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Türkiye

Turkey: Kurdish displacement stops, hardship goes on

Forced displacement has virtually ceased in Turkey, but displaced Kurds still face considerable hardship in overcrowded cities where they sought refuge during years of violence. Displaced people in southeastern cities like Diyarbakir and Batman still lack adequate housing and live under close police surveillance. Many displaced children are missing out on education; while women are feeling isolated and hopeless, reflected in high suicide rates. Kurdish self-help groups remain most active in assisting the displaced people. And while the number of people who want to return to their villages has recently increased, many are apprehensive about security conditions.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON IDP SITUATION IN TURKEY

The Global IDP Database of the Norwegian Refugee Council has now updated its country profile on internal displacement in Turkey. A summary is presented below. The Database and the country profile can be accessed at http://www.idpproject.org/, or the complete profile can be sent to you by e-mail on request (idpsurvey@nrc.ch).

Main events since March 2002:

  • PKK changes its name into KADEK and renounces violence
  • State of Emergency ends in two of four provinces
  • Kurdish NGO Göc-Der releases extensive report on forced displacement of Kurds
  • New updates on shelter needs of displaced and returnees
  • New information on human rights situation and rights of Kurds
  • Return prospects look more positive, but obstacles remain
  • Information on World Bank's sponsoring of the Return to the Villages Project
  • Deng visits, talks positively on return and resettlement opportunities

Profile Summary

Since the arrest of the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in June 1999 and his appeal for a unilateral cessation of armed activities by the Kurdish armed groups, the level of violence in southeastern Turkey has significantly decreased. On 1 July 2002, the State of Emergency ended in two of the four remaining provinces, and around the same time the PKK changed its name into KADEK and renounced violence in its struggle for Kurdish rights. In August 2002, the Turkish parliament adopted a package of democratic reforms, which ended the death penalty, allowed Kurdish broadcasts and education, and eased restrictions for foreign organisations working in the country.

As a result of the conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish armed movements from 1984 to 1999, thousands of people became displaced, mainly Kurds living in Southeastern Turkey. US DOS estimates the figure at one million people.

With a current population estimated at 16 million persons, Kurds constitute the largest ethnic minority in Turkey (26 percent of the total population). Since the origin of the Turkish Republic, the Kurds have been denied any rights as an ethnic minority, and manifestations of Kurdish identity have often been repressed brutally by Turkish authorities. In 1984, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launched a guerilla warfare in southeastern Turkey to which the Turkish State responded with a violent counter-insurgency campaign. The State of Emergency was declared in 10 provinces in 1987, implying a heavy military presence, martial law and other severe restrictions to civil and political rights enforced by a special Governor.

Displacement

Due to an improvement in the security situation, internal displacement caused by terrorism and the Government's response ended. The total number of people who became displaced within Turkey is difficult to estimate. Some local NGOs give the figure of 2 to 3 millions internally displaced persons because of the conflict, but these figures tend to include migrants who left impoverished rural areas in southeastern provinces for economic reasons. According to the US Department of State, the figure of one million internally displaced persons is a credible estimate for the total population who fled because of the violence prevailing in their home areas.

The most common form of displacement was the evacuation of entire villages as carried out by the Turkish armed forces to deprive the Kurdish armed movements from logistical support from the civilian population. State authorities claim that 350,000 have been "evacuated" from about 3,500 villages between 1984 and 1999. In August 2001, four villages were forcefully evacuated in the province of Sirnak, Hakkari and Van, and another four villages were raided in Beyt=FCssebap district, evacuated and a food embargo was imposed.

Another factor leading to displacement of the civilian population in southeastern Turkey has been the "village guard" system, created by the Turkish authorities. These paramilitary militias comprise villagers who have been pressured to join, exposing them to retaliation from both sides. Village guards and their families have been the target of deliberate and arbitrary killing by the PKK, while the refusal of villagers to join the guard has often followed by the evacuation of their villages by the Turkish security forces. Evacuations have been carried out in the most brutal way, with reports of property destruction, rape, torture and degrading treatments and extra-judicial executions by the security forces. Emergency shelters have been provided to the evacuated villagers in extremely rare cases.

During the conflict, Turkish security forces exposed the civilian populations to numerous violations of human rights and humanitarian law, including arbitrary arrest, torture, extrajudicial killings, and indiscriminate attacks. Violations of humanitarian law were also attributed to the PKK, including arbitrary killings of civilians.

Needs

The forced evacuation of villages and the violence of the armed conflict forced many civilians to move to the nearest provincial capitals, such as Diyarbakir and Batman, which saw their populations double during the Kurdish conflict. While some of the displaced have found accommodation with extended family members, most gathered in slums on the outskirts of these cities. Housing programmes have been insufficient to address the needs of the Kurdish population in southeastern Turkey. Kurds in urban areas remain under close police surveillance and remain exposed to risks of arbitrary detention, torture and disappearance.

The situation of the displaced is further aggravated by the disastrous economic conditions prevailing in the southeastern provinces. Decades of emergency rule have left the region poor and devastated, with infrastructure, crops, houses and other resources destroyed, making the recovery of the region extremely difficult.

NGO reports confirm that displaced Kurdish households cannot afford to send their children to school and that an increasing number of displaced children in urban areas are trying to make their living in the street. The psychosocial status of the displaced women is also an issue of grave concern to local NGOs. Coming from a traditional rural background, they suffer from isolation and lack of hope in their new urban environment. High level of suicide among displaced women has been reported in the region.

A significant proportion of the displaced left the southeastern region altogether and moved further to western Turkey in search of a safer environment and better economic conditions. Displaced households have found some support from Kurdish migrants who settled in western cities such as Ankara, Istanbul or Izmir, in particular for lodging and employment. However, human rights NGOs consider that big cities outside the conflict zone do not offer safe conditions for displaced Kurds. A major problem has been the general health condition of the displaced Kurdish population, who face an increased risk of diseases such as TB, malaria and mental illnesses. Reasons behind the limited access to health services are economical, the lack of a health or other social insurance, and cultural differences. The inability of social adaptation is another issue of major concern, which has been caused by unemployment, shelter problems, children's educational problems, health problems, environmental pollution, cultural differences, and feelings of exclusion.

To summarise, the problems encountered by displaced Kurds can be summarized into the following categories;

  • Employment-income-economic problems,
  • Educational-nutrition-health problems,
  • Adaptation problems and the problems that are based on linguistic-cultural differences,
  • Fear-psychological problems
  • Problems of loneliness

Return and resettlement

In general, the number of people who want to return to their villages has increased since Spring 2002, following an improvement in the situation in Turkey. According to the Interior Ministry, some 37,000 persons have returned to 460 villages or pastures since 2000 as part of the "Back to Villages and Rehabilitation Project". This figure refers to a programme set up by the authorities in 1995, providing the displaced with reconstruction aid in case of return. Another programme, set up in 1994, is the central villages project, which envisaged to resettle evacuated villagers into newly built villages.

However, these return programmes developed by national authorities have generally been inadequate to respond to the needs of the displaced. The displaced have been largely reluctant to move to the new settlements which have been built without consultation with them. With regard to the "Return to the Villages" programme, only a few villagers have been given the permission by the provincial governors to return to their homes and "authorised" returnees have often not been allowed to enter their villages by the military locally, or have been forced to sign forms stating that they were displaced due to terrorism. Sharp criticism came from Human Rights Watch, who suggested that the government village return program was largely fictional with most abandoned settlements remaining no-go areas, which in some cases have been occupied by government-armed village guards.

Despite obvious improvements, security remains the main concern conditioning mass return movements. Local human rights NGOs call in particular for the abolition of the village guard system as a condition for the restoration of security in the villages. They also demand more reconstruction aid from the State, in particular to grant better compensation for lost properties and to ensure the availability of social infrastructure and services. Highly dependent on agricultural resources, a significant proportion of Kurdish households have been reportedly unable to access any land to cultivate, as authorities have failed to address the issue of landmines, the occupation of land by village guards and the more global problem of highly unequal distribution of land property. There have also been reports that households applying for return assistance have been pressured by authorities to give up beforehand any claims on compensation for the loss of their properties.

Access

The Turkish Government long hampered any attempt by the international community to monitor the situation of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. Most international humanitarian organisations, including the ICRC, have been refused access to southeastern provinces, while human rights organisations can only operate under close police surveillance. The Turkish State was long reluctant to issue any invitation to UN rapporteurs of the Commission for Human Rights. Since 1996, most of them have been finally invited to visit Turkey, including the UN Representative on Internally Displaced Persons, whose mission to Turkey took place in May 2002.

Evacuations of villages and the imposition of food embargos by security forces have sometimes been followed up by human rights delegations, often comprised of representatives of Turkish human rights organizations. There have been reports of obstruction and confiscation of materials by the security forces of two such delegations visiting affected regions in May and July 2001.

Response

The response of the government to the plight of the displaced and to the Kurdish issue (question) in general has been under the scrutiny of some Turkish media, intellectuals and human rights groups despite the risk of prosecution by the State for "advocacy of hatred and violence" or "separatist" statements. The Turkish Parliament also created ad hoc temporary committees in 1994 and 1997 to investigate the state's action in the conflict zone and clearly identified the State's responsibility for the population displacements. Kurdish political parties and media have been constantly subject to harassment by the authorities but a variety of Kurdish self-help groups have been active in providing assistance to the displaced.

International institutions have been critical as well. Institutions of the Council of Europe such as the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Ministers have adopted several resolutions condemning Turkey's human rights violations against the Kurdish minority. The European Court of Human Rights receives an increasing number of applications lodged by Turkish Kurds against the Turkish State. The Court has already found Turkey responsible for violations of the European Human Rights Conventions in numerous cases of arbitrary evictions, property destruction, disappearances and torture and has compelled the State to pay substantive compensations to the victims. The OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities has excluded Turkey from his mandate because of the terrorist context.

On the other hand, the World Bank has been positive towards Turkey's handling of the displacement situation, in declaring the Return to the Villages Project a model for rural development. In November 2001, it decided to finance this project for $300 million.

(October 2002)

The country profile includes complete reference to the sources and documents used.