NEWS FROM THE "MODEL OF DEMOCRACY"

"Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses."
~ H.L. Mencken.

There has been an identification of two bodies from a mass grave of Kurds extra-judicially murdered by Turkey's Bolu commandos in the Kulp district, from Yeni Özgür Politika:

The identities of two of the eight people who had been taken by Bolu Brigade from their homes under the pretext of showing them an address, and then returning them, have been revealed. These people were Hasan Örhan and his brother, Mehmet Selim Örhan. In 1994, during a Bolu Command Brigade operation, these eight people were raided and their bodies were burned. Recent DNA results revealed the identity of the two, out of eight. IHD Diyarbakir branch held a press conference in order to declare the results of the DNA test.

As the deputy chief of IHD, Reyhan Yalçındağ, gave a brief background of the incident: "14 years ago, on 24 May 1994, the soldiers who held an operation in Diyarbakır Kulp district, Çağlayan village, Deveboyu region, detained Mehmet Selim Örhan, Hasan Örhan, and Cezair Örhan. Despite their family members' resistance, who are today among us, a high-ranking soldier mentioned that he would take them in order to show them an address and then he would release them. However, no one heard from them since."

According to Yalçındağ, regional departments and prosecutors conclude that there are approximately 5,000 similar cases. Since IHD could not find any resolution for these cases because of [Turkey's] internal law, it has applied to the European Court of Human Rights. Regarding these issues, ECHR found Turkey guilty.

In 2004, the Örhan family found eight unidentified bodies. After the DNA testing of these bodies, it became clear that two of these bodies were Hasan and Mehmet Selim Örhan.

IHD revealed the results of the DNA tests in a press conference at which the Örhan family was present without knowing the results. When the results were announced, indicating that the bones of Hasan and Mehmet Selim Örhan were found, many family members suffered breakdowns. Thus, IHD had to cut short the press conference.

So there we have yet another example of why the Bolus are particularly hated in Kurdistan and why the TSK should be brought before an international tribunal on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Human Rights Association (TIHV) suffered a highly suspicious robbery on 24 March:

Thieves who broke into the TIHV center stole 18-years worth of archives of torture victims. Without touching anything else in the center, the thieves escaped.

Even though there is an alarm system in every room, some unidentified people stole the server which contained torture and human rights violations reports. Without stealing anything else, valuable or without value, it was revealed that the thieves had attempted to commit this robbery three days' prior--an attempt that failed.

TIHV General Secretary Metin Bakkalci said it was no coincidence that the server was stolen. Metin Bakkalci says: "Despite the security precautions, three days' after the first attempt, they succeeded in getting into the building. Here, there were applications regarding human rights violations and some related information dating from 1990." He indicated that the archive that was stolen was Turkey's human rights violations and torture "memory".

Thus, the thieves stole Turkey's human rights violations and torture reports "memory".

The biggest question here is who were the thieves working for? The Kemalist Deep State or the Islamist Deep State? Both would benefit by wiping out the records of Turkey's dirty history.

In some good news, it looks like Russia is shutting down Fethullah Gülen:

Russian constitutional court banned Fethullah Gülen's "Nurcu cemaat" and their activities as the court considered them an "illegal Islamic movement". According to BBC news, the case that has been brought by the chief prosecutor, resulted in the banning Fethullah Gülen's activities in Russia. According to the Russians, the Nurcu houses turn into illegal madrassas that teach an extreme religious ideology. In additon, many Gulen schools, mainly in St. Petersburg, have been considered illegal also by this court, by saying their activities are illegal.

A check of BBC English and BBC Türkçe revealed no report as quoted here. However, the news has been fairly prominent in Turkish media, such as this example from Hürriyet. According to Hürriyet, the Russians had previously closed down Gülen schools. Were the Fethullahcı attempting to bypass the previous Russian ban by referring to themselves as Nurcular? This would not be unusual since Gülen, the bawling village idiot, stole the writings of Seîd Kurdî (aka Said Nursi by Kurd-haters) to sucker people into his cult.

It's too bad the Americans won't follow in Russia's footsteps and ban the wildly out-of-control Fethullahcı in the US. Perhaps the Russians really banned the Fethullahcı because the US is using them as a fifth column against Russia, just as it did with the mujaheddin in Afghanistan in the 1980's. And we all know how well that turned out.

Please note that Amnesty International (AI) has issued a statement about Cüneyt Ertuş. Also available in German, if you're so inclined.

AI also has something on Eren Keskin's recent conviction:

Human rights activist Eren Keskin has been sentenced to six months and 20 days in prison after being convicted of “denigrating the Turkish army”.

The conviction comes under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which Amnesty International has long campaigned against.

Eren Keskin's sentence can be converted into a fine of 4,000 Turkish Liras (US$3,250) but she has refused to pay it. Instead, she is appealing the verdict. Should she be imprisoned, Amnesty International would consider her to be a prisoner of conscience.

Okay, so how does one actually "denigrate the Turkish army"? I mean, they do that well enough on their own. Fittingly enough, Eren Keskin has a page at Heroes for a Better World. If you need to know more about Eren--and you probably do--check this.

Finally, the word has gotten around that Leyla Zana has been convicted for her remarks at Newroz last year. Some feckless articles have claimed in headlines that she's been jailed already, but do not mention jailing at all in their text. So far I have not seen anything at all in Turkish-language media that says Zana has been imprisoned or jailed yet, so I am not certain about it. The question is whether an appeal is filed automatically and whether or not she remains free pending the results of an appeal. I will continue to watch for further news on this issue.

What I have noticed, however, is that the Turkish media has been unusually silent over Zana's conviction. Would this have anything to do with the fact that her conviction was announced on the same day that those two great defenders of democracy, Olli Rehn and Manuel Barroso, arrived in Turkey? Barroso even went to the TBMM to bleat about political and social "reforms", and went so far as to praise efforts to "reform" the excruciatingly vague new version of the excruciatingly vague old version of Article 301.

At this point, I suspect that Zana will once again be sacrificed on the altar of "democracy".

Since I have mentioned two courageous Kurdish women in this post, let me also point out that a new website is in the works that will focus on Kurdish women. You can take a look at Kurdistan's Women.

OTTAWA TREATY: TURKEY NONCOMPLIANT

"I asked a Burmese why women, after centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He said there were many unexploded land mines since the war."
~ Robert Mueller.

Gordon Taylor has another piece on the guerrillas--an epitaph for Şehîd Halil Uysal:

Halil seems to have had an affinity for his chosen terrain. His PKK code name was Halil Dağ ("Halil Mountain"), and he wrote about his mountains as well as photographing them. I used a lot of images from the PKK's website (see some of them here), and it now seems likely that quite a few of those were actually made by Halil. But it is as a filmmaker that Halil won his biggest audience. Hevallo, at this post, gives a synopsis of the three films that Halil made while living in the mountains, and provides video clips as well.

I have not, I confess, ever seen Halil's films. Turkish newspapers have dismissed them as propaganda, and by their standards of course they are correct. But to Turkish nationalists anything (including this post) is vicious pro-terrorist propaganda when it dares to depict the soldiers of the PKK as human beings. Well, guilty as charged. The young man above looks like a human being to me.

Toprağı bol olsun. Rest in peace, Halil Bey.

Şehîd nemirin!

What have I been complaining about for a while? Among other things:

The Initiative for a Turkey without Mines has said that despite its promise to destroy its stock of landmines by 1 March, Turkey has not completed the operation.

Making a statement before the First International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on 4 April, the initiative said that, still, every three days a person was wounded or killed by a landmine in Turkey.

[ . . . ]

The Ottawa Convention was negotiated ten years ago and ratified by Turkey in 2003. According to the convention, Turkey is supposed to have cleared all the landmines in the ground by 2014.

[ . . . ]

Between 1950-55 and 1984-94, 1 million mines were buried in Turkey. There are a further 3 million mines stored which need to be destroyed.

As I've written previously, the Ankara regime has made no effort to clear mines from The Southeast, nor has it followed proper mine protocol.

It's amazing that the Ankara regime does absolutely nothing to improve the situation of its own citizens. The regime got involved with compliance for the Ottawa Treaty way back in 2000. Here we are in 2008, and still nothing has been done, and this is all supposed to be taken care of by 2014.

I have one piece of advice: Don't hold your breath.

See how well Turkey complies with the treaties to which it's signatory?

More mine news, this time from South Kurdistan:

De-mining operations continue but have been slowed due to natural difficulties and lack of military maps of planted mines.

Landmines are everywhere in Kurdistan Region. The mines, nearly three for every person in Kurdistan Region, were laid mostly against Kurdish armed movements since the 1960s, more so than at any other time during regional wars over the past three decades.

The Iraqi government announced recently that nearly 25 million mines lay unearthed over the entire country. Sources from the Kurdistan Region Mine Action Agency (MAA) say that most of those- nearly 12-15 million- are in the region.

There were 18 mine victims in Kurdistan during the first three months of 2008; 4 died and 14 were wounded, including two de-miners. Eight of them were in Suleimaniya and the rest were in Duhok and Erbil, according to information provided by Ako Aziz, MAA director of Mine Risk Education.

In 2007, 13 people, mostly villagers, were killed and 36 were wounded due to explosives and mine explosions. Most occurred in Chamchamal west of Suleimaniya, Zakho in Duhok province, and in Choman northeast of Erbil.

[ . . . ]

On the anniversary of International Mine Ban Treaty of Ottawa, on April 4, the MAA handed over nine minefields to landowners. The MAA alone has cleaned 1.5 square kilometers of 4,000 land mines and 9 square kilometers of 11,500,000 other unexploded ordnance.

Much de-mining operation time is spent on preparations for removing mines because of lack of basic data.

"Unfortunately, we don't have military maps [of the planted mines]; very, very little has reached us," said Barzani [Siraj Barzani, head of the MAA]. "For example, for a landmine that needs to be cleaned in nine months, we spend several months on preparatory works." Many of the minefields are located in hard-to-reach mountainous areas where it is hard to transport equipment, and conditions may have changed the positions of the mines over the years.

Credit where credit is due: Bravo to KRG for continuing to slog it out in their battle with the mines. Now, of course, there are all those cluster bombs to clear, too.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING

"Time is making fools of us again."
~ J.K. Rowling.

First of all, kudos to Hevallo for posting a link to a video on the PKK that's been missing from the Internet for some time. I had first posted a link to it back in May 2006 when it was available on Google video. Shortly thereafter, it was removed. Now that it's on Youtube, watch it while you have the chance. Runtime is about 25 minutes. In particular, pay attention to the commentary and Murat Karayılan's remarks at the end--bearing in mind the recent Turkish aerial bombing campaign and land invasion, both conducted with US (and Israeli) help:

While Turkey has offered token concessions to its Kurdish citizens, it says it won't negotiate with terrorists. Instead they have massed 1,000 troops inside Iraq with the express purpose of annihilating the PKK. With America promising to help its ally Turkey to eliminate them, the future looks bleak.

[ . . . ]

A regular army would need years to dislodge the guerrillas. We'll make an effort to prevent that happening. We'd make tactical moves if necessary. But if they come to annihilate us in the end, we won't surrender.

Dont forget to check out Hevallo's tribute to Şehîd Halil Uysal. We will sorely miss his brilliant photography and documentation of Kurdistan.


And there's more great news from Bush's great Model of Democracy for the Middle East, from Goran at Mideast Youth:

Last year, a group by the name of The Children’s Voices of Diyarbakir that consists of Kurdish youth aged 8 to 16 years of age, many who are orphaned, received a rare opportunity to participate in a World Music Festival in California. The kids put on a wonderful performance that could - and perhaps did - even put tears of joy to the eyes of non-Kurdish attendees as much as they did for Kurdish attendees.

This Kurdish youth group is composed of mostly orphans and was put together through a program initiated by Kurds in Turkey to help get the youth off the streets by engaging them in positive activities. At the festival in California, the kids sang a wide range of traditional Kurdish folk songs, played instruments, and even danced for the audience.

Now, back in Turkey, a few of them are facing charges by Turkish prosecutors for singing these songs in California…

To cut to the chase, the song the children are being prosecuted for is "Ey Reqîb," which is well-known throughout the Kurdish world and was used to close the broadcast day, every day, on Roj TV. Not that Turkey needs an excuse to persecute Kurds and in this case, as in every case, it stoops to the level of the absurd. I kind of suspect that the Ankara regime's behavior is the result of a mass inferiority complex which is the legacy of Kemalist ideology. There's probably a big chunk of guilt complex mixed in, too, since the regime knows very well who it was that helped it out during the war for independence. In fact, there would have been no independence without Kurds standing and fighting.

The EUObserver reports on the AKP's recent bellydance to win over the EU in order to have someone in their court over the closure case:

The Turkish parliament is next week likely to pass a bill softening a law which sets limits on freedom of the speech by criminalizing insults to "Turkishness".

[ . . . ]

I believe we will push the amendment to Article 301 through parliament next week," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday (8 April), according to press agencies.

Late on Monday, the Turkish government submitted its draft proposal for amendments to the parliament, suggesting, among other things, that the country's president should give his consent before prosecutors can launch cases in that field.

It also proposes that the vague term "Turkishness" be replaced by "Turkish nation", and the prison time envisaged be decreased from three to two years while the sentence could be suspended or converted to a fine, AFP reports.

The move comes just days before a visit to Turkey on Thursday and Friday by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn.

Okay. That fourth paragraph should read: "It also proposes that the vague term "Turkishness" be replaced by the equally vague term "Turkish nation" . . .

Here's more:

Faced with the looming possibility of being closed down by Turkey’s Constitutional Court, the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) seems to be making a political turn back toward the center. Perhaps hoping Brussels might come to the rescue, party leaders in recent days have refocused attention on European Union-oriented reforms as a way of staving off the threat to their political future.

[ . . . ]

The Constitutional Court threat seems to have reinvigorated the AKP’s reformist intentions. The government now says it will present to parliament an amendment that would make it harder to for cases to be opened under Article 301. The bill would make the Turkish president responsible for approving any prosecution related to law, taking it out of the hands of prosecutors who may be acting with nationalistic motives. Other reforms also appear to be in the offing.

[ . . ]

[Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Enlargement] Rehn is due to arrive in Turkey on April 10 for a three-day visit, along with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.

The AKP's plan is to welcome Rehn and Barroso with the appearance of lurching toward democracy by playing around with the language of Article 301. Or, maybe I should say this was AKP's plan.

You see, there's a minor snag. AKP was hoping to have the proposed changes to Article 301 in the parliamentary works by Rehn and Barroso's 10 April visit. However, the president of the parliament, Köksal Toptan (AKP), is in China. He's supposed to forward the proposal to the justice commission in order to initiate the parliamentary process for change to the constitution. He's got a deputy, though, right? No problem. Wrong. His deputy, Güldal Mumcu is CHP. She has determined that the issue is not serious, so she's sitting on the proposal until Toptan returns from China.

OOPS!

The clock is ticking . . . Rehn and Barroso are due to arrive any time. Meanwhile, Mumcu continues to file her nails and eat lokum, while sitting on the 301 proposal . . .

CENSORING TOLHILDAN

"Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind."
~ General William Westmoreland.

Heval Tolhildan (David Rouillet), Bahoz Erdal (HPG Headquarters Commander), Ursula Rouillet (Tolhildan's mother).

A while back I posted something on Heval Tolhildan (David Rouiller), who had left his home in Switzerland in 2001 to join HPG. Kurdish filmmaker, Mano Khalil, tracked down Heval Tolhildan in the mountains and made a videotape of his story. Later, Khalil helped Ursula Rouillet, Heval Tolhildan's mother, make the trip to the Kurdish mountains to visit her son and his comrades.

Heval Tolhildan's father, Claude Rouiller, a former president of the Federal Court in Lausanne, approved of Heval Tolhildan's choice to defend the Kurdish people by saying, "If my son has found meaning through this work he is doing, then I am the happiest person in the world. Even though some might not like this, I am proud of him."

Mano Khalil's documentary film on Heval Tolhildan's life was slated to be shown at the Singapore International Film Festival, but it has apparently been banned from the festival along with another documentary for "...sympathetic portrayal of organisations deemed terrorist organisations by many countries."

There's a little more, from Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal:

David The Tolhildan -- Directed by Mano Khalil, the documentary follows the story of David Rouiller, son of a prominent Swiss judge, who joined the Kurdistan Workers Party, which is recognized as terrorist organization by the US and EU. According to the Board of Film Censors chairwoman Amy Chua, both Arabs and Terrorism and David the Tolhildan "portray terrorist organizations in a positive light by lending support and voice to justify their cause through violence", which are disallowed under the film classification guidelines.

[ . . . ]

The censorship comes as Singapore is trying to liberalize its image, bringing in casinos, a night-time Formula 1 race, staging massive arts and music festivals and promoting its nightlife. It has a motion-picture ratings system that seems to work. But paranoia and censorship still reign, particularly when it comes to political subjects.

Don't you just love democracy?

I think the excuse for banning both documentaries has more to do with the fact that their content would contradict the official propaganda that "civilized" societies have worked long and hard to promote as Absolute Truth. The "civilized" societies have spent a lot of money on their PR campaigns to brainwash their populations. In the case of David the Tolhildan, audiences might get the idea that the Kurdish cause is just; that those who take up arms against the grave injustice of Turkey and all its allies are human; and that perhaps there is much more to the Global War on Terror, Incorporated, than what the real terrorists would have the world believe.

Who was the nincompoop who first said, "They hate us for our freedoms"? What freedoms? Certainly not the freedom of expression which contradicts the myths of the status quo.

FEITH TRIES TO MAKE ANOTHER CLEAN BREAK

"Members of the "Clean Break" study group included Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser, and several other like-minded ideologues, many of whom would later be given posts in the administration of President George W. Bush."
~ Ronald Bruce St. John, "A Real Clean Break in the Middle East," RightWeb Analysis.

Oh, man. Here's something that might just make Sibel Edmonds' blood boil.

Doug "The Fucking Stupidest Guy on the Face of the Earth" Feith has a book coming out this week. In celebration of this, 60 Minutes has an interview with him which you can view here. Runtime is a little over 12 minutes.

Feith claims the decision to invade Iraq was a result of its being a "special case" because of Saddam's record. Saddam had attacked Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, defied the UN, evaded economic sanctions, used weapons of mass destruction on his own people, and had the know how-how, if not the wherewithal, to build a nuclear weapon.

First of all, Saddam did not attack his own people with WMDs; he attacked Kurds with WMD's. Saddam was an Arab, not a Kurd.

As for the US, it regularly defies the UN and all international law. The US has a track record of having used WMD's at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It used a chemical weapon, Agent Orange, regularly in Vietnam. Feith conveniently omits the fact that the US backed Saddam's war against Iran and backed his use of chemical weapons against Kurds. 60 Minutes didn't call him out about those facts, either.

Neither did 60 Minutes call him out on the fact that Saddam was a US ally for many years.

Now, I'll agree that Iraq was a "special case," but it was a "special case" for Big Oil, Corporate America, and the Israel lobby, and not for any reason having to do with morality or the welfare of anyone living under the Saddam government.

The whole panoply of Bush administration liars--guys right at the top like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell--is presented speaking their own lies.

According to Feith, Rumsfeld told Bush that the US might not find WMD's on the ground. This was supposedly part of a larger memo describing everything that might go wrong with the Iraq misadventure. For this reason, the memo is referred to as the CYA (Cover Your Ass) memo. Feith referred to it as the "Parade of Horribles," and describes the brainstorming that went into creating the CYA memo as "very intense and very disturbing work." Imagine!

Some of the items in the "Parade of Horribles" (aka the CYA Memo):

**The US could become so absorbed in its Iraq effort that we pay inadequate attention to other serious problems.

**The war could cause more harm and entail greater costs than expected.

**It would not go on for 2 - 4 years but for 8 - 10 years.

**Terrorists networks could improve their recruiting and fundraising as a result of the US being depicted as anti-Muslim.

**Iraq could experience ethnic strife among Kurds, Sunnis, and Shi'a

**It could damage the US relationship with its allies and its reputation with the world community.

Feith says, in reference to the memo-and the items listed above--that Rumsfeld felt it was useless to try to predict the future but, obviously, they knew the results exactly because they have come to pass. Feith says these things have come to pass only in "a broad sense"--whatever the hell that means.

Feith writes in his book that the one thing the Pentagon underestimated was resistance efforts by Saddam's loyalists. Of course, we are told one day that the Iraqi resistance is Saddam loyalists. The next day we are told it is Iranians. The day after that, we are told it is al-Qaeda. Finally, we are told it is all foreign fighters.

We are also told that Sunni insurgents are now on the payroll of the US to fight al-Qaeda. The US is supposedly cutting more than 70,000 of these welfare checks.

Isn't that negotiation with terrorists?

Taking a cue from the interview, we might refer to Feith's book as a CYA book because apparently Feith blames everyone else for the disaster that is Iraq and insists it never would have turned out this way if everyone had listened to him.

No doubt, in this book, a lot of poo is going to be flung.

And poo it most definitely will be, because Feith is a known registered agent for Turkey along with Richard Perle. The two of them were instrumental in establishing the tight little military relationship between Turkey and Israel way back in 1996.

While he was at the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, picking and choosing his intel, Feith was deeply involved with Ahmed Chalabi, Harold Rhode, Larry Franklin, Manucher Ghorbanifar, and Michael Ledeen. What was Feith doing with all these guys? Cooking up the Niger Forgeries to "prove" Iraq was buying yellowcake.

In other words, not only was Feith picking and choosing intel, he was helping to manufacture it.

I haven't included here a link to Feith's new book, nor have I checked Amazon to see if it's available for pre-order, because I don't recommend that you buy it. Instead, wait until the book is available at your local public library and then check it out, if you're so inclined.

After all, we certainly don't want to enrich this little bastard any more, do we?

HEROES, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AND TURKISH NUKES

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”
~ Joseph Campbell.

There's something on Ragıp Zarakoğlu from last weekend on Scotland on Sunday, thanks to Seta's Armenian Blog:

In the 30 years since he and his first wife Ayse started their publishing house, Belge, he has gone through 40 trials. Although he says he can generally cope with the pressure, it's not always manageable - he spent several months last year in a US hospital being treated for heart problems. Now, in his late 50s, he faces the possibility of a three-year jail sentence.

[ . . .]

Most of us think of Turkey as a cheap holiday destination – a place of sandy beaches, brilliant sunshine and the odd ruin to add a little culture to our break. We wouldn't think twice about letting the Turks into the European Union – Turkey is, after all, a modern, democratic society, is it not? For all the talk about the oppressed Kurds, every second carpet seller in Istanbul is Kurdish, so what's the problem?

But Turkey is not quite like that. Since 1984, 30,000 Kurds have been burned out of their villages and murdered by death squads. And no one is allowed to talk about it.

There are five main taboos in Turkish society and Kurdish oppression is one of them. The others are the Armenian genocide, when more than a million Armenians were killed between 1915 and the establishment of the modern Turkish state in 1923; the military; Sharia law, which the government of this predominantly Muslim country does not wish discussed because it is determined to keep the state secular; and lastly, defaming the name of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish state. His portrait can still be seen in shops and offices all over the country, although he died in 1938.

[ . . . ]

For dissidents such as Zarakolu, struggle has been a way of life. Born in 1948, he was inflamed by Sixties hippy culture, by the idea of revolution and the protest songs of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Unlike the radicals of the west, his belief in the revolution was tested. He was first sent to prison in 1971 for belonging to a suspicious organisation – Amnesty International.

He and Ayse set up Belge in 1977 and continued to publish in the face of further imprisonment, the torture of Ayse and the firebombing of their premises by a right-wing group. "If you accept this is a struggle for the truth and for freedom of expression, it helps for me to try and remember what we went through in the past," he says.

"Sometimes we went in prison, sometimes we used the trial as a platform, sometimes we felt ourselves to be the prosecutors against the system. We try to force our society to face its history. Without this hardship we can't change society. Somebody must pay the bill."

He has been paying the bill for 30 years. Even on the day he buried his wife – Ayse died of cancer in 2002 – the Turkish authorities couldn't leave Zarakolu and his family alone. As Ayse's coffin was carried to the grave by eight Kurdish women, they were watching. As her son Deniz rose to make an emotional speech about his mother's work on behalf of the Kurds, they were watching. They waited the 40 days of mourning that is traditional in Turkey and then arrested Deniz for questioning by the anti-terror team.

"Normally humanity respects death," says Zarakolu. "This was a psychological problem for me, something like torture, because it's very aggressive. It's the unrespectfulness against the funeral, against the truth."

It took a change in the laws for Deniz to be acquitted. The charge? He had dared to suggest that Turkey's oppressed Kurdish minority might one day have an independent life. "I think Kurdish women will be free some day," he said. "And they will not forget my mother."

Six years on, the Kurds have still not forgotten Ayse and how she fought for them. In one town in the Kurdish region of Turkey, they wanted to name a public park after her but the authorities refused, saying she was a convicted criminal.

[ . . . ]

On April 8 Zarakolu faces what is expected to be his last trial, the culmination of a four-year process that began in 2004. It is presented by the Turkish courts as the scrupulous and thorough pursuit of justice, but to even the most casual observer it looks like judicial harassment. I ask Zarakolu if he is afraid of going to jail. It would, after all, be easy for him to stay in the United States with Katherine. He's almost 60 now, not an age to be contemplating going back behind bars. "Generally I forget," he says. "But sometimes I feel tired – exhausted. It's another way of oppression."

There's much more there, and Ragıp (and his late wife Ayşenur) are among the few, true heroes of Turkey, so take the time to read the whole thing.

Forty Kurdish women were arrested in Belgium on Friday, suspected of being hevals. So much for the EU, The List, and PKK. If the EU really wanted to crack down on terrorism, it should probably raid every Turkish embassy and consulate in its jurisdiction . . .

Did you ever wonder why the conflict of interest over Joseph Ralston's appointment as "PKK coordinator" never caused the scandal it should have? Wonder no longer:

Members of Congress have as much as $196 million collectively invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the onset of the Iraq war, according to a study by a nonpartisan research group.

Not all the companies in which lawmakers invested are typical defense contractors. Corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson have at one point received defense-related contracts, notes the report by the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics.

The center's review of lawmakers' 2006 financial disclosure statements suggests that members' holdings could pose a conflict of interest as they decide the fate of Iraq war spending. Several members earning money from these contractors have plum committee or leadership assignments, including Democratic Sen. John Kerry, independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman and House Republican Whip Roy Blunt.

The study found that more Republicans than Democrats hold stock in defense companies, but that the Democrats who are invested had significantly more money at stake. In 2006, for example, Democrats held at least $3.7 million in military-related investments, compared to Republican investments of $577,500.

Overall, 151 members hold investments worth $78.7 million to $195.5 million in companies that receive defense contracts that are worth at least $5 million. These investments earned them anywhere between $15.8 million and $62 million between 2004 and 2006, the center concludes.

A look at a few individual invertebrates:

Kerry, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is identified as earning the most — at least $2.6 million between 2004 and 2006 from investments worth up to $38.2 million.

Spokesman David Wade said Kerry, who staunchly opposes the war in Iraq, is one of many beneficiaries of family trusts that he doesn't control. Wade also noted that Kerry does not sit on the Appropriations Committee, which has direct control of the defense budget.

"He has a 24-year Senate record of working and voting in the best interests of our men and women in the military, not of any defense contractors," Wade said.

It's impossible to believe that this dirtball, Kerry, "staunchly opposes the war in Iraq," since that war has enriched him, and I don't give a damn what kind of lies his spokesman tells the public.

Here's another:

Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a member of the Armed Services Committee, held a considerably smaller share at $51,000. A spokesman said the senator, who supports continued operations in Iraq, is "careful to make his policy decisions based only on what is best for the country."

Oh, I know I believe him. One more:

A spokesman for Blunt, R-Mo., a senior member of House GOP leadership who held at least $15,000 in Lockheed Martin stock in 2006, said the insinuation that lawmakers' votes might be affected by their portfolios is "offensive." Like Lieberman, Blunt has been a fierce supporter of the war.

"I don't pretend to speak for other offices, but I am fairly certain that no member would consider their personal finances when voting on issues as important as sending our men and women in uniform into harm's way," said Blunt spokesman Nick Simpson. The Lockheed Martin stock was given to Blunt's wife by her mother, he said.

Ah, here's the old "my-wife's-mother-gave-her-the-stock" story. Actually, what is truly offensive is that Congress is, in fact, benefiting not only from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also on their phony Global War On Terror, Incorporated. And that's why there will be absolutely no change on the global status quo when a new administration takes over in January 2009.

Here's something you probably won't see too much of, although it's definitely something to watch for:

A report warns of Saudi Arabia and Turkey possibly joining in a nuclear arms race.

The report says the Saudis would most likely develop nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them. High-level American diplomats in Riyadh say an Iranian nuclear weapon frightens the Saudis "to their core."

The report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also says Turkey would come under pressure to follow suit if Iran builds nuclear weapons. It says while Turkey doesn't see Iran as an enemy, it also believes a power balance between the countries is the primary reason for a peaceful relationship between them.

The report was prepared by a committee staff member after interviewing hundreds of individuals in Washington and the Middle East last year.

I don't believe the "follow suit under pressure" nonsense. I suspect Turkey's been wanting to be a nuclear player for some time. After all, they did buy all those nuclear secrets from Marc Grossman et al, and nobody paid attention to that. Isn't Grossman still walking around a free man?

Turkey with nuclear weapons . . . what could be more scary?

FRIDAY NIGHT MUSIC FROM ŞEHÎD DELILA

"Rise O fallen fighters, rise and take your stance again, He who fight and run away, Live to fight another day."
~ Bob Marley.

Friday night music from Şehîd Delila and friends. Enjoy.

EU COURT RULES ON PKK

"We constantly read that terrorism is the weapon of the weak. That is totally false, the exact opposite of truth. Like any other weapon, terrorism is used much more effectively by the strong, and in particular by more powerful states which are the leaders in terrorism throughout the world, except that they call it "counter-terrorism."
~ Noam Chomsky, addressing the Kurds in Amed.

The European Court of First Instance has overturned the ruling which placed PKK on the EU's "terror" list, from IHT:

A European Union court on Thursday overturned the bloc's decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the EU terror list.

The Luxembourg-based EU Court of First Instance said that decisions made by EU governments in 2002 and 2004 to blacklist the two groups and freeze their assets violated the bloc's law.

It is the latest of several court decisions overturning similar EU decisions on the grounds that the groups added to the terror list were not properly informed of the decision to blacklist them nor given a right to appeal the decision.

[ . . . ]

Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, has said the EU's anti-terror rules violated democratic principles.

EU nations decided in April 2007 to inform groups and individuals when they are placed on the terror list. Those listed will now be able to ask why they were put on the list and why their assets are frozen. But there are still no procedures for an independent review and for compensation for possible human rights breaches.

The article mentions a similar ruling which annuled MEK's place on The List, and it's important to note that Hamas, which has been invited to Ankara by the Turkish government for warm discussions, is also on The List.

This new ruling overturns the EU's placement of PKK on the "terror" list on the basis of a technicality. Hevallo has a link to the text of the ruling and he's picked out two points from the text that he considers revealing:

40 As part of its outline of the material facts in the application, the applicant invites the Court to make certain general findings of fact in support of the applicant’s claim. These facts concern the status of the Kurds, the policy and objectives pursued by the PKK, and the relationship between the Turkish State and the Kurds.

41 The Council submits that this request is inadmissible. It observes that in the context of an application pursuant to Article 230 EC the Court is not obliged to make such general findings of fact and is entitled to concentrate on those which are directly relevant to the contested acts, which is a matter for the Court’s appreciation.

To me, this appears to mean that the lawyers for PKK attempted to present the facts of Turkey's brutal repression of Kurds and they asked for a ruling on those facts. The court then says that it isn't there to make a determination of the facts in the case that we all know as Kurds v. Turkey. Instead, they are making a determination based on whether or not the act of listing PKK was legal under EU law.

It seems to me that this is similar to what the US Supreme Court is supposed to do: It's supposed to examine federal and state statutes and executive actions to determine whether they conform to the U.S. Constitution.

This determination by the European Court of First Instance is a good first step. However, there should definitely be an open and impartial examination of the situation of the Kurdish people in Turkey by a judicial organization such as the European Court of Human Rights, and the findings must be made public. This is what Öcalan was attempting to accomplish at the time of his betrayal and capture, and it's something that is greatly needed. Therefore, this ruling is not an end; it's only a beginning.

I do agree with Hevallo's analysis that the EU doesn't want to have to admit the "facts concern[ing] the status of the Kurds, the policy and objectives pursued by the PKK, and the relationship between the Turkish State and the Kurds," because to do so would be an admittance of the legitimacy of the freedom struggle of the PKK. At such a point, it would be clear to all that UN Resolution 3103 ("Basic principles of the legal status of the combatants struggling against colonial and alien domination and racist regimes") is wholly applicable to the PKK.

In addition, it would be embarassing for the EU to admit that it's been highly supportive of the Ankara regime and its brutal repression of the Kurdish people.

Yeni Özgür Politika and Özgür Gündem are both carrying the Firat News report on the EU court's decision, and the information is basically the same as found in the IHT report. Firat did note, however, that this ruling came down in time for Öcalan's birthday (4 April).

Yeni Özgür Politika has a report on Erdoğan's visit to Sweden. Apparently he was greeted in front of the Swedish parliament by a crowd of about 300 Kurds, Armenians, and Assyrians, who welcomed Erdoğan by throwing eggs and rotten tomatoes at him. Those who launched the groceries were detained by Swedish police.

From the photo, we see that the series of photos of Cüneyt Ertuş getting his arm broken by Turkish police are prominent. The slogans chanted during the gathering included "Murderer Erdoğan!" "Terrorist Turkey!" "The PKK is the people; the people is here!" The Kurds carried signs that pointed out Turkish state terror in Kurdistan, the beating of Kurdish women by Turkish police on Newroz, and the breaking of the arms of Kurdish children for the cameras--a sure sign of the impunity that the fascist security forces continue to enjoy. The Assyrians and the Armenians made sure that Erdoğan would not forget their genocides of 1915.

Swedish Folk Party parliamentarian Friedrik Malm, recalling Erdoğan's claim in Germany that "assimilation is a crime against humanity," told Erdoğan, "Don't even say this in Sweden because you are carrying out a great assimilation." He went on to mention DTP parliamentarian Hasip Kaplan's punishment for saying, "Newroz Pîroz be," and how traffic lights are problematic because they are the Kurdish colors: yellow, red, and green.

Personally, I'm very happy to know that Erdoğan received such a warm welcome in Sweden. After all, we wouldn't want him to feel ignored.

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.

DIYARBAKIR GOVERNOR ON "AMNESTY"

"The power of authority is never more subtle and effective than when it produces a psychological “atmosphere” or “climate” favorable to the life of certain modes of belief, unfavorable, and even fatal, to the life of others."
~ Arthur Balfour.

Apparently some Kurds from Iraq have been forcibly deported from the UK to the democratic paradise of South Kurdistan. Hevallo has the run-down on that, and be sure to check Hîwa for additional info and commentary.

Does everyone remember the video and photos from Newroz? Does everyone remember Cüneyt Ertuş getting his arm broken by fascist AKP police? Check Hevallo for more photos and videos, if your memory needs refreshing.

Okay, with those facts in mind, take a look at what the Diyarbakır AKP-appointed governor has to say about his phony amnesty-for-guerrillas propaganda program:

Diyarbakır Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu provided information on the recent attempts to get young people who had joined the PKK to leave and stressed that every person who returned home was important. Noting that efforts are being made to ensure that the peaceful environment is sustainable, Mutlu underlined that serenity and peace would be the major dynamic of economic and social development in the region. Mutlu further noted that everyone should do their part to promote brotherhood and solidarity in the region.

He added that attempts to have PKK militants return to their homes and families would continue. Recalling that they wanted to give another chance to those who had committed mistakes, Mutlu stressed that a fresh start by any person was vital.

Really, Hüseyin, old boy??! Guess what, Hüseyin, old boy, the only ones who have committed "mistakes" is the Ankara regime and its occupation goons in The Southeast. Guess what else, Hüseyin, old boy, no one in their right mind wants to give your goons--be they military or police--a "fresh start." After all, Turkish security forces are the only terrorists in The Region.

And this is the really hilarious part:

Asking whether there is anything more valuable than life, Mutlu said: "Our desire to keep people alive is strong. We are working toward this goal, this is an ongoing endeavor. To this end, every day matters for us. Everyone is valuable. Every person who returns home is important. We provide help and assistance for them following the return. … Hopefully, everybody will return home. This is our goal. Life is beautiful. We would like to see them enjoy the beauties of life. Wrong decisions are made sometimes; one can be fooled by others and there may be some mistakes, but it is also possible to make up for them. There is nothing better than returning to one's family and life. I hope that everyone will get to enjoy this feeling."

Can you believe it?? "Life is beautiful!" Oh my god! Give me a few minutes here while I pick myself off the floor and catch my breath from laughing so hard!

Seriously, the only "wrong mistakes" have been made by the Ankara regime and it is impossible to make up for them. Oh, by the way, those "100 terrorists" who returned home were the 100 commandos you sent to infiltrate PKK, right, oh happy one? I mean, they failed and they came home, right, oh happy one?

It's too late. The images of Turkish brutality have been flying around the Internet. Today, I found the information had made it into a Spanish-language blog, here and here. Through those posts, I found it in Spanish-language media, and you should check the comments. Use Google's language tools if you need help with translating the comments. The news has spread to a Japanese blog and to a Brazilian blog, in English. Check some of the commentary there:

A holocaust nearly the same grade of the one who was comitted to jews, the same barbarism have the kurds faced. And the world is quiet. The kurdish people are victims of the economical agreements between west and Turkey.

Now there's someone who calls it like it is. There's someone who's got about a billion times more correct perception of reality than the dumbass governor of Diyarbakır. You would think the governor of Diyarbakır was busily scarfing down magic mushrooms as he made his life-is-beautiful crap statement.

Somebody give the governor a urine test.

Of course, to be fair, it may be that the governor is terrified. After all, one million Kurds turned out for Amed's (Diyarbakır) Newroz celebration. They all have access, one way or another, to Roj TV. They've all seen or heard about the atrocities committed by Turkish security forces during Newroz. I'm willing to bet they're all pissed.

One million Kurds at Amed's Newroz celebration. Think about it. That's more warm bodies than the TSK has.

GOING TO TRIAL

"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule--and both commonly succeed, and are right..."
~ H.L. Mencken.

Brilliant news, from Reuters:

Turkey's top court agreed on Monday to hear a case to shut down the ruling AK Party and bar the prime minister from office, sharply escalating a long and destabilizing dispute over the role of Islam in secular Turkey.

The Constitutional Court's decision heralds months of uncertainty for the EU candidate country, which is embroiled in a feud between the Islamist-rooted AK Party and a powerful secular elite, including army generals, that accuses AK of plotting to turn Turkey into an Iran-style theocracy.

The AK Party, which has presided over strong economic growth and democratic political reforms since sweeping to power in 2002, denies the charges it has an Islamist agenda and says the lawsuit is an attack on Turkish democracy.

The petition, drawn up by the chief prosecutor of the Court of Appeals, calls for 71 AK Party officials including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul to be banned from politics for five years.

After a lengthy meeting, the Constitutional Court's 11 judges decided in a rare unanimous ruling to take up the case for closing the AK Party and for barring Erdogan and dozens of other lawmakers from politics for engaging in Islamist activities aimed at weakening the secular state.

And the EU is encouraging the AKP to re-rig the consitution to save the AKP--and the EU didn't encourage this for DTP' sake:

European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said he would brief the full European Commission on the case on Wednesday, saying it exposed a "systemic error" in Turkey's constitution that may require an amendment.

"The prohibition or dissolution of political parties is a far-reaching measure which should be used with the utmost restraint," Rehn said in a statement. "I do not see any such justification for this case."

Rehn knows damned well that rigging the constitution for its own benefit is a hallmark of the AKP, which always manages to benefit from "systematic errors":

The AKP scored a remarkable landslide victory in the November 2002 parliamentary elections, garnering 34% of the national vote and capturing a commanding 363-seat majority.

[ . . . ]

Because Erdogan had been banned from political office in 1998, his deputy, Abdullah Gul, initially assumed the premiership. But it was clear from the beginning that Erdogan was calling the shots. In December 2002, US President George W. Bush stunned the Turkish political establishment in Ankara by inviting Erdogan to the White House. "You believe in the Almighty, and I believe in the Almighty. That's why we'll be great partners," the American president is said to have told his counterpart.[6] Proceeding on to Europe, Erdogan received assurances that the EU would commence accession negotiations with Ankara in December 2004 if Turkey undertook sufficient political and economic reforms.

In part because of American and European de facto recognition of Erdogan's authority, the Turkish military accepted the new administration's amendment of the constitution to lift the ban on Erdogan's political activity and holding of a by-election to allow for his entry into parliament (a requirement to be prime minister). In March 2004, Erdogan formally assumed the premiership.

Nor is it anything new that Katil Erdoğan is, in fact, pursuing an Islamist agenda:

In contrast to Erbakan, he [Erdoğan] developed a keen understanding of when not to push his agenda. He banned alcohol from municipal establishments, but wisely took no steps to ban drinking in restaurants (as a number of other Welfare mayors attempted to do). After initially endorsing a project to build a large Mosque complex in the heart of the city, he quickly abandoned the idea when his constituents organized protests.

[ . . . ]

Erdogan nevertheless got into trouble in 1997 by publicly reading a passage from a well-known poem written by Ziya Gokalp (1876-1924), sociologist, writer, and theoretician of Turkish nationalism: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers."[4] Charged with crimes against laiklik, Erdogan was jailed for 10 months and banned from politics for the rest of his life - an experience which led him to appreciate the futility of confronting Kemalist political traditions head on.

It appears that his initial experience didn't create enough appreciation.

What confrontation with Kemalist political traditions has Katil Erdoğan been focusing on for months now? Head scarves. But AKP's deputy prime minister, Cemil Çiçek now claims that AKP is going to focus on more important issues . . . for real and for true, from CNN:

Cicek, however, downplayed the importance of the legal challenge, saying: "We are focusing on economic issues and reforms to progress the country's membership bid to join the European Union."

The only reason Çiçek is talking like this is because Katil Erdoğan "swiftly ordered his party’s members not to comment to the press on the case, initial reports said on Monday," according to Islamist Zaman. That's just like banning any media reporting of the Ergenekon case, which Erdoğan also ordered. Zaman listed another priority of Çiçek:

Speaking shortly after Ergün, government spokesperson and Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek said after a Cabinet meeting yesterday evening that the court process would not affect the government’s functioning. He said the government would continue to concentrate on its priorities such as the economy and the European Union accession process.

[ . . . ]

He said the process ahead concerning the closure of the AK Party was the business of the court. “Our priority right now is İzmir’s EXPO 2015. Our priorities are economic balances and seeing success in our negotiations with the EU.”

CHP's Deniz Baykal is going to help Çiçek out:


Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal in his initial remarks on the decision said he would not be commenting, “'The only issue I have on my agenda is İzmir,' he said, referring to the vote of an international body on İzmir’s bid to host the EXPO world fair in 2015."


Oh, little Flower! Oh, little Sea! You are both SO screwed:

Izmir was shocked by the final results of the voting held on the location of EXPO 2015 after having spent 15 million Euros on publicity. Turkey received only 65 votes out of 152 countries, losing out to Milan on the opportunity to host Expo 2015.

Time to focus on something else, guys, like maybe how your goons are murdering Kurds in The Southeast?

Of course, we should be absolutely clear as to the exact reason that the EU--good old economic club that it is--is concerned about the upcoming trial against the AKP, from Market Watch:

Turkey's stocks and currency fell sharply on Monday, battered by a much weaker-than-expected report on GDP growth in the fourth quarter as well as heightened political concerns.

[ . . . ]

The index has tumbled 30% year-to-date, making it one of the worst performers among major emerging markets indexes. The underperformance of Turkish stocks this year is in stark contrast to their outperformance in 2007.

The Turkish currency, the lira, was also battered on Monday. The lira tumbled 2.6% against the euro and 2% against the U.S. dollar.

"This morning, the sell-off in the Turkish markets continues on the back of the weak GDP numbers, increased political tensions in Turkey and renewed jitters in the global credit markets," said Lars Christensen, chief analyst at Denmark's Danske Bank, in a research note.

"The lira looks very fragile in the global environment," he said.

And:

Monday's decline in the Turkish lira reflects a broad weakness in the currency this year. The lira has tumbled about 12% against the U.S. dollar year-to-date.

Well, we all know that the value of the dollar has been dropping like a rock, but it sounds like an even bigger rock dropping in Ankara. Compare that with something a friend sent in email last week, from Britain's Telegraph:

Turkey is first in line for any stress test, said Neil Schering, an East Europe expert at Capital Economics.

"I wouldn't want to keep any money in the Turkish lira: the puzzle is how it has stayed so high for so long. There are huge imbalances in the economy. The current account deficit is nearly 8pc of GDP, and the chief prosecutor is trying to shut down the government," he said, referring to last week's court move to ban the ruling Islamic AKP party, as well as the president and prime minister, for alleged breach of the country's secular laws.

Turkey has a foreign debt of $276bn. The Istanbul bank YapiKredi says Turkish companies may have great difficulty raising some $48bn of fresh loans needed this year to stay afloat.

Neil must be having kittens over the Turkish economy today, but someone needs to fill him in on Turkey's use of black and green money to keep its economy going. An example, from Dissident Voice:

According to London’s Letter written by a Member of Parliament, “The war against drugs and drug trafficking in Britain is huge. Turkish heroin in particular is a top priority for the MI6 and the Foreign Ministry. During his visit to the British Embassy in Ankara, the head of the Foreign Office’s Turkey Department was clear about this. He reassured an English journalist that the heroin trade was more important than billions of pounds worth of trade capacity and weapons selling. When the journalist in question told me about this, I was reminded of my teacher’s words at university in Ankara ten years ago. He was also working for the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The topic of a lecture discussion was about Turkey’s Economy and I still remember his words today,

“50 billion dollars worth of foreign debt is nothing, it is two lorry loads of heroin...”

Kendal Nezan has also written about one source for the Ankara regime's black money--its drug trafficking. Green money includes such businesses as Ülker, İhlas Holding, and Gülen's empire, from TDN:

One inevitable part of the picture is Muslim spiritual leader Fethullah Gulen, who now resides in the United States. Today the Gulen community controls a nationwide media empire that includes a television station (Samanyolu), a radio station (Burc FM), a daily newspaper (Zaman) and a weekly magazine (Aksiyon) and several other periodicals. It also owns an Islamic (interest-free) bank (Asya Finans) and is linked to a number of business groups and prosperous entrepreneurs who help fund many of his endeavors especially in the field of education, a network of 150 schools in Turkey and possibly more abroad.

As the BBC reports, "The AKP argues the case against it is an attack on democracy," and this is certainly what they'd like everyone to believe so that they can go on playing the victim of the big, bad secularists. But in the wake of the Ergenekon busts, there are rumors that AKP is working to establish its own Deep State.

Any argument that claims the AKP closure case is merely a matter of "democracy" is an argument from hypocrisy. As correctly noted by Ilter Turan of Istanbul's Bilgi University, in the CNN article:

"The ruling party had no reaction when the chief prosecutor sought to disband a pro-Kurdish party," Turan said, referring to a case against the Democratic Society Party on charges of ties to Kurdish rebels.

Even Yusuf Kanlı, of TDN, asked: "Who had opposed and criticized the closure case filed against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)?" Certainly Katil Erdoğan didn't oppose or criticize that closure case. Neither did Olli Rehn and the EU.

To paraphrase Katil Erdoğan during the Amed Serhildan: Whoever cries for AKP now, let's hope they will cry in vain.

PKK: WE ARE PREPARED

"We are prepared and we are stronger than ever."
~ Bozan Tekin, PKK spokesman.

First, there's a new Kurdish blog that I've added to the blog list in the right margin, and it's called Kurdish Review so you may want to check that one and bookmark it. It's a group blog with a number of authors, so a variety of opinions should be available.

Second, Gordon Taylor has more information on Cüneyt Ertuş, the 15-year-old who had his arm broken by Turkish security forces:


Cuneyt's father related his own story to DIHA, the Dicle Haber Ajansi (Tigris News Agency), a pro-Kurdish outlet which publishes in Turkish from Europe. Zubeyir Ertuş told DIHA that his son went on a shopping trip to the center of Hakkari (formerly Julamerk, or Colemerg), the capital city of Hakkari province, on March 22. After the events of that day he didn't hear from his son, and he thought that Cuneyt had been detained. "At last," he said, after two days of searching, "I found him on Roj-TV." If only he hadn't. Zubeyir: "The police were breaking my son's arm right in front of the representatives of the press. I looked away in horror. I didn't want to believe my eyes."

[ . . . ]

In the meantime, we have Zubeyir Ertuş and his son Cuneyt, who because of a satellite channel and the sharing of photos on the Internet, are suddenly not alone. In a past posting about the Turks' recent invasion of northern Iraq, I talked about another pro-PKK news outlet, Firat News, and the dozens of reports that they constantly get in detailing the movements of Turkish government forces. Here we see the same thing, as the Kurds have constructed their own "virtual Kurdistan" from the reports, videos, and digital photos of their own people.

Read the rest.

Also check out Hevallo's point of irony on the situation of Cüneyt.

Now on to some PKK news from Özgür Gündem . . .

There have been reports in Western media in the last couple of days, claiming that TSK had killed 15 guerrillas, but HPG denies the story:

HPG refutes Turkish media

HPG refuted news in Turkish media which claimed 15 HPG guerrillas were killed in the Turkish army's bombardment.

According to a statement by HPG's media center, HPG refuted the claim that 15 guerrillas were killed in attacks carried out against the Medya Defense Zones on 28 March 2008, in the Zagros region of the Medya Defense Zones.

HPG mentioned in its statement that general staff officials manufactured this kind of war scenario. "This and similar claims are ones manufactured by the special warfare desk; they are a part of psychological warfare and they are lies," HPG explained in the statement.

In Turkish-occupied Kurdistan over the weekend, HPG inflicted some casualties on the TSK. In the Amed (Diyarbakır) region, HPG guerrillas killed 4 Turkish soldiers and wounded 3 on 29 March 2008 around 0500 hours. While the Turkish army conducted operations on Mt. Cudî, HPG infiltrated TSK's area of operations around 0130 hours. During this infiltration, 2 Turkish troops were killed and one day after this infiltration, the TSK was forced to retreat.

In Şemzinan, also on 29 March, according to a regional source, 10 military support vehicles deployed to Rûbarok to reinforce TSK forces operating there

PKK spokesman Bozan Tekin recently spoke on upcoming spring operations, saying that TSK's operations will intensify. "We are prepared and we are stronger than ever," Tekin said. To emphasize the fact, Tekin stated that PKK has 8 to 10 thousand fighters today.

In his statement to AFP, Bozan Tekin said, "The Turkish state must hear the message of freedom of the Kurdish people, and immediately it must end its violence against civilians." He warned, "Uncontrollable reactions may occur. The Turkish state and the ruling party will be responsible for such incidents."

"Despite ongoing progress, if the Turkish state does not stop its attacks against civilians," Tekin continued, "PKK will retaliate."

Even though TSK has 9 military bases in South Kurdistan, Tekin said that if Turkish troops had been able, they wanted to reach further inside South Kurdistan during the February land operations. Since they were not able to achieve this desire, it underlines their lack of success. He also stressed that American intelligence efforts on Turkey's behalf were not very effective.

Tekin criticized the embargo on Qendil, saying, "However, PKK has a huge reaction capacity. In fact, it was not affected and adopted itself to the situation." He also called on the KRG to see their real interests and wanted KRG to possess a better political approach.

Ahmet Turk made a good observation that AKP parliamentarians from Wan (Van), Gever (Yüksekova), and Culemêrg (Hakkâri) have not spoken up at all about the violent incidents perpetrated against the citizens of those cities by Turkish security forces. "People who cannot show the courage to speak up for their people's problems, to show the democratic reflex for a solution to the Kurdish question, cannot be the representatives of the Kurds."

So there you go, Kurdistan; your AKP parliamentarians aren't doing a damned thing for you, are they? Consider, too, that it would have been very easy for AKP parliamentarians to get permission from the AKP-appointed governors to celebrate Newroz. But did they do that? Of course not! They did nothing while DTP attempted to avert disaster with the worthless AKP governors and security chiefs.

No, your AKP parliamentarians sat back and did nothing for the sake of their own son-of-a-bitch Erdoğan. What's their political platform? Vote for AKP parliamentarians and get tortured for Newroz.

Well, then, we might as well include the fake Kurd AKP parliamentarians on the list of those responsible for Turkish state violence against the Kurdish people on Newroz.