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Tension over Kurds rises in Turkey ahead
of spring festival
13.3.2007
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March 13, 2007
ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkey is bracing for a new
wave of trouble with Kurdish activists who, in years
past, have seized on a spring festival as a rallying
cry for their separatist struggle.
The March 21 festival of Nowruz comes amid court
verdicts against Kurdish leaders, and an uptick in
fighting in rugged terrain near the Iraq border.
Turkey's Kurdish minority is likely to gather in
celebrations across the country, from Istanbul on
the European side of the Bosporus to isolated
villages in the mountains to the southeast, where
Kurds constitute a majority of the population. In
the past, such rallies have often degenerated into
violence.
Nowruz, the Farsi-language word for "new year," is
an ancient Persian festival, celebrated on the first
day of spring in countries including Afghanistan and
Iran. The festival is mainly marked by Kurds in
Turkey.
'Newroz' is the traditional Kurdish new year, The
year 2007 corresponds to the Kurdish year 2619.
The Kurdish calendar starts at 612 BC. This is the
year that Cyaxares, the grandson of Deioces (Díyako),
the first king of the Medes' empire, occupied
Nineveh and put the end to the brutality of the
Assyrian empire in the lands under its occupation.
After a relative lull, tension between Turkey and
Kurds, who make up roughly 20 percent of the
country's 70 million people, are again on the
increase. A number of prominent Kurdish leaders were
recently sentenced to jail for speaking respectfully
of the imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah
Ocalan.
In the latest dispute, Turkey said Monday that tests
on Ocalan's hair, urine and skin samples showed no
signs of poisoning despite allegations by his
lawyers.
"From now on, nobody should go after such lies,"
said Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, who also serves
as the government spokesman. "No one should take
such games seriously. Turkey is a state of law and
Turkey has nothing to hide."
Ocalan's lawyers in Italy recently said an analysis
of his hair showed large amounts of strontium and
chromium, both of which are toxic in high doses. It
was not clear how the lawyers allegedly acquired the
samples, though Ocalan's lawyers frequently complain
about his conditions in confinement.
Ocalan, 58, remains an influential figure for many
of Turkey's disaffected Kurds, and an object of
intense hatred for many Turks. He was sentenced to
death after his capture in 1999, but his sentence
was commuted to life in prison after Turkey
abolished capital punishment in 2002. He is the sole
inmate in a prison on Imrali, in the Marmara Sea off
Istanbul.
Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, has waged war
for autonomy in Turkey's southeast since 1984. The
group has staged cross-border attacks from bases in
neighboring Iraq and operates small bands of rebels
inside Turkey.
On Sunday, the Turkish military said it recovered
seven bodies of Kurdish guerrillas and also killed
one rebel in a clash. The troops, acting on a tip,
recovered the bodies near the Kurdish southeastern
city of Diyarbakir. Authorities alleged the
suspected rebels might have been executed by fellow
guerrillas as a disciplinary action.
Also this past weekend, a Turkish general said up to
3,800 Kurdish rebels were positioned in northern
Iraq near the Turkish border and he reasserted his
country's right to cross the border to hunt
separatist Kurds who launch attacks from bases in
Iraq.
More than 30,000 Turkish soldiers and 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.
"Turkey can always take the appropriate measures
against the separatist terrorist organization in
northern Iraq," Land Forces Commander Gen. Ilter
Basbug said during a visit to Diyarbakir.
Basbug said, however, that the issue of possible
Turkish military operations should "not feature more
than it is necessary in the public agenda" — a sign
that the military did not want the issue to stir
tension with Iraq.
Many Turks, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, have expressed frustration with the level
of U.S. help in rooting out PKK rebels holed up in
the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The United
States has warned Turkey against incursions into
Iraq, fearing such a move could lead to tension with
local Iraqi Kurdish groups, a key U.S. ally.
Turkey plans to host a high-level international
conference on Iraq next month, suggesting that
Turkey believes diplomacy is the best option for
now.
AP
** 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 as many as 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 some 20 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
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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