Turkish Reform Plan Takes Aim at Kurdish Conflict
By UMIT ENGINSOY and BURAK EGE BEKDIL
Published: 16 Nov 2009 12:09
ANKARA - Turkey's government at the weekend formally introduced in parliament a reform plan aimed at ending the country's Kurdish conflict, which in the last 25 years has killed about 40,000 people in the troubled southeast areas bordering Iran and Iraq.
Presenting the plan, Interior Minister Besir Atalay said the proposed reforms include greater freedom in using the Kurdish language and other measures intended to encourage militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, to lay down their arms.
"We want everyone in this country to be treated equally," he said.
Ahmet Turk, leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, said he welcomed the government's plan.
But the leaders of a nationalist party and the center-left main opposition party strongly opposed the government's Kurdish initiative, saying that the plan, if implemented, would pave the way for Turkey's disintegration.
The Turkish parliament is expected to vote on the proposed measures before the year's end.
Analysts suggest that if the reforms work, Turkey's whole security and defense concepts would change dramatically in the medium term.
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