From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Massacre of Kurds: Turkey attacks with Pentagon blessings /ww
Date: 16 Oct 92 20:35:41 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>

Massacre of Kurds: Turkey attacks with Pentagon blessings

By Ali Azad

The Turkish government is engaged in a major military assault
against a progressive Kurdish party with the full support of the
U.S. government. Meantime, the U.S. media have greeted this
massacre with a deafening silence.

This latest offensive started on Monday, Oct. 5, when two
bourgeois Kurdish groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq
(KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in
collaboration with the Turkish army, started a major military
offensive against the forces of the Workers Party of Kurdistan
(PKK). The first two organizations are heavily armed by the
Pentagon and the Turkish military. They have worked closely with
U.S. military forces in southeastern Turkey in "Operation Provide
Comfort."

On Oct. 9, the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan, the
political wing of the PKK, held a press conference in Brussels to
try and break the reactionary media whiteout. In a statement, the
group pointed out that "The clashes occurring in southern
Kurdistan are the result of an assault, the preparations for
which were made previously. The PKK is exercising its legitimate
right of self-defense against these forces' collaborationist and
treacherous attacks. ... The aggressors claim that the PKK's
presence in the area leads to Turkish air attacks on Kurdish
villages. ... We have to point out that the Turkish state is
responsible for these attacks and should be called to account.

"Also, the PKK did not come from outer space. It emerged from its
own people and receives support from them. ... Despite all its
persecution and violent methods, Turkey has been unable to
prevent the development of the PKK. Especially in the summer of
1992, our guerrilla forces have limited the Turkish state's
military presence in rural areas. Our war is continuing all over
our country, which covers 800 thousand square kilometers. The
Turkish state is now using these two treacherous Kurdish parties
in southern Kurdistan to attack the Kurdish people.

"We call on all democratic organizations and bodies to show
solidarity with the Kurdish people against this externally
supported assault which is contrary to their will, and to oppose
the positions taken by their own governments which are
encouraging these clashes."

When it suited the propaganda needs of the Pentagon in its war
against Iraq, the U.S. media depicted the plight of the Kurds in
heart-rending detail. But now that a progressive Kurdish
organization is being repressed by one of Washington's NATO
allies, the suffering of women and children and the bombing of
small villages is non-news. The only wire service coverage on the
fighting was an Oct. 5 report citing strong U.S. support for
Turkey by none other than U.S. Gen. John Shalikashvili, NATO's
supreme commander.

REPRESSION OF TURKISH WORKERS TOO

The Turkish government's onslaught against the Kurds has been
coupled with a new wave of repression against Turkish working
class organizations, trade union activists, human rights groups
and the progressive media.

Many Turkish and Kurdish journalists challenging the government's
attacks on the Kurds have been assassinated by death squads. At
the same time the government has imposed a virtual blockade of
the Kurdish region in order to make it more difficult for the
Kurds to get help from supporters and allies in the rest of the
country.

The Suleyman Demirel government has also embarked on a racist
campaign in the media against the Kurdish people in order to
divide the Turkish and Kurdish working class.

On Aug. 15, in the Turkish city of Adana, 30,000 Turks and Kurds
defied the military and marched in support of the PKK. On the
same day 70,000 people packed a sports stadium in the city of
Bochum in Germany in support of the PKK. The Turkish and the
Kurdish working class have good reason to unite against this
racist war on the Kurds.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
"workers@mcimail.com".

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