Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals meet over Kurdish issue
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals alike called for the PKK to lay down their arms at a gathering this weekend. Tight security surrounded the gathering of Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals who came together to discuss a peaceful resolution to the 22-year old Kurdish conflict in the southeast of the country. Speakers voiced the crisis on both sides of the debate: "There is a crisis of confidence between the two sides," Kurdish rights campaigner Sertac Bucak said. "There is a Kurdish phobia in Turkey."
More than 45 Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals, politicians and journalists of various political convictions were taking part in the conference, entitled "The Kurdish question in Turkey: ways for a democratic settlement".
The event was designed to promote ways in which Turkey can end the conflict to aid smoother membership into the European Union. Attendees were searched by police as they entered Bilgi University, and riot police were on guard outside the venue. The strict security measures were imposed by police after nationalists threatened to disrupt the two-day event.
Organizers said the conference could adopt a final declaration on Sunday, appealing to the government for more reforms to resolve the conflict, which has claimed some 37,000 lives since the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) began fighting for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984.
Significant progress in the area of human rights for Kurds was acknowledged by speakers at the conference, driven by Turkey's EU membership aspirations, but said more reforms were needed to fully guarantee the minority's cultural and political freedoms.
Ankara has in recent years lifted emergency rule in the southeast and allowed the Kurdish language to be taught at private courses and used in television and radio broadcasts. It is also compensating villagers who have been displaced and suffered material losses during the conflict.
"There are also things the Kurds must do," Bucak said. "The PKK should unconditionally renounce violence because violence breeds violence and plays into the hands of those who favour the status quo," adding that, "He argued that the ultimate solution lay in a federal settlement that would grant the Kurds autonomy."