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

Revue de Presse-Press Reviezv-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
Feature-Spring
Thaw Exposes Kurd Rebels to Attack
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TUNCELI, Turkey, March 27 (Reuters) - When the snows melt in Turkey's eastern province
of Tunceli wild flowers carpet the mountainsides in a blaze of colour and Kurdish rebels
crawl from their cave hideouts to attack Turkish forces. .
At least that has been the pattern for the last 15 years. But this spring the rebels are trapped
between a ceasefire order from their jailed chief Abdullah Ocalan and an uncompromising
Turkish military determined to hit them at every opportunity.
The army is now preparing a series of spring offensives to crush the remaining rebels, both
inside Turkey and across the border in the Kurdish-held enclave of northern Iraq.
"The PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) have reached a dead-end, they realise what they have
been chasing is an unobtainable dream," a Turkish military official told Reuters.
Nearby U.S.-made strike helicopters brimming with weaponry took off to scour the forested
slopes for the roughly 100 rebels thought to be still at large in the rugged region.
"The Turkish armed forces will continue to fight until there are no more terrorists in the
mountains," he said. .
Ocalan's PKK set out to fight for an independent Kurdistan in 1984. Faced with defeats in
the fieldthey later downgraded their demand to self-rule for the mainly Kurdish southeast.
.. .
Following his capture and death sentence for treason last year, Ocalan now says all he wants
are cultural rights -- television and education in Kurdish.
Despite European Union pressure, Turkey shows little sign of granting these and refuses
outright to talk peace with Ocalan.
"The army is winning, why should they negotiate?" said one observer. "The military has
achieved what they calI 'an acceptable level of violence', they calculate they can finish off the
PKK .and make concessions from a position of strength."
The military official said some two-thirds of the PKK's forces had complied with Ocalan's
oMer to leave the country and hadjoined around 3,000 of their comrades in camps in
northern Iraq and Iran, leaving around 1,000 fighters still in Turkey.
RENEGADES VOW TO FIGHT ON
The PKK's Tunceli brigade has so far been alone in defying an Ocalan order to abandon the
armed struggle.
Calling themselves the "Fighters of the Revolutionary Line" they said Ocalan was
capitulating and have vowed to fight on.
"The dense forests and mountains riddled with caves have always made this area a haven for
bandits," said the official.
In a highly autocratic organisation, few PKK guenillas outside such a stronghold would dare
defy their leaders. .
And the experience of Tunceli does not bode well for those who might have such a move in
mind -..as soon as the renegades
raised the banner of rebellion they were hit by the army.
Haydar Alparslan, the first local PKK chief to reject Ocalan's pleas for peace, was shot dead
late last year as helicopter-borne troops swooped down on a meeting between him and PKK
regional commander Hamili Yildirim .
.Yildirim himself later sided with the dissidents but troops tracked him down this month,
killing his deputy and eight others in an all-day firefight, though the commander escaped.
MILITARY ONSLAUGHT
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