Turkey could create an autonomous, federally recognized political, ethnic and economic region within its borders. Using the negotiation outcomes of the Philippines with its state-secessionist conflict as a model, the Turkish government might do well to implement such a structure in eastern Anatolia. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) exercises power and functions as the proper governance of the region. It develops all constituent units within the Autonomous Region consistent with the constitutional policy on regional and local autonomy in a decentralized government. The ARMM is internally independent but externally dependent on Manila. Muslims in the region have their representatives in the lower house, and they are seeking to have Muslim representatives in the upper house as well. Mindanao is predominantly Catholic, but Muslims claim it as their ancestral domain, having fought the Spanish, Japanese, and American colonizers for more than three centuries. The autonomous region in Mindanao was created in August 1, 1989 by virtue of the Republic Act No.6734. However, it was actually organized and inaugurated on November 6, 1990, under the presidency of Corazon Aquino. In 1996, to convince the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to lay down its arms and the leader of the group to become a chief executive, members of the group joined the Philippine army and stopped the bloodshed of innocent people. The ARMM region in the Philippines is generally constructed in the manner of states, with executive, legislative, and judiciary branches; they typically have states-like symbols such as flags, customs, among other signals; and they also have other state-like institutions such as municipalities. It is true, though, that the sovereignty of the ARMM region is partial or limited to certain spheres such as culture, the economy, and traditions. But at the same time the notion of sovereignty explains that the Philippine government or state itself is no longer completely sovereign. It has agreed to share its sovereignty with the ARMM region on an equal basis but with the devolution of sovereignty concerning only a part of the country and being limited to specific spheres. The ARMM region also is often privileged in having mass media under its control, including newspapers, television stations, as well as other available means to influence the population and to carry out the process of ethnic mobilization. It is fair to say that the institutions of the autonomous region help to increase group identity.

However, Muslims are divided among themselves, although they do not admit it. A multi-ethnic, multi-religion country, the Philippines have conflict beyond the Moro-national government tension; clan conflict tends to be more prevalent. Situated in the southern portion of the Philippines, the ARMM region is composed of the mainland provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao, Marawi City, and Basilan, all of which in 1986 under the Philippine Constitution became be part of the ARMM. People thought that the creation of the ARMM would bring hope for peace, law, and order in the region, but in 1991, there was another group formed, called Abu Sayyaf, that claimed an Islamic state in the region.

According to the Philippines' National Statistic Office census, nine out ten of the region's 2,412,159 inhabitants are Muslim. There are 4.3 million Muslims living in Mindanao with 5% of the total Philippine population being Muslim. Three key provinces have historically been the focal points of conflict: Cotabato City, Lanao Del Norte, and Zamboanga City. Cotabato City is home to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the break away group from the rebel MNLF. Because of Zambonaga City's proximity to the Basilan province where the Abu Sayyaf has its stronghold, it sees intermittent violence. However, Muslims in the Philippines, like the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, fill the news more often with bloody clan wars and feuds among tribes in the ARMM. The Office of the President's Peace Plan has initiated peace discussions with rebel groups, but today's continued threats of international terrorism and the idea of the Mindanao has become one of the safe havens for worldwide terrorism's training place.

A comparison of the problem in the ARMM region and the Kurdish question in Turkey brings a different perspective. Today the Muslim minority in the Philippines has a full array of rights, because the government has given them all kinds of freedom. It is true that the government had discrimination policies against Muslims, but now it has recognized those biased policies. We asked the Muslims, "Is it social and economical injustice that drives people to violence, is it a religious war between the Muslims and the Catholic Christians, or do Muslims really want to be independent from the Philippine government to promote their own social and economic welfare for themselves? When I asked ARMM representatives what is best for the ARMM and if they wanted to secede from the Philippines, some of them said they just wanted to have Islamic law. Many of them suggest that living under their Islamic laws is primary. Secession is not their response. However, the Philippine government allows the Muslim majority to practice Shar'ia law in the civil court involving such proceedings as marriage and divorce, even though the majority of the Philippines are Catholic Christians.

Historically, conflict in the southeastern Philippines has been defined as clashes between Muslims and Christians. However, spending time with the Muslims reveals that those kinds of conflicts are a cross between tribes or inter-families and factions fighting because of clan conflict or family disputes and personal reasons. Granted, sometimes Christians and Muslims conflict takes place because of personal disputes, inequality, discrimination, and most importantly stereotyping, but also geographical location of the Philippines could play a factor. Because of the Philippines being located in Asia near countries which are predominantly Muslim population, for example, Indonesia and Malaysia, they hold to the notion that brotherhood should protect brotherhood. In the Kurdish case in Turkey, it is the opposite. The Kurds are divided by the Muslim countries. It is crucial to know the level of affiliation of a government with the Kurdish people. The Muslims are more inclined to trust a Muslim nation than Christian ones. The Kurds trust Christian nations more than their fellow Muslim. The issues of graft and corruption have become major concerns as well as hindrances to improvement of the social and economical conditions and even bring about an increase of conflict as well. As in the case of the Kurdish people, the majority of the Kurds do not ask for independence. Nevertheless, when the government has failed to deliver basic services, roads, schools, and a water supply, then fighting, crime, illegal drug trafficking diverts the attention from medical needs, education, and jobs. The causes and nature of the conflict in the ARMM now is not more Christian versus Muslim discord but rather more about feuding tribes, ongoing family problems, and old stereotypes about one another. The controversy is not about demanding more rights from the government, but rather about bringing back the confidence and trust in the institutions and the leaders' emphasis on law enforcement. An absence of trust in law and enforcement and a presence of corruption create a predisposition toward violence as well as toward secessions. There is a lack of faith and ability for the institutions to solve the citizen problems. According to some of the Muslims, a demonstration that no one will corrupt good governance is a key ingredient to bringing peace and order in the ARMM region. The Muslim minority in the Philippines is much more focused on the delivery of services and on curbing corruption, but also some of the Catholic Christians want the Mindanao region to be independent from Manila because they believe that Manila is too corrupt to handle the general welfare of the people because the poor quality of life still continues. The people are not free when they are poor, and they are not free when they are illiterate, not reading or writing.

A genuine peace negotiation requires long-term financial resources to boost the region to stand on its own feet. There needs to be major investments to build schools, factories, and health care facilities that will have a long term effect, in the case of Turkey in the southeast. It is unfortunate that economic activity is low, and the tax base is minimal. The semi autonomous region will help Kurds use their own resources such as the Southeastern Anatolia Irrigation Project or GAP (the Turkish acronym). This is a quest for a real solution to the Kurdish problem. Instead of giving goats or sheep to the Kurdish poor, the Turkish government needs to have long term investments and let the Kurdish people benefit from resources like water. Giving Kurds access to the water sources in their region could be of use for them, as well as the whole of Turkey, in improving the quality of life and reducing the poverty in southeastern Turkey that has consistently ranked as the poorest region. Kurdish people who live in this region of Turkey have the lowest average per capita income growth. Southeastern Turkey unemployment rate is double that of the rest of the country, and millions of people have immigrated west because of unemployment. This figure worsened by the fact that skilled laborers have been leaving the areas of conflict to work outside of southeastern Turkey. In the realm of health care, southeastern Turkey has the poorest health services in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality, and access to health services.

Another significant way to address the conflict relates to the native language. The right to have education in the mother tongue means allowing the language to be used at all levels of education. Turkish remains the national language like English is the national language in the Philippines, but in the Mindanao region Muslims have the right to speak and to gain an education in their own language. It is common sense that people are more successful in their mother language than in a second language. If students cannot properly learn their mother language, most likely they will not be successful in school. Turkey is now hosting the Turkish language Olympics and is proud of the event because many nations are able to speak Turkish, showing that the one thing they have in common is language. If language is so important to the nation, how can they prevent the Kurds form having the right to learn their own language? Mother-tongue education should be done in all public schools including Kurdish electives courses in the public schools. There should be Kurdish Institute departments at the universities for students to have educational services in their mother languages.

It is vital to create trust in a democratic solution among Kurds and Turks. This will lead to strengthening of feelings of harmony, belonging, and unity. Diversity is a good policy for Turkey to adopt to solve the Kurdish problem. The Turkish state was founded on a top down approach to nation building but denied diversity of the population remaining from the Ottoman Empire's millet system. The Kurdish question will not be solved unless Turkey rewrites its discriminatory Constitution written by military generals.

In conclusion Turkey could create an autonomous, federally recognized political, ethnic and economic region within its borders. The resolution of the Kurdish ethnic problem in Turkey by an autonomous region may serve as an effective solution to a problem that has endured since the inception of Turkey. Scholar Ted Gurr has argued that negotiated regional autonomy has proven to be effective for ethno political clashes. Autonomy such as that of the ARMM in the Philippines can be applied to the Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey as the only possible compromise between the interests of the Kurdish people and those of the Turkish state. Autonomy in the Philippines worked to prevent and to resolve ethnic conflict. Giving quasi autonomy to the Kurdish people to protect their identity and to curtail their political marginalization may help to end the suffering of the Kurdish people as well.