Strange how these guys are terrorists and evil and should accept subjugation by TURKEY. But when it comes to Bosnia, Croatia or KOSOVO, we're all for self determination. I'm British so am somewhat of an expert on HYPOCRISY. You could say that Brits are the experts after all. But this is the most rank hypocrisy. Shame on Turkey, Shame on the EU and Shame on the US - for they are the true murderers and terrorists.

Neil, Walton,

kurds have never been able to get the same right as the turks that why they are up their in the mountains fighting for freedom i think that it is true what she had said that "you either submit or you fight", turks can think what they want but kurds would keep on fighting in the mountains if the turkish government doesnt sort out the problem and its the kurdish problem not a terorist problem!!

MEHMET, london, england

How can you write 'a terrorist's violent killing story' in such a romantic way? how can you not ask her how many people, children, women she killed? what about the families, mothers, wifes, husbands, childrens of those victims? This is a double standard journalism Ms Haynes. How would you feel if I wrote a friendly report I made with a member of Al Quida and even not referring s/he as a terrorist? One is a terrorist only if s/he attacks your territory and you don't care if a brainwashed killer is spreading her violence around somewhere else. shame on you! Every body is equal in Turkiye,if one wants to isolate herself by not getting any civilised attitude then it is s/he the problem,not the country. it is true that these people has 15-20 children.how could you have upper standards then. Turkiye is only a developing country and we all have economical problems, but dont use this in other platforms as you are treated a second class because of your ethnic origin.this is rubish.

ebru, london,

This article is ridiculous. First they are not guerillas, they are avowedly terrorists who kill even babies in cradles. Secondly terrorists who surrendered in decades were not killed but handed to independent Turkish judges. The way of getting rights is not related with killing people. Furthermore no one can propose that Kurdish people in Turkey don't have the same rights with Turks.Hence dont be funny.

atamkurt, Balıkesir, Turkey

Please just stop making this look like a sob story. I am curious did you ask her how many people she has killed, or was that irrelevant for some reason?
Furthermore, do you think she had some sort of an epiphany and decided to just leave? Do you think people have free will when involved with these kinds of organizations? I am assuming you can't JUST LEAVE a terrorist organization like the PKK.
It is sad that she was taken at 12 years of age and manipulated like this - but this is the truth of the PKK, they manipulate CHILDREN and their parents to fight in the mountains. Where is the justice and humanity in that I ask you?
You talk about how equality is cherished within the PKK-are we supposed to warm up to them now just because they believe in equality between men and women? It is just a matter of circumstance for them, not principle.
Don't be so naive.

Eren, Ankara, Turkey

This is amusing . . I agree on one thing though;
killing is not the solution

She was 12 years old when she became a fighter, thats so sad to hear. . Theres many more people that get brainwashed into crucial situations like this.. I mean they should reach a certain age and have a certain amount of education before they decide to follow something..

Faith Yener, Budapest, Hungary

This is one-sided propaganda of the terrorist organization PKK. Why don’t you ever mention that Kurds, just like all Turkish citizens have the same rights. Kurdish is spoken in many places. There are tv and radio channels in Kurdish (just read the EU’s latest progress report for Turkey). Why don’t you mention that the many rallies condemning the PKK that have been going on in the southeast of Turkey- in towns with predominantly Kurdish populations? Or the fact that most Kurds don’t like the PKK and don’t feel they voice their opinions, yet are afraid to come out and say so. Why do we never read about the feudal structure of the Kurdish populated south-east of Turkey where a few landlords tell their people whom to vote for; where the rates of young girls being sent to school are drastically lower than the national average.There needs to be investment in the southeast but the PKK kills and threatens public and private sector workers. and what about the illegal trafficking funding PKK.

Tayyibe Gulek, Ankara, Turkey

Damn it PKK BUT Peace at home peace in the world

Alperen, uk,

I am amused to read these so-called romantic interviews ms. Deborah Haynes manages to have with the PKK terrorists and make out their stories are of mistreated victims of Turkish oppression. Nothing of the kind. This is what PKK is exactly doing, brainwashing children to glorify terrorism. The fact of the matter is that they are uneducated lost souls who choose the path of being a terrorist when there is no reason to be one. The assertion that they do not have relationships with men in PKK is nonsense.. The reason they join these groups of terorists is because their families restrict their freedom. These women are raped and used by all the men. If you are not against your own people and Country you dont need asylum. The only people who do are their peoples and Country's enemy..

M. Salaheddin, London,

The question is: who is not willing to end this war: PKK or the Turkish state? we all no that PKK (the Kurds) have no option than fight. But speciale UK, who is the power that has created this situation for the Kurds (read history) is sporting the Turks and not willing to work for a salution of the question. Sorry, they want to distroy the PKK (wich means the politik and millitary fight of the Kurds for there rights!)..I respect hear, but I do not agree with conclution of wich coms on ''PKK hav to laying there arms''. Ä°t is not a salution.. this means give the Turks the right to go on with denaing the rights of the Kurd..
I see the UK and the West as responsible for the war in Kurdistan.

baris seven, brussels, belgium

I am touched by the bravery of this young girl who has fallen in love with freedom and fought for it despite difficult conditions. I admire her bravery and determination to leave luxurious life and advantage of living in a rich country Germany to fight for a noble course not for money or anything but for freedom. This shows how pure Kurdish cause is. a Nato member Turkey with all the money it invests in its army could not defeat the free will of Kurdish people to fight for their freedom.

Turkey should become a civilised country and grant Kurdish people self-determination so that Kurdish and Turkish young people can live together in harmony and not war.

dario, london, uk

as a citizen of turkey everyone has the same rights. i am kurdish and i have never exprienced racism. my son has a kurdish name, i speak kurdish with my friends, i am a teacher at a state school, during miltary duty i was a second liutenant officier... that's true i have to speak turkish at governal offices because turkish is official language. we, kurdish people have too many children so we are generally poor. for example a friend of mine has seven children and he says "i am poor because of the government" that's not true he is poor because he has seven children ( he tries to have more because PKK tells the more children you have the more warrior we have) .

zozan dereci, istanbul, turkey

I HAVE MY SAY: we are equal. Because we are not determined that we are kurd or Turk from a distance of 100 meters. In England, The USA or France, people are recognized because of their skin color or racial profiles. However, people in Turkey are not recognized as a member of a race by means of their profiles. Kurds, please tell me: do you want to be a real minority as african americans are in the USA or as africans in France. Come on, this is your home and do not try to categorize yourself as second class citizens. Because everybody in turkey is first class citizen and do not degrade yourself. What do you want? 10 per cent of the positions in the government. come on you are at every position and your percentage at government positions is more than the percentage of your population.

yusuf bulut, istanbul, turkey

I found your article really touching. The Kurdish people have struggled for basic human and political rights in Turkey since a policy of assimilation was adopted by the new state of Turkey not long after its establisment in 1923, under the The Lausanne Treaty. The Kurdish people were since then subject to forced assimilation or forced depopulation from their villages. Horrific torture, killings and the worst which the previous Turkish Commenter Isso adheres to 'denial'. A Kurd who does not seek rights for Kurds can everywhere in Turkey but one who does seek their rights can only end up in prison or fighting in the mountains. So many young people like Zerya have given their lives so we can now speak about The Kurdish Question in Turkey. The PKK are Freedom Fighters not 'terrorists' as the racist Kemalist Turk wants you to believe.
Please read more about the Kurds at my blog: http://hevallo.blogspot.com

Hevallo, London, England

"A Kurdish person has all the rights that a Turk has"

Hahahaha... This is the funniest statement that I have heard for a long time. A Kurd enjoys no right whatsoever as a Kurd in Turkey. No right to kurdish education, broadcasting, giving their children kurdish names and until recently singing kurdish songs. Even speaking kurdish was forbidden at one stage. It is true that Kurds have risen to high echelons of society and state but as true servants of turkish state and nothing left from their kurdishness. They never expressed their kurdish identity let alone espouse any rights.

Of course war is bad and in a ideal world nodoby should resort to violance. But how would you react to an oppressive regime bent on destroying your identity, culture, language and the rest?

yasar, london, UK

Excuse me, Isso from London! A Kurdish person has the same rights in Turkey? What a load of rubbish. So long as you describe yourself as a Turk and never a Kurd, as long as every morning in school you swear allegiance to Mustafa Kemal racist ideology, and repeat until it is drummed into you that you are happy because you are a Turk, then of course you are "equal". But as soon as you step out of that box and want to discover your culture, you are a terrorist. That is why my family and hundreds of thousands of other Kurds left our homes in south-eastern Turkey in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan - because our village was burnt to the ground by the barbaric Turkish army. We were innocent, our only crime was that we chose not to be Turkish.

So please Isso, do not say Kurds have the same rights as you. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but never all of the people..

Hassan C, London

hassan, london, uk

You made the terrorism and terrorist sucessfully funny. These people are killing official soldiers of a country. Why don't you try to look the terrorism directly? terrorist is just terrorist. A kurdish person has all the right what a turk has in Turkey? Because in our official identities, passports we don't have a column used for originality (Turk, kurd, cecenia or etc). And Turgut OZAL ex-Turkish republic president is also a kurd. they vote as a Turk. Nobody can understand who is turk or kurd from any official paper. So what is the problem. Problem is the people supported by official western minds sitting in western countries, using these young people and earning money from this kind of clush.Terrorism is very bad and we have to fight all kind of terrorism not only in US or killing the Britons one. Thanks.

Serdar , ankara, Turkey

interesting

isso, london,