Reparations and Displacement in Turkey: Lessons Learned from the Compensation Law

  • In countries that have experienced large-scale displacement, compensating the losses of victims raises unique challenges for governments. The difficulty of designing and implementing a reparations program is further elevated in a context where displacement was both on a massive scale and forced, where the displaced have been subject to serious human rights abuses by security forces and where these incidents occurred is an armed conflict. The economic, administrative, and legal challenges affiliated with the design and implementation of a mass-scale compensation program for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of victims are exacerbated by the complexity of political and legal issues associated with prosecuting state agents. The forced displacement of more than one million individuals in Turkey in the context of the armed conflict between the Turkish armed forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a prime example of this situation. After years of denial of state responsibility, in an effort to enhance its chances for EU accession, the Turkish government adopted a compensation law for the displaced in 2004. Being one of the few countries actually compensating the displaced for their economic losses, Turkey has often been pointed to by the international community as an exemplary case. Yet, a close study of the government’s policies on displacement in general and the compensation law in particular shows that the international community has prematurely hailed Turkey for its compensation scheme for the displaced. Furthermore, the limited reparative efforts of the Turkish government took place in the absence of a political solution to the Kurdish question or a “transition” to peace. Drawing on the lessons drawn to be learned from the Turkish case, this paper aims to reflect on the challenges of designing and implementing an effective reparations program for the displaced in situations where the root causes of displacement are still valid.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Author(s):Dilek Kurban
Parent Title (German):Case Studies on Transitional Justice and Displacement
Publisher:ICTJ / Brookings
Place of Publisher:Washington, D.C. [u.a.]
Publication year:2012
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
Number pages:22
Release Date:2015/08/19
Tag:transitional justice and reparation programs, Kurdish conflict
Volume:July 2012
Notes:
Volltext / Fulltext:
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Projects/idp/tj-case-studies/Kurban-Reparations-in-Turkey.pdf?la=en
Licence of document (German):Metadaten (öffentlich), Volltext (zugriffsbeschränkt)
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