18
February 2002
1. "Turkish children questioned over human rights competition", a human rights group which is often accused of links with Kurdish rebels said on Monday Turkish school inspectors in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir had questioned several children over a drawing and writing competition the group had organised.
2. "Kurdistan Workers Party(PKK) Becomes Democratic Republic Party", Kurdish Rebels Seeking New Image.
3. "New crossroads: Death penalty", as the MHP categorically opposes the lifting of the death penalty, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit hopes to lift capital punishment through collaboration with the opposition parties -- a method he successfully applied to the reform package. This time, however, the formula may not work.
4. "Kurds in France demand Ocalan be freed from Turkish jail", several thousand Kurds on Saturday marched through the streets of this eastern French city, demanding that Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan be freed from a Turkish prison.
5. "Special Report: Human Rights, Cyprus Issues Loom Over Turkey’s EU Aspirations", Turkey’s march to Europe has never been easy or straightforward. A history of difficulties, ranging from mild misunderstandings to open warfare, has not been helped in recent years by a lack of progress in two major areas. This fall has seen the chickens from both come home to roost.
6. "Turk says death fasts may end in a year", Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk has said that the death fasts which have cost some 45 lives could end in a year if there is no more media focus on the 16-month protest.
8. "I would do it again", it's three years since the nation watched in horror as a 14-year-old Kurdish girl set fire to herself at a protest in central London. Today, Nejla Coskun is still recovering from her terrible injuries.
1. - AFP - "Turkish children questioned over human rights competition":
DIYARBAKIR
A human rights group which is often accused of links with Kurdish
rebels said on Monday Turkish school inspectors in the mainly Kurdish
city of Diyarbakir had questioned several children over a drawing and
writing competition the group had organised.
"The investigation was opened in the beginning of February and it is still going on," Muharrem Erbey from the Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) told AFP. The contest, in which some 300 children aged between seven and 14 submitted drawings and compositions to mark a human rights week in December, had only come under scrutiny because it was organised by the IHD, Erbey explained. Twenty children and about 40 teachers were asked by education ministry inspectors why they took part in the IHD contest and not a similar one organised by the governor's office, he said. Local education officials declined to comment on the issue.
"The children's psychology was very badly affected. They were forced to wait in line in the corridors (of the education office) and then asked questions as if they had committed a crime by drawing pictures and writing innocent compositions," Erbey said. The IHD had permission from the governor to organise the event and the local authorities had also allowed the group to use billboards in the city to invite participants, he explained.
The authorities have long accused the IHD of being associated to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 15-year war for self-rule in southeast Turkey, and have often persecuted its members. Turkey sees the PKK as a "terrorist" organisation and clamps down on individuals or groups that are thought to have links with the rebels. The probe in Diyarbakir coincides with government accusations that the PKK masterminded a campaign of "civil disobedience" which saw thousands of Kurdish students across the country submit petitions requesting courses in Kurdish language, which are banned in Turkey.
Turkey is regularly condemned by European rights groups
for human rights abuses and its harsh treatment of the Kurdish minority
and these concerns continue to prevent it joining the European Union.
2. - AP - "Kurdistan Workers Party(PKK) Becomes Democratic Republic Party":
Kurdish Rebels Seeking New Image
DIYARBAKIR
The new name says it all. A Kurdish rebel group with a history of
ruthless guerrilla attacks is trying to shed its bloody image and become
a legitimate political force.
What was the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, will become the Democratic Republic Party, said Kurdish sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
``The coming days will be decisive for the PKK's future,'' said the group's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is being held on a remote island while he appeals a death sentence.
His statement, appearing in the Germany-based Kurdish paper Ozgur Politika, indicated he is trying to reshape his party from behind bars, where he has been held for three years.
But the government is unlikely to accept the group and says giving in to Kurdish demands could break up the country along ethnic lines.
The PKK's attempts to clean up its image are likely aimed at Europe, where the group has a strong presence, analysts say. Turkey is pressing the European Union to include the PKK on its list of terror groups, as the United States has done.
``The PKK is the old PKK with a different tactic,'' said Michael Radu, an expert on terrorism with the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute. ``Ocalan is a much more effective public-relations strategist than Turkey, and he is telling Europe how nice his organization is.''
The PKK was founded 24 years ago in 1978 with the goal of getting Turkey to grant autonomy to Kurdish minority. It turned to armed struggle in 1984, and the fighting has claimed 37,000 lives.
There are some 12 million Kurds in Turkey, most living in the southeast. Although they represent about 20 percent of the population of 67 million, the government doesn't recognize them as an official minority. Kurdish language is outlawed in schools, at official events and in broadcasts other than music.
``People can speak Kurdish if they want,'' Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Friday. ``But we cannot accept Kurdish education.''
Ocalan called a cease-fire after his arrest, but the government rejected it and fighting continues, though it has decreased considerably in recent years.
While most Turks consider the Kurdish rebels a barbaric terrorist group, there is considerable sympathy for them outside the country.
Ocalan's fate has become a key issue in Turkey's relations with the European Union. The EU has demanded Turkey lift Ocalan's death sentence and says allowing Kurdish education is crucial for Turkey's hopes of joining the Union.
On the third anniversary Friday of Ocalan's arrest, Diyarbakir — the largest city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast — was surprisingly calm.
Previous anniversaries have seen clashes, but on Valentine's Day the bars and restaurants were crammed with romantic couples. That's quite a change from the days before the cease-fire, when the streets would have been empty after dark.
Many Kurds in Diyarbakir supported the PKK's decision last week to rename itself and halt activities under the old name. In turn, they say, authorities should end discrimination against Kurds.
Veysi Bolca, who manages local Gun TV — a station that was banned for a year last week for airing a Kurdish song critical of Turkish soldiers — expressed his frustration.
``They are always looking for something to punish us for,''
he said.
3. - Turkish Daily News - "New crossroads: Death
penalty":
Not that easy
As the MHP categorically opposes the lifting of the death penalty, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit hopes to lift capital punishment through collaboration with the opposition parties -- a method he successfully applied to the reform package. This time, however, the formula may not work
DYP also opposes
Besides the coalition's senior partner MHP, the main opposition DYP also opposes the lifting of the death penalty, while many ANAP and DSP deputies may also oppose the move demanded by Europe as one of the two keys to the opening of accession talks
AKP, SP support uncertain
The Islamist AKP and SP may also object the lifting of capital punishment with religious considerations. These two parties may also wish to use the need for their support on the issue in bargaining for the rescuing of the political future of Erbakan and Erdogan, a development which may not be welcome for Ecevit
Ocalan controversy
As Turkey's number-one public criminal PKK chieftain Abdullah Ocalan is the most notorious of some 57 inmates on Turkey's death row, the debate on whether or not to lift the death penalty will eventually be converted into a "Shall we save Ocalan from the gallows?" debate
ANKARA - TDN Parliament Bureau / Ayla Ganioglu
The three-way coalition government of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has come to yet another crossroads: The lifting of the death penalty.
The coalition government which, despite the opposition from its senior partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), succeeded in legislating a set of reforms to the Penal Code and the Anti-terrorism Law with the support of the opposition parties, will try to survive this time the tension over European demands for the lifting of the death penalty.
Even if the three-way coalition government tries to exercise the so called "harmony in disharmony" formula, it may fail to garner the required support from the opposition parties, and the lifting of the death penalty would be a real uphill battle, political observers say.
The lifting of the death penalty, which is only supported by the Democratic Left Party (DSP) of Ecevit and junior coalition partner Motherland Party (ANAP) of Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, is likely to face a stiff opposition because of the possibility that such a move would also be to the benefit of the country's number one criminal: Abdullah Ocalan, the chieftain of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) gang.
As Ocalan is the most notorious of some 57 inmates on Turkey's death row, the debate on whether or not to lift the death penalty will eventually become "Shall we save Ocalan from the gallows?" debate, and thus bring the parties supporting the move under intense public pressure.
The death penalty issue came back to the agenda of the country with the recent visit of EU Commissioner for Enlargement Guenter Verheugen, who, together with the education right in Kurdish listed the lifting of the death penalty as the two keys opening the door to accession talks between Turkey and the European Union.
Prime Minister Ecevit, despite the known opposition of the senior coalition partner MHP, declared last week that he believed the death penalty might be abrogated with the support of the opposition parties. That is, the prime minister suggested that as what had happened during the legislation of the reform package, the three-way coalition government would seek "harmony in disharmony," and while the MHP continued its objection, it would respect the decision of Parliament and won't accept the development as a reason to quit the coalition.
Speaking on a news program on the private NTV news channel on Friday evening, Ecevit drew attention to the "clear opposition" of the MHP on the issue and disclosed: "I have spoken on this issue with MHP leader deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli. I asked him 'If rather than handling the issue at the government level, we handle it in Parliament, would you feel offended?' He said 'I won't feel offended. That's within the jurisdiction of Parliament,' he said. If we manage to garner sufficient votes from outside the coalition, this problem will be solved on its own."
During the debates of the reform package, which included modifications in Penal Code Articles 159 and 312 and Anti-terrorism Law Articles 7 and 8, the MHP had objected to the views of its two partners and the package was legislated by the DSP and ANAP with the support of the opposition.
That formula, however, may not easily work in the lifting of the death penalty for many reasons.
Main opposition True Path Party (DYP) is as opposed to the lifting of the death penalty as is the MHP. DYP leader Tansu Ciller has been frequently bombarding the government with criticism for not sending the death penalty file of PKK chieftain Ocalan to Parliament for approval but keeping on holding it at the Prime Ministry. The DYP has been particularly accusing the MHP, which had pledged during the 1999 election campaigning that it would do everything possible to get Ocalan hanged, of not living up to its pledges to the nation.
Last year, while the country lifted the death penalty excluding in times of war and for crimes of terrorism, it was the DYP that supported the government most. Now, if the government asks for the support of DYP to lift the death penalty, the DYP may offer support on the condition of hanging Ocalan before lifting the capital penalty -- a condition Ecevit would not accept.
The two Islamist opposition parties Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Saadet (happiness and contentment) Party (SP) have been trying not to talk clearly on the issue so far. Still, because of religious reasons, these two parties are anticipated to oppose a lifting of the death penalty. The two Islamist parties may also opt for using the need for their support as a bargain opportunity to save the political future of AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and of Necmettin Erbakan, the banned leader of political Islam in Turkey. In the past, Ecevit did not accept such bargaining attempts of the former Virtue Party (FP), the forefather of both two Islamist parties.
On the other hand, there might be substantial opposition among the DSP and ANAP deputies also to the lifting of the death penalty. Prime Minister Ecevit, who has been campaigning for decades for the lifting of the death penalty, may be the most comfortable politician in explaining to his supporters why he would be acting now for the abolition of the capital penalty. ANAP leader Yilmaz, on the other hand, may find justification for his support of the lifting of the death penalty with the cliche that it was a step that had to be taken for the sake of the EU membership of Turkey. But, there would still be many DSP and ANAP deputies who would not accept such a development.
Turkey has been applying an undeclared moratorium on death penalties since 1985. According to Turkish legislation, a death penalty can only be executed after Parliament gives its consent. Since 1985, Parliament has not been handling death penalty files, and therefore no death penalty could be executed.
But, on the Ocalan case, fearing that the issue could
be taken out of the hands of the party leaders, and deputies may act
individually and approve the execution of the separatist chieftain in
a General Assembly vote, the three-way coalition is withholding the
Ocalan file at the Prime Ministry.
4. - AFP - "Kurds in France demand Ocalan be freed from Turkish jail":
STRASBOURG
Several thousand Kurds on Saturday marched through the streets of
this eastern French city, demanding that Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah
Ocalan be freed from a Turkish prison.
The demonstrators -- 6,000 according to police, 8,000 according to organizers -- cried "Freedom for Ocalan" as they marched through Strasbourg to mark the third anniversary of his capture in Kenya.
A huge portrait of Ocalan was carried by demonstrators, some of whom sported red and yellow bandanas -- the colors of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ocalan leads.
Protesters came from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland for the demonstration organized by a Strasbourg-based Kurdish cultural association, along with Kurdish associations in other countries.
"It's thanks to a plot, notably implicating Turkey, Germany, Greece and Kenya, that Ocalan was arrested three years ago," said Fidan Dogan, a spokeswoman for protest organizers.
Turkish agents captured Ocalan in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on February 15, 1999 after he left his refuge in Greek diplomatic compounds there, and brought him to Turkey the following day.
Ocalan was condemned to death in June 1999 for treason, but Ankara suspended the execution of the sentence until the European Court of Human Rights rules on his complaints against Turkey.
Heeding Ocalan's peace appeals, the PKK announced in September
the same year it was ending its armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule
in southeast Turkey to seek a democratic resolution to the Kurdish conflict,
which has claimed some 36,500 lives since 1984.
5. - THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS - "Special Report: Human Rights, Cyprus Issues Loom Over Turkey’s EU Aspirations":
By Jon Gorvett
Turkey’s march to Europe has never been easy or straightforward.
A history of difficulties, ranging from mild misunderstandings to open
warfare, has not been helped in recent years by a lack of progress in
two major areas. This fall has seen the chickens from both come home
to roost.
First of all is human rights. Ever since Turkey first applied for membership in the European Union, or the European Common Market as it was known back in the 1960s, Brussels has been consistent in its condemning of Ankara for a range of serious human rights abuses. Reports from organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a host of other European and North American NGOs and governmental agencies, have frequently pointed to widespread use of torture in Turkey’s jails, detentions without trial, extra-judicial executions, prosecutions for what the Turkish criminal code terms in Orwellian style as “thought crimes,” military participation in State Security Courts—at which most serious political offenses are tried—and a variety of other ruptures with the various European conventions on human rights and criminal procedure that Turkey has signed over the years.
The war in the southeast of the country between the army and supporters of the initially separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which broke out completely in 1984, also added to human rights concerns, as allegations of a “dirty war” in the region were backed up with endless eyewitness stories of atrocities, mainly committed by the army.
So, with Ankara’s moves to bring Turkey closer to the EU as part of its historic mission to get Turkey into Europe, hopes were high that the country would have to make substantial reforms in the human rights arena in order to meet the Brussels criteria.
Recent constitutional changes promised much in this regard. A package of 34 measures was passed through parliament this fall and included the removal of prohibitions on broadcasting and publishing in Kurdish. It also improved the lot of the country’s women, changing the 1926 civil code to recognize men and women as legal equals, ending the designation of men as heads of the household and giving women a larger share of property in divorce.
The constitutional changes also acknowledged for the first time the principle of proportionality—that any limitation of rights must be proportionate—and the period of detention before trial was limited to four days. Meanwhile, human rights training seminars have been underway for some time in the police force. A number of committees on human rights also have been established, one of which, the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee, achieved some notable successes under its former chairwoman, Sema Piskinsut. It is also now more difficult for a political party to be banned—a fate that has befallen every Islamist party in the country since Welfare, the former ruling party, was proscribed in 1998, while almost all of the country’s Kurdish parties have also been closed.
All these changes represent forward steps, as the EU’s progress report on Turkey stated when it was released in mid-November. The report also pointed out a whole range of failings in Turkey’s reforms, however. First of all, Kurdish language and cultural rights are granted only so long as a court is prepared to rule that they do not endanger “national security.” How fragile that security might be thought to be was immediately demonstrated when groups of ethnic Kurdish students lobbying their university administrations for the introduction of Kurdish language courses were threatened by the University Supreme Council (YOK) with dismissal and worse late November on grounds of “separatism.”
As for women’s rights, many point to the gulf between legal statements and actual practice, particularly in rural Turkey, where women are still very much inferior within traditional family and village structures.
Perhaps the most damning of all, though, when it comes to Turkey’s progress on human rights, was a report issued by the country’s Human Rights Association (IHD) which found that 762 cases of torture in police custody, including beatings and sexual abuse, had taken place in the first nine months of 2001. An appalling figure under any circumstances—but even worse when it represented a 50 percent increase over the same period the previous year.
The IHD report also found that the number of people prosecuted for “thought crimes” this year was a staggering eight times higher than the previous year. Extra-judicial killings also were widespread, along with “unsolved murders”—the clean up rate for homicide now as low as 20 percent. Many of these are thought to be politically motivated killings.
Not very good results, then, for a system supposedly on the march toward higher standards. “There has been no progress in concrete terms,” said IHD Chairman Husnu Ondul, introducing the report to journalists. He blamed the increases on a “lack of determination” to implement reform within the security services, adding that urgent “legal, judicial and educational measures” had to be taken.
Deputy Prime Minster Mesut Yilmaz, who is overseeing Turkey’s EU bid, did concede that the country needed to do better in this field, and that criticism of the country’s rights record was only natural “if we fail to take the necessary steps or do things in half measure.”
Something Doing on Cyprus?
Which might also sum up the EU’s feeling about the second major source of discontent between Brussels and Ankara these days—Cyprus.
Turkey has maintained an army of 35,000 troops in northern Cyprus ever since the country intervened in 1974 to prevent what it saw as the impending annihilation of the island’s Turkish Cypriot minority. In 1983, the northern area of the island declared independence from the Republic of Cyprus, the internationally recognized government, but has since failed to gain recognition from anyone except Turkey.
Meanwhile, the U.N.—and, periodically, the U.S. and Britain—have sponsored efforts to try and reunite the island. Negotiations have been unsuccessful, however, and broke down completely when the EU accepted an application for membership from the Republic of Cyprus in 1998. The Turks argue that the Republic does not represent the Turkish Cypriots and that, unless the northern state is recognized as having equal status with the Greek Cypriot south, they cannot negotiate any further. They also threatened to annex the north to Turkey if Cyprus is admitted to the EU.
The EU has made it fairly clear, however, that if Turkey itself wants to join the EU, then it must “do more” over Cyprus. With the Republic now further advanced on the road to EU membership than almost all the other current prospective candidates, this is becoming more and more of a pressing issue. It is quite conceivable that Cyprus will be ready to join by the end of 2002. If Turkey were to then carry out its threat to the island, Ankara would undoubtedly be saying goodbye to Europe.
This has created a certain dynamic recently, with Turkish Prime Minster Bulent Ecevit restating his threat of annexation in early November, but with this then followed by an apparent about face by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. He wrote to Greek Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides offering to meet with him for the first time in three years. Clerides at first refused, but a compromise was then reached in which the U.N. Cyprus chief, Alvaro de Soto, will also be present. Meanwhile, for the first time perhaps ever, the more liberal Turkish columnists have begun to question whether or not the country’s EU ambition really should be sacrificed for 180,000 Turkish Cypriots.
The sense of imminent movement was also then heightened by an emergency closed session of the Turkish parliament in late November to discuss Cyprus. Deputies were forbidden from discussing what transpired at the session for a period of 10 years.
So there certainly does seem to be grounds for thinking a deal finally may be in the offing. But, as the human rights issue appears to demonstrate, in this corner of the world, there is still a long way to go before the gap between the apparent and the real can be said to be closed.
Jon Gorvett is a free-lance journalist based in Istanbul.
6. - Turkish Daily News - "Turk says death fasts may end in a year":
ANKARA
Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk has said that the death fasts
which have cost some 45 lives could end in a year if there is no more
media focus on the 16-month protest.
Mostly left-wing prisoners and their families launched the protest in October 2000 against the transfer of thousands of inmates to the cell-style jails from large dormitories, because they said that the prisoners there would be isolated and subjected to abuse.
Turkish authorities deny the accusations and defend the cell-type jails, saying they met the European criteria. They say the protests were organized by an outlawed far-left militant group outside the jails, since the groups seeks to use old dormitory system to recruit new members.
The Anatolia news agency quoted Turk as saying that measures had been taken to ensure the fair treatment of prisoners in the new jails. "If media organizations show no more interest in the protests, it will speed up the disintegration of the terrorist organizations," Turk said, in reply to a parliamentary inquiry motion. "Then the hunger strikes and death fasts will most likely end in six months to a year," he said.
But the minister emphasized that those at the head of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) armed militant group who were living abroad should be arrested to bring an end to the protests. DHKP/C leader Dursun Karatas is believed to be living in a European country.
Human rights officials say some 150 people are on death fasts currently, and around 40 among them have serious health problems. As part of the protests, dubbed as "death fasts," prisoners consume salted or sugared water and vitamins in order to lengthen their protest.
Turkish security forces raided the dormitory-type prisons
nationwide in December 2000. Some 32 inmates and two soldiers were killed
in the operation, bringing.
7. - BBC Monitoring Service - "Turkey: Kurdish
education "not acceptable", "not innocent" - defence
minister": 
Text of report by Eyuphan Kilic, published by Turkish news agency
Anatolia
Siran [northeastern Turkey]: National Defence Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu said: "The demand for Kurdish education is not an innocent demand."
Cakmakoglu, who was conducting inspections in the Kelkit District of Gumushane, visited District Governor Metin Kubilay in his office and was briefed on the district's problems. Cakmakoglu later went to Siran District and visited District Governor Yilmaz Simsek. In answer to a question on the "demands for Kurdish education", Cakmakoglu stressed that the integrity of the territory, the motherland, the country and the nation constitutes the basis of the unitary state structure of the Turkish Republic.
Noting that those who demand an education in the Kurdish language may benefit from the rights granted by the Turkish Republic, Cakmakoglu said the following:
"Turkish is our official language and our language of education. We cannot accept the demands of a certain group just because they want to receive an education in the Kurdish language. They are putting the individual's education right on the agenda and they are saying: We want to receive an education in the Kurdish language. This will destroy the state's unitary structure. We have to maintain all the characteristics that contribute to our integrity. When we say unitary structure, we are not merely talking about territorial integrity. We are talking about the integrity of the country, of the territory and of the nation. The unity of language is the basis of this integrity. Everyone can speak any language that he wants in his home. Everyone can learn any language he wants. We do not criticize that. Within the framework of the Turkish Republic's integrity, we cannot accept an opening that will lead to the use of another language.
"The demand for Kurdish education is not an innocent demand. This is one of the demands of the 20-year-old armed terrorism. We should not forget about yesterday just because these demands appear on the agenda today. We should understand the developments that might follow. To say that the EU wants this, that the separatist terrorist organization demands that the right to an education in the mother tongue be granted, and to politicize the issue runs counter to our state's principles. We cannot accept this."
Following his inspections in the Siran District, Minister
Cakmakoglu and the escorting delegation went to the Kose district of
Gumushane.
8. - The Guardian - "I would do it again":
It's three years since the nation watched in horror as a 14-year-old Kurdish girl set fire to herself at a protest in central London. Today, Nejla Coskun is still recovering from her terrible injuries. Nic Fleming pays her a visit
On February 16 1999, Nejla Coskun claimed her place in the national consciousness and came within seconds of death with the help of £3 worth of petrol and a cigarette lighter.
With flames leaping from her back and shoulders, she dashed through a crowd of startled demonstrators in central London. As the fire melted the skin on her neck and her hair began to burn, she clenched her teeth and ran faster, stretching out her arms, her hands curled into defiant victory symbols.
The TV images were hard to forget. And the news that she was only 14 made them all the more shocking.
Coskun's dramatic protest was sparked by the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader and figurehead for millions of Kurds struggling for an independent state. A snapshot of her bedroom, printed in the British press the next day, highlighted what seemed to many to be incomprehensible contradictions in the adolescent's life. Teddy bears rested against PKK flags; Teletubby dolls and a Calvin Klein baseball cap jostled for space with pictures of gun-toting guerrillas. She was described as "a lively, popular girl" by her head teacher, and yet she was prepared to die for her beliefs.
Three years later, Coskun is scarred for life and still in pain. She has spent months in hospitals having treatment for the severe burns to her back, shoulders, arms, neck and chest. Her scars have become infected, and doctors have told her that she cannot have plastic surgery because the burns are so deep that the skin tissue is dead. Now aged 17, she only returned to full-time education last September.
The sparsely decorated lounge of the three-bedroom house she shares with her parents and two sisters in Wood Green, north London, helps explain her devotion to the cause. A giant picture of a smiling, khaki-clad Ocalan has pride of place above a television permanently set on the Kurdish Medya satellite channel. It is just one of five images of the Kurdish leader in a room adorned with red, green and yellow PKK flags and vases of plastic flowers.
Seated beneath several portraits of guerrilla fighters, one of whom poses moodily with a pistol, and watched over by her black-veiled mother, Kadriye, Coskun speaks without regret. "I felt so strongly that I was willing to die," she says. "I thought, 'What can I do to help change something?' I did not achieve what I was hoping to. I thought that my actions would cause the government and Tony Blair to think about what is happening to my people. But they haven't, and nothing has changed.
"But I'm glad I did it. It was worth it because Kurdish people are dying, burning daily. Before, when I told people I was Kurdish they did not understand. But the TV, magazines and newspapers have done interviews and talked about the situation, and now people know who the Kurds are and what they are fighting for."
Coskun's parents fled from Turkey to Cyprus in 1976 after years of harassment. Kadriye says that she cannot read or write because she was prevented from going to school in Turkey because she was Kurdish. Her husband, Suleyman, a farmer, had suffered repeated beatings. But things didn't get much better after the move. "When I was five, Turkish soldiers dressed all in black with guns broke down the door of our house," says Coskun, who was born in Cyprus. "I was crying and trying to hide under the covers, and they threw me out of bed and hit my mother. They took my dad to the police station. We were told to leave the country or else my dad would be killed."
By the time the family moved to Britain in 1993 as asylum seekers, Coskun was a politically committed eight-year-old. She stayed in touch with her roots by attending folk singing and dancing classes at the Kurdish community centre in Haringey, north London.
Turkey accuses Ocalan of causing the deaths of 29,000 civilians and soldiers during 15 years of conflict between the country's security forces and PKK guerillas. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death after his capture in 1999. But for Coskun, Ocalan - whom the Turks have promised not to execute while a ruling on whether his death sentence breaches the European convention on human rights is pending - is a hero.
"When we heard that Ocalan had been captured, everyone was sad," she says, sitting upright on the sofa. "At first my dad said I could not go to the protest at the Greek embassy, but I said, 'Please daddy,' and he said OK. Ocalan is very special to me. He has done a lot for the Kurdish people."
Some of the hundreds of people who were at the demonstration on that cold, rainy night occupied the embassy and fought with police. "We were sat on the street and they started pushing us and hitting us with truncheons," says Coskun. "Everyone was very angry. At 4am we heard that Ocalan had been taken to Ankara. I said to myself that I had to do something. I thought that setting fire to myself would make people see the pain we were going through."
She laughs as she describes mistakenly buying diesel, being sent on her way by a couple of garage attendants, and running out of money. Eventually, she bought a £4.99 red plastic fuel container and a small quantity of petrol. "I phoned my mum to speak to her for the last time. Everyone was shouting and I said to myself, 'This is the right time.' I went away from the crowds and poured the petrol over myself and lit it.
"I remember I screamed. People were running towards me. I ran and everyone was panicking. It was really, really hot. I tried to laugh, but my lips were melting. I made victory signs and shouted, 'Long live our leader, Ocalan.' Then I was on the floor with people putting out the fire. I never thought that I would stay alive." She woke up in Chelsea and Westminster hospital to an emotional reunion with her family.
Today Coskun is doing her GCSEs at Hertford Regional College in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. She plans to take A-levels and then go on to become a lawyer specialising in international relations and human rights. Her friends, she says, are a mixture of nationalities - including Brits, Kurds and Turks. She likes Britney Spears, Madonna and Craig David, as well as Kurdish music.
Coskun is more articulate and confident than she seemed three years ago, but the more you talk to her, the more you realise that time has done nothing to dampen her resolve. She is angry that Britain continues to approve arms export to Turkey while Amnesty International reports extrajudicial executions and the torture of Kurds in the country.
Coskun pulls up her sleeve to show me the melted skin on her upper right arm. "Britain must stop selling weapons to Turkey," she says. "My people, my friends, my family are being killed with those guns. The Kurdish people don't have a country, they can't speak their own language, they don't have their identity. They have only their leader, Abdullah Ocalan. And if he goes we will be out of control. I don't want to go to war, but if things carry on like this I won't have a choice. I will fight for my people."
And with unnerving calm, she adds: "If something
happens to Ocalan, if anything happens to my leader, I will do it again.
I will set fire to myself again."