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Interview with Kurdish PKK leader Murat
Karayilan
13.11.2007
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November 13, 2007
The Turkey's Kurdish separatists of the PKK insist
they are fighting for a homeland. Turkey and the
rest of the world see them as 'terrorists' that need
to be eradicated. SPIEGEL spoke with PKK leader
Murat Karayilan about the ongoing struggle for a
homeland.
It is a standoff that has been escalating for weeks
(more...). Kurdish fighters with the Turkey's
Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) have, this autumn,
staged an increasing number of brazen cross-border
attacks into south-eastern Turkey from their bases
in the mountains of Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'. The
Turks have been lobbing artillery at PKK bases and
have threatened a cross-border incursion of their
own.
The West has urged calm. But Ankara is under growing
domestic pressure to take action. Besides, as the
Turkish leadership has pointed out, both the US and
the European Union have identified the PKK as a
terrorist group -- a product of numerous suicide
attacks carried out by the PKK with civilians as
their targets. |
Murat Karayilan, acting leader of the Turkey's Kurdish
Workers' Party, better known as PKK, on Tuesday
urged Turkey to negotiate with (PKK |
SPIEGEL caught up with PKK head Murat Karayilan in
the Sagros Mountains in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq':
SPIEGEL: What is the situation on the front
lines and how many losses have you suffered?
Karayilan: The
war is currently being fought mainly in the Turkish
part of Kurdistan: around the cities of Sirnak,
Hakkari, Siirt and Bingöl. There, we have been
dealing with ground and airborne operations by the
Turkish military since October. They are suffering
the losses, not us. We can't call what's happening
in the three-country triangle between Iraq, Iran and
Turkey war. Only occasionally we come under fire
from the Iranians.
SPIEGEL: You are once again threatening to
take the war "into the cities." What does that mean
for Turkish civilians and for tourists visiting
Turkey?
Karayilan: We
have repeatedly offered cease-fires and
negotiations. We have never spoken about attacks on
civilians. What we have said is that the war will
not be limited to Kurdistan. About two million Kurds
live in Istanbul, and many others live in the
Aegean. They are exposed to oppression -- and they
have the right to practice resistance where they
live.
SPIEGEL: Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, a
Kurd, says no Turkish government has done more for
the Kurds than that of President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan.
Karayilan: But
Erdogan has not followed up on his promises to
settle the Kurdish question. On the contrary: The
government has reached a consensus with the Turkish
military. It has left Kurdistan to the generals.
SPIEGEL: Baghdad has called on the PKK to end
its attacks on Turkish soldiers, saying that
otherwise the PKK will have to leave Iraq.
Karayilan: We
are here in the Sagros Mountains. For centuries, no
one has succeeded in conquering this region -- not
Saddam, not the Turks, nobody. But we have been in
these mountains of freedom for 25 years. We were
here before the Americans and the new Iraqi
government. This is Kurdistan, and the PKK is doing
the Iraqi state no harm -- on the contrary, we are
supporting its development.
SPIEGEL: What is the goal of your struggle?
Karayilan: We
want to live freely as Kurds. The Iranians tell us:
You are Persians. The Turkish state tells us: You
are Turks. And the Arab states tell us: You are
Arabs. But we are neither Turks nor Arabs nor
Persians. We are one of the oldest peoples in this
part of the world and we demand our rights.
Interview conducted by Bernhard Zand
spiegel de
**
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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