FRIDAY NIGHT CIWAN HACO

"The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery."
~ Paul Robeson

Everyone's favorite Rojavayî with some beautiful music for a rainy Friday night:

Enjoy!

REPLY FROM THE KURDISH CAPITAL: IT IS ENOUGH!

"At this rally, we say enough is enough. Enough of denying the Kurds. Enough of trying to solve problems through operations."
~ DTP Parliamentary Group Leader, Selahattin Demirtaş.

Although a number of the DTP leadership were present and spoke at the mass meeting in Amed (Diyarbakır) over the weekend (including Emine Ayna, Selma Irmak, Akın Birdal, Aysel Tuğluk, Gültan Kışanak, Hilmi Aydoğdu, and Osman Baydemir), the remarks of DTP Parliamentary Group Leader Selahattin Demirtaş were echoed by all, even in the message sent to the meeting by the new DTP Chairman, Nurettin Demirtaş.

The following are the translated remarks of Selahattin Demirtaş, from an article on Yeni Özgür Politika:

DTP answered the state's racist, political lynching, and annihilation threats from Amed. 100,000 Amedîs cried out, "It is enough!"

In spite of the restrictions by the government, 100,000 Amedis attended the meeting called "A Call for an Honorable Life". Selahattin Demirtaş called on the prime minister, Erdoğan, to open free, peaceful, and democratic means to allow the guerrillas to come down from the mountains, who had gone to the mountains as a result of the torture of the 12 September coup.

Thousands of soldiers under the authority of the Turkish 7th Battalion encircled the crowd. The signs that the demonstrators brought were under strict control. None of them were allowed to be displayed because the soldiers claimed they were illegal. On the signs, however, was written "It is Enough," "No to Isolation and Suppression," "For a democratic solution and dialog--No to operations!"

Two thousand editions of Azadiya Welat newspaper were not allowed to be distributed to the protestors because Öcalan's picture was on the front page.

Referring to DTP's possible closure, Selahattin Demirtaş started his speech saying, "Welcome to the first court of DTP's closure, You honorable, resistant Kurdish people. Mr. Chief Prosecutor, we brought 100,000 witnesses. Mr. Chief Prosecutor, let's ask the witnesses, 'Can DTP be closed?'" After his question, the crowd shouted, "No!"

Then Demirtaş criticized PM Erdoğan for his ambivalence. "In 2002, in Russia, as an answer to a Kurdish worker's question about the Kurdish situation, Erdoğan said, 'If you say there is no problem, the problem will disappear. We say that there is no problem,'" said Demirtaş. "In 2005, in Diyarbakır, the same prime minister said, 'The Kurdish question is not only a problem of a part of this nation, it is also my problem.' In December 2006, one year after his statement, in the US, Erdoğan said, "Kurds do not have any rights problem in Turkey.' Now the prime minister who changes his mind every year, is demanding DTP to take a clear stand. What kind of contradiction is this, Mr. Prime Minister? He is asking the representatives whom you sent to Ankara with your resistance, belief, and labor, to take a clear stand and make the choice. How many times will these people make a choice, Mr. Prime Minister? Look! They made their choice for democracy and a parliamentarian regime."

Quoting from Erdoğan prior to the elections, Demirtaş reminded the crowd: "'Tomorrow they will come to the parliament, and we will watch their fight with MHP every day.' Erdoğan said, and now he sees that Kurds are serious in their politics and mature. Now he started fighting with us. The prime minister who could not make us fight with MHP, made us (DTP) the target. Furthermore, he started a lynch campaign against our party. Today we are saying, in fact, you (Erdoğan) make your choice: Are you going to be pro-democracy or pro-war? These people made their choice for democracy and raised their hands to Ankara. Do not let these hands stay in the air. For that reason, they are saying, 'It is enough!'"

Demirtaş continued his speech as: "The prime minister who made our party, the president of our party, the parliamentarians, and the mayors subject to political lynching, today pretends to be a disciple of democracy. The people who put the streets into action by political lynching against the Kurds, today pretend to be disciples of democracy. They behave as if they were not the same people that approved the closure of our party when the decision-making for DTP's closure came before them, and they pretend instead. Do not believe in them, my dear friends. They are the ones behind those who opened the closure case against DTP; they are the ones who brought the issue of the removal of parliamentary immunity into the Parliament. Do not ever forget these things."

Stressing that the message of the people of Amed must be read very well, Demirtaş said, "I believe if the message that the people of Amed give today could be read well, comprehended correctly, then peace is very easy, very soon."

Emphasizing that the policy implemented by the government today is making Kurds kill Kurds, Demirtaş said, "All the Kurdish citizens of the Turkish Republic want to live freely with all the other people in this land, with their own language, their own free identity, and their culture. Of course, the Kurds living in this country will be honored to have a regional Kurdish federation in Northern Iraq. These are the Kurdish people; rather than making Kurds kill Kurds, have dialogs with that political formation there. Improve peaceful and brotherly relationships to become a power together in the Middle East."

Êdî Bese!

29 YEARS ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM

"Our party's second phase, the phase of political development, was from 1978-1980. One of the most significant steps during this phase was the Founding Congress of November 26 and 27, 1978, when our party was formally established."
~ Party Program of the PKK.

"We were born in this land and we will die in it."
PKK: 29 years for a peaceful and democratic solution.

Yok edilmesi hedeflenmiş Kürt halkının ölüm uykunsundan uyanıp özgürlüğü ciğerlerindeki son nefese kadar haykırmasına vesile olan Özgürlük Mücadelemizin Diriliş Bayramı kadim halkımıza kutlu olsun.

For a read of the PKK's party program from the founding congress in 1978, check out Hevallo's place.

"With love," hevals, "with love!"


Late addenda:

Rock the Truth is rocking the truth about the Turkish state and the pro-DTP protest in Amed over the weekend, in a post titled,"Turkey's Kurdish Holocaust":

"The party says it rejects violence and wants to secure more political and cultural rights for Turkey’s large ethnic Kurdish population by purely peaceful, democratic means. But it has refused the government’s demand that it condemn the P.K.K. as terrorists."

Why should they?

Does the Turkish government accept the terrorist label it has so richly deserved?

From Australia, we have an opinion piece on America's "good" Kurd, "bad" Kurd dichotomy:

Kurdish life in Turkey has not been much better than in Iraq. Northern Kurdistan is located in the southeast of Turkey and is home to about 20 million Kurds, representing half the entire population of Kurdish people. Northern Kurdistan is therefore central to solving the Kurdish issue. The oppression of Kurds in Turkey by the current Turkish regime, and the lack of diplomatic intervention by the US Government, has resulted in the Iraqi Kurds no longer believing Washington’s rhetoric about protecting Kurds from terrorism or a possible attack by a future Iraqi government. Instead, the US Government has supported the Turkish regime in various ways against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the main opposition party.

The role of the PKK guerillas is to fight for Kurdish cultural and political rights regardless of the geographical location of Kurdish people. How can it therefore be reasonable and rational to implement a policy of friendship toward the Kurds of Iraq, but label PKK guerillas as terrorists? How and by what criteria have they become terrorists? Have they threatened the interest of the US or other Western countries, killed civilians or beheaded any Western people like the Iraqi insurgent militias? Despite the dissimilarities between the PKK and other guerillas, the US Government is now supporting a policy against the PKK due to pressure by Turkey, while also being pressured by Saudi Arabia’s hegemony and the bullets of former terrorist Sunni militias who killed thousands of civilians inside Iraq (nowadays calling them armed groups or insurgents).

The PKK and its leaders have needed to base themselves in the jagged mountains on the triangular border region of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. In addition to losing faith in the policies of the governments involved in the Middle East theatre, the exiling of their leader Abdullah Ocalan and his subsequent abduction and imprisonment following a joint operation with US, Turkish, and Israeli intelligence agents has removed any remnants of trust in the US. The PKK, too, relies on the famous Kurdish saying that Kurds have “no friends but the mountains".

And there's really nothing more to add to that.

PROTEST IN THE KURDISH CAPITAL

"Meanwhile, looming above you, blotting out the sun, your government bears down like a giant hydraulic press, a press whose plate, waiting to crush you, is etched with the grey visage of Father Turk. If you think this is an unattractive prospect, you are right. And yet you must make a choice. . . "
~Gordon Taylor, La Gioconda Perduta.

Photos from the Amed protest against DTP's closure--all 100,000 strong--courtesy of Özgür Gündem:






















Read something of the protest from Bianet, and don't miss the latest installment on Kurdistan's freedom fighters at Progressive Historians. It's truly excellent and just in time for tomorrow. I'm sure the friends will be pleased with it.

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

"The soldiers have been arrested in order to set an example for the others, so that not everyone in a difficult situation becomes a hostage; so that being taken hostage is not considered an option . . ."
~ Mehmet Tanju Akad, Turkish journalist.

There's something that hasn't been in the media too much and you have to ask yourself, why is that?

Shortly after the release of the Turkish POWs held by HPG, Erdoğan asked for a ban on broadcasting of the story, which a Turkish court of appeals rejected. Since then, the Paşas ordered a ban of the investigation of the former POWs. Ostensibly:

The ban was decided on unanimously in order to "avoid a distortion of the aim of the investigation and misinformation of the public, to avoid giving rise to misunderstandings and in order to safeguard the authority and objectivity of the judiciary."

The decision cited Articles 13 and 28 of the constitution as well as Article 3 of Press Law No. 5187 and includes "activities to obtain, spread, criticise and interpret on information concerning the investigation".The ban is to stay in place until the investigation is completed.

[ . . . ]

Parts of the decision read as follows: "Because the event under investigation happened when the unity of the state was threatened and activities aimed at separating state territory from state administration, most information and documents of this investigation need to stay secret for state security reasons." The ban is aimed at "preventing the publication of information which needs to stay secret in order to protect public order, public security and territorial integrity".

More at Bianet.

The Turkish state is perturbed because the soldiers captured in battle by HPG did not kill themselves. In order to avenge its dubious "honor," the Turkish state is in the process of prosecuting the eight soldiers for not killing themselves:

Yesterday (11 November), the military court in Van, south-eastern Turkey, decreed that the soldiers be detained. The soldiers stand accused of "violating the duties of a civil servant", "serious suspicion of a crime", "excessive weakening of military discipline", "insistence on disobedience" and "desertion abroad". The soldiers are to be tried while in detention.

The Van Gendarmerie Public Order Corps Command Military Court has pronounced the following charges: sergeant Halis Cagan is charged with violating the duties of a civil servant, privates Ilhami Demir, Irfan Beyaz, Özhan Sabanoglu, Fatih Atakul and Mehmet Senkul are accused of insistent disobedience, and privates Fuat Basoda and Ramazan Yüce are charged with insistent disobedience and desertion abroad. It was argued that there was strong suspicion of guilt and that military discipline had been greatly weakened. Citing Article 71 of Law 353 and Articles 100 and 101 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the court decided to detain the eight soldiers.

The reality of what the Turkish state is trying to hide is the sorry condition of the average soldier and the cowardice of the Turkish officer corps. One of the soldiers had been wounded in the clash and he did not have a weapon, so he decided to count on the mercy of HPG gerîlas--and in receiving mercy, he was not disappointed. The same cannot be said for that state for which he wore a uniform. Others commented on the cowardice and inefficiency of those in charge of their units:

"During the exchange of fire we did not have the support of any of our commanders or soldiers. We were fighting on our own." It was also said that most of the soldiers' guns jammed. Another soldier stated that his commander had taken his gun.

Such comments prompted harsh remarks from at least one retired Turkish military judge:

Based on the statements of the soldiers published in yesterday’s (12 November) newspapers, Kardas said: “No intelligence was processed, the guns were not modern, there was no help, no support. Those who have responsibilities need to be held responsible. Those who caused this weakness need to be dismissed from their posts by the General Staff. The Chief of Staff could also accept responsibility and resign.”

Kardas even claimed that the eight soldiers had a right to compensation for physical and mental damages; the state was responsible, but was acting in a manner so as not to loose [sic] prestige.

Indeed, as in so many examples from the past, reality is not the issue; the real issue, and the real reason behind the censorship of the case of the eight former POWs, is the issue of image and the prestige derived from the perception of image. For the Turkish Republic, image isn't everything; it's the only thing.

From the case of the eight former POWs, we can check off a few things from our list of the characteristics of fascist states. We have the example of "powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism"; "Disdain for the importance of human rights"; The "identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause"; And "the supremacy of the military/avid militarism".

Do I need to mention that there has been nothing in Turkish media on the investigation of these soldiers? Nothing. Nada. Nil. Nix. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Of course, now we see very clearly who it is that is civilized and who it is that's barbaric. It's clear who is honorable and who is not. Those regularly labeled as "terrorists" by the barbarians are, in fact, the only civilized actors in this long-playing Orwellian drama.

For more on this situation, check an article from the AP, and there was something else on the Paşas' ban at NTV.

Meanwhile, back in the mountains, Cemil Bayık issued a warning to the US and the Southern Kurdish leadership against any joint cooperation with Turkey against the Kurdish freedom movement:

"The United States, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party should understand that if we want, we can create instability and place their interests in danger."

[ . . . ]

"Bush has declared the PKK as the enemy and wants to eliminate the PKK through pressure and operations," Bayik said. "Our position in the face of these operations is clear; we will resist. We will never surrender."

Let's add that the hysterical reports of the capture of Hevals Cuma and Cemil has been greatly exagerrated. This kind of hysteria could be avoided if the government of South Kurdistan were not as devoted to censorship as their brothers in Washington and Ankara.

TWO YEARS

For the people and all the friends.

DTP AND POLITICAL FREEDOM VS THE FASCISTS

"Turkey is becoming a cemetery of banned political parties. Closing a group does not resolve the problem."
~ Sırrı Sakık, DTP parliamentarian (Muş).

Members of the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed or ESP hold a banner reads that: 'We are all Kurdish. We are all supporters of DTP' during a demonstration in support of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP in front of the party's Istanbul headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday, Nov. 19, 2007. Turkish authorities took steps to ban the country's leading pro-Kurdish political party and expel several of its lawmakers from parliament on charges of separatism. The Democratic Society Party, which won 20 seats in parliament in July, called for autonomy for Kurds living in the country's southeast. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)

This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who's been following the news since March 2006, but the Turkish state is now attempting to formally shut down DTP. It shouldn't come as a shock, either, that MHP is leading the way with an attempt to lift the immunity of DTP parliamentarians. Meanwhile, Turkish chief public prosecutors have filed with the Constitutional Court last week to close DTP.

Both IHD and TIHV oppose the proscutors' move, as do the 370 members of the Turkish Peace Parliament, who've made the following observations:

* According to the results report, more than 100 people have died in battle since the middle of October.

* The lynching campaign started against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) group in parliament has resulted in party buildings being set on fire and even Kurdish work places and homes being marked.

* In the face of the policies which are pulling Turkey into a regional and ethnic civil war, it is the duty of the Turkish Peace Parliament, together with all the other democracy and labour forces in the country, to change the nationalist, chauvinist, and discriminatory atmosphere which is currently dominant in society, and to demilitarise the public.

The attempt to close DTP and impose a strictly military solution to the Kurdish situation in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan is merely the extension of the AKP's refusal to seek a political solution during the Amed Serhildan. It's also indicative of the AKP's close cooperation with Turkey's real rulers, the Paşas. It's a continuation of US policies toward the Kurdish situation, as illustrated by the American appointment of a Lockheed Martin director as the "PKK coordinator" for Turkey--Joseph Ralston--who absolutely rejected any political solution, as well as rejecting PKK's October 2006 unilateral ceasefire.

And, remember, Turkish military operations were intensified this September, immediately following the visit of AKP's Abdullah Gül to military installations in The Southeast.

DEEP STATE, IRON TRIANGLE, AND THE KURDS

"As it happens, the ATC is a creation of AIPAC (and other Israeli lobbying interests) - and there is significant overlap in the membership, goals and activities of both AIPAC and the ATC. This is perhaps not surprising given the long-standing tri-lateral military (and military 'defense' spending) relationship between the three countries. In fact, Sibel refers to AIPAC and the ATC as 'sister organizations.'"
~ Luke Ryland.

I have been very busy in the last week but I wanted to take a moment to point out a few new threads on Sibel Edmonds by Luke Ryland:


Sibel Edmonds' Case: the untellable story of AIPAC

Sibel Edmonds' Case: the untellable story of AIPAC, part 2

Sibel Edmond's Case: New (and old) revelations of spying at the FBI


As always, Luke is very thorough in his research of Sibel's case and her angle on the Deep State in America. The Deep State does include the Israelis, hence Luke's recent emphasis on the Israel lobby, AIPAC. It should be remembered that in the 1990s, the Israelis conducted flight training in the skies over Turkey--with Turkish permission of course--and both Turkey and Israel are routinely gifted with billions of dollars worth of US military equipment, such as Lockheed Martin product. Thank you, American taxpayer!! This is why the relationship between the US, Turkey, and Israel is called the "Iron Triangle."

Sibel mentions Israeli air force "training" over Anatolia in her documentary.

How much of this "training" was conducted over Turkish-occupied Kurdistan is one question. Another question would be how many of the bombing raids the Turks conducted under the so-called "Safe Haven" (with the acquiescence of the US and the UK) were actually "training" sorties by the Israeli air force.

How many South Kurdistani villages were, in fact, bombed by the Israelis? How many bombing sorties in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan were actually carried out by the Israelis?

Enquiring minds want to know.

For a backgrounder, check out something from The Nation. Don't be surprised to see the same names popping up over and over again.

MORE DIFFICULT THAN PANJSHIR

"Nobody ever in the history of the world has conquered these mountains. If you know the Panjshir valley of (Afghan guerrilla leader) Ahmad Shah Massoud, then Qandil is even more difficult to attack."
~ Mohammad Abdullah, former peşmêrge.

There is more on the situation of the freed Turkish POWs, from the BBC. There's no celebration that these guys are alive and well. Easily ninety-nine percent of the country would have preferred to see them dead, which goes to show you just how sick the general population of Turkey is.

Four days after their release, the former hostages are still being questioned by military prosecutors. An already suspicious public is ready to believe the rumour that one of them has links to the PKK.

"Prosecutors will be focusing on whether or not the soldiers left with the PKK voluntarily," explains retired military judge Umit Kardas.

"If they did they could be charged with membership of a terrorist organisation."

"This has really shaken the military," he adds.

It also goes to show just how incompetent the much-vaunted Turkish military is. I mean, this is NATO's second largest army. It has a couple hundred thousand troops ready to invade South Kurdistan, ostensibly to wipe out a few thousand Kurdish gerîlas--the same gerîlas the Turkish military has been trying to wipe out for almost 30 years. If the Turkish military were so good, why does it crawl to the Americans to beg them to take care of PKK?

Well, the TSK should worry because now the peşmêrge are talking about the realities on the ground. From the AFP:


[Former peşmêrge Adib] Kawa scoffed at the threats of military action emanating from Ankara following a series of deadly PKK attacks against the Turkish army in recent weeks.

"The PKK men are stronger than we were. They are very disciplined and their hideouts, some even underground, are formidable. The Turks can't do much to disturb them," he said.

In 1992, the Iraqi Kurds, still reeling from the offensive by Saddam's forces that followed the Gulf war the previous year, backed Turkish troops in an offensive against the PKK. Kawa was one of the peshmerga involved.

"Whenever we came near them, they disappeared like ghosts," he recalled.

"You can capture one of their positions, but it will be empty and you never have enough men to retain it."

He remembered searching caves that had been transformed into warehouses loaded with ammunition and food, carefully packed in plastic bags.

"They are seasoned, trained and fast," Kawa said of the PKK fighters. "Even with little bread, rice and tea, they can survive for months. And as they pay well, there will always be smugglers to provide them with supplies from Iran or Turkey or here."

Another former peshmerga, Mohammad Abdullah, 38, carrying a pistol in his belt and hugely built, also swears by the impregnable Qandil range.

For five years, he hid out in the mountains which he dubs "the Kurdish Tora Bora," in reference to the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda fighters eluded US troops and their Afghan allies.

"Nobody ever in the history of the world has conquered these mountains. If you know the Panjshir valley of (Afghan guerrilla leader) Ahmad Shah Massoud, then Qandil is even more difficult to attack."

When it comes to fascism, there are few who can compete with the Turkish military, but it looks like there is another group that may have the Paşas worried. It seems that the Christofascists are gaining a stranglehold on the US military. You can read the most recent article on these modern-day crusaders at Truthdig. The interesting part is where the author names some names:

Air Force Academy graduate Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, assigned as the senior U.S. military officer in Turkey at the time the Military Religious Freedom Foundation brought the Christian Embassy into media focus, was questioned by Turkish officials about his membership in a radical evangelical cult.

You know they're bad if Turkish "officials" were concerned. I mean, you can't make this stuff up.

On a different subject, the US has given Pakistan almost $11 billion since September 11, according to TPM Muckraker:

. . . [H]owever, a considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani programs. Instead, the U.S. gives Musharraf's government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf can do with it whatever he wants. He needs only promise in a secret annual meeting that he'll use it to invest in the Pakistani people. And whatever happens as the result of Rice's review, few Pakistan watchers expect the cash transfers to end.

[ . . . ]

In Pakistan, the military runs not just the government, but major sections of the economy as well. Joshua Hammer recently reported for The Atlantic that the Pakistani military owns large stakes in the country's "banks, cable-TV companies, insurance agencies, sugar refineries, private security firms, schools, airlines, cargo services, and textile factories." Mainlining largely untraceable money into the Pakistani treasury helps this system perpetuate itself -- even as widespread public discontent, from both moderates and radicals, boils over. It also sends the signal that the U.S. prefers to have relations with Pervez Musharraf rather than the Pakistani people.

Shocking!

Well, actually, not so shocking when you consider the whole rat's nest surrounding A. Q. Khan, Plame, Dick Cheney's Halliburton, Marc Grossman, and Sibel Edmonds.

HAPPINESS AND STUPIDITY

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
~ Albert Einstein.

Gordon Taylor at the Progressive Historians blog has a couple more posts on the gerîlas, onehere and another on the release of the Turkish POWs.

Dr. Kristiina Koivunen has an important post at her blog on the need for Kurds to forge alliances with other countries through diplomacy and the forging of alliances. Dr. Kristiina has been involved with the Kurdish situation in Turkey for a long time so her thoughts on the matter should not be taken lightly. Give her post serious consideration and if you have comments, post them at her place. I'm sure she'd love some feedback.

The president of Turkey's IHD is not happy about the remarks of Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek and Injustice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin on the POW release. In fact, Şahin truly shows that he's the bigger of the two asses by his remark:

"No member of the Turkish Armed Forces should have found themselves in such a situation. I could not accept the fact that they went with the terrorists that night. I could not be very happy about their release."

Okay, Mr. Injustice Minister, what in the hell were the POWs supposed to do? Commit harikiri? The person who keeps up with Turkish news is a person who reads a lot of stupid shit but Şahin old boy, you really have outdone most of your peers with such a piggish remark.

On the saner side of things, IHD President Hüsnü Öndül had the followıng reply:

"The right to life is holy and it is vital to protect it. It is unacceptable that Sahin cannot be happy about the release of the soldiers, that he makes reproaches and that the media approaches the issue as if the fact that the soldiers are alive means they have committed a crime. The style that is used is the product of the warmongering language and mentality which leads to more of a lynch culture."

[ . . . ]

"12 soldiers were killed in front of these soldiers' eyes, and they survived. Then they were tied up and taken to an unknown environment. Now that they have survived such a trauma, it is merciless to push them into another kind of trauma."

And:

"According to the law of war, the PKK could not kill the eight soldiers it had taken hostage. Releasing them was a legally appropriate act of the PKK. But if we look outside the law and at the human dimenstions, it is lucky that the soldiers are alive. The fact that these people were released should be a reason for us as society and for the soldiers' families to rejoice."

Öndül is now concerned with the treatment the freed POWs are receiving from the TSK and he fears they may be deprived of the right to defend themselves. Read the rest at Bianet.

The thing that sticks in the throats of people like Şahin and Çiçek is the fact that Turkish soldiers were treated well by an armed group that the Ankara regime falsely labels as "terrorists." The regime would prefer to see their own troops dead than to admit they are agents of The Big Lie.

6 NOVEMBER 1991

"I am Kurdish, I will remain Kurdish until the end (of time), I am forced to take this oath and I am taking it under pressure. I am still a Kurd, I will remain a Kurd."
~ Leyla Zana.

THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

ANKARA

STATE SECURITY COURT

[Honorable Judges,]

Leyla Zana took part in the elections of October 20, 1991 as a candidate of [the People's Labor Party (HEP), which aligned itself with] the Social Democratic People's Party (SHP) and was elected as a representative from the city of Diyarbakir. On November 5, 1991, a day before the General Council meeting of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA), the representatives of the People's Labor Party (HEP) held a press conference in the TGNA under the leadership of Fehmi Isiklar.

[In that conference, the HEP Representatives] distributed a press release which read, "The text of the oath composed for the newly elected representatives in accordance with Article 81 of the Turkish Constitution was prepared with racist and chauvinist considerations. The text of the oath denies the existence of the Kurdish people. This text is against democracy, human rights and peace. We, the elected representatives who have signed this press release, disagree with the content of the text of this article. But because the constitution mandates it, we will take the oath. We wish to inform the public." The defendant, Leyla Zana, also signed the press statement.

That, on November 6, 1991, defendant Leyla Zana attended the general council meeting to take the oath with a headband made up of the colors red, green and yellow and a scarf made up of the same colors. That defendants Hatip DICLE, Ahmet TURK, Mahmut ALINAK, Orhan DOGAN, Sirri SAKIK and other representatives in the HEP displayed kerchiefs of the same colors in the upper left pockets of their jackets; that red, green, and yellow represents the flag of the Kurdistan Labor Party (PKK); that by acting in unison in this manner, the defendants conspired to carry the flag of the PKK into the General Council Meeting at the TGNA.

That defendant Leyla Zana, after reading the text of the oath, shouted slogans in Kurdish from the pulpit of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. That when she was asked to reread the oath for the second time - since, due to her Kurdish slogans, her oath was considered invalid - like before, after reading the text of the oath, she shouted slogans in the same manner and said [in Kurdish], " I am Kurdish, I will remain Kurdish until the end (of time), I am forced to take this oath and I am taking it under pressure. I am still a Kurd, I will remain a Kurd."

Read the rest of the State Security Court indictment.

HPG HANDOVER OF TURKISH POWS

More photos from HPG's release of the Turkish soldiers, from HPG Online:

TURKISH POWS RETURN HOME

"I am making a request to Mr. Erdogan. The PKK will not end, you are making a mistake. Propose a way out, we are open to any kind of democratic solution."
~ Abdullah Öcalan.

The release of the prisoners of war held by HPG since 21 October went off without a hitch early this morning in South Kurdistan, and RojTV featured the handover in its Kurdish-language and Turkish-language news reports.

Representatives of the KRG Interior Ministry as well as DTP parliamentarians Aysel Tuğluk, Osman Özçelik, and Fatma Kurtulan received the POWs at an undisclosed location in the Medya Defense Zone. During the handover, Fatma Kurtulan noted that DTP had been the first to try to introduce a discussion of the POWs domestically, within the TBMM, but that AKP and the other parties ignored the situation. The AKP claimed there weren't sufficient funds available to arrange a committee to look into the issue of securing the release of the POWs. Apparently, the POWs were not considered important enough for AKP to concern itself with.

The POWs looked relaxed and in excellent condition and they acknowledged that they had been treated very well by HPG fighters. Naturally, this led them to change their perspective on the PKK because their experience was nothing like Turkish propaganda had led them to expect. They mentioned that they intended to tell the truth of their experience when they returned to Turkey, but I wouldn't bet on seeing much of that in Turkish media. On the other hand, word will spread among their families and friends.

I can guarantee you that if these had been PKK fighters in the hands of the Ankara regime, you would never see them again. They would be tortured to death or executed after having laid down their weapons. The Ankara regime is not civilized in the least. In this way, it resembles the American regime. Think extraordinary rendition. Think water-boarding. Think Guantanamo.

In the meantime, the Turkish General Staff posted a notice on its website that the "lost" soldiers have returned to their units. That's a case of the Deep State being in Deep Denial.

Interestingly enough, Turkish media is running reports of Erdoğan's attempted censorship of the POW story within Turkey. Apparently he had attempted to put a ban on the story through RTUK, to prevent Turkish media from broadcasting information on the POWs. However, the Turkish Court of Appeals refused the ban.

Erdoğan tried to use the excuse of "domestic security" in calling for the censorship. I guess, in this case, the Turkish judiciary didn't feel like embracing state secret's privilege.

Once handed over to the KRG Interior Ministry and the DTP parliamentarians, the former POWs were taken to Hewlêr. Since Turkey pretended until the last minute that the soldiers were "lost," there were no Turkish officials present in Hewlêr to receive the soldiers. Instead, they were handed over to the American military, who transported them by air to Mûsil, and then from Mûsil to the Turkish airbase at Bamerni, South Kurdistan. At that point, the soldiers were handed over to Turkish officials.

Bugün adds that the Iraqi Defense Minister and American General David Petraeus were on board the aircraft with the soldiers.

Back at Qendil, Murat Karayılan had something to say about the release of the Turkish POWs:

"We released the soldiers in order to send the message that we don't want to resolve the Kurdish question with violence and war, but in a peaceful way. With this message, we want to declare to the entire world that we want to solve the Kurdish question in democratic ways. If the Turkish government takes a positive step and stops its attacks, the clashes and war will reach an end. This situation will bring an historic era, and a democratic and peaceful resolution."

The bottom line: PKK offers an opportunity for a peaceful resolution while ever ready for legitimate self-defense.

On Saturday, PKK issued a warning to Syria for its attacks against Kurdish demonstrators in Qamişlo and Kendela, West Kurdistan, that left three Kurdish demonstrators dead and five wounded. Kurds had been protesting against a Turkish invasion of South Kurdistan and against Turkish poisoning of Öcalan.

Ever the toady, Ba'ath leader Beşar Esad had visited Ankara earlier and declared his regime's support for a Turkish invasion of South Kurdistan.

The Syrian military should be an absolute pushover for PKK.

In a related item, DozaMe has an ironic point to make about the US administration's Axis of Evil.

And if you think Erdoğan's bad about his attempted censorship of HPG's former Turkish POWs, take a look at the censorship attempt against Hevallo by a stupid Dutch fascist.

EIGHT GIFTS FOR ERDOĞAN'S DC VISIT

"May the prisoners' families not worry. If the prisoners are in the hands of HPG, which they are, they are in good hands."

~ Murat Karayılan.

DTP parliamentarians Aysel Tuğluk, Osman Özçelik, and Fatma Kurtulan have quietly gone off to Hewlêr to have talks with representatives of KDP and PUK, according to Özgür Gündem.

Expect them to return to Turkey with eight gifts from HPG for Erdoğan's visit to the US. DTP is expected to have a press statement upon receipt of the gifts.

By the way, just a reminder from someone "over there":

I asked him about the Kurds. He said, “They’re some of the toughest people I’ve ever seen. You don’t fuck with the Kurds; trust me you don’t want too. They’re well organized, and they will clear out an area.”

Damned straight.

IGNORANCE, EXCEPTIONALISM, HYPOCRISY

“Hypocrites kick with their hind feet while licking with their tongues."
~ Russian proverb.

We all know that in the last few weeks there has been much propaganda spread throughout the media, and picked up in the blogosphere, against the Kurdish people and particularly with regard to Turkey's most recent war-mongering. We also know that Turkish anti-Kurdish propaganda has been fairly intense since the Amed Serhildan at the end of March 2006 and that both the Right and the Left in the West have assisted with the propagation of these lies for their own political purposes. While the same sources on both ends of the political spectrum regularly condemn the US and Israel for their war crimes and repression, they do not condemn Turkey for its own war crimes and repression against the Kurdish people.

An example of this can be found here on Rastî from earlier this week, in a post titled "So Many Tools, So Little Time", in which I countered the latest anti-Kurdish harangue from Kurd-hater Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com.

I had seen the article at The Vineyard of the Saker, and knowing that the Saker is open to hearing the Kurdish side of the long-standing conflict in North Kurdistan, I made a reply of the facts of the situation in the comments section of the post.

Today I noticed that the Saker has been sent an email by Blogger.com, as a result of a complaint by Antiwar.com, for his posting of Raimondo's anti-Kurdish rant under the fascist American law known as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Apparently, the Saker has received a second complaint under the same fascist law and from the same source, Antiwar.com.

I am absolutely certain that the Saker received these notifications because Antiwar.com, and specifically the Kurd-hating Justin Raimondo, cannot present any argument against the facts of the Kurdish situation under Turkish repression.

Raimondo has written Kurd-hating screed before in order to attack the American administration and not because he has any concern for the Kurdish people or the gross injustices suffered by them as a result of the Ankara regime's racist policies, policies which were aided and abetted by the US with full US knowledge of the crimes being committed.

Go to Antiwar.com, search the site, and you will find no articles discussing the brutality that the Ankara regime has inflicted on the Kurdish people. What you will find, in contrast, are hundreds of articles condemning Israel for similar actions against the Palestinians.

Why is it that similar actions of brutality by Israel are condemned by Antiwar.com while Turkey gets a free ride for its brutality? Remember, Turkey's brutality has been conducted for a longer period of time than has Israeli brutality. What could explain such gross oversight, except, perhaps, anti-semitism? Or perhaps the explanation lies in an internalized American exceptionalism? Maybe it's a blend of the two.

In either case, it is an exercise in racism.

There is another point to keep in mind: Antiwar.com and Justin Raimondo are incapable of responding to the facts of American-backed Turkish brutality.

Let me also point out the hypocrisy of, on one hand, being anti-state and anti-corporation--which those at Antiwar.com claim to be--while on the other using a state law to make a corporation censure a private individual who may disagree about their interpretation of the "fair use" clause of the law.

That's the very clear view from here, hevals.

AUX BARRICADES!

"If you stop struggling, then you stop life."
~ Huey P. Newton.

To confirm some email I've gotten over the last few days:




From DC Indymedia:

This week, several Kurdish communities across the United States are expected to demonstrate in several cities in opposition to the Turkish government's approval for the invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan. The youth of the Kurdish-American communities in each city have coordinated with one another to launch demonstrations on the same dates in order to express a unified opposition to the recent developments in Turkey and the Turkish government's decision to invade Iraqi Kurdistan.

[ . . . ]

Kurdish communities have organized protests in several cities including Atlanta, GA, Los Angeles, CA, Dallas, TX, Nashville, TN, Phoenix, AZ, San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, and Washington DC. The demonstrations in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Nashville, Phoenix and San Francisco are expected to take place on November 2nd, 2007 and in Dallas, TX on November 3rd, 2007. The demonstrations in New York and Washington DC will take place on November 5th, 2007 to coincide with the visit of the Turkish prime minister in Washington DC.

Demonstrations will be highlighting the importance of preventing a Turkish invasion of the only peaceful part of Iraq, and recognizing the legitimacy of the Kurdistan Regional Government and its potential role in a peaceful process to solve the conflict existing in the region. The demonstrations will also highlight the importance of belief that a political and peaceful solution is the only viable solution to the conflict, and that the peace offerings and Kurdish rebel ceasefires negotiated and supported by members of the Iraqi government should be recognized as important developments to the progression of peace in the region.

Representatives in each of the cities are urging members of Kurdish and non-Kurdish communities in America to show their support and join the demonstrations.

Contact information for specific communities is listed at the link.