CONCLUSION

Kurds, who became a center of attraction for the West with the disintegration of Ottoman Empire, are seen as the people that are subjected to torture, mistreatment, and oppression by the Middle Eastern dictatorships. From this point of view, they are deprived of the basic human rights; their houses are destroyed; a dirty war has been waged against them. Consequently, they are forced to an armed revolt. In fact, there have been scenes in some Middle Eastern countries confirming these views. Turkey, on the other hand, has a unique position in such Middle Eastern world.

Turkey’s status as a European country was first mentioned at the international level in the text of the Paris Peace Treaty signed in 1856 following the Crimean War. The background of Turkish political parties extends to the party of "Union and Progress" founded in 19th century. Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, successor state to the Ottoman Empire, with his reforms, placed Turkey’s position irreversibly in the West. Secularism which does not allow exploitation of sacred Islamic sentiments to rule in politics, state affairs and social order became one of the basic principles of the Turkish state. First multiparty elections in Turkey were held in 1946. The dictatorships had survived for about forty years in Portugal and Spain. The military regime of Greece continued for eight years. In Turkey, however, the longest serving military rule was for three years. Turkey’s democratic and social progress is not independent from the ones in Europe. When Council of Europe was founded in 1949, Turkey was among the members. It is also a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which was set up to counter expansionist Eastern Bloc by Western democracies. Democracy is a way of life embraced by Turkish nation which has inherited the great tolerance of the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Empire had become the sanctuary for the oppressed people from various parts of Europe. The communities from each religion and race could freely have their ceremonies, traditions, and social life. Particularly at its glory days, Ottoman Empire was the most developed of its era. Tolerance, hospitality and sympathy for the persecuted, which became the national characteristics, have been kept in the time of the Republic of Turkey. Jewish scientists fleeing the Nazi persecution in Germany sought refuge in Turkey. In the aftermath of the Gulf War in 1991, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees escaping the wrath of Saddam Hussein were accepted into Turkey in spite of Turkey’s limited resources and the security risks they brought. Then, how realistic will it be to see Turkey, which opens its doors to the oppressed both from its West and East with its fifty-year old pluralistic multiparty democracy as the equivalent of Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), ideologically totalitarian organization getting support from world’s most brutal regimes in the Middle East and radical extremist pro-Islamic states, which employs outrageous terrorist tactics and also involves internationally in organized crime? How realistic will it be to present fighting PKK terrorism as the war waged against Kurds?

Said tolerance, openness and democracy facilitate free expression of the demands for the improvement of democracy and human rights in Turkey. Those demands could be met to the extent they conform to the will of Turkish nation for more democracy and freedom.

Particularly due to the enhancement of democratic view in the past years, different proposals for the solution of the Kurdish problem have had echoes at business, political and academic circles. The conditions for the realization of the will of the people in a liberal atmosphere are almost totally set. Considerable steps were taken to improve the freedom of expression provided that propaganda for violence is not made. Turkey having its place in Western security and economic organizations for almost fifty years initiated the implementation of Customs Union Agreement which is an important step towards full membership in European Union. Most of the obstacles on the way of expressing Kurdish identity through cultural, folkloric and traditional aspects were removed. The easing of cultural exchange in a pluralistic and tolerant society encourages the unity on the basis of citizenship with no racist imposition and with no ethnic hatred but with openness and democratic involvement. This process in Turkey introduces itself as being considered as Turkish citizen in line with the constitution of the Republic of Turkey on one side, and the realization of all ethnic, religious and sectarian forms of affiliation freely in private life and on cultural basis on the other. The progress that will be made in Turkey’s economic and political integration into the European Union and in the long term its adaptation to the economic and common foreign, defense, social and financial policies of European Union will clear the way for Turkey to adopt being European as her supra identity.