HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha

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From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: Re: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 28/3/95, 09:00 TSI
Reply-To: newsdesk at aps.nl

(1) Kurdish history -- broken promises and bloodshed

ANKARA, March 27 (Reuter) - The history of the Kurds has been one of broken
promises, failed deals, repression by the governments of the region, and
internal feuding.

The Kurds, estimated to number 15 million to 20 million, are a non-Arab, Sunni
Moslem people who speak a language related to Persian and live in a mountainous
area straddling the borders of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Azberbaijan and Syria.

They were mentioned by the Greek historian Xenophon as long ago as 400 B.C.
Saladin, the Islamic leader who fought the Christian Crusaders in the 12th
century, was a Kurd.

But for virtually all their history they have been subjugated by stronger
neighbours. In modern times, Turkey, Iraq and Iran have firmly resisted an
independent Kurdish state and the Western powers have seen no reason to help
establish one.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August, 1990, and subsequent victory by allied
forces over the Iraqi army in February, 1991, sparked a rebellion against
Baghdad by the Kurds as well as other Iraqi dissidents.

The crushing response by the Iraqi army caused a mass exodus of Kurdish
refugees and the United States, Britain and France responded by imposing a
no-fly zone over northern Iraq, using bases in Turkey.

The two main Iraqi Kurdish groups in the region failed to work out a
power-sharing agreement and fighting flared sporadically between them.

Kurdish nationalism stirred in the 1890s when the Turkish Ottoman empire was on
its last legs. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which imposed a settlement on Turkey
after World War One, promised them independence.

But three years later the Turkish republican leader Mustapha Kemal Ataturk tore
up the treaty. For the Kurds, one of history's losers, it was a story that was
to be repeated again and again.

They fared little better in Iraq, then under British mandate from the League of
Nations, where revolts were put down in 1919, 1923 and 1932.

In Iran, the Kurds succeeded in establishing a Soviet-backed Republic of
Mahabad in 1946. But Reza Shah crushed the embryonic state the following year.

Under the leadership of Mustafa Barzani, the Iraqi Kurds waged an intermittent
struggle against Baghdad after World War Two. Their "peshmerga" (meaning "those
who face death") guerrillas continued the fight after the Iraqi monarchy was
overthrown in 1958.

Finally in 1970 an agreement was reached allowing for linguistic rights and
self-rule in Kurdish areas as well as Kurdish participation in the Baghdad
government. But it broke down, partly over distribution of oil revenues and
exclusion of the oil-producing Kirkuk area from Kurdistan.

By 1974 it was open war again and a government offensive forced some 130,000
Kurds to take refuge in Iran. The rebellion collapsed the following year after
Iran withdrew aid in return for border concessions from Iraq in the Shatt
al-Arab waterway.

The Iran-Iraq war, which broke out in 1980 and lasted eight years, gave the
Kurds another chance to exploit regional hostilities for their own benefit.

The revolutionary turmoil in Iran allowed them to establish a no-go area for
government troops but they were unable to hold onto it for long.

In 1984, the Iraqi government was reported to have reached a settlement with
Jalal Talabani, leader of one of the main Kurdish parties. But this too broke
down over questions of cabinet posts for Kurds and the control of Kurdish
forces.

The same year a Kurdish revolt broke out in Turkey, where the Kurds were not
recognised as a separate race or allowed to speak their own language in public
-- a ban since lifted.

More than 15,000 people are estimated to have died in Turkey since 1984 when
the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched its fight for a separate state in
the southeast.

The Kurdish question again hit the headlines in March 1988, when some 5,000
Iraqi Kurds died in a poison gas attack by government forces on the town of
Halabja. But the incident produced little action by world governments to help
the Kurds.

(2) Kurdish rebel chief mixes nationalism and Marxism

By Alistair Bell

ANKARA, March 27 (Reuter) - Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, a
revolutionary of the 1970s who has fought successive Turkish governments
since 1984, has never given up his Cold War brand of nationalism mixed with
Marxism-Leninism.

"Even if 100,000 people die this year, our movement cannot be disrupted,"
Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group, told a
Turkish newspaper in 1992.

More than 15,000 people have been killed since the PKK, at first only a few
hundred dedicated followers of Ocalan, took up arms 11 years ago for a
separate Marxist-Leninist state.

The group is now a well-oiled guerrilla army of 5,000-10,000 men and women
with urbane representatives in Europe and battle-hardened fighting units in
both Turkey and northern Iraq.

Turkey has launched the biggest military expedition in its modern history,
involving 35,000 troops, to drive the PKK out of mountain bases in northern
Iraq.

A thick-set man in his mid-40s with a bushy black moustache, Ocalan has said
he prefers a federation with Turkey over a separate state but PKK literature
emphasises independence.

Also known as Apo, Ocalan is believed to be based in Damascus or the
Syrian-controlled Bekaa valley in Lebanon. In 1993 journalists saw him arrive
in the Bekaa in a car bearing Syrian diplomatic licence plates.

Late last year he launched a diplomatic offensive to secure a ceasefire and
international mediation to end the insurgency.

"International organisations can play a major role in finding a solution," he
wrote to Western leaders in November. Successive Turkish administrations have
ruled out a political solution or talks with the PKK, arguing that Kurds have
equal rights in Turkey and are not an ethnic minority.

Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller flatly turned down the ceasefire offer,
branding Ocalan "a terrorist," and Western governments showed no willingness
to act as peace brokers.

Just over a week after Apo's peace overture, two PKK gunmen shot dead a teacher
in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin, raising doubts over his
sincerity to halt the campaign.

The PKK, using mostly hit-and-run tactics against the much larger Turkish army,
has defied frequent government assertions it is all but defeated inside Turkey.
Ciller says a final push in Iraq will finish them for good.

Ocalan, born to a poor peasant family in the Kurdish village of Omerli in the
southeastern province of Sanliurfa, developed his revolutionary ideas amid the
violent political turmoil of Turkey in the 1970s.

He fled to Syria before Turkey's 1980 military coup, which disrupted a secret
movement he founded in 1974 after dropping out of Ankara University's political
science faculty.

He later acquired a reputation for ruthlessness in the southeast with killings
of suspected collaborators, pro-government tribespeople and left-wing rivals.

Alliances he has forged with the main Kurdish groups in Iraq have fallen apart
because of the Iraqi Kurds' anger at the PKK's willingness to kill Kurdish
civilians.

(3) Turk-Kurd Fighting Nears Syria

ZAKHO, Iraq (AP) -- As Turkish troops hammered Kurdish rebels Monday in
northern Iraq, Germany protested Turkey's military campaign by suspending
military sales.

German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said $105 million in government
subsidies to German shipbuilders, part of a $560 million deal to sell German
frigates to Turkey, would be suspended pending review by a parliamentary
committee.

Clashes were reported Monday near the Syrian border and to the east, close to
Iran. Some 35,000 Turkish troops, backed by warplanes and tanks, crossed the
Iraqi border March 20 to wipe out bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party, known
as the PKK.

The Turkish campaign is taking place in the section of Iraq controlled by
Iraqi Kurds who want independence from Saddam Hussein's government. Patrolled
by allied warplanes since the end of the Gulf War, the area is beyond the reach
of Iraq's military.

Military spokesman Col. Dogu Silahcioglu said Monday that 172 rebels and 17
Turkish soldiers had been killed in the 8-day-old campaign. Twelve rebels have
been captured or have surrendered, he told reporters in Diyarbakir, Turkey,
about a three-hour drive from this border town.

Turkey contends about 2,800 PKK guerrillas have been operating in northern
Iraq. Silahcioglu said Sunday some rebels were eluding troops by blending into
the local population.

Turkish troops raided a house in Zakho and killed two PKK rebels Sunday,
residents said. Also killed in the firefight was a member of a village militia
of Turkish Kurdish villagers armed by the government.

In another incident, guerrillas reportedly ambushed and killed two Kurdish
village guards as a captured PKK rebel was leading them to other rebels in
hiding.

Military and Iraqi Kurdish officials could not immediately confirm either
incident.

A Swedish aid official, Sidney Petersson, said Turkish troops "pushed around
civilians" and searched women in villages around Zakho. The soldiers also
prevented health workers from getting to around 100 villages in the region to
give polio vaccines, said Petersson, of the Qandil Project.

Turkey's Western allies have warned it to spare civilian lives and leave the
area as soon as possible. The United Nations also has expressed concern for
civilians.

With its suspension of military sales, Germany -- which has been one of
Turkey's biggest arms suppliers in the past but has no other pending military
aid -- became the first ally to act on its criticism of the offensive.

In Turkey, meanwhile, the first signs of public dissent about the campaign
in Northern Iraq emerged. A prominent jailed academic, Haluk Gerger, went on a
48-hour hunger strike Monday. And questions are being raised publicly about the
financial burden of the campaign.

(4) Turks battle rebel Kurds at ends of Iraq border

By Suna Erdem

ZAKHO, Iraq, March 27 (Reuter) - Turkey battled rebel Kurds in Iraq at opposite
ends of the long Turkish-Iraqi border on Monday while making it harder for
journalists to get in to cover the week-long conflict.

The fighting took place near Iraq's borders with both Syria and Iran, some 330
km apart, Turkish soldiers and security sources said.

"The operation against defined targets is continuing. The necessary work is
being done," a military spokesman told Reuters in the Turkish city of
Diyarbakir, nerve centre of the drive. He gave no further details.

Turkey, in the largest military campaign of its modern history, sent 35,000
troops into northern Iraq in a bid to smash bases of the rebels -- guerrillas
of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- who are fighting for a homeland in
southeast Turkey.

Turkey toughened press restrictions at the Iraqi border on Monday. Border
guards said they received a new directive requiring permits for journalists to
enter northern Iraq.

"No one can come in without a pass," said an officer at the main crossing
point at Habur in Turkey. But it was unclear how the necessary passes could be
obtained. "The border has been closed to the foreign press because they are
wandering around irresponsibly (in Iraq)," a spokesman for the General Staff
told Reuters in Diyarbakir. He did not say how long the restriction would last.

The new policy appeared aimed at curtailing reports, largely by the foreign
press, of civilian casualties from Turkish artillery, tanks and air raids.
Despite Turkish denials, Iraqi Kurds and Western aid workers said two civilians
were killed and about nine were wounded.

Turkish soldiers in the Iraqi border town of Zakho told of frequent clashes
with the rebels near Iraq's border with Syria. Rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is
believed to be based in Damascus or the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in
Lebanon.

"We won't let them get across of course," a soldier said.

Near the Iranian border, the rebels were taking on troops in the high mountains
and valleys of Khwakurk district, the security sources said, and a large number
of guerrillas were holed up in almost inaccessible caves and other hideouts.

Iranian Television, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, quoted
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati as saying Iran believed the Turkish
incursion into northern Iraq "will compound the difficulties" in the region.

In an interview published on Monday, Turkey's mission commander said his troops
must remain in Iraq indefinitely. Authorities have so far placed no time limit
on the operation. "There are some critical points where we could stay and must
stay," Lieutenant-General Hasan Kundakci told Milliyet daily.

Turkey, which this month took a big step closer to the European Union by
signing a customs union with Brussels, has come under harsh criticism from its
Western allies over civilian casualties and human rights.

German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel last week warned things would get tough
for Ankara the moment the world saw pictures of civilian casualties. Little or
no footage of such incidents has so far appeared on major television networks.

On Monday, Germany temporarily froze grants it had promised to give Turkey
for the purchase of three German frigates.

(5) Germans suspected of PKK sympathies freed in Turkey

BONN, March 27 (Reuter) - Six Germans arrested in southeastern Turkey as
suspected collaborators with the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on
Saturday were released on Monday, the German foreign ministry said.

A ministry spokesman could not give any information about a Belgian
photographer and a Briton also reportedly detained in Cizre, south of
Diyarbakir, the same day.

The Germans were released from house arrest in a hotel at around midday and
were on their way to Ankara, a receptionist at the hotel said. The foreign
ministry spokesman said they would make their way back to Germany.

The Belgian photographer, Koen Obgenhaffen, told Belgian VTM television on
Sunday he and the Germans were detained when they refused to hand over their
photo equipment.

PKK guerrillas have been fighting for an independent Kurdish homeland in
southeastern Turkey since 1984. More than 15,000 people have been killed in the
conflict.

The Nowrouz Coordination Bureau in Frankfurt, a group of German Kurdish
sympathisers, said the six Germans were academics from the northern city of
Bremen who went to the region to observe the Kurdish new year, known as
Nowrouz.

The group's Bremen office said one British and four Turkish journalists
were also detained in Cizre on Saturday. It identified the Briton as Richard
Wayman but did not say for whom he worked.

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