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INTRODUCTION
One has to consider political, social, legal, historical, economic, sociological, demographic and strategic aspects to understand the violence of Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) which has caused social sufferings, inflicted great loss on the national economy, and victimized thousands of innocent civilians as well as security personnel since its first significant incidence in 1984. Without taking one of those aspects into consideration any explanation on the issue will be incomplete. Is the PKK terrorism economically motivated? Are Kurds compelled to violence as the last resort because of great oppression on themselves? To what extent foreign support determines the significance of PKK terrorism? Is PKK engaged in a national liberation? Does PKK struggle for more democracy and human rights? The answers to these and many more questions are searched in the light of the values of the modern world and maximum effort is given to avoid prejudice. Trying not to take a racist or fundamentalist side, democracy and rule of law are taken as the standpoint.
To decide whether the ongoing terrorism is an ethnic strife between Turks and Kurds or not largely depends on making choice between democracy with liberties and totalitarianism with dictatorship. There are sufficient criteria for violence to become legitimate. In the Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it is set forth that it is essential if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law. Whether the Republic of Turkey respects human rights and the rule of law is attempted to be clarified by reference to the laws and relevant cases.
Given the complicated extensiveness of the subject, some points may still need to be touched. In any case, every aspect of the problem is referred to offer a broad outline. This booklet will be deemed to attain its objective which is to bring a new outlook by questioning deeply rooted prejudices formed through misinformation or insufficient and partial information.
Turkish Democracy Foundation
Ankara, May 1996.
I. What Is the Proportion of the Citizens of
Kurdish Descent to the Population of Turkey?
It appears to be impossible to reach a definite conclusion on the number of Turkish citizens with Kurdish origin and their proportion to the whole population. The figures given by different orientalists on the subject are sometimes contradictory and they do not confirm each other.
Some of those figures can be described as follows: 1
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