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Incursion threat clouds livelihood of
Turkey's Kurds
26.10.2007
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October
26, 2007
CIZRE, Kurdish Southeastern region of Turkey,
-- Kurds in the southeastern Turkish town of Cizre,
close to the Iraqi Kurdistan border, fear their
region could be drawn into conflict and economic
ruin if Turkey sends its troops into Kurdistan
region 'Iraq' to hunt down Turkey's Kurdish PKK
rebels.
"A cross-border operation means more bloodshed, war.
We do not want that. We have already suffered a
lot," said Metin Selcuk Ozalap, a 23-year-old who
sells pirated copies of the latest Hollywood movies
in the centre of this town of some 80,000 people.
"What we need here is investment and business
opportunities," he said.
Cizre, in Sirnak province, is at the heart of bloody
conflict between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an armed
campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish
southeastern Turkey since 1984 at the cost of more
than 37,000 lives.
Faced with mounting PKK violence, the government
last week obtained parliamentary authorization to
launch military strikes against some 3,500 PKK
rebels sheltered in the autonomous, Kurdistan region
'north of Iraq'.
Turkey's threat rattled nerves in the United States
and Iraq, which strongly oppose a military operation
that could destabilize the only relatively calm part
of the war-torn country.
But it is Turkey's own Kurdish community that feels
most threatened.
"It is always us who bear the brunt. The majority of
families here have relatives either in the military
or with the PKK," said Idris Serim, a 39-year-old
taxi driver. "We do not want either side to die."
Many fear that a full-scale incursion could see
fighting between the army and the rebels -- mainly
limited to the rugged countryside -- spread across
the region and into urban centres as it did in
1992-1993, at the peak of the PKK rebellion.
"As a child, I grew up with conflict. We couldn't go
out after sunset and we'd listen to gunfire at
night," said Tahir Acar, 28, as he supervised the
workers renovating his clothing shop. "We don't want
to go back to that just as we start to see some
improvement."
In a bid to boost its bid to join the European
Union, Turkey recently abolished 15 years of
emergency rule in the region and introduced reforms
allowing Kurdish-language classes and broadcasts.
A cross-border operation would also have a deep
economic impact, forcing the closure of the Habur
border post with Kurdistan 'Iraq' in a region where
the livelihoods of many depend on cross-border
trade.
The fighting has hit traditional agriculture and
livestock farming in the region hard, forcing many
villagers to flee their homes for the cities, where
they contribute to greater unemployment.
Nowadays, the backbone of the regional economy is
the trucks that go to northern Iraq with consumer
goods and return with
cheap fuel.
"Habur is our only source of income. What are people
going to do if that is closed? Go and join the
rebels in the mountains?" Ozalp asked.
Ramazan Ekmekci, whose mobile phone business depends
largely on trade with Kurdistan region 'northern
Iraq', drew an even bleaker picture.
"Where there is no income, there will be rebellion,"
Ekmekci said. "If the people fall for provocations
and dig up the weapons they buried, no one -- not
Turkey, not the United States -- can stop them."
Many say the region's problems cannot be solved
through military means but by Ankara negotiating
with the rebels and giving more democratic rights to
its Kurdish community.
"We don't want to break away from Turkey and set up
our own state. Turks and Kurds have been living
together for centuries," said Ismail Kurtulus, the
34-year-old owner of an electronics shop.
"We only want our own identity," he said, saying he
wants Ankara to drop its flat refusal to talk with a
group it considers a terrorist organization.
AFP
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially 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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