[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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