MURAT KARAYILAN: NEW YEAR'S PREDICTIONS

"To Turkey, what did you do with your own power? You cannot pretend as a victorious army by getting the opportunities from the US through begging."
~ Murat Karayılan.

All right, first order of business . . . go over to Hevallo's place and check out his report on the recent conference on the Kurdish situation at Chatham House in the UK. Even TDN picked up on the conclusion of the Chatham House conference:

Turkey can probably never defeat the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and cross-border attacks on its bases in Iraq are almost certainly futile, a leading think-tank said Wednesday.

Chatham House, noting that the Iraqi government is cautious about confronting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), added that Kurdish nationalism is experiencing a popular and "political renaissance" in the whole region. "The PKK is a well-motivated force that enjoys local support and the protection afforded by the inaccessible terrain of the border regions," it said in a report, released a day after Turkish troops entered northern Iraq.

"Turkey can probably never defeat the PKK and any further incursions across the border are likely to be futile," it added.

Futile, indeed. Hevallo himself called for the decriminalization of PKK and for pressure to be applied to the Ankara regime for a peaceful, negotiated settlement. Also of note from Hevallo's blog is the interview with Osman Baydemir, who says, among other things:

In my personal opinion, the PKK is not the reason behind the Kurdish problem; rather it is an outcome of the Kurdish problem. If the Turkish perception [of the Kurds] since 1924, when the Turkish republic was first established, to date was not the way it is then there would be no reason for the presence of the PKK.

Weapons are never the language of dialogue when it pertains to a problem. If Turkey’s perception of the Kurds remained unchanged then another party would emerge bearing a different name if the PKK were to disappear.

Hevallo also has the intestinal fortitude to dig into Michael Rubin's latest bullshit at the AEI.

In yesterday's post I said: "It would be a mistake to think that Turkey's US-backed attacks against Kurdistan las weekend were an anomaly. Harsh reality is that the "Surge" has gone north and it's now directed against Kurdistan." So it should come as no surprise that there were more air strikes against South Kurdistan on Saturday. Now there isn't much humor to be found in the results of the air attacks, but there's loads of humor to be found in the Paşas' official statements about the attacks:

"It will become well understood how effective the operations against the terrorist operations are," the military's statement said. The PKK "no longer has a chance of success" against the Turkish army.

Actions over recent weeks had left "hundreds of terrorists" dead, it added.

Weren't the Paşas talking that same gû thirty years ago? What do you expect from a pack of dinosaurs with the collective brain mass of a walnut?

On the other hand, if you want something to make you really hot about the joint American-Turkish bombings of civilians, then you have to watch a report from Roj TV, carried over at Özgür Gündem, that shows some of the after effects of the bombing. If you watch the first half of the clip, you won't need to understand a word of Turkish or Kurdish to understand exactly what happened on the ground a week ago. For that reason, I strongly urge everyone to view at least the first half of the video. This is reality which you are never going to see aired in Western media because the West, in collusion with the genocidal Ankara regime, is guilty of the destruction and suffering.

In fact, Murat Karayılan would tell you the very same thing because there's an interview with him at Özgür Gündem, titled "The operation is an international attack," in which the air strikes figure prominently in the discussion. Here is what I consider the meat of the conversation:

This situation, in which you have the US on one side and Iran on the other, shows the reality of the world that is based on profit. It shows how everyone is an actor in the Kurdish question and plays with it. In fact, this situation came up because the Turkish government used its geostrategic situation as a bargaining chip to annihilate the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Turkey is signing agreements with Iran which, just like the Turkish government, has the Kurdish population is under its dominance. All these incidents are based on the Turkish government's policy, which is based on enmity against the Kurds.

Even though the US does not have a resolution to settle the Kurdish question, for its own profit sometimes it recognizes the Kurds as allies and sometimes as enemies. Thus this double standard appears clearly. The US is endeavoring to found a new system in the region based on the support of the Kurds; it is also supporting the Turkish Republic--which is as brutal as the Saddam regime was--by providing intelligence and opening Iraq's air space. Thus it also takes the responsibility for the recent attacks. However, these air strikes and shelling from international cooperation against our movement, resulted in failure. Even though it caused five martyred comrades and two civilian patriots, because of the precautions that our movement took, these attacks were ineffective. Besides, while Iran contributed [to the attacks] by shelling, Iraq's government, was also one of the allies of the attacking countries.

Thus Turkey's claim that our movement gets support from foreign countries is refuted by the international cooperation with the TSK against our movement.

Our movement is one of the unique movements that executes its struggle without having any support from outside, but depends on its own power. The Turkish government claims that our movement is nourished by illegal smuggling, which is a big lie. Firstly, our movement is a movement that is against every kind of drug that is ideologically and morally harmful to humans, and in our daily lives we have proved this. However, the Turkish government uses these kinds of lies in order to cover its weakness. And with these attacks, all we have seen is which side is more dependent on foreign assistance, and who is making everything a bargaining chip.

Another important point is that the US gave intelligence, approval, and, maybe, joined the attack with a couple of its aircraft [see the information on American AWACS at the end of this post--Mizgîn]. But all they did was bomb Kurdish villagers, their homes, killed their animals, destroyed their school and hospital. Despite all these facts, as Turkish media brought up, they are congratulating each other, crying out victory rhetoric, and putting themselves in a funny position in the international arena. To Turkey, what did you do with your own power? You cannot pretend as a victorious army by getting the opportunities from the US through begging.

Buyukanit is proud of knowing what a good servant he is to the US by receiving intelligence from it. However, this is nothing to be proud of, but it is a pitiful situation. With this mentality, it is obvious that they are going to sell Turkey and they will drag the Turkish people into big adventures and make them lose the century.

Karayılan says the Kurdish Freedom Movement expects pinpoint attacks throughout the winter in South Kurdistan. At the same time, they expect that TSK will intensify its brutality in North Kurdistan and that the US, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq will move to narrow the manoeuvrability of the Kurdish Freedom Movement internationally. Karayılan expects that these policies will be executed until the spring and that the main attacks will be against North Kurdistan, where the majority of the gerîlas are located. Although the Ankara regime always points to South Kurdistan as the target, in reality the regime's most intensified attacks against the Kurdish people take place in North Kurdistan.

TSK's attacks against the gerîlas in North Kurdistan will be made with the hope of keeping the gerîlas from making preparations for the spring. As a result, Karayılan says that the spring and summer of 2008 will be very important in terms of the Kurdish struggle in Turkey.

If I've said it once, I've said it one hundred times: Stop the cooperation.

Now, think about this: What was Barzanî doing in Austria a few weeks ago? Think he went there for coffee and pastries, or for the mountain scenery? Think again.