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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basl11 Özeti
TIME, MARCH 30, 1998
EUHOPE
A Hellenic Haven
The flight of Kurdish refugees to Greece
adds to a cycle of violence and vengeance
By MASSIMO CAlABRESI
IT'S NOT EVERY DAY ONE SEES RECRUITS
inducted into a terrorist organization.
But at the Kurdish Cultural Center in
downtown Athens it happens three or
four times a month. About that often, a selfdescribed
"political branch" of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (P.K.K.) sets up a few
dozen plastic chairs in a room on the center'
s dingy first floor, hangs the red and yellow
P.K.K. flag on the wall and carts in a
Yamaha electric organ to pound out Ey
Ragip, a P.K.K. anthem. Grizzled P.K.K. loyalists
watch as recruits proclaim their allegiance
to the armed movement that has
earned a place on the U.S. State Department's
list of terrorist organizations. "Five
to 10 Kurds leave here every week to return
[to Kurdistan] and fight," says Rozerin
Laser, Bal-kans general director of the National
Liberation Front of Kurdistan
(E.R.N.K.), the P.K.K. political group that
seeks a Kurdish homeland in parts of
Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.
The P.K.K. recruitment of Kurds in
Greece is an overlooked link in the vicious
cycle of refugees and revolution across Eu-
.rope's southeastern frontier. In January, an
influx of thousands of Kurds into Italy and
Greece reminded the rest of the .E.U. how
permeable its borders really
are. But not all Kurdish asylum
seekers end up in Western
Europe. Some join the
.. P.K.K. and return to would-be
Kurdistan to fight, fueling
"It is away from
their homeland
that Kurds learn
who they are and
how they've been
abused."
more Turkish repression and
a new flood of refugees and
potential P.K.K. recruits. With
the Greek government turning
a blind eye, P.K.K. representatives
claim the recruiters
are free to start the process over again. The
latest refugee crisis, says one senior Western
diplomat in Athens who specializes in
terrorist issues, "unveiled Turkey's appalling
human rights' record and revealed
the porous frontiers of Greece and Italy."
But, he says, "It also took the wrappings off
Greece's tolerance of rebel Kurds."
The E.R.N.K.'S induction ceremonies
are just the tail end of the process for turning
refugees into revolutionaries. The real
indoctrination and recruitment goes on at
places like Lavrion, 45 km southeast of
Athens, one of about five
main refugee camps for
the 100 or so Kurdish asylum
seekers arriving each
month. Although hardly
lavish, the camp boasts an
IB-inch color TV with a
satellite dish to receive
daily broadcasts from
MED TV, the Kurdish
new~ station. Kurdish
camp leaders use cell
phones for calls to their
"brothers in battle," as
they describe their cohorts
on the outside. The
f.l.~'
crumbling wall~ an~ hung
with pictures of P.K.K.
strorigman Ahclullah
Ocalan and martyrs to the
Kurdish cause.
"This is the greatest
help that Greece" is pro- CRADLING THE FUTURE: A terrorist identity built on revolution
viding us." says Ferzeyn [skender. a self- monitoring the P.K.K. say then~'s no hard
proclaimed P.K.K. loyalist at Lavrion. ,.lt is evidence substantiating such :lccusatil'Ils,
here away from their homeland that the but that "there is a gray area III the field 'lf
Kurds 'nurture their ethnic identity, learn financial support."
who they are, what they stand for, how Much sympathy and suppoti \'f"Il':S
they've been abused by the Turkish au- from the Greek population it~e1f. w1lieh
. thorities." He points to a group of childrr.n spes parallels between the Kurdish nationplaying
in the compo,~n.d's c~~crete court- alist movement and their own IB~() liht'r:lyard.
LIsten, he says. tion from the Ottoman Empire. "The same
"They're singing Ey Ragip." thing is happening now with the K~lrds."
P.K.K. tutors' arrive twice a says English teacher Kaiti Piperopoulol\ as
week, according to camp she delivers school supplies to Lavrion.
leaders, to teach the history of "We must help them." The P.K.K. huilds on
Kurdistan, its language, CtlS- ,that backing, circulating fundraising
toms and traditions, suhjects leaflets festooned with svmbols of Greek,
that would be illegal in Kurdish and Greek Cypriot unity and bear-
Turkey. But P.K.K. activists at ing slogans like, "The solution to the disthe
camp quickly turn such putes in the Aegean and Cyprus goes
topics into propaganda. The through Kurdistan." The leaflets always in-
E.R.N.K.'S Laser admits that clude the bank account numbers for the
her success in recruitment "is the result of E.R.N.K. "We are not hiding what we are
a process of ideological training."
doing," says Lavrion's lskender.
Turkey says Greece is aiding and abet- In the V.S" such open P.K.K. activities
ting the' P.K.K., citing the confessilms of wOllld be a breach of the Anti-Terrorism
P.K.K. members as proof. "We are ju~t stat- Act of 1996 and WQuid bring prison sening
what P.K.K. terrorists captured in tences of up to 10 years for those perpe-
Turkeyare saying," says Sermet Atacanli, a trating them. But in Greece, the P.K.K.'S
spokesman for Turkey's Foreign Ministry. terrorist fire spreads virtually unchecked.
"They have been trained in Greece, both Across the border, Turkey fans the flames
ideologically and militarily." "Lies, lies, with its draconian treatment of the Kurlies!"
responds Greece's fiery Foreign Min- dish minority, and year by year more
ister, Theodore Pangalos, to accusations of Kurds are drawn into the conflagration.
Greek involvement. Western diplomats -Reported by Anthee CarsssavalAfhen.
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