The situation of displaced persons in Turkey

Geneva, 17.03.03 - 25.04.03 - Written Statement by the Society for Threatened Peoples
Society for Threatened Peoples is deeply concerned about the situation of displaced persons from South-East Turkey. Two and a half million internally displaced Kurds are still waiting inside Turkey for the chance to return home to their demolished villages in the South-East of the country. After decades of Turkish-Kurdish civil war the situation in the Kurdish area of South-Eastern Turkey is desperate. According to a committee of inquiry set up by the Turkish Parliament a total of 3428 Kurdish villages and hamlets have been destroyed. Although the civil war ended three years ago, there has been no progress made on reconstruction.

Political and bureaucratic obstacles are preventing the resettlement of the expulsees, most of whom are eking out a miserable existence under wretched conditions on the outskirts of the larger towns and cities in the Kurdish-populated area and other provinces of Turkey. Even small children are forced to work or beg in order to contribute to the survival of their families, many of whom live in shacks and shanties.

At present very few have any expectation of being able to return home. According to the Turkish Ministry of the Interior only 77 families have so far returned to their villages in and around provincial cities such as Diyarbakir or Sirnak. Only 2859 families have been included in return programmes under which 555 homes have been rebuilt - a start, but still a drop in the ocean. The Interior Ministry has confirmed that at present a total of 52 out of 3428 villages are ready to receive the returnees.

However there has been no final legal settlement of the expulsees' claims to ownership and compensation. The general secretary of the Association of Lawyers in Diyarbakir has expressed concern also that the Turkish state is taking over property in villages left unoccupied for ten years and expropriating the former occupants. The European Court of Human Rights has called on Turkey to compensate the expulsees but its ruling has still to be enforced.

Turkey is seeking to gain admission to the EU and has undertaken to satisfy the Copenhagen Criteria fully and without reservation. The political conditions include recognition of and equal status for the Kurdish culture. Accordingly in August 2002 the Turkish Parliament approved a reform package which for the first time in Turkish history provided for classes to be taught in the Kurdish language and the broadcasting of Kurdish programmes on the radio and television. However the law is a half-hearted compromise: it contains no mention of equal status for the Kurdish language, referring simply to "dialects". Kurdish is still not used in state schools and universities, as stipulated by Art. 42 of the Turkish constitution.

The Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the Commission to:

 

• to urge Turkey to set in motion a large scale reconstruction effort to rebuild destroyed Kurdish villages and to enact the necessary laws and implementing legislation without further delay;

• to cancel all seizures of expulsees’ land and property and suspend future expropriations;

• to implement reforms without further delay, in particular the routine use of the Kurdish language in public areas in schools and universities and by the authorities and media in South Anatolia and the area of Kurdish settlement;

• to order the immediate release of the duly elected Kurdish parliamentary representative Leyla Zana, held in prison for eight years.