ARMENIA: Flirtation with Turkish Ku

[PeaceNet Middle East Team]

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Subject: ARMENIA: Flirtation with Turkish Ku

/* Written 12:13 am  Sep 17, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "ARMENIA: Flirtation with Turkish Ku" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: ARMENIA: Flirtation with Turkish Kurdish guerrillas


an inter press service feature

by james m. dorsey

yerevan, armenia, sep 14 (ips) -- in a clear message to turkey,
armenia has allowed anti-turkish kurdish guerrillas to visit
yerevan and seek support among the kurdish population of the
former soviet republic, say government officials and kurdish
sources.

last week's visit to armenia by three senior officials of the
kurdistan workers' party (pkk) -- aidin razgar, ali sipan and the
turkish kurdish singer shamdin -- came against the backdrop of
armenian frustration with turkey's rejection of its attempts to
establish economic and diplomatic relations.

a militant marxist-leninist group, the pkk has been waging a
guerrilla war in turkey for the past eight years which has left at
least 4,000 people dead.

the visit to armenia was one of several by officials of the pkk
since early this year, said amarike sardash, editor of ria taza
(the new way), the only kurdish-language newspaper in the former
soviet union published in yerevan.

''many turkish kurds come who are members of the pkk. their main
interest is in the life of our community,'' sardash said. an
estimated 60,000 kurds, mostly yezdis who worship the sun, live in
armenia.

although government officials deny they were aware of the one-
week visit before the arrival of the pkk representatives, the
guerrillas were allowed to organise and address a huge fund-
raising concert under the auspices of ria taza, according to
mhoian shakro, head of the kurdish department of the institute of
oriental studies of the armenian academy of sciences.

''the pkk reminded the armenians that kurds live on both sides of
the armenian-turkish border. during the concert they talked about
the need for cooperation between the armenians and the
kurds,''shakro said.

he added that inn his speech pkk leader aidin razgar said they
were prepared to sacrifice two-thirds of their people to achieve
their goal of an independent kurdish state.

he said an estimated 400 people attended the concert, the
proceeds of which went to the pkk. government officials said they
had refused to meet with the pkk, but did not seem upset with the
visit which was certain to provoke irritation in the corridors of
the ankara government.(more/ips)

armenia: flirtation with turkish kurdish guerrillas(2-e)

armenia: flirtation (2)

''we speak only with the representatives of turkish power,'' said
presidential spokesman ruben shugarian giving a detailed account
of failed armenian attempts to establish relations with turkey
blamed by armenian for the 1915 genocide in which 1.5 million
armenians are believed to have been killed.

mourad bodjolian, head of the armenian foreign ministry's turkish
desk, said the pkk representatives had come ''to give information
on their movement and hear our opinions. the fact that the
armenian government refused to meet them speaks for itself.''

while most armenian officials reject the notion of armenian
support for the kurdish armed struggle in turkey, armenia's chief
representative in moscow, feliks mamikonian, has warned that
turkish rejection of armenian overtures could lead to the fall of
the government of levon ter petrossian.

he said petrossian could be succeeded by someone more inclined
to allow the pkk to operate from armenian territory.

during their visit to yeravan, the pkk held talks with
dashnaktsutiun, the armenian party founded at the end of the last
century with branches among the armenian community worldwide which
seeks to restore armenia to its historic borders including those
parts in present day turkey's eastern anatolia.

''we met with the pkk several times in yerevan. we don't help
them but we cooperate. we reached an agreement to exchange
information...our aim is to realise our territorial claims,'' said
rouben hovespian a well-known armenian writer who heads
dshnaktsutiun's armenian branch.

turkish fears of an armenian-kurdish alliance date back to early
this century although armenians charge that kurds played a key
role in the 1915 massacring of their people. ''today's kurds are
not the mercenaries of the past. they are in the same situation as
armenians were during the genocide,'' hovespian said.

kurds reject the charge although they admit that individual
sheiks and kurdish gangs did have blood on their hands.

''today armenians and kurds believe that their survival and the
defence of their nations depends on cooperation. one must take
into account that the (armenian-turkish) border is mainly with the
kurds. there are also many kurds on the armenian side of the
border,'' shakro said.

with major kurdish concentrations in turkey, iraq and iran and
smaller communities in syria, lebanon and armenia, both western
and arab nations fear that kurdish independence would involve a
radical drawing of the middle eastern map.

giving expression to his dismay with western opposition to
kurdish aspirations, shakro quotes ziamanto, an armenian poet, who
wrote after the 1915 genocide: ''justice, let me spit in your
face.'' says shakro: ''it's like the jews saying: 'god died in
auschwitz.'''(end/ips/rp/jmd/cdm/92)