432 Resisting Publics
armed struggle in 1984. In Tunceli, as in other eastern Kurdish prov-
inces, this conflict reached its height in the mid-1990s, with widespread
torture, disappearances and extralegal killings, forced evictions and the
massive burning of Kurdish villages.^18 Following the capture of its leader,
Abdullah Öcalan, in February 1999, the PKK’s decision to put an end
to armed struggle in September of the same year (and, arguably, the
influence of the European Union’s integration perspective [the Helsinki
Summit took place in December 1999]), has caused the intensity of this
war to lessen somewhat. Tunceli was among the last Kurdish provinces
where the state of emergency was officially lifted, in July of 2002. The state
of emergency was an extraordinary legal arrangement that from July 1987
onward placed 13 provinces under the authority of a “super” governor
with extensive powers, coupled with a strong process of militarization.
Since 2002, however, there has not been a steady evolution toward peace
and normalization. Setbacks were particularly obvious following the
PKK's end to its unilateral cease-fire in June 2004. As for the AK Party's
government, which initially displayed an EU-oriented reformist policy
toward the Kurds, it generally chose to keep a low profile when faced with
rising Turkish nationalism and the intransigence of the armed forces.
Today, fewer than 94,000 inhabitants live in Tunceli, 40,000 of them
in villages.^19 It is the Turkish province that has experienced the strongest
waves of emigration since 1990. War and forced evictions have completely
disorganized what used to be a traditional economy of stockbreeding and
small-scale agriculture. Since few economic and social investments come
from the state, Tunceli largely relies on remittances from migrants living
in Turkish cities or foreign countries to cover everyday life expenses, basic
services (machines for road construction and maintenance, or equipment
for handicapped people, for example) or small-scale economic initiatives.
Today, the province remains highly militarized and under strict security
conditions. As a point of reference, in January 2006, of the 23,500 New
Turkish Lira paid to public servants in Tunceli, 19,000 were devoted to
military personnel, while investments for “economic” purposes counted
for only 1,111 NTL.^20