Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to heal the sectarian wounds that run deep through Turkish society as he looks to take his country closer to European Union membership -- Brussels wants democratic reforms and improvement of human rights before Ankara will be considered for entry.

The Turkish premier has been looking to make concessions to the Kurdish, Armenian, Roma and Alevi (Shia Muslim, practicing a modern tradition of Islam) communities over the past year.

"Not long ago, this was all taboo," said Mehmet Ali Birand, a political commentator with Turkey's newspaper of reference Hurriyet.

Turkey and Armenia have been at loggerheads for years over the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Ankara still rejects Yerevan's genocide label, but the two countries inked a deal on October 10 to establish diplomatic ties and open their shared border.

Earlier that month, Erdogan addressed his Justice and Development Party's (AKP) annual conference in which he named 13 people who have made telling contributions to Turkish society.

He cited left-wing singer Cem Karaca, communist poet Nazim Hikmet, Armenian musician Tatyos Efendi and two Kurdish poets, Ahmet Kaya and Ahmed Khani, as being among the most influential Turks.

The Turkish government has also been keen to win over the Kurds as it looks to boost its bid for EU membership.

Erdogan recently announced a "democratic opening" for 12 million Kurds living in Turkey, which led to the Kurdish language being used for the first time.

He also released a group of pro-independence Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels at the end of October, who were arrested after they re-entered Turkey from their base in Iraq.

Just three years ago, the Turkish army vowed that it would vigorously defend the country from any threats made by the PKK.

The Islamist-rooted government hopes fresh gestures to the Kurds will erode popular support for the rebel group, which took up arms against Ankara in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

Opposition lawmakers say these overtures could risk national unity, while some critics say these moves have garnered no concrete results and are merely aimed at pleasing the European Union.

Hugh Pope, a senior analyst specialising in Turkish affairs at the International Crisis Group, disagrees.

"The fact that AKP leaders have chosen this year to push forward with these openings - at a time of discouraging, cynical and misguided opposition to Turkey's EU convergence from key EU powers -- strengthens the argument that AKP and Turkey are genuine in their attempt to assert universal values, rights and freedoms," Pope said.

For Hurriyet's Birand, this is merely a cynical ploy by the government to defend its own policies -- such as freedom of religious expression.

"By citing a variety of names, recognising the rights of other communities, the government puts itself in a strong position to defend its own demands, such as lifting the ban on wearing the veil at the university," he said.