Dear All,
I need to spend years to reponse to the comments above especially from the persons who says " PKK is not an ordinary civilized Kurd .. etc."
Let me tell you a simple story of Turkey. A kurd is afraid to say I am a Kurd and I want my language and history to be taught in schools in Kurdish area in Turkey ( North Kurdistan). What is meant by civilzed Kurd do you mean by a Kurd who says " I was a Kurd and now I am happy to be a Turk since I can not speak the Kurdish langauge thanks to the Turkish state assimilation program" There is no existance of a word called "Kurd" in Turkey in the turkish law or in the official turkish books. Turkish state denies the exitance of the Kurd so who you talk about "civilized Kurd". I bet you to go an ask any of the old Kurdish generation. They will tell you about the horrible treatment and torture by the Turkish army in every Kurdish village since the establishment of the Turkish state in 1923 until the now. Was there any PKK in 1930 or even 1975. The PKK is the result of the Turkish opression and torture of the Kurd. It is a simple response to the opressor.

Regards,
Alan Mehsose'
Kurdistan- Mardin

Dear Mustafa,
who are you? How do you earn your money. Is it through defending the dirty war in Kurdistan by the Turkish state or by becoming a mouthpiece of the Turkish state. Is it not enough with what did the Turkis state with the Armenian people. You belong to the dirtiest state in the whole world. You still deny the Armenian massacre even the whole world has accepted it.
Enough is enough. Stop protecting the Nazist state and admit the right of the Kurd to live in peace and free from any opression. Shame on you and shame on your Nazist state. Let me remind you of a Nazist slogan from your state which says " Happy a person who is a Turk" " One Turk is equal the whole world"

Regards,
Alan Mehsose'
Kurdistan, Mardin-Nysebin

Dear Mustafa,
who are you? How do you earn your money. Is it through defending the dirty war in Kurdistan by the Turkish state or by becoming a mouthpiece of the Turkish state. Is it not enough with what did the Turkis state with the Armenian people. You belong to the dirtiest state in the whole world. You still deny the Armenian massacre even the whole world has accepted it.
Enough is enough. Stop protecting the Nazist state and admit the right of the Kurd to live in peace and free from any opression. Shame on you and shame on your Nazist state. Let me remind you of a Nazist slogan from your state which says " Happy a person who is a Turk" " One Turk is equal the whole world"

Regards,
Alan Mehsose'
Kurdistan, Mardin-Nysebin

Mr.Domanic gets Turkish political system wrong.

What I cannot undestand is Mr.Domanic's wrong and inaccurate information relating to Kurdish society and the back ground of this society's struggle for their national rights.He builds up his view on the wrong and inaccurate knowledge.

It is very easy to check this gentleman's sincerity by asking a few simple and clear questions and that what have been done so far to provide justice:

Does he know many Kurdish villages have been destroyed and evacuated by the Turkish troops so far.Does he know how many civillians (mostly Kurdish intellectuals, writers, journalists etc.) have been killed by the illegal organizations that were supported and protected by Turkish State?
Does he undestand the Kurdish mothers' suffer who lost their beloved sons and daughters?

What does he think about the Turkish harsh assimilation programme towards the non-Turkish societies especially Kurdish ethnic group that in progress for nearly a hundred years?

As long as the Turkish state is determined to destroy the Kurdish guerillas, no other result should be excepted. Kurdish arm struggle will continue.It's the state that supposed to find a political solution to this problem. I think the writer mixes the roles of the Turkish State and Kurdish guerillas.

yours

sincerely

a.yalchin

Mustafa Domanic

I agree with all that you have said and congratulate you on this article. AGAIN THE PKK not ordinary civilised Kurds in Turkey are nothing but TERRORIST's.

Thank you
Nationalist TURK

The PKK is a terrorist group because it targets civilians. But Turkish politics is rotten from the inside.The mafias which produces decay from the underground is far worst than the PKK to Turkey's stability and prosperity.

Dear Mustafa,
Since you are a writer I shall first begin with a moment of reflection on all the individuals who have been oppressed by your government and possibly brought you to be so intrested in a figure such as Che. Or, were you fortunate enough to have seen him in merely a romantic light?
The comments made by Hidden are the contributing factors missing from your fairly representing "peaceful" "passive" majority that has silenlty allowed this denial of genocide to occur in Turkey/Asia Minor.
You need to "convince the Kurdish youth" of Ehmede Khan who wrote the epic 'Mem and Zin' depicting the life in your area.

Dear Mustafa,
Since you are a writer I shall first begin with a moment of reflection on all the individuals who have been oppressed by your government and possibly brought you to be so intrested in a figure such as Che. Or, were you fortunate enough to have seen him in merely a romantic light?
The comments made by Hidden are the contributing factors missing from your fairly representing "peaceful" "passive" majority that has silenlty allowed this denial of genocide to occur in Turkey/Asia Minor.
You need to "convince the Kurdish youth" of Ehmede Khan who wrote the epic 'Mem and Zin' depicting the life in your area.

ozagain: Your advocacy of Turkish nationalism is very well known, but not envied.Your awareness of history is, frankly, pathetic. Turks, not Kurds, finished their last round of pogroms in Istambul (did you know that comes from the Greek by the way?)/Constantinople in the 50's and 60's.

As for the Armenians, it is true that present-day Kurdistan was Armenia. In Roman times. But the barbarian invasions from the East forced the Armenians out. That was a long time ago, even by the standards of the region.

The Crusaders, to be sure, killed more Christians than Muslims. That is why the term 'crusade' is anathema to anyone east of Italy. It is also irrelevant to the subject at hand.

After all is said, the history of the Ottomans and the Turks is filled with repeated massacres of Christians, and the rest of the minorities.

to ozagain: Don't forget that the Kurds and Armenians and Assyrians were living peacefully for thaousands of years in THE EAST OF ANOTOLIA, even before Turks and mogols ruled these country, but turkish nationalist and racist who got the power after 1908 caused a dramatic changes in the geo-ethnical map in Anatolya (East of Turkey) During Russia-Turkish war and WW1.
IN IRAQI kURDISTAN, more than 800 thausand christians live, they have their Churches and free religion issues , in Ainkawa 10kms far from Erbil you can find huge population of Christians with 3 Grand churches with 1 sattelite TV ISHTAR.
RECHECK YOUR INFORMATION AND JUDGE

Another initiative for peace and dialogue by the so-called blood thirsty, violent, deranged, and of course, terrorist PKK:

Kurds say ready for ceasefire if Turkey negotiates

ANKARA, March 17 (RIA Novosti) - The separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said it was ready to discuss a ceasefire with Turkish authorities if they were willing to negotiate, the Turkish newspaper Milliyet said on Monday.

Turkish authorities have consistently refused to enter into a dialogue with the PKK. The newspaper quoted the party statement as saying: "We again call on the Turkish state and government for peace and dialogue and openly state that if our call is heard, we will take the responsibility to launch a new and nonviolent process in solving the Kurdish problem."

In late February over 10,000 Turkish troops were involved in a ground operation in northern Iraq targeted against PKK bases in the region. The eight-day operation led to widespread criticism from western countries.

The General Staff acknowledged in a statement that the PKK had not been eliminated in the military incursion, but said they would continue to conduct ground operations in Iraq.

On March 13, Turkish troops killed 10 militants from the PKK in clashes near the Iraqi border.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous ethnic Kurd state in southeast Turkey for nearly 25 years. The conflict has so far claimed over 40,000 lives.

------

PKK invites Turkey for dialogue

Kuwait News Agency

The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) invited Turkey on Saturday to hold talks to resolve their differences, while President of Iraq's Kurdistan Region Masud Barzani expressed readiness to actively contribute to finding a peaceful solution to the problem.

In a statement, the PKK said, "We express our readiness to seek a peaceful solution to the issue of Kurds in Turkey through mediation by the government of Iraq's Kurdish Region, and we support the Region's call for establishing dialogue." Previous experiences and recent battles have proven that the only solution is to hold talks and to exercise diplomacy in resolving issues, it added.

On his part, Barzani expressed in a statement his readiness to "actively participate" in finding a peaceful solution to the PKK-Turkish problem, which he hoped would "end violence in the region and build better relations of cooperation and consolidate security and stability for our people." The Turkish Army had commenced a land operation in northern Iraq on February 21 with the aim of wiping out PKK rebels, classified by Turkey, the EU and the US as a terrorist organization. Turkish troops withdrew yesterday.

If the PKK is so deadly and it is in fact an armed group that resorts to terror against civilians can someone, anyone, please give a number to their claim?

We see the terrorists in Iraq and in Israel. They strike at restaurants and bazaars and civilians who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As those unfortunate incidents show, killing civilians is not an altogether difficult task. Most terrorist organizations also claim responsibility for those acts of terror and do not apologize for it.

How many Americans have the PKK killed? Zero
How many Turkish civilians? Is the figure 35,000? Of course not...That is the total number of people killed in 25 years of fighting INCLUDING the Kurdish victims.

The quote of 35,000 are mostly the Kurdish victims (including the PKK guerrillas) killed by the Turkish armed forces. There are approximately 5,500 Turkish soldiers killed by the PKK. Surely, soldiers killed during combat aren't victims of "terror" are they?

How many civilians have been killed in the fighting since 1978? 100? 200? 300? That is simply the monthly toll in Iraq.

How many civilians have been killed that the PKK has actually claimed responsibility for?

Apart from a recent incident in Diyarbakir, when the PKK claimed responsibility and apologized from the Kurdish population for not having better control, the PKK has rarely targeted civilians.

In a struggle that has gone on for 25 years and counting, surely a deadly terrorist group could kill more civilians if it wanted to...And Surely, it could damage the Turkish tourism industry more as well by targetting Europeans.

Can someone out there give a rough figure of Europeans killed by the PKK over 25 years of fighting?

Apart from a brief period during its formation when it targeted Kurdish village guards (Kurds armed by the Turkish state) the truth is that the PKK has never targeted civilians as a matter of policy. For the last 7 years, they had declared a unilateral cease-fire and waited for peace to come.

How naive -- to expect peace from the Turks.

Turkish jump to Cipar and recognized North Cipar. Turkey and nobody else. Turkish jump to Irak and it is not war crime. International law is dead. International law now is law of double standards. It too dangerous. It is start of Armagedon.

Albaniens killed Serbs also, but Turkish rekognize indepedance of Kosovo. So, Turkish must rekognize free Kurdistan.
STOP DOUBLE STANDARDS.
Turkish jump to Irak to kill Kurdish. Serbia did not jump to Albania.
Turkey vs Kurdistan == Serbia vs Kosovo.
There is not any diference.
Stop hipocrisy.

30 some years ago, around when the PKK was founded, I, at 6 years old, was waiting 3-4 hours in bread lines, flour lines, margarine lines, etc. along with the rest of Turkey's population, everyday.

One loaf of bread per person, per day.

My family had it better then most, having a roof over our heads, a new shoe every 3 years, and we didn't even have to beg. I even had my own Angora street-cat, a piece of chocolate when I was 7, saw a Black&White TV at 8, and heard an Elvis record when I was 9 (Blue Suede Shoes). That was big deal for me and life sure was wonderful.

Wonderful, except for everything else that is. At the time, the PKK was largely responsible for most of the violence in Turkey (as they are now) which was partly the cause of most of the economic strife (as it is now). They went by a few other names names back then. Their "ideology" graffiti was plastered everywhere in every neighborhood in big red drippy letters. It was etched in the wooden rows of my 5th grade class. Students of my high school even took the Governor of Ankara hostage for 3-4 days, you know, to "fight for freedom" and stuff. My school had the highest death rate for teachers in Ankara. It was where my mother was a teacher.

For some reason, I did not, and still do not hate the Kurds for their "ideology" which has sent me down this path of life of deprivation, and suffering, death, poverty, and hopelessness in Turkey. Heck, I might even still be living in my own country if my parents' lives hadn't been threatened by the "freedom fighters".

Although, I was forced to live far away from where I was born, for reasons pertaining to life-and-death, I am apparently incapable of understanding the "Kurdish reality".

I do however understand, that I was cheated, robbed, and forced out of my own childhood, my freedoms, my education, my rights, and ultimately out of my own country - which is my birthright.

To make a long story short, will The Washington Post write a sympathetic story about me? Or does one have to become a "freedom fighter" to get that sort of attention around here?

Turkish recognized Kosovo, Turkish have to recognize free Kurdistan
Stop doble standards!
Serbia vs Kosovo == Turkey vs Kurdistan

Turkish nationalist always have same barbaric politics to reject Kurdish reality and shown things from their window. Reality as usual violence and discrimination are regularly used against Kurds even language rights are still restricted. Under those conditions there is a simple way for Kurds either they live like a slave under Turkish hegemony or they will continue fight for Kurdish freedom, for Kurdish rights. PKK is our hope bravely fighting against this brutal pressure, what name you should give them?

Kurds never had power to kill armenian..Turkish army with few kurdish mercineries who were on turkish army pay roll killed armenians. most ordinary Kurds infacts rescued them from the hand of brutal Turks,,

despite that Kurds have aknowledged the wrong doing and appologies for it. however Turkish regime (not all turkish people) is not decent enought to admit wrong doing and still denying armenian genocide. because love to murder is in their blood.

so... when they fit your ideals, they're freedom fighters, otherwise you will declare that they're terrorists?

I know you had a point in this article, but it came off smelling like hypocrisy.

Che Guevara was a hearless murderer who killed many people on his own, and ordered killing many others; he was also an ideologue who articulated a rationale for killing people. Today, Che Guevara is admired by two kinds of individuals: far-left extremists who share his stalinist view of the world; and clueless, completely uninformed guys who know nothing about Guevara's crimes.

AMviennaVA: Call me liar all you want - evidence is right in front of your face. All the Kurdish populated areas - so called "Kurdistan", are the areas that were once Armenian. There are ZERO Armenians where the Kurds live. There are ZERO other ethnicities where the Kurds live. THEY don't call it KURDistan for no reason.

The areas where Turks actually had/have power, like Istanbul, still have their Christian and Jewish population - after 1000 years of rule. The Greek Patriarch is in Istanbul for God sakes. How many churches stand in Northern Iraq where the Kurds rule? ZERO.

And if you are you suggesting, that somehow the Turks "forced" the Kurds to slaughter the Armenians, you're out of your mind.

The Turks can't even force the Kurds to NOT kill their own wives and daughters in honor killings. And you're telling me Kurds were tools, who were FORCED to kill Armenians? Give me a break!

As for Turks killing Christians, please read up on the Crusades and learn who killed who.

I'm suprised. I thought I was reading the Washington Post not the Turkish Times. Why are Turkish journalists allowed to spread propaganda from American newspapers??? Shouldn't they at least attempt to be objective?

The Washington Post article on the PKK didn't mention a lot of things. It didn't mention any of the terror tactics that the Turkish state has used systematically against its own Kurdish civilian population since the inception of the Turkish state.

American soldiers had their Abu Gharib -- all of Kurdistan has been the Turkish soldiers' experiments in human depravity. There are 3 million Kurdish internal refugees. Over 3, 000 Kurdish villages have been emptied, one by one. Can you imagine the untold stories of horror and terror? They have been driven out of their homes and deprived of their most basic rights because of Turkish terror. Countless civilians have been murdered, extra-judicially, and countless men and women have been raped in prison and in villages by state personnel. Any search of the archives of Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch can tell you with ease what the Turkish state's atrocities are. A whole village has been forced to eat human excrement to punish them for its support of the PKK guerrillas; Kurdish guerrillas have had chemical weapons used against them, their women raped when captured, their bodies dismembered and their body parts used as decorations as necklaces worn by Turkish armed forces. Please, the Kurds have not forgotten these incidents.

In Diyarbakir, just last year, your security forces opened fire upon civilians killing 3 children...

Even if the Turks deny and the Kurds forget, Google has not forgotten the victims of Turkish state terror! The pictures and the videos are all there for everyone to see...

The Washington Post article didn't even begin to cover the extent of the Kurdish problem in Turkey...

ozagain: "How soon we forget, it was the Kurds who slaughtered the Armenians in SE Turkey during WW1, then blamed the Turks!"

The first part is true. The Kurds were the instrument that the Turks used. The second is a lie. The Kurds did not blame the Turks. The survivors of THAT set of massacres (as well as the survivors of subsequent massacres against the Christians) have blamed the Turks.

These massacres of Christians is one reason very few pay attention to Turkish claims. Posts such as yours is another reason that anything Turks say is considered a lie, unless proven correct.

"Most people in Turkey, both Turks and Kurds, are aware that a solely military solution to this problem is unrealistic; we know that any lasting solution must be multi-faceted. So we feel that the Americans are stating the obvious when they 'advise' us to seek a peaceful solution. But only when armed resistance and terror campaigns stop can our peaceful, passive majority strengthen its hand, and bring a civilized end to this horrendous situation."

It is incredible that even after the loss of the Ottoman Empire, Turks still do not understand that FIRST you create the environment and THEN you end the fighting. In other words, Turkey MUST FIRST treat minorities correctly and accept the diversity they represent; then Turkey can present that there are no grounds for fighting.

Let me put it another way: in the case of the Kurds, no Turk would even recognize the need for a 'peaceful' solution, unless there was the resistance by the PKK.

How soon we forget, it was the Kurds who slaughtered the Armenians in SE Turkey during WW1, then blamed the Turks!

And now, southeast Turkey is a State within a State. The area is near complete Kurdish in it's people, language, and customs. Most, if not all, municipal and local governments and public services are led and run by Kurds. Trust me, Turks do not have the power to tell anybody what to do - go see for yourself.

The Turkish government pours more resources into Kurdish areas then it does into "nationalist" areas just to keep the Kurds happy. Kurds speak Kurdish anywhere they want in the country, including in the Turkish Army, and even in the Turkish parliament. Keep in mind, Turkey is not developed as the US or any any other nation that criticizes it. Every average person in Turkey has some limit on some freedoms and finances.

But, Kurdish political parties declare daily that the southeast should be a Kurdish nation, ran by Kurds and only for Kurds. Kurdish politicians in the parliament have spouses and relatives who are in the PKK. All of this after and still nobody is telling the Kurds what to do. Kurds already have a nation of their own, it's called Turkey. But they want MORE then what other Turkish citizens have, more then Armenians, Laz, Greek, etc.

Why should the Kurds, or any other ethnic group, have "more"?

Do Kurds have a right to divide Turkey along ethnic lines. NO! If they had the power would they commit genocide against the Turks and others in order to achieve this goal? YES!

How come W.P. can describe a terrorist organization members as freedom fighters? either W.P. siding with them or just ignoring the fact that United States Of America's recognition of these baby killers as terrorist.

Dear Mr. Domanic,
the article in WP failed also to say, that turkish military had killed ten thousands of innocent kurds, displaces and tortured ten-thousands of kurds in prision and elsewhere. The article also does not speak about the state-drug and fight against kurds issue in turkey. About susurluk about the "jail in diyarbakir" where turkish warlords and tortures created the "resistance of the kurds" in form of the pkk. The kurdish issue is in first line a problem of a turkey not facing the facts of history and the historical injustuce against the kurds.

wrong again! wrong wrong wrong. PKK is not like Che. PKK is not humane. PKK is not exotic, or romantic, or anything else that could be construed as positive. PKK are monsters who blowup children, enslave women, murder men in their sleep, and have scorched the earth in SE Anatolia. How dare you "think" you learned some lesson, when you haven't tasted the blood of your own children splattered across your face by a PKK bomb?

azzi wrote: "kurds are no terrorists. as long as they don't have thier rights they are intitiled to like every other nations, no matter what you say and others say they are not terrorists."

That is not what distinguishes a terrorist from a freedom fighter. A terrorist fosters terror as a weapon. It is a method of warfare and has nothing to do with the cause the terrorist is fighting for. No matter whether your cause is good or bad, if you use terror as a weapon, you are a terrorist.

PKK Guerilla wrote: "What about turkeys human rights record? What about turkeys state sponsered terrorism? What about denying basic human rights to its minorities?"

All legitimate issues that might even be worth fighting for. But terror as a weapon should never be used, ever. If you consider terror a legitimate weapon for causes you support, you support terrorism. Terrorism is not measured by the cause it is used for, it is measured by its method of action. Once you understand that terrorism is never justifiable, you begin to become civilized. If you consider terror a potential weapon for your cause, you lose your civility, become a terrorist and deminish your cause.

Mustafa says he told his college friend that he did not support Guaverra's terrorist methods, just his dreams of freedom. I believe you can support the cause without supporting the terrorist who is fighting for that cause. But putting up a poster of Guaverra showed he supported this man's methods, and Mustafa's friend was rightly upset. You can support the Kurds wish for a homeland, you can support stopping oppression in Turkey, you can even support taking up arms to fight for both, but once you decide terror will be a weapon to be used, you become a terrorist and if you support those people, you support terrorism.

One mans terrorist is ever man's terrorist. A terrorist can say they are fighting for freedom, and believe it, but it does not raise their status above being a terrorist. Once this becomes defined maybe those who wish to fight for freedom will not be tempted to use terror, and those who support the fight will not be so willing to support terrorist methods. Only then will terrorism disappear from the face of the earth.

Let's get this straight: The Kurds are one thing, the PKK another.

Yes, Turkey has repressed the legitimate rights and cultural identity of the Kurds. Yes, the Kurds have a right to resist this oppression. Yes, the Turks treat the Kurds little better than white Mississippians treated blacks in the dark days of segregation. Yes, the Turks are wrong to do this.

But does this excuse the terrorist tactics of the PKK? No. I have yet to read any attempt to rationalize the tactics of the PKK that could not be used to justify Al Qaeda's attack on the World Trade towers and all its other acts of brutal murder of innocent people.

Carrying out an armed insurgency against military targets of the Turkish government would be one thing. Not legal and not something I would encourage, but at least understandable. But terrorism and the murder of innocents? Unacceptable.

Difficult as it is, we Americans cannot afford to see this conflict in either-or terms. A proper policy would be to encourage the Turks to grant a reasonable amount of cultural and linguistic autonomy to the Kurds and to encourage the Kurds to abandon their call for independence. Sure, there is no easy answer to the question of where along the spectrum the proper balance will be found that will allow Kurds and Turks to live together peacefully within the same country. We Americans cannot determine the solution. But we can tell both sides to start looking.

I read the comments and i laughed all of them.These guys think that Kurds have no rights in Turkey and they think they are second class citizens.This is the biggest lie on earth.Turkey does not label Kurds as terrorists but PKK and its members.All Kurds are working in major cities and can have their own business and earn a lot of money.Most of the mafia members and drug dealers are kurdish and believe they have a huge amount of cash that any american citizen can only have in dreams.They can buy real estates, cars,etc.These mafia members have also connection with PKK because PKK controls the eatern route of the drug traffic.There are many kurdish senators in Turkey's senate.In the past a Kurdish person also could become both prime minister and president! There is no discrimination to the kurds or any other minorities in Turkey. Turkey has great progress on human rights.I am not saying that it is perfect but neither our soldiers nor our police behave anyone that American soldiers did in the Ebu-Guraib prison in Iraq!At that time i did not hear any kind of criticism from these humanist Kurds in the area!
PKK is a terrorist organization.This fact is accepted by USA, European union and many other countries in the world.They kill soldiers, civilians(Last month they planted a bomb in Diyarbakir.Two students and some civilians "Kurdish people" were killed), destroy civilian buildings, etc.

Seriously, does anyone at the Post actually read these articles before they allow them to be posted? What kind of bizarre relationship does this newspaper have with Turkey? Absolutely every article on the subject of Kurds or Turkey is thoroughly biased. The article above, while not particularly negative in its approach to Kurds, makes very little sense and is colored with Turkishness. The post has lost all legitimacy on reporting this region.

Hey, I want to congrulation you my namesake for your great explanation about the PKK... I agree with you and I am proud of you! Thanks

What a farce.....this is an internal deal inside Turkey with the ruling Islam Light AKP party getting its way for the headscarf deal, by amending the consititution and other laws, in exchange for "permission" from the civilian government to let the Turkish blood thirsty army to attack the Kurds, once again, until Uncle Sam told the army to buzz off....and mind you after Turkey losing 100 soldiers.

Hell of an "ally" for USA! Their lost to a bunch of lightly armed mountain people.

Is this the civility with which the Turkish state intends to act???

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4328285.stm

This is a tragicomedy... If this is the mentality of the Turkish state, then it's a very long road ahead. The problem in Turkey's Southeast is a cultural one, not a "social" or "economic" one. By committing cultural genocide against the Kurds, Turkey has brought the PKK on itself. The PKK is just another group... the 24th (?) Kurdish rebellious/terrorist movement against Turkey since 1923.

no question turkish media are the worst meadia in the whole world. so much bias you don't even believe. i read news on the kurdish websites such as payamner. we don't even have a country yet they got news in all languages turkish, arabic and persian.and they seem like they are not even kurdish in a way they publish their articles. it's amazing i'm really proud to be a kurd. lets go back to the turksih media.it's all about turkey thier government and turks. last month i read an article about plastenian ambassador to ankara? or hamas officials visit to turkey??? you got to be kidding me.pkk are fighting for 12 million kurds and they are called terrorists. but you see hamas called hero. what does hamas fight for for a plastinian country? doesnot plastine have a government to do that.

"FARC's brutal campaign"
there are always reasons why people pick up arms and fight against governments. first you probably have no idea what FARC wants from the government of columbia,but as your government's dealing with the same issue you quite injoy people calling pkk group terror. your opinion of calling other groups terror is not based on honesty and knowledge.but it's for the favour you recieve from other people like your self.

lets say i am a kurd. how do you convince me that pkk are terrorists? how do you do it?? you tell me going to the montain does not worth it?joining pkk will get you killed? don't go.do kyou really think this can convince kurds?
as a kurd the only thing would convince me is that i can live freely as a kurd speak my own language fly my own flag like you do and call my place KURDISTAN.other than this i would rather fight against your government till my death.

Mustafa Domanic,

As much as I generally appreciate reading what you write, I believe you get all this terribly wrong, this time, writing:

"I think ... political and even social solutions ... are sometimes not enough... to end the bloodshed, WE FIRST NEED to convince the Kurdish youth that... ONLY THEN, common sense CAN become common once again and political, economic and social changes can come about.

Most people in Turkey, both Turks and Kurds, are aware that a solely military solution to this problem is unrealistic; we know that any lasting solution must be multi-faceted.... BUT ONLY WHEN armed resistance and terror campaigns stop CAN our peaceful, passive majority strengthen its hand, and bring a civilized end to this horrendous situation." (my emphasis)

Couched in the exact same terms as the Israelis', yours is the best recipe for permanent conflict and perpetual war, as the prime example of Israel continues to show convincingly, and on a daily basis.

With all due respect, Mustafa, it is simply unreasonable (in fact absurd!) to suggest that ONLY ONCE WE HAVE PEACE CAN AND SHALL WE BE IN A POSITION TO CONSIDER DISCUSSING AND MAKING PEACE. If you were right, nowhere in the world would we have ever known peace; in fact, we would obviously not even be capable of conceiving what "peace" means.

To set conditions for discussing and making peace is, quite generally, to put forward excuses for not discussing and making peace. To set conditions for discussing and making peace is, quite generally, to make it universally known one is not interested in discussing and in making peace.

Genuine, lasting peace (which has nothing to do with surrender!) comes when all parties concerned are MORALLY STRONG ENOUGH to accept discussing and making peace unconditionally, i.e even while conflict, even war, is raging. It is true, of course, that more often than not, once all concerned want peace badly enough, they will agree to an open-ended truce (if only to show how serious and how well-intentioned they are), which they will adhere to at all costs to themselves!!! Yet even that is not at all mandatory, when it comes to discussing and to making genuine, lasting peace.

Your suggestion has things upside down; better, out of sequence.

Fear not: once you have genuine, lasting peace agreed upon by all the parties concerned, a peace they can all therefore live with, "the Kurdish youth, for instance, (will be easily convinced) that joining... helps no one, least of all the very loved ones they hope to protect in the first place." Then, you will see "armed resistance and terror campaigns stop". It will come not before but as a confirmation that genuine, lasting peace has come, and that its unquestionable benefits for all have been fully acknowledged.

Peace being an essential human "commodity", I sincerely hope you will consider the above favourably; for on peace, the opinion of each and everyone of us matters immensely.

Regards.

kurds are no terrorists. as long as they don't have thier rights they are intitiled to like every other nations, no matter what you say and others say they are not terrorists. you as a turkish of course not going to talk about the treatment of your governmnet toward the kurds.every single person on this planet knows that kurds are humiliated. when was the last time you wrote an article about it? when was the last time you wrote that 12 million kurds in turkey do not have any rights? can't speak in kurdish or dress or evens ay they are kurds?so no matter what you call pkk. pkks are always peshmargas for the kurds and there isn't anything you could do.

you said that; "Military solution to this problem is unrealistic"
what real solition we shoult speak that terrorist than we shoult agree terrorist more power than us
than we give they part of TURKEY

HAY MAN DİD YOU JOİN TERRORİST PARTY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

So nice to see you can carry on a civil discussion so far from home!

Your eyes are still closed, you can not and DON"T want to see the fact, the fact that turkey is committing those crimes against the Kurds and then blame it onto the Kurds.
You your self said, " we need to get the youth away from the PKK" how is this possible if your Government keep killing Kurds and deny their freedom.
Heck even the Alphabet in Kurdish is not allowed...
Ironic part is that "W" which is also in the Kurdish Alphabet is taboo in Turkey...
but yet I see every Turk and even the government using it...how stupid can this be?
Try to be more logical and try to be open minded.
Listen to both sides of the story and then make your conclusion...I guarantee you it will make a difference.

It's no suprise that your turkish and i guarantee that nearlyu all turkish people condemn the pkk to be a terrorsit organisation. But then again if you ask the kurdish people what they think about the turks you will defiently get the same answer.

Lets se: you deny their existans, you oppressed them with violence, you even take their richt of speak their own language (no... no Kurdish is not free.look cases in Diyarbakir) you then cool them mounten Turks, them resist, yes with wapens (right of resisted of peoples, known by UN!), than even you no longer believe in Turkish state deny Ideology, now that the parties cannot cut down each other then you say: Kurds (PKK!) must lay down there weapons then we will gave their rights to them?.. do you really think that Kurds are so stupid? And they also must trust de Turks, same Turks who are at European Human Rights Court the record holders in being condemnations because of states terreur against Kurds. is this what you say?

you can not label all pkk as terrorist just because some irresponsible members of them commit a wrong doing,,if u do so u will have to call Bush administration terrorists for abu graib scandale in iraq..and killing civilians ..

some members and simpathisers of PKK were involved in violence against civilians but PKK have hold them account & terrminated their membership. however turkish state's army still seceretly supporting ultranationalist gangs to terrorise kurds and government turning blind eyes on this.

What about turkeys human rights record? What about turkeys state sponsered terrorism? What about denying basic human rights to its minorities?

Even claiming to be Kurdish would incriminate one to the degree of being labeled a "terrorist". Ask Leyla Zana! Hell, 'til this day its illegal to name your child with a Kurdish name in turkey.

This law was changed recently because of the PKK's fight against your racist government policies which has attracted international attention.

There will be no repeat to the Armenian genocide buddy. You cant hide your dirt anymore. Globalization is overwhelming isnt it :)

Long live freedom of expression