The Divisive Decision, Ensuing Violence

Last Friday (11 December) the Turkish Constitutional Court decided to dissolve the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the largest pro-Kurdish party, with 21 members in the 550-seat Turkish Parliament. Ahmet Turk, the DTP's chairman and legislator, along with 36 other party members, is barred from politics for the next five years. The court's top judge, Hasim Kilic, stated that the motivation behind the decision was the DTP's actions against the unity of the nation by maintaining links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a rebel party that has been locked in a deadly fight with the central government for the past 25 years over Kurdish autonomy in the country's south-eastern regions—a war that so far has claimed over 30, 000 lives, mostly Kurds. The PKK is branded as a terrorist organisation in Turkey as well as the European Union (EU) and the United States. The DTP, founded in 2005, is the 10th pro-Kurdish party to be banned in Turkey for collaborating with the PKK. Immediately after the court's decision, all 21 DTP legislators declared a boycott of the parliament, with the possible formal resignation of the remaining 19 DTP legislators also happening early this week, which will lead to a new parliamentary election.

Violent protests by angered Kurdish demonstrators erupted in all parts of the country immediately after the court determination was announced. Istanbul, Izmir, Diyarbakir, the south-eastern and southern towns of Van, Yuksekova, Hakkari, and the capital Ankara have been shaken by violent protests. Molotov cocktails, guns, and knives were used during the clashes between the Kurdish demonstrators and the Turkish nationalists—backed by the Turkish paramilitaries and police—leaving huge numbers injured. The protests, which have even reached neighbouring Lebanon's capital Beirut, are not showing any sign of easing.

The country's pro-reform president, Abdullah Gul, has justified the Constitutional Court's decision by stating that the court has no other choice but to ban the terrorist-related DTP. Conversely, the Swedish presidency of the EU has criticised the verdict only hours after its promulgation, calling it a motion that violates Kurdish rights, and pledging to closely monitor the events. The chairwoman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, Helene Flautre, and European Parliament Turkey Rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten on Saturday (12 December) called the ban sabotage and an obstacle to the government's initiative to bring more rights to Turkey's Kurdish population.

Bad News for Kurds and Turkish Prime Minister

The Constitutional Court's determination has effectively ended Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's drive to bring peace to the country's rebellious south-eastern Kurdish regions. Only two months ago, Erdogan announced a new policy of "opening democracy", a drive that would have given more freedom to Kurds to have their own media outlets and school. This was a bold move in a country where the constitution declares that all its citizens are Turks and where for decades successive governments even refused to use the word "Kurd", instead calling its 12 million Kurdish population "mountainous Turks". As Turkey has launched accession talks with the EU, Kurdish minority rights have also been flagged as a major stumbling block for the largely Muslim country, if it wishes to accelerate its entry into the 27-member bloc. The Constitutional Court's decision has halted Erdogan's efforts to move forward with his new ethnic policies and democratic reforms, at least for now.

The sponsors behind the decision are Turkey's conservative secularists, backed by the Turkish militaries—self-declared guardians of the secularist regime as proclaimed by the country's founder, Kemal Ataturk. They are known to have resorted to violent coups in the past if they deem any political force dangerous for the secular Kemalist traditions of the country. Political repression, and especially the closure of parties, is one of their methods of choice in settling political disagreements. Unsurprisingly, only last year the conservatives staged a failed attempt in the constitutional court to close down Erdogan's AK Islamic–rooted party on the grounds of contravening the country's secular constitution. In turn, the government launched the so-called "Ergenekon" inquiry, involving about 200 people, including army officers, academics, and lawyers, allegedly trying to upstage the Islamic government. It seems that the DPT has fallen prey to the long-standing feud between Turkish secularist conservatives and the military on one hand, and the Islamic reformists on the other hand.

Outlook and Implications

Turkey has yet again failed to keep up its recent democratisation drive. The secularist conservatives, with most of the military in the forefront, dealt a blow not only to Erdogan, but also to Turkey's image as a country with aspirations of democratic values. Domestically, the decision is most likely to bring more disenchantment among the rural and largely poor Kurdish youth, and prove the PKK right in arguing that the Turkish government would never grant Kurds any rights through democratic processes and that the only way to gain freedom is to force the central government through continued guerrilla war. Paradoxically, the non-democratic move comes from Turkish secularists who have strived to keep Turkey close to Western values, whereas the real democratic changes are coming from the Islamic-rooted party. As the recent events show, Erdogan's attempts to reinvent Turkey—both domestically and internationally—may prove to be too ambitious for Turks. It seems that the Turkish society is not yet ready to embrace certain democratic changes such as the rights of the minorities to use their own language and have their own media outlets and ethnic identity.

Global Insight (Reino Unido)