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14- Is  PKK  a symptom of lack of Kurdish rights in Turkey?
  No, PKK is not just a symptom. It has been all too easily forgotten in some circles that it was not Turkish government that started this mess but PKK with its dream of armed communist revolution, and its policy of terrorism based on its training in the terrorist nation Syria. The whole strategy was based on claiming and controlling a certain territory through whatever means, and accomplishing a de-facto separation. It has failed miserably. Retired CIA agent, Paul Henze of RAND-- who is quite sympathetic to all forms of  micronationalism--  during a recent (January1999) conference at the Middle East Institute in Washington has pointed out clearly that Turkey has never resorted to terror to achieve its goals, and that Turkish Kurds should stop playing the victim because they have the same citizenship rights as anyone else in Turkey and that they are able to use these rights without discrimination. Elsewhere in a joint article with S. Enders Wimbus titled AMERICAN MIDDLE EAST POLICY: THE NEED FOR NEW THINKING  he states: 
Turkey, after Israel the politically and socially most modernized nation in the Middle East, has made steady progress during the past 70 years.  Turkish experience should be used as a yardstick to measure progress in other countries of the region, including Russia itself.
While there have been some unfortunate --very short-lived and quickly repealed--  attempts  to enforce unnecessary restrictions  with respect to  Kurdish languages, rights of Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin have not never been restricted in social and legal aspects. This freedom is perhaps the real reason why Kurdish movements of all kinds --including the terrorist-Syria-based PKK-- have started in Turkey by misusing the freedoms afforded Turkish ciştizens, rather than in Iran, Iraq, Syria where the repression is quite obvious.  It is also an undeniable fact that more than a third of  the House of Representatives comprises people of Kurdish origin, and that some of the finest Turkish statesman are of Kurdish origin.

No doubt ETHNIC-NATIONALISM will continue in Turkey  as well as in the rest of the world for the foreseeable future. ( And it may continue to resort to terrorizm) Turkiye is determined to develop its democracy, and continue to make a clear distinction between terrorist demands and social demands. For a review of politics and policies of Turkiye you can visit this link.
 
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