"I greet you all from the bottom of my heart. This march is a march of honour. We march so that no mother has to cry for her children any more. We want an honourable life and we want the whole world to see it."
~ Osman Baydemir.
~ Osman Baydemir.
Hevallo has some photos of the DTP's march to the mountains, along with a report from Bianet on the march and its purpose.
TDN also has a report touching on events from Istanbul to Urfa, Kars to Batman to Şirnak, and they are facing the usual regime-enforced hassles:
The DTP's Istanbul deputy, Sebahat Tuncel, who was with the convoy, said at 11:00 p.m., "we are being searched for the fourth time. We left Istanbul at noon. We will go to Şırnak even if it takes a week." The police confiscated the placards on the buses before allowing the convoy to proceed.
The DTP's Şanlıurfa chief, İbrahim Ayhan, claimed the DTP's supporters from all around the country were being prevented from traveling to Şırnak, claiming that drivers of buses and vans were being fined. The DTP's Şanlıurfa deputy, İbrahim Binici, said their attempt was a last ditch effort to protect the brotherhood in the country, adding that they will call for peace in tents they erect at Kasrik.
The vans with which the DTP's convoy from Adana was traveling had to be replaced with buses because the police said the vans did not have the commercial license needed to travel outside the provincial borders.
[People attend a demonstration in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir against cross-border operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq by the Turkish Army February 5, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer (TURKEY)]
And so it went in Kars, Batman, Dersim.
Şırnak deputy, Hasip Kaplan, said if they are prevented from practicing their rights and freedoms, they will resort to civil disobedience. He said their choice for Karsik has a symbolic meaning, adding that the region was routinely used by the military for target practice.
The military has increased security around the Karsik region, which separates the Cudi and Küpeli mountains.
Of course, Fethullah Gülen's Zaman resembled Chicken Little, by attempting to blame DTP for "rais[ing] tension":
The first group, made up of 3,000 supporters including those coming from İstanbul, Mersin and Gaziantep, departed Diyarbakır for Şırnak despite the fact that the Interior Ministry did not issue permission for such an activity.
Before leaving for Diyarbakır one DTP group gathered in front of the DTP building on İstanbul’s Tepebaşı Street and marched towards Dolapdere Street, carrying a banner that said “We march against the [military] operations and in favor of a democratic solution.” DTP İstanbul deputy Sabahat Tuncel spoke to the press at the gathering and said that the group’s aim was to highlight the Kurdish problem and to put an end to tension in southeastern Anatolia.
“Turkey’s agenda is busy with other topics, but the Kurdish question is more urgent,” Tuncel said. However, she refused to comment further on what they will do in Diyarbakır and Şırnak. The group then departed in seven buses.
[Protesters hold portraits of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir February 5, 2008, during a demonstration against cross-border operations against the PKK in northern Iraq by the Turkish Army. REUTERS/Stringer (TURKEY)]
Yes, Turkey's agenda is busy with other topics like turban--the headscarf--a ridiculous distraction for a so-called secular society that is conducting a 30-year war against one-fourth of its own citizens and is bombing the citizens of a neighboring country.
The gathering of so many Kurds in one place increases the pucker factor of the Turkish military (and so it should given the institutionalized incompetence of the TSK):
The gendarmerie maintained a heightened level of security in the province of Şırnak yesterday as groups of pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) supporters began returning from Mt. Cudi, where they had gathered on Tuesday to protest Turkish military operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Or maybe all those brave defenders of America's puppet are simply afraid of little, old Emine Ayna:
Speaking to the press before their departure, DTP Co-chairman Emine Ayna, who joined the march to the mountains, called for Parliament to put an end to the legislation that allows the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to conduct operations against the PKK in northern Iraq and for the PKK to lay down its arms.
Ayna noted, "We hope that our demands will be more meaningful and heard better from here since this is the location where most of the deaths occur."
Saying that the lack of action in dealing with the Kurdish issue had caused deaths, Ayna argued that the Turkish government needs to decide on a solution as soon as possible. She also argued that the PKK is an outcome of the Kurdish problem, adding that rooting the PKK out would not help solve the problem.
Ayna also said: "Each death provokes more hatred among the people. We can solve all the matters by discussion, without anyone dying. Turkey should seek the solution within itself. The US and Europe move only in accordance with their own interests. The permanent solution lies in the equal and free union of all the people of Turkey."
The whole purpose of the march to the mountains is to protest the joint US-Israel-Turkey bombing of South Kurdistan:
Turkish warplanes bombed more than 70 targets in northern Iraq on Monday as part of the government's ongoing battle with a militant Kurdish group that uses the area as a base for attacks in Turkey.
Villagers said they were unable to flee the bombing, which took place at about 3 a.m., because heavy snow had closed many roads.
The severe weather also made it impossible for local officials to determine whether the strikes caused casualties, said Brig. Gen. Omar Sharif of the Iraqi border forces.
[ . . . ]
Sharif said bombs hit the villages of Khou Kurki, Khunereh, Sheneeneh and Lolan in the Sidikan area of Irbil province. He said the bombing lasted at least three hours.
Again its the villagers who are unable to flee the bombing, not the guerrillas because the guerrillas aren't there. Turkey continues to bomb civilians, just like their allies, the Americans and Israelis, and the KRG supports Turkish operations by banning journalists from the region.
I guess it's true then, that the Americans really did bring democracy to South Kurdistan--the same democracy that the US has long supported in Turkey.
9 comments:
America's general support for Turkey is nothing new neither is its LIMITED support of Turkey's aspirations in Iraq. (Who do you think stopped Turkey from invading Southern Kurdistan? Not that you would care one bit if Turkey were to swallow whole all of southern kurdistan, but i just wanted to put it on the record)
But, this does not deter from the fact that America DID NOT set up a Baathist replacement regime in Baghdad.
Go ahead cry about it, scream about it. No matter how much pathetic ideologues and dogmatic anti-Americans without a conscience would like to pretend otherwise, Iraq IS experiencing a democracy that would only have been a pipe dream in the Middle East 10 years ago.
There IS real power sharing among rival ethnic groups. THAT kind of democracy is NO WHERE in the blood-stained middle-east.
The kind of democracy America set up in Iraq and which people like you -- along with the ilks of Arab and Turkish nationalists - would love to deny and suppress is RADICAL -- and much more radical than the kind of change that the fumbling, self-serving leftists have been trying to accomplish since the 70s.
One can only hope that Turkey will see the true democratic nature of what is happening in northern Iraq (a bit slower in the south, but getting there) as the way forward. Recognizing the existence of an ethnic minority is not an abandonment of nationalism. To be Kurdish and Iraqi is a beautiful thing--for Turkish Kurds to have the FREEDOM to stand without fear of reprisal and say I am "Kurdish" (ethnicity) and I am "Turkish" (nationalism) would be a great thing indeed.
It is easy to blame the Americans for the ills of the world. However, they are more like the soap used to wash the wound: Hurts like hell now, but we need to endure the pain now so that the wounds can heal.
Limited support of Turkey's aspirations in Iraq? For how long?
And let me just put in on record that there were two of us who tried to get attention for Turkey's use of cluster bombs in South Kurdistan last summer through English-language media. But I didn't hear any complaints from you about that, so who really cares?
Who is keeping journalists from the bombed regions now? Who really cares?
As for the great democracy that the Americans brought to Iraq, it has a constitution, doesn't it? The constitution is the law of the land and is supposed to be obeyed in a democracy, isn't it? So what happened with Article 140? The Americans wrote the constitution, including Article 140 to get the Southern Kurds on board with their program. Then the Americans failed to support Southern Kurdish calls for implementation of the referendum spelled out in Article 140.
Then in South Kurdistan we have the corruption, nepotism, lack of basic services, media censorship, violent putting down of demonstrations, forced closure of other political parties, etc.
Yes, it's very much like the Model of Democracy and is being encouraged to become more dependent on the Model of Democracy.
Anonymous #2, I was blaming the US for supporting Turkey's continuing fascism. Who was it that, along with Turkey, refused PKK's ceasefire in 2006? Who was it that encouraged that call for ceasefire?
I just wonder why the USA declared the only modern thinking and Democratic Party (PKK) in the Middle East as their enemy. Even though PKK have never attacked or even touch any US interests anywhere in the world during her fight against the fascist Turkey. US intelligent agency CIA now claims that PKK may consider attacking US targets. This is funny indeed why would Kurdish Freedom Fighters attack US interests. Americans are providing the logistic support for the Turkish army probably before even PKK even existed. Everybody knows that Turkey's arms are all made or bought from the USA and Turkish pilots even the intelligence dependant of US army. US officials should behave themselves before they make any judgments against the world known freedom fighters of Kurds and Kurdistan (PKK). PKK is there to defend Kurdish people and only to use legitimate self-defense if they are attacked.
US officials and the CIA know very well that what they are doing against the Kurdish people and the PKK are wrong. Declaring a party who never even raise a finger against them as enemy of the USA is completely nonsense and it is wrong.
US officials desperately need their head examined ASAP!
It is a very sad fact that people are thinking and living the way you do, anonymous # 1. Who are you anyway, I wonder? A propaganda officer assigned to such sites staining the only obvious truth that can sometimes only be seen by the unique minds,mizgin vineyard , etc...
You are coward enough to hide behind your anonymous, pathetic. I tell you where I live and we go together to the real KURDISTAN(Bingol,Tunceli, Sirnak, Hakkari) and maybe you will see if the FUCKING soap is effective or not!
One more thing! Take a look at how clean and healing your famous soap is,in the name of defeating the anti-christ supporters,on the Indian tribes, esp. LAKOTA for now
Yes, I am a propaganda officer, Rodi Tekin. i'm coming after you next! (One of my other specialties is personal defamations)
I once had a blog name, Nistiman, but I abandoned it after I forgot my password. The Turks and the Arabs pay me for making sure that Southern Kurdistan is known as the Bastion of Democracy not the Cradle of Corruption. They also want me to spread Unity among the Kurds so that they don't waste their time attacking the leaders of Southern Kurdistan when there are treacherous enemies to deal with.
I think Mizgin knows me well(hence the reference to cluster bombs (another one of my propaganda efforts))... though, I can't say the same about Mizgin.
By the way, I'm not anonymous #2, I don't think it is "beautiful" to be a "Turkish Kurd". That's probably one of the last words that come to mind.
huh, you are exactly as I imagined!no wonders here mate...
you have broadened my horizons..
my apologies to anonymous #1
my quarrel had nothing to do with your post. I just read the correct one, really again i completely agree with your opinion that when was it the Americans stopped such indiscriminate actions so that it was actually treacherous on their part for going along with their longheld strategic wargames.
hope you understand, my anger time to time affects my vision and rash thinking. when i saw both anonymouses next to each other, it really confused me when the first comment sliding off track into the second post with the Turkish Kurd BALONEY.
my apologies
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