US EMBASSY ANKARA CABLEGATE DOCUMENTS

"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community."
~ Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

You can read or search the Wikileaks secret US embassy cables at this site. If you'd like to cut to the chase for the moment, you can browse all the cables from the US Embassy in Ankara here.

I haven't made a thorough search of the site yet, but did check out the Ankara cables first. At this point there doesn't seem to be anything shocking in the revelations . . . at least, if you know the real situation in Turkey, there's nothing really shocking, nothing to justify old woman Clinton's hysterics.

Germany's Spiegel Online has an interesting take on the Ankara Embassy cables, though:

The leaked diplomatic cables reveal that US diplomats are skeptical about Turkey's dependability as a partner. The leadership in Ankara is depicted as divided and permeated by Islamists.

SHOCK!! He,he, just kidding. Spiegel Online continues:

The US diplomats' verdict on the NATO partner with the second biggest army in the alliance is devastating. The Turkish leadership is depicted as divided, and Erdogan's advisers, as well as Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, are portrayed as having little understanding of politics beyond Ankara.

The Americans are also worried about Davutoglu's alleged neo-Ottoman visions. US diplomats quote one high-ranking government adviser as saying that Davutoglu would use his Islamist influence on Erdogan, describing him as "exceptionally dangerous." According to the US document, another adviser to the ruling AKP party remarked, probably ironically, that Turkey wanted "to take back Andalusia and avenge the defeat at the siege of Vienna in 1683."

The US diplomats write that many leading figures in the AKP were members of a Muslim fraternity and that Erdogan had appointed Islamist bankers to influential positions. He gets his information almost exclusively from newspapers with close links to Islamists, they reported. The prime minister, the cables continue, has surrounded himself with an "iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors" and presents himself as the "Tribune of Anatolia."

"Sycophantic" advisors?! Personally, I prefer to call them "toadies" but sycophantic advisors will work.

Frankly, yes, the AKP is far more dangerous than the paşas. On the other hand, who's in charge of the "Muslim fraternity" quoted in the cables, according to Spiegel Online? Where is this leader living? Why, in the US itself and he's got his own green card. You'd think after all the problems the US has had with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, they'd give up on aiding and abetting Islamists. But now they're whining about the problems their Turkish Islamists are causing them.

BOOO-HOOO-HOOOOOOOO!!

According to the Cablegate site, 278 of the 251,287 cables have been released so far. It's definitely worth watching what's next.

It'll also be worth watching to see if Katil Erdoğan is going to prosecute the US for its criticism of him, like what happened to some students in Istanbul recently or to Hürriyet . . . or to another journalist . . . or to Musa Kart . . . or to Michael Dickinson, et cetera, ad nauseum.

Best in Show ~ Michael Dickinson

Tribune of Anatolia, indeed. What a weenie.

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE COUP, THE REFERENDUM, AND IRONY

"Top Turkish political figures, including former President Kenan Evren, were among the 49,446,369 voters country-wide who went to the polls Sunday to cast their votes in the constitutional referendum. . . . Former President Evren, voting at the Ankara Highways Guesthouse, declined to release a statement."
~ Hürriyet.

The results of the referendum are in, for the most part, and show no big surprises. However, we should extend a big shout out to the bad boys and girls of Hakkari who managed to give both fingers to the fascist AKP by having the lowest turnout rate of all--7% of registered voters!!

Secim.haberler.com shows that a whopping 9% of voters turned out for the AKP constitutional referendum in Hakkari. If you scroll down the page to see Hakkari's results for the March, 2009, local elections, you'll see that 80% of voters voted for DTP (now BDP), so the Hakkari region has become strongly politicized for BDP and against the ruling regime in Ankara. To see that only 7 to 9% of voters in Hakkari bothered to turn out for this utterly worthless referendum should come as no surprise to anyone.

For more regional details of the vote, check this page.

Here's the best photo from the vote, taken, naturally, in Hakkari:




This referendum reached a level of irony only possible in Turkey. Throughout the summer, Katil Erdoğan travelled around Turke, bawling his eyes out about all the victims of the 12 September coup, marketing Kurdish heroes like Musa Anter and Ahmet Kaya to get out the vote in favor of the AKP's carefully selected changes to the paşas' 1982 constitution. This would be the same Katil Erdoğan who's been the süt kardeş of every chief of Turkish general staff since Özkök at the very least. From the time of the Şemdinli bombing, Katil Erdoğan "massaged" Büyükanıt. During the Amed Serhildan, The Murderer gave explicit permission for the same paşas to do what they do best--murder Kurds. No doubt, The Murderer is now also süt kardeş to Işık Koşaner.

Yet, all this summer, this sorry-assed excuse for a prime minister has attempted to play the role of savior of the people. Whoever was convinced of the veracity of The Murderer's act is a flaming idiot.

Another level of irony is that AKP's constitutional changes do absolutely nothing to address the myriad problems of the paşas' constitution. Everyone is still a Turk in Turkey. The legal system still exists to protect the state from the people. The facade of secularism is still maintained.

The fact of the matter is that, even while the memory of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the 12 September coup were invoked, the intention of Katil Erdoğan and his evil AKP minions was merely to gain total control of the constitutional court. Don't believe me? Read it (in .pdf) for yourselves, boys and girls, from the AKP's own website.

Then there is the irony that the referendum vote was held on the anniversary of the 12 September coup. Honestly, you can't plan this kind of coincidence . . . Unless you happen to be Katil Erdoğan.

The final irony was never mentioned. I never heard it once all summer, not from any AKP apparatchik and not through all of The Murderer's crocodile tears. The final irony is that Fethullah Gülen was a huge supporter of Kenan Evren, the CIA's "boy". Let's recall exactly who Evren served:

The U.S. support of this coup was acknowledged by the CIA Ankara station chief Paul Henze. After the government was overthrown, Henze cabled Washington, saying, "our boys [in Ankara] did it." This has created the impression that the USA stood behind the coup. Henze denied this during a June 2003 interview on CNN Türk's Manşet, but two days later [Mehmet Ali] Birand presented an interview with Henze recorded in 1997 in which he basically confirmed Mehmet Ali Birand's story. The US State Department itself announced the coup during the night between 11 and 12 September: the military had phoned the US embassy in Ankara to alert them of the coup an hour in advance.

Two years later, there was another constitutional referendum in Turkey, creating yet another level of irony:

After the coup, in 1982, Kenan Evren was elected the President of Republic of Turkey on November 7 with the 90% approval of the new constitution that was submitted to a controversial referendum, replacing the older constitution which, according to him, had liberties "luxurious" for Turkey.

Nowadays, of course, Evren's biggest supporter has a US green card, accompanied by references from former CIA spooks--George Fidas and Graham Fuller. The irony never ends.

So, what now? The Murderer claims that AKP will write a new constitution after 2012. If so, it's time for BDP to get to work. They should pull out the 1921 constitution, dust it off, update it where necessary, and have it ready to present as an option for a totally new constitution. It's time to reclaim some of those "luxurious" liberties from the shit-eating paşas.

WITHOUT TURKEY'S KURDS, THERE IS NO SOLUTION

"In 1993, a ceasefire was declared by the Kurdish opposition. The EU tried to pressure Turkey to respond constructively to it. Instead, the Turkish government, with crucial US support, escalated the war. That led to years of further atrocities and destruction."
~ Noam Chomsky.

Here's an opinion piece on the current situation in Turkey from Radikal's Oral Çalışlar:

There won't be any solution without Turkey's Kurds


With the recent days' events (DTP's closure case, the reaction after Öcalan was transferred to a smaller cell, and, finally, the seven troops who were killed in an ambush in Tokat), the Kurdish "initiative" is in a sharp curve.

I prefer to call it a sharp curve rather than an impasse. The conditions for the solution to the Kurdish question are available despite all the barriers.

Most of Turkish society's preference, despite everything, still favors a solution. I can see most of the Kurds also want a solution. I think the ones who don't want a solution among Turks are not the majority. It is not possible that death and war be the desire of the majority.

Of course, whatever the conditions are, it is a must that the "initiative" be based on a right strategy and the process must be managed very well based on this strategy. From the days that the first steps were taken for the Kurdish "initiative" some mistakes have been made. If these mistakes can be identified and lessons can be learned from previous mistakes, the "Kurdish initiative" can be on track again.

When I listen to the sides carefully, I can reason the events went on as follows:

The government--maybe it would be better to call it the state--got into the feeling that it could squeeze PKK and "would be able to convince" it by reaching an agreement with Northern Iraq's Kurdistan administrators and with US support to take PKK down from the mountains and empty the Maxmur camp.

The government conceived that the international conjuncture was available. It made some alliances with Iran, Syria, the Kurdistan administration in Northern Iraq, the Iraq government and the US for a solution in the region and to disarm PKK. The government thought these alliances would be sufficient. It presupposed the problem would be solved with these alliances.

DTP states that the government did not inform it about the road map and deliberately mentioned that it does not know what AKP is trying to do. Kongra-Gel chairman, Zübeyir Aydar, who I met in Brussells, stressed that they have not received any information regarding bringing PKK down from the mountains.

This stoppage could be overcome by talking to DTP. However, the severe criticism by the opposition and nationalistic protests pushed the government to inactivity.

In this ambiguous situation, the judiciary and police moved forward and several big operations have been conducted against DTP. Tens of DTP administrators were imprisoned.

The scenes occured after 34 PKK members, who entered from Silopi based on Ocalan's call, scared the government more. and this resulted in a slow down in the initiative the government started by taking some risks. Slowing down put DTP on the target. An approach could be summarized as "DTP is the common target." occured. Despite all its weaknesses, DTP is a party consisting of legal representatives from Turkey's Kurds. They are the ones who can contribute the most for a solution of the question if they are left with enough room. However, the different voices coming from them were reflected in an exaggerated way that can trigger reaction from the public. The west of Turkey was conditioned negatively against DTP.

However this is a fact that the Kurdish question is Turkey's own internal problem. In a hierarchichal rank, the first addressees of this problem are Turkey's Kurds. For them, the most effective power is DTP. Turkey's Kurds, in a way, are the leaders of all Kurdish culture. DTP is the representative party of the struggle for Kurdish identity in Turkey. They should be the first and prioritized addressees for this problem. To bring PKK down from the mountains, Öcalan is one of the most important possibilities. It is possible for Öcalan to contribute toward solving the problem.

The power that rules Turkey does not move from this point of view, despite the fact that it sees this reality.

In recent days, scenarios such as "there are other Kurds, we can settle the matter with them" are produced. If you go to Diyarbakir or any other place in The Southeast, you will see that the demand of identity that DTP voices is the common demand of all Kurds--no matter what parties they vote for.

It is a must to see we cannot get anywhere with the "Good Kurds/Bad Kurds" duality. The demands of almost all the Kurds are common. Despite their different political approaches, different political preferences, there isn't any difference, in essence, in their identity demands.

All this requires stressing the following: For the success of the Kurdish initiative, it is necessary to include Turkey's Kurds in the process. Without them, a result cannot come about.

What I have said for a long time: "It is necessary to include Turkey's Kurds in the process. Without them, a result cannot come about."


Amin.

WHO SPEAKS FOR ISLAM IN THE US?

“You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centers, until the conditions are ripe."
~ Fethullah Gülen.

I came across something interesting the other day that I first noticed in an unusual place, the details of which are another story. However, there is a new book published called Who Speaks for Islam? It's the published results of a poll conducted by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. The woman in charge of that center is Dalia Mogahed who was mentioned in Sunday Zaman as the Obama's appointee to the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Mogahed was quoted in Zaman as saying:

. . . [T]he Gülen movement, a faith-based social movement named after Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, is a model and inspiration for all those working for the good of the society.

The guy who writes the book with her is John Esposito. He edited a book with Hakan Yavuz on the "Gülen Movement". Hakan Yavuz is running the Armenian Genocide denial program at the University of Utah, which Luke Ryland noted back in May. The Middle East Center at U of U, under which Yavuz's Armenian Genocide denial project falls, is also involving itself in the Kurdish issue through its PhD program (See page 5), notably mentioning one of their candidates as Emrullah Uslu, who claims to be a "terrorism expert" in the Turkish press, but that may be because he's police. Uslu publishes articles at a wide variety of websites, including the pro-terrorist Jamestown Foundation and Taraf.

Yavuz is also connected to the wider Turkish lobby system in the US, which continues to spread big bucks around--especially if the big bucks are meant to fuel Armenian Genocide denial. At this Turkish Cultural Foundation (TCF) page, under the grantee listings for 2007, there are two grants to the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) listed, one for $150,000 and another for $750,000. These were passed to Hakan Yavuz's Armenian Genocide denial program at the U of U. That's a grand total of $900,000, almost $1 million. Here's a CV for Yavuz. Under "Grants" about midway down, we see that the TCA handed over the $900,000 in 2009. Here's a mailing list page from the U of U political science faculty notifying everyone that the grant was approved for Yavuz:

Second, Hakan Yavuz has just been notified that his proposal titled "Memory, Migration and Trauma" was awarded $900,000 from the Turkish Cultural Foundation to advance Turkish Studies at the University of Utah. This award is through the Middle East Center and College of Humanities and will provide funds to support scholarship, conferences, graduate students, and community outreach related to the topic of the shaping of Turkish identity in the Republic of Turkey.

The Turkish Studies Project at the U of U doesn't want you to know that its funding originally came from the TCF, though; it issued a retraction of the fact here. Isn't that strange, especially when it was listed so prominently on Hakan Yavuz's own CV and announced through email to the political science faculty at the U of U?

It might be worth remembering that Utah and the Fethullahçı were linked to "electronic leakage" in a campaign to "harm the prestige" of the TSK. Now with the information about the $900,000 grant from the TCF to the TCA to the U of U, we can see that these Turkish groups have a network of their own in the US and the usual principle of Islamist v Secularist don't totally apply.

There's another tidbit to this story: Who was it that was among those luminaries who wrote reference letters for Fethullah Gülen when he was asking for a green card? John Esposito.

There we have Daria Mogahed and John Esposito neatly wrapped in the Fethullahçı web and, by now, most of you are probably wondering if I'm ever going to make a point. I am.

Daria Mogahed is making some tours of World Affairs Councils in the US to speak about Who Speaks for Islam? and not only in San Francisco, but in Montana and Florida.

So who's going to speak for Islam in the US? Fethullah Gülen.

FORMER FBI AGENT CONFIRMS INVESTIGATION ON MARC GROSSMAN

"I do not have anything to say about such stupid ridiculous things as this."
~ Marc Grossman, former US Ambassador to Turkey.

Those Rastî readers familiar with everything written here on The Cohen Group back in late 2006 when the Ralston conflict of interest was going on, will remember Marc Grossman.

Grossman was the US ambassador to Turkey from 1994 to 1997 and was pulled from that position before the end of his tour because he was involved with the Susurluk scandal as mentioned in yesterday's post.

Today another round of artillery was fired in Grossman's direction, from Sibel Edmonds and a friend:

"I read the recent cover story by The American Conservative magazine. I applaud their courage in publishing this significant interview. I am fully aware of the FBI's decade-long investigation of the High-level State Department Official named in this article [Marc Grossman], which ultimately was buried and covered up. It is long past time to investigate this case and bring about accountability..."

There's more on that at The Brad Blog.

I don't know about you, but all this knowledge about Grossman, especially the Susurluk connection, really fills this description, from The Cohen Group website, with an enormous amount of irony:

Ambassador Grossman was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey 1994-1997. In Turkey, he promoted security cooperation, human rights and democracy and a vibrant U.S.-Turkish economic relationship. Ambassador Grossman had previously served as the embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission from 1989 to 1992.

He promoted human rights and democracy?? In a pig's eye.

There is a funny side to this if you know where to look. In Grossman's bio it says, "Ambassador Grossman had previously served as the embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission from 1989 to 1992." Joseph C. Wilson was one of Grossman's buddies at the State Department and served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy, Baghdad, from 1988 to 1992--under US Ambassador April Glaspie. Both Grossman and Wilson served in comparable positions in two countries that border each other, during the same time frame. Their diplomatic paths had to have crossed during that time.

The funny part is that Wilson's wife is Valerie Plame, whose company, Brewster Jennings & Associates, was outed by Grossman to the Turks long before the news was ever splashed across headlines in the US. In other words, Grossman outed his pal's wife as CIA. For more on that, don't miss the interview with Phil Giraldi and Joe Lauria.

As The Brad Blog points out from The Times article--to which Joe Lauria contributed--on the sale of nuclear secrets, when contacted about the information that Sibel provided, this is what Grossman had to say:

“If you are calling me to say somebody said that I took money, that’s outrageous . . . I do not have anything to say about such stupid ridiculous things as this.”

Doesn't he sound like Dennis Hastert? Like Jan Schakowsky??

And nobody's really brought up Grossman's connection to the most powerful "cemaat holding" in Turkey, which is able to compete with Sabancı and Koç . . . namely, Ihlas Holding.

I think it's time for heads to roll.

TURKISH ESPIONAGE OPERATIONS TARGET CONGRESS

"Sex and espionage certainly go together - that's an old tradition."
~ Markus Wolf.

Yesterday's deposition of Sibel Edmonds in the Schmidt-Krikorian legal battle seems to have gone off without a hitch. The day was live-blogged by Brad Friedman and you can read all about it at The Bradblog. Luke Ryland also has numerous posts at his place.

Here's some backgrounder on the legal battle between Schmidt and Krikorian:

Nationally renowned lawyer Mark Geragos will lead a legal team of attorneys from across the nation to represent Democratic Congressional Candidate David Krikorian in connection with a complaint initiated by Ohio Representative Jean Schmidt before the Ohio Elections Commission.

[ . . . ]

Schmidt has brought charges against her likely Democratic opponent in the 2010 election for what she claims are false statements made by Krikorian in connection with her vocal opposition to Congressional measures to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.

During the last election cycle, Schmidt received more than $30,000 in contributions from individuals and political action committees advancing the Turkish government’s position to deny the fact of the Armenian Genocide and oppose Congressional measures to commemorate what is widely acknowledged as the first genocide of the 20th century. The trial on Schmidt’s charges is scheduled for Aug. 13 before the Ohio Elections Commission.

Since her election to Congress, Jean Schmidt has become an active and vocal apologist for the Turkish government’s position on the Armenian Genocide, and has solicited and received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Turkish Americans and affiliated political action committees. David Krikorian has been working to expose the connection between Schmidt’s actions as a Member of Congress and her political contributions.

It would appear to be the same old story: Turkish lobby goes over the top to cultivate assets that will stymie any Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress. But there is something much darker going on here. Check out these bombshells that David Krikorian dropped yesterday at the deposition, via The Bradblog:

[Dan] Burton (R-IN), described as basically accepting bribes and involved in espionage for the Turkish government...she could not discuss the extremely illegal activities that Mr. Burton committed against U.S. interests, as she put it.

Also, a current female Democratic [ed note: I misheard, he later said he didn't know if she was Dem or Rep] member of Congress who has been blackmailed by the Turkish Government...called a 'hooking exercise'...she's apparently bi-sexual and they bugged her apartment, she's married with children, and they set up a relationship with another female who went in and had sexual relationships with her. And they had all the episodes bugged within this current Representative's home and they blackmailed her. ... She wouldn't give her name, but her photograph [is the one with the question mark on it in the "Sibel Edmonds Rogue Gallery." ]

Later, Friedman asked Sibel for a clarification on the congresswoman mentioned by Krikorian:

First, I asked if she specified whether the sitting bi-sexual, married Congresswoman who had been taped sleeping with a woman, without knowing, and then bribed by Turkish interests with the tape, to vote against the Armenian Genocide resolution had been a Democrat or a Republican. She said she is a Democrat, and that she testified to that during her deposition.

Friedman characterizes the blackmail tactic used against the bi-sexual Democratic congresswoman as a "hooking exercise"; however, there is a more widely known term for this tactic in espionage circles. It's called a "honeytrap" or "honeypot" operation:

In espionage, a honeypot or honeytrap is a trap set to capture, kill or compromise an enemy agent using sex as the lure.

[ . . . ]

The most common employment of this technique is by women, either female intelligence agents or (if the purpose is simply to obtain material for blackmail) prostitutes. Some intelligence agencies, particularly in the Soviet bloc, are alleged to have specially cultivated agents for this purpose. Not all traps are carried out by women, however — sometimes, women are ensnared by male agents, and sometimes, same-sex traps are used. (The latter were particularly effective eras or countries where homosexuality was frowned on, and the very fact that an agent was homosexual was material suitable for blackmail). . .

Obviously, a honeypot was set up for the congresswoman, according to the description by Krikorian:

. . . [S]he's apparently bi-sexual and they bugged her apartment, she's married with children, and they set up a relationship with another female who went in and had sexual relationships with her.

"[T]hey set up a relationship . . . " Who is "they"? The Turkish lobby. But this is an espionage operation, which leads me to believe that those old Cold Warriors of the MİT were the ones who really set out this honeypot. Isn't this the very reason why USAF officer Douglas Dickerson and his wife, Melek Can, tried to recruit Sibel, so that she could help them shield Turkish espionage activities in the US?

According to The Bradblog, a reporter for Horizon Armenian TV, Elizabeth Chouldjian, freelanced the deposition and managed to question Jean Schmidt's lawyer, Bruce Fein:

The reporter, Elizabeth Chouldjian, freelancing coverage today for Armenian Horizons TV, is also with Armenian National Committee of America, and she continue to press her points, and asked Fein if he didn't have a conflict of interest in this case. She had earlier told me that Fein was a Board member of the Turkish Coalition of America, Turkish American Legal Defense Fund and legal counsel for Assembly of Turkish American Associations. She wondered if it was appropriate for Fein to represent Schmidt, since he himself could be called to testify, as a witness on behalf of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations.

Chouldjian had told me that he's been flying around the country, essentially trying to deny that the genocide ever occurred, has sued the state of Massachusetts to put Armenian genocide "denialist" material in text books, is suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for putting out an article last year called "State of Denial" which, she says, focused on Turkish interests trying to block Armenian Genocide resolution from being passed.

Conveniently for Schmidt, Bruce Fein is one of two attorneys listed on the contact page for the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF).

[Note: The other attorney listed at TALDF is David Saltzman, who has a law partnership with Günay Övünç, who happens to be the current president of the ATAA and would-be mercenary-advisor for Blackhawk Security, Inc. A "consultant" for Blackhawk is Şenkal Atasagun, a former MİT undersecretary. Interestingly enough, the domain name for the Saltzman-Övünç partnership is turklaw.net.]


According to a press release by the TALDF that features an interview with TALDF attorney David Saltzman, and posted by the ATAA's racist president-elect, Ergun Kirlikovalı, we learn that it's common knowledge that the TALDF's Bruce Fein is representing Jean Schmidt:

Recently, the TALDF has been retained to represent Representative Jean Schmidt (R-OH) in her case before the Ohio Elections Commission in which she alleges that one of her opponents in her last re-election, David Krikorian, violated Ohio election law by lying about her campaign funding (that it was derived from the Turkish government) and that she has in effect been bribed to not favor Congressional resolutions on the Armenian allegation of genocide. This case will go to trial before the end of the summer. This is a particularly important case because the TALDF feels strongly that Members of Congress should not have to yield to intimidation by Armenian activists who claim, without foundation, that the Turkish government is behind any Member's studied decision that the Armenian case constitutes a genuine historical controversy, one which is best studied by historians and not opined upon by Congress.

But the question is, Mr. Saltzman, should members of Congress be the targets of honeypot operations by the Ankara regime?

Saltzman goes on to explain TALDF's funding:

The TALDF is supported by the Turkish Coalition of America, a 505(c)(3) public charitable organization. Donations to the TCA that will benefit the work of the TALDF can be made by check and are tax-deductible. Please see the TCA website for contact information.

The Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) is actually a 501(c)(3) and, as such, is required to make its tax returns public. TCA's 2007 filing can be viewed here [Many thanks to the friend who passed this along].

On page 1 of the return, one can see that the total revenue, including assets, of the TCA is some $30 million. On page 4, one can see that the TCA has $29,706,000 in investments. Page 18 explains where the investments lie: in 600,000 shares of Hittite [Microwave] stock. Furthermore, on page 5 of the return, one can see that Yalçın Ayaslı is listed as the director of the TCA. Coincidentally, Yalçın Ayaslı is the founder of Hittite Microwave and, in 2008, his family donated more than $300,000 to political candidates of both parties, "and particularly to candidates supporting Turkey." And there's more:

Yalcin Ayasli, whose family hails from Turkey and now lives in Nashua, founded Hittite Microwave, a manufacturer of high-performance integrated circuits for communications systems, in 1985. He built it into a company that reported $45.5 million in revenue, with a profit of $13.7 million, in the last quarter.

In 2007, about half of its revenue came from government contracts, primarily the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force and NASA.

Although Ayasli resigned as chief executive in 2004 and as board chairman in 2005, his family still controls about a third of the company's stock according to latest filings with the SEC.

Ayasli and other family members gave more than $330,000 during the last election cycle, and for the most part did not give locally. The two top recipients were the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ($74,000) and the National Republic Congressional Committee ($72,000).

Nearly $39,000 went to the Turkish Coalition PAC, which at one point gave Hittite's address as its own, along with that of the Turkish Cultural Foundation.

The groups support Turkey in its various disputes, including the conflict in Iraq, supporting occasional Turkish military operations against Kurdish groups that cross back and forth over the Iraqi border. The groups also disputed the Armenian claim--and a U.S. congressional resolution--that the Turks engaged in genocide against the Armenians in 1915.

The Ayaslis spent nearly $14,000 to back Katrina Swett's aborted attempt to win the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in New Hampshire. Swett is the daughter of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, who condemned Kurdish attacks in Turkey, though he also supported the congressional resolution against the Armenian genocide. Swett bowed out of the race after Shaheen declared her candidacy.

Nearly $11,000 of the Ayaslis' money went to Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who sponsored a resolution congratulating Turkey for celebrating Republic Day. Foxx's son-in-law is a Turkish businessman and Foxx herself is a member of the congressional Caucus on U.S.-Turkish Relations. She has been a leader against the Armenian genocide resolution.

In his spare time, Yalçın Ayaslı also enjoys escorting congressional staffers around Turkey on the American Turkish Council's (ATC) annual trips.

Members of the Ayaslı family have donated to Jean Schmidt. In the 2008 cycle, the Ayaslı's donated $2300 to Schmidt and $2300 to Dan Burton, accoding to OpenSecrets. They're still working on the 2010 cycle. The Ayaslı family seems to continually funnel the money into the TCA, an organization which, for all intents and purposes, the Ayaslı's own.

Strangely enough, Yalçın Ayaslı is not mentioned as the director of the Turkish Coalition of America's website, although both Bruce Fein and David Saltzman, also of the TALDF, are listed.

At yesterday's deposition, when reporter Elizabeth Chouldjian questioned Bruce Fein about having a conflict of interest with regard to the Schmidt-Krikorian legal battle, she was absolutely on target. No wonder Fein "became very defensive". The question that needs to be asked next is whether or not the TALDF is working pro bono for Schmidt? If so, that means that the TCA is funding Schmidt's side of the legal battle. Isn't that also a conflict of interest for Schmidt, given that she's been accused of taking Turkish "blood money" and using her congressional seat for the interests of the Ankara regime?

And why is it that the worthless American media is not reporting on the very obvious Turkish espionage operations that are targeting members of the US Congress? Or why isn't the worthless American media doing some deep digging to trace the financing of the multi-headed Hydra known as the Turkish lobby?

Why is the worthless American media helping to hide this information?




UPDATE: I just came across a blog that refers to a Wayne Madsen Report that has named the bi-sexual Democratic congresswoman mentioned above. I don't know if this information is correct and I don't know where the WMR got the name, but I know it wasn't from Sibel Edmonds. However, it comes as no surprise to me to learn that congresswoman named is from Illinois. Once again, here's what Sibel had to say about Chicago, from the Vanity Fair article:

. . . in December 2001, Joel Robertz, an F.B.I. special agent in Chicago, contacted Sibel and asked her to review some wiretaps. Some were several years old, others more recent; all had been generated by a counter-intelligence that had its start in 1997. “It began in D.C.,” says an F.B.I. counter-intelligence official who is familiar with the case file. “It became apparent that Chicago was actually the center of what was going on.”

Mehmet Çelebi was based in Chicago and helped fundraise for Rahm Emanuel back in 2002. The ATAA's president, Günay Övünç (mentioned above) is also from Chicago. Susurluk's Abdullah Çatlı spent ten years in Chicago, from the mid-1980s until right before the Susurluk scandal in 1996, as I mentioned recently in a post on Sibel Edmonds' blog last week. While he was living in Chicago--with a US green card--Çatlı went by the name Mehmet Özbay (later Özbey). Oh, yeah, Çatlı was also wanted by Interpol at the time.

The Seminal, which is carrying the WMR information, has more about the honeypot operation:

Perhaps the most explosive part of the deposition involved the Turkish government being engaged in a sexual blackmail operation against a sitting member of the House of Representative [sic]. In what the FBI termed a "hooking process," an ATC female operative enticed a female member of the House into a lesbian sexual encounter at a Washington, DC townhouse. A Turkish intelligence surveillance team had placed surveillance bugs throughout the townhouse, including the bedroom and captured the lesbian tryst on tape, according to Edmonds's testimony. To ensure the surveillance team successfully completed its technical surveillance operation, another Turkish operational team was present outside the townhouse to make sure the surveillance team carried out its task.

After the surveillance recordings were made known to the House member, she changed her support for the Armenian genocide resolution and announced her opposition to it.

[ . . . ]

The first sexual encounter between [the congresswoman] and the Turkish lesbian prostitute reportedly occurred at a vulnerable time for [the congresswoman], just after her mother's death. The first sexual encounter was followed by numerous others, according to U.S. law enforcement sources.

Let me translate for you: "Turkish intelligence surveillance team" and "another Turkish operational team" both mean "MİT".

Then what do we make of the "ATC female operative" and the "Turkish lesbian prostitute"? Does this mean the ATC is engaged in human-trafficking operations in the US? Or is this something the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is running through it's embassies and consulates, kind of a side industry to go along with Turkish embassy heroin trafficking?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Stay tuned.

AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER: CENTRAL ASIA

"This started more than a decade-long illegal, covert operation in Central Asia by a small group in the US intent on furthering the oil industry and the Military Industrial Complex, using Turkish operatives, Saudi partners and Pakistani allies, furthering this objective in the name of Islam."
~ Sibel Edmonds.

Luke Ryland has done it again:

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript).

In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained 'intimate relations' with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, "all the way until that day of September 11."

These 'intimate relations' included using Bin Laden for 'operations' in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These 'operations' involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner "as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict," that is, fighting 'enemies' via proxies.

As Sibel has previously described, and as she reiterates in this latest interview, this process involved using Turkey (with assistance from 'actors from Pakistan, and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia') as a proxy, which in turn used Bin Laden and the Taliban and others as a proxy terrorist army.

Control of Central Asia

The goals of the American 'statesmen' directing these activities included control of Central Asia's vast energy supplies and new markets for military products.

The Americans had a problem, though. They needed to keep their fingerprints off these operations to avoid a) popular revolt in Central Asia ( Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan), and b) serious repercussions from China and Russia. They found an ingenious solution: Use their puppet-state Turkey as a proxy, and appeal to both pan-Turkic and pan-Islam sensibilities.

Turkey, a NATO ally, has a lot more credibility in the region than the US and, with the history of the Ottoman Empire, could appeal to pan-Turkic dreams of a wider sphere of influence. The majority of the Central Asian population shares the same heritage, language and religion as the Turks.

In turn, the Turks used the Taliban and al Qaeda, appealing to their dreams of a pan-Islamic caliphate (Presumably. Or maybe the Turks/US just paid very well.)

According to Sibel:

This started more than a decade-long illegal, covert operation in Central Asia by a small group in the US intent on furthering the oil industry and the Military Industrial Complex, using Turkish operatives, Saudi partners and Pakistani allies, furthering this objective in the name of Islam.

Uighurs

Sibel was recently asked to write about the recent situation with the Uighurs in Xinjiang, but she declined, apart from saying that "our fingerprint is all over it."

Of course, Sibel isn't the first or only person to recognize any of this. Eric Margolis, one of the best reporters in the West on matters of Central Asia, stated that the Uighurs in the training camps in Afghanistan up to 2001:

"were being trained by Bin Laden to go and fight the communist Chinese in Xinjiang, and this was not only with the knowledge, but with the support of the CIA, because they thought they might use them if war ever broke out with China."

And also that:

"Afghanistan was not a hotbed of terrorism, these were commando groups, guerrilla groups, being trained for specific purposes in Central Asia."

In a separate interview, Margolis said:

"That illustrates Henry Kissinger's bon mot that the only thing more dangerous than being America's enemy is being an ally, because these people were paid by the CIA, they were armed by the US, these Chinese Muslims from Xinjiang, the most-Western province.

The CIA was going to use them in the event of a war with China, or just to raise hell there, and they were trained and supported out of Afghanistan, some of them with Osama Bin Laden's collaboration. The Americans were up to their ears with this."

Read the whole piece at Against All Enemies.

The comment I have is to urge everyone to read The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski. The entire book is available for download here.

Brzezinski's thesis in the book would appear to be:

"For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia... Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia - and America's global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained."--p. 38 of the online version.

Here's some reinforcement:

"It follows that America's primary interest is to help ensure that no single power comes to control this geopolitical space and that the global community has unhindered financial and economic access to it." --p. 148.

"Global community" means the corporate world and vermin like those at Goldman Sachs, naturally.

Then there are these interesting items:

"Moreover, they [the Central Asian Republics] are of importance from the standpoint of security and historical ambitions to at least three of their most immediate and more powerful neighbors, namely Russia, Turkey and Iran, with China also signaling an increasing political interest in the region. But the Eurasian Balkans are infinitely more important as a potential economic prize: an enormous concentration of natural gas and oil reserves is located in the region, in addition to important minerals, including gold."--p. 124.

"The world's energy consumption is bound to vastly increase over the next two or three decades. Estimates by the U.S. Department of energy anticipate that world demand will rise by more than 50 percent between 1993 and 2015, with the most significant increase in consumption occurring in the Far East. The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea." --p. 125.

Or how about this:

"In fact, an Islamic revival - already abetted from the outside not only by Iran but also by Saudi Arabia - is likely to become the mobilizing impulse for the increasingly pervasive new nationalisms, determined to oppose any reintegration under Russian - and hence infidel - control." -- p. 133.

And abetted from the outside by the US, too. Instead of "infidel control", simply put a Turkish proxy in there like, say, Gülen schools, to educate the children of the upper classes so that they'll be good Muslims sufficiently under the control of the US.


Brzezinski's ideas about Uzbekistan are interesting:

"Uzbekistan is, in fact, the prime candidate for regional leadership in Central Asia." --p. 130.

Why?

"Uzbekistan, nationally the most vital and the most populous of the central Asian states, represents the major obstacle to any renewed Russian control over the region. Its independence is critical to the survival of the other Central Asian states, and it is the least vulnerable to Russian pressures." --p. 121.

Could control over Uzbekistan have been the reason for linking the Fethullahçı to the assassination attempt of Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov in 1999?

I wonder, too, if, at the time of writing this book, Brzezinski was anticipating the next "Pearl Harbor" in order to make an outright move to control an area he obviously believes is crucial to maintain US hegemony:

"The attitude of the American public toward the external projection of American power has been much more ambivalent. The public supported America's engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. -- p. 24-25.

In light of the shock effect of the attacks of September 11, 2001, is this statement merely a coincidence?

Is it also coincidence that Brzezinski so glowingly endorsed Obama and that Obama now continues the war in Afghanistan and expands it to Pakistan?

And why did Obama lie about his relationship with Brzezinski?

Change you can believe in, all the way back to the Carter administration:

The CIA’s proposal [to "slow down Soviet progress in Afghanistan but also help deflect some of the energy of Middle Eastern Muslims, inspired by the Iranian revolution"] found a sponsor in Carter’s National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Polish émigré and fierce anticommunist hawk. Brzezinski, an academic who had done work for the CIA, believed the Afghan situation offered the United States a rare opportunity to frustrate the Soviet’s expansionist goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He recommended covert assistance to the Islamic fighters. On July 3, 1979, President Carter signed a directive authorizing nonlethal support. On that same day, Brzezinski said he sent a note the president saying his actions would result in direct military intervention by the Soviets.

And it did.

Another thing . . . it's not just the Turks in Central Asia who are helping to achieve US domination of that vast region. Check the activities of MASHAV, including Israeli military activity, in Central Asia and you will see that the Iron Triangle--the US, Turkey, and Israel--is alive and well in the heart of the Eurasian landmass.



On a separate note, I'm happy to announce that I have been invited by Sibel Edmonds to contribute from time to time at her blog. But Sibel has the details on that and there should be something coming up fairly soon. I'll keep you posted.

ERGENEKON, ELECTIONS, AND THE KURDISH SUMMIT

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
~ Paulo Freire.

There was actually a fairly decent report on the Ergenekon fiasco from PRI's The World. You can listen here. They do, however, fail to mention that Mustafa Akyol is an Islamist or that Yaşar Nuri Öztürk was recently caught in a sex scandal but, overall, it presents a pretty good minor intro into the Ergenekon show.

Speaking of Ergenekon, recently a piddly little TSK colonel was arrested in connection with JİTEM's acid wells. Please, I thought, a colonel? What was he back in the 90's, an even more piddly little captain? Sure enough. Now who was it that took the fall for Susurluk? Three were eventually convicted and served time for Susurluk but they, too, were nobodies,just like this acid well colonel. The big fish in the Susurluk scandal not only were not arrested, they were later promoted within The System. The same will happen with JİTEM's acid well murders.

Meanwhile there have been more than 250 unsolved extrajudicial murders since the 1990s in Şirnex (Şirnak) province alone. KurdishInfo has more on that here: http://www.kurdish-info.net/News-sid-Deep-Stateund-8217-s-balance-in-rnak-more-than-250-unresolved-assassinations-12795.html

Bloomberg has a piece on how Kurds are spurning Erdoğan, in spite of handouts:

Kurdish tea seller Muharrem Ogur wasn’t impressed when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan built irrigation systems for the fields near his home and ordered the state-run television company to open a Kurdish channel.

What mattered to Ogur was that his favorite politician was reprimanded by Turkey’s parliament for speaking in Kurdish, and that police set upon youths in his neighborhood in Diyarbakir last year for waving the Kurdish flag.

Erdogan, who has made wooing Turkey’s 15 million Kurds a key part of his campaign for local elections on March 29, is finding that political favors don’t overcome decades of tension. Even as he pursues reconciliation, his government is battling Kurdish militants and denying Kurds some rights enjoyed by ethnic Turks.

The net result may be that Diyarbakir and four other cities under Kurdish political control will reject Erdogan’s party.

And so we ardently hope.

Murat Karakas, who grows cotton and wheat on his 30 acres outside the village of Oyali, 30 kilometers west of Diyarbakir, says his vote will go to Baydemir even after Erdogan built an irrigation channel through his fields from a nearby dam.

“Blood is thicker than water round here,” said Karakas, 38. “Water might help us grow more crops, but my vote goes to our Kurdish brothers because of the situation we face in Diyarbakir as Kurds.”

There. That guy has the correct attitude. Too bad he's not running the KRG.

At the same time, police abuse in the region is rising, said Muharrem Erbay, chief of the Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights Association, Turkey’s biggest human-rights group.

There were 798 reported incidents of torture and mistreatment in the east and southeast of Turkey last year, more than three times the figure for 2007, Erbay said.

Aysu Uraz, a spokeswoman for the human-rights department of Erdogan’s office, declined to comment on the figures, saying data for 2008 will be published in the next two weeks.

I suppose police abuse has been on the rise because 80% of the police are Fethullahçı. For a similar piece that was carried in the Financial Times, see Hevallo's place.

Finally, DTP speaks out some more on the upcoming US-Turkey orchestrated "Kurdish" summit:

"As the DTP, we are disturbed by the agenda of the conference. Thus, we have doubts about the conference. If it will only focus on the liquidation of the PKK, this will cause chaos, and we do not want to take part in this chaos," Selahattin Demirtaş, the DTP’s group vice president to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

Criticizing Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s approach, which urges the PKK either to lay down their guns or leave Iraq, Demirtaş stated that the organization could not be constrained between these two options. "If you present two options, a third one appears: The PKK rejects and resists. This means clashes," Demirtaş said, adding that the DTP cannot accept such an offer.

"If democratic solutions are developed, the PKK will spontaneously lay down their guns," he argued. He said the solutions included issuing a general pardon in Turkey, putting different cultures and identities under the protection of a constitution, and actualizing democratic autonomy.

Demirtaş also drew attention to the purpose of the conference, which was a need to determine and find solutions to the problems of Kurdish people living in different countries of the Middle East region. According to Demirtaş, the DTP will support a conference that aims to solve problems, but rejects the current one, which is known as a U.S. plan and aims only to liquidate the PKK.

Read the rest, and if you haven't read our position on the "Kurdish" summit, check this post.

THE KURDISH SUMMIT

I would like to introduce a guest blogger who will be posting from time to time on Rastî. Rastî readers are already acquainted with him from Rastbêj. His first contribution to Rastî on this Newroz Day is extremely important and regards the upcoming Kurdish Summit, which is due to be held in South Kurdistan in April or May--no firm date is set yet--and will be an attempt to affect the struggle for Kurdish freedom in the North.

Some may recall that a few weeks ago, Abdullah Gül went to Iran. Before he went, he made a statement to the media that there would be "very good news" in a short time regarding the "Kurdish Question". But, as with everything else in Turkey, things are not what they appear. Mîr explains why:


THE KURDISH SUMMIT


Recently several news items have appeared in both Turkish and international media about a Kurdish summit to be held in Southern Kurdistan and including all the Kurdish parties from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It is underscored that the main issue that will be discussed at this summit is going to be the future common policies of the Kurds which will be implemented due to the changes in the world. Surprisingly, Turkey, which cannot tolerate even a dozen Kurds coming together on the streets to discuss the Kurdish Question or tolerate any kind of protest, is supporting the idea of the summit. In addition to Turkey, the U.S and the EU supports this summit also. With this in mind, it would be too optimistic to think that the call made by the Southern leaders for a summit among all the Kurdish parties will be without a secret agenda. When we take a close look, the call for this summit consists of several traps that will cause the disunity, rather than the unity, of the Kurds.

The idea for the summit was brought by KRG leader Mesut Barzani and will be supervised by him or by someone who he approves. Several parties will join this summit. “The Kurdish political parties’ representatives from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria will attend this conference. For example, not only DTP but also Sertac Bucak’s HAKPAR and Serafettin Elci’s KADEP will also attend from Turkey. In addition, former Kurdish parliamentarians will be invited to this summit… We think to invite the PKK. They are going to decide by whom they will be represented.” says the KRG’s Turkey envoy Omar Merani.

One may wonder why this idea was voiced now and why voiced by Barzani. There are at least two explanations to these questions, international factors and Turkish domestic politics.

One of the most important decisions the Obama administration had was the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2010. To this date, the Southern leaders have always relied on American existence and support in the region. With the absence of the U.S military presence and its lack of political support, the Kurdish leaders in South Kurdistan know very well that they will be too weak in Iraq’s decision making process and too weak to maintain their private interests. Thus, the Southern leaders are heavily dependent on American support in order to keep their positions.

These last two years proved that Barzani and Talabani are very willing to compromise or sacrifice the general will of all the Kurds for the sake of their private interests and positions. For example, the Kerkuk referendum, which supposed to be held in November 2007, was deferred to December 2007; then, again, it was delayed six months later and should have been held in June 2008. Although this time has already passed, still no referendum has been held, nor have the Southern leaders mentioned any single word about it or pushed for its implementation. The fate of Kerkuk is not only deferred to an unknown date but, yet worse, it is not certain if the referendum will be held at all in the future. Thus, it would be a ridiculous idea to assume that the Southern leaders, who called for the summit, will not impose the will of the powers they rely on.

The U.S. is hoping to use Turkey as the route through which to pull out its troops from Iraq; it needs the consent of Turkey’s ruling party for the use of this route. Previously the U.S. had issues with Turkey when Turkey rejected the American demand for deployment of their troops at the onset of the Iraq War. This time, however, both parties are more sensitive and open to bargaining.

The opportunist Turkish state soon will hold the local elections on March 29, 2009, and these elections have vital importance for the ruling party. The current ruling party, the AKP, had received a remarkable turnout in Kurdish cities from the Kurdish voters in the general election held on July 22, 2007. A major cause for this turnout was the impression the AKP gave that it would solve the Kurdish Question by empty promises.

This success made the AKP to claim that they are not only the true representative of Turks but also of Kurds. This turnout gave it a big card to use against the military, which was the only group that de facto had a say in the Kurdish Question. For years and years, however, their policy left the Kurdish Question unsolvable; thus, the military has maintained its predominant position in Turkish politics to date.

On 5 May, 2007, the AKP chairman, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, called for a secret meeting with the then Chief of the Turkish General Staff Yasar Buyukanit in Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul. Contrary to his previous harsh denunciation against the AKP, Buyukanit suddenly ended his criticism of the AKP; furthermore, he started to support its policies after this meeting. Apparently, Erdogan and Buyukanit arrived at a deal. The policies implemented in the following days revealed the nature of their deal: the AKP would provide all the needs of the military, accept the predominance of the military, and close its eyes to their unlawful activities, including the massacre against the Kurds. In return, the military would keep quiet and allow the AKP to make some changes in the constitution for their hidden agenda, such as laws regarding headscarf, the appointment of pro-AKP governors to the Kurdish regions as well as to key positions in the government.

The AKP’s record is not good in terms of keeping its promises, which its leader made during the campaign. For this reason, in the coming local elections the AKP is trying to get at least the same voter turnout in Kurdish cities by pouring out tons of money, giving away free refrigerators, washing machines, and similar large appliances to the people in cities where it thinks the pro-Kurdish party, DTP is strong.

Erdogan knows very well that if the AKP loses against the pro-Kurdish party in Kurdish cities, their claim of being the representative of the Kurds will have no ground and this, the only link that enabled it to have a coalition with the Turkish military, will collapse. This means in every step the AKP takes, they will face military opposition against their policies afterwards. Given the fact that the AKP has already seriously angered the generals by blackmailing several of them or arresting them for being members of a pro-coup group called Ergenekon, the generals have been waiting for an available time to take their revenge against the AKP. For this reason, the success of the AKP in local elections in Kurdish cities has vital importance in its relationship with the military.

To sum up, on the one hand, the AKP fears the collapse of the coalition with the military; that is why it is giving tons of money to buy Kurdish votes. On the other hand, it uses Turkey’s territory as a bargaining chip against the U.S. in the process of the removal of its troops from Iraq. In addition to the AKP’s covert official relationship with the Southern leaders, it asks the U.S. to pressure the Southern leaders to take steps in ways that favor Turkey in the Kurdish Question. That is why the call for the summit comes from the Southern leaders. That is why Turkey and the US support this idea.

Now let’s come to the link between the Turkish local elections and the Kurdish summit. In different interviews, both Barzani and Talabani wanted the northern Kurds to vote for the AKP. Now wait a minute! The AKP is the party which cooperated with the military and let them bomb not only the Kurdish cities in Turkey, but also the villages of Southern Kurdistan. It is the party that passed the law for cross-border operations against the PKK in Southern Kurdistan. Isn’t Erdogan the one who ordered the murder of all Kurds during the Amed Serhildan by saying, “The police forces will shoot everyone, no matter children or women!” Regarding the Semdinli incident, wasn’t he the one who previously said “We will investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice, no matter where and with whom it ends.” but he later took no steps? Worse yet, wasn’t he the one who ordered the Interior Ministry to ban the state prosecutor, Ferhat Sarikaya from the practice of law? This would be the same Ferhat Sarikaya, who wrote the Semdinli indictment that mentioned Chief of General Staff Buyukanit as accountable for the incident. Then how come the Southern leaders, who claim to be Kurds, are asking the Kurds in Turkey to vote for their enemy? What kind of leader would allow a foreign country to come and bomb their territory? Let me remind to the ones who are wont to forget that in a conflict with Barzani, wasn’t Talabani the one who left his wife in Iraq in the hands of his then enemy and escaped to Iran? Wasn’t Barzani the one who kidnapped Talabani’s wife?

Now, let’s wait a minute and think about the call of these leaders for a summit to determine the national policies of all Kurds in all four parts of Kurdistan. Imagine two leaders, one who sacrifices his wife for the sake of his political position and the other who kidnaps a woman in order to deter his rival. Imagine two leaders who ask their people to vote for their enemies. What kind of leaders are these? To me, they seem like mafia leaders rather than political leaders. Now these two so-called leaders will hold a summit among all the Kurdish parties in Kurdistan and discuss the policies that should be implemented for future? Who will believe in them and their proposals? How sincere are their intentions? Can Barzani tell us what kind of plans or policies he has for Southern Kurdistan for the next six months? Indeed does he have any plan? How does he think to cope with the poverty of the Kurds in the South? What kind of investment and development plans does he have? Let me tell you the answer: NONE. A normal leader serves his people but both Barzani and Talabani see that their people serve them. They live in palaces and in luxury; where as the average Kurds makes their living through the aid provided by United Nations. So the leaders who do not have any single plan to enhance the living standards of their own people within their borders are claiming that they can find permanent solutions for the Kurdish Question which exists at least in four parts of Kurdistan. How credible are they?

In fact, although the summit was brought up as a platform to discuss national policies of the all Kurds, the true aim is to marginalize or disarm the PKK. Several KRG officials referred the summit as “the summit of disarming the PKK”. Let’s be clear here! Of course, as a Kurd, for a long time I wanted the armed clashes between the PKK and the Turkish military come to an end; however, the disarmament of the PKK must be simultaneously implemented by a general amnesty for all PKK members; a brand new constitution must be written and based on true democratic criteria; the political and cultural rights of the Kurdish people must be explicitly stated in this new Turkish constitution; and, finally, regional political administrations must be empowered and the right to elect governors must be granted. These are the basic principles of a normal democratic state.

Another clarification: On different occasions I have stressed the necessity of an international congress among all the Kurds from all parts of the Kurdistan. Such a congress, however, requires all attending parties to possess only one aim: the general will of the entire Kurdish people. The summit that the Southern leaders call, however, lacks the sincerity in that sense. As I mentioned above, a leader who champions his enemy will not suggest permanent solutions that are good for Kurds because they will bring the demands of the powers they are dependent on, be it Turkey or the U.S., to stay in power and seek their private interests.

Recently a couple of incidents occurred in a sequence that gives clues about the summit. Let’s briefly go through them.

This week, Talabani attended a conference in Ankara. As an answer to a journalist’s question regarding the coming summit, he explicitly said that they will call the PKK for disarmament and if it does not obey this call, they, the PKK, will be isolated. In other words, he is repeating the Turkish state’s rhetoric: “You will either obey my rules or else!”

Last week Turkish president Abdullah Gul, prior to his flight to Iran, said that soon there will be good news about Kurdish Question.

Again, last week Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said that there will be partial constitutional changes and he juxtaposed some of them, none of which were a remedy to the Kurdish demands.

Two weeks ago the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton made a visit to Turkey. After stressing that the PKK is the mutual enemy of Turkey and the U.S.---a position identical to the position of the Bush administration--she repeated a solution based on the cooperation of Turkey with southern leaders to annihilate the PKK.

By these statements, in the last four weeks alone, we see the cooperation of the powers who do not want the PKK’s presence in the region. Apparently, the Turkish state, the Southern leaders, and the U.S. have agreed on a plan to disarm the PKK on their terms. They are dictating this plan to the desperate Southern leaders to pressure the PKK through the summit.

The imposition of the plan through the Southern leaders is very important. Rather than seeking a permanent solution for the Kurdish Question, the incidents that have occurred in these last four weeks indicate that the Southern leaders will impose the framework approved by the Turkish state and the U.S.

After the summit, the Turkish state will take some show-offish steps, like they did by opening a Kurdish TV channel earlier. This will be the “good news” that Abdullah Gul has spoken of. Turkey will carefully ignore and avoid the permanent solutions offered by any Kurdish party, including the PKK, and will tell the whole world that Turkey is taking steps toward solving the Kurdish Question by undertaking the demands voiced by all the Kurds in the Kurdish summit but that the PKK is still conducting its “terrorist” activities. In that sense, Turkey sees the Southern leaders as a tool to isolate or marginalize the PKK and disguise its legitimacy. To put it simply, it is the same old “good Kurd, bad Kurd” policy. The only change, though, is that yesterday’s “bad boys”, Talabani and Barzani, are convinced that they are the “good boys” of Turkey and the U.S.

The disarmament of the PKK is Turkey’s internal problem. If Turkey were sincere about solving this problem, there are Kurdish representatives in its parliament who can voice their peoples’ demands and share their solution plans with the Turkish government. In fact, the DTP presented their solutions to the Turkish parliament and was treated as terrorists for the solutions they voiced. The Turkish state is not sincere in solving the Kurdish Question. Seeking a so called solution through the Southern leaders is Turkey’s way of closing its eyes to the demands of the Kurds within its border. It still tries to deceive its Kurdish citizens through false solutions, such as the opening of a state-run Kurdish TV. Yet it continues with an investigation of the DTP parliamentary leader for speaking Kurdish in the parliament. Through these means, the Turkish state is only worsening the problem.

Southern leaders, you can turn this summit into a very fruitful platform for all Kurds by bringing unbiased suggestions, without hidden agendas, and by acquiring a little courage. You can call Turkey to take concrete, permanent, and sincere steps toward a solution to the Kurdish Question. You can juxtapose the PKK’s unilateral cease-fires, mention its leader’s statements for a democratic solution and how sincere and ready he is for a permanent solution. Finally you must tell Turkish officials that they should contact and negotiate with DTP representatives for solving the Kurdish Question, because they are the ones who the Kurds in the North voted for, not Barzani or Talabani.

THE BLACK FIFTEENTH: PHOTOS

"Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true."
~ Jacques-Henri Lartigue.

Here's a selection of photos from protests against the international conspiracy that led to Öcalan's capture ten years ago. One photo comes from the AP and the rest from Özgür Gündem (more here) and Fırat News (more here: http://www.firatnews.com/gallery/index.php?rupel=mal ).

This is an AP photo (Murad Sezer), seized from Yahoo News, of Kurdish youth in İstanbul. The caption also described them as throwing "missiles" at a police armored vehicle. I don't know . . . they look more like bricks than missiles to me.

The Kurdish capital, Amed (Diyarbakır)

Amed, in front of the mayor's office.

Amed.

Amed.

Amed.

Cizîr (Cizre)

Cizîr.

Êlih (Batman).

Êlih.

İzmir.

İzmir.

Qendîl.

Qendîl.

Farqîn (Silvan).

Farqîn.

Wan (Van).

Strasbourg.

Strasbourg.

Strasbourg.

Strasbourg.

Strasbourg.

According to Özgür Gündem, 394 people, including women and children, were taken into custody during the weekend protests and 70 people, including police, were injured.

In Êlih, 80 people were taken into custody (including 40 children) and dozens were injured.

In Şirnex (Şırnak) and its district, 49 people were detained and four arrested. A 16-year-old in Hezex (İdil) lost an eye due to a police tear gas cannister (the left eye, while the boy was working in the garden of his family's house). Four police and more than eight people were injured.

In Mêrdîn (Mardin) district, 69 people were taken into custody. Six police were injured as were more than eight other people.

In Amed, 38 people, including children, were taken into custody. Three police and 23 other people were injured.

In Sêrt (Siirt), 12 people were taken into custody and more than 10 people were injured, including police.

In Mersîn (Mersin) district, 17 people were taken into custody and one woman was injured.

In Adana district, 35 people were taken into custody.

In Wan, 20 people were taken into custody and six people, including three children, are still in detention. Three people were hurt during the protests.

In Colemêrg (Hakkari), seven people were taken into custody and 17 people were injured, including nine police.

In Gewer (Yüksekova), 23 people were taken into custody, with 11 released. Twelve people remain in custody. Two children were injured during the protests.

İstanbul saw ongoing demonstrations for two days. 44 people were taken into custody and 38 people released. Six people remain in custody and one person was injured.

From the Not-To-Be-Missed Department: Hevallo has a video post of the ever-courageous Eren Keskin and her work in defense of, not only Kurdish, but all women of Turkey. Trust me; if it's Eren Keskin, it's going to be great.