Kurdish Anger Simmers in Turkey

by SELCAN HACAOGLU
Associated Press Writer
June 28, 2001

BINGOL, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish soldiers patrol the roads in the country's southeast in
armored troop carriers, a sign that although the war in the overwhelmingly Kurdish region
may be over, tensions remain high.

Two years after Turkey sentenced Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to death, hopes for
real peace have faded. The government is still refusing demands for recognition of a distinct
Kurdish culture, and Turkish officials and generals avoid contact with pro-Kurdish mayors
in the southeast.

The area's economy remains in shambles, and Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party -- PKK in
its Kurdish initials -- is warning it could begin attacks again.

Turkey's military is clearly prepared.

Some 200,000 soldiers are based in the southeast -- as many as at the height of the 15-year
rebel insurgency -- backed up by tanks and armored cars visible at roadblocks and
paramilitary police stations.

''The swamp is still there, festering as always,'' said Mehmet Ali Birand, a commentator for
the Turkish Daily News. ''The side effects that nourished the PKK are still there.''

After Ocalan was captured by Turkish commandos in February 1999, many Turks rejoiced,
hoping that the conflict that had led to the deaths of 37,000 people, mostly Kurds, was
nearing an end.

Ocalan declared a cease-fire from his prison cell and most of his defeated rebel army began
withdrawing. His death sentence was handed down on June 29, 1999. His appeal is pending.

Pro-Kurdish mayors swept to power throughout the southeast in elections in April of that
year and many Kurds began to talk of a political struggle for their rights, rather than a
military one.

But little has changed. Turkey still does not recognize its 12 million Kurds as a minority.
Teaching or broadcasting in Kurdish, for example, is illegal.

Government funds to rebuild this poorest part of the country never came. Right-wing
legislators opposed the funding and after two devastating earthquakes struck western Turkey
in 1999, money was diverted to the west.

Politicians and military commanders shunned the pro-Kurdish politicians, fearing they were
just fronting for the rebels.

Some political leaders have suggested granting more cultural rights to the Kurds. But
opposing any compromise are the military, Turkey's most powerful institution, and the
far-right Nationalist Action Party, a key partner in the governing coalition.

''Language is an excuse,'' said Mehmet Sandir, a lawmaker from the coalition's nationalist
wing. ''They are inciting separatism. We will never allow this. They are playing with fire.''

The military issued its own warning Thursday.

''The Turkish army, which has given thousands of martyrs in its struggle with terrorism, will
not allow any effort that would help traitors reach their goals,'' Gen. Hilmi Ozkok,
commander of Turkey's ground forces, said at a military ceremony in Ankara.

In Bingol, a southeastern city of some 100,000 people, Mayor Feyzullah Karaaslan
complains that no military or government officials have visited him since he was elected in
1999.

''No one will shake my hand,'' said Karaaslan, who is with the pro-Kurdish People's
Democracy Party. ''The government should get rid of its obsessions.''

During a recent trip to the southeast, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer met with local
governors, who are appointed by the central government and are ethnic Turks, but would not
meet with the elected mayors.

The European Union is demanding that Turkey grant cultural freedoms to Kurds.

''The Turkish government has all the cards now; the question is to what extent they are going
to be influenced by the European Union,'' said Michael Radu of the Foreign Policy Research
Institute in Philadelphia. ''Turkey ultimately can survive without membership in the EU, but
is it worth risking a revival of Kurdish political violence or not?''

In a communique from his base in northern Iraq this week, Mehmet Karasu, a PKK
commander, urged Kurdish youths to join the rebels. His remarks were broadcast by Medya
TV, a Europe-based Kurdish TV station that is widely watched in the southeast.

On the prison island of Imrali, Abdullah Ocalan is busy writing a 1,000-page defense for the
European Court of Human Rights, which is expected to rule on his appeal this year.

His brother, Osman Ocalan, warned that if the government does not begin to meet rebel
demands for more cultural rights, fighting could start again.

''This is the last chance,'' Osman Ocalan said. ''Everyone should know that if Turkey does not
respond to (our) peace initiative, the war will start anew.''
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