SER SALA HEWE PÎROZ BÎT

New Year's Eve music by Ciwan Haco. Relax and enjoy.

Oh, yeah . . . Happy New Year.

HPG HEADQUARTERS COMMANDER: AN EMPTY ENDEAVOR

"PKK has 24 years of war experience and all the regional powers came to defeat it; however, they could not. PKK has passed its exam."
~ Bahoz Erdal, HPG Headquarters Commander.

Here's a short interview with HPG Headquarters Commander Bahoz Erdal, on the recent American-Turkish attacks in the Medya Defense Zones:

On the 16th of December, the Turkish army conducted an air strike. The Turkish media claimed that a large number of gerilas were killed. What can you say about this?


For a long time there were preparations for such attacks. Through [Turkish] propaganda and the media, preparations had been made for these attacks. Whenever it gets stuck against our forces in the resistance, as a pretext, the Turkish army targets South Kurdistan and the regions in which we reside. Both Turkish officials and Turkish media showed the people that if there were an attack against South Kurdistan and the Medya Defense Zones, then the PKK would completely perish and the question would be solved. They had great expectations in this attack. They made everyone focus here and motivated people for a possible attack.

This attack was made by more than 50 aircraft. This attack was implemented with the clear support of the US. After this attack, the statements of the Turkish General Staff and Turkish media was showing as if they had come and hit us, as if we had serious casualties, and as if we were in a weak position. They tried to show it as if it were a successful attack, a successful, unique attack that destroyed us remarkably and took us a couple of years back. All these things are lies and very far from the truth. As the statement that we made on the first day, 5 guerrillas were martyred and 3 friends were wounded. Except for this, we had no other losses.


What are the reasons that the Turkish army and media twist the truth?


The goal is as follows: One, the Turkish army could not be successful in North Kurdistan by suffering serious casualties and meeting severe resistance by our guerrillas. For that reason, this demoralized the psychology of the troops, the army, and the state. In order to break down that demoralization, they had to give a response. They wanted to make it happen with this attack; however, they could not succeed in this recent attack as well. For that reason, they want to cover this. They are trying to show a very unsuccessful thing as if it were very successful; they are trying to cover their weakness and failure.

The other goal is the civilian villagers in South Kurdistan who had been targeted and destroyed. It is known that two civilians were killed, that there were numerous wounded, many houses collapsed, hundreds of animals died, and schools destroyed. Hospitals were damaged. The martyrdom of our comrades, who died in this attack, were the targets of the attack. These are the concrete results of the attack. With these, actually the reality of the attack is revealed. Firstly, this attack was not successful. Secondly, the aim of this attack was not PKK, as they claim. The aim is the Kurdish people. This could be either PKK guerrillas or a villager from South Kurdistan. It is clearly revealed in this way. They are insistently trying to hide this reality. For that reason, they desperately need to lie. It is very strange when we listen to the Turkish media; Our friends [guerrillas] who lived through the attack here are laughing at them. However, the people who do not know the reality of our struggle--and Turkey's reality--who look at these incidents from outside, think that the world has collapsed [from this attack].


What can you say about the attitude of the Southern Kurdistan authority for the people and the animals who were killed as a result of the bombing?


The attitude of South Kurdistan's political forces against the cross-border legislation in the TBMM was a correct attitude that served the Kurdish people. This attitude was strengthening them, too, however they stepped back. A different approach occurred and this new approach brought suspicion among all the Kurds against them. As a result, the suspicion creates a reaction in the people. This new attitude is harming the unity of the Kurdish democratic national movement. The strengthening of the Kurdish democratic national movement means their strengthening and empowers their hand. If the South Kurdistan federal government wants to survive--wants to be defended--this is only possible with the creation of a Kurdish national attitude. If the Kurdish federal government does not see the interests of all Kurdistan, but narrows itself down to South Kurdistan's boundaries, it will drown. We say that this fact must be realized. There are some Kurdish politicians, however, who did not even say anything about these attacks. They [the Turks] attacked your territory, destroyed your villages, martyred your people--there is no voice coming from them. They have shut their eyes and ears as if saying, "We did not see or hear anything." The reactions against the operation are not sufficient and they are late. The step back after the cross-border legislation encouraged Turkey. Now Turkey is thinking, "So then, if I blackmail, if I suppress, I will get a result."

But the reality is that the Turkish government does not trust South Kurdistan's political forces as well. Even if KDP and PUK fight with Turkey against us, the Turkish government and army will not trust in them. A national and stable attitude with strengthen them and allow them to breathe. They mustn't be afraid of it. If the Southern Kurdish political forces stay within their own boundaries and cannot see or realize their own responsibilities for Kurdistan in general, they will lose in two ways. The first is that they will lose the Kurdish people, because the Kurdish people will no longer accept neither the fight between brothers nor the interests of only one piece of Kurdistan as superior to the rest. Neither the Kurdish people in general, nor the Southern Kurdish people, will accept this. Our people know the reality now. The second reason is that the international forces can do anything for their own interests. Turkey, Iran, or the US do not have anything to give them at that point. They will lose that side, too. Thus, they will lose both sides. As a result, we say that a proper stance is national and principled, and a stance that seeks the general good of the Kurds in the region would be the correct. Iraqi Kurdistan might be an experiment for this. This is not a weakness for the Kurdistan federal government; on the contrary, it would become strong. This is a reality. For that reason we say that the daily stance and attitudes of hesitation, which lack long-term planning, will only encourage the enemies of the Kurdish people. This will also harm the general freedom struggle of the Kurdish people.


In this war, the attitude of the US becomes important. How do you see the support of the US to Turkey?


This attack has been accomplished with the direct help of the US. During a one month period prior to the attack, US reconnaissance aircraft flew over the region. Opening Iraqi air space, providing intelligence and technical assistance enabled this attack. In that sense, the US is not outside of this attack. The attitude of the US is the attitude of choosing a side in this war. If their attitude continues, we, the Kurdish people, will not accept this. However, it needs to be said that this is not a new thing that the US is helping Turkey. The US has assisted Turkey during 24 years of the war by intelligence, weapons, and politically. Basically it is not new that the US assists Turkey. Yaşar Büyükanıt says, "My happiest day is today; I can sleep comfortably." This is your weakness, you pathetic thing. This shows how weak, how unfortunate you are. The US gave intelligence, opened your way. What did you do? You attacked, then what? What did you gain? The US is not helping you recently; it has helped you for 24 years. All the operations within these 24 years, the US explicitly provided intelligence and political and economic assistance to the Turkish government. Even the international conspiracy [against Öcalan] was orchestrated by the US. Despite all these facts, have you won this war, have you annihilated the PKK guerrilla--the Kurdish guerrilla? Have you implemented the promise that you've always repeated, that is "We will always fight until the last guerrilla?" No. You couldn't. The people who said as you did, couldn't either, but the Kurdish guerrilla remained, the Kurdish movement continued and grew. Today's people will also go, but the guerrillas still will remain and will grow more. Like with these recent attacks, they are trying to convince people with imaginary victories. Otherwise, what else can the US do? Did the US reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, get rid of the problems in Iraq's valleys? Did they bring an end to the losses in Afghanistan, that you are saying you would annihilate PKK with their intelligence? Let's say this: no one can dominate the Kurdish region with their satellites. Thus, let them have their reconnaissance activities. We do not have cities or villages to be cowed. We are guerrillas. Like a snake, we neither have a place to live nor have a house. The Kurdish mountains are rugged. No matter how many reconnaissance aircraft and satellites they have, they will not be able to dominate the guerrilla movement. For that reason, we are saying that they created big hopes, or imaginary victories, for no other reason than to get rid of their psychological weakness.


After the Turkish army's air strike, they wanted to access the Medya Defense Zones by land. What can you say about this?


That's right, that the Turkish army wanted to make attacks on the Geliye Reş region, in Xakurkê. That's all that it was about. It was just an attempt. It was the same as in the Oramar resistance. There, besides defending themselves, our forces also struck them. Thus, from now on, these things are possible. These are not new things in the South. They say that there were 24 operations, but this is not right. Within the period of the struggle, they had more than 100 operations against our Southern Kurdistan forces. They have made all kinds of operations, from the smallest operations to the biggest operations ever in the history of the Turkish Republic. Air strikes and artillery shelling are the kinds of attacks we've seen previously. We also saw their results. They might, from now on, have big or small operations. We are, however, ready to confront all kinds of operations. For all circumstances, we also have various resistance plans. Because we are determined and are technically and educationally prepared, we are completely ready for possible further operations. Even though there might be further air strikes and land operations, there is nothing for them to win. On the contrary, the only excuse they [Turkey] had was "I cannot cope with the North [Kurdistan] because they [the guerrillas] are coming from Southern Kurdistan. My hands are tied. They [the US] don't let me go to Southern Kurdistan. If they had let me, I would finish all of them." Now they have untied your hands and you entered Northern Iraq. Then what, what did you do? Now with what excuses are they going to cover their failure? There is nothing. On the one hand, this operation was good because they don't have that excuse any more. If the US frees their hands, they will come and swallow all of us and take the rest. And now you came, what did you do? Fiasco. For that reason, even if they implement these kinds of operations they will have more losses here than in Northern Kurdistan. Everyone must know this. This will deepen the war and harm everyone. This war will not be limited only to Turkey, but will harm everyone. Everyone must realize this. PKK has 24 years of war experience and all the regional powers came to defeat it; however, they could not. PKK has passed its exam. Once more they are trying to attempt the same thing with their weaker position and under different conditions now. To us, it is an empty endeavor.

[Note: for some ideas about a "national and principled" stance that serves the good of all Kurdistan, see the recent post at Rastbêj, "Cooperate or Die".]

THE PROPAGANDA MODEL WORKS FOR KURDISTAN

"And I cannot find words to describe the heroism of the millions of Kurds living in the dungeon in the Southeast, after having suffered some of the worst atrocities of the 1990s thanks to the enormous arms flow provided by the Clinton administration and the discipline of the educated classes, who hailed the atrocious international terrorism as a model of 'counterterrorism'."
~ Noam Chomsky.

The "worthy" and "unworthy" victims of the Propaganda Model proposed by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman reinforces the "good" Kurd-"bad" Kurd dichotomy of Kevin McKiernan. The news here is that the dichotomy is alive and well in the US media today, according to Anthony DiMaggio at Counterpunch:

American media reports have at times acknowledged Turkish human rights abuses. However, Turkish repression is never framed as terrorism. In addition, Turkish repression of Kurds is presented as a relatively minor setback in the grand scheme of U.S. and European relations with Turkey, as opposed to Saddam Hussein's repression of Iraqi Kurds, which is consistently presented as a major human rights tragedy.

[ . . . ]

Efforts to distinguish between worthy victims (Iraqi Kurds) and unworthy ones (Turkish Kurds) have been somewhat altered, however, in recent years. By 2007, attacks on Iraqi Kurds had also become acceptable in the U.S. media, so long as the aggressor was the Turkish government, rather than Saddam Hussein. The U.S. granted tactical and diplomatic support to the government of Turkey as it bombed various Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, allegedly aimed at PKK rebel targets. Despite reports of civilian deaths, American editorials lent moral support to the Turkish government. The editors at the New York Times postured that "Turkey's anger is understandable. Guerillas from the PKK have been striking from bases in Iraqi Kurdistan with growing impunity and effect. The death toll for Turkish military forces is mounting."

Editors at the New York Times placed responsibility for the violence primarily upon the shoulders of the Kurds, rather than Turkish leaders, as they argued that "The Kurds will find it much easier to prosper if they can live in peace with Turkey." How such cooperation is possible in light of Turkey's systematic human rights violations was not addressed. The paper's editors also portrayed the U.S. as an honest broker between the two sides, rather than a consistent supporter of Turkish repression of the Kurds: "Washington must now try to walk both sides back from this brink. It then should make a serious and sustained effort to broker a long-overdue political agreement between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan." The editors at the Washington Post also presented the conflict through a pro-Turkish lens. Significant attention was directed to pragmatic assessments of the effectiveness of a Turkish political victory over Kurdish rebels: "The reality is that the PKK threat cannot be quickly eliminated by military means. Neutralizing it will require closer cooperation between Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish authorities, more effective Turkish military operations inside Turkey, and more political reforms in both countries."

This case study is instructive in one important respect: it suggests that American media attention to the repression and terror of foreign countries is not driven by legitimate humanitarian concerns, but by the strength of the alliance between the U.S. and the country in question.

Chomsky and Herman's work, Manufacturing Consent, provides a powerful tool--the Propaganda Model--for reading news, whether in the US or in Turkey. In fact, the Turkish government found the book so dangerous that it brought charges of "insulting Turkishness" and "inciting ethnic hostilities and hatred among the population" against Aram Publishing House for translating the book into Turkish.


I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you want to understand how the media works, you need to read Manufacturing Consent.

Rastî readers will remember Gordon Taylor who's written about the PKK at Progressive Historians. He's got something up at History News Network on Turkey's $20 million sheep-killing fiasco.

Hevallo liked last week's video of HPG air defense units that he went out and found another video, from RojTV, which he's posted, and he refers to the Paşas' current propaganda campaign as "Turkish army psycho lies. . . " I don't know, do you think that's enough to qualify him for charges under Article 301 for "insulting Turkishness?"

Martin Zehr responds to neocon Michael Rubin's latest trash piece in the NYTimes:

Mr. Rubin suggests: “U.S. officials should threaten isolation and a cessation of all financial assistance until Mr. Barzani ceases his safe haven.” Mr. Rubin might pay more attention to the U.S. military aid to Turkey, as a source of the problem. “As a member of NATO and Washington’s ally in the war on terrorism, Turkey is the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid, behind Israel and Egypt. Between 1994 and 2004, it received well over $1.3 billion in FMF and another $21.4 million in IMET.[224] Congress granted another $33 million in FMF and $4 million in IMET in 2005. The President’s request for 2006 is more modest-- $25 million in FMF and $3 million in IMET.”

Suggesting as he does that there is an implicit alliance between President Barzani and the PKK in Iraq Mr. Rubin establishes a weak case. He states: “During its Oct. 21 attack on Turkish troops, PKK tactics mirrored those taught by U.S. Special Forces to Mr. Barzani's peshmerga fighters, suggesting its complicity in training terrorists.” Taken on its face, it presents little documentation in making in its case. But considering the ramifications of such statements, it presents Turkey with a virtual blank check in regards to attacks on the government of the KRG and the territory of the Kurdish Autonomous Region.

Rubin's claim that PKK received US Special Forces training through KDP peşmêrge overlooks the fact that PKK is a highly experienced guerrilla force and that it spent the years of the 1999-2005 ceasefire fruitfully, by implementing changes in HPG's tactics, and training to achieve that end:

The HPG officials said that the TAF has been unsuccessful in its operations and that the HPG’s new way of actions on the basis of small groups of guerrillas with active and high action capacity led to TAF’s classical operation tactic to be in vain.

HPG officials said that as a result of this new way of action, TAF (Turkish Army Forces) had difficulties in “imposing clashes on the guerrilla under its initiative” and that the TAF military troops have become an open target for the guerrilla teams who have spread well into the territory.

[ . . . ]

HPG officials said that this was “a reflection of the strategic changes made” and that the military strategy changed accordingly”. They underlined that “actions undertaken were no longer to establish free areas” but “to force the other side to a resolution”.

They also added that guerrilla losses, as a result, decreased in comparison with past years, but the TAF’s losses increased due to a change in guerrilla movement.

Note that this evaluation is dated May 2005. I guess Rubin can't swallow the fact that PKK has not been trained by anyone but PKK, while the TSK--particularly the Special Teams--were trained by US special operations forces. See Martin Zehr's figures on IMET aid to Turkey, as mentioned in his article and linked above. Remember, IMET is conducted by US special operations types, which have a history of spreading severe human rights abuses wherever they go. See something from US Senator Leahy on that.

More on the fallout from the joint US-Turkish air strikes against Kurdish civilians:

Since Turkish warplanes turned her village home into a heap of rubble last week, mother of eight Aziya Rasheed says she has lost all hope for the future.

Air strikes on mountain villages around the town of Sankasar in northern Iraq on Dec. 16 destroyed much of Rasheed's modest home as the family slept, injuring her 16-year-old daughter so severely that she had to have her leg amputated above the knee.

"We lost everything, even my daughter's leg. Isn't this terrorism from Turkey?" she said angrily.

[ . . . ]

Shlier Khudhur, a 30-year-old woman now living with her brother, sobs as she recalls the night she lost her home.

"I was wounded when the house fell on top of us during the air strikes. We have lost everything we ever owned," she said.

"I wish I had died rather than live through this."

Don't forget, Kurdistan: Erdoğan and Büyükanıt are your brothers in religion. Long live the ummah that has always defended the Kurdish people! Not.

I'VE GOT MAIL

"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 . . .

POLITICS, FOLLY, AND SCHIZOPHRENIA

"In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics." All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia."
~ George Orwell.

Let's see . . . first item tonight: Mîr at Rastbêj throws out his ideas of what needs to be done now for the Kurdish situation, all laid out in four points for the Southern Kurdish leadership as follows:

1) Create a common Kurdish National Policy,

2) Use oil contracts with Western countries as a card against them,

3) Found high quality universities to train the brightest youths from all over Kurdistan,

4) Use international media effectively,

The bottom line? Cooperate or die.

Andrew Lee Butters, at TIME, has a few historical reminders for all those who can't remember what happened yesterday, much less ten years ago:

In 1995, the Turkish army invaded northern Iraq, sending some 35,000 soldiers across the border to destroy the guerilla infrastructure of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) a militant group made up of Turkish Kurds that had found refuge in the lawless mountain region. Operation Steel, as it was called, killed over 500 militants, but still the PKK survived to fight another day. In early 1997, the Turks sent in another 30,000 soldiers — this time as part of Operation Hammer — to finish the job. They didn't. The Turks had to go in again later that year with Operation Dawn.

This month the Turks launched yet another operation against the PKK, and there is little to suggest that it will be any more effective than the others. So far 300 Turkish commandoes crossed briefly into Iraq, while Turkey has staged three air strikes, including one Wednesday. Turkey claims to have attacked some 200 PKK locations, and killed hundreds of militants. A PKK fighter told TIME that just five of the group's members had been killed. Whatever the true figure, the operation would seem to be a minor chapter in Turkey's seemingly never-ending civil war with radicals among its oppressed Kurdish minority population, who took up arms in the 1980's.

Well, okay, maybe it is radical to fight back when someone is trying to kill you.

Butters notes that not even the peşmêrge are able (even if they would be willing) to do anything about PKK, since the peşmêrge are stretched thin trying to hold Iraq together for the Americans. Besides, the peşmêrge fought PKK in the 1990s, too, and they were unable to do much more to PKK than inflict a few scratches on the organization.

Butters' comment about the Turks' relationship with Turkmen is amusing and on the mark as well.

He concludes with a moral about what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket:

Kurdish leaders in Iraq have been relatively subdued since the Turkish operations began, acquiescing perhaps to the fickle will of their American masters. They know better than anyone that, without American protection, it's doubtful their hostile neighbors — not just Turkey, but also Iran and Syria, which have restive Kurdish minority populations of their own — would limit themselves to a few air strikes.

Well, maybe not if some of Mîr's ideas had been at the top of the agenda in 2003.

It sounds like Hillary Clinton has appointed Mehmet Çelebi as one of her delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in the summer of 2008, putting Çelebi in the lead for MİT--as in Milli İstibarat Teşkilatı and not Massachusettes Institute of Technology--Asset of the Year.

Anyone who votes for Hillary should be horsewhipped within an inch of his life anyway.

Mother Jones has a nice little timeline showing how the US worked to encourage the rise of militant Islam. You might want to keep that in mind when thinking about the recent assassination of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto.

I'm no expert on Pakistan, however there is a blogger who does seem to follow the Pakistani scene and I highly recommend two of his posts on the Bhutto assassination. The first by Winter Patriot was posted today:

And you'll hear lots of talk about extremists in the near future in connection with this assassination, and in nearly every case you will be expected to make the mental connection between the word "extremists" and the wild men in the mountains of the northwest. But you will remember, won't you, that in addition to these more famous extremists, there are extremists working for Musharraf, and extremists working for Bush ... and there may even be extremists working for the PPP, the party Benazir Bhutto betrayed.

The second was posted yesterday:

You will see media reports of shock and grief at her death, but you will not likely see anything about how thoroughly she betrayed her country for personal gain.

Her death will be painted as a blow to George Bush and his plan to make Benazir the face of Pakistani "democracy". It will also be painted as a blow to Pakistani "democracy" itself.

But if there were anything approaching democracy in Pakistan and the USA, Benazir Bhutto and George Bush would both have been in prison a long time ago.

And people think Kurdish politics is a mess. . .

PKK AIR DEFENSE UNITS FIRE AT TURKISH BOMBERS

“Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression.”
~ Malcom X.

An air defense unit of the People's Defense Forces (Hêzên Parastina Gel--HPG) defends Kurdistan from hostile Turkish aircraft on a bombing mission, from Firat News:

Stills from the video, from Özgür Gündem:









Who is it that defends Kurdistan? PKK, that's who. End. Of. Discussion.

Serkeftin Hevalno! Her Biji Gerîla!

Çok Yaşa Sen Halkımın Umudu Gerilla! Kahrolsun Türk Faşizmi!

ISRAELIS OPERATING UAV'S AGAINST PKK

"In the past months, Israel and the United States have been working together in support of PKK and its Iranian offshoot PEJAK, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon."
~ Seymour Hersh.

I wonder how Hersh is going to explain this: Israeli Haaretz does not deny claims made in TDN that Israelis are operating the UAV's that are providing reconnaissance information to Turkey on the movement of Kurdistan's freedom fighters. In fact, Haaretz seems to confirm the claims of Israeli support to Turkey against the gerîlas who fight for the Kurdish people:

Meanwhile, crews from Israel Aerospace Industries, operating unmanned aerial vehicles, are participating in Turkish military operations against PKK militants in northern Iraq, according to Turkish reports to be published today in the Turkish Daily News.

Ten days ago, the Turkish television station Star reported that IAI Heron UAVs are being used in the offensive against the Kurds.

The same report stated that Turkey's Chief of Staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, had observed the UAVs' operations in real time, in the operations room of the Batman air force base near the border with Iraq. The intelligence relayed by the UAVs was used by the Turkish Air Force in targeting the Kurdish militants.

Contrary to Hersh's claim (read: LIE) of Israeli support for PKK, here we have an Israeli daily not only confirming the opposite, but also confirming the continuing cooperation within the US-Turkey-Israel Axis of Evil. The Americans, on the other hand, are operating U2 reconnaissance aircraft against the Kurdish Freedom Movement.

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Ankara denied, on Tuesday, that the Turks have conducted any more bombing operations in Kurdistan even as Abdullah Gül bends over to publicly lick the boots of his American masters in profuse gratitude.

Murat Karayılan is right. This is pitiful, pathetic, and contemptible . . . but oh-so typical.

The only common sense about the situation of the Kurdish people under Turkish brutality is coming from Canada:

If the Turkish authorities want a long-term solution to Kurdish discontent, they will require concrete steps to respect the right of Kurds to their own cultural traditions and identity and initiatives to greatly improve the overall socio-economic situation in predominantly Kurdish provinces.

This can be accomplished only by a dialogue of goodwill and mutual respect that includes the reconciliation of Kurdish militants, not by military force.

Poor guy! He must not own any shares of stock in the military-industrial complex.

Russia's Regnum News generally does a great job of analyzing situations involving Turkey. In May 2006, Regnum analyzed the build-up of Turkish troops along the Iraqi border during Condoleezza "Chevron" Rice's April visit. Now Regnum does it again, this time analyzing the Turkish fabrication of Armenian ties to the PKK as a prelude to Turkish-Azeri aggression against Armenia. First you'll find a short history of Turkish lies regarding the so-called ties between Armenia and PKK from 1993, when the lies first appeared, until the most recent lies, which surfaced again last month. Here's a snippet:

The latest insinuations coincided almost to the date with the intensification of Baku’s war rhetoric and particularly with the statement made by the Azeri Defence Minister Safar Abiyev that “as long as the Azeri territories remain occupied by Armenia, the probability of war is almost 100 percent.” Mr Abiyev’s statement was made on November 27 at the closing press conference of the Meeting of the CIS Defence Ministers Council in Astana. On November 30, with a direct reference to the Turkish intelligence, the Turkish pro-government newspaper “Zaman” disseminated misinformation about talks between Armenia and the PKK and alleged about the installation of bases for Kurds in NKR, in the towns of Shushi, Lachin and Fizuli. (14) This bait was immediately caught and circulated by the American United Press International. (15) On December 10, Araz Azimov, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani President’s Special Representative on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stated about “readiness of Baku to launch anti-terrorist operations against the PKK’s military detachments stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh.” (16) It is exactly the coordination of activities between Baku and Ankara with respect to the timing and target of information attack that should be cause for concern. All these could be a prelude to not so virtual attacks.

By the way, don't forget to go over to Kurdistan Observer and read Dr. Sabah Salih's "New Year's Message to Turkey". Talk about eloquence fired by righteous anger:

We can draw two conclusions from your treatment of the Kurds: one is that you have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to democracy; and two, it is obvious to us that your nationalism has been the incubator of your Kurdish problem. You have given the Kurds no choice but to fight back--and, unless you start treating them decently, fighting back they will.

Going on a bombing spree against Kurdish villages may satisfy your appetite for bloodletting; unleashing hate on Kurdistan may even make you feel better. But this will only confirm what the Kurds have been saying all along about you: that the solution to the Kurdish problem lies not really with the Kurds but with you; continue with your racist mindset and the problem will become bigger and bigger. It has already engulfed one generation of Kurds and Turks alike. Do you really want another generation of your people to be consumed by this conflict, day in and day out asking what W. H. Auden aptly asked decades ago: “What do you think about . . . this country of ours where nobody is well?”

And another thing: You want to join Europe? Beyond the obvious, have you asked yourself what Europe means? Europe is first and foremost a state of mind: the product of two hundred years of fighting against and rejecting and ridiculing the very nationalism that still defines your way of thinking. You ask the Kurds who have taken up arms against you to “repent” and surrender. But isn’t repentance, with its roots in religious orthodoxy and bigotry, the very opposite of what the European consciousness has been all about? For to repent is not just a matter of admitting guilt; it is also committing oneself to a type of thinking that belongs in dictatorships and theocracies, not democracies.

OUCH!

What have I been saying here about the cooperation between the Turkish Islamists and the Paşas? They cooperate together against the Kurdish people, meaning that there is no difference between them. They made a deal with each other before the July elections: Gül as president in exchange for a free hand for military operations. What have I said about "repentence" laws? Now Bianet's Ertugrul Kürkcü basically admits the same:

Kürkcü criticised this "old-fashioned pedagogy" which treated individuals like children who had made mistakes.He said that recent political developments encouraged such an attitude. It is being assumed that the lack of support for the PKK from the USA and the KDP, as well as wide-spread military attacks on PKK camps will frighten the PKK. Once things start to unravel, so the theory goes, they will surrender without caring about being treated like children. "The remaining hard core will then be destroyed, isolated in the mountains and fed to the wolves and birds. This is being assumed."

Asked about the relations between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the army, Kürkcü said: "I do not believe that either the AKP or the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) are trying to solve the Kurdish question. Because if they have enough information and intelligence [...], they know that the Kurdish question cannot be solved within the borders of just one country. If we are talking about a real solution, this would mean that the Kurds would take their own destinies into their own hands in all the countries they are ruled by; since this ideal situation does not exist, there is currently no possibility of a solution."

Much more at Bianet.

For some refreshing thoughts about Kurdish-Arab relations in Iraq, check out an article by a Lebanese intellectual, translated at MarxistFromLebanon. Although I don't agree with the ideas on Kerkuk, at least the discussion is elegant enough to rise far above the usual garbage found in Western propaganda. For example:

Most of the available evidence indicates that the Kurdish population's shift towards secession started during the latter period of the Baath regime, and most significantly, since the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988-89. During that campaign, the Kurdish regions were subjected to wholesale massacres, ethnic cleansing, destruction of hundreds of villages, forced Arabization, and forced migration of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of their inhabitants. In other words, the movement favoring Kurdish secession grew in reaction to the extreme national-chauvinist and tyrannical policies pursued by the central government in dealing with the Kurdish question.

It is worth adding that the Kurdish movement towards secession was further nurtured during the years of self-rule in the 1990's and later, when the Kurdish regions in northern Iraq were outside Baghdad's control and largely isolated from the southern Arab-majority regions that remained under Baath rule.

[ . . . ]

As I am talking about secession, I should point out that I fully support the Kurdish people's right to national self-determination, including its right to secede completely and form a separate state. But my support of this right is not neutral, and I find no contradiction in being partial to another alternative: As an Arab citizen, I am also in favor of Iraq's Kurds ultimately choosing to remain within the Arab world, as an affirmation that this Arab world can be open to ethnic, regional and religious communities -- in all their diversities and multiplicities -- in a context of coexistence and cooperation that are enriching to all.

As I said, I don't agree with the comments later in the article on Kerkuk, but at least here's one Arab who supports Kurdish rights and admits that federation in Iraq faces serious problems. The thing is definitely worth a read.

REAL TERRORISM

"Today, we talk a lot about terrorism, but we rarely talk about state terrorism."
~ Bianca Jagger.

Reality check from the Kurdistan Democratic Alliance, in full, emphasis mine:

The unholy alliance between a terrorist state (Turkey) and its backers: USA and EU


The Turkish hostilities against Kurdish nation have taken a serious stage. In the last few weeks, the Turkish warplanes have bombed the territories of southern Kurdistan, which resulted in displacing, according to UNHCR, at least 18,000 [actually 1,800--Mizgîn] and wounding and killing a number of civilians. Thanks to the moral and logistic support of the United States of America, Turkish attacks against civilians have been effective. Those Kurds, who have been displaced, wounded or killed, are those who opened the Northern Front for the USA during the war against Saddam Hussein, while Turkish Parliament refused to allow the USA to use its territory. The same parliament has given the mandate to the Turkish army to invade southern Kurdistan. The US and Turkish pretext is to pursue a terrorist organisation.

The US and EU may regard the PKK as a “terrorist organisation” but Kurds regard Turkey and its allies as “Terrorist States”. “State Terror” is the most devastating form of terror to the civilians and the environment.

The PKK is not the cause; it is the symptom of the lack of democracy, civil society, rule of law and severe oppression of the Kurdish nation by the Turkish state. The suppression of the Kurds in Turkey may have constituted genocide. It can be safely argued that, if not physical genocide, Turkey has committed cultural genocide against the Kurds. [Cultural genocide being the same thing as physical genocide since, in this case, both wipe Kurds off the Earth--Mizgîn]

Nonetheless, the PKK is an important element of the Kurdish cause in the north. In the absence of democratic elections for northern Kurds to elect their representatives for their own regional government and parliament, the PKK today is the most effective organisation in asserting the Kurdish identity, which is banned in Turkey despite the EU’s claim of changes in Turkey domestic policies. If we like it or not, millions of Kurds in the north regard the PKK as their own representative. This reality has to be accepted by Turkey, United States and E.U.

If Turkey, EU and USA are genuine in solving the “Turkish problem” and meet the “Kurdish quest”, they must have the courage to pursue granting the Kurdish nation their legal status that they deserve, the right to self determination. This is the same right that any European nations, like Scottish, Wales, Basks and other have. It is nothing new and it is in accordance to the United Nations charter.

The hypocrisy of the EU member states is clear. They would even encourage the accession of a nation like Scotland. They support a Palestinian state and are ready to recognise an independent Kosovo while they link the Kurdish quest for their legitimate rights to “terrorism”.

Turkey as a state, that rejects the recognition of a nation of 40 million people, must not be given any space among the civilised nations. US and EU, have their share in the present repression to that the Kurdish people are subjected. The US and EU alliance with Turkey is against human dignity, democracy, human Rights and social justice. Yet, both the USA and EU consider themselves as the defenders of these concepts.

While the Turkish terror campaign continuous, the Kurdish leadership in Kurdistan and Iraq have proven that they are in shambles and incapable of leading the nation. Their failure in implementing Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution within its timescale, end of 2007, is a living example of the current leadership’s failure. The Kurdistani people deserve a more capable leadership than its current one, which appear to have no strategy and they compromise on all the Kurdish national interests. They have a too comfortable life and are not ready to sacrifice this comfort for the Kurdish national interests. A leadership that is drawn deep in corruption form top to bottom is unable to progress a quest of a nation.

The Kurds must not stay idle while they are slaughtered under the pretext of terrorists. They must stage a worldwide political and diplomatic campaign to undo the current regime of suppression. Turkey and its backers, US and EU, must understand that they cannot continue this suppression for longer. The Kurdish nation is well aware of this international conspiracy and they would react in due course.

The Kurdistan Democratic Alliance condemn strongly the naked present aggression against Kurdish nation and demand the aggressors to opt for peaceful and democratic solution that enforces peace and stability in the whole region of Middle East. The Kurdistan Democratic Alliance also calls upon the US and EU to honour the democracy, human rights and social justice they preach.

The Kurdistan Democratic Alliance

26 December 2007

Now, I would urge everyone to think back to the time when the TBMM voted for cross-border operations into South Kurdistan. Who were the only parliamentarians to vote against military operations? The only ones to vote against the military option were the DTP parliamentarians and Ufuk Uras, the ethnic Turk socialist of the ÖDP. And that is how you tell who are the real Kurds in the TBMM.

In fact, Ufuk Uras is more Kurdish than Barzanî or Talabanî.

HPG: NO CASUALTIES

"Amongst Kurds, one of the lowest things that can be done in society is reporting another person. In Kurdish eyes, the US has become this kind of reporter by giving coordinates for Kurds living in northern Iraq.....The US has issued messages of unity at bayram, but is then having bombs rain down on Kurdish heads."
~ Halil Aksoy, DTP Istanbul Chairman.

HPG confirms that there were no casualties in yesterday's bombing of the Medya Defense Zone--in spite of assistance provided to the Ankara regime by overflights of American reconnaissance aircraft. Yet the fantasies continue in the minds of the Paşas:

After comparing photos, intelligence reports gained from various sources they defined that at least 300 terrorists were killed in 12 camps. Moreover, Japan-production modern communication center “Yasu” which was established by PKK in Qandil Mountains was destructed and office of “Firat” News Agency serving to terrorists was also destructed. Nearly 100 terrorists left PKK after operation.

That news comes from an Azerbaijani news agency and we know that the Azerbaijanis are deeply involved with the Deep State.

Shiraz Socialist notes the lack of coverage of the bombings not only in the mainstream media, but also in the Left press:

You probably didn’t know about this: it hasn’t been a prominent issue in the Left press, and hasn’t gotten much coverage in the mainstream papers either. But for those of you who didn’t know, the Turkish airforce has been bombing Kurdistan for the past two days. Remarkable that nothing much has been said about it by the “left” (one can only imagine what would be said if the jets were flying from Israel rather than Turkey), but there we have it. I’m highlighting the issue for you now anyway.

[ . . . ]

If there is one salutory lesson we should take into the new year it is that we as the left are supposed to oppose all oppression - whether the oppressed concerned are of political convenience to us or not. The Kurds’ story tells us that we are not always as good or as consistent as we ought to be. It’s time we changed that.

Well, a big part of the problem is that there really is no Left. There is really no true political discourse in the West because it has been totally corporatized. The Left and the Right are exactly the same.


Meanwhile, the Southern Kurdish so-called leadership bemoans the continued bombing:

Massoud Barzani said his people "cannot accept" the bombing raids and shelling to continue and condemned the attacks which began on Dec. 16. On Sunday, Turkish fighter jets bombed Kurdish rebel targets inside Iraqi territory, in the fourth cross-border operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in one week.

"We cannot accept this situation to continue," Barzani told reporters in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah. "We cannot accept our villages to be bombed and our people killed."

[ . . . ]

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, said Iraq's foreign minister had summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad and lodged a formal complaint, but said he did not want to exacerbate tensions between Iraq and its neighbor. He was standing next to Barzani.

Actually, these two mini-globalists don't want to exacerbate tensions that may end up damaging the exploitation of South Kurdistan by foreign (i.e. Turkish) investment, which would, in turn, affect their personal bottom lines.

Hîwa weighs in on the matter, noting the loss of the Kerkuk by our mini-globalists. Certainly the issue is linked because Kerkuk and the idea of a strong, autonomous Southern Kurdish region is something the Ankara regime cannot stand. Nor can the Americans stand the idea of losing control of Kerkuk's oil fields, since they went to war for the purpose of controlling Iraq's oil. With regard to the PKK, Hîwa hits the nail on the head:

Current raids only make PKK stronger and it is the pure reality of life that when you even argue with someone, unless they reply you will not have the tempo to go on and on! I believe the fresh attacks by Turkey has only given PKK more and more reason to caryy on and fight! I am sure there will be people who will be more than happy to help the PKK fight a government which has got more than PKK to fear!

He is exactly right and, in order to reinforce reality, let's remember what Osman Baydemir said recently:

If Turkey’s perception of the Kurds remained unchanged then another party would emerge bearing a different name if the PKK were to disappear.

This fact of the Kurdish reality stands in stark contrast to the ignorance of the "experts":

Future military strikes, conducted with the precision demonstrated on the 16th will force the PKK to disperse, reducing the effectiveness of their training and rest areas between attacks as has been the case; the Qandil Mts area, long thought to be perhaps the top no-go area in the world, is now on notice, day or night, that it is subject to pinpoint bombing.

Younger PKK members, no longer subjected to the harsh training regimen (including death) and seeing the possibility of another life beginning with the Repentance Law, will begin falling away or never joining. If Turkey will work with Iraq to grant the Kurds more autonomy the Pesh Merga represents another potential path for Kurdish youth, as does membership in Turkey’s village guards. Finally, “attacking” the PKK in other than military ways - publicizing the PKK’s drug operations and human trafficking operations, working against the PKK diplomatically in W. Europe, going after PKK financing, will bring about the end of the PKK much faster than trying to do it with military force alone - emulating the successes achieved by the US in the Global War on Terror.

Oh, yeah, we all know that the American Global War on Terror, Inc., is an undertaking that has reaped endless benefits for the entire world . . . or at least for the fascist ruling elite.

First of all, no "repentence" law will ever work. It didn't work in 2003, the last time the Ankara regime offered such nonsense at the urging of the totally-disconnected-from-reality Americans:

The US reportedly assured Ankara during Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s recent visit to Washington that it would eradicate the terrorist group from the region.

Requirements of such bogus laws, given fascist Turkish jurdisprudence, usually include snitching on comrades, not having engaged in "crimes", and helping to manufacture lies about PKK's so-called "crimes." Then there is the fact that such laws include the word "repentence" (pişmanlık, in Turkish). Repentance implies that one has done something wrong, but PKK has done nothing wrong so there is no need for "repentance."

Secondly, the idea of Kurdish youth joining the Village Guards is absolutely ridiculous. No politicized youth would think of assisting the state in its official policy of genocide.

As for the rest of the Ankara regime's lies that are repeated by the "experts", well, all I can do is point to Osman Baydemir's comments once again. The "repentance" law didn't work in 2003 and Erdoğan's current efforts to that end is certainly not going to work now that both the US and Turkey are targeting civilian Kurds with aerial bombing.

The Americans and the Turks are two peoples that are almost exactly alike in every detail. Take, for example, these comments:

Turkey has the right to defend itself against Kurdish rebels based in Iraq but must make sure it does not destabilize its neighbor, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Sunday.

Ryan Crocker made the remarks before news emerged that Turkey had bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Sunday - for the third time in the past week. Turkish warplanes also bombed positions held by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, on Saturday and on Dec. 16.

``We've been clear on this. The PKK is a terrorist organization, it has carried out a number of lethal actions in Turkey from bases in Iraq, and the Turks clearly have a right to defend their country and their people,'' Crocker told reporters in Baghdad.

He made the comments as Turkish jets were bombing an area about 50 miles north of the city of Irbil near the border with Turkey for about an hour and a half.

Along with the "counterterrorism experts," the US State Department never acknowledges the conditions which caused Kurds to begin a legitimate armed struggle. Nor will the Americans ever admit exactly what those conditions are because the Americans eagerly helped to create those conditions and today the Americans eagerly maintain those conditions. The Americans have eagerly given the Ankara regime the weapons systems and training necessary for carrying out genocide, and the Americans continue to eagerly do the very same thing today.

In short, the Americans are guilty of genocide.

The always full-of-shit Justin Raimondo is moaning about Barzanî's refusal to meet with Condi "Chevron" Rice last week, and he gets caught in a huge lie about the bagging incident of 2003. Everyone remembers that Turkish Special Forces were caught by US forces as the Turks were on their way to assassinate the Kurdish governor of Kerkuk. Earlier, in April of the same year, Turkish Special Forces were caught as they were smuggling arms to the Iraqi Turkmen Front, a fact which prompted American Col. Mayville to say that the Turks "did not come with a pure heart."

Now, though, the liar Raimondo claims that the Turks were caught by the Americans, in 2003, as they were in "hot pursuit" of PKK, which is a complete lie, especially since PKK had virtually no operations at the time.

Raimondo, yet again, refers to Seymour Hersh's lies of Israel as an ally of PKK. Yes, that's the same Seymour Hersh who gets all his information from prominent members of the Ankara regime, like Abdullah Gül. It's awfully strange that Raimondo harps on the nonexistent Israel-PKK relationship yet never manages to write anything about the intimate relationship between Turkey and Israel, or of the intimate relationship between the Turkish and Israeli lobbies in the US.

That's almost as strange as Raimondo's utter silence on the joint American-Turkish genocide of the Kurdish people. I'm willing to bet that Justin Raimondo and Michael Rubin are twins that were separated at birth.

Also, check the latest from Gordon Taylor at Progressive Historians. He's got something on The $20 Million Sheep Hunt.

I have said repeatedly that the US will not go into the mountains to fight PKK for a number of reasons. The same thing is now being said elsewhere, with the point being that, since 1984, Turkey has had no success in annihilating PKK:

Syrian Middle Eastern expert Sami Moubayed says the US is reluctant to clamp down on the PKK in northern Iraq for a variety of reasons. "They know - thanks to Turkey - how difficult it is to combat a guerilla movement. The Turks have been doing it since the 1970s and they have not succeeded at bring the PKK to its knees - despite the arrest of the party's founder and leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in the 1990s."

Moubayed says if the Turks, who know the terrain and are fighting on their own territory, have been unable to eliminate the PKK, then the US, with its very limited hands-on military experience, certainly will not. "Plus, the Americans already have too much to cope with, combating a Sunni and Shiite insurgency in central Iraq."

Once again, that brings us back to the words of Osman Baydemir that, as everything stands right now, that if the enemies manage to close down PKK as we know it, another organization with the same aims will spring up from the ashes . . . the phoenix that is Our People's Hope.

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.

SURGING TOWARD KURDISTAN

"By a combination of creative strategies and advanced technologies, we are redefining war on our terms. In this new era of warfare, we can target a regime, not a nation."
~ George W. Bush, speech to Lockheed Murderers, St. Louis, MO, 16 April 2003.

In the wake of joint US-Turkish attacks against the PKK and Kurdish civilians in South Kurdistan, there's something that Kurds should start thinking about: an air war.

Vineyardsaker sent me some information on just this subject which he picked up from Lenin over at Lenin's Tomb. Lenin got his hands on some statistics on the US air war in Iraq and Afghanistan, which you can take a look at over at his place. Now, this information is no big secret and there have been a few articles about the general, wanton destruction and civilian casualties caused by this method of warfare. Senior British commanders have publicly complained about US Special Forces and the airstrikes they call which kill hordes of civilians. However, I fear that the point made by Lenin on the distinct possibility of the US--and Turkey--using this kind of warfare in Kurdistan should be very well taken [original emphasis by Lenin]:

The hostile terrain of Afghanistan, and the fact that few are actually covering it very extensively, makes it an ideal target for this kind of ferocious assault - with, as we saw last year, a rolling wave of massacres in the country. Inevitably, since the air war hasn't been covered much by the media, and given its insensitivity to 'enemy' casualties, those massacres reported are a tiny sample of the true total.

Did you pay attention to the part about the media? If you have been paying attention to most of the Western media's reporting on the American-Turkish aerial attacks against the Kurdish people, you may have noticed that not much was said about civilian casualties and the destruction of property--which is the shelter and livelihood of the victims. If you've been checking to see what the blogosphere has been writing about these attacks, you will have noticed that there is rarely a mention of civilian victims. The right-wing fascist blogosphere, such as Pajamas Media and the like, have mentioned absolutely nothing about this new air war. But, then, they don't talk about the huge amounts of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, either. They write off every death inflicted by the "noble" coalition as "terrorist" deaths.

Büyükanıt clearly stated that there were absolutely no civilian casualties from his aerial bombardment of Kurdistan and that the entire fiasco was a blazing success. Of course, the Turkish dailies have faithfully reported Büyükanıt's lies and will not dare to contradict their ruler by stating the truth. In short, there has been absolutely no acknowledgement or discussion of the murder of civilians and the destruction of their property in the Turkish dailies.

The only place where I've seen Turkish media mention the reality of the destruction is in an article at Bianet (similar English article here).

The media blackout on the truth about this new type of warfare is something that is planned and promoted by the governments involved, as described in early 2004 by Project on Defense Alternatives. If a bomb falls in Kurdistan and no one hears it, does it matter to anyone what was destroyed?

For more on the obfuscated air war and ignored casualties, see ZNet and TomDispatch.

Here are some of Vineyardsaker's comments on the matter:

The so-called 'Surge', and its alleged success, are based on two fundamental tactics: the first one is the so-called 'Redirection' which consists of buying off the Sunni resistance, including all those groups who only yesterday were called 'terrorists'; the second new tactic is massive increasing in the use of airpower.

[ . . . ]

. . . Add to this the US support for Turkey against the Kurds and you have all the ingredients of a complete nightmare and even more bloodshed. The 'Surge' will go down in history as one of the dumbest and most immoral political stunts ever devised.

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.

Let's see if the US "surges" the Lakota Sioux by air for their recent declaration of independence. Why do the Sioux want their independence? Because they have 33 treaties with the US, which the US has never honored.

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Also, this:

The Lakota reservations are among the most impoverished areas in North America, a shameful legacy of broken treaties and apartheid policies. Lakota has the highest death rate in the United States and Lakota men have the lowest life expectancy of any nation on earth, excluding AIDS, at approximately 44 years. Lakota infant mortality rate is five times the United States average and teen suicide rates 150% more than national average. 97% of Lakota people live below the poverty line and unemployment hovers near 85%.

"After 150 years of colonial enforcement, when you back people into a corner there is only one alternative," emphasized Duane Martin Sr. "The only alternative is to bring freedom into its existence by taking it back to the love of freedom, to our lifeway."

What kind of mental disease makes anyone think that the Americans are worthy of trust or that they give a damn about minority ethnicities?

Wake up, Kurdistan! Don't wait for 150 years.

MORE ON US-TURKISH BOMBING OF KURDISTAN

"You know, that might be the answer - to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail."
~ LTC Korn, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

First, a little gerîla music from Rotinda:

While I have the chance (and remember to do it) there are a couple of posts on the recent US-Turkish bombings of Kurdistan by Gordon Taylor at Progressive Historians--the Merry Christmas and While Shepherds Watched--with the second providing a bit of satire for your consideration:

[Scene: Ops HQ, Diyarbakir Air Base, Turkey. The phone rings. Capt. Mehmet Fubar, Turkish Air Forces, picks up.]

Fubar: Hello!
Col. Bart Guanaco, USAF[on other end]: That you M'met?
Fubar: Yes, Bart'ciğim! How does scope look?
Guanaco: Looks like a real bingo party down there, M'met.
Fubar: Binko? What is?
Guanaco: Bandits all over the screen: one o'clock, three o'clock, you name it.
Fubar: Please speaking English, dearest Bart.
Guanaco: M'met, I think we got a big PKK meetin' goin' on down there.
Fubar: Really! Tell me!
Guanaco: It's amazing. They think they can go underground and hide, but these dudes are giving off so much heat they must be having an orgy. Listen, here's the coordinates...

And the rest is history.

Read the rest to get the full import of the stupidity illustrated in the dialog.

More later. Stay tuned.

SUNDAY'S ŞEHÎDS

"If they come over the Iraqi border we will survive. These mountains are Kurdish mountains and they don't know the terrain."
~ PKK fighter.

HPG has identified the five gerîlas martyred during the Ankara regime's air attacks on Sunday:

Enver Umyanus (Abdülmenaf Tekin), born 1973 in Umyanus-Şırnak. Joined PKK in 1995.

Kendal Arap (Anter Muhammed Hamid), born 1977 in Rakka. Joined PKK in 2000.

Bawer Batman (Fuat Özekinci), born 1982 in Batman. Joined PKK in 2006.

Rohat Rıhani (Fatih Bordoğan), born 1986 in Silopi-Şırnak. Joined PKK in 2004.

Eşref Cizre.

Rest in peace, comrades. Şehîd namirin!

HPG also reports that the gerîlas made contact three times with the Turkish ground troops that entered the Medya Defense Zones in the Xakurkê region, Gelıyê Reş, and that eight Turkish troops were killed and four wounded in the clashes.

No HPG fighters were killed or wounded in the clashes.

I haven't been able to get over to VineyardSaker's blog to make many comments so far this week, however I noticed that he does have a pretty good analysis of mountain warfare today. So, if you want to learn something, go read. Highly recommended.

US: WE GAVE TURKEY THE TARGETS

"The feeling on the street is that we must not just sit back idly while this is taking place. There is anger towards US forces. People feel they gave the green light to the Turks to bomb."
~ Nawzad Bolous, Hewlêr.

While US spokesmen in Ankara spent all yesterday denying any knowledge of Turkey's intentions to bomb Kurdish civilians in South Kurdistan, today we are told that the US is picking and choosing targets for Turkey:

U.S. military personnel have set up a center for sharing intelligence in Ankara, the Turkish capital, providing imagery and other immediate information gathered from U.S. aircraft and unmanned drones flying over the separatists' mountain redoubts, the officials said. A senior administration official said the goal of the U.S. program is to identify the movements and activities of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting to create an autonomous enclave in Turkey.

The United States is "essentially handing them their targets," one U.S. military official said. The Turkish military then decides whether to act on the information and notifies the United States, the official said.

"They said, 'We want to do something.' We said, 'Okay, it's your decision,' " the official said yesterday, although he denied that the United States had explicitly approved the strikes.

Well, the American military lies as well as the State Department. By opening the air space over Iraq, the US explicitly did approve of Turkish strikes against Kurdish civilians--the very targets that the US handed over to Turkey. Let's review:

The official U.S. line is that Washington did not approve Turkey's Sunday air strike on Kurdish targets in northern Iraq. But the U.S. does control the skies over Iraq and the Pentagon did open airspace over Iraq for at least three hours to Turkish warplanes. It was also informed of the raids beforehand, according to an American spokesperson in Ankara. "By opening its airspace, America gave its approval to the operation," Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit said.

Not satisfied with bombing civilians and destroying the property that gives them shelter and livelihood, the monsters who command both the American and Turkish military (and their corporate masters in the MIC) want to come up with a "comprehensive strategy" for genocide:

The intelligence cooperation comes as senior U.S. military and Pentagon officials have engaged in talks with their Turkish counterparts to produce a more comprehensive strategy for combating the PKK, according to a senior military official familiar with the discussions. In addition to providing targets, U.S. military officials said they have encouraged the Turks to employ nonmilitary measures against the PKK and to hold a dialogue with the Iraqi government.

None of these not-so-bright boys has considered taking up the points outlined by the KCK in its offer of a democratic solution because then the Americans couldn't turn a few blood bucks on military gifts to Turkey, such as the recent purchase of upgrade packages for Lockheed Martin's F-16s or the purchase of Lockheed's new albatross, the F-35. The F-35 purchase was the reason Lockheed Martin director, Joseph Ralston was appointed by the State Deparment as the "PKK coordinator" for Turkey last year.

There is only one way to solve the injustices that the Ankara regime has perpetrated against the Kurdish people, and it's not the military way:

After more than two decades of war against the rebels, Turkey’s generals and politicians concede that military measures alone cannot fix its festering Kurdish problem.

The corporate bloodsuckers behind American foreign policy are certainly not going to permit any solution that's going to undercut their bottom line--no matter who offers them--or rule of law, as William Arkin opines at the Washington Post's blog:

The rule of law took another hit this week. Not because of questionable interrogation tactics or warrantless wiretapping. But because one sovereign country, a member of the United Nations and NATO in good standing, bombed the territory of another sovereign country and member of the United Nations.

And, in large part because we are in the midst of an over-stated war against terrorism, where exaggerated threats distort our standards and encourage military solutions, the United States didn't protest; it assisted in the attack.

[ . . . ]

The historical twists and turns here, the overlapping Kurdish relationships inside Iraqi Kurdistan and across the border, the shifting Kurdish agenda - in regard to Iraq and Turkey and internally -- could be the stuff of an HBO suspense. I won't pretend to explain it here.

The Bush administration, of course, doesn't pretend either. Turkey and the U.S. reduce the problem to PKK terrorism - which, of course, then justifies a military response and preemption, even in the face of official protest in Baghdad.

What Turkey should do about the PKK, and what the U.S. and the international community should do to pressure the Iraqi Kurds to stop supporting terrorism, is difficult to prescribe.

Well, it's only "difficult to prescribe" when you are a citizen of a nation that has spent decades--long before the official, War on Terror, Inc.--contributing to the Turkish genocide of the Kurdish people. In other words, when you are guilty of having created the situation on the ground that forced Kurds to engage in this most recent legitimate armed resistance. The seven points have been offered twice in a little over a year, and they are the only means to end the conflict.

All these facts of life make Condoleezza "Chevron" Rice a big, fat liar:

“We have made clear to the Turkish Government that we continue to be concerned about anything that could lead to innocent civilian casualties or to the destabilisation of the north,” Dr Rice told a joint news conference in Baghdad with Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, who is a Kurd.

And you had better believe that whenever this little hobgoblin, Rice, comes to town, everyone rushes to roll out the red carpet for her so that no one will notice all the blood dripping from her hands. That's why Mesûd Barzanî refused to meet with the creature:

"Turkish troops committed an atrocious crime against innocent civilians and violated Iraq's sovereignty," said KRG President Massoud Barzani, whom Turkish generals accuse of harboring the PKK. Mr. Barzani, who refused to meet Rice on her visit to Iraq, said the US should fulfill its "moral and legal commitment to protect the country's sovereignty and defend the Iraqi people."

Okay, well, anyone who still believes the US is in Iraq to "protect the country's sovereignty and defend the Iraqi people" has not been paying attention.

It looks like they'll always have to roll out the red carpet for Hoshyar Zebarî in the future, too, and for the same reason as Rice:

The statement of the Kurdish-Iraqi minister Hoshiyar Zebari is an example of the Kurds selling out due to fear. According to Reuter, Zebari had stated "We fully understand Turkish legitimate security concerns over PKK terrorism across the border". PKK might not be the savior of Kurdistan, but it is embarrassing for any Kurds at this stage to call the fighters from other parts of Kurdistan terrorists. The patriot of any other nation would have said we have suffered enough and are willing to defend ourselves and our brothers and sister in other parts of Kurdistan against state terrorism. Zebari's statement regardless of diplomatic reasoning is disappointing and most likely forced by some of the corrupt NATO members.

To classify Zebarî's statement as "disappointing," is a vast understatement and is better described as absolute shamelessness, or as a first rate example of unblushing obsequiousness. Meanwhile, those Kurds who would call PKK fighters "terrorists" are worse than shameless; they are cowardly traitors.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

"We have not approved any decision, it is not for us to approve. However, we were informed before the event."
~ US Embassy official, Ankara.

Some of you may remember Ken Silverstein at Harper's as one of the journalists who questioned the conflict of interest that Lockheed Martin's Joseph Ralston brought to his appointment as "PKK coordinator" for Turkey.

Now, Silverstein has something significant to add to this weekend's bombing of Kurdish civilians by the Ankara regime--an email from a "insightful and well-connected former US government official working in Kurdistan":

The blowback here in Kurdistan is building against the U.S. government because of its help with the Turkish air strikes. The theme is shock and betrayal. The Kurds see themselves as the only true friend of the Americans in the region, and the only part of Iraq that is working, and are especially hurt by the attack.

The Turks are of course emphasizing that the U.S. Air Force was heavily involved in the attack. They are reveling in this turn of events. They have tried since the first Gulf War to impede or rupture the U.S. relationship with the Kurds. Since March of 2003, they have redoubled their efforts. The key factor in the air strike is what they hit–it wasn’t a collection of PKK fighters, it was a series of small mountain villages, widely disbursed, some as far as 70 kilometers inside of Kurdistan. The people killed and wounded were villagers, not PKK fighters or support people.

The initial explanation from Washington that the United States did not authorize the Turkish strike is bullshit, and every Kurd here knows it. The U.S. Air Force controls and authorizes the movement of every aircraft in, through, or around here. For Washington to say they didn’t authorize the strike, or to use some other doublespeak bullshit Washington term, just makes people here more angry.

Aside from the fact that there were PKK casualties, here's the doublespeak bullshit the guy's talking about:

A U.S. embassy official said: "We have not approved any decision, it is not for us to approve. However, we were informed before the event."

More doublespeak bullshit, this time in Turkish:

"I can categorically state that not a single civilian target, not a single village was hit. Previously identified PKK camps were hit. There is no question of any accident," Anatolian news agency quoted Buyukanit as saying.

From the IHT, more doublespeak bullshit:

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Monday that the Iraqi government had expected Turkey to coordinate with it before striking the rebels inside Iraq. He also indicated that the fact Iraqi civilians were killed showed Turkey had not hit the right target.

"What happened yesterday was based maybe on misinformation," he said.

Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan, told AP Television News: "We call on the Turkish army to differentiate between the PKK and the ordinary people. We don't want the conflict between the Turkish troops and the PKK to turn into a conflict between the Turkish forces and the people of Kurdistan."

[ . . . ]

"This operation, which was carried out under night conditions, was a success," Erdogan said Sunday. "Our struggle (against the PKK) will continue inside and outside Turkey with the same determination."

And more on the doublespeak bullshit of the fascists from the BBC.

So Erdoğan contradicts Jamal Abdullah, and confirms that this is, in fact, "a conflict between the Turkish forces and the people of Kurdistan."

Check out more doublespeak bullshit and denial, from Al-Jazeera:

Ankara denied that civilian areas had been hit in the attacks.

"Warplanes of the Turkish air force conducted a comprehensive air campaign against targets belonging to the terrorist PKK-Kongra Gel organisation in the Qandil mountains from 0100 this morning," a Turkish military statement said.

"The operations solely target the ... terrorist movement. They are not conducted against people living in northern Iraq or local groups not engaged in enemy activity."

[ . . . ]

Buyukanit said that Sunday's attacks had been successful and all targets destroyed.

"No civilian targets or villages were hit even accidentally," he said.

Let's hear that doublespeak bullshit again:

Dismissing reports the raids hit villages, Turkey's General Staff said its targets were fixed "after it was established that they were definitely not civilian residential areas."

[ . . ]

"According to initial valuations, all the planned targets were hit accurately," the General Staff said on its Web site.

There you have it. The Paşas admit that their attack was planned to target the Kurdish people--civilians. Therefore, no matter the doublespeak bullshit of KRG spokesman, there is a war between the Turkish military and the Kurdish people. And the Pentagon wants a piece of this war, too:

A Pentagon spokesman also said Washington had given Turkey intelligence to track Kurdish fighters hiding in Iraq, but would not say whether it gave precise targets used in the raids.

Really? But the Americans have lied about the fact that they opened Iraqi airspace to the Turks, so they must be lying about providing specific targets, too. Maybe now is the right time to give them a piece of what they long for, and that was one of the topics mentioned on NPR's report on the bombing this morning. Bearing in mind, of course, that not even the southern peşmêrge want to fight PKK gerîlas. Listen to it here.

The same conclusion is starting to be drawn in the blogosphere:

The risk, of course, is that the PKK has a wide base of support among the Kurds. If the Kurds conclude that the TAF wouldn't have bombed without the permission, whether overt or tacit, of the Americans, then you have to wonder if the PKK will decide that Americans are now legitimate targets.

Even Mesûd Barzanî recognizes doublespeak bullshit when he hears it:

Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in the north, condemned the assaults as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty that had undermined months of diplomacy. “These attacks hinder the political efforts exerted to find a peaceful solution based on mutual respect,” he said in a statement.

At a news conference in Najaf, he went further, declaring that “the Americans are responsible because the Iraqi sky is under their full control.”

In contrast to the all the doublespeak bullshit of the fascists, here are some of the words from the ground:

Mukhlis Khadar, 44, said he and his family were woken by the raids and fled their home as soon as the school was hit.

"We left an unbelievable scene behind us," Khadar said. "When we climbed the rocks of the nearby mountain ... we saw flames of fire burning our village. ... Our house disappeared."

Saoqo Mohammad, a 30-year-old woman said: "We are civilians, with no arms or any relation to the PKK, why do they allow such horrible acts against civilians?"

More words from the ground, from The Boston Globe:

The targeted towns included Suradeh, a hamlet of about 30 homes nestled in the Qandil Mountains more than 50 miles from the Turkish border. Yesterday afternoon, residents who had sought shelter in frigid mountain caves during the overnight bombardment returned to a scene of damaged homes and dead livestock. Many were packing up and leaving in fear of additional attacks. As they bundled blankets, dishes, food, and clothes in vehicles or on the backs of mules, they spoke of the overnight terror.

"My youngest daughter is still crying and saying, 'Mama, I'm scared,' " said Muneera Khalid, who sought shelter in a cave with her husband and three children, ages 7, 10, and 14. It took them a half-hour to reach the cave, going by foot in the dark after the first air strikes began at about 2 a.m.

"Why is the Turkish Army bombing our village?" she said, breaking down in tears.

[ . . . ]

. . . [L]ocal residents insisted that civilians bore the brunt of the attacks. Musheer Ahmed said his daughter lost a leg in the bombing and his home was destroyed. Nashneel Bayz, a schoolteacher, said she was sleeping in her bedroom when the windows were shattered by bombs.

"I ran like a crazy person. I saw the others running in panic and terror. It was chaos," said Bayz. "We are non-armed people, we have nothing, and they send modern airplanes to bomb us."

She said those who suffered were civilians, not PKK fighters.

"The PKK positions are still intact," she said. "We even had some PKK fighters with us in the cave, in addition to women, children."

This is the operation that Erdoğan is celebrating as a success.

Meanwhile, Aleksu at Eusko Blog opines on the situation of all oppressed peoples:

When will the nations without statehood get some respect?

When will the colonialist powers evolve and leave behind their blood lust and greed?

When will the mega-nations understand that they need a more organic approach towards their view of the world?

When will the occupying armies stop labeling resistance fighters as "terrorists"?

When will humankind put the crimes committed by the colonialist powers into the correct perspective?

Well said, heval. Read the rest.

By the way, another, similar email--perhaps from the same "former US official"--made it's way to David Corn at the MoJo Blog. Go on over and have a read, bearing in mind that the first news from HPG-BIM clearly stated there were seven şehîds as a result of the attacks, five of whom were gerîlas. The contradiction on this point in the email may mean that the censored South Kurdistani media is not mentioning HPG casualties. There is also the detail of initial aerial attacks, a deliberate break in the attacks, and then, when the villagers returned to their villages, the Turks attacked again. This is clearly an attempt by the Turks to kill as many civilians as possible.

Yessiree, Yaşar! Mission accomplished!

Note also that the email claims the US supported Turkish F-16 with AWACS, which means that there was a lot more American military assistance in targeting Kurdish civilians than merely "opening Iraqi air space." American troops should start watching their backs as they walk around in Hewlêr.

TURKEY AND US BOMB KURDISH CIVILIANS

"America gave intelligence. But more importantly, America last night opened [the Iraqi] airspace to us. By opening the airspace, America gave its approval to this operation."
~ Yaşar Büyükanıt.

Two villagers walk through a rubble at the Qlatooka village near Iraq's border with Turkey on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007. Turkish war planes bombed Kurdish rebel targets as far as 100 kilometers (60 miles) inside northern Iraq for three hours early Sunday, in the largest aerial attack against the outlawed separatist group in recent years. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. (AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed)

A villager looks through a rubble at the Qlatooka village near Iraq's border with Turkey on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed)

Villager walks through a rubble at the Qlatooka village near Iraq's border with Turkey on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed)

A villager carries a desk through a rubble at the Qlatooka village near Iraq's border with Turkey on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed)

Two villagers clean their house at the Qlatooka village near Iraq's border with Turkey on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed)


Iraqis inspect the damage following air strikes by Turkish warplanes in Qandil, northern Iraq, December 16. Turkey's bombardment of suspected PKK rebel rear-bases inside northern Iraq has drawn a furious response from the Iraqi government and villagers hit by the air strikes. (AFP/Shwan Mohamed)


Iraqis inspect the damage following air strikes by Turkish warplanes in Qandil, December 16. (AFP/Shwan Mohammed)

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan denied that civilian areas had been hit.

ONLY ONE PROPER RESPONSE

"Has the fight with the 5,000 terrorists finished domestically, that we should now be talking about Iraq?"
~ Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Overnight the Ankara regime engaged in aerial and ground bombardment of South Kurdistan. According to an early ANF report on Özgür Gündem, fifteen civilian villages in the Zab, Avaşin, and Xakurk regions of South Kurdistan were bombed along with Qendil. Bombed villages include Nawdeşt and Dola Baleyan, Bokirîkan, Ênze, Lêwje, Kutel, Zargelî, Qelatûkan, Rezge, Maredû Silêyiyan, Balekayetî, Xinêrew, Qebirî, Zahîriyan, and Sîdeka

Two elementary schools were destroyed. Fortunately, since the bombings began at 0100 hours, the schools were empty. Representatives of the International Red Cross have already visited the bombed areas and removed 140 families from the Qendil area to Sangasar

One hospital in Lêwje was also destroyed. Dr. Andok Pola said that the hospital had been warned of the possibility of attacks, so it had been emptied before the aerial bombardment began. Medical personnel did treat a number of local villagers who had been wounded in Turkey's attack.

HPG confirms that five gerîlas and two civilians were martyred in the attacks and that three gerîlas were lightly wounded. After the initial aerial bombardment, howitzer fire began at 0800 hours. HPG's air defense batteries responded to the attack.

HPG states that the attacks were carried out by Turkey with the approval and support of the US, and that the US must stop the attacks immediately or it will receive the anger and reaction of our people. HPG notes that the attacks are not only against PKK, but against all the Kurdish people and, therefore, all Kurds must raise their voices against the attacks. Just as everyone raised their voices against the cross-border operation vote in the TBMM, they should do so again and especially the people of South Kurdistan.

Gerîlas had observed US reconnaisance flights in the area for the last month.

Kurds in London took these words to heart and staged a protest in front of 10 Downing Street, against Turkey's cross-border attacks. A number of pieces of information were included in a file given to the prime minister's office, including KCK's recent statement with its seven points for a democratic solution and the final resolutions of the EUTCC conference on the Kurdish situation.

DTP deputy co-chairman Kamuran Yüksek said Turkey's cross-border bombing showed the hypocrisy of the AKP through Erdoğan's talk about democracy and calls for everyone to join the political process. Yet Erdoğan's government chooses a military solution.

I should remind everyone at this point that there is no difference between the Turkish ruling military elite and any Turkish party, including the Islamists in AKP, when it comes to the Kurdish people. Military "solutions" and genocide is the only answer the Turks know. Of course, the US is an old facilitator of genocide, at least when it's not actively engaged in its own genocides.

Back to Kamuran Yüksek, who says about Turkey's policy:

Although claiming to bomb PKK camps, civilian villages have been bombed and civilians injured. In order to create a "buffer zone" in the region, they are trying to make the villages uninhabitable. These villages are under the authority of the KRG, but until this time, there is no statement from the KRG. A foreign country's aircraft come and bomb your villages and kill your people, and still you keep silent."

Good point. So where is Barzanî now? Oh, but he didn't have anything to say about Turkey and Iran bombing civilians all summer long. And we know that the Americans have spent the entire last five years bombing civilians and their villages in both Afghanistan and Iraq--with impunity. After all, the Americans don't care about human rights because it doesn't have anything to do with the one thing all Americans worship: the once-upon-a-time almighty dollar. Hell, Americans can't even figure out what torture is.

No, boys and girls, there is only one proper response to this current situation.

TURKISH MILITARY: "GOOD BOYS" GO FREE

"I know that officer, we worked in the region together. He is not a kind to commit crime."
~ Yaşar Büyükanıt.

The Şemdinli murderers have been freed.

The two JIT officers and the "confessor" who were convicted to 39 years, 10 months and 27 days by Van's 3rd Heavy Penalty Court for manslaughter, forming a gang, and attempting manslaughter, have been released by the military court that was retrying their case. Apparently the military court does not believe that that the perpetrators of the Semdinli bombing will attempt to escape or that they have the ability to destroy evidence. The state's perpetrators were released during the first session of the military court. The court also decided to re-examine the evidence of the Şemdinli bombing until the court's next session. It also kindly invited the perpetrators to attend the second session.

Thus, those state organs which were trying to release the suspects from the very beginning, have achieved their end.

The lawyers for the victims left the court, saying they would not be a part of the game, since the military court is under the authority of Büyükanıt, who said of perpetrator Ali Kaya, "I know him; he's a good boy." With this statement, Büyükanıt intervened in the court's decision-making process--a violation of Article 288 of the Turkish Penal Code (attempting to influence the judiciary). Because Büyükanıt is at the top of the military hierarchy under which the court falls, the court will not come to a decision that contradicts Büyükanıt's statement.

Mark my words.

Basically, Büyükanıt's statement, which came immediately following the bombing, is a warning to everyone concerned in the case--including the courts--to keep out of the military's business. The example of Büyükanıt's interference with the judiciary should dispel any fears of democracy breaking out in Turkey and should confirm who it is that holds real power in Turkey.

Interference with judicial proceedings of the Şemdinli bombing case were two of the five concerns Amnesty International had regarding the handling of the case:

Interference in the investigation: After the 9 November bombing, a number of senior government and military officials made comments which Amnesty International regards as constituting direct interference in the course of the investigation of the incident. Among them, the Prime Minister made negative remarks regarding the credibility of witnesses to the incidents in Semdinli testifying on the events, and the Head of the Army publicly gave a positive character reference for one of the suspects. Amnesty International considers that judgements about the reliability of witnesses must be a matter for the court alone, and that discussions of the character of the accused must not be allowed to prejudice the course of the trial.

Amnesty International also notes that the General Chief of Staff [Hilmi Özkök] made laudatory comments about the Head of the Army [Yaşar Büyükanıt], while at the same time being responsible for a decision on whether or not the latter would be subject to an investigation by the military prosecutor on the basis of the information forwarded by the Van prosecutor (see the third concern). The Ministers of Justice and the Interior also commented publicly on the content of statements made by individuals interviewed by the Parliamentary Investigative Commission into the Semdinli incidents. One public official interviewed by the commission was subsequently removed from his position as Head of the Intelligence Bureau of the Security Directorate. Amnesty International is concerned that the Ministers’ comments may have discouraged public officials from sharing information with the Commission and may have contributed to prejudicing the final – and inconclusive – results of the commission’s investigation.

And:

Interference in the prosecution and independence of the judiciary: Shortly after the 92-page indictment had been submitted to the panel of judges at the Van Heavy Penal Court for their approval in early March 2006, the content of the indictment became a subject of intense discussion between the government and the military, with the General Chief of Staff seeking extraordinary meetings with the Prime Minister and the President. Amnesty International considers that on the basis of these actions and public statements made by different parties, the content of the indictment was deemed unacceptable to some senior authorities even before the court – invested with the authority to accept or reject it – had made its decision. Amnesty International considers that the merits or defiencies of an indictment prepared by a prosecutor should be a matter for the court alone to decide, and that the actions of the General Chief of Staff constituted a direct interference in the proper role of the prosecution as well as in the independence of the judiciary.

This should be a cut-and-dried case since the perpetrators were captured by local residents of Şemdinli as they fled the scene of the crime. The vehicle which the perpetrators drove was found to have been registered to Jandarma forces. Among the contents of the trunk were three Kalishnikovs, magazines for the Kalishnikovs, hand grenades, drawings of the bookstore and of Seferi Yılmaz's home. Additionally, an assassination list and ID cards of Pakistani citizens and receipts of the Iraqi Turkmen Front were found in the vehicle. Furthermore, the Şemdinli bombing was only one out of twenty that were carried out in Şemdinli and Yüksekova between July 2005 and 9 November 2005, the day of the Şemdinli bombing--a fact which was ignored in all the reporting about Şemdinli.

Remember the "confessions" of retired Turkish military officers such as Erdal Sarızeybek, and his book I Saw the Betrayal, or Altay Tokat. Both have admitted to committing acts of terror in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan against Kurdish civilians or civil servants.

We also need to recall the words of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the wake of the Şemdinli bombing: "We will follow up on this incident, no matter where it leads, and whoever has to pay the price will pay it." The release of the Şemdinli murderers today is another indicator of the close cooperation between the Islamists and the Paşas which was part of the deal reached by both that resulted in an Islamist resident of Çankaya Köşkü. In return, Büyükanıt's threat regarding the status of his "good boys" is heeded by all and the Paşas are allowed to continue their Dirty War in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

Meanwhile, back at Qendil, Murat Karayılan says that AKP Kurds are not Kurds, but you heard it here first. By now AKP's position vis-a-vis the Kurdish people should be clear from the track record it has in dealing with serious issues in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan . . . issues like Şemdinli.

BÜYÜKANIT: I'M STILL A VICTIM OF HUMAN RIGHTS!

"Dementia is not exclusively a problem of the developed world."
~ Julie Bishop.

So the OHAL has been extended from December to March 2008, thanks to the news from the hevals at KurdishInfo. The OHAL was originally called from June to September 2007, then extended until December. This was done in order for the Ankara regime to pretend that the new OHAL wasn't really an OHAL but no one should have been fooled by this nonsense. OHAL is OHAL. Period.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Or not . . . From Der Spiegel, via KurdishInfo, Germany has released two of the murderers of Dr. Mohammed Sadegh Sharafkandi and companions. Both murderers were conveniently deported to Iran, whose regime sanctioned the murder of the Kurdish activists.

In other news, Yaşar Paşa continues to suffer from severe dementia as illustrated by his statements at a recent symmposium on PKK (That's right, folks, TSK attends symposia on PKK). Among other things, Yaşar Paşa claimed that "terrorists" (read: DTP) "are in parliament," and that human rights have become "terrorist" weapons that have been turned against all those poor, helpless victims that are the members of TSK. You can read more of the statements of Turkey's top nutcase, at Bianet.

The best response to Yaşar Paşa's ravings came from Ufuk Uras of the ÖDP:

"If civil servants have the right to interfere in politics, then this should be the right not only of the civil servant with the gun at his hip, but also the right of the civil servant working in the register office. Let no civil servant consider themselves more privileged than others. The same right should then apply to the civil servants holding pens, watering hoses and broomsticks."

Touché, Ufuk!

Hevallo also has some relevant comments on this nonsense.

In another shocking piece of news--NOT--the Minority Rights Group International (MRG) reports that there is growing, violent nationalism in Turkey, with "a ban on minority languages in political life and public services and that school books reinforce stereotypes about minorities." The head of MRG's Policy and Communication says, "[T]o bring real change to Turkey's minorities there has to be radical transformation of the prevalent mentality towards minorities of both the state and society."

Good luck with that. At the rate things are going, there really is no hope of significant change until the system dedicates itself to changing itself. Read more about that, with a timeline of significant events against minorities, at InfoTurk.

Dr. Kristiina has made good on her promise to report on the recent EUTCC conference on the Kurds, and she has a lot of great photos, so go over to her place and take a look and have a read.

Finally, there is a list of the recent HPG and YJA-STAR şehîds:

Selma Kaya, code name Gülbahar Gülhat, born 1978 Batman.

Ceyda Yetkin, code name Rozerin Fırat Roj, born 1975 İstanbul.

Niyazi Akgül, code name Harun Tori, born 1981 Midyat.

Medeni Gül, code name Xwinda Faraşin, born 1984 Çukurça.

Mercan Kara, code name Beritan Hilal, born 1983 Uludere.

Hasan Kaya, code name Serdem Şahin, born 1986 Şırnak.

Abdullah Karataş, code name Osman Çevik, born 1975 Bozova-Urfa.

Mehmet Reşit Erdoğan, code name Gabar Rızgar, born 1972 Bitlis.

Rest in peace, comrades. Şehîd namirin!

KURDS AND JEWS: RENEWING AN OLD RELATIONSHIP

"The history of Judaism in Kurdistan dates back nearly three millenia. According to the Talmud, Jewish deportees were settled in Kurdistan 2,800 years ago by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser Ill (r. 858-824 BC). Soon they integrated with the Kurds, and they were exceptionally successful in their endeavor."
~ Halwest Omer Qadir.

Oh, here's something that's going to drive all the Kurd-hating conspiracy theorists absolutely nuts:

Lana was a teenager when her family made a clandestine journey from Kurdistan to Israel.

It was 1994, and Saddam Hussein had recently lost control of northern Iraq. Rival Kurdish militias were battling each other to fill the power vacuum. In a closely guarded emigration, Lana's family — and a dozen other Kurdish families of Jewish origin — traveled over land to neighboring Turkey in a trip organized and financed by Israel.

[ . . . ]

Now Lana, 28, is a citizen of Israel who speaks Hebrew and Kurdish fluently. Last year, she returned for the first time since her emigration to live in Kurdistan with her new husband, Hano, an Iraqi Muslim Kurd. The couple asked that their full names not be used for fear of reprisal.

"I didn't think twice about marrying a Jewish woman," Hano said. "My parents always told me stories about how much they liked their old Jewish neighbors."

Unlike the Arab majority in central and southern Iraq, the Kurds of northern Iraq don't see Jews or Israel as enemies. In the 1960s and 70s, Israel's Mossad intelligence agency provided equipment and training to Kurdish rebels who were battling the government in Baghdad. To this day, locals call a neighborhood of old sagging brick houses in the Kurdish city of Suleymaniyah, Jewlakan.

[ . . . ]

Despite the difficult history for Kurdish Jews, Lana says she's proud of her mixed heritage. "Above all, I consider myself a Kurd," she says. "An Israeli Kurd."

Read the rest of the transcript, or listen to NPR's report and view some photos, here.

I know at least one old Kurdish warrior in Silêmanî, originally from Xanaqîn, who, on my last trip to the city, expressed to me his longing to see his old Jewish boyhood friends once more before he died. They left Kurdistan in 1948, and the venerable peşmêrge that I met still spoke of them fondly. Perhaps that Kurdish lion's wish will be granted him soon.

It's also interesting to note that Lana considers herself first and foremost a Kurd and that she and her husband are Kurds of differing religions, thus illustrating how ethnicity tends to trump religion among Kurds. Whoever doesn't like that, whether Turk, Arab, Persian, or Western anti-Kurd anti-semite, is just going to have to get over it.

In related news, Israeli archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a mansion in Jerusalem, believed to have belonged to Kurdish-Jewish Queen Helene of Adiabene:

The building, which includes storerooms, living quarters and ritual baths, is by far the largest and most elaborate structure discovered by archaeologists in the City of David area, which was home 2,000 years ago almost exclusively to the city's poor.

Jewish historian Josephus Flavius mentions just one wealthy family living there — the family of Queen Helene.

There is a "high probability'' the mansion belonged to Helene's family, Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Doron Ben-Ami told reporters Wednesday.

"This amazing structure was destroyed with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.,'' Ben-Ami said.

Read more at Live Science. For more on the history of Kurdish Jews, the historical blending of Jews and Kurds in Kurdistan, and Queen Helene, check out an article from Soma.

Like I said, get over it.

TURKS TAKE ON HOLLYWOOD . . . AGAIN

"In those days Turks had paid Armenians the most charming compliments, declaring their love."
~ The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, Franz Werfel.

In a continuing display of paranoia, Fethullahcı ragsheet, Zaman, featured an article the other day about an email campaign to dissuade actor Mel Gibson from starring in a film about the Armenian genocide.

Unfortunately for the lunatics at Zaman, Mel Gibson has no idea what Zaman is talking about:

D.U.I. darling Mel Gibson is back in the hot seat -- just in time for Hanukkah.

According to the Turkish newspaper Zaman, something called The Foundation for the Struggle Against Baseless Allegations of Genocide (ASİMED) has launched an e-mail campaign to try and dissuade the tequila-swilling star from taking part in an upcoming film about the genocide of Armenians during World War I.

Mel probably won't put up much of a fight. His rep tells TMZ: "We don't know where that started. He doesn't know anything about the project. Never heard of it." Oops!

We can probably say "Oops" about Zaman's allegations of Sylvester Stallone quashing his desire to create an epic film based on Franz Werfel's historical novel about the Armenian Genocide, The Forty Days at Musa Dagh:

For years Stallone's wanted to create an epic, and the book that intrigues him is Franz Werfel's "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh," detailing the Turkish genocide of its Armenian community in 1915. (After futile attempts to turn the novel into a movie, filmmakers finally succeeded in 1982, but it was a low-profile production.)

[ . . . ]

The movie would be "an epic about the complete destruction of a civilization," Stallone said. Then he laughed at the ambition. "Talk about a political hot potato. The Turks have been killing that subject for 85 years."

Well, the Turks have been killing the film version of that book for 63 years anyway, when Turkey pressured the US State Department to prevent a Hollywood's work on such a film in the 1930s.

It may be that the movie is underway, if we believe an item that appeared at the end of last month on Public Radio of Armenia, quoting Akşam:

Turkish Akşam reported that the Armenian Diaspora in Hollywood Is completing the preparations for shooting a film based on Franz Werfel's "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh," one of the most remarkable works on the Armenian Genocide.

According to the same source, authorities in South Kurdistan have invited Hollywood to South Kurdistan to shoot a film about Mustafa Barzanî. But the source being what it is, we probably shouldn't hold our breath.

If the Stallone film about Musa Dagh really is in the works, it'll be more than just a conversation piece when it opens at the local theater.

FINAL RESOLUTION OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY, AND THE KURDS

The Fourth International Conference on the EU, Turkey and the Kurds

Monday 3rd -Tuesday 4th December 2007, European Parliament, Brussels

Organised by the EU-Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC)


INTRODUCTION TO FINAL RESOLUTIONS

FINAL RESOLUTIONS

Pursuant to the presentation of Conference papers and interventions made by delegates, this Conference adopted the following declarations and calls for action to be undertaken by relevant parties to the conflict in the Kurdish Regions of Turkey.

Turkey and the EU are at this moment at a critical juncture. The accession process is widely regarded as having stalled, or at the very least, significantly slowed down. Reform implemented in the first stages of accession is now a distant memory, and there appears to be regression in progress. Geopolitical pressures on Turkey over incursions into Iraq are growing, while Turkey’s domestic politics are becoming more polarised. How Turkey and the EU respond to the turbulence of the past year will be of crucial importance for the future of the accession process, and the stability of the entire region.

The Conference resolves to periodically make recommendations of measures for the Turkish accession process, the protection of human rights and the situation of the Kurds

The Conference issues the following declarations:


1) Recalling the resolutions from the International Conferences on Turkey, EU & the Kurds of the preceding three years, the Conference continues to give its qualified support to Turkey’s EU accession process, contingent on demonstrable commitment from both parties to the human rights and fundamental freedoms;

2) The Conference calls upon the European Union to act as a unified body publicly expressing support for the EU accession process it began, including support of all EU requirements concerning democratic and legal reform within Turkey;

3) The Conference notes that the 2007 European Commission progress report on Turkish accession found that “no major issue has been addressed and significant problems persist”, and joins with the Commission in urging Turkey to confront these problems;

4) The Conference notes with alarm the failure of certain institutions within the Turkish State apparatus to adhere to its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and humanitarian law in accordance with the spirit and terms of its own recent reform packages and commitments given under the accession process; in particular, it is dismayed that institutions of the State have continued its military activities;

5) The Conference regrets that the unilateral ceasefire declared by the PKK in October 2006, for all practical purposes has come to an end and calls now upon both Turkey and the PKK to forthwith stop all hostile military operations in the region to provide political space to address the Kurdish questions through dialogue.

6) The Conference notes that it has become clear to everyone, including Turkey and the Turkish army, and the whole of the international community, that there is no military solution to the ongoing conflict; we call upon the Turkish government to cease all hostile military operations both within Turkey and Kurdistan, Iraq;

7) In particular, the Conference urges Turkey and the Member States of the EU to take practical and visible steps to demonstrate their full support for the establishment of a democratic platform for dialogue between Turks, Kurds, and other constituent peoples and minorities who are resident in Turkey;

Human Rights and Accession

8) The Conference supports the undertakings by the EU that reform in the area of Turkey’s fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law must be strengthened in the course of accession negotiations and welcomes the commitment by the EU Commission to continue to monitor the reform process. These reforms should include a complete overhaul of the justice system including how judges are recruited and trained, promoting full independence of law enforcement officers and public prosecutors in order prevent the law being used to achieve political and ideological objectives.

9) The Conference reiterates the view expressed in the three preceding Conferences, that Turkey has not yet fulfilled the political elements of the Copenhagen Criteria, and reiterates that its support for the accession process is dependent upon the institutions of the EU robustly enforcing accession standards. It further underlines that there can be no further compromises on membership criteria akin to the EU decision to allow Turkey access to the negotiating table for ‘sufficiently’ fulfilling the Copenhagen Criteria;

10) Recalling last year's conference resolution number 10, the Conference calls upon Turkey to ratify the European Framework Convention on the Protection of Minorities as well as other UN Instruments concerning minorities and to respect the existing cultural and minority rights of all groups; and calls on the EU to apply pressure on the Government of Turkey as a potential member of the EU to ratify said Framework;

11) Recalling Articles 10, and 14, and Article 2 of the first Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 8 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages, and the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly’s resolution 1519 of October 2006 on the cultural situation of the Kurds, the Conference reiterates its call to the State of Turkey and the European Union to develop and promote a strategic plan for mother tongue education;

12) With specific reference to the 2007 European Commission progress report, the European Parliament report on the increasing suicide of women in the Kurdish regions, as well as recalling the 2005 CEDAW response to Turkish Report to the Committee,) the Conference calls on the EU to ensure that Turkey address the status of all women and girls in the context of international standards, particularly considering the high rates of illiteracy, domestic violence, honor killing, suicide and forced and early marriages in Turkey, for which the lack of requisite services and judicial training fail to guarantee legal protections (and in particular notes need to address the regional disparity in the position of women through education, literacy, access to meaningful employment, political representation and access to justice); furthermore it requests the European Union to use all it powers to ensure that the Turkish Government develops, in consultation and co-operation with Kurdish women a National Action Plan to implement UNSCR 1325.

13) This Conference expresses regret the Turkish government’s initiation of work on the ill-planned Ilısu Dam in August 2006, and the start of the expropriation of land by the Turkish state which threatens mass displacement and loss of livelihood of the area’s inhabitants, the majority of whom are Kurds; endangers the historically important city of Hasankeyf, in an apparent attempt to further disassociate Kurds from their rich heritage and culture; and will, according to several environmental assessment reports, jeopardize access to water for Turkey’s neighbours and cause irreversible environmental harm;

14) In reference to the above, the Conference calls upon the Turkish government to reassess its position vis-à-vis this project, as well as the bodies of the EU monitoring the impact of internal displacement and what the potential effects of this project are on the already overpopulated urban centres of the Kurdish regions, as well as calling on member governments to put pressure on foreign capital companies to withdraw their investments in the project;

15) The Conference expresses its deep concern over Turkey’s employment of articles of the criminal code to prosecute writers, journalists, intellectuals, lawyers and many other defenders of free speech, including articles 215, 216 (incitement to hatred), 217, 220 (making propaganda for a criminal organization) 288 (attempt to influence a fair trial) and 301 (insulting ‘Turkishness’) of the Turkish Penal Code; the Conference calls on the EU to ensure that Turkey remove restrictions on freedom of expression from their legal framework entirely.

16) We call upon Turkey to fulfill its positive obligations under article 10 of the ECHR to promote a positive climate in which freedom of expression to flourish, and to protect writers, journalists, intellectuals, lawyers and many other defenders of free speech from unlawful interference by state and non-state actors.

The Centrality of the Kurdish Question

17) The Conference asserts that the resolution of the Kurdish conflict is essential to the establishment of a stable, democratic and peaceful Turkey capable of entering the European Union. True democratic reform can only occur if Turkey undertakes new political reform to its state institutions and banishes adherence to ethnic nationalism which is the root cause of the conflict and Turkey’s endemic instability;

18) This Conference therefore asserts that the Kurdish people and their representatives should be given a genuine participatory role in the accession process and in any debate over Turkey’s democratic constitutional future;

19) However, the Conference further asserts that more must and can be done on both sides and calls for the following confidence building measures to be adopted;

Confidence Building Measures

20) This conference notes the resolution of the conflict and the constitutional recognition of Kurds in Turkey is central to regional stability.

21) In this respect, the Conference calls upon the Turkish Government to begin a public debate about the constitutional recognition of the existence of the Kurdish people within Turkey;

22) The Conference calls upon all political parties in Turkey to help foster the conditions within Turkey for a democratic platform for dialogue;

23) The Conference calls upon the EU actively to support efforts for dialogue on minorities and specifically on Kurds in Turkey;

24) The Conference urges Turkey to recognize that for democracy to function, it is imperative that local government structures enjoy the full support of national government.

25) At this critical juncture at this time all actors involved (the EU, Turkey and the Kurds) must take heed of lessons from their past, and act in accordance with international law and humanitarian norms.

26) In particular, the Conference calls upon the Turkish Government to ensure that all legally constituted Kurdish democratic parties are allowed to engage in peaceful political activity without interference or constant threat of closure, with particular reference to the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and its current democratically elected members of parliament; in accordance with Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights; further to immediately cease the harassment and politically-motivated investigations of Kurdish politicians.

27) The Conference notes that the recommendations of the ECtHR in several cases, but in particular regarding the case of Abdullah Ocalan vs Turkey, regarding conditions of detention in Turkey. The Conference further calls on the Turkish government to implement CPT (Committee on Prevention of Torture) recommendations on conditions of detention and specifically the health of Mr. Ocalan, and close —with immediate effect— Imrali island.

28) The Conference also urges each member state of the European Union to assist —including by earmarking funds— in the creation of a democratic platform for dialogue between Turkey and the Kurds and fully comply with their own freedom of expression obligations in respect of those Kurdish organisations and individuals who are concerned to promote the same;

29) The Conference reiterates that the Governments of the EU should not criminalise peaceful dissent of Turkey echoed by Kurdish organisations situated in Europe and to review its proscription of certain Kurdish organisations, especially in the light of public commitments to the search for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question within the present territorial integrity of a democratically reformed Turkey;

30) Finally, the Conference renews its mandate for its Directors, Advisors and Committees, to engage and campaign on both a political and civic level across Europe in support of Turkey’s accession bid to join the European Union on the basis of this resolution.

EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS, LACK OF EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE

"The patriotic people of Kurdistan, be it women, children, young or old must demonstrate awareness and compassion towards maintaining a national-democratic line of unity throughout this period. Furthermore, they must stand firm against all attitudes attempting to frustrate this."
~ KCK Statement, 30 November, 2007.

Well, well, well . . . Zaman is spewing a lot of gû today. The most amusing spew has to do with alleged rivalries within the leadership of KCK, and Zaman seems to be specifically conjuring up an imaginary "ethnic" rivalry between Rojavayî and Bakûrî--"Syrian" Kurds and "Turkish" Kurds.

First of all, I suppose I need someone out there to explain to me how there can be "ethnic" rivalry among a group of people, the majority of whom are Kurds. No matter which part of Kurdistan a gerîla comes from, that gerîla is still a Kurd because Kurdistan is still Kurdistan. Just because racist regimes have divided Kurdistan or have supported the division of Kurdistan, a Kurd is still a Kurd.

Note that Zaman doesn't mention the fact that there are non-Kurdish gerîlas. Or perhaps I should clarify that by saying that there are gerîlas who were not born in Kurdistan or of Kurdish parents. Zaman doesn't mention that there are ethnic Britons Russians, Germans, Greeks, Iranians, and Arabs in HPG. Zaman doesn't mention that there is at least one ethnic Swiss in HPG. Neither does Zaman mention that there have always been ethnic Turks in, first PKK, and, now, in HPG.

Of course, these people are like Heval Tolhildan in that they do not speak of the Kurdish people, but of "our people." They have become Kurds.

Zaman claims that there is a rivalry between Bahoz Erdal, on one hand, and Cemil Bayık and Murat Karayılan on the other. All three men are in command of specific, necessary components of KCK which means that there is no need for rivalry. Just as there is no rivalry among different parts of the body, for each has its specific function, so there is no rivalry among these three leaders. Since Zaman makes the claim, it must provide the evidence; and extraordinary claims, like this one, require extraordinary evidence.

Zaman presents no evidence for its claim of Karayılan and Bayık's "discomfort at Abdullah Öcalan’s inclusion of Kurds of Syrian decent into the senior leadership of the PKK’s armed wing, the People’s Defense Units (HPG)." Zaman presents no evidence for it's claim of "[n]ames known to be close to Hüseyin [Bahoz Erdal] have either been killed or sacked from the significant positions they held inside the PKK." Zaman presents no evidence for its claim of accusations of "passivity" or of the US using Heval Bahoz for its own purposes in Syria. Nor is there evidence presented for the claims of PKK being fractured, of difficulty in finding new recruits, of gerîlas trying to get to Armenia (no mention of PKK's wholesale move to a new residence in Karabakh--another recent wild rumor of the oh, so reliable Turkish media), or of those long-standing bogeymen of the Turkish psyche--"International Forces"--manipulating everything.

In Hersh-ian fashion, Zaman appears to rely on Turkish intelligence reports to lend an aura of credibility to its absurd claims. But such reports must come from a Turkish version of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans--you remember, the ones who manufactured "intelligence" evidence of Iraq's WMDs and wrote the script for the Bush administration's performance at the UN, complete with Colin Powell's "anthrax" vial.

Zaman must have relied on the American neocon pattern of fantasy manufacture because it must not have been able to dig up any ex-PKK "confessors," with exotic-sounding code names, to lend a luster of credibility to the article.

All of this is not to say that Zaman lacks a sense of humor, at least on the darker side. Zaman includes a claim of Bahoz Erdal's "command" of TAK and of the "ethnic" rivalries erupting to the point of committing the Beytuşşebap massacre or of the killing of at least 12 Turkish soldiers at Dağlıca, in the same battle that yielded 8 Turkish POWs. These are laughable because TAK always operated in Western Turkey and the Turkish state itself committed the Beytuşşebap massacre, Guçlukonak style.

Read the whole thing here.

Over at Hevallo's place, he's got a post on the confessions of old Turkish generals, also from Zaman. When you read that one, ask yourself "Why?" Are these just a bunch of old secularists who now worried about getting into paradise, or is there something else behind their admissions of guilt?

Inquiring minds wanna know.

A CONFERENCE, A BOOK, AND A BODY COUNT

"If the PKK and Abdullah Ocalan are not seen as part of the problem and are not incorporated into the process of a solution, then we cannot be sure of a solution, because it is not possible."
~ Ahmet Türk.

Hevallo has been doing a great job keeping up with speeches and statements coming from the EU conference on Kurds, so I urge everyone to go over there and browse through the information he's posted. I'm not putting a specific link here, because he has several posts, so you'll just have to browse.

However, I will post a link to one specific post that makes me absolutely boiling with envy, and that's Hevallo's post on Ahmet Kahraman's new book, in English. It's called Uprising, Suppression, Retribution: The Kurdish Struggle in Turkey in the Twentieth Century and it covers, in detail, the long history of the Turkish state's genocide of the Kurdish people. This book will be an absolute must read for anyone interested in the Kurdish people under Turkish occupation. It isn't available through US Amazon, so it must be ordered from Amazon UK for £17.00, which should set you back $35.00, give or take, depending on the exchange rate of the day. However, this price is a minor investment for spreading the true history of the Kurdish people, and I will have to order a copy immediately, if not sooner. I strongly urge others to do the same.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kristiina Koivunen has posted a little note on her presence at the EU conference, and she's included a photo of her with Ahmet Türk and Nurettin Demirtaş. She promises us that she will write something more extensive on her adventures and impressions of the conference, so we will have to hold her to that promise.

At the conference itself, Leyla Zana spoke of the need to end taboos:

"It is time we started talking about our problems by doing away with our taboos. Regarding that the sensitivities of people are noteworthy makes a lasting peace possible. What is expected of the world is to respect this will and exclude it from bargaining issues in international relationships. Unless the issue is approached from a human perspective and from a perspective of conscience, it will continue to be a potential risk threatening regional and world peace. It is for this reason that the policy of “good Kurds-bad Kurds” that has been tried for some time has gone bankrupt. What befits a modern country is to hand over a tradition of tolerance that will strengthen diplomatic, cultural, economic and social relations to the future rather than escalating tensions across borders and countries."

Unsurprisingly, Joost Lagendijk, the AKP representative in the EU Parliament, did his best to present the fascist argument.

And we have war stats for the month of November from the hevals:

Number of operations: 24
Number of operations that made contact: 23
Number of enemy soldiers killed: 42
Number of enemy soldiers wounded: 12
Number of military vehicles destroyed: 1
Number of helicopters hit: 1
Number of gerîla şehîds for Kurdistan: 7

Şehîd namirin!

ANOTHER CALL FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOLUTION

"The PKK is a terrorist organisation. They’re an enemy of Turkey, they’re an enemy of Iraq and they’re an enemy of the United States."
~ George W. Bush.

KCK Executive Council and Kongra-Gel Governing Council

30th November 2007

DECLARATION CALLING FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOLUTION

The Kurdistan issue is one of the most deeply rooted issues in the Middle East. Although this problem has social, political and national roots, it is yet to be afforded an accurate and just approach by all concerned powers. This deficient situation is not bringing peace and stability. Instead, despite the Kurdish people’s wishes, the problem is being treated as a mere security and terrorism issue among two or three powers within the global arena, and is also being made a tool for political gains.

On the 5th of November during G. W. Bush’s meeting with R. T. Erdogan in the USA, the representatives of the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom, the PKK, were declared a joint enemy and an organization that needed to be quashed, and yet no reference was made about how to resolve the actual problem which resulted in the founding of the PKK. As for the EU, its recent approval of the annihilation operations that the Turkish state wants to carry out has done nothing but encourage more Kurdish massacres. This kind of approach has been adopted for a long time and yet it is extremely clear and evident that it has not yielded a potential solution or even hinted towards a solution.

In this atmosphere there have been calls, especially from the Turkish side, for our movement to declare a unilateral ceasefire. On the one hand there are rigorous efforts to demolish the achievements of the Kurdish people’s thirty-year struggle for freedom, which has given them an organized and institutionalized movement. On the other hand however, there are messages conveyed through certain channels that the state is trying to resolve this problem peacefully. The Turkish Prime Minister R.T. Erdogan makes ambiguous and therefore unreliable statements to the public that there is a project regarding this matter. As a reply to certain statements made by the Prime Minister in August 2005 and October 2006, our organisation declared unlimited ceasefires, which in both cases were answered by military attacks, giving rise to serious doubts as to the sincerity of the Turkish state. In the present circumstances it should be accepted that the Kurdish people cannot have trust without seeing practical steps taken. Primarily there should be clarity regarding which forces support a real solution and which forces are merely using this rhetoric to pacify the Kurdish people and our movement with a view to complete nullification.

Even with all of this, instead of efforts to deescalate the situation, plans on how to attack, isolate and nullify our organisation are constantly being drawn up and presented to the public. The Turkish state is, with increasing intensity, attacking the Kurdish people’s military, political and social cohesion and principles.

It is increasingly evident that the Kurdish problem is going through a critical and sensitive period. As a movement struggling for freedom, we see it as our duty, at a time like this, and as a reply to the calls from the Turkish side, to propose a project for a peaceful solution to this problem. It is well known that for the past 15 years our leader and our movement have aimed to solve this problem peacefully. Since 1993 our movement has declared 5 ceasefires on different occasions as a signal for the start of a democratic process in which this problem can be solved peacefully. However, we regret to say that on each of these occasions the Turkish state has replied by increasing military activity against our movement. As the Kurdish side we showed our integrity in our enthusiasm for a peaceful and democratic solution by sending peace envoys on two occasions. One of these envoys consisted of a group of guerrillas and the other of political representatives. During the same period, in spite of heavy losses, our movement had pulled back its forces from the battlefields. Each of these one sided concessions, granted by our movement in order to pave the way towards a peaceful solution, was interpreted by the Turkish state as a sign of weakness and thus all possible means of dialogue were closed.

As the public is aware, the USA, EU and other international organisations, along with the People’s Democratic Party and other political bodies in Turkey, some intellectuals and writers, the Iraqi government and Southern Kurdistan’s regional government made a call to our organisation a year ago regarding a unilateral ceasefire. As a result of our leader’s calls we announced an unlimited ceasefire on the 1st of October 2006. The Turkish state however, rather than attaching any positive significance to this action, instead claimed it was an action taken to divide Turkey. For this reason the Turkish state doubled its military operations on a force which was on ceasefire. Thus since 1 October 2006 the Turkish army has carried out no fewer than 579 operations against our forces; 460 of these resulted in some sort of clash as a result of which both sides have suffered losses of more than a thousand each.

In this period, the Turkish army generals have not hidden from the public their strategy of fighting until not one single guerrilla remains. Of course there are significant negative consequences arising from this ranging from the economic to the moral. Together with all of this, the Turkish state is using every strategy, including psychological warfare, to hinder the development of a Kurdish political platform. These attacks are not only limited to the Kurdish people and the guerrillas but are also directed at the democratically elected representatives of the Kurdish people. Alongside the increase in the intensity of the solitary confinement to which the Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Ocalan is being subjected, there has also been a direct attempt at ending his life.

After a continuous but unsuccessful campaign attacking every single Kurdish dynamic within Turkey, Turkey has adopted the idea that the roots of the problem are external and therefore has placed a cross border attack into Iraq onto the agenda. With this aim, a bill was passed in the Turkish parliament creating the potential for instability and war. The AKP government is using this bill as a tool for negotiating with the USA and Southern Kurdistan. This holds similarities with the kind of military and diplomatic pressure applied by Turkey to the Syrian government in 1998. The thinking behind it is to provoke the USA and the Southern Kurdish forces to attack our movement and by doing this to cause the Kurds to turn against each other. Although initially this plan is aimed at nullifying our movement, the second phase of the plan aims to weaken the Kurdish dynamics of all other parts of Kurdistan.

Although it is the Turkish side that is planning all the attacks, they are portraying themselves as being under attack and hence the victims. All diplomatic efforts are channelled to this end. It is upsetting however, that certain global powers are allowing themselves to be manipulated in this way for economic and political interests. The unethical nature of such an approach is self-evident.

In fact the situation is completely the opposite. The real victims are the Kurdish people and their legitimate and rightful representatives. The number and scope of the operations, together with the speeches of the generals, are a clear indication of this. The guerrilla forces are not in attack mode, rather they are in a mode of self-defence. The force in attack mode is without a doubt the Turkish Armed Forces and the losses it has suffered are due to this.

The quarters who were calling upon us to declare a ceasefire have remained largely indifferent to the continuous attacks of the Turkish military and have not shown a great deal of effort in redirecting this violent tendency towards a path for a peaceful solution. At present, these very quarters are once again calling upon us to declare another ceasefire. We in all integrity respect all calls for a peaceful and democratic platform for the solution of this problem. We would like to announce that we are willing to take responsibility for playing our part in ensuring the guns remain silent in order to pave the way for a peaceful solution. Our declaration of a ceasefire in October 2006 still stands in theory although it should be noted that the increased intensity of the attacks from the Turkish military have all but made it impossible for the ceasefire to prevail. If the Turkish state ceases its attacks on our forces, our leader, our people, our values and our democratic institutions then we can confidently say that the current violent atmosphere will vanish and a peaceful atmosphere will ensue. This will mean the practical silence of the guns.

To this end, the quarters who are calling for us to declare a ceasefire will do more good by ensuring that the Turkish state accept the terms of the ceasefire our movement declared back in October 2006. If the Turkish state accepts the ceasefire of October 2006 then no guns will be firing and the sought-after atmosphere will be achieved. As a result of this a project by which the use of guns can be completely nullified can be easily achieved. We believe that this political project can be introduced through the democratic autonomy which the DTP also recently suggested. A permanent voluntary unity can be achieved through the acceptance of a democratically autonomous Kurdistan within a unified democratic Turkey.

The details of this proposal can be found within the following articles:


1. The recognition of Kurdish identity, and the constitutional protection of all identities under the citizenship of Turkey as a super-ordinate identity.
2. The removal of all obstacles constraining the development of the Kurdish language and culture; the recognition of the right to an education in the mother tongue; the acceptance of Kurdish as the joint official language of the Kurdistan area; respect for the cultural rights of ethnic minorities.
3. The recognition of the right to free association based around freedom of thought and expression, and the removal of all inequalities not least of gender.
4. The development of a social project for compromise between the two peoples, through forgiveness, to achieve peace and freedom by freeing all political prisoners including Abdullah Ocalan and ensuring the swift assimilation of political prisoners into legitimate social status.
5. The retreat of all forces of the war from Kurdistan; the abolishment of the village guard system; the development of an economic and social project to facilitate Kurds’ return to their villages.
6. A rearrangement of the law to strengthen and widen the powers of local government.
7. And parallel to the above-mentioned articles, a timetable agreed by both sides for the inclusion of guerrillas into a democratic social set-up through the abandonment of arms.



Resolving the Kurdish problem without altering the borders would be possible on this basis. Creating a democratic environment in which the Kurdish people are able to live freely is what is important. This project will in effect lay the foundations for the most sustainable resolution which will not only reinforce the basis for free alliance but also merge both sides’ gains. The freedom and existence of the Kurdish people is not a threat to the development of any people or state. Our people want only the natural rights they, as a people, are entitled to; this is possible solely through the democratization of the sovereign forces over Kurdistan. Therefore, the resolution of the Kurdish problem will also serve to build consistency and democracy in the region.

We call upon all democratic forces in Turkey, all quarters who want peace and support the brotherhood of the people, democratic intellectuals and writers to take ownership of their responsibilities towards a resolution to the Kurdish problem through peaceful democratic means. Standing up against the terrorizing and race-orientated policies of the Turkish state against the Kurds is currently a fundamental duty of being democratic. The AKP Party’s false, deceptive and religiously motivated approach and their manipulation of the Kurds through this is not a solution to the problem and is also a line of policy that could lead to bloodshed. We call on all democratic quarters to stand before the AKP party’s dangerous policies and strive towards the development of a solution to the problem through the brotherhood of the people.

We call upon the Turkish state and the AKP government to abandon the denial and eradication policy, which, despite being implemented for the past 84 years, has not produced any solutions. We invite them to discuss our presented project so as to resolve the problem through free alliance based on recognition of the will of the Kurdish people. The government of the Turkish Republic must not search outside for the solution but inside of Turkey and through peaceful dialogue with the legitimate representatives of the Kurdish people. The state must accept this as a problem of Turkey and assess it on this basis.

Kurdistan may have been divided into four parts against its will but the latest developments have demonstrated once again that the fate of the Kurds is very much tied. In light of this, therefore, all Kurdistan powers, especially the Kurdistan Regional Government, must take ownership of their responsibilities by working towards a peaceful solution. It must be known that the futures of all parts of Kurdistan are connected to a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish problem.

International forces, primarily the U.S, declaring the Kurdish freedom movement as an enemy is not going to solve the problem.

The source of the problem, contrary to the Turkish state’s claims, is not our movement but the state’s denial policy. A democratic solution to the Kurdish problem is an important contribution to security, peace and stability in the region and to world peace. From this perspective we wish to state that we are open and willing to discuss a fair solution with international and regional powers in the event of their presenting such plans. The revival of the hopes for a solution without Mr. Ocalan and the PKK will only waste valuable time and cause to deepen the issue; the dismissal of powers that represent the will of the Kurdish people will not be deemed acceptable by the Kurdish people.

As representation of the Kurdish side we have developed and provided all necessary propositions and comparable suggestions for resolution but have been answered with a persistently driven concept of eradication through armed force; we will naturally resist this with great will and determination. The people of Kurdistan, irrelevant of which part they are from, want to resolve the issue through peaceful dialogue, not violence. We value the efforts of all powers in the region who support democracy, peace and consistency in working towards a solution to this problem. The governing states and international forces in Kurdistan must relinquish the view of the Kurdish problem being a factor of instability, a view which leads to their develop of strategies to suppress it through two/three-party alliances. They must develop a conference platform wherein all parties are represented, based on objectives of regional collaboration, brotherhood between people, stability, trust and a general aim for resolution. The realization of the above objectives will strengthen the foundation for a sustainable solution.

Instead of steps that would serve to create stability and resolution, the creation of tension and contradiction between Kurdish political forces and the development of policies which cause internal fighting is most certainly an ill-intentioned approach. No friend of the Kurdish people supports this line of politics. The period of Kurds fighting amongst each other has passed; Kurdish political forces must now not give that period a chance of revival. All Kurdistan powers should adopt an attitude of national-democratic unity and accept patriotism as their minimum prerequisite for success. At this juncture in history, taking optimum advantage of opportunities for the success of our people’s struggle for freedom depends on the materialization of this political stance. Therefore it is vital that no Kurdish power leads a policy which would entertain the denial and eradication policy. They must focus their priorities on the unity and solidarity of the Kurds.

The patriotic people of Kurdistan, be it women, children, young or old must demonstrate awareness and compassion towards maintaining a national-democratic line of unity throughout this period. Furthermore, they must stand firm against all attitudes attempting to frustrate this.

This Kurdish problem is nearer to a resolution than ever before. Sovereign states that identify a resolution as a threat to their interests are in a state of anxiety and panic. They are attempting every manner of tactic to contain the situation. The denial and eradication policy being implemented within the concept of weakening and eliminating the Kurdish people and their will is destined to fail. Any attempt aiming at elimination will bring about not resolution, peace and stability but impasse, fighting and instability.

It should be well noted that the national-democratic dynamics and rich experience in resistance the Kurds have attained through the rationalization of the PKK leadership is strong enough to continue to demonstrate a desire and will for struggle for many years to come. Our people, friends and powers concerned should have no doubts regarding this. Therefore the sole true method for a conclusive solution is through dialogue, not elimination through violence. The alternative is that a catastrophic period of fighting and chaos will ensue from which everyone will lose.

We, as a movement, do not wish for such a phase to develop and with this declaration, as a reply to calls made to us by concerned powers and so that a period of peaceful democratic solution may develop, henceforth officially declare and state that we are open to discussion for a resolution. We call upon all powers to take ownership of their responsibilities and make efforts towards a democratic-peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem.

This recent statement should be compared to the Declaration for the Democratic Resolution of the Kurdish Question of August 2006. The principles are the same. There is no change from the Kurdish side.

These are the same principles that were rejected outright by the US through Lockheed Martin salesman, Joseph Ralston.

US AMBASSADOR WILSON: CALLING ALL FAKE KURDS

"The way to resolve the Kurdish issue is not at all creating 'artificial representatives' of the Kurdish people living in Turkey. The DTP is not a leper. Nor is it illegitimate. This is shameful on the part of the US Embassy. We are as legitimate as the prime minister is."
~ Sırrı Sakık, Muş DTP Parliamentarian.

Have you ever thought about weasels? They are the most cunning animals in the world. A weasel makes a small hole in an egg and sucks out the insides. After it eats all the vital stuff in the egg, it places the egg back in the nest. Only when closely examined is the egg found to be hollow; otherwise, no one can tell the difference between a weaseled egg and a normal egg. This is the way it is with AKP's policies towards the Kurdish situation. AKP is trying to create a Kurdish middle class which will obey Turkish policies with no objection, and will be willing to deny whatever fills in the notion of being a true Kurd. Such people will be introduced as Kurds while, in reality, they will be no different than an average Turk. Thus, this new middle class will be forced to accept PKK as a terrorist organization and to admit that PKK does not represent the Kurdish people. By doing so, AKP hopes to stop PKK enlistments.

According to CNNTurk via Milliyet, US ambassador Ross Wilson held talks with politicians from The Southeast, including AKP parliamentarians from The Region. The implication of Milliyet's wording is that the politicians in question are Kurdish politicians but, really, they are only so-called "Kurdish" politicians.

Wilson had invited some parliamentarians to meet together before Congressman Chris Shays' visit to The Southeast, who came to collect information about the Kurdish question in general and PKK in particular. The attendees included AKP Amed (Diyarbakır) parliamentarians İhsan Arslan and Abdurrahman Kurt, AKP Sêrt parliamentarian Afif Demirkıran, HAK-PAR chairman Sertaç Bucak, KADEP chairman Şerafettin Elçi, former Amed parliamentarians Mesut Değer and Haşim Haşimi. It is reported that Congressman Shays asked each of the parliamentarians their views of the Kurdish question.

Oh, yeah, that's the same Şerafettin Elçi who can speak of federalism for Kurds in Turkey and is not touched by the state or harassed with endless prosecutions, the complete opposite of what happens if Aysel Tuğluk or Ahmet Türk speaks of federalism for the same Kurds. It's the complete opposite of what happens to Osman Baydemir when he calls for more local governmental autonomy or signs a letter in support of Roj TV or says that local resources should be administered locally. It's the complete opposite of what happens to Abdullah Demirbaş when he implements a plan, in conjunction with the Sur municipality council (now forcibly disbanded by the Interior Ministry), to provide local services in the languages that the people of the city actually speak.

Bucak is another fake Kurd like Elçi, but he has the illustrious connection to the Bucak clan that benefitted from Çiller's government and its consolidation of the drug trade for Turkish businessmen. Sertaç is another Bucak who's benefitted from his tribe's collaboration with the Turkish state and its legendary corruption. This is why Bucak can walk freely and talk about his support for Kurdish federalism within Turkey and not have to watch behind his back. Along with the fake AKP Kurds, Elçi and Bucak are pocket Kurds that the state can pull out of its pocket to show how "equal" Kurds are within the racist, colonial regime.

Meanwhile, the American AKP toady, Ross Wilson, also gave the message, "PKK is our common enemy, and must be annihilated." This is, of course, why Wilson called the meeting of the fake Kurds to begin with: PKK is the power which the US, Turkey, Iran, and Syria fear.

In the meeting, the American officials wanted to visit a PKK şehîd's family, however the Turkish attendees--the fake Kurds--warned them by saying, "This is a very dangerous thing. It will create an enormous misunderstanding. If you are doing so, you must also visit a dead Turkish soldier's family, too."

Milliyet refers to the ANKA News Agency, which noted that the following points were discussed in Wilson's meeting:

*US officials asked the so-called Kurdish officials' views about the disarmament of PKK within the framework of the Kurdish question, and issues such as the closure of DTP.

*After underlining the disarmament of PKK and the necessity of solving the Kurdish question with non-violent means, American officials avoided commenting. Instead, they preferred to listen to the attendees' views.

*All the attendees remarked on the necessity of the disarmament of PKK because it's a barrier to solving the Kurdish question, and that this question could be solved within the territorial integrity of Turkey. The state, on the other hand, must satisfy the Kurds in terms of being respectful of Kurdish identity and culture (no mention of full political rights, however).

*The attendees, with the exception of the AKP parliamentarians, wanted a general amnesty to cause PKK to lay down their arms. Some social project must be implemented for the PKK members who have already laid down their arms.

*AKP parliamentarians gave information about the new constitutional draft, saying that this new constitution would be more participatory and pluralist. As the ruling party of the current government, the AKP parliamentarians said they could take economic and political steps in favor of Kurds (could, not would).

*The American officials wanted to make observations, especially in Amed, so they would have the opportunity to meet martyred guerrilla families and dead Turkish soldier families. In that respect, they asked for particular names so that they could visit. The attendees told them that the Human Rights Association (IHD) and the Turkish Martyrs' Families' Association were located in Amed. Through the governorship they would be able to reach the associations. (It's interesting to note here that there is no "Kurdish Families' Association," and the state's reference to IHD as the organization that could assist with locating Kurdish şehîd families is a veiled acknowledgement on the part of the state that it has committed human rights abuses against the Kurdish people under Turkish occupation).

In a breakfast meeting, DTP parliamentary group deputy (and parliamentarian from Amed) Selahattin Demirtaş criticized Wilson's meeting between US congressmen and old and new parliamentarians from The Southeast. In a statement to ANKA, Demirtaş said that there wasn't any information requested or invitation issued to DTP. Demirtaş said, "We are a party that represents a large group. We think these activities are useless."

Besides ÖDP chairman and Istanbul parliamentarian Ufuk Uras, four other AKP parliamentarians from The Southeast were invited to lunch last Thursday by US ambassador Wilson. Those parliamentarians include Êlih (Batman) parliamentarian Mehmet Emin Ekmen, Sêrt parliamentarian Mehmet Yılmaz Seydaoğlu, Wan parliamentarian Gülşen Orhan, and Şirnex parliamentariann Abdullah Vehi Seyda. Uras said that he would attend the meeting and discuss his own ideas.

However, this second meeting was cancelled after Erdoğan criticized the participation of AKP parliamentarians in the first meeting. Kurdistan Post reported that at a dinner sometime after the first meeting, DTP's Muş parliamentarian Sırrı Sakık criticized the US, asking why the US was holding meetings in the open with AKP, HAK-PAR, and KADEP--in other words, the fake Kurds--while speaking to DTP in secret. Ahmet Türk had harsher words for the US, saying that it was disrespectful to the Turkish government for the US to hold interviews with Turkey's domestic representatives, and he rhetorically asks for whom the US is running interference.

Ahmet Türk should have pressed for an answer to his question because inquiring minds want to know the answer.

In another interesting piece of news from Yeni Asya, we have another indication of AKP's deal with the Paşas: Abdullah Gül has approved the dismissal of "religious reactionary" Turkish officers, something that he disapproved when he was prime minister and which Erdoğan disapproves of now. Remember, it was religiously reactionary Gül who visited the TSK in The Southeast, in September, to inaugurate intensified operations against the Kurdish people. Gül's new cooperation with the Paşas in ridding TSK of religiously fanatic officers is yet another indication of how well AKP prostitutes itself to Turkey's true ruling elite,