VIEW FROM A GLASS HOUSE

"Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue."
~ Molière.

Ever hear of the old saying, "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones?" No one ever explained this to the Turks, and that's why are now sitting on a precarious little perch inside their own glass house and have begun throwing stones south . . . in the direction of Israel, another of their good allies.

Take, for example, Ilnur Cevik's and Huseyin Bagci's recent columns at The New Anatolian. Both are throwing stones over Israel's reaction to regain its captured soldier, yet both are blinded to Turkey's own miserable oppression of Kurds.

Watch Ilnur get out the violin:

The Israelis, like the Americans, refused to cooperate with a Palestinian government run by Hamas. The international community in general turned its back on Hamas, pushing it into serious isolation.

That would be exactly the same way that the Turks, like the Europeans, refuse to cooperate with DTP politicians, the vast bulk of local politicians in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, the ones elected by the people, the ones who know the people. DTP politicians are quite unlike the big feudal landlords who have cozied themselves up to Turkish parties, gotten themselves elected into the Turkish parliament, and now enjoy the fruits of their labors earned as members of the Deep State.

DTP politicians are the ones who know the pain of the people, continue to speak Kurdish, support Roj TV, call for freedom of identity and expression, send ambulances to carry the remains of Kurdish gerîlas to their families for burial, and call for nonviolent, democratic change. For all of these things, and more, every DTP politician is harassed by the Turkish state by death threats sent by the state, by state security forces, and by continual indictments.

Then we have the EU, Turkey's lapdog, which barks at the Kurds of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan as its master has trained it. This means that in spite of all efforts of the true Kurdish politicians in DTP, none of their actions are ever enough for the Europeans. As soon as Erdogan received the order from the pashas to cease all discussion with Kurds in general, and DTP in particular, so too the lapdog fell silent.

Perhaps the most offensive thing about this convenient, and strictly commercial, arrangement between Turkey and its lapdog is that the lapdog presumes to make serious decisions on behalf of 20 million Kurds without any Kurdish representation. The colonialists know what's good for all the ignorant little natives, isn't that the way it goes?

Yet here is Ilnur, hot and bothered because the Israelis and Americans refuse to cooperate with a HAMAS government that was elected by Palestinians. Doesn't this presuppose that the Palestinians have an elected representation, the very thing denied to Kurds by the EU and Turkey?

Don't think the US gets off the hook here either. It also has a status as a lapdog because there has never been a single American administration that has condemned Turkey for its atrocities against the Kurdish people, nor has it ever engaged in any serious attempt to curb the Turks' bloodthirsty habits. In this respect, the US is guilty of accessory to the crime.

How about this little gem:

The more Israel arrests Hamas ministers and deputies and the more it uses repression tactics against the Palestinian people, the more Hamas will gain strength.

Let me rephrase that for those slow to catch on: The more Turkey arrests DTP mayors and politicians, and the more it uses repression tactics against the Kurdish people, the more PKK will gain strength. And it's happening even as I write.

When Israel sent its jets to intimidate the Syrian president, it didn't only humiliate and thus draw the enmity of the Syrian people, it also created deeper resentment and anger among the Arab nation. The fact that the U.S. supports Israeli policies and the latest Israeli offensive also creates resentment in the Middle East, and many people accused Washington over the suffering.

Let's rephrase again: When Turkey sent its jets to intimidate Kurds at gerîla funerals, and at funerals of protestors murdered by the Turkish state, it didn't only humiliate and thus draw the enmity of the Kurdish people, it also created deeper resentment and anger among the Kurdish nation. The fact that the US and EU support Turkey's policies and the renewal of the dirty war against the Kurds, also creates resentment in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, and many people accuse both Washington and Strassbourg, as well as Ankara, over the suffering.

Huseyin's busy crying a river too. Take in the extreme irony of this:

The expected confrontation between Israel and Hamas came in a very bloody way. After Palestinian extremists kidnapped an Israeli soldier and tried to force Israel to compromise, the Israel's military reaction was the same as always: no mercy for anybody.

If the confrontation was expected, then everyone knew it would come in a bloody way, so why didn't Erdogan engage in more intensive diplomatic efforts to avoid any Israeli military move, especially if the HAMAS representative in Ankara was calling the whole business a "true holocaust?" Wouldn't Erdogan do almost anything to prevent a "true holocaust" of any non-Kurdish Muslim? I say non-Kurdish Muslim here because we all know what Erdogan does with Kurdish Muslims--approves of Turkish security forces using any and all force against all Kurdish Muslims, including women and children.

Shall we use the sovereignty argument here, as in Israel didn't want any interference with its sovereignty to rescue one of its own? If that's the case, and if that's the argument to use, then why are Turks moaning about it? They use the sovereignty argument to prevent all NGO's from entering Turkish-occupied Kurdistan to provide humanitarian aid from reaching the Kurdish people.

What's worse is that by keeping international NGO's out of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, the Turkish government is able to hinder the spread of dangerous ideas among the ignorant natives, ideas like freedom of expression, right to life, education in a language you can understand, freedom from fear, and political rights, among others. It's also quite easy to keep all of your atrocities hidden if there are no nosy outsiders around to report back to some Western-based headquarters, blowing the whistle on the operations of the Turkish security forces.

In fact, it was the sovereignty argument that Ozkok Pasha used to justify moving hundreds of thousands of Mehmetcik's close to the border with South Kurdistan:

Talking to journalists in Ankara last Sunday, General Ozkok said, "Turkey is a sovereign country. If conditions warrant it, Turkey would use its rights just like any sovereign country. The country from where the attacks are made [Iraq] should take measures and prevent that. If they don't or if the [attacks] cannot be prevented, then those conditions ['hot pursuit'] will be considered."

It's the sovereignty argument that allows TSK to shell villages in South Kurdistan. It's the sovereignty argument that permits JITEM operations in South Kurdistan. It was the sovereignty argument that prevented the US from deploying the 4th Infantry Division from the north.

The idea of mercy, as mentioned by Huseyin, really makes me laugh. Turkey has never had any mercy whatsoever for any Kurd. Turkey does not, to this day, have any mercy for any Kurd. Those who engage in genocide, whether it happens relatively quickly in a gas chamber and over, or slowly, as Turkey does--two here, fourteen there, an entire village yet again. . . or by intentionally working to destroy a culture, as in a mother-language education ban--the effect is the same. If Kurds no longer think as Kurds, if Kurds can no longer express themselves as Kurds, if they have no remembrance anymore of Kurdish values, are they Kurds?

Where was Turkish mercy at Dersim? Where was Turkish mercy at Diyarbakir Military Prison? Where was Turkish mercy at thousands of Kurdish villages during the first half of the dirty war? Where was Turkish mercy in Amed this last March? Where is Turkish mercy now?

Cry me some more, Huseyin:

Israel's military operation against Palestinian energy supplies in Gaza and the imprisonment of Hamas politicians is considered normal by the Israeli government, and the U.S. has once again prevented the UN Security Council from passing a resolution against Israel.

Rephrase it the Kurdish way: Turkey's military operations against the Kurdish people in Amed, and other Kurdish cities, and the imprisonment of Kurdish children in Amed is considered normal by the Turkish government, and the EU and US once again maintained total silence over Turkish atrocities.

The fact that Erdogan talked to both the Israelis and the Palestinians in an attempt to help end the conflict without further confrontation didn't help because the Israeli military is stronger than the radical Islamist groups and they have more room to maneuver. In other words, under such circumstances the Palestinians will always be the losers and the Israelis, the winners.

Oh, yes. . . Erdogan talked to both sides, and that's more than what he's ever done with Kurds. Remember last August, when Erdogan went to Amed? Lot's of talk then, but why bother with talk when Turkish security forces are bigger and stronger in military toys, than Kurdish gerîlas or Kurdish civilians. What does that say about Kurdish circumstances then?

It says that Kurds in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan will continue to fight, because it was only through fighting that Kurds were acknowledged as having existence. It was only through fighting that Kurdish language was tentatively permitted to be used. It was the use of arms against the oppressive Turkish state that forced these things, and those arms belonged to PKK. Of course, the situation is different now, in that there are many angry young Kurds who grew up under the repression of the dirty war. They are completely different from the generation that founded PKK, and they were forcibly dispersed to the large Turkish cities in the West.

Of course Israel will also be condemned for its military actions against civilians and no doubt there will be more demonstrations in front of Israeli embassies like the ones that took place in Istanbul and in Ankara over the weekend.

Of course, Turkey should be condemned for its military actions against Kurdish civilians and there should be more demonstrations in front of Turkish embassies in the West, like there were after Ocalan's capture, so we can keep reminding the West of what Turkey really is. This is especially true now, since Turkey has begun to silence news coming from Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, is working on silencing DTP, has been working to silence Roj TV for well over a year, and since Turkey is now starting to lie about TAK operations in order to save something of its precious tourist industry.

That cover-up of TAK operations is a sign of Turkey's desperation, otherwise they'd be shrieking "Terrorism!" from their glass housetop.

By the way, Huseyin's little remark about the Turkish Islamists taking up the cause of HAMAS is something he should take up with the pashas. They were the ones who gave Turkish Islamists their jump start. Better yet, let Huseyin question Tansu Ciller about that. She's the one who signed the authorization to give weapons to Turkish Hezbollah from Turkish military bases in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

That was another little Deep State operation. Let's watch and see how the pashas control their radical Islamists when it comes to anti-Israel protests and compare it to what happens to Kurds, if two or three of them gather on a street corner in Amed.

We have all watched the tragedy of an entire nation of Palestinians, and it seems like there will be no peace there in the future.

Oh, yeah! We have all watched the "tragedy." I checked one of the Lunatic Fringe sites, AntiWar.com and I found that, although there is quite a bit there over the captured Israeli soldier and Israeli "brutality," I found that no one at that site wrote a single word about the Amed Serhildan. Not even so much as a single syllable . . . not even a single vowel. I checked CounterPunch.org also, and although they have carried articles critical of Turkey in the past, I did not find a single thing about the Amed Serhildan. Nothing about Semdinli. Nothing, in fact, very recent.

Even Western hand-wringing over this "tragedy," has a really hollow and insincere ring to it. It gives me the impression that something else is going on here. It also gives me the suspicion that, if these people ever decide that there is more to the Middle East than simply one little patch of land called "Israel/Palestine," and they, by accident, take notice of Kurds, these people should not be trusted. Used, yes; trusted, no.

I thought about advising Ilnur and Huseyin to watch Roj TV, to see the tragedy of the Kurdish nation, but I decided that such advice wouldn't be accurate. Roj TV doesn't dwell on tragedy because the Kurdish people doesn't dwell on tragedy, nor does PKK. It was PKK that politicized the Bakurî, and that politicization has grown roots easily in the Kurdish heart. There is no way to remove it now because it has become a habit of thinking. As DTP has rightly said, PKK is a reality and, one day, the Turkish state will have to acknowledge the reality.

PKK has become an attitude.