Kurds becoming a major problem in Turkish political life

Ahmed Sameh Abdel Fattah

The Kurds have become a real problem in Turkish political life. There are 15 million Kurds in Turkey whose overall population is 80 million. This is the largest Kurdish minority living in any country in the world.

Around 6 million Kurds live in Iran, 5 million in Iraq and 2 million in Syria. This makes them the largest population without a state in the world.

Beginning

The problem of the Kurds in Turkey started in 1923 when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the state along nationalist lines. This led ended the privileges given the Kurds under the Ottoman state which gave the Kurds what amounted to autonomous rule.

The founding of the state opened the door for the marginalization of the Kurds for the sake of Turkish nationalism. They were deprived of all advantages, including that of promotion to senior positions in the government.

The Arab Spring of 2011 brought the Kurdish crisis back to the surface, especially after Ankara declared support to the revolutions that swept through the Arab region. Turkey also tried to reach a peaceful settlement to its disputes with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, widely known as PKK, with the aim of convincing the party to suspend its attacks on Turkish army troops.

The Turkish regime also believed that opening channels of dialogue with the Kurds would reduce anger among the Kurdish population, especially after calls for protests against the government emerged among the Kurds.

The Kurdish government succeeded in reaching a deal with the Kurds for suspending animosities with them, especially in eastern Turkey.

The Kurds were allowed to preserve their own cultural heritage and teach their own language in the schools. They were also integrated in Turkish political life. The People’s Democratic Party was also offered facilities to have presence in Turkish political life.

Nevertheless, these developments angered Turkish nationalists who are represented by the Nationalist Movement Party. The party believes that the Kurds pose existential threats to the Turkish state. It also believed that the privileges given the Kurds would be used in harming the interests of the Turkish state and Turkish citizens.

In 2015, peace between the Turkish state and the Kurds collapsed, especially after the ruling Justice and Development Party failed in winning the majority of seats in the Turkish parliament. This made it necessary for the party for form a coalition government.

It was normal then for the Kurds to accept to be part of a coalition government with the ruling party, a move that would give them ministerial portfolios for the first time. Surprisingly enough, the Kurds refused to be part of the government.

The Justice and Development Party then made overtures to the Nationalist Movement Party. However, the party was angry at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan because of his lenient approach to the Kurdish issue.

A new election was held in the last quarter of 2015, one in which the Justice and Development Party won the majority of seats. The party then started taking revenge on the Kurds. In 2016, the Turkish army staged raids on Kurdish concentrations within the “Operation Euphrates Shield”.

The Kurds played a very important role in deciding the results of the latest mayoral elections in Istanbul which was won by Ekrem İmamoglu.

According to international affairs specialist Ahmed Mohamed Ali, the Kurds are the main problem in Kurdish political life at present.

“The rapprochement between the ruling party and the Kurds causes the Turkish nationalists to be angry,” Ali told The Reference. “This gives the ruling party a problem that is not easy to solve.”