To what extent the Minority issues in Turkey is an internal phenomenon and to what extent external?

Résumé du document

Before analyzing the minority issue, we should firstly define what a minority is. No consensus exists on the definition of a 'minority'. In a general sense minorities are groups which are numerically inferior to and distinguishable from the rest of the population through ethnicity, language, culture or religion. Regarding the minorities in Turkey, the Lausanne Convention bases the granting of minority status on religious grounds. Turkey's policy regarding minorities has been shaped based on the Lausanne Convention principles. Turkey has granted minority rights, to its citizens of non-Muslim origin. The minorities recognized by the Lausanne Convention are Jews, Greek Orthodox and Armenians. Among the minority rights that these populations enjoy, are the right to education in own language; the right to publish newspapers and to express one's identity. Non-Muslim minorities in Turkey are to this day able to sustain their separate identities and supposedly enjoy their minority rights.

Extraits

[...] France is a state that has already fulfilled its democratization process, therefore, contrary to Turkey; the French democracy is not at stake, which does not necessitate an intervention on European level. Minority issue should be first contextualized then generalized. When we study the minority issue at the domestic level, in both states, we observe a deficiency in democracy that we can also call a democratic deficit. Thus, we cannot really generalize the issue as in all the minority issues should be handled at the European level. [...]

[...] Hence, the fact that minority issues in Turkey have been shifted to the international arena by various actors implies that there is a danger for Turkey. But, what is at stake? How come it is a danger? step such as asking for a solution from the European leaders as the Kurdish manifesto of May 2008 does, would constitute the greatest danger to us in the Kurdish issue. In other words, if the problems are not solved or no effort is made to solve them, Turkey might some day see other sources starting to suggest mediation as a solution. [...]

[...] Their main objective is to draw attention to the Kurdish issue on the international level”[19]. This manifesto also drawing attention to the necessity for the PKK to lay down arms requires the new constitution to give legal recognition to the Kurdish entity, to permit the free use of the Kurdish language in communication tools and especially in education. However this manifesto concerning the minority issues (more specificly the issues of the Kurdish minority) in Turkey goes further and takes the issue to the international arena: nominates some very-well known and prestigious names for this mission. [...]

[...] Nevertheless in this specific case of Turkey and its minorities, one might ask what if the minority does not exist at all? Chief of General Staff Büyükanıt, in his speech in Istanbul May 2007, accused the European Union of “inventing” ethnic minorities and demanding that Turkey recognize them, which could break Turkey apart. He indirectly accused the West of being behind “dark wars” and undesirable “colored revolutions”, such as the Rose (Georgia, 2003), Orange (Ukraine, 2004) and Tulip (Kyrgyzstan, 2005), in which pro-Western local organizations played roles in toppling leaders in former East Bloc countries.”[26] army presents the Kurdish problem as an external provocation, estimates that most of the active fighters are in northern Iraq.”[27] a Turkish major from the southeast said : is all fomented by foreign countries.'»[28] So, what if the Europe and Turkey debates on a matter which does not actually exist? [...]

[...] many, the recognition of the other minorities' cultural rights is the beginning of the end of the unified Turkish nation-state.” Therefore the minority issues derive from a purely national, internal doctrine founded on cultural, territorial, linguistic and “national” indivisibility, which the state has been defending since its foundation. The minority issues have been left with no solution for decades for the sake of protecting Turkey's internal security and national unity. This anachronistic nationalist consciousness is maybe the most important premise lying under the minority problems. b. [...]