ANKARA, Nov 15 (AFP) Turkey's powerful army has voiced concern that allowing
 Kurdish-language broadcasts in the country as required to join the European Union could
 damage the integrity of the state, the Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.

 "It is not possible for the Turkish army to be against Turkey's entry into the EU, but we may
 have a different opinion on whether it should be unconditional," Aslan Guner, the
 secretary-general of the general staff, was quoted by the agency as saying.

 Concerning EU demands that Turkey allow television and radio broadcasts in the language of
 Turkey's Kurdish minority, Guner said: "The only concern of the military is that it may disrupt
 Turkey's unitary structure. We cannot remain strong if divided."

 "But these are political issues, sensitive issues ... they will be evluated when the time comes,"
 he added in remarks to reporters late Tuesday.

 Turkey's army has fought the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) since 1984 when the
 rebels took up arms to gain self-rule in southeast Turkey.

 The conflict, which has claimed some 36,500 lives, has scaled down since last autumn when
 the PKK said it was laying down its arms and withdrawing from Turkey to seek a peaceful
 resolution to the Kurdish problem.

 The change of position came after Turkish agents captured PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan earlier
 in the year.

 The military, however, has played down the peace bid as a "ploy" saying that the rebels should
 either surrender or face the army.

 The European Union's demands for the recognition of Kurdish cultural rights is at the heart of a
 heated debate in Ankara that highligthed divisions among the three coalition partners in Prime
 Minister Bulent Ecevit's government.

 While Ecevit and the head of the center-right Motherland Party (ANAP), Deputy Prime Minister
 Mesut Yilmaz, have expressed favorable views on Kurdish-language broadcasting, the far-right
 Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has harshly objected to the suggestion.

 "Turkey cannot welcome cultural and ethnic rights that will fan ethnic conflicts and divisions,"
 MHP leader and Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli was quoted as saying by Turkish
 newspapers Wednesday.

 "Under these circumstances it is not possible to say that the EU has good intentions" towards
 Turkey, he added.

 Bahceli's outburst came despite his party's endorsement of a government statement last week,
 which welcomed the reforms proposed by the EU in the so-called accession partnership
 program.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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