Diyarbakir mayor issues call for autonomous Turkish regions
Turkey should allow the creation of local legislatures apart from the national Parliament, Diyarbakir Metropolitan Mayor Osman Baydemir said Saturday during a speech in the eastern Anatolian province of Tunceli.
“Why not have the yellow-red-and-green-colored flag wave beside the [Turkish] star-and-crescent flag in front of the municipality?” Baydemir said during a speech at a panel on “Addressing the Kurdish issue and democratic independence,” part of the opening events for Tunceli’s Munzur Culture and Nature Festival.
Referring to the “democratic autonomy issue” brought to the agenda after a meeting of mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, last month in the southeastern province of Diyarbak?r, Baydemir said the project was an expression of the will and unity of the Kurdish people.
“The AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party] talks about national union and brotherhood. Here you are with a national union and brotherhood project of ours,” he said, adding that democratic self-determination was a project that fit well with the government’s plans for national union.
The plan would further be a “counter-poison to the 21st century’s separation, tears and quarreling,” he said.
The mayor also suggested the creation of several autonomous regions in Turkey, such as autonomous Eastern and Central Black Sea regions, as well as an autonomous region for the country’s Kurds.
“There will still be the Parliament, the Turkish national anthem will continue to be sung in Turkey and the Turkish flag will continue waving in Turkey. We do not have any objections in this respect,” Baydemir said, adding that under this plan, there would also be regional parliaments for each region, among them a “Kurdistan Regional Parliament.”
“The local Kurdish flag will also wave in the sky,” he said.
The democratic-autonomy project should be compared to local-governance programs found in Europe, Baydemir said, adding that the BDP mayors’ plan was more democratic and signified a more inclusive process than the current system.
The project aims to establish a democratic Turkey that would be devoid of discrimination, would not exert pressure on people of any ethnic identity or belief, would express itself freely and would provide fair income distribution throughout the entire country, he added.
Baydemir also referred to the attack killing four policemen in the southern province of Hatay’s Dörtyol district as “revolutionary violence.”
Sunday, August 1, 2010
