The Issue of Turkey’s Minorities

The problem concerns the term ‘minority.’ Meanwhile, a report was issued by the Prime Ministry’s Human Rights Consultancy Council (BIHDK) which deepens the concept of minority. Of course I agree with the elements of the report which defend personal freedoms. In addition, the criticisms that sometimes the word ‘Turk’ is used racially are correct. The BIHDK report defends the integrity of the state with the country but it opposes its integrity with its nation. It writes that the integrity of the nation is against the principle of modern cultural diversity. This is absolutely wrong! The concept of the integrity of the nation and cultural diversity are completely separate from each other. For example, Spain accepted local autonomies constitutionally, and the provision of ‘one and indivisible Spanish nation’ is included in Article No. 2 of its Constitution.

The principle of the integrity of the nation is about public law. Different ethnic and religious representations cannot exist, there is only one national representation. Different public arrangements can’t be made in line with ethnic and religious identities. There’s one official language, the citizens’ common language of communications. The education system is established in compliance with it and cultural pluralism isn’t the essence of education, but a detail. In addition, people are free to express different ethnic and religious identities and cultural diversity and institutionalize them in foundations and associations. Just as in unitary France, the state can assist local cultural institutions. The issue of minorities has been a destructive security problem in the form of ‘intervention of a foreign country,’ and this problem could have been solved in the Treaty of Lausanne. Of course times and conditions have changed. However, the definition of ‘minority’ in our culture is based on this historical experience. During our War of Independence, Turks, Kurds, Alawites and Sunnis all fought as one, and our flag was the same and the language of the state was Turkish, and nobody objected. Our official language has been Turkish since the 1876 Constitution. The term ‘language of the state’ means the official language, and not even the EU has objected to this term. The War of Independence is a perfect basis. Now it’s not the time to create minorities, but to expand liberal freedoms for all our citizens within a unitary state.”