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Amed attack: Kurds and Turks face bleak
future 14.9.2006
By Vladimir van Wilgenburg
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On Tuesday Sept 12 night
a bomb blast claimed the lives of eight people in
Diyarbakir (Amed), 6 of them were children.... It
reminded me of the stories of Kurdish refugees, who
survived the nightmare days of the nineties:
Disappearances, mysterious killings, burned villages
and civil war. Therefore I decided to take a little
trip into the past by reading a book about this
issue.
Finally I found an Amnesty International Report from
1996 about Turkey[1]. This showed a bleak picture:
Ill-treatment, torture, disappearances,
extra-judicial killings, etc. According to this old
report the "successive [Turkish] governments have
colluded with the security forces by denying or
covering up gross and persistent violations".
The recent attacks of TAK against tourists, the
violence and clashes between the PKK and the Turkish
military, extra-judicial killings, civilians (also
children) killed in demonstrations, etc.. make me
"gloomy". It looks like those bad old days are
returning and there is no direct solution for this
problem. Still the Turkish state and Kurdish rebel
groups think they can solve this problem by using
violence. |
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Dogu Ergil (Turkish intellectual) that I quoted on
the front page of my blog said that "we [People of
Turkey] leaves problems unsolved and keep tripping
over them for decades until they become structural
impediments to progress and democratisation".
And the problems are still unsolved despite some
cosmetic changes. Although the ban on Kurdish
publications and Kurdish speaking is lifted,
recently
one thousand Swedish children’s’ books
translated to Kurdish were confiscated at the
Atatürk International Airport at Istanbul.
In March 2006 I wrote about a death squad operation
against the aged parents of the chairmen of the
Kurdish Institute in Brussels. Despite the Dutch and
Belgium governments discussed the issue and demanded
clarification, this case is still unclear. It still
seems just as in 1994 that the international
community has been reluctant to turn expressions of
concern into action.
According to the Amnesty International report there
are several reasons for this inaction. To name a few
of AI's conclusions: [1] Turkey's strategic position
in the region (Against Iran, Soviet Union. Now
Turkey is especially important due to the natural
resources in Central-Asian Turkish states and the
Middle-East in general), [2] Foreign ministries have
a host of concerns other than human rights: they
have little to gain by pressing hard on their
allies' human rights performances, [3] "Positive
engagement" dilemma. Turkey aspires integration in
the European Union, [4] Western governments justify
their lack of action by claiming that public
condemnation of violations could drive Turkey out of
dialogue on human rights, leading to more human
rights abuses.
I would add to these points, that the European
States are reluctant to act, because they are scared
that their actions could be seen by the Turkish
government as "pro-Kurdish" or "pro-PKK" and they
don't want to drive Turkey in the hands of Islamic
states or outside influence sphere of the European
Union.
Another recent incident is the
slaying of a Kurdish girl. Findings of a human
rights delegation contradict the official Turkish
state version of the story: the girl was caught up
in cross-fire.
After my total condemnation of TAK's actions, a
Turkish blogger claimed that I justified TAK's
actions and that I was a "Turkey basher". His
reaction was a typical response to criticism towards
Turkey. Also Amnesty International faced these kind
of reactions by the Turkish state and stated: "The
Turkish Government tries to discredit it's critics
at home and abroad by suggesting that they
sympathize or collude with the PKK". After Amnesty
International issued an urgent appeal the Turkish
government claimed that Amnesty was in fact
conducting an indirect campaign in support of the
PKK.
Some Turkish people who read my articles conclude
that I am sympathizer of the PKK. But I am not a
sympathizer of the PKK. I indeed sympathize with the
Kurdish people in general, but not with the PKK. If
the Turks can't make a difference between the PKK
and the Kurdish people, then it's not my problem.
Portraying critical Kurds, Turks, foreigners as
traitors or PKK supporters won't help solving this
social problem. But still we cannot blame the
Turkish people for being "ignorant", they only hear
the official version of the stories on the
television, radio and media, but not the "real
story".
Some Turks even think that Turkey is treating the
Kurds very well. Turks and Kurds must realize that
this issue can only be solved by dialogues, real
reforms and peaceful ways.
But I do not see a solution in the near future. Both
the Turkish government and the PKK keep positioning
themselves as "warriors" rather than political
actors[2]. They want to monopolise their respective
political domains and leave no middle ground for
their constituencies to reconcile. Like all
warriors, they opted for war rather than
conciliation. And without conciliation, continued
confrontations, a real solution is endangered. I
hope that in the future Kurds won't be described
anymore as a "problem" or an "issue" and can live in
peace. But it seems that the conflict will continue.
Notes:
[1] "Turkey: No security without human rights",
Amnesty International Publications, (London, 1996).
[2] "A civic adventure: Creation and evolution of
Tosam", Website Tosam, URL: http://www.tosam.org/
(Turkey, 2000 (?))
About Kurds and Kurdistan from History
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey
The Kurdish flag flown in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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