FELLOW TRAVELERS, FUNDAMENTALISTS, AND FLOODS

"Even if I saw with my own eyes that the state had burned a village, I would not believe it. Do not think that every helicopter you see is ours. It could be a PKK helicopter. It could also be a Russian, Afghan, or Armenian helicopter."
~ Tansu Ciller, former Prime Minister of Turkey, Cumhuriyet, October 28, 1994.

First item of the day . . .

Thanks to Hevallo, word about Ralston is breaking into the Armenian blogosphere, with Artyom at iararat posting the news. Onnik Krikorian, who has done some fabulous work reporting and photographing the Kurds in Armenia, includes a mention of Artyom's post and quotes more of the information from Hevallo's blog. Check Onnik's excellent blog, Oneworld Multimedia for more.

Bijî Ermenistan!

Second item of the day . . .

A week ago, an item appeared in TNA, discussing the then upcoming meeting of the MGK (took place on Tuesday of this week). Apparently, the topic of conversation at that cosy little gathering was the rise of religious fundamentalism in Turkey, with the groundwork for the meeting having been laid previously in recent public speeches of the Pashas and a visit between Gul and Land Forces Commander Basbug. Those two discussed issues related to anti-"terrorism."

What's my point? My point is that the pashas have their panties in knots over the fact of rising religious fundamentalism in Turkey, yet they were the very ones who encouraged the rise in the first place, with their Turkish-Islamic synthesis. Good Kemalists, aren't they? While they talk the talk on secularism and the prophylactic use of "rationalism and scientific knowledge" to combat the threat--yeah, Basbug actually used that argument--and while Naval Forces Commander Karahanoglu pontificated on the "plot" between global capitalism, imperialism--yeah, he actually said "imperialism"--and fundamentalism, not a single one of them walks the walk on secularism.

They can't. I mean, hell, they were the ones who said, in effect, "If there will be Islamism in Turkey, we will bring the Islamism," and they did.

So check out what Yusuf Kanli at TDN has to say on the matter today (without choking over the mention of the right to demonstrate; you've been warned):

Do we remember what happened after the 1960 coup? How many of us have read about the sufferings of the intellectuals during that military period? Wasn't the policy of the coup administrations in the interventions of 1960, 1971 and 1980 to encourage Islamic feelings as a shield against communist and leftist ideas? How many of us recall that Islamic courses became a compulsory element of school curricula after the 1980 takeover? That is, those members of the establishment who are so worried about the advance of Islamists in this country must know better than anyone else that the advance of political Islam in Turkey largely owes its success to the military administrations and the military-installed interim governments.

Geez . . . I can't believe it. I actually agree with the guy here. And let's all remember who backed the 1980 coup, shall we? All of them were the ones who incubated this problem. The only real Kemalist, when it comes to secularism, or "rationalism and scientific knowledge" to combat this threat, is sitting in Imrali. Pretty damned ironic.

And speaking of those who helped craft and carry out the September 12 coup, it seems that US National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, went to Salahaddin to talk to the KDP about "security issues." See TNA for more.

What a jackass this Hadley guy is. He should maybe go to Baghdad where they actually do have "security issues," don't you think? I wonder if he told Kak Masûd to take down the Kurdistan flag?

Last item of the day . . .

There has been some terrible flooding in Turkey, including in internal colony Kurdistan. Reuters reports that it's the worst flooding since the year the Ankara regime slaughtered 40,000 Kurds in the Dersim Serhildan (1937). 6,000 people have been evacuated in Êlih (Batman) and damage in the province is estimated at $8.7 million. You know it's gotta be bad if that's the estimate, because there isn't that much in the province.

Almost 7,000 people were evacuated in Riha (Sanliurfa). Most of the Cinar district of Amed (Diyarbakir) is under water.

IHT has more, as does TDN and TNA.

The best lines in the Reuters report are from Milliyet:

The newspaper Milliyet attributed the high death toll in the southeast to shoddy construction and creaking infrastructure.

"Neglect, not fate," its headline read above a picture of flooded streets.

Wrong.

The word "neglect" implies that stuff just deteriorated when you weren't paying attention, but in this case the Ankara regime has been paying close attention to "the predominately Kurdish region" for a very long time. The Ankara regime has, for decades, purposely impoverished and destroyed Kurdistan as a part of it's racist program of occupation. That is the only reason that 33 Kurdish lives have already been lost in this disaster. Who knows how many more will perish, thanks to the fascist Ankara regime, before the rains are over with?

By the way, make sure you check the TNA article at the end where it outlines the damage in Turkey proper (the West). There's a little property damage, but no human casualties.