Minorities in the Middle East

I have to confess that I am not extremely familiar from the academic point of view with the history and reliable references of minorities from the Middle East. I have a limited direct knowledge of the area and I had the occasion to meet in person or to have professional dialogues with people from the region, with various minority background. But I am reading very often media reports - with a careful scientific distance - and I see how often the minority issue is raised, used and misused. I am also trying to write currently an article about the possible comparisons between the approach to minority issues in various regions, as the South-Eastern Europe, Black Sea Region and, last but not least, the Middle East. My main idea is that without the pressure of joining in a near future global alliances and organizations as EU and NATO, offering subsequent economic and symbolic advantages, the situation of minorities will not receive soon a proper legal framework.

The recent conference held in Berlin by prof. Mordechai Zaken, author of a book about the Jewish communities in the Middle East, was a perfect challenge to orient my academic interests towards different historical, cultural and geographical space. The main focus on the conference was to explain the misuse of the comparison between the situation of the Kurds and of the Palestinians. Among the most important there are: different demographic data, lack of political will from the part of the states to get involved in supporting the Kurdish case, geopolitical and political opportunism in abusing the "Palestinian case", but also the lack of trained and organized elites and of a clear political manifesto and ways of action (in the Kurdish case). Repeating the same patterns or accepting various involvement from outside must be balanced once the clear interests are set. The religious aspects might be important, but the smart and targeted actions and the creation of valuable elites will give, by far, more weight and support for a coherent and, at the end, successful action.

Feud delays Iraq committee Kirkuk recommendations

Mustafa Mahmoud
Reuters
March 29

Iraqi politicians from rival Arab, Kurd and Turkman ethnic groups will delay until June recommendations on the disputed city of Kirkuk, as they have failed to resolve a feud over the issue, they said on Sunday.

Minority Kurds see oil-rich Kirkuk as their ancient capital and want it to be part of their semi-autonomous region in Iraq's north, an idea rejected by the city's Turkmen and Arabs.

U.S. officials say the dispute between Arabs and Kurds over territory and oil has overtaken sectarian tensions as the leading threat to Iraq's long term stability.

So sensitive is the issue that officials were forced to exempt Kirkuk from Iraq's provincial elections on Jan. 31 because rival lawmakers could not agree on how to treat it.

A committee of seven legislators representing Iraq's different ethnic groups -- two Arabs, two Kurds, two Turkmen and an Assyrian Christian -- and another made up of Kirkuk councillors were due to draft recommendations on how to resolve the dispute at the end of this month.

"Both committees have agreed to extend the period of work by two months to secure enough time to reach a compromise," Hassan Toran, a Turkman councillor involved in the draft, told Reuters.

"It's too difficult to reach common ground now. More time is definitely needed to solve such contentious issues."

The struggle over Kirkuk highlights a wider divide across Iraq between Arabs and Kurds nearly six years after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that ousted Saddam Hussein. Kurds are alarmed at Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's call for a strong, central government, which they fear threatens their hard-won autonomy.

The Kurds want to reverse Saddam's policy of "Arabisation" in Kirkuk, which involved expelling thousands of Kurds, but the city's Arabs now complain the pendulum has swung the other way, with the Kurdish government deliberately stacking the city with Kurds and intimidating its Arab minority.

"The Kurds have hampered efforts to reach an urgent solution to the problem of Kirkuk," said Mohammed Jubouri, an Arab councillor. "It's very clear that their final target is to impose full control over Kirkuk. We will never accept that."

But Awat Mohammed, a Kurdish council member, was hopeful.

"There is fundamental agreement between all sides ... The difference is the mechanics how to implement it," he said.

The United Nations is scheduled to deliver recommendations of its own for how to handle Kirkuk some time after mid-April.

The U.N. report on territory disputes between Iraq's Kurds and other communities, primarily in Kirkuk, was originally supposed to be published by October last year, but it was postponed because of the sensitivity of the subject.

A senior U.N. official dismissed what he called speculation in the media over the contents of the report -- which he said were "not finished ... very much work in progress".

One report, quoting diplomats in Kirkuk close to the process, said the U.N. would recommmend a power-sharing deal between both Iraq's central government and the Kurdish government in Arbil giving them joint jurisdiction over Kirkuk.

The other option would recommend making Kirkuk autonomous but reliant on Baghdad for its budget, it said.

"I don't know precisely which options will be in the final version and which will not, and certainly not how we will formulate them," the senior U.N. official said.

"We are continually working on new drafts so my telling what may or may not have been in an earlier one, before any senior officials had reviewed it or approved it would serve no purpose whatsoever -- except raising tensions higher," he said.


The most important question is: are the concepts used in Europe easy or possible to translate in the Middle East?

Turkey disregards minority rights in schools

Ayla Jean Yackley
Reuters, International Herald Tribune

March 16

Nearly half of the children of internally displaced ethnic Kurds in Turkey are unable to attend school and other minorities face institutional discrimination in education, a report said on Monday.

Nurcan Kaya, author of the report by Minority Rights Group International, said a failure to provide equal access to education for children from non-Turkish backgrounds could hamper the country's bid to join the European Union, which has called on Turkey to expand cultural rights for its ethnic minorities.

"The discrepancy between EU standards on education for minorities and those in Turkey will ultimately affect Turkey's efforts to join the EU," Kaya said at a news conference.

"The EU should give this issue greater priority during Turkey's accession process," she said.

Turkey only recognises Greeks, Armenians and Jews as minorities under a treaty that ended World War One and doesn't afford special rights to other ethnic or religious groups, including Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of the population, Roma, Syriac Christians, Alevi Muslims and others.

Millions of Kurds over the last three decades have left the countryside in southeast Turkey for urban centres to find work and escape fighting between the army and Kurdish separatists.

Forty-eight percent of these families questioned said they were unable to send their children to school after moving, citing poverty as the main obstacle, according to the London-based NGO's report, which was funded by the EU.

Literacy rates are 73 percent in the mainly Kurdish southeast, compared to 87 percent in the country's more affluent west, the report said. Only 60 percent of women are able to read in the Kurdish region, it also said.

Turkey has eased restrictions on the Kurdish language, which was completely banned until 1991, and language courses are now available at a handful of universities.

Kurdish children, as well as other ethnic groups, who attend state school are unable to study their mother tongue, the report concluded.

Officially recognised minorities operate their own schools and are able to teach some classes in Greek or Armenian, but are given as little as $1 per student annually in financial assistance from the government, said Garo Paylan of the Armenian Foundation Schools at the news conference.

Minority schools are unable to find properly trained teachers and updated textbooks, he said. A Turkish assistant principal employed by the Education Ministry is the main authority at the schools.

Religious education that teaches the Sunni Hanafi creed of Islam remains mandatory in state schools and non-adherents can only opt out of classes if they disclose their faith, which violates Turkey's secular constitution, the report said.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that religion classes in Turkey's state schools violate pluralism in a case brought by an Alevi father.

See also:

about Alevi

The report of Minority Rights Group International