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
head of the second largest army in NATO have taken the conflict to the rebels.
"They had to learn to fight and fly at night and put people up in the mountains day and night,
just like the rebels are there day and
night," said the observer.
"The most effective weapon against the PKK is soldiers who live the same, fight the same
way they do," said the official.
It is a war where little quarter is given. Emergency rule authorities say troops have killed
some 23,000 rebels since 1987, only 3,500 have been captured alive. The PKK has killed
5,000 troops and 4,000 civilians, wounding nearly 16,000.
The generals do not discriminate between those sticking to the ceasefire and those not. All
must give themselves up or be "neutralised," they say. "If they all come and surrender the
whole thing could end today," said the military official.
Nor are Ocalan's rebels safe in northern Iraq where local Kurdish parties have set up a
de-facto autonomy since throwing off Baghdad rule at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) controlling much of Iraqi border
region closely cooperates with Turkish forces crossing the frontier to hunt PKK guerrillas.
With the military onslaught and outright failure to secure political concessions through its
"peace" initiatives, the PKK is at its most critical point since Ocalan founded it in 1978.
Between them Turkey and the PKK have effectively silenced alternative Kurdish parties.
The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP), while formally eschewing violence,
echoes the PKK party line and now faces possible closure by the courts.
Many Kurds, while vehemently opposed to seeing Ocalan hanged, feel he is betraying their
interests by simplifying the Kurdish problem into a struggle between himself and the
hangman.
"What did all these people die for?" said one Tunceli resident. "The guerrillas fought for
independence, not for Ocalan to sell them out just to save himself."
Meanwhile disillusion reigns and rebel recruitment is down.
"No one wants to go to the mountains just to sit there and do nothing," said a Tunceli youth.
"If you go, you go to fight."
Turkey has agreed to stay a decision on Ocalan's death penalty pending the outcome of an
appeal at the European Court of Human Rights, likely in 18 months.
Until then, those rebels still loyal to Ocalan -- the large m~ority -- have little alternative but
to sit tight while the army maintains its relentless attack.
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jeudi 30 mars 2000, 7h43
Turquie: Ecevit s'interroge sur l'avenir de son gouvernement
~KARA (Re~ters). - Le Premier ministre turc, Bulent Ecevit. déclare jeudi dans la presse turque qu'il
s mterroge sur 1avenu de son gouvernement après le revers essuyé la veille au parlement.
Cité par le quotidien Sabah, le chef du gouvernement précise qu'il n'exclut aucune possibilité.
"Lorsque je ser~i en ~nd~, je réfléc~irai ~ to~t c~la, y co~pri.s le maintien du gouvernement", dit-il. "Que chacun y pense
pendant quatre JOurs , ajoute Ecevlt, qUI dOIt s envoler JeudI pour une visite en Inde.
Mercredi, Bule~t .Ecevit n'a pu réunir de majorité qualifiée autour de son projet d'amendement de la Constitution visant à
permettre au presIdent Suleyman Demirel de briguer un nouveau mandat.
Le vote a .surtout mis en lumière des tiraillements internes au sein de la coalition gouvernementale entre le Parti de la gauche
démocratIque (DSP) d'Ecevit et le Parti d'action nationaliste (MHP).
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