The Second Kurdish Cease-Fire and the United States
Government
The Second Kurdish Cease-Fire
and
the United States Government
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
March 25, 1996
The Honorable William J. Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500-0005
Dear Mr. President:
On January 23, 1996, in your State of the Union address, you said, ". . .
we can and should be the world's very best peacemaker."
We are writing to ask your help in bringing the blessing of peace to the
Kurds who are struggling against a cruel repression in southeastern Turkey.
Little known in our part of the world, this conflict has devastated
much of the Kurdish region in the country. Regrettably, weapons supplied to
the Turkish army by the United States have contributed in no small measure
to this calamity. House Concurrent Resolution 136 of the 104th Congress
notes that , ". . . the human toll of this conflict has been great, with the loss of
more than 20,000 lives, the displacement of more than 3 million civilians,
and the destruction of more than 2,650 Kurdish villages."
This war can be brought to a close, Mr. President. The Kurdish people
want peace. Their armed leadership declared a unilateral cease-fire on
December 15, 1995, to pave the way for the difficult but essential task of the
peacemakers. A vast majority of the Turkish people and their true friends
around the world want peace too. It is the leadership in Ankara that insists
on the course of war.
We urge you, Mr. President, to stop supplying arms to Turkey so long
as its abuse of the Kurds persists and to offer your good offices to these
recently estranged peoples to reconcile their differences. We ask you, Mr.
President, to seize the moment of hope, for it also accords with your vision of
a world free from major conflicts.
In Kurdish lands, we want the killing to stop, peace to prevail and the
civil rights of the Kurds protected.
Sincerely yours,
John Edward Porter
Member of Congress
Esteban Edward Torres
Member of Congress
Michael Bilirakis
Member of Congress
Maurice Hinchey
Member of Congress
Frank Pallone, Jr.
Member of Congress
Edolphus Towns
Member of Congress
Carolyn Maloney
Member of Congress
Anna Eshoo
Member of Congress
Robert E. Andrews
Member of Congress
William O. Lipinski
Member of Congress
Frank R. Wolf
Member of Congress
Gary L. Ackerman
Member of Congress
Charles E. Schumer
Member of Congress
Elizabeth Furse
Member of Congress
Robert G. Torricelli
Member of Congress