Turkey’s Kurdish question demands action, not rhetoric: Future Party official

Vahdettin Ince is a Kurdish writer, translator, politician and former TV presenter at state-owned TRT Kurdi in Turkey. 

A longtime member of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), he ran as a candidate in the 2015 general election for the Kurdish city of Van.

Ince resigned from the AKP and joined the Future Party when it was founded in December 2019 by former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu – a co-founding member of the AKP with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since 2001. 

Ince is currently the assistant to Davutoglu on human rights affairs. 

In this interview conducted by Rudaw’s Shawkat Harki on Saturday, Ince answered questions on his party’s stance on Kurdish rights in Turkey and beyond. The Future Party seeks resolution of the Kurdish question through actions, not words, he said.

Ince has written five books about Kurds in Turkish. He also translated former Kurdistan Region president Masoud Barzani’s book, Barzani and the Kurdish National Liberation Movement into Turkish. 

Why did you leave the AKP and form a new political party?

I was not actually an active politician, but when I received an offer [from the AKP] to be a candidate in Van, I accepted it. Though I was not politically active, I was writing and reading about politics. If you are a Kurd in a country like Turkey, your life is not exempt from politics.

Political parties are normally formed to represent the demands of people. This is fundamental. However, if a party becomes a ruling party and changes its position and imposes the demands of the government on its people, there will be no sense in having such a government.  When it was founded, the AKP really represented the demands of people...
 
When it comes to Kurdish question in particular, many important steps were taken [after the AKP came to power]. Many people complain about the AKP’s change of policy. However, I want to ask - what practical move from the AKP caused all the criticism?

As I said, it used to represent the demands of people: demands of Kurds, Alevis, the religious, and all the components of the country. However, following some key events like the July 15 incident [2016 failed coup on Erdogan], it [AKP] was in a state of defense. It used to be proactive and embrace openness [towards Kurdish and other issues] but it began to close up [on internal issues]. You should not leave issues unsolved. The Kurdish question is a dynamic one. In Syria, Iraq and Iran too, countries with a Kurdish population, the Kurdish issue is the dominant one.    

I will ask you about relations with neighboring countries later, but I want to ask whether you expect politicians from other parties like the AKP, Republican People's Party (CHP), Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and others to join your party? 

This will become clear in the future. [Whether others will join us] based on our party’s performance,  rhetoric and system will show in the coming days.

We want to become a central party in Turkey, to replace the AKP in areas it has abandoned. We as the Future Party want to fill this gap. We are interacting well with the public. Wherever we go, people express the need [to have our party in the place of the AKP], but there is a fear of repercussions. However, one can read from their eyes [that they need us]. The most common thing we are told is ‘Well done for your courage.’ When one goes to the streets and someone tells him/her ‘Well done brother! Bravo for your courage!’ it means that there is fear in this country. It is a big shame for there to be such a fear.   

Do you see yourself as strong enough to respond to these demands? Can you resolve all the existing issues?  

Of course. I, as an individual, and we, as a party, are capable of implementing these demands. We support diversity … Kurds have to be included in the system and have a place in this country, but not to an extent where Kurds are strong enough to suppress others. In this case, they would be no different from the previous system…There is a determination and necessity [to resolve Kurdish issues]. In a great and historic country like Turkey, these issues cannot be left unsolved. This will make all its ethnic and religious groups unsuccessful.
 
How are your relations with other Turkish and Kurdish parties, especially the HDP?
 
We do not categorize political parties as legitimate or illegitimate. For us, the HDP, CHP and HAK-PAR [the Kurdish nationalist Rights and Freedoms Party]are equal … However, there are ideological differences. For example, the [resolution] of the Kurdish issue is on the agenda of all political parties, but each of them has a different understanding of it. This ideological difference does not prevent us from enjoying good relations with each other. Everyone has good and bad. No one is totally good or bad. We follow the good. If the HDP tells the truth, we will give them credit, but if they do something bad, we have the right to say they have done something bad. The HDP has about six million voters and we do not see it to be outside the system. 

The leader of your party has talked about former HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas positively, but one of your party’s spokespeople criticized Demirtas. Is there a united position in your party regarding Demirtas?  

There is no difference between what our spokesperson and our leader said. Their speeches do not clash. Each of them has shown a different side of the issue. We all believe that politicians should not be arrested. They have to be responded to politically [not judicially]. Selahattin Demirtas does not have to be in jail. However, Selahattin Demirtas has to apologize and say that his policy regarding the war of trenches [when pro-Kurdistan Workers’ Party groups set up trenches in Kurdish areas in southeastern Turkey and controlled some key areas] and the destruction of Syria, Nusaybin and Diyarbakir [was wrong] as we paved the way for the government do bad things. So there is no clash between the comments of the spokesperson and the leader: Selahattin Demirtas should be free, but he has to hold himself accountable, as his policy was neither a Kurdish nor a Turkish one but a regional one.  

Some people also demand Ahmed Davutoglu apologize for his role in Turkish government as the prime minister of Turkey as he currently criticizes the establishment? 

Mr Davutoglu, both now and as an AKP member, has criticized the party’s wrongdoings enacted during his membership, both orally and in writing. He says that he was not part of these [wrongdoings]. Therefore, he does not have to remind us what he has done and what he has not. He is criticized for his role as prime minister, but I can testify that he did not approve of these [wrongdoings]. 

What is your plan for your relations with neighboring countries like Syria? 

The situation in the region – not only Syria - is like a cloth with 40 patches. If you pull out the thread, all 40 patches come undone. If you try to resolve an issue in a country like Syria, Iraq, Libya, Turkey or Iran, 40 other issues emerge, making their resolution complicated. This is all as a result of the Sykes–Picot [agreement] which has turned this region into a site of conflict and bloodshed. There are many solutions but no one can wave a magic wand to resolve them all. Our party and others have expressed their good will [for resolution}, but it is very hard to resolve issues in the Middle East. It is true that we face such a system, but people and civil society organizations all have to get together and make agreements. Kurds and Arabs, Kurds and Turks, and Kurds and Alevis all have to come together to discuss and resolve issues.
 
Turkey enjoys good relations with the Kurdistan Region. What can your party do to improve them?

The Kurdistan Region, as a name and entity, is definitely very important for all Kurds. Iraqi Kurdistan does not only represent Iraqi Kurds; all Kurdish eyes are on it. The success and prosperity of this Region is the prosperity of us all. All Kurds should feel this way. 

We live in a state called Turkey. We surely have special relations with Turkey. We love it as our country and wish it prosperity, but we are Kurds. The Kurds of Turkey are connected to other Kurds from Kars to Sulaimani, the same way that the Turks of Turkey have connections with the Turks of the Atlantic [Ocean] and Turkestan. This is a natural, normal and divine thing. This is important. We want to be successful. We do not want them [Kurds from Kurdistan Region] to be harmed. Therefore, it is better for both Turkey and Kurdistan Region to better their relations. They both benefit from this. If the Iraqi Kurdistan Region prospers, so does Turkey - and vice versa. When Mr Davutoglu was prime minister he enjoyed good relations [with Kurdistan Region], even at a personal level. I personally know that Mr Masoud Barzani [former Kurdistan Region president] praised [the role of Davutoglu]. If we have a chance in the future, we will further improve relations. These two places should not be separated. We cannot remove our borders [with IKR], but we can make them obsolete. We do not need these borders. We all have one home from Colemerg [Hakkari] to Duhok, and from Duhok to Kars.   


What are your plans for the Kurdish language in Turkey? Are you going to add Kurdish language to your programs? How important is the Kurdish language to you?    

Regarding the Kurdish question and the demands of Kurds, there is no position unspoken. Everyone has commented on it. Those who demand independence, those who demand a federation, those who demand autonomy, those who demand self-governance have all spoken. There is no need to say anything else, only to act. There have been actions too, including those of the AKP, such as the opening of TRT Kurdi and Kurdish departments at universities. I do not know what to say as everything has been said but we will act. The Kurdish language has to be studied [at schools]. We have put this on our agenda. If this does not happen there is no need to talk [more]. Action is more important and we will make it happen, god willing.

Interview conducted by Shawkat Harki, translation by Karwan Faidhi Dri 

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