Tigerfish
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In a devastated Turkish town, teenagers dream of joining the Kurdish guerrillas
Students feel the Ankara government sees them as enemies, not citizens, and hundreds are joining the PKK
Ahmet, 21, walks past a house where a man is smearing wet concrete on a wall riddled with bullet holes. A young girl balances over a massive mine crater that scars the street,
filled with debris and muddy water.
“Look what this war has done to the neighbourhood,” Ahmet says, greeting the girl with a nod. A member of the Civil Defence Units (YPS) – formerly known as
the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) –
Ahmet voices doubts about this new urban conflict in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east. “I believe in autonomy, but these methods are wrong, they hurt us.”
Violence has escalated since a ceasefire between the government in Ankara and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) broke down last July, leaving a tentative
three-year peace process in tatters and reviving a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives since it began in 1984.
“So many of my friends have died here,” says Ahmet, pointing vaguely at the narrow streets that now lie devastated. “Many of them were kids from Sur.”
According to the Turkish general chief of staff, 279 militants were killed in the clashes in the central Sur district of Diyarbakir, as well as at least 60 soldiers and police officers.
Aynur agrees. In her class, she says, all the children sympathise with the Kurdish militants of the PKK’s youth wing, the YPS, who are fighting government forces in the cities.
Names of fighters appear as admiring doodles on notebooks, and during breaks children imitate the “defence” of a “barricade” in the yard.
In a devastated Turkish town, teenagers dream of joining the Kurdish guerrillas | World news | The Guardian
Ich hoffe du weisst, daß jegliche Propaganda der Terrororganisationen vom Verfassungssschutz beobachtet wird.