Why Turkey's Kurds are ever more edgy
While Kurds are testing the limits of legal reforms that grant more freedoms, an uptick in attacks from separatists threaten to erode gains made by the ethnic minority.
from the June 29, 2007 edition
Page 4 of 4
Turkish generals Wednesday repeated their call for a cross-border operation into Iraq, estimating that 2,800 to 3,100 guerrillas are based there. "Turkey prefers security to democracy, [and] if you prefer security to democracy, then you will have a violent reaction," says Ali Akinci, head of the Diyarbakir branch of Turkey's Human Rights Association.
Turkish military operations have stepped up since 2004 and surged in the past six months, during which time 214 people died on both sides, says Mr. Akinci. His predecessor was hit with 46 court cases from state prosecutors; the office was shut down between 1997 and 2000 for saying that "a Kurdish nation exists in Turkey."
A breaking point, observers here say, came during riots in Diyarbakir in March 2006, when protestors at the funerals of PKK militants clashed in the streets with Turkish soldiers for several days. A total of 10 people died in the gunfire, including a boy watching from a balcony; the Human Rights Association is handling 350 cases of the 600 people arrested.
"The latest conflicts will increase nationalism [on both sides] and will make things worse than ever before," says Sezgin Tanrikulu, chair of the bar association in Diyarbakir. "Kurds are becoming more radical, and I believe their trust in the system is going to be weaker."
A call by Turkey's top general on June 8 for Turks to "show their reflex action en masse against these terrorist acts" amounts to a "declaration of internal war," says Mr. Tanrikulu, winner in 1997 of the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
PKK attacks also have some Kurds angry. "Lots of people are shouting against them, 'Why are they using such violent methods?' " asks Tanrikulu. "Especially operations against civilians. People don't support this."
He is handling a string of cases at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, where decisions often go against Turkish authorities. Locally, Tanrikulu is now defending Baydemir, the mayor, who has been charged with "aiding and abetting the terrorist organization PKK," and faces 10 to 15 years in prison for trying to calm demonstrators during the riots last year with the words: "We share your pain deep in heart."
"In Turkey, we have lived almost everything that could be lived; war and torture...." says the mayor. "The war concept was consumed to its limits. But there is only one way we have not tried: negotiations, peace, and talking.
"Dialogue and compromise are inevitable [to end] this conflict," adds Baydemir. "We need to show Turkey the path of reason. But now there is an eclipse of reason."
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