Page 341 - America's Failure to Perceive the PKK

night, suffering another sort of persecution at the hands of PKK. The
ruthless members of the PKK would spread the organization's propa-
ganda, collect money through intimidation and execute people they
regarded as spies or agents. The state was not there for our devout
Kurdish people at the very time when they needed it the most, when
they were subjected to the worst injustices.

The Ergenekon terror organization was capable of declaring a
state of emergency in whichever region it chose by keeping Turkey a

place where turmoil could break out at any moment. Villages were
evacuated and burned by the Ergenekon terror organization under
the pretext of the war against terror, and hundreds of thousands of
our Kurdish citizens were forced to leave their places of residence.
The fact that Kurds were forced to live under primitive conditions in
cities such as Mersin, Adana, Ankara, and Istanbul, to which they
migrated, was also a ready tool for PKK propaganda and played a sig-
nificant role in the PKK organizing itself in the cities.

From the past to the present, Turkey has embraced our Kurdish brothers, who were
forced to flee from their countries, with great honor and love.
Left: A Kurdish child who fled from the tyranny of Saddam in 1991 and took refuge in
Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey.
Right: Today, a Kurdish child who fled from Syria and took refuge in Turkey.

339