DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — When the Turkish government lifted its ban on the letter "w," it seemed like a breakthrough.
After decades of repression of Kurdish ethnic identity and a deadly war with separatist rebels, the government has made moves toward democratic reform in recent years, part of Turkey's bid to improve its chances of joining the European Union.
Letters that appear in the Kurdish alphabet but not the Turkish one were no longer banned from print. Emergency military rule was lifted. The death penalty was abolished. Arrests and reports of torture declined.
But the tide began to turn, many Kurds say, even before violent clashes between police and Kurdish protesters in late March left 13 civilians dead in the region's worst violence in more than a decade.
"Being Kurdish means you are a terrorist. That is how Turks see us," said Cemal Ceylan, 24, an unemployed Kurd with a third-grade education. He spoke over small glasses of tea at a coffeehouse in this rough city in southeast Turkey, his bitterness echoed by the young men around him.
Few of the men had jobs, they said as they slammed domino-like tiles against a metal table, absorbed in a game that helps them while away their empty afternoons. Most live in cramped apartments in the slums that ring Diyarbakir.
The city has seen its population more than double in the last 15 years with the influx of rural Kurds, driven from their homes by the government's war with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, or by military reprisals. Youths have been reared on stories of the flight, memories of burning villages and decades of abuse and repression.
"There is a high percentage who have always felt themselves to be harassed and isolated. No money, no land, no luck," said Reyhan Yalcindag, an official with the local Human Rights Assn. "People are reliving the trauma of the '90s and wondering now if it will be the same."
Their anger exploded in the March protests. The resulting violence, and a renewed campaign by the separatist guerrillas, is testing the Turkish government's commitment to reform.
A moderate Muslim nation, U.S. ally and member of NATO, Turkey has pledged greater democracy and respect for human rights to meet EU standards. But a rising tide of Turkish nationalism and the growing influence of Islamic conservatives in government have jeopardized the reforms and the EU bid.
