Dear
Mr Robinson;
I
am writing to you to express the disappointment of Turkish-Canadians
in Greater Vancouver over your one-sided and unacceptable anti-Turkish
and pro-PKK comments during March 26, 2003 parliamentary debates.
Your
questions to Solicitor General and accusations on the recent situation
in Northern Iraq show how prejudiced your approach is. I will
start with correcting some of your visibly wrong accusations.
In your speech, you are referring to PKK and KADEK as peaceful
organizations. Here is some information that may change your approach.
The
terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers' Party or the "PKK"
is an extremely brutal, racist, terrorist group founded by Abdullah
Ocalan in 1978. Since 1984 it has waged a bloody campaign of terror
with the varying aims of establishing a Stalinist regime and/or
an independent Kurdish state in Turkey. To achieve this, PKK has
planned and executed activities which have resulted in the death
of thousands of innocent individuals, most of whom are civilians,
including women, babies, children, the elderly, civil servants,
and school teachers in Turkey. It was announced in mid-97 that
The PKK terrorists had murdered 4,276 and injured 5,083 citizens
of Turkish & Kurdish ethnic background. 501 children, 512
women were among the murdered civilians. A total of 3,223 schools
where 166,000 students in 22 districts of two provinces, remained
shut in 1996 due to repeated PKK attacks. 156 mostly elementary
school teachers have been killed.
International
Human Rights organization, who criticizes some of Turkish policy
has itself compiled a large list of PKK atrocities against civilians
and sent it to the Italian Prime Minister asking that PKK leader
Ocalan face justice when he fled to Italy in 1998 (Appendix1).
PKK
is a violent organization which has treaded on and violated 7
of the 11 major multilateral conventions related to countries
responsibilities for combating terrorism & violence (Appendix
2).
pKK’s
terrorist activities came to a halt when its leader Abdullah Ocalan
was finally captured in Kenya by Turkish special forces on January
15, 1999. Shortly after Ocalan’s capture, the PKK decided
to change its name to KADEK. Unlike your allegations in your speech,
KADEK has never been a legal party. It’s always been treated
as a terrorist organization as it’s just the new name for
PKK. Consequently, unlike your claims in the House of Commons,
there has never been any KADEK mayors in Turkey who were jailed.
This is a major indication of how superficial your research on
this matter is. In fact, a different party by the name HADEP was
banned by a court decision in Turkey as there was enough evidence
that HADEP had helped the PKK during a 15-year war that claimed
many innocent lives.
Unlike
the pan-Kurdish tone in your speech, none of the major Kurdish
groups in Northern Iraq, including Masud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic
Party and Celal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, support
the PKK. In fact they have time and time again fought against
it. Yet because these groups are not as well funded as the PKK
(due to its drug-traficking/extortion/money-laundering or its
support by anti-Turkish groups) they are not able to be as vocal
or afford long term large scale fights nor produce their own TV
news programs. The PKK's main target has been the entire population
of all the villages which resisted it and the underlying infrastructure
in southeastern Turkey. Indeed, the PKK indiscriminately murdered
and degraded the living conditions of the very people it claims
to represent: the Kurds.
The
PKK has been categorized as a foreign terrorist organization by
Canada, US and several other European countries. Any sound person
would agree that according to pretty much all definitions of terrorism
PKK or KADEK is a terrorist organization, not a peaceful organization
at all.
Your
ungrounded comments on “history of repression and brutality
directed at the Kurds within Turkey” completely ignores
the almost 1000 year old brotherhood between the Kurds & Turks
who not only share a common history but religion as well. There
has always been a significant number of MP’s of Kurdish
descent in the Turkish parliament. A recent legislation accepted
by the Turkish parliament includes a huge reform package concerning
the cultural rights of Kurdish Turks.
Terrorism,
like AIDS knows no borders. The same PKK who kills civilians in
Turkey with a bullet helps poison thousands more in Europe with
drug-trafficking, extortion, arson, blackmailing and money laundering.
Only by working together to make criminals pay for their crime
can we battle terrorism.
Here’s
a few words on your allegations that Turkey should be kept away
from Northern Iraq. Earlier in March, Turkish parliament voted
against the war and turned down a multi-billion aid offered by
the Americans, the long time ally. Later, the US and UK started
their war campaign. However, quite ironically, you are framing
Turkey as an aggressor with a malicious history, while UK and
US are the countries currently fighting in Iraq. We are talking
about a war, which a great majority of people of Turkey was opposed
to until the very last minute, which is right next door from Turkey,
which will have far greater direct impact on Turkey than UK and
US. At the end of Gulf War I, Turkey had to cope with an enormous
influx of refugees and a Kurdish insurrection inspired by the
events of the war. The concern of the Turkish people have a great
deal to do with the number of deaths incurred in the fighting
that took place between Turks and across-the-border PKK separatists
throughout much of the 1990's. The lack of authority in Northern
Iraq also provided hideouts to PKK. They would attack the border
villages, kill school teachers and doctors and bomb shops, and
then ran across the border back to Northern Iraq. Many people
immigrated into bigger western cities causing infrastructure problems.
Unemployment rose up to two figure levels. Tourism was hurt badly
all throughout the 90s. The government had to spend in arms programs
instead of education. And with thousands of people dead, people
of Turkey do not want to see this happen again. I sincerely think
that the above facts should be made known to you.
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