Turkey's Erdogan pledges more democratic rights for Kurds

05/04/2006

After a week of riots between pro-Kurdish protesters and government forces, Turkey's prime minister has pledged more freedoms and rights, while stressing that the government will not give in to violence.

(AFP, Turkish Daily News - 05/04/06; AP, Reuters, AFP, BBC, VOA - 04/04/06)

"No one should dare to test the power of the state or the nation," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. [AFP]

The government will not give in to violence, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday (4 April), after a week of deadly clashes between pro-Kurdish protesters and security forces that have left 16 people, including children, dead.

"No one should dare to test the power of the state or the nation," the Turkish leader said, addressing deputies of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in a speech at parliament.

Turkey accuses the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of orchestrating the violence, which erupted in the predominantly Kurdish southeast on 28 March and spread to Istanbul over the week. The demonstrations, joined by thousands of Kurds, followed the funerals of 14 PKK militants killed in clashes with the army, rekindling fears of a renewal of the ethnic violence of the 1990s.

A 15-year PKK-led armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey's southeast left more than 30,000 people dead. The end of the conflict in 1999, when the group declared a unilateral ceasefire, was followed by a five-year period of relative calm. However, the group called off the truce in 2004.

The PKK, also known by its new name Kongra-Gel, is viewed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the United States.

"We reiterate our strong condemnation of all terrorist groups, including the PKK," Deputy US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said on Monday, also expressing Washington's regret for the loss of life in protests by PKK supporters. At the same time, the United States has been urging all sides to exercise restraint.

On Tuesday, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn called on Turkish authorities to "refrain from excessive use of force".

In his speech to AKP deputies Tuesday, Erdogan said his government would not bow to terrorists and promised the Kurdish minority more democracy, investment and reforms.

"While they try to capitalise on hatred and enmity, we will build more roads, more hospitals, more schools and more workplaces," Erdogan said. "We will not back down from justice and democracy. We will bring more freedoms, more democracy, more welfare, more rights and justice."

No country can tolerate violence as a political tool, he added.

"Those traitors have emerged again because they know the ground is beginning to slip beneath their feet and they have been buried by history," Erdogan said, referring to the PKK. "These are their final convulsions."

Turkish security forces found 10kg of plastic explosives in a cemetery in Istanbul's Esenyurt district, the AFP reported on Wednesday, quoting a statement by the office of Istanbul's governor. The explosives are said to have been used in the past mainly by the PKK and a splinter group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons.

Dismissing criticism from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), Erdogan urged it to declare the PKK a terrorist organisation, saying he would not meet with the party's leaders until that happens.

"These terrorists are frightened of peace," he said. "They feed off hate. I am calling on all to take a stand against terrorism. There is a strong government in place. Those who perceive the state's compassion as weakness are mistaken."

The DTP, however, blames Turkish security forces for contributing to the escalating violence. In a statement Tuesday, the party also called for the removal of a 10 per cent vote threshold that political parties must pass to gain representation in parliament.

Removing the threshold, it said, would ensure a "fair representation of Kurds" in the national legislature.