Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkish Government Must Recognize Basic Human Rights Of Kurdish People
by From CQ Congressional Record Service - Dec. 7, 2000
Posted: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 02:43 am CST

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
HOUSE
PAGE H12040
Dec. 7, 2000

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. HULSHOF). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. PALLONE) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, today I want to speak about the need for the Turkish government to recognize the basic human rights of the Kurdish people, and I rise this afternoon to condemn recent, though ongoing, violations of these rights in Turkey.

I have always said the Kurds must be respected as a people, the world must finally listen to and respect their aspirations, and that they should enjoy the same right of choosing their representatives as other people do all over the world. The Turkish government has not accepted the validity of the Kurdish struggle or even of the Kurdish people. They have jailed leaders, but the message of these leaders continues to ring loud and clear.

Mr. Speaker, in the past few weeks, the Turkish government has extended a 13-year-old state of emergency in four mainly Kurdish provinces for an additional 4 months, and who knows what will happen at the end of those 4 months in terms of another extension. Further, the extension of emergency rule occurred despite the European commission´s formal expression that the lifting of emergency rule is an objective for Turkey to achieve.

On December 4, The Washington Post reported that the director of a Kurdish linguistics institute in Istanbul is facing a trial on charges that the institute is an illegal business. The charges come despite the fact that Turkish security courts have hired interpreters from this very institute for the past 8 years. This incident illustrates the type of human rights violations infringements that continue to occur but that must be halted immediately against the Kurdish people.

I call upon my colleagues to join me, Mr. Speaker, in urging the Turkish government to immediately grant basic rights to Kurdish citizens in Turkey and more formally and fully recognize the Kurdish people. This should include lifting the extension of emergency rule, lifting all bans on Kurdish-language television, cinema, and all forms of fine arts and culture.

[Page H12041]

Bans on language and culture are particularly disturbing because the lands of Kurdistan are considered by many to be the birthplace of the history of human culture. It saddens me that there is still a need to be on the floor protesting violations of these most basic yet essential human rights.

Mr. Speaker, back in 1997, I addressed the American Kurdish Information Network on the cultural oppression of Kurds by the Turkish government and on the Turks´ squelching of Kurdish language and culture. At that time, 153 Members of Congress expressed their disapproval of the antidemocratic treatment of elected Kurdish representatives in the Turkish parliament.

In April of this year, a number of my colleagues joined me in introducing a House Resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release from prison of certain Kurdish Members of the Turkish parliament and for prompt recognition of full Kurdish cultural and language rights within Turkey.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I am continuing the fight on behalf of the Kurdish people, because their voices are still repressed, although the conflict between the government and separatist Kurdish guerrillas in the southeast has subsided significantly since the arrest last year of the Kurdish Workers Party leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Fears by hard-line Turkish nationalists that any recognition of Kurdish identity will fragment Turkey and strengthen separatism seem unwarranted based on the decline in tensions.

Mr. Speaker, Turkey must negotiate with the Turkish leaders. Turkey must lift its blockade of Armenia also. Turkey must end its military occupation of northern Cyprus. Such a change in behavior would benefit everyone in the region, including the Turkish people.

I hope my colleagues will join me in delivering these important messages to the Turkish government at every possible opportunity.

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