TURKISH HEZBOLLAH, YEZIDI ŞEHÎDS, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF GUNDÎS

"The displacements carried out by the [Turkish] security forces were punitive operations, and in many cases they machine-gunned sheep and cattle, or burned them in their pens . . . Over the course of a week of interviews with displaced villagers in Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Bingöl, and Elazığ, Human Rights Watch did not hear of a single applicant who had been compensated for being deprived of his livelihood as a stockkeeper."
~ Human Rights Watch.

Something related to Thursday's post on Turkish Hezbollah . . . the Americans picked up on more Deep State propaganda at Little Green Footballs. Pretty funny. Apparently, they thought the Turkish variety was really another Iranian version spread to Turkey, until one of the commenters posted info on Turkish Hezbollah. Still, they're in denial about the fact that Turkish Hezbollah is a product of their very own client state and in all the mostly ridiculous comments, there's not a word to be found about Turkey's genocide of Kurds.

Typical. Well, I guess they can't admit that they've been complicit in that same genocide for 50 years. Plus, with the number of dead Iraqi civilians, they should be very careful about comparing Kurdish leaders with terrorists. I mean, we could, after all, compare certain American leaders with Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler . . . you get the picture.

Interesting comments about Kurdistan on this blog:

Kurdistan: Kurdistan is a part of Iraq, and the only part apparently friendly to the US. We should introduce our Kurds to the Turks and Iranians and see if a deal can be worked out where Kurdistan is not a sanctuary for rebel groups and the Turks and Iranians do not attack the Kurds. The US should, perhaps, train and equip the Kurdish Peshmerga. On the other hand, if pushed by the Turks and Iranians, I'm willing to abandon the Kurds again. I just don't see getting into a war in the Middle East to maintain the de facto independence of Kurdistan, which is not a US vital interest.

"Our" Kurds? What the hell is that? That guy must be a Persian nationalist.

The only deal that could possibly be worked out whereby Kurdistan was not a sanctuary for Kurdish freedom fighters is to get Turks and Iranians to agree to the steps outlined by PKK in its Declaration for a Democratic Resolution to the Kurdish Question. As a reminder, the enemies should issue statements to show willingness to negotiate a peaceful solution, end all attacks, end the heavy isolation imposed on Ocalan. Then we can move forward to obtain acknowledgement of the Kurdish identity through constitutional guarantees; lift all obstacles to Kurdish culture; acknowledge Kurdish language as the official second language of The Region; acknowledge the rights to free thought, belief, and freedom of expression; lift all social inequalities, especially gender inequalities; establish a truth and justice commission; release all political prisoners with subsequent freedom to participate in political and social life; remove all security forces from The Region; abolish the village guard system; make genuine efforts to return displaced villagers; and, at the same time, initiate the gradual disarmament of The Region with increasing full legal participation in society. A timetable for the last must be jointly established.

These are the only reasonable steps that must be taken to solve the Kurdish issue, which is a political issue and has been so for over 80 years within Turkey. In spite of American and Turkish cooperation to impose a military solution, the problem remains a political one. As such, no military solution is possible. Military solutions never have been possible.

By the way, there's a good article about Kurdish agriculture at Soma Digest:

However, as the years went by farmers could have progressed into a modern system to produce not only wheat and barley but sugar, soybean, cotton, sunflower, potatoes as well as others. But they were not encouraged and were displaced and treated very inhumanly. This barbaric process did not take long for it to have its heavy toll on every aspect of agricultural products.

Though, nowadays roads, bridges and communications are much easier and advanced, but regrettably in view of the past events of our country, many of the original countryside inhabitants have not returned to their farming and agricultural activities. This has resulted in drastic lessening of their agricultural and farming products and leaving behind all those sources of water supply and fertile land insufficiently utilized. This has resulted in importing all our requirements of animal products, poultry, eggs, groceries, household items, clothes, and fuels from abroad – which in turn has caused continuous harm and loss to our economy, thereby draining our hard-currency and increasing unemployment, particularly among the youth. It has also turned us from a producer nation to a consumer one.

Everyone agrees that for Kurdistan to feel viable and self-sufficient, it needs to revive its effective capacity for producing a safe and sufficient food supply that is grown in an environmentally responsible fashion, which is essential for its inhabitants, if not even able to export its surplus.

There's even a reference to Kurdish animal husbandry and the importance of the job of shepherd among Kurds, an aspect of the Kurdish economy that has been especially decimated by the Ankara regime. Call me a gundî but unless there is an effort to reestablish the importance of Kurdish agriculture and severely reduce dependence on foreign food imports, Kurdistan will always be at the mercy of the enemies. Let globalization go to hell; localization in this matter is a way of guaranteeing Kurdistan's internal strength.

Onnik Krikorian at OneWorldMultimedia has a post on Yezidis in Georgia. Unfortunately, there are no photos--Come on, Onnik, you do the best photos--but he does have a link to an article on Yezidis that he wrote for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, which you can read here. He mentions something of the Yezidis' PKK relationship in Armenia, as well as referencing a PKK şehîd from the Yezidi community in Armenia. Although they are not Onnik's photos, you can still view some great photos of Armenia's Yezidi community here.

Some of you are familiar with the efforts that we've made in trying to get the Joseph Ralston/Lockheed Martin/PKK conflict of interest in the media for the last few months, and an article at Working for Change has something that might shed some light on the difficulties with the American media--the most overhyped and underreported stories of 2006.

Among the most hyped are the Democratic mid-term election win, the Dubai Port scandal, the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, nonexistent "terrorists", and the Iraq Study Group.

Among the most underreported are the anonymous (i.e. false flag) bombing of the Samarra mosque, selective underreporting about what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear nightmare that is Pakistan/India, and more strife in Israel/Palestine/Lebanon. On the US homefront, among the most underreported stories are the grassroots victory for net neutrality against the fascists who run the US Congress, US advocacy of torture and related excising of the right of habeas corpus, and domestic spying sans warrant. Also noted is the fact that the War on Terror® as marketing strategy for corrupt government and corporations:

Much of the so-called "Global War on Terror" is all about power and profiteering: Neocons wanted an empire abroad and expanded state power at home, sure. But wherever the U.S. military has gone in the last five years, which pretty much resembles a map of Planet Earth, privatization and lucrative contracts for well-connected companies have followed. Much of the logic of this so-called war is economic and intended to benefit only a very, very select few.

I think the author needs to know about Ralston. If you think so, send him an email (included in the article) because he's asking for suggestions for more overhyped and underreported stories.

Since the EU and the US are not going to change the status quo regarding the Kurdish people, it's time for Kurds to look elsewhere for other alliances that would give a better return on investment. It's time to look East, to China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Stay tuned. More on that later.