Google – AFP, 1 Oct 2013
Ankara (AFP) - Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday announced key political reforms, including lifting a ban on Islamic headscarves and strengthening Kurdish rights.
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Police
arrest a demonstrator on September 10, 2013 during clashes
in Istanbul
(AFP/File, Bulent Kilic)
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Ankara (AFP) - Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday announced key political reforms, including lifting a ban on Islamic headscarves and strengthening Kurdish rights.
The moves
come as critics accuse Erdogan of Islamising the staunchly secular country and
as minority Kurds pursuing a difficult peace process with Ankara demand still
more rights.
In a
highly-anticipated speech, Erdogan said that, with a few exceptions, female
civil servants would be allowed to wear Islamic headscarves and male colleagues
allowed to sport beards, a sign of Muslim piety.
However,
the ban will remain in place for judges, prosecutors, police and military
personnel.
"These
restrictions violate the right to work, the freedom of thought and
belief," said Erdogan.
He added
the government would vow to impose "a penalty on those who prevent people
from exercising the rights attached to their religious" duties.
At the same
time, the prime minister moved to scrap restrictions on the use of the Kurdish
language, allowing it to be used in private schools and letting election
candidates campaign in Kurdish.
Erdogan
called the reforms "a historic moment, an important stage".
The
headscarf controversy is the fault line for a long-standing rivalry in Turkish
society between religious conservatives, who form the bulk of Erdogan's
Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), and secular opponents.
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Supporters
of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cheer as he
addresses members of
parliament from his ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) during a meeting
at the Turkish parliament in Ankara on June 25,
2013 (AFP/File, Adem Altan)
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Secularists
-- particularly those in the army -- see the headscarf as a symbol of defiance
against the strict separation of state and religion, a basic tenet of modern
Turkey.
The
announcements risk re-opening wounds caused by the wave of anti-government
protests that rocked Turkey in June, the biggest challenge to Erdogan's
decade-plus rule.
View
gallery."Supporters of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan …
Supporters
of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cheer as he addresses members of
parliamen …
Tens of
thousands of protesters, particularly in Turkey's major cities took to the
streets, calling Erdogan a "dictator", accusing him of Islamising the
predominantly Muslim but staunchly secular country. Critics say Erdogan's rule
has left Turkish society more polarised.
Recently,
Turkey’s parliament passed legislation curbing alcohol sales and advertising,
the toughest such measures in the republic’s history.
This month,
an Istanbul court again handed a 10-month suspended jail term to pianist Fazil
Say over social media posts deemed religiously offensive.
Professor
Ilter Turan of the Istanbul-based Bilgi University said that the lifting of the
headscarf ban was expected.
"The
ban has gradually been melting down throughout the AKP's rule," he told
AFP. "To a great extent, it has not been applied in some government
offices and AKP-led municipalities."
The
headscarf reform is considered as a gesture by Erdogan to his grassroots in the
run-up to elections. His party has relaxed the ban at universities.
The country
votes in local elections in March, a presidential election in August and
parliamentary polls in 2015.
However,
one AKP politician expressed discontent.
"Why
shouldn't judges and prosecutors wear headscarves? Can't those who wear
headscarves deliver fair verdicts?" AKP's deputy Cengiz Yavilioglu wrote
on his Twitter account.
Kurds say
reforms do not go far enough
Erdogan's
proposals on strengthening the rights of minorities comes at a time when Ankara
has begun peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to end the Kurdish
conflict, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1984.
View
gallery."A supporter of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip …
A supporter
of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds an AKP 'Justice and Development'
pa …
Erdogan
indicated that scrapping a 10-percent threshold required to secure seats in
Turkey's parliament would be "open to debate", noting that the AKP
had yet to introduce the reform after parliament returns from summer recess on
Tuesday.
In
addition, towns will be able to use their Kurdish name and schoolchildren will
be no longer required to recite the pledge of allegiance -- "How happy is
the one who calls himself a Turk" -- each morning.
The
"democratisation package" is aimed at breaking an impasse in the
peace process with the PKK, classified as a terrorist organisation by Turkey.
In March
the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan declared a ceasefire after months of
negotiations.
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A supporter
of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds an AKP
'Justice and
Development' party flag during a rally in Istanbul on June 16, 2013
(AFP/File,
Ozan Kose)
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In return
for withdrawing its fighters, the PKK demanded changes such as the right to
education in the Kurdish language and a degree of regional autonomy.
After
starting in May, the PKK announced a suspension in the withdrawal, accusing
Ankara of not keeping its promises of reform.
Kurdish
politicians said the changes were unsatisfactory.
"This
is not a package that meets Turkey's needs for democratisation," said
Gulten Kisanak, co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party.
The
proposed reforms will apply to other minorities within Turkey.
The
government-led reforms also included plans to return land belonging to a Syriac
Christian monastery in the southeastern Mardin province which had been
confiscated by the state.
Erdogan
announced further reforms, saying that his government would establish a
language and culture institute for Roma people.
Helene
Flautre of the European Greens, who support Turkey's entry into the European
Union, said the measures "go in the direction of reinforcing the
democratic base and fundamental rights."
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