SEMDINLI, INJUSTICE, BLACK OPS

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."
~ Malcom X.

Just in case you were wondering what in the hell ever happened with the Şemdinli trial, something appeared in English-language news today that gives you an update (after all, I don't have the time to work on translations of everything).

When we last left the story, the Supreme Court of Appeals had dropped that hot potato in the lap of the Turkish ruling elites--the Turkish military. Today, Zaman has more:

However, the convictions of the two officers were quashed last month by the Supreme Court of Appeals, which ruled that the defendants be retried at a military tribunal. Now, in the latest twist, the notorious Şemdinli bookstore case looks set to attract further controversy with the loss of vital files on the case in a car accident late last month as the files were being transported back to the eastern city of Van by the Supreme Court of Appeals in the capital.

Reports indicate that most of the documents in the dossier of PKK informant Ateş were completely destroyed in the accident. Initial reports also suggest that 17 dossiers have a number of pages missing, with the remaining ones severely damaged. Meanwhile, the Van 3rd Criminal Court took up the case again yesterday, despite the Supreme Court of Appeals ruling handing the trial over to a military court. The next hearing will be on July 11.

The "accident" was a black operation, a mini-Susurluk, so to speak. Conveniently, the file of the so-called "PKK informant" was utterly destroyed. Why? Because the so-called "PKK informant," Veysel Ateş, was never associated with PKK. He worked solely for the regime. My money says he was also deeply involved with the regime's secret services. That's also a greater justification for Ateş's separate trial, because the Ankara regime has never shied away from trying civilians by military court. Come to think of it, you never heard much about Ateş's trial,did you?

Besides, don't you think it's kind of odd that TDN would run a story on the start-up of the retrial with absolutely no mention of the fact that the file of one of the bombers was completely destroyed, while others were severely damaged and the trial documents as a whole are now "contaminated?"

Meanwhile, the land grab is underway . . . in South Kurdistan, that is. The Ankara regime is going to seize territory inside South Kurdistan, along the border, in order to establish a "buffer zone." Let's think about this for half a nano-second: Technically, the land for that buffer zone is being seized from the sovereign state of Iraq.

Do you hear anyone complaining about this?

But, maybe this will set a precedent, and the US will be able to cite the Turkish example to justify the seizure of Mexican land along the border with the US. After all, you've got to keep those millions of potential terrorists out of the US. Right?

Well, maybe not. The US can always use the global War on Terror® as the overriding excuse to justify all behavior. Such is the prerogative of imperium.

American propaganda continues to inspire hilarity. The bottom line is that the Turkish military is not innocent. End of discussion.

Sarah Rainsford, from the BBC, actually has a pretty good piece on the total lack of justice for Kurds under Turkish occupation. She mentions the fact that the state murderers of Ahmet and Uğur Kaymaz (Uğur, 12-years old at the time of his murder) have gotten off scott-free. She mentions that 90% of the regime's murderers are never brought to trial, and of the 10% that are, only 10% of those end up with convictions. There's no mention, however, of how many of those convictions are overturned--just as the regime is trying to do with the Şemdinli bombers.

Her quotes from the regional dictator are illuminating:

Regional Governor Mehmet Kiliclar rebuffs any suggestion of bias in Turkey's judicial system. He is unconcerned about the lack of convictions.

"So what? In this region 30,000 people have been killed. It's a big issue," he says from an armchair in his official residence in Mardin.

I can identify with the guy. So what if a bunch of European tourists get blown up in Turkey's TSK-owned resorts? So what if Mehmetçik continues to die. So what if Turkish families continue to cry in vain?

"If there were any laws in this country, they would not set those people free," one former classmate shouts. He is not old enough to remember the worst fighting in this region, but he has been brought up with an acute sense of injustice.

"If things go on like this, Kurdish nationalism will increase, people will join the PKK," Resat Kaymaz tells me.

"If the police had been punished, Ugur would still be a symbol for the next generation. But at least they would see that the state did what was right, in the end."

If you believed all the bull about the new OHAL being more "friendly" than the old OHAL, I'm going to abuse your illusions. It looks like the regime intends to increase black operations against the Kurdish people, and you know what that means: a return to state assassinations, disappearances, extrajudicial murders, media blackout, forced displacements,and more IDP's.

In the end, PKK is still the only answer.