Survey on Kurds

“Survey on Kurds Challenges View of the Turkish Hard-Liners” (Aug. 19), although not deliberately, misrepresents the Kurdish issue. For example, you missed the bottom line that a majority of the Turkish citizens with Kurdish descent are against an independent Kurdistan.

The survey is under fire from all quarters and the debate is not over yet. Some question the reliability of this survey and produce very convincing arguments that the survey was designed to produce predetermined results to support convictions long held by the advocates of PKK and separatists. Others, again convincingly, question if such surveys can at all be carried out and produce healthy results when the tug-of-war between the PKK terrorists and the Turkish security forces is still in effect and takes its toll on the people of the area. Still others in the Turkish press question the very character, integrity, as well as academic credentials of the person who carried out this survey, as in “custom surveys--each sold separately” type of hustler. The jury is out on his “findings.”

Every Turkish citizen is saddened by the cycle of violence in southeastern Turkey, which is orchestrated by some Kurdish terrorists, and designed to destabilize and dismember Turkey. We Americans should understand this better than anybody else. After all, we fought a civil war over it, didn’t we?

ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI

Western Regional Director

Federation of Turkish American Assns.

Irvine