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Bombings fuel fear and anger in southeast
Turkey
1.12.2005
By Daren Butler
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SEMDINLI,
Kurdistan-Turkey, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Former Kurdish
rebel Seferi Yilmaz fears for his life after he was
almost killed in his bookstore by a bomb many blamed
on Turkish intelligence agents.
Yilmaz's name was on a hit-list found in the car of
the suspected assailants -- reviving memories of
extra-judicial killings linked to security forces at
the height of a separatist insurgency in Turkey's
troubled southeast in the 1990s.
In Semdinli, an impoverished town beneath the
snow-capped mountainous borders with Iraq and Iran,
locals worry that a wave of violence heralds a
return to the brutality of those days, just as
Turkey begins European Union entry talks.
"People here are uneasy after five years without
fear. The violence used to be in the mountains, but
it has spread to the towns," said local mayor Hursit
Tekin, himself hurt by a stone hurled as he tried to
calm angry crowds after the Nov. 9 attack.
More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict
since the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
a group regarded as a terrorist organisation by the
EU and the United States, took up arms against the
state in 1984.
Semdinli was the site of the PKK's first operation
and Yilmaz himself spent 15 years in prison over his
involvement, although he denies ever being a member
of the outlawed group.
Locals warn that the latest trouble may undermine
widespread Kurdish hopes for the EU process,
encouraging youths to join PKK fighters holed up in
the nearby mountains of northern Iraq.
"When things like this happen, youths lose hope in
democracy and think about going into the mountains,"
Yilmaz said, fingering bloodstained books amid the
wreckage of his shop, where one of his friends was
killed as they prepared lunch.
This week Kurdish media close to the PKK said 1,700
recruits had joined the group in 2005. They said
more than 500 youths entered the PKK camps in the
summer.
And local media reported that thousands of people
marched into the mountains in the southeast at the
weekend to act as human shields and demand the
military stop a large-scale offensive against the
PKK.
Places like Semdinli, where there is little work,
are a breeding ground for militancy. Bored young men
mill about dusty streets or sit in tea-houses with
their elders who are dressed in traditional baggy
trousers and black-and-white headscarves.
CLIMATE OF FEAR
Army leaders say the government, in its efforts to
bring Turkey into line with EU human rights and
legal standards, has prevented them cracking down
more effectively on the guerrillas.
Meanwhile, critics of Ankara say the bombings may
have been engineered by hardliners as "provocation"
to create a climate of fear and trigger a crackdown
in the mainly Kurdish region.
A top general said last week he believed the PKK
carried out the bookstore bombing, angrily rejecting
claims that bombers acted on the orders of senior
military commanders.
Separatist violence subsided after PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999, but clashes
have flared up again this year after the militants
ended a unilateral ceasefire.
"Their (the assailants') aim is to create unrest and
turn the state and people against each other ... we
are tense because we don't know what will happen
next," said Tahir Erbas, a 30-year-old trader,
echoing the view of several locals.
Last week Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan made an
unexpected visit to Semdinli and appealed for calm.
The government has eased many legal curbs on Kurdish
language and culture, to the distaste of Turkish
hardliners. But human rights group and the EU argue
much more must be done and see conflict there as an
obstacle to democratic development.
Police in Semdinli said rioting locals had destroyed
one of their buildings and erected a makeshift "PKK
checkpoint" after the bombing. Rioters ripped down
Turkish flags and destroyed a bust of modern
Turkey's founder Ataturk, one officer said.
Ankara has begun an investigation into the bomb
attack and a court on Tuesday ordered the arrest of
two members of the gendarmerie, a rural paramilitary
force. A third gendarme and a Kurdish
rebel-turned-informer have been in detention since
the bombing.
The provincial governor has been removed from his
post and his replacement is soon to take up the
post. His office declined to comment on the
troubles.
Reuters
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