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

iSMET G. iMSET / BEING VOCAL
DEP, a failing mission
he arrow has left the bow - as the old Turkish saying
goes. Hatip Dicle, one of the most radical parliamentarians
was named
of the D~mocracy P~rty (I?EP) group,
the party s new chairman In Sunday s
general conv~ntion. The party is thus on a countdown
for closure and its members and parliamentarians are
preparing"to return to the people." The meaning of
this must be sought in the question of where the support
of the kurdish people in southeast Turkey really lies.
All indications now are that Dicle has a specific mission and is
doing the best he can to distance the party from a majority of the
Turks. Some say he is trying to have the party closed down to justify
the existence of an Illegal Kurdish movement in Turkey: the
Q.utlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK}. PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan believes that by March 1994 he will have amassed 30,000
fighters in the Southeast, where he will attempt to set up temporary
liberated zones.
He and his inner circles also believe
that the DEP has outlived its "mission"
and that the party no longer has a place
in Parliament. As far as the PKK is concerned,
the DEP is not as important as
before -
surviving.
and does not have a chance to
During its history the DEP
has changed its name three times and has
witnessed several changes in leadership.
First it was the HEP, the Peoples' Labor
Party. Then came OZDEP, Freedoms
and Democracy Party. DEP is its late~t
form and will be closed down like its
predecessors.
From the very beginning, the idea
behind DEP was to form a legal political
movement with parliamentary representation
- one which would altempt to
take over certain ministerial seats and
defuse the tension between the Turkish
and Kurdish people. In its simplest
aspect, it was to be a bridge between the
communities, explain to the Turks what
the Kurds were up against and to the
Kurds how the Turks were thinking.
But, even in Parliament, it was under
heavy pressure from the very beginning.
DEP deputies, who agreed to enter
Parliament under Turkis\i laws, suddenly
turned out against the parliamentary oath. They entered the building
not with the red-and-white colors of the Turkish nag but with
yellow-green-red handkerchiefs sticking out of their jacket pockets,
representing the traditional colors of the Kurds.. As of
that day, the deputies have been harassed in every way. At times,
they were phYSically attacked and thrown off the bench by their
Turkish counterparts.
Mostly they were met with the protests of the majority of the
450-seat parliament with deputies, mcluding the then prime minister
Suleym;m Demirel, banging their fists on their desk tops like
school children. We know of times when DEP deputies~ere not
even allowed to mention the existence of Kurdish and Turkish
brotherhood, or attacked simply for saying that those who join the
PKK have their reasons for doing so ..
At least 50 DEP affiliated activists have so far been killed in
Turkey by death squads. The most recent murder was that of parliamentarian
Mehmet Sincar, which brought down the number of
DEP seats in Parliament to 17.
Meanwhile, nationwide reaction to the DEP has been increasing.
Leyla lana, also said to have close links with the PKK, was once
threatened with death by an officer in the Southeast, and barely
escaped an assassination attempt after t,he killing of Sincar.
Recently,she was portrayed on state televISIon as someone who
had "sold Turkey down the river."
On Monday night, a Turkish special forces member whose identity
was withheld, appeared on the television and told the whole
nation that DEP deputies such as Orhan Dogan were among their
targets. Hc also said 104 parliamentarians, a majority of them from
the Southeast, were regarded as traitors. Last week, a senior police
officer in charge of anti-terrorist operations told me that the main
mistake Turkey had made since the 1970s was to allow people of
"Southeast origin" to enter the state apparatus, ..
According to him, Turgut Ozal
was "the greatest traitor" since he
had a Kurdish grandmother. Former
Interior Minister Ismet Sezgin could
not be trusted since he too was
allegedly of Kurdish background.
And former Gendarmerie commander
Gen. E~rd Bitlis "deserved to
die" since he was Kurdish as well
and could not be expected to do anything
against the PKK!
"Racism is Oilthe rise everywhere, and
specifICally in the state apparaJus, wlllch
takes major policy decisions and has a
great deal of influence on what will happen
in the future. Many Turks believe the DEP
is an extellSioll of the PKK. Frequently
heard is the slogan, "We dOIl't wallt the
PKK ill Parliament." The slogan which is
spreading throughout the Anatolian peninsula
is, "Death to the Kurds" - any
Kurds. The attitude of the DEP, and most
specifically its continuous refusal to condemn
PKK attacks directed at civilian and
unarmed personne~ has disturbed many"
Racism is on the rise everywhere.
and specifically in the state apparatus,
which takes major policy decisions
and has a great deal of influence
on what will happen in the
future. Many Turks believe the DEP
is an extension of the PKK.
Frequently heard is the slogan, "We
don t want the PKK in Parliament."
The slogan which is spreading
throughout the Anatolian p,eninsula
is, "Death to the Kurds' - any
Kurds. The altitude of the DEP, and
most specifically its continuous
refusal to condemn PKK attacks
directed at civilian and unarmed personnel,
has disturbed many.
Now that Dicle is heading the
party, it is evident that this alienation
will deepen in the coming days.
Already he has started off by making pro-PKK statements and
has made his own position clear.
The' Constitutional Court, which has initiated a case against the
DEP, is expected to close the party down in the coming months.
Thus, as the radicals take over DEP, they are also attempting to
give the party an improved image, an image of a party that also
cares for Turkish interests.
But with Dicle at the head of the party, even this is questionable.
The suspicion now is that this image mayalso be intentional -
that, knowing of the upcoming closure, the DEP is creating such an
image so it can say in the future that it has done everything and
tried every legal method but has got nothing in return. Such an
argument would only be to justify an aimed struggle in Turkey.
For, whatever the PKK says, in reality the DEP has not accomplished,
but failed in, its true mission.
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