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Kuwait Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Turkey, PKK must change for peace, says former militant
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey: 'When you try and explain peace to people, there is a very serious lack of trust,' said Yuksel Genc, a former fighter with the PKK, which recently ended its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state. Talking over a glass of tea in a square in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, this 50-year-old former fighter with long auburn curls is worried about how the nascent rapprochement between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) will play out. 'The guerillas are sincere, but they don't think the state is,' said Genc, her words briefly interrupted by the roar of a fighter jet flying overhead. 'They think the government does not trust them.' For years, she was a fighter with the Kurdish rebel group, which on May 12 said it would disarm and disband, ending a four-decade armed struggle against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives. The historic move came in response to an appeal by its jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan, arrested in 1999 and serving life in solitary ever since on a prison island near Istanbul. Genc herself joined the militants in 1995 when she was a 20-year-old university student in Istanbul. 'At that time, many Kurdish villages were being burnt down, and we were constantly hearing about villages being evacuated, people being displaced and unsolved murders,' she said. She described it as 'a time of terrible repression'. 'You felt trapped, as if there was no other way than to join the guerrillas,' she said. Four years later, after years in exile, Ocalan was snatched by Turkish commandos in a Hollywood-style operation in Nairobi. 'Ocalan's capture provoked a deep sense of rage among the guerrillas, who feared it would mean the Kurdish cause would be destroyed,' she said. But it was Ocalan himself who called for calm and insisted it was time for the Kurdish question to be resolved democratically. He urged his followers to go to Turkey, hand over their weapons and seek dialogue. 'He thought our arrival would symbolize (the PKK's) goodwill, and persuade the state to negotiate.' Genc was part of the first so-called 'groups for peace and a democratic solution' — a group of three women and five men who arrived in Turkey on October 1, 1999 on what they knew would be a 'sacrificial' mission. After a long march through the mountains, they arrived in the southeastern village of Semdinli under the watchful eye of 'thousands' of Turkish soldiers huddled behind rocks. Handing over their weapons, they were transferred to the city of Van 200 kilometers (140 miles) to the north where they were arrested. Genc spent the next nearly six years behind bars. 'For us, these peace groups were a mission,' she said. 'The solution had to come through dialogue.' 'Peace work has a cost' After getting out, she continued to struggle for Kurdish rights, swapping her gun for a pen to become a journalist and researcher for the Sosyo Politik think tank. Even so, her writing earned her another three-and-a-half years behind bars. 'Working for peace in Turkey has a cost,' she said with a shrug. When Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister in 2003, there was hope for a new breakthrough. But several attempts to reach an agreement went nowhere — until now. 'Like in 1999, the PKK is moving towards a non-violent struggle,' she said. 'But laying down arms is not the end of the story. It is preparing to become a political organization.' Resolving the decades-long conflict requires a change on both sides however, said Genc. 'It essentially involves a mutual transformation,' she argued. 'It is impossible for the state to stick with its old ways without transforming, while trying to resolve a problem as old and divisive as the Kurdish question.' 'Ocean of insecurity' Despite the recent opening, Genc does not speak of hope. 'Life has taught us to be realistic: years of experience have generated an ocean of insecurity,' she said. '(PKK fighters) have shown their courage by saying they will lay down their weapons without being defeated. But they haven't seen any concrete results.' So far, the government, which initiated the process last autumn, has not taken any steps nor made any promises, she pointed out. 'Why haven't the sick prisoners been released? And those who have served their sentences —why aren't they benefiting from the climate of peace?' And Ocalan, she said, was still being held in solitary despite promises of a change in his situation. The number of people jailed for being PKK members or close to the group has never been revealed by the Turkish authorities. 'The fact that Ocalan is still not in a position to be able to lead this process towards a democratic solution is a major drawback from the militants' point of view,' she said. 'Even our daily life remains totally shaped by security constraints across the region with the presence of the army, the roadblocks —all that has to change.' — AFP
New Straits Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Turkiye, PKK must both change for peace: former militant
"WHEN you try and explain peace to people, there is a very serious lack of trust," said Yuksel Genc, a former fighter with the PKK, which recently ended its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state. Talking over a glass of tea in a square in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, this 50-year-old former fighter with long auburn curls is worried about how the nascent rapprochement between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) will play out. "The guerillas are sincere, but they don't think the state is," said Genc, her words briefly interrupted by the roar of a fighter jet flying overhead. "They think the government does not trust them." For years, she was a fighter with the Kurdish rebel group, which on May 12 said it would disarm and disband, ending a four-decade armed struggle against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives. The historic move came in response to an appeal by its jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan, arrested in 1999 and serving life in solitary ever since on a prison island near Istanbul. Genc herself joined the militants in 1995 when she was a 20-year-old university student in Istanbul. "At that time, many Kurdish villages were being burnt down, and we were constantly hearing about villages being evacuated, people being displaced and unsolved murders," she said. She described it as "a time of terrible repression." "You felt trapped, as if there was no other way than to join the guerrillas," she said. Four years later, after years in exile, Ocalan was snatched by Turkish commandos in a Hollywood-style operation in Nairobi. "Ocalan's capture provoked a deep sense of rage among the guerrillas, who feared it would mean the Kurdish cause would be destroyed," she said. But it was Ocalan himself who called for calm and insisted it was time for the Kurdish question to be resolved democratically. He urged his followers to go to Turkiye, hand over their weapons and seek dialogue. "He thought our arrival would symbolise (the PKK's) goodwill, and persuade the state to negotiate." Genc was part of the first so-called "groups for peace and a democratic solution" – a group of three women and five men who arrived in Turkiye on October 1, 1999 on what they knew would be a "sacrificial" mission. After a long march through the mountains, they arrived in the southeastern village of Semdinli under the watchful eye of "thousands" of Turkish soldiers huddled behind rocks. Handing over their weapons, they were transferred to the city of Van 200 kilometres (140 miles) to the north where they were arrested. Genc spent the next nearly six years behind bars. "For us, these peace groups were a mission," she said. "The solution had to come through dialogue." After getting out, she continued to struggle for Kurdish rights, swapping her gun for a pen to become a journalist and researcher for the Sosyo Politik think tank. Even so, her writing earned her another three-and-a-half years behind bars. "Working for peace in Turkiye has a cost," she said with a shrug. When Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister in 2003, there was hope for a new breakthrough. But several attempts to reach an agreement went nowhere – until now. "Like in 1999, the PKK is moving towards a non-violent struggle," she said. "But laying down arms is not the end of the story. It is preparing to become a political organisation." Resolving the decades-long conflict requires a change on both sides however, said Genc. "It essentially involves a mutual transformation," she argued. "It is impossible for the state to stick with its old ways without transforming, while trying to resolve a problem as old and divisive as the Kurdish question." Despite the recent opening, Genc does not speak of hope. "Life has taught us to be realistic: years of experience have generated an ocean of insecurity," she said. "(PKK fighters) have shown their courage by saying they will lay down their weapons without being defeated. But they haven't seen any concrete results." So far, the government, which initiated the process last autumn, has not taken any steps nor made any promises, she pointed out. "Why haven't the sick prisoners been released? And those who have served their sentences – why aren't they benefiting from the climate of peace?" And Ocalan, she said, was still being held in solitary despite promises of a change in his situation. The number of people jailed for being PKK members or close to the group has never been revealed by the Turkish authorities. "The fact that Ocalan is still not in a position to be able to lead this process towards a democratic solution is a major drawback from the militants' point of view," she said. "Even our daily life remains totally shaped by security constraints across the region with the presence of the army, the roadblocks – all that has to change."
Bloomberg
18-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
BBVA CEO Expects Sabadell Bid to Go to Investors Before July
BBVA SA Chief Executive Officer Onur Genc said that Banco Sabadell SA shareholders will likely get to decide on his lender's unsolicited bid for the rival before the end of June. The so-called acceptance period will probably kick off 'in the last piece of the second quarter,' Genc said Tuesday on Bloomberg TV. He added that 'we are in the last inches' to get approval for the offer from the Spanish competition authority.
Khaleej Times
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
For quake survivors, art brings healing in Turkey's Antioch
At first glance, it's a happy image: hundreds of smiling faces torn from newspapers and pasted into a frame. But these are ghosts, victims of the 2023 earthquake in Turkey that claimed more than 53,000 lives. The montage was put together by a local artist from Antakya, whose life was among the thousands upended when the 7.8-magnitude quake devastated huge areas of southern Turkey two years ago, in the early hours of February 6, 2023. "When I put people's memories into those frames with all that emptiness and despair, they see their own lives. There is sadness but also happiness that someone is trying to keep those memories alive," artist Emil Genc, 43, told AFP. No place was worse hit than Antakya, the site of the ancient city of Antioch, where 90 percent of the buildings were lost and more than 20,000 people died in the town and the surrounding Hatay province. "We lost an entire city," said Genc, who uses things salvaged from the ruins -- old photos, trinkets, fragments of concrete -- in her art which expresses "the utter emptiness and despair of losing absolutely everything". Many of Genc's works are on display at Antakya's Art and Culture Market, an open-air complex of wooden booths which opened on January 1 and showcases the work of more than 70 local artists. "During the earthquake, many of the city's cultural and social venues were reduced to rubble," explained Hakan Boyaci, head of Hatay's cultural association. The aim was to create a space that would bring back local artists, many of whom had left, and offer them somewhere to show their work and serve as a social meeting place for the community. "The main idea was to bring back the artists, who are the memory of the city. You can rebuild homes and buildings, but that alone won't put a city back on its feet," he told AFP. On a quiet Wednesday afternoon, only a handful of visitors were there, peering into the windows and chatting with the artists, some of whom offered workshops. Outside one, a young girl stood proudly holding up a piece of paper marbling art she'd done, her family snapping photos, everyone smiling. "Many people are still living in container cities and they needed somewhere to go out. This place provides space for social gathering and healing through art and culture while the city gets back on its feet," Boyaci said. Another initiative involving quake-hit restaurants opened in September, with the Antakya Gastronomy Market showcasing the best of the city's rich culinary heritage, much of which draws inspiration from Syria's Aleppo, just two hour's drive east. For 10 years, 47-year-old Eser Mansuroglu had made traditionally-themed mosaics of ancient historical artefacts but since the earthquake, she's copied images that deeply moved her. Outside her shop is a mosaic of an iconic image of a man in an orange high-visibility jacket sitting by the rubble holding onto his 15-year-old daughter's hand, a photo taken by AFP photographer Adem Altan. "He didn't let go of his daughter's hand until the morning even though she'd died. That affected me very, very deeply because I also lost my mother and brother, so I can feel that pain," she told AFP. "After so much death we were in a very, very bad place. For a while, I stopped making art but then I started again. I threw myself into my art to heal, it felt like therapy," she said. "I healed by doing mosaics." Funded by the governor's office and the Eastern Mediterranean Development Agency, the initiative has provided "a breath of fresh air" for both the artists and the city's residents, Boyaci said. Outside the complex, two more young artists are painting bright friezes on the concrete sidings. "Art is a way of documenting history," said Mehmet Ercin, a 27-year-old graffiti artist who is being paid to paint scenes showing the city's rich history. But it will omit one key event. "We're not going to paint the earthquake because we don't want to remember it," he said, his gloved hands splattered with acrylic paint.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
For quake survivors, art brings healing in Turkey's Antioch
At first glance, it's a happy image: hundreds of smiling faces torn from newspapers and pasted into a frame. But these are ghosts, victims of the 2023 earthquake in Turkey that claimed more than 53,000 lives. The montage was put together by a local artist from Antakya, whose life was among the thousands upended when the 7.8-magnitude quake devastated huge areas of southern Turkey two years ago, in the early hours of February 6, 2023. "When I put people's memories into those frames with all that emptiness and despair, they see their own lives. There is sadness but also happiness that someone is trying to keep those memories alive," artist Emil Genc, 43, told AFP. No place was worse hit than Antakya, the site of the ancient city of Antioch, where 90 percent of the buildings were lost and more than 20,000 people died in the town and the surrounding Hatay province. "We lost an entire city," said Genc, who uses things salvaged from the ruins -- old photos, trinkets, fragments of concrete -- in her art which expresses "the utter emptiness and despair of losing absolutely everything". - Artists as city's 'memory' - Many of Genc's works are on display at Antakya's Art and Culture Market, an open-air complex of wooden booths which opened on January 1 and showcases the work of more than 70 local artists. "During the earthquake, many of the city's cultural and social venues were reduced to rubble," explained Hakan Boyaci, head of Hatay's cultural association. The aim was to create a space that would bring back local artists, many of whom had left, and offer them somewhere to show their work and serve as a social meeting place for the community. "The main idea was to bring back the artists, who are the memory of the city. You can rebuild homes and buildings, but that alone won't put a city back on its feet," he told AFP. On a quiet Wednesday afternoon, only a handful of visitors were there, peering into the windows and chatting with the artists, some of whom offered workshops. Outside one, a young girl stood proudly holding up a piece of paper marbling art she'd done, her family snapping photos, everyone smiling. "Many people are still living in container cities and they needed somewhere to go out. This place provides space for social gathering and healing through art and culture while the city gets back on its feet," Boyaci said. Another initiative involving quake-hit restaurants opened in September, with the Antakya Gastronomy Market showcasing the best of the city's rich culinary heritage, much of which draws inspiration from Syria's Aleppo, just two hour's drive east. - 'Healed' by making mosaics - For 10 years, 47-year-old Eser Mansuroglu had made traditionally-themed mosaics of ancient historical artefacts but since the earthquake, she's copied images that deeply moved her. Outside her shop is a mosaic of an iconic image of a man in an orange high-visibility jacket sitting by the rubble holding onto his 15-year-old daughter's hand, a photo taken by AFP photographer Adem Altan. "He didn't let go of his daughter's hand until the morning even though she'd died. That affected me very, very deeply because I also lost my mother and brother, so I can feel that pain," she told AFP. "After so much death we were in a very, very bad place. For a while, I stopped making art but then I started again. I threw myself into my art to heal, it felt like therapy," she said. "I healed by doing mosaics." Funded by the governor's office and the Eastern Mediterranean Development Agency, the initiative has provided "a breath of fresh air" for both the artists and the city's residents, Boyaci said. Outside the complex, two more young artists are painting bright friezes on the concrete sidings. "Art is a way of documenting history," said Mehmet Ercin, a 27-year-old graffiti artist who is being paid to paint scenes showing the city's rich history. But it will omit one key event. "We're not going to paint the earthquake because we don't want to remember it," he said, his gloved hands splattered with acrylic paint. hmw/fo/yad/rsc
