History Brief Page: US supported Turkey's Repression of Kurds

Turkey and the Kurds: additional facts from other sources.

1994 heavy repression of Kurds by Turkey. In same year Turkey becomes world's third largest importer of US military equipment after Israel and Egypt. 80 percent of Turkey's weapons are US, including M-60 tanks, F-16 fighter-bombers, Cobra and Blackhawk helicopters. All are used in Turkey's campaign against Kurdish villages. (Source: Jonathan Randal. 1999. After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness: My Encounters with Kurdistan. Boulder: Westview Press.)

1995. Total Kurdish people driven from homes: 2.5 million. (Source: Tirman, John. 1997. Spoils of War. New York: Free Press, 265.)

1993-1996 Kurds driven from over 2000 villages, many of which are destroyed (source: Tirman 1997, 259).

1996. Human Rights Watch publishes 171-page report documenting use of US-provided weapons to destroy villages and kill Kurds. Cobra and Blackhawk helicopters are foundation of Turkey's anti-Kurd policy, used for machine-gunning civilians and livestock during village demolitions (Source: Tirman 1997, 266).

Domestic politics, USA: Congressional critics of US government's unconditional support for Turkey attempt to sway the Clinton administration's pro-Turkey policy with minimal results. In summer of 1994 ten percent of US aid is "conditioned" on Turkey's treatment of Kurds. Turkey responds by refusing to accept the ten percent under any conditions. Clinton administration defends Turkey's human rights record and declares that US must support "Turkey's legitimate struggle against terrorism." (John Shattuck). An administration insider reports that Richard "Holbrooke is cracking heads all over Europe to get Turkey the vote" to enter European Customs Union, being held up by Europeans opposed to Turkey's treatment of Kurds (Tirman 229). [Holbrooke was then Clinton's Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, and later head of the USG-funded "Freedom House" organization, a source used by many American scholars for rating all countries of the world on scale of "democracy and human rights".]