CLASSIFIED TIMES
APPOINTMENT TIMES

THE UAE
SUBCONTINENT
EDITORIAL
SPORTS
MIDDLE EAST
THE WORLD
BUSINESS
NEWS IN PICS
UAE IN PICS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
OPINION



MOHAMMED A. R. GALADARI

TRAVEL
NEWSMAKERS
WEEKEND
CITY TIMES
YOUNG TIMES
WOMEN ONE
CROSSWORD

M.J.AKBAR
PRAFUL BIDWAI
NOAM CHOMSKY
HENRY KISSINGER
JONATHAN POWER
TOM PLATE
IRFAN HUSAIN
VIRENDRA PAREKH
MATEIN KHALID
GANGADHAR KRISHNA
RAMZY BAROUD
NASIM ZEHRA


FOREX RATES
WEATHER
NRI PROBLEMS
INDIA CLUB
PAKISTAN CLUB
PRAYER TIMINGS

SUBSCRIBE
WRITE TO US
ABOUT US




Click here for Advanced Search  


No going back from democracy: governor says after Kurdish riots
(AFP)

2 April 2006


DIYARBAKIR, Turkey -The governor of this southeastern Turkish city, at the center of deadly Kurdish riots this week, has said that only more democracy will erode Kurdish separatism and militancy in the region.

“Democracy cannot eradicate terror but can decrease its popular support... The era of those who know no other tool than the truncheon is long gone,” Diyarbakir Governor Efkan Ala said in an interview with the Milliyet newspaper on Sunday.

The riots, the worst urban unrest in the mainly Kurdish southeast for years, broke out in Diyarbakir Tuesday and spread to other areas, claiming eight lives, including three children.

Authorities say the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group blacklisted as terrorist by Ankara, the European Union and the United States, which has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in the region since 1984, orchestrated the violence.

The conflict, at its peak in the 1990s, has claimed some 37,000 lives.

Ala argued that the riots, which saw angry youths torch government buildings and banks, vandalize shops and attack the police with petrol bombs and stones, was a violent PKK reaction to the erosion of its popular support following democratic reforms by Ankara.

The riots shuttered a relative calm in the region in the past several years during which Ankara, eager to boost its EU bid, granted the Kurds a measure of cultural freedoms and lifted a 15-year emergency rule in the southeast.

“They (the PKK) expected that the state would react with its old reflexes and the conflict would grow,” Ala said. “But their expectations did not materialize... Now they will try other methods.”

Compared to much more hardline practices in the past, the response of the security forces was more controlled this time, apparently to keep relations on an even keel with the EU, and local Kurds were more vocal in their disproval of the violence.

Ala said the riots should not discourage the government from pressing ahead with democratic reforms in the region and ruled out a return to a state of emergency as a solution.

“A democratic state does not decide what rights to give to its citizens depending on terror,” he said, citing as an example the inauguration of the first private Kurdish-language broadcasts in the region last week.

Kurdish activists say Ankara’s reforms are unevenly implemented and inadequate, and criticize the government for failing to address the region’s rampant poverty.

They also urge an amnesty for PKK rebels to encourage them to lay down their arms.

 

 


Print this article Print this page      Send this page to a friend Email this article

Related News

US Air Force cargo plane crashes in Delaware
EU parliament eyes budget deal despite tough talks
Greek HIV-positive blood donor prosecuted for infecting patients
Algerian who published Al Qaeda fatwas jailed for 10 years
Playboy to go gay in Britain: report
Blair says rift with Brown is “April Fool’s” soap opera
Click here More News

Top   










© 2006 Khaleej Times All Rights Reserved.