- Title: FEATURE - KURDS: LOST NATION
- Date: 15th June 1994
- Summary: NEAR ZAKHO, NORTHERN IRAQ (RECENT) (RTV) LV TURKISH TROOPS AND TANKS ON MOUNTAIN ROAD MV ARMED KURDISH REBELS 2 SHOTS MV KURDISH CHECKPOINT
- Embargoed: 30th June 1994 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- City:
- Country: Iraq Germany
- Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVAB0ICGS9OD52WVD0DFL4RPTEOL
- Story Text: SUGGESTED NEWSREADER INTRO: A month after 35,000 Turkish troops attacked rebel Kurdish bases in northern Iraq, fighting continues. Guerrillas belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party remain holed up in the mountains, facing repeated assaults.
While Turkey says it is winding down its military operation, it is coming under pressure from Western nations to set a date for withdrawal. As Reuters Television's Alison Dent reports, the incursion has once again highlighted the Kurds' search for a homeland, after centuries of persecution and conflict.
------------------------------------------------------------- Living in a mountainous area straddling the borders of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Syria, the Kurds have struggled for more than two thousand years to form an independent Kurdish state.
But repression by successive governments of the region and internal squabbling has made it a futile quest. And, more recently, Western powers have seen little reason to support their cause.
In March, Turkey launched an incursion into northern Iraq to attack bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK - a separatist Kurdish branch whose violence has alienated many Kurds in Turkey and fuelled distrust among Iraqi Kurdish factions.
35,000 Turkish troops backed by tanks and fighter jets poured across the Iraqi border. The frontier has been unprotected since the end of the 1991 Gulf War when a United Nations protection zone was set up to shield the Kurds from Iraqi attack.
Turkey has emphasised that its military operation is aimed only at PKK guerrillas able to launch cross-border raids into Turkey from what is virtually a no-man's land.
The hunt for rebels stretches across remote mountain slopes in Iraqi Kurdistan. PKK fighters holed up in caves and ravines are flushed out and their hideouts destroyed.
Casualties mount and prisoners are taken. But the conflict only serves to increase the determination of each side for its cause.
Caches of ammunition and weapons are confiscated, from both PKK guerrillas and civilians determined to protect themselves. Kurdish villagers flee the advancing troops, uncertain of the treatment they would receive.
CAPTION: TURKISH MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPRESENTATIVE IN ZAKHO, HALIL AKINCI "OF COURSE ALTHOUGH EVERY CARE HAS BEEN TAKEN WITH RESPECT TO THE CIVILIAN POPULATION, IT IS INEVITABLE THAT SOME HARM IS DONE, UNINTENTIONALLY. AND ONE OF OUR TASKS HERE, WE COME TO ZAKHO EVERY DAY, WE LISTEN TO THEIR COMPLAINTS, WE NOTE THEM." (ENGLISH) But to the Kurdish population the troops' presence has caught them in yet another conflict. Many are refugees from earlier Turkish and Iraqi incursions - now, once more, they must move out of the line of fire.
CAPTION: KURDISH VILLAGER GIRGIN SAID "WE USED TO LIVE IN OUR VILLAGE ON THE KONTUR MOUNTAIN, ONE HOUR AWAY BY FOOT FROM THE TURKISH BORDER. LATER SADDAM FORCED US TO LEAVE OUR VILLAGE AND LIVE IN THE VALLEY." (KURDISH) In the aftermath of the Gulf War the international community set up a security umbrella maintained by a no-fly zone which provided the Kurds with an opportunity to re-establish themselves.
The concern for civilian welfare has now prompted western countries, already uneasy at any sign of violence in such a volatile region, to urge Turkey to withdraw as soon as possible.
Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, on a visit to the United States, argues the action is warranted to protect Turkey's borders.
CAPTION: TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TANSU CILLER "ANY WESTERN COUNTRY WOULD TAKE THE SAME DECISION I DID, WE ARE THERE FOR A LIMITED TIME, WE HAVE GOT HOLD OF THE BASES WE WANTED TO DO AND THE JOB WILL BE OVER AND THE WITHDRAWAL TAKE PLACE SOON AS I HAVE SAID FROM THE BEGINNING." (ENGLISH) She also warns that if Turkey is blocked from joining the European Union because of the incursion, it will hasten the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 in their fight for an independent state, and since then over 15,000 people have been killed in Turkey....and many others in attacks on Turkish targets across Europe. International attention has focused on Turkey's latest inroads into Iraq but troops and planes have also besieged Kurdish rebels holed up in the mountains of southeast Turkey.
The newly-formed Kurdish parliament in exile has accused Turkey of waging a war to annihilate the Kurds, but has also called for talks to find a solution. But the Kurds are divided even amongst themselves, and other factions have denounced the assembly as a tool of rebel Turkish Kurds.
Despite geographical and political divisions, Kurds still live in the hope of a better future. But history has not been kind to the Kurds, and international indifference gives little real room for optimism. The dream of an independent homeland seems as remote as ever. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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