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Turkish PM mulling amnesty for Kurdish PKK
rebels
9.12.2007
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Turkey considers new plan to make Kurdish PKK rebels
surrender
December
9, 2007
Ankara, -- Turkey is considering amnesty for
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels whose separatist drive
has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying
Sunday.
"Yes, a new law could see the light of day," Erdogan
was quoted by several newspapers as telling
reporters Saturday while en route to Lisbon for an
EU-Africa summit.
"We will be examining different dimensions and will
handle preparations accordingly," he said. "We will
see how, with what kind of law we can achieve the
optimum results."
Ankara claims that militants of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist
organisation by Turkey, US and EU, use camps in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' as a springboard for
cross-border attacks. |
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
Faced with mounting PKK violence, Erdogan's
government secured parliamentary approval in October
to order cross-border operations against PKK targets
if necessary.
Current Turkish laws allow for an amnesty for any
member of an illegal organisation who has not
committed a crime,declares his affiliation to
authorities before a probe is launched, and provides
information which could help lead to the dissolution
of the body.
The present laws have not yielded great results.www.ekurd.net
Kurdish organisations
meanwhile have been pressing for a total amnesty for
PKK activists.
Erdogan said he was seeking a more "sweeping" law,
adding: "We are however in a different situation.
With the help of the media, we could have better
results and we could diminish the need to go to the
mountains," he said.
Turkey has massed an estimated 100,000 troops along
the border with Iraq. It has despatched soldiers in
the mountainous frontier region and has struck at
rebel targets on Turkish soil after the PKK mounted
attacks on soldiers.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an
excuse to invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent
the establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq',www.ekurd.net
Turkey fears this could
fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
But the Turkish prime minister stressed that his
government had not struck a deal with the PKK.
"We are not doing any trade-offs with anyone," he
said. "We will say, here's the law, come and give
yourselves up."
Turkey's main opposition leader Deniz Baykal has
accused Erdogan of pandering to the rebels by
providing a sweeping amnesty for PKK members.
After talks with Erdogan at the White House in early
last month, US President George W. Bush called the
PKK a "common enemy" and promised to provide Turkey
with real-time intelligence on rebel movements.
Bush's pledge was largely seen as tacit US approval
for limited cross-border Turkish strikes, mainly air
raids, against the rebels.
Since 1984the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
PKK demands the recognition of Kurdish identity, and
the constitutional protection of all identities
under the citizenship of Turkey as a super-ordinate
identity and the removal of all obstacles
constraining the development of the Kurdish language
and culture;www.ekurd.net
the recognition of the
right to an education in the mother tongue; the
acceptance of Kurdish as the joint official language
of the Kurdistan area; respect for the cultural
rights of ethnic minorities. The (PKK) KONGRA-GEL
released an
official declaration
reiterating their desire for negotiations with the
Turkish government.
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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