KURD-A Documentation : Statement From The ARGK Press Office

January 17, 1995

The press office of the ARGK (People’s Liberation Army of Kurdistan) issued a statement on January 17, 1995 relating to a boycott of Turkish tourism, which finances the special war in Kurdistan. A special war is taking place in Turkey and Kurdistan. In this situation of war, the ARGK press office said, there can be no vacation trips. "Every holiday in Turkey makes profit for the dirty war." The following is the communique which was sent to us in written form :

"There is a battlefield in Kurdistan. The Turkish Republic is waging a horribly dirty war. They do not seek to reach a peaceful, political, and democratic solution. The Turkish Republic has forced the people of Kurdistan into a one-sided war. In the cities and the countryside, countless people are driven from their homes, more than 2,000 villages have been destroyed or depopulated through the violence of the military. Millions of Kurds are being tortured. 15,000 Kurdish patriots, our people, have been imprisoned. All living spaces in Kurdistan are being destroyed, the forests are being burned, and there is not a single mountain region which is not being bombarded. The Kurdish people have every right to resist and to struggle. Every region in Kurdistan is a battlefield in this war. A horrible war is waging between the ARGK and the Turkish Republic.

"The special war is also being carried out in Turkey. Every vacation in Turkey brings in profits for the dirty war. These profits are transformed into bullets which are used against the Kurdish people. We are warning the European public, those people who would like to spend their holidays in Turkey : You cannot take a vacation on a battlefield. No one should make reservations nor book any tickets, no one should travel into Turkey or Kurdistan. There is no guarantee that you can survive in a region where a war is taking place. Anyone who does not pay attention to this and who ignores the human conditions is risking their life by travelling into Turkey and Kurdistan - we are not responsible for this. To prevent unwanted consequences, do not travel to Turkey or Kurdistan. We are warning people ahead of time and making them aware of the reality.

"Turkey is not a safe country : The lies and destructive policies of the government are responsible for this. We don’t want Europeans to be fooled by the tourism propaganda of a regime which is dictatorial, not democratic, and whose military is waging a special dirty war. Just like last year, we hope that people will respect our call.

"We call on the German state to remove its support for the Turkish government and to free itself from its complicity in the dirty war. In the long-term, this complicity will only harm Germany’s own interests. If Germany continues to support destructive policies in Kurdistan, then political and economic targets will be attacked by ARGK units. We will carry out suicide attacks against German targets in Turkey and Kurdistan.

"The Turkish government denies the existence of the Kurdish people, it practices violence and despotism. This regime cannot be accepted. You cannot take a vacation in a region where such a regime is accepted.

"We are warning people ahead of time that we are not responsible for the consequences or any undesirable developments."

ARGK (People’s Liberation Army of Kurdistan)