Have we done things to change their fixed opinion? No, we have not. Instead of changing solely to please them, we must continuously advance our social, political and economic position for our own good. I, who have advocated cultural freedom of our Kurdish citizens, defended the "real implementation of democratic laws in Turkey", and closely monitored the PKK since its birth. I have not kept notes to remember every date and detail of each event, but these facts are commonly known to most Turkish citizens who monitored the political and economic developments in Turkey. Of course, the political "analysis" is my own, and may not be shared by others.

Abdullah Ocalan (Apo) was a university student in Ankara in the early 70's. I was a student as well, but in Istanbul. I remember APO by reading critical articles about him which appeared in weeklies published by leftist political groups (Halkin Sesi, Halkin Yolu, Halkin Emegi, Safak, Aydinlik,…). Apo was a member of "Aydinlik - TIKP (Turkish Peasant and Workers Party) led by Dogu Perincek. At that time, the government was led by Suleyman Demirel in coalition with ultra-rightist-nationalist party MHP led by Turkes and religious party MSP led by Erbakan. The militants of MHP and leftists were killing each other at a rate of 30-35 people per day. Many young men and women were murdered. The ultra-nationalist militants were controlled by the government coalition partner, MHP, and leftist militants received both political and logistical support from Soviets and CIA. Bulgarian secret service funneled thousands of arms to both sides, and the arm and cigarette smuggling ring was handled jointly by Kintex (the shadow company of Bulgarian secret service who helped to smuggle also Agca out of Turkey) and by MHP backed Mafia (now called Ulkucu Mafia). Turkish Politicians did not apply the law of the land, and were directly involved in the violence. They must be blamed for the chaotic period of 1974-80. One of those militants was sitting beside me in the class when I was looking at his picture with a gun in his hand on the front page of a daily newspaper. "His connections in the security forces released him few hours after he was captured. He was shooting bunch of students in another college" (Galatasaray Engineering). This militant, who killed scores of young people, is currently a deputy leader of an ultra-nationalist party (BBP) and a member of parliament in Turkey. The leader of BBP was the "chief of death squads -Grey Wolves" in Ankara during the same period. Apo is presently entertained in a villa in Italy. Is there really a difference between these two camps? One says "they did it for Turkey", and the other says "they are killing for Independent Kurdistan." Both camps killed many people.

Dogu Perincek accused Apo of being an ultra Kurdish Nationalist, calling him the "Kurdish Equivalent of Fascist Grey Wolf (ultra-nationalist Turkish militia)" and expelled him from the party in about 1975. Apo and two of his close militant friends were recruited by Ahmet Turk, who was a member of the Turkish Parliament from CHP (Social Democratic Party) led by Ecevit. Ahmet Turk is a leader of the Kurdish Tribe called "Turk Asireti" from the South-East (Mardin). The Kurdish tribes, who have a strong feudal culture, have been fighting among each other due to "blood feuds" for years. The main enemy of Turk Klan was "Bucak Klan", whose leader was Serdar Bucak who was also a member of parliament but from a conservative party (AP) led by Demirel. (I think Serdar Bucak was the uncle of the present member of parliament (mp) Sedat Bucak who is under investigation for drug smuggling and murder.) Two clans were killing each other due to "a century old" blood feud. Apo, being trained in a Turkish Leftists movement, captured the opportunity to lead approximately 5000 strong-armed men of Ahmet Turk’s clan, and killed a significant number of members of Bucak Klan. Bucak on the other hand recruited Turkes’ MHP (Ultra Turkish Nationalist Party) and its armed militia (Grey Wolves) as his ally, and used them against Ahmet Turk. Bucak was protected by the Turkish government, since his allies (Demirel and Turkes) were the prime minister and the deputy-prime minister. (Bucak Klan had been protected by the ultra-rightist government elements until the present clan chief - Sedat Bucak- was caught with Catli and government guns. However, he is till free in Turkey!) Apo was the hired gun of Ahmet Turk, and Abdullah Catli was the killing machine of Bucak. Both killed many people from opposite sides. I squarely blame the politicians in the government at that time for not applying the law of the land on these murder machines. Later, Apo became the leader of PKK, and A. Catli-Bucak became the assassins and heroin smugglers operating behind the security forces of Turkey. Both caused significant harm to Turkey and her people, which is now well known by everyone in Turkey, including Demirel. (Catli died in a car accident when he was accompanied by a high-ranking security officer and Sedat Bucak. Catli was searched for by all of the Turkish Security Forces and Interpol when he was found dead with a government passport and guns in Bucak's car…)

Apo, when he led 5000 armed men of Ahmet Turk, first killed all municipal leaders of TIKP (D. Perincek’s party) in the East (Tunceli, Siirt, Mardin, Gazi Antep, Van, Hakkari). Ahmet Turk realized that he had lost the control of his tribe to Apo, who was a trained political organizer with a Mao style organization in the feudal society (Kurds). In a feudal system, Apo knew that "sheer power and terror" were always effective, since the society did not understand the rules and culture of democracy except "gun power". Turkish Democracy was never exercised at the Kurdish Feudal Region in the east of Turkey. They were ordered to vote for the clan leader’s party, and the clan leaders/landlords owned both the land and the people leaving on it. After wiping out TIKP with his tribal killing machine, Apo turned around and started to kill the rest of the Kurdish Leftist Groups in the region. The main and most popular one was DDKO (Dogu Devrimci Kultur Ocaklari) led by Kemal Burkay. Kemal Burkay was a member of the Turkish Workers Party, and was leading a chapter of workers union in Istanbul. The union and party were close to Soviet Communist Party and European Communists in ideology, but were not terrorists. Apo was more close to Mao due to methods used in feudal zones, but later his style and tactics were identical to Pol Pot of Cambodia who killed half of his countrymen to make them pure "Communists". Apo finished off all Kurdish groups using his feudal army given to him by Ahmet Turk. His biggest help came from Turkish Security forces that were against any kind of leftist movement in Turkey. As far as they were concerned, the leftists were killing each other - they forgot about the equal enforcement of law and constitution to all criminals. Indeed, Apo ’s former father-in-law was a high-ranking officer in MIT (a Turkish Secret Service) as documented by U. Mumcu (Assassinated in 1993. Suspects : PKK, Rightist Mafia (Ulkucu Mafia) or Iranian backed Islamic Terrorists. Governments have been unable to uncover the assassination…).

When the military took over in 1980, all leftists were either put in jail, exiled or killed. A sheer state terror ruled eastern Turkey, which ignited the Kurdish nationalist bomb prepared by years of state negligence and Apo. The former generals of Turkey carry the main responsibility. The torture and oppression of villagers in the East were reality for at least three years. While most leftists, important or not, were captured, jailed or executed, Apo managed to walk away from Turkey to Syria. Mumcu wrote "thanks to Turkish Security forces who helped him to kill other Kurdish Leftists, who were mainly democratic groups." In 1983, Apo’s killing machine was the only untouched "Kurdish Opposition Group" left in Turkey. Kemal Burkay tried to continue his DDKO movement. His group was terrorized by PKK's killing machine both in Turkey and Europe. He is still living in Europe, but the PKK's assassins wiped off Burkay's organization in Europe and Turkey. Thanks to the "Pol Pot" style terror of the PKK, and the ignorance of Turkish Politicians, all democratic Turkish and Kurdish opposition groups were eliminated. The PKK even tried to eliminate feudal leaders Barzani and Talabani in Iraq in order to remain the sole ruler of Kurds in the entire region, but couldn't because of the political and military interference of Iran, Turkey and the US. In short, our corrupt and ignorant politicians created the killing machine (PKK) with their ignorant, negligent, undemocratic and unlawful policies. Blaming only "external forces" would continue to prevent solving the problem, but would lead to the worsening of it. Apo started his warfare in 1983, when democracy was again returning rapidly to Turkey. He had a fixed agenda: an independent Kurdistan. His few men were armed by Syria, which provided bases for them, and all other Turkish Terrorist Organizations in Bekaa Valley. Syrian's bloody dictator (H. Esaad) forced his own Kurdish population to serve in the PKK as fighters. Esad's policy was and has been very simple: support the terrorist organizations by spending little, losing nothing, but inflicting heavy economic, political and human lives in Turkey. Their life time dictator wanted to be the key man in the region, and take over Hatay which he has been showing in his own map for years. The corrupt governments in Turkey never saw the incoming danger. They just reacted by allowing thugs and unlawful "Grey Wolves" into the government and security forces. Furthermore, the governments moved towards extreme right and used excessive force against any unarmed opposition, which helped the PKK to flourish. Up until about 1994, many people were killed by unknown assailants, or "disappeared when they were in police custody." A corrupt, unlawful situation had been well exploited by the PKK. Since they removed all Kurdish Opponents from the political map by murdering and terrorizing them, the PKK militants rapidly controlled all "democratic opposition institutes " by taking advantage of a democratic vacuum created by the military regime. The main one is the "Human Rights Organization in Turkey". In the meantime, the PKK continued to kill, sometimes an entire Kurdish village population, just to demonstrate to local people "who was in power". (I was visiting my brother who was a soldier in 1987, when PKK militants killed 23 Kurdish men, women and children (August 1987,Yuva Koyu). I can not forget the screaming voices of children from a military radio when the PKK was killing and burning houses with people in them. The mistake of the Kurdish Villagers: not joining the PKK! We were about 110 kilometers away. The young conscripts were terrorized, others were in tears with disbelief in the camp.) Kurdish peasants were caught in between the Turkish Security forces (especially the police), which contained many elements that did not care about exercising their conduct within the law, and the killing machine PKK. There was mass migration from the Kurdish villages towards the predominantly Turkish West, where there was no terror. When the PKK killed an entire village, the "Human Rights Organization in Turkey" was either silent, or would give a provocative lie: "maybe Turkish Forces killed them!". All so-called democratic organizations were taken over by the PKK. No one dared to oppose. The vacuum was filled either by the PKK or ultra-rightist death squads. The political wings of the PKK, DEP, HEP and the HADEP were strictly controlled by Apo. The leader of HEP was Ahmet Turk, who had recruited APO as a gunman. Leyla Zana and her husband, Mehdi Zana, were ruling Diyarbakir with their terror machine in the late 70's. These parties were and have been receiving orders directly from the "supreme chief", Apo, and have nothing to do with the "democratic opposition." They have been using Turkish Democracy only to destroy it, as the Islamic Party, who thinks the democracy is an "evil," does. The PKK machine in Europe is well organized with the money they extort from Turkish-Kurdish Migrant workers and businesses. Two PKK henchmen automatically visit every economic refugee who claim to be Kurdish, immediately after the German Immigration Police release them. Each refugee had to pay 1,500 DM tax to the PKK, had to join all demonstrations and actions in Europe with an instant order brought by a henchman with a code name. (Two young Turkish Kurds explained to me the terror they had been experiencing. They were also working in a restaurant operated by a Kurdish Drug smuggler, who was also paying off protection tax to PKK. Place : Marburg, Germany, Date : the summer of 1992). Every business had to pay "tax" to the PKK. European politicians can either remember the burned houses and businesses by the PKK, or by re-visiting the past news articles from their own press. German security forces did not care when Turkish-Kurdish businesses were burned, and people who opposed the PKK were killed in Germany. When the extortion affected even German businesses, and a few police officers were badly beaten by PKK militants, Kohl's government started to prosecute the PKK, until the "PKK and German Interior Ministry made an agreement in Syria a few years ago not to harm each other in Germany". (The present government of Germany is still very much afraid of the PKK's terror machine in Germany, and avoiding to bring APO from Italy for charges related to extortion of businesses and murdering political opponents in Germany.) PKK's political offices immediately began to fax messages to foreign press that "all killings were done by Turkish Forces", rapidly camouflaging their mass murders and sheer terror at each incident. How many of the European Politicians came to Turkey and talked to Semdin Sakik, who was the number two man of the killing machine PKK? How many of them visited those Kurdish Villages which were wiped out and burned by the PKK ? However, they were all quick to protest against "forceful relocation of Kurdish villages (mezra)" which had few families living in it, and difficult to control by security forces. The Human Right Organizations suppose to be critical of all parties who abuse the human rights, are not suppose to be part of a killing machine to attack the opposite side. I blame the Turkish Government Agencies who did not pay any attention to the PKK’s political propaganda and assassinations of other Kurdish group members.

As the years passed and Turkey became more vulnerable, other regional powers entered the game in using the PKK against Turkey. First, Iran joined Syria, followed by Iraq. Iran's mollas targeted the secular Turkish Democracy as "evil, which had to be replaced by Islamic Regime." The Turkish Islamic fanatics supported them. Turkish Democracy, even with its faults, was a bad example for their 6th century "Islamic Regime." Iraq turned the support to the PKK on and off depending on the situation with its confrontation with NATO (US, UK). Greece supported and has been supporting the PKK very strongly, by opening training camps for the terrorists in Cyprus and Athens (I saw PKK militants in Athens. They were introduced to us as Turkish Refugees! Twenty to twenty-five year old men with military jackets, who were travelling in groups and plastering PKK military posters on the walls, were introduced as "harmless refugees" by the guide…) Since Papendreu, Greek governments exceeded our own fascists with their sheer nationalism. They have been using the PKK as a revenge against Turkey for Cyprus. I feel sorry for the Greeks who are embroiled with senseless Balkan nationalism. Eventually, such a racist-nationalist terror harms their society as well, by bringing up a socially-sick generation.

The PKK continued to flourish until the Turkish Army changed its philosophy and combat tactics against terrorists. First, they started to make a distinction between Kurdish peasants who were caught between the PKK and security forces, and PKK fighters. They recognized the Feudal Society problems in the East, and started to assist the local population with medical care and food, yet continued to fight against the terrorists using small teams like the PKK. Although the recent coalition government of Yilmaz, Ecevit and Cindoruk failed in many areas, they have improved the functioning of government by arresting fascist mafia and some corrupt security officers. This social-political change in the Turkish Government and Army was devastating for the PKK. The fear of peasants from the PKK had diminished, and the people started to trust the state more. Now, Kurdish villages remember how their families and friends were killed and burned alive by PKK militants. The PKK attacked one Turkish village in Elazig (1994), by killing all of the men and boys. Their tactic was to provoke the Turkish villagers, and encourage them to revenge by attacking Kurdish villages. The game worked during the Great War, which led to a bloody civil war between Moslems and Armenians in the same region. However, the killing machine's inhumane plan did not work in modern Turkey. Turks and Kurds have been fully integrated and mixed, and the education level has become a lot higher than the level during the Ottoman Era. Such a bloody tactic might have worked in pure feudal societies like in Africa, Afghanistan, Asia, or segregated regions like Bosnia, but is doomed to fail in Turkey (an important fact for European Policy makers to remember in their political calculations!). The burning of shopping malls with people inside, killing innocent teachers, scores of engineers and workers who were trying to build a social infrastructure in the East, and thousands of Kurdish civilians just turned the political tide against PKK machine. Now, they have negligible support and no base in Turkey. Syria unloaded them with a little push from Turkey. Their last suicidal attempts must be seen as "a loud noise" before they fully start playing the only card they have been left with, the European card. Syria and Iran were unable to use PKK fighters anymore as "unpaid mercenaries". The drug routes of the PKK are largely smashed. Now their only income source is the extortion from Turkish-Kurdish businesses and workers in Germany, Holland and France, plus a few handouts from Greece and other secret services who want to use them as much as they can.

It seems it is European’s turn to use the PKK as bargaining chips (e.g. mercenaries) for the control of oil pipes in the region. They must be careful. Only murderers like Esaad are able to use them like mercenaries. Democratic countries cannot control the PKK. They must simply look at the experience of the Turkish Government in the 70's, who also thought they were using APO against others. A mass murderer is now declared a "hero" by some policy makers in Europe, but may rapidly change its form. Instead, they may dump the military wing of the PKK (since it has now become useless) and use "Kurdish Parliament in Europe, International Forum of Kurds in Europe" et cetera which are presently political wings of the PKK. These organizations, camouflaged from their electorate as "civilian opposition groups" will be used for some time until either Turkey loses the industrial and political strength in the region, or the oil is replaced by another energy source.

Boycotting Italian goods were very effective and most timely democratic reaction by the people of Turkey against colonial powers. However, few thugs in Turkey burned Italian flags, which have to be condemned. A few misguided, misfit politicians are playing a dirty game in Europe and Italy, but not the Italian people. Politicians are replaced, but not the people of a country. Condemning the thugs who derail the protests for their ultra-nationalist purposes may better protect Turkey. European Governments are not ruling our land (Turkey), and it is up to us to avoid being colonized by bringing our country into a modern, democratic, industrial and lawful level of the 21st Century. Screaming with anger, or burning flags will not change the situation. However, burning the swamps with reformed social policies would eliminate the growth of murder machines like the PKK in Turkey. We have to produce democratic but clever policies, and remove the earth (i.e. excuses) underneath the PKK and European politicians for our own good. These include enriching the Kurdish culture and language in Turkey, reforming the political party system so that the politicians are unable to abuse the law and people, providing freedom to all non-violent political thinking but immediately prosecuting those who resort to violence, terror and racial hate. Then, the PKK machine, without the backing of our Kurdish population, will be reduced to a lone figure either in jail or somewhere in North Korea, Cambodia, Libya, Baghdad, or Damascus where he can share his common "democratic actions" with his counterparts. At that time, the Europeans may even start "supporting our Islamic Terrorists Groups" for the sake of human rights and democracy in Turkey, which is another strong weakness of our land.

We still have a long way to escape from terror. It is best that we start cleaning up our house before we become more vulnerable to colonial vultures.

Y.Altintas

Corrections (Dec. 25, 1998):

As stated in the beginning, I wrote the article based on my memories. I don't have a library to check all the exact dates, places, and the names. However, they are checked by a number of friends who are familiar with the events. I had not paid any attention to grammar and typo mistakes either. I wrote the article out of my concern for the political violence in Turkey. I believe that all people who want to see peace in Turkey must debate the roots of violence. The discussion must not be left to factions who see the solution in only terror and violence.

Today, I edited the article by correcting only typo errors and grammar. I did not touch the contents, except two statements.

-Previously written TIIKP (Turkiye Ihtilalci Isci Koylu Partisi: It was a small armed leftist guerilla group in 70's) is replaced by TIKP (Turkiye Isci Koylu Partisi- A legal party led by Perincek in 70's). They had no relationship with each other and the typo occurred during my careless English translation.

-I remember reading an article in Cumhuriyet, that PKK eliminated many opponents before and after 1980. (I think the article was published in 1992, and it was written by Ugur Mumcu). The article gave gruesome details of PKK's intimidation, extortion and terror techniques, including attacks against Kemal Burkay. It was argued that PKK shot Huseyin Yildirim twice, but not PSK (The Socialist party of Kurdistan) leader Kemal Burkay. However, PSK was terrorized and has been reduced to a small group by PKK. PKK started to tolerate Kemal Burkay and his party (PSK) after Burkay became unable to challenge PKK. The truce began when Burkay visited Apo (1991, PKK Camps in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon) to support his "ceasefire" declaration, which turned out to be just a lie to win time for regrouping his militants. (He killed 31 armless soldiers during this period, and now blaming S. Sakik for it out of convenience.)

The remaining typos did not change the contents. The PKK killed its Kurdish opponents, and massacred a number of Kurdish villagers as commonly known by everyone. Apo himself admitted this recently by throwing the blame on PKK militants whose leader is no one but himself. Here is another gruesome massacre story from my brother who served in the Turkish Military in 1987.