Kurds Caught in the Crossfire
Script
Dur: 26 mins
10.00.00 Kurdish Village Turkey is known as a Western holiday destination, an ancient land to get lost in, amidst a huge history, quaint people and exotic villages. But there is another darker side which the travel agents don’t talk about.
00:28 Anonymous Interview By accepting to give you an interview I risk my life. I am scared even to speak to you. I have been detained twice. The third will be my end.
00.45 W/S Villages Behind the perfect scenery is another world. A world in which millions of ordinary people worry each day that the army will come, bomb their houses with helicopters and force them to flee.
01.05 Abandoned village Destroyed and empty houses bear testimony to the terrible suffering of Turkey’s ordinary Kurds who are caught in the crossfire of one of the world’s cruelest wars.
01:20 Military in Street In Turkey Kurds have been fighting a guerrilla war for Kurdish rights for the past 12 years.
01.27 School Turkey refuses to allow Kurds to assert their identity. Many of the children in this classroom are from destroyed villages near the town of Hakkari.
01:37 Old woman The military is doing it, under orders from the government. They claim the Kurds are doing it. How can you burn down your own house? They are doing it.
02:00 Military Parade A military parade in Diyarbakir, the administrative capital of south east Turkey. The parade celebrates the 1922 foundation of the modern Turkish Republic. Ever since then the army has played a crucial role in Turkey’s national identity.
02:16 General In a history of a nation there are fatal days when that nation either survives or disappears. In military language we call it the final battle day. The result will be death or life.
02.33 Tanks roll Diyarbakir is also the capital of Turkish Kurdistan. The Turkish government believes the Kurdish war for civil rights undermines the very foundation of the Turkish state.
PAUSE
02:48 Helicopters over As much as anything, the parade today is supposed to impress on local Kurds, that they have no hope of winning in the confrontation with their government.
03:04 Black walls Most of South East Turkey is under emergency rule, administered from behind the black basalt walls of Diyarbakir. The Turkish government is accused by the European Court of massive human rights abuses against the Kurdish majority who live here.
03:20 VIP Tent The Governor of Diyarbakir, denies maltreatment of civilians, and takes a typically uncompromising stance.
03.29 Int: Necati Bilican, Regional Governor Of course we are soft on civilians, but never on terrorists. Our security forces have the legal right to fight actively against terrorism. We will not tolerate terrorists and criminals.
03.56 Burnt out villages But civilians are the real victims in this smouldering conflict. Thousands of Kurdish villages have been emptied and burned, as the Turkish - Kurdish deadlock continues.
04:13 Int: Old Man I swear by God I was right inside the village. They rounded up the women and men and didn’t allow them to move. They beat the children and threw them on the ground when they cried. There was fire here, there and everywhere. All fires and smoke. You would think it was doomsday.
04.51 City Kurds Kurds forced from the villages go to the cities where the state can keep a closer eye on them. Here in Diyarbakir, most people are Kurdish. But even in the cities ordinary Kurds are still discriminated against.
05:08 Int: Old Woman They don’t even let us speak our language. In a car, if we speak our language, they say, why do you speak Kurdish? What can we say? We’re not as strong as they are. Our people are under persecution. Every day hundreds of them are killed. We Kurds are not comfortable at all.
05:34 Sign on Hill ‘How happy I am to be a Turk’ looms over most villages in Turkish Kurdistan.
05:39 Kurds & Military It’s there to reinforce the Turkish identity on the region and its inhabitants. The presence of the state is difficult to ignore.
05:49 Tank Tanks, bought in Europe, constantly prowl Cizre’s streets. Each year the government spends $7 billion fighting its war against the Kurds and, with the second largest army in NATO, half of Turkey’s troops are tied up in it.
06.07 AnonymousInterviewee It was a stormy day. It was hailing and raining. They tortured us. They also tortured the children in the village square and left them in the rain. After being tortured for 20 days I was released. I discovered 5 or 6 children had been killed in that village. All the children were left in the rain and the hail without anything to eat from the morning to the evening.
06.45 1988 Iraqi bombing In 1988 Saddam Hussein bombed and cleared 8, 000 Kurdish villages in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.
07:04 Kurdish Refugees Kurds fled again from Saddam’s bombs after the Gulf War. This time they trekked back through the mountains past the villages he had bombed them from before.
07:18 International condemnation of Saddam’s actions resulted in a safe haven for Iraqi Kurds.But the Turkish Kurds have not been so lucky.
07:34 Iraqi abandoned villages Saddam’s policy of forcibly resettling Iraqi Kurds was from the start universally censured.
07.48 Turkish Abandoned villages But three thousand destroyed Turkish villages also stretch along her side of the border. It’s a mirror image of the devastation on Saddam’s side. With minimal international comment Turkey has quietly emptied her own Kurdish mountain regions of more than 3 million inhabitants.
08.13 Anonymous Interviewee Our question to the world is this. Why do you on the one hand mention human rights and democracy, but on the other you help the barbaric government in our country. Your help becomes bullets, bombs, tanks and armoured vehicles which attack us.
08:35 Turkish Army The Turkish military insists that it is strategically justified in clearing Kurdish villages near the border with Iraq, as many offer food and shelter to the Kurdish guerrillas, the PKK.
08:47 Int: Commander This valley was used by the PKK to enter and leave Turkey. Because of our presence at this spot, they can’t use this valley any more. This was the most critical place for their movement into Turkey.
09:13 guns These men engage the PKK almost every night. The cannon are for targeting groups of PKK fighters or smashing the rocks behind which they shelter.
09:26 lunch Almost all of the regular troops here are conscripts doing their military service. Living conditions are basic.
09:34 Grunt set up Far from their homes, these young soldiers are accused of violating human rights, but the Turkish army refuses to let them speak about these allegations.
09.46 Int: Grunt Now I’m far from my family in Mardin. I’m up here in the Cudi mountains. My family and I are proud of my voluntary service. Because if I was not here, somebody else would have to fight for the fatherland.
10.04 VILLAGERS And the Kurdish guerrillas, the PKK, have also dragged civilians into this long war - attacking teachers, village guards, even road workers - anyone who represents the long arm of the Turkish state.
10:20 ROAD & LORRIES If ordinary Kurds collude with the government in any way they face reprisal from the guerrillas, like this PKK ambush from the night before. The drivers of these state owned trucks were kidnapped - their vehicles torched.
10:33 Set up Yavuz This man was recently taking supplies to road workers close to his village, when his car hit a landmine laid by the PKK. He was thrown clear, but three of his companions died.
10.48 Int: Yavuz, driver I suddenly heard a blast. I found myself lying on the ground in the dust. Then I saw the car on fire. I only just survived. One friend of mine in the car was wounded but survived. The others died in the fire.
11.18 Turkish Photos Government photos show children shot by the Kurdish guerrillas. In killings like these the PKK punishes villages which defy it. Both sides use fear of reprisals as a way to control civilians and it’s resulted in a spiral of worsening atrocities.
11:39 PKK Cross Turkish Border And this is exactly the reason Turkey now intends to establish a buffer zone 10 km into Iraq. PKK guerrillas cross from Iraq into Turkey, under cover of darkness. The Turkish army believes an uninhabited zone will give them more control over the PKK’s movements.
11:58 PKK in Turkish Village And inside Turkey this PKK troop travels from village to village where they seek shelter and food. The Kurdish mountain villages become forced to weigh up the odds of reprisal from the PKK against that of the Turkish state.
12.20 PKK March Pitted against 247 000 Turkish troops the PKK numbers only around 20 000. They’re committed to fighting for Kurdish rights and some form of autonomy but they have almost no chance of winning the war they’ve been fighting for most of their lives.
12:40 setup Azimi Azimi, a university graduate, joined the PKK with her two 15 year old nieces. They’re unlikely to see their families again.
12.50 Int: Azimi, guerrilla Our people grow up alienated even in our own beautiful country because we’re oppressed. Yes, I’m sad. It’s not easy to kill someone but if it’s necessary I must do it. Even against my own family I must do it.
13.11 Radio & PKK Recent fighting amongst the Iraqi Kurds is making the PKK nervous. Allegiances between the Kurds of Iraq and the Turkish state means the guerrillas are surrounded. The Kurdish safe haven in Iraq is no longer as safe for the PKK as it once was.
13.30 PKK Parade Regardless of the current pressure an endless stream of young recruits unafraid of death will ensure the fighting doesn’t stop.
13.40 Int: Edip,13 year old guerrilla When somebody dies people usually just say, ‘he’s dead’, but when you die fighting for your country it’s martyrdom for an honourable cause. When I fight either I will kill the enemy, or I will be martyred. We are committed to this until the end.
14:07 PKK Target Practice Supported by Syria and the Kurdish Diaspora, the PKK is neither short of soldiers, stamina nor arms and whatever tactics Turkey employs these young fanatics will not easily be defeated.
14.24 Tepekoy Village 100 miles away, the small Kurdish village of Tepekoy, close to the Syrian border. The village is paid by Turkey to fight against the PKK.
14:32 Setup Boskurt Navaf Boskurt is married and has nine children. He is also a village guard: a system which pits Kurd against Kurd. Last month he and his fellow guards fought off an attack by the PKK. Even civilians must fight, must choose a side. Normal life is impossible.
14.53 Int: NAVAF BOSKURT, Village guard We are always at our post. We protect our village day and night and we let nobody in. Because of the constant war with the PKK we are not able to sow or to plant. But we will fight against them and we will not let them in.
15.18 Boskurt leaves for patrol Boskurt heads out for the day’s patrol. At first the Kurdish people of Tepekoy supported the PKK cause, donating food and money. But they say when the PKK started recruiting their children the village resisted. In 1992 they joined the village guard scheme.
15.37 G/vs Village But since joining the compulsory project in an effort to protect themselves from the guerrillas, 15 villagers have been killed by the PKK for dealing with the government.
15:52 KOYUNLU In this village old men return to their homes after 2 and a half years away. They were moved to the city of Mardin after fighting in the village, which killed 8 of them. The young men though have mostly stayed away.
OLD GUARDS
16:07 ZAHIR This man, a former village guard, lost his whole family in the last attack.
16.14 Int: ZAHIR, Former village guard I have left our village and lived for two years in the town of Mardin, where we also experienced a lot of misery. I lost everything when I fled from the village. Now I have nobody left, nor any hope.
16.41 Women wash As her human rights record comes under increasing scrutiny in Europe, Turkey has recently begun to encourage Kurds forced out of their villages to go back. Villagers returning here are still too afraid to be interviewed but they have had the confidence to plant crops.
16:58 Abandoned village This month the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of the burning of one village just like this. It’s the first of many cases to come.
17:08 Set up Governor The Governor’s response is hesitant.
17.11 Int: Necati Bilican, Regional Governor The security forces do go into the villages, but they don’t burn them. Maybe such things have happened to some small villages where they had close relations with the PKK.
17.29 Int: Old Man Many people were taken by helicopters. Nine or ten of them were put in a helicopter and taken to the edge of our village near Kulp. There they burnt and killed them. They were innocent. Still they just killed them.
17.56 Photos of Turkish army with beheaded PKK guerrillas One Turkish soldier was so proud of this he sold these pictures for $2 a set. In Turkey such things are allowed to happen. Human Rights are often seen as dirty words.
18:08 Int: Akin Birdal, Chairman of Human Rights association in Ankara Fourteen human rights workers, my colleagues, have lost their lives as a result of clandestine murders. Unfortunately the perpetrators have not been identified. Human Rights administrators in Kurdish regions are often killed this way, including the head of this branch.
18:31 Erbaken in Turkish Parliament As long as the war continues, the Turkish government remains adamant: no concessions to the PKK, and that includes dialogue. Turkey even impedes human rights groups in their attempts to monitor the war.
18.45 Akin Birdal released from prison This month Akin Birdal was released from prison. Arrested by Turkey for negotiating with PKK guerrillas, he was actually bargaining for the release of Turkish prisoners of war.
18:58 Int: Akin Birdal Of course this happens because Turkey won’t address the Kurdish question. It happens because the door is not even open to discussing the Kurdish question. And the Kurdish question covers politics, economics and culture.
19.25 Istanbul. Seat of the Ottoman Empire, and symbolic of all that Turkey is afraid it will lose if it even recognises its 12 million Kurds.
19:37 Demonstration Turkish police here clamp down on civilians at a peaceful demonstration, held recently for Kurdish hunger strikers in prison.
19:54 Every Kurd who speaks up is seen by Turkey as supporting the PKK, and is targeted for it.
20:06 Fade up to sunset In a secret location in a country nearby lies the heart of Turkey’s war with her Kurds. This is the PKK headquarters from where the guerrilla war is run.
20:20 Ocalan Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s charismatic leader, is Turkey’s most wanted man.
20:30 PKK camp His recruits are not particularly religious but their dedicated ardour sometimes can have a spiritual feel to it. They’re loyal and unquestioning and Ocalan’s seen as a kind of Kurdish Messiah. He started out as a firebrand communist but after the collapse of the Soviet block, Ocalan adopted a more moderate brand of socialism. It hasn’t made him more popular internationally though where he’s seen as a maverick and ruthless terrorist.
21:05 Int: Abdullah Ocalan, PKK Leader Prophets have always been leaders in the Middle East. They are called messengers and it’s very hard to lead people without understanding the role of prophets. To mobilise these people you have to use the prophets’ methods.
21:31 Recruits The PKK attracts Kurds from all over the world. They come from a Diaspora of millions, from families who fled Kurdistan long ago and come here to train before leaving for the danger and discomfort of the front-lines.
21:53 Milan has come from Australia to be Ocalan’s right hand woman. It’s ordinary guerrillas like these who stand accused of the PKKs share of human rights abuses against civilians who take Turkey’s side in the war. And the PKK acknowledges it does happen.
22:13 Int: Abdullah Ocalan Q: Do you accept that the PKK is responsible for at least some of the human rights abuses in this war?A: Amnesty International is behaving unfairly. If there are some individual cases against civilians that are out of our control, it shouldn’t be seen as a general thing. But the Turkish state uses terror as a policy against a whole nation.
22:37 Volleyball Whilst the PKK admits responsibility for isolated abuse, human rights groups stress the vast majority is committed by the Turkish state. And yet Turkey refuses to negotiate for any sort of peace. Dialogue is the only hope of stopping the carnage in Turkey’s Kurdish mountains.
22:57 Int: Abdullah Ocalan Q: What would be the basic requirement for the PKK to put down their arms.A: All they have to do is sit down with us for a dialogue. If they sit down and talk the battle would finish.
23:20 Around Van, Kurdish families from destroyed villages have been camping in tents for a year. Clear evidence of the state’s long term policy to displace and destabilise the Kurds.
23:37 Int: woman refugee There were no men there. The Turks took my husband. I just ran away with these two children... I saved their lives. They burnt the house, I left my other child in the flames.
23:49 Int: 2nd woman refugee 35 villages around us had been evacuated. We could not stand it any more. We were caught in between. Both the PKK and the state attacked us. That is why we moved.
24:07 Newroz, 1992, police open fire on Kurds Kurdish new year in 1992.
24:15 The police move in to break up the celebration of Newroz, the biggest Kurdish festival. It was a graphic symbol of how much Turkey needs to suppress the Kurdish identity.
24:26 Int: Akin Birdal Turkey is a member of the United Nations and the European Council and she has signed many international agreements. And these organisations are obliged to apply the rights and freedoms in these agreements to a country’s domestic laws, but they have not yet done this.
24:52 Sheep & Sunset Turkey is bogged down in the legacy of Ataturk. If she is to enter the modern world and relieve herself of Europe’s backyard war she will also need to resolve the peculiarly Turkish sense of nationalism.
MUSIC
25.20 Soldiers parade Europe doesn’t like to criticise Turkey because it represents NATO’s vital Eastern flank. And supplying the Turkish forces is also big business for the West. But the world cannot condone and ignore a scorched earth policy which has so far emptied 3000 Kurdish villages.
25:39 Troops fly away from outpost Both Turkey and the PKK would have little to lose in initiating peace talks, but today they remain as far apart as ever.
ENDS 25:52
Script
Dur: 26 mins
10.00.00 Kurdish Village Turkey is known as a Western holiday destination, an ancient land to get lost in, amidst a huge history, quaint people and exotic villages. But there is another darker side which the travel agents don’t talk about.
00:28 Anonymous Interview By accepting to give you an interview I risk my life. I am scared even to speak to you. I have been detained twice. The third will be my end.
00.45 W/S Villages Behind the perfect scenery is another world. A world in which millions of ordinary people worry each day that the army will come, bomb their houses with helicopters and force them to flee.
01.05 Abandoned village Destroyed and empty houses bear testimony to the terrible suffering of Turkey’s ordinary Kurds who are caught in the crossfire of one of the world’s cruelest wars.
01:20 Military in Street In Turkey Kurds have been fighting a guerrilla war for Kurdish rights for the past 12 years.
01.27 School Turkey refuses to allow Kurds to assert their identity. Many of the children in this classroom are from destroyed villages near the town of Hakkari.
01:37 Old woman The military is doing it, under orders from the government. They claim the Kurds are doing it. How can you burn down your own house? They are doing it.
02:00 Military Parade A military parade in Diyarbakir, the administrative capital of south east Turkey. The parade celebrates the 1922 foundation of the modern Turkish Republic. Ever since then the army has played a crucial role in Turkey’s national identity.
02:16 General In a history of a nation there are fatal days when that nation either survives or disappears. In military language we call it the final battle day. The result will be death or life.
02.33 Tanks roll Diyarbakir is also the capital of Turkish Kurdistan. The Turkish government believes the Kurdish war for civil rights undermines the very foundation of the Turkish state.
PAUSE
02:48 Helicopters over As much as anything, the parade today is supposed to impress on local Kurds, that they have no hope of winning in the confrontation with their government.
03:04 Black walls Most of South East Turkey is under emergency rule, administered from behind the black basalt walls of Diyarbakir. The Turkish government is accused by the European Court of massive human rights abuses against the Kurdish majority who live here.
03:20 VIP Tent The Governor of Diyarbakir, denies maltreatment of civilians, and takes a typically uncompromising stance.
03.29 Int: Necati Bilican, Regional Governor Of course we are soft on civilians, but never on terrorists. Our security forces have the legal right to fight actively against terrorism. We will not tolerate terrorists and criminals.
03.56 Burnt out villages But civilians are the real victims in this smouldering conflict. Thousands of Kurdish villages have been emptied and burned, as the Turkish - Kurdish deadlock continues.
04:13 Int: Old Man I swear by God I was right inside the village. They rounded up the women and men and didn’t allow them to move. They beat the children and threw them on the ground when they cried. There was fire here, there and everywhere. All fires and smoke. You would think it was doomsday.
04.51 City Kurds Kurds forced from the villages go to the cities where the state can keep a closer eye on them. Here in Diyarbakir, most people are Kurdish. But even in the cities ordinary Kurds are still discriminated against.
05:08 Int: Old Woman They don’t even let us speak our language. In a car, if we speak our language, they say, why do you speak Kurdish? What can we say? We’re not as strong as they are. Our people are under persecution. Every day hundreds of them are killed. We Kurds are not comfortable at all.
05:34 Sign on Hill ‘How happy I am to be a Turk’ looms over most villages in Turkish Kurdistan.
05:39 Kurds & Military It’s there to reinforce the Turkish identity on the region and its inhabitants. The presence of the state is difficult to ignore.
05:49 Tank Tanks, bought in Europe, constantly prowl Cizre’s streets. Each year the government spends $7 billion fighting its war against the Kurds and, with the second largest army in NATO, half of Turkey’s troops are tied up in it.
06.07 AnonymousInterviewee It was a stormy day. It was hailing and raining. They tortured us. They also tortured the children in the village square and left them in the rain. After being tortured for 20 days I was released. I discovered 5 or 6 children had been killed in that village. All the children were left in the rain and the hail without anything to eat from the morning to the evening.
06.45 1988 Iraqi bombing In 1988 Saddam Hussein bombed and cleared 8, 000 Kurdish villages in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.
07:04 Kurdish Refugees Kurds fled again from Saddam’s bombs after the Gulf War. This time they trekked back through the mountains past the villages he had bombed them from before.
07:18 International condemnation of Saddam’s actions resulted in a safe haven for Iraqi Kurds.But the Turkish Kurds have not been so lucky.
07:34 Iraqi abandoned villages Saddam’s policy of forcibly resettling Iraqi Kurds was from the start universally censured.
07.48 Turkish Abandoned villages But three thousand destroyed Turkish villages also stretch along her side of the border. It’s a mirror image of the devastation on Saddam’s side. With minimal international comment Turkey has quietly emptied her own Kurdish mountain regions of more than 3 million inhabitants.
08.13 Anonymous Interviewee Our question to the world is this. Why do you on the one hand mention human rights and democracy, but on the other you help the barbaric government in our country. Your help becomes bullets, bombs, tanks and armoured vehicles which attack us.
08:35 Turkish Army The Turkish military insists that it is strategically justified in clearing Kurdish villages near the border with Iraq, as many offer food and shelter to the Kurdish guerrillas, the PKK.
08:47 Int: Commander This valley was used by the PKK to enter and leave Turkey. Because of our presence at this spot, they can’t use this valley any more. This was the most critical place for their movement into Turkey.
09:13 guns These men engage the PKK almost every night. The cannon are for targeting groups of PKK fighters or smashing the rocks behind which they shelter.
09:26 lunch Almost all of the regular troops here are conscripts doing their military service. Living conditions are basic.
09:34 Grunt set up Far from their homes, these young soldiers are accused of violating human rights, but the Turkish army refuses to let them speak about these allegations.
09.46 Int: Grunt Now I’m far from my family in Mardin. I’m up here in the Cudi mountains. My family and I are proud of my voluntary service. Because if I was not here, somebody else would have to fight for the fatherland.
10.04 VILLAGERS And the Kurdish guerrillas, the PKK, have also dragged civilians into this long war - attacking teachers, village guards, even road workers - anyone who represents the long arm of the Turkish state.
10:20 ROAD & LORRIES If ordinary Kurds collude with the government in any way they face reprisal from the guerrillas, like this PKK ambush from the night before. The drivers of these state owned trucks were kidnapped - their vehicles torched.
10:33 Set up Yavuz This man was recently taking supplies to road workers close to his village, when his car hit a landmine laid by the PKK. He was thrown clear, but three of his companions died.
10.48 Int: Yavuz, driver I suddenly heard a blast. I found myself lying on the ground in the dust. Then I saw the car on fire. I only just survived. One friend of mine in the car was wounded but survived. The others died in the fire.
11.18 Turkish Photos Government photos show children shot by the Kurdish guerrillas. In killings like these the PKK punishes villages which defy it. Both sides use fear of reprisals as a way to control civilians and it’s resulted in a spiral of worsening atrocities.
11:39 PKK Cross Turkish Border And this is exactly the reason Turkey now intends to establish a buffer zone 10 km into Iraq. PKK guerrillas cross from Iraq into Turkey, under cover of darkness. The Turkish army believes an uninhabited zone will give them more control over the PKK’s movements.
11:58 PKK in Turkish Village And inside Turkey this PKK troop travels from village to village where they seek shelter and food. The Kurdish mountain villages become forced to weigh up the odds of reprisal from the PKK against that of the Turkish state.
12.20 PKK March Pitted against 247 000 Turkish troops the PKK numbers only around 20 000. They’re committed to fighting for Kurdish rights and some form of autonomy but they have almost no chance of winning the war they’ve been fighting for most of their lives.
12:40 setup Azimi Azimi, a university graduate, joined the PKK with her two 15 year old nieces. They’re unlikely to see their families again.
12.50 Int: Azimi, guerrilla Our people grow up alienated even in our own beautiful country because we’re oppressed. Yes, I’m sad. It’s not easy to kill someone but if it’s necessary I must do it. Even against my own family I must do it.
13.11 Radio & PKK Recent fighting amongst the Iraqi Kurds is making the PKK nervous. Allegiances between the Kurds of Iraq and the Turkish state means the guerrillas are surrounded. The Kurdish safe haven in Iraq is no longer as safe for the PKK as it once was.
13.30 PKK Parade Regardless of the current pressure an endless stream of young recruits unafraid of death will ensure the fighting doesn’t stop.
13.40 Int: Edip,13 year old guerrilla When somebody dies people usually just say, ‘he’s dead’, but when you die fighting for your country it’s martyrdom for an honourable cause. When I fight either I will kill the enemy, or I will be martyred. We are committed to this until the end.
14:07 PKK Target Practice Supported by Syria and the Kurdish Diaspora, the PKK is neither short of soldiers, stamina nor arms and whatever tactics Turkey employs these young fanatics will not easily be defeated.
14.24 Tepekoy Village 100 miles away, the small Kurdish village of Tepekoy, close to the Syrian border. The village is paid by Turkey to fight against the PKK.
14:32 Setup Boskurt Navaf Boskurt is married and has nine children. He is also a village guard: a system which pits Kurd against Kurd. Last month he and his fellow guards fought off an attack by the PKK. Even civilians must fight, must choose a side. Normal life is impossible.
14.53 Int: NAVAF BOSKURT, Village guard We are always at our post. We protect our village day and night and we let nobody in. Because of the constant war with the PKK we are not able to sow or to plant. But we will fight against them and we will not let them in.
15.18 Boskurt leaves for patrol Boskurt heads out for the day’s patrol. At first the Kurdish people of Tepekoy supported the PKK cause, donating food and money. But they say when the PKK started recruiting their children the village resisted. In 1992 they joined the village guard scheme.
15.37 G/vs Village But since joining the compulsory project in an effort to protect themselves from the guerrillas, 15 villagers have been killed by the PKK for dealing with the government.
15:52 KOYUNLU In this village old men return to their homes after 2 and a half years away. They were moved to the city of Mardin after fighting in the village, which killed 8 of them. The young men though have mostly stayed away.
OLD GUARDS
16:07 ZAHIR This man, a former village guard, lost his whole family in the last attack.
16.14 Int: ZAHIR, Former village guard I have left our village and lived for two years in the town of Mardin, where we also experienced a lot of misery. I lost everything when I fled from the village. Now I have nobody left, nor any hope.
16.41 Women wash As her human rights record comes under increasing scrutiny in Europe, Turkey has recently begun to encourage Kurds forced out of their villages to go back. Villagers returning here are still too afraid to be interviewed but they have had the confidence to plant crops.
16:58 Abandoned village This month the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of the burning of one village just like this. It’s the first of many cases to come.
17:08 Set up Governor The Governor’s response is hesitant.
17.11 Int: Necati Bilican, Regional Governor The security forces do go into the villages, but they don’t burn them. Maybe such things have happened to some small villages where they had close relations with the PKK.
17.29 Int: Old Man Many people were taken by helicopters. Nine or ten of them were put in a helicopter and taken to the edge of our village near Kulp. There they burnt and killed them. They were innocent. Still they just killed them.
17.56 Photos of Turkish army with beheaded PKK guerrillas One Turkish soldier was so proud of this he sold these pictures for $2 a set. In Turkey such things are allowed to happen. Human Rights are often seen as dirty words.
18:08 Int: Akin Birdal, Chairman of Human Rights association in Ankara Fourteen human rights workers, my colleagues, have lost their lives as a result of clandestine murders. Unfortunately the perpetrators have not been identified. Human Rights administrators in Kurdish regions are often killed this way, including the head of this branch.
18:31 Erbaken in Turkish Parliament As long as the war continues, the Turkish government remains adamant: no concessions to the PKK, and that includes dialogue. Turkey even impedes human rights groups in their attempts to monitor the war.
18.45 Akin Birdal released from prison This month Akin Birdal was released from prison. Arrested by Turkey for negotiating with PKK guerrillas, he was actually bargaining for the release of Turkish prisoners of war.
18:58 Int: Akin Birdal Of course this happens because Turkey won’t address the Kurdish question. It happens because the door is not even open to discussing the Kurdish question. And the Kurdish question covers politics, economics and culture.
19.25 Istanbul. Seat of the Ottoman Empire, and symbolic of all that Turkey is afraid it will lose if it even recognises its 12 million Kurds.
19:37 Demonstration Turkish police here clamp down on civilians at a peaceful demonstration, held recently for Kurdish hunger strikers in prison.
19:54 Every Kurd who speaks up is seen by Turkey as supporting the PKK, and is targeted for it.
20:06 Fade up to sunset In a secret location in a country nearby lies the heart of Turkey’s war with her Kurds. This is the PKK headquarters from where the guerrilla war is run.
20:20 Ocalan Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s charismatic leader, is Turkey’s most wanted man.
20:30 PKK camp His recruits are not particularly religious but their dedicated ardour sometimes can have a spiritual feel to it. They’re loyal and unquestioning and Ocalan’s seen as a kind of Kurdish Messiah. He started out as a firebrand communist but after the collapse of the Soviet block, Ocalan adopted a more moderate brand of socialism. It hasn’t made him more popular internationally though where he’s seen as a maverick and ruthless terrorist.
21:05 Int: Abdullah Ocalan, PKK Leader Prophets have always been leaders in the Middle East. They are called messengers and it’s very hard to lead people without understanding the role of prophets. To mobilise these people you have to use the prophets’ methods.
21:31 Recruits The PKK attracts Kurds from all over the world. They come from a Diaspora of millions, from families who fled Kurdistan long ago and come here to train before leaving for the danger and discomfort of the front-lines.
21:53 Milan has come from Australia to be Ocalan’s right hand woman. It’s ordinary guerrillas like these who stand accused of the PKKs share of human rights abuses against civilians who take Turkey’s side in the war. And the PKK acknowledges it does happen.
22:13 Int: Abdullah Ocalan Q: Do you accept that the PKK is responsible for at least some of the human rights abuses in this war?A: Amnesty International is behaving unfairly. If there are some individual cases against civilians that are out of our control, it shouldn’t be seen as a general thing. But the Turkish state uses terror as a policy against a whole nation.
22:37 Volleyball Whilst the PKK admits responsibility for isolated abuse, human rights groups stress the vast majority is committed by the Turkish state. And yet Turkey refuses to negotiate for any sort of peace. Dialogue is the only hope of stopping the carnage in Turkey’s Kurdish mountains.
22:57 Int: Abdullah Ocalan Q: What would be the basic requirement for the PKK to put down their arms.A: All they have to do is sit down with us for a dialogue. If they sit down and talk the battle would finish.
23:20 Around Van, Kurdish families from destroyed villages have been camping in tents for a year. Clear evidence of the state’s long term policy to displace and destabilise the Kurds.
23:37 Int: woman refugee There were no men there. The Turks took my husband. I just ran away with these two children... I saved their lives. They burnt the house, I left my other child in the flames.
23:49 Int: 2nd woman refugee 35 villages around us had been evacuated. We could not stand it any more. We were caught in between. Both the PKK and the state attacked us. That is why we moved.
24:07 Newroz, 1992, police open fire on Kurds Kurdish new year in 1992.
24:15 The police move in to break up the celebration of Newroz, the biggest Kurdish festival. It was a graphic symbol of how much Turkey needs to suppress the Kurdish identity.
24:26 Int: Akin Birdal Turkey is a member of the United Nations and the European Council and she has signed many international agreements. And these organisations are obliged to apply the rights and freedoms in these agreements to a country’s domestic laws, but they have not yet done this.
24:52 Sheep & Sunset Turkey is bogged down in the legacy of Ataturk. If she is to enter the modern world and relieve herself of Europe’s backyard war she will also need to resolve the peculiarly Turkish sense of nationalism.
MUSIC
25.20 Soldiers parade Europe doesn’t like to criticise Turkey because it represents NATO’s vital Eastern flank. And supplying the Turkish forces is also big business for the West. But the world cannot condone and ignore a scorched earth policy which has so far emptied 3000 Kurdish villages.
25:39 Troops fly away from outpost Both Turkey and the PKK would have little to lose in initiating peace talks, but today they remain as far apart as ever.
ENDS 25:52