Albert Rohan: Kurdish issue is on the government's agenda
Albert Rohan: Kurdish issue is on the government's agenda
The Independent Commission on Turkey, led by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, has completed its talks in Istanbul and Diyarbakir.
In a press conference on the commission's visit to Turkey, Ahtisaari said the delegation had arrived in Turkey in order to monitor and support the country' EU membership process.
Ahtisaari said Turkish economy had recently reached a level much better than many EU countries and added that Turkey had acted very professional in its EU process,
Pointing to the importance of Turkey's solving its problems in a peaceful atmosphere, Ahtisaari said all the parties the commission contacted during the visit underscored that they did not want violence and they desired the proper functioning of a political process to be followed by a period of disarmament.
Speaking to ANF the commission's rapporteur and former undersecretary of the Austrian ministry of foreign affairs, Albert Rohan, pointed out that "we met several organisations and parties and everybody told us they want the violence to stop. The general mood - he added - is to keep working for an end to all violence. We found that there is a large consensus on the legitimate aspirations of the Kurdish people and I think that steps have been taken in the right direction as far as put in place changes which to begin with will at least guarantee the Kurds a minimum level of rights, for example in the fields of education and language".
It is clear that the commission made a choice to appear and sound 'positive' about this visit, though not ignoring the problems and issues at stake. When reminded that indeed Turkish minister of foreign affair Ahmet Davutoglu felt the need to underline that he "did not attributed any special meaning to the commission's visit", Rohan answered that he did not hear the comments but that "indeed our meetings with president Abdullah Gul and prime minister Erdogan were very good. The mood was good especially after the victory of the government in the referendum. There is a renewed mood of optimism and confidence, which will help the government to step up on reforms".
Confronted with the fact that the referendum also pointed out that for a vast section of the people living in Turkey, namely the Kurds, the steps taken so far by the government do not meet the demands of the Kurdish people, Rohan replied that "Prime Minister Erdogan knows that and is up to it. He now wants to concentrate on the writing a new Constitution altogether. The government knows very well that the Kurdish issue is there and indeed the Prime Minister tried to address it with the 'Kurdish Opening' and now he will continue with the preparation of a new Constitution which will address the issues of mother tongue and the fact that the old Constitution is 'ethnicity'-based and this must be changed". Reminded that the 'Kurdish Opening' pretty soon became the 'Democratic Opening' and then simply 'Democratic Initiative' and that it was indeed considered by the Kurds as an attempt to solve the Kurdish issue without the Kurds, Rohan insisted that "there are things that the government has done, for example the launch of the Kurdish channel TRT6, and there are things that it can still do because they are in its legal capacity. The Constitution is one issue, the other is the issue of language in education. And then of course it will continue the meetings with the Peace and Democracy Party, BDP, which is the elected representative of the Kurdish people. I understand - he added - that there was a meeting scheduled and cancelled after the attack in Hakkari last Thursday in which 9 people were killed. But I spoke with government officials and they said that the meeting was only postponed".
Talking about the attack in Hakkari, clearly a provocation by some deep and dangerous forces, Rohan said that "we can expect unfortunately groups to be working against any kind of peaceful solution. This kind of attacks happened in previous peace processes, think of Ireland for instance. But contacts between the Turkish government and the Kurdish representatives are established and going on, so we hope that the attempts to find a peaceful solutions will not be derailed".
And yet, the military do not seem so happy with the present situation, and the risk is that of an agreement with the Turkish government by which once again it will be the Kurds who will have to pay the highest price. "I think - said Rohan - that yes, the issue of the military control and influence is a difficult one. But for a start we, as a commission, hope that the PKK will extend its unilateral ceasefire beyond 20 of September. This will be an important step. Then contacts are going on".
Asked if the international community could do something at this stage to help the process of dialogue to start, Rohan said that "first of all we have to understand that this is a Turkish internal issue. Wether Turkey will join the European
Union or not, they have to solve the Kurdish issue, which is an internal problem. They have to face the legitimate aspirations of the Kurds and deal with them. Only later in the process I think that an international community or initiative could help. It happened in Ireland, where a special decommissioning committee had been set up to supervise the Ira decommissioning of weapons, and it was a commission made up by foreign mediators. But this will be happening at a later stage. International involvement can be sought as far as the mechanism of the process is concerned. But the issue of starting the dialogue is an internal issue".
The Independent Commission was established to extend support to Turkey's European Union (EU) bid and comprises of a group of distinguished European policymakers.
Albert Rohan (Austria) (Rapporteur) is the Former Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs. After receiving his doctor of law in 1960 at the University of Graz, Albert Rohan joined the Austrian Diplomatic Service in 1963. He was appointed to the Austrian Embassies in Belgrade and London, and from 1977 to1981 served as Director of the Executive Office of the UN Secretary General in New York. From 1985 to 1989 Albert Rohan was Austrian Ambassador to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. In 1995 he was appointed as Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs of Austria and remained in this position until 2001. Following his retirement from the Diplomatic Service, Rohan worked as lecturer and political commentator for radio, television and print media. From 2005 to 2008 he acted as Deputy Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Kosovo Status Process. Since 2004 he has served as the Rapporteur of the Independent Commission on Turkey. Rohan is founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, President of the Austrian-American Society and Vice-President of the European Policy Association of Austria. In 2002 he published the book “Diplomat on the Fringes of World Politics”.
In a press conference on the commission's visit to Turkey, Ahtisaari said the delegation had arrived in Turkey in order to monitor and support the country' EU membership process.
Ahtisaari said Turkish economy had recently reached a level much better than many EU countries and added that Turkey had acted very professional in its EU process,
Pointing to the importance of Turkey's solving its problems in a peaceful atmosphere, Ahtisaari said all the parties the commission contacted during the visit underscored that they did not want violence and they desired the proper functioning of a political process to be followed by a period of disarmament.
Speaking to ANF the commission's rapporteur and former undersecretary of the Austrian ministry of foreign affairs, Albert Rohan, pointed out that "we met several organisations and parties and everybody told us they want the violence to stop. The general mood - he added - is to keep working for an end to all violence. We found that there is a large consensus on the legitimate aspirations of the Kurdish people and I think that steps have been taken in the right direction as far as put in place changes which to begin with will at least guarantee the Kurds a minimum level of rights, for example in the fields of education and language".
It is clear that the commission made a choice to appear and sound 'positive' about this visit, though not ignoring the problems and issues at stake. When reminded that indeed Turkish minister of foreign affair Ahmet Davutoglu felt the need to underline that he "did not attributed any special meaning to the commission's visit", Rohan answered that he did not hear the comments but that "indeed our meetings with president Abdullah Gul and prime minister Erdogan were very good. The mood was good especially after the victory of the government in the referendum. There is a renewed mood of optimism and confidence, which will help the government to step up on reforms".
Confronted with the fact that the referendum also pointed out that for a vast section of the people living in Turkey, namely the Kurds, the steps taken so far by the government do not meet the demands of the Kurdish people, Rohan replied that "Prime Minister Erdogan knows that and is up to it. He now wants to concentrate on the writing a new Constitution altogether. The government knows very well that the Kurdish issue is there and indeed the Prime Minister tried to address it with the 'Kurdish Opening' and now he will continue with the preparation of a new Constitution which will address the issues of mother tongue and the fact that the old Constitution is 'ethnicity'-based and this must be changed". Reminded that the 'Kurdish Opening' pretty soon became the 'Democratic Opening' and then simply 'Democratic Initiative' and that it was indeed considered by the Kurds as an attempt to solve the Kurdish issue without the Kurds, Rohan insisted that "there are things that the government has done, for example the launch of the Kurdish channel TRT6, and there are things that it can still do because they are in its legal capacity. The Constitution is one issue, the other is the issue of language in education. And then of course it will continue the meetings with the Peace and Democracy Party, BDP, which is the elected representative of the Kurdish people. I understand - he added - that there was a meeting scheduled and cancelled after the attack in Hakkari last Thursday in which 9 people were killed. But I spoke with government officials and they said that the meeting was only postponed".
Talking about the attack in Hakkari, clearly a provocation by some deep and dangerous forces, Rohan said that "we can expect unfortunately groups to be working against any kind of peaceful solution. This kind of attacks happened in previous peace processes, think of Ireland for instance. But contacts between the Turkish government and the Kurdish representatives are established and going on, so we hope that the attempts to find a peaceful solutions will not be derailed".
And yet, the military do not seem so happy with the present situation, and the risk is that of an agreement with the Turkish government by which once again it will be the Kurds who will have to pay the highest price. "I think - said Rohan - that yes, the issue of the military control and influence is a difficult one. But for a start we, as a commission, hope that the PKK will extend its unilateral ceasefire beyond 20 of September. This will be an important step. Then contacts are going on".
Asked if the international community could do something at this stage to help the process of dialogue to start, Rohan said that "first of all we have to understand that this is a Turkish internal issue. Wether Turkey will join the European
Union or not, they have to solve the Kurdish issue, which is an internal problem. They have to face the legitimate aspirations of the Kurds and deal with them. Only later in the process I think that an international community or initiative could help. It happened in Ireland, where a special decommissioning committee had been set up to supervise the Ira decommissioning of weapons, and it was a commission made up by foreign mediators. But this will be happening at a later stage. International involvement can be sought as far as the mechanism of the process is concerned. But the issue of starting the dialogue is an internal issue".
The Independent Commission was established to extend support to Turkey's European Union (EU) bid and comprises of a group of distinguished European policymakers.
Albert Rohan (Austria) (Rapporteur) is the Former Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs. After receiving his doctor of law in 1960 at the University of Graz, Albert Rohan joined the Austrian Diplomatic Service in 1963. He was appointed to the Austrian Embassies in Belgrade and London, and from 1977 to1981 served as Director of the Executive Office of the UN Secretary General in New York. From 1985 to 1989 Albert Rohan was Austrian Ambassador to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. In 1995 he was appointed as Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs of Austria and remained in this position until 2001. Following his retirement from the Diplomatic Service, Rohan worked as lecturer and political commentator for radio, television and print media. From 2005 to 2008 he acted as Deputy Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Kosovo Status Process. Since 2004 he has served as the Rapporteur of the Independent Commission on Turkey. Rohan is founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, President of the Austrian-American Society and Vice-President of the European Policy Association of Austria. In 2002 he published the book “Diplomat on the Fringes of World Politics”.
