Editorial of may 2001

"If you want to speak Russian fluently, let learn English at first : then you could realize that the both have absolutely no link each other " - Pierre Dac

The Turkish Department of the Interior has recently given some lessons of vocabulary and published a guide in order to the journalists of the National Television could clearly and objectively speak about the Kurdish question in Turkey.

We gladly support this intellectual action that will contribute undoubtedly  to resolve this tricky question, and with a democratical attitude, we are keen on adding to it its twin-guide, elaborated with the valuable documentation given freely and as much as we want by the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) about this subject. Then, the readers who will survive nervously and intellectually to this abyssal swoop, could be able to express their opinion in all circumstances and front of all the belligerent sides, without making impairs.

For saying "guerilla" ou "rebel", the Turkish government recommands to use the terms of "terrorist", "terrorist factor", "outlawed" or "bandit". It is indeed quite commendable when you travel between Erzincan and Tunceli, if a military control makes you getting off your bus and explains to you very politely that you will not go on more, with a laudable care of your safety. Thanking these good fellows to be such worried about the comfort of your travel, don't say : "Really, guerilla is still in Dersim ?" You could offence them unusefully by insinuating that fifteen years of war were not enough for they get rid of Kurdish rebels. Rather say : "Is there really a terrorist factor in the region ?" Innuendo: "Thanks you are here !" 

In the same way, when you adress to partisans of the PKK, it is not more a good form to talk about "guerilla". There again, people could believe that you insinuate that some thousands of fighters are presently trapped in the mountains without neither attacking nor defending, after having been sacrified without the lesser remorse for saving Apo's neck. Rather talk about the "ex-fighting forces, contributing by a one-side cease-the-fire that they had unanimely approuved to the advance of peace and democracy". They will realize than that you, at least, have get the political message of their Seventh Extraordinary Congress . And if you have many hours (days ?) to loose, you could even to explain to them the meaning of the Peace Project elaborated during the Congress.

Talking of the PKK, precisely, the Turkish authorities prefer the using of  "bloody terrorist organisation". Some sarcastic people have already asked what could be a "Pacific terrorist organisation". We advise them to consult the self-definition of the PKK :  "Patriotic forces of revolution contributing to peace and democracy in Turkey".

About the military operations, called before "safety operations" or "operation for saving the peace", the Turkish Department recommend to avoid roundabout way of speaking and to tell frankly  "pursuit of criminals". It has the advantage to avoid any confusion with the speeches of the PKK, when the Seventh Congress recited continuously the words peace and democracy, expecting probably if someone and especially the PKK would repeat restless the words "peace" and "democracy"  them will make understanding the meaning to somebody and before all to the PKK itself. Here again, endlessly "military operation" could be make people doubtful about the efficiency of the Turkish army and you could owe a reproving look from the Nth soldier who controls your papers in the day. Moreover, the PKK itself does not more admit the existence of a Turkish-Kurdish war. It just see in any incidents "a regrettable consequence of misunderstanding and mistrust from the Turkish government to the peace process initiated by our comrade President Abdullah Öcalan and painfully regretted by him ". But things will be better at last, nobody doubt of that...

Also, how could it be a "Turkish-Kurdish" war, while there are no Kurds in Turkey  ? In place of "Kurdish origin", "citizen with Kurdish origins" or "Kurdish race people", the Department of Interior recomends to use "Turkish citizen" or "our citizen defined as Kurds by separatist movements". If we carry on analyses (to the side of PKK), we could also distinguish the existence of maby groups more specific localized in the South-Eastern Anatolia or in the shantytowns of Turkish metropolis, and called "patriotic masses entirely devoted to the liberation of their national leader Abdullah Öcalan."

Talking of this one,  you could, depending on circumstances or interlocutors, designed as "Öcalan the terrorist" or like "Apo, our dear President which the conditions of detention are so awful than nobody know worse an can describe them" (and indeed, no one describe them, not even Özgür Politika). Concerning the subject and if you are a bit of a tease sometimes, evocating the cruel sufferings inflicted to Öcalan and his courageous attitude front of adversity, don't hesitate to ask to the PKK militant, especially in Europa : "What would have Mazlum Dogan think of that?" (NFR : thank you to send us your answers).