Turkey - The Country

The country where the Simpsons meet medievalism. In Turkey you can buy designer clothes, have a Burger King double Whopper, sunbathe on beautiful beaches, stroll around the backstreets of Istanbul, hit the night clubs, wax up the Mastercard and tune into CNN. That's the nice part-and there's a lot of it. Alternatively, you can get yourself kidnapped by Kurdish rebels, meet people who would make Ayatollah Khomeini look like a moderate or be in the wrong place at the wrong time when one of Turkey's numerous terrorist groups decides to liven up the place with a little car bomb. Yes, Britain is not the only country where shopping can be fun.

The modern Turkish state was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Turkey has a strictly secular constitution, partially modeled on the French constitution. Turkey is a country where you'll see girls in mini-skirts, hear the latest pop music and be able to drink yourself under the counter without anyone raising an eyebrow. Well, not much anyway. Try and bring in a bit of hash, though, and you are in deep sh*t. Bear in mind that the only people allowed to bring dope or heroin into Turkey are authorized mafia members, who pay the right people to turn both blind eyes and keep their heads firmly in the sand. You probably don't qualify as the former, so don't bother. Unless, that is, you want to spend a bit time in one of Turkey's prisons.

DP has been in the slammer in Turkey and can reliably inform you that a Turkish prison is not a cool place to hang out in. (Turkey's prisons are just one of many prisons DP has invariably been invited to stay in over the years.) But take consolation in the fact that if you are planning a career in terrorism, Turkish prisons are an excellent training ground. You will be joining a large number of Turks and Kurds who have been caught chucking bombs around the place and machine-gunning policemen. Strategically placed between the West and the East, Turkey is host to the U.S. Incirlik air base near Adana, which is periodically used to blast neighboring Saddam whenever he starts getting any ideas. The CIA has numerous listening posts in Turkey, which are used to spy on Russia and Syria, and anyone else un-U.S. friendly, for that matter.

If you head to the east, though, you won't be finding much in the way of nightlife. Helicopter gunships and large numbers of troops are the most likely things and people you will see and meet. Why? Because there is something of a problem in the east. Well, actually there is war. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has led a 15-year insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast. Most of the southeast is inhabited by ethnic Kurds.

If you want to see trashed villages-there are lots of them-young men in jeans with AK-47s manning checkpoints, who will probably ask you lots of questions, then head off to the east. If you're silly enough to travel at night, you might even get yourself kidnapped by the PKK.

So what's all this PKK palaver? Well, for a long time the Kurdish language was banned. Turkey even refused to admit that there were any Kurds in Turkey (Kurds number 12 million out of Turkey's 60 million population). Instead they were referred to as "Mountain Turks" and viewed as slightly retarded boys from the backwoods. Kurdish revolts in the 1920s and '30s were crushed with the usual mass executions and burned villages. Turkey feared that recognizing Kurdish rights would encourage Kurdish nationalism and possibly cause the breakup of the country. But by not recognizing Kurdish rights, they got the PKK instead, which represents the most pissed-off bunch of Kurds you can find.

The PKK is probably the most organized and effective of all the Kurdish groups. It has a large support network in Europe amongst the Kurdish community there, and raises much of its funds in Europe. The PKK is also the most radical of all the Kurdish groups. Adopting a Marxist-Leninist ideology and demanding an independent Kurdish state carved from Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, the PKK began its war in 1984 (See Kurdistan). In the early years of its rebellion, the PKK was also the most violent of all the Kurdish groups.

The PKK has repeatedly killed teachers in the southeast, claiming they imposed Turkish culture on Kurds, as it is illegal to have any education in Kurdish. Kurds who sided with the state and were armed by the military really got it in the neck from the PKK. Sometimes they and their entire families were killed. Nasty stuff. Things began to get out of hand; and in 1987 emergency rule was introduced in 11 provinces in the southeast. The nasty stuff was equalled by the Turkish military, who torched thousands of Kurdish villages, sending thousands more boys and girls to the ranks of the PKK, who by 1991 were turning recruits back and telling them to wait.

Death squads were unleashed in the southeast, and thousands of Kurdish nationalists began to disappear, only to reappear on roadsides with bullet holes in their heads. Suspicion fell on the police. The number of Kurds entering police stations in perfect health, only to fall down the stairs, stub cigarettes out on themselves, try and plug into the electricity mains manually or jump out of windows rose dramatically.

As the PKK reached its zenith between 1991-1993 things really went haywire. The PKK were taking on the Turkish military in pitched battles, taking out big military camps and generally getting way out of control, even attempting to take sizeable towns such as Sirnak in 1992. Turkey's generals began to get very nervous indeed. A massive military crackdown, burning lots more villages and killing more people ensued. So, how many people have been whacked in this war so far? I hear you ask. Well, to date and by official Turkish government figures 37,000 people have been offed. And the real number is probably higher. In the nine-year period between 1987 and March 1996 the government figures that it knocked off about 10,663 terrorists while they only lost 3,400. Oh yeah, about 3,938 civilians got aced in the cross-fire and about 3,000 villages (give or take a few) have been razed to the ground by the Turkish army.

Is that a Grenade in Your Pocket or Are You just Happy to See Me?

Most of the PKK (and now the YAJK) suicide bombers are young women in their 20s. Often they prematurely detonate themselves when stopped at police checkpoints on their way to military barracks or police stations. Often the women carry grenades and explosives hidden under their jackets.

As for whether tourists should worry Abdullah Ocalan's brother, Osman Ocalan said that every Kurd will be a "living bomb" and "our people must make life an inferno for the Turkish state." And then, in Stern magazine, he said that there would be no harm to tourists who visit Turkey. Go figure.

In the mid-1990s the PKK went through a kind of glasnost, removing the hammer and sickle from its flag and tuning down its demands to Kurdish autonomy inside Turkey. The Turkish military were not impressed. So, the PKK said "ya boo sucks to you" and began to target the tourist industry for additional fun and games. At US$7 billion a year the tourist industry raises almost as much as the PKK war costs. Bear that in mind the next time you stop off in Turkey or look at posters of those sunny beaches. In 1993, there were seven attacks against tourist facilities by the PKK, injuring 27 tourists. The PKK also kidnapped 19 foreigners (one American) in southeastern Turkey. That same summer, a series of bomb attacks in Antalya wounded 26 persons; in Istanbul, a grenade was thrown under a tour bus, injuring eight persons, and a bomb was thrown at a group of tourists as they were sightseeing around the city walls, resulting in six injuries. A hand grenade was found buried on a beach southeast of Izmir, and there were reports of similar incidents in other areas along the west coast. In 1994, the attacks continued, PKK bomb attacks were conducted on some of Istanbul's most popular tourist attractions, including St. Sophia and the covered Bazaar, resulting in the deaths of two foreign tourists.

The PKK's head honcho is Abdullah Ocalan, aka Apo. Apo used to live in Syria; he now lives in jail, for now. He moved back to Turkey in February 1999, taking the plane directly from Nairobi, Kenya. He even got the flight for free. And he was helped to Turkey by some nice men from Turkish intelligence who had thoughtfully drugged him for the flight, just so he didn't get airsick or anything like that. Apo has since been given an island all to himself, just off the coast from Istanbul, and the Turkish government generously picks up the tab for his accommodation. He has obviously been treated well and has managed to lose much of his pot belly since his arrival in Turkey. Oh, I almost forget to mention, Apo has also been sentenced to death. The PKK didn't really appreciate Apo's rehousing arrangements by the Turkish government. In Europe, 15 Greek embassies in different countries were occupied by PKK supporters, after Greece was accused of helping the Turks capture Ocalan. (Actually it was the United States who played a key role.) In Bonn, Germany, Israeli security guards opened up when Kurds tried to storm the embassy killing three protesters. Across Europe, about 70 men, women and children poured petrol on themselves in protest against Apo's arrest. Then they got the zippos out. London and Moscow were just two cities where Kurds became part of a new outdoor central heating system. A wave of bomb attacks rocked western Turkey. Suicide bombers blew up themselves-and anyone else they could-in Taksim square in the center of Istanbul. Car bombs also went off near Ankara. The PKK threatened to unleash a whole new bombing campaign in the west of Turkey. As one PKK source told DP, "It's time to play ball in the Turkish half of the country." Perhaps it is fortunate that this was an activity that the PKK managed to carry out with staggering incompetence. The more effective car bombs were subcontracted by the PKK to TIKKO, a Turkish Maoist group with slightly better bomb-making technicians. Most of the suicide bombers killed only themselves, mainly injuring passersby. Sounds like they should be off to the Gaza Strip or west Belfast for a few lessons. It was enough, though, to reduce Turkey's 1999 tourist influx to a rather pathetic trickle in comparison to most years. Approximately 2.5 million people canceled their holidays to Turkey with a loss of US$2 billion. In poor old Apo's enforced absence from the scene, the PKK established a "Presidential Council" to run the day-to-day business of zapping Turkish soldiers. It comprises ten senior commanders, including Apo's little brother, Osman Ocalan (see "Kurdistan" chapter). But the PKK say that Apo is still their leader, until-I guess-he takes the big drop.

Then, in August 1999, from his prison cell, Apo announced a cease-fire and a withdrawal of all PKK forces from Turkey. Cynics see this as just another ploy by the fat man to avoid having his neck stretched. And before you ask-no . . . the Turkish government is not wildly impressed by the offer, nor in Apo's claim that he has a God-ordained mission to solve the Kurdish question in Turkey. The official line in Ankara is that there is no Kurdish question in Turkey, which is about as silly as you get really. Have a nice flight. . . . In 1998 a lone Kurd hijacked a plane flying from Adana to Ankara on the 75th anniversary of Turkey's founding. Armed with a hand grenade and pistol, he demanded to be flown to first Bulgaria and them Lausanne, Switzerland. The plane landed at Ankara. Turkish security officials pretended to be diplomats from the Turkish embassy in Sofia. The hijacker sounded off about Turkey's unitary cultural system and denial of Kurdish identity. The security guys strung him along in the cockpit and the special team climbed in the back door . . . and shot the hijacker dead.

More than 80 Turkish journalists, academics and writers have been imprisoned for speaking out on the Kurdish issue. One of the more prominent people to be carted off to the slammer in 1999 was Akin Birdal, head of Turkey's Human Rights Association (HRA). Birdal has had a rough time as head of the HRA. In 1998, two men walked into his office and shot him six times after the military leaked a report saying he was in the pay of the PKK. The supposed source of this much-vaunted report? Why, none other than that paragon of virtue and reliable info, step forward . . . Semdin Sakik, as "Fingerless Zeki," the forcibly retired former PKK commander of Tunceli province who was captured in northern Iraq in 1998. Birdal's most recent crime was to call for dialogue in solving the Kurdish question in the southeast. That got him nine and a half months for "incitement to racial hatred." After Apo got himself slung in the cop-shop, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced a new set of literary guidelines to help the Turkish press in its coverage of the PKK and Apo saga. The PKK were to be referred to as a "criminal gang." Ocalan had to have the prefix "terrorist," villages that had been torched by the military had in fact been "evacuated," and Kurds had to be called "Turkish citizens of eastern origin." Oh, and when Ocalan offered a cease-fire, it had to be described as "a cessation of terrorist activity." What the government neglected to say was that many, many "Turkish citizens of eastern origin" were hoping that the government would perhaps let them return to their "evacuated villages" and take advantage of the "terrorist Ocalan's offer of a cessation of terrorist activity." Generally speaking, though, the Turkish military have got the upper hand these days. Not surprising, given that there are about 350,000 security personnel in the southeast at the moment. Torching about 3-4,000 Kurdish villages has helped. The war has now been pushed deep into the mountains. But the PKK is still hanging in there, and in strongholds like Tunceli still manages to control strategic valleys like Kutu Deresi (Box Valley). On the Turkish terrorist scene, the Turkish Workers and Peasants Liberation Army-what a mouthful!-has been taking over the running from Dev Sol, who appear to be off on holiday these days.

As you can probably guess, TIKKO-as the former is known-is yet another of Turkey's leftist terrorist groups. And just to be different from the others, they're Maoist. They set off three car bombs around Ankara and Istanbul in March 1999. Further east, they've been busy gunning down civilians in Tunceli province. In September, a TIKKO suicide bomber in Tunceli managed to kill a grand total of one person: himself. TIKKO are not impressed with the PKK's declaration of a cease-fire. Somewhat sulkily, they've decided not to cooperate with the PKK anymore. Terrorism aside, Turkey, you should be aware, is prone to the occasional earthquake. In August 1999, an earthquake in the town of Izmit, near Istanbul, killed 15,486 people in a mere 45 seconds and injured another 24,376 by official statistics. The quake affected six provinces of western Turkey and is estimated to have caused US$10 billion damage to homes and property. Some of the wilder casualty figures given by the media reached 50,000 dead. But the truth is that nobody really knows how many people died and the government ain't telling if they know. Why did so many people die? Because certain Turkish construction companies didn't bother building the houses to the standards required under Turkish law, which incidentally are the same building standards as California. In order to make a fast buck and avoid too many overheads the construction companies decided not to bother using too much cement. Whoops! 15,486 people later they're wondering if it was really such a good idea. Interestingly, houses built by British firm, Balfour Beatty-to the correct standard-received only cracks in the structures, compared to most apartment blocks built by Turkish firms which . . . er . . . collapsed instantly. For the dazed survivors it took a while for any kind of help to come from the government, which also refused aid from Armenia. Eventually, well . . . 24 hours after the quake, the military rocked up to see what could be done. Instead of turning up with picks and shovels, though, they rolled up with M-16s. As one well-known Western hack rather unkindly put it, they're very good at burning and bombing thousands of Kurdish villages, kidnapping Apo, arranging a show trial, but they can't organize a soup kitchen! Oh you're so generous! In the midst of Turkey's earthquake, Osman Ocalan was interviewed on the pro-PKK Medya TV. The ever-thoughtful (mentally deficient?) Osman said that the quake proved Turkey's military could only destroy, rather than build. He offered to send PKK guerrillas to the earthquake zone to help find victims and rebuild the area as a gesture of goodwill between Turks and Kurds. I mean, what is this guy on?! It seems that like Big Brother, Osman is very good at talking a lot of BS. Either that or the man should be certified. Talk about the kettle calling the pot black! So, you know about terrorism, bombing and earthquakes in Turkey.

D'you wanna know what's really dangerous? DP can now tell you that both terrorists and earthquakes pale into the background when it comes to traveling around in Turkey. Yes, you are in more danger on Turkey's roads than anywhere else. It's a sad reflection on the competence of Turkey's terrorist groups that you are probably in more danger on the road than from them. Turkey has the worst road accident record in the whole of Europe. In 1997, approximately 5,000 people died on Turkey's 61,350 kilometers of roads. There are 15 times more deaths from road accidents in Turkey than in Great Britain, and twice as many as Spain, which has twice the amount of traffic. Public holidays are usually the worst time to go for a drive in Turkey. Between April 3 and April 11, 1998, 164 people were killed and 317 people were injured in traffic accidents as the Turkish populace left the big cities on the Sacrifice Holiday, the equivalent of a long bank holiday weekend. When the Turkish government introduces regulations that theoretically oblige every driver to have a body bag in his or her car, you know the situation is not cool! I say theoretically because Turkey has numerous laws, it's just that everybody ignores them (like the laws about building houses to earthquake standards). In an effort to get people to drive sensibly and soberly, the government has taken to putting signs along the road: Don't be a Traffic Monster or Stop the Traffic Monster Within You, they urge Turkey's drivers. It's a campaign the Turkish government says is working. In 1998, the death toll for the first two months on the roads was down by 9 percent. In January 1998, a mere 268 people were killed on the roads as opposed to 281 in January 1997. In February 1998, the toll was a piddling 269 compared to the previous year's 302. Still, DP can testify that driving in Turkey can be a truly terrifying experience (nothing compared to Pakistan, though). You want to increase the odds of your survival driving in Turkey? Well, don't drive between 6 p.m. and 4 a.m., which is when most accidents happen.

Knowing all this, you will probably not be surprised to hear that one of Turkey's biggest scandals revolved around a car accident. Near the town of Susurluk, on November 12, 1996, a Mercedes slammed into a lorry, killing three of the four occupants. The occupants consisted of one of the most wanted right-wing hit men in Turkey, a beauty queen, a police chief, and DP's old buddy, Kurdish warlord Sedat Bucak. In the back of the car were pistols, silencers and ammo. It was the most glaring evidence of Turkish state collusion in death squads that has ever come to light. Bucak survived, but when he came around, discovered the joys of amnesia.