This letter is an attempted response to Mr. Alexander’s letter which appeared in the Daily on Nov. 18.

In his letter, Mr. Alexander states that the media in the U.S. is controlled by the U.S. government, and he gives examples of situations in Kosova and Turkey.

As Turkish students here at ISU, we are deeply disappointed by his view. Knowing the fact that what Mr. Alexander presents is not objective, I would like to inform you more about Kurds and the current situation concerning the Kurds in Turkey.

Unlike the view Mr. Alexander draws, Turks and Kurds have been living together in peace for thousands of years, and there has not been any sign of discrimination and oppression against Kurds.

Kurds have the same rights as Turks and any other minorities (Albanians, Jews, Armenians, Bosnians, Arabs, Azeries) do.

They have rights to be elected to the parliament and represent themselves.

There have been several Kurdish ministers and a president.

Even one of us writing this letter, Hayati Koknaroglu, originally Kurdish, got a Turkish government scholarship to study in the U.S.

This should show the fairness of the Turkish government with Kurds. If the Kurds felt that they were being threatened in Turkey, during the Gulf War, thousands of Iraqi Kurdish refugees would not have requested and received shelter from Turkey.

Mr. Alexander comes to the conclusion that the Kurds want self-rule. But in reality that’s not true.

Kurds are already living in harmony and peace with Turks, and only some terrorists backed up by some neighboring and non-neighboring countries are stirring up the unrest in the Southeastern region of Turkey.

A terrorist group, PKK ( Kurdistan Workers Party), is claiming that it fights for the rights of the Kurdish people.

It has killed thousands of Kurdish children, elderly and other people including doctors, teachers, priests and government workers.

In order to eliminate the terror created by PKK, the Turkish army decided to take action.

However, Mr. Alexander perceives that the action taken by the Turkish army is against the Kurdish people, but it is actually against the terrorist group.

PKK is the bloodiest terrorist group in existence and has been named a terrorist group by the U.S.

Abdullah Ocalan, PKK leader, a political science dropout from Ankara University, was caught and arrested while illegally entering Italy.

When I was reading Mr. Alexander’s letter, I got the impression that Abdullah Ocalan was making a business or a tourist trip to Italy and got arrested.

But the reality is that he was removed from his bases in Syria and had to run to Russia.

When Russia did not want to keep him, he tried to enter Italy illegally under a fake name.

Mr. Alexander says that now Turkey’s call for his extradition from Italy prompted Kurdish demonstrations throughout the world.

Now my question is why should Turkey not be able to get him from Italy and judge him in Turkey, the country in which he and his group committed their crimes.

I would like to say that when it comes to blaming a party, one should try to get the whole picture and analyze it before informing others.

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Hayati Koknaroglu

Graduate student

Animal science