The Pusher In the Rye

by Kani Xulam

December 8, 1998

J. D. Salinger, in his book, The Catcher In the Rye, recounts the story of Holden Caulfield who tries to stop his sister, Phebe, from stepping into the abyss in the rye field over the cliff. Listening to the early declarations of Clinton administration urging Italy to extradite the Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan, to Turkey (an abyss for the Kurds), I said to myself, here is a pusher in the rye.

While Holden could not help but let his sister enter the world that he thought was phony, the United States government can help Turkey to step on solid grounds and deal with its Kurdish population on the basis of equality. Currently, Turkey wants to assimilate the Kurds. The resisters are called “terrorists”. Some are hunted in the mountains. Others are driven into prisons by the thousands. Many others have joined the ranks of the exiled community, once an unknown thing with the Kurds.

On November 27, 1998, the Kurdish news agency, DEM, reported the downing of another Turkish helicopter with a crew of 18 soldiers in the mountains of Kurdistan. Eighty-eight days before, on September 1, 1998, the Kurdish rebel leader had declared his third unilateral cease-fire to help the Turks for a way out of war. Ankara, as before, claimed that the Kurds were weak and about to surrender. The war, with its staggering toll, continues.

On November 12, 1998, Ocalan landed in Rome, accompanied by an Italian lawmaker. As he asked for political asylum, the police took him into custody. Everything stopped in Turkey. The Turkish Prime Minister, Mesut Yilmaz, went on the air and declared victory. He wanted immediate extradition. Washington backed his effort.

While Ocalan was in custody, eight Kurds in Washington and hundreds of others in Canada, Europe and the Middle East undertook hunger strikes to seek his recognition and release. In Moscow, two Kurds immolated themselves, one dying the next day. In Rome, another Kurd tried to do the same, but was saved by a quick intervention of medical staff. In Turkey, since the inception of this crisis on October 9, 1998, 40 Kurdish inmates have tried to burn themselves. Eight have died.

Writing from Istanbul, New York Times reporter Stephen Kinzer notes that Turks portray Ocalan a paragon of evil who combines the qualities of Hitler and Caligula. Throughout Turkey, In recent days, pro-Kurdish institutions together with Italian goods and buildings have become open target for the nationalist Turkish thugs. A retired Kurdish teacher was beaten to death in the Turkish city of Kocaeli. A Kurdish youth was tortured to the same end in Police custody in the city of Diyarbakir. One has to wonder if the ghost of Goebbels has shown its head in Ankara lately.

Into this cauldron of raw passions, the Clinton administration wanted to push Abdullah Ocalan, the symbol of Kurdish resistance in Turkey. In safe hands, treated as a guest, and free since November 20, 1998, Ocalan raised thousands of Kurds to their feet and some to their voluntary death. No other Kurd has generated so many followers in so inhospitable circumstances in such a short time.

The Europeans want the Kurds included in the talks. The United States has abdicated its responsibility toward the Kurds and wants the Turks to decide their fate. A few Turkey watchers have suggested the cell of Leyla Zana as a new abode for Ocalan and the release of the popular Kurdish woman as a way of starting the long awaited negotiations between the Turks and the Kurds. Lest the last group forgets, people choose or find their own leaders; they don1⁄4t like it when others assign leaders to them.

Another idea that is gaining momentum among the supporters of the International Criminal Court, which Turkey refused to join, is to have Ocalan report to the bar of justice. To his credit, Ocalan has said he is ready to plead his case before a tribunal of international judges. Fearing disclosure of the truth, Turkey has outright rejected the idea calling it a

“legal scandal.”

Perhaps Turkey knows too well in the city that once gave laws to the world, a descendant of Cicero may force Ankara to account for the death of close to 40.000 people, the destruction of more than 3 thousand Kurdish villages, and the displacement of more than 3 million Kurdish villagers. Ankara more than Ocalan may have to pay for the crime of desolating and profaning the land of the Kurds. Perhaps Ocalan too will pay a price. True law is blind.

Washington would do well to switch its position and urge its Turkish ally to hear and heed the call of reason. New to the vocation of politics, the Kurds should be allowed to practice it instead of being relegated to the realm of violence. The prospects of dialog with the Turks, if Uncle Sam pushes for it, may put an end to another one of those perennial and intractable conflicts.