Amid war drums, Turkey's Kurds fear loss of rights
Democratic gains in southeastern Turkey may be sacrificed if Ankara goes after rebels in Iraq.
By Yigal Schleifer | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the October 29, 2007 edition
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Yuksekova, Turkey - The 100,000 Turkish troops massing near the border with Iraq is a palpable presence here in the predominantly Kurdish towns of southeastern Turkey.
Heard above the shouts of children playing on the streets in this small city of Yuksekova are the thump-thump of military helicopters shuttling troops and supplies. Periodically, armored vehicles merge with the honking cars and trucks.
On Sunday, Turkish soldiers killed 20 Kurdish guerrillas in a major military operation against separatist rebels about 400 miles northwest of here, Army sources told Reuters.
Residents in Yuksekova are sympathetic to the rebel aims of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) but are tired of the fighting. They worry that recent political gains will be lost. In the July parliamentary election, most voters here put their weight behind a mainstream political party – the ruling Law and Justice Party (AKP). In recent years, the PKK has been losing clout, but some analysts worry the current march toward war could revive local support for the rebels.
"I am 30 years old and this current government is the most democratic government that I have seen," Ismail Arslan, a Yuksekova radio journalist. "But I don't think the government can continue in its democratic ways in the current situation."
In response to stepped-up attacks from the PKK across the nearby Iraq border, public support for a tough, military response is building in Turkey. As part of this fight with the PKK, some analysts expect Turkish troops will restrict the rights and movement of locals, and begin arresting residents who are perceived as PKK supporters.
"If the local population sees democratic reforms being rolled back [here], they could fall back into supporting the PKK and following a more radical line," says Volkan Aytar, a researcher at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, an Istanbul-based think tank.
Clearly, the renewed PKK attacks – particularly the Oct. 21 ambush that killed 12 Turkish soldiers – have also exposed a deep fault line running through Turkish society, one that is being watched with increasing concern in the southeast.
That attack in the nearby mountain village of Daglica led to protests across Turkey, with thousands of flag-waving marchers calling for Turkey to take action against the PKK. More disturbingly to residents here, offices of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party (DTP), which currently has 19 of its members in parliament, were attacked by mobs in several cities.
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