TURKEY'S US-BACKED WAR ON TERROR, PART 3

"Enraged at this small show of defiance, the guard attacked the prisoner, crushing her skull against the cell wall. When Asci appealed to the court to protest his client’s mistreatment, his suit was rejected as part of a ‘terrorist campaign’ against F-type isolation prisons. The court concluded that the prisoner must have crushed her own skull … "
~ Desmond Fernandes.

The article has been reproduced, with permission, from the October 2006 electronic edition of Variant: Cross Currents in Culture, No. 27, Winter 2006 and from Chapter 5 of the book by Desmond Fernandes and Iskender Ozden (2006) US, UK, German and NATO ‘Inspired’ Psychological Warfare Operations Against The Kurdish ‘Communist’ Threat in Turkey and Northern Iraq (Apec Press, Stockholm).


In the US backed ‘war’ against ‘PKK terrorists’, it has become apparent that “one line of reasoning” currently used “in Turkish legal practice is”, indeed, “guilt by association. One example:

1.The terrorist organisation the PKK is making propaganda for the right to use the Kurdish language, including in education.

2.Consequently,anyone who advocates the right to use the Kurdish language is guilty of supporting (‘aiding and abetting’, Article 169 of the Turkish Penal Code) a terrorist organisation”. (55)

And this, at a time when the Turkish government is still guilty, according to the academic Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and other respected analysts, of ‘linguistic genocide’ against Kurds and of additionally being in breach of two articles of the United Nations’ Genocide Convention: “In fact, education of Kurds in Turkey, both today and after the [proposed ‘reform’] law package is being implemented, is genocidal.It still fits two of the definitions of genocide in the UN International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (E793, 1948) … Turkey tries to forcibly make Turks of Kurdish children through education, i.e. Turkey tries to transfer the children linguistically and culturally to another group. This is genocide, according to the UN definition. Turkey prevents the children from learning their own language and from learning in general and from doing as well in school as the children's innate potential would allow them to do … In addition, Turkey is of course also committing linguistic genocide according to the specific definition on linguistic genocide (56) … Even if many other countries participate in linguistic and cultural genocide in relation to minorities,Turkey is unfortunately one of the worst offenders in the world, in several ways THE worst”. (57)

Even today, for instance, as Turkey is engaged in the EU ‘accession process’, “programmes in Kurdish for children on radio or TV” remain “prohibited”. (58) An August 2005 BIA News Centre report described the following restrictions that were in place: “Local media groups who seek [to] broadcast programs in languages and dialects other than Turkish” - i.e. Kurdish - “… will [need to] present … an affidavit” clarifying their intentions and behaviour, “stating that they will not broadcast … programmes with the aim of teaching that language”. (59) To merely peacefully and non-violently protest against the state’s ongoing genocidal policies, or to advocate the basic cultural right of Kurds (who represent between 20-25% of the population in Turkey, according to a number of sources) to be educated in their ‘mother tongue’ is to, therefore, in the eyes of the Turkish state, act in support of ‘PKK terrorism’. It is instructive to note that an Associated Press article confirmed in 2000 that “the all-powerful (Turkish) army stillregards [merely] speaking Kurdish as a sign of Kurdish nationalism and a threat to state unity” (60) - i.e. a ‘terrorist threat’ that needs to be ‘acted upon’.

To add to this, “another problem frequently seen in the prosecutors’ indictments is the failure to distinguish between the non violent expression of political views, and cases of manifest violence or incitement to violence. For example, a charge of ‘aiding and abetting an illegal organisation’” – i.e. a ‘terrorist organisation’ – “does not need to be supported by concrete evidence of any linkage with the organisation. A third case in point is the use of taboo words” that might lead one to being considered ‘a terrorist’ or ‘supportive of terrorism’. “Some of the prominent taboo words are:

• “‘Kurdish people’, or worse, ‘the Kurdish people’, or even worse ‘the Kurdish nation’ or [the geographical term] ‘Kurdistan’ (being seen as encouragement to ‘separatism’ or ‘incitement to hatred’);

• “‘Turks and Kurds’, or worse ‘the Turkish and Kurdish people’ (suggesting that they are two distinct peoples);

• “‘Mr’ Ocalan (the combination of these two words constituting ‘aid and assistance to an illegal organisation’; in 2003 there were 58 sentences on this basis)”. (61)

We also need to be aware of a wider destructive plan around which the US backed Turkish state’s ‘War on Terror’ is taking place: In September 2002, the Socialist Party of Kurdistan (PSK) drew attention to a “Secret Plan of Action”, masterminded by members of the Turkish ‘deep state’. According to the PSK: “The main aim of this plan is to make Kurdistan Kurd-free, to the Kurdish language and culture and thereby dispose of the Kurdish question. Dam projects which will flood historical towns of Kurdistan, flood the fertile agricultural land of the region and flood the valleys of incomparable natural beauty are part of this plan”. (62) Whilst a local Kurdish, national and international initiative aimed at halting one such dam in the area - Ilisu - succeeded in halting one consortium from proceeding with the project in 2002, another consortium seems to have taken its place and been supported by the Turkish government. Despite substantive local Kurdish and national/international opposition to the project, the Turkish prime minister, on August 5th 2006, provocatively laid the foundational stone for this vast dam, thereby furthering the aims - consciously or otherwise - of this ‘Secret Plan of Action’.

Maggie Ronayne’s findings are worth reflecting upon at this point: “The US-led war against the world is not only waged by military means … but [also] by development projects”, amongst other means. (63) (Indeed, as is the case in the Kurdish south-east of Turkey, such ‘development’ projects are not only ‘unsustainable’ in nature, they also integrally form part of the Turkish state’s genocidal ‘counter-insurgency’ strategy for the region). (64) “These very profitable projects [can] displace large numbers of people and have devastating cultural and environmental impacts … The GAP development project [in south-eastern Turkey, which includes Ilisu amongst several other dams in its portfolio], in which US and European companies and governments (and it seems Israeli companies also) are involved is a prime example of all this (65) … The action of the Prime Minister” in laying the foundational stone of the Ilisu dam “appears designed to put pressure on the affected [Kurdish] communities and on European governments … The project … would flood over 300 square kilometres in the Kurdish region, … displacing up to 78,000 [primarily Kurdish] villagers. Local people would receive little or no benefit from the project. On the contrary, impacts of the dam would include more severe poverty, health problems, break-up of families and communities, environmental pollution … and wide-ranging cultural destruction … As an archaeologist, I have investigated the new updated [consortium’s] Environmental Impact Assessment, and in a review drawn up in consultation with affected women villagers and the international grassroots women’s network, Global Women’s Strike, I have shown that it is no basis for any [meaningful] project. It is not really [even] an assessment at all … My review shows how the dam [actually] threatens to destroy thousands of years of culture and heritage and its survival into the future - first of all by targeting women and all in their care. It highlights women’s opposition to cultural destruction [of this kind] by dams and war … Targeting women like this threatens the cultural destruction of the entire community. [Proposed] ethnographic and ethno-archaeological proposals to ‘salvage’ this culture are demeaning to the rural [primarily Kurdish] communities concerned, according to this review, and cannot possibly save culture … Indeed, the very area where [the] Prime Minister … laid the foundation stone has not been surveyed at all, and it is therefore a breach of international law, including European Union directives, to proceed with any construction in the absence of archaeological survey and testing … Moreover, work I’ve done over several years has indicated to me that graves, including mass graves of Kurdish people who were ‘disappeared’ during the fighting” – i.e. the Turkish state’s ‘War on Terror’ during the 1990’s – “may well lie in the reservoir area. But restrictions” intentionally “imposed by the state” during its current US backed ‘War on Terror’ “make it impossible to investigate the graves professionally and independently. In an open letter to the Turkish Prime Minister, I ask: ‘How can you proceed with the [Ilisu] dam while all these cultural impacts remain uninvestigated, and when professional opinion thinks that it is not possible to do so? In particular, it is not possible to investigate the impacts while you are prosecuting a war in the Kurdish region. Will not you and the other funders and backers of the dam be jointly guilty of [also] covering up evidence of crimes committed in that war” - which many hold to be ‘genocidal’ in scope and nature - “and guilty of involvement in further serious cultural destruction? … When the last consortium tried to build the Ilisu Dam, the World Archaeological Congress said that to go ahead would amount to ‘ethnic cleansing’. There is no reason to change that opinion today”. (66)


The Targeting of School Teachers, Parents, Schoolchildren, Students, Political Prisoners And Academics in the US Backed ‘War on Terror’.


Within the context of this type of US - and, indeed, UK state - supported ‘post-9/11 War on Terror’, ‘pro-Kurdish’ teachers who have sought to simply ‘learn the Kurdish language’ in preparation for a time when they might be allowed to teach it in schools, have also been targeted by the ‘Anti-Terror Police’ and tortured by them for their seemingly ‘terrorist inspired’ activities: “12 people, of whom 11 were teachers”, we are told, for instance, “were allegedly tortured while being detained by police after having been arrested in Kiziltepe for learning Kurdish together. (67) The 12 people, 11 of whom were members of the teachers trade union Egitim-Sen, were arrested in an apartment … in Mardin on May 7th. A magistrate had issued warrants for their arrest. The Mardin branch of Egitim-Sen said in a written statement that: ‘Our colleagues were subjected to various methods of torture; they were sprayed with high-pressure water, they had plastic bags pulled over their heads, they were forced to sing marching songs and to do the goose-step, they were brutally beaten, left for 3 days without food or water, they were stripped naked, had their testicles crushed and were verbally abused’. One of the teachers … was not spared the torture despite being pregnant. Because of her poor condition she was taken to Diyarbakir’s Medical Faculty on the evening of her detention. According to the statement, her condition remain[ed] serious. Egitim-Sen … pointed out that there was a complete disregard for legal procedures following the arrests. Despite complaints from their lawyers, between 25-30 police were involved in the questioning”. As another report on the affair confirmed: “In a private apartment in the district of Kiziltepe, 11 teachers and an agricultural engineer were arrested for breaching anti-terror laws (sic) and then detained, following 6 hours of questioning … According to their lawyer, … ‘There were lawful publications in the flat from the Kurdish Institute. [Yet] the teacher [‘A’] was taken to hospital when she miscarried after having been tortured.’ (Source: Radikal, 12.05.2002) … Their arrest was part of a raid on an apartment where the 11 were [merely] learning Kurdish ... (Source: Özgür Politika, 15.05.2002)”. (68)

Parents who have simply, as a basic human right, attempted to legally name their children using Kurdish names, have come under suspicion as potential terrorist threats who deserve to be placed under surveillance and appropriately ‘targeted’: “In 2003, a new law was passed allowing Kurds to”, theoretically, “use their Kurdish names”. But “it is indicative of the attitudes ’‘’of the authorities that the Commander of the Gendarmerie” - at the forefront of waging the US-UK backed ‘War on Terror’ in the country - chillingly “requested from the Attorney General the full list of people who had applied to use Kurdish names” for their children. “He considered such persons as ‘potential threats to the social order’”. (69) Other ‘parents’ have been murdered in the ‘War on Terror’ simply because their children have been involved in legal ‘pro-Kurdish’ cultural and political activities overseas. As Derwich Ferho, the chairman of the Kurdish Institute in Brussels has noted, his parents - who were in their eighties - were murdered in grisly fashion by state-linked contra-guerrilla death squads in south-eastern Turkey in March 2006 because of his work and that of his brother (who works for the Kurdish satellite Roj TV station, also in Belgium): “They were killed in a horrible way in their village … Earlier they were threatened, because of the activities of my brother and me in Belgium … My father was sick and bedridden … He was killed in his bed and his ribs were broken. My mother must have resisted, because her throat was cut and she had many wounds inflicted by stabbing … My parents were threatened several times last month … People were saying: your sons must be wiser”. (70) “According to Derwich, there is no doubt that the Turkish state is behind the murder: ‘… The contra-guerrilla is operating … These are the same death squads, which committed a lot of assassinations in the nineties ... Now it looks like the hunt is opened again, also on aged people” uninvolved in any war. (71)

The Human Rights Agenda Association has also detailed the manner in which attacks are being made on human rights activists, academics and observers. “During a promotional press conference in Istanbul” for the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation’s (TESEV) new book on enforced Kurdish ‘internal migration’, it noted with concern that one such attack had been made. And who was it directed by?: “In their condemnation of the attack, both IHD and the Foundation for Human Rights and Solidarity with the Oppressed (MAZLUMDER) stressed that those behind it … were being protected. ‘It is now very evident’ said the IHD, ‘that this group has now targeted civilian institutions’. The association stressed that an ‘extreme tolerance’ shown to this group by” ‘War on Terror’ linked “security forces, despite their actions, needed to be taken into account and added, ‘The increase of attacks and harassment of these groups, … we believe are being organised and financed by circles of power’”. (72) Equally troublingly, Amnesty International has ascertained that “the Turkish Government tries to discredit it’s critics at home and abroad by suggesting that they sympathize or collude with the PKK”(73), which remains the designated ‘enemy’ in the US-UK backed ‘War on Terror’.

Charges are also being levelled at peace campaigners in the name of the ‘War on Terror’: Most recently, in June 2006, for instance, “three Kurdish activists” were placed on trial “on anti-terrorism charges after they attempted to stage a peaceful protest near the Iraq border … They were arrested on May 2nd as they prepared to walk to the border of Iraq to peacefully protest the recent killings of civilians by security forces in south-eastern Turkey and express their concern about tensions between the Turkish government and the Kurdish-led administration in northern Iraq … All three are officials of Kurt-Der, a Kurdish association that Turkish authorities closed last month for” the crime of “conducting its internal business in the Kurdish language”. (74)

’‘’A report by Sevend J. Robinson on behalf of the Commission for Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues, which was accepted by the annual OSCE Assembly in July 2002, additionally confirmed that, “in Turkey, HADEP [‘pro-Kurdish’ party] mayors are continually” being “persecuted. For example, the mayor of Hakkari was prosecuted for issuing a calendar in the Kurdish and English languages - because it was a risk to the state … The Kurdish language continues to be banned in education and in the media … In Van, security forces have detained 500 students because of a petition in which they requested the right to Kurdish language tuition”. (75) A collective of journalists and researchers on behalf of Aram Publishers in Istanbul, also observed the way in which, “on 14th January, 2002, the Turkish Security Forces issued a statement” which absurdly clarified “that any initiatives taken with regard to the right to have optional Kurdish lessons in school or university were”, automatically, deemed to have been “orchestrated” and sponsored “by ‘the terrorist organisation PKK’ and were, far from being ‘an innocent claim for cultural rights’, part and parcel of ‘the plan to split Turkey’ [sic]. Once one claimed that Kurds should have the right to education in Kurdish ‘just because they are Kurds’, the statement continue[d], the reasoning that ‘Kurds should learn Kurdish history and geography on every level of their educational careers, that Kurdish businessmen should associate or a Kurdish Bar Association should be established’ cannot be far away. This then, it goes without saying, would create division and separation that would ‘reflect upon society’. That would amount to terrorism.

“What, then, should the Kurds do to prove” to the ‘deep state’ and to the Turkish security forces waging their US-UK backed ‘War on Terror’ “that they do not harbour the [‘terrorist’] intention to rip off the chunks of land east of the Taurus mountains? All Kurdish ‘organisations operating abroad have to omit the word Kurdistan from their names’; the news broadcast on the satellite [arts, culture and politics] channel Medya TV from Belgian exile has to ‘refrain from referring to our [i.e. the security forces’] Southeast and East Anatolian areas as the Kurdish provinces in items broadcast in Turkish and the two dialects of Kurdish’; the same TV channel has to stop ‘showing exclusively the meteorological situation of our above mentioned areas in its weather forecast’; the ‘[exiled] Kurdish National Congress has to be disbanded’; projects as devious as ‘an institute of Kurdish philology, ... a Kurdish encyclopaedia and a Kurdish economic congress have to be abandoned’; and finally, ‘no support should be given to Armenian and Syriac groups campaigning against Turkey on an international level [on issues relating to an acknowledgement of the Armenian, Assyrian or Pontic Greek genocides, for instance], and all members of the terrorist organisation have to lay down their arms and surrender to the security forces’. Anything short of that is, the tone of the statement implies, a casus belli”. (76) One in which they will be ‘hunted down’ and appropriately targeted …

Kerim Yildiz (Executive Director of the Kurdish Human Rights Project) and Mark Muller (as barrister and Vice President of the UK Bar Human Rights Committee), in 2005, observed - with concern - that Turkey was, indeed, refusing “even to concede that the armed conflict in the [Kurdish] South-east is symptomatic of the broader issue of her subjugation of the Kurds, (77) defining the situation purely in terms of security and/or terrorism and refusing to become involved in bilateral negotiations with the Kurds” On 25th August 2006, for example, “Turkish ’‘’officials … dismissed” yet another “offer from the terrorist PKK … for a … conditional cease-fire … The PKK’s second in command, Murat Karayilan, proposed a … conditional cease-fire to the Turkish government, saying, ‘We are ready to observe a cease-fire on September 1st, coinciding with World Peace Day, and opt for a peaceful and democratic settlement to the Kurdish issue in Turkey’. He requested Turkey put forward a ‘political project’ that will meet their demands … Karayilan also made a similar offer last June, saying, ‘We appeal to the Turkish government, asking it to end military operations in order to open the path for dialogue, and we are ready, on our side, to declare a cease-fire’”. (78) “Kongra-Gel” had also “appealed its armed forces to take a [unilateral] decision of ‘No Action’ between 20th August and 20th September 2005”. (79) Mustafa Karahan, the head of DEHAP - the pro-Kurdish Democratic People’s Party - in Diyarbakir, described the way in which his party was even being restricted in its dialogue with the press, let alone the ‘deep state’: “The pressure faced by DEHAP is very obvious. When we want to say something to the press, our members get arrested. Many members of DEHAP are now arrested and in prison”. (80) According to Mizgin, writing in June 2006, “neither [Prime Minister] Erdogan nor anyone else in government will bother to speak [directly even] to [the legal pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party] DTP. The state … never bothered to avail itself of PKK ceasefires and calls for negotiation. It never bothered to improve the situation during the last ceasefire. It offered a joke for an amnesty in 2003, which meant that it wasn’t serious then either”. (81) The Turkish state, during all this time, has continued to refuse to negotiate with any ‘terrorists’.

Meanwhile, “the official view of the Kurds in Turkey”, in writer Mehmed Uzun’s opinion, remains “one of deep hatred. The phobia of Kurds is evident; ultra Turkish nationalism is nurtured by their abhorrence of Kurds”. (82) Mark Thomas, in April 2006, observed the marked “failure of the Turkish state to work with the Kurds to take advantage of the PKK ceasefire. Ankara has refused to negotiate. ‘We will not talk to terrorists,’ the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declares. And he has done so with the backing of the EU. Instead of urging dialogue, the EU has followed the UK and the United States in proscribing the PKK, even though it announced a ceasefire and formally renounced violence. Just about every attempt by grass-roots Kurdish groups to form inclusive democratic movements has been regarded by the EU and the UK as merely another group to add to the list of terrorist organisations”. (83)

Even as the Blair government and Bush administration have continued, post-9/11, to vigorously endorse the initiatives of the Turkish state in its ‘War on Terror’, Behic Asci, a member of the Turkish Association of Progressive Lawyers (84) has sought to alert people to the repercussions of ’‘’these highly questionable types of activities, which are never mentioned by Bush’s or Blair’s aides publicly: “The Turkish legal system provides no protection for … political prisoners [many of whom have been questionably charged with ‘terrorist offences’] held in isolation. In one instance, when a guard demanded one of Asci’s clients stand up for a prisoner count, she responded that given [that] she was in an isolation cell, there was no need for her to stand to be counted. Enraged at this small show of defiance, the guard attacked the prisoner, crushing her skull against the cell wall. When Asci appealed to the court to protest his client’s mistreatment, his suit was rejected as part of a ‘terrorist campaign’ against F-type isolation prisons. The court concluded that the prisoner must have crushed her own skull … Many of the prisoners Asci represented have [also] had their feet taped together and their hands taped behind their backs. Left alone, immobilised, for hours or days at a time and unable to avail themselves of toilet facilities, they are forced to endure the indignity of repeatedly soiling themselves. Many of Asci’s clients, both men and women, had been raped while in custody, often by prison guards using batons. Asci related another experience of one client during a court hearing who had been held in isolation and who had to halt midway through reading a statement to the court. He had lost his hearing” through mistreatment “and could no longer hear his own voice. Prisoners in the[se] F-type prisons typically suffer from a range of psychological illnesses including stress, anxiety and depression. The authorities also routinely deny [‘terrorist’] prisoners medical assistance and access to legal representation. According to Asci, prisoners are arbitrarily refused visits from family members that they are legally entitled to. Their books, newspapers and other reading material are confiscated. The letters sent to their families are heavily censored - if they ever arrive at all”. (85)


TO BE CONTINUED. . .


55. ’‘’Rud, J. (2005) ‘Turkey’s Implementation of European Human Rights Standards – Legislation and Practice’, p. 57.
56. ’‘’ Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2002) ‘Linguistic Human Rights in Education and Turkey - Some International Comparisons’, An invited plenary paper at the International Conference on Kurds, the European Union and Turkey, Copenhagen, Denmark, 14th October 2002.
57. ’‘’Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2005) ‘Endangered Linguistic and Cultural Diversities and Endangered Biodiversity - The Role of Educational Linguistic Human Rights in Diversity Maintenance’, Conference on Cultural Diversity and Linguistic Diversity, Diyarbakir/Amed, 20-25 March 2005.
58. ’‘’Rud, J. (2005) ‘Turkey’s Implementation of European Human Rights Standards - Legislation and Practice’, p. 65.
59. ’‘’BIA News Centre (2005) ‘Ten local TVs queued for Kurdish broadcast’, BIA News Centre, 25 August 2005.
60. ’‘’See: Associated Press (2000) ‘Kurdish students struggle with Turkish language’, March 16, 2000, as cited in Info-Turk, March 2000, No. 259.
61. ’‘’Rud, J. (2005) ‘Turkey’s Implementation of European Human Rights Standards – Legislation and Practice’, p. 57.
62. ’‘’Socialist Party of Kurdistan - PSK (2002) ‘Report of the Socialist Party of Kurdistan On the Relationship Between the EU and Turkey And the EU-Accession of Turkey’, PSK, September 2002.
63. ’‘’ Ronaynealso mentions ‘globalisation’. Source: Ronayne, M. (2006) ‘Invest in Caring, Not Killing: Women’s Opposition to Dams and War’, Ulkede Ozgur Gundem, 29 July 2006 (http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/Turkish/WomensOppositionToDams.htm).
64. ’‘’For a detailed examination of this issue, see Fernandes, The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey (forthcoming); Fernandes, D. (2006) Colonial Genocides in Turkey, Kenya and Goa and Fernandes and Ozden, US, UK, German and NATO Inspired Psychological Warfare Operations Against the ‘Kurdish Communist Threat’ in Turkey and Northern Iraq.
65. ’‘’ Ronayne, M. (2006) ‘Invest in Caring, Not Killing: Women’s Opposition to Dams and War’, Ulkede Ozgur Gundem, 29 July 2006 (http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/Turkish/WomensOppositionToDams.htm).
66. ’‘’Ronayne, M. and Ascherson, N. (2006) ‘Opposition to Turkey’s Ilisu Dam rises again: Turkey has revived plans for the vast Ilisu Dam. Maggie Ronayne explains why she’s still fighting construction on cultural and environmental grounds, while Neal Ascherson outlines the bitter dispute’, 1 September 2006 (http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/336-Opposition-to-Turkey-s).
67. ’‘’Yedinci Gundem (2002) ‘Kurdish Tuition as Grounds for Torture’, Yedinci Gundem, 12 May 2002, as reproduced in IMK Weekly Information Service, 13 May - 24 May 2002, No. 156 (http://www.kurds.dk/english/2000/news102.html).
68.’‘’ IMK Weekly Information Service (2002) ‘11 Teachers Detained’, IMK Weekly Information Service, 13 May - 24 May 2002, No. 156 (http://www.kurds.dk/english/2000/news102.html).
69. ’‘’Rud, J. (2005) ‘Turkey’s Implementation of European Human Rights Standards - Legislation and Practice’, p. 64.
70. ’‘’As quoted by Wilgenburg, V. V. (2006) ‘Belgium seeks clarification on Turkish death squad operation’, KurdishMedia.com, 6 March 2006 (http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=11572).
71. ’‘’Wilgenburg, V. V. (2006) ‘Belgium seeks clarification on Turkish death squad operation’, KurdishMedia.com, 6 March 2006 (http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=11572).
72. ’‘’BIA News Center (2006) ‘Stopping Kerincsiz Ultranationalist Attacks Is Bar’s Duty’, News Center, 10 July 2006, as reproduced in Info Turk, No. 335, July 2006, (http://www.info-turk.be/335.htm#The).
73. ’‘’Wilgenburg, V. V. (2006) ‘Amed attack: Kurds and Turks face bleak future’, KurdishMedia.com, 14 September 2006 (http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=13232).
74. ’‘’ Human Rights Watch (2006) ‘Reuters Alerts, Turkey: Anti-Terror Law Used Against Peaceful Activists’, Human Rights Watch, 7 June 2006.
75. ’‘’ CILDEKT (2002) ‘OSCE Report Refers to Kurdish Question’, CILDEKT, 16 July 2002, as quoted in IMK Weekly Information Service, No. 162, 16 July - 27 July 2002 (http://www.kurds.dk/english/2000/news109.html).
76. ’‘’Aram (2002) Conspiracy and Crisis: Turkey and the Kurdish Question: From the Nineties to the Present Day - Written by a collective of journalists and researchers on behalf of Aram Publisher. Aram, Istanbul, January, 2002 (http://www.zmag.org/content/ForeignPolicy/aram0122.cfm).
77. ’‘’Yildiz, K and Muller, M. (2005) ‘The EU, Turkey and the Kurds’, in Muller, M., Brigham, C., Westrheim, K. and Yildiz, K. (eds.) ’‘’EU Turkey Civic Commission: International Conference on Turkey, the Kurds and the EU, European Parliament, Brussels, 22-23 November 2004 - Conference Papers, KHRP,GB, p. 48.
78. ’‘’ The New Anatolian (2006) ‘Turkey shrugs off PKK’s offer of conditional cease-fire’, The New Anatolian, 25 August 2006 (http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=37395).
79. ’‘’Dicle, H. (2005) Statement made on 19 September 2005 at the Second EUTCC International Conference on ‘EU Turkey and the Kurds’, held in the EU Parliament, 19 - 21 September 2005 (http://www.eutcc.org/articles/8/20/document212.ehtml). An ANF - Firat News Agency report, dated 30th August 2006, also stated that a “written statement of Kongra-Gel indicated that ‘Koma Komalen Kurdistan (KKK, Confederalism of Kurdistan, Kongra-Gel is the Assembly) made a peace declaration declared on 23 August, 2006, and they supported this. They also indicated that they were in search of peaceful solution without violence for the resolution of the Kurdish question and they are expecting a response” from the Turkish state “on this regard” (‘Kongra Gel condemns bomb attacks’, ANF - Firat News Agency, Accessed at: http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=13122).
80. ’‘’As quoted in Yilmaz, A. (2003) ‘Mustafa Karahan: Interview with Mustafa Karahan, the head of DEHAP in Amed’, KurdishMedia.com, 9 January 2004 (http://www.kurdmedia.com/inter.asp?id=10099).
81. ’‘’Mizgin (2006) ‘We’ve Had Enough’ (http://rastibini.blogspot.com/2006/06/weve-had-enough.html).
82. ’‘’Uzun, M. (2005) ‘The Dialogue and Liberties of Civilizations’, Presented at the Second EUTCC International Conference on ‘EU Turkey and the Kurds’, held in the EU Parliament, 19 - 21 September 2005 (http://www.eutcc.org/articles/8/20/document217.ehtml).
83. ’‘’Thomas, M. (2006) ‘There is one EU problem that is resolutely not going away and will only get worse: that is, Turkey’s membership’, The New Statesman, 24 April 2006 (http://www.newstatesman.com/200604240014).
84. ’‘’According to Simon Cooper and Ruth Riordan, “Asci began the death fast on International Lawyer’s Day, April 5, because, he says, he could no longer sit back and watch his clients die” (‘On the death fast of Lawyer Behic Asci’, Green Left Weekly, 16 August ’‘’2006, as reproduced in Info Turk, August 2006, No. 336 (http://www.info-turk.be/336.htm#Istanbul_).
85. ’‘’ Cooper, S. and Riordan,R. (2006) ‘On the death fast of Lawyer Behic Asci’, Green Left Weekly, 16 August 2006, as reproduced in Info Turk, August 2006, No. 336 (http://www.info-turk.be/336.htm#Istanbul_).