"Kurd violence rises in Turkey, raising fears of renewed war
By Catherine Collins
Special to the Tribune
Published May 18, 2005
GELINCIK, Turkey -- While Abdul Aydin planted lentils, the army planted land mines.
Aydin paused by the road, little more than a scratch on a rocky hillside in southeastern Turkey, to point out the local landmarks.
'This is the land where I plant lentils ... but it is not enough to feed my family, so I work in construction on the other side of the hill,' he said.
Swinging his arm in the opposite direction, he continued, 'We don't use that land for grazing anymore, since the army planted land mines.'
The juxtaposition--lentils and land mines--sums up the day-to-day existence of life in this troubled region where people are trapped in the middle of a newly resurrected struggle between the Turkish military and Kurdish separatists.
The 15-year conflict in this part of Turkey claimed 37,000 lives and ended officially in 1999 when Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, was captured and called for a unilateral cease-fire."
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