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

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