Ozal Leadership and Restructuring of Turkish Ethnic Policy in the 1980s

In: Middle Eastern studies, Band 38, Heft 4, S. 123-142

Abstract

Discusses policy shifts toward tolerance, 1983-1993, when Ozal served as prime minister & then president of Turkey. Kemalist ethnic policy was of assimilation & nationalism with the outlawing of all evidence of ethnic difference inside Turkey & the denying of any relationship with Turkish groups in foreign countries. Kemal Ataturk had repressed the Kurds by banning their language, both written & spoken, & all Kurdish educational activities. Despite violations, Ozal, improved Turkey's human rights record, & he accepted ethnic groups within Turkey & supported rapprochement with Turks in Iraq, Bulgaria, Caucasus, & Central Asia. As the post-Ozal government returns to Kemalist policies, it would be well for them to recognize that the repression of that era did not solve the Kurdish problem. L. A. Hoffman