Monday, March 03, 2008

LOOKING FOR THE BLUE PILL

"He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious."
~ Sun Tzu.





Pro-terrorist think-tank, The Jamestown Foundation, admits PKK is triumphant:

The PKK claimed victory from the withdrawal. Speaking from his still very much intact base in the Qandil Mountains, PKK leader Murat Karayilan announced that Turkey “attacked our forces on three fronts in the Zap region, but failed to achieve their goals even though the Turkish army has advanced technology and jet fighters that flew over the combat zone and bombed us non-stop” (AFP, March 1). While the Turkish army claims to have killed some 250 PKK militants and lost 24 soldiers, the PKK admits to only a handful of losses and claims 130 Turkish soldiers killed and one helicopter downed (which Turkey admits to as well). Karayilan also tried hard to portray the Turkish incursion as an attack on all Kurds, rather than just the PKK. Other Kurdish sources claim that in addition to the PKK’s stiff resistance, the heavy snows of this remote part of Iraqi Kurdistan forced Turkey to abandon the operation (Kurdistan Observer, February 29).

[ . . . ]

Although Turkey undoubtedly caused the PKK some damage with this latest incursion, guerrilla forces typically disperse quickly in the face of large scale attacks, leaving few casualties. Lost supply depots and recruits can then be replaced in short order, particularly if the fighting raises the profile and legitimacy of the guerrillas. In fact, Iraqi Kurdish leaders told Jamestown that they suspect that the latest round of fighting made a weak and isolated PKK more politically relevant than before (Interview with Qubad Talabany, KRG Representative to the U.S., March 1).

The tally of casualties for the PKK and Turkey in this latest round of fighting may remain difficult to determine conclusively. In the larger scheme of things, it may not matter much either: if the PKK manages to portray itself as having given the Turkish army a bloody nose this time around, the group will have burnished its Kurdish nationalist credentials, legitimacy, and stature – which are the main objectives in this kind of guerrilla war.


The fact is that PKK did give Turkey a bloody nose, as it has always done in the mountains. Turkey received another bloody nose at Oremar (Dağlıca) in October of last year when at least twelve Turkish soldiers were killed and eight taken prisoner. The Turkish military has managed to put a total media blackout on the real story behind that battle. Don't expect to see much more on the February invasion and don't expect to see any protests over the recent deaths of 125 Turkish soldiers.

Check more at the link to get an idea of the fiasco the Turkish military retreat precipitated with the AKP government and in the Turkish media.

Of course, none of this fighting is necessary:


It is now many years since the PKK expressed its willingness for talks and negotiation at any level. This party is prepared to change its ideology, methodology and policies; it is prepared to seek solutions within the framework of the Turkish state; it is prepared to abandon the armed struggle and to choose political methods to achieve its aims. It has declared a unilateral ceasefire many times. It has changed its ideological and political language to such a degree that it has lost the support of many Kurds who think that it is a setback for the Kurdish national movement.

In response to all this, Turkey has not taken even the smallest positive step. Its racist policies are still in action. Only in the last few days, the head of a Kurdish municipality was taken to court because he used the Kurdish language in his office.

And now, the Turkish state has received the PKK's decision to declare a unilateral ceasefire with the same old mentality.


Bahoz Erdal believes it would behoove the Ankara regime to ditch "the same old mentality":


"However, if the Turkish state persists in its policy of denying [the rights of the Kurdish people], and continues its military attacks on us, the millions of Kurds living in Turkish cities will be provoked into responding harshly - as was the case in the aftermath of the recent aerial attacks [of December 15, 2007], when Kurdish youths torched government vehicles in Turkish cities.

"Incidents of this kind may proliferate, and eventually, this may lead to the outbreak of a popular uprising in all the Turkish and Kurdish cities that nobody will be able to suppress or control..."

In response to another question about the PKK's reaction to the attacks on it, Dr. Erdal added: "...We have been compelled to use our special forces and the fedayeen battalions in battle. So far, we have been using only about 20% of our forces. We might reassess our defense policy, and this will tip the scales, intensify the clashes, and broaden the scope of the fighting, causing Turkey to become an exact replica of Iraq. But we do not want to reach that point..."

[ . . . ]

About past attempts at negotiations with the Turks, Dr. Erdal stated: "...Ever since the ceasefire expired, on June 1, 2004, we have tried to keep clashes [with the Turkish military] to a minimum. We have been careful not to intensify the clashes, in order to give the political negotiations a chance and in order to create a climate in which a peaceful resolution could be reached.

"Over the last four years, we twice initiated a unilateral ceasefire. We did not do so out of weakness, or because we were unable to face [the enemy], or because we had deteriorated as a military organization, as the Turks and others tried to claim. Not at all. Our [policy] was based on our historical responsibility not to drain [the strength of] our people.

"But the Turkish government did not heed our initiatives, and took advantage of the ceasefires to intensify its attacks and its military operations aimed at destroying us...

"We do not see our struggle as a strictly military struggle. Our cause is primarily a political one, and we believe that the real solution will [likewise] be political, and will be attained through peaceful negotiations..."


I couldn't have said it better myself. Nor could I have said this better myself:


"According to Aliza Marcus, the PKK has the support of the majority of the Kurds in Turkey, because the Turkish government was not and still is not treating them like true citizens."


Take the blue pill. Wake up in your own bed. Believe whatever you want to believe. Reality is difficult for so many to handle.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, let's bomb some tourists. I wished PKK closed TAK down. Ergenekon also wanted to use TAK members. TAK only benefits the Turkish army and the pasa's.

Anonymous said...

What the hell tourists are doing in Turkey? If someone go to Turkey for joy and spend money while government of Turkey killing, raping, invading and torturing Kurdish people then I guess they deserve everything they get upon them. Why people don't go to Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan? Yes, because these countries are risky and they have terrible human rights records then what is the difference between Turkey and these countries? None, what so ever in fact Turkey is worst then Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan. By the way PKK has nothing to do with TAK. Abdullah Ocalan is the common leader of the Kurdish people everywhere in the world!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Hamo, targetting innocent and naive tourists makes perfect sense... and makes Kurds look oh so civilized!

Anonymous said...

It is better to launch a campaign in those countries where tourists come from. A non-violent one, otherways you will lose all symphaty.

Anonymous said...

Buyukanit-strip-tease-show coming soon?
- "If anyone can prove it, I will take off my uniform". Could somebody do it? Please!

I understood also that Buyukanit was saying that 24 h in cold weather and deep snow is enough... well, wasn't the weather same for everybody there?

You see, saying that sounds so childish, as if they didn't know what kind of circumstances there will be in mountains this time of the year. Father Christmas likes snow and cold and in his country even small babies sleep daytime outside in winter, children walk or cycle to school in every weather etc. It is so wrong to accuse bad weather, specially when they had normal winter conditions.

A

Anonymous said...

TAK and every other Kurdish organisations made several times puplic that DO NOT GO TO TURKEY . So listen to their advice and if you don't listen to their advice then you have no right to complain. It is not the tourists are targeted but the turkish economy where support the war in Kurdistan is targeted and if there is a casulty end of this operation then again Turkish government is indirectly responsible because of their eager to continuation of this dirty war in Kurdistan. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE TARGETED OR FIND YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TROUBLE THEN DON'T GO TO TURKEY...

Anonymous said...

Hamo, you see, you support targeting innocents, and I do not. You want Kurds to be terrorists, I do not. It's simple.

What if foreigners go to visit friends in Turkey and north Kurdistan? What if they go to visit their families? Are they legitimate targets for TAK terrorists then?

Mizgîn said...

TAK has never operated in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

Tourists who go to Turkey and spend their money in hotels, resorts, brothels, and other tourist venues run by TSK business interests are not innocent.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely, do not target tourists in Turkey or anywhere!
hamo said that TAK and others have made it clear that people should not travel to Turkey. Sorry to say this, but that message is not very well known at least in North Europe (I know only this area). In fact very few people know (and care) anything about what happens in Turkey. In what language and through what channels has that information been given? I haven't heard anything like that for a long long time.
First now after Turkey went to Iraq, people here started to think that that was wrong done and get interested in what is the question about. Turkey is spoiling itself its own reputation. Let it do it! Then people will start to think twice before they book their flying tickets. I want PKK not to be listed as a terrorist group. Already now the word "terrorist" is not anymore mentioned every time in news when talking about PKK. It has been replaced with "guerillaorganization", "freedomorganization of kurds" ,"kurdish guerillas", "kurdish fighters" or just "kurdish organization". That means that it is possible to start discussions - nobody wants to listen to terrorists. So don't become terrorists! Attacking civilians would also make it easier for those who want to deal kurdish people to "ordinary kurds and terrorists" saying the first ones do not support PKK. Is it that you want?
There is a lot of Kurdish people living in diaspora. Couldn't they work little bit harder in this information question, also by giving people new ideas where to spend their holidays and why?
A

Anonymous said...

Any effective boycott campaign needs to bring in all the aggrieved parties - currently it seems there are Kurds arguing for a boycott because of what the Turkish state is doing in Kurdistan, Armenians arguing for a boycott because of the Turkish state's genocide denial and ongoing blockade of (what's left of) Armenia and Greeks arguing for a boycott because of the occupation of Northern Cyprus.

These are all legitimate grievances which the Turkish state must be forced to address, and of which potential tourists to said state need to be made aware. Each group struggles for recognition of part of Turkey's gruesome history of imperialism and 'ethnic cleansing' in the region, when really that history needs to be presented in its entirety.

Just an observation by someone who does not personally belong to any of these groups.

Anonymous said...

If you target civilians, you are not better then the Turkish state and then you are just as hypocrite as the people you are criticizing all day. Most tourists don't even know anything about the Kurdish problem.

Mizgîn said...

Ah, yes, but the governments of these tourists target civilians and they don't complain about that so they are no different than their governments (and if they are members of a "democracy" then they are their own government).

And I don't believe this garbage that "most tourists don't even know anything about the Kurdish problem." They know very well and yet they continue to support the Turkish military. Very simply, they are supporters of genocide.

Pacifism is a tool used by every state to maintain the status quo--which is always in its favor. States promote the official story that it is only through "peaceful" means that anything is truly accomplished--something that is utter nonsense. Ghandi wasn't successful; those who took up arms against the British were ultimately successful. It's just that the genocidal British decided to cooperate with the ineffective pacifist Ghandi.

Same with Martin Luther King. It was not that he was successful, but that armed groups working at the same time, in parallel, with the pacifist civil rights movement were the ones who forced the ruling authorities (including JFK) into compromise. King admitted such himself.

Then we have the observation that states do not take their own advice and use peaceful means to enforce their interests. States use terrorist violence every day to enforce their wills and commit their genocides . . . I never see any pacifists admitting this, but that may be because they know they are tools of evil regimes.

PKK has always used the two-pronged approach (political and armed) means in its struggle because it understands reality. When states won't take the carrot, they have to be beaten with a heavy stick.

And I don't agree that the burden of explaining the genocide of Kurdistan by the Ankara regime and its allies should fall only on the Kurdish people. Others know exactly what is happening or they can easily find out for themselves . . . unless you have to have your "impartial and objective" media spoon feed you.

You have internet. So does everyone else. Ignorance is no longer the excuse.

Onur Safak said...

Hope one day people will learn to live together, and all terror groups like Al-Qaeda, who try to stop modern cultures grow, or PKK child killers, who try to divide, take over countries and name it Kurdistan will be history. Killing innocent civilians is a crime against humanity. We will never allow them succeed. God bless all those innocents murdered in terror attacks.