As Kurds’ Status Improves, Support for Militants Erodes in Turkey
November 2, 2007 7:24 am Turkey's Kurds and the PKK, Turkey
Johan Spanner for The New York Times
Halime, right, a mother of eight, said she celebrated the Kurdish spring festival of Nawruz for the first time several years ago.
KIZILTEPE, Turkey, Oct. 31 — Ten years ago, Turkey ran the Kurdish region here in its southeast like a police state. All signs of Kurdish identity — the language, music, national dress — were strictly banned and subject to punishment. Checkpoints were everywhere. Going out after dark was forbidden.
Signs of Kurdish identity have increased in the southeast.
Today, Kurdish is heard on the streets and in shops, Kurdish satellite TV is legally beamed into homes, and Kurdish holidays are celebrated publicly. The improvements occurred after a 25-year war for Kurdish rights subsided, and are largely a result of legal changes Turkey made to qualify for the European Union.
But militant proponents of that Kurdish identity — a rebel group based in part in northern Iraq — threaten to complicate further progress on the very rights for which they claim to fight, many here say.
“They harm the Kurdish people more than anybody else with this violence,” said Mehmet Kaya, head of the chamber of commerce in the region’s capital, Diyarbakir, referring to the militants. “People of this region are starting to say out loud that they no longer want violence.”