Turkey has an ongoing deep problem with the EU regarding the situation of the Kurds. In the aftermath of the Sept. 12, 1980 coup, a sizeable number of Turkish left-leaning trade unionists, militants, academicians and journalists fled to European countries. Their presence and despair left deep scars in European public opinion with regard to the non-democratic nature of the Turkish regime then.
Interestingly enough, the PKK emerged not during the coup d'état to fight against it, but afterward when all the damage was done. The PKK had the wit to show the repression in Turkey as directed only to the Kurdish population, whereas it was aiming the totality of the progressive forces although it is true that the Sept. 12 regime had a particular hate for the Kurdish problem, which saw the interdiction of "Kurdish" as a language.
The history of the Turkish Republic was already a long litany of Kurdish insurgencies and violent repressive operations by the armed forces. The image of the Kurdish freedom fighter has taken deep roots in the minds of European public opinion. It is also a fact that in the region where they lived, Kurds had to oppose, most of the time violently, very repressive regimes, be it the Shah's Iran or Saddam's Iraq. In Turkey, the stubbornness of respective Turkish governments prevented recognition of basic cultural rights to Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin, which exacerbated nationalistic feelings among a part of the community.
It would be unfair to say that there is a repressed homogenous Kurdish community in Turkey. Mixed marriages are almost the rule, and a large majority of citizens of Kurdish origin are well integrated in Turkish society. So long as nobody reclaims his or her Kurdish identity, no repression or discrimination occurs. In the other case, there was terrible repression in the past. However, a lot has been done under this government to increase the sphere of cultural rights and liberties. Broadcasting in Kurdish is not a real issue anymore; however, proponents of a Kurdish identity will not see it as completely satisfactory.
The trouble is then two-fold. On one hand, at a time when public liberties are in a sorry state in the Turkish Republic, how would it be possible to increase further cultural liberties and how would a decentralized administrative system be contemplated? On the other hand, at a time when there was no reason at all for any armed insurgency in Turkey for Kurdish identity, the PKK continues, very much like the Khmer Rouge, to keep a very violent guerrilla war against Turkish Security Forces every way they can, including terrible terror attacks on the civilian population.
Therefore, accepting the "Kurdish reality," as in the famous words of late President Süleyman Demirel, does not solve the problem of the PKK. The more political, cultural liberties and freedoms are granted to people of Kurdish origin in Turkey, the more the PKK will consolidate its intransigence and enhance its demands.
The trouble is that nobody, including the gang of old PKK leaders in Qandil, northern Iraq, has any idea about what these demands are. For example, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of northern Iraq, in a very clumsy move, wanted independence from Iraq, and it organized a referendum in this vein. Not only was it not implementable, but it also severed international support to the elected local government. It is extremely hazardous to think that a "nation-state" for the Kurds can be implementable in the region. We see more and more the shortcomings of such nationalistic approaches, even in very democratic regimes.
On the other hand, equating the PKK with some legitimate demands of Kurdish citizens of Turkey is also a deeply preoccupying error. The Kurdish question in Turkey can be debated and can find perspectives of solution, hopefully someday. The existence and actions of the PKK cannot be tolerated and pardoned in the name of solidarity with "freedom fighters." Terrorism is not acceptable in any democratic regime, and the support the PKK finds in some European circles, including the recent declaration by European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur, Kati Piri, remain deeply erroneous.
The mistrust between EU institutions and Turkish officials creates too many problems. The PKK case is one of the most salient problems. Separating legitimate and democratic Kurdish demands from PKK terrorism would be a step in the right direction for European Parliament representatives.