Kurds In Turkey

MILLIYET- Columnist Taha Akyol writes on the integration of Kurds into Turkish society. A summary of his column is as follows:
The owner of a restaurant in Turkey recognized me as a journalist and after I questioned him said that he was a Kurd and everyone accepted him as he was. He added that his restaurant was full, business was booming and he did not feel he was treated any different than any other citizens. However, when he heard to politicians scorning Kurdish or considering it as a means for separation, he was furious. He also said that he was opposed to separatism, as it would lead to a disaster for everyone involved. He knew Kurdish well but spoke Turkish from dawn to dusk willingly. He was continuing talks with a big firm which had a chain of markets and he intended to establish a chain of restaurants in certain large cities starting with Istanbul and in Turkic-speaking republics. As demonstrated in Prof. Umit Ozdag’s study ‘Cultural Structure and the Cultural Identity Problem’, during the internal immigration process first radicalism increases in slum areas but it later gives way to integration. As social relations with the environment grow, Turkish is increasingly used. For those who are pleased with their jobs, integration is an easy process. One Kurdish intellectual, the late Orhan Kotan, had said that 60% of the Kurds lived to the west of the Euphrates and would not return. He also stated that there was no longer a ‘Kurdistan’ region in Turkey. In the magazine ‘Realite,’ published both in Turkish and Kurdish, and in symposiums in Europe, it was pointed out that the structure of the population had passed through a radical change. ‘The integration into society has reached such dimensions that for Kurds living in Turkey, the idea of a separate country is not realistic any more... This problem cannot be solved by drawing up new frontiers, dividing thousands of people and creating geographic prisons.’ In Turkey ethnic differences are getting more distinct and speedy social integration is being experienced. In addition to the historic intermingling, 4 million people have immigrated from eastern or southeastern provinces to western provinces and entered a short- or long-term integration process. The entrepreneurial middle class forming the basis of unity in countries where ethnic and economic differences are seen is growing. The restaurant owner in Ankara, and the partners of Koc and Sabanci in Van, are examples of this class. The economic dynamism will expedite this mingling between cultures. That is why I support Turkey’s EU membership bid. No one should undermine the summit using the prime minister’s illness as an excuse.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION