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Good afternoon! How do you assess the Kurdish program proposed by Erdogan this week?
Boris Dolgov, Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies
This is a positive step towards a solution of the Kurdish problem, particularly in Turkey.
But here, I would caution against too bright prospects in respect to the proposals.
First, Id like to remind you that at the moment the Kurdish question is put forward on the agenda in the region.
I have been to conferences in Turkey and there the question was raised by the Kurdish delegation as to whether a Kurdish Spring was possible by analogy with the Arab Spring.
And the answer was yes. Today the Kurdish community, or shall we say the Kurdish communities in the region, I remind you that the Kurds live compactly in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey, pose the question of the establishment of a Kurdish homeland.
And what Erdogan suggests is an attempt to smooth out these problems and solve the Kurdish problem in Turkey, inside Turkey.
In particular he offers some democratic reforms.
But I will remind you that immediately after his proposals were announced there were Kurds demonstrating in Turkey, who demand to deepen and expand the program because this program is not sufficient to solve the Kurdish problem.
I think the fight will develop in this direction, the Kurds will demand more rights, the expansion of the program and the government will consider these requirements, or possibly stay with this program.
Therefore, the Kurdish problem in Turkey in the foreseeable future, it seems to me, will not be resolved.
Also, at the moment the situation has developed in such a way that the Kurds have achieved their rights in the sense of an autonomy in Iraq, there a state within the state has been created, de facto Kurdistan is an independent state.
In Syria, after the start of the civil conflict the Kurds gained the right to obtain Syrian citizenship, some rights in the sense of autonomy, and in the areas of Syria that are attacked by armed militants Kurdish self-defense units have been created with the help of the Syrian government.
And here is a situation where only in Turkey the Kurds now feel like a second-rate element of the population.
In your opinion, to what other concessions could go the Turkish government agree without damage to itself?
If the proposals are indeed realized, the creation of Kurdish political parties, increasing their representation in the parliament, this is a long-standing issue.
Granting broader political and civil rights to the Kurdish population.
But again, it's quite a hypothetical question as to what extent Erdogan can ake these steps, because the leadership around Erdogan are moderate Islamists, and in general the Islamization of Turkey is an on-going process,
and this process presupposes that Turkey is an Islamic state, where the Sunni branch of Islam is dominant, and granting rights to minorities, including the Kurds, will come up against resistance from the portion of the population that professes this ideology.