TrMhMt
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THE TRUE FACE OF PKK TERRORISM
¾ The PKK is an armed terrorist organization, listed as such by the U.S.
Government and the European Union.
¾ The PKKs goal is to create an independent, communist, ethnically pure
Kurdish state, carved out of Turkey, Iran and Syria. PKKs goal is Kurdish
secession from the Republic of Turkey by force and the threat of force against
civilians and military personnel. THIS GOAL IS NOT SHARED BY THE VAST
MAJORITY OF TURKISH CITIZENS OF KURDISH ORIGIN.
¾ For over 25 years, the PKK has used INDISCRIMINATE VIOLENCE against
civilian and military targets alike in Turkey and in Europe.
¾ Since it started its campaign of violence, the PKK has killed thousands of
Turkish citizens, especially targeting elementary school teachers, doctors,
technicians, engineers of infrastructure projects, Kurdish village guards and
police. THE TOTAL HUMAN TOLL OF PKK INDUCED VIOLENCE FOR TURKEY
IS NEARING 40 THOUSAND.
¾ Today, the PKK has roughly 5,000 members under arms, many of them
children and very young adults. It recently started to use suicide bombers,
mainly women, remotely detonated roadside bombs, as well landmines, in
indiscriminate killings and maiming.
¾ While they portray themselves as Kurdish freedom fighters, the PKK has in
fact killed thousands of their ethnic brethren who do not support it. The PKK
has targeted unsupportive Kurds in Turkey through collective punishments
against their families and villages. Entire families and small villages have been
wiped out by the PKK through the 1980s and early 1990s.
¾ The PKK is also a criminal enterprise, as it is funded by extortion, drug
trafficking and the smuggling of illegal immigrants.
TURKEYS KURDISH CITIZENS : THE FACTS
¾ Turkeys ethnic Kurds are first class citizens.
¾ Turkey, like the United States, is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nation. Turks,
much like Americans represent a large variety of ethnic and religious
backgrounds. Kurdish ethnicity is one of many other ethnicities in Turkey,
which include Circassians, Abkhaz, Georgians, Bosnians, Albanians, Laz,
Azeri, Turkmen, Tatar and many more.
¾ Turkey has taken laudable steps to open space for ethnic cultures and Kurdish
culture in recent years: radio and television broadcasts in Kurdish have not
only been liberalized, but Turkish Public Television now broadcasts in
Kurdish. Private language instruction in Kurdish is free. There is no doubt that
Kurds in Turkey preserve their ethnic identity, language and local cultures.
¾ Turks of Kurdish ethnicity are well represented in government and in business
and industry. They have been Presidents, Prime Ministers, and have been well
represented in the Turkish parliament.
¾ As co-religionists, Kurds and Turks of other ethnic backgrounds have
intermarried and lived peacefully together for centuries. The vast majority of
Turkish Kurds is well integrated into society and has the same rights and
liberties as all other citizens. Restrictions that existed on cultural expressions
of ethnic identities have long been lifted.
¾ The southeast of Turkey, where a large number of Kurdish Turks live, has
received the greatest per capita public investment, totaling well over 150
billion dollars through the course of the past three decades. In the past few
years only, investments to the southeast of Turkey have surpassed 20 billion
dollars in contrast to the fact that the region generates a miniscule
contribution to the overall GNP of Turkey.
¾ In addition to public investment, Turkish civil society organizations,
particularly charitable organizations that support education and healthcare,
have poured millions of dollars in donations into projects specifically designed
for the needs of this region.
¾ In sum, Kurds enjoy equal opportunity to pursue their political, social and
economic ambitions in Turkey. The vast majority of Kurds does not support
the PKK, a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization that has rejected Turkeys
democracy for violence and terror to pursue the illegal aim of secession.
TURKEY AND NORTHERN IRAQ
¾ Turkey has constantly extended a hand of friendship and help to Iraqi Kurds.
¾ Turkey gave safe haven to over 500 thousand Iraqi Kurds who fled Saddams
wrath and were taken care of by Turkey for several years.
¾ Turkey is the life line for Iraqi Kurds and for the US forces in Iraq.
¾ Today, Turkey is a major electricity supplier to northern Iraq. It is the main
supply route to northern Iraq and the rest of Iraq and has helped in the
rebuilding of this part of Iraq.
¾ Since 2003, trade between Turkey and northern Iraq has topped 4 billion USD,
Turkish investments have topped 2 billion USD. The Kurdish Regional
Government has made more than 2 million USD DAILY in the form of customs
charged to 2-3 THOUSAND trucks passing through the Habur gate between
Turkey and northern Iraq. This free trade and Turkeys open border policy has
significantly helped the progress and the stability enjoyed by the Kurdish
population in northern Iraq.
¾ Under international law, Turkey enjoys a right to pursue the PKK into northern
Iraq to protect its citizens and sovereignty, a right indistinguishable from the
United States claim of authority to invade any country that harbors terrorists.
¾ Friendly relations with Turkey are to the benefit of the Kurdish Iraqis. But
Kurdish leaders are squandering this opportunity by harboring the PKK.
