[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 26420]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 TURKISH GOVERNMENT MUST RECOGNIZE BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS OF KURDISH PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hulshof). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, today I want to speak about the need for 
the Turkish government to recognize the basic human rights of the 
Kurdish people, and I rise this afternoon to condemn recent, though 
ongoing, violations of these rights in Turkey.
  I have always said the Kurds must be respected as a people, the world 
must finally listen to and respect their aspirations, and that they 
should enjoy the same right of choosing their representatives as other 
people do all over the world. The Turkish government has not accepted 
the validity of the Kurdish struggle or even of the Kurdish people. 
They have jailed leaders, but the message of these leaders continues to 
ring loud and clear.
  Mr. Speaker, in the past few weeks, the Turkish government has 
extended a 13-year-old state of emergency in four mainly Kurdish 
provinces for an additional 4 months, and who knows what will happen at 
the end of those 4 months in terms of another extension. Further, the 
extension of emergency rule occurred despite the European commission's 
formal expression that the lifting of emergency rule is an objective 
for Turkey to achieve.
  On December 4, The Washington Post reported that the director of a 
Kurdish linguistics institute in Istanbul is facing a trial on charges 
that the institute is an illegal business. The charges come despite the 
fact that Turkish security courts have hired interpreters from this 
very institute for the past 8 years. This incident illustrates the type 
of human rights violations infringements that continue to occur but 
that must be halted immediately against the Kurdish people.
  I call upon my colleagues to join me, Mr. Speaker, in urging the 
Turkish government to immediately grant basic rights to Kurdish 
citizens in Turkey and more formally and fully recognize the Kurdish 
people. This should include lifting the extension of emergency rule, 
lifting all bans on Kurdish-language television, cinema, and all forms 
of fine arts and culture.
  Bans on language and culture are particularly disturbing because the 
lands of Kurdistan are considered by many to be the birthplace of the 
history of human culture. It saddens me that there is still a need to 
be on the floor protesting violations of these most basic yet essential 
human rights.
  Mr. Speaker, back in 1997, I addressed the American Kurdish 
Information Network on the cultural oppression of Kurds by the Turkish 
government and on the Turks' squelching of Kurdish language and 
culture. At that time, 153 Members of Congress expressed their 
disapproval of the antidemocratic treatment of elected Kurdish 
representatives in the Turkish parliament.
  In April of this year, a number of my colleagues joined me in 
introducing a House Resolution calling for the immediate and 
unconditional release from prison of certain Kurdish Members of the 
Turkish parliament and for prompt recognition of full Kurdish cultural 
and language rights within Turkey.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I am continuing the fight on behalf of the Kurdish 
people, because their voices are still repressed, although the conflict 
between the government and separatist Kurdish guerrillas in the 
southeast has subsided significantly since the arrest last year of the 
Kurdish Workers Party leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Fears by hard-line 
Turkish nationalists that any recognition of Kurdish identity will 
fragment Turkey and strengthen separatism seem unwarranted based on the 
decline in tensions.
  Mr. Speaker, Turkey must negotiate with the Turkish leaders. Turkey 
must lift its blockade of Armenia also. Turkey must end its military 
occupation of northern Cyprus. Such a change in behavior would benefit 
everyone in the region, including the Turkish people.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in delivering these important 
messages to the Turkish government at every possible opportunity.

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