Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO
DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
MOSAIC
- __ i,&:
Leyla " Zana: "I told myself a woman is also a human being ...
announced that we Would
not be allowed to see the
prisoners.
Then. on the other side of
the wall we heard them
beating the men we had
come to, see. We just revolted.
we began shouting
end thro ....~ng stones. ! was
arrested with another 83
people. A soldier sold that I
had tried to take his gun and
finally Iwas accussed of inciting
people to revolt.
What was the experience
of prison like?
The first seven days in custody
were terrible. They subjected
me to all kinds of
torture. I was blindfolded
and .led into the interrogation
room where I was
stripped completely naked
bya number of Interrogators.
oilmen.
They hit me.1 collapsed and
they splashed me with cold
water to bring me round. Affer
that they gave me back
my clothes and took me
back to my cell. They also
tortured me with electricity.
Where?
On the sexual ...(Leyla Zona.
who until this point had remained
smiling throughout
the Interview, became distressed
and was obviously
about to burst into tears. Although
she did not say it,
friends of hers revealed that
she had been stripped and
paraded naked in front of
male prisoners held in the
same jail. For the young
peasant woman from Slivan
it '1'/05 t00 much), Stilltoday I
have nightmares about
those days.
Who were you with In
prison?
I was sharin~ a cell with
common Rrisoners. thieves.
prostitutes and drug addicts
but eventually they became
friends. We cooked together.
we ate and slept together,
all kinds of people in
the some situation. '.
It was about that time that
I began to be a political activist.
and when I learned
there were Kurdish women
fighting with guns I. was
moved to actiQ'n. This
changes everything. I told
myself. a woman isalso a human
being.
Why did you decide to become
a member of parliament?
It was not me who decided
it. All through my life it has
not been me who has decided.
It was the people who
wanted it.
You could have refused
couldn't you?
Not really when people
were telling me that to do so
would be to run away from
my responsibilities. I have
never accepted the idea
that I should be a slave. be
passive. When Iwas only nine
years old I attacked my 45
year old uncle for beating
my aunt. i have always been
a combatant.
"/ was not brave
enough to scream
and shout."
It did not show when you
were following your husband
quite obediently In the late
1970$,did It?
I was in the' middle of those
contradictions I spoke
about. When I was a young
married woman I felt I ought
to please Mehdi. I was not
brave enough to scream
and shout. the age difference
was too big. But inside
r~ys'3lf I was screaming and
shouting as I have always
been.
Despite or perhaps because
of your earlier struggles
you became a
member of the Turkish parliament.
How many women
deputies are there In the parliament?
There are eight of which I
am the only Kurd and the first
ever Kurdish woman deputy;
I was elected on 20 October
1991 with 45.000 votes.
How did you feel when you
knew you had been
elected?
I never imagined t could
lose.
Which solution do you advocate
for the Kurdish problem?
With 20 friends from the SHP
(social democratic party) I
prepared a report. a statement
that we submitted to
the leader of parliament. Erdol
Inonu. In short the statement
said the State should
accept our Kurdish identity.
The State gave us a lot of
hope but at the same time
began massacring the Kurdish
people they had implied
they would try to help.
The first day. when taking
the oath.1 spoke a sentence
in the Kurdish language.
translated it means: .Myself. I
accept this constitutional
ceremony In the name of the
fraternity between the Turkish
and Kurdish peoples'. It
created a scandal. The ceremony
was broadcast live by
television.
All the deputies yelled out,
comments like: 'We have a
terrorist In the parliament ..
.Dirty Kurd' •and' Get out. this
Is not your place'. The next
day they forced me to resign
from the SHP. Since then I
have not spoken in the parliament.
I tried to give press interviews
about the situation. Although
the Turkshad spoken
of achieving ffaternlty.
clearly it was not what they
really wanted. As a result I
was treated as a second rate
citizen.
I said that if we were brothers
we should be equals. I
was threatened and I was
also told that unless Iworked
within the system and did as
I was told then I would have
no future in the Turkish parliament.
Will you run for the next parliament?
I no longer believe in the
Turkish parliament. Its role is
to cover up the action of the
State, to conceal the misdeeds
of the the army and
the police.
The people who take the
decisions in Turkeyare the
members of the national security
council.
Members of parliament
are like notaries. they merely
register the decisions. In
fact. it is against everything I
believe in. I do not have a
volee. No. I will not run
again.
•
The Middle East October 1993 35
145