"In memory of Fidan Dogan" "Turkish-Syrian border September 2014" "From Kobane, the international media report about the bitter resistance of the Kurds against the advancement of IS jihadi's... the so-called Islamic State." "It is this resistance that could make the world note again an almost forgotten people." "ÖCALAN AND THE KURDISH QUESTION" "A film by Luis Miranda" "Mount Nemrut" " Southeastern Turkey" "The history of the Kurds is in no history book." "At the same time, the 35 million Kurds in the Near East in the early 21st century are the largest people without a country." "Recent Kurdish history is a sad chain of tragedies and false starts." "Since the late 19th century the geopolitical map of this region has been redrawn several times... according to the interests of superpowers." "Above all, Great Britain and France." "Since WW I the Kurdish territories are spread in four countries: - in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, where most Kurds live today." "Soon, uprisings erupt and are bloodily repressed." "In 1978, the PKK was established in Turkey, the Marxist-Leninist oriented worker party of Kurdistan." "Five years later, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan calls for an armed struggle against Turkey." "In the following thirty years, this conflict there have been around 40,000 casualties." "Abdullah Öcalan comes from a poor family not far from the Syrian border." "His mother was Turkish, his father Kurdish." "At home, only Kurdish was spoken, a suppressed language that was strictly outlawed." "Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had ruled:" ""One people, one language," ""one nation."" "In 1980 the army revolts violently against communist threats." "After three years of military rule, Turgut Özal becomes prime minister and he tries to modernise political life." "He directs his view to Europe." "HUGH POPE, INT'L CRISIS GROUP" "I witnessed Özal in office when he wanted to join the EU and broke with all of old Turkey's taboos." "One of the them was the Kurdish question." "He was not the only one." "Turkish politics began to give the Kurdish more room." "This twenty percent of the population that was completely denied any public space for over sixty or eighty years." "Turkey is far away from fulfilling the criteria for EU membership." "It would need to recognise the rights of minorities and respect human rights." "A solution to the Kurdish question is thus urgently needed." "But the Gulf War changes the regional circumstances dramatically." "1991 Turkish-Iraqi border" "With Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuweit in 1990" "Turkey's security situation changed abruptly." "The PKK became considerably stronger." "It used the power vacuum in northern Iraq to obtain many weapons." "At the time, the PKK's ideological goal was an independent Kurdistan, with the support of Syria during the Cold War." "There was really bad fighting in Turkey." "Turgut Özal was a very engaging man." "He wanted to solve problems peacefully and believed he would convince Öcalan to make peace." "Since 1979, Öcalan had been living in exile in Syria," "Turkey's Cold War enemy." "When the Soviet Union collapses everything changes and" "Turgut Özal seeks for new politics." "Cengiz Candar Journalist - author" "As a journalist I supported Özal in the media." "This is how I was noticed." "We met several times, discussed the events and what should be done." "I was one of the few people who spoke of the "Kurdish question"." "Most spoke of the "Southeastern question", as the Kurds lived mostly in southeastern Turkey." "I was one of those who said the question is not geography but the suppression and denial of a people." "That was the question." "Ahmet Türk" " DTP 1991-'94, Mayor of Mardin" "We spoke with Turgut Özal multiple times, when he was prime minister and later as a president of the Turkish republic." "He believed Turkey could play a leading role in the Near East when the Kurdish question was solved." "Turgut Özal was isolated because the violence in southeastern Turkey got out of hand." "There were death squads, villages were blazed down, and people expelled from places their forefathers had lived for hundreds of years." "They were moved to western Turkey." "In this terrible time, Özal was completely alone with his proposals." "Newroz" " March 21, 1992 Kurdish New Year's Celebration" "The government was a coalition of two parties that both opposed Özal." "There were divided political views." "To Özal, the Kurdish question was the main issue, while prime minister Süleyman Demirel was totally against Özal." "Özal told me: "I'm not as anxious as Süleyman Demirel and fear no-one but god."" ""To the army commanders I want to make clear that peace is the only solution."" ""I'm determined to finish what I have started."" ""I believe in the cause."" "Turgut Özal establishes contact with Öcalan through intermediaries." "Especially through Jalal Talabani, an Iraqi Kurdish leader whose movement is close to the PKK." "Since the Gulf War and the construction of a safety zone in the Iraqi Kurdish region there is no way around him." "Jalal Talabani made it a mission to convince Öcalan to a cease-fire." "A climate needed to be made in which Özal could find ways to resolve the Kurdish question." "Abdullah Öcalan announces cease-fire Bekaa-Ebene" "As long as military troops do not attack us, as long as we are not forced into self-defense," "We will cease fire from March 20 to April..." "Beforehand I told Talabani I would like to speak with Öcalan, after the press conference, to report my own impressions back to president Özal." "So Öcalan and I had a 45-minute private conversation." "It was a friendly and warm conversation." "Not between the boss of the Kurdish liberation army... and the envoy of the Turkish president." "Not at all like that." "We were two individuals who understood each other." "Very warm." "Later, I would inform Özal about my impressions." "A cease-fire is announced." "But Turgut Özal, although president, isn't able to impose on the army, which only intensifies the battles and provocations against the PKK." "I spoke with Jalal Talabani about my meeting with Öcalan and said it all depends on Turgut Özal now." "He could do something and take steps." "But he would need time and leeway, because he would need to act in a very hostile environment." "Later Jalal Talabani phoned and said he could organise an extension of the cease-fire, temporary and without conditions." "To my question if I could relay this to the president, he answered yes, you can." "Özal traveled to Uzbekistan, Kazachstan and Kirchistan." "I checked his schedule to see where I could inform him." "We flew back to Turkey." "The presidential airplane was filled with reporters, business people, officials, diplomats and so on." "Until touchdown in Ankara we spoke." "I relayed Öcalan's message the day after it was provided, on Thursday, April 15." "Lebanon, April 1993 Announcement cease-fire extension" "Ahmet Türk, ex-DTP, Mayor of Mardin With a group of members we went to the press conference." "Several intellectuals and European politicians were also present." "Also the general-secretary of the PUK, Mr. Talabani was present at the announcement of the cease-fire." "We agree to advance the process." "What's more, the Kurds see the Turks as their brothers." "But this approach has harmed some of us very much." "Discrimination must stop." "We expect the respect that is common between brothers." "Against this background we do not demand an independent state at any price." "But we must create conditions for peaceful co-existence." "This opportunity must be seized, Özal told me." "A general amnesty would also be needed, so that PKK fighters and members can return to" "Turkey and participate in political life immediately." "However, Süleyman Demirel had to be convinced first." "We thought about tactics, also vis-a-vis the military." "He said we could continue to talk on Saturday, when I would be in Istanbul." "He would phone me in the afternoon." "That Saturday, when I woke up," "I thought I would see him in the afternoon." "Then we heard he was hospitalised." "I was in Damascus on the way home with Talabani from a dinner when I heard about Özal's death." "The Arabic radio station reported Özal's death." "We immediately thought;" "this is a disaster." "The hope for peace was gone." "We knew it was Özal's peace project and that he had risked his life to fulfill it." "Officially Özal died from heart failure." "Though family members claim he was poisoned, which is still unclear." "Turgut Özal was the first Turkish president who openly accepted an independent Kurdish people on Turkish soil." "Just before his death, Özal warned his prime minister that the Kurdish question is Turkey's biggest challenge." "It must be solved to secure the stability of Turkey." "President Özal's death came suddenly during a violent period in Turkey." "No-one could stop them." "Özal had tried, but this policy ended with his death." "Turgut Özal tried to achieve a breakthrough." "He wanted a solution from personal conviction." "After his death the people lost every hope, because it knew the Turkish state as well as we did." "There was a hard core." "A bureaucracy made up of civilians and military who had decisional power." "It was never contested that this force is stronger than parliament." "Özal's death strenghtened this core of civilians and military and a very painful period followed in Kurdistan and Turkey." "I joined the prime minister and the general staff chief to southeastern Turkey." "It was a frightening sight." "We flew in helicopters and saw the villages burn." "It was a very violent time." "No-one believed in a peaceful solution from the Turkish side." "They persued politics that we would call the "Sri Lanka solution" today, a military victory." "But this was the Near East, the PKK could always retreat to neighbouring countries and return later." "It wasn't like Sri Lanka, there was no military solution." "Shortly after Özal's death in 1993, they acted against us Kurdish members of parliament." "We were 7 or 8 representatives whose immunity was removed." "Although we were MP's, the Turkish police came at night and took us in custody." "In prison we were made to wait for arrangments of the prosecution." "For the Kurds in Turkey, the years after Turgut Özal's death are the darkest in their history." "The state organises a systematic military occupation of Kurdistan." "It takes new reprisals." "Arrests and torture are at the order of the day and the Kurdish press is once again censored." "4,000 villages fall victim to the strategy of the scourged earth." "The people seek asylum abroad or migrate to Turkish cities." "It was a traumatic period." "Officially, 300,000 Kurds were expelled, maybe they were 2 or 3 million." "We don't know." "The army's main goal is the defeat of the PKK." "It wants to behead the party by arresting the leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is protected by Syria." "After joining NATO, Turkey enjoys unlimited support from allied forces." "Foremost from the US, which maintain bases on Turkish soil to enable rapid interventions in the Near East." "Turkey uses this support for its own plan to arrest Öcalan." "The Demirel administration and the military leaders threatened Syria." "In the end, Hafez al-Assad ordered Öcalan to leave Syria." "Abdullah Öcalan must flee." "He looks for a European country that will receive him." "Italy refuses him, as do Russia and Greece." "Again Turkey can count on its American ally, that exerts pressure on possible receiving countries." "The hunt for Öcalan ends in February 1999 in Kenya." "On the way from the Greek embassy to Nairobi airport," "Öcalan is kidnapped by the Turkish secret service MIT, with the help of the CIA and the Israeli Mossad." "Turkey supports the mission unanimously." "To the media, Öcalan is public enemy number one and a terrorist leader." "State television shows the arrest continuously." "More shocking than Öcalan's arrest itself was the method." "He was drugged and his eyes were covered." "The raised Turkish flag behind him was outrageous." "Not only for our party, but for all Kurdish people." "People were crying." "The humiliation was unbearable and it will always be part of our collective memory." "We said we would get him, wherever he would be." "The government fulfilled its promise that it made to the mothers of the martyrs." "After the whole world expelled Öcalan, he is now detained in Turkey." "He now must answer to justice for what he has done and has ordered." "The world must know that separist terror leads to nothing." "No-one can refuse to comply with the Turkish state." "For the Kurds, Öcalan's arrest is more than a defeat." "It is a renewed humiliation, and perhaps the most unbearable." "The Kurdish diaspora in Europe and elsewhere are desperate." "After all uprisings, their latest and most important one was defeated and their leader arrested." "For the Turkish, it was the end of treachery." "The end of violence and deadly terror in Turkey." "Both sides were wrong." "Since 1999, the Kurdish question is obviously still present." "Their leader Öcalan is stronger than ever, and the Kurdish resistance did not disappear." "Imrali prison island" "When we visited Öcalan at Imrali prison island, we were searched so brutally my arms were swollen." "That was on purpose." "We had to be humiliated because we were Öcalan's legal assistance." "May 1999 Sentencing of Öcalan" "Öcalan's sentence is invested in peace and democracy." "It is against the first defense." "It is a continuation, not a repetition." "Sit down." "Do you need anything?" " No, thank you." "You guard him in turns." "First you, then you." "The trial on Imrali island looked like a sham to us." "Mr. Öcalan called it a stage play." "As barristers we were present all the time and we had prepared our pleas well." "But we could not fufill our role as defence counsel." "Our main request was the publicity of Öcalan's conditions of detention." "Mr. Öcalan thought a civil war was looming and it would depend on his attitude." "We would be the first to relay his peace message to the world." "In this dangerous stage Öcalan's appeals to peace were crucial to end this armed conflict." "We had to avert a civil war before there was no way back for the Kurds and the Turkish." "His trial was very surprising." "Everyone expected him to say:" "I, Abdullah Öcalan represent the Kurdish claims." "We demand this and that." "Instead, he stood up and said:" "I want to solve this problem and will try anything for Turkey for it to succeed." "It was like a surrender and it frustrated many nationalistic Kurds." "But ultimately it was an interesting strategy, because today -after more than ten years in prison- he has better cards than he had back then." "He ordered the PKK to retreat." "During the retreat many PKK fighters were killed by the army, that continued to fight." "The PKK then disappears a few years." "In the southeast there was peace more or less." "But as it happens, the government took a rest." "It believed because nothing happened, nothing was needed to be done." "This way it missed the golden opportunity to solve the Kurdish question." "In 2002 the conservative-islamic AKP party scores a surprise success." "It gains the majority of seats in the Turkish national assembly." "The following year its founder and president Recep Erdogan becomes prime minister." "He rejects accusations of islamism, he calls himself a democratic muslim." "The AKP always stresses that Turkey is an islamic country and the Kurds are part of it, in AKP's mind." "It makes it easier for them to say:" "we are all muslims." "Let us not fight over who speaks Turkish, Kurdish or Arabic." "In theory private schools are now allowed to teach Kurdish." "Five years ago this was unthinkable." "There is Kurdish television around the clock." "No-one held this for possible, but they did it." "The Kurdish question affects not only the few, it affects us all!" "It concerns me as well." "Well aware that the Kurdish question is the key to power," "Erdogan complies with the Kurds." "The special courts are abolished and the state of emergency in Kurdistan is revoked." "The Kurds receive more cultural and political rights." "Above all, the AKP invests economically in eastern Turkey." "For Erdogan, this pays off at the elections in 2007." "Nevertheless, the prime minister still considers the PKK to be a terrorist organisation and continues to suppress militant Kurds." "It was generally known Erdogan wanted to become president with far-reaching making powers." "To push through these laws, he needed the Kurdish voters and their party." "People tought he promised these benefits if they would pay him back with a powerful presidency." "That was unfortunate and many in western Turkey considered these reforms to be insincere and illegitimate." "An unexpected initiative by a European NGO brings forward once more PKK's role as an actor in the peace process." "Brussels, October 2006 Third Int'l Conference "The EU, Turkey and the Kurds"" "Adem Uzun" " KNK" "Every year, we organise an international conference about Kurdistan in the European Parliament, with representatives and intellectuals." "At one of these, a representative of a think thank spoke and was supported by several EU states." "They told me they were part of EU-supported civil organisations and would like to start a peace process between the PKK and Turkey." "They asked for help." "I contacted the PKK and went to the mountains." "They and them made such and such proposals, I said." "Do you agree with them?" "They said, okay, we agree." "We will send envoys." "Gülan Kisanak Mayor of Diyarbakir, former co-president BDP" "For the first time EU states allowed chosen PKK leaders to negotiate about changing policies about dealings with the PKK." "Oslo" "After two years they saw possibilities." "The Kurds proposed a road map that Öcalan had drawn up in prison." "Under Öcalan's prison conditions he could not spread his ideas." "Only after he called for a verdict of the European Court of Human Rights he was allowed to publish his writings." "Öcalan criticised the state, described the obstacles for peaceful co-existence of both people and made peace proposals." "The Turkish negotiators too, agreed." "We will include it in the protocol." "One of them even said, if I were prime minister," "I would impose the protocol as study material on all Turkish schools." " Who said this?" "One of them." "This is the future of Turkey, they said." "The democratic future of Turkey." "They agreed, however they could not adjudicate." "One week after this session, the Turkish prime minister gave a tv interview and pronounced:" "If I were prime minister in 1999, I would have hanged Ocalan." "I would have hanged Abdullah Öcalan." "I would have executed him." "That was his answer." "He said:" "I reject this protocol." "Öcalan must be executed." "He must be hanged." "That was the end of the Oslo peace process." "Though the negotiations won Erdogan the elections, he ended them eventually." "The Oslo talks were a historic step." "They could have contributed a crucial discussion about the solution of the Kurdish question." "But the negotiations were paid dearly because they flared up a bloody war once more." "The negotiations are followed by forced measures against the PKK and its political branch, the BDP." "Eight thousand Kurds are detained under anti-terror laws." "Among them mayors, reporters, students and writers." "In 2011, Öcalan's barristers are indicted over alleged terror propaganda and a ban on contact imposed on the Kurdish leader." "Detaining barristers has two purposes: " "The detained are not only Öcalan's barristers." "They are also barristers of BDP activists, of KCK and of hundreds of detained clients." "As a result, the Kurds are without advocates." "But Öcalan's strategy to gag all opposition proves to be counterproductive." "A murderous attack of the Turkish air force aggravates the conflict." "On 28 September, 2011, it bombs a Kurdish smuggling convoy from Roboski at the Iraqi border." "Thirty-four young men are killed, among them, nineteen miners." "The images of the massacre hit the Kurdish community in the stomach." "In response, the PKK changes its military strategy and goes on the offensive." "With frontal attacks on Turkish troops, it shows its resolve." "Turkey is equipped with the second largest army of NATO, with enormous armed forces and the latest technology." "Nevertheless, the Turkish army did not advance much on the PKK in 2012." "PKK regiments occupied strategic areas, which they no longer abandoned." "The situation in the Middle East changed." "There was radical change that gave the Kurds a new strategic role." "The Kurds in Syria made gains and were able to liberate their region." "In Syria, where the civil war has been raging since 2011, the PYD, a sister party of the PKK, controls key cities in northern Syria after Assad's troops retreated in July 2012." "The liberation of the Syrian Kurdish area is an important event for all Kurds in the Near East." "For the Kurds in Turkey, this victory gives hope, too." "Aldar Xelil Western Kurdistan Democratic Social Movement (TEV-DEM)" "We live in historic times, in which a people experiences the proximity of freedom, after years of rejection and disregard." "The fragmentation of Syria and the civil war had great influence on the Kurdish question in Turkey." "One reason was that Turkey was confronted with two problems at once." "Not only the ongoing stalemate position with the PKK within Turkey, but also its sister party the PYD suddenly being in control of large areas in Syria, near the Turkish border." "A potential security risk for Turkey." "It was one reason the Turkey government saw the need for action." "Another reason according to officials, were worries that the reputation of Turkey in the Near East could be damaged by the ongoing uprising of the PKK." "Diyarbakir prison" "Tensions run high and in 2012 two thousand political Kurdish prisoners go on hunger strike." "They demand a Kurdish-language defense and want Öcalan as an intermediary." "Sixty-eight days into the hunger strike the government gives in." "The hunger strike lead to the Turkish state taking responsibility and opening a new political discourse about the Kurdish question." "During meetings with the government we noticed they were willing to renew negotiations with Öcalan." "A new phase in the negotiations began." "Talks with Öcalan took place on Imrali island." "Together with Ayla Akat Ata, a BDP representative from Batman, we were the first to meet him." "He was motivated and in a good mood." "I was surprised he remembered things from twenty years ago, after being imprisoned for fourteen years." "He remembered names and persons precisely." "This was all surprising and moving." "From a political viewpoint we knew the Turkish government had ordered the chief of the secret service to negotiate with Öcalan in secret about a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question." "Delegations of Turkish and Kurdish representatives arrive at Imrali island." "Abdullah Öcalan is the only prisoner present and guarded by a thousand soldiers." "This way the government keeps control over the negotiations with their prisoner." "An event abroad makes the happening even more dramatic." "Paris, January 9, 2013" "Three women were shot and killed, executed without a doubt." "This is a bad deed, therefore I am here." "An unacceptable deed." "Investigations have just started." "The three victims were active members of the Kurdish diaspora." "They had been in exile in Europe since 1992." "Sakine Cansiz was a founding member of the PKK." "Fidan Dogan was the PKK's spokesperson in France." "Leyla Söylemez was a young fighter." "The murder suspect was arrested days later in Paris." "Three women, an incredibly violent act when a fledgling peace process had just started." "Official disclosures show they were murdererd in a very professional manner, with three shots in the head." "There are concrete clues of connections with Turkey." "With the government, with a state within the state, with a fascist group." "I don't know." "The perpatrator had good connections with Germany, where he had been living for ten years among Turkish extremists." "So much points to a Turkish political murder." "Fidan Dogan We Will Not Forget You" "The three bodies are transported to Diyarbakir and buried there." "The Kurds behave differently than would be expected after the murders." "No riots, no uproar disturb the silent mourning and the determination for a political solution to the conflict." "On 23 February, 2013 three Kurdish envoys are sent to Imrali island once again." "Öcalan hands them a message to be read out at the Newroz festivities in Diyarbakir." "For the first time since Turkey was established in 1923 the Kurds are allowed to celebrate Newroz without restrictions." "Scores of (international) media are present to record Öcalan's message." "For decades we have sacrificed our lives for this people." "and paid a high price." "Our fight was never aimed at a people, never against a religion or a group." "Never!" "Our fight is aimed at suppression, against ignorance, against injustice, against sectarianism, against every form of repression and servitude and we shall continue this fight!" "Without Öcalan There Is No Freedom" "Today we awaken in a new Turkey, in a new Near East and we look into a new future." "To those who hear this call, to the millions of witnesses I say: " "Finally a new era begins, one in which politics, not weapons lead." "For the first time the Kurdish leader is heard internationally." "Time magazine places him on the list of 100 most influential personalities of 2013 and calls him a "voice of peace"." "Turkish-Syrian border" "In September 2014 thousands of civilians flee from advancing IS terror gangs into Turkey." "At the same time, hundreds of Kurds in Turkey want to help a besieged Kobane." "But the border is hermetically sealed and insurmountable." "The Turkish president declares: " "To us, the PKK and IS are equal." "To treat them separately, to distinguish the two would not be right." "In addition, there are more terror organisations." "Abdullah Öcalan answers: " "In Kobane a proud people defends itself, a determined people." "For its future and its freedom it defends itself and fights!" "Beginning of October 2014 it comes to uprisings in Kurdish cities." "Within days of clashing with police and militant islamists forty people die." "Shortly after, the Turkish air force bombs PKK positions in Iraq." "The peace process appears to have ended." "Still Erdogan and the PKK are not interested to renounce peace as a goal." "To this end, Turkey will need to make concessions." "It must decentralise power, allow education in Kurdish and release Abdullah Öcalan." "Will the state keeps its promise?" "I represent the state." " You?" "I thought the prefect!" "(Gültan Kisanak, mayor Diyarbakir) Then say so into the cameras!" "Please say so into the cameras!" "Who represents the state?" " Please go that way." "Go that way." " Why so?" "All people's belongings are in their tents!" "Your state has tolerated these tents!" "I am the state, go!" " On behalf of what state do you speak?" "The land is not the property of your father!" "It's not his land!" "After decades, Turkey gave up its defensive attitude against the Kurdish minorities." "The fight against IS has given the Kurds international recognition." "The collapse of states in the Near East could help them to make historic reparations."