Ethics

With an approximate of about eighty-five million people, Turkey is largely composed of the Turks who are closely followed in numbers by the Kurds. It is one of the ethnic-religious states that resulted from the break up of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. The Turkish people constitute of close to eighty percent of the total population, the Kurdish people twenty percent while the other groups constitute about one percent and the two major ethnic groups are predominantly Islamic.  Though these people have lived together for a long time, political polarization has more than often caused ethnic rifts between the different ethnic groups mainly between the Kurdish and the Turkish. A good example of this is the close to twenty years conflict between these two ethnic groups in Turkeys south East region. These ethnic problems are deep rooted within the community and are believed to be partly related to the constitution enacted about seventy years ago by one of Modern Turkeys founder Mustafa Kemal (Michael 41). This constitution denied the right to existence any distinct ethnic sub-group in turkey. As a result this has always led to a serious suppression of any ethnic identity of the minority groups mainly Kurds such as in 1991 when the use of the Kurdish language was termed illegal despite the language being widespread.
Kurds repression dates back to the era of Turkey foundation as illustrated by Kevin Mc Kernan in his book The Kurds A people in search of their homeland (Ferhad and Gulistan 23). He says that Turkey was founded in 1923 under the autocratic Ataturk after the Young Turks association was prompted to assert for the states independent following the humiliation and exploitation by victorious allies after World War II. Since Ataturks ideology of Turkification, Kurdish people have always been sidelined in matters of nationality. These ethnic issues are more pronounced in the Turkish governments efforts to suppress any move by the Kurdish to form political affiliations. There are records of Kurdish politicians being harassed or imprisoned and political parties being banned on the basis of crimes of opinion (Kemal and Gareth 35). In 1994 for example Leyla Zana the first woman of Kurdish background to have been elected to the Turkish legislature was jailed for fifteen years and her party banned for claims that she had issued a separatist speech. Ethnicity issues has also resulted into the holding of resources from the Kurdish majority south East Turkey by the government of Ankara thus leading to underdevelopment of this region. This has resulted into two distinctly contrasting extremes in turkey the highly developed Western and Northern and the less developed Eastern and Southern (Michael 57). There have been separatist movements such as Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that  have been fighting for the rights of the Kurdish people though they have severally faced resistance from the government leading to deaths of thousands of people and displacement of millions of people specifically the  Kurds.  According to Kerim Yeldiz, the situation in the South and East is not just a matter of severe unhappy coincidences that have impoverished the areas but as a result of Turkeys government deliberate pursuit for an anti-Kurdish motive.
The government has continued to oppress very effort of Kurdish identity and this was more evident in 2006 when the government employed the services of 5,000 troops in the south East to stop riots due to the killing of 14 PKK members (Ferhad and Gulistan 78). This led to a further killing of 14 civilians which the Diyarbakir mayor referred to as a result of unresolved political and social wrangles such as unemployment and inequality. Every aspect of the Turkish government such as the military, judicial ad the police have been used to promote discrimination. The situation was expected to worsen with the approach of Turkeys general and presidential elections as most notable figures in the government called for more suppression of Kurdish identity.      
According t a 2005 report by Amnesty International there have been torture, assassinations and death threats of lawyers and human rights activist and this has deterred any effort to resolve the ethnicity issue in Turkey. For example the 2005 Kurdish Human Rights Project mission investigating the ethnicity situation encountered sixty investigations from the government forces where 12 prosecutions (Kemal and Gareth 98). Though legal, Kurdish political parties such as Kurdish democratic Society (DTP) have either been banned or declared guerillas by the government. Erdogan the Turkish prime minister declined to hold any dialogue with the DTP people argue that they were aligned to PKK which he refers to as terrorist group yet it is a human rights association asserting for the rights of the Kurdish (Michael 143). A further 10 election threshold and which is the highest among all European countries implemented by the Turkish government sought to deny south east Kurdish parliamentary representation. The media also has been hardly hit by the government efforts to counter ethnicity issues. From the reports of the association of Turkish publishers, 47 writers were prosecuted while KHRP report that 284 books were banned by the government on the allegations of promoting hatred and insulting Turkishness (Kemal and Gareth 121). Radio stations and newspapers such as pro-Kurdish face permanent closure because of advocating for Kurdish rights. The government has strict control over the Use of Kurdish language in broadcasting and in teaching. 
In trying to resolve the ethnic issue, different aspects have been considered and they include the states culture of politics, consciousness levels among leaders and the populace, nature of relationships among the ethnic groups and the nature of conflict, the differences and similarities among the ethnic groups. The issue of ethnicity has threatened to divide Turkey. The political differences are the foundation of this possible split. Erdogan of late has tried to resolve the matter by granting Kurdish rights. In recent years, there has been the recognition of Kurdish language in private schools and in broadcasting. Though prohibited in the past this move is determined to change the attitude of Kurdish people towards the government. Erdogan has also allowed more space for the creation and working of human rights groups which was not the case in the past (Kemal and Gareth 63) . Press freedom has been asserted to try and resolve a possible division of the Turkey state along tribal boundaries which could be of serious harm in future. He has been working with the international community to so as to assert confidence in the government among all citizens of Turkey. However, granting of Kurdish rights has been resisted by 52 of Turks who feel that this is unacceptable while in another case 74 of the Turk population feel that constitution recognition of Kurds is unacceptable. This has threatened to divide the country even more since the Kurds are in for these changes. The prime ministers effort to counter the ethnicity issue is faced by the negative attitude of the Turks and this is deterring any future prospects of a united Turkey. This situation may not become any better unless there is government good will and the international communitys attention. Erdogans bid to stop an ethnic break up lack to bear fruits given that about 48 of Turks feel that the break up of Turkey is positive (Ferhad and Gulistan 97). The fate of whole matter then will depend on the attitude of Turks towards the Kurds.