14th May 2005, 11:09 AM
Absolutely- the archaeology is of course but one dimension. The displacement of the Kurds is another. For an insight into the Turkish treatment of the Kurds-have a look at the European newspaper (January 11-17th 1996). Of course, the problem is this- if we boycott a government and refuse to participate in the active recovery of threatened archaeology on moral/ethical grounds, we lose the archaeology. How do we approach this? What can be done on a global basis to counter this double-edged sword? For my part, I feel that the Turkish Government should be forced to deal with the archaeology themselves and European academics and indeed, commercial archaeologists should grow up and open their eyes.