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Turkey's Kurds push for autonomy
19.4.2006
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NICOSIA, Cyprus
-- In a growing climate of fear punctuated by riots
and bomb explosions, Kurdish nationalists in Turkey
are pressing their claim for autonomy.
Turkish military leaders and politicians feel that
granting such a demand would be tantamount to
storing dynamite under the republic's foundations,
and likely to result in Turkey's fragmentation along
ethnic lines.
As the country counted its latest victims of clashes
between the army and Kurdish rebels, Gen. Hilmi
Ozkok, chief of the general staff, called for
"unity, loyalty and self-sacrifice" from Turkish
soldiers so that "no one will be able to divide the
homeland." He addressed the troops in the provinces
bordering Iraq and Iran, where recent clashes took
place.
The problem of the Kurds, a tormented nation-tribe
deprived of statehood throughout its history, also
affects Turkey's neighbors Iran, Iraq and Syria,
where an estimated 10 million Kurds live.
It clouds U.S. policies in the area and Turkey's
candidacy for membership in the European Union,
which has been pressing the Turkish government to
show restraint in the face of Kurdish violence
spilling from the bleak mountains of southeastern
Turkey to the urban ghettoes of Istanbul, where a
number of Kurds have settled.
To the Turkish government, the creation of a
semiautonomous Kurdish administration in northern
Iraq has brought the specter of autonomy for
Turkey's Kurdish population. The Kurds have braced
themselves for more bloodshed and turmoil, while
Syria and Iran hint darkly at what they perceive to
be the Bush administration's intention to carve out
a Kurdish state from their territories.
Suicide bombings begin
In recent weeks, suicide bombers have appeared in
the conflict, which since the 1980s has claimed an
estimated 37,000 lives in the war between the
Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
regarded by Turkey, the United States and the
European Union as a terrorist organization.
Hardly a day goes by without rioting and clashes in
the mountains, where Kurdish fighters are reportedly
supplied with weapons from Iraq. The victims include
Kurdish guerrillas and an increasing number of
Turkish soldiers.
Mosques and government buildings have been bombed.
Although the PKK has proclaimed a unilateral
cease-fire in its campaign, local clashes
accompanied by mass demonstrations and rioting have
led to a general deterioration of the situation.
According to some diplomatic reports, a number of
Kurds doubt the validity of armed struggle, now that
Turkey has become an EU candidate. They argue that
time should be allowed for the EU to exert more
pressure on Turkey to recognize the validity of
Kurdish demands.
While allowing the restive Kurds the right to use
their language -- banned in public not long ago --
the Turkish authorities have vowed to suppress
rioting and bombings by the PKK.
"Sinister plans buried in history cannot be revived.
No one should dare defy the power of the state and
of the nation," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said.
Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu has promised that
"our struggle against terrorism will continue with
conviction and determination."
Since 1924, there have been 29 violent Kurdish
uprisings.
According to Jean-Francois Perouse, a French
specialist on Kurdish affairs, the Turkish Kurds
have been "economically and politically
marginalized, becoming the republic's second-class
citizens, and prone to violence."
Though they weigh heavily over Turkey's stability,
officially the Kurds don't exist. They are "mountain
Turks" or "our eastern compatriots." Their number in
Turkey is estimated at 8 million or more -- no
reliable figures are available.
Addressing economic problems and marginalization in
some predominantly Kurdish areas, Mr. Erdogan has
promised a series of reforms that would reduce
support for PKK militants roaming the mostly barren,
wind-swept mountains.
"While they [the PKK] try to capitalize on hatred,
we will build more roads, more hospitals, more
schools and places of work for the mountain Turks.
We will bring more freedom, more democracy, more
welfare, more rights and justice."
Kurdish identity denied
Wrote Hikmet Cetin in the pro-Kurdish newspaper
Ozgur Politika: "We should not forget that the
identity of the Kurds has always been denied and
that efforts have always been made to annihilate
them."
Seeking to satisfy some of their demands for freedom
of expression, the government recently authorized
private television channels to broadcast in Kurdish
for up to 45 minutes per day. However, the measure
is limited to 45 minutes a day for a total of four
hours a week. All video must carry Turkish
subtitles. Programs aimed at teaching or propagating
the Kurdish language are banned.
Politically, the process of convincing Kurds that
"it is not too late" to give up their fight is
paralyzed. So far, Mr. Erdogan has refused to meet
representatives of the Democratic Society Party, the
main pro-Kurdish political entity, until it declares
the PKK to be a terrorist organization.
Not all Turkish Kurds are impoverished and angry.
According to one diplomatic assessment, "although
their Kurdish origin is never mentioned publicly,
many Kurds have reached high positions in the
Turkish state and enriched many walks of Turkish
life."
"There have been Kurdish judges, Cabinet ministers
and members of parliament," a senior Turkish
official said recently, adding that his wife is a
Kurd.
Another assessment claims that since the creation of
the republic by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s,
successive governments "have pursued a policy of
assimilation, repression and dispersal of the Kurds.
Large numbers of Kurds have been transferred from
the eastern provinces to other parts of Anatolia."
Because "the Kurdish problem" constitutes a
considerable obstacle in Turkey's EU accession
process, measures were recently announced to
compensate Kurds for their losses in population
transfers during which the Turkish army was accused
of razing entire villages.
Diplomats say it is too early to assess how
successful the compensation process has been.
Despite the great importance of the Kurdish problem,
little has been written in Turkey about the Kurds'
origins and aspirations.
The Kurds claim to be Aryans, are classified as a
white race, and speak a language considered to be
Indo-European. They have lived in parts of Anatolia
since the 7th century B.C.
There are countless myths and legends about their
history. One says the Kurdish nation sprang from 400
virgins raped by devils en route to King Solomon's
court. There is a prophecy about a great Kurdish
leader who will arise one day and throw off the yoke
of his people's various oppressors.
For the time being, many Kurds look up to one
leader, now in a Turkish prison. He is Abdullah
Ocalan, 57, who once led the PKK and began the
latest rebellion in 1984, today blamed for 37,000
deaths.
He was condemned to death for treason in 1999, but
the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in
2002 after Turkey abolished the death penalty as
part of its efforts to adopt EU norms. Kurds have
rioted on several occasions demanding his release,
which has always been categorically rejected by the
government, which considers him a public enemy.
washington times.com
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