TURKEY, DEMOCRACY, GAMBLING

"If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time."
~ Chinese Proverb.

What are all those Turkish troops doing as they are deployed to the border with South Kurdistan?

Source: Özgür Gündem; Caption: "Soldiers, at ease! We're going to vote now!"

Maybe they're getting ready to register to vote in "The Southeast." As Özgür Gündem reports, a TSK major collected some 400 ID cards from Turkish troops of the Bolu commandos, showed up at the Sırnak city muhtar's door and demanded that the troops be registered in Şırnak to vote. There's one minor problem with this scenario, however, and that is that it is illegal for Turkish soldiers to vote. The Şırnak muhtar had the good sense to refuse the major, but unfortunately, the TSK has been screwing around with voter registration all over "The Southeast," so that at this point 13,000 Mehmetçiks are registered to vote there.

Besides in Şırnak city, attempts to register Mehmetçiks have taken place in Uludere and Beytüşşebap, Hakkari Çukurca, and Yüksekova. The Turkish Higher Election Board (YSK) forbids voting by soldiers.

Undoubtedly this is an attempt by the TSK to disqualify whole lists of voters from "The Southeast," a scheme which is matched by the civilian politicians in Ankara who have changed the way in which votes for independent candidates are cast. Previously, independent candidates had separate paper ballots, but the AKP/CHP alliance has pushed for independent candidates to be listed with all other candidates, making it difficult for illiterate voters to select the names of independents from long lists of candidates. With the highest illiteracy rate in "The Southeast," the measure was purposely aimed at Kurdish voters and DTP.

Paşa Edip Başer was removed by AKP as the Turkish "special envoy" to coordinate the PKK after an argument with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül. Well, okay, they're not saying it was because of the argument because they're pretending to be civilized, but we all know better. Add to that the little stunt the Paşas pulled with Gül's presidential vote in the TBMM, and the removal of Başer and his replacement by AKP's Rafet Akgünay becomes an obvious tit=for-tat political move by AKP. This doesn't change any attitudes or approaches to the Kurdish issue, PKK, or Lockheed Martin's cynical and dirty business deals. It's strictly a matter of domestic Turkish politics.

On that note, don't hold your breath that the US will replace it's very cynical appointment of Lockheed Martin director, Joseph Ralston, as it's "special envoy" to "coordinate" the PKK for Turkey. After all, the Americans want to sell more weapons systems, this time upgrading Turkish Patriot missile systems (manufactured by Lockheed Martin) as part of their latest advertising gimmick that would create a "missile defense shield" in the region. Lockheed has even thrown in a little technology transfer to sweeten the deal.

In other news, there was a bomb blast at an Ankara shopping mall today and, naturally, the blame is laid at the door of PKK, as if PKK were the only organization on the planet that uses plastic explosives or as if bombings in Turkey were the solely in the domain of PKK. I guess these jackass journalists can't remember as far back as Şemdinli.

Even Yaşar Paşa had something to say about the matter, from the AP as carried on IHT:

"Who feeds terrorist groups? Who's behind them? That's what we need to look at," said Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military. He did not rule out further attacks, saying: "They could carry out such things in major cities."

Who feeds terrorist groups? That's a very pertinent question, especially given the prevalence of Gladio forces that have traditionally operated in Turkey. Of course, Yaşar Paşa is the one to know about these things because he's in charge of them. He knows from experience that those involved in black operations are "good boys."

Perhaps the biggest line of bullshit in that IHT article is found at the end, when reference is made of the Amed bombing last September 12 (the anniversary of the 1980 coup and the first visit of the Lockheed Martin's "PKK coordinator" to Turkey):

In September, suspected Kurdish rebels set off a bomb at a bus stop in Turkey's largest majority Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing 10 people.

Everyone knows that the ultra-nationalist TİT (Türk İntikam Tugayı) immediately claimed responsibility for the Amed bombing, and TİT has long been associated with the Deep State (read: Turkish military). For more on the Amed bombing and the infor that TİT posted on a website before it was pulled down by perpetrators unknown, see this page. also check out DozaMe, which captured the information from TİT's website for posterity.

IHT continues:

A month earlier, a hard-line Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for a bus bombing in the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris that injured 20 people, including 10 Britons.

The "hardline" group in question was Teyrebazên Azadiya Kurdistan (TAK). As mentioned in the comments of the previous post:

...and by the why, they talk about PKK for the entire article to confuse the reader and to make them think this was the work of the PKK

with media like this, what's the point in being good little boys and girls?

Actually, there is no point in being good little boys and girls, because being good little boys and girls never got anyone anywhere, as was described by Peter Gelderloos in the recent edition of Utne magazine. Instead, as Gelderloos contends, nonviolent movements do nothing more than serve the state. So it has been with the Kurdish movement in Turkey and that is why groups like TAK have sprung up. It is also why whatever miniscule concessions have been made to the Kurdish people in Turkey are strictly the fruits of the blood of PKK's şehids.

Democracy is like gambling in Vegas; the house (or in political terms, the state) always enjoys the advantage. It is a game in which ordinary people lose.

For TAK, it's long past quitting time. It needs to be so for everyone else as well.