The forgotten southeast

Turks seem to have forgotten the plight of southeastern Turkey and are concentrating on everything with the exception of this area where our citizens of Kurdish origin live.

The problem is deep and growing. People are in the grip of deep poverty and form a bulk of our masses which comprise of the "have nots" of Turkey.

Yes, the have nots are all over Turkey and the improving economic performance of our country still has not provided them with any relief. But the situation in southeastern Turkey is even worse because the people of the region feel alienated and abandoned by Ankara and thus are prone to the adverse propaganda of the secessionists who tell them "they (the administration in Ankara) do not regard you as one of them."

The people of the Southeast have to feel they are the first class citizens of the country in every sense. It is not enough to tell them that as they can vote and pick their own administrators in local elections they are the masters of their house. Democracy does not survive on empty stomachs.

The have nots have to be given a serious helping hand and until now this has not been done.

Poverty and unemployment has made a mess of southeastern Turkey. There are no factories in the region that can overcome the mass unemployment problem.

All the means of employment in the region is the redundant village guards who were enlisted by the state to fight against terrorists. Terrorism has been defeated in the region and yet the state has to keep the village guards on its payroll because the alternative would be more jobless. The authorities are aware that if the armed village guards are left redundant they may well head for the mountains and become outlaws. The other means of earning a living in the region is the Habur border gate that offers trade and related benefits from the southern port city of Mersin to the southeastern provincial center of Sirnak. People of the region are either truck drivers or own trucks that carry goods to and from Iraq. They also make a living as traders selling goods to Iraq. Without Habur they would be lost.

Besides all this there are no means of living in the region. No factories, no livestock breeding. In the good old days the region was the hub of sheep breeding and people could make a good living out of this. Terrorism stopped this and livestock breeding has never been revived. Terrorism also prevented investments. Now it is up to the government to reverse this negative trend.

We hope the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will start concentrating on this pressing issue and remember that the Southeast is also a part of this country. Or else you never know what idle and desperate people could do.