Comparing Ethnic Conflicts in Kosovo and Turkish Kurdistan

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 10:58:03 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Comparing Ethnic Conflicts in Kosovo and Turkish Kurdistan

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Panayote Elias Dimitras <[email protected]>

Comparing Ethnic Conflicts in Kosovo and Turkish Kurdistan


Comparing Ethnic Conflicts in Kosovo and Turkish Kurdistan
 
Florian Bieber
Institute on Southeastern Europe, Central European University
(22/4/1998, AIM Athens)
 
(also available in:
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/articles/AIM22-4-98.html)
 
The recent peace agreement in Northern Ireland has been praised not
only as a solution to the conflict which has ravaged the British
province, but also as a possible solution for other � comparable �
conflicts in Europe and beyond. Although Northern Ireland, Kosovo and
the Kurdish conflict, can all be characterized as ethnic conflicts,
their obvious similarities are riddled by large and often overlooked
differences.

The minority problems of Kurds in Turkey and Albanians of Kosovo have
been frequent subject of media coverage in the past decade. One can
find many parallels between Albanians and Kurds. They are spread over
several countries. They make up some 15% to 25% of the total
population in some of them (Macedonia and FRY for the former, Iraq and
Turkey for the latter). However, the character of the states they live
in is different, and so is the nature of the conflict they currently
face. Consequently, the options for conflict resolution are different
too. While the technique of attempting to resolve conflict might be
comparable, the solution itself has to be specific to each situation.
The application of a general "Northern Ireland" model to every ethnic
conflict � to Kosovo and to the Kurds in
Turkey in particular � would not pay sufficient respect to the local
specificities.

Albanians and Kurds, similar and yet very different minorities
..................

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