The Place of the ‘Kurdish Question’ in the Program of Activities of the Justice and Development Party (Ak Parti) in Turkey (2001-2010)

Abstract

The article analyzes the role that the AKP, established in 2001, which became a moderately conservative party oriented towards Western values, played for the process of liberalization of the formation of the central government in Turkey to meet the needs of a complex of socio-economic, socio-political and cultural and educational requests of the Kurdish population , in particular such as the market economy, as well as integration into the EU.

The author also noted that the ‘Kurdish question’, which was given attention in the section under the ambiguous name ‘South-East’, the AKP emphasized that, just like other former main parties, it perceives the Kurdish question through the prism of terror. Nevertheless, the AKP also recognized that the Kurdish question could not be solved by the politics of the past, and that economic development alone did not create enough guarantees to solve the Kurdish problem.

It should be noted that peace with the Kurds was beneficial to Ankara in various aspects, especially in economic terms, since security in regions with a Kurdish population in south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq allowed the implementation of energy projects with the transit of Iraqi gas through Turkish territory. But as long as there are PKK militants in south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq, the pipeline is in danger. The resolution of the Kurdish question would also have a positive effect on Turkey’s budget. According to the statements of AKP representatives, over 25 years, 300 billion US dollars were spent on the fight against the PKK. The details of the reform, which was supposed to contribute to the ‘Kurdish opening’, became known in mid-November 2009 at parliamentary hearings. Beshir Atalay assured that all innovations will primarily affect the humanitarian sphere.

The efforts of the AKP led by its recognized leader, which not only declared new approaches to the solution of the painful Kursk problem, but also started a rather energetic implementation of a number of important steps on this difficult path.

Thus, in particular, the AKP Activity Program provided for the lifting of restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language in the mass media, the granting of permission to use the Kurdish language during political actions and in prisons, the introduction of electives on the study of the Kurdish language in schools and universities, the return of Kurdish names to renamed villages, and the establishment of street plates on which street names are indicated in two languages. At the beginning of 2009, the Public Broadcasting Agency approved the operation of a 24-hour channel in the Kurdish language. An amnesty for members of the PKK and the repatriation of refugees were also foreseen.

All these are quite solid grounds for an optimistic forecast regarding the possibility in the near future, if not completely, then at least to basically eliminate socio-economic tensions in this region, to provide the Kurdish ethnic community with proper, in accordance with the modern standards of the European democratic community, living conditions in all spheres of socio-political, socio-economic and cultural-educational life.