Subject: Genocide against Kurds and Ocalan trial

By Margo Schulter

May 30, 1999

A frequent topic on this conference, and very rightly so, is the way in which genocides can be conducted while the world seems to look on with indifference. The long-suffering ordeal of the Tutsi people in Rwanda is, sadly, a classic case.

Today, yet more sadly, the basic human rights of the Kurdish people in Turkey -- or, more precisely, the portion of Kurdistan within Turkish borders -- remain conveniently ignored by various "world leaders" while Abdullah Ocalan stands on trial for his life in Turkey.

Ocalan (the "c" being pronounced like English "j"), known to his many followers in Kurdistan as "Apo," is charged with treason and "terrorism" as the leader of the PKK (Kurdish Workers' Party) and its 15-year campaign of armed and unarmed resistance to Turkish oppression.

During this period, an estimated 37,000 people -- the great majority Kurdish -- were killed in this conflict, and the Turkish forces destroyed 3,000 Kurdish villages as part of a "scorched earth" strategy.

As part of its trial strategy, the Turkish government is attempting conveniently to blame Apo for _all_ of this death and suffering. Such an attempt, however, asks the world to ignore conduct by this Government itself against the Kurds and other champions of human rights which has been repeatedly condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations of good will.

These organizations have raised two fundamental objections to the current trial of Apo in Turkey, however one views the allegations against him and other members of the PKK. First, imposition of the death penalty would be in itself an elementary violation of human rights, a crucial factor in Italy's refusal last year to extradite Apo to Turkey. Secondly, Turkey's record of torture, "disappearances," and extrajudicial executions indicates that political defendants such as Apo cannot reasonably be guaranteed freedom from abuse or a fair trial in that country.

Additionally, of special interest to this conference should be a third reason: the Turkish government itself should be on trial before some impartial tribunal for crimes against the Kurdish people and nation, and against all humanity.

-------------------------- Genocide against the Kurds --------------------------

As the international law of genocide makes clear, it is not necessary to kill every last member of a national group such as the people of Kurdistan in order to commit this crime against humanity.

In addition to the physical destruction of 3,000 Kurdish villages, and military "incursions" into Iraqi Kurdistan augmenting Saddam Hussein's role in the destruction of 5,000 villages there, the Turkish government has sought to suppress something as simple and precious as the Kurdish language. Until 1991, it was illegal even to use this language _privately_, and the language remains officially banned for broadcasting. In practice, merely speaking Kurdish in a public place is still an invitation to intense surveillance or arrest; shops carrying any music cassettes with any identifiable words in Kurdish are likewise a routine cause for such surveillance. The word "Kurd" is not in the official Turkish encyclopedia.

Just how dangerous Kurdish national identity may seem to this Government was made clear in 1994, when Leyla Zana, Kurdish Member of Parliament, made a speech calling for reconciliation and peace between Turks and Kurds. She spoke, however, in Kurdish, bravely displaying her people's colors (red, yellow, and green) while advocating a settlement based on nonviolence and justice.

For this "offense," she was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and while in prison has been awarded the Free Thought prize of the European Parliament, the Sakharov Prize, and declared a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International. She has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The cry "Free Leyla Zana!" resounds throughout the world, yet she and a number of fellow Parliamentarians and ministers remain behind bars while Turkish officials claim the moral and legal authority to try Apo for "terrorist" activities.

---------------- Holocaust denial ----------------

Commendably, Apo and other Kurdish leaders have acknowledged the Kurdish role in the Armenian and Greek Genocide/Holocaust commencing in 1915, when many Kurds joined with Turks in the campaign of slaughter.

Unfortunately, denial of this genocide remains a popular stance in Turkey, where mere Kurdishness may also be taken as an "offense against Turkishness." This denial is coupled in some cases with denial of the European Holocaust of 1933-1945, and recently there has been much dissemination in Turkey of "revisionist" literature appealing to traditional Turkish anti-Semitism.

Turkey presents itself as a totally secular and "modernized" state -- but is not above drawing on religious concepts when they can be used as propaganda to promote genocide against the Kurdish people. One potential barrier to such genocide is that fact that the majority of Kurds, like the majority of Turks, are followers of Islam.

In order to overcome their possible reluctance to kill their sister and brother Moslems, religious Turks call Kurdish people _hayvan_ ("animal") or _microbe_ ("microbe"), and call Kurdistan _pis bom bosh yer, sadace toz_ ("dirty worthless place where only dust is," to be cleaned out). This ritual of dehumanization allows them to keep their self-image as devout observers of Islam while waging a genocidal war against Islamic Kurds as well as those following other traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Alevism, and Yezidi.

While hatred and prejudice in themselves are powerful factors in genocide, the mineral and other resources in the mountains of Kurdistan such as chromium, uranium, gold, silver, oil, and most of all, fresh water, suggest that in "cleaning out" Kurdish culture and language, the Turkish government and its international allies may have economic motives also. Kurdistan is a "land of milk and honey" in the Biblical sense of a rich and fertile region, the Congo of the Near and Middle East.

Such mixed motives have played a role in five centuries of genocide against indigenous peoples on several continents. Kurdish spokesperson Kani Xulam has drawn a direct parallel between the fate of peoples such as the Cherokee Nation and the current lot of Kurdistan. In turn, members of the Cherokee Nation have joined in support of the Kurdish struggle for survival, as have Jewish, Irish, and other people taught by history that oppression and genocide are the concern of all humanity.

--------------------------------------------- Terrorism on trial -- which side of the dock? ---------------------------------------------

As has been documented by human rights investigators, the killing of innocents has been a deliberate policy of the Turkish "counterinsurgency" effort in Kurdistan. As one former soldier put it, to be a victim you didn't need to be a guerrilla or even a PKK supporter -- to be Kurdish was enough.

Can a Government sponsoring or condoning such tactics, and repeatedly refusing PKK offers of unilaterial cease-fires and negotiations, serve as a competent judge of charges against those who resist it?

All too often in the 20th century, the word "terrorist" has been used as a cover for genocide. Thus in the 1980's, the "terrorist" label was applied to resistance movements in Guatemala while the Government and "security forces" conducted a genocide against the indigenous Mayan people. In the Kurdish resistance struggle, the usual asymmetries apply: while Turkish forces have destroyed 3,000 Kurdish villages, PKK and other resistance movements in Kurdistan have not destroyed a single Turkish village.

To oppose Apo's trial before the present Turkish tribunal is not to dismiss the issue of serious human rights allegations against the PKK, which might be resolved by an impartial international tribunal observing basic guarantees of substantive and procedural due process. Organizations such as Amnesty International have voiced such allegations, while also emphasizing the notorious crimes of the Turkish government and of allied paramilitary organizations such as the ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist "Gray Wolves."

However, any such trial should also include as defendants those Turkish officials and their allies responsible for two decades and more of torture, disappearances, suppression of free speech, scorched earth "counterinsurgency," and other crimes both against the Kurdish people and against many other dissidents and human rights activists.

To have the allegations against Apo and the PKK tried by the present Turkish government is rather like having charges of excesses against the French Resistance of 1940-1945 tried in a Nazi court. Such a proceeding would overlook the roots of resistance, and the reality of genocide.

------------------------- A call for reconciliation -------------------------

At this fateful moment, as Apo stands in danger of the gallows, the world is challenged to take an active role both in averting this new killing and in seeking a peaceful solution to the situation in Kurdistan.

A strong international consensus to spare Apo's life would be one invaluable factor in breaking the cycle of violence in Turkey, including Turkish Kurdistan. The release of prisoners of conscience such as Leyla Zana and her fellow ministers and 20,000 others, many of them children, imprisoned for their political beliefs or as prisoners of war, would be another.

It is now impossible for the world to turn back the clock to Armenia in 1915, or to Poland in 1940, or to Rwanda in 1994. However, the scene of Kurdistan in 1999 is immediately before us, and the time for action is come.

Most respectfully,

Margo Schulter mschulter@value.net