Press Statement
In a Resolution
from May 4th, the European Union Included the PKK on their List
of Terrorist Organizations.
It makes one wonder why such a resolution was
not passed when the PKK were resorting to acts of violence in the
1980s and up to the mid-1990s, particularly within Europe. Instead,
the resolution is passed at a time when the PKK have ended their
armed activities. It is also clear that this resolution has been
passed in an atmosphere following September 11th and is a result
of persistent demands from Turkey.
In the past our party was a target of PKK attacks. There has in
fact been no end to such attacks and threats over the past three
years, a period when the PKK ended their armed campaign against
the Turkish regime and opted for a course of freedom and democracy.
We are an organization which has in the past suffered severe damage
and great loss resulting from PKK attacks and activities, and an
organization which has also heavily criticized the PKK.
Whatever the reason for the PKK’s decision to end their armed
struggle and to even disband and restructure themselves, and then
to choose the way of political resistance, we must conclude that
the EU resolution to now declare the PKK terrorists makes no sense,
is unjust and does not contribute towards resolving the problem.
The resolution merely encourages Turkey’s uncompromising and aggressive
stance.
The reason for Turkish pressure is obvious. Turkey has for decades
denied the Kurdish question and has responded with brutal terror
to the most elementary and legitimate of Kurdish demands. The PKK
themselves are nothing more than a product of such policies. The
Turkish regime, with the help of the PKK, have terrorized the Kurdish
question and have portrayed it to the public, both at home and abroad,
as a terror-problem.
Even today Turkey still follows the same rules: She continues
to depict the Kurdish movement as a PKK and terrorist problem and
endeavors to block the Kurds from taking any lawful political approach
and denies them political or cultural rights.
But a regime which really wants peace and democracy for its country,
and is opposed to terror, would have taken the opportunity at the
moment the guns went silent, and made steps towards resolving the
conflict by political and peaceful means.
However, the Turkish regime is determined, in its demagogical
“campaign against terror”, to prevent the Kurds from participating
in such an approach. It intensifies the pressure on the Kurds in
order to play the game of a dirty war.
In this grubby game, Turkey attempts to use the EU for its own
aims.
Our party calls on the EU not to support Turkey’s dishonest, primitive
and repressive plans.
Conversely, PKK interpretations of this resolution are also unrealistic.
What must be made firstly clear is that the resolution does not
accuse all Kurds of being terrorists, and that the entire Kurdish
movement should be banned. Organizations and institutions from other
parts of Kurdistan have never been accused of having such aims.
This also applies to organizations from northern Kurdistan, with
the exception of the PKK. There are currently many Kurdish organizations
in Europe which are unhindered in their activities and are respected.
The PKK are in this situation because of errors of their own making
to which they stubbornly adhered to. Everyone is aware of the years
of merciless violence against the civilian population, against other
patriotic groups and against dissenters from within their own ranks,
as well as the bloody murders and acts of violence in the European
states. Our party has over the years continually pointed out to
the PKK that acts of violence, particularly abroad, would harm the
whole Kurdish movement and especially the PKK themselves. Regrettably
the PKK took no notice of these warnings.
The PKK have dug their own grave. Now they call for support from
the very Kurdish organizations which they have been trying to destroy
over the years. And they do this in an ignorant, accusatory and
threatening way.
But we still maintain that despite everything, the Turkish regime,
who have for years persisted with their repressive policies and
shirked away from any peaceful and just solution to the Kurdish
question, remain guilty and responsible for everything that the
Kurdish people have to suffer.
We, the Socialist Party of Kurdistan, demand for ourselves and
for all Kurdish organizations, the right to be freely politically
active in our own country. Everybody, including KADEK, who accept
the democratic norms of political activity, must uphold the right
to free political activity.
The Turkish regime does not have the right, even in the 21st
century, to subjugate, repress and destroy a numerically large nation.
This concerns the future, freedom and the dignity of 40 million
people of which one half live within the Turkish borders.
The EU should not take the side of the powerful but rather the
side of justice.
An end to the regime of violence in Ankara must be now be called
for.
The Kurdish people and the suppressed majority of the Turkish
population demand freedom, peace and a dignified life.
The brutal, militaristic and racist regime persistently adheres
to its primitive policies and destroys the hope and future of both
peoples.
This can not continue. We Kurds shall never accept slave status,
inequality or humiliation.
Kemal Burkay
Socialist Party of Kurdistan
(General Secretary)
May 7th 2002
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