Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN OZETi
Iraqi Kurds use Barzani's funeral to signal unity
By Aliza Marcus
R~ul~r
BARZAN, IRAQ-Gazali Mir~an was jusl
a boy when he joined the guemlla anny led
by the late Iraqi Kurdish leader Mollah
Mustafa Barzani in 1943. He has no regrets,
.
"ßarzani used to tell us that as long as
there was one Kurd alive, we would never
allow our enemies to control Kurdistan," said
Mirhan, a retired guerrilla commander
who is now 67. "The freedom we have now
is Barzani's inspiration.
He (Jave us the strength to fight for the
rl"hts ~vehave tinally gained, Mlrhan ,follow~d
Barzani into battle in the mountams of
Itaq anLl Iran. and into prolonged exile in
liTeSoviet Union and Iran.
This month he accompanied the legendary
{tuen-illachief on his last journey when Bar-
~ani's body was finally brought ~ack fro~
Iran. where it was buned after hIS death m
the United States in 1979, to his home town
of Barzan in northe~ Iraq. :'All my Ii,feI have
followed Barzant and It ISa great JOY that
I could follow him back here to the homehe
always dreamed of,"said Mirhan, who has
spent the past J 8 years i~,lran. .
The return of Barzant s body turned mto
an emotional three-day celebration which
re1kcted the conviction of Iraqi Kurds that
their fragile autonomy, guarded by the V{e~tern
allies which threw Iraq out of.KuwaIt m
1991, will survive.
It was also a show of unity between Barzani's
Kurdistan Democratic Partt (KDP).
and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), ..
which split from the KDP after he. fled to
Iran in 1975.
Not least it was a slap to Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein. whose troops once tried to
stealBarzani's body and who swore the
Kurdish leader would never again see Iraqi
Kurdistan. "Our enemies said Barzani would
never again drink from the waters of the
Tigris and Euphrates, but we have proved
them wrong," PUK leader Jalal Talabani
told thousands of cheering people at a ceremony
outside the Kurdish parliament in Irbit.
Black-clad women wept and peshmerga
soldiers raised guns decorated with the gre- .
en and yellow colors of the KOP and PUK.
"We havebeen under the control of our enemies
and now we are free and we will continue
our struggle to getthe right of self-determination
m a democratic Iraq," Talabani
declared.
. The Iranian!overnment flew the remains
of Barzani an his son Idris, who died of a
heart attack in Iran in 1988, to the Iraqi border
on October 6.
. Talabani made the funeral arrangements
in what Barzani's son Massoud, present leader
of the KDP, said symbolised the desire
of the two main IraqI Kurdish parties to
work together. "This IS a great opportunity
for thetwQ parties to show tqatthey can keep
their unity, develop it and together further
the development of Kurdistan," Massoud
Barzani told Reuters.
Talabani was a bitter rival of the elder
Rarzani in t~e carlv davs of tht' PlIK and nn
occasion linked up with Saddam's forces
againstthe KDP in a feud which lasted into
the 19805, Tension remained even after the
formation in 1988 of the Kurdistan Front,
grouping eight Kurdish political parties.
When Iraqi Kurds elected their first free
parliament in 1992, the PUK and KDP
emerged neck and neck. Their leaders agreed
to take 50 seats each in the 105-seat
assembly.
Cabinet posts are arranged to ensure that
if the ministeris from one party,his deputy
must be from another -- promoting unity but
also inertia, members of both parties said.
Even now, the parties maintain separate
newspapers and radio and television
stations, although they broadcast jointly
during Barzani's funeral, and friction lingers
among the rank and file. But in Barzan,
where Mustafa Barzani was born in 1903,
the focus was on forgetting the past and
building .a common future ina land
devastated by Iraqi bombs, dynamite and
bulldozers .
"Wehave much work.to do to rebuild our
villages and rehabilitate our land. To
succeed we must be hand in hand," Barzani
SOlidover the graves of his father and
brother. "For the sake of .the people,
brotherhood must be. kept between me and
Talabani .and between the PUK and KOP."
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Les Kurdes de Turquie attendent la ((paix blanche})
L 'hiver apporte chaque année aux habitants de l'Est anatolien
une trêve dans les combats entre les forces gouvemementales et les séparatistes kurdes
TATVAN
de notre envoyf1e splaisle
La carcasse calcinée d'un autocar
intercepté puis incendié par le
PKK marque l'endroit exact où
quatre touristes français avaient été
enlevés, sur la route entre Van et
Tatvan, le 24 juillet dernier. Tous
les passagers du véhicule ont été
libérés indemnes, après avoir eu
droit à la dose habituelle de propagande
des militants kurdes, mais
cette nouvelle attaque, qui a eu lieu
tout récemment, démontre que,
malgré la présence évidente des
forces de sécurité à intervalles réguliers
sur ce tronçon de route -
tanks, patrouilles blindées, postes
de gendannerie. -, les combattants
du PKK peuvent attaquer à
volonté.
A Tatvan, une petite ville endormie,
nichée à l'extrémité ouest du
lac de Van, le PKK a pris racine
depuill deux ou trQis ails et les
accrochages se som-muhipliés. «Je
ne pense pas que la force militaire
soit suffISante pour résoudre le prt>blème
», admet Mehmet Günaydin,
.le kaymakam, qui, représente les
autontés turques dans le district.
« Le climat est négatif, il y a beaucoup
de chlJmage, pas d'investissements.
» Le résultat de ces problèmes
sociaux, reconnaît-il, c'est
que «certains habitants soutiennent
le PKK ». Beaucoup de jeunes entre
dix et vingt ans, garçons et filles,
quittent l'école pour rejoindre les
combattants dans la montagne.
Depuis le début de la lutte
armée du PKK, en a06t 1984, le
conflit a causé la mort de plus de
sept mille personnes. Au COUI'S des
dernières semaines, les forces
aériennes ont bombardé régulièrement
le mont Ararat et la région de
Tendürek, près de la frontière iranienne.
Mais les multiples crevasses,
gattes et l'eC()ins formés par
la roche volcanique de cc:s montagnes
- une pierre notre aux
reflets v.erdâtres - offrent d~innombrables
abris aux combattants
kurdes, dont le nombre est estimé
autour de dix mille, et rende.Rt particulièrement
di~cileleur localjsation.
'te dispOsitif militaire turc
dans le sud-est et l'est anatolien est
impreSSionnant. Entre cent mille et
cent cinquante mille hommes sont
déployés dans la zone mais, malgré
le fourntillement de troupes, fes
patrouilles de blindés, les hélicoptères
et les bombardiers, rien n'indique
que, sur le terrain, une victoire.
militaire soit possible.
Les combats, limités dans les
années 80 au sud-est anatolien et à
la zone frontière avec la Syrie, se
sont étendus pour couvrir égatement
l'Est anatolien. La pression
démographique joue en faveur du
PKK : la population kurde grandit
très rapidement et s'install~ prlt"
gressivement dans les Villages
désertés par les Turcs partis chercher
fortune dans les grandes villes
de l'ouest du pays. ~ accrochages
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