Newsweek Praises Turkey for Its Fight Against Terror (+Kurdish rebuttal)

Newsweek Praises Turkey for Its Fight Against Terror

Washington, USA, August 25, 2003 - The American weekly news magazine "Newsweek" has praised Turkey for its success in fighting terrorism. An editorial commentary in the magazine's August 25th edition hailed Turkey as an outstanding example for the world in its fight against the Kurdistan Workers Party - the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (PKK- KADEK), and in the prevention of suicide bomb attacks.

Newsweek International Edition Editor-in-Chief Fareed Zakaria, an American journalist of Indian origin, penned a commentary this week in which he considered suicide bomb attacks around the world at length. Turkey and Chechnya in particular are talked about.

Zakaria stated that Turkey is the most successful country in terms of preventing these attacks. In the mid-1990s more than 20 suicide bomb attacks were planned by the PKK-KADEK. The PKK's leader had confessed that the organization had chosen suicide bomb attacks as a tactic. Zakaria stated that in the following years, more of these attacks have been prevented.

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http://www.zaman.com/default.php?kn=3830

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What does Fareed Zakaria think?
24 August 2003
KurdishMedia.com - By Welat Lezgin

I strongly condemn the comments made by the Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria in an article published in the Singapore based The Straits Times on the 24th of August, 2003, on the issue of how to stop suicide bombers in which Mr Zakaria gives Turkey as a "successful" example.

Mr Zakaria, in his comments on how Turkey "employed various means to deal with the scourge," interestingly avoids well-documented facts, such as the destruction of more than 5000 villages, the ’disappearance’ of around 3000 Kurdish intellectuals and activists, hundreds of thousands of Kurds tortured and millions displaced, in Turkey’s brutal war against the Kurdish uprising in reaction to a century long oppression and humiliation.

Instead, he outrageously argues that the key to the Turkish success was the way it dealt with the Kurdish population, which can only point to two things: either Mr Zakaria does not have a clue about what he is commenting on or he knows but prefers to avoid the facts.

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http://www.kurdmedia.com/reports.asp?id=1613

It was very Alice-in-wonderlandy. Cognitive disconnect.
All about how well Ankara treats is Kurdish population and
how well that has worked in supressing Kurdish independence
aspirations ...