When modernity is not reflected in life

And the other is "A Roadmap for the Solution of the Kurdish Question: Policy Suggestions to the Government from the Region" by The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, or TESEV.

I had a chance to attend the meetings for the public release of the documents.

As I listened to Professor Binnaz Toprak for the former and Dilek Kuban for the latter, I automatically thought: "But I have known most of them already."

It is impossible to miss the points made in both reports if you leave Istanbul and other big cities, look at life through the eyes of a journalist and lend an ear to what people are saying.

For instance, Professor Toprak says, "In the key Anatolian cities like Konya and Kayseri, you see big, neatly trimmed boulevards and five-star hotels. But the ’modernity’ in view is not reflected in life. This is surprising."

I think this is the heart of the matter.

Stories repeated
Buildings are being modernized but social pressure is still there. To the opposite, it is escalating inversely proportional as it is the case in the drink ban or women getting more household-oriented (women employment at the lowest with 24 percent).

"We did not expect to see this. We were shocked in Erzurum first. We thought it may be different in other places but it was the same everywhere," says Toprak explaining the pressure especially on different social groups such as Alevis. Toprak and journalists Nedim Şener, İrfan Bozan and Tan Morgül, who provided their support to the project, talked to people in pharmacies, hospitals, restaurants, cafes and stores in the cities where the study was conducted. That is, they talked with people in a very broad spectrum.

Stories about pressure on Alevis, Roma people, male students wearing earrings, restaurants serving alcoholic drinks or about not offering seats in public commuter system to women not wearing headscarf were repeated all along during this study.

These "stories repeated" are the most solid evidence of how spread the social pressure is.

As I listened to Kuban of TESEV I felt the "dŽj?-vu" again; for instance, the trouble that people speaking only Kurdish face.

During my visits to the Southeastern Anatolian city of Diyarbakır especially and other provinces and counties in the region, I met plenty of young women only able to communicate with me through their children.

"A considerable section of the population can only speak Kurdish and they cannot communicate with civil servants. These people are facing difficulty especially in justice, health and education-related issues," says Kuban.

The suggestion introduced by TESEV should be taken into consideration: "Appointment of civil servants and personnel fluent in Kurdish in the region."

But of course, one of the basic conditions is for the appointee to be unprejudiced, willing and well informed. Going to the region as though one is going to exile will not help anyone. Another point introduced by Kuban is the "tutelage of governorships over municipalities" which we, as journalists, have witnessed many times. Even in a meeting over the economy, everyone can feel the "tension" between governors in the region and local administrators.

Another notable point in TESEV’s report is that the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government believes the Southeastern Anatolian Project, or GAP, Action Plan, which will make a great contribution to the economic development of the region. The action plan, not including the word "Kurd," is not persuasive anymore, according to Kuban.

"There is even resistance against the GAP Action Plan including unrealistic targets such as creating jobs for 4 million people," she says.

This is a warning that the AKP government should keep in mind.

As a result, both reports by Professor Toprak and TESEV have many points that we should pay a great deal of attention to.