions.
Some feudal accustoms today do not bring them disadvantages, rather advantages. The so-called social, contemporary, secular, Turkish nationalist based structure and law system of this country has never deterred their citizenship, but firmly and solemnly upheld any Kurdish originated person.
They are lucky every time, because either they apply and deeply accept the so-called features of the state and mention themselves as Turkish citizens they are advantageous on the grounds that their socially dominant position, or they seriously are not favor of the term of Turk they are quiet further from drawbacks again, thanks to the speculated positions have been deliberately or unintentionally created in this land for decades.
Hence, I have to conclude this writing again with the same argument. Not only should the intellectuals of Turkey get to grips with the position of Kurds settling in this country, but also they should raise this question: Are Turks advantageous as much as Kurdish citizens?

To clarify a point that you people have never realized... Kurds were never suppressed. Turkish is the official language of the country, and no police officer ever arrested someone on the street for speaking Kurdish. Kurds were not forced to embrace Turkishness, but only given the opportunity to do it, which many refused, but they did use Turkish passports and the rights of Turkish citizens as their own, which Turkey was happy to give.

Kurds were not attacked, beaten, suppressed, or oppressed. I have had many Kurdish friends in Turkey and their families have never complained about Turkey. The Turkish government never singled out Kurds in any way. Sure at one point they called them Turks, sometimes Mountain Turks, but that's not an offense, it's a compliment that they are accepted as equals NOT as inferior beings.

Sure Kurds up until recent decades did not have the ability to open up a Kurdish TV station or a Kurdish school, but this is simply because the official language of Turkey is TURKISH (Oh I bet you didn't know that one did ya?). It would be difficult to communicate if some spoke Turkish and some spoke Kurdish. It wasn't like as if Kurds were treated like the Navajo in the United States, who were forcibly taught to forget their own language and culture and to embrace English, some were even tortured. Things like this did not happen, and if you say they did, then you better back it up with archival evidence of it.

So to summarize:
1) Kurds were not oppressed nor suppressed.
2) Kurds were never treated as second class citizens.
3) The PKK's purpose is to create their own land, and these are motivated out of pure nationalism, and NOT because they disagree with the way Turkey treats them. Armed rebels that kill innocent Kurds and Turks are terrorists, and they don't need to be generalized and put up as the "face of the Kurds".

"Most of Turkey's Kurds are culturally integrated into Turkish society, too. Some of the fiercest Kurdish publications or Web sites are in the Turkish, not Kurdish, language. It is only a minority among the Kurds who buy into the nationalist agendas of some of their maximalist leaders. In the Southeast, the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) receive as many votes as the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the standard-bearer of Kurdish nationalism. "

Excuse me, Mr Akyol. But you exploit the Kurdish cause only for your own political agenda (You want gather support for the Islamic AKP by playing the Islam card among Kurds) only saying starry words. The government has pursued a harsh and ruthless campaign to erase the Kurdish identity, you implicitly propose a newer way to assimilate the Kurds. In essence, you would like to continue that policy under the banner of Islam.

"That's why an Iraqi Kurdistan cannot be a model for a counterpart in the north. Turkey should remain a unitary state — but one that embraces all its citizens and fully respects their civil rights. That will be the ultimate solution to Turkey's Kurdish question. When its Kurds feel they are really first class citizens, they will not covet their neighbor's Kurdistan."

That is the problem, turkey neither embraces her citizens nor provides welfare and civil rights. The unitarian central core in Ankara does not stand at an equal between her citizens.. Southeast become horribly poor after the foundation of the republic; before that it was an OK place..

Excuse me to say this; but I dont find AKP sincere enough. remember Erdogan denied to open Kurdish language departments at universities and granting the teaching of Kurdish language to the Kurdish kids at school..That says pretty much.

I wonder how the reaction of the Kurdish southeast will be to this insincere politics of the AKP.

Mr patton, the way you're explaining things is amazingly contradictory. In such a way that I could not avoid answering to you.

"Kurds were not forced to embrace Turkishness, but only given the opportunity to do it"

"Sure Kurds up until recent decades did not have the ability to open up a Kurdish TV station or a Kurdish school, but this is simply because the official language of Turkey is TURKISH"

Now, how do we understand these two statements? Are they oppressed or not? I mean, if they had no chance to open a TV station in the language they have as a MOTHER TONGUE they are oppressed, right? Not to mention the possibility of naming your own child with a Kurdish name which was also illegal until a few years ago. Or are we denying the right of every human group to express and develop their language and culture because it is not the "official" language and culture.

Have a look at Amnesty International's report on Leyla Zana and you'll have examples of persecution of people who only claimed in the most peaceful way the respect to their native culture.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/Fall_2003/Defiance_Under_Fire_Leyla_Zana_Prisoner_of_Conscience/page.do?id=1105152&n1=2&n2=19&n3=343

This is about respecting basic rights, Sir, nothing else. Otherwise it's cultural repression and it's actually points of view like yours that originate radical response.

Please open your eyes, there's no more countries with only one culture or language and until we learn to respect this diversity by giving the necessary rights for minority cultures to develop we will not find a peaceful solution to these conflicts.