Letter To The Toronto Star

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu
From: Kurdistan Committee of Canada <kcc at magi.com>
Subject: Letter To The Toronto Star

Editorial Page Editor
Mr. M. Haroon Siddoqui
The Toronto Star


                                                           March 27, 1995


Dear Mr. Siddiqui,

     We are writing in response to your editorial of March 22,
1995, where you claim the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are
terrorists who attack diplomats and traffick heroin in Europe. We
would be interested to know how you can substantiate such claims.
     The Kurdish community, the majority of whom support the PKK's
military actions against the Turkish government, are a family-
oriented community who are not terrorist, do not engage in drug
running, and who are not attacking diplomats across Europe. The
members of the PKK are Kurds. They cannot be separated from the
Kurdish community.
     The PKK/ERNK have tried for several years to alert the world
to the terrible atrocities being committed by the Turkish state -
to no avail. As you said in your editorial, the Turkish state has
no interest in providing the Kurdish community with even the most
basic human rights. It is not even prepared to pay lip service to
the principle. The Turkish state has used its membership in NATO to
further persecute the Kurdish community. While the Western powers
have stood by and watched, the Turkish state have made fools of
them. They have now marched into Iraq and we believe they will not
be willing to give up their position there.
     The PKK are engaged in a war that has been long and arduous.
They are accused of many wrong-doings, but these accusations have
never been substantiated. Kurdish communities are scattered all
over the world. All we are asking for is the right to self-
determination, a right which is taken for granted by nations much
smaller that ours.
     The Canadian media speaks of refugees in northern Iraq, but
little is mentioned of the reasons why they are there. These
refugees are there because they have had their villages destroyed
and their friends and family have been arrested, tortured, and
killed. All of this is done on the orders of the Turkish state.
     Finally, we, the Kurdish community, would like the Canadian
public to know that the PKK is the army of the Kurdish people. They
are fighting in the mountains of Kurdistan to win our freedom.

Your sincerely,

Hassan Chrakseher
Kurdistan Committee of Canada
(613) 733-9634