The aftermath of the Gulf War and the break-up of the Soviet Union gives the Turkish bourgeoisie Pietnora or artemalve way: o achieve its desired status or west or any combination thereof.
To the north and cast are the newly independent, Turkishspeaking, oil rich republics of zerbaijan and Turkmenistan recognise Azerbaijan's inde the south, defeated Iraqi Kurdistan, lies the oil-rich province of Mosel on which the Turkish state has always had designs. Integration with the West through EC membership has of course been the goal of Turkey's major bourgeois forces for three decades Division Seemingly spoiled for choice, Turkey's ruling class in divided. In the October 20 election no Tan Over Trued by halty of aty the True Way Party Demirel and the Social Democratic Popular P'arty (SHP), the third largest. Demirel is now prime minister for the sixth time - his fifth term having been cut short by the military coup in 1980.
This right/left coalition. which excludes the second, right wing and former ruling party - the Motherland Party reminiscent of the 'grand Police harass Kurds in Diyarbakir bourgeois forces which was much talked about before the In many ways Turkish political history endlessly recycles Marx's adage about tragedy and farce.
But the issue which has dominated Turkish politics recently is new: the war against the Kurds. The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) launched its armed struggle for national independence in 1984. It has escalated dramatically in the past yer and as now de ensures Horny wan There are an estimated 12 million Kurds in Turkey (one Government poster promoting "Ataturkism' in Istanbul fifth of the population) concentrated in the economically backward south east of the country, adjacent to the rest of Kurdistan which is famously divided between four nation Turkey's ten year military regime in the area has a long history of extraordinary repression. this incrudeo a ban on mentioning the word "Kurd' as well as the speaking of Kurdish, imposed in 1923 and finally lifted this year. This fuelled support for the PKK, which is widely agreed to be a potent Troops on the streets of Diyarbakir The new situation was exor the first time in the history of the republic a Kurdish pand won 22 of the 2y seats it contested. The candidates of the HEP, the Peoples Labour Party, stood as part of an clectoral pact with the SHP. When the deputies arrived in the Turkish parliament there was uproar.
Leyla Zana, member for Divarbakir. a Kurdish town of 400,000, declared Long live the Kurdish people and Kurdistan in Kurdish. She was dressed in the banned national coloum of red, yellow and green. There was uproar in Kurdistan too, as whole villages poured out onto the streets in spontaneous ap proval.
But the arrival of Kurdish depune in the surkest par ment, while it is sensational in political history of the Country offers no immediate solution to the dilemma of the Kurds in Turkey. More urgent still is the fate of the Kurdish refugees from the ill-fated uprising in the embers of the Gulf War. The Turkish army -NATO's largest in Europe - is letermined to prosecute its war gainst the PKk and is terroris ing the refugee population as part of its strategy.
Operation destroy Since August, thousands of Kurdish villagers and refugees have been displaced and many maimed and killed by persistent Turkish cross-border raids into traley, Operation destroy 'Operation destroy 'KK', the Turkish army deployed battalions of elite troops, nencopter sunships and war planes. against what it claims are PKK guerilla bases. It has also used cluster bombs and 'Pake many such base' in the egion - one thinks of Southern Lebanon - these turn out to be the villages of beleaguered KurCruelly, as was reported in October by one observer visite after a raid, the villagers 'unanimously reported that they though the Turkish bombers were allied planes hispering food'. With no whisper rotest in this country, John come killing fields for the Turkish army.
Hundreds of thousands of Aurdish relugees are caught be tween a near total blockade of cent Iraqi army and the Turkish army to the north The Iragi army, following the March uprising, rapidly gained control southern part of Iraqi Kurdis tan) and supply lines to the rest of Irag - which is itself caught in the vice of the imperialist emWith winter closing in, tens of chinese sures cs tion and death in their mountain-top refuges. national outcry, from a labour and youth galvanised perhaps by disgust with western hypocrisy, can prevent another chapter despair being written in the tragedy of Kurdistan.