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Turkey's Kurdish DTP party warned to cut
links with PKK rebels
8.11.2007
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November 8, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey's main Kurdish party urged
a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict Thursday
as Ankara warned of legal sanctions if the party
fails to sever its alleged links with separatist
rebels.
The Democratic Society Party (DTP) convened here to
elect a new leader amid tight security and against a
backdrop of Turkish threats to strike Turkey's
Kurdish PKK rebel bases in Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq', a move the party strongly opposes.
"We should work for reconciliation and social peace
within the country instead of directing our energy
and resources across the border," Nurettin Demirtas,
expected to be elected party chairman, told the
gathering. |
Turkey's pro-Kurdish DTP party |
The DTP, which holds 20 seats in the 550-member
parliament, advocates a peaceful settlement to the
Kurdish conflict and broader cultural and political
rights for the Kurdish community.
But its refusal to brand the Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) a terrorist group, as Ankara
does, and the sympathy its members often voice for
the rebels have sparked accusations that it is a
political tool of the PKK.
The party came under fresh attack after three of its
lawmakers travelled to northern Iraq on Sunday to
participate in the release of eight Turkish soldiers
captured by the PKK in a deadly ambush last month. www.ekurd.net
Television footage showed them shaking hands with
rebel fighters and signing papers on a table adorned
by the portrait of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Demirtas said DTP efforts for reconcilitaion had
encountered "an attitude of incredible intolerance
and lynching" in Ankara.
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin, saying "public
opinion believes they (the DTP) have links" with the
PKK, issued a veiled warning the party might be
banned if it fails to dissociate itself from the
rebel group.
"If they insist on serving PKK objectives on a
political basis... whatever Turkey's constitution
and legislation require will be done and they will
have to bear the consequences," Sahin told Samanyolu
television overnight.
The DTP was created in 2005 as a successor to
several Kurdish parties outlawed by the courts.
Party chairman Ahmet Turk, a moderate and seasoned
politician, is expected to be succeeded Thursday by
his deputy Demirtas, a little known figure, who many
expect to have a less moderate approach to the
Kurdish question.
Kurdish politicians have called for an amnesty for
PKK militants to persuade them to lay down arms but
Ankara has dismissed the appeal.
Turkey, under EU pressure, has in recent years
granted the Kurds a measure of cultural freedoms,
but Kurdish activists say the reforms are
inadequate.
Analysts, however, say the reforms have helped
diminish Kurdish militancy.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and
Development Party posed an unprecedented challenge
to the DTP in its stronghold in the mainly Kurdish
southeast in the July 22 elections.
Erdogan says 75 of his party's 340 members of
parliament are Kurds.
The United States is staunchly opposed to a major
Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq but
has promised to help crack down on PKK bases there.
A pro-PKK news agency reported Thursday fears of an
imminent Turkish air strike on some bases in the
wake of an increasing number of fly-over sorties by
US surveillance planes.
"It is believed that an air strike is imminent,"
said the Firat news agency. "It is reported that the
PKK is increasing its counter-measures and will
respond strongly in case of an attack." www.ekurd.net
After talks with Erdogan Monday, US President George
W. Bush pledged to provide Ankara with "real-time"
intelligence on rebel movements, calling the PKK a
common enemy.
Over 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
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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