Terrorism is the enemy of all humanity
THE Republic of Turkey’s Constitution affords equality for all and ensures that each citizen enjoys the same civil rights regardless of their ethnicity or heritage.
The Turkish and Kurdish communities have been integrated for centuries as neighbours through kinship and friendship. Despite the violent acts of terrorism that the Turkish nation has faced, citizens are united through common values.
Turks and Kurds cannot be separated from each other; they share the same social and public spaces. They have become our parents, brothers and sisters. Quantitative research illustrates that the vast majority of citizens of Kurdish origin do not have a minority psychology.
In Turkey’s aims to combat terrorism, it is important not to confuse citizens of Kurdish origin with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The PKK is a Marxist-Leninist and ethnic separatist-based terrorist organisation that has killed tens of thousands of people since its inception in 1978.
The PKK is a designated terrorist organisation by the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and many EUand Nato member states.
The PKK was listed as “the deadliest terror group in 2017 in Europe” and in the “2018 Global Terrorism Index report” by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace.
The PKK has and continues executing terrorist attacks in Turkey, not only against soldiers and policemen, but also against all civilians, regardless of them being of Turkish or Kurdish origin. In the 37 years since the group's first armed action more than 40 000 people have been killed. It has disrupted the state’s service and development to certain areas has been prohibited.
The Republic of Turkey’s government aims to develop the infrastructure of Eastern and South-eastern Anatolia in order to eliminate income inequality between the regions.
These developments include large and costly services such as building dams, two-way roads and energy investments. The infrastructure will encourage enterprise in the aforementioned regions.
Despite the government’s efforts, Turkey has faced attacks by the PKK and other associated terrorist groups to prevent Turkish development. Terrorists have attacked and kidnapped workers, technicians and engineers working on state projects in these regions.
Terrorists continue to attack, kidnap and kill teachers in government-established schools, nurses and doctors working in hospitals. A strategy of the PKK/KCK is to sabotage state infrastructure and regional development.
These terrorists try to destroy and condemn the regions to poverty in order to utilise propaganda.
In addition to terrorist attacks, the PKK has also attempted to kidnap children, causing hundreds of families to suffer in Turkey and surrounding countries. Mothers who wanted their children returned would sit in protest for months in the south-eastern Diyarbakir province of Turkey.
Turkish citizens most targeted and affected by the PKK in the region are actually the people from Kurdish ethnicity.
The Turkish government’s resolution process and initiatives have been repeatedly sabotaged by terrorists. The PKK has utilised concessions made by the government into opportunities that hinder the fight against terrorism. The PKK continues to make empty promises to lay down its arms and end the violence while in actual fact continuing to recruit innocent Kurdish youth through propaganda and organising violent protests in cities.
Their conduct resulted in the establishment of autonomous structures in cities – trenches were built and many people, specifically citizens of Kurdish ethnicity, were killed. These terrorist actions ended the resolution process and Turkey was deprived of significant economic gain and suffered loss of life. The PKK's conduct is no different from terrorist organisations such as Daesh (Islamic State) and al-Qaeda. Terrorism threatens democratic values, international peace and security.
The Republic of Turkey is effective in their fight against terrorism globally, aiming to protect countries’ democracy, as well as international peace and security. Turkey plays an integral part in the international fight against terrorist organisations, such as Daesh and al-Qaeda.
To effectively combat terrorist organisations requires the joint action of the international community against the PKK. This will contribute to the protection of humanitarian and democratic values, as well as to international peace and security.
Turkey’s fight to combat terrorism is not merely a duty of a sovereign state, but an inherent humanitarian obligation to protect each citizen.
It can never be said that Kurds cannot breathe in Turkey, but rather that Turkish initiatives against terrorism are aimed against the PKK terrorist group itself and its supporters.
The Republic of Turkey, unlike the apartheid government, has never had an institutionalised system of ethnic discrimination against citizens of Kurdish origin or any other ethnic group or culture. Similar to the democratic South Africa, Turkey aims to institutionalise and promote the spirit of Ubuntu among its citizens, whatever the Turkish word may be.