Place du Congrès 1 B-1000 Brussels Tel: 32.2.229.39.11 Fax: 32.2.219.41.51 http://www.ceps.be CEPS POLICY BRIEF NO. 6 OCTOBER 2001 OUR FUTURE SOUTHEASTERN TURKISH FRONTIERS NATHALIE TOCCI CONTENTS 1. The people of southeast Turkey................................................................................... 1 2. Human rights and the Southeast .................................................................................. 4 3. The economic situation in the Southeast....................................................................... 5 4. Turkey’s troubled borders ........................................................................................... 8 5. Policy Recommendations ...........................................................................................10 Annex: Journey to Southeast Turkey..................................................................................12
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Place du Congrès 1� B-1000 Brussels � Tel: 32.2.229.39.11� Fax: 32.2.219.41.51� http://www.ceps.be
CEPS POLICY BRIEF NO. 6OCTOBER 2001
OUR FUTURE SOUTHEASTERNTURKISH FRONTIERS
NATHALIE TOCCI
CONTENTS
1. The people of southeast Turkey................................................................................... 1
2. Human rights and the Southeast .................................................................................. 4
3. The economic situation in the Southeast....................................................................... 5
Annex: Journey to Southeast Turkey..................................................................................12
CEPS Policy Briefs present concise, policy-oriented commentaries on topical issues in Europeanaffairs. Our objective in initiating this particular series is to disseminate CEPS research findings aswidely as possible and to interject our views into the policy process in a direct and timely fashion.CEPS Policy Briefs are available in printed form and may also be downloaded free of charge from theCEPS website (http://www.ceps.be).
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Today’s southeast Turkey has historically been the homeland of a large number of diverse
ethnic groups. Nowadays, in many town and villages of the region the largest ethnic group is
Kurdish. Turkish officials under Turgut Özal in the 1990s for the first time admitted there may
be around 10 million Kurds living in Turkey. Other estimates indicate a Kurdish population of
around 15 million. Adding to this figure the additional 10 million or so Kurds living in Iran,
Iraq, Syria and the former Soviet Union, the Kurdish people represent the largest ethnic group
in the world without a state of their own.
In Turkey’s Kurdish areas the predominant Kurdish dialects are Kurmancý and Zaza. Kurdish,
an Indo-European language, is totally distinct from Turkish and more closely connected to
Persian. In the streets of Diyarbakýr, Þanlýurfa or Mardin, Kurdish is the most commonly
spoken language. Most people also speak Turkish, however, as it is the only language taught
in schools. Education and broadcasting in the Kurdish language is still banned by the Turkish
state.
While the Kurdish population is by far the largest ethnic group in the southeast, other peoples
(excluding Turks themselves) inhabit (or inhabited) the area. Close to the Syrian border, in
Mardin, Midiyat and Hasankeyf there is a considerable Arab population. A mixture of
Kurdish and Arabic is often heard in towns and villages.
This region is also known for its Syriac population. The Syriacs are Christian Arabs, who
historically inhabited the area straddling present-day Turkey and Syria. They hold that their
∗ Note from the author:In August 2000, members of the CEPS Task Force went on mission to theSouth Caucasus to visit the troubled borders and conflict areas in that region. This summer wetravelled to the south east of Turkey, on the other side of the frontier (see map in the Annex). Thispolicy brief contains our observations of the region that will become the EU’s southeastern corner,following Turkey’s accession. Nathalie Tocci is a Research Fellow at CEPS.
T h e m e d i e v a l K u r d i s h s e t t l e m e n t o f H a s a n k e y f w i l l d i s a p p e a r w i t hthe cons t ruc t i on o f t he I l i su dam on the T igr i s .
4. Turkey’s troubled borders
Turkey’s relations with its neighbouring countries are far from unproblematic. Out of the
eight countries that are territorially contiguous to Turkey, the Republic can only claim to
enjoy smooth relations with Georgia and Azerbaijan. The region’s tormented history, its
complex ethnic and religious make-up and its unfavourable economic conditions lie at the
heart of these outstanding problems. The legacy of the past and the persisting tensions also
explain the Turkish establishment’s attachment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
its Republic.
Let us focus on two difficult borders: the Syrian and the Armenian borders. Turkish-Syrian
relations have progressed beyond their lowest point in 1998 when the two countries were
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