Europe can be supposed to have entered into a bargain with Turkey in regard to Kurdish issue, French historian and former worker at the French Institute in Turkey, Etienne Copeaux, said in an interview with Public Senat French parliamentary TV channel.

In his words, during the talks with the EU, the pressure on the Kurds increased. Here an element of trade can be noticed according to the principle “if you turn a blind eye on Kurds, we will take back your migrants”.

“Apparently, something similar is happening, since Europe is absolutely silent or almost silent about what is happening in eastern Turkey,” Copeaux noted.   

“The struggle against the Kurds, which has been taking place since 1925, is one of the factors strengthening the Turkish society. The second one is nationalism (which is the first one by its significance).  In fact, the latter exists not as an idea but an absolute principle. This is considered a laudable quality, being propagated at school and in the army. Interestingly enough, the Ataturk cult began to form as such only after the military coup d’etat of 1980, and as part of synthesis of Islamism and Turkish identity. Since as early as the 1970s, the idea born in the beginning of the 20th century, according to which each resident of Turkey is mandatorily a Muslim, began to be disseminated. That is, on the one hand Ataturk’s figure is propagated as the founder of the secular Turkish state, while on the other hand non-Muslims, including Armenians and Greeks, are expelled by all means,” the historian said.