Analysts: Tensions Between Turks and Kurds Threaten Stability

July 27, 2011

Soldiers carry the flag-covered coffin of one of 13 Turkish soldiers killed southeastern Turkey by Kurdish rebels July 16, 2011.

At Istanbul's prestigious international jazz festival, Kurdish singer Aynur Dogan is heckled off the stage by the audience. She was singing in Kurdish just days after the killing of 13 soldiers by the PKK, an intolerable provocation to some of the concert-goers.

After Dogan was forced off, some audience members started to sing the Turkish national anthem. The incident set off alarm bells across the country.

"This is presumably culturally the most sophisticated part of the Turkish public -- at a jazz concert. They knew somebody was going to sing in Kurdish and they can't tolerate it. That shows how raw the wounds are. And it's just not for Turks. I think it's for the Kurds as well," said. Soli Ozel, a political columnist for the Turkish daily Haberturk. He says the incident, which made front page news across Turkey, is an indication of a polarization between Turks and Kurds.

Even at the height of the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state in the 1990's, hostilities rarely threatened to spill over into an inter-ethnic confrontation. But during that time, millions of Kurds fled the war-torn southeast and have since been living side-by-side with Turks.

Ozel says the governing AKP Party now faces a dangerous situation. "On one hand, the AKP manages to integrate the Kurds into the economic system so they have more of a presence, and this creates resentment on the parts of Turks who already have a position in the economic system. On the other, as the Kurds get more educated and more populated in the western and southern cities, they are also expressing their anger more forcefully," Ozel said.