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 Öz<strong>et</strong>i<br />
the Governor of the nine southeast-the confÏièt. l.you build roäds, and<br />
ern provinces thatare un<strong>de</strong>r emer- the next day they are tom up. You<br />
,gency' rule. "Then it is a Kurdish è8n't plant anything, because the<br />
television stätIon, then cultural au- P.K.K. will kill the farm laborers and<br />
tonomy, then political âutonomy. Tne bum the crops.The GOvernment has<br />
end goalls t? create a Kurdish state, '. turned the corner mllitarily, but now<br />
'~hiCh" is som<strong>et</strong>hing we will never what they need is a political and<br />
allow. ' cultural <strong>de</strong>-escalation."<br />
Only with great difficulty can<br />
some Turkish officers and politicians<br />
Army Tries to Win<br />
Hearts and Minds<br />
With the ti<strong>de</strong> running clearly in'<br />
favor of the army, there is wi<strong>de</strong><br />
agreement that the Government<br />
should now make stronger efforts to<br />
win the sympathy of Kurds in the<br />
southeast. Some local army com':<br />
man<strong>de</strong>rs are taking steps in that<br />
direction by assigning lloldiers to clvillan<br />
tasks ranging from digging<br />
irrigation canals to clearing pasture<br />
land for sheep and goats.<br />
..If I can do som<strong>et</strong>hing for these<br />
villages, I do It," said Gen. Ergin ,<br />
Saygqp, the army comman<strong>de</strong>r in<br />
Kars '1>rovince and one of the pioneers'.of<br />
such civil action programs.<br />
"It works so well that now some of<br />
;the villagers want us to stay forever."<br />
, Finding official spokesmen for the<br />
,Kurdish Workers Party is all but<br />
:Impossible. Non<strong>et</strong>heless, it ispossi~<br />
ble to make some guesses about the<br />
3trategy that the party follows.<br />
It eVi<strong>de</strong>ntly seeks to disrupt <strong>de</strong>vel~<br />
'opment projects, viewing them as<br />
efforts by the Government to tighten<br />
its hold on southeastern Turkey. By ,<br />
making schools and their teachers<br />
targ<strong>et</strong>s, it seeks to prevent what it<br />
views as indoctrinationof Kurds by:<br />
an educational system that <strong>de</strong>nies:<br />
their i<strong>de</strong>ntity and seeks to turn them'<br />
into Turks. .<br />
"You open up a school, and the<br />
,\lext day the teachers are killed,"<br />
$lJid,a, (j)glomat who çlose~y watches, '<br />
bring themselves to conce<strong>de</strong>. that the<br />
party may have any popular support.,<br />
A few, gently testing the limits of<br />
<strong>de</strong>bate, suggest that perhaps the<br />
Government should stop insisting<br />
that Kurds i<strong>de</strong>ntify themselves first<br />
and foremost as Turks.<br />
, "In the days of the Ottoman Empire,<br />
we ruled places like Serbia and<br />
Hungary and Bulgaria," said Musa<br />
Okcu; who represents Batman. in,<br />
Parliament. "People there were nev.<br />
er forced to abandon their cultura1<br />
heritage. There was also respect b<strong>et</strong>ween<br />
the Ottomans and the Kurdish;<br />
people. We need to use this historical<br />
experience and look for a solution<br />
along these lines."<br />
Such views are aboutas extreme<br />
as may be legally voiced in Turkey.<br />
Officiai sensitivity to the threat of<br />
Kurdish nationalism is so strong that<br />
journalists and writers are jalled for<br />
seeming to support it. Because many<br />
points of view are taboo, it is Impo~<br />
sible to have a public <strong>de</strong>bate that<br />
copsi<strong>de</strong>rs the range of possible solu-,<br />
tions.<br />
"If I criticize this war or <strong>de</strong>mand<br />
peace talks or talk about the legit!-<br />
:mate rightsof the Kurdish people,<br />
-this is high treason," sald Haluk<br />
Gerger, a leftist intellectual in Anka-<br />
'ra who lost his teaching job after the<br />
]980 military coup and has beén tak.<br />
en to court six times for expressing<br />
his views, serving a,year in prison Ini<br />
1995-96.<br />
"IU:ask<br />
the .Turkish Gove~ment<br />
to abi<strong>de</strong> by the legal or moral rules of<br />
warfare, it is a serious crime. You<br />
cannot even talk about the niost serious<br />
problem facir.g your country."<br />
Rebels' New Tack:<br />
Role as Holy Fighters<br />
Rec~ntly the Kurdish Workers<br />
Party has taken a new propaganda<br />
tack, seeking to portray itself as a<br />
<strong>de</strong>voutly religious organization fight-<br />
Ing a godless state. The party-influenced<br />
television channel that operates<br />
in Europe has begun broadcasting<br />
religious programs and referring<br />
to the gùerrillas as fedayeen, or holy<br />
fighters. '<br />
That is an odd turnaround in view<br />
of the Marxist-Leninist principleson<br />
which the organization was foun<strong>de</strong>d,<br />
but It could strike a responsive chord<br />
because many Kurds are more traditionally<br />
IslamiC than TurkS in the<br />
western part of the country. It may<br />
also be an indirect overture to the<br />
Islamic-based Government of Prime<br />
Minister Necm<strong>et</strong>tin Erbakan.<br />
The party has been all but wiped<br />
out in some eastern provinces, but<br />
the fact that emergency rule remains<br />
in place In much of the region<br />
suggests that peace Is not y<strong>et</strong> near.<br />
"The level of fighting is far lower<br />
that It was a few years ago, and the<br />
human rights sltuati.on is also b<strong>et</strong>ter/'<br />
said Mahmut Sakar, director of<br />
the Human Rights Association office<br />
In Diyarbakir. "But that doesn't<br />
mean the trouble is over. .<br />
"If the soldiers leave, everything.<br />
will go back to the way it was. There<br />
have been Kurdish insurrections for<br />
as long as there has been a Turkish<br />
state, and the Government has given<br />
no response except guns. Somehow<br />
we have to break out of this cycle."<br />
DES KURDES SONT UTILISÉS COMME DES DÉTECTEURS<br />
HUMAINS DANS DES OPÉRATIONS DE DÉMINAGE<br />
C<br />
'est ce qu'a déclaré, le 19 février, le député <strong>de</strong> Batman Musa Okcu au nom <strong>de</strong> la<br />
Commission parlementaire <strong>de</strong>s droits <strong>de</strong> l'homme du Parlement turc appelée à<br />
mener une enquête sur c<strong>et</strong>te affaire. L'affaire a eu lieu à la fin du mois <strong>de</strong> décembre<br />
<strong>de</strong>rnier lorsque <strong>de</strong>s soldats turcs ont contraint une cinquantaine d'hommes du village<br />
<strong>de</strong> Tekevler, dans le 'district <strong>de</strong> Sason, <strong>de</strong> les <strong>de</strong>vancer dans leurs opérations <strong>de</strong> déminage<br />
dans c<strong>et</strong>te région. Interrogé par Reulers, M. Okcu a déclaré que "les villageois<br />
m'ont expliqué que les forces <strong>de</strong> sécurité les ont forcés d'être leurs détecteurs<br />
humains", Les villageois ont porté plainte auprès du sous-préf<strong>et</strong> <strong>de</strong> Sason qui leur a<br />
déclaré "Je ne suis pas compétent pour intervenir dans les affaires <strong>de</strong>s militaires". Selon<br />
le quotidien Ozgur Politika du 20 février, le 31 janvier <strong>de</strong>s habitants <strong>de</strong>s villages Gundê<br />
Nû <strong>et</strong> Kelhesna, toujours dans le district <strong>de</strong> Sason, ont subi le même sort.Ces paysans<br />
ont tous un point commmun: leur refus <strong>de</strong> <strong>de</strong>venir <strong>de</strong>s protecteurs <strong>de</strong> village, malgré la<br />
menace <strong>de</strong> <strong>de</strong>struction <strong>de</strong> leurs villages par l'armée, Celle-ci semble vouloir les punir en<br />
les utilisant comme <strong>de</strong>s cobayes.<br />
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