http://www.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=80089 <http://www.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=80089&d=1&m=9&y=2006 &hl=Editorial:%20Terrorism%20in%20Turkey> &d=1&m=9&y=2006&hl=Editorial:%20Terrorism%20in%20Turkey Editorial: TERRORISM IN TURKEY This week has seen the start of terror operations by another group of deluded people. The fatuously named Kurdistan Freedom Falcons have set off six bombs in Turkey, killing three people and seriously injuring dozens more in attacks largely aimed at tourist destinations. They have promised to turn "Turkey into hell" and that frightening statement pretty well sums up the emptiness and nihilism of their aims. The Kurds have reason to be bitter about their history with the three states, Iran, Iraq and Turkey that cover what they see as their homeland. Saddam Hussein brutalized and massacred Iraqi Kurds. From 1988 the Turks fought a bitter war against Kurdish PKK rebels in the southeast of the country in which more than 30,000 lives were lost. The Kurdish language was proscribed. Moderate politicians, Turkish as well as Kurdish, who even suggested mildly that Kurdish culture deserved some sort of official recognition were prosecuted. But the world has changed hugely for the Kurds. They now have political and cultural recognition in Turkey. In northern Iraq, the Kurdish region is effectively autonomous and the only undisputed shining beacon of hope of stability and development in Iraq. Jalal Talabani is president of a multicultural Iraq; he is also a Kurd. The Talabani and Barzani clans, once bitter rivals representing respectively the Western Turkic- and Eastern Persian-influenced Kurds, are now united in an alliance running their autonomous region in Iraq. Istanbul, the vibrant commercial heart of Turkey, is notable for its large and vibrant Kurdish population, many of whom originally fled the troubles in the east. As and when Turkey makes it into the EU, Turkish Kurds and by extension their cousins in Iran and Iran will enjoy the benefits. Now, therefore, is a time for consolidation of the very real gains that Kurds have made in Iraq and Turkey. It is not the moment for renewed violence. There are still many Turks, particularly in the Kemalist military, newly headed by the hard-liner Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, who fear that the abolition of discriminatory laws against the Kurds threatens the cohesion of the Turkish state. A new bombing campaign will make it more likely that the Turks will do what they have threatened repeatedly to do, which is raid northern Iraq to take out PKK guerrilla camps. Like other terrorist groups, by specifically targeting civilians, the so-called Freedom Falcons make things worse by creating populist support for hard-line responses that often lead to further oppression or discrimination of the people these groups profess to represent. Ordinary Turks, angered by the latest terrorist violence, are calling for firm action to crush Kurdish rebels once and for all. However, any crackdown would only open old wounds, cause further bloodshed and put back by years the Kurds' chance of a lasting settlement. Therefore, right-thinking Kurds who know anything about the murderous Kurdish Freedom Falcons should inform on the terrorists before they do any more serious damage to the Kurdish cause.
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