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Turkey's Kurdish clashes grow, threaten
European Union entry 12.5.2006
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May 12
(Bloomberg) -- Sakine Arat hasn't seen her son since
he left their hometown in southeast Turkey 13 years
ago and joined Kurdish rebels doing battle with the
army.
``I sometimes catch a glimpse of a young man who
looks like Murat, in a crowd in front of me or on
the other side of the road,'' Arat, 71, said in
Diyarbakir, 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the
Syrian border. ``But of course, it's never him.''
Murat is one of 7,000 armed Kurds fighting Turkish
soldiers in the southeastern mountains in a conflict
that has escalated since his Kurdistan Workers
Party, or PKK, ended a five-year cease-fire in June
2004. The PKK is demanding political rights and
better living standards for Turkey's 12 million
Kurds. The government says it's a terrorist
organization.
Escalating ethnic tensions and bomb attacks in the
region this year have damaged tourism and may
threaten Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
The 25-nation bloc has called on Turkey to
strengthen democracy for the Kurds, including
allowing them the right to stage protests. The
Muslim Kurds are the dominant ethnic group in
southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and northwestern
Iran.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 52,
says he won't negotiate with the rebels, and has
criticized the EU for failing to curb the
organization's financing and political support from
Kurdish exiles in Europe.
``The EU must be looking rather negatively at Turkey
right now, because the government had told them it
is widening rights for Kurds and tackling the
military, but now all we seem to be seeing is
violence and bloodshed,'' said Amanda Akcakoca, a
policy analyst at the European Policy Centre in
Brussels.
Violent Clashes
The PKK ended its cease-fire after the Turkish army
refused to stop attacks against its members. At
least 75 militants and Turkish security personnel
have died in clashes since November, according to
government reports. Forty people were killed in
April alone.
Turkish police fired on demonstrators in Diyarbakir,
killing at least 10 people, after thousands rampaged
through the city throwing stones and setting fire to
buildings during a March 28 funeral procession for
four members of the PKK. Among 300 people arrested
were 10 regional chiefs of the Democratic Society,
or DTP, Turkey's biggest pro-Kurdish party.
At least 21 people, including 11 children, were
wounded when a bomb exploded in the town of Hakkari,
less than 50 kilometers from Iran and Iraq, on May
3. Authorities blamed Kurdish rebels for the attack.
Kurdish groups have threatened to attack tourist
resorts on Turkey's Mediterranean coastline this
year. The number of visitors slumped 12 percent in
the first quarter from a year earlier. Turkey is
relying on revenue from tourism to help narrow a
current-account deficit that widened to a record $23
billion last year.
EU Negotiations
Turkey began EU membership talks in October, hoping
to attract investment by foreign companies, boost
incomes and create jobs for a working-age population
that's growing by half a million each year. The
country won't be able to join before 2014 at the
earliest, the EU says.
Plans by the Turkish government for tougher
anti-terrorism laws to tackle the PKK, now before
parliament, have been criticized by the EU, which
says the measure threatens to setback democratic
reforms in the Kurdish region.
``We call upon all parties to exercise restraint, to
remain committed to peaceful means and to show
respect for democracy and the rule of law,'' said
Krisztina Nagy, a spokeswoman for EU Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn, in an e-mailed statement.
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, 58, was sentenced to be
executed by a Turkish court in 1999. The government
commuted his punishment to life imprisonment and
dropped the death penalty three years later under
pressure from the EU. Ocalan is the sole prisoner on
an island jail off Turkey's western coast.
Village Murders
The Turkish parliament in the past five years has
passed laws allowing Kurdish TV and radio broadcasts
and now allows Kurdish adults to study in their own
language. Kurdish activists including Leyla Zana,
released in July 2004 after a 10-year jail term, say
the steps don't go far enough.
Kurdish discontent is evident in Diyarbakir, where
the unemployment rate is 40 percent, or almost twice
government estimates, according to Sahismail
Bedirhanoglu, head of the city's largest business
group. A government plan to inject cash into the
southeast's economy won't work unless taxes are
lowered for companies, he said in an interview April
13.
In Dogancay, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Turkey's
border with Syria, villagers are mourning the murder
of Ferho Akgul, 85, and his wife Fatma, 80, who were
attacked in their home on March 2. The two are the
parents of Derwish Ferho, chairman of the Kurdish
Institute of Brussels, a group that campaigns
against what it says are violations of Kurds' human
rights.
`Show Courage'
``It appears that the murders were politically
motivated, but none of us have any idea who killed
them,'' said Ferman Akgul, 18, a relative of the
dead couple, in an interview.
Sakine Arat hopes pressure from the EU will end the
violence and bring home her son Murat, who's now 37.
Tarcettin, another of her five sons, died at the age
of 34 fighting the Turkish army last year, she said.
``All I want is peace and my son back by my side,
just like any other mother or father would do,'' she
said. ``The government must show courage and
announce an amnesty for all those fighting in the
mountains, to help put an end to all this
bloodshed.''
Bloomberg com
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