"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.
~ 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!
