The Turkey Analyst

Vol. 4 no. 13, 27 June 2011

ANALYSIS

Fading Hopes, Rising Demands: Kurdish Problem Moves Closer to the Point of No Return
Gareth H. Jenkins
In the general election of June 12, 2011, candidates backed by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) won 36 seats in Turkey’s 550-member unicameral parliament. On June 21, 2011, the Supreme Electoral Board (YSK) stripped Hatip Dicle, one of the successful BDP candidates, of his seat on procedural grounds. On June 23, the BDP announced that it would boycott parliament unless Dicle was reinstated.  Over the days that followed, courts in the city of Diyarbakır blocked the release of another five successful BDP candidates. The decisions infuriated the BDP and further antagonized Turkey’s already deeply alienated Kurdish minority. Unless the Turkish government acts quickly, both the BDP’s civil disobedience campaign and the violent insurgency of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) appear likely to escalate; with potentially devastating repercussions for Turkey’s social and political stability.

Tough Times Ahead in Search for Turkey's Soul
Kadri Gürsel
Polarizing the society over religious and cultural identities has been the power tactic of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) almost all along. That tactic once again worked to the benefit of the AKP in the recent general election. But the daunting constitutional challenge that Turkey now faces requires an ability to reach across divides of identity. The new, difficult parliamentary arithmetic in a highly divided political terrain heralds tough times as the new Turkey searches for its soul.

What the Columnists Say
Commentators in Turkey were accorded little time to analyze the results of the June 12 general election; the outcome of the election was quickly overshadowed by the decision of the Supreme electoral board (YSK) to strip Hatip Dicle, a leading independent candidate who is supported by the Kurdish BDP, of his parliamentary seat, and by the refusal of the courts to release five other Kurdish MP-elects who are also imprisoned. The Kurdish issue has now come to dominate the political agenda, as it is widely recognized that the success of the proposed endeavor to draft a new constitution depends entirely on how Turkey’s political system acquits itself on this matter. Several commentators express the wish that Prime Minister Erdoğan live up to the pledges that he made on election night.

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NEW Silk Road Paper published

Reconciling Statism with Freedom: Turkey's Kurdish Opening
by Halil M. Karaveli, October 2010.



The Turkey Analyst
The Turkey Analyst is a publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center, designed to bring authoritative analysis and news on the rapidly developing domestic and foreign policy issues in Turkey. It is published weekly, and includes a topical analysis, as well as translations and summaries of selected Turkish news reports. It is edited by Halil M. Karaveli.

The Turkey Analyst welcomes article submissions.

The Joint Center
The Joint Center, created in 2005, is the product of the merger of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and the Silk Road Studies Program, at the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy.

The Turkey Initiative
The Joint Center launched a Turkey Initiative in 2006 in order to improve understand of Turkish domestic and foreign affairs in Europe and the United States.

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