Tuesday, July 24, 2007 | MUSTAFA AKYOL | DİYARBAKIR
This town has always been the most prominent city in Turkey's southeast. In Ottoman times, in fact the whole region was called the “Diyarbekir province.” Today, with its 1.2 million inhabitants, it is not only the most populous of the southeastern towns, but also the most developed one.
This explains why the city has also become the center of the Kurdish nationalist movement in Turkey. Since Kurdish nationalism is a modern, not traditional, ideology, it appeals to the urban dwellers of Diyarbakır more then the tribal villagers of, say, Mardin.
That is why the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been leading a separatist war against Turkish security forces since 1984, has a strong foothold in Diyarbakır. The PKK is illegal, of course, but political parties that echo its rhetoric are on the scene since the early ‘90s. It has become a custom for the authorities in Ankara to shut down these “separatist parties,” and for them to reorganize under a new name and leadership. The latest party in this line is the Democratic Society Party, which is known as DTP with its Turkish initials.
The DTP is co-chaired by Aysel Tuğlu and Ahmet Türk, both of whom use a milder tone then their predecessors, such as the former Kurdish MP's like Leyla Zana who were imprisoned in the early ‘90s for the pro-PKK gestures they made in the Turkish Parliament. Before the elections Mrs. Tuğlu wrote an opinion piece for daily Radikal, whose title read, “We will say ‘no' to separatism,” and in which she promised to follow a policy that will be constructive, devoid of “ethnic and religious nationalism,” and dedicated to the strengthening of Turkish democracy. But a few days after that, Leyla Zana, another celebrity, made a speech in which she called for “establishing a Kurdistan federation within Turkey.” That was perceived as a “separatist” and much more radical message.
So is there a division in the Kurdish camp? Do Mrs. Tuğluk and Ms. Zana, both of whom are seen as Kurdish Jean dArc's by their followers, represent different lines? An experienced politician in Diyarbakır answers with a strong “yes,” and argues that these two women represent the two different generations of Kurdish politics. “Zana showed up in 1991, lived in jail for many years, and she thinks that she and her cadre suffered a lot for the cause.” If the new and more moderate tone of Mrs. Tuğluk gets accepted, according to this expert, the old generation will feel sidelined. Zana wants to say, as he argues, “we are in this game, too, and we have a word to say on the future of the Kurdish movement and its goals.”
Yet those who have a strong influence on the future of Turkey's Kurds are not limited to the DTP circles. Indeed these Kurdish nationalists are being overshadowed by a party that is gaining even more votes among the Kurdish populace. That is, of course, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which achieved an astounding victory in these elections in every single region of Turkey including the southeast. “The DTP is still using the leftist rhetoric that doesn't appeal to many of the Kurds,” says a local businessman, “and their mayors have not been very successful.” On the other hand, the AKP represents common Muslim values and economic development. That's why for the first time in Diyarbakır, a party led by Turks – such as Tayyip Erdoğan and Abdullah Gül – has rivaled the party of the Kurdish nationalists.
A shopkeeper in Diyarbakır's busiest street, called “Ofis,” dismisses parties such as the secularist CHP and the Turkish nationalists MHP as “chauvinists” who show little respect to Kurdish identity. Yet he thinks the AKP understands the Kurds and embraces them. No wonder that the CHP and MHP's votes, when combined, do not exceed 5 percent in Diyarbakır – although their combined nationwide vote is around 35 percent. But the AKP won more than 41 percent, a success, which shows that Mr. Erdoğan's party is indeed key to the future of Turkey's Kurdish question.