Democratic Palestine : 39 (ص 22)
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- Democratic Palestine : 39 (ص 22)
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prisons, protesting the prison conditions
and the increasing repression throughout
the country.
—Two leaders of the United Com-
munist Party of Turkey were released
from prison in the beginning of May. In
interviews published in the Turkish press
after their release, they praised the
prison conditions and said that they were
not as bad as they had thought when they
were in Europe. They expressed their
intention to contribute to the stability of
the democratic regime in Turkey by
founding a communist party, contending
that the party’s illegality constitutes a set-
back for the regime itself.
—An intifada has broken out in Kur-
distan. The guerrilla struggle, waged by
the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) since
1984, took on a new dimension with the
outbreak of broad popular demonstra-
tions and resistance. The rising struggle
in the prisons and the mountains finally
enabled the Kurdish people to overcome
the barriers of fear; they revolted against
the heavy repression and poverty despite
the massive military presence of the Tur-
kish state. Young and old men and
women, children with nothing but stones
and sticks, have started to defy the Tur-
kish army and Special Forces. The events
broke out during the funeral of one of the
13 guerrillas murdered in an ambush.
The military refused to give him a proper
burial. The people of his town, Nusaybin,
took to the streets in defiance of the milit-
ary and made the funeral themselves.
One person was killed and _ scores
wounded when the military forces
opened fire on the indignant crowds. Sev-
eral hundred were arrested. The masses
displayed even greater defiance in the
funeral the next day. They attacked gov-
ernment buildings; all the shops were
closed down in protest; everyone was on
the streets, tires were burnt on roads. The
protest quickly spread to many centers in
Kurdistan: Cizre, Idil, Eru, etc. Shops
closed, and there were mass demonstra-
tions with people openly shouting their
support for PKK. In one instance people
following the imam out of a mosque
demonstrated in the streets chanting:
Long live Kurdistan, Long live PKK.
Reporters of the Turkish press noted that
in the «East» there was the state and the
PKK, the parties of the parliament were
practically non-existent. Security forces
were helpless to stop the masses. They
broke shops open with axes. Many jour-
nalists were severely beaten by the milit-
ary. A student of medicine set herself
aflame in the town center of Diyarbakir
in protest of the repression. This sparked
off new demonstrations in several places.
Students in the big cities of Turkey
demonstrated in solidarity with the Kur-
dish people’s intifada. Similar demonst-
rations were held on the occasion of the
Kurdish Newroz holiday. When the gov-
ernment started to censure the develop-
ments in Kurdistan, PKK declared a
boycott on the Turkish press, and the cir-
culation of the daily papers dropped by
70%.
The evident organic link estab-
lished betwen the guerrilla struggle and
the masses threw the entire regime
into panic, from the rulers to the par-
liamentary opposition. They formed an
anti-terror alliance, approached the
NATO for help and threatened to
attack «the evil at its roots» (Turkish
and Kurdish revolutionary forces in
exile).
—May First demonstrations were
forbidden, but thousands of
demonstrators defied the ban and went
out on the streets although the police
forces prevented them from uniting
in a_ single demonstration. Three
thousand were detained; two were
wounded by police fire, one young girl
being crippled for life. Istanbul was
under the terror of added security
measures. The population left the
streets and preferred to stay at home,
turning Istanbul into a ghost-town until
demonstrators poured out on_ the
streets in different parts of the city
only to be attacked by the police
shortly afterwards.
—Boycotts started to be organized
to protest the rising prices.
—The two leaders of the United:
Communist Party of Turkey founded
their party officially.
What had happened? Had the
regime grown more democratic, allow-
ing more room for dissent and
demonstrations?
The September 12th regime had
planned to _ institutionalize itself
through a process of soft transition and
controlled democratization. A new
constitution was drawn up and laws
passed to allow for this. A tamed
bourgeois opposition was brought on
stage. Safety valves were designed to
let off tension at times of rising pres-
> mE eet nie sien ae
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Cizre, Kurdistan in March - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 39
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