More than 3,000 villages in southeast Anatolia have been destroyed, more than 25,000 people have been killed, and about 2 million refugees have been scattered inside and outside Turkey. Those who dare mention Kurdish history and the right of the Kurdish people to speak their language and live in cultural and regional autonomy inside Turkish borders risk imprisonment. Nearly every day, human-rights advocates, like the president of the Turkish Human Rights Association, Akin Birdal, as well as journalists and book authors and editors have been sent to jail. This was the rationale behind sanctions imposed on Rhodesia, South Africa, Iraq, Haiti, and Yugoslavia. Because it is a member of NATO, and because nuclear weapons are deployed there.
Turkey is also an arena for Western politics in the Middle East.
Therefore, Turkey gets continuous financial and military support and uses it to wage war against the Kurds. The task of defense ministries is to maintain a strong army prepared at any time to fight in a defensive or offensive war, at home or far away. Ministers of defense feel very proud when their army is marching in parades or engaged in action in foreign countries. We need experienced diplomats like UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, historians, peace researchers, psychologists, mediators, and linguists whose task in such ministries for peace would be to monitor the international scene and spot potential conflicts and then help solve the problems nonviolently. The United Nations should cooperate closely with those ministries for peace rather than just finance armies for military intervention.