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"With the US government’s stated aim of vigorously assisting the Turkish state with its ‘operations’ that are aimed at ‘hunting down’ and ‘eradicating’ the ‘rebel’ Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), many human rights organisations, concerned Kurdish and Turkish civilians, peace campaigners and public interest groups are justifiably concerned that the genocidal and ‘psychological warfare’ linked ‘policies and practices of the recent past’ may all too chillingly reappear once again in the region."
~ Desmond Fernandes, "Turkey's US Backed 'War on Terror': A Cause For Concern?"

From the email inbox:

THE KURDISH AND ARMENIAN GENOCIDES -
FROM CENSORSHIP AND DENIAL
TO
RECOGNITION?

By Desmond Fernandes
Apec Press, Stockholm, December 2007
ISBN: 91-89675-72-X

Turkey’s repression of the Kurds has been widely documented - and is acknowledged as a major obstacle to Turkey’s accession to the European Union. But what lies behind such repression? Fernandes confronts the issue head on, forcing the reader to probe a question that many in Turkey and elsewhere would rather avoid: does the systematic repression of the Kurds amount to genocide? Open discussion of this issue is critical if a long-term resolution of the Kurdish issue is to be achieved – Nicholas Hildyard, Policy Analyst.

The book is an exceptionally important read for anyone with a broad interest in human rights and social justice. It has a scholarly account of the historical background to the present awful situation of Turkish Armenians and Turkish Kurds. In particular, the book provides a powerful comparative analysis of the policies of the US, Israel and Turkey in terms of their rationale for labelling human atrocities as genocide – Dr. Julia Kathleen Davidson, Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow and Membership Secretary of Scotland Against Criminalising communities (SACC).

In this important book, Desmond Fernandes exposes the details of the sordid and largely hidden role of Israel and the US Israel Lobby in preventing Congress from recognizing the Turkish genocide of the Armenians – Jeff Blankfort, Former Editor, Middle East Labor Bulletin.

Among its Cold War victories the United States certainly succeeded in its ambition to make the world safe for nationalism. As identity politics is reprocessed as a function of global capital, and rehabilitated as its natural ally, Desmond Fernandes documents the fractured consequences of the ready-made social fantasy - Variant: Cross Currents in Culture.

Desmond Fernandes writes for those who spoke the truth and were murdered, those who spoke 200 days ago and are still imprisoned, and for those who live in terror and in silence, or who meet in nameless buildings, so that the words ‘GENOCIDE’, ethnic cleansing, or the Turkish military word ‘TEMIZLEME’, may be heard as a siren call for the muted victims of the Turkish state - Diamanda Galás, Composer and Performer of Songs of Exile, Vena Cava, Schrei X, Plague Mass and Defixiones, Will And Testament.

The international visibility of eminent novelists like Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak ensures that their subtle criticism of Turkish legal practices and political culture reaches a wide international public. What is also needed for an understanding of Turkey is detailed historical analysis and scholarly insight into the perceptions and myths that contribute to the identity and beliefs of key actors on the Turkish scene and in the wider population. This is precisely what is provided by Fernandes, both in his own work analysing the denial of Armenian genocide and in his useful presentation of the significance, nationally and internationally, of the work of Ahmet Kahraman. His book and the cases cited by Fernandes show how the nationalist Kemalist cause is being ruthlessly promoted not only in Turkey but also by the Turkish state elsewhere ... Machinations, covert and overt, of a fundamentally unethical and reprehensible kind are being increasingly exposed, initially for a Turkish readership in the case of Kahraman’s book and now for an international public – Professor Robert Phillipson, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark [from the Foreword to the book].

Fernandes’ painstaking investigation sheds much needed light on the collusion between the Turkish State and the Israel lobby in preventing recognition of one of the darkest episodes of the past century, the genocide of Ottoman Turkey’s ethnic Armenians - Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, Spinwatch.

[This is] a judiciously assembled vast, syntactic mosaic ‘illustrating’ the total state terror inflicted upon two ancient peoples ... Desmond Fernandes has laboriously integrated a vast amount of historical events, scholarly data, secret documents, live witnesses, relevant literature and even poetry ... [He] has hit the target: mainly encapsulating the enormity of censorship, denial and recognition of that ultimate crime of man’s inhumanity to man - Genocide - Khatchatur I. Pilikian [from the Epilogue].

Desmond Fernandes is a policy analyst and former Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Genocide Studies at De Montfort University, England. He has published widely in a number of journals and is co-author of Genozid an den Kurden in der Türkei? - Verfolgung, Krieg und Zerstörung der ethnischen Identität (2001, Medico International, Frankfurt). Forthcoming titles by the author include The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey and US, UK, German, Israeli and NATO ‘Inspired’ Psychological Warfare Operations against the ‘Kurdish Threat’ in Turkey and Northern Iraq, due to be published by Apec Press, Stockholm.

Note: The book can be ordered securely online via Paypal at the BRTA shop (http://brta.org.uk/sales/) in the “Categories - Des Fernandes' Books” section, at the recommended retail price of £14.99 [2nd Class Royal Mail postage is included free of charge to those customers who wish to receive their book orders at a UK based address].

I highly recommend Desmond Fernandes' new book as I know his research is impeccable and everything in this book will certainly be meticulously documented. Given that we know have a war on the Kurdish people in which both the US and Israel are taking an active role--as opposed to their previous role as military suppliers, trainers, and advisors--the question of the reality imposed on the Kurdish people by these three fascist regimes, along with the accompanying genocide, must become just as in-your-face as possible.

Another item from the inbox, and far more amusing I might add:

from Aytug Koyuncu (aytugk@yahoo.com)
to mizginyilmaz@gmail.com,
date Dec 29, 2007 3:13 PM
subject sikilmis irkci -kurtucu kopek
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com

3:13 PM


pic oglu pic

kucaga oturacaksýn yakindir .... kopoglu kopek

anasi sikilmis it yavrusu

This is the typical Turkish reaction to anything Kurdish. What a great argument, eh? And people wonder why Turkey is backward . . .