Ill-treatment by state officials push Kurds closer to PKK

According to the report, prepared to aid the government in its efforts to carry out reforms to extend cultural rights given to Kurds to marginalize separatist violence, Yüksekova in Hakkari province and the city of Van remain critical places for PKK recruitment. The report, co-authored by Süleyman Özeren and Murat Sever of the Police Academy, found that by recruiting young adults and minors the PKK manages to keep its grass roots alive.

The report notes that it is important to assign Kurdish-speaking educators to schools in the region and continue trials against those military officers responsible for unresolved murders against the region’s residents in the 1990s.

A copy of the report issued in March 2010 has been relayed to President Abdullah Gül and the Prime Ministry as well as many other state agencies. The researchers found that migration from villages to provinces in the region, which was initially a consequence of terrorism in the area, has turned into a factor that feeds the terrorist organization over the long term and aids its perpetuation. They said Hakkari was an important place for PKK recruits for a number of reasons, including this province’s physical isolation from other provinces.

Female participation on the rise

The report said that people who were uprooted from their villages, where they engaged in farming and animal husbandry, are now being forced to live in slums in the cities, sometimes together with 10 children in one or two-room houses.

Another important finding of the report was the higher number of women who are recruited by the PKK. The major reason behind this was the overall negative attitude dominant in the region towards girls and women. The PKK, which claims that it values women and sees them as equals, can readily attract female participants.

An unnamed expert from the region is quoted in the report as saying: “It is very difficult to be a female child in this area. The society’s view of girls is very clear. Only boys are counted; to them, the girls aren’t there. They send them to school because they have to. They are never happy when they have a baby girl. They don’t have any place in the family; they are forced into marriage. They have to live in poverty because of the dowry paid by the groom. The groom spends all his money on the dowry. They are denied their right to inheritance. What can a girl do in this desperation?” The study found that girls join the organization to escape these problems.

The report also features interviews with female militants, most of whom said they would rather be killed in a clash than go back to their old lives.

Mistakes of state representatives

Socioeconomic hardship and issues of confidence between the state and people in the area are some of the main reasons behind joining the PKK. “Anger at the state, some mistakes of the past, forcing people out of villages, threats from soldiers and public humiliation have caused immense resentment among the people. Joining the PKK and taking up arms has been shown by the PKK as the only way to get out,” the report read.

The locals feel a health worker refusing to give prescription for an uninsured person in the name of a person who has state healthcare is rejection, the report says. In such cases, they believe they are being targeted because of their ethnic identity. The area locals also find the words “How happy is he who says, ‘I am a Turk’,” a saying of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, engraved on mountaintops very offensive. Overall, Kurdish nationalism is on the rise in the region, the report found. Joining the PKK also increases one’s reputation in the society.

The report also said that aid from the state has accustomed people to getting things without and effort and led to laziness and the spread of a culture of begging. People also feel that standing in long lines in front of regional banks to receive this aid is humiliating and demeaning.

The report suggested that the improvement of the quality of education in predominantly Kurdish cities would help ease the Kurds’ problems. Professional teachers are appointed to villages far away from cities by school principals who have close links to the terrorist PKK. And teachers seek out ways to return to western cities as soon as possible. In order to meet the Kurds’ demands for better education, Kurdish-speaking teachers should be sent to the eastern and southeastern cities.

In addition, TRT 6, Turkey’s first full-time Kurdish-language channel, should broadcast more attractive programs to draw the attention of Kurdish TV viewers, most of whom prefer to watch Roj TV, which is believed to be the PKK’s mouthpiece.