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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-BasznÖzeti
government plans for speeding up the passage of laws essential to the country's firiandal reform programme. The
True Path Party said the move was an attempt to silence criticism.. .
.fiYiy ~Ê.der,Tap.su Ciller, de~c:.z:ibeclMr Sil1~og!.u_~~ a J!l_~r fo.rßem~~r~cy.
Retired General predicts .PKK resurgence
Turkish Daily News January 31, 2001
Former commander of the Gendarmerie Law and Order forces Gen. Ret. Necati Ozgen has warned that when
the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist terrorist organization's efforts to takeon a political guise and win
through the ballot box what . they could not through force of arms, they will go back to the gun in. the years
ahead, the Anatolia news agency reported. Gen. Ret. Ozgen voiced his warning in an essay called "How Can
the Wounds of Terrorism be Dressed?" for the bimonthly journal "National Strategy".
Gen. Ret. Ozgen first notes how the PKK's efforts to establish an independent Kurdish state in Turkey through
force of arms failed as a result of the successful fight put up by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and how the
PKK is finding it mcreasingly difficult to find shelter within Turkey.
Ozgen points out that the armed struggle was brought to a ha!t and that it began to give .priority to political
activities, which included withdrawing most of its terrorists from Turkey. "No matter how much the organization
tries to convince the public this situation is a well-intentioned, self-proclaimed ceasefire, it still shows that
it has been unable to achieve its goal," he says. Ozgen also notes the approximate size of the PKK both in Turkey
and abroàd. He says that small groups numbering around 1,000 terrorists in total are still active within Turkey,
that there aTe some 4,500 PKK in northernIraq, 1,000 in Iran and up to 100 in Syria. He states.that in the 16 years
of combating the PKK, the TSK has killed 38,000 terrorists and lost 4,418 soldiers. About 5,400 civilians have
also been killed.
Oigen states the PKK never acted on its own initiative and iri its bid to stay alive is doing its utmost to protect
the central core and to preserve its weapons in order to be able to use them again later on. He says the only
reason the PKK is inactive at the moment is that it is waiting for the outcome of the ECHR case and to see how
Parliament reacts to it before making a move. He further states that it would be folly to assume that this separatist
terrorism, which received support from within Turkey and abroad, is over. "If Ocalan is hanged, it will
cause terrorism to flare up. If he remains alive then this will attest to the power of separatism," he adds noting
that Ocalan is a common criminal responsible for the deaths of over 30,000 people but to consider him a political
prisoner is to accept the separatist movement. He stated that w:hen the PKK understands itspolitical
struggle will not bear fruit then it will take up the gun again and listed the circumstances under which the PKK
could make a resurgence:
Turkey becoming bogged down in political instability; the organization managing to recoup its men and materiallosses;
managing to win over European public opinion; finding enough funds to resume the armed struggle;
. increasing its influence on the people in the region; neighboring countries could force the PKK into resuming
the armed struggle and support it; the execution of Abdullah Ocalan.
On the subject of education in Turkish; Gen. Ret. Ozgen says the unitary state is based on a common language
and that if Kurdish language education is used at primary schoollevel then this win rapidly bring an end to the
unitary state and maintained it posed the biggest threat to the unitary state. Finally, Ozgen lists what he believes
Turkey should do to prevent terrorism and these include:
Security forces should keep up small-scale operations in order to render PKK forces left behind in Turkey
irieffective; raids should be mounted on PKK camps in neighboring countries and the region purged of the PKK;
psychological warfare should be employed to break PKK morale; key personnel within the PKK should be .hunted
down,captured and brought back to Turkey to stand trial; the state should takecontrol of the prisons, which
the PKK is using as training camps; the region should not be used as a punishment posting for state officials; the
matter of displaced persons should be . tackled immediately and town-village programsenacted; new and up to
date press and broadcasting laws should be issued; the outdated village guardian system should be reevaluate
and measures taken to assuage the unemployù\ent concerns of those.no longer part of it; demands for Kurdish.
language broadcasting and education should be treated with circumspect and no concessions made; it should be
made perfectly clear .to the EU and to other powerful countries that efforts to disrupt the unitary nature of the
Turkish Republic will not be allowed; all private and public institutions should be mobilized and the region's economy
-picked up; investment in the region should be encouraged.
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