Kurdish Plight in Turkey

[Toramana]

Turkey's Shame: Sexual Violence Without Redress: The plight of Kurdish women
A new report published by the Kurdish Human Rights Project [1], shows how Kurdish women in Turkey have increasingly become the target of State suppression of the Kurdish community and face a continuing and growing risk of sexual violence by state actors.
The magnitude of the problem of sexual violence against Kurdish women is widely unappreciated as even most recent statistics concerning incidents of sexual violence are only indicative of number of women affected. Many of the victims of sexual torture dare not speak of their experiences, because of the dishonour associated with rape and sexual violation in traditional communities.
KHRP's report is based on the findings of a November 2003 delegation to Mardin in Southeast Turkey to observe the trials of state officials for the rape and sexual torture of Kurdish women.
The first trial observed concerns the case of Sukran Esen, a Kurdish woman who was sexually tortured during three detentions which took place during 1993 and 1994. During these detentions Ms Esen was stripped, subjected to falaka, electric shocks, placed in a car tyre and rolled around, blindfolded and repeatedly raped by several men. All of those indicted for the crime worked at paramilitary police stations; 64 were senior officers. [2]
The second trial concerned the sexual torture and rape of another Kurdish woman on 5 March 2002 by five members of the Anti-Terror branch of the Mardin police. The victim HHamidiye Aslan, a Kurdish mother was detained for 48 hours in the police station where she was blindfolded, subjected to pressurised cold water, verbally abused and anally raped with sticks.
In addition, the KHRP delegation also conducted interviews with various State officials, NGOs and women victims of torture. During one such interview with by the Assistant Case Prosecutor in Mardin, the Delegation was told that Kurdish women had "ample opportunity" to use the existing domestic remedies in Turkey. "Every problem, however small, can be brought to a court in Turkey. She should not be afraid as the alleged perpetrator is a State official."
In its report, 'Turkey's shame: sexual violence without redress - the plight of Kurdish women,' KHRP condemns the continuation of state violence against Kurdish women and the lack of redress available to them. The report makes recommendations to the Turkish government and the international community about protecting women from sexual violence and ensuring that state actors may not act with impunity.
Kerim Yildiz of the Kurdish Human Rights Project commented, "The report highlights that the incidences of rape and sexual violence against Kurdish women in Turkey are not only "isolated incidents". Kurdish women are vulnerable both due to their gender and to their ethnicity. The Turkish Government and international community must take positive measures to safeguard Kurdish women from sexual violence from state actors."

Turkey's Shame: Sexual Violence Without Redress: The plight of Kurdish women
A new report published by the Kurdish Human Rights Project [1], shows how Kurdish women in Turkey have increasingly become the target of State suppression of the Kurdish community and face a continuing and growing risk of sexual violence by state actors.
The magnitude of the problem of sexual violence against Kurdish women is widely unappreciated as even most recent statistics concerning incidents of sexual violence are only indicative of number of women affected. Many of the victims of sexual torture dare not speak of their experiences, because of the dishonour associated with rape and sexual violation in

Here is heart-riping account of the way Kurds are treated in Turkey. It is an irony the world is not taking notice of it.

http://www.khrp.org/khrp-news/news-a...ish-women.html

[Toramana]

Turkey continues to systematically abuse the human rights of its 20 million-strong Kurdish population. Violence and discrimination are regularly used against Kurds despite hopes of a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict vis-à-vis the EU accession process. Despite the government’s self-declared “zero tolerance” policy on torture, its practice persists, and unless this results in grave injury or death, there is often little, if any investigation into reported abuse. Yet a rare verdict was delivered in a KHRP observed-trial, when in June 2010, 19 members of the police and prison services were convicted after a political activist, Mr Engin Çeber, was tortured and beaten to death in custody. Freedom of expression and legitimate debate about minority issues also continues to be quashed as prosecutors use extremely wide provisions governing the offence of disseminating terrorist propaganda. In January 2009, former editor-in-chief of the Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat was arrested and put on trial for publishing items about the Kurdish question and armed opposition groups. Language rights are also restricted, with the introduction of technical requirements in the curriculum making the task of teaching in Kurdish more difficult in the private schools where it is allowed.

Meanwhile, despite welcome reforms governing the use of anti-terror legislation against children, the widespread criminalisation and detention of minors remains problematic, as do still broad-ranging anti-terror regulations that give the Turkish state wide scope to arrest, prosecute or shoot ‘undesirables’ and remain within the law. Combined with the desire of many EU officials to stress the potential benefits of Turkish membership to a sceptical public, this lack of focus on human rights in Turkey seriously diminishes the value of the EU accession process.

Meanwhile, the controversial Ilisu Dam project – a crucial part of Turkey’s colossal Southeast Anatolia Project (GAP) that includes a network of 22 dams and 19 power plants - threatens the devastation of the Tigris River’s richly diverse ecosystem and the staggering displacement of up to 55,000 people. Notwithstanding Turkey’s failure to meet World Bank standards on cultural and environmental preservation and the dam’s potential to exacerbate regional conflict by severely reducing water flow to the downstream states of Iraq and Syria, the government has remained adamant that it will complete the project.

[Toramana]

Somewhat conveniently separated by the multi-laned Tarlabasi Boulevard is the Beyoglu that foreign tourists rarely see, a district where live many Kurdish people forced to flee there homes in south-east Turkey, either because of poverty or because they left their villages through direct force or out of fear for their lives.
Estimates vary, but around 4,000 villages in south-east Turkey were “emptied” in the 1980s and 1990s, with around one million people forced to leave their homes and farms during fighting between the Turkish armed forces and the separatist Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).

More than 35,000 people have been killed, mainly Kurdish civilians, since the PKK began its war for independence or autonomy for the south-east.
“From a distance Istanbul seems very large and also very beautiful,” says Ahmed Akan, a Kurd from the south-eastern city of Midyat, who moved to the seedier side of Beyoglu in 2004.

“I was shocked when I came here. I saw thieves and crime and drugs… drugs everywhere,” says Akan, who survives through picking up construction work and selling pre-paid mobile phone cards on the streets.

It was a different sort of shock from which he lived through in the early 1990s.
“I have seen it with my own eyes, people killed or kidnapped. It was like a war against the Kurds,” says Akan who describes the period as a “time of force”.
The Turkish military were destroying villages in an attempt to stop PKK fighters from using them for shelter. In many cases, state-employed village guards, themselves Kurdish, were settled in these now abandoned villages.

Since the 1999 capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan fighting between the separatists and the Turkish military fell drastically, enough for the government to lift emergency rule in the region and to institute a “return to the village” programme which envisaged giving aid to those who wanted to return to their homes.
Large numbers have returned to their homes but still live in extreme poverty. According to a study by Hacettepe University, some 88.5 percent of returnees have received no state help.

“The government has failed,” says Nuri Yalman, a parliamentarian from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) that has wide support in the southeast. “What needs to be done is obvious. Returnees need interest-free credit, they need construction materials to rebuild their homes, they need livestock and they need training.”

A greater problem for some is that their villages have been taken over by village guards employed by the state to fight the PKK.
“In my own region of Mus, people have been killed by village guards who have taken over their village,” Yalman says. Yalman also argues that the state is also not doing anything for those villagers who sold their then useless land, whether out of fear or extreme poverty, and who now have no land to return to.

The state must also help those who cannot or do not want to return to their villages, says Yalman. “Training, rental help, reduced utilities fees. These are all needed for what is a very poor region. In addition state employees such as teachers, doctors and the police should all receive bonuses for working in the south-east.”
It isn’t just poverty that has to be solved - the Kurdish problem itself must be solved if the region is to catch up to prosperous western Turkey, says Yalman.
In the streets of the seedier side of Beyoglu, Akan says Kurds have no problems with Turks: “We want our rights; language, culture, identity. That’s all. But there will be no peace until the Kurdish question is answered.”

Yahya Akman, a deputy for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) argues that the present government is making the sort of reforms that have been ignored by previous governments.
Citing reforms such as allowing private Kurdish-language courses, continued investment in infrastructure projects and the recent opening of a state Kurdish-language television channel, Akman says the situation is getting better.
“If we continue to lay the foundations then the problems, including that of the continued activities of the PKK, then the Kurdish problem will be solved,” says Akman.
In the meantime Akan will continue to eke out a living in the mega-city of Istanbul, dreaming of home and hoping the economic crisis doesn’t hit too hard.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/...100153627.html

[Toramana]

Several large scale Kurdish revolts in 1925, 1930 and 1938 were suppressed by the Turkish government and more than one million Kurds were forcibly relocated between 1925 and 1938.

The use of Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned and the Kurdish-inhabited areas remained under martial law until 1946.[86] The Ararat revolt, which reached its apex in 1930, was only suppressed after a massive military campaign including destruction of many villages and their populations. In quelling the revolt, Turkey was assisted by the close cooperation of its neighboring states such as Soviet Union, Iran and Iraq[87]. The revolt was organized by a Kurdish party called Khoybun which signed a treaty with the Dashnaksutyun (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) in 1927.[87] By 1970s, Kurdish leftist organizations such as Kurdistan Socialist Party-Turkey (KSP-T) emerged in Turkey which were against violence and supported civil activities and participation in elections. In 1977, Mehdi Zana a supporter of KSP-T won the mayoralty of Diyarbakir in the local elections. At about the same time, generational fissures gave birth to two new organizations: the National Liberation of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Workers Party.[88]

Photoe of a Kurdish Freedom Struggle Leader, Zaza