"Expressions based on a military security strategy and remarks that the problem can only be solved through violence are concerning. Violence creates conditions where human rights are violated. Whatever it is called, to ignore the ‘ceasefire’ or ‘the [PKK] period of silencing guns’ period and place no value to it is not possible. People are dying. Silencing the guns will allow for a dialogue to begin in an environment of tolerance. It is required to give this its real importance, to see that insisting on violence does not solve the problem"
~ Yavuz Onen, TIHV Chairman.
~ Yavuz Onen, TIHV Chairman.
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).
The New Anatolian also reported on 22nd September 2006 that “Land Forces Commander Gen. Ilker Basbug, continuing his visit to the [Kurdish] east and southeast, said that the eradication of terrorism is of vital importance, adding the security forces are determined to continue the fight. Gen. Basbug also said the fight will continue until the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has been completely eradicated. Gendarmerie Commander Gen. Isik Kosaner accompanied Gen. Basbug in his visit to Siirt where the two commanders met with Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu. Also with Gen. Basbug were Second Army Commander Gen. Hasan Igsiz, Special Forces Commander Lt. Gen. Servet Yoruk, Gendarmerie Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Abdullah Atay and Third Commando Brigade Commander Brig. Gen. Abdullah Barutcu … Explaining that the visit was part of an inspection of the Second Army, Gen. Basbug said that the military delegation had also visited [the Kurdish regions of] Malatya, Van, Hakkari, Sirnak and Siirt and inspected the military units there. Sources close to the military have said the visit is part of a new strategy against the PKK … ‘The temporary village guards system’” - which has been responsible for severe human rights abuses against Kurdish civilians over the years and which human rights organisations and even the European Parliament General Assembly’s approved ‘Eurlings’ report had recommended to Turkey to “abolish” as recently as September 2006 (176) – “‘is very important in our fight against terrorism, and finding a solution to their problems [sic] should be our prime duty’, added Gen. Basbug … [He] added: ‘The police and all the security forces are determined to fight terrorism until the PKK is no more’”. (177) The Turkish government, reported Cihan News Agency, also officially appointed retired general Edip Baser in September 2006 “as Turkey’s special envoy for fighting against terror, including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) … General Baser was the former Deputy Chief of Turkish General Staff and 2nd Army Commander. He also served as NATO’s Head of Intelligence Unit in the Allied Joint Forces in Naples and the Commander of Joint Headquarters Southeast. The appointment decision came in the wake of the US appointment of former Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston to coordinate US engagement with Turkish and Iraqi governments in the fight to eliminate the terrorist threat of the PKK and other terrorist groups operating in northern Iraq and across the Turkey-Iraq border”. (178)
On 24th September 2006, The New Anatolian further informs us that, “briefing reporters about [a] meeting … at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, … Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Namik Tan stated that Gul”, Turkey’s Foreign Minister and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State “expressed their countries’ continued will to fight the PKK, stressing that the appointment of Turkish and US special envoys to combat terrorism have accelerated such efforts. Tan also stated that during the meeting, Gul and Rice underlined that concrete steps have begun to be taken in line with the Turkish-US joint vision document, describing the crucial meeting as ‘warm’” (179). Just three days after this, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul clarified “that Turkey would keep fighting against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to the bitter end … ‘We will continue to fight to the end, and it will be finished sooner or later’”.(180) PNA noted, on 10th October 2006, that: “Despite the fact that the PKK has declared a unilateral ceasefire and the Turkish Prime Minister indicated that military actions on the borders with the Kurdistan Region would be halted, the Turkish Army fired mortar shells the day after the ceasefire, bombarding the Kurdish villages on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan … Gul announced that Erdogan would ask President Bush for help in order to ‘eradicate all PKK guerrillas’ … General Yasar Buyukanit indicated that the unilateral ceasefire would not bring an end to the violence. ‘As long as a single terrorist exists’, Buyukanit said, referring to the outlawed PKK, ‘we will continue assaults’”. (181)
As Mizgin has distressingly noted: “The PKK’s most recent unilateral ceasefire went into effect on Sunday [1st October 2006], and it still remains unilateral. The entire Turkish establishment, from Buyukanit to Erdogan have rejected it”, as has the US, “while clearly stating their determination to continue the war. This is in spite of the fact that the PKK prefers to negotiate a political settlement and indicated their willingness to do so in August, with demands that are fully consistent with EU accession criteria”. (182) Ross Wilson, the US Ambassador to Turkey, indeed, informed Turkish journalists in early October 2006 that “the US special coordinator for fighting the PKK, General Joseph Ralston, would arrive in Turkey in the upcoming weeks and hold meetings with the coordinators appointed by Turkey and Iraq. [He] also reminded [them] that all measures, including cross-border operations [into northern Iraq], are on the table”.(183) US President George W. Bush, Agence France Presse confirmed on 3rd October 2006, “backed Turkey’s push for European Union membership and hailed joint efforts to fight terrorism as he met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan” in Washington “on Monday … The talks” between the two - which took place barely a week after he had also warmly welcomed the leader of Kazakhstan and described him as a “steadfast partner in the international war on terrorism” and leader of a country that “now is a free nation” (184) - “came as Turkey vowed to fight on against Kurdish separatists [sic] (185) despite a rebel cease-fire ordered at the weekend … ‘The joint steps that we have taken ... to pursue with determination our fight against terrorism continues to be very important in our relations. In fact, we do share the same opinion about forming a joint platform in order to combat terrorism on a global scale’, Erdogan said … ‘…Our desire is to help people who care about a peaceful future to reject radicalism and extremism [sic]’”. (186)
As a consequence of the role of the US and Turkey’s ‘anti-PKK co-ordinators’ and the influence they undoubtedly wield, Reuters has reported upon the following type of pressure that has been successfully exerted in Iraq: “Ankara and Washington have appointed co-ordinators to work together in the fight against the PKK and authorities in northern Iraq have shut down its offices. Turkey is now seeking more direct action to halt rebel activities. Turkey has also criticised Iraq for failing to [previously] act [enough] against the PKK, but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani” now “said the rebel group had no future. ‘I believe we have just entered a period of normalisation in our relations with Turkey. The thorn that prevented trust between us was the PKK. But now the PKK is finished. It has no future’, he told Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia”. (187) The possible role that US approved Israeli ‘special forces’ may play in intensifying ‘anti-PKK’ liquidation ‘actions’ should also not be forgotten (see main body of article for discussion). A recent BBC investigation further suggests that “former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos secretly” did “train Kurdish soldiers in Northern Iraq” - who are increasingly being committed by their leaders and by the US and Turkish ‘co-ordinators’ to ‘act’ against the ‘terrorist’ PKK who are stationed there - “to protect a new international airport and in counter-terrorism operations … Former Israeli special forces soldiers crossed into Iraq from Turkey in 2004 to train two sets of Kurdish troops, one of the former Israeli trainers told the BBC’s Newsnight programme. The former trainer, whose name was not disclosed, said IDF soldiers trained [KDP-PUK aligned] Kurds to act as a security force for the new airport in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil”. (188)
More importantly, in terms of the themes being explored in this article, we discover that “they also”, apparently, “trained more than 100 Peshmerga or Kurdish [PUK-KDP] fighters for ‘special assignments’ that included how to use rifles and how to shoot militants in a crowd, he said. The former soldier said … ‘My part of the contract was to train the Kurdish security people for a big airport project and for training, as well as the Peshmerga, and the actual soldiers, the army’, the former IDF soldier told Newsnight … Iraqi newspapers have reported that Israeli soldiers have trained Kurdish troops but the Kurdish authorities” - clearly obliged to try to maintain deniability given sensitivities involved in using Israeli special forces in southern Kurdistan/northern Iraq to train soldiers/Peshmerga to target potential Iranian and/or Syrian and/or PKK and/or Iraqi ‘insurgents’ – “deny allowing any Israelis into Iraq … The former IDF soldier said he trained Kurds in ‘anti-terror lessons ... how to shoot first, how to identify a terrorist in a crowd’. That’s clearly special assignments”. (189)
We also need to reflect upon the substance of Julian Borger’s report in 2003. Is the type of Israeli ‘training’ and ‘advice’ that was being provided to US special forces being passed on by the latter to KDP-PUK Kurdish forces in northern Iraq/southern Kurdistan - to enable them to ‘more effectively’ act against the PKK ‘terrorist threat?’ Have any of the US ‘special forces’ who have been involved in assassination and other psyops programmes against ‘Iraqi insurgents’ in other parts of Iraq been diverted to covertly ‘assist’ with the ‘anti-PKK’ programme that Ralston is co-ordinating? It would certainly be surprising if such ‘expertise’ was not being ‘exploited’ in the US backed ‘war’ against the ‘terrorist’ PKK. After all, as has already been documented, US officials have clearly stated that they see ‘no difference between al Qaeda and the PKK, or between Abdullah Ocalan and Osama Bin Laden’:
Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressive counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources said yesterday. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare specialists to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the home of US special forces, and according to two sources, Israeli military ‘consultants’ have also visited Iraq.
US forces in Iraq’s Sunni triangle have already begun to use tactics that echo Israeli operations in the occupied territories, sealing off centres of resistance with razor wire and razing buildings from where attacks have been launched against US troops.
But the secret war in Iraq is about to get much tougher, in the hope of suppressing the Ba’athist-led insurgency ahead of next November’s presidential elections. US special forces teams are already behind the lines inside Syria attempting to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the border, and a group focused on the “neutralisation” of guerrilla leaders is being set up, according to sources familiar with the operations.
“This is basically an assassination programme. That is what is being conceptualised here. This is a hunter-killer team”, said a former senior US intelligence official, who added that he feared the new tactics and enhanced cooperation with Israel would only inflame a volatile situation in the Middle East. “It is bonkers, insane.Here we are – we’re already being compared to Sharon in the Arab world, and we’ve just confirmed it by bringing in the Israelis and setting up assassination teams”.
“They are being trained by Israelis in Fort Bragg”, a well-informed intelligence source in Washington said. “Some Israelis went to Iraq as well, not to do training, but for providing consultations”. The consultants’ visit to Iraq was confirmed by another US source who was in contact with American officials there. The Pentagon did not return calls seeking comment, but a military planner, Brigadier General Michael Vane, mentioned the cooperation with Israel in a letter to Army magazine in July about the Iraq counter-insurgency campaign. “We recently travelled to Israel to glean lessons learned from their counterterrorist operations in urban areas”, wrote General Vane, deputy chief of staff at the army’s training and doctrine command. An Israeli official said the IDF regularly shared its experience in the West Bank and Gaza with the US armed forces, but said he could not comment about cooperation in Iraq. “When we do activities, the US military attaches in Tel Aviv are interested. I assume it’s the same as the British. That’s the way allies work. The special forces come to our people and say, do debrief on an operation we have done”, the official said. “Does it affect Iraq? It’s not in our interest or the American interest to go into that …” (190)
In conclusion, it is, perhaps, useful to reflect upon the concerns that have been raised by representatives of human rights organisations and commentators and analysts such as Ertugrul Kurkcu, Lord Russell-Johnston and Ragip Zarakolu:
• “Turkey’s Human Rights Foundation (TIHV) chairman Yavuz Onen has said that a number recent statements made by army commanders, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and most lately by Chief of General Staff Commander Yasar Buyukanit captivated issues in a conflict that made people forget about freedoms, human rights, democracy and peace. ‘It is as if democracy and human rights have been postponed’, he said”. (191) Over the manner in which the PKK ceasefire call had been ignored by key establishment figures, he commented: “‘Expressions based on a military security strategy and remarks that the problem can only be solved through violence are concerning. Violence creates conditions where human rights are violated. Whatever it is called, to ignore the ‘ceasefire’ or ‘the [PKK] period of silencing guns’ period and place no value to it is not possible. People are dying. Silencing the guns will allow for a dialogue to begin in an environment of tolerance. It is required to give this its real importance, to see that insisting on violence does not solve the problem’”. Onen called for “the forces of democracy … to raise their voices against these violations and against interventions but also warn[ed] that: ‘In Turkey’”, given current circumstances, “‘defending democracy and human rights has started to become synonymous to treason. While we are concerned about escalating [Turkish] nationalism’”, he noted that it was necessary to recognise that “‘they are gradually growing towards a more open fascist expression. Without naming it, they are saying we deserve fascist regimes’. According to Onen, those truly defending the values of democracy need to stand up [now] against such expressions and approaches”. (192)
• “The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a report that criticizes the methods Turkey has used to fight the PKK. The report entitled ‘The Cultural Situation of the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria’, [was] prepared by PACE Co-chairman Lord Russell-Johnston … The report urges that the Kurdish question be considered from a wider perspective, instead of as a mere security issue. The report, which asserts that Turkey has made mistakes in its fight against the PKK, also reports that Ankara’s non-comprehensive approach strengthened the separatist movement. It also urges Turkey to see the Kurds as a part of its cultural richness, not as a threat … The report makes striking recommendations on the issue of education in the mother tongue. To this end, it urges Turkey to provide an opportunity for education in Kurdish, ensure that university curricula include optional courses on Kurdish language and literature, as well as informing Kurdish families of the existing language training opportunities”, things that are currently perceived to represent ‘terrorist’ aspirations or ‘threats’ if they happen to be endorsed by Turkish or Kurdish citizens, as we have seen. “The report additionally reiterates its call on Turkey to sign, ratify and implement the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages”. (193) A. Noyan Ozkaya observes that the report does “recommend the following steps to be taken:
- The signing and implementation of the European Charter for Regional and Minority languages to protect Kurdish languages [something which is not being done in the context of the current US backed ‘War on Terror’],
- Taking steps to assure education in the mother language [inclusive of the Kurdish ‘mother tongue’],
- Informing Kurdish parents on the different linguistic possibilities,
- Encouraging university classes on Kurdish culture,
- Supporting Kurdish cultural associations in Turkey,
- Promoting the development of mass media in Kurdish”. (194)
•To Kurkcu: “Consecutive declarations of political positions by the Armed Forces Chief of Staff and top commanders” in recent months “could be read as a series of indicators for the public and international community. These indicators, for the time being, are not ‘Green’ or ‘positive’ signs showing what is endorsed [i.e. being encouraged by the army], but are ‘Red’, indicating what must not be done: “The military … does not want to hand-over … power to the government … The military does not want a solution to the ‘Kurdish Problem’ through granting the Kurds ‘community rights’. The military does not want the roadblocks for freedoms of expression, criticism and organization lifted. The military does not want to adjust itself to the [granting of political and cultural rights advocated in the] ‘Copenhagen Criteria’, a precondition for European Union accession … General Yasar Buyukanit, while still the Land Forces Commander, had not hidden his dissatisfaction with with the [‘reform’] policies [ostensibly] pursued by the government on the Cyprus and Kurdish problem, and had made harsh innuendos against the [critical] approach of European Union rapporteurs towards the Armed Forces. Without doubt, Buyukanit’s approaches that voice the search for an ‘authoritarian democracy’ and encourage ultra-[Turkish] nationalism is a direct reflection of his own line of thought. Neverthless, the fact that like-minded officers who are in full agreement with Buyukanit on almost all major issues are appointed to the posts of high command, should be read as reflecting a ruling class/force preference [rather] than [just] his own personal preference … There is no reason to doubt that the army will do everything within its hands in order to impose its preferences …” (195)
• “The Chairman of the Freedom to Publish Committee, Ragip Zarakolu, has issued the following alarming statement on the recent arrests made under the new Anti-Terror Law:
‘Last week a mass arrest campaign began against left reviews [i.e. publications] in Istanbul. The editors of the reviews Atilim and Sanat ve Hayat … as well of The Free Radiowere arrested, their offices were searched by special police teams. The Art and Culture Institution Beksav, too, was subjected to similar searches. The new Anti-Terror Law is used not against the terrorists but against freedom of expression. Last week, two Kurdish reviews, Ozgur Halk and Genç Bakis had the same fate.
‘Beksav made a press conference [to mark the] 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide last year. Sanat ve Hayat review published three booklets as free supplements about Armenian literature and the genocide.
‘We are calling the attention of human rights [campaigners] and writers and publisher organisations to this misuse of the Anti-Terror Law against freedom of expression. The President of Turkey sent this law to the Constitutional Court, saying that this new law is against freedom of expression. These police operations, carried out in spite of the opposition of the President of The Republic, mean giving an opportunity to the government and the military to finish the opposition press in Turkey before the high court cancels this law. We are in need of urgent reaction of democratic world public opinion’”. (196)
- Desmond Fernandes, 10th October 2006.
Note: Desmond Fernandes and Iskender Ozden’s book, US, UK, German and NATO ‘Inspired’ Psychological Warfare Operations Against The Kurdish ‘Communist’ Threat in Turkey and Northern Iraq,will be released in December 2006. It is published by Apec Press (Stockholm, Sweden) and can be obtained in the UK from Housmans Bookshop (5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1 9DX. Tel: 020 7837 4473).
176. See AFP (2006) ‘Turkish PM rejects Kurdish leader’s cease fire offer’, AFP, 29 September 2006.
177. The New Anatolian, 22 September 2006, as reproduced by Info Turk, ‘General Basbug Seeks Public Support in Fighting Terror’, Info Turk, September 2006, No. 337 (http://www.info-turk.be/337.htm#Buyukanit).
178. Cihan News Agency, September 2006, as reproduced in Info Turk, ‘Gov’t Appoints Retired Gen. Baser As Special Envoy to Fight PKK’, Info Turk, September 2006, No. 337 (http://www.info-turk.be/337.htm#Buyukanit).
179. The New Anatolian (2006) ‘Gul warns: No solution to Kirkuk issue will aggravate Iraq’s problems’, The New Anatolian, 24 September, 2006.
180. Cihan News Agency (2006) ‘Turkey to keep fighting PKK to the end - FM Gul’, Cihan News Agency, 28 September 2006.
181. PNA (2006) ‘Turkey to consider PKK ceasefire’, PNA, October 2006.
182. As cited in: http://dozame.org/blog/2006/08/24/declaration-for-the-democratic-resolution-of-the-kurdish-question/
183. Aslan, A. (2006) ‘Wilson: “Reactionary” Debates Cacophonous’, Zaman.com, 4 October 2006 (http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20061004&hn=37059).
184. On this point, Ted Rall, author of Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?, comments: “It depends on what your definition of ‘free’ is … Scratch the gloss of the gleaming energy-boom-funded skyscrapers rising over the Kazakh metropolises of Almaty and Astana, and it becomes clear that the United States is giving the red-carpet, 21-gun salute treatment to [yet] another right-wing dictator of the variety we propped up during the Cold War … Nazarbayev, the Communist Party boss of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) at the time of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, has been Kazakhstan’s strongman since independence … Early in 2005, Nazarbayev had the DVK [the main opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan party] banned entirely for ‘inciting social tension’ and ‘extremism’. A few weeks after promising to release evidence that Nazarbayev and his family were involved in oil-related corruption, Zamanbek Nurkadilov, a former Nazarbayev cabinet minister who joined the nation’s sole remaining viable opposition party, For a Fair Kazakhstan (NAZ), was found dead at his home in Almaty, a pistol lying at his side. Nurkadilov had been shot three times - twice in the chest and once in the head. Kazakh authorities ruled his death a suicide … Misfortune [has] continued to befall Kazakhs who sp[ea]k out against Nazarbayev. On February 13, 2006, reported Radio Free Europe, the bodies of Nurkadilov’s replacement as NAZ leader and four aides ‘were discovered on a desolate stretch of road outside Almaty ... their bodies riddled with bullets and their hands bound behind their backs’. Altynbek Sarsenbayev had recently announced his own intention to release proof of Nazarbayev and his cronies’ misuse of oil revenues. The government blamed five rogue officers of its KNB (ex-KGB) security service for the contract killing. No one believes the official story. The Kazakh regime … has ruthlessly crushed attempts to curtail freedom of expression, a crucial building block of an open society. Journalists have been threatened, beaten and jailed. After the leading independent newspaper Respublika published an interview with a Russian politician that criticized Nazarbayev in May 2005, it was ordered closed. A printing house that agreed to publish a successor newspaper, Setkz, was shuttered as well. The state Internet monopoly, controlled by one of Nazarbayev’s daughters, censors block access to opposition and independent websites. Since a presidential proclamation signed by President Bush in 2004 bans visits by corrupt foreign officials to the United States, Nazarbayev - embroiled in a ‘Kazakhgate’ influence peddling scandal scheduled for federal court later this fall - was legally [supposed to be] ineligible to come to Washington last week. Consultant and lobbyist James Giffen will soon face charges ’‘’that he funneled more than $78 million in bribes from his energy company clients, most of it to Nazarbayev and his former prime minister. According to the Justice Department, Giffen also gave Nazarbayev’s wife fur coats and a snowmobile, and even paid Nazarbayev’s daughter's tuition at George Washington University. US officials call ‘Kazakhgate’ one of the largest violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in history. According to a reliable source, high-ranking White House officials are pressuring the Justice Department to drop the case. [The reason?]: Kazakhstan's geopolitical importance [to the Bush administration] is obvious. It is the largest producer of Caspian Sea oil, borders Russia, China and the other Central Asian states, and has granted the US Air Force landing rights at Almaty’s airport for operations in Afghanistan … Kazakhstan is [also] the only Central Asian republic to have sent troops to Iraq. In all the ways that matter, however, Nazarbayev presides over a police state that is indistinguishable from his more notorious neighbors, such as Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan. Karimov ordered and personally supervised the massacre of at least 700 demonstrators in the Uzbek city of Andijon. The May 13, 2005 incident [is] known in the region as ‘Uzbekistan's Tiananmen Square’ … [Yet], Nazarbayev appeared at a joint press conference with Karimov in March 2006, nearly a year after the Andijon massacre. ‘Of course, we regret everything that happened [at Andijon]’, said Nazarbayev. ‘However, it should be said that another end [i.e., not killing the demonstrators] would have destabilized now the whole region’. Destablization”, Rall observes, “might have given Kazakstan’s 15 million citizens, 99 percent of whom live in poverty while Nazarbayev steals the oil and gas beneath their feet, a chance to liberate themselves. [Yet], sadly and once again, the US government is siding with a dictator over the people”, and, as in Turkey, supporting and ‘jointly’ working as a ‘partner’ in the international ‘war on terror’, with terrorist forces and regimes (All Ted Rall quotes here come from his article, ‘Bush Gives 15 Million Muslims More Reasons to Hate Us’ - Accessed at: http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/).President Bush’s welcoming address to Nazarbayev is worth reading: “Mr. President, thank you for coming. It's been my honor to welcome the President of Kazakhstan … We’ve just had a very important and interesting discussion. We discussed our desire to defeat extremism and our mutual desire to support the forces of moderation [sic] throughout the world. I thanked the President for his contribution to helping a new democracy in Iraq survive and thrive and grow. I thank very much the President for his concerns about Afghanistan’s democracy, and his willingness to help in Afghanistan … We talked about our commitment to institutions that will enable liberty to flourish. I have watched very carefully the development of this important country from one that was in the Soviet sphere to one that now is a free nation. And I appreciate your leadership, Mr. President. And I welcome you here to the White House …” - Source: Office of the Press Secretary, The Oval Office (2006) ‘President Bush Welcomes President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the White House’, White House Press Release, Office of the Press Secretary, The Oval Office, Washington, DC, September 29, 2006 (http://www.state.gov/p/sca/rls/pr/2006/73384.htm).
185. ’‘’ The PKK and other organisations, with Ocalan as their leader, have rejected ‘separatism’ for years now. The ‘separatism’ tag, therefore, is a deliberately misleading one as far as the ‘terrorist’ PKK, Kongra-Gel and KKK are concerned. The KKK (Kurdistan Democratic Confederalism) Executive Council’s most recent statement on 20th August 2006, for instance, clarified that: “We would like as a movement” – with Ocalan at its head – “to emphasize, once again, that the right solution is a democratic autonomy within the borders of Turkey” - Declaration for the democratic resolution of the Kurdish question, KKK [Kurdistan Democratic Confederalism] Executive Council, 20 August 2006. Translation from Turkish original (Accessed at: http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=13093 and http://dozame.org/blog/2006/08/24/declaration-for-the-democratic-resolution-of-the-kurdish-question/). A BBC report, dated 19th August 2005, also clarifies that “The Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy in south-eastern Turkey … has announced a one-month ceasefire” - BBC News (2005) ‘Kurdish rebels declare ceasefire’, BBC News, Friday, 19 August 2005 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4166166.stm).The Presidential Board of Koma Komalen Kurdistan (KKK - Democratic Confederation of Kurdistan) issued the following statement on 30th September 2006: “On the 28th September 2006, following the decisions of the assembly, the Leader of Koma Komalen Kurdistan, Apo (Abdullah Öcalan), declared once again to the public and the movement the decision of a ceasefire … We will carry out our work for this aim of a positive outcome in order to create the conditions for a life within a democratic and free union and to solve the problem within the borders of Turkey” (KKK Presidential Board Statement, ‘To the press and the public opinion’, 30th September 2006).
186. Knox, O. (2006)‘Bush and Erdogan emphasize common ground after talks’, Agence France Presse, 3 October 2006.
187. Reuters (2006) ‘Turkey seeks US help on Kurd rebels as ceasefire starts’, Reuters, 2 October 2006.
188. Reuters (2006) ‘Report: Former IDF commandos secretly trained Kurdish soldiers’, Reuters, as reproduced in Haaretz, 20 September 2006 (as reproduced in: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/765068.html).
189. Reuters (2006) ‘Report: Former IDF commandos secretly trained Kurdish soldiers’, Reuters, as reproduced in Haaretz, 20 September 2006 (as reproduced in: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/765068.html).
190. Borger, J. (2003) ‘Israel trains US Assassination Squads in Iraq’, The Guardian , 9 December 2003 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1102940,00.html).
191. Korkut, T. (2006) ‘Turkey: Postponing Democracy and Peace’, BIA News Center, 4 October 2006.
192. Korkut, T. (2006) ‘Turkey: Postponing Democracy and Peace’, BIA News Center, 4 October 2006.
193. Demir, E. (2006) ‘PACE Criticizes Turkey’s Methods of Combating Terrorism’, zaman.com, 5 October 2006.
194. Ozkaya, A. N. (2006) ‘PACE Approves Report on Kurds: “The cultural situation of the Kurds”’, 5 October 2006. Source: Council of Europe and Minorities, A. Noyan Ozkaya. Cihan News Agency clarifies that: “It must be noted that the report’s recommendations, however, are non-binding in nature” - The Turkish state, consequently, is not obliged to impliment any of the recommendations - Cihan News Agency (2006) ‘PACE Adopts Report on Kurdish Rights’, Cihan News Agency, 5 October, 2006 (zaman.com).
195. Kurkcu, E. (2006) ‘Washington's Preferences’, Siyasi Gazete, October 2006.
196. As quoted in Info Turk (2006) ‘New Anti-Terror Law is Used Against the Freedom of Expression’, Info Turk, September 2006, No. 337 (http://www.info-turk.be/337.htm#Droits).
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