AIMING AT A WAR CRIMINAL

"At the heart of the concept of war crimes is the idea that an individual can be held responsible for the actions of a country or that nation's soldiers. Genocide, crimes against humanity, mistreatment of civilians or combatants during war can all fall under the category of war crimes. Genocide is the most severe of these crimes."
~ Tarik Kafala.

Hevallo and the UK Bakûrî are preparing a nice welcome for Yaşar Büyükanıt when he visits the UK on 20 January. They want to make sure that Büyükanıt the War Criminal gets everything that he deserves and plan to make a proper introduction of The Criminal to British polic authorities through a dossier of Büyükanıt's war crimes against the Kurdish people.

Everyone knows that Büyükanıt praised the Şemdinli bombers as "good boys" but not everyone may know that Büyükanıt was the commander of the Turkish 7th Corps, headquartered in Diyarbakır, from 1996 to 1998. Altay Tokat, the retired Turkish general who admitted to ordering bombings of Turkish civil servants in The Region during his time in The Southeast:

Turkey's Chief of General Staff Prosecutor's Office has drawn up its indictment against retired Lieutenant General Altay Tokat for his public revelation that he was responsible for ordering one or two clandestine street bombings when assigned to the Southeast region "to bring judges and civil servants in line".

[ . . . ]

Diyarbakir Bar Association Sezgin Tanrikulu had said Tokat's revelations were a self-confession and that he had directly committed the offences of threatening, influencing the judiciary and praising crime. In its complaint and application, the Bar Association had requested for an investigation to be launched into the general's past activities and other possible clandestine acts in the Southeast.

Human rights associations and the Bar Association not only want the full spectrum of Tokat's activities investigated but for him to be put on trial for human rights violations in the region based on his statements.

[ . . . ]

"In my time," the retired general said, "I also had them throw a few bombs to some critical points. These were empty places! My issue was to give a message".

Tokat said the message given through street bombings targeted civil servants and judges who were assigned to the region and the explosions occurred close to were they lived.

"Civil servants, judges that come from the West [of Turkey] don't understand the seriousness of the situation... when things became calmer, they started to take this business nor seriously... In consequence I had [bombs] thrown at two places close to their houses. After that they understood that they needed to be careful. One [act of] disaster is better than a thousand words of advice. This way I educated them," he said.

"You can't immediately evaluate this by saying throwing bombs is illegal. I might have saved the lives of those people. I did not tell them either. Now if you construe this as assassination, I'll laugh at that" he was quoted as further saying.

When did MHP'er Altay Tokat serve in The Southeast, you ask? From 1995 to 1998, meaning that he served under Büyükanıt. Therefore, Büyükanıt, as the commanding officer, is also responsible for Tokat's bomb-tossing at Turkish civil servants and judges.

Not only did Tokat's bombs go off during Büyükanıt's watch, but a mass grave also found its way to "the courtyard of the Turkish 7th Army Headquarters in the Kurdish capital of Amed (Diyarbakir) in northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey.)". Büyükanıt may also be responsible for the deaths of the victims buried in the 7th Army Corps Headquarters mass grave.

Büyükanıt is responsible for everything that happened and failed to happen in The Southeast during his time there, so he is guilty of numerous atrocities. If anyone has any information linking Büyükanıt to any specific incidents, please email me and I will forward your information to Hevallo to be included in the dossier on the War Criminal Büyükanıt.

Wouldn't it be nice to see Büyükanıt running for his life, à la Donald Rumsfeld?