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 <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basm Oz<strong>et</strong>i<br />
Turk PM Ecevit Says Europe "Racist"<br />
on Kurd Issue<br />
ANKARA, March 12 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Sunday that<br />
European Union countries were guilty of racism for blaming Turkey's 15-year war with<br />
Kurdish rebels on <strong>et</strong>hnic division.<br />
Asked on state TRT television wh<strong>et</strong>her European ministers and officials who have visited<br />
Turkey recently had difficulty un<strong>de</strong>rstanding Turkey's relationship with the Kurds, he<br />
replied:<br />
"Yes, they do have difficulty. In western Europe and partly in eastern Europe, there is a<br />
serious tradition of racism."<br />
He <strong>de</strong>nied there was any discrimination against 12 million Kurds in Turkey, a country of 65<br />
million.<br />
"There has never been any racism in Turkish soci<strong>et</strong>y," said Ecevit. "There is no racial<br />
discrimination, it is not possible."<br />
Turkey forbids education and broadcasting in Kurdish, bans that EU officials have<br />
<strong>de</strong>man<strong>de</strong>d that Turkey lift if it wants to enter the l5-nation bloc. Until 1991, speaking<br />
Kurdish was also officially banned.<br />
Ecevit said the Kurdish conflict arose from the structure of soci<strong>et</strong>y in the southeast and was<br />
fanned by foreign interference.<br />
"We are up against a separatist terror movement encouraged, provoked and supported both<br />
by some countries in the region and by certain circles of countries allied to us," he said.<br />
Ecevit complained about the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Guenter Verheugen's use of<br />
the phrase "Kurdish problem" during a visit last week.<br />
The foreign ministers of Swe<strong>de</strong>n, Luxembourg and Denmark have voiced concern about the<br />
treatment of Kurds and human rights abuses in Turkey. The foreign minister of EU<br />
presi<strong>de</strong>ncy hol<strong>de</strong>r Portugal is due to visit on Tuesday, the latest top official to beat a trail to<br />
Ankara since it was granted EU candidate status in December.<br />
*************<br />
Al-Hayah<br />
14 MarOO<br />
by 'Ali 'Abd-al-Amir<br />
Iraq Dialogue Appeal<br />
'Concealed Threat'<br />
[FBIS Translated Text]<br />
Amman -- Iraqi Kurdish sources have said that Baghdad's call for resuming the dialogue<br />
with the two main Kurdish parties -- the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP], led by Mas'ud<br />
Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan [PUK], led by lalal Talabani -- is not a call for<br />
dialogue, but a "concealed threat." The sources said that the media in Baghdad <strong>de</strong>scribed<br />
Kurdish forces as "agent cliques" and threatened Iraqi Kurds "a fate similar to that of the<br />
Kurds in Turkey and Iran."<br />
The sources, which were speaking to Al-Hayah from al-Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq,<br />
ad<strong>de</strong>d that "the Kurdish issue cannot be resolved in isolation from a comprehensive solution<br />
un<strong>de</strong>r which Iraq would be ruled by a <strong>de</strong>mocratic regime. "<br />
The sources emphasized that "Kurdistan cannot go back to Baghdad's security hegemony or<br />
to the days in which the security services ruled Kurdish areas with iron and fire."<br />
The sources, which are close to the PUK, said that "the Kurdish people's forces will not<br />
allow a reoccurrence of the circumstances that (Presi<strong>de</strong>nt) Saddam Husayn exploited to<br />
r<strong>et</strong>urn his forces to Kurdistan" -- a reference to the infighting with the KDP in August 1996<br />
when the Republican Guard entered Irbil.<br />
The sources said that the Kurdish people in the province, which has not been un<strong>de</strong>r central<br />
state control since 1991, "has freedoms and refuses to r<strong>et</strong>urn to the times of repression."<br />
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