CONSCIOUS, BUT NOT INTELLIGENT, MANIPULATION

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society."
~ Edward Bernays.

It looks like Newsweek doesn't have the cojones to put a journalist's name to its propaganda pieces, the most recent of which claims that PKK is losing support among Kurds in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

On what does Newsweek base its claim? Let's take a look:

Last week the streets of Sirnak and Diyarbakir were again full of demonstrators, many of them Kurds. But this time they were protesting not against the government, but against the very group that claims to fight for their rights—the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

The Şirnex protest was mentioned here on Rastî last week. As Reuters reported, the protests were dominated by "state-paid village guards, civil servants and schoolchildren." It's also a fact well-known to Kurds that the Turkish regime forces people to turn out for regime demonstrations because they are threatened to do so by the regime. Since those regime-forced demonstrations took place, participation-by-threat was confirmed to me by offline sources in The Region.

On the same day of the regime-forced protests, a Turkish journalist in Amed for a conference on coups, democracy, and politics in Turkey discussed the fact that the Turkish military is behind all of the recent protests throughout Turkey. Links to that information was also contained in last week's Rastî post.

Of course, the brilliant, nameless investigative journalist from Newsweek unwittingly admits that the regime was behind the protests in Şirnex and Amed, and within the very same paragraph:

Most surprising of all, the protests were encouraged by the most hawkish institution in the country—the Turkish Army, which on the eve of the rallies called on all citizens "to demonstrate their collective opposition against the terrorist attacks."

Yes, most surprising of all is the fact that regime-forced happened immediately after the Turkish general staff posted an order online to the civilian population demanding protests. The sanitized English version of the order appeared in Hürriyet--sanitized because the regime didn't want anyone to pick up on the genocidal implications of the Genelkurmay's seven points.

Then the nameless journalist at Newsweek claims that PKK suddenly called a ceasefire on June 12 because it has lost its base of support:

The turnabout seemed to have a rapid impact. Last week the PKK abruptly announced a ceasefire in the wake of nationwide protests by Turks and Kurds alike against its latest campaign of violence. Previous ceasefires have crumbled.

You would think that an international publication like Newsweek would have the wherewithal to actually confirm the facts it uses to back up its claims, but clearly Newsweek does not. A thirty-second search of Google would have revealed the realities of the ceasefire, that the ceasefire went into effect on October 1, 2006, and therefore it was not an "abrupt" announcement. Such a search would have also turned up the fact that it was the US and Turkey who rejected the ceasefire out of hand days before it went into effect. Futhermore, if the cheap-assed editors at Newsweek actually owned an Internet connection, a little more digging would have revealed that the Turkish regime has refused all other unilateral PKK ceasefires offered in the thirty-odd years since PKK's founding, particularly during the 6-year ceasefire between 1999-2005.

I would also ask, if there are only "remnants" of PKK left, as Newsweek asserts, then why has the entire Middle East gone spastic over PKK's existence? The truth is that while PKK has its strongest support among the 20 million Kurds under Turkish occupation, it has always attracted Kurds from all parts of Kurdistan. With that in mind, it should be remembered that PKK is the only Kurdish organization that regularly dispatches dirty Iranian pasdarans, in a blaze of glory, to their eternal reward of virgins in paradise.

And now that I have mentioned PJAK, let me point out that a non-Newsweek propagandist has an article out on it. Soner Cagaptay of the neoconservative think tank, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, tries to make the case that PJAK is part of PKK. I guess some people don't believe it is, but here's what this "expert" says:

PJAK insists that it is distinct from the PKK, but interviews with its leaders and members, along with a look at its history, suggest that the two groups have similar ideologies and methodologies.

Bullshit. Cagaptay knows very well that PJAK is part of PKK because Cagaptay knows very well what Cemil Bayık had to say about that last year:

"If the US is interested in PJAK, then it has to be interested in the PKK as well," Bayik said. "The PKK is the one who formed PJAK, who established PJAK and supports PJAK."

So much for the "experts" at WINEP.

TIME is also running a little something on the PKK. Putting the superficiality of TIME's journalist aside, it does appear that HPG's headquarters command is putting the skids on the free access of journalists to Qendil. Well, American journalists, at least, and that may be because all the recent reporting about PKK has been nothing but propaganda in the service of the Ankara and Washington regimes. Since these "journalists" are nothing more than glorified propagandists, it's about time for them to be denied, along with all their phony arguments about getting the Kurdish cause into the MSM.

How many of them were interested enough in the cause to write about the Joseph Ralston/Lockheed Martin conflict of interest? If they are truly interested, let them learn Turkish and read Firat.

If anyone is interested in where the US is planning to establish its permanent Iraqi bases--14 in total--check out the Friends Committee on National Legislation to play with the interactive map.

Last, but certainly not least, Dr. Kristiina has her own post about the June 6 meeting in the House of Commons on the situation of Kurds in Turkey, which she attended. Take a look at Dr. Kristiina's blog, The Kurdish Question.