(en) France, Organisation Communiste Libertarie - Courant Alternatif CA #229 - Kurds: "the greatest people in the world without a state" Part 1 (fr)

On August 10, 1920, the Treaty of Sevres advocates the creation of an Armenian state and a 
Kurdish state on condition that this creation is the will of the Kurdish people. And the 
Kurds in Turkey, it is no longer to find a way guided by feudal elites or to any 
imperialist boot but pave the way for a resistance that would lead to the liberation of 
Kurdistan in its and all beyond a revolution in the Middle East. ---- Before World War I, 
Kurdistan is part of Persia and the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, it is committed to the side 
of Germany, after the defeat of the German bloc in 1918 the victorious colonial powers 
(Britain and France) to allow a division of the Ottoman Empire according to their 
interests. On August 10, 1920, the Treaty of Sevres advocates the creation of an Armenian 
state and a Kurdish state on condition that this creation is the will of the Kurdish people.

This treaty caused a national revival in Turkey around Mustapha Kemal, who in 1919 opened 
a war of independence helped by some Kurdish lords who consider his ideas and Kemal ally 
of circumstance for the creation of a future Kurdish state. However in 1921, a Kurdish 
revolt claiming that the agreements of the Treaty of Sevres is respected crashed and 
killed opponents. Kemal's victory led to the fall of the former Ottoman rule, the 
negotiation of a new treaty and the proclamation of the Turkish Republic October 23, 1923. 
A feudal society it passes close to the French state in 1789 state. This treaty, better 
for the new state is signed at Lausanne on July 24 of the same year. It invalidates the 
Treaty of Sevres and recognizes the Kemalist sovereignty over the greater part of 
Kurdistan. The Kurdish and Armenian states project was abandoned and the Kurdish territory 
divided between four states: Persia, Turkey, Iraq under British control and Syria under 
French control. However, the current northern Iraq that was to be part of Syria, because 
of oil, still under British influence (2). From 1924, the Turkish language is unique and 
declared official, the Kurdish and Armenian culture and many other minorities are denied 
the entire territory and education and assimilation into Turkish culture are made 
compulsory in each administration, schools, barracks (3). Thereafter, up to a more 
contemporary history the Kurdish question is marked by continual revolts and border. These 
were clashes between Kurds and Kurdish separatists Feudal and between Kurds and other 
states to which they are subservient.

The Kurdish movement for freedom and democracy, the PKK guerrillas to the KCK (Kurdistan 
Communities Union)

In 1952, Turkey joined NATO. In 1971 after a military coup in Turkey, the Turkish society 
and Eastern average are in full swing and thrust left social movements intensifies all 
these countries that share the Kurdistan but also well beyond. In this context, a group of 
Ankara University forms and gives rise to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). It was formed 
around Abdullah Ocalan 's. Since 1974, this organization is distinguished by its radical 
nationalism of his atheism and its summary Marxist-Leninist positions. This organization 
is the separatism of the entire Kurdistan as a confederation. Independence will be the 
work of the alliance of workers and peasants against the Kurdish bourgeoisie and not with 
compromised with the Turkish state organizations. This is the Kurdish dispute is aware 
that if the Kurds are not directly responsible for their situation, they nevertheless 
constitute links in the reproduction of the Turkish power. Its members for the most part 
come from villages, are not derived from an elite or professional. Youth pool of 
contestation, digest the defeat in 1975 of opportunistic and corrupt Barzaniste Iraqi KDP. 
This tribal bourgeoisie leaves behind an internecine power struggle between two clans (KDP 
on one side and Calal Talabani's PUK). These gentlemen do not exist for them and a 
clientelist distribution of gains reaped. They ensure the conservation of power at the top 
by constant shifts of alliance. In these years, the treatment of the Kurdish and social 
issues by a large part of the Turkish extreme left is approached in a Jacobin manner, 
which depart the PKK an alliance with the left. It has now been an kurdisation 
organization. So for this Kurdish Youth in Turkey, it is no longer to find a 
constitutional way guided by feudal elites or to any imperialist boot but pave the way for 
a resistance that would lead to the liberation of Kurdistan in its entirety and beyond a 
revolution in the Middle East.

A homecoming of Kemalism

It occurs when the occupation of Afghanistan by the Russians in 1978 through the fall of 
the Shah in 1979. In 1978, the Turkish Social Democrats declare a state of siege in 
Kurdistan, and a few months later, the Conservatives returned to power in Turkey fail too. 
Meanwhile, in 1978 the PKK is as a political organization and control of the Turkish 
social democratic state that time, overwrites the Turkish extreme left, and Turkish 
Kurdistan is militarily occupied, two thousand Kurds were killed and tortured. From there, 
many Kurds go to Europe. In this context means oriental Egyptian nationalist left sign 
peace accords at Camp David September 17, 1978, the PKK moved to Lebanon and is committed 
to the Palestinian side against the military invasion of Israel. Since these agreements, 
middle eastern resistance movements are turning increasingly towards Islamism. This 
framework means oriental blurs more class struggle in favor of wrestling clan, or 
religious, states incorporate these unmanageable belligerent forces to guide them when 
they can to the ongoing conflict may directly or indirectly serve their interest. The 
specific kurdiste struggle increasingly marginalized in relation to the direction of these 
movements. But taken in a cross-border context yet it enjoys the same extension of the 
conflict process. Against the backdrop of war between Iran and Iraq (the eastern borders 
of Turkey affect the former USSR), the U.S. chose to Turkey to support General Evren and a 
homecoming of Kemalism occurs . The coup of 12 September 1980 provides the United States, 
the proper conduct of their business in the Middle East. Turkish society is locked up and 
the second Gulf War when the U.S. Bush administration junior prefers to play the card of 
the AKP (Erdogan) and Turkish civil society rather than ultra nationalist Kemalists. The 
new 1982 Constitution leaves your hands free to Turkish military and created the National 
Security Council (MGK), which manages and puts his nose everywhere, the National Assembly 
is dissolved, political parties were banned. The powers given to the military 
establishment are enormous and extend well beyond the affairs of state (censorship of the 
media, literary and artistic production) and its borders. In May 1983, the Turkish 
military junta conducts operations on Iraqi territory with the approval of Baghdad, as 
well as Iran. In the Iran-Iraq war, the Kurdish areas are bombarded with both sides.

A war of self-defense for the creation of a Kurdish state

With the dictatorship of General Evren repression against the Kurdish movement increases, 
the military path chosen by Evren reinforces the PKK to launch a war of self-defense for 
the creation of a Kurdish state. The war officially begins August 15, 1984, until today it 
is punctuated by several unilateral truces from the guerrillas. Truces that will never 
respected by successive Turkish governments. For the PKK over its congresses, critical and 
self-critical process is constant. During the 1980s, the digestion of the first decade of 
war brings activists to redefine their collective goals, at least leave the debate open. 
An overhaul of the creation of a nation-state in their claims is in the air ... The 
creation of a powerful and interventionist state on the model of the USSR is far from 
unanimous as a limited autonomy based on cultural and educational minimum mean defeat. The 
debate on separatism remains open and that critical self-critical process pending a 
possible defeat or victory, the evolution of the issue of separatism remains open. The 
practice now fertilizes the discourse on the issue. In terms of alliances, before engaging 
the open conflict in 1984, which continues today, the PKK is close to the Iraqi KDP 
looking for a powerful organization in the North to weigh against the power of Saddam 
Hussein. Since then, the PKK will these training bases and political training in the 
mountains of northern Iraq. This alliance will last until the date of the autonomy of 
Iraqi Kurdistan in August 1992. With emigration, the PKK creates its own organizations in 
Europe. From 1984 to the arrest of Ocalan in February 1999, the balance of the war against 
revolutionary is heavy, several witnesses attest to the participation of U.S. military 
advisors in this bloody repression alongside four hundred thousand Turkish soldiers and 
use various chemical weapons. Four or five miles of villages razed, ten million Kurds 
suffer from uprooting (one third of the population of Turkish Kurdistan from westward, 
Istanbul or Europe), women are raped, men and children set imprisonment and torture, mass 
graves are discovered. These migrants swell the suburbs of large cities and Kurdish PKK 
provide its fighter-es. As for most of the Kurdish leaders, at the end of the decade, they 
languish in prison. This movement for democratic freedoms began in the 1970s, developed 
throughout the Kurdistan diaspora understood, democratic and revolutionary positive 
feeling. The fight against the denial policy of the Turkish state allows Kurds awareness 
and fight so that their community is recognized within Turkish society.

Turning the page

Following the declaration of independence of Iraqi Kurdistan in August 1992, the alliance 
between the Iraqi KDP and the PKK ends, a page turns. Now the guerrillas can only rely on 
themselves. PKK bases in northern Iraq find themselves in a precarious position, caught in 
a vise between the Turkish military incursions and Peshmerga KDP (Barzani) and UDK 
(Talabani) Iraqi. Allies of the U.S. and Turkey for control of routes and pipelines that 
pass through Turkish Kurdistan administration, these two organizations, PUK and KDP, 
remain to this day in the same frame. The eyes of the Kurdish population of Turkey and 
increasingly throughout Kurdistan, the two organizations to power in Iraq's autonomous 
regions are considered more as corrupt. The integrity and consistency of cross-border 
commitments PKK in the Kurdish cause materialize on the ground by a craze for more and 
more. These measures against the PKK from the KDP and the UDK and the incursion of the 
Turkish army in 1992 far from weakening the PKK strengthened. To expand its room for 
maneuver in this conflict, the Turkish political leaders, in addition to the well-oiled 
propaganda that time, orchestrate nationalism but also religion with this struggle as a 
religious obligation (Jihad). The second largest NATO power, will increasingly outsource 
this war. A special administration with prefects great runs out of some legal framework 
eleven regions of Southeastern Anatolia. The JITEM (intelligence and counter-terrorism to 
the police) are created, its members, who come from the intelligence services, are 
selected as elsewhere on ideological criteria extreme right. They organize death squads to 
terrorize the population. Kurdish militias created in 1985 (the "Kurdish bandits" or 
"village guards"), they affect up to three times the minimum wage and rely Turkish hundred 
thousand men plus four one hundred thousand Turkish soldiers. In 1990, the paramilitary 
arm of the Islamist Hezbollah Kurds. All these forces that cost a third of the budget of 
the Turkish state is based on a mafia knows no boundaries which facilitates monitoring 
Kurdish Europe. The effects are perverse, all his forces by a centrifugal effect to 
empower the central political power and become uncontrollable. All these services are also 
involved in a murder interposed no thank you fight at the top of the state. Result in 
Kurdish Turkey a sense of permanent insecurity sets in and there is more of a 
proletarianization, constant socialization in some corners with a re-feudalism favored by 
the state.

To the regional autonomist within a confederation

In these times of isolation because of alliance in the early 1990s the PKK ambitions are 
lowered. He goes to a regional separatism autonomism within a confederation. On the 
occasion, the PKK militants are turning to tribal structures of the past classified by the 
Turkish state as enemies. Also, they create two Sunni and Alevi religious associations. 
This does not explain all the growth and increasing prestige of the organization to the 
movement of democratic freedoms. Rather, we must seek the explanation of this rise in the 
ten million Kurds uprooted. With the destruction of villages, a large agricultural working 
class grows urban peripheries. This impoverishment, perpetual insecurity Kurds in Turkey 
and the dynamism of these migrants are a breeding ground for the PKK. These workers fall 
into the fight because they hope for a fairer distribution of wealth, a screw screw 
recognition of Turkish society. More importantly, the role of women in Kurdish society is 
very important and the role of women is not influenced by the Muslim religion. Kurdish 
women are increasing their roles in Kurdistan. As a class of its own and as a Kurd, they 
fight for the rights of women and the liberation of the Kurdish people. They represent 
half of the guerrillas. The 5th Congress of the PKK in 1995 officially symbols of fossil 
and hammer are abandoned Soviet socialism was even denounced as "the most primitive and 
most violent period of socialism." The opposition "legal" 90s rises in protest of the 70s. 
Over the years, many politicians and intellectuals based legal training that s' influence 
each other with the PKK. Some members of these formations are of violence against the 
Turkish state but also the PKK their goodwill. 62% have graduate degrees and are 
professionals. The game begins with an electoral alliance with the SHP (Social Democratic 
Party Turkish). Elected Kurdish but also former Turkish elected SHP will be expelled (70 
in all) of the party to have participated in the international conference of the Kurdish 
Institute of Paris in 1989. They represent municipal and legislative elections, but this 
game is locked by the military constitution of 1982 General Evren. Their mandates are 
punctuated by the constitution systematically lift the parliamentary immunity. More than a 
hundred of its activists were murdered by death squads, some are arrested for crimes 
against the state, others leave for exile. October 20, 1991 under the label HEP (People's 
Labor Party) 22 candidates entering the National Assembly (4). These parties until today, 
form the legal tradition. They are often used by the Turkish authorities to reduce the 
influence of the PKK. At first built alternative PKK over repression, their fate will bind 
more. Ex PKK fighters join its ranks else do the opposite. Consequences, and practical 
ideas circulate more in one direction or the other. These courses are often used by the 
Turkish authorities to reduce the influence of the PKK.

A helping hand for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey

In the 1990s a total of four fire ceased the unilateral PKK to reach the Turkish rulers 
are violated. The latest unilateral ceasefire on 2 August 1999, however undermined by 
political and military gives hope for peaceful Kurdish elites in favor of peace. The 
ceasefire is entitled "to give once again a chance to peace and willingness of the Kurds 
for fraternity between nations." It will last four years. During this time thousands of 
Kurdish civil, political organizations and associations in addition guerrillas were 
arrested and convicted. The Turkish army will never cease its raids on the bases of HPG 
(Defence Force PKK Kurdish people in Turkey) removed in Iraqi Kurdistan. From that date, 
the European states have a similar to Turkey's repressive attitude against the expression 
of solidarity to the Kurdish diaspora struggle. The foundation KADEK April 4, 2002 
(Congress for Democracy and Freedom in Kurdistan), successor to the PKK. And 2 August 
2003, KADEK to counteract this repressive policy terminates the last unilateral ceasefire 
and offers a roadmap "for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question in 
Turkey." This roadmap consists of three steps, "... the establishment of a committee for 
peace and dialogue ... of measures to build confidence ... and third, full democratization 
and peace completed ... but before, the most urgent task is to transform the ceasefire 
does in a unilateral cease-fire bilateral. " It is intended "... to the European Union, 
the USA, the states of the Middle East and the democratic forces in Turkey ... ".

K.

1. Today, cross-border Kurdish community is 20 million people in Turkey, 10 million in 
Iran, Iraq 5 million and 2.5 million in Syria.

2. 40% of Iranian and Iraqi oil and 60% of Turkish oil come from Kurdish regions.

3. See box at the end of this issue on the laws of assimilation

4. By order of prohibition, HEP 90-92, ?ZDEP (Party for Freedom and Democracy) 92-93, DEP 
(Democracy Party) from 93 to 94, HADEP Party (People's Democracy) of 94-2003, Dehap 
(Peoples Democratic Party) from 02 to 2005 DTP (Democratic Society Party) from 05 to 2009 
and BDP (Party for Peace and Democracy) in 2010.

Sources: location, language planning in the world of Jacques Leclerc books
thehttp://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/asie/turquie_3kurdes.htm , "Kurdish conflict" Hamit 
Bozarslan "d" Kurds "of Ahmet Dere, "Kurdistan" Julien Goldstein. Sites of Francophone 
friends of the Kurdish people and Kurdish Institute of Paris Foundation.