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Amid war drums, Turkey's Kurds fear loss
of rights
29.10.2007
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Democratic gains in southeastern Turkey may be
sacrificed if Ankara goes after Turkeys rebels in
Iraqi Kurdistan.
October
29, 2007
Yuksekova, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- The 100,000 Turkish troops massing near
the border with Iraqi Kurdistan region is a palpable
presence here in the predominantly Kurdish towns of
southeastern Turkey.
Heard above the shouts of children playing on the
streets in this small city of Yuksekova are the
thump-thump of military helicopters shuttling troops
and supplies. Periodically, armored vehicles merge
with the honking cars and trucks.
On Sunday, Turkish soldiers killed 20 Kurdish
guerrillas in a major military operation against
separatist rebels about 400 miles northwest of here,
Army sources told Reuters.
Residents in Yuksekova are sympathetic to the rebel
aims of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) but are
tired of the fighting. They worry that recent
political gains will be lost. In the July
parliamentary election, most voters here put their
weight behind a mainstream political party – the
ruling Law and Justice Party (AKP). In recent years,
the PKK has been losing clout, but some analysts
worry the current march toward war could revive
local support for the rebels.
"I am 30 years old and this current government is
the most democratic government that I have seen,"
Ismail Arslan, a Yuksekova radio journalist. "But I
don't think the government can continue in its
democratic ways in the current situation."
In response to stepped-up attacks from the PKK
across the nearby Iraq border, public support for a
tough, military response is building in Turkey. As
part of this fight with the PKK, some analysts
expect Turkish troops will restrict the rights and
movement of locals, and begin arresting residents
who are perceived as PKK supporters.
"If the local population sees democratic reforms
being rolled back [here], they could fall back into
supporting the PKK and following a more radical
line," says Volkan Aytar, a researcher at the
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, an
Istanbul-based think tank.
Clearly, the renewed PKK attacks – particularly the
Oct. 21 ambush that killed 12 Turkish soldiers –
have also exposed a deep fault line running through
Turkish society, one that is being watched with
increasing concern in the southeast.
That attack in the nearby mountain village of
Daglica led to protests across Turkey, with
thousands of flag-waving marchers calling for Turkey
to take action against the PKK. More disturbingly to
residents here, offices of the pro-Kurdish
Democratic People's Party (DTP), which currently has
19 of its members in parliament, were attacked by
mobs in several cities.
"While we are looking for terrorists in the Kandil
Mountains [of northern Iraq] we should not forget
that the supporters of terrorists are ... even in
the corridors of the parliament," Devlet Bahceli,
leader of the right-wing Nationalist Action Party (MHP),
said at a recent party meeting, referring to the
DTP.
Mr. Aytar warns that "the real danger is... an
increasing securitization of the Turkish political
discourse, which is threatening democratization."
Kurds, most of whom maintain a strong ethnic
identity even if they don't support the PKK's goal
of a Kurdish state on Turkish soil, are already
feeling alienated by anti-PKK rhetoric and protests
taking place across the country.
Turkey is pushing the US and Iraq to clamp down on
the PKK. Some 3,000 fighters are using Iraq as a
base for carrying out attacks in Turkey. On Sunday,
US Gen. David Petraeus said, "I am not going to say
anything about what we may be doing with our
long-standing NATO allies Turkey, although we
clearly are doing things with them. Nor will I say
what we are doing with our Iraqi partners to
endeavor to stabilize the situation and to ensure
that the sides are talking and taking actions to
reduce the tension."
It's not difficult to picture a scenario where local
support returns to the PKK in a place like Yuksekova,
where almost everyone knows a PKK fighter who has
been killed or who is currently up in the mountains
of Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
"If you knock on any door here, you find someone who
has lost a loved one," says Yuksekova mayor Mehmet
Salih Yildiz, a member of the pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP).
"The pain is deep, but still there's a hope for
peace," says the mayor, whose two sons were killed
fighting with the PKK.
Aliza Marcus, a former Reuters correspondent in
Turkey and author of the recently published "Blood
and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for
Independence," says these deep ties have left the
rebel group with a strong reserve of sympathy and
respect in the region.
"Certainly the PKK is not as popular as it was in
the 1990s. But still it is very strong and it's able
to direct the Kurdish political debate in Turkey,"
she says.
Halit Tekci, an older gentleman sitting at a
sidewalk café in Yuksekova, says, "What will ruin
Turkey are these protests [in the cities calling for
war against the PKK]. "These protests only increase
hatred against the Kurds and will lead to a Turkish
-Kurdish conflict." .
Mayor Yildiz says he hopes that the normalcy that
his city has been able to regain will hold, despite
the drums of war that are beating throughout Turkey.
"If there is an incursion ...our democratic rights
will be lost," he says. "People are sick and tired
of this conflict. They hate it."
csmonitor com
**
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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