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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RNISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
want to "import" the struggle between
the PKK and the Turkish security
in southeast Turkey in the
fonn of a Kurdish-Turkish tension
in Gennany. Nearly 400,000 of the
Turkish citizens in Gennany are of
Kurdish origin. In fact, for the
Gennans this consideration is there
for allother foreign groups in the
country. Once these groups start to
become Gennan citizens easily,
which will also bring them the
right to vote, it is feared that the inner
problems of the countries of
origlO will be reflected on to domestic
German politics in the form
Tuesday, September 2S, 1993
of a war of differentlobbies. On
the other hand, German officials
believe that a middle way can be
found in order to give German citizenship,
or dual cItizenship, to foreigners
who have been Iivmg long
enou~h in Germany and fulfilling
cert31n conditions necessary for integrating
in German society.
German officials say that if they
sort out these problems -.which
they admit its not an easy underta.
king-- they will be in a position to
ask more easily for concrete action
from the Turkish government for
an end to human nghts abuses in
Turkey.
Murder in Batman
BATMAN- Unidentified gunmen on Saturday shot dead
thsan Güne~, a civilian, in the southeastern province of
Batman, dubbed the capital of "unsolved murder cases" by
the Turkish press. Local police have started a search
operation to capture the assailants.
turkish daily news
Kurdish rebels defy Turkish military drive
By Alistair lyon
Reuters
VAN, Turkey- Kurdish rebels are keeping up
hit-and-run attacks in east and southeast Turkey,
defying sustained Turkish land and air assaults on
thw hideouts.
More than 1,600 people have been killed in the
region since May 24 when the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) called off a two-month unilateral
ceasefire unrecognized by Ankara. Armed forces
chief General Dogan Güre~ declared this month that
he would snuff out the PKK's nine-year-old revolt
next spring, when new anti-guerrilla forces of
60.000 enlisted soldiers and 15,000 police commandos
are due to go into action. Güre~ and other Turkish
leaders have made such promises in the past, but
the deadlines have come and gone without any sign
that military force can quench the fire in the mountains,
"They will never finish the PKK this way,"
said a municipal official in the eastern town of
I)oguhcyazlt, gesturing towards Mount A~n (Ararat),
a frequent target ofTurkish air raids. "'Theonly
thing they will linish is their own budget." Tanks
rumhle along the road between the eastern towns of
Van and Tatvan. Military posts dot the route which
winds through hills overlooking the shimmering
blue-green waters of Lake Van.'The charred hulk of
a passenger bus blocks half the road in a wellwooded
valley where rebels scrambled down the
mountain slopes to set up a flying roadblock earlier
this month. Tatvan dIstrict governor Mehmet
Günaydm said the rebels had briefly lectured passengers
on the Kurdish cause before setting fire to
the bus and fleeing as armoured vehicles approached.
The PKK snatched four French tourists from a
tour bus held up near the same spot in daylight on
July 24. The hostages trudged around the mountains
for 17 days before their release. The PKK, which
has abducted and freed 16 Westerners since July,
has rereatedly. warned !OU~sts to stay away from
the regIOn, saymg they mdlrectly fund the Turkish
military. "Any tourist group can come here,"
Gü~aydm told repo.rters. "But they must inform the
police what they will do and where they will go so
that we can provide escorts."
He ~cknowledged that the avowedly Marxist,
separatist PKK had some backing among the townspeople
of Tatvan.
"Some p~ople support them, others fear them.
Boys an.dgirls .aged 10to 20 have been going to the
mountams to Jam them, especially from 1990 to
1992. I don't know how many." He said rebels ambushed
a police minibus in the town a month ago,
one of half a dozen recent attacks in the Tatvan distriel.
The PKK has mounted few big setpiece assaults
on :rurkish military posts since itlost important bases
In nort~ern Iraq ay~ar ago, but has shown this
year that It can stIll stnke on a smaller scale in a
dozen eastern and southeastern provinces. Turkish
gener~ls sa!d last y~ar that the cross-border operation,
In whIch Turkish forces combined with Iraqi
Kurdish guerrillas against the PKK, had "broken the
spine" of the group. Some Turkish officials maintain
that the PKK is simply an international terrorist
o~ganization backed by Syria, Iran, Iraq and Armema.
They accuse European countries of giving the
PKK their tacit blessing to keep Turkey weak and
divided. "Countries like Britain, France and Germany
don't want Turkey to develop or join the EC "
said Van provincial governor Mahmut Yllba~. "The
West is cutting the br~nch it's ,silting on.' "The
sou~ces of (PK!