CHP Raises 'Turkish Question' In Dealing With Kurds
The Republican People’s Party has characterized a political solution to the Kurdish question as compromising Turkey’s secular national identity, writes Kadri Gursel.
It has become evident once again that Turkey’s efforts to find a solution to its Kurdish issue through negotiations or to its consequence, “the terror question,’’ will be confronted by serious psychological and political resistance stemming from republican Turkish identity.
Last Thursday, Jan. 25, the Turkish parliament debated draft legislation enabling defendants who don’t speak adequate Turkish to make their court defenses in their mother tongues. A legal defense in Kurdish is one of the rights demanded by the Kurdish political movement, and was among the demands of Kurdish prisoners to end their indefinite hunger strike, wich ultimately lasted 67 days. At the end, the draft bill that would could mitigate the sentiments of Kurdish victimhood was enacted by the parliament, but the debate in the parliament brought to the fore another issue: the Turkish question.
Member of parliament from the main opposition party Mrs. Birgul Ayman Guler’s remarks from the rostrum became a major controversy.
Guler, a member of the Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP), said, “You cannot fool me with Kurdish nationalism by labeling it progressivism and independence. You cannot equate Turkish nation with Kurdish nationality. There is no Kurdish issue in Turkey. You created a Turkish issue in Turkey. From now on, we are on the defensive; from now on, we will be struggling for the right of legitimate defense.”
