ALI HASAN AL-MAJID FINALLY PAYS FOR THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE

"I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them! The international community and those who listen to them."
~ Ali Hasan Al-Majid.

Well, well, well . . . they finally executed that son-of-a-bitch Ali Hasan Al-Majid. I would have preferred that Chemical Ali had been handed over to the women survivors of the Anfal so that they could cut him to pieces rather than allow him the comfort of a hangman's noose but, unfortunately, proper Kurdish justice was once again thwarted.

Here's a little something on the dead bastard:

Chemical Ali is responsible for a lot more suffering than what happened in 1988. Here are some videos about Helebce which show some of the long-term effects of chemical weapons on the civilian population. I believe these videos are from 1998 because they feature Dr. Christine Gosden of the UK, who went to Helebce in 1998 to evaluate the long-term effects of weapons of mass destruction:

Remember that it wasn't only in Helebce that chemical weapons were used. It was the policy of the Saddam regime to use these kinds of weapons against the Kurdish people.

For more on Dr. Gosden's evaluations, see this article of hers from the Washington Post. Check also her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Technology, Terrorism and Government and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

I have posted the following videos before but, now that Al-Majid is dead, it's time to revisit them so that we should never forget. Besides, these videos were a documentary that was never aired in the US. I wonder why?

Now it's time to deliver those non-Iraqis who are responsible for the Anfal to the Kurdish women survivors . . . and let them all be cut to pieces.

HELEBÇE 1988

"Saddam Hussein clearly intended to complicate the task of treating the Halabja victims. At a minimum, he was using Halabja as part of the Iraqi CW test program. Handbooks for doctors in Iraqi military show sophisticated medical knowledge of the effects of CW. The Iraqi military used mustard gas in the "cocktail," for which there is no defense or antidote."
~ Dr. Christine Gosden, US Senate testimony.

We remember.

Today was the first UN commemoration of Helebçe, twenty-one years after the fact.

We don't forget the guilty.



Nor do we forget Turkey's mysterious role in the genocide.

You can run, but you can never hide. We remember everything.

On another note, there's a new Kurdish blog by Rastî commenter, Berfo, at Zerkesorg. His post on Helebçe has a link to an excellent article at Archaeology.org on Saddam's crimes against humanity. Check it out.

SUSPICION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN TURKISH BOMBARDMENT

"One important question that needs to be resolved concerns the status of an alleged secret directive of the Turkish Army permitting the use of chemical and biological measures in counter-terrorist activities."
~ The Sunshine Project Country Study No. 3.

From yesterday's Özgür Gündem:

Suspicion of chemical weapons in TSK bombardment


In the Levce village of Qendil, hundreds of goats died in the area where Turkish aircraft bombed. As a result of the bombardment, 186 baby goats died and, according to the investigation, poisonous material has been found in the goats' milk.

Mam Hasan, who makes his living through animal husbandry in Levce village, said that he made his goats graze in the area where Turkish aircraft bombed on 16 December. After a while, he said, all the baby goats died, one after the other.

We made an analysis, medication did not cure.

Hasan Mecid said the ongoing events after the bombardment, as follows: "When Turkish aircraft bombed this region, nothing happened to my animals. However, when I grazed my animals in the region that had been bombed, almost 200 of my animals died. Some other animals also died in the village. But after my animals died altogether, we went to Dîyana, Hewlêr, and Silêmanî veterinarians, bought medication, and made the laboratory analysis. None of the medication given had cured them. The animals continued to be sick and die."

Poison found in goats' milk

For a more detailed laboratory analysis, we took samples of goat meat and milk. As a result, poison was found in the milk. However, Hasan Mecid said the doctors did not mention anything about the reason for the poison. Mecid continued: "Nothing like this has happened before in our village. There is only one reason, and that is the Turkish aircraft bombed the region where the goats were grazed, and those weapons spread poison. The expert veterinarians also asked where I grazed my animals, and I said the region where the airplanes bombed. They, too, mentioned that it might be the reason for the poison in the milk."

We cannot give goat milk to the children

Hasan Mecid's daughter, Şuno Mecid, said that the newborn goats became ill very soon after they started nursing, and later they died while they were convulsing. Because the baby goats died, they do not use goat milk and they do not give it to their children. Şuno Mecid said: "Now we milk the goats and we pour out the milk. Since the baby goats died, we are worried that this milk will harm people, too. We are also concerned about the occurence of any disease in children."

Earlier the KRG environment minister Dara Muhammed Emin had also mentioned that they have evidence that the Turkish state was using weapons that violate laws of war. This incident that occured in Levce village reminds us one more time of the suspicion of Turkey's use of chemical weapons. For that reason, the villagers called international institutions for a delegation of independent experts to investigate the matter.

The Levce villagers said that if their claim is corroborated, they will sue Turkey.

Gordon Taylor has an update on Cüneyt Ertuş. Surprise, surprise, surprise!! The police lied!

Yesterday the Emniyet of Hakkari province posted a press release on their website. [The Emniyet is the "Public Safety" or, rather, "State Security" office of the Turkish government. They're the police, in other words. Turkey is a rigidly centralized state; thus the Emniyet is everywhere. If you know the novels of Eric Ambler ("A Coffin for Dimitrios", "Journey into Fear", or "The Light of Day", from which the movie "Topkapi" was drawn), then you should know the word Emniyet.] Yesterday's press release dealt with Cuneyt, who was identified only by his initials, C.E.

The heading reads, "Release concerning the person whose arm was allegedly broken." This is in Turkish, of course, and I am very loosely translating. "Having been taken twice to the doctor," it says, "C.E. has no serious damage to his arm, according to their reports." C.E.'s arm, the report continues, has been X-rayed at the Hakkari State Hospital, and these have found no breaks. He remains in custody, etc., and the claims which have been made about his condition are untrue.

[ . . . ]

Hakkari, the remotest of Turkey's provincial capitals, is now, incredibly, a part of the global village. When I was there in 1977, I was astounded to find oranges from the Mediterranean coast on sale in the market. From the miracle of oranges, we now have digital video of a Hakkari kid's arm being broken, video that's flashed to Denmark, beamed up to a satellite, and then beamed back to the TV sets of the boy's relatives, who in the past would have known nothing about it. Thus a press release about a 15-year-old boy from police-state apparatchiks who formerly would never have bothered.

There is, moreover, new information. This morning I heard from a contact in Germany. He had just talked to Cuneyt's father. Cuneyt is still in jail, but lawyers from the Hakkari Bar Association have been allowed to visit him. The lawyers confirmed that Cuneyt's arm had indeed been broken. It is in a sling, swathed in bandages. In other words, the Emniyet's press release was a lie. My point is this: At least they were forced to say something. Once again, the digital revolution has made history.

Now, Hevallo has an interesting commentary on Gordon's post:

It also forcibly reminded me, like nothing else could, of all of the innocent Kurds, rounded up during Newroz and facing serious charges, not to mention torture, languishing in Turkish prisons, snatched from their loved ones and now suffering torture and a nightmarish future.

For what? Because they are Kurdish!

Nothing more, nothing less, many of the Kurdish people detained during Newroz will of set out on the day they ended up being detained, in their best clothes, hair made up, looking forward to a day of celebration, hoping to see some of the friends and listen to some nice music. A special day out.

But now, having been attacked by police, grabbed off the street and find themselves now locked in a cell, labelled as terrorists and facing a long prison sentence. A horrendous nightmare!

By the way, there's a fascinating backgrounder on Tibet that is a must-read. Did you know the Dalai Lama was on the CIA's payroll? That Indian intelligence also financed him? Isn't that just like a cleric?

Did you know what life was like under the rule of the religious and the secular Tibetan elites? If not, open your eyes.

MORE ON TURKEY'S FIASCO

"One important question that needs to be resolved concerns the status of an alleged secret directive of the Turkish Army permitting the use of chemical and biological measures in counter-terrorist activities."
~ Country Study No. 3: Turkey, The Sunshine Project.

Over the weekend, the WaPo had a follow-up to their recent report (with photos and video) on the PKK.

Those you would expect to complain, have complained:

Burak Akcapar, deputy chief of mission at the Turkish Embassy, said the story "was sympathetic and glorified an infamous and deadly terrorist organization. The PKK was portrayed as humane fighters in an epic struggle despite the fact they have been engaging in brutal terrorism." [ . . . ] Akcapar and others criticized a picture of a guerrilla feeding an orphaned bear cub with a baby bottle. "I don't understand why a terrorist is carrying a baby milk bottle."

Yeah, that baby bottle and the feeding of an animal certainly go a long way to show the humanity of the freedom fighters of Kurdistan and of course Akçapar is incapable of understanding it.

As should be expected, the propagandist Akçapar failed to mention the confessions of certain Turkish military officers, such as Erdal Sarızeybek and Altay Tokat. He failed to mention Turkish military massacres, such as the one at Guçlukonak, Hantepe, or Beytüşşebap. Nor does he mention the Turkish military's massacres and destruction of cities, such as happened at Lice, or in the Şirnex (Şirnak) region.

As a reminder, Turkey's drug income or it's continuing pivotal role in the world's drug industry, and all the side industries that go along with it.

On the other hand, others, like Henri Barkey and Omer Taspinar liked the piece. From Barkey:

"Wow. Good for you guys for doing it. The reporter was describing what he sees. I took it as such." Barkey, who has lived in Turkey and visits every year, also said that the story didn't explain the origins of the PKK or its place among the Kurds. "There was no context. But not every piece is going to go through a litany of charges. For someone like me who is well versed, we don't get to see much about how these guys operate, how they bury their dead, why they're so difficult to defeat. . . . Purely for information that I hadn't seen for a long, long time, it was a very useful piece."

Note for Barkey: They're not only guys. And from Taspinar:

"I don't think the piece is biased. It obviously has some sympathy for the guerrillas but also gives background enough to balance."

Of course, this admission from the WaPo is a bit disappointing:

The story was shortened considerably; top editors wanted to hold the package to one inside page. A few more background paragraphs wouldn't have made a difference to the Turkish government, but Post readers would have had a fuller picture of the PKK.

Although I thought the WaPo article was one of the best pieces on the PKK in Western media in a long time, it would have been better to have a fuller picture of the PKK by giving more background as to why PKK arose in the first place.

In other news, there was an interesting analysis of the recent TSK fiasco against the PKK from some Turkish Marxists. Funny . . . they're calling the February operation a fiasco, too:

The incursion of the Turkish army into northern Iraq has ended in a terrible debacle for both US imperialism and Turkey. The two allies are now at loggerheads once again, after the thaw in their relations achieved at the White House talks between Bush and Turkish prime minister Erdogan on 5 November 2007. The Turkish government and the army are the object of unprecedented criticism by the bourgeois media but also by ordinary people.

"Unprecedented criticism" is right. I don't know of any time that there was so much criticism of both the government and the TSK in the history of Turkey. I mean, when both CHP and MHP are going after the Paşas, then you know it's bad. Of course, it's highly likely that they know all about the deal between Erdoğan and Büyükanıt.

The whole episode of the Turkish incursion was played out as a miserable mismanagement of a crisis situation by the two allies, the US and Turkey. Although the latter had been bombing the PKK bases in the north of Iraq since 16 December last year, an incursion into the region of Turkish combat troops on 21 February came as a surprise to the whole world, especially in the midst of winter, given the circumstances of the extremely rugged and mountainous terrain. The operation was greeted with unreserved support by the US, no lesser a figure than Condoleezza Rice in person immediately voicing “absolute solidarity” with the Turkish war effort. The US had already extended lavish support to the several rounds of Turkish bombing efforts by providing real time intelligence and clearance to enter Iraqi airspace, as well as clear diplomatic approval, but nothing that was said had been as strong as Rice's words. And yet only five days later, the support turned out to be relative!

Well, the invasion wasn't such a surprise to everyone, nor was the December bombing. It was only a surprise to those who don't pay attention.

The aims of the Turkish military incursion were never stated clearly. This led to exaggerated expectations on the part of Turkish public opinion that the PKK was going to be dealt a serious, if not final, blow. Jingoistic media discourse of the kind “Objective Kandil” further reinforced these unrealistic expectations. This explains the bitter disppointment felt by the Turkish public at large, poisoned as it has been by chauvinistic propaganda for years now. It would not be realistic to think that the Turkish army had really set its eyes on dealing the PKK a definitive blow. The top brass, after all, has repeatedly made clear over time that military incursion into Iraq will not finish off the PKK, which by most estimates has a total of around five thousand guerrillas inside Turkey and over the border in Iraq.

Whatever the targets originally set, the Turkish army cannot be said to have achieved any serious military results in this week-long incursion. Official army figures for PKK casualties stands at around 230, while admitted army casualties amount to a mere 27. The PKK, for its part, claims that Turkish casualties rise to 125 and its own loss is only nine. No matter where the truth lies regarding this aspect of the matter, the fact that the Turkish military totally failed in achieveing its own targets is clearly proved by the case of the Zab base of the PKK.

Actually, people may have gotten the idea that TSK was going to fight until PKK was annihilated because of Büyükanıt's own words last October:

On Saturday Buyukanit, in a speech to mark Monday's Republic Day, said the army would fight until it had destroyed the PKK.

"We feel the pain of our martyred heroes deeply. But that pain increases our determination to fight," the text of his speech read. "Those who make us suffer cannot even imagine the suffering we will inflict on them; on this we are determined."

The Marxists have a prediction:

2007 was marked by the serious tension in Turkey due to the prospect of the election of a major leader of the pro-Islamic government party as president, a process interrupted by a military pronunciamiento but finally consummated after the electoral victory of the government party. 2008 promises to be an explosive year, next to which the tensions of 2007 will look pale.

It's really a very interesting analysis, so make sure to take a look at the whole thing.


Meanwhile, for all those who stupidly claim that Kurds are equal and that Kurdish language is no longer illegal, Osman Baydemir is going to trial for having published a storybook in Kurdish and Turkish.

Others don't seem to be fooled by Katil Erdoğan's BS Kurdish reform package. From AFP via The Kurdish Globe:

For political analyst Dogu Ergil, the planned measures show Erdogan's unwillingness or inability to address the basic demand of Kurds to be accepted for their ethnic roots and be allowed to participate in Turkey's affairs as Kurds.

"Turkey has a system which is based on a Turkish ethnic identity and sees Kurds as a dependent component that has to suffice with what it is given and told to do," he said. "Unless Turkey addresses this issue, nothing can resolve the tensions between the state and society."

The measures are "an indication that the government does not want to or is unable to take a serious and bold step on the Kurdish issue" for fear of a nationalist backlash, Ergil said.

[ . . . ]

"Turkey is fighting a monster of its own creation, a Frankenstein, right now," Ergil said. "The government believes that it will be very difficult to deal with the nationalist masses and such an effort will not have any significant return for them."

And from DTP:

Turkey's main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), which enjoys considerable support among the Kurds, was also unimpressed by Erdogan's plans.

"The essence of the Kurdish problem is creating a nation based on a single language, a single religion and a single ethnicity," the party's deputy parliamentary group chairman Selahattin Demirtas said.

"One cannot solve the Kurdish problem with factories and Kurdish broadcasts," he added.

Finally, there have been numerous reports in the past of TSK's use of chemical weapons against PKK. Now it appears that there is some suspicion of the use of chemical weapons against South Kurdistani civilians during the recent operations. From VOI, again via The Kurdish Globe:

Safia Al-Sehail told Voices of Iraq VOI, "There is a necessity for the Red Cross, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization - UN), and other organizations that care about nature to have a presence at the Iraqi side of the border with Turkey."

"Animals at the protected Merga-Sor reserve went extinct, because of the Turkish operation," Al-Sehail said.

As the head of a parliamentary committee that has been sent to the area to investigate the facts on the ground, Al-Sehail said that the committee's report, which will be submitted to the Iraqi parliament, government and Presidency Council, "will include recommendations for the government, international agencies, United Nations, and European Union (EU) to aid those areas that have been bombarded."

She added "We saw destroyed bridges, gardens, and farmers that have been attacked on their lands, and we met hundreds of displaced people due to the Turkish invasion to some villages at Erbil and Duhok provinces in Kurdistan region, the northern and northeastern parts of Iraq."

"We met people who now cannot breathe easily, with tearing up red-eyes, severe flu cases for children and the elderly, in addition to abortion cases, all because of the Turkish military operations," Al-Sehail asserted.

"Samples from the area have been gathered and sent to Iraqi laboratories for checking," Al-Sehail noted, asserting "a report in this respect will be issued within the coming days."

Reference this report, from The Sunshine Project:

On 23 July 1989, the Turkish newspaper Ikibine Dogru published an article on chemical weapons in which it reproduced parts of an alleged secret security directive (reproduced on the following page) of the Turkish Armed Forces permitting the use of chemical and biological weapons in the war against Kurdish fighters. The same parts of the directive were also reproduced in a book on chemical and biological weapons published in 1992 by the Kurdish author Celadet Celiker.

According to excerpts reproduced in Ikibine Dogru, the directive was issued on 25 February 1986 and was signed by Necdet Öztorun, at that time commander of the Turkish Army. In paragraph 5) it describes permitted methods to destroy tunnels, including:

(d) Can be filled with poison gas.

(e) Can be rendered unusable by breeding specially bred poisonous insects.”

In another section, the same document reads

c. Gas bombs and …

d. NBC Weapons: fog, fire making substances, tear and emetic gases are being used when necessary by friendly forces."

It is an open question whether or not the directive that was reproduced in Ikibine Dogru is indeed issued by the Turkish Armed Forces or whether it is a forgery. We located the alleged author of the directive, Necdet Öztorun, who is now working at Isik University. Öztorun did not respond to requests for further information. Considering that the Turkish government never explicitly denied the existence of this directive, it appears to be likely that the directive was indeed issued by the Turkish Armed Forces. Whether or not it is still in force remains unclear.

And from the introduction of the report:

One important question that needs to be resolved concerns the status of an alleged secret directive of the Turkish Army permitting the use of chemical and biological measures in counter-terrorist activities. Absent a clarification from the Turkish government it remains an open question if this document is a forgery or authentic and, if so, if remains in force. If this directive is genuine, the current Turkish government should initiate an independent investigation of this matter and must ensure that no offensive biological weapons activities are conducted, prepared or permitted in Turkey.

The Turkish Armed Forces used and likely still use so called ‘non-lethal’ chemical weapons such as tear gas in military combat. In at least one incident tear gas grenades were used in a military operation against armed Kurds that left twenty dead. This violates the Chemical Weapons Convention which prohibits explicitly “to use riot control agents as a method of warfare”.

Why am I not shocked?

More on Turkey's use of chemical weapons against Kurdish guerrillas at WMD Insights.

IRANIAN WEAPONS TO SYRIA TARGETED

"What is most troubling to me as a Jew is that the plight of fifteen million Kurds in Turkey most closely parallels the plight of Jews throughout centuries. For unlike the Iraqi Kurds who have always been at liberty to be Kurds, those in Turkey were ruthlessly legislated out of their ethnic identity and have remained so for more than sixty years."
~ Vera Saeedpour.

Rumors seem to be beginning to fly in Middle Eastern media over Israel's recent attack on Syrian targets last week. Apparently, the Paşas gave the Israeli air force a hand in targeting. From YNetNews:

Turkish intelligence provided Israel with information on the Syrian targets allegedly attacked by the Air Force last week without the Turkish government's authorization, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jareeda reported Thursday.

Al-Jareeda quoted several sources as saying that Israel and senior Turkish military personnel coordinated Israel's invasion of Turkish airspace during the operation to send a message to the ruling Justice and Development party, or AKP. Senior military officials in Turkey, most of whom are secular, oppose the Islamist party's platform.

According to the sources, AKP member and newly-elected President Abdullah Gul is not doing enough to prevent the transfer of arms from Iran to terror groups in Syria and Lebanon via Turkey.

These would be the very same Paşas that permitted news of HPG's derailing of a train carrying weapons from Iran to Syria to flash briefly through the Turkish press at the end of May. As DozaMe reported:

A unit from People’s Defense Forces (HPG) derailed a Turkish cargo train bound to Syria on May 25 near the Suvaran train station in the Genc district of Bingol in northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey.) Local authorities discovered rockets, launch pads, sniper rifles, mortar rounds and other ammunitions in the train.

A Turkish prosecutor in Genc has requested a media censor on all news related to the weapons in the cargo, pointing to paragraph 28 in the Turkish Constitution, paragraphs 3 and 25 in the Turkish Media Laws and paragraphs 285 and 286 in the Turkish Penal Code, according to the Turkish newspaper Milliyet. The prosecutor’s request was accepted by the Genc Criminal Court.

Details of the contents of one of the train cars included:

297 rockets

1,032 mortar rounds

762 Dragunov sniper rifles (Kanas)

54 machine guns

135 boxes of "explosive substance" (C4? A4?)

120 boxes of mortar rounds

775 boxes of "military equipment"

Flash back to August 2006 and let's recall how the Turkish Red Crescent was shipping arms to Syria from Iran:

The Turkish Red Crescent was used twice to arm Hezbollah, a Syrian Red Crescent official told the Kurdish news agency ANF yesterday. The Turkish humanitarian organization’s vehicles were loaded with small arms, unidentified electronic gadgets, and ammunition, the Syrian official said.

[ . . . ]

An anonymous Israeli offical told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Turkey has been used as key transit in Iran’s supply route to Hezbollah. Israel called on Turkey to impose air and ground embargo to prevent Iran from arming Hezbollah.

The Turkish Red Crescent is widely known to be involved in Turkish intelligence operations around the world. In April 2003, Turkish Red Crescent vehicles which were stopped and searched by US forces at a checkpoint in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) turned out to be loaded with weapons and explosives believed by US troops to be used to arm Iraqi Turkmen Front militias. The supplies were marked as ‘humanitarian aid’. Turkish Special Forces posing as aid workers were taken into custody and interrogated before being escorted by US troops back to Turkey.

Not only does Gül, as president, do a lousy job of preventing Iranian arms transfers to Syria (not a very neutral thing for a member of NATO to do), but neither does PM Erdoğan. But the Paşas probably figure that if the Fethullahcı can leak information . . . like diaries of Paşas that outline coup plans or who talks about what to whom at the Hudson Institute . . . then the Paşas should leak what they can, too.

The bottom line is that nothing, but NOTHING, is going to move into Turkey, through Turkey, or out of Turkey without the knowledge and consent of the Paşas.

Except, of course, the big, bad PKK.

DTP will be investigated for its calls for investigations into the accusations that the TSK uses chemical weapons against HPG's gerîlas (I can't figure out why they have that stupid picture of Barzanî and al-Maliki to decorate the article). The article also notes that Gül ended his tour of the military in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan on Friday.

Does everyone remember what happened in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan after Erdoğan's visit to Amed in August 2005? Şemdinli. Amed Serhildan. Amed bombing. OHAL.

Don't you wish these SOB's would just stay in Ankara so that they and the Paşas could kill each other?

A WAR BY ANY OTHER NAME

"My life is simple, my food is plain, and my quarters are uncluttered. In all things, I have sought clarity. I face the troubles and problems of life and death willingly. Virtue, integrity and courage are my priorities. I can be approached, but never pushed; befriended but never coerced; killed but never shamed."
Yi Sun Shin.

Bianet has an article by some kind of peacenik in which the wildly popular mayor of Kurdistan's capital city, Osman Baydemir, is criticized for saying that the Ankara regime has declared war on Amed.

Peace junkies are worse than useless and the one writing the article is no different. There is a huge disconnect in the minds of these peace-at-all-costs types because they never seem to remember the little details that cause a people to rebel in the first place. Here we see that the author is perturbed by Baydemir's embrace of war "discourse," but what other workd would accurately describe the Ankara regime's stance toward the Kurdish people, except the word "war?" And Baydemir's adoption of the "war" metaphor is called "unfortunate" and discredits his dedication to his people and his city.

Now let's think real hard for a moment: Who was it that declared war on Amed and the Kurdish people? The time was March 2006. The person was PM Erdoğan. Erdoğan's statement was:

“The events are under control... Security forces will intervene with every possible means indiscriminately, including against women and children.”

This is the same guy who gets his dander up whenever Turkey's ally, Israel, does the same to Palestinians. He's just like his mentor, Fethullah Gülen, in this and I can just picture him bawling his eyes out on cue, just like old Hodjaefendi always manages to do.

Except, naturally, when it comes to Turkish murder of Kurds, in which case they are more than eager to give the order to fire.

After the Amed Serhildan, every attempt by Baydemir and other DTP politicians to talk to the PM were refused. Erdoğan's Islamist party, the AKP, were joined by its opposition, the CHP, in placing their boot firmly on the neck of Kurdistan. The Islamists and the Kemalists can't agree on anything unless it's genocide of the Kurdish people.

And now it's Osman Baydemir who's accused, in so many words, of being a warmonger. Isn't that damned typical?

Osman Baydemir has stood by his people in the most difficult times and he's proven he's not the type to turn tail and run, even in the face of some mealy-mouthed peace-freak journalist who feigns so much concern for this seemingly strange turn in Baydemir's language. But what is it that Baydemir said?

"Only yesterday and today you are trying to declare war on Diyarbakir. I say it clearly, we are here for dialogue, for collaboration. But if you do not join, and if you declare war on Diyarbakir, then I say clearly that the Diyarbakir people, me and my friends, will never run away from a declared war. If you declare war, we are here, the Diyarbakir people are here, the mayors are here. We have been with our people through good and bad times and we will continue to do so."

Bijît, heval! Keep it up! You are absolutely correct.

But our peace-loving author seems to labor under the delusion that war against the Kurdish people is a thing of the past:


In his speeches Baydemir has frequently referred to peace. In an area where in the past only militarist projects were supported, he should be staying away from language which emphasises war.


At this moment in the very same region only militarist projects are being supported. There is an OHAL in Sêrt, Culemêrg, and Şirnex. Chemical weapons continue to be used against the freedom fighters of the PKK and the bodies of şehîds are not returned to their families in order to hide the evidence of chemical weapons on the bodies. The Turkish military, NATO's second largest army, conducts joint military operations with Iran and bombs Kurdish civilians right out of their villages in South Kurdistan. Whole villages in North Kurdistan are denied medical treatment so that babies end up as the victims of murder as a result, and the villagers themselves are slowly starved because the Turkish military refuses to allow food shipments.

In addition to those who joined the ranks of HPG's şehîds in the last couple of weeks, ten Turkish soldiers gave their lives at the end of last week for the stupidity of the Ankara regime's genocidal Kurdish policy, along with a JITEM informer.

If OHAL, the denial of medical treatment, forced starvation, the use of chemical weapons, and continued military operations--including those with the Teheran regime--are not war, then what in the hell should we call this?

Hevallo has more on the same subject and he wants to start a discussion about PKK as freedom fighters, which is exactly what they are.

Context. It's all about context.

WHERE WMD'S REALLY ARE

"All of the efforts that we have developed to pave the way towards peace are being destroyed by military operations. The most recent example of this is that the bodies of the dead killed in a military operation in the provinces of Sirnak were not given back to their families. This situation only strengthens allegations that chemical weapons were used during the operation."
~ DTP Statement on World Peace Day.

Hevallo has been keeping up with the continued joint Iranian/Turkish bombardment of South Kurdistan, so you should check his blog for the latest. He notes the persistent and deafening silence of Western warmongers over this matter. As per the article linked in Hevallo's post:

Even in Washington, where any interference by Iran in Iraqi affairs normally results in accusations and warnings from the Bush administration, any opposition to the Iranian attacks on the border region remains firmly behind closed doors.

Interestingly enough, a short report on a condemnation by the MEK's Maryam Rajavi of the bombardment begins thusly:

Despite international condemnations of the mullahs’ regime for shelling people of Iraqi Kurdistan, the brutal attacks continue.

The question here that immediately pops to mind is: What international condemnations? There have been no international condemnations.

And so it goes because, in addition to the joint Iranian/Turkish bombardment of South Kurdistan, there is another set of war crimes that go unmentioned by the West. But these crimes, too, are not unnoticed. They are the use of chemical weapons by NATO's second largest army against Kurdish gerîlas. From Özgür Gündem:

11 HPG guerrillas were martyred in Uzungecit, Sirnak. It was claimed that chemical weapons were used against the guerrillas. The claim was supported by the deaths of two horses and eight sheep in the area where the operation took place.

On 23 August, TSK operation against the guerrillas resulted in the following HPG martyrs: Zarife Adıbelli (Roza Mardin), Şenay Güçer (Delila Meyaser), Rahime Tuncer (Avesta Amed), İdris Babat (Xwinrej Botan), Ahmet Kara (Adok Farqin), İshak Yakut (Amed Akdağ), Deniz Türk (Andok Deniz), Eyüp Haydar (Erdal Serkeftin), Aziz Muhammed (Eşref Cilo), Nasır Aydın (İsyan Brusk) and Cebrail Turan (Rohat Dilpak)

After examining the bodies of the guerrillas, it was claimed that chemical weapons were used based on signs on the bodies. In addition to the signs, two horses and eight sheep died while they were grazing in the area where the operation took place. Shepherds said, "We took our sheep for grazing as usual. yesterday we took them to the place where the operation took place. Eight of the animals fell down after grazing for a while. After we realized they were dead, we took the rest of the flock away. Meanwhile, two horses died."

It was the use of chemical weapons against the gerîlas that sparked the Amed Serhildan last year:

The clashes started with the killing of 14 HPG (People’s Defensive Forces of Kurdish Liberation Movement (KLM)) guerrilla fighters. The HPG claimed that chemical weapons had been used against the guerrillas and demanded that NGOs should investigate the incidence. The families of the guerrillas said that they saw burns and other signs of chemical weapons on their corpses. This information triggered large-scale demonstrations in Diyarbakir during the funeral.

Chemical weapons had been used in an operation in February 2006, just previous to the one that killed the 14 gerîlas and set off region-wide demonstrations:

Starting on February 26, 2006, multiple Kurdish news sources in Europe broadcast allegations by Kurdish villagers that the Turkish military had used chemical weapons during a military operation against PKK rebels.

[ . . . ]

These allegations motivated many Kurdish residents of the Dargecit District to take part in demonstrations condemning the Turkish military operation. After thousands attended the funerals of the seven men, Turkish forces allegedly set up blockades within the Dargecit District and arrested 28 villagers.

Murat Karayilan, chairman of the Democratic Confederation of Kurdistan, was quoted by Firat (a pro-Kurdish European news agency) as saying, “There is some evidence indicating that the [Turkish] government has used chemical weapons against our legitimate defense forces during the fighting that took place in Kerboran [Dargecit District]. We call on human rights organizations and pro-democracy organizations to investigate those reports.”

In April 2006, DozaMe posted a link to the bodies of several HPG gerîlas who had been killed by TSK's use of chemical weapons in 2003. The bodies appeared to have been burned by a chemical blister agent. Around the same time in April of 2006, Bianet reported on the Turkish government's decision to bury HPG gerîlas in the field where they were killed, even without proper autopsy procedures. Such a decision violates international law as well as the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, it's ironic that Ankara's Islamist-dominated government virtually declared Kurds of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan to be infidels, by adopting the procedure of "burial where killed," as DozaMe noted at the time.

The Kurdish-dominated DTP had called for an investigation into the accusation of the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish military in 2006. Last week, DTP accused the TSK of using chemical weapons, citing the information originally published on ÖG as given above. More on that at TDN. Last Friday, the Ankara chief prosecutor's office brought an investigation against DTP parliamentarian Ahmet Türk for his statement on the TSK's use of chemical weapons in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

From Sabah we learn that the policy of "burial where killed" is still in effect. Naturally this policy suits the Turkish general staff because it allows the state to murder with chemical weapons and then hide the evidence of the use of such weapons of mass destruction on the battlefield.

It should be noted that Turkey is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention and is a member of The Australia Group, an organization devoted to "ridding the world of chemical and biological weapons."

However, a report put together last year by Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy mentioned a secret directive of the Turkish general staff dated 25 February 1986, which outlined the orders and directions given for the use of chemical weapons by the TSK against the PKK. The directive was signed by Major General Necdet Öztorun. In the summer of 1989, a Turkish magazine (İkibine Dorğu) published information about the directive. In 1999, the use of chemical weapons against Kurdish gerîlas in Şirnex was confirmed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Munich. The information was broadcast on the German TV channel, ZDF. Apparently, the chemical used in the attack in Şirnex had been supplied to Turkey by a German company.

As mentioned by Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, there have been a number of reports of the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish military against the PKK dating back to the beginning of the 1990s, including: a chemical attack in February 1988 in which 30 gerîlas were killed in Bakok and reported by The Cyprus Mail; the use of chemical weapons against gerîlas in September 1991, in Dersim near Genç, as reported by The Baltimore Sun; and a reference by IHD of the deaths of 20 gerîlas in July 2001, in Dersim's Elmalı area, by the Turkish military's use of chemical weapons.

Although you won't read or hear about this in Western media because it won't look good that a NATO member is using WMD's against one of it's own minority ethnic groups, at least we know who really has WMD's in the Middle East and who is using them.

In the meantime, check the new body count at DozeMe.

WEB OF DECEIT

"I will kill them [Kurds] all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them! The international community and those who listen to them."
~ Ali Hassan al-Majid.

I came across this series of Youtube videos through an article by Barry Lando at Truthdig.

In light of the fact that the US and Shi'a bumbled a rushed execution of Saddam specifically in order to cover up US invovlement in the Anfal campaign. Of course, the US had to cover up the complicity of NATO-ally Turkey's involvement in the chemical genociding of Kurds. In a piece of news that briefly flashed unnoticed through the media at the end of last year:

And, in a revelation likely to stir anger among Kurdish survivors, the memo orders the Iraqi officers “to cooperate with the Turkish side, according to the cooperation protocol with them to chase all the refugees”. No detail was given of the alleged agreement between Turkey and Iraq. Ankara has long opposed the idea of an independent Kurdish homeland in northern Iraq, but it has never been proved that Turkey cooperated with Saddam’s forces during Anfal, which prosecutors describe as a genocide. While the document touching on Turkish links was read out, sound was cut off to trial reporters and no discussion of the memo could be heard, although the Arabic-language document could still be read on the court screens.

Specifically:

Evidence relating to Saddam Hussein's alleged use of poison gas against Kurdish civilians was given to his genocide trial in secret on Thursday, so as not to embarrass Turkey.

After seeing a string of memos issued by Saddam's chief of staff in 1988 ordering "special ammunition" attacks, the court cut off its microphones while studying documents relating to Iraq's northern neighbour.

"We will now cut the microphones because this concerns Iraqi-Turkish relations," said chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon, who then presented various documents while the sound in the reporters' box was cut off.

No details were given of the evidence presented in this part of the trial, nor was it explained how it touched on Turkey.

Turkey has long used chemical weapons against the PKK, and even as late as last year. Turkey has also used Greek Cypriots as guinea pigs to test chemical weapons. Since the information appeared last year in a brief by The Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, all of this news is well known by the Washington regime, as well as every other government on the planet. Of course, it's not unusual for fascist regimes like Turkey to gas "undesirable" populations. Germany did the same thing during World War 2. Nor is it unusual for the international community to be complicit with the gassing of "undesirables."

For more on Turkish aggression plans, check an article from the American Hellenic Institute, and DozaMe had a post on Turkey's use of chemical weapons against PKK in 2003.

I have one other comment on Barry Lando's article. His Chemical Ali quote is inaccurate. Lando uses the following:

One of the voices was identified by prosecutors as that of Saddam’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, who came to be known as Chemical Ali, scornfully dismissing concern that foreign powers might react to Saddam’s using chemical weapons against the Kurds.

“I will strike them [the Kurds] with chemical weapons and kill them all,” he was heard saying. “Who is going to say anything? The international community? A curse on the international community!”

Ali Hassan al-Majid did not say, "A curse on the international community." What he actually said, which was recorded on tape, is the following:

I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them! The international community and those who listen to them.

Al-Majid said, "Fuck them!" so why is it that the West consistently misquotes al-Majid? Is it that the West is afraid to use the word "fuck?" Is that because the word is considered "obscene?" This is ironic in the extreme because which is truly obscene, the use of the word "fuck" or the use of chemical weapons?

And let's not forget that the attitude summarized in al-Majid's exclamation of "Fuck them!" is the exact same attitude the international community and the American administration continues to hold against all those who refuse to acquiesce to imperialism.

There is in no way any distinction between Ali Hassan al-Majid, on the one hand, and the American regime, with its toadies in the international community, on the other.