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18 Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti Sire^eUrjfcn-kSilttW November 2,2007 As Kurds' Status Improves, Support for Militants By SABRINA TAVERNISE fclZILTEPE, Turkey, Oct. 31 - Ten years ago, Turkey ran the Kurdish region here in its south¬ east like a police state. All signs of Kurdish identity the lan¬ guage, music, national dress were strictly banned and subject to punishment. Checkpoints were everywhere. Going out after dark was forbidden. Today, Kurdish is heard on the streets and in shops, Kurdish sat¬ ellite TV is legally beamed into hojjnes, and Kurdish holidays are celebrated publicly. The improve¬ ments occurred after a 25-year war for Kurdish rights subsided, and are largely a result of legal changes Turkey made to qualify for the European Union. Eut militant proponents of that Kurdish identity a rebel group based in part in northern Iraq threaten to complicate further progress on the very rights for which they claim to fight, many here say. THE NEW YORK TIMES about a fifth of the country's pop¬ ulation, fearing secession. The oppression, combined with biting poverty 60 percent of the resi¬ dents here are below the poverty line fueled militancy. Like many other leftist political ' movements of the day, the P.K.K., founded in the late 1970s, was bajhned in a Turkish military coap in 1980. It remained broadly popular as a Kurdish national freedom movement, even as its fighters moved to Europe and the ru|ged mountains of eastern Tur¬ key and northern Iraq. "There was this excitement of yojuth in the air throughout the nation," said Ramazan Deger, a Klirdish politician from Prime Mfliister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party from Mardin, a city near Kiziltepe. "In the east, it was rep¬ resented by the P.K.K." put local support hardened into fear as the P.K.K. became brutal in Kurdish villages, trying to block any local cooperation with the state. Hasan Ozgun, a 30-year-old cellphone shop owner in Kiziltepe, remembers his fa¬ ther trying to assess whether to open his fabrics shop every morning, after having found oth¬ er merchants dead with their hands still on the locks. He said the group had killed more than 30 people in his village. "We started to doubt their sin¬ cerity," said Serif Gokce, a 33year-old computer shop owner in Kiziltepe. "In 25 years of strug¬ gle, so little has been achieved. People came to the conclusion that they did more harm than good." The Turkish state was no less brutal. Mr. Gokce remembers sol¬ diers cordoning off his village, herding the villagers together and punching and interrogating them for hours. His father still has a scar from the boot of a Turkish soldier just above his ear. Restrictions began to ease af¬ ter the P.K.K.'s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured in 1999, and loosened further when Mr. Erdo¬ gan's new government began to overhaul the Turkish state for en¬ trance into the European Union. Halime, a 32-year-old mother of eight, remembers celebrating the Kurdish spring festival of Nawruz for the first time several years ago. Children could have
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ôzeti '***} si i Halime, right, a mother of eight, said she celebrated the Kurd¬ ish spring festival of Nawruz for the first time several years ago. Kurdish names. Limited Kurdish broadcasting was allowed. The P.K.K. shifted some of its primary demands to Mr. Ocalan's release and treatment, raising more questions among the more educated Kurdish public about their motives. "What are their objectives a better life for Kurds in Turkey or the improvement of their leader's prison environment?" said a civil servant in Mardin, who asked that his name not be used out of fear of retribution. Mr. Erdogan began a concert¬ ed effort to win the Kurdish pop¬ ulation. He promised roads and electricity in every village. In 2005, basic health care for the poor and aid for school children ®l)eiNetoi|otk States November 2, 2007 were arranged. Perhaps most im¬ portant, he stated publicly in a landmark speech that same year that Turkey had a "Kurdish prob¬ lem," a remark that was almost unprecedented for Turkish lead¬ ers and made a deep impression in the region. "His call for brotherhood, that was what won me," Mr. Gokce said, standing in Mr. Ozgun's shop as customers asked ques¬ tions in Kurdish. "We know he was trying to break a mindset." Kurds responded, and in elec¬ tions last July, they voted in large numbers for Mr. Erdogan's party, the only non-Kurdish party that campaigned in the southeast, re¬ ducing the number of Kurdish party wins to 6 provinces, from 13 in 2002. Independent candidates from the Kurdish party still garnered by far the most votes in the re¬ gion, winning 20 seats in Parlia¬ ment, the first Kurdish represen¬ tation in more than a decade. The new choice reflects a broader shift among Kurds to mainstream Turkish society. Vast numbers of Turkey's Kurds moved west during the war in the southeast, and while they are still poorer and less privileged than the rest of Turkish society, they have learned from the exposure. "Kurdish people are much more aware than they used to be," Mr. Gokce said. The party's success "hinted the beginning of a shift and trans¬ formation in people's minds and expectations," said Sezgin Tanrikulu, head of the Diyarbakir Bar Association. "The violence was once seen as a legitimate way to seek for equality, no longer is," he said, adding that this week, 91 regional business groups, nongovernmen¬ tal organizations and intellectu¬ als in the region signed a declara¬ tion asking the group to lay down its arms. The only way to end the con¬ flict is for the government to take "a courageous and fearless step," to expand Kurds' rights, Mr. Tanrikulu said. Abdurrahman Kurt, a lawmaker from Diyarbakir and a member of Mr. Erdogan's party, said that the P.K.K. had stepped up attacks recently, precisely be cause of the government's suc¬ cess in bringing more rights for Kurds. Both the P.K.K. and the hard-liners in the Turkish mil¬ itary have strong interests in keeping the conflict going, Mr. Kaya said. "They have always hit back at times when the country has reached crossroads in democra¬ cy," Mr. Kurt said. The crisis has also brought out deep nationalist anger, and Mr. Tanrikulu expressed concerns that, beyond slowing Turkey's transition to democracy, it could also bring ethnic strife. Mr. Gokce said that several years ago he had lost hope, and was considering moving to Eu¬ rope, but decided to stay after the government's new policy of inclu¬ sion. Early aspirations for state¬ hood have since faded. "We used to think that Kurds should have their own land," he said wedged between customers in his shop. "But as we grew more conscious, we realized it was a false ambition." Britain Praises Iraqi Kurds9 Efforts to End Crisis By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. SALAHUDDIN, Iraq, Nov. 1 - While Turkish and American offi¬ cials have stepped up criticism of Iraqi Kurdish leaders for failing to curb the guerrilla fighters who have sanctuary in northern Iraq, a top British official lent his sup¬ port to the Kurdish regional gov¬ ernment during a visit on Thurs¬ day and indicated that he was confident of its commitment to resolving the crisis. The British defense secretary, Des Browne, appeared here at a news conference with Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader of northern Iraq. Mr. Browne said that he had seen "a serious com¬ mitment to implement a range of measures which will make a dif¬ ference." Mr. Browne's comments stood in contrast to remarks last week by the State Department's senior Iraq adviser, David M. Satter- field, that the United States was "not pleased with the lack of ac¬ tion" shown by Kurdish leaders. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was quoted this week accusing Mr. Barzani of "aiding and abetting" the Kurd¬ ish guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The guerrillas' bloody crossborder attacks on Turkish forces have put enormous political pres¬ sure on Turkish leaders to show that they are taking swift action against the rebels. Turkish mil¬ itary forces are now massed at the Iraqi border for a potential in¬ vasion, though Turkish officials have suggested that no action will be taken before Mr. Erdogan meets with President Bush in Washington next week. And while Turkish officials contend that a Turkish attack only on guerrilla bases in north¬ ern Iraq would not be an "inva¬ sion," Mr. Browne suggested that the British government wanted no form of Turkish offensive in¬ side Iraq. "The whole focus of our efforts and the advantage of me being here today is that I can make a contribution to the collective ef¬ forts to ensure that no such cross-border operation ever takes place," Mr. Browne said. Turkish officials also said Thursday that they had initiated economic sanctions against the Kurdish guerrillas, though they did not say what the sanctions were or how they could frame them to affect only the guerrillas. The Iraqi Kurds depend on im¬ ports from Turkey for electricity, food and other critical needs, and they fear that the closing of trade routes would be devastating. Mr. Barzani said that Turkey had just closed its airspace to flights headed toward northern Iraq, but Turkish officials denied taking that step. 19
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