" Let us build a free society on the basis of equality. Peace and freedom should exist in our country.."

PSK General Secretary Kemal Burkay has written a letter to the Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit. Burkay states the reasons for the problems which have pushed Turkey into depression. He expresses his views and recommendations for solving these problems, the main one being the Kurdish question .
Copies of the letter from 10.06.2002 were sent to Turkey's President of State, the Parliamentary President and the leaders of the parliamentary political parties.

Prime Minster Bülent Ecevit

Dear Prime Minister,

Turkey is currently going through a critical period. On the one hand she is trying to overcome the deep seated economic crisis, and on the other she has important work to do which is necessary for entry to the EU.

Overcoming the economic crisis and acquiring EU membership depend directly on solving Turkey's fundamental problems - or at least taking serious steps towards achieving this. These are essentially questions of peace and democracy.
Turkey has for years had the problem of not being able to keep the peace within and outside its territory and of having to fight at home and abroad. This has wasted the country's resources. Turkey has not attempted to use reason and common sense to solve its home and foreign problems, but instead has resorted to the politics of power and repression.
This has been the case with the Kurdish question. Turkey tries to ignore the Kurds and to put an end to them through pressure, terrorism and assimilation. Their threats and aggression extend even to Kurds beyond their borders. Instead of following UN Resolutions and international law in the Cypriot and Aegean issues, Turkey allows itself to govern through stubbornness, threats and the politics of power.
This is why Turkey cannot bring about the peace. It invests its resources in arms for the war. Permanent states of emergency prevail within its own territory and it is on constant high alert against its neighboring countries. Turkey continually bombs within its own territory.

Alone over the past 15 years, losses in the conflict with the Kurds have amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars, not to mention the incalculable loss of human life.

This is the main reason for the failure of attempts to bring about a recovery, for the low standard of living, and for poverty. This is the main reason for Turkey's economic crisis. This situation is why Turkey is now dependent on foreign powers and international funding institutions.

This situation is also the main reason why Turkey does not manage to democratize. The regime, which denies freedom for the Kurdish people, denies democracy for the Turkish people. Policies of oppression result in violence. Freedom does not have a chance in a society which is constantly confronted with violence.

This situation is also the main hurdle to Turkey's EU ambitions. Those that govern Turkey want to get Turkey into the EU without solving the country's problems and without acknowledging democratic rights and freedom. This is not a very practical attitude.

As long as Turkey sticks to such erroneous policies, the situation will not change. The economic crisis will not be overcome and EU membership will not become a reality.

Dear Prime Minister,
It would not have happened if the politics of power had not been pursued. The Kurdish question could have been solved peacefully, through the recognition of the rights of the Kurdish people. This would have given Turkey peace at home. The Cyprus question could have been solved by following UN resolutions, international law and through arbitration. Turkey could have followed a foreign policy towards its neighbors which had peaceful relations as its basis. Turkey would then have become acquainted with peace and the country's resources would have been invested in production instead of war and arms. Such a Turkey would not have required increasingly repressive structures of oppression. The barriers to human rights and freedom would have been lifted and the country would have become democratic.

Such a country would have had no problems entering the EU before all the others.

Could the Kurdish question not have been solved through the recognition of the rights of the Kurds, dear Prime Minister? Why are you, the government, the former prime ministers and governments, so against recognition of the rights of the Kurdish people? What do the Kurdish people demand which apparently seems so impossible?

You and your predecessors and those currently in your government, have always portrayed the demands of the Kurdish people as separatist and destructive and as treasonable towards the people and the nation.

Have the Kurds occupied your country or have they attempted to occupy it? You also know that one thousand years ago the Turks arrived in Anatolia and that the Kurds were already there. The Kurds have lived here, on the land which is called Kurdistan, for thousands of years.

The Kurds have their own language, one which differs completely from Turkish. Just as the Turks have their own nation, so to do the Kurds with their own language and culture.

The Kurds are not trying to partition the country of others. On the contrary, it is their country which is has been partitioned. The Kurds want to live in freedom on their own land. They would like to freely govern themselves, to determine their own future, to freely use and develop their language and culture and to utilize for themselves their country's resources.

Just as the Turks have the right to do so, so do the Kurds.

Prime Minister, you consider as inadequate a federation for the 150,000 Turks in Cyprus, representing just a fifth of Cyprus's population, and have called for a confederal solution. What then do you demand for the Kurdish nation with 40 million population whose country, the size of France, has been partitioned? Couldn't you demand the same for the 20 million Kurds within the Turkish borders as you do for the Turkish Cypriots?

Dear Prime Minister,
If Turkish is an official language then why not Kurdish? If Turks can be taught in their mother tongue in schools, why can't Kurds? Why is radio and TV in Turkish permitted but not in Kurdish? Why can't Kurds be governed by their own elected parliamentary members and government? Why does Ankara's parliament and government belong only to the Turks? Why do courts only pass judgments in the Name of the Turkish People? Why are political parties not permitted which have the name "Kurdish" or "Kurdistan"?

From where do you get the right to occupy Kurdistan, to rob the Kurdish people of all their rights and to ban their language, names and even their songs.? Who gives you that right? The United Nation's Universal Declaration on Human Rights or God Almighty?

It is not us Kurds who are the separatists and offenders. Quite the reverse, we have been offended against. Our homeland was partitioned and are people were put in chains. Whether this happened a few hundred years ago or 80 years ago doesn't change the fact. Our people's oppression and suffering continues unabated today.

Is it not the typical reasoning of a tyranny to oppress us on the one hand and to portray us as the offenders on the other? You may have managed to explain this insanity away to a section of your people, who you have blinded with your racist and chauvinistic prejudices and have made them enemies of the Kurds, and who have participated in your policies of oppression and exploitation. But how do you intend explaining it away to the world?

Dear Prime Minister,
A new way of thinking is required to solve all these problems. Those who govern Turkey have to let go of the erroneous policies which have been pursued over the centuries, and to accept a completely new way of thinking. This will of course be difficult for those whose soul and reasoning is inseparably linked to such primitive policies. But there is no other way.

Be realistic, pleace. The Kurdish question is not a question of any kind of a minority but a question of a nation of 40 million people. Twenty million of these people is living in the North Kurdistan, the region controlled by Turkey. To date the question has not been solved by oppression, deportation or massacres and will not be solved using such primitive methods.

Many states such as Switzerland, Belgium and Canada have already solved such a question. We could do it as well. It is the federal or confederal solution. We could apply the solution which you have in mind for Cyprus, to the Kurdish question.

The procedure for commencing a phase for resolution is to enter into dialogue. Do not be stubborn - start talks with the Kurdish side as soon as possible.

Stop making it easy for yourselves by accusing the Kurds of being terrorists. If a section of the Kurdish movement has chosen the way of terrorism then this is a product of your boundless policies of oppression and your systematic terrorization of the Kurdish question. If we look at your centuries-old terrorism against the Kurds, then Kurdish terrorism is, in this context, ridiculously insignificant. And do not forget that resistance to oppression is an inalienable right in any of the world's religions as well as in being a United Nation standard.

EU membership candidacy and the Copenhagen Criteria provide a valuable opportunity to peacefully solve the Kurdish question. Even if the rights in the Criteria are limited in view of the extent of the Kurdish question, the guarantee of working within a peaceful framework would still be important in taking specific steps towards a solution.

Dear Prime Minister,
Despite promises to fulfill the Copenhagen Criteria, your government has not made any serious progress over the past two years. In contrast, they do everything to water down and avoid the criteria. Some proposals currently being talked about, which supposedly fulfill the criteria, are simply pathetic.

For example, the daily half hour news programme in local TV which you want to portray as press freedom for native languages.
For native language tuition you do not make schools available, only extracurricular courses.
This is not just pathetic but also insulting.

Dear Prime Minister,
You and all the others who offer such proposals must become aware that we are not beggars. Such proposals are a disgrace and do not contribute anything to solving our problems. Whoever has thought out these proposals and made them public just wants to mislead and hold off the Kurdish people and the international community.

Kurdish, like Turkish, is a modern independent language. It is also an older language than Turkish. It is the language of 40 million people. Hundreds, thousands of works of art and literature have been created with this language. There is no element of truth in the prejudices of the racists and chauvinists.

Rights to language and culture cannot be achieved through solutions which are underhand and only for show. For a solution, priority must be given to the following within the framework of the Copenhagen Criteria:

The racist constitution of September 12th, which hardly differs from that of a police statute, must be replaced with a democratic constitution. Kurdish identity must be acknowledged.
Kurdish must be made an official language with Turkish because it is the language of a third of the country's population.
Just as there are public broadcasters which transmit in Turkish 24 hours a day there should also be broadcasters which transmit in Kurdish all day long. We also pay tax. Just as private radio and TV stations are allowed to broadcast in Turkish so should the Kurdish language have the same right.
The recommendation to provide Kurdish as a courses or as a subject choice in order to meet the demand for education in Kurdish, is pathetic and makes no sense. Education in Kurdish must be made available from primary school through to university. The Kurdish people must be able to have basic education in Kurdish.
In short, there has to be equal rights in the areas of the media and education for both peoples.
Kurdish political parties must be permitted and allowed to freely make public their views and policies, including those concerning solutions to the Kurdish question.

These are the first important steps towards solving the question. A fundamental solution can only be possible on the basis of equality and - in our opinion - through a federal structure.

We are convinced that both peoples could live in peace on the basis of equality and within a federal structure. There is no reason why it should not be possible. Whoever wants to coexist must internalize notions of equality.

Isn't the European Union such a federation - or at least a confederation? Why shouldn't those who are considering joining a confederation of many nations not consider the same kind of relation with their thousand year old neighbors? If there are obstacles to this, then it is the racist, chauvinist and colonialist prejudices of the country's government as well as their hostility towards the Kurds.

Dear Prime Minister,
I call on you to end the policies of oppression! Do not deny us the rights and freedom which you see as valid for yourselves. Recognize the rights of the Kurdish people!

Let us honestly negotiate the aims and standards which Mustafa Kemal expressed in the war of liberation with the National Pact: the country to be defended is the country where Turks and Kurds are in the majority.

We defended this country together but do not enjoy freedom together. We were there in the war but afterwards we have been denied. We Kurds are the ones who have been wronged and who have been cheated.

Let us realize what Ismet Pasha said at the Conference of Lausanne: just as this country belongs to the Turks, so does it also belong to the Kurds. Kurds and Turks are the foundations of this country and minority rights for them will not suffice.

Let us build a free society on the basis of equality. Peace and freedom should exist in our country.

Let us find the remedy against this centuries-old festering wound and to clear away the obstacles before the Kurdish and Turkish people..

The Kurdish people will not accept any other solution than this one. You can keep to your politics of power but it will not bring any results and valuable time will again be wasted. Such policies are also not in the interests of the Turkish people.

Dear Prime Minister,
I ask you and all the others responsible for the current poor situation, to become modern, sensible and just.

If we Kurds and Turks are brothers and sisters, then we should live together as equals and not like masters and slaves.!

Friends and enemies should know that we Kurds will never accept a status of slavery or inequality, and that we will, sooner or later, acquire the rights and freedom due to us. It is possible to achieve this quickly and with benefits to both peoples. Any attempt to prevent this will just mean a further delay in reaching this end and further suffering for both peoples.

You can not carry such responsibility for much longer. Whoever overestimates himself and perhaps finds a few wretched Claqueure who have no idea of what the future might bring, will certainly not make a name for himself in the books of history. The next generation will not forgive those who blocked the way for both peoples through erroneous policies, and who ruined their futures.

With Best Regards and Wishing You Better Health,

Kemal Burkay
General Secretary
Socialist Party if Kurdistan