Strong emotions have been provoked by the trial of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish PKK rebel movement.
|
|
![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/360000/images/_361042_ocalanposter150.jpg)
Among the grey mountains of Anatolia, sits the old grey stone city of Erzurum. On a poster still to be found on walls around the city, Abdullah Ocalan is portrayed as a devil, dripping blood onto a small child. "The Turkish nation has decided,'' the poster reads. "He must hang."
It is a sentiment that helped the ultra-nationalist party, the MHP, to make huge gains in April's general elections.
"People in Erzurum are very traditional,'' said the party's provincial chairman, Mustafa Cinar. "Our bond with the Turkish state makes us hate Abdullah Ocalan. It's a natural emotion."
Angry families seek revenge
![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/360000/images/_361042_grave150.jpg)
Three generations of the Yasayan family have lived in the isolated hamlet of Yikilhan, high up in the mountains.
Imam Bey has lost two of his children and he holds Abdullah Ocalan personally responsible. His son Bilgin was killed by the PKK in 1996, while on military service, and a second son committed suicide after his brother's death.
More than 400 young men from Erzurum have been lost to the PKK. Their angry families want revenge. Conciliation is not on their agenda.
Imam Yasayan says their pain cannot just be forgotten. "If I could catch Ocalan myself, I would take his blood. I'd kill him, and then I'd end my own life," he added.
Nationalist sentiments prevail
![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/360000/images/_361042_father150.jpg)
In the city's market, no one seemed to question the right of the state to send their sons to fight in a conflict which could drag on for many years. They said outsiders did not understand.
In Erzurum and elsewhere national pride is at stake. Nationalist sentiment has been whipped up and channelled into hatred of one man.
Some said they wanted to tear Ocalan apart and hang his lawyers as well. They insisted there was no Kurdish problem - it was just a foreign plot.
A song paid emotional homage to military martyrs, indicative of the strength of feeling about the Ocalan case in a conservative city like Erzurum.
Emotions are just as strong a hundred miles across the mountains, in the mainly Kurdish south-east of the country. But they are on the other side of the divide.
That is the dilemma Turkey is faced with. When the Ocalan trial is over, the country will wake up the next morning to find the problem has not gone away.
Country profiles
High drama at Ocalan trial
(04 Jun 99 | Europe)
Ocalan pleads for mercy
(04 Jun 99 | Europe)
Ocalan lawyers boycott trial
(03 Jun 99 | Europe)
Ocalan judge moved to tears
(02 Jun 99 | Europe)
Turkey's trial of the century
(30 May 99 | Europe)
Ocalan file: Timeline
(17 Feb 99 | Europe)
Kurdish Information Network
Ocalan Defence Team
MHP
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Violence greets Clinton visit
Russian forces pound Grozny
EU fraud: a billion dollar bill
Next steps for peace
Cardinal may face loan-shark charges
Vodafone takeover battle heats up
(From Business)
Trans-Turkish pipeline deal signed
French party seeks new leader
Jube tube debut
Athens riots for Clinton visit
UN envoy discusses Chechnya in Moscow
Solana new Western European Union chief
Moldova's PM-designate withdraws
Chechen government welcomes summit
In pictures: Clinton's violent welcome
Georgia protests over Russian 'attack'
UN chief: No Chechen 'catastrophe'
New arms control treaty for Europe
Mannesmann fights back
(From Business)
EU fraud -- a billion-dollar bill
New moves in Spain's terror scandal
EU allows labelling of British beef
UN seeks more security in Chechnya
Athens riots for Clinton visit
Russia's media war over Chechnya
Homeless suffer as quake toll rises
Analysis: East-West relations must shift