PM’s speech boycotted

Kurdish politicians sit out Erdogan’s unveiling of major development plan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (r) waves to well-wishers upon his arrival in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, yesterday. Erdogan unveiled a multibillion-dollar development project.

ANKARA (AP) – Kurdish politicians boycotted a major speech by Turkey’s prime minister yesterday to protest what they say is the government’s refusal to recognize the country’s Kurdish minority.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, to give details of plans he first unveiled in March for economic and cultural initiatives for the region.

He suggested spending some $14.5 billion over five years to improve the arid region’s agriculture, with most of the money earmarked for building hydroelectric dams and irrigation projects as well as clearing land mines along the border with Syria.

He said the projects would improve farming, help avert a future energy bottleneck and create jobs.

In addition, Erdogan said, a TV channel with Kurdish-language programming would soon be launched. But Kurdish politicians said the newest incentives did not go far enough, and they called for the Kurds to be recognized as an official minority with cultural protections and a level of political autonomy. Pro-Kurdish Mayor Osman Baydemir and other Kurdish politicians boycotted Erdogan’s speech yesterday to underline those demands. Erdogan responded by saying he was prime minister of the whole country, and that all parties should have attended his speech.

“The people here demand the recognition of Kurdish identity; economic and social plans would not solve the problem of the region,” said Nejdet Atalay, the head of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party’s branch in Diyarbakir.

Erdogan’s latest offer, Atalay said, was aimed only at increasing support for the governing party before next year’s local elections.

Specifically, the Kurdish officials said they want to be able to receive education in their language as well as more freedom to participate in Turkey’s democracy.

Many Kurds have pinned their hopes for receiving recognition on Turkey’s push to join the European Union, which has said Ankara’s treatment of the Kurds will be a key factor in its decision on whether to accept the country.

Some Turkish nationalists fear that increasing cultural rights for the minority could lead to the breakup of the country along ethnic lines.