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Editor:
In his Sept. 4 letter, "United States' motives behind bombing misguided," Martin Taylor expresses sympathy for the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and improperly refers to Turkey's security operations as genocidal war. It must be well understood that the PKK doesn't represent the innocent Kurds of Turkey.
The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne viewed the Muslims in the newly established Turkish Republic as a whole, regardless of their ethnic background. Successive governments have always encouraged and supported various groups in this regard. Turkey's Kurds participa te in all areas of social, economic and political life. Citizens of Kurdish descent have become parliamentarians, government ministers, prime ministers and presidents.
These separatist terrorists, by advancing the spurious argument that Kurds cannot fully express themselves in democratic Turkey, seek to divide Turkey along ethnic lines. There is no more support in Turkey for viewing any Muslim group as a separate ethni c minority with rights of self-determination than there would be in the United States if a group of Hispanic Americans in the Southwest started a separatist movement.
Terrorist organizations preaching separatism, hatred and ethnic cleansing are increasingly becoming the principal threat to world peace in the post-Cold War era. The PKK, with its ethnic exceptionalism and ruthless application of terror and violence as a means of achieving its ultimate goal of destroying the territorial integrity of Turkey, is recognized and classified as an international terrorist organization by most western European countries. In order to finance the purchase of weapons, the PKK extort s money from businessmen, shopkeepers and professionals of Kurdish origin who reside abroad. The bulk of the PKK's annual budget also includes income stemming from drug smuggling and trafficking.
The Turkish government's efforts against the PKK at home enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the population of Turkey, irrespective of ethnic affinity. When it comes to the preservation of innocent lives and the sanctity of Turkey's borders, the PKK terrorists stand alone with their creed of violence and separatism.
Unsal Kuscuoglu
graduate student
molecular and cellular biology
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