NEWS FOR FRIDAY

"Actually, Cemil Çiçek's approach, in a way, is Turkey's century-long general approach. The hysterical, assimilationist, exclusionist, vengeful, denialist policy reveals itself through Cemil Çiçek."
~ Mehmet Nuri Güneş, DTP mayor of Iğdır.

Last week the Vineyard Saker interviewed Zerkes from Zerkesorg. It's an excellent and extensive interview discussing the current situation in Turkey, the Turkish Deep State, and potential Kurdish alliances in the region, so go on over to The Vineyard of the Saker and enjoy.


This week the third installation of an examination of the career of the new American Turkish Council chairman Richard Armitage is up at Sibel Edmonds' place. You can also find Part 1 and Part 2 on Armitage if you missed them.





Down in Tucson, Arizona there's been a bit of a dust-up over a Gülen school. You might want to notice the final comment of the Turkish principal:

"I'm hoping that they know that these are defamatory allegations which may put them in trouble later on. These are excelling schools. ... I hope they are aware of what they're doing."

Cue threatening music . . .

Turkish is taught in the school and students are encouraged to participate in Gülen's Turkish Olympiads. The Turkish Olympiads are sponsored by local Turkish organizations around the world and news about these Olympiads regularly appear on Fethullah Gülen's official website.

The interesting thing about this, especially in the US, is that the Bush administration created the National Security Language Initiative in 2006. Turkish is included as a language that is "fundamental to the economic competitiveness and security interests of the Nation."

Now, that begs the question: What kind of translators are former Gülen students going to be? Are they going to be like Sibel Edmonds? Or are they going to be like Melek Can Dickerson? Does anyone think, if these students have a Gulen-inspired view of Turkey--a Turkish nationalist view of Turkey--that they are going to translate things in a way that is favorable to Turkey? Doesn't that undermine the whole idea of a "National Security Language Initiative"?

Finally, last week the DTP/BDP mayor of Iğdır, Mehmet Nuri Güneş, was among those detained in the continuing terror actions against the Kurdish people in Turkey. Many here will remember an interview with Comrade Mehmet from ANF last year. This was after deputy prime minister Cemil "Chicken Little" Çiçek almost had a stroke because the DTP (read: the KURDS) had taken over Iğdır. The problem being, of course, that Iğdır borders Armenia and you know how Kurds might just let the Armenians in the back door so that they would be able to SEPARATE--OMG! OMG! OMG!--Turkey.

According to Roj TV, Comrade Mehmet's detention officially became an arrest last weekend.

THE GREAT MAN OF ARMENIA

“We do not believe in benevolent friends, the inevitable triumph of justice, or covertly and cleverly manipulating the superpowers. If we are to achieve national self-determination, then we ourselves, the Armenian people, will have to fight for it. We believe in the power of organized masses and in the capacity of our people to determine their own future. We believe in revolution.”
~ Monte Melkonian.

There was a man that most Kurds don't know but probably should. His name was Monte Melkonian. He was born in California in the latter half of the 1950s to Armenian-American parents and was educated at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1978, he left the US for Iran where he taught English and joined with others to overthrow the Shah. In August 1979, Monte heard rumors of a Kurdish rebellion in East Kurdistan:

Since leaving Berkeley, Monte had tried to surmount his distrust towards Kurds. He had read somewhere that the Kurds who had taken part in the genocide were from clans led by men who owed their allegiance not to their own people, but to Turkish leaders in Istanbul. After betraying their Armenian cousins, these leaders betrayed their own brothers and sisters by siding with the Turkish army that massacred and deported Kurds in the 1920s and 1930s. Since then, even Kurds from the offending clans had come to view Armenians as fellow victims of their mutual Turkish enemy.

If the rumors of the Kurdish rebellion turned out to be true, exhilarating questions would follow: had the Kurds in Iran succeeded in establishing their own government? And if so, what were the chances that their insurrection would spill over the border to the 12 million Kurds on the Turkish side? And if those prospects were good, could Armenian recruits form their own group and join the insurrection?

It was time to visit Kurdistan. (My Brother's Road, p. 59)

Monte left for East (Iranian) Kurdistan with a group of Armenian friends, all of whom sought to fight alongside the Kurds:

After four or five days at Haftvan, it was time to continue the journey south to Mahabad. The entourage announced their arrival to rebel leader Ghani Booloorian, who had recently emerged from twenty-eight years in one of the Shah's dungeons. They also introduced themselves to Dr. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the highest-ranking leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Iran. With some 15,000 men in arms and eleven tanks, the KDP was the most powerful organization in Iranian Kurdistan. Ghassemlou's tie and suit jacket did not impress Monte, though, nor did his claim that Kurds were "true Europeans" surrounded by Asiatics. It was the long-lost European story again--the same old story he had heard from Armenians and Lebanese Maronites. Vahig told Ghassemlou that he and his friends wanted to go to the front, but when he mentioned that one of his friends was from the United States, the Kurdish leader's smile disappeared and he snapped, "We don't need any more fighters at the front."

Monte and his entourage enjoyed a better reception from Komala, an organization dedicated to autonomy in Iranian Kurdistan. The leader of Komala, a fifty-seven-year-old Sunni religious scholar named Sheikh Ezzedin Hosseini, invited the youths to sit with him on the floor around a tray of tea. The sheikh spoke in sincere generalities about Armenian-Kurdish relations and offered to provide arms and training to his Armenian brothers, if they so wished. Monte took an instant liking to the sheikh, with his white turban, horn-rimmed glasses, green robe, and graying beard. For years after meeting him, Monte would greet comrades with a temmenah, touching fingers of the right hand to the forehead and then placing the open hand on the heart. (My Brother's Road, pp. 60 - 61)

In 1978, Monte went to Beirut. By 1980, he had joined ASALA and received military training from the Palestinians. But Armenians and Palestinians weren't the only groups to receive military training in Lebanon in the early 1980s; the PKK was also part of Monte's Lebanese milieu. Monte trained with the PKK and here's what he had to say about them:

At night, the Kurds actually dreamt about their suffering motherland, and as soon as they awoke they charged off to the drill ground. They dug foxholes with gusto and shouted Thaura! Thaura! "Revolution!" during assault practice, instead of the usual Allahu Akbar! "God is Great!" When they picked the odd quince, they left coins for the farmer at the foot of the tree, and when a Druze farmer came to harvest olives at a nearby orchard they climbed the trees with buckets to help. Once, when the Kurd Suleiman broke a banana in half and absent-mindedly landed Comrade Hassan the smaller of the two pieces, his PKK comrade Terjuman demanded a round of criticism and self-criticism. Suleiman came clean with a self-criticism and a solemn oath never again to engage in such unseemly behavior.

After their initial amusement wore off, the scruffy, swearing, cigarette-smoking Arabs and Armenians at the camp began to feel self-conscious in the presence of the abstemious Kurds, with their internationalist songs, their allusions to German classical philosophy, and their constant focus on revolution. But Monte loved these goings-on. "These guys are like gold!" he effused.

Their enthusiasm was contagious. One by one, the smokers started tossing aside their cigarette rations after returning from the morning jog. All the comrades grimly huddled around the radio for news about the September 12, 1980 military coup in Turkey. Arab recruits volunteered to shoot Turkish diplomats. Before long, they were all stomping shoulder to shoulder under the sun, shouting in Arabic, Kurdish, and Armenian: "Return to the homeland!" "Struggle until victory!" and "We are fedayees!"

At Yanta [Lebanon], Monte felt that expansive feeling that comes with living and fighting together for a common purpose. It was a feeling for which the word "solidarity" is entirely too tepid. The simplest activities--squatting around a tray of lentils; tearing bread and handing it out; donating blood; passing the overcoat at the change of the guard--each of these gestures formed part of a daily liturgy that had nothing to do with egoism or altruism. Quite apart from the question of whether their goals were realizable, the new comrades had moved, if only for a few days or weeks, beyond the plodding mediocrity of shopkeepers and the crushing cynicism of Beirut. This was the way a revolutionary movement--a struggle, as Monte would say--was supposed to feel. (My Brother's Road, pp. 85 - 87)

There are those who claim that Monte was a "terrorist", but "terrorism" is not so simple and it's a term that's generally used by those who seek to enforce a self-beneficial status quo, as we have all seen so clearly in the last eight years. Reality is always different, as Monte himself wrote in 1988:

"Exploitation and oppression are in themselves forms of violence, and to defend myself and others I will leave all my options open, including violent options. This is natural, and the way things go. I don't care whether someone has been born into a position of oppression or if he has "worked" his way there. If he oppresses, he oppresses. If he refuses to correct his behavior the easy way, then we'll just have to do things the hard way. It's as simple as that."

Monte was no "terrorist"; he was a lover and defender of justice. So much so, in fact, that he came to the point of criticizing ASALA and urging a surprising option:

In a series of prison essays, Melkonian cited failings of the Armenian Secret Army and called on Armenian revolutionaries to join Kurdish and Turkish rebels to establish a guerrilla force in eastern Turkey.

"Pens are pens and guns are guns," he wrote. "Right now we have a greater need for guns than pens."

My Brother's Road, written by Monte's brother, Markar Melkonian, is not the only book available about Monte Melkonian. The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings of Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question are Monte's own words on the issue, and should provide the reader with plenty of meat to enjoy a discussion on the right to struggle with the great man himself. In fact, this would be the only opportunity to discuss anything with Monte; sadly, he died in 1993 while defending the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

There is much more information available online about Monte Melkonian than there was when I first learned of him. He has a Wikipedia page and there is information about him at the Monte Melkonian Fund, including a photo gallery and a page of quotes. Go, now, and learn.

May our old friend rest in peace.

DTP'S MAN IN IĞDIR

"Actually, Cemil Çiçek's approach, in a way, is Turkey's century-long general approach. The hysterical, assimilationist, exclusionist, vengeful, denialist policy reveals itself through Cemil Çiçek."
~ Mehmet Nuri Guneş, DTP Mayor, Iğdır.

In the 29 March Turkish local elections, DTP took the city of Iğdır in far eastern Turkey, which caused deputy prime minister Cemil Çiçek to talk the usual übernationalist trash about border security. After all, can't have those Kurds and Armenians getting together, don't you know?

On Wednesday, I posted a link to an article in which a political scientist took a very different view of the DTP victory in Iğdır from that of Chicken Little Çiçek. In her article, Bilgin Ayata wrote:

. . . [T]he possibility of reopening the [Turkish-Armenian] border gained a different dimension with the recent regional elections on March 29, in which the Pro-Kurdish Party DTP firmly established itself as the key regional party in the Kurdish-populated areas in southeast Turkey, and took over the municipality of Igdir that had been governed by the ultra-nationalist party MHP for the past decade. [ . . . ] The political atmosphere there until recently had been extremely nationalistic and hostile toward its Armenian neighbor . . . In light of this political atmosphere, it will certainly not be easy for the new mayor Mehmet Nuri Gunes of the DTP to make a new beginning in the region. However, irrespective of whether or not the border reopens, the DTP’s victory in Igdir is a positive and hopeful development for better neighbor relations.

Now we can hear from Mehmet Nuri Guneş himself, courtesy of Fırat News Agency (http://www.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=nuce&nuceID=6956):

"We Ended 86 Years of Exclusive Management in Iğdır"


Iğdır is a province where DTP won the municipality for the very first time and a place where different identities and cultures such as Kurds, Azeris, Terekeme, etc., live together. It became a province that grabbed attention by government spokesman Cemil Çiçek's statement about DTP that reached to the Armenian border by winning Igdir and "this is a situation that we should think about." So we, too, asked DTP Igdir Mayor Mehmet Nuri Güneş the importance of Iğdır for the state and DTP, Çiçek's statement, Turkish-Armenian relations, and the municipality's prioritized projects.


ANF: After the election, the government spokesman, Cemil Çiçek, referring to DTP's win in Iğdır, said "they reached Armenia". What did Cemil Çiçek mean?

MNG: Actually, Cemil Çiçek's approach, in a way, is Turkey's century-long general approach. The hysterical, assimilationist, exclusionist, vengeful, denialist policy reveals itself through Cemil Çiçek. Here rejection is the case. It is the rejection of the changing hand of a racist management that contradicts Iğdır's 86-year-old multi-identity structure.

ANF: What makes Iğdır so important?

MNG: Since Iğdır is on the crossroad of three countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran, it was a place where Newroz was celebrated internationally. It is the gate that opens to Turkic republics and, at the same time, it is important in terms of being the center of the reality that we know as the Armenian slaughter. In one way, Iğdır resembles Kerkuk with its multiple identity structure. For this reason, it is an example where we can implement our policies, in such a center. Leaving the management of DTP after 86 years is seen by them as a defeat. However, this is a happy situation for those who miss a democratic management.

ANF: Is the tension that was created right after DTP won the election still on the rise?

MNG: It's still continuing, however for the people it's slowly easing. Historically Iğdır is a place where clashes such as Right-Left, Kurdish-Azeri, occurred. The tension was so much that Azeri TV, which had an interview with me, asked, "How many families migrated from Iğdır?" However as soon as we took charge and paid 7-months' worth of salaries, and siad that we do not have any problem with our personnel caused relief.

ANF: Who creates the tension, and why?

MNG: The MHP people and the AKP people with an MHP identity . . . We are not going to allow the provocations that they want to create. The tension is easing anyway.

ANF: What is the attitude of the local press?

MNG: The local press is leaving its provocative attitude and is starting to accept the situation. They show our statements the way that they are [without any distortion]. A change in their manner started towards acceptance when they saw our policies, such as not laying off any personnel from the municipality. starting to pay the salaries, and such.

No Judgement Yet

ANF: The old mayor has claims, such as you have received a four-and-a-half year conviction from the flag case, thus you cannot be sworn in [as mayor]. What do you say about this?

MNG: Tension occured after the old MHP mayor--who has been in touch with Cemil Çiçek for years--left his own party and went to AKP. The election defeat brought some claims related to me. It is obvious that these people neither trust the Turkish judiciary nor the Higher Election Board [YSK]. Unfortunately, whenever the issue is the Kurdish question, sometimes even the law is put on the shelf. However, regarding these issues, I have no conviction yet. Plus, while the four-and-a-half year punishment was in the process at the Supreme Court of Appeals, it was taken to appeal with a new law without any judgement, and so far there is no conviction. These claims are the appearance of the concept of doing everything in order to create tension.

ANF: The 86-year exclusive management is leaving its place to a democratic management for the very first time, you said. With DTP, what will change?

MNG: In terms of municipality services, city council, municipality council, and administrative bodies, will find life in three main points, such as openness, transparency, and organization. We will find solutions to Iğdır's problems together with the people; we'll produce together and we'll implement together. In addition to the infrastructure problems, we have a project called ORYAP--Organic Life Project. We will bring solidarity among people while installing a cooperative trading system. Through reading houses and, also, social complexes, we will provide citizens of Iğdır, whether Kurdish or Azeri, to be partners in social activities.

ANF: DTP has ten years' experience in local administration, however in Iğdır it is the very first time, locally, that it came into administration. Do you think it is a disadvantage for you?

MNG: Of course there is a lack of experience, however managing people, managing economic sources is related to vision and acquired culture. When you take scientific, modern, communalist approaches you will not have any problem, especially when you have ten years of experience. Besides, we will not stop there. In addition to the sources that we got from İller Bank, we will start a projection study with a close relation to the EU. For this reason, as soon as we get the municipality completely, we will found a project department.

ANF: What will be your prioritized projects?

MNG: There is a frame that can be called "under the road" and "above the road". "Above the road" has almost solved all it's problems, whereas "under the road", where mainly Kurds live, [conditions] in every aspect is in between village and city conditions. Firstly we will start with this infrastructure problem. Our primary goal will be a plan for Igdir's future population of 100,000 to 150,000 that will primarily fall under construction or field production [agricultural]. We will have studies for marketing organic agricultural produce, a cooperative system for production that includes the municipality.

ANF: You have pointed out the difference of Iğdır from the other cities, in terms of it's multicultural and multi-identity structure. For that reason, you made an analogy with Kerkuk. In order to protect Igdir's multi-identity structure and keep the differences at peace, what will you do?

MNG: I have mentioned about social development and cohesion projects, there are reading houses here. We will open technical schools. We will organize social and cultural activities. Again, we will provide cooperatives. To this day there have been thick barriers set between the two peoples. While they are together in social relations, whatever the reason, in elections, one-sided racism is on the rise. Even the clothes that I wore for Newroz became an issue for debate. There was propaganda of "The Kurds will massacre us, make us migrate." The more they see our municipality's implementations, the more they will be comfortable; within two years everything will click into place. The other day there was an election in the Irrigation Union. They [the provocateurs] tried to create tension. Our people are organized, they know their responsibilities, and we will not allow this.

There Isn't Any Problem Among the People

ANF: Recently there is a diplomatic closeness between Turkey and Armenia. How do you see this?

MNG: Since this is an inter-state relationship issue, it will be better to be evaluated by the parties' administrations rather than by mayors. However, from the culture and modern values that I acquired from my party that I am loyal to, I don't think an approach based on fights, conflicts, and vengeance for the past is true. It is an issue of the US, which is the unipolar power, that can formalize the way that it wants and whenever it wants to spread it over time. Our wish is that people decide to do this with their free conscience. The important thing is the establishment of a dialog with an approach that is without interest. There isn't any problem among the people. In the past, Iğdır's Chamber of Commerce chairman attempted a dialog, people supported him but the ones in power intervened and discharged him through an emergency congress.

ANF: What kind of contribution will the opening of the border have for Iğdır?

MNG: There are two possibilities here. By opening the borders there won't be any need for the approaches that worsens enmity, thus there will be a reduction in military expenditure. In terms of trade, it will become lively, commercial and social dialog will improve among the peoples. However there is a worry among both the people and businessmen that Armenians will not have any trade with some certain distinctive Azeris. For this reason, some people who believe they will not acquire enough interest, feed this worry.

Go, Mehmet, go!

I'VE GOT MAIL

"With the US government’s stated aim of vigorously assisting the Turkish state with its ‘operations’ that are aimed at ‘hunting down’ and ‘eradicating’ the ‘rebel’ Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), many human rights organisations, concerned Kurdish and Turkish civilians, peace campaigners and public interest groups are justifiably concerned that the genocidal and ‘psychological warfare’ linked ‘policies and practices of the recent past’ may all too chillingly reappear once again in the region."
~ Desmond Fernandes, "Turkey's US Backed 'War on Terror': A Cause For Concern?"

From the email inbox:

THE KURDISH AND ARMENIAN GENOCIDES -
FROM CENSORSHIP AND DENIAL
TO
RECOGNITION?

By Desmond Fernandes
Apec Press, Stockholm, December 2007
ISBN: 91-89675-72-X

Turkey’s repression of the Kurds has been widely documented - and is acknowledged as a major obstacle to Turkey’s accession to the European Union. But what lies behind such repression? Fernandes confronts the issue head on, forcing the reader to probe a question that many in Turkey and elsewhere would rather avoid: does the systematic repression of the Kurds amount to genocide? Open discussion of this issue is critical if a long-term resolution of the Kurdish issue is to be achieved – Nicholas Hildyard, Policy Analyst.

The book is an exceptionally important read for anyone with a broad interest in human rights and social justice. It has a scholarly account of the historical background to the present awful situation of Turkish Armenians and Turkish Kurds. In particular, the book provides a powerful comparative analysis of the policies of the US, Israel and Turkey in terms of their rationale for labelling human atrocities as genocide – Dr. Julia Kathleen Davidson, Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow and Membership Secretary of Scotland Against Criminalising communities (SACC).

In this important book, Desmond Fernandes exposes the details of the sordid and largely hidden role of Israel and the US Israel Lobby in preventing Congress from recognizing the Turkish genocide of the Armenians – Jeff Blankfort, Former Editor, Middle East Labor Bulletin.

Among its Cold War victories the United States certainly succeeded in its ambition to make the world safe for nationalism. As identity politics is reprocessed as a function of global capital, and rehabilitated as its natural ally, Desmond Fernandes documents the fractured consequences of the ready-made social fantasy - Variant: Cross Currents in Culture.

Desmond Fernandes writes for those who spoke the truth and were murdered, those who spoke 200 days ago and are still imprisoned, and for those who live in terror and in silence, or who meet in nameless buildings, so that the words ‘GENOCIDE’, ethnic cleansing, or the Turkish military word ‘TEMIZLEME’, may be heard as a siren call for the muted victims of the Turkish state - Diamanda Galás, Composer and Performer of Songs of Exile, Vena Cava, Schrei X, Plague Mass and Defixiones, Will And Testament.

The international visibility of eminent novelists like Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak ensures that their subtle criticism of Turkish legal practices and political culture reaches a wide international public. What is also needed for an understanding of Turkey is detailed historical analysis and scholarly insight into the perceptions and myths that contribute to the identity and beliefs of key actors on the Turkish scene and in the wider population. This is precisely what is provided by Fernandes, both in his own work analysing the denial of Armenian genocide and in his useful presentation of the significance, nationally and internationally, of the work of Ahmet Kahraman. His book and the cases cited by Fernandes show how the nationalist Kemalist cause is being ruthlessly promoted not only in Turkey but also by the Turkish state elsewhere ... Machinations, covert and overt, of a fundamentally unethical and reprehensible kind are being increasingly exposed, initially for a Turkish readership in the case of Kahraman’s book and now for an international public – Professor Robert Phillipson, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark [from the Foreword to the book].

Fernandes’ painstaking investigation sheds much needed light on the collusion between the Turkish State and the Israel lobby in preventing recognition of one of the darkest episodes of the past century, the genocide of Ottoman Turkey’s ethnic Armenians - Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, Spinwatch.

[This is] a judiciously assembled vast, syntactic mosaic ‘illustrating’ the total state terror inflicted upon two ancient peoples ... Desmond Fernandes has laboriously integrated a vast amount of historical events, scholarly data, secret documents, live witnesses, relevant literature and even poetry ... [He] has hit the target: mainly encapsulating the enormity of censorship, denial and recognition of that ultimate crime of man’s inhumanity to man - Genocide - Khatchatur I. Pilikian [from the Epilogue].

Desmond Fernandes is a policy analyst and former Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Genocide Studies at De Montfort University, England. He has published widely in a number of journals and is co-author of Genozid an den Kurden in der Türkei? - Verfolgung, Krieg und Zerstörung der ethnischen Identität (2001, Medico International, Frankfurt). Forthcoming titles by the author include The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey and US, UK, German, Israeli and NATO ‘Inspired’ Psychological Warfare Operations against the ‘Kurdish Threat’ in Turkey and Northern Iraq, due to be published by Apec Press, Stockholm.

Note: The book can be ordered securely online via Paypal at the BRTA shop (http://brta.org.uk/sales/) in the “Categories - Des Fernandes' Books” section, at the recommended retail price of £14.99 [2nd Class Royal Mail postage is included free of charge to those customers who wish to receive their book orders at a UK based address].

I highly recommend Desmond Fernandes' new book as I know his research is impeccable and everything in this book will certainly be meticulously documented. Given that we know have a war on the Kurdish people in which both the US and Israel are taking an active role--as opposed to their previous role as military suppliers, trainers, and advisors--the question of the reality imposed on the Kurdish people by these three fascist regimes, along with the accompanying genocide, must become just as in-your-face as possible.

Another item from the inbox, and far more amusing I might add:

from Aytug Koyuncu (aytugk@yahoo.com)
to mizginyilmaz@gmail.com,
date Dec 29, 2007 3:13 PM
subject sikilmis irkci -kurtucu kopek
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com

3:13 PM


pic oglu pic

kucaga oturacaksýn yakindir .... kopoglu kopek

anasi sikilmis it yavrusu

This is the typical Turkish reaction to anything Kurdish. What a great argument, eh? And people wonder why Turkey is backward . . .

IRANIAN LEAFLETS, AN ARMENIAN FREEDOM FIGHTER, AND SIBEL

Oh, let me think about this: The Turkish and Iranian armies started bombing Southern Kurdish villages last Saturday but they only started dropping leaflets urging Kurds to flee their villages on Tuesday--three days after they destroyed villages, homes, and other property.

Yeah, Iran is trying to "cleanse" the region, all right, and in the same way that Turkey "cleansed" so much of The Southeast during the 1990s and continue to enforce today.

It goes without saying that the Teheran regime is doing all this "without hurting civilians."

If you ask me, the mullahtocracy would be pretty stupid to send helicopters to drop the leaflets after another of their military helicopters, along with eight of Teheran's finest, was brought down by PJAK's HRK over the weekend. But--hey--it could happen.

By the way, you can find something about how the corporatocracy is vandalizing and editing Wikipedia with propaganda at DozaMe, and there's a good opinion piece on the subject at AlterNet.

The other day I stumbled onto an interesting little post at Kurdistan and Hayastan about one of the most interesting revolutionaries of recent times--Monte Melkonian.

Monte Melkonian is one of those non-Kurds that Kurds should learn something about. He fought with the Rojhelatî peşmêrge against the evil Iranian mullahs in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution. He spent time in Lebanon while the PKK was in the area. As the post notes, Melkonian once said:

"We need to build a mass-based guerrilla force closely aligned with Turkish and Kurdish revolutionaries."

There's more on Monte Melkonian here and a copy of his own writings, The Right to Struggle, is also in publication.

Lukery has several new posts up about the Sibel Edmonds case, including this one, in which Sibel blasts the kerxane that is Washington and quotes Thomas Jefferson.

You go, girlfriend.

THE HOLLOW MEN IN THE LAND WITHOUT HOPE

"Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion"
~ T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men.

Cengiz Aktar has a pretty good opinion piece over at TDN in which he seems to nail the nationalist (i.e. fascist) monster on the head:

Since the murder of Hrant Dink, anger has been expressed in various ways. The silent march of Jan. 23, which people from all walks of life joined, was a genuine demonstration. Citizens expressed their sincere feelings. However this was no turning point. This was not a reaction which was shared by the whole country, from east to west. I wish it had been.

This was rather a consolidation of those who shared the humanistic, democratic, open-minded and self-confident worldview that was represented by Hrant Dink, but who are also on the way to extinction. It was the instinctive gathering of a herd which lost a member to hunting hyenas. Just as is the case in game parks...

Let's not confuse these lands, whose inhabitants go between servitude and fatalism, with the France of '68.

Great line and true. In spite of the outpouring of emotion and the subsequent demonstration during Hrant Dink's funeral, there's no way Turkey could be mistaken for 1968 France. Why? As Cengiz says, because there is no support for reform from either the state or the politicians. Like others have already done, he notes that "the state and politicians fled the funeral in haste. Let's consider the insincere approach of the politicians as a calculation for the coming elections."

It's a calculation, all right, a calculation designed to pander to the lowest common denominator: the fascist sentiments of the masses. Like a good politician, Erdogan was off pandering to fascism by attacking one organization that stands for far more democracy than Erdogan ever has: the big, bad PKK.

Let's consider too, that Erdogan had the extremely important duty of attending the official opening of a tunnel. From TNA:

The [ANAVATAN] party's Mardin deputy, Muharrem Dogan, raised allegations that the construction firm had said the [Mt. Bolu] tunnel was not complete and that they are not responsible for any accidents.

The tunnel was opened last week with a ceremony attended by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi, after over 5,000 days of work. After a couple of accidents reportedly due to bad weather conditions and slick frost, the tunnel was closed to avoid further accidents.

Dogan asked the premier whether the speculation is true. "Why did you open the tunnel despite a statement from the construction firm that the electrical system for the tunnel had not been completed?" asked the deputy.

Why? Very simple, Mr. Dogan; Erdogan had to flee an Armenian's funeral. He would have used the Bolu tunnel excuse to escape the Pope if it would have worked. Campaign pandering. The fascist population simply will not vote for someone who attends an Armenian funeral, and Erdogan knows that very well . . It doesn't matter if all the rest of the world is watching.

Along with doing nothing with infamous Article 301--as well as doing nothing about racist school textbooks--Cengiz predicts how the political campaigns will use Armenian Genocide resolutions to circle the wagons:

Moreover, the country soon will face the anti-Turkey dimension of the matter with the genocide bills in France and the United States. The dominant rhetoric will use these developments. I can see statements like, if Hrant were alive, he would get angry, from now to turn the reaction, anger and sadness of today in the opposite direction. This would sweep aside the anger felt towards the Dink murder and consolidate the process of Turkey's closing itself to the world.

He notes that it is the Deep State at work, doing what it does best, stirring up emotion in the service of fascism to protect the privilege of the relative few who form the Deep State. And Cengiz finds it impossible to conclude without a reference to Germany of the 1930's. Yeah, that's it! Not France of 1968, but Germany of 1939. Or Eastern Anatolia of 1915 . . . and from 1925 until the present day.

Erdogan's campaign message must have reached Turkey's soccer fans, again from TDN [Note: Bear in mind that these are Trabzon residents suffering from their own stupidity . . . and you know what I mean]:

Trabzon, one of the biggest towns of the Black Sea Region, has been under a magnifying glass during the last two years due to a number of events, from the lynching of families seeking prisoner rights to the murder of journalist Hrant Dink by a local youth.

[ . . . ]

To show their anger, Trabzonspor fans on Sunday took their places in the stands of the Kamil Ocak Stadium with flags and banners that read "We are all Turks, we are all Mustafa Kemal," "I am Turkish, I am from Trabzon" and shouted slogans like "Martyrs never die, the country's unity will always remain in place."

Then there's Demirspor's idiot chairman, Adem Ailgan, who, last week, was "deeply sorry" for the murder of Hrant Dink, but now stumbles all over himself to reaffirm his "Turkishness":

Aılgan on Friday, following a series of reactions from the fans and the people of Adana, said he had been misunderstood. "I was deeply touched by the murder and Dink's wife's speech at the funeral. But I should have said, 'We are all Turks. I am a Turk; my father is a Turk and also a hadji. I apologize to the Demirspor community."

Ha, flake. Funny, his dad was a Turk and a hadjii. Who gives a damn? I wonder what political office he's running for? Then the dogs, or rather, Gray Wolves, came down from Elazig to Malatya:

Elsewhere, Malatyaspor entertained Elazığspor in Dink's hometown Malatya, and around 400 Elazığspor fans opened a banner that read; "We are not Armenians, We are not from Malatya, We are Elazığ, We love Turkey."

So much for the concepts of sin and shame. What a bunch of losers.

Well, there you have it. There really isn't any hope. If Turkey cannot come to terms with the Armenian Genocide, which happened almost 100 years ago, it cannot come to terms with its continuing Kurdish genocide. No, there really isn't any hope at all. Since we have nothing to lose, we might as well keep fighting.