By Ayla Albayrak
As Turkey falls into an escalating conflict with Kurdish militants, a small group of ordinary Kurds is trying to separate themselves from rebels who are resorting to terrorist attacks and kidnappings to press their case for Kurdish autonomy.
Under the slogan “Don’t kill in my name!,” a group of just a few teachers started an initiative on the Internet to build a following they hope to grow into a broad civilian movement for peace in Turkey. The response so far: Turkish media have enthusiastically picked up their cause as evidence that not all Kurds back the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Meanwhile, outraged PKK supporters tweeted and emailed the group to attack them for dividing Kurds and undermining the cause.
“This is actually what we wanted: to create a debate. PKK supporters criticize us the most. They say that we are harming the Kurdish movement, that we shouldn’t divide it,” says founder Atila Cemal, who is a translator and teacher of Kurdish language in Istanbul.
Protesting for peace may seem routine, and the PKK has divided Kurds ever since it launched an armed struggle in 1984, a conflict in which an estimated 30,000 people have died. In Turkey’s elections in June, roughly 50% of ethnic Kurds voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
But speaking out against the PKK in a way that might help the government was long a taboo among Kurds. The PKK and its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, are well-respected among more nationalist Kurds — but also widely feared. In addition to targeting soldiers and police in the recent wave of violence, the PKK have also kidnapped ethnic-Kurdish construction workers, engineers and teachers who they view as collaborating with the state.
“There is a need for a big civilian peace movement. Why don’t Kurds stand up to the PKK and ask, what do they want to achieve with all those operations?” Mr. Cemal says.
All the group calls for at the moment is for the end of the violence. A solution to the Kurdish problem can be discussed afterwards, it says.
“It is impossible for anyone to think of a healthy solution to the Kurdish problem when there is so much bloodshed. The war must end first, and then we can talk,” he says. Mr. Cemal stresses that his group, too, want democratic rights for the Kurds and an end for oppression and assimilation.
The group faces a long road. In the three weeks since the group was formed, 60 people have joined, Mr. Cemal says. They are now networking on the Internet to promote gatherings in Istanbul and publish articles on the web. The network consists of Kurds as well as Turks and even a few ethnic Armenians, Mr. Cemal says.
Soon after Mr. Cemal formed his group, another group of young ethnic Kurds in Istanbul started their own online signature campaign with the same slogan. They say they have gathered 1,500 signatures, so far.
via Don’t Kill In My Name! – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.