Yet another busy week on the
international scene: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM) killed 28 people and a further 56 were injured in Burkina Faso
after Islamist militants attacked a hotel in the capital of Ouagadougou,
frequented by foreigners. Then there was pleasing news that Jason Rezaian, an
American Journalist employed by the Washington Post, and four other Americans
were released by Iranian authorities in a prisoner swap. Rezian was arrested in
July 2014 on alleged charges of espionage. On the 14th of January a major
shopping and business district in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, close to
foreign embassies and the United Nations offices, was bombed by terrorists; two
civilians and five of the attackers were killed. The week ended with a good
item of news on Saturday with the US and the EU announcing the lifting of
economic sanctions against Iran.
This week’s blog focuses on
the current situation in Turkey where its President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has
ordered the detention of twelve academics over allegations of involvement in
“terror propaganda”. These academics, together with 1,400 others, signed a
petition calling for the end of a massacre and deportation of Kurdish people.
Two academics of international notoriety, American Noam Chomsky and the
Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, had been severely criticised by the Turkish
President. He accused them of not paying attention to the true picture in
Turkey and labelling them as ignorant
terrorist sympathisers. The war of words ratcheted up this week when the UK
Guardian quoted that Chomsky accused Erdoğan of operating double standards on
terrorism.
The arrests prompted a
flurry of reactions from Rights organisations who accused the Turkish President
of violating academic freedom by rounding up innocent university teachers. They were concerned about the welfare of
these academics that did not deserve to be incarcerated on the basis of
assisting the Kurds to assert their human rights. Among them is Amnesty international
asserting that the current military campaign against the Kurds, conducted by
the Turkish government, involves a breaching international law. These Rights
organisations also accuses Turkey of targeting staff from 90 Turkish
universities (calling themselves “Academicians for Peace”) who signed the
petition last week calling for an end to the acts of state oppression against
the Kurds.
Further pressure was brought to bear on the
Turkish President on Wednesday when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
opportunistically announced that he is set to hold talks with the co-chairman
of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas on
the matter. There were further developments on Friday, reported by local media,
when Turkey’s main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) also chided
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for ordering arrests of dissident
academics. With such pressure mounting
we expect the UN to at least make a statement shortly on the matter.
The Kurdish people’s quest
for an independent state and self-rule can be traced back to the collapse of
the Ottoman Empire. During that period the Allies contrived to split Kurdistan
(as detailed in the ultimately unratified Treaty of Sèvres) among several
countries, including Kurdistan, Armenia and others. However, the recapture of
these areas by the forces of Kemal Atatürk (and other pressing issues) caused
the Allies to accept the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne and the borders of the
modern Republic of Turkey, leaving the Kurds without a self-ruled region.
Turkey's human rights record
against the Kurds has unremittingly attracted scrutiny, both internally and
from external Rights organisations. Furthermore, its close association with the
US, NATO and the European Union has been criticised by international
commentators. It is open secret that Turkey has exploited its strategic
relationship with the west by flouting human rights openly against the Kurds.
This history of abuse against the Kurds has been well catalogued by the
European Courts of Human Rights (ECtHR). We know for example that the ECtHR in 2005 awarded
Kurdish deputy Leyla Zana 9000 € from the Turkish government for a landmark
Human Rights breach. The court ruled that Turkey had violated her rights of
free expression. Zana, who had been recognized as prisoner of conscience by
Amnesty International and had been awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European
Parliament, was jailed in 1994, allegedly for being a member of the outlawed
Kurdish based PKK. The court found that she was treated high-handedly by the
Turkish court for having spoken Kurdish in public during her parliamentary
oath.
In their quest for an
independent state the Kurdish people have endured a long history of oppression;
in the last century they have fought the Ottomans, the British, and the
Baathists. Apart
from the Jewish Holocaust and the enslavement of Africans in the Caribbean and
North America, I would suggest that no other group of people in the world has
endured pain and suffering like the Kurds.
They are sandwiched between four countries in a large Geographic area
spawning eastern and south eastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), Northern Syria
(Western Kurdistan), Northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan) and North Western Iran
(Eastern Kurdistan). According to CIA Fact book, Kurds formed approximately 18%
of the population in Turkey (14 million) in 2008. One Western source estimates
that up to 25% of the Turkish population is Kurdish (approximately 18-19 million).
Kurds constitute approximately 17% of Iraq's population and 7-10 %of Iran's
overall population (6.5–7.9 million).
The Kurds are not without
natural resources in the region that they occupy and as a result attracted the
attention of resource grabbing developed countries and multinational
Corporations. Prominent companies active in Kurdistan include Exxon, Total,
Chevron, Talisman Energy, Genel Energy, Hunt Oil, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, and
Marathon Oil. As you may well imagine, these large multinational corporations
are not in the business of liberating people - their main aim is to extract
profits and forming strategic business alliances.
Turkey is a founding member
of the United Nations (1945) the model of government is a parliamentary
representative democracy. Since its foundation as a republic in 1923, the
country has developed a strong tradition of secularism. Human rights in Turkey
have been the subject of some controversy and international condemnation.
Between 1998 and 2008 the European Court of Human Rights made more than 1,600
judgements against Turkey for human rights violations, particularly regarding
the right to life, and freedom from torture. Other issues, such as Kurdish
rights, women's rights, and press freedom, have also attracted disagreement
from the international community and rights based organisations.
Turkey's human rights record continues to be a
significant obstacle to future membership of the EU, yet the country is one of the most important
allies to the US and the European Union based on its geo-political interest and
the war on terrorism. In recent time there has been a falling out of relations
between Turkey and the Russia. On Monday 25th November 2015 Turkey
shot down a Russian fighter jet on the Syrian border, alleging that Russia had
violated its airspace. Since then there has been a showering of relations with
Turkey and as a result the Russian Government, through its associated news
network has accused Turkey of secretly buying gas from ISIL and leaving its
borders to Syria pours for ISIL to recruit foreign fighters and conduct
Terrorist Training camp in Turkey.
This week the English Based version of Russian Television
(RT) reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
is planning a meeting with the co-leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples'
Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas , according to sources
in the Foreign Ministry. We at Kingston Mouth view this as a sinister move,
mainly because of the souring relations recently with Russia and Turkey.
Russia’s attempt to woo the Kurds is indeed opportunistic as they are on
opposite sides of the proxy war in Syria. Meanwhile, it is not expected that
President Obama or the European Union to castigate the Turkish President over
Human Rights breaches, as Turkey is a major air base from which the US and its
allies launch attack on ISIL in Syria and Iraq. Many Rights group in Europe
have chided the EU for agreeing to fund the Turkish Government to the tune of 2
billion EU dollars to manage and house the flood of refugees fleeing war in the
region. The Kurdish issue aside, it is fair to suggest that President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan's rule in Turkey is rapidly becoming an embarrassment to the
West and NATO, and Turkey’s international credibility and record on human rights is diminishing. It
seem as if the Turkish President is hell bent on becoming the “two faced Janus”
of the Middle East.
Nevertheless, he is an untouchable based on the Geo Strategic location in that
region and his powerful allies on the UN Security Council have to treat his
friendship cautiously.
Surely, the
present approach to the Kurds and the Academic Sympathisers has gone the wrong
way and it is now time for the UN to send a special envoy to that country to
resolve the very complex issues involved in that dispute. A failure to act
quickly can only lead to the “Putinisation” of Turkey and Balkanisation of the
already troubled Kurdish Region. The Kurds in Iraq have a Regional Government
that seems to be working although it’s not perfect. Turkeys hostility towards
is Kurdish population can be less belligerent if some arrangement can be
brokered. In the interim, Kingston-Mouth condemns the action of President
Erdoğan. We urge release of the twelve academics and other journalists held in
Turkey and a toning down of the bellicose rhetoric by all parties involved.
Now that the Iran deal is more settled it would be advisable for the Secretary
General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, to focus his attention on events in Turkey.
This article was written by Donovan Reynolds CEO and
edited by Ann Smith Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com. Donovan Reynolds is an Independent Blogger
and Human Rights Activists who is of a Jamaican descent and a legal academic
that has an interest in Human Rights, Culture and International Development
Issues.
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