Kurds are our Kurds

The local elections have shown many things ranging from a national demand for continued efforts for change and reformation to the revival of nationalist trends in some sections of our society. However, the most stunning result we feel was in southeastern Turkey where the former Kurdish mayors and their ethnic orientated parties lost ground to the mainstream ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

In the past local politics was dominated by the sympathizers of the PKK simply because the people of the region felt those who have a say in running Ankara treated them as outcasts. They felt alienated and oppressed and blamed Ankara for their plight. So they favored the pro-Kurdish orientated parties like HADEP and DEHAP. The more the authorities clamped down on these two Kurdish parties the more the people sympathized with them as the underdogs.

So when the local elections were held five years ago the Kurdish mayors won a landslide in most eastern and southeastern provinces despite certain official pressures. The city assemblies fell into the hands of Kurdish politicians who dominated the local administrations for all these years.

Now all that has changed. The Kurdish mayors still won in five major cities including Diyarbakir but lost in many others like Siirt and Mus. The pro-Kurdish votes did not go to Kurdish politicians but were won by AK party candidates. This is a healthy change in the domestic politics of southeastern Turkey where we see secessionist trends being blunted. Why is this so?

The golden explanation is DEMOCRACY.

As Turkey moves to introduce major reforms including improvements in the human rights situation in eastern and southeastern Turkey and our Kurdish brothers and sisters start feeling themselves as the co-partners of the Turkish republic it is natural that people will give up secessionist ideas and feel a part of this wonderful country.

They see the plight of their brothers and sisters in Syria and Iran and the struggle the Kurds have to give in Iraq for recognition of their rights and they experience the democratic and peaceful environment in Turkey thus concluding that this is the place to be. However, this should be just the beginning.

The positive signals coming from southeastern Turkey should only encourage the government to lay more emphasis on the development and prosperity of the region and seek urgent solutions to the growing social and economic problems of the area.

Our brothers and sisters in southeastern Turkey have offered a wonderful olive branch and it is up to all of us to reciprocate. But this cannot be done through the rough and tough tactics that we observed recently in Diyarbakir when security forces used excessive force against locals and journalists. The newly elected mayor of Diyarbakir Osman Baydemir is a first class intellectual and who can build very healthy bridges between the region and Ankara.

The Kurds have proven they are well on the way to being our Kurds. Now we have to show them that we are their Turks.