Remzi Kartal, right, Vice President of Kongra-Gel, the Kurdish National Congress, visited the Human Rights House in Oslo on Friday, and painted a bleak picture of the situation in Kurdistan. Kartal, who lives in exile in Belgium, has spent time in prison and cannot go back to Turkey. Like his fellow political representative Leyla Zana, he once presented his oath to the Turkish parliament in Kurdish. (28-APR-08)
Written by HRH F / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
-Regarding Kurdistan, Turkey is at a watershed, said Kartal, who was the guest of the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurds (RKR), one of the member organisations of the Human Rights HOuse in Oslo. -It is becoming ever clearer that the Kurdish question is not resolved with continued violent suppression. It only works to strengthen the Kurds´ nationalistic resolve. Despite Turkey´s increasingly fierce harassment this year´s Newroz (New Year´s) celebrations gathered greater support and generated greater enthusiasm than ever. The turnout was incredible, with lots of people making a statement about their identity by way of putting on their traditional Kurdish costumes. In last year´s election the same tendency was clear, with both the main Kurdish parties gaining increasing support. After several decades, Turkey should realize that the Kurds simply won´t bow to Turkish suppression. Instead, the rights and identity of the Kurds must be recognized and laid down, clearly and explicitly, in the Turkish Constitution. In addition, Kurdistan must be admitted a certain degree of autonomy and self-determination.
-The main Kurdish parties will probably be criminalised and fored to close
-The whole situation in Kurdistan is getting ever more serious, Kartal continued. -Turkish Kurdistan is heavily militarized, with large parts particularly in the border areas with Iraq declared ´security zones´. From these areas, lots of people have had to leave their homes, to get away from Turkyey´s bombing of Kurdish villages. For those who stay behind, martial law has been imposed, including strict regulations on what people can buy even of the most basic livelihood goods. And even for those, extreme measures and duties of reporting every little transaction to the military authorities have been introduced. Somewhat contrary to this unprecedented degree of law and order, the human rights violations, many of which carried out by the very same military authorities, are equally severe, both in numbers and kind. Furthermore, it is likely that the main Kurdish parties will be closed and criminalised. But as has become the custom, to carry the torch of those likely to disappear, a new party is already in the making.
Unique opportunity wasted
Across the border to Iran, the situation is much the same, with Iran occupying the parts of the country the Iranian Kurds consider their´s. Suppression and a wave of arrests echo what is going on on the Turkish side of the border. Such echoes, also to be heard in the part of Kurdistan that stretches into Syria, strongly suggest that there is a coordinated campaign going on, with Turkey orchestrating it all. With all else that is going on in Iraq, this is the only country that hasn´t fallen into line with the other ´host countries´ for the Kurdish territories. With the collapse of Saddam Hussein´s regime in Iraq, both Iraq itself and the international community had a unique opportunity to settle the Kurdish question, at least for Iraqi Kurdistan. It soon became clear, though, if it was not already, that the US had no intention of doing this. Now, Turkey conducts military attacks inside Iraq, on the pretext that that is where Kurdish military units hide and train.
53 mayors arrested for signing letter to Danish PM
-Mainstream Turkish media remain silent about most of this. And the recent sentence imposed on Leyla Zana is just another piece in the jigsaw. Zana was sentenced for having referred to Öcalan as one of Kurdistan´s three great leaders. What provokes Turkish authorities about this, is that Öcalan is recognized as such not only by Zana, but by most Kurds. Furthermore, Öcalan is alive, he is a current political force, to a great extent representing the will of the people. In an attempt to stem the increasingly outspoken Kurdish nationalism, Turkey also recently arrested 53 Kurdish mayors for having signed a letter to the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, asking him to appeal to Turkish authorities not to shut down a Kurdish tv station.
Well controlled poisoning, but Öcalan still in need of medical attention
On Öcalan´s situation , Kartal could confirm that he is not well. A report from Campaign to Prevent Torture (CPT) supports our suspicions that Öcalan has indeed been poisoned. On 1 March 2007, a press conference was held in Rome in which Öcalan´s lawyers presented evidence of unnaturally high levels of Chromium and Stronthium in Öcalan´s blood. CPT also lists a third metal, Magnesium, whose values in Öcalan´s blood were way out of the range that can be considered normal or even possible. Even so, according to CPT, the values found are not life threatening. The poisoning, thus, seems to be well controlled. And regardless of this, it is beyond doubt that he needs medical attention, and that the prison conditions under which he is serving are unacceptable.
