Turkish minority rights regime: Between difference and equality

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Notes

1. J. Parker, ‘On the Definition of Minorities’, in J. Parker and K. Myntti (eds.), The Protection of Ethnic and Linguistic Minorities in Europe (Abo Academi University: Institute for Human Rights, 1999), pp.23–65.

2. R. Burubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1992), p.41.

3. W. Kymlicka and W. Norman. ‘Citizenship in Culturally Diverse Societies: Issues, Contexts, Concepts’, in W. Kymlicka and W. Norman (eds.), Citizenship in Diverse Societies (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp.1–41.

4. G. Gilbert, ‘The Legal Protection Accorded to Minority Groups in Europe’, Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, Vol.XXIII (1992), p.71.

5. B. Parekh, Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp.239–40.

6. K. Wentholt, ‘Formal and Substantive Equal Treatment: The Limitations and the Potential of the Legal Concept of Equality’, in T. Loenen and P.R. Rodrigues (eds.), Non-Discrimination Law: Comparative Perspectives (The Hague, London, Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1999), pp.53–64.

7. Gilbert, pp.74–80.

8. J.J. Preece, ‘Minority Rights in Europe: From Westphalia to Helsinki’, Review of International Studies, Vol.23 (1997), pp.75–92.

9. N. Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (New York: Routledge, 1998), p.14.

10. R. Davison, ‘Turkish Attitudes Concerning Christian-Muslim Equality in the Nineteenth Century’, The American Historical Review, Vol.LIX, No.4 (1954), p.844.

11. B. Braude and B. Lewis, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society, Vol.1 (New York and London: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1982).

12. E. Kuran, Türkiye'nin Batılılaşması ve Milli Meseleler (The Westernization of Turkey and the National Questions), (Ankara: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı Yayınları, 1997).

13. İ. Ortaylı, ‘19. Yüzyılda Heterodox Dini Gruplar ve Osmanlı İdaresi’ (Heterodox Religious Groups and the Ottoman Administration in the Nineteenth Century), in İ. Ortaylı (ed.), Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda İktisadi ve Sosyal Değişim: Makaleler I [Economic and Social Transformation in the Ottoman Empire: Articles I] (Ankara: Turhan Kitabevi, 2000), pp.213–21.

14. Despite the fact that Islamic tradition prescribed assimilation (conversion) or extermination of the polytheist groups, in some circumstances, like Persia and India, the effect of state protection was extended also to those groups who did not belong to legally admitted persuasions. H.A R. Gibb and H. Bowen, Islamic Society and the West: A Study on the Impact of Western Civilisation on Moslem Culture in The Near East (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), p.208.

15. Ibid., pp.207–08.

16. Braude and Lewis.

17. Berkes, p.11.

18. R. Peters, ‘Islamic Law and Human Rights’, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Vol.10, No.1 (1999), p.9.

19. G. Bozkurt, Alman-Ingiliz Belgelerinin ve Siyasi Gelişmelerin Işığı Altında Gayrimüslim Osmanlı Vatandaşlarının Hukuki Durumu: 1839–1914 [Legal Status of Non-Muslim Ottoman Citizens in Light of Political Developments and the German–British Documents: 1839–1914] (Ankara: Turkish Historical Society, 1996).

20. Davison (1954), p.845.

21. Braude and Lewis.

22. B. Lewis, ‘The Impact of French Revolution on Turkey’, in G.S. Métraux and F. Crouzet (eds.), The New Asia: Readings in the History of Mankind (New York, Toronto: New American Library, 1965), pp.31–56.

23. T.M. Gökbilgin, ‘Tanzimat Hareketinin Osmanlı Müesseselerine ve Teşkilatına Etkileri’ [Impact of the Tanzimat on the Ottoman İnstitutions and Structures], Belleten, Vol.31, No.121 (1967), pp.93–111.

24. For the full texts of the Imperial Rescript of Gülhane (1839) and the Reform Edict (1856) see J.C. Hurewitz, Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East, A Documentary Record: 1914–1956, Vol.I (New Jersey, London, Toronto, New York: D. van Nostrand, 1956), pp.113–16 and 149–53.

25. H. Inalcik, ‘Political Modernizations in Turkey’, in R.E. Ward and D.A. Rustow (eds.), Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp.183–84.

26. B. Tanör, Osmanlı-Türk Anayasal Gelişmeleri [Constitutional Developments in Turkey and the Ottoman Empire] (Istanbul: Afa Yayıncılık, 1996), p.78.

27. R.H. Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire: 1856–1876 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963), pp.407–08.

28. According to the provisions of the Treaty of Sevres, of European Turkey only Istanbul was to be left to Turkey; in Anatolia, an Armenian state and a Kurdish state were to be created; part of the Western Anatolia was ceded to Greece. Hurewitz, Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East, pp.81–7.

29. K.H. Karpat, ‘Millets and Nationality: The Roots of the Incongruity of Nation and State in the Post Ottoman Era’, in B. Braude and B. Lewis (eds.), Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, p.162.

30. Y. Akcura, Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset [Three Ways of Politics] (Ankara: Turkish Historical Society), 1998.

31. The CUP Programme put emphasis on the compact unity of the Muslim population. Tarık. Z. Tunaya, Türkiye'de Siyasal Partiler [Political Parties in Turkey] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1998), pp.70–5.

32. At the end of the WWI, out of 12 million Ottoman population, per cent 85 belonged to Muslim majority, per cent 9 to the Greek, per cent 5 to the Armenian and less than per cent 1 to the Jewish minority. Sabahattin Selek, Anadolu İhtilali [The Anatolian Revolution] (Istanbul: Kastaş Yayınları, 1987), p.64.

33. M. Gologlu, Erzurum Kongresi (The Erzurum Congress] (Ankara: Nüve Matbaası, 1968), pp.201–03. Uluğ Igdemir, Sivas Kongresi Tutanaklari [Documents of the Sivas Congress] (Ankara: Turkish Historical Society, 1969), pp.113–15.

34. Ataturk clearly expressed minority policy of the war years in his following words: ‘It was a principle for us that the prosperity and happiness of the Armenian and Greek inhabitants of the country would be guaranteed as long as they remained faithful to the Government and our national cause …’. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, ‘Müterakeden B.M.M.'nin Açılışına Kadar Olaylar ve Belgeler’ [Events and Documents from the Armistice to the Establishment of the GNA], Belgelerle Türk Tarihi Dergisi, p.18.

35. For the minority provisions of the Peace Treaty of Lausanne see Hurewitz, Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East, pp.119–27.

36. Turkish political culture limited minority status exclusively to religious minorities. Political expression of ethnic and linguistic differences remained alien to Turkish political history. Under these circumstances, Riza Nur Bey proclaimed, Turkish State would under no condition be expected to grant official recognition to ethnic and linguistic distinctions existed among the Turkish–Muslim population. See Seha L. Meray, Lozan Barış Konferansı: Tutanaklar-Belgeler [The Lausanne Peace Conference: Records and Documents], Vol.1–2 (Ankara: Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Yayınları, 1969), p.154 and 160.

37. B. Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), p.15.

38. For the 1924 Constitution of Turkey see Edward M Earle, ‘The New Constitution of Turkey’, Political Science Quarterly, Vol.40, No.1 (1925), pp.89–100. The same wording was preserved intact both in the 1961 Constitution (Art. 54) and the 1982 Constitution (Art. 66).

39. See the parliamentary elaboration of Art. 88 of the 1924 Constitution Y. Toker, Milliyetçiliğin Yasal Kaynakları [The Official Sources of Nationalism] (Istanbul: Tekin Yayınevi, 1979), pp.361–64.

40. Ataturk himself implicitly affirmed the ethno-lingual differences of Circassian, Kurdish, Boshnack and Laz elements in Turkey. But, depending on the fact that they had shared a long common history in legal and cultural unity, he strongly denied that they would claim a separate national existence in the established form of Turkish nationality. A. Afetinan, Medeni Bilgiler ve M. Kemal Atatürk'ün El Yazmaları [Civil Knowledge and Ataturk's Unpublished Notes] (Ankara: Turkish Historical Society, 1998), p.23.

41. P. Andrews, Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey (Wiesbaden: Dr. L. Reichert Verlag), 1989.

42. For the related articles of the law see Kopenhag Siyasi Kriterleri ve Türkiye [The Copenhagen Political Criteria and Turkey] (Ankara: Human Rights Foundation, 2000), pp.254–58.

43. Ibid., pp.175–83.

44. Ibid., pp.142–43.

45. A. Mesut, ‘Türk Devlet Söylemi ve Kürt Kimliğinin Reddi’ [The Turkish State Discourse and the Denial of Kurdish Identity], Birikim, Vol.48 (1993), pp.22–33. See also M. Yeğen, 'The Turkish State Discourse and the Exclusion of Kurdish Identity, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.32, No.2 (1996), pp.216–29.

46. For the full text of the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek–Turkish Populations see H.J. Psomiades, The Eastern Question: The Last Phase (Institute for Balkan Studies, (1968), pp.120–26.

47. İ. Tekeli, ‘Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'ndan Günümüze Nüfusun Zorunlu Yer Değiştirmesi’, [Forced Migration From Ottoman Empire to Today], Toplum ve Bilim, Vol.50, Summer (1990), pp.49–71.

48. Psomiades, pp.60–8.

49. F. Bey, the Minister of Public Works, declared in 1923: ‘According to arrangements concluded with foreign companies, the latter must engage Turkish employees only. This does not mean that they can employ all subjects of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey indiscriminately. They must employ Muslim Turks only. If the foreign companies do not shortly dismiss their Greek, Armenian and Jewish servants, I shall be compelled to cancel the privileges under which they are authorized to function in Turkey’. A. Alexandris, The Greek Minority of Istanbul and Greek–Turkish Relations: 1918–1974 (Athens: Centre for Asia Minor Studies, 1992), p.111.

50. Ibid., p.110.

51. A. Aktar, Varlık Vergisi ve Türkleştirme Politikalrı [Capital Tax and the Politics of Turkification] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2000), pp.118–21.

52. A recent study shows that though today there remains no official ban on employing minorities in the public sector, many seemed to have lost confidence that they could be employed in state offices. See Y. Koçoğlu, Azınlık Gençleri Anlatıyor [Minority Youth Speak] (Istanbul: Metis Yayınları, 2001).

53. C.N. Ileri, a prominent politician and journalist, associated the official delimitation of Turkish citizenship with Turkish language. Ileri claimed that if minorities were to be admitted into equal framework of Turkish citizenship, the linguistic rights of Lausanne must have first been liquidated. R.N. Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri: Bir Türkleştirme Serüveni (1923–1945) [The Jews of Republican Turkey: A Venture of Turkification] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2000), p.107.

54. See Ayten Sezer, Atatürk Döneminde Yabancı Okullar: 1923–1938 [Foreign Schools During Ataturk's Era] (Ankara: Turkish Historical Society, 1999).

55. Bali (2000), p.108.

56. Aktar, p.131.

57. B. Oran, Atatürk Milliyetçiliği: Resmi İdeoloji Dışı Bir İnceleme [Atatürk's Nationalism: A Non-Official Study] (Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi, 1997), pp.200–07.

58. The Gagauz Turks, who spoke Turkish but followed the Orthodox–Christian faith, were not allowed to migrate to Turkey in the mid 1930s. Because of religious distinction, they were not considered to fall under Turkish national identity. In the same period, however, large groups of Balkan Muslims from various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds were accepted into Turkey. K. Kirişçi, ‘Disaggregating Turkish Citizenship and Immigration Practices’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.26, No.3 (2000), pp.1–22.

59. Resmi Gazete [The Official Gazette], No.2733, 21 June 1934.

60. H. Karabatak, ‘Türkiye Azınlık Tarihine Bir Katkı: 1934 Trakya Olayları ve Yahudiler’ [A Contribution to the History of Minorities in Turkey: The 1934 Thracian Incidents and the Jews], Tarih ve Toplum, Vol.146 (1996), pp.68–80.

61. Resmi Gazete [The Official Gazette], No.5255, 12 Nov. 1942.

62. See the press release delivered by the ruling Premier Saraçoğlu, Ayın Tarihi (History of the Month), No.108, Nov. 1942, p.40.

63. R. Akar, Aşkale Yolcuları: Varlık Vergisi ve Çalışma Kampları [Travellers to Aşkale: The Capital Tax and Labour Camps] (Istanbul: Belge Yayınları, 2000), pp.166–67.

64. A.E. Yalman, Yakın Tarihte Gördüklerim ve Geçirdiklerim [Memoirs of the Recent Past], Vol.2, (Istanbul: Pera Yayınları, 1997), pp.1.253–54.

65. F. Ökte, The Tragedy of the Turkish Capital Tax (London, Sydney, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire: Croom Helm, 1987).

66. Ibid., pp.71–72.

67. R.N. Bali, ‘Resmi İdeoloji ve Gayrimüslim Azınlıklar’ [Official Ideology and the Non-Muslim Minorities], Birikim (Jan.–Feb. 1998), pp.171–72.

68. F. Benlisoy, ‘6/7 Eylül Olayları Öncesinde Basında Rumlar’ [Greeks in the Press Before the Incidents of 6/7 Sep.], Toplumsal Tarih, No.81 (2000), pp.28–38.

69. Alexandris, p.259.

70. Human Rights Watch, The Greeks of Turkey, A Helsinki Watch Report (New York, Washington, Los Angeles, London: Human Rights Watch, 1992), p.8.

71. On the closure of the Seminar see E. Özyılmaz, Heybeliada Ruhban Okulu [The Theological Seminar of Khalki] (Ankara: Tamga Yayıncılık, 2000).

72. ASALA staged 86 attacks against Turkish nationals from 1973 to 1985, resulting in the deaths of 47 Turkish citizens. Turkish Daily News, 21. Dec. 1991, cited in F. Franz, Population Policy in Turkey: Family Planning and Migration Between 1960 and 1992 (Hamburg: Deutsches Orient-Institut, 1994), p.327.

73. F. Dündar, Türkiye Nüfus Sayımlarında Azınlıklar [Minorities in the National Census of Turkey] (Istanbul: Çiviyazıları, 2000), p.138.

74. Franz, p.331.

75. Dündar, p.138.

76. 1998 Regular Report From the Commission on Progress Towards Accession of Turkey, 4 Nov. 1998, http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/turkey/rep_11_98/b12.htm; 1999 Regular Report From the Commission on Turkey's Progress Towards Accession, 13 Oct. 1999, http://europa.eu/int/comm/enlargement/report_10_99/pdf/eng/turkey_en.pdf; 2000 Regular Report From the Commission on Turkey's Progress Towards Accession, 8 Nov. 2000, http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/report_11_00/pdf/en/tu_en.pdf; 2001 Regular Report From the Commission on Turkey's Progress Towards Accession, 13 Nov. 2001, http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/report2001/tu_en.pdf

77. The description of the offense under article 312 (‘incitement to hatred on the basis of differences of social class, race, religion, sect or region’) was amended. The scope of incitement was narrowed with an additional wording of ‘in a way that may be dangerous for public order’. The Law No.4744, Resmi Gazete [Official Gazette], 19 Feb. 2002.

78. Amendments to the article 8 of the Turkish Criminal Code clarified the meaning of acts committed against the ‘unitary characteristics of the state’ and introduced the notion of ‘propaganda in connection with the terrorist organization in a way that encourages the use of terrorist methods’. The maximum closure period for radio or television channels for propaganda against unity of state was reduced. Ibid.

79. The Law No.4748, Resmi Gazete [Official Gazette], 09 Apr. 2002.

80. Ibid.

81. The Law No.4771, Resmi Gazete [Official Gazette], 09 Aug. 2002.

82. Ibid.

83. ‘Türk Vatandaşlarının Günlük Yaşamlarında Geleneksel Olarak Kullandıkları Farklı Dil ve Lehçelerin Oğrenilmesi Hakkında Yönetmelik’ (Regulation on Learning Languages and Dialects Traditionally Used by Turkish Citizens in Daily Life), Resmi Gazete [Official Gazette], 20 Sep.2002.

84. Throughout the implementation of the confiscations, foundations of the Greek minority lost 152, of the Armenian minority 48, and of the Assyrian groups 6 of its properties. Today, the pious foundations of the non-Muslim minorities have 165 properties (77 Greek, 52 Armenian, 10, Assyrian, 19 Jewish, 1 Bulgarian, 3 Chaldian and 2 Georgian). A. Şık, ‘1936 Beyannamesi Yırtıldı’ [1936 Declaration was Nullified], Radikal, 05 Aug. 2002.

85. The Law No.4771.

86. The Law No.4928, Resmi Gazete [Official Gazette], 19 Jul. 2003..‘Cemaat Vakıflarının Taşınmaz Mal Edinmeleri ve Bunlar Üzerinde Tasarrufta Bulunmaları Hakkında Yönetmelik’ [Regulation on the Foundations' Capacity to Acquire and Dispose Properties), Resmi Gazete [Official Gazette], 04 Oct. 2002. ‘Cemaat Vakıflarının Taşınmaz Mal Edinmeleri Hakkında Yönetmelik’ [Regulation on the Foundations' Capacity to Acquire Properties), Resmi Gazete [Official Gazette], 24 Jan. 2003.

87. Y. Reyna, ‘Cemaat Vakıflarının Taşınmaz Mal Edinmeleri ve Tasarruflarına Ait Yönetmelik’ [Regulation on the Foundations' Capacity to Acquire and Dispose Properties], Şalom, 16 Oct. 2002.