Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RWISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi<br />
~ THE INDEPENDENT FRIDAYlSOCTOBERl~3<br />
Turkish army<br />
blocks moves to<br />
Kurdish reform<br />
DIVISIONS are <strong>de</strong>epening in<br />
Turkey over a solution to the<br />
country's ever-bloodier Kurdish<br />
revolt as proponents of<br />
purely military suppression try<br />
to crush any talk of political reform.<br />
Heavy pressure from the<br />
Turkish armed forces and<br />
Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Suleyman Demirel<br />
this week blocked hesitant<br />
steps by the Prime Minister,<br />
Tansu Ciller, to <strong>de</strong>bate a plan<br />
for local autonomy and cultural<br />
rights that helped <strong>de</strong>fuse<br />
Basque sèparatism in Spain.<br />
"Twice she has had to take<br />
back her promises. They just<br />
don't want the Kurdish problem<br />
to be even discussed," said<br />
Remzi Kartal, spokesman for<br />
the group of 17 Kurdish na-<br />
HUGH POPE<br />
inAnlwa<br />
tionalist <strong>de</strong>puties in the 450-<br />
seat Turkish parliament. "Left<br />
to herself, Ciller might want to<br />
do som<strong>et</strong>hing. But she doesn't<br />
have the strength."<br />
Mrs Ciller's attempt to reopen<br />
the <strong>de</strong>bate on the KurdS:<br />
reflects a small but persistent<br />
body of Turkish and foreign<br />
opinion in the Turkish capital,<br />
Ankara, that Turkey's Kurdish<br />
policy is heading into a<br />
bloody <strong>de</strong>ad end. Nearly 2,000<br />
people have been killed since<br />
the last gol<strong>de</strong>n opportunity for<br />
peace, a two-month ceas<strong>et</strong>ire<br />
that collapsed amid mutual ,recriminiations<br />
in May.<br />
"We must not block this discussion<br />
[of political alternatives].<br />
L<strong>et</strong>'s not do to Ciller<br />
what was done to [Turgut)<br />
Ozal," wrote Hurriy<strong>et</strong> editor<br />
Ertugrul Ozkok, recalling all<br />
the obstacles that were thrown<br />
into the path of the late Turk~<br />
ish presi<strong>de</strong>nt's attempts at reform,<br />
including the right for<br />
Kurds to speak their own language,<br />
granted in Aprill991.<br />
Turkish officials insist there<br />
is no discrimination against<br />
the country's 12million Kurds"<br />
about one in tive of the population,<br />
of whom about half live<br />
in the mainly Kurdish southeast<br />
of the country.<br />
Officials now speak of Turkey<br />
as an <strong>et</strong>hnic mosaic, economic<br />
programmes for Kurd-.<br />
ish areas and <strong>de</strong>centralisation.<br />
But their response has always<br />
lagged behind events. Even'<br />
s<strong>et</strong>ting asi<strong>de</strong> unanswered questions<br />
about 60 members of the<br />
main Kurdish nationalist<br />
party mur<strong>de</strong>red in the,past two<br />
years, mo<strong>de</strong>rate Kurdish lea<strong>de</strong>rs<br />
now <strong>de</strong>mand at least the<br />
right ~oKurdish broadcasting,<br />
education and the full recogmtion<br />
of a Kurdish i<strong>de</strong>ntity<br />
equal to the Turkish majority.<br />
"It is a lie that Kurds are<br />
first-class citizens. Only if<br />
Kurds <strong>de</strong>ny their origin can<br />
. they do what they want," said<br />
Melik Firat, a Kurdish parliamentarian<br />
from the ruling<br />
True Path Party, referring to<br />
senior officials of Kurdish origin,<br />
including the Foreign<br />
Minister, Hikm<strong>et</strong> C<strong>et</strong>in.<br />
Mr Firat - the grandson of<br />
Sheikh Said, hanged in 1925<br />
for leading one of many Kurdish<br />
rebellions - spoke bitterly<br />
of a spumed attempt to propose<br />
some 70 Kurdish members<br />
of the Turkish parliament<br />
as a forum for discussion. "It's<br />
like talking to a wall," he said.<br />
Hard1ine Turks and the<br />
army, which sees itself as the<br />
guardian of a unitary Turkish<br />
state s<strong>et</strong> up by Kemal Ataturk<br />
in the 19208,reject any dilution<br />
of the nation's Turkish <strong>et</strong>hnic<br />
i<strong>de</strong>ntity. Fanned by muchpublicised<br />
Kurdish rebel<br />
atrocities, the bulk of Turkish<br />
opinion is also har<strong>de</strong>ning<br />
against Kurdish <strong>de</strong>mand,s.<br />
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