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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Alive and dangerous
By Holger EhlingIn the aftermath of the violent protests following the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, the German government is concerned about the consequences of his trial and possible execution. The last fortnight has seen 26 arson attacks on Turkish businesses in Germany, 14 stormings of diplomatic institutions, 14 stormings of German institutions, 44 injured policemen, 500 arrests and four dead protesters, who were shot when they tried to storm the Israeli consulate in Berlin. This is bad enough. But it may only be a foretaste of what could lie in store if the Kurdish conflict were to make its permanent second home in Germany. With a population of 2.3 million Turks and around 500,000 Kurds, the country has the largest exile communities of both groups in the world.
Calls for a hard line vis-à-vis the PKK were heard, as Interior Minister Otto Schily announced that his government would impose strict measures to deport anybody caught engaging in violence. "Devastation", "siege" and "terrorists" were the catchwords dominating news reports of the incidents. Political analyses of the background to Ocalan's arrest and the Kurdish struggle were of minor importance, as the accounts of damage done and lives endangered led the headlines. The media made sure that a few hundred violent extremists were the only publicly recognisable face of the Kurdish community. Reports of the peaceful demonstrations that followed in many cities over the weekend, with an estimated 15,000 participants, paled in comparison to those that majored in violence. Siamend Hajo from the Kurdish Parents Association in Berlin put it to the point: "Whatever we do, however we argue, we are only seen as a bunch of terrorists."
The PKK has been operating in Germany since its inception in 1978. Following mounting pressure in Turkey, the group made the country the centre of their political activities as of 1984. A series of more than 140 arson attacks on Turkish businesses and institutions in 1993 led to a week of riots which saw autobahns blocked and violent clashes with the police. In the aftermath of this chaos, the German government declared the PKK a terrorist organisation and banned all its activities. But attacks on Turkish businesses and Kurdish "traitors" continued.
Realising that open confrontation was a risky policy, the German government sought to appease the PKK, and especially Abdullah Ocalan, in behind-the-scenes negotiations. In 1995, two emissaries of the German government met Ocalan in Syria. They persuaded him that the way forward in Germany was not through violence -- if he wanted to become a second Arafat, to make the leap from "terrorist" to statesman, he would have to stay on good terms with the country which could wield most influence on his behalf with the Turkish government. In 1996, Ocalan publicly recanted, declaring that the violence in Germany had been a mistake.
Meanwhile, the German government was employing a lenient approach to PKK activities and more often than not refrained from interfering when Kurdish "folk festivals" turned into political manifestations. This deliberate defusing of confrontation on both sides helped to keep the situation calm -- despite the fact that the German government did not seem to be exerting any public pressure on Turkey to end their campaign against the Kurds.
The PKK used this time to set up a highly efficient German network, growing to be the largest of all "extremist" organisations currently operating in the country. According to security sources, the PKK has about 11,000 actual members in Germany, representing only a small minority among the Kurdish exile population. Yet the country has nevertheless become established as the organisation's principle source of funding. German security sources, who find it hard to infiltrate the group, estimate that some DM50 million ($30m) are collected by the PKK every year.
The PKK has divided Germany into seven regions (eyalet), whose leaders control just over 30 sub-regions (bolge). In these sub-regions, local committees watch over the Kurdish communities and levy "fees" to finance the party's activities. It is estimated that every Kurdish family has to pay a minimum of $18 per month into the coffers of the organisation. Kurdish businesses in Germany pay much higher rates, and the PKK imposes "fines" on criminals, especially drugs dealers. Federal crime detection squads are currently trying to substantiate allegations that the PKK might itself be directly involved in the drugs business.
Apart from collecting money, this system also reliably and clandestinely relays information and instructions from PKK leaders to their activists -- the synchronised protests all over Europe last week were an impressive demonstration of the system's efficiency. It also showed European governments what to expect if Ocalan were to be sentenced to death -- "every single Turkish company anywhere in Europe would be a target," said one government source, and Germany would potentially be the hardest hit.
Once again, it seems, Europe has foregone the opportunity to play a meaningful role in resolving the conflict: "When Ocalan was arrested in Italy, it would have been sensible to bring him before an international tribunal," said Sertak Bucak from the International Committee for Human Rights in Kurdistan. This would certainly have spared "Apo" the public humiliation his Turkish captors subjected him to -- and with him, his people. It might also have opened the way for a fair assessment by the international community of Turkish repression and PKK actions in Kurdistan.
Yet the fact that European leaders are now taking seriously the possibility that the Kurdish-Turkish conflict might one day be fought out in the streets of their cities is also a source of hope for less radical Kurdish leaders. As one Kurdish academic put it: "The European governments will now have to get their act together and sort the Kurdish problem out -- or it will blow up in their faces."
