Martyrs, Traitors and Patriots: Kurdistan after the Gulf War

Contents

Acknowledgements / viii
Preface by Michael Ignaticff / ix
Glossary / xi
Abbreviations / xii

Maps 1 Area of Kurdish population prior to expulsions / xiv - xv
2 Kurdish liberated zone after 1991 / 36

I The Kurdish uprising / 1
The heady days of the uprising: 'Free Kurdistan1 / 2
The Kurdish city of Dohuk / 6
The Baath Party’s legacy: prisons, forts and torture chambers / 9
The end of the uprising / 12
The fall of Dohuk / 14
Flight to the mountains / 16
The Turkish border: Işikveren Camp / 21
‘Operation Provide Comfort’ / 25

2 Kurdish realpolitik and the failed uprising / 29

3 Summer of the ‘safe haven’ / 35
The PKK camps / 40
Turkish attacks on the ‘safe haven’ / 44
Intimidation and murder within Turkey / 45
Iraqi government collaboration with the Kurds / 46

4 Waiting in the cold / 47

The UN, UNHCR and UN guards / 50
The UN's winterisation plan / 51
Landmines and security of life / 53
Playing off the Kurds of Iraq against the Kurds of Turkey / 55
Poem to Qazi Mohammad / 56

5 The fratricidal war / 58
Background to internal divisions / 58
Birakuji -fratricidal war / 59
The sandwich operation / 64
Why war? / 66
After-effects of fratricidal war on the Kurdish people / 69

6 The dirty war in Turkey
The PKK ceasefire / 74
Gagging Kurdish MPs and the Kurdish press / 76
The village guard system: the jash of Turkish Kurdistan / 79
State terror and death / 80
Arms and allies / 82
The death squads and Hizb-i Kontras / 84
Challenge to the Turkish constitution and penal code / 88
The PKK’s role / 90
The Kurdistan Socialist Party and the PKK: a new political era? / 95
Outline of the Kurdish political movement in Turkey 1960-85 / 98
Summary of the Kurdish movement in Turkey in the 1990s / 99
Summary of economic issues and differing viewpoints in Turkey / 100

7 Death by a thousand cuts: sabotage of the enclave / 109
The Kurdish parliament in session / 110
UN sanctions and Saddam’s embargo / 111
State terrorism and sabotage / 115
Iranian-sponsored sabotage / 117
Kurdish partisans in Iran / 119
Within the ring of crocodile teeth / 122

8 The war of the colours / 123
The enemy within / 123
Sanctions and political turmoil / 124
Political suicide in south Kurdistan / 125
Background to internal war / 126
Summary of the main players in Iraqi Kurdistan / 127
Outbreak of war between the KDP and PUK / 133
Like caged birds / 137

9 Turkey: only a military solution / 139
Regional elections in Turkey: March 1994 / 139
Big Brother is watching / 141
Kurds flee from Turkey into South Kurdistan / 142
The show-trial of the Kurdish MPs / 146
The flight of the DEP chair and MPs into exile / 148
The Kurdistan Parliament-in-Exile / 149
Turkey invades Iraqi Kurdistan: Newroz 1995 / 149
US-sponsored peace talks screened by Turks / 154
Turkey’s 'Special research report on the Eastern Problem’ / 156
KDP: a legitimate target of the PKK? / 157
Chaos in the Turkish coalition government / 159

10 Kurdish women: identity and purpose / 161
Daughters in the family / 161
The widows of Barzan / 165
Sirwa’s narrative of the Halabja massacre / 170
Nazdar’s dream / 181
Amina: 'government by rape and execution’ / 185
Nermin and the guerrillas / 188
KanrccH Hill / 190

11 The international community and the Kurdish question / 193
Kurdish identity in the diaspora / 193
Arms to Turkey to fight ‘terrorism’ / 195
Responses to 't urkey’s invasion of northern Iraq / 197
Arms to Iraq / 198
Criminalisation of the Kurdish community in the West / 200
Kurdish unity: a threat to Western interests in the Middle East? / 204
A Kurdish revolution: MED TV / 205
Extract from Our Dilemma / 207
Postcript: beyond fratricide? 1996 / 209
Abdullah Ocalan and the December 1995 ceasefires / 210

Appendix
Seventy years of military rule in Kurdistan authorized by Turkish Law / 213

Select bibliography / 215

Index / 218