[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 55 (Thursday, May 1, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2152-H2153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE KURDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from California [Mr. Filner] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to focus my colleagues' attention 
this evening on the plight of the Kurds, an ancient people living in 
the Middle East in a land that should be a nation called Kurdistan, a 
proud people numbering some 30 million, perhaps the largest people in 
the world today lacking in the exercise of their right to self-
determination.
  The Kurds have resided in their present homelands for thousands of 
years. Kurdish Guti kings ruled Persia and Mesopotamia over 4,000 years 
ago. Before that, the Neolithic revolution probably first took place in 
Kurdistan, around 7000 B.C., 3,500 years before similar developments in 
Europe.
  Some of the earliest towns and villages, as well as other human 
settlements, have been discovered in Kurdistan. Yet, one of the largest 
nations in the Middle East is prevented from exercising sovereignty 
over any part of its own land. It is an international colony, governed 
over by the states of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
  The Kurdish people suffer from ghastly atrocities committed by all 
four regimes. Over one half of Kurdistan and nearly two-thirds of the 
Kurdish population are under Turkish control, an occupation legitimized 
in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which reneged on a promise to Kurds and 
Armenians in the earlier 1920 Treaty of Sevres. That promise envisioned 
the creation of a Kurdish state on Kurdish territory in the aftermath 
of World War I. The Lausanne Treaty legitimized the Turkish massacres 
against the Armenians which had already taken place and set the stage 
for a stepped-up campaign of genocide against the Kurds in subsequent 
years.
  Turkish states have been responsible for a long string of ethnic 
cleansings ever since. Historian James Tashjian has estimated that over 
2\1/2\ million people perished in a 100-year period between 1822 and 
1922.

                              {time}  1800

  Among them were Greeks, Nestorians, Maronites, Syrians, Bulgarians, 
Yezidis, Jacobites, and Armenians. He acknowledged that these figures 
did not include over 500,000 Kurds murdered, deported, or displaced in 
the same period.
  Between 1925 and 1938, an additional 1 million Kurds were reported 
slaughtered. Almost the entire Armenian population under Turkish 
control had previously been exterminated, over 1\1/2\ million people.
  Today, Turkish Special Komandos actually collect rewards for the 
severed heads of Kurdish guerrillas and others, casually referring to 
their victims as Armenians, leaving no doubt as to what is in store for 
the Kurds and their national aspirations.
  ``Special action teams,'' as they are called, color their faces green 
and white. The paint, as well as 80 percent of Turkey's military 
hardware and equipment, is furnished by the United States, much of it 
at the taxpayer's expense.
  Today, seven Kurdish members of parliament are in prison in Turkey. 
Most prominent among them is Leyla Zana, the recipient of the Sakharov 
Freedom Award. Andrei Sakharov came to the defense of the Kurds in 
1989, when he declared, and I quote, ``The tragic struggle of the 
Kurdish people, which has continued for so long, originates in the 
principle of the right of peoples to self-determination, and for this 
reason, it is a just struggle.''
  Human Rights Watch, Helsinki Watch, Amnesty International and a 
variety of other human rights groups have devoted much attention to 
Turkish depredations against the Kurds in recent years. They note that 
over 20,000 people have been killed since 1984, over 3,000 villages 
destroyed with rampant torture, murder, displacement and imprisonment 
directed at the Kurdish population.
  The repression by the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq has been more 
widely publicized. Over 200,000 Kurds were killed in the wake of the 
Iran-Iraq war, and over 4,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed over 
the past three decades by Iraqi forces. Three tons of documents and 
other materials related to the post-Iran-Iraq war ``Anfal'' campaign 
are stored away by the U.S. Government. I call upon the State 
Department to release them for general inspection by interested 
parties. I believe they would confirm the crimes against humanity 
carried out by the Iraqi regime in Kurdistan.
  It is imperative that we affirm a human rights linkage with any 
foreign aid given by the United States and to oppose the furnishing of 
lethal equipment to those who would use it for repressive purposes. 
Never again should United States-made chemical weapons be used against 
the Kurds or against anybody else, as they were at the ancient Kurdish 
city of Halabia, where over 5,000 Kurdish civilians, mostly women and 
children, were gassed to death in March 1988.
  It is time, Mr. Speaker, to reverse our longstanding policy and 
recognize the existence of Kurdistan and the rights of its citizens to 
exercise the prerogatives and liberties which every people without 
exception should and must enjoy.
  We should use our influence to help resolve the Kurds' internal 
conflict and support their unity in the effort to achieve their 
inalienable right to self-determination. We must stop looking at whole 
nations in terms of the profitability of oil companies and as assets to 
be deployed in big power maneuvering. We must ban the export of 
chemical weapons. Both Iraq and Turkey have used lethal weapons against 
the Kurds which were furnished by the United States. Cluster bombs are 
continuing to be sold to Turkey and continuing to be used in bombing 
runs against Kurdish villages and areas.
  Iran also continues to oppress the Kurds in its territory. The Shah's 
father, a Fascist sympathizer who was removed from his throne by the 
Allies in 1941, oversaw what was called the ``sedentarization'' 
policies which resulted in the disappearance of many Kurdish and other 
tribes. Khomeini's regime went after the Kurds almost immediately upon 
assuming power over Iran in 1979. Leaders of the major Kurdish party 
resisting Iranian domination have been repeatedly assassinated by 
agents of the government, often in European settings.
  The Kurdish plight at the hands of Iran has received surprisingly 
little notice in America, given our oft-stated concerns over the human 
rights violations of that regime.
  We must stop viewing freedom for the Kurds as being some kind of 
threat to stability and instead welcome such freedom.
  As was stated by Michael van Walt van Praag, an adviser to the Dalai 
Lama of Tibet, and again I quote, ``The potential for explosive 
disintegration lurks in all states where the people are prohibited from 
exercising their right to self-determination. We must move away from 
our misguided view of stability premised on immediate short-term 
economic and political considerations to a long-term perspective which 
will ensure the peaceful coexistence of all peoples. Universal 
recognition is the cornerstone and, indeed, the sine qua non of a truly 
peaceful and stable world.''
  According to Justice William O. Douglas, who visited the Kurds nearly 
50 years ago, ``The Kurds have a saying: The world is a rose; smell it 
and pass it to your friends.''
  The source of such resources as water, oil, gas and agricultural 
wealth, Kurdistan has much to share with neighboring peoples in the 
world, once the pall of oppression has been lifted and they can manage 
their own affairs and control their own resources and their own 
destiny.

[[Page H2153]]

  President John F. Kennedy was right when he said that ``There can be 
no doubt that if all nations refrain from interfering in the self-
determination of others, the peace would be much more assured.''
  And Dwight D. Eisenhower underscored the point when he declared that 
``Any nation's right to a form of government and an economic system of 
its own choosing is inalienable. Any nation's attempt to dictate to 
other nations their form of government is indefensible.''
  We must apply these principles to our dealings with the Kurds and 
their aspirations. United States military aid to Turkey should be 
halted pending a review of Turkish policies toward Kurdistan. Kurdish 
initiatives for peaceful resolution of conflicts related to the 
occupation of Kurdistan should be supported.
  Above all, we must recognize the Kurds as a people with the right to 
self-determination, a right held sacred by liberty-loving Americans, a 
right that should be enjoyed by all people in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope to speak about this at a later time.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to join in this effort to focus more 
attention on the plight of the Kurdish people. I want to thank my 
colleague from California, Mr. Filner, for taking this time to discuss 
the ongoing human tragedy in the mountains of Kurdistan.
  About half of the worldwide Kurdish community lives within the 
borders of the Republic of Turkey, where their treatment is an absolute 
affront to the basic fundamentals of human rights. At least one-quarter 
of the population of Turkey is Kurdish. Yet, in Turkey, the Kurds are 
subjected to a policy of forced assimilation, which is essentially 
written into the Turkish constitution. To date, 3,124 Kurdish villages 
have been destroyed, and more than 3 million of their residents have 
been forced to become refugees, either in Kurdistan or abroad.
  While the situation for the Kurdish people in such nations as Iraq, 
Iran, and Syria is also deplorable, I wish to draw particular attention 
to the situation in Turkey for some basic reasons. Turkey is, after 
all, a military ally of the United States, a member of NATO. As such, 
Turkey has received billions of dollars in military and economic 
assistance--courtesy of the American taxpayers. In addition, Turkey 
aspires to participate in other major Western organizations and 
institutions, such as the European Union.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that most Americans would be frankly appalled 
to know that a country that has received so much in the way of American 
largesse is guilty of so many breaches of international law and simple 
human decency. I have joined with many of my colleagues in denouncing 
Turkey's illegal blockade of Armenia, its failure to acknowledge 
responsibility for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, its ongoing 
illegal occupation of Cyprus, and its threatening military maneuvers in 
the Aegean Sea. The brutal treatment of the more than 15 million Kurds 
living within Turkish borders offers a major argument for cutting back 
on military and economic aid to Turkey, or to at least attach very 
stringent conditions to the provision of this aid. If Turkey wants the 
benefits of inclusion in Western institutions that are supposed to be 
founded on the defense of democracy and human rights, then that country 
should start living up to the agreements it has signed.

  Mr. Speaker, I want to say a few words on behalf of one of the most 
prominent victims of Turkey's cruel irrational anti-Kurd policies. Mrs. 
Leyla Zana was elected to a seat in the Turkish Parliament in 1991, 
representing her hometown of Diyarbakir. She was elected with 84 
percent of the total vote. She became the first Kurd to break the ban 
on the Kurdish language in the Turkish Parliament, for which she was 
later tried and convicted. She had uttered the following words: ``I am 
taking this [constitutional] oath for the brotherhood of the Turkish 
and Kurdish peoples.''
  On May 17, 1993, she and her colleague Ahmet Turk addressed the 
Helsinki Commission of the United States Congress. This testimony was 
used against her in the court of law. On March 2, 1994, her 
constitutional immunity as a member of Parliament was revoked, and she 
was arrested, taken into custody, tried, in a one-sided mockery of 
justice, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Leyla Zana, who 
is 35 years old and the mother of two children, is in the third year of 
her 15-year sentence at a prison in Ankara, the Turkish capital.
  Leyla Zana's pursuit of democratic change by non-violent means was 
honored by the European Parliament, which unanimously awarded her 
the 1995 Sakharov Peace Prize. She has twice been nominated for the 
Nobel Peace Prize. I know that some of my colleagues are circulating a 
letter to the President on her behalf, and I hope a majority of the 
Members of this House will join with the European Parliament in 
defending the human and civil rights of this brave woman--and, I might 
remind my colleagues--a fellow Parliamentarian, a fellow-elected 
official. We owe her our moral support, and to urge our ambassador in 
Ankara to raise Mrs. Zana's case with the Turkish authorities at the 
highest levels.

  Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with the Members of this Body, and 
anyone watching us, some of the basic goals of Mrs. Zana and of the 
repressed Kurdish people of Turkey: The Kurdish identity must be 
recognized; The use of the Kurdish language in conversation and in 
writing should be legalized; All cultural rights should be conceded; 
Kurdish political parties must be given full Constitutional rights; and 
A general amnesty for all political prisoners must be granted.
  Mr. Speaker, we often hear--from our own administration, from other 
apologists for Turkey--about what a great democracy the Republic of 
Turkey is. Yet this is how a duly elected representative of that so-
called democracy is being treated, for the crime of speaking her 
language and defending the rights of her people.
  Mr. Speaker, this cannot go on. For many years we have witnessed a 
clear pro-Turkish tilt on the part of the State Department. We often 
hear about the strategic importance of Turkey, its pivotal location. I 
don't discount these arguments completely. But we have to balance these 
factors against some other very important considerations. Turkey 
continues to spend billions of dollars on obtaining sophisticated 
weapons systems, not only from the United States, but from France, 
Russia, and elsewhere. Much of this military hardware is then used to 
repress and terrorize the Kurdish people, citizens of Turkey who should 
be extended the protection of their country's armed forces, and not be 
victimized by those armed forces. Meanwhile, Turkey does not have a 
strong industrial base and is lacking in infrastructure in many key 
areas. Why is Turkey, our ally, throwing away so much of its limited 
resources on sophisticated weapons to use against its Kurdish 
residents, when it could be investing in better schools, health care 
and other services that could help put Turkey on a par with the Western 
nations it seeks to be associated with?

  Mr. Speaker, last week I led a special order in this House 
commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, committed by the 
Ottoman Turkish Empire. Just yesterday, I joined with members of the 
Armenian-American community for an observance of the anniversary of the 
unleashing of the Genocide. In recalling this well-documented part of 
history, the existence of which Turkey continues to officially deny, we 
often point out that the importance of remembering the past is to 
prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, we are currently witnessing a similar tragedy in 
Kurdistan. True, the Kurdish people have not been slaughtered on the 
scale that the Armenians were in the early part of this century. To 
some extent, the greater scrutiny that exists today--through satellite 
imaging and instantaneous communication--may be playing some role in 
restraining the Turkish Government. But there is a certain similarity 
to the pattern: A concerted effort by a Turkish government to wipe out 
the presence of a nonTurkic people which has lived in the region for 
centuries.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to close my remarks with a statement from 
Lord Eric Avebury, the chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group 
of the British House of Lords, who recently visited Turkish and Iraqi 
Kurdistan. He cited a quote, dating from AD 84, from the Roman 
historian Tacitus describing the Roman conquest of Britain: ``Ubi 
solituneinem faciunt, pacem appelant.'' ``They made it a desolation and 
called it peace.'' Mr. Speaker, let us resolve not to let the entire 
land and nation of Kurdistan be made into a desolation.

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