TWO YEARS LATER: NO JUSTICE FOR HRANT DINK

"The Ergenekon gang is a deep organization and as long as the true leaders remain free, the real instigators of Dink’s murder will never be captured."
~ Fethiye Çetin, Hrant Dink's lawyer.

When you talk about history in the US many people will say, if they're old enough, "I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot," or "I remember where I was when the World Trade Center was attacked". Not only do people remember these kinds of things and where they were when they heard the news, they also remember what they were doing and how they felt.

I remember where I was and what I was doing two years ago today. I remember how I felt. I remember opening a page of news and seeing the photo of Hrant Dink covered with paper, yellow crime scene tape holding back onlookers, and the police standing nearby. I remember how I felt. I was shocked, horrified, dismayed, disgusted. I wanted what I was seeing not to be true. But I knew it was true and I didn't have to read the article to know what had happened, who was behind it, and how it would eventually go down.

When I think about all this now, I still have the same feelings I had two years ago today. I remember the photos of Rakel Dink and her family releasing snow-white doves into the air after the funeral of her husband, and I think Hrant Dink was like one of those doves. Peaceful. Good. Innocent.

Ax!

Turkey recently gave citizenship back to Nazim Hikmet, the communist and Turkey's greatest modern poet who had been disowned by the regime for decades. Ahmet Kaya became the victim of a hate campaign after announcing he would record a song and its video in Kurdish. He made the announcement at an awards dinner, at which he received an award. He was booed and forks and spoons were thrown at his table after making the announcement. Hürriyet published a photo of Kaya in front of a map of Kurdistan and labeled him "honorless". An investigation was started and then put on hold while the authorities waited for Hürriyet to provide them with the original photo of Kaya in front of the Kurdistan map. There was no photo. The photo had been photoshopped by Hürriyet itself. The investigation was dropped.

A Turkish TV documentary on Ahmet Kaya recently commented that he only wanted to sing in Kurdish. Why is that "honorless", especially now that the regime has its own Kurdish-language channel . . . for election purposes? Is the regime attempting to give Kaya's "honor" back?

Can the regime give Hrant Dink's life back?

No, it cannot, but when will we see justice in Dink's case? There have been well over 100 arrests in the Ergenekon case yet in two years' time we still have no convictions for those who were behind Dink's murder. The Istanbul police, the Trabzon police and jandarma, the Samsun police and jandarma, the BBP and other nationalists--everyone who knew beforehand of the plot to murder Hrant Dink--are free, with no concerns, no worries, no threat of justice hanging over their heads.

The three-ring circus which is Ergenekon has not touched the Deep State. The Deep State continues to enjoy its tradition of impunity. Nothing has been learned at all.

Gordon Taylor at The Pasha and the Gypsy has more two years on, here and here.

WE DO NOT FORGET

"The brutality, the impunity, the violence of Hrant’s murder serves several political ends. First, it makes Turkey less interesting for Europe, which is exactly what some in the Turkish establishment want. Second, it scares away Armenians and other minorities in Turkey, from pursuing their civil and human rights. Third, it scares those bold Turks who are beginning to explore these complicated, sensitive subjects in earnest."
~ Vartan Oskanian, Armenian Foreign Minister.

One year ago.

The victim.

The murderers.

The survivors.

The protesters, one year later, outside the office of the Agos newspaper.

From Bianet:

In the year since the murder, the Dink family has had to discover that it is difficult to “question the darkness.” Although the official murder suspects are on trial, it seems clear that those really responsible are will not be prosecuted. The Trabzon Gendarmerie and the Istanbul Police are accused of gross negligence, as they knew of murder plans long before the attack happened. Evidence has been withheld and permission to investigate security officers has been refused.

[ . . . ]

Saying that “the pain has made us relatives,” Rakel Dink reminded the crowd of the many sickening indicators of approval of the murder: the gendarmerie officers arresting suspected triggerman O.S. [note: Ogün Samast of Trabzon], who put a flag in his hand and took souvenir photographs of themselves with the suspect, football fans who reacted to the slogan at the funeral procession by shouting in stadiums, ‘We are all Ogün’ [referring to one of the murder suspects], the intelligence officer Muhittin Zenit who spoke to Erhan Tuncel , police informant and murder suspect, shortly after the murder and evidently knew of the murder plan.

There is no justice from the "Model of Democracy" yet for the Dink family or for the people of Turkey. Until justice comes, there will be no resting in peace for anyone.

Gordon Taylor at Progressive Historians has a little something from his own experience with Turkish fascists, the same kind who murdered Hrant Dink and others this past year, and have gone around terrorizing Kurds for 84 years:

On the night appointed for Turan's address I took my place in the lecture hall and waited with great interest, my pencil and notebook at the ready. Turan was introduced. Then, smiling, he strode to the lectern and proceeded to deliver the most appalling speech I have ever heard outside the documentaries of Leni Riefenstahl. When he began, Turan pitched his voice slightly below a scream. There, for the next thirty minutes, it remained. Occasionally it dipped somewhat in pitch; more often it rose into a keening wail. Never did it present the slightest coherent argument for a "Turkish position" on the Cyprus problem. Turkish babies were starving; this was clear. Turkish houses were destroyed. Turkish women were being violated. Turkish men were slaughtered. And, yes, Turkish babies were still starving. As a speech, it was quite effective at one thing: it kept the question-and-answer period to a minimum. No one had the least interest in asking questions of someone who had spent the last half hour shrieking at us. Imagine a press conference post-Nuremberg: "Excuse me, Mr. Hitler: could you explain a bit more your position on the Jews?" Afterward, as we stood in line for coffee and cookies, I spied Turan with several embarrassed-looking Volunteers. He smiled at me and nodded, seemingly eager to talk. Somehow I managed a smile, but I knew that talking was out of the question. With my empty notebook in hand, I found a convenient exit.

Don't forget to read the rest for much more.

CONFESSIONS AND VIDEO CLIPS

"[U]p to now we have been drawing attention to the illegality, violations, killings and kidnappings in the region. We said, 'the perpetrators are known.' Now it is being admitted."
~ Sezgin Tanrıkulu, President, Amed (Diyarbakır) Bar Association.

There's more on retired colonel Erdal Sarızeybek's confession from Bianet:

"I thought a lot about how I could prevent the terrorists from entering the district town [of Semdinli]. Finally I decided; it was quite a mad plan, but we had no other choice. I finally made my decision and met with Kaymakam Ahmet Bey and Prosecutor Bülent Bey. I told them:

'Honourable Kaymakam and Prosecutor. The situation is very grave. We are surrounded by PKK militants on three sides. It would only take one night for the terrorists to come here [to Semdinli] from Hakurk in the south, from Jerma in the east and from Basyan in the west. If they enter the town, we are face to face with the people and they will suffer. We do not want this. That is why will take this precaution.'

They both answered, 'Alright, Major. We are behind you to the last.'"

Then a major, Saribeyzek had started his duty as a Gendarmerie Border Batallion Commander in 1992.

Sezgin Tanrıkulu, president of the Amed (Diyarbakır) Bar Association, puts his finger on the possible reason why these old TSK officers are now coming out with the stories of their terrorism:

According to Tanrikulu, "Most probably the events he wrote about would have been investigated within the framework of "abuse of position". It is interesting and important that former soldiers wait for enough time to pass before they make such statements, so that the statute of limitations applies and they can be sure to evade punishment."

It is interesting, because "it is an indication of the future. It shows that those doing duty in that area [in the East and South-East] have got a lot to say."

It is important, because "up to now we have been drawing attention to the illegality, violations, killings and kidnappings in the region. We said, 'the perpetrators are known.' Now it is being admitted."

In the meantime, DTP parliamentarian and former IHD head Akın Birdal will bring the case to the TBMM:

Diyarbakir MP Akin Birdal of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) has announced that the case would be taken to the Human Rights Commission of the Parliament. The commission meets on 1 October, the same day that parliament opens. Birdal, who is a former president of the Human Rights Association (IHD), pointed out that human rights activists had long reported on soldiers pretending to be PKK members:

"There were many claims and indicators. It has been said that PKK uniforms were put on, that soldiers introduced themselves as PKK members and raided houses, that they asked people for support in the disguise. If they received help, people were accused of aiding and abetting. If they did not receive help, people were tortured, maltreated or killed."

And Akın Birdal is the one to know since these same types tried to murder him.

In case you've missed the brouhaha, Bianet also has a report about a Turkish nationalist singer from the Black Sea region, Ismail Türüt, who's taking the heat for a Youtube clip of one of his songs. Not that I could possibly squeeze out a tear for him, since he and his sidekick lyricist are glorified thugs who go around praising other glorified thugs.

Supposedly the person who made the clip of Türüt's song is a university student who had "no political aim." Oh, sure. I know I believe him:

University student Hakan Öztekin said that he had prepared the clip without any political aim: "I saw another clip with this song from Ismail Türüt, whose fan I am, on YouTube. I took random pictures related to Samsun from the Internet and randomly put them together with the song. I did not know that this would make such waves."

This defense seems rather unconvincing, as the "random pictures related to Samsun" were pictures of Hrant Dink's body and the murder suspects.

The Bianet report goes on to say that Öztekin's clip had been yanked from Youtube, but you can still find plenty of others that are similar. If interested in seeing what it's all about, go to Youtube and do a search for "Ismail Türüt".

Uh, but you can't do that from Turkey because Youtube's been banned again.

It's ironic. You can post oodles of video clips with Ismail Türüt's nationalist song accompanied with photos of Hrant Dink's body, and his murderers shown as national heroes. But you can't post videos of Mustafa Kemal, R. Tayyip Erdoğan, or Abdullah Gül wearing pink tutus and lip-synching to "Material Girl."

MORE MILITARY MACHINATIONS

"The Kemalist regime has reached a point where either it will survive by reforming itself or it will destroy itself by becoming trapped in the narrow structure of a unitary state."
~ Abdullah Ocalan.

Hevallo has a post up about increasing Turkish psyops against the Kurdish people. As he notes about recent Turkish political and military statements:

A lot of their statements are hot air and designed to increase racism against the Kurdish people.

Hevallo provides a link to a Hürriyet article which lists the seven points of the Turkish general staff against the PKK. The translation is not too bad, except for point number 3. It appears that Hürriyet had to sanitize number 3 for English-language consumption. Hürriyet's version reads as follows:

3. The time has come for various people and institutions both at home and abroad to see the real face of this terror group.

The Turkish version, courtesy of Firat, reads as follows:

3. It is the time to see the real face of the people and organizations that, domestically and internationally, are screening (or acting as fronts for--Mizgîn) the terrorist organization [sic], by speaking of high values such as peace, freedom, and democracy in every incident.

In other words, the Turkish ruling elites--i.e. the military--see those who work for peace, freedom, and democracy as "screening," or acting as fronts for, the PKK. This is a very old tactic of the regime. During the 1990's, IHD (Human Rights Association) was considered as a "front" for PKK, simply because the lawyers and human rights workers of that organization saw fit to defend those accused of "PKK terrorism" as human beings, and they spoke out internationally, as well as domestically, against the atrocities of the regime, all of which were committed with impunity.

It was the regime's association of IHD with "terrorism," and its media campaign to that end, which led to the failed assassination of Akin Birdal.

That impunity still exists, as we saw with the murder of Hrant Dink at the beginning of this year, or by the fact that the state's Şemdinli bombers have had their appeal turned over to the military, or by the fact that the Turkish prime minister can say publicly that Kurdish women and children can be murdered by TSK.

And the international community condones Turkish impunity by refusing to treat Turkey as the failing rogue state it rightly is. On the contrary, the international community does everything it possibly can to maintain the charade that Turkey is a "democracy."

The final point of the Paşas statement indicates that they expect the Turkish population to rise up in popular protest against the Kurdish people. Yes, against the Kurdish people; don't be deceived. PKK in this context is a euphemism for the Kurdish people. The Paşas are hoping that the general population is brainwashed enough to lend support to the status quo of Turkey's ruling elite, and given the number of Mehmetçiks that have so nobly laid down their lives to protect the interests of the Paşas, there is little doubt that there will be those stupid enough to do as they're encouraged to do.

Of course, all of the "popular" protests that we've seen have been organized by the Turkish military, as former chief of the general staff, Özkok, encouraged the population to do after the Council of State attack last May. All of the recent pro-"secularism" protests around the country have been staged by the military, a fact that was discussed today in Amed by Alper Görmüş who,until recently, was the top editor at Nokta. Nokta was the magazine that broke the story of the talk of attempted coup by the Turkish general staff in 2004. As Görmüş mentions in Zaman:

Alper Görmüş, the former editor in chief of the now defunct Nokta magazine, participated in a panel discussion on coups, democracy and politics in Turkey as part of Diyarbakir’s seventh Culture and Arts Festival, where he explained his views of why the magazine was closed down and claimed that recent rallies across the country were organized by the military.

". . . I have no doubt that the armed forced organized the demonstrations."

Of course he has no doubt, and neither should anyone else. This is the typical pattern of "legal" demonstrations in Turkey, such as the one today in Şirnex, ostensibly to show support for the general staff's recent seven-point statement against the PKK, from Reuters:

Thousands of people joined state-sponsored rallies in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast on Saturday to protest against increased attacks by separatist rebels of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

[ . . . ]

Protesters at Saturday's rally, mainly state-paid village guards, civil servants and schoolchildren, waved Turkish flags and chanted anti-PKK slogans in the remote hillside town of Sirnak, overlooking the Iraqi border 50 km (30 miles) away.

[ . . . ]

Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's southeast, staged a similar anti-PKK demonstration on Saturday.

The rallies came a day after the General Staff in Ankara urged Turks to show a "mass resistance reflex" to PKK attacks.

How convenient!

Unfortunately for any alleged "legitimacy" that these "demonstrations" are supposed to have, only Village Guards seem to take them seriously:

"I say damn the PKK. They killed our animals, they burned our houses, they kidnapped our children," said farm worker Mehmet Acet, 34, from a village which supplies militia forces who fight alongside the Turkish military.

The bottom line is that PKK has offered a democratic resolution and a ceasefire, a fact not lost on the Kurds under Turkish-occupation:

"What they're holding is a rally against peace. Kurdish people just want peace ... The PKK offered a ceasefire and the state ignored this," said trader Hayri Gokce, 28.

It should also be noted that Şirnex is under military rule, since the declaration of the new OHAL earlier this week. How, then, could there be any demonstrations besides those organized and enforced on the people by the Turkish general staff?

The ceasefire is a fact denigrated by idiots who never read KCK's ceasefire statement, such as Ilnur Cevik, who now lays the blame for the failure of Turkey to engage in ceasefire at the doorstep of South Kurdistan:

The fact that the Iraqi Kurdish leaders brokered a so-called PKK ceasefire which never worked and seems to have completely collapsed in the past few weeks has put the burden on them to deal with the PKK presence in their region.

As always, Ilnur is wrong. It was Turkey and the US who, while encouraging the call for ceasefire, never had any intention of using it to create a space for a political settlement. Remember:

"There is mention of ... a cease-fire as though there were two countries at war," Büyükanıt said of the PKK declaration. "This has been made an agenda first by certain individuals, institutions and groups at home. Later, similar calls were made by members of the European Parliament and some states. Last week, the person who bears the title of Iraqi president said he had convinced the terrorist organization to cease fire. And then, the terrorist organization declared a cease-fire. These show how this issue is being tackled according to a grand design."

Days before the declaration of the truce, the United States publicly said that a PKK cease-fire would have little value and that the terrorist group instead should lay down its arms and renounce violence. "Cease-fire sort of implies an act that is taken between two states, two actors, to do that. And I don't want to confer that kind of status on the PKK by saying a cease-fire," Joseph Ralston, the newly appointed U.S. special envoy for countering the PKK, said here last Wednesday.

So putting the burden of blame for the failure of the ceasefire on the Southern Kurds is a total and complete lie. Notice, too, Büyükanıt's paranoid references to some "grand design," some grand plot, as it were, by all those who work for "peace, freedom, and democracy," domestically and internationally, and how they really are shills for "separatists," while Lockheed Martin's Ralston comes along behind Büyükanıt, barking on cue as a good lapdog.

(By the way, see another Hevallo post on Lockheed's "special envoy," and how he's taken his time making contact with his new, civilian counterpart in Turkey. I guess Lockheed figures a civilian isn't going to be as tempted to buy billions of dollars worth of military bells-and-whistles as Edip Başer was.)

In the meantime, Iraq has formally protested Turkish cross-border bombing, according to the AP. The same article reports that three Turkish soldiers were iced as they returned from TSK operations in Şirnex, among them a major and a lieutenant colonel.

I guess HPG takes a dim view of the Paşas' call for "popular" demonstrations, too.

Finally, RSF reports that long-time Deep State murderer, Veli Küçük, has brought a lawsuit against one of the Dink family lawyers:

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the defamation suit which a controversial retired general, Veli Küçük, has brought against Erdal Dogan, one of the lawyers who represent the family of murdered Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink.

“This lawsuit against one of Dink’s lawyers in the run-up to the start of the trial of Dink’s alleged killers on 2 July in Istanbul is worrying,” the press freedom organisation said. “Six months after Dink’s murder, those who defend him are still being harassed.”

Küçük is demanding 10,000 Turkish lira (5,500 euros) in damages from Dogan. The case, which Dogan called “tragicomic,” is to come to trial on 18 September. The prosecutors investigating the Dink murder never felt the need to question the former general although the Dink family said he could be involved, Dogan said.

When Dink was murdered in January, Dogan told journalists his client had felt very intimidated by Küçük’s presence at one of the hearings in his trial in 2006 on charges of “humiliating Turkish identity.”

A key figure in the 1996 “Susurluk” affair, which exposed close links between the security forces, organised crime and fascist death squads, Küçük has repeatedly been summoned to testify in court cases that have not always been resolved.

Editor and columnist of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was gunned down outside the his newspaper’s office in Istanbul on 19 January.

It's too bad Küçük doesn't meet with an untimely accident. But, in Turkey, stuff like that only happens to the repressed.

INCITEMENT TO HATRED . . . BY WHOM?

"Unfortunately, they do not represent the Turkish public. The Turkish public has not filled the streets with demands of democracy and freedom. They were leftists, Armenians, Kurds and those intellectuals who favor multiculturalism."
~ Selami Ince, on Hrant Dink's funeral.

Well, the good news is that the boys in TİT (Turk Intikam Tugayi--Turkish Revenge Brigade) have learned how to use email, from Bianet:

Agos newspaper received an e-mail threat today. Founder of the bilingual newspaper, Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was gunned down by an extremist nationalist last Friday.

Lawyer of the newspaper Fethiye Çetin said they immediately filed a complaint about the threat, which was signed as Turkish Revenge Brigade (TİT), a notorious clandestine group responsible for several killings of leftist militants during 1980's.

"This is their last efforts to intimidate us. We'll do what's necessary and won't tolerate such threats", said Çetin.

Reminding the hundreds of thousands who gathered for Hrant Dink's funeral yesterday, "We'll overcome these obstacles in solidarity", she said.

The e-mail message threatens of a bomb attack to the newspaper, which continued receiving such threats even after Dink's assassination.

The bad news is that TİT is still allowed to exist, but that's the inconsistency that lies at the heart of Turkey's version of democracy. Another inconsistency is the fact that Article 216 of the new TCK (Turkish penal code) is selectively applied. Here's a brief description of Article 216, again from Bianet:

Article 216 (new form of Article 312) - Instigating a part of the people having different social class, race, religion, sect or region to hatred or hostility against another part of the people in a way dangerous for the public security: up to 3 years (if committed by the means of media, to be increased one-half).

So why is it that the producers, and everyone associated with the airing of the Turkish TV series "Valley of the Wolves," is not slapped with Article 216? Check it out, from TNA:

Top Turkish TV series "Valley of the Wolves," whose portrayal of alleged "deep state"-mafia ties hit a responsive chord with viewers, also ends up promoting violence, according to a new study by a young scholar.

Zeynep Gultekin from Gazi University's Radio, Television and Cinema Department did her master's thesis on the series, examining the "mafia series as a product of pop culture."

[ . . . ]

Gultekin studied 55 episodes of the series for its relation to pop culture, characters, presentation of violence and nationalism, and TV's role in reflecting the truth

[ . . . ]

In the 55 episodes examined, Gultekin found 145 instances of curses and insults, 296 shouting incidents, 174 threats, 149 insinuations, 113 denigration, 124 humiliating remarks, and 122 instances of mocking.

The thesis underlined that violence and its methods were clearly shown in the series, as in only 55 episodes weapons were used 145 times. Furthermore in 226 scenes weapons were shown, in 111 clashes occurs, 411 people were shown being killed, and 152 were shown injured. Gultekin also counted 137 attacks, 147 beatings, 155 slaps, 110 acts of torture, three rapes, 191 acts of harassment and four kidnappings.

Gultekin argued that the series highlighted nationalistic ideologies by using crescent, flag and map images. She also counted nationalistic elements within 55 episodes. The Turkish flag appeared in 216 scenes, while Turkish maps appeared in 299 scenes and the crescent was seen in 117 scenes.

According to the thesis, words relevant to nationalistic ideologies were also used hundreds of times. "State" was used 246 times, while both "country" and "nation" were uttered 128 times. "Turkey" and "freedom" were said 163 and 112 times respectively.

"Polat Alemdar is the protagonist of Valley of the Wolves, with his bravery, good will, and self-sacrificing and honest character," said the thesis. "Alemdar always wears a black suit and white shirt, drives luxury cars and shows the gun he carries in nearly every scene, and he is depicted as a 'character with positive values' since he can do anything for his nation."

Gultekin claimed that the series even praises violence and carrying arms.

In her thesis' conclusion, Gultekin argued that pop culture works must be prepared with utmost care as televisions are instruments of mass communication.

And people wonder why there's a problem in Turkey? Why Hrant Dink was murdered? Why residents of Trabzon almost lynched prison protestors, mistaking them for Kurds, while police stood by to watch the show? Why someone like Yasin Hayal only gets 11 months for bombing McDonalds? Why ultra-nationalists accuse "outside forces" for the murder of Dink or why the blame is placed on the Armenian community? Why we all know that this murder has changed nothing?

A headline in the right-wing newspaper Tercuman said that those who aren't proud to be Turkish "should clear off and leave." The article ran a day after a threat against Nobel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk by a handcuffed suspect charged with inciting the murder of Dink.

Turkey's largest nationalist party responded to the mourners' chants by posting its own slogan - "We are all Turks" - on a digital display outside a local party branch in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.

And in a chilling sign that the suspects have their supporters, a fake bomb was left outside the Turkish parliament building saying they should be set free, CNN-Turk reported Thursday.

Who, then, is most worthy of charges under Article 216?

In other news, CNN-Turk had an interview with Nicholas Burns, US Under-Secretary for Political Affairs, the third-ranking position at the US State Department. In addition to being impressed by the TC's "strong statement condemning this [Hrant Dink's] murder," he issued the usual platitudes about how Dink's murder was despicable, an act of terrorism (a phrase to promote US business policies), and that the perps should be brought to justice. Burns also managed to avoid the question about a resolution on the Armenian Genocide in Congress, something that the State Department will oppose as bad for American business interests . . . particularly with regard to the war industry.

Burns reiterates the US position on Kerkuk because there is no way that the US will relinquish control of Kerkuk's oil to Turkey and, at the same time, reiterates US support for Turkey over Kurds. Nothing new there.

The interview concludes with a question about Maxmur, and Burns replies that the US wants to clear out Maxmur by dumping the Kurdish refugees from Turkish-occupied Kurdistan into Turkish prisons for their political beliefs:

First of all, we are standing with Turkey, with Turkey, in support of Turkey in the battle against the PKK. The PKK is a vicious terrorist organization. It’s been sanctioned by the United States. We are Turkey’s partner in convincing other countries, European countries, to take a tough stance against it and we are going to support the Turkish Government in insisting that the number of attacks against Turkish soldiers and civilians be diminished. As you know, we are working with the Turkish and Iraqi Governments to try to see if there is a solution to these attacks and to this problem. The Mahmour Camp has been a source of support in some respects for the PKK and we must not allow that to continue. So, frankly, it was a very important first step for the U.N. authorities….with the Iraqi authorities; excuse me with the assistance of the United States to make an inspection of that camp, that is a first step. We will do more and ultimately our country believes that the Mahmour Camp should be closed. The people should be repatriated back to their home countries, many of them are Turkish citizens. And if the PKK continues to use Mahmour for support, or for any other reason, then I think there will be a great initiative to try to close that camp as soon as possible.

Working for one of the world's largest terrorist organizations--the American government--Burns is definitely in the know about terrorist organizations. In this statement we see that the US agrees to stand by Turkey even though an American raid on the camp last week turned up not a single bullet. It's also contrary to the UN's findings since the American raid:

A UN a census in the Mahmour refugee camp in northern Iraq on Friday declared the camp "civilian," though Turkey has long argued the camp has become a political propaganda and recruitment center for the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The census followed a security operation of Iraqi security forces backed by the U.S. military on the camp on Jan. 17, which was welcomed by Ankara. The Turkish Foreign Ministry stressed that Mahmour had completely fallen under the control of the PKK and lost any humanitarian role.

"We expect, in line with our call for elimination of the terrorist PKK/Kongra-Gel presence in Iraq, that these steps will continue and will yield results," the statement said.

However, an official from the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told the press in Mahmour that following the operation early this month, Friday's census proves the civilian character of the camp. "From now on the UN will have a stronger role and control over the camp," Marco Roggia said. He added that identification card of the residents will be renewed following the census.

Because Turkey falsely claims that Maxmur is a PKK camp that has "lost any humanitarian role," it will imprison and torture all the refugees if they are forcibly "repatriated" with US assistance. Although Maxmur camp leadership says that the refugees are ready to return to their homes in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan as soon as a general amnesty is granted, it's doubtful how many would voluntarily return. For one thing, the TC cannot be trusted so any amnesty plan that is cooked up will be questionable. For another, the refugees may not be able to return to their homes anyway. In December 2006, Human Rights Watch issued a report on Turkey's compensation law to return IDP's to their villages. HRW found that the law was created as a ruse to fool the ECHR and avoid embarrassing international court rulings:

Since the ECtHR announced its decision in the İçyer case, there has been a noticeable deterioration in the implementation of the Compensation Law by provincial damage assessment commissions. The damage assessment commissions appear to approach their task in a much more grudging and arbitrary way, resulting in absurdly low compensation amounts. For example, in a recent decision by the Diyarbakır damage assessment commission, a family that has had no access to its house, crops, or silkworm business since they were destroyed by soldiers in 1993 was offered a total compensation amount of 5,000 Turkish Lira (TL) (US$3,350).

[ . . . ]

Damage assessment commissions appear increasingly to apply arbitrary and unjust criteria in calculating compensation, sometimes in defiance of the law’s own implementing regulations. These calculations appear consistently to favor the government and to be biased against the victims of government abuse.

Commissions manipulate government compensation scales to whittle down the value of family homes—by calculating house values on the basis of values for cowsheds, for example. In the region where most displacements took place, income was primarily earned through animal husbandry, but in defiance of the law, damage assessment commissions will not compensate any losses associated with livestock. They also implement a host of invented “rules” in order to exclude applicants and diminish state liability.

Thus, the Compensation Law is being implemented in a manner that directly undermines the stated purpose of the law and the government’s express intent. It also undermines the possibilities for displaced villagers to obtain just compensation and hinders their ability to return to their pre-war homes.

There you have it, another inconsistency with respect to law and democracy, things which are utterly meaningless in Turkey.

Back in Ankara, US Ambassador Ross Wilson is also in denial over the reality of the Kurdish situation, from TNA:

Wilson argued that successful action against the PKK is possible through stopping financial and other support that comes to it from Europe, and cooperative action by Turkey and Iraq, including the Kurdistan regional government in the north, to better secure the border. Wilson said "this partnership and cooperation would not only abolish the deep disappointments and intimidate the PKK terrorism, but would also bring an end to the problem or at least put an end to the international elements of the problem."

Wrong. The situation of the Kurds under Turkish occupation is a political problem which will not be solved by attempts to cut off funding or to secure the border. There is no possible way to "intimidate" PKK or end the problem until there is a political solution, and the US knows this. But the US also knows that it cannot control the region unless it continues to foment instability, which has been the status quo for decades. The US intends to continue this strategy with no concern for the price paid on the ground, in order to maintain US hegemony and keep Lockheed Martin stock at an all-time high.

Notice too that Lockheed Martin's Joseph Ralston will arrive in Turkey this coming Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss more business opportunities with Edip Baser. This follows the signing of a joint memorandum with the US for the Lockheed Martin JSF program last Thursday, which should bring in over $5 billion for the Turkish economy:

Earlier, a senior procurement official said that Turkey expected to obtain a work share worth more than $5 billion for its local defense industry in the manufacture of the F-35s."We have so far secured a local work share worth $4.2 billion," said the official. "With the addition of some more contracts, we expect to be well over $5 billion."

The bulk of local work is due to go to Tusaş Aerospace Industries (TAI), Turkey's main aerospace company, which for example will manufacture the center fuselage for 400 F-35s.

Peace does not pay.

By the way, a little bird sings to me that Lockheed Martin's "special envoy for coordinating the PKK for Turkey," some Turks, and their Iraqi partners met today in South Kurdistan to talk about the refugees at Maxmur, and then they visited the Maxmur camp. Sounds to me kind of like Heinrich Himmler and his henchmen visiting camps.

MISSING POLITICIANS, STATE'S ASSASSINS, AND RESPONSIBILITY

"A state always calls itself fatherland when it is ready for murder."
~ Friedrich Durenmatt.

Remember over the weekend, how everyone suddenly became brothers over Hrant Dink's murder? Well, I guess no one passed the word to any of Turkey's bigshot politicians, because not a single one of them bothered to show up at Dink's funeral yesterday. Take a look at TDN:

As tens of thousands of people in the streets and millions in their homes were bidding farewell to murdered journalist Hrant Dink, nearly all of the country's leading politicians were conspicuous only for their absence.

Who had better things to do? Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who doesn't "do" funerals on some kind of principle known only to him. Besides, he had better things to do with the Polish president and the Parliament speaker of Turkish-occupied Cyprus. Who else was missing? Parliament speaker Bulent Arinc, Prime Minister Erdogan, and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. Apparently they did send the Interior Minister, and that must have served a two-fold purpose: to make sure no more Deep State assassins showed up to further damage Turkey's international image by blowing away a few more "undesirables," and to take notes on anyone displaying too much "brotherhood," so that they could receive a discreet warning later. . . like a bullet in the mail from a non-existent return address.

It's kind of odd, isn't it? In the US, the Department of the Interior is in charge of stuff like national parks, water resources, rocks, trees; while in Turkey, the Interior Ministry is in charge of stuff like the state's assassins. Does anyone remember Yesil aka Ahmet Demir aka Mahmut Yildirim or Abdullah Catli? They are (or were, in the case of Catli) notorious state assassins. Who was in charge of them? Well, at the time of Susurluk, when we came closest to getting a glimpse of where all the tentacles of the Deep State might lead, Mehmet Agar was in charge of them. He was the Interior Minister in Ciller's government.

Check out this headline: "Hrant's funeral brought Armenian and Turkish officials together". Then TNA goes on to mention absolutely nothing about any officials other than the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey. For that thoroughly deceptive headline, TNA gets the gold star for today's biggest media prevarication.

More from the Feeding-the-Monster Department: The Association of Literary Translators in Turkey has issued a statement on the question of responsibility of the murder of Hrant Dink:

The greatest share of responsibility rests on all institutions of state which still regard ideas and the expressions of ideas as “dangerous”, and which have long accustomed to exercising “violence” through judicial threats towards any writer, caricaturist, thinker, journalist, publisher, translator, NGO activist or whoever questions the state’s own “official” views on anything. The responsibility rests on the state’s legislative, executive and judiciary constituents and within its parliament and within its opposition. The very of act judging someone merely because he or she argued for or against an opinion is itself an act of violence that encourages some “civil” know-it-alls to exercise violence and literal “terror” on any intellectual saying something contrary to the received wisdom.

The second big responsibility lies within the mainstream media that does not fulfill its duty of monitoring the administrators of the state on behalf of the public or its duty of making visible the systematic pressures and violations of rights which hover above all freedoms in general and above the freedom of expression in particular, and thereby cautioning the public of these misdemeanors. Instead, this mainstream media has done everything to the best of its abilities in order to justify the pressure exerted on those using their inalienable rights, and now it is shedding crocodile tears. The media see the demands for freedom and rights merely as “impositions from the EU”. They fail to stress that freedoms as such are necessary to ensure our own right to live in decency regardless of EU membership. Responsibility also goes to any faction that readily labels anybody attempting to open up any kind of debate on the EU, or discuss issues concerning Kurds and Armenians as “sellout puppets”, “traitors”, “instruments of imperialists”, or “agents” and then terrorize them. All of them are responsible for the enormous psychological torture and threats to which Hrant Dink has recently been subjected to, and as a result of which he described his predicament as "the dove skittishness of my soul." Indeed, we are all responsible, for we were unable to support him sufficiently to help him speak freely without fearing for his life.

A brilliant piece of writing, especially since many translators have also been charged under Article 301. The ones that come to mind immediately on that score are Fatih Tas, his publishing house, Aram, along with a number of Aram's editors and translators. In particular is their work on Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and John Tirman's Spoils of War, but these are not the only ones to find themselves charged with "insulting Turkishness" or some other Article 301-sanctioned stupidity.

A third suspect has been picked up in connection with the murder, a guy going by the name of Erhan T. Again from TDN:

Investigating a third layer of involvement in the Hrant Dink murder, a new brother, Elazığ-born Erhan T. was arrested in Trabzon two days ago and brought to Istanbul yesterday, daily Hürriyet reported. By snatching Erhan T. the police reached the third circle of the investigation, it was reported. Together with suspected murderer Ogün Samast and Yasin Hayal - the brother who had given the gun to Samast according to his police confession - Erhan T. is thought to be the third person of the link.

[ . . . ]

Police sources said that Erhan T. is also suspected to be behind the murder of Italian Priest Santoro in Trabzon in 2004. Police are investigating the similarities between the Dink case and the Santoro murder, they said.

According to TDN, Yasin Hayal was the snitch that led Turkish police to pick up Erhan T. Additionally, people are starting to notice that Hayal did less than a year's time for bombing a McDonald's in Trabzon a couple of years ago. On the surface it may look inconsistent that someone carrying out a terrorist act is given a sentence of less than a year by a state that prides itself on its gung-ho attitude to the global War on Terror, Inc., but this kind of thing is not a serious crime in Turkey, even if you do threaten to blow up a Russian embassy or few banks once you get out of the big house. A serious crime in Turkey consists of writing things like, oh, I don't know . . . "The Armenians were genocided," or "Kurds suffer repression."

In the same report, long-time Deep State murderer Veli Kucuk is turning a bit Erdogan-ish, by threatening to sue anyone--particularly Dink's lawyer, Erdal Dogan--who claims that Kucuk threatened Dink. How are we supposed to read that with a straight face when we know it's coming from the same guy who invented his own "state secrets' privilege," thereby disregarding the Susurluk trial altogether. If anyone else, in any other place but Turkey, decided to dis a court on so much as a traffic violation, they'd be held in contempt by the presiding judge, fined, and probably spend at least a few nights in jail. Not so in Turkey, at least not with the Deep State's murderers, that is.

Equally amusing and enlightening is what the lawyer, Dogan, says: "Dink had been receiving threats for two-and-a-half years. The name that worried him most was Veli Küçük. But this is not an an aspersion (misleading charge meant to harm his reputation)."

Geeeeeezzz . . . I didn't think it was possible to harm the reputation of a bastard like Kucuk. Maybe that's what Dogan meant.

Hehehe . . . funny how close in sound the name Küçük is to the word kûçik, but I'm not going to press that issue too much; it's an insult to dogs.

JITEM AND HRANT DINK

"They were both in the system and in the file. What should really be asked is why they [Kucuk and Agar] were not captured. If you are going to get a result on Susurluk they should be brought on the agenda".
~ Fikri Saglar.

UPDATE: The media's in a frenzy with Samast's adolescent remark that he murdered Dink because Dink said "Turkish blood is dirty," and I guess everyone will eat that up too, because a Turkish kangaroo court convicted him of it, right? Wrong. For the record, here's an explanation of what Dink really said:

It is ironic that Dink got into trouble for suggesting to diaspora Armenians that it was time to rid themselves of their rage against the Turks. "Armenians, especially of the diaspora, tend to have a problem associated with the role of other that the Turk has played in forming the Armenian identity", Dink says. "There is a certain history. A trauma. The Turk has become such a source of pain that it "poisons the Armenian blood", as the Anatolian saying goes. In my article, I was addressing the Armenian world and saying: "There are two ways of getting rid of this poison. One way is for the Turks to empathise with you, and take action to reduce your trauma. At the moment this seems unlikely. The second way is for you to rid yourself of it yourself. Turn your attention towards the state of Armenia and replace the poisoned blood associated with the Turk, with fresh blood associated with Armenia.'

It was the Turkish media that hyped the lie about Turkish blood being dirty, and that twisting of truth in order to incite the Turkish population and create an atmosphere which accepts assassination as a legitimate means of silencing "The Other" is the feeding of the monster that Ismet Berkan referred to in his column in Radikal over the weekend. The Turkish media was an accessory to the crime of the assassination attempt on Akin Birdal years ago and it is an accessory to the murder of Hrant Dink now.

In other news from the rabbit hole . . . According to Hrant Dink's brother, Orhan Dink, notorious JITEM member Veli Kucuk made an appearance at one of Hrant's trials. The mere appearance of a filthy JITEM vermin like Kucuk is enough to send a message--a message Hrant Dink clearly understood:

Orhan Dink told reporters that his brother told him he became worried when Veli Küçük, a prominent member of Turkey’s controversial Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele (Gendarme Intelligence and Counter Terrorism organization), the JITEM, came to the trial and that the affair was “turning into a dangerous one”.

Hrand Dink said, ‘I am being pointed at as the target’, Orhan Dink told reporters.

Orhan Dink said that Küçük never threatened his brother directly.

“After Küçük came, we suspected that the bullet might have followed, and it did. … We were speaking within the family… What can we do? Should we leave [the country] or should we stay? Sometimes we would decide to leave. But then we would say that this nation is ours.”, Orhan Dink said. He added, “I wish they killed us all. We are no longer doves, we are now falcons. We love the people of Turkey. We will not let a bunch of people to take over. And we are not considering to leave any more. We gave our sacrifice. In order to stay, we can give more. We consider leaving as a treason against our brother.”

To give this some context, let's do a little review:

Filthy JITEM vermin Kucuk was involved with Susurluk, too, a minor detail that was noted in the wake of the Council of State attack, from Bianet:

Possible connections between the armed attack on Turkey's State Council during which one judge was killed and four others were wounded surfaced after relations were uncovered linking one of the suspects, retired officer Muzaffer Tekin, to retired general Veli Kucuk who was named in the Susurluk File.

Kucuk, who was a Brigadier General during the period where the Susurluk relations flourished, had refused to testify before the Parliament Investigation Commission on Susurluk.

But there are two other links in the Susurluk folder that have so far, in the last connection with the State Council attack, not been mentioned.

Mehmet Agar, politician-turned-policeman who not only chairs the True Path Party in the following years but serves directly in all operations as Turkey's National Police Chief in the Susurluk buildup. And the highest level security organ in the Turkish system: The National Security Council (NCS) which journalist Ismet Berkan identified as the supreme structure "that authorised the irregular war gang that was revealed with Susurluk".

On Kucuk and Agar, Saglar said "Both of them were in the operations. One of them from JITEM (Gendarme Intelligence) and the other as the Police General Director" and argued that Agar's becoming chairman of the True Path Party (DYP) "does not erase from history what he has done."

"They were both in the system and in the file. What should really be asked is why they [Kucuk and Agar] were not captured. If you are going to get a result on Susurluk they should be brought on the agenda".

[Note: The Mehmet Agar mentioned in connection with Deep State is the same Mehmet Agar who's now running in the Turkish election campaigns for the DYP.]

More, from DozaMe:

What Mr Elkatmis, as the Chair of the Susurluk Investigation Commission, has said still goes without notice. He said in a manner of questioning our “bloody history ?:

“There are three bases to the [organized] gang. First is the police, second is the [state] bureaucrats and third is the military. We can question the police and some of bureaucrats, but we cannot question the military. Ibrahim Sahin [police officer involved in Susurluk] was accused of setting up an illegal gang based on his photographs with Abdullah Catli [Turkey’s most wanted assassin killed in Susurluk crash]. We also have documents proving that Brigadier General Veli Kucuk made several telephone calls to Abdullah Catli. Why weren’t these documents accepted as evidence and there has not been an investigation against Veli Kucuk. Who ever finds him/herself in a difficult situation can claim that it is national security and would not turn up to give a statement in a court. Only if some people speak in Turkey can we get to the bottom of the investigation ?. . .

Ibrahim Sahin was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment, but Brigadier General Veli Kucuk was promoted to Major General in August, the same year.

Yet more, from TNA:

Hanefi Avci, who was then the police intelligence department acting head and now is Edirne police chief, best described the Susurluk connections. In his testimony at the parliamentary commission probing the Susurluk scandal, he claimed that there was an "illegal" organization established within the state to fight terrorism. He also said this organization then became a gang, which was established within the MIT, the police and Gendarmerie Intelligence (JITEM). Mehmet Agar, Korkut Eken, Ibrahim Sahin from the police, Mehmet Eymur, Duran Firat and Kasif Binbasi from the MIT and Lt. Col. Veli Kucuk from JITEM were in this organization and involved in numerous illegal actions under the leadership of Ahmet Cem Ersever, who was later killed by Kemal Uzuner (a.k.a Cubuklu), a driver working at JITEM, said Avci.

[Note: Mehmet Eymur is the bastard who was in charge of MIT's "counter-terrorism" department. He's been in "exile" in the US for some time, apparently after having some kind of trouble with the really big bastards behind the Deep State. Word on the street now is that he's been given some kind of reprieve, and that he's assisting Mehmet Agar in his campaign. Why is the United States protecting mass murderers like Mehmet Eymur? Inquiring minds want to know.]



Today, according to Firat News, through TNA, it looks like Kucuk is expanding his operations . . . into Azerbaijan:

Speculations regarding the murder of Dink, an Armenian-origin Turkish journalist, have been growing, raising further questions, while the media has been looking into the killer's possible link with a notorious ex-general, Kucuk. However, photos released by a pro-PKK media organ, the Firat News Agency, formerly the Mesopotamia News Agency, showed Kucuk with some other important figures.

Kucuk's name entered into Dink's murder investigation when the late writer's lawyers told officials that Kucuk had threatened Dink. They also also said that Ogun Samast, who confessed to the murder, was threatened by circles close to Kucuk.

In a photo taken two years ago Kucuk was seen with gunman Arslan at the Azerbaijan Congress held in Stockholm. After the bloody Council of State attack, Kucuk said he didn't knew Arslan. He also said after Dink's murder that he had no connection with the murder or suspect.

In another photo, Kucuk was seen with Muzaffer Tekin, said to be the mastermind of both the Council of State and daily Cumhuriyet attacks, and Association of Lawyers' Union head Kemal Kerincsiz, a high-profile ultranationalist figure known for filing complaints against writers and journalists, including Dink.

[ . . . ]

Furthermore, the news agency claimed that Kucuk was organizing nationalist circles in Azerbaijan and established a murder network against Armenians. The agency said it based this claim on information obtained in 2001 from Turan A., the nephew of Azerbaijan's then Interior Minister Siyavuz Mustafa . The news also accused Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of illegally training soldiers with Kucuk in Azerbaijan.

The Firat News article can be viewed here. It contains a link near the bottom to Mesopotamian News, which carries the photos.

So what's the deal with Kucuk and Azerbaijan? Well, the claim is that Yasin Hayal, Ogun Samast's handler, learned how to make bombs with Chechen militants in Azerbaijan. See Sunday's post for more on that, and remember, Azerbaijan is one of America's new best buddies. Ken Silverstein at Harper's has done some digging in that dirt. Take a look at what he unearthed here and here to see how badly all of DC is sucking up to the Baku regime, and why. I guess these DC movers-and-shakers will look the other way at a little Turkish ultra-nationalist terror crossing the border, as long as they're only targeting an Armenian in Istanbul.

In the meantime, certain TBMM deputies have begun bitching about why Kucuk doesn't have any state protection--see the TNA article for that. In my opinion, Kucuk should be sent to Beytussebap to head up the JITEM office there, so that he can experience the same Kurdish hospitality the last JITEM chief enjoyed last September.

LET THE COVER-UP BEGIN

"The 'deep state' is made up of elements from the military, security and judicial establishments wedded to a fiercely nationalist, statist ideology who, if need be, are ready to block or even oust a government that does not share their vision."
~ Gareth Jones, reporting for Reuters on TDN.

Trabzon . . . The shooter was from Trabzon; why am I not surprised? Trabzon, the spawning ground of the MHP and its assassins, the Gray Wolves.

IHT reports that Ogun Samast, the shooter, is seventeen and from Trabzon. "Described as a quiet but courageous boy by his uncle," yet he dropped out of high school and was kicked out of a soccer club due to "undisciplined behavior." Described as "totally open to manipulation," by one of the soccer officials.

They also say "he couldn't have done this alone," that "[s]ome people must have exploited him," and

Kazim Kolcuoglu, head of the Istanbul Bar Association, said that young people are sometimes used as assassins because they face lower penalties than adults convicted of the same crime.

Exactly. In addition, ordinary criminals are routinely granted a general amnesty, something that never applies to political prisoners. More from IHT on another suspect:

One of the suspects, Yasin Hayal, an alleged Islamic militant who learned to make bombs from Chechen militants at a camp in Azerbaijan and who served 11 months in jail for the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon in 2004, is suspected of masterminding the attacks on both Dink and Father Santaro.

Did you get it? A Turkish Islamist bombs a McDonalds in Turkey and only gets 11 months in jail. What happened to Turkey's noble war on terror? Ask yourself why an Islamist who bombs a McDonalds only gets 11 months in jail.

Does anyone remember that Alparslan Aslan, the shooter in the Council of State attack last May, was also an Islamist with ties to ultra-nationalists? From DozaMe:

The Atabeyler gang’s existence — believed to be an ‘open secret’ in the corridors of Ankara — was unearthed by the Turkish AKP administration after an attack on the Turkish Council of State on May 17, 2006. The Turkish judge Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin of the Second Chamber was killed and four other judges were wounded. The assailant, Alparslan Aslan, a lawyer with Islamic fundamentalist and Turkish ultra-nationalist sympathies, was arrested for the murder.

Alparslan Aslan’s interrogation led to the arrest of several retired and serving military service men and police officers. The operation was named as “Atabeyler Operation” but satisfying results could not be obtained due to interference by the higher Turkish military echelon who claimed most of the suspects as “their own.” A reference in Turkey enough to make anybody an ‘untouchable’.

Alparslan Aslan is an Islamist and an ultra-nationalist. He reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" before murdering a judge, and he claimed to have no connections to any organizations. Yasin Hayal is an Islamist, and since he's affiliated with Chechen militants, he's most likely a Turkish ultra-nationalist as well. Here's a history lesson on that, from CNN:

Today the most active group aiding the Chechens is a branch of the Gray Wolves movement called Nizami Alem, or "universal order." Nizami Alem is an ultra-nationalist group created from a split in the official Gray Wolves political party, known by its initials MHP.

Nizami Alem accuses the Gray Wolves of not being sensitive enough to Islamic thought. For its part, Nizami Alem maintains strong ties to the more radical Muslim groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Turkish allies of the Chechens have a party known as the BBP (or Party of Great Unity). Positioned on the extreme right of the Turkish political spectrum, the party is enjoying considerable success.

You can get an idea of some of BBP's stupidity and one of the axes they have to grind with AKP, here. They also didn't like the idea of the Pope's visit, from Genocide Watch:

A group of Turkish ultra-nationalists protested anew against Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to the country next week. The group also occupied Hagia Sophia . . .

[ . . . ]

The group of protestors belonged to the Great Unity Party (BBP), an ultra-nationalist political formation in current Turkey, a mixture of extreme nationalist thought intermingled with Islam. It was led by Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultra-nationalist lawyer who has won notoriety for launching multiple court cases against Turkish intellectuals, contesting the official line on the extermination of Turkey's Christian minorities of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians under Ottoman rule, which Ankara ostensibly rejects as genocide, or condemning human rights abuses against Kurdish nationals.

Maybe they should haul Kemal Kerincsiz in for questioning.

Nizam-i Alem is mentioned in the IHT article about Hrant Dink's murderer, Ogun Samast, but it is much more likely that Yasin Hayal is affiliated with Nizam-i Alem because he has the Chechen connections. CNN also conducted an interview with an Islamist who had been a former fighter in Chechnya. At the time of the interview, he was living in Istanbul:

Suddenly, after seeing those images of the war [in Chechnya], I decided to go to Chechnya as a volunteer. The next day I talked about it with a Turkish friend of mine, a former Gray Wolf. He belongs to the ultra-nationalist branch of that movement, known as Nizami Alem, or "Universal Order." I put myself in their hands.

Do you know about the myth of the gray wolf? It is the heroic wolf that shows the Turkish people the road out of Asia, leading them to their new homeland, Europe. In the same way we will lead the Caucasian people to freedom. A few days after my encounter with the Nizami Alem nationalists, they took me to a training camp here in Turkey, where they taught us to use weapons. Then I went to the front.

[ . . . ]

What I do know is that there were many ex-military men among them from the Turkish armed forces, who are close to the Nationalist movement, and maybe one or two agents from the Turkish secret service.

Yeah, "maybe one or two agents" from the Turkish government were involved with Nizam-i Alem, and their purpose was to keep the group's operations under control in Turkey, not to forbid it from operating. They thought they could keep Turkish Hezbollah under control, too, and where did that get them? Notice, in the complete interview, what the mujahedin said about who's running heroin and how well he digested the Turkish ultra-nationalist propaganda on the Kurdish struggle.

Nizam-i Alem, Atabeyler, MHP, Gray Wolves, ex-Turkish military . . . these are the threads of the Deep State. Whoever is pulling these threads is the one who ordered Hrant Dink's murder. Given the way political murders have always been handled in Turkey, we are not likely to learn who the puppet masters are. This is normal. Anyone remember Yesil?

In this case, for the murder of Hrant Dink, they have set the stage well. They have acquired a willing participant who is underage. He's a virgin, as far as his political affiliations go, meaning that he's clean; he isn't directly linked to the ultra-nationalist groups mentioned here. He had been taken by his handlers--Yasin Hayal?-- to Istanbul five times in the last fifteen days and was paid a sum of money by them. He does not change his clothes after committing the murder and confesses immediately. He knew he was meant to be the fall guy. I bet the police won't even bother to torture him.

He'll spend a couple of years in jail and then go free. Yasin Hayal and his other accomplices may do a few more years, and then they'll be free, too.

And so it always goes.

FEEDING THE MONSTER

"This much is crystal clear that those who tried to single me out, render me weak and defenseless succeeded by their own measures. With the wrongful and polluted knowledge they oozed into society, they managed to form a significant segment of the population whose numbers cannot be easily dismissed who view Hrant Dink as someone 'denigrating Turkishness.'"
~ Hrant Dink, last editorial in AGOS, 10 January 2007, courtesy of Blogian.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has noted four key points about the murder of Hrant Dink. Among them is this one:

U.S. complicity perpetuates Turkey's denial.

The Turkish government is able to maintain its denial - against all evidence and the tide of international opinion - in large part due to the U.S. Administration's refusal to speak with moral clarity about the Armenian Genocide:

-- The State Department remained almost entirely silent on Turkey's prosecution - and persecution - of Hrant Dink.

-- The State Department is blocking the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

-- The State Department fired a U.S. ambassador, John Evans, for speaking the truth about this crime, and is now seeking to send a new ambassador to Armenia, despite his record of having denied the Armenian Genocide.

The State Department's enabling of Turkish denial must be good for business.

I see that the BBC is running an obituary for Hrant Dink. Notice the last couple of lines:

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died or were driven out of Turkey in 1915, in what many Armenians say was a genocide at the hands of Turks.

Ankara denies the allegations, saying the death were a part of World War I in the dying days of the Ottoman empire.

See? Not even the BBC has the has the courage to admit that there was a genocide, but leaves the matter as if it were still to be determined. I guess that's because the UK and Turkey have such "cordial" relations. . . I would be interested in hearing Taner Akcam's opinion of Hrant Dink's murder, especially since he is also a target of the dirty bozkurtlar, the long-time assassins of the Ankara regime. As the Armenian Yekir noted earlier this month:

In an October 6, 2006, newspaper column in the Turkish Armenian journal Agos, Akçam criticized the prosecution of Agos managing editor Hrant Dink for using the term `genocide,' thereby `insulting Turkishness' under the notorious Article 301 of Turkey's penal code. Highlighting the term `genocide,' Akçam declared himself an accessory to the charges against Dink, and urged readers to join in Dink's support.

SwissInfo reports that Erdogan is continuing with this nonsense about the murder of Dink as an attack on "all of us." Shut up, already.

There also appears to be no claim for responsiblity in the murder, which is not unusual. The Ankara regime rarely admits its murders.

Except for the brief imprisonment of a relatively few ultra-nationalists in the wake of the US-backed September 12 coup, throughout the history of the TC, ultra-nationalist groups and individuals have enjoyed unfettered reign. Ultra-nationalists such as Taha Akyol are responsible for flooding the mass media with fascist propaganda to provide a justification for Gray Wolf brutality. Such was the case when Turkish newspapers waged a media attack against Akin Birdal before his attempted murder, and so it is now with the murder of Hrant Dink. From SwissInfo:

Newspapers said racism and nationalism, which is on the rise ahead of elections in May and November, were ultimately to blame for Dink's death.

[ . . . ]

"Those who created nationalist sentiment in Turkey have fed such a monster that there are many youngsters on the streets who do not find the ... state nationalist enough and are ready to take the law into their own hands," wrote Ismet Berkan in his column in Radikal, one of Turkey's main dailies.

"Politicians, journalists and film makers also contributed to the creation of this murderous nationalist atmosphere."

Ismet Berkan is correct. In all the news that I've read on the aftermath of the murder, I have not seen the slightest move toward Hrant Dink's life goal, that of forcing Turkey to come to terms with its past. In all of the media frenzy and the hype about "attack against the state" or sudden feelings of solidarity with Turkey's beleaguered Armenian minority, no one has uttered the G-word. No one has come to terms with anything in the past.

As an example of what this monster looks like, take a look at this video, a portion of System of a Down's documentary on the Armenian Genocide, titled Screamers. Keep in mind that this is part of the monster that the enablers in the US State Department and US Congress have helped to feed for decades:

Will Pelosi have the intestinal fortitude necessary to bring an Armenian Genocide resolution to a successful end? Time will tell and we'll be watching.

iArarat has made several posts on the murder, including a link to Robert Fisk's commentary on Hrant Dink. As a matter of fact, Artyom has the same taste in his mouth from certain reactions to the murder as I do. Commenting on certain Turkish editorials that are crying about the threat to "Turkishness", he says:

Turkishness …? My spellchecker does not even recognize such a word, let alone a concept. It is for the sake of this Turkishness that Hrant was murdered, not in spite of it. Do these people not get it? Is image everything for heaven’s sake? Where is the sense of decency? Do not turn Hrant’s death into a remedial PR campaign!

Seriously, there is no sense of decency, a point which adds to my disgust. Speaking of disgust, it looks like Hadi Elis at KurdishMedia is feeling the same.

Onnik Krikorian is building a collection of news and comments, including his own:

This is a calamity not only for Armenians, but also for every Turk and the country’s aspirations to become a member of the European Union. Actually, this murder is a disgrace and a crime that merits serious action from both within and outside Turkey. If anything, this should now be reason enough for Turkey to own up to its past and to re-evaluate the treatment of its minorities.

Enough is enough.

[ . . . ]

Time will tell if Dink’s death will result in even more hatred, or push Turks to consider what type of country they want to live in. As one Turkish human rights lawyer said to me in London over a decade ago, until Turkey can own up to it’s past, it will never be able to create a democratic future.

And on that, I totally agree.

And I second the agreement. Turkey's owning up to its own past is crucial for the creation of democracy, something which Koma Komalên Kurdistan recognizes as well, and accounts for its demand of a truth commission as part of a political settlement to the Kurdish situation. It also accounts for Ocalan's continuing calls for the same. Even in this regard, Ismet Berkan at Radikal has pinpointed the biggest problem facing any attempt to establish a truth commission, and that is the extreme nationalist atmosphere in Turkey that has been nurtured by the state via the media. Indeed, a monster has been created.

Turkey is its own worst enemy. It continues to oppress its best, even to the point of murder, for the sake of its inability to come to terms with the question of identity. Hrant Dink, Behci Asci, Akin Birdal, Eren Keskin, Ismail Besikci, and Taner Akcam are a few examples of those who have dedicated their lives to the improvement of the human condition in Turkey. I think, too, of all those murdered by the state since it came into existence in 1923, and of those brutalized beyond healing by the state, and I wonder how many of those dead would have been other Hrant Dinks, other Behci Ascis, other Akin Birdals, or Eren Keskins and Ismail Besikcis. How much would those lost ones have accomlished in this battle against the great enforcers of the status quo? And that is the problem with loss; one never realizes the full extent of the meaning of that loss, or of what what might have been.

Funny . . . only one of the hyper-neocon blogs has any reaction to Hrant Dink's murder, LGF. Apparently the only concern of the commenters there is to bolster the position of their beloved Turkish general staff.

And the disgust goes on . . .


Post Script: Notice that I mentioned Taha Akyol. His son, Mustafa, is now blogging, and Mustafa is an interesting guy. He's the director of international relations for the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, a suborganization of The Journalists and Writers Foundation, which is a business concern of Fethullah Gulen. Mustafa has written for The American Enterprise, a propaganda organ of the ultra-neocon AEI. He's also published in The Weekly Standard--start-up funds provided by Lockheed Martin--another neocon propaganda site, as well as for neocon FrontPage Magazine, and the Unification Church's The Washington Times.

In short, Mustafa Akyol is an active player in the Deep State in America.

HRANT DINK MURDERED BY DEEP STATE

NO! NO! NO!




Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has been murdered by bozkurtlar in Istanbul, no doubt with the approval and assistance of the fascist Ankara regime, from CNN:

Outspoken journalist shot dead in Istanbul

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- A prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist who spoke out against the killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire early last century was shot to death Friday.



Hrant Dink, 53, editor of the Armenian-Turkish language weekly Agos newspaper, was shot dead in front of the Istanbul publication as he was leaving.

The killing prompted swift denunciation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the attack was a "shock" and an "insult" to the Turkish nation and a "dark day" -- not only for Dink's family but for all of Turkey as well.

"The dark hands that killed him will be found and punished," Erdogan said, in televised remarks.

Bullshit, you dirty little errand boy, Erdogan. You'll find and punish your "dark hands" in this murder just like you did for the Semdinli bombing. Remember how you were swore to get to the bottom of that one? Or how about the Council of State attack? There's another one that your filthy regime pulled off and about which we'll never hear the truth.

Authorities are looking into a lead that he was shot four times by a young man who appeared to be 18 or 19 years old.

Described as a "well-known commentator on Armenian affairs," Dink has faced a number of cases in connection with "insulting" the Turkish state for his writings.

"Some of the trial hearings have been marred by violent scenes inside and outside the courtrooms, instigated by nationalist activists calling for Dink to be punished," said a profile on the Web site of Pen American Center -- the writers' group that promotes free expression.

Agos, an Armenian-Turkish language weekly, was established in 1996.

Andrew Finkel, a journalist in Turkey and a friend of Dink's, emphasized that the killing was "a tragedy" for a country attempting to "come to terms with its past."

Read the rest at the link.

Turkey is making no effort to "come to terms with its past." It is still a fascist regime and it has no intention of changing. Even the EU knows this and not only goes along with Turkey, but enables it at every opportunity, and why not? Europe is the native home of fascism. The US encourages Turkish fascism because the only thing the Americans love is money, and fascism keeps their war industry and politicians rolling in their blood money.

On IHT, Erdogan is braying about how this murder was not the murder of an individual, but an attack against Turkey's "unity."

I have news for you, there has never been any unity in Turkey and, at the rate things are going, there isn't going to be any unity for a very long time.

I am too angry and disgusted with everything and everyone to continue with this, and what does it matter what I say anyway? Nothing will ever change.

Ax! Şev xoş, heval.


Update from Bloomberg:

Just before his assassination, Dink had complained of death threats he was receiving from nationalists.

"My computer is laden with lines filled with angry threats,'' Dink wrote in a Jan. 10 article for Agos. He said he found one letter "extremely worrying'' and said police took no action after he complained.

Police have arrested two people in connection with the murder, NTV television reported. Police believe a male aged 18 or 19 may have killed Dink, CNN Turk television reported citing unidentified police officials.

Police took no action because the police did this murder, just like they have done so many others in Turkey.

Police in riot gear surrounded Dink's office in downtown Istanbul. Forensic teams were combing the pavement outside for clues to the murder.

That's right, provide protection for a corpse, you dirty fascist bastards. Make sure you get rid of all the evidence . . . we wouldn't want any blowback, would we?