ASSASSINS TRAINED IN ISTANBUL

"I don't know why you are treating me like this. The only thing I have done is carry a pistol into a movie."
~ Lee Harvey Oswald.

More on Turkey's meddling in South Kurdistan . . .

Zanetî has an excellent summary of Turkish involvement with the recent murder of 525 Yezîdî Kurds in Şengal, near the Syrian border, on 15 August. The president of South Kurdistan, Mesûd Barzanî, went so far as to call out Turkey and Syria for their cooperation with Sunni Arabs against the Kurdish people.

Now Özgür Gündem has an article describing the training of Turkmen assassins and their operations in South Kurdistan. According to Özgür Gündem, an ex-assassin, Muhammet Sait Ali, confessed some important information regarding the murder of the 525 Yezîdî Kurds in Şengal.

Sait Ali was caught in Kerkuk,where he confessed that he was trained in Istanbul, at the police station headquarters in Vatan Street. Iraq's regional neighbors--Syria, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt--even though they have their own disagreements over many matters, come together easily to cooperate against the Kurds.

The most recent example of this is their cooperation against the Kerkuk Referendum. In order to suffocate the Kurdish movement and to sabotage the Kerkuk Referendum, they have organized several suicide attacks against Mûsil, Kerkuk, Maxmur, and Hewlêr. The groups that attacked as suicide bombers were trained in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and are financially supported by them.

Now, we can add Turkey to the list of suicide bomb trainers in addition to its well-earned reputation as a state-sponsor of terror.

According to Sait Ali, an ethnic Turkmen, Turkish MİT trained 44 Turkmen as assassins at the Vatan police headquarters. It was these who were sent to ply their new trade in South Kurdistan. According to the documents received, 12 of the Turkmen assassins were sent to Kerkuk, 8 to Hewlêr, 4 to Silêmanî, and 20 to Baghdad. As Sait Ali stated:

"On 19 February 2006, they sent me to Ankara, and on the second day they sent me to Istanbul. They gave me the nickname of "Zeki." We were 44 people. MIT gave us assassination training. We didn't know each other. They took us to a building in Vatan Street, and gave us sniper and handgun training."

According to Ali, retired generals trained them:

"We were 44 guys and everyone had a nickname so that no one knew who the other was. However, it was obvious that the people who were training us were very knowledgeable and sufficient people. The training was given on behalf of MIT, but it wasn't official. They told us to get trained very well, but after leaving the building, to forget about all the people we had met. They warned us not to reveal their identities."

A Canadian passport was found on Sait Ali's person when he was detained in Kerkuk. He also carried several letters with him that had been sent from Syria. According to the letters, Turkey and Syria are cooperating in order to create chaos in South Kurdistan. Ali says that Syria has an enormous influence on ex-Ba'ath supporters and trained the Ba'ath Arabs, while Turkey trained Turkmen, so that both Syria and Turkey could enhance their intelligence web.

In addition, Sait Ali mentioned that arms supplies come from Turkey and Syria. Syria is making things easier for Turkey to operate in South Kurdistan by using its influence over Sunni Arabs in Kerkuk and Mûsil. That's why the Turkish intelligence agents that staff the so-called Turkish "consulate" in Mûsil are able to move about freely in extremely dangerous areas, while residents of all ethnicities must take extreme care to move about in the city and surrounding areas.

Turkey is supplying arms to the intelligence staff in Iraq through Syria and Iran, either transported by train or in large trucks--which reminds us of the train that had been derailed by HPG gerilas at the end of May. There are links to HPG's derailing operation in yesterday's post.

As Sait Ali said:

"We get most of our arms from ex-Ba'athist or Turkmen parties, and they help us."

It kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it, where the propaganda is coming from that supplies Arab bloggers with wild suppositions such as the one that blames "Kurdish warlords" of being the masterminds behind the murder of the Şengal Yezîdîs. Meanwhile, Yezîdîs themselves know that the attack was the work of those who don't want stability in the region and don't want Kurds to have any kind of freedom.

Don't forget to check Hevallo. He has some photos of Kurdish refugees fleeing Iranian bombs and invasion, as well as a video of life among HPG/YJA-STAR gerîlas. That video clip comes from a longer documentary that had been available on Google last year, until it was "disappeared."

UPDATE ON ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT IN BEYTÜŞŞEBAP

"During the four years that the HEP and DEP existed (1990-94), no fewer than 64 of their leaders and prominent members were assassinated. The police authorities never found their murderers who, at least in some cases, appear to have acted with the connivance, or worse, of the police or intelligence services."
~ Martin Van Bruinessen, "Turkey's Death Squads".

There's more on the assassination attempt against Beytüşşebap's DTP mayor, Faik Dursun, was published on Özgür Gündem.

As described in the IHD press release, a bomb was found close by Dursun's house on the road that he uses to go to work at the municipality building.

Someone called Dursun to notify him about a suspicious package on the road. Dursun called the special prosecutor to go to the scene. Several times the office was called but no one came to inspect the package. Finally, a couple of police came, went onto the roof of a nearby house and shot into the package with their guns. This caused the package to explode,which made a big crater in the ground and broke the windows of several nearby houses.

Dursun said it was an assassination attempt against him because of the location of the bomb:

"The police went on the roof of a house and shot at the package, and exploded the package, even though we had called the special prosecutor several times. No one came to the scene even though we had called the special prosecutor over and over. Not having safety measures, shooting the bomb from a roof, confuses us because the bomb has been left on the road on the way that I use every morning. I think this incident is an assassination attempt against me.

The governor of Şirnex said that the bomb explosive was made of a munition from an RPG-type weapon and that the package had been destroyed according to proper procedures. However it should be noted that shooting a bomb from a rooftop, without a secured area set up to keep civilians away during detonation, is not the proper procedure for disposing of explosives. The bottom line is that the police set up no security perimeter around the bomb, nor did any bomb experts come to disable it.

Basically, the governor is engaging in a bold-faced lie, something which is not unusual for Turkish governors in the predominately Kurdish "Southeast."

The incident took place around 0830 hours, before Dursun left to go to the municipality building.

Witnesses said that before the bomb was exploded, they saw long cables coming out of the package, which may be an indication of a remote-control bomb.

Normally the area has soldiers going back and forth on the road, but on the day the package was discovered, no soldiers were in the area. It's also pretty odd that the bomb was placed in front of a military building which is guarded by soldiers 24 hours a day. There is also a large public light pole in front of the military area. According to these facts, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for anyone but a soldier to approach the building without being noticed or challenged.

More election games are being played in Amed, as reported in--GASP!--Milliyet. In Turkey, people are supposed to vote in their place of residence, but some voters in Amed have had their residence addresses changed on the voter registration rolls, including people who have lived in Amed all their lives and have voted in previous elections in Amed. For example, Hanife Salman has lived in Amed all her life and has always voted there. For some reason, however, she is listed as a resident of Istanbul on her voter registration listing. 2,800 voters in one voting district of Amed are in the same situation and will not be permitted to vote in the upcoming elections.

First we had soldiers being registered by their officers in the Sirnak area. Then we had independent candidates listed individually on the ballots. Now we have the addresses of voters changed by some mysterious way which precludes them from voting. Note that all of this is happening in the predominately Kurdish "Southeast," DTP's heartland.

Let's remember that Erdoğan recently made the remark that a vote for independent candidates (Read: DTP) was like "money thrown in the street." What then should anyone say about a vote for AKP, given that when he went to Amed in August 2005, "Erdogan promised to handle Turkey's 'Kurdish question' with more 'democracy.'" But what has happened in reality? Therefore, to vote for AKP is worse than "money thrown in the street;" It's throwing away a thousand hopes.

The Turkish state must be very afraid, especially since it's games are now reintegrating the old game of the assassination of Kurdish politicians.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST BEYTÜŞŞEBAP'S MAYOR

IHD has issued a press release on the bombing attempt against Beytüşşebap's DTP Mayor, Faik Dursun:

IHD Concerned About Recent Incidents in Sırnak Area

Press release by lawyer Reyhan Yalcindag, President of the Human Rights' Association (IHD):

Recent incidents and serious human rights violations in the provinces of Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari, which have been declared by military bureaucracy as High Security Zone or de facto State of Emergency (OHAL), cause us more concern day by day.

There are a few sine qua non components of democracy regarding with elections. These components are; reflection of voters’ will freely in election, a democratic election process without interventions. On the other hand there are serious allegations against security forces. According to these allegations; in recent days security forces conduct often raids to villages particularly in Şırnak area. Moreover, security forces threaten people in the villages about not voting for independent candidates for the parliament. These are very serious allegations. Therefore, officials should make a statement about allegations without delay.

A bomb, which was put near to house and route of Beytüşşebap’s Mayor, has revealed a possible assassination attempt. If one of our citizens had not recognized the bomb mechanism, a violation of right to life could have been occurred. There are some questions, which should be answered without delay, as well as points that should be clarified. If the allegation, which argues that public prosecutor has not gone scene immediately, is true an investigation should be conducted for inconsideration of duty. Law rules and same principles should be valid in every part of a state governed by the rule of law. The uttermost point is that protection of all rights and freedoms, especially right to life, for everyone without exception is an essential mission.

As Human Rights Association (IHD) we are against any kind of attempts, which might harm social peace atmosphere and arouse violence and conflict circumstances. There have been serious human rights violations, especially right to life, that are identified as crime against humanity and will be never forgotten from our memory, in recent years. Darkness of the past has not been clarified yet and we are aware of that new chaotic scenarios will harm our people. We condemn assassination that seems to be against Mayor of Beytüşşebap, Mr. Faik Dursun, who has been elected via vote of people. We state that we will pursue of the process until those, who are responsible, will be tried in court. (IHD, July 3, 2007)

Turkish version here.

It should be remembered that Faik Dursun is among those 54 DTP Mayor's charged for signing a letter to Danish PM Rasmussen in support of RojTV. He is also one among many who signed a statement from 2004, which called for a new Turkish constitution, a general amnesty for the gerîlas, and the implementation of an economic program to rebuild the Kurdish region devastated by the Ankara regime's Dirty War.

This means that Dursun is another of those troublesome, bad boy, DTP politicians that the Ankara regime would just love to get rid of. Therefore, expect to find the usual state-sponsored suspects behind this assassination attempt.

How much does anyone want to bet that the Paşas boys would then try to blame this on PKK?

More soon.

In case you missed it the first time around and want to know what we're going back to, watch the video about the Musa Anter Peace Train which Hevallo has linked to in one of his posts.