A rainbow formed by millions of flags and streamers seemingly miles long and dominated by bright yellows, reds and greens spread over the eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir recently, described by a large segment of Turkish society as for all practical purposes the capital of an anticipated Kurdish state. As envisioned by Kurdish nationalists, this state would not only embrace the more numerous Kurds of Anatolia, but also their compatriots across the borders in Al-Qamishli in northern Syria, in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan with its two major cities of Erbil and Suleymaniye, and in Iran. The Kurdish vision of an independent state remains just a vision for the moment, but there have been signs that its realisation may not be far off. Visitors travelling from Istanbul or Ankara to this southeastern region of Anatolia that culturally spills over into Syria, Iraq and Iran may feel that they have already entered another country. People speak a different language, social and cultural mores and behaviour are different, and when people claim a Kurdish identity they do so with pride and without a hint of fear. Last week, the inhabitants of the region celebrated the festival of Newroz, which was why all the houses in the region seemed to have been vacated. Everyone, many in traditional dress, had headed to the centre of festivities in the heart of far-flung Diyarbakir. Friends, relatives and fellow Kurds had also flocked in from Batman, Tunceli and Siirt and from other nearby provinces to celebrate this day that marks the beginning of spring and that has major cultural significance for the Kurds. The weather was perfect for the occasion, with the skies being crystal clear and dotted by small bright puffs of cloud and the sunshine pleasantly warm. The smiles of the crowd also brightened when they heard the name of their leader, Abdullah Öcalan, or “Apo” as they call him, a founding member of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who was sentenced to life imprisonment on the Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara where he remains today. When one of his followers began to read out a speech from Öcalan, the crowds burst into loud cheers, roaring out the slogan “the PKK is the people and the people are here!” The speech reiterated customary words and phrases confirming the determination to continue the fight until the Kurdish people had obtained their rights. It also reminded the Turkish government of the obligations it needs to fulfil in the framework of the reconciliation process adopted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and approved by Öcalan. The message was that the consequences would be grave if the government failed to take steps towards a just solution to the Kurdish question. As is the case every year, the Newroz celebrations, falling on 21 March this year, concluded on a sad note. In Silopi, a district in the Sirnak province, a young man was killed in clashes with the police. He had been part of a celebratory march that had been outlawed by the authorities on the grounds that the organisers had not obtained the necessary permits. After it had converged with two similarly unauthorised marches, the marchers met with barrages of teargas and water cannons. Some of the more rebellious marchers fought back with Molotov Cocktails and firecrackers, and the young man was killed in the mêlée. Calm was restored on the surface, but tensions continue to seethe and the root ailment continues to defy easy remedy. Even the Peace and Brotherhood Initiative launched by the AKP in December 2012, after a marathon of secret negotiations, has run aground. While the AKP leader, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has made a large political investment in this initiative, talks broke down in September when PKK militants refused to withdraw from Turkey into northern Iraq in protest against the Erdogan government's failure to follow through on its commitments. One of these entailed the release of PKK prisoners, and there have also been protests against the acquittal of five Turkish military personnel who had stood trial for their involvement in an aerial assault near the Turkish-Iraq border leading to the deaths of 38 Kurdish Turks, half of them children. The government maintains that the incident was an accident, but Kurdish leaders charge that it was a deliberate massacre. The AKK government has also committed itself to a number of Kurdish cultural rights, but these too remain largely unfulfilled. Although the Kurds have been granted the right to receive educational instruction in Kurdish, this right has been restricted to private schools. Gülten Kisinak, who co-chairs the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) which already runs most of the region's municipalities, described the move as a disgrace. “It is an insult to the Kurdish people to tell them that they can receive instruction in their mother tongue only if they pay for it,” she said. The Syrian-Kurdish writer Ali Jazo, who shares Kisinak's concerns, described Ankara's decision to permit education in Kurdish in private but not in public schools as a “placatory measure.” “It falls short of ranking Kurdish as a second language and effectively precludes regarding the Turkish Republic as a binational, Turkish and Kurdish state, as this would necessitate changes to the constitution which is presumably also undergoing a package of reforms,” he said. Such reforms are unlikely to see the light of day, and at all events the subject has been put on the back-burner, at least until the municipal elections are over. These are scheduled for the end of this month, and the anticipated results are not encouraging to decision-makers who have been hoping to lay the foundations for reconciliation that would turn the page on the Kurdish cause with its long history of pain and hopes. It is unlikely that the question will return to the top of the government's agenda after the forthcoming electoral test. Even if the ruling party passes this, its win will likely be a narrow one, and any victory in the polls will come with the bitter taste that AKP power and influence are on the decline. The ruling Party's stock has also fallen sharply with the Kurds. Kurdish suspicions regarding the powers-that-be in Ankara are stronger than ever, and these have extended to Ankara's allies in northern Iraq, such as the aides of the Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani. In the cities of Erbil and Suleymaniye, thousands of Kurdish political activists, joined by representatives of the Kurdish parties in Anatolia and Syria, have been staging demonstrations demanding that the Kurdistan government stop acting as a branch of the Erdogan government. Referring to the petroleum exploration and drilling contracts that Erbil has signed with Turkish businessmen, the demonstrators have called on the Kurdish authorities in Iraq to play a more active role in resolving the Kurdish question, instead of being led by narrow economic interests into bargaining away Kurdish rights.
