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Turkey to spend $1.83 bln on mainly
Kurdish region
6.5.2008
By staff
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May 6, 2008
ANKARA, -- Turkey will spend 2.3 billion lira
($1.83 billion) this year to develop the
impoverished and restive southeast region, including
building dams and irrigation networks, Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
The investment is part of a 5-year plan to spend
billions of lira in the mainly Kurdish southeast
region (Northern Kurdistan) as part of efforts to
drain support from Turkey's separatist Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) rebels.
"A great campaign is being started to complete the
southeastern Anatolian project," Erdogan said,www.ekurd.net
addressing his party's
deputies in parliament.
Erdogan said 1.3 billion lira of the spending for
the project, known as GAP, would come from the
unemployment insurance fund and 1.0 billion lira
from the privatisation fund.
He said the AK Party government would allocate 3.5
billion lira in 2008 to 2013 to spend on GAP, coming
from the two funds.
The European Union, which Turkey aims to join, has
urged Ankara to to boost the language and cultural
rights of its Kurdish citizens and to do more to
develop the economy of the southeast, long hamstrung
by the PKK conflict.
In March 2008, Turkey's
Kurds say Erdogan's economic package
not enough to solve Kurdish
issue, a mini survey among Turkey's
prominent Kurdish personalities showed that Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plan to
introduce a broad series of investments in the country's largely
Kurdish southeast to create jobs and draw young men
away from militancy "will not do the trick on its
own."
The pro-Kurdish DTP party sources said they feel while a massive
economic package could help the people of the region
it will not solve the overall problem if they are
not supported by proper political, cultural and
social measures.
Turkey has intensified its military offensive
against PKK rebels inside the country and across the
border in Iraqi Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq'
in recent months.
But even Turkey's generals now say military measures
alone cannot end the PKK threat and that they must
be accompanied by improvements in the social and
economic life of the region.
Erdogan's announcement came days after the
government said it would cut the country's total
public sector primary surplus target to 3.5 percent
this year from 4.2 percent in an effort to stimulate
a slowing economy.
Turkey's economic growth fell to 4.5 percent in
2007, versus an average 6.8 percent for 2002-2007.
Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek told broadcaster NTV
on Tuesday that growth would probably be around 4.5
percent this year, lower than a government target of
5.5 percent.
Over 39,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish
PKK rebels.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
The PKK is considered a 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel
group PKK and its political wing on
the European Union's terror list.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians
say the measures fall short of their expectations.
information for this report was provided, Reuters | AFP |
Agencies
** Kurds are not recognized as an official minority
in Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in Big
Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to 25 million ethnic Kurds, a large
Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with
the Kurdish PKK for a Kurdish homeland in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media. The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet has led
to judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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