Suchergebnisse

A squeamish Kurdish problem has not been solved yet. At time this transtate and ethnic conflict with international dimension was connected with arresting and deportation of PKK's leader Öcalan. Turkish authorities have been fighting the PKK's rebels at south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq and especially civil population have suffered from these fights. Most of Turkish authorities knows that peaceful solution of the Kurdish problem should improve an image of Turkey abroad, for example a chance of Turkey to become a full-fledged member of EU. ... Kurds are often described as "stateless nation", "people without country", they are marked like the biggest stateless ethnic group of the countries of the Middle East. ... They are wide diffused in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, but none of these countries they dominated in. They are a divided population even in Turkey: some of them were assimilated with Turkish society up to unconsciousness of individual ethnic awareness. Some of Kurdish groups from Turkey and other states have become political and they want autonomy. ... Previous Prime minister T. Ciller shortly mentioned about possibility of Kurdish community in Turkey to take a "Baskit model" of regional autonomy in autumn 1993. (SOI : MO: S. 35)

A major representative of Kurdish nationalism in Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) renewed its violent activities while ending a ceasefire that lasted for almost five years in 2004. The nature of its armed struggle is in many aspects different from that of the period of 1984-1999. The issue of the Kurdish question in Turkey has been once again becoming increasingly dynamic in the last years, and the violent manifestations connected with this issue have been increasing as well. The presented case study deals with the offensive tactics of the PKK during its armed struggle in Turkey in the period from 2004 to 2011. The activities of the PKK are framed in the concept of insurgency. The analysis is focused on a description and interpretation of the nature of the PKKs offensive operations. On the basis of the analysis of the operational level of the PKKs activities, the pursued insurgent tactics are identified. The PKK pursues and combines four kinds of typical insurgency tactics - provocation, intimidation, protraction, and exhaustion, with the first two being the most important. In the background of the PKKs campaign, we can observe that the PKK plans and times its operations very carefully. At the same time the PKK focuses on getting and maintaining popular support for itself. Adapted from the source document.

The Caspian region is one from the most oil- and gas-rich regions in the world. The estimated oil and gas reserves are believed to be around 16 billion tons. The geological location of the most perspective oil and gas fields at the Caspian shelf determines the policy of littoral states concerning the legal status of the basin which has not been solved yet. Oil- and gas-rich Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have proposed the division of the Caspian Sea into five sectors according to terrestrial border points. The Russian Federation and Iran (without real oil and gas perspectives in their believed sectors) are opposing this attitude and are insisting on a common use of the Caspian Sea in condominium. As a matter of fact, the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons is going on, controlled by international oil and gas companies. The main technical problem to solve is the lack of transportation opportunities, as the construction of new pipelines from the region so as to access world markets is needed. Russia and Turkey are those most active in this question, followed by Georgia and Iran. The proposed oil pipelines through Russian or Georgian territories are to be terminated at Black Sea ports from where oil should be transported by supertankers, passing thus the Bosporus - Dardanelles Straits and in a case of accident then jeopardising 12 millions of inhabitants of Istanbul. Therefore and also from political reasons Turkey has proposed to build up a pipeline to Turkish Mediterranean oil terminal of Ceyhan. The Turkish position is backed by the USA looking for cutting of the Russian influence in the Caspian Region. Due to technical and political reasons, it seems the most probable that all of the three proposed routes for oil will be constructed in ten years, if the output of oil will be as high as it is expected today. (SOI : MO: S. 307)