ISTANBUL // In what could become a major step in widening cultural rights, two newly founded state universities in Turkey's Kurdish region are preparing to ask education authorities in Ankara for permission to set up the country's first departments for Kurdish language and literature.
"There is change taking place in Turkey," Ibrahim Belenli, the rector of Hakkari University in the south-eastern corner of the country, said in a telephone interview. He said the offer of courses on Kurdish language and literature by colleges would help to bring "more harmony" to a country where a bloody conflict in the Kurdish region has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
Serdar Bedii Omay, the rector of Artuklu University in Mardin, also in Turkey's south-east, is planning to offer Kurdish language and literature courses in the framework of an Institute of Eastern Languages and Religions that would also include courses in Arabic, Farsi and Aramaic.
Although in the middle of Turkey's Kurdish region, Mardin is also close to the Syrian border and lies west of the country's Tur Abdin region, a centre of Aramaic Christians. If all goes well and the higher education board, or Yok, the Ankara-based body overseeing Turkey's universities, gives the green light, the institute can start life next year. "It is a contribution to social peace," Prof Omay said.
That Prof Belenli and Prof Omay are even considering creating Kurdish departments is revolutionary. Turkish universities routinely offer education in English, French, German or other foreign languages. But so far, there is no Kurdish education at a college level. Traditionally, the Turkish state has been reluctant to tolerate moves that may strengthen loyalty to non-Turkish native languages of its people because it is seen as a potential threat to national unity.
The biggest threat is perceived to come from the Kurdish language, because the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a rebel group, has been fighting for more autonomy from Ankara since 1984. In 1991, parliamentary deputies from the Kurdish area were stripped of their seats and imprisoned three years later for alleged membership in the PKK because one of them, Leyla Zana, added a sentence in Kurdish to her Turkish oath as a deputy.
Today, the use of the Kurdish language is less restricted in Turkey, after political reforms in recent years allowed the country's estimated 12 million Kurds to speak Kurdish publicly, to open and attend private Kurdish language courses and listen to Kurdish music. Currently, the government is preparing to start a new television channel that will broadcast in Kurdish and other minority languages. The new channel is to begin with test broadcasts in January. Kurdish is still banned in official usage. Politicians from the Kurdish region have had to appear in court after they sent out official invitations in Kurdish.
The universities of Prof Omay and Prof Belenli are newcomers, with the one in Mardin operating since last year, while another in Hakkari officially open less than a year, but they are not alone in planning language branches that go beyond the normal fare in Turkey. Trakya University in the north-western city of Edirne has already received permission from Ankara to open an Armenian branch in its foreign language department. Courses with 20 students are expected to start next year.
Prof Omay said Turkey's reforms in the framework of its bid to join the European Union had changed the political climate. The country was "moving in a good direction", said Prof Omay, who teaches medicine. He said representatives of local authorities in Mardin had raised no objection to his plans. "Everybody is supporting me. So far there has been no allergic reaction."
The debate about Kurdish courses at state universities started when Osman Ozcelik, a Kurdish deputy in Ankara's parliament, tabled a draft law last month that calls for the opening of Kurdish language departments at universities in the metropolis Istanbul and in Diyarbakir, the main city of Turkey's Kurdish region.
After Mr Ozcelik's proposal, Yok signalled it was ready to look at proposals coming from universities. There was no legal hurdle for universities to come forward with the wish for a Kurdish language department, Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, the Yok president, told the daily newspaper Radikal.
Halis Ayhan, a senior Yok official, told the same newspaper that universities were "late" in proposing such departments. At the same time, Prof Ayhan was careful to draw a clear distinction between the roles of Turkish and Kurdish. "In the constitution, it is being stressed that Turkish is the language of education. Kurdish is a language that is being spoken by a local group in Turkey."
In Mardin, Prof Omay said he had no intention of making Kurdish a second official language in Turkey. Still, the establishment of courses in Kurdish was "essential" for a university like his. Prof Belenli of Hakkari University said it was important "that people should be able to express their opinions openly". As his university was still in the start-up phase and had no buildings of its own at the moment, the opening of Kurdish language courses was years, rather than months away, he said.
Efforts in Edirne are much more advanced. As it prepares for the new Armenian courses, officials at Trakya University have described the reform as a contribution to the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement that started after a visit by Abdullah Gul, Turkey's president, to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, in September. "We go forward with the slogan 'First learn the language of your neighbour,'" Sevinc Sakarya Maden, head of the foreign languages department, told the Hurriyet newspaper. "It is our biggest aim to create relations of peace and understanding."
tseibert@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Du Plessis plans his retirement
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said on Friday the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia in two years' time will be his last.
Du Plessis, 34, who has led his country in two World T20 campaigns, in 2014 and 2016, is keen to play a third but will then step aside.
"The T20 World Cup in 2020 is something I'm really looking forward to. I think right now that will probably be the last tournament for me," he said in Brisbane ahead of a one-off T20 against Australia on Saturday.
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