Some critics say Recep Tayyip Erdogan's proposals do not go far enough in driving Turkey's faltering democratisation
Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, unveiled the first big package of liberalising reforms in years on Monday, making overtures to the large Kurdish minority and proposing that headscarved women be allowed to sit in parliament and work as civil servants for the first time in the history of the Turkish republic.
The proposals, which have been repeatedly delayed due to their potentially incendiary impact, followed a summer of the largest and most persistent anti-government protests in Erdogan's 11 years in power.
At a press conference in Ankara, where journalists were not allowed to ask questions, Erdogan announced that the headscarf ban would be lifted for women in public offices except for those that require uniforms such as the military, police and the courts. The ban has long been one of Turkey's most contentious laws and many analysts see the reform as an important step towards more democratic rights.
The raft of reforms unveiled on Monday It was Erdogan's third package of reforms in more than a decade in office, and he promised more to come. "This is not the first package, and it will not be the last," he said.
The measures partly returned Erdogan to the reformist zeal of his early years in power, after months of being accused of being an intolerant authoritarian because of his draconian, violent response to weeks of street protests in June. However, critics said the proposals did not go nearly far enough in driving Turkey's faltering democratisation.
The reforms aim at keeping on track the year-old peace process between the government and Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK), to bring to an end to one of the world's longest-running ethnic conflicts, costing up to 40,000 lives over 30 years. Erdogan suggested lowering the election threshold for a political party to enter parliament from 10% to 5% of the national vote, which would finally make it possible for pro-Kurdish and other small parties to qualify.
He proposed relaxing the rules for state funding for political parties, enabling the Peace and Democracy party (BDP), the main Kurdish party, to receive cash. Further reforms include the abolition of the nationalist student pledge in primary and middle schools that forces pupils of all ethnicities to proclaim themselves "honest, hard-working Turks".
Erdogan said the government would allow mother-tongue education in private schools. Kurds, who are estimated to form 20% of the country's population, have long been demanding the right to be educated in their own language. Original Kurdish village names will be restored and a ban on the letters q, w and x – used in Kurdish but not in Turkish – will be lifted.
Analysts welcomed the government's proposals as important to Turkey's liberalisation. "I see [the reforms] as a very positive step in the right direction", said the journalist and commentator Oral Calislar. "Of course it does contain shortcomings, but especially the abolition of the nationalist school pledge and the reform of the election threshold will have a very positive impact on the peace process with Kurds."
The co-chair of the pro-Kurdish BDP, Gülten Kisanak, said the package failed to meet their expectations. "Was this really a package worth waiting for? Kurds wished for the Kurdish problem to be solved, Alevis [Turkey's largest religious minority] wished for freedom of religion, and other discriminated groups in Turkey wished for more participatory governance. They've fought for that for years. We say very clearly that this package does not meet any of these expectations. It is not a package that responds to Turkey's need for democratisation."
Vahap Coskun, an assistant professor at the Dicle University in Diyarbakir, the predominantly Kurdish city in the south-east, said the failure to change arbitrary anti-terrorism laws, which criminalise mainly Kurdish politicians and journalists was a major flaw: "In order to bring the peace process forward, these unjust terror trials need to be resolved," he said.
Many criticised Erdogan's failure to address other sensitive minority rights issues. Kurdish language education in state schools remains impossible and the prime minister barely made any concessions to greater religious and cultural rights for the large Alevi minority. He also failed to restore a Greek Orthodox monastery near Istanbul to its church owners.
"The package is completely cosmetic," said Koray Caliskan, a political scientist at Istanbul's Bosporus University. "[Erdogan] gave more freedom to three letters than he did to 10 million Kurds in Turkey. What about more local autonomy that Kurds have been waiting for?"
Caliskan also complained that mother-tongue education would only be available in non-state schools: "Offering this only to children of the rich is not a step towards more equality in Turkey, but towards greater inequality." He said the lack of any reforms concerning Alevi rights was another disappointment. "Alevis were not mentioned at all. This package is empty."
The government has said it is working on a separate package for Alevi rights. Coskun said Monday's proposals should be met with optimism: "I think that the importance of these reforms should not be understated. Now it is time to pressure the government, both in parliament and in civil society, to continue and move forward with Turkey's democratisation."
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