from the June 29, 2007 editio

woeu.html < .html>

Why Turkey’s Kurds are ever more edgy

While Kurds are testing the limits of legal reforms that grant more freedoms, an uptick in attacks from separatists threaten to erode gains made by the ethnic minority.

By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Diyarbakir, Turkey

Mohammad Isiktas, only 13 years old, is prepared to take on the
Turkish state so he can legally use his Kurdish middle name.

He is still forbidden from having Demhat, which means "the time has
come," on his ID card. His younger brother will also go to court, to
use his Kurdish name, which means "freedom."

While Turkey’s Kurds have seen some limited reforms, this family’s
pending fight is emblematic of the legal limits the ethnic minority
still face.

Application of new laws that permit limited use of Kurdish, such as
ending the ban on Kurdish names and allowing 45 minutes of Kurdish TV
broadcasts a day, are being challenged by zealous state prosecutors
fearful that such minority rights will undermine the Turkish republic.

So change has come only fitfully to southeast Turkey, where separatist
guerrillas of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and Turkish forces
fought a vicious war throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

"I want peace between Turkey and Kurds, between police and the PKK,"
says Mohammad, his dress shirt buttoned to the neck. "For that reason
I want both names, Mohammad and Demhat, as a combination of these two:
the [Turkish] police and [Kurdish] fighters."

"In the past, because of high pressure, we were afraid of learning our
own culture," says Makbule Tanriverdi, the boys’ mother. "But now we
are more self-confident and brave because of that hard struggle
period."

Still, after five years of relative peace, expanding self-rule, and
easing language restrictions, there has been a resurgence of PKK
attacks and Turkish military action, which threatens to spill into
northern Iraq and erase these modest changes.

The PKK is increasing attacks on Turkish soldiers and is blamed by
officials for a string of bombings against civilians. Public support
is high for a military invasion against PKK bases in northern Iraq –
the US and their Iraqi Kurdish allies are accused by Turks for giving
the PKK safe haven.

The US and European Union labels the PKK a "terrorist" group for
targeting civilians. Turkey has backed up threats by boosting troop
strength along the border.

But even as Kurds test the limits of EU-inspired legal reforms that
grant more cultural rights, they say the renewed bloodshed stems from
a lack of creativity on both sides.

The PKK, for example, did not disarm after the 1999 capture of its
leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who vowed in court to "give up the armed
struggle" and "dedicate my life to bringing Kurds and Turks together."
Earlier this month, the imprisoned PKK leader warned that invading
Iraq would spark a broader Turk-Kurd war and risk "losing all Turkey."

For its part, the state ended a brutal state of emergency marked by
extrajudicial killings, destruction of villages, and torture. "They
did not internalize those changes, so they were token moves," says
Osman Baydemir, the mayor of Diyarbakir. Like local Kurdish officials
across southeast Turkey, home to some 15 million ethnic Kurds, he is
facing a number of legal cases.

Still, a Kurdish political party exists with many PKK sympathizers
among its ranks, and some 30 members hope to be voted into Turkey’s
parliament in July 22 elections.

Development and other economic projects have borne little fruit or not
materialized, however, leading to 60 percent unemployment in this city
alone, and feeding what Mr. Baydemir counts as the 29th Kurdish
rebellion – the one launched by the PKK in 1984.

"From the end of 2005 onwards, there has been a remarkable regression
of cultural rights," says Baydemir, whose broad desk is watched over
by a portrait of Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. "Currently
there is no trace of the positive atmosphere from 2000 to 2005."

The result is clear in the number of legal court cases brought against
local officials and Kurds, who daily test the limits of the law. The
mayor and municipal council of Diyarbakir’s Sur district, in the old
city, were recently sacked for voting to use Kurdish to spread
information about local services ranging from tourism to trash
cleanup.

Baydemir’s most recent case is prosecution for printing New Year cards
in Turkish, English, and Kurdish. Some non-Kurdish officials who
received them sent them back. The case was not brought because Kurdish
is banned, the prosecutor explained, but because the letters X, W, and
Q exist in Kurdish but not Turkish, so their use violates a law
protecting Turkish letters.

The mayor responded, in court, that the prosecutor also must violate
the law every day, when he logs into the Justice Ministry website,
tapping the URL address that begins www.

"In the last four years, many new laws passed parliament and as a rule
they are not bad – the same as in European countries," says Tahir
Elci, a human rights lawyer who spent time in detention in the
1990s. "But in practice, the problems continue because prosecutors and
judges haven’t changed their minds."

Broad Kurdish disillusion means more than 50 percent of Kurds believe
the PKK "represents their rights," estimates Mr. Elci, though only 10
to 20 percent support killings.

"Kurdish people are not happy with the violence – they want peace and
don’t support these attacks," says Elci. "But also they are not happy
with government policy, because the Kurdish problem is not
solved…. Kurds in Turkey don’t believe this state represents them,
or belongs to them."

Indeed, unity was the key message of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan at an election rally in Diyarbakir on Sunday. In this
long-neglected region, Mr. Erdogan listed his Islamist Party’s
achievements, including claims of opening 1,500 new classrooms
already, and 500 more by the end of the year.

"What did we do in Diyarbakir? You’ll tell everyone what we did!"
Erdogan told the chanting crowd. "We just want to win your hearts and
emotions. We don’t want any hate or conflict."

Still, Mr. Erdogan has sought to take a tough line against
"terrorists" and says he would approve a military push into northern
Iraq when "necessary." But he also says that 5,000 PKK activists
inside Turkey – his numbers – should be dealt with before crossing
into Iraq.

Turkish generals Wednesday repeated their call for a cross-border
operation into Iraq, estimating that 2,800 to 3,100 guerrillas are
based there. "Turkey prefers security to democracy, [and] if you
prefer security to democracy, then you will have a violent reaction,"
says Ali Akinci, head of the Diyarbakir branch of Turkey’s Human
Rights Association.

Turkish military operations have stepped up since 2004 and surged in
the past six months, during which time 214 people died on both sides,
says Mr. Akinci. His predecessor was hit with 46 court cases from
state prosecutors; the office was shut down between 1997 and 2000 for
saying that "a Kurdish nation exists in Turkey."

A breaking point, observers here say, came during riots in Diyarbakir
in March 2006, when protestors at the funerals of PKK militants
clashed in the streets with Turkish soldiers for several days. A total
of 10 people died in the gunfire, including a boy watching from a
balcony; the Human Rights Association is handling 350 cases of the 600
people arrested.

"The latest conflicts will increase nationalism [on both sides] and
will make things worse than ever before," says Sezgin Tanrikulu, chair
of the bar association in Diyarbakir. "Kurds are becoming more
radical, and I believe their trust in the system is going to be
weaker."

A call by Turkey’s top general on June 8 for Turks to "show their
reflex action en masse against these terrorist acts" amounts to a
"declaration of internal war," says Mr. Tanrikulu, winner in 1997 of
the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

PKK attacks also have some Kurds angry. "Lots of people are shouting
against them, ‘Why are they using such violent methods?’ " asks
Tanrikulu. "Especially operations against civilians. People don’t
support this."

He is handling a string of cases at the European Court of Human Rights
in Strasbourg, France, where decisions often go against Turkish
authorities. Locally, Tanrikulu is now defending Baydemir, the mayor,
who has been charged with "aiding and abetting the terrorist
organization PKK," and faces 10 to 15 years in prison for trying to
calm demonstrators during the riots last year with the words: "We
share your pain deep in heart."

"In Turkey, we have lived almost everything that could be lived; war
and torture…." says the mayor. "The war concept was consumed to its
limits. But there is only one way we have not tried: negotiations,
peace, and talking.

"Dialogue and compromise are inevitable [to end] this conflict," adds
Baydemir. "We need to show Turkey the path of reason. But now there is
an eclipse of reason."

Copyright © 2007 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.