“Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.” ~ Anonymous.
The Turkish state is trying to take aim at one of our friends in Amed again. Osman Baydemir, along with three other officials, was indicted on Tuesday for having sent a city ambulance to pick up the body of an HPG şehîd, in order to transport him to his family's home in Antep back on March 25, according to Reuters.
As with so many things in life, this appears to boil down to a question of cold, hard cash. The prosecutor's indictment seeks to imprison Osman for "incurred losses of 16.8 lira ($11)." Whoa! Did we read that right? Eleven dollars? Yeah, Osman's a seriously financially irresponsible guy. What a spendthrift! The prosecutor should be indicted for the same thing, because I'll bet anyone that it's going to waste billions more, at least, just to screw around with this penny ante charge in the court system. I'll bet anyone the prosecutor has already wasted hundreds of times the cost of the ambulance just to type up the indictment.
The prosecutor should be more concerned about the cost of the gas for the trip, if he's seriously concerned about municipal funds. Or maybe even the hours that would have to be paid to driver and and attendant, if there was one--or more--could have been added to the piddly eleven bucks in order to make this ridiculous charge slightly less embarrassing for the prosecutor. But we know that this isn't really about small change; it's all about how to get rid of a popular Kurdish mayor and senior member of a Kurdish-dominated political party.
Let's remember something else, too. This gerîla became a şehîd right before the serhildan, but it was shortly after the serhildan that the Ankara regime announced it would henceforth require a burial-in-place whenever a gerîla fell, thus avoiding having to conduct proper autopsy. This practice will lead to all sorts of abuses by hiding all evidence of torture, post-mortem mutilation. Since the Turkish state has such an atrocious record on extrajudicial murder, torture and impunity of security forces, no one will ever trust them to conduct covert, in-the-field autopsies. Besides, such autopsies are illegal. See Bianet and this Rastî post for a review of this point.
How does Osman defend himself?
"It is not our job to investigate the identity of the person who has died. This is a duty of humanity," he said.
"God willing we won't, but if we do face such a request again we will fulfil our legal, humane and moral responsibility."
Think about it, now: this Kurdish mayor has to defend himself over something like this, over a question that is far more indicative of the moral depravity of the Ankara regime than it is of anything else. Even the ruling party's leaning toward religion proves that Turkish Muslims do not consider Kurdish Muslims as equals. The new official attitude in Ankara may be that Kurds are no longer "Mountain Turks," but the regime has a long way to go before it finally admits that Kurds are human beings.
This judicial farce is expected to come to trial in a month.
A charge was also filed today against Osman for corruption, from TDN:
Mayor Osman Baydemir of Diyarbakır, the largest city in the Southeast, was charged with corruption in a 2004 city modernization tender.
The state prosecutor asked that Baydemir be sentenced to three years in prison, saying his rejection of one firm's bid to modernize Diyarbakır's water system in favor of another had cost the city YTL 976,356 -- more than $600,000.
No reason is given as to why Osman chose one bid over another--way to go TDN and AP! There's nothing like remembering the five "W's," even if "W" is forbidden in Turkey, check out the "W" trial of the DTP Sêrt Province chairman from KurdishInfo. I mean, the stupidity just doesn't stop. Could it be that the more expensive bid was actually a better bid for the city of Amed? Given the constant harassment of DTP politicians in general, and of Osman in particular, as well as the Ankara regime's lack of enthusiasm for improving the infrastructure of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, I have no doubt that the corruption charge is yet more legal harassment.
Another DTP mayor, who is also no shavetail to regime-sponsored trouble, is Êlih's Huseyin Kalkan, as the LATimes discovered:
Huseyin Kalkan, the mayor of Êlih (Batman) [Mizgîn's edit], pointed to the bullet holes in the pale-yellow wall of his office, little indentations just above the framed photograph of a lavender cactus blossom.
"I'm always a target, especially when something goes wrong," Kalkan said.
[ . . . ]
Kalkan, 42, is seen by many Kurds as a champion of their rights, and by many Turks as a dangerous provocateur. That is precisely the kind of precarious position in which Kurdish politicians in this region frequently find themselves.
Unabashedly sympathetic to Kurdish nationalists, he has been shot at — by Turkish police, he contends — and faces a dozen criminal complaints filed by Turkish state prosecutors.
It's great that Huseyin made it into the LATimes, so make sure to read the whole article. What's Huseyin's forecast?
Kalkan acknowledges that there has been progress but warns of more bloodshed, greater agitation for independence and a new crop of PKK recruits if the government does not entertain additional Kurdish demands.
"Most Kurds are looking to Turkey and Europe," he said. "But if the status quo persists, they will start looking more and more to northern Iraq and will want to separate and unite with the Kurds of northern Iraq."
What a prescient guy! As a matter of fact, Ahmet Turk and Aysel Tugluk went to South Kurdistan last week to visit with the PÇDK people, from TDN:
Türk and Tuğluk went to northern Iraq last week to attend a meeting of a Socialist International working group in Arbil. They met with Faik Gulpi, the chairman of Iraq's Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PGDK), the agency said without elaborating on the date of the meeting and citing a report from the Fırat News Agency, known for its close links to the PKK.
Gulpi expressed his pleasure over the visit by the DTP delegation, the agency said.
There have been very important developments in Kurdistan in recent years. Important advantages can be provided under the light of these developments. Current ruling parties are not able to respond to people's expectations, Gulpi was quoted by Doğan as saying, in an apparent reference to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and president of the Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
During the meeting, Türk reportedly voiced the importance attributed by the DTP to developments experienced in northern Iraq, saying that these developments also meant something to Kurds living in other regions. He expressed the DTP's will for improving its relationship with the PGDK, the agency said.
[Note: The correct acronym for PÇDK is, well, PÇDK, not PGDK.]
PÇDK ran as a legal party in the January Iraqi elections, something which probably made Turkey and the US wish for a swift de-democratization of Iraq, since the inclusion of a KONGRA-GEL-affiliated party in these elections should have made the US feel a bit uncomfortable. How do you keep a straight face about The List® when one of your so-called FTO's is taking part in democratic elections? Why is it that HAMAS is coming to mind suddenly?
Come to think of it, the Ankara regime's closure of all avenues of communication with Northern Kurdish politicians may turn out to be a big blessing in disguise. The DTP, as a representative of Northern Kurds, is beginning to look South, and it would appear that it is starting to do so in a serious way. Let it be another step on the long road to liberation.
8 comments:
If you're going to translate something you quoted, you might as well translate it properly.
"PKK'nın silahlı kadrolarını nerede bulursam bulayım, vururum. Allah'ın izniyle mücadelemi sürdüreceğim"
Can you show me the part you translated as shooting those "related to" the PKK's armed side ?
What your quote actually says is,
"Wherever I find the PKK's armed wing, I will shoot them. I will continue this struggle, God willing."
!!! + !!! = !!!!!!
when prosecution attorney asks, "do you knwo who killed your brother" ateş's responce is "did you kill my brother? i found out you killed him, i will kill you without blinking my eyes(en expression in turkis)"...and this guy has also been awarded by yasar buyukanit,The commander-in-chief of the land forces
...You also seem to have managed to attribute the quotes to the wrong people. It's Ates who said the above, but it's Kaya who had been previously awarded by Buyukanit.
I salute your efficient use of the exclamation point, however.
You ought to have more patience with someone whose mother language is not Turkish, Litmus. They may not be so perfect in their understanding of this foreign language as those of the Turkish race.
It is Ali Kaya who is Buyukanit's boy, and Buyukanit is responsible for all the crimes committed under his "watch." Ateş, on the other hand, is the perfect example of why traitors should be severely dealt with, but we never hear complaints about the crimes of such traitors from the anti-PKK crowd.
Do you require so much precision in everything? For example, we know how how definitions of certain terms are routinely interpreted. We know that "PKK," "terrorist," and "Kurd" are always synonymous.
Now, what is your opinion of the bulk of heval Xelef's comments, Litmus? Don't you think it's amazing that NATO has no restraint, and no law against mutilation of the dead or against the use of chemical weapons? Yet we continually hear of the propaganda about Geneva Convention and other propaganda efforts, such as the Chemical Weapons Convention.
What is your opinion about the continued repression of Kurds, even by ordinary people on the street, as a recent video demonstrated? Let's not pretend that video was an aberration or anomaly; it is a daily occurence.
I do salute your efficient attempts to dodge the main issues, however.
The bulk of it? If you look at xefel’s post the section I objected to is equal to or even larger than the rest of the post. But let’s for the argument assume that the “bulk” of the post is other things that were said.
I do salute your efficient attempts to dodge the main issues, however.
Yes, if a concern for truth and accuracy is taken to be dodging the main issue by all means. If there is an abundance of evidence to support one’s point they should stick to the evidence that they can understand and relate properly.
The post appears to be a case of: what is good is not orginal, and what is original is not good. If you remove the parts the parts that I objected to there isn’t anything of merit to be said. Even xelef realizes this in the post: “unfortunately those kind of illegal grups which are backed by the deep state and even government are very common in turkey.... well actually there is no need to explain everything because when one reads the news..”
"Shooting X" and "Shooting anyone related to X" is a rather important difference.
As to the main issues…
We know that "PKK", "terrorist" and "Kurd" are always synonymous.
Then how do you explain the wacked-out Nationalist Party saying they distinguish between Kurds and terrorists, and having their MHP head in Diyarbakir amusingly give a speech in Kurdish and declare, "Ben Zaza'yim. Kurt'um."
Or how do you explain Fatih Akin’s Istanbul music doc being popular in Turkey and being broadcasted on public television that included Aynur’s "Ahmedo", and had a street musician (from Siyabend, all of them Zaza Kurds) talk about the time he went to his hometown:
“We got of the bus, and in front of us is a green sign that says ‘THE FOREST IS OUR HOMELAND,’ I look the other way and in the horizon, and the forest is burning! They’re burning the forest!”
Or how do you explain the fact that I can walk outside a house in Istanbul, walk to the nearest pastry shop and order “Kurt boregi” and have it brought to my table without anyone blinking an eye or giving a flying fuck. How could this possibly be if Kurds were synonymous with terrorists?
You know what happened when Baykal was giving a speech in a university in Ankara, and a group of Kurdish students started shouting and yelling, saying that Baykal was trying to deny the rights of Kurds and calling him a fascist? Did these kids get beaten up? Were they even forced out of the room? No. Baykal ended up leaving.
What is your opinion about the continued repression of Kurds, even by ordinary people on the street, as a recent video demonstrated? Let's not pretend that video was an aberration or anomaly; it is a daily occurence.
What is my opinion? To find those responsible and lock them up.
What is your opinion about the continued repression of women? Let's not pretend that is an aberration. Should the women pick up rifles and start shooting people?
I know a Kurd who railed against a Kurdish feudal landlord in Erzincan and complained to the law. You know what happened to him? He got beaten up by the landord’s thugs. Should he have then picked up a rifle and started shooting the fuckers, because he and others were being repressed?
I’d pick a Kurdish democrat over a Turkish fascist, and I’d pick a Turkish democrat over a Kurdish fascist. I’m sure as shit not going to reject one type of racist authoritarianism only to accept another. And frankly, Kurds have as much a right to Istanbul as they do Diyarbakir.
It is possible to make a correction for the sake of accuracy and then get on with the main issues, Litmus. Your correction could have taken a couple of sentences, not a couple of posts.
It is so safe to discuss culture, isn't it? We can all agree on food, music, and even on forest fires. None of these things cross any red lines.
Of course an MHP politico can give a speech in Kurdish, but what if a DTPer did the same? What if a DTP politico sent Newroz cards with a "W" in them? What if Osman Baydemir gave a speech in Amed in Kurdish? These violations of Turkish law would bring them more charges, more indictments, more court time, fines, imprisonment--even death threats and extrajudicial murder.
Axa's repressing people? Ordering their village guards to beat someone up for standing up? What can we expect from those who collaborate with the state and who are paid by the state. Since there is no legal recourse against these pillars of the state, yes, the people have a right to armed resistance against the oppressor. Same thing goes for women, and we know who it is that has fought against these very things, taking up arms against them, just as we know for whom it is beneficial to maintain this status quo.
For more on some of my attitudes about women's repression, you should have read my previous post. You are barking up the wrong tree on that subject. I do not have a problem with armed women.
How do you know what happened to Kurdish students in Ankara the next day, the next week, or a month later? How do you know they weren't targeted later? Or maybe one of their relatives became a target instead, as payback for the students' activism, just as what happened to Fatma and Ferho Akgul.
Is someone really going to be locked up for beating up or murdering Kurds? This has been going on for decades and no one has been locked up yet. It might be a great theory, but it remains only a theory.
This is the reality on the ground in Kurdistan under Turkish-occupation and it has nothing to do with a Kurt boregi in Ankara.
By the way, nobody wants Istanbul--nobody.
You've been posting about how Kurdish culture is being denied and now you say, "It is so safe to discuss culture." I take it then that this also one of those things that's not the "main issue"...Also, please explain to me how talking about the intentional burning of forest land and villages constitutes talking about "culture"?
Of course an MHP politico can give a speech in Kurdish, but what if a DTPer did the same?
This is why the Nationalist Party move is so amusing, it allows the DTP to defend themselves easily since all they have to is simply point out that in speaking Kurdish they can be only has guilty as the far-right Nationalist Party. The MHP's move is called "evidence against interest" and it is exactly the same thing Oran and Kaboglu capitalized on when charged with insulting Turkishness for suggesting the use of the odd-sounding "Turkiyeli". They noted that they were in fact not the first ones to use the word and showed that the person who first used that word was in fact...Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Hence, you put the court in the unenviable position of accusing Ataturk of insulting Turkishness.
What can we expect from those who collaborate with the state and who are paid by the state.
So are you telling me the PKK targets the feudal landlords as much as it targets the TSK?
For more on some of my attitudes about women's repression, you should have read my previous post. You are barking up the wrong tree on that subject. I do not have a problem with armed women.
ok, so if a DTP politician picks up a second wife despite the objections of his first wife, you would support the first wife killing the oppressor, which in this case happens to be her husband?
If women launch an armed struggle against the oppressor, the oppressor in this situation is men. They would be doing this despite there being laws written against domestic abuse, and despite the fact that innocent men will die in the process as well. So you just start killing men off until they agree to your conditions, which happens to be "an end to all domestic abuse." The problem with that is that it's not state institutionalized, thus the goal is completely unrealistic since all the state can do is pass the laws and try to implement them--thus incompetence is taken for intent, and the killing continues. The problem in these cases is that the moral crime does not fit the punishment (death), and then you're back to Robespierre and co. .
How do you know what happened to Kurdish students in Ankara the next day, the next week, or a month later? How do you know they weren't targeted later?
Because the same people turn up day after day. But how do I know they weren't abducted by aliens....
By the way, nobody wants Istanbul--nobody.
I somewhow doubt Kurds in Istanbul need you to be their spokesman, or be told where they should or should not live.
You are talking nonsense, Litmus. You know as well as I, that it is perfectly safe to talk about food and other trivialities because these subjects avoid the real problem. And perhaps you could inform me about forest and village burning, since it is the Turkish state which does these things.
Why is the use of Kurdish something one can be considered "guilty" for doing anyway? Why should DTP have to defend against this "crime" at all?
There is a very old public statement from PKK to the UN, in which it clearly states who are legitimate targets. Are you not aware of this?
You are still barking up the wrong tree vis-a-vis women. But maybe you could explain why television programs about women's issues have been removed from broadcast, after several guests were murdered by their husbands. Instead of the state making extra efforts to eradicate the problem (because law itself, will not undo centuries of tradtitional patriarchal violence), it silences public discussion which would lead, albeit slowly, to the necessary change in entrenched prejudices. But that is the whole point, isn't it?
Good. I'm glad to see you admit that the students' families could easily become targets of retribution.
Point out where I said that Kurds could not live in Istanbul? I said that nobody wants Istanbul. In other words, Kurdish national movements have never desired to "conquer" the lands or cities of others, in stark contrast to the Turkish regime.
So keep Istanbul for yourself and if you want to permit Kurds to live there, that is your business.
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