Those who still dare are put on trial. Among the most celebrated recent cases was the conviction of Yasar Kemal, perhaps the country's most famous author, who accused Turkey of both abusing Kurds and lying about it. Columnist Ahmet Altan received a suspended sentence for a satire imagining that Ataturk, the revered founder of the republic, had been a Kurd and it was Turks who were oppressed. And I was put on trial last fall for a Reuters article that described soldiers throwing Kurds out of their villages. I was acquitted, but the point was made.
Nobody is safe from Turkish law.
This is one reason why the Decembr elections were so important to Kurds. Twelve years of the rebel war had worn down many Kurds. Thousands of activists, among them leading businessmen, lawyers, journalists, and local officials, have been mysteriously murdered. Perhaps two million people have been made refugees in their own country. Unfortunately, the Kurds discovered that the political arena was a closed one.