Freedom Socialist Party
International Executive Committee PO Box 266 West Brunswick Vic 3055
Australia Phone/fax 61-3-9386-5065
20 February 1999
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit
T.C. Basbakanlik
06573 Ankara
Turkey
Via Fax: 90-312-212 41 88
An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Turkey
Dear Sir
We condemn your government's arrest of Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK)
leader Abdullah Ocalan and your plan to place him on trial for murder
as a prelude to his execution.
Your government's charges of terrorism against Mr. Ocalan and the PKK
are false. The struggle of the Kurdish people for self-defence and
nationhood constitutes a just battle, one which our sections,
branches and members wholeheartedly support.
It is the government of Turkey that is terrorist in violating all
principles of freedom and democracy in its treatment of the 15
million Kurdish women and men whose lands it has usurped. Your
government outlaws the Kurdish language, music, education,
organisations, and even names. Your government engages daily in
direct brutality, torture, imprisonment and institutionalised
discrimination against the Kurds. Turkey's military and police are
the real terrorists. Their actions against the Kurds are crimes
against which any people would rightly defend themselves.
We also condemn the complicity of the United States and Israel in
your campaign of genocide against the Kurds. This unholy U.S.-Israeli-
Turkish alliance is organised to prevent the recognition of Kurdistan
and foment further divisions in the Middle East to exert control over
the oil reserves of Arab nations, and to stop the Arab and Kurdish
revolutions.
We stand in solidarity with the 40 million Kurds and working people
around the world who demand that Turkey immediately and
unconditionally release Abdullah Ocalan and give recognition to
Kurdistan as the homeland for the Kurdish people
Yours sincerely
Alison Thorne
Coordinator
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