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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - Her 19-year-old daughter
"left for the mountain" 10 days ago, the woman
explained in proud tones, using a euphemism for
joining the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.
The daughter's decision was driven by the recent
death of a friend who was a guerrilla with the PKK,
which is fighting the Turkish army in the country's
volatile southeast.
The daughter, asked to prepare the body for burial,
washed and wrapped the corpse in a shroud but "could
not wash away the marks of torture and she was never
the same after, talking about nothing but revenge,"
the mother said.
The 50-year-old mother of eight agreed to talk only
if her name were not revealed so authorities
couldn't identify her or her daughter. It is her
hope that after training, her daughter will return
from the mountain -- and go to war.
"You never know how you will be asked to serve," she
said. "It may be that she will work in the kitchen.
But in my dreams, I see her carrying a gun and
avenging the deaths of her friends."
One military operation, one insurgent attack at a
time, the fighting has returned to this mostly
Kurdish region, with casualties on both sides.
Although the army hasn't released official figures,
a tally of the deaths on the state-run Anatolian
News Agency indicates that about 100 rebels and
soldiers have been killed in the last three months.
The violence has been accompanied by increased
recruiting by the PKK in southeastern Turkey,
according to interviews with people familiar with
the group's tactics.
One switch has been the effort to draw young women
into the group.
Although women's organizations challenge the notion
of the PKK as being in the forefront of women's
rights, this mother said: "In our houses, our
villages and tribes, Kurdish women are oppressed by
tradition. But in the PKK, women are truly equal.
After serving in the PKK, women can take that
authority back to their communities."
During a 15-year conflict that ended when the PKK
called for a cease-fire in 1999, an estimated 37,000
people died, thousands of Kurdish villages were
destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people were
displaced from their homes.
In the last five years, Turkey has undertaken a
series of reforms, including allowing Kurdish to be
taught in private schools and used in television and
radio broadcasting.
But local political leaders say Ankara's efforts,
partly the result of pressure from the European
Union, are insufficient. They demand further
political and cultural freedoms, such as allowing
the teaching of Kurdish in public schools and a
general amnesty for PKK militants.
The PKK called off its truce last summer, citing
dissatisfaction with the government's efforts. Now
the conflict is intensifying. The army has beefed up
its outposts, redeployed fighting units and set up
armed checkpoints on the roads.
This month, the military launched another operation
in the eastern province of Bingol. During the
funeral for Ahmet Okur, a PKK commander killed
during the operation, his father shed no tears but
berated the Turkish government, whose soldiers
pelted the funeral with tear gas.
"I want peace and no more bloodshed," Haydar Okur
was quoted in the Turkish press as saying. "But the
state is still denying the Kurds their full rights."
Since the military attack in Bingol, the PKK has
blown up a passenger train, killing five passengers
and injuring a dozen. A second attack on another
freight train resulted in injuries to railway staff.
Last weekend, five soldiers died in two land mine
incidents and three police officers were injured
during an attack on the provincial governor's home
in Hozat. On Monday, Kurdish guerrillas abducted a
Turkish soldier in the southeast, government
officials said.
Each side blames the other.
The PKK is acting only in "self-defense," said
Hasan, a former PKK commander who asked that his
full name not be used. "Rising Kurdish nationalism
can be blamed directly on rising Turkish
nationalism."
Serdar Irmek, director of the pro-Kurdish Dicle News
Agency, said the government has missed an
opportunity to bring about a permanent solution to
the Kurdish problem.
"The PKK has done all it can to resolve the
problems," Irmek said. "It declared a cease-fire,
its fighters left the country and they are willing
now to return to normal civilian life with a general
amnesty. But the Turkish government sees democracy
for all its citizens as a threat."
Criticism of the PKK comes from a surprising
source--another Kurdish group. Halis Nezan, director
of Rights and Freedom Party, which is supported by
Masoud Barzani, the northern Iraqi Kurdish leader,
said the PKK has suppressed democratic development
in Turkey's Kurdish region.
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