"The Kurdish problem"

The basic problem: There is still no homeland for the Kurdish people. Human rights are violently ignored in Turkey and Iraq (countries wich have large Kurdish populations), and brutal opression and torture of Kurds are taking place in the NATO country Turkey. No other nationality of this size has no homeland. For a number of years the Turkish government has been waging a war against the Kurds. 4000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed and lots of people are refugees in their own country. There are no precise estimates about the size of the Kurdish population - but more than 20 million etnic Kurds are living in Turkey, Iraque, Iran and Syria, apart from a large diaspora in Europe and other countries. In Turkey, people are persecuted for refering to the Kurdish people. It is forbidden to give children kurdish names.

The Turkish hijacking of the PKK (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan)leader Abdullah Ocalan from his escape in the Greek embassy in Kenya, has further brought the fight of this people to the headlines of world news. (February 1999).

The long fight

  • 1830: The Kurds under the leader Bedir Khan are rebelling against the Ottoman Empire.
  • 1880:Sheich Ubeidallah leads a national movement for the Kurds
  • 1897: The first Kurdish newspaper is founded. -Published at intervals until 1902.
  • 1918:The Ottoman Empire is desintegrating. The Kurdish areas are devided.
  • 1920: The treaty of Sévres gives the Kurds political and cultural autonomy.
  • 1923: In the treaty of Lousanne, the majority of Kurdistan is included in the new Turkish state.
  • 1925-1937: The Turkish army violently supresses Kurdish rebellions.
  • 1961-1970: Kurdish war in Iraque. In the "Manifest of March" the Kurds are granted a certain degree of autonomy.
  • 1978: Abdullah Ocalan establishes the Kurdish workers party (PKK) to fight for an independent Kurdish state.
  • 1979: Kurdish rebellion in Iran.
  • 1984: PKK (The Kurdish Workers Party) starts the armed fight in south east Anatolia.
  • 1988: Saddam Hussein kills at least civillian 5000 Kurds in a gas attack against the village Halabja. Other villages in the area are also victims of gas attacks.
  • 1991: Leyla Zana becomes the first Kurdish woman ever to be elected to the parlament in Turkey.
  • 1994: Leyla Zana is convicted to prison because of her open pro-kurdish statements. Among the reasons for convicting her, this is written in the verdict of the Ankara security court: "...that the defendant LEYLA ZANA on 18 October 1991 did wear clothes and accessories in yellow, green, red while addressing the people of Cizre on 18 October 1991"
  • 1995: The Turkish army (more than 35000 troups) crosses the border to into northern Iraq to root out Kurdish rebells. Elections in the Kurdish areas of northern Irak.
  • 1993: PKK is made illegal in Germany by the conservative minister Kanther. A new Kurdish party, the Hadep is founded in Turkey.
  • 1995: The Kurdish Exile parlament is founded in Den Haag.
  • 1996: The respected Turkish author Yasar Kemal is persecuted because of pro-kurdian statements.
  • 1997: In December the leader of PKK offers unanimous stop of armed actions in the civil war. Proposal rejected by the Turkish military.
  • 1998: February: PKK offers a peace plan, the final stop of warfare and negotiations about regional autonomy (giving up former claim of an independent state). The proposal is rejected by the Turkish military.
  • 1998: Abdullah Öcalan is thrown out of Syria.
  • 1999: February: Öcalan is hijacked from the Greek embassy in Kenya and broght to a Turkish prison. The lawyers of Öcaland are refused contact with him. Kurds are demonstrating all over Europe against the treatment of "Apo" and the treatment of Kurds. In Berlin, 4 Kurdish demonstrators are shot dead by Israeli security guards. Two of them shot in the head. Western governments turn their back the problem, well aware of the routines of torture in Turkish prisons.
  • 1999: February: Turkish military arrests all the 104 leading members of HADEP in Diyarbakir to knock down any potential opposition. The military presence in Diyarbakir is doubled.
  • 1999: March: Apo is reelected as leader of the PKK.
  • 31th of May 1999: The trial against Öcalan starts. His lawyers have not been able to meet privatly with him during the preparations.

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