ISRAELIS OPERATING UAV'S AGAINST PKK

"In the past months, Israel and the United States have been working together in support of PKK and its Iranian offshoot PEJAK, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon."
~ Seymour Hersh.

I wonder how Hersh is going to explain this: Israeli Haaretz does not deny claims made in TDN that Israelis are operating the UAV's that are providing reconnaissance information to Turkey on the movement of Kurdistan's freedom fighters. In fact, Haaretz seems to confirm the claims of Israeli support to Turkey against the gerîlas who fight for the Kurdish people:

Meanwhile, crews from Israel Aerospace Industries, operating unmanned aerial vehicles, are participating in Turkish military operations against PKK militants in northern Iraq, according to Turkish reports to be published today in the Turkish Daily News.

Ten days ago, the Turkish television station Star reported that IAI Heron UAVs are being used in the offensive against the Kurds.

The same report stated that Turkey's Chief of Staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, had observed the UAVs' operations in real time, in the operations room of the Batman air force base near the border with Iraq. The intelligence relayed by the UAVs was used by the Turkish Air Force in targeting the Kurdish militants.

Contrary to Hersh's claim (read: LIE) of Israeli support for PKK, here we have an Israeli daily not only confirming the opposite, but also confirming the continuing cooperation within the US-Turkey-Israel Axis of Evil. The Americans, on the other hand, are operating U2 reconnaissance aircraft against the Kurdish Freedom Movement.

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Ankara denied, on Tuesday, that the Turks have conducted any more bombing operations in Kurdistan even as Abdullah Gül bends over to publicly lick the boots of his American masters in profuse gratitude.

Murat Karayılan is right. This is pitiful, pathetic, and contemptible . . . but oh-so typical.

The only common sense about the situation of the Kurdish people under Turkish brutality is coming from Canada:

If the Turkish authorities want a long-term solution to Kurdish discontent, they will require concrete steps to respect the right of Kurds to their own cultural traditions and identity and initiatives to greatly improve the overall socio-economic situation in predominantly Kurdish provinces.

This can be accomplished only by a dialogue of goodwill and mutual respect that includes the reconciliation of Kurdish militants, not by military force.

Poor guy! He must not own any shares of stock in the military-industrial complex.

Russia's Regnum News generally does a great job of analyzing situations involving Turkey. In May 2006, Regnum analyzed the build-up of Turkish troops along the Iraqi border during Condoleezza "Chevron" Rice's April visit. Now Regnum does it again, this time analyzing the Turkish fabrication of Armenian ties to the PKK as a prelude to Turkish-Azeri aggression against Armenia. First you'll find a short history of Turkish lies regarding the so-called ties between Armenia and PKK from 1993, when the lies first appeared, until the most recent lies, which surfaced again last month. Here's a snippet:

The latest insinuations coincided almost to the date with the intensification of Baku’s war rhetoric and particularly with the statement made by the Azeri Defence Minister Safar Abiyev that “as long as the Azeri territories remain occupied by Armenia, the probability of war is almost 100 percent.” Mr Abiyev’s statement was made on November 27 at the closing press conference of the Meeting of the CIS Defence Ministers Council in Astana. On November 30, with a direct reference to the Turkish intelligence, the Turkish pro-government newspaper “Zaman” disseminated misinformation about talks between Armenia and the PKK and alleged about the installation of bases for Kurds in NKR, in the towns of Shushi, Lachin and Fizuli. (14) This bait was immediately caught and circulated by the American United Press International. (15) On December 10, Araz Azimov, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani President’s Special Representative on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, stated about “readiness of Baku to launch anti-terrorist operations against the PKK’s military detachments stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh.” (16) It is exactly the coordination of activities between Baku and Ankara with respect to the timing and target of information attack that should be cause for concern. All these could be a prelude to not so virtual attacks.

By the way, don't forget to go over to Kurdistan Observer and read Dr. Sabah Salih's "New Year's Message to Turkey". Talk about eloquence fired by righteous anger:

We can draw two conclusions from your treatment of the Kurds: one is that you have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to democracy; and two, it is obvious to us that your nationalism has been the incubator of your Kurdish problem. You have given the Kurds no choice but to fight back--and, unless you start treating them decently, fighting back they will.

Going on a bombing spree against Kurdish villages may satisfy your appetite for bloodletting; unleashing hate on Kurdistan may even make you feel better. But this will only confirm what the Kurds have been saying all along about you: that the solution to the Kurdish problem lies not really with the Kurds but with you; continue with your racist mindset and the problem will become bigger and bigger. It has already engulfed one generation of Kurds and Turks alike. Do you really want another generation of your people to be consumed by this conflict, day in and day out asking what W. H. Auden aptly asked decades ago: “What do you think about . . . this country of ours where nobody is well?”

And another thing: You want to join Europe? Beyond the obvious, have you asked yourself what Europe means? Europe is first and foremost a state of mind: the product of two hundred years of fighting against and rejecting and ridiculing the very nationalism that still defines your way of thinking. You ask the Kurds who have taken up arms against you to “repent” and surrender. But isn’t repentance, with its roots in religious orthodoxy and bigotry, the very opposite of what the European consciousness has been all about? For to repent is not just a matter of admitting guilt; it is also committing oneself to a type of thinking that belongs in dictatorships and theocracies, not democracies.

OUCH!

What have I been saying here about the cooperation between the Turkish Islamists and the Paşas? They cooperate together against the Kurdish people, meaning that there is no difference between them. They made a deal with each other before the July elections: Gül as president in exchange for a free hand for military operations. What have I said about "repentence" laws? Now Bianet's Ertugrul Kürkcü basically admits the same:

Kürkcü criticised this "old-fashioned pedagogy" which treated individuals like children who had made mistakes.He said that recent political developments encouraged such an attitude. It is being assumed that the lack of support for the PKK from the USA and the KDP, as well as wide-spread military attacks on PKK camps will frighten the PKK. Once things start to unravel, so the theory goes, they will surrender without caring about being treated like children. "The remaining hard core will then be destroyed, isolated in the mountains and fed to the wolves and birds. This is being assumed."

Asked about the relations between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the army, Kürkcü said: "I do not believe that either the AKP or the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) are trying to solve the Kurdish question. Because if they have enough information and intelligence [...], they know that the Kurdish question cannot be solved within the borders of just one country. If we are talking about a real solution, this would mean that the Kurds would take their own destinies into their own hands in all the countries they are ruled by; since this ideal situation does not exist, there is currently no possibility of a solution."

Much more at Bianet.

For some refreshing thoughts about Kurdish-Arab relations in Iraq, check out an article by a Lebanese intellectual, translated at MarxistFromLebanon. Although I don't agree with the ideas on Kerkuk, at least the discussion is elegant enough to rise far above the usual garbage found in Western propaganda. For example:

Most of the available evidence indicates that the Kurdish population's shift towards secession started during the latter period of the Baath regime, and most significantly, since the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988-89. During that campaign, the Kurdish regions were subjected to wholesale massacres, ethnic cleansing, destruction of hundreds of villages, forced Arabization, and forced migration of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of their inhabitants. In other words, the movement favoring Kurdish secession grew in reaction to the extreme national-chauvinist and tyrannical policies pursued by the central government in dealing with the Kurdish question.

It is worth adding that the Kurdish movement towards secession was further nurtured during the years of self-rule in the 1990's and later, when the Kurdish regions in northern Iraq were outside Baghdad's control and largely isolated from the southern Arab-majority regions that remained under Baath rule.

[ . . . ]

As I am talking about secession, I should point out that I fully support the Kurdish people's right to national self-determination, including its right to secede completely and form a separate state. But my support of this right is not neutral, and I find no contradiction in being partial to another alternative: As an Arab citizen, I am also in favor of Iraq's Kurds ultimately choosing to remain within the Arab world, as an affirmation that this Arab world can be open to ethnic, regional and religious communities -- in all their diversities and multiplicities -- in a context of coexistence and cooperation that are enriching to all.

As I said, I don't agree with the comments later in the article on Kerkuk, but at least here's one Arab who supports Kurdish rights and admits that federation in Iraq faces serious problems. The thing is definitely worth a read.