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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RWISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASlN ÖZETi
4 Turkish Probe Augu,t .3. 1993
and, as an officer recently put it to Turkish Probe,
.operate as if they are acting in enemy territory .•
In neighboring Iraq, where the world witnessed a
U.S.-tolerated Kurdish uprising, such policies failed
to work. A magnified reflection of almost all military
tactics now in practice in Turkey was observed.
The final stage of that campaign was the use of chemical
weapons, directly on the people. People who,
by then, had fully backed the peshmargas. The PKK
leadership believes that Ankara's current campaign
is fully based on the assumption that the organization
cannot survive the winter. All operations, says
the PKK, aim at encircling the mountain units, cutting
all their logistic and personnel supply routes and
starving the militants out during the winter months.
As for the recent campaign which has been targeting
civilian settlements, they believe this has various
aims.
The first and known one is the evacuation of villages
which have either supported the militants or
which are in a position to do so in the future. This
includes villages known to hold militia, which are
currently under a completely different organizational
structure than the popular army, ARGK or the popular
front, ERNK.
Despite the unethical nature of such operations
(i.e. raiding villages, evacuating the population and
burning down their houses), ARGK Military Council
Chairman and PKK Central Committee member Cemil
BaYlk agrees that this will --to an extent-- make
life difficult for his mountain units, referred to normally
as "Sava~çl" or fighters.
"But,. he adds, "they are so tough that they can live
even without supplies, eating what the mountains
have to offer and drinking melted snow in place of
water."
Sait, a 25-year-old Kurd now based in Lebanon, is
but one of the living examples of BaYlk's argument.
Two years ago, Sait was hit in the head by shrapnel
when Turkish helicopters opened rocket fire on his
group on Mt. Cudi. Thinking he was dead, his comrades
drew Sait into the tunnels, hid him under 4
meters of snow, and escaped. They only returned
four days later, to find him alive but with frostbite
which cost him six toes. He still walks with a rocket
piece in his skull and dreams of going back to the
mountains.
To seriously believe that the PKK can be starved
out is escaping from realities. Over the years, the
children of the Southeast have melted into the nature
of the mountains and become part of them.
During the winter, militants live in makeshift plastic
tents or in underground tunnels carved into the
snow. They know the way to survive, as Sait has
done.
The PKK now suspects that the campaign on villages
may have more to it than what meets the eye.
According to Bayik, "the military must know that
they are recruiting for us. They are not so ignorant.
This means they have a master plan ... A very dangerous
plan."
Even if the evacuation of villagers does hinder
PKK logistics, it also sends plenty of people up to
the mountains. Once a village is raided, a la American
vs. Vietcong style, most of the youngsters flee
to the mountains. From sympathizers (or supporters)
they turn into active fighters. And, after some
training, perhaps even into ARGK or PKK cadres.
What happens to the rest may actually be more
important. According to local sources, the population
in towns and cities is soaring.
The city population of Diyarbakir alone has gone
up by about threefold, reaching 900,000. Most of
the newcomers are regarded as a potential threat
by terrorism experts. Thrown out of their villages
and with nowhere else to go, it is but natural for
them to feel enmity to the system. In the words of
senior PKK leaders, this is exactly what the campaign
may be after. Perhaps, this is the essence of the
new Turkish policy: To create friends and foes, forcing
the latter to surface. To draw a definite line between
the two groups without leaving anyone "in the
middle." To force as many as pOSSible into enemy
lines and deal with them en masse. And in doing
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