[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 8, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TURKEY MUST ACCEPT KURDISH PEACE OFFER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, there are some who call it the ``trial of 
the century.'' Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader, is 
on trial before a Turkish military tribunal. The trial could hardly be 
called fair. Mr. Ocalan, who faces the death penalty if convicted, has 
been denied access to his lawyers. His legal team has faced a pattern 
of harassment and threats.
  The Turkish government and media have stirred up nationalistic 
passions against Mr. Ocalan. If the Turkish government forges ahead 
with legally railroading Mr. Ocalan and the threat to hang him is 
carried out, the result would be disastrous for all the people of the 
region. Yet interestingly enough, the trial of Mr. Ocalan has created a 
potentially positive and long overdue opening towards reconciliation 
between the Turkish and Kurdish peoples.
  Standing in the dock at his show trial, Mr. Ocalan made a brave plea 
for a negotiated, Democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Mr. 
Ocalan's organization, the Kurdish workers's party known as the PKK, 
has announced its support for Mr. Ocalan's peace offer. With the media 
attention that the trial is attracting, putting the Kurdish issue in 
the spotlight to an almost unprecedented degree, Turkey could vastly 
improve its international standing by simply agreeing to begin 
negotiations with the Kurdish leaders but, sadly, Mr. Speaker, so far 
the Turkish government has rejected the path to peace insisting that it 
will not negotiate with Mr. Ocalan or any leaders of the Kurdish 
movement.
  Yesterday's Washington Post had an editorial entitled, ``Turkey's 
Kurdish Opening,'' which begins with these words: ``Turkey may have a 
once in a generation opening to treat its national cancer, the problem 
of its aggrieved Turkish minority.''
  The editorial in the Post, a paper that has previously shown sympathy 
to the Turkish point of view on a number of issues, notes that the 
Turkish policy of relentless military and political attack on the 
Kurdish movement dooms Turkey to a conflict that sets it at odds with 
the human Democratic values of the western nations whose company it 
most values.
  That is the bind, Mr. Speaker, that Turkey has put itself into. 
Turkey is a member of NATO and has sought membership in the European 
Union, so far unsuccessfully. At the same time, Turkey continues not 
only to wage a dirty war against a minority community within its 
borders but to repress and essentially deny the existence of a distinct 
Kurdish identity, language or culture.
  In the meantime, Turkey's economic development, levels of education, 
infrastructure, development and standard of living, lag far behind 
European standards while scarce resources are squandered on its ongoing 
war against the Kurds. It is a cycle that must be broken.
  As The Washington Post editorial concludes, ``Friends of Turkey must 
hope it can muster the courage to broaden its perspective and to 
conduct an honest exploration of the Ocalan initiative.''
  Mr. Speaker, two recent articles in the New York Times suggest 
unfortunately that the Turkish political and military establishment is 
a long way from making this major leap. Last Friday, it was reported 
that Turkey's best known human rights advocate, Akin Birdal, entered 
prison to serve a 9\1/2\ month sentence for giving speeches judged 
subversive.
  What was his subversive activity? Mr. Birdal, chairman of the Human 
Rights Association, has repeatedly urged the Turkish state to reach a 
peaceful settlement with Kurdish rebels. Now, as the article reports, 
such statements constitute support for terrorism under Turkish law. 
This same law has recently been used to convict two journalists, a 
university professor and an aide to Mr. Birdal. While some brave Turks, 
including the country's top judge, have called for repeal of the law, 
the hardline regime refuses to give in.
  Mr. Speaker, in an effort to encourage the U.S. Government to play a 
constructive role in heading off the crisis in Turkey, my colleague, 
the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) and I, are circulating a 
letter this week asking our colleagues to sign a letter to President 
Clinton urging his intervention to implore that the Turkish authorities 
show some basic fairness in trying Mr. Ocalan and to spare his life. 
Seeking a fair trial for Mr. Ocalan should be the first step in our 
efforts to press Turkey to enter into negotiations to achieve a 
political solution to this tragic struggle.
  Mr. Ocalan and his Kurdish organization have offered an olive branch 
to the Turkish government. It would be both the decent and the smart 
thing to do for Turkey to accept this good faith offer and to embark on 
the path of peace.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Ocalan made several previous cease-fire 
offers prior to his arrest--all of which were summarily rejected by the 
Turkish government and military officials.
  An article in Sunday's New York Times further describes the hardening 
of official attitudes in Turkey. According to the article, the Turkish 
Interior Ministry has issued a directive listing terms that must be 
used when discussing Mr. Ocalan, his movement or Kurds in general. The 
rules are binding on all reporters for state-run news agencies. It 
represents another example of the ongoing pattern of inciting 
nationalistic fear and distrust of the PKK, while trying to blind the 
Turkish people to the Kurds, their history, their culture and the 
validity of their struggle.
  Mr. Speaker, the Turkish regime refuses to even acknowledge the 
Kurds' existence, referring to them as ``mountain Turks,'' prohibiting 
all expression of Kurdish culture and language in an effort to forcibly 
assimilate them, while jailing, torturing and killing Kurdish leaders. 
The Government of Turkey's undeclared war on the Kurds has claimed 
close to 40,000 lives and caused more than 3 million people to become 
refugees.

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