HUNGER STRIKERS, HECKLERS, AND PAYBACKS

“In modern America, anyone who attempts to write satirically about the events of the day finds it difficult to concoct a situation so bizarre that it may not actually come to pass while the article is still on the presses”

~ Calvin Trillin.

I check a lot of search engines during the day for regular news and to see what the chatter is in the blogosphere about things that affect Kurds and Kurdistan. This means that I see a lot of ridiculous stuff.

For example, I have noticed in the last few days that people were talking about Saddam's hunger strike. This makes me wonder: Who the hell cares? It got me thinking about the trial too. Who the hell cares? I mean, we all know what he did and we all know that the trials are for the sake of all the self-righteous scumbags who brought Saddam to power and kept him there for all those years. To top it off, today during the closing arguments in his trial, Saddam makes the grand pronouncement--after kicking and screaming, "I don't wanna go to court!"--that he wants to be executed by firing squad because he's a "soldier." A soldier, my ass. He doesn't want to be executed by hanging because that's for common criminals.

There's only one way for Saddam to be executed. Set him loose in downtown Helebçe and let all the residents cut him up for fishbait. End of discussion and nix the debate about shooting or hanging.

Second ridiculous thing is that the Democrats are pissed off because they claim al-Maliki supports Hezbollah, with that Dean guy calling al-Maliki an anti-semite. Welcome to the Middle East . . . or I guess that could be Europe or certain groups in the US as well. CNN has a report on this, and greater idiots, like Arianna Huffington--Don't ask! She's a freak!--are all worked up over it. If these people are serious in their indignation, then I continue to be amazed at how stupid Americans can be. Al-Maliki is a Shi'a who wants closer ties with Iran, but it comes as a huge shock to everyone that he isn't condemning Hezbollah. Morons. They're going to lead all kinds of lesser idiots into taking all this at their face value.

If you read the CNN article, you get a better idea of how things are really working, thanks to Hoshyar Zebarî:

But comments by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebary earlier Wednesday at a congressional breakfast may have done much to ease the controversy, according to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nevada.

Following the event, Reid quoted Zebary. "The foreign minister said, 'I was at the meeting of the Arab League last week, I was directed by the prime minister to join with Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to condemn Hezbollah and we do that.'"

As for himself, Reid said he "felt [the Iraqi delegation] did a decent job of trying to temp that down so, you know, I feel better having gone to the breakfast," Reid said.

Reid said he's "not going to push the issue anymore" and the "point has been made" that al-Maliki "needs to be more guarded in what he says."

Several Democrats critical of al-Maliki attended and participated in standing ovations as the Iraqi leader spoke, according to The Associated Press. At least one member of Congress, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, boycotted the address.

See? The Democrats are lying.

Now, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with the Middle East, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Hezbollah, etc. All of this farce is a show to prepare for upcoming Congressional elections and the Democrats are trying to swing it their way. Believe me, there is no difference between a Republican and a Democrat when it comes to the Middle East. The last presidential elections proved that; George Bush and John Kerry had memorized the same script on the Middle East.

By the way, there was even a war protestor there, who began heckling al-Maliki during his speech. Her pass into the Congress was provided by a Democrat representative from Brooklyn, even though she's from San Francisco. Medea Benjamin, age 54, the bellowing cow removed from Congress, has something in common with her pal, Saddam. She's on a hunger strike too. Who knew that a hunger strike would cause similar behavior, as exhibited by Saddam at trial or pink cow in Congress? I wonder if this is the next trend?

MOOOOO.

From the Behind-the-Power-Curve Department (always a bit ridiculous) . . . lots of people are talking about old news, like the KDC (Kurdistan Development Corporation) TV ads that came out last year. There's something on the Washington Post, at a Republican blog (They like the "good" Kurds. . . for the moment), at a Democrat blog (Notice the name of the blog? See Freak Huffington, above. Dems don't like the ads because they distract from Democrat efforts to make Republicans look bad), and from a milblog.

Last ridiculous item: The phony uproar by Kofi and Company out of New York. It seems they're a bit upset that Israel blasted their "peacekeepers" to hell. The TimesOnline article is headed by this: "UN observers begged Israelis to stop shelling their position."

Awwww, booo-hooooo.

Hmmmm. . . . Come to think of it, I wonder if that was anything like the way Muslim Bosnians begged UN peacekeepers not to abandon them to the stinking Serbs at Srebrenica? Everyone remembers that, don't they? Or has Srebrenica gone the way of Armenia . . . and the way of Kurdistan?

There's a refresher on Srebrenica here and here, but basically the UN, its "peacekeepers," and the murdering Serbs were all working together. When the stuff started to hit the fan, the "peacekeepers" were far more concerned with saving their own skins than protecting the people they were supposed to protect. Note, too, that the commander of the "peacekeepers" was a French general--proof that the entire operation was doomed to failure and that whoever appointed command and control was totally incompetent.

Check this picture:

The guy on the left is the NATO commander, the guy on the right is the UN (French) commander, and look who's in the middle--Mr. Oil-for-Food himself! Isn't that special? All at the Sarajevo airport on 20 December, 1995. Janvier, the UN commander, is fixing to high-tail it out of there.

The UN was supposed to help Lebanon get rid of Hezbollah but it is clear that, once again, the impotent UN did absolutely nothing. I would love to know what kind of racket they've been running in southern Lebanon with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran for all these years. The US State Department reports that UNIFIL costs for FY2003 were $94.06 million a year. I wonder how much of that actually goes to "peacekeeping" and how much goes into the pockets of those farther up the food chain? I wonder, too, how many deals on the side continue to enrich these international blood suckers?

As for the freshly dead peacekeepers, payback's a bitch, ain't it Kofi? Such a pity Hezbollah's Iranian-supplied long-range rockets aren't long-range enough to reach the UN headquarters in New York.

REMEMBER

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Rosetti.

How will we be able to forget Soraya Serajeddini? You were a lioness for Kurdistan, Soraya, a true activist and a model for all the young Kurdish women in the American community who were coming up in the ranks behind you.

Forgive us our sorrow, Soraya; we cannot help it now. It is a sign of your honor and our respect. Perhaps even more than that, it is the pain we feel at the sudden void in our midst and in our hearts. It is the pain of shock that a treasure has been snatched from us far too early.

You should have lived a long life.

In place of longevity, you lived a life of selflessness, a life of devotion to the Kurdish people. You lived a life of richness because you never closed your eyes to, nor turned your back on, the suffering of Kurdistan.

One day, when the pain is easier to bear, we will be able to remember you and smile because you had been among us.

To Soraya's family, my deepest condolences.

HOT PURSUIT AND A STUPID SYSTEM

Two girlfriends were speeding down the highway at well over a 100 miles per hour. "Hey," asked the brunette at the wheel, "see any cops following us?" The blonde turned around for a long look. "As a matter of fact, I do." "Oh, NOOOO!" yelled the brunette. "Are his flashers on?" The blonde turned around again. "Yup...nope...yup...nope...yup..."

The analogies keep coming. . . incorrectly, of course.

Recep Guvelioglu is the most recent to come up with the wrong analogies, this time with the question of hot pursuit and Israel. First, a little comment on hot pursuit as a point of international law from "Fundamental Perspectives on International Law":

As stated in a major treatise on this point: “hot pursuit in land or ground may continue only into no man’s land or into the territory of another State following an explicit agreement … permitting the exercise of hot pursuit in its own territory.”

The major treatise cited is The Right of Hot Pursuit in International Law by N. Poulantzas. As the Iraqi President, Celal Talabanî stated last week, all previous agreements that Turkey had with Saddam on cross-border operations are no longer valid. In other words, there is no explicit agreement permitting Turkey to engage in any so-called hot pursuit.

Let's say that Turkey decides to ignore international law and its neighbor, something for which Turkey has condemned Israel, and it goes ahead and behaves like Israel anyway. Then it should be consistent in behaving like Israel, meaning that it will have to give a few days' notice before violating the territorial integrity of its neighbor. It will have to drop leaflets, notifying the residents of South Kurdistan that it is coming, and it will have to do this in Kurdish language. It will also need all these efforts broadcast on international media.

However, if Turkey did all this, then there is no hot pursuit anyway, because hot pursuit begins in the territorial space of the pursuing state. It's an act of immediacy, not one that is broadcast several days in advance. Here's the Department of Defense definition of hot pursuit as an example:

Pursuit commenced within the territory, internal waters, the archipelagic waters, the territorial sea, or territorial airspace of the pursuing state and continued without interruption beyond the territory, territorial sea, or airspace. Hot pursuit also exists if pursuit commences within the contiguous or exclusive economic zones or on the continental shelf of the pursuing state, continues without interruption, and is undertaken based on a violation of the rights for the protection of which the zone was established. The right of hot pursuit ceases as soon as the ship or hostile force pursued enters the territory or territorial sea of its own state or of a third state. This definition does not imply that force may or may not be used in connection with hot pursuit. NOTE: This term applies only to law enforcement activities.

Let's review: For hot pursuit to commence, you have to see the gerîlas in your territory and you have to start chasing them. If they run across the border, then you can go after them . . . if they run into a no-man's land or if you have an explicit agreement with the government of the other territory.

So, does Turkey really want to take Israel's example and go through all the hassle of notifying the villagers of South Kurdistan that they are going to invade? Of course, if it wants to go that far, it might as well go all the way and spring Saddam from prison, reinstall him as dictator, and renew all those old agreements--little more than winks and nods anyway--and invade at will.

Then we come to a point that's redundant, since everybody knows:

Turkey's desire to conduct a cross-border operation is legitimate of course, since the PKK has many camps inside Iraq. [ . . . ] Everybody knows that the PKK has as many terrorist combat groups inside Turkey as in Iraq. It might be necessary to stop the terrorist flow to Turkey in order to halt their hit-and-run system.

Really? Everybody knows? How can we be sure that everybody knows?

I have an idea, the Turkish government needs to present its evidence publicly. . . say at the UN, so that we can all be certain that everybody knows. After all, they presented "evidence" to the Danish government of Roj TV as "terrorist propaganda organ," so why not share all the info about all of PKK's camps and combat groups? Besides, if they share all this info at the UN, not only will they be like Israel on hot pursuit, but they'll also be like the US on WMDs.

This statement about everybody knowing about PKK combat groups inside Turkey reminds me of what the HPG Headquarters commander, Dr. Bahoz Erdal, said last week, from KurdishInfo:

“To compare the developments in Lebanon to that of the developments in Kurdistan is a false comparison. Hizbullah is a force of Lebanon and it has positioned itself there. Hizbullah has not one fighter in the soil of Israel. Hizbullah positions itself near the border of Israel and from there organises attacks against Israel. Our area of struggle is in North Kurdistan and Turkey. We have not one military action beyond the border. The majority of our forces are in North Kurdistan, therefore positioned in Turkey, our activities are there. Our forces are in Gumushane, Diyarbakir (Amed), Tunceli (Dersim), Amanos and Sirnak. The military operations and conflict is concentrated in these areas… To target South Kurdistan is an excuse. We will show them the necessary respons[e] if they do decide to enter South Kurdistan.”

There was one little thing I left out of Recep's quote about the camps in Iraq. It was this:

However, many PKK terrorist attacks have occurred deep inside Turkey; for example, Bingol.

Okay. . . does this guy know how far it is from Çewlik (Bingol) to the border of South Kurdistan? Better yet, does he have any idea how far it is from Çewlik to Qandîl? Everybody knows it's one hell of a long way to both places from Çewlik, but Turkish media and commentators make it sound like the gerîlas take a leisurely stroll down from Qandîl--or one of the many bases that everybody knows is in Iraq--and then takes a leisurely stroll back up Qandîl, passing through a couple of hundred thousand Mehmetciks, Ozel Timler, and JITEM besides. Well, we know how bright those Turkish security force guys are anyway. After all, even the USMC can bag them.

The reality is that Turkey is in a deep state of denial about the problem it created for itself by its brutal repression of the Kurdish people, something that Recep refers to as "the swamps of terror." He mentions Turkish judicial and traditional administrative "errors" and how some of these things are forms of discrimination. He says that this "stupid" system has caused "bitter resentment" among Kurds. Okay, he doesn't actually say "Kurds." He even takes a swipe at Turkey's "friends" in the EU for not telling Turkey to change the stupid system, but if the system is so stupid (and I agree, it is stupid), then why does some outsider have to tell you to change it? Can't you figure that out for yourself? Which is more stupid then, the system or those who maintain the system?

It's very simple to change the system. But who's going to do that and actually, who cares?

If it's so simple to change the stupid system, then why hasn't it been changed? You'd think that if Turkey had enough dead Mehmetciks on their hands, somebody would get it through their fat heads that the stupid system has to be changed. Even better, they'd demand the stupid system be changed. I guess we haven't reached critical mass on the dead Mehmetcik thing yet.

Who is going to change the stupid system and who cares? Kurds. On both counts.

DOMESTIC POLITICS AND DINOSAURS

"The dinosaurs disappeared because they could not adapt to their changing environment."
~ Arthur C. Clarke.

An interview with Murat Karayilan is being carried over on KurdishInfo. As a veteran of PKK, Chairman of the Executive Council of Koma Komalên Kurdistan, and a long-time observer of the Turkish system, he has some interesting comments on that system. The gist of what he says is that the Turkish system is a dinosaur and, since it's based on fascism, he's right. Where all the European fascist systems were brought to an end by World War 2, Turkey still lumbers along pretending to be a modern, democratic, secular state while passing an anti-terror law that violates the most basic freedoms and rights that people in the West take for granted on a daily basis. As Karayilan says, this law "criminalise[s] Kurdish people in all spectrums." Exactly so; this law is aimed directly at the Kurdish people.

Karayilan observes that AKP, the Islamists, have been working to "take over" the system. If anyone followed Turkish politics, even months before the Amed Serhildan, this goal was was apparent. It was far more subtle before the serhildan, and you still had to wade through a load of garbage in Turkish media to see it, but it was there. In its attempt to take over the system, AKP has run up against the pashas, so it has had to adjust his methods to cater to them, since they are the only real power in Turkey. They always have been the only real power in Turkey and they will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Even though AKP made a lot of promises during the last elections, it has done nothing but attempt to jockey into a position of greater power. Think back to last August, when Erdogan visited Amed and said the word "Kurd." I will never understand why everyone got so excited over the fact that he can pronounce the word. Everyone should realize that talk is cheap, especially with Turkish politicians. The same thing happened again after the Semdinli bombing, with Erdogan promising to get to the bottom of the affair, and we all know what happened with that. The Parliamentary committee doing the investigation blamed the whole thing on PKK; the prosecutor in charge of the investigation was sacked from his job because he wanted to dig in Buyukanit's dirt and, finally, Seferi Yilmaz, the owner of the bombed bookstore and target of the state's attack, was arrested last month on allegations made by a "PKK confessor."

See yesterday's post for more on "PKK confessors."

Seven months after Erdogan's heroism in pronouncing the word "Kurd" publicly in Amed, he gave security forces the green light to murder any Kurd, including women and children. Keep in mind that he gave this order to a NATO army, one that presumably is supposed to obey the Geneva Conventions and its protocols. In reality, it appears that the Geneva Conventions are more window-dressing for Turkey. Erdogan played the democracy card with Kurds in order to secure AKP's position in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. He played the Kurd card with the pashas in order to secure his position for the presidency.

Take another example, an example that is not organically Kurdish or Turkish. We know that Michael Rubin is no friend of Kurds, particularly Bakurî Kurds. He's written a lot about Turkey but in all the words he's expended in defense of Turkish secular democracy, he's never expended one word on Turkey's atrocities against Kurds. In fact, Rubin is more Kemalist than the pashas. But you can learn from your enemies. One of Rubin's articles that gives food for thought on how AKP has worked to take over the system is "Green Money: Islamist Politics in Turkey", from last year. Rubin dismisses the influence of the Deep State in his conclusions, something that was a huge miscalculation on his part, but the rest of the article is an indication of the ways in which AKP has been working toward a takeover of the system.

Another indication of AKP's working to "intensify its power," as Murat Karayilan puts it, is Erdogan's burning desire for the presidency. He must have the approval of the pashas for this. To gain that approval, he sounds like he's turning idealist (ulkucu). Not only do the pashas require this, but all of the Turkish political parties are demanding it, too. Each one makes more extreme nationalist statements than the other, especially after the Council of State attack and Ozkok Baba's personal plea for extreme nationalist sentiment to be displayed by the people. It was then that Erdogan found out he didn't like being called "murderer" by the mobs, even though the attack was the work of the pashas.

Along with all this is the extreme discomfort the pashas feel by EU accession and the requirements of that process. They want to have their cake and eat it too. They still want to genocide Kurds but they have to do it in a way that no one notices. So they permit paper reforms and carry on with the pretence that Turkey really is the great secular democracy--and Muslim too!--that every liar on Earth loves to proclaim. No one seems to notice, however, that the avoidance of establishing a western-style democratic system is the exact opposite of pure Kemalism. We can argue then, that the pashas themselves have abandoned pure Kemalism in its aspects of secularism, modernization, and democracy. That, in turn, could lead us to argue that the pashas themselves are traitors to the glorious memory of their beloved Ataturk.

From the interview:

At times, rather than gaining power by owning up to Turkey’s problems and attempting to solve them, it negotiated, agreed, and at times fought with the forces within the system to stay in power. It envisioned placing itself within the system. Therefore Turkey’s problems were abandoned.

Turkey's single biggest problem are all the problems it has willfully created for the Kurdish people. By addressing those problems, the Ankara regime would improve life for everyone in Turkey, but never in Turkey's history has the regime ever listened to the Kurdish people. During numerous ceasefires, the Ankara regime failed to negotiate a settlement and yet recently we have heard many calls for Kurds to lay down their arms and take up a political path. Since there was no effort during ceasefires to listen to the Kurdish people, much less engage them politically. All these calls for peace are insincere and any chance at peace can only come from genuine and complete reform of the system, starting with the end of the military occupation.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel. Any real opposition, like the human rights people or the Turkish left or the "intellectuals," are simply too weak and have no real popular base. If they had some strength, we would see more from them and there would be a group with which Kurds could work. The Turkish media is geared to manipulate emotion and to spread propaganda, something that has been very apparent in the last few months. Add to that an educational system that incorporates the teaching of fascism at all levels. There is also the situation of DTP and its continual harassment by the regime. It is clear that it's going to take a long time for any kind of real reform.

Since the problems of Turkey have been abandoned by the regime, these domestic political power struggles are the real dynamics behind all of Turkey's actions now, including its threats to invade South Kurdistan in order to attack PKK. Will Turkey really invade? They will not invade until late August or thereafter, something I have said for some time and something with which Deutsche Bank agrees:

It is probable that the operation in northern Iraq will take place following the annual routine changes at the top of the chain of command in the Turkish Armed Forces in August. The operation is expected to cover both domestic and cross-border terrorist targets, the Deutsche Bank said in its analysis.

I have not been able to track down the Deutsche Bank report.

Regarding the question of invasion, the other thing to consider is the greater regional dynamics, dynamics which are moving very quickly at the moment. I did mention that the only thing that brought down European fascism was war, didn't I?

Seems to me it will take a warrior culture to bring down Turkish fascism. Good thing Kurds have a warrior culture.

RUNNING THROUGH THE JUNGLE

"Thought I heard a rumblin
Callin to my name,
Two hundred million guns are loaded
Satan cries, take aim!"

~ Credence Clearwater Revival, Run Through the Jungle.

On a cold November evening nearly two years ago, the Turkish state murdered a Kurdish father and son outside their home in Qoser (Kiziltepe). Their crime? They were Kurds.

The state's murders of Ahmet and Ugur Kaymaz came at a very inopportune time for both Turkey and the EU. Within a month after the murders, on 17 December, 2004, to be exact, the EU was due to make the decision to open accession negotiations with Turkey. This had been the projected date for two years, since December, 2002, when the EU said that if Turkey met the Copenhagen political criteria (including criteria on democracy, rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities) by December, 2004, negotiations would be opened.

Seen in this light, the Turkish media's uproar over the murders was more a reaction to the potential jeopardization of the EU's decision on accession negotiations, than a reaction to yet another injustice committed against the Kurdish people by the Ankara regime. With its economic future thus threatened, there was no choice but to make the requisite statements about getting to the bottom of the crime and calls for "justice" made all around, but judging from the speed with which the initial media uproar died down, it's obvious that the indignation was strictly a matter of appearances. Ahmet and Ugur Kaymaz' names were just two more on the long roster of names of those Kurds who had been murdered with impunity by the state.

The Interior Ministry conducted the investigation for the state, something that should have clued everyone that a cover-up was in the offing. The murders were committed by an Ozel Tim (Special Team) and, although the organizational structure of these teams is shrouded by the Deep State apparatus, there have been reported connections to the Interior Ministry, at least in the case of the police special teams (Ozel Hareket Timler). In its 1995 report on violations of the laws of warfare by the Turkish state, Human Rights Watch documented information given to them by former Turkish officers and soldiers. This evidence gives a description of the nature of the Ozel Timler/Ozel Hareket Timler:

According to V.A. [former TSK officer], the A Teams, like many of the Özel Tim, are recruited from the ranks of Turkey's extreme, right-wing nationalist movement. "They are well-educated and extremely nationalistic," V.A. explained, "and really hate Kurds and the PKK. Their primary motivation in life is to kill the PKK." V.A. said that the A Teams are "so scary that even we Army officers were frightened of them. We never get in their way, and always try and remove ourselves if they are in the area."

B Teams are comprised primarily of police as well as some ex-Army and Jandarma soldiers. The difference between A and B Teams, to the best of Human Rights Watch's knowledge, appears to be in their designated targets. A Teams, which contain higher-status and better paid troops, are instructed to pursue more important PKK members than the B Teams.

[ . . . ]

All the persons interviewed for this report agreed that the police special forces are the gravest abusers of human rights among security forces in the southeast. According to a senior U.S. official in the Embassy in Ankara, for example, the "police special forces are brutal thugs."125 Former Turkish officer V.A. said the Özel Hareket Tim were "abnormal elements" responsible for most of the torture, extrajudicial executions and other human rights abuses in the southeast. Former Turkish infantryman B.G. agreed with V.A.'s assessment, saying the Özel Hareket Tim were "independent of anyone and anything, and almost crazy with nationalism." International Defense Review wrote that A teams are responsible for the final stages of "spot-to-kill" operations, in which suspected PKK guerrillas are killed on sight.126

Even the US has known for a very long time that these Ozel Tim creatures are "brutal thugs." Still, the US goes on supporting them in full knowledge of the fact.

The report mentions that these teams belong to the Turkish general staff's Special Warfare Department (OHD). How much the OHAL affected the command and control structure of the Ozel Timler is something we cannot tell. However, it's reasonable to assume that the Turkish general staff would exercise more control under OHAL. Since, at the time of the Kaymaz murders, no OHAL existed, it may be that the Interior Ministry exercised greater control.

With this information about the Ozel Timler in mind, it should be no shock that Ahmet Kaymaz was described as a PKK member in the response to the the UN's Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions. A complete report on the correspondence of the murder is carried by the New York University School of Law. The claim of PKK membership is typical of the Turkish state whenever it deals with Kurds or has to cover its filthy work of murdering them, and the case of Ahmet Kaymaz is no different. He had been accused of PKK membership on several previous occasions, but investigations by journalists for Britain's The Independent and the WRMEA contradict this claim. From The Independent:

Kiziltepe’s [Qoser's] mainly Kurdish residents have been traumatised after years of armed conflict. The Kaymaz family had to leave their own village because of the fighting. Ugur’s father, Ahmet, had been detained at least twice on suspicion of supporting the militants. He had no proven links to the PKK.

From the WRMEA:

Yet for many, the Kiziltepe [Qoser] incident was nothing particularly unusual. Ahmet was a member of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) and had turned down an offer some years before to become a Village Guard-the pro-government Kurdish militia hired by Ankara to patrol settlements in the region. He may have had no connection to the armed Kurdish militants of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), or to its more recent incarnation as Kongra-Gel-or to one of its multiplying factions. Yet he would almost certainly have been on the list of "suspect" locals down at the local police post.

DEHAP supporters and human rights advocates claim that hundreds of similar incidents have occurred over the last two decades in southeastern Turkey.

So Ahmet Kaymaz was a Kurd, an IDP, a DEHAP member, and had refused to become a village guard. Each one of those characteristics alone is enough to put him in the Turkish state's crosshairs.

Ugur Kaymaz is in a more interesting position vis-a-vis the state's claims. Here is a boy of eleven years, who manages to attend school every day, help his father around the house, and, presumably, engages in normal eleven-year-old behavior with other children in the neighborhood. In spite of all of this, we are expected to believe that Ugur had a second life as a PKK gerîla who was involved in masterminding an attack against security forces in his own town. He must have been doing all this after finishing his homework.

In spite of the state's claims of a shoot-out, the autopsies and examinations of bullet wounds in the bodies of Ahmet and Ugur indicate that a shoot-out was impossible [See the document at NYU School of Law]. Ugur Kaymaz had 13 bullets in his body, four in the hands and nine in the back. There were also gunpowder marks on him, indicating that the shooting happened at very close range. Ahmet Kaymaz had 8 gunshots in his body. 17 of the total 21 gunshot wounds were fired at a distance of within 50 centimeters (approx. 20 inches--less than 2 ft). Since when do you have a shoot out when you are less than two feet from someone? The autopsies also indicated that the bullets were fired from the same direction, another indication of no shoot-out.

As is usual with state murders, the murderers planted evidence near the bodies of Ahmet and Ugur, including Kalishnikov's, Russian-made hand grenades, and magazines. This is similar to a murder committed by the state in November, 2003, in Istanbul, photos of which can be seen here.

Another claim of the state, that they had information that the PKK was planning an attack against security forces, was conveniently confirmed by a PKK "confessor," who conveniently turned himself in to the state the day after the murders. The state widely uses "confessors" to verify its own claims, which is a sort of circular reasoning because "confessors" are virtual employees of the state. Many have agreed to become "confessors" under threat of torture while in detention. Since every Kurd under Turkish occupation is seen as a member of PKK by the state, every Kurd has the potential to become a PKK "confessor." The fact is that the use of these "confessors" is an easy way out of having to establish proper evidence. They are part of the system of impunity created by the state. Unfortunately for the state, there is no proof that any of their PKK "confessors" have any connection whatsoever to the PKK.

Coincidentally, one week after the Kaymaz murders, another Kurd was murdered by security forces under similar circumstances. Fevzi Can, a shepherd living in a partially destroyed village near Semdinli (Şemzînan), was shot and killed by jandarma. They claimed that Fevzi was a terrorist who failed to stop after given the order, and the state would not release his body to his family unless they signed a statement to that effect. The state also attempted to characterize Fevzi as a smuggler who ran from security forces, abandoning the sheep he was allegedly smuggling. If true, the security forces failed to uphold the law, which states that smuggled goods, in this case the sheep, were to be confiscated. Instead the 448 sheep were returned without delay to their owner.

The Turkish media managed to overlook the state's murder of Fevzi Can, but his is another name added to the long roster of Kurds murdered with impunity for the glory of the Turkish nation.

Why bring all this up now, almost two years after the murders? An update on the trial was published on TDN a couple of days ago. It appears that the most of the murderers are able to fit the trial into their busy, daily schedules. In other words, the murderers still walk free and they're sticking to their story. They don't appear too happy that foreigners are observing their trial and complain that foreigners never observe the trials of security forces killed by PKK. Absurd accusation, given that there are no trials for PKK gerîlas. PKK gerîlas are executed in the field by security forces in violation of laws of war.

But then, bullies are always crybabies.

Earlier in the week, I had to ask the question that the people of Amed were asking, which questioned the value of a Kurdish life. If the murderers of Ahmet and Ugur Kaymaz are convicted, we will know that two Kurdish lives are worth four years. Do the math; that's two years for each.

Such a deal.

THE REAL DOUBLE STANDARD

"In recent years, it [PKK] has made numerous offers to negotiate federal status, self-government, or a democratic process securing basic rights for the Kurds. It has even declared unilateral truces, but on each occasion its efforts have been ignored or presented as a trap."
~ Eric Rouleau, "Turkey's Modern Pashas", Le Monde Diplomatique.

Bulent Arinc, the Turkish Parliament Speaker, told his Lebanese counterpart that "Israel's actions in Lebanon and Palestinian territories were unacceptable." I wonder why he considers Israel's actions unacceptable? Is it simply for the sake of the "territorial integrity" of Lebanon or Palestine? Or is it because Arinc is concerned about the people in Lebanon or Palestine?

It appears that his concerns run in the following order:

1. Concern that civilians, including children, are being killed.
2. Concern that bridges and roads are being destroyed.
3. Concern for Israel's lack of respect for international law.
4. Concern for Israel's use of excessive force.
5. Concern for Israel responding to the smallest incident with such ferocity.

Erdogan also claims to be concerned about Israel's miltary actions and accuses "the international actors of failing to step in to end the ongoing violence."

Yet the Ankara regime has never acknowledged its own use of excessive military force against Kurdish civilians, nor has it ever been concerned that those Kurdish civilians, including children, were killed by its own excessive use of force. It has never had a care for its own flagrant disrespect for international law, especially for those international laws that have to do with human rights. It has never lost a night's sleep over the thousands and thousands of Kurdish villages it has destroyed, the vast tracts of land it has mined, or the vast forests it has burned.

During the first Palestinian intifada, from 1987 to 2000 (13 years), 1,491 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces and Israeli civilians. That averages out to approximately 115 deaths per year. Compare that with the number of Kurdish deaths by Turkish security forces during the first dirty war. Let's use the much touted refrain of 37,000 Kurds killed from 1984 to 1999 (15 years) and we shall see that the math tells us that Turkish security forces killed approximately 2,467 Kurds every year. Children were included. Who is it that is the master of the use of excessive force? Israel or Turkey?

Human Rights Watch has a report on Turkish violations of laws of war from 1995, at the height of the first dirty war. Let's see what it says about forced displacements:

According to our findings, Turkish security forces regularly violate the international laws of war. The most frequent violation is that of forcible displacement, during which Turkish forces order villagers to leave their homes and then burn down their villages. In all of the cases investigated, the Turkish government made no attempt to care for the displaced civilians, again in violation of international law; the villagers were simply ordered out of their homes, told to leave their possessions behind, and then watched as their homes were burned. Following the destruction, the villagers were told to walk to the nearest town and to never return.133

In most of the forced dislocations investigated in this report, the Turkish troops behaved with extreme contempt for the dignity and physical well-being of civilians. Torture or other cruel and inhumane treatment appear to be a routine phenomenon during the displacement process, belying any Turkish arguments that the evacuations were carried out for the safety of the civilians. In many cases, troops engaged in village destructions beat male villagers, exposed men, women and children alike to extreme weather conditions, and humiliated civilians in a wide variety of ways.

The troops do not typically kill large numbers of civilians during the forced evacuations; short of killing the displaced villagers, however, Turkish security forces display blatant disregard for their well-being. In one case (Case 11 below) investigated for this report, for example, children died during the village destruction after being forcibly separated from their parents. The security forces turned down repeated requests by the parents to search for their children, who appear to have been burned alive when the troops set the village alight.

A little indiscriminate fire, anyone?

Although indiscriminate fire by Turkish security forces is not the most consistent violation of international law in Turkey's southeast, it remains a persistent problem. In some cases, the security forces have grossly overreacted to actual or suspected PKK attacks. In these incidents, which have occurred primarily in the towns and cities, security forces appear to have taken advantage of suspected or actual PKK activity to unleash a barrage of fire on civilian neighborhoods suspected of containing PKK sympathizers.

In some instances, the indiscriminate fire may have been due to negligence on the part of Turkish gunners seeking to hit PKK targets. But lack of intent to kill or cause destruction is no excuse for failing to care for the well-being of civilians.

In other cases, security forces have shelled, bombed or strafed villages, either as punishment for presumed PKK sympathies or as a method of intimidation aimed at forcing villagers from their homes. In the latter set of cases, the security forces appear to have relied on indiscriminate fire as a quick and easy way of evacuating villages in preparation for their later destruction. In some such attacks, civilians have been wounded or killed; in others, they fled their homes which were partially destroyed. Later, troops came and completed the destruction.

In a number of cases, Turkish security forces have targeted civilian settlements for serious attack with the intention of causing large numbers of civilian casualties. This is best exemplified by the March 1994 series of Air Force bombing raids on villages in the Şirnak area, in which dozens of civilians were killed and entire villages were destroyed. Other similar cases occurred in 1992 and 1993, however, suggesting that the March 1994 attacks, while remarkable in their scope and intensity, were not isolated events.

Much more information is available in that report, with specific case investigations that show clearly that the Turkish security forces engaged in gross human rights abuses for any variety of excuses, from villages refusing to participate in elections, to refusing to become Village Guards (Korucular), to supporting PKK and sometimes just for the hell of it. All of this is what is starting to happen again to 20 million Kurds under Turkish occupation.

Kurds who rise up against these atrocities are labeled as "terrorists" while the real terrorists walk free with the support of the international community. The real terrorists even have the support of some within the Kurdish community. Let's be honest here, too: If none of these atrocities had happened, and if Kurds had been accepted as equal citizens as Kurds, there would be no need of serhildan or of engaging in legitimate armed struggle. If the international community had used its collective power to end the atrocities and demand the acceptance of Kurds as equal citizens as Kurds, there would be no need for serhildan or armed struggle either.


Who is it that responds to the smallest incident with ferocity? Who are the terrorists?

Well, there's Iran's Hezbollah, for one. They targeted American Marines serving as part of a multi-national peacekeeping force back in 1983, in Beirut, killing over 200 of them. They carried out attacks against French and Italians serving in the same force. They carried out attacks in Argentina. They've kidnapped Westerners, murdering some of them. They hijacked at least one commercial airliner.

HAMAS has engaged in hundreds of suicide bombings in Israel, killing many civilians, for the purpose of completely destroying the "territorial integrity" of Israel--in other words, to wipe it off the map--a goal that HAMAS has in common with Hezbollah.

On the other hand, the big, bad PKK has not targeted Americans or other Westerners, nor does it have the goal of "wiping Turkey off the map," unlike Turkey, which has always had the goal of wiping Kurds off the map. It would be easy to suggest that Turkey got its idea of wiping Kurds off the map from its close and friendly association with organizations like Hezbollah and HAMAS, or its coziness with Syria and Iran, but that wouldn't be true.

Turkey has always had the goal of wiping Kurds off the map. It, and its enablers, are terrorists of the Kurdish people.

So when Mr. Arinc and Mr. Erdogan come along, at the bidding of their pashas, crying about double standards and feigning indignation at Israel's "lack of respect for international law" and "excessive use of military force," don't you believe it. It's just another case of Turkey's double standards.


By the way, check out Bianet's report on growing anti-Israel protests in Turkey. Then imagine if any of those people would even show their faces in a demonstration in support of Kurds in what is supposed to be their own country.

Also check the photo Bianet's running on its English page for this report. See the picture of the Palestinian with face covered? That's now illegal in Turkey under the new anti-terror law. No demonstrators can cover their faces--a law that targets Kurds in particular.

And that brings up another point, these demonstrations are encouraged, if not actually organized by the state, because this kind of activity is also a violation of the new anti-terror law.

US SIGNS TURKEY'S DEATH WARRANT

"Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds. Many Victims, one Perpetrator: Turkey"

~ Unknown.

According to news just out on the Daily Times, the US says that Turkey has a right to defend itself:

“Turkey, like every country, has a right and an obligation to defend itself and its people,” the US said in a statement issued by its embassy in Ankara. It followed harsh remarks on Tuesday by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said that US support for Israeli offensives against militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip while it opposed Turkish action in Kurdish-populated northern Iraq constituted double standards.

If Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself and its people, and if Turkey has the right and obligation to defend itself and its people, then Kurdistan has the right and obligation to defend itself and its people.

This is exactly what HPG does in North Kurdistan and what KDP and PUK do in South Kurdistan. It's very good to see that the US agrees with the Kurdish position. Naturally this agreement is a death warrant for Turkey because it will enter South Kurdistan to face a well-trained and hostile Kurdish gerîla force (HPG), a well-trained and hostile Kurdish conventional/gerîla force (pêşmerge), and a hostile civilian population that has a great familiarity with weapons, isn't afraid to use them, and will certainly volunteer its services to combined Kurdish military forces.

If Kurdish forces are really on the ball, the TSK will find all 1500 of their troops already in South Kurdistan slaughtered. There's nothing like a morale buster right at the very beginning.

Besides, as the Iraqi President, Celal Talabanî, recently reminded us:

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said late Thursday that previous agreements signed between Turkey and Iraq during the Saddam Hussein era on cross-border operations are no longer valid. Talabani, after his meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan region President Massoud Barzani on Thursday, said that the new Iraqi government would not uphold former agreements that allowed Turkey to carry out cross-border operations into Iraqi territory. "The Iraqi government has expressed its unease to the Turkish and Iranian embassies about the cross-border operations," Talabani told reporters.

I guess that means it's time for those Turkish troops deployed in South Kurdistan to go--one way or the other.


Again, from the Daily Times:

“Terrorism is terrorism everywhere,” Erdogan said.

So very true, even when it's invited to Ankara, as HAMAS was not long ago. That, of course, makes Turkey a state-sponsor of terror because it is widely known that HAMAS is listed as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU. A natural progression, I suppose, because the Ankara regime has been a domestic terrorist organization since 1923. With all that, maybe someone can explain the double-standard argument that Erdogan seems to be crying about.

Since the Ankara regime has no problem inviting terrorist leaders for visits, and since the Ankara regime has no problem engaging in terrorism against the Kurdish people within its borders, perhaps it should be seriously questioned on its relationship with Iran vis-a-vis the recent flare-up in Lebanon. Noted too is the Ankara regime's reluctance to pressure Syria to end its support to Hezbollah.

But then, Syria is home to Khaled Mashaal, isn't it?

Turkey disagreed with the US ambassador to Turkey when he said that an invasion of the South would be "unwise," but if the Turks are that eager to give their lives for the glorious Turkish nation, let them come. I would not be surprised if Iraqi National Guard units in South Kurdistan (mainly Kurdish) would be deployed against the Turkish aggressor as well.

TSK's last message to Ankara before it begins its pre-invasion radio silence should be a reminder to keep the body bags coming.

RUNNING SCARED

"In any contest between power and patience, bet on patience."
~ W.B. Prescott

Lots of funny stuff in the news today, thanks to the fact that the Ankara regime is running scared. The Turkish media is in an absolute frenzy, something that is directly proportional to the intensity of their pucker factor. This happens partly because the Turkish media, like media in all fascist states, is mainly propaganda. The whole purpose of fascist media is to stir up emotion so that you can get everyone to do your bidding on adrenaline.

Whenever I think of this, I remember seeing old video footage of Hitler giving a speech. There he is, shrieking away like a maniac, fists flying and pounding the podium, and then, flash on the audience and they're all in tears, choked up with emotion and the women are fainting. . . Geez. So this is exactly what came to mind when I took a stroll and a browse over at TDN today. Emotion--it's their weakness and that means it can be exploited to their own detriment.

First out of the barrel is Parliament Speaker Arinc lecturing all the citizens of the Kurdish persuasion (see, he's afraid to say "Kurds" throughout the whole thing), to renounce "terrorism." He tell us how there's gonna be revenge and that the mighty Mehemetcik, all 800,000 of them, are ready to be fitted for body bags by a few thousand HPG gerîlas. The funniest part is when he says that the public needs to be led by their mayors, but look at all the DTP mayors in "The Region! I'm sure they'll get right on that, Mr. Speaker.

What does he think Kurds were doing during the Amed Serhildan? They were protesting terrorism. They were denouncing terrorism. Everyone is fed up with the Ankara regime's terrorism and that's why they were protesting.

A longer article from TDN has the title, "No holds barred in fight against PKK." No kidding. With all their black operations against the Kurdish people, with all their extrajudicial killings and assassinations, with all their use of torture, with all their destruction of villages and ethnic cleansing, with all the ECHR findings against them, with all the documentation against them by human rights organizations, with all the genocide, was there ever a time when there was a no-holds-barred policy against PKK and the people? Pretty stupid title.

But it does report on some of the goings-on after the meeting of the Supreme Anti-Terrorism Board for the Very, Very, Very Nervous. Erdogan expresses his "outrage" at the fact that a few Mehmetciks were waxed, but take that from a guy who sues anyone who looks at him cross-eyed. Erdogan simply has no control over himself. He's a disgrace to humanity, but average as far as Turks and other fascists go. Erdogan is also caught in a big fat lie in this article:

"Until now, we've always been dealing with this with patience. We've always wanted to solve this within democratic lines," Erdoğan said on Sunday.

Yeah, right. Pashas can't even spell patience or democracy, much less know what they mean.

There's another lie in this one too:

In a house raid on Monday in Diyarbakır, police seized 27.4 kilograms of plastic explosives, which they believe were intended for attacks in urban centers, along with a substantial cache of ammunition, local sources said.

In response, helicopters pounded suspected PKK hideouts, while Turkish commandos were airlifted to strategic points along the Iraqi border, reported Doğan.

[ . . . ]

Officials in the Southeast, however, have so far reported no unusual military activity.

"Officials" in "The Southeast" are government hacks, which means they are liars. Non-Turkish media reports the following:

Meanwhile, Turkey has said it has deployed special troops from Kayseri Commando team were deployed to Iraq border according to the DHA news agency. This is a special military team which is specialized in guerilla warfare.

"Special" troops, specializing in guerilla warfare. . . these are Ozel Timler. Let's all hope that they will be sent home to their little families soon, very soon, in the same condition that a couple of American soldiers went home recently. They had been involved with a rape of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her and some of her family members. Since Ozel Timler do the exact same things in Kurdistan against the Kurdish people, it is only fitting and proper that they meet the same end. However, given that HPG observes the Geneva Conventions, it's more likely they will just go home dead, but wishing is always nice.

In other news, we learn that Mehmet Ali Birand is smoking crack cocaine and the effects of this can be seen in his opinion piece today, titled, "Confusion within PKK." In this, he states that he has no idea what the aim of PKK attacks is. Well, Mehmet, it's to kill Turkish soldiers. I would have thought that dead Mehmetciks littering the landscape of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan would have made that pretty obvious.

Mehmet also believes in the omnipotence of the PKK. In fact, he thinks PKK is God because, as he explains it, they manage to hold DTP politicians in such fear, that they only do what PKK wants. Sure. That's why DTP remains true to its stated goals, risking prison time from Turkish authorities and sustaining death threats from Turkish authorities, simply because of the all-powerful PKK. Mehmet totally fails to understand Kurds, but he totally understands the way his fascist government operates. Fear is, in fact, a major motivator in Turkish politics. He admitted as much a few weeks ago, when he described the Turkish people's trust in their own military:

In the eyes of the Turkish people, the military represents the state. This symbol is a source of respect, some fear and most importantly trust in the established mechanism.

How does one fear, while at the same time trust in an organization, in this case the military? Only in a fascist mind does this happen, I suppose. If someone like Osman Baydemir or Mukaddes Kubilay operated out of fear, they would be totally ineffective as mayors. In their cases, however, the opposite is true. They operate out of love for their people and they are, in turn, loved by their people. This is an anomaly under the Turkish state, but then, Kurds are an anomaly under the Turkish state.

More ridiculous pronouncements can be had at the link.

Let this be a lesson for all young Kurds out there. Never even think of smoking crack cocaine. It will ruin your mind, and a mind is a terrible thing to waste, as in the case of Mehmet Ali Birand.

Bianet is reporting that the fascists have discussed the return of the State of Emergency (OHAL) in "The Southeast." As in the case of the signing into law of the new anti-terror bill, calling another OHAL is an absurdity, because both the application of the new antiterror law and a de facto OHAL already exist under Turkish occupation, something that is admitted in the Bianet article.

Another absurdity in the article is the call on the government to take "bold steps to create a civilian Turkey" and they call on PKK to end operations. There was a time, between 1999 and 2005, for the government to take bold steps because PKK had ended operations. This was what is known as PKK's most recent unilateral ceasefire. At the time, no one, not the Ankara regime, not the EU, not the human rights organizations, availed themselves of a cessation of operations. It is therefore impossible to believe that another end to operations will change anything now.

By the way, what happened to Europe? Did anyone check, is it still there? Or did it implode and there's just a big hole on the map where it used to be? Weren't they worked up, as far as any European can work themselves up to anything, about the possible passage of the anti-terror law? Is martial law, such as OHAL, a normally acceptable state of affairs under the Copenhagen criteria?

Another question: Is there really a Kurdish diaspora? I ask that because I don't hear anything from the Kurdish Diaspora about what is happening to the Kurdish people under Turkish occupation and a de facto OHAL. There were protests during the Amed Serhildan, but what was that? Did everyone shoot their wad then, and now they're recovering their strength?

Just like people in Amed, I too wonder what in the hell a Kurdish life is worth. Where are the demonstrations for the Kurds?

In every single country where there is a Kurdish Diaspora population, there should be 24-hour protests in front of every Turkish embassy and every Turkish consulate. There should be 24-hour protests in front of the White House, the Congress and the State Department. There should be 24-hour protests in front of every residence of heads of government, legislative bodies and foreign ministries, in every country where there is a Kurdish population. This is easy to organize, with people committing to "standing guard" for certain periods of time, and then they are relieved when their replacements arrive. When the goons from the Turkish embassies come to take photos and harass, then it's time to notify the local media, get it on the news wires and trash Turkish image. They are very sensitive about that.

I guess I'll have to let Kurds in Britain off the hook with this plan because they've just been screwed by the Nazis who run the British government. Of course, the British government is seriously flawed in that it has no First Amendment, and therefore no guarantee of freedom of speech, as today's legal happenings in Britain prove. So if you're in Britain, and you protest on behalf of Bakurî Kurds, you're going to prison as a terrorist. Guaranteed. Check with your local Turkish consulate on that.

Everyone else, though, has no excuse for ignoring Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, especially when we think about the demonstrations that the Bakurî used to raise in Europe. This is disappointing in the extreme.

I have a piece of advice for the Kurdish Diaspora: Shit can happen, but it ain't gonna happen unless you make it happen.

HPG, 4GW, AND FEAR

"Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is."
~ German Proverb

Over the weekend, KurdishInfo posted the news of HPG's signing of the Deed of Commitment for Adherence to a Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Mines, which is the equivalent of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty (also known as the Ottowa Treaty) for non-state actors (NSA's).

When I read this news, I was reminded of a couple of things. The first is the PKK Statement to the UN from January, 1995. It was in this statement that PKK outlined its adherence to the Geneva Conventions and First Protocol, and formally stated which organizations it considered to be legitimate targets of attack based on the Conventions and Protocol.

The news also reminded me of something published on the old DozaMe site last year, an editorial on fourth generation warfare (4GW) and the HPG. This editorial discussed the HPG's use of remote-controlled bombs, which for all practical purposes are mines that are detonated manually by soldiers, as opposed to simply sowing landmines and leaving them behind. This means that for at least one year, HPG has been adhering to to the Ottowa Treaty.

The PKK Statement to the UN, the adherence to the Ottowa Treaty and, now, the signing of the Deed of Commitment are examples of what is one of PKKs (and now KKK's) greatest strengths: Adaptability. As Ismet Imset noted in his analysis of the PKK's 5th Congress (held in January, 1995):

Along with its tight and professional organizational structure which is made out of a political nucleas, the party, its full-time fighting force the ARGK and a wide-spread popular front, the ERNK, The PKK owes much of its existence to this adaptability and more important of all, Turkey's own policy mistakes.

The mistakes and ignorance of Ankara placed aside, it can be seen that the PKK, one of the most expansive guerilla organizations in the Middle East, survives mainly through its adaptability. An adaptability which, according to many organizational sources, is closely linked to the scores of meetings held in its 20 years of history.

An attentive reading of the PKK Statement to the UN will show that Ankara's mistakes are the same today as they were eleven years ago, with the Turkish war of genocide against the Kurdish people continuing. We all remember that, during the Amed Serhildan, the regime stated that all Kurds would become targets of one of NATO's largest armies, the TSK. We all remember Special Teams (Ozel Timler and Ozel Hareket Timler) coming to Amed, and we all know what Ozel Timler do.

We all know, too, that NATO countries are supposed to be signatories to the same laws of warfare that HPG adheres to. For example, last year two members of the regime's security forces were captured by HPG, and both were released within months through the mediation of human rights delegations.

This example is in stark contrast to the recent TSK use of chemical weapons against HPG gerîlas and field executions of captured gerîlas, who should be treated as prisoners of war. But Ozel Timler and Mehmetciks have the habit of recording their atrocities by photographing them, as one report from KurdishInfo recently described. Photos like those shown in that report are also distributed on the Internet, and a recent example can be found here. Be advised that the photos at the link are quite graphic.

Regarding 4GW, the DozaMe editorial refers to HPG's ability to move within cities, a situation that was created by the Ankara regime itself when it decided to ethnically cleanse millions of Kurds from their villages. This was done with a two-fold purpose in mind. The first was to deny assistance to Kurdish gerîlas in the rural areas. The second was to drive the people into the cities, where the Ankara regime foolishly believed it would be able to control them more easily.

The situation of Kurdish refugees packed into urban centers may further prove that HPG, as well as the political elements of KKK, may be very beneficial to the Kurdish cause, especially as regards adaption to 4GW. As described in a paper on the subject of 4GW and terrorism, published in the (US) Marine Corps Gazette, one indicator pointing to the evolution of an organization into a 4GW organization, is the ability to make the enemy's army worthless, by attacking its rear and collapsing the enemy from inside:

Two additional carryovers must be noted as they may be useful "signposts" pointing toward the fourth generation. The first is a component of collapsing the enemy. It is a shift in focus from the enemy's front to his rear. Terrorism must seek to collapse the enemy from within as it has little capability (at least at present) to inflict widespread destruction.

[ . . . ]

Terrorism takes this a major step further. It attempts to bypass the enemy's military entirely and strike directly at his homeland at civilian targets. Ideally, the enemy's military is simply irrelevant to the terrorist.

The DozaMe editorial quotes the Defense and the National Interest (DNI) site on the use of the term "terrorist:"

One way to tell that 4GW is truly new is that we don't even have a name for its participants—typically dismissing them as "terrorists," "extremists," or "thugs."

Name calling, though, is not often an effective substitute for strategy.

I disagree that 4GW is "truly new." The watchwords of gerîla warfare have always been "Improvise. Adapt. Overcome." 4GW is simply the next evolution in this kind of warfare, with a new goal, again, from the same article on the DNI site:

A premise of 4GW is that the world itself has changed, so that terrorism and guerilla warfare—and other elusive techniques that are still being invented—are now ready to move to center stage. These techniques focus not so much on the enemy's military capabilities (although these may be attacked) but directly against the will of the enemy to continue the war. All of the operations by a 4GW force must support this goal. In its most fully developed form, there may be no real "battles" at all, as was virtually the case in the Sandinista take-over of Nicaragua in 1979.

Indeed, NATO has engaged in this kind of warfare against the Kurdish people for some time, by its training of the Ozel Timler, something that was admitted by the late CIA chief, William Colby and, after him, retired Turkish Army generals who had been involved with the establishment and training of the same teams. This contra-gerîla warfare was referred to as "psychological operations"--psychological in the sense of the effect these operations were supposed to have on the target population. I find it interesting that the article quoted above was published in 1989, shortly before black operations began in earnest in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. It may be that NATO was trying out its ideas, with Kurds as the guinea pigs.

It is clear that no NATO force has ever applied their own laws of warfare to their operations against the Kurdish people.

With the renewal of the dirty war in Kurdistan, there should be serious consideration given to the possibilities of conducting 4GW operations against the Kurdish people's legitimate targets (as outlined to the UN in 1995) in Western Turkey and in urban centers in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. As the DozaMe editorial reminded us last year, the pashas are afraid. They are still afraid.

It's better to keep them that way.

REGIME TO COMMEMORATE CONTRA-GERÎLA MASSACRE

“Our strength lies in our intensive attacks and our barbarity...After all, who today remembers the genocide of the Armenians?”

~ Adolf Hitler.

The Turkish regime is going to commemorate its own massacre of Kurds, a massacre which occurred in July of 1993, not far from Wan. From The New Anatolian

Bahcesaray Governor Bunyamin Yildiz told the Anatolia news agency that everyone in the district was deeply saddened about the events which occurred on July 18, 1993 and emphasized that the PKK's attack was so brutal that no other terrorist group had managed to do such a thing.

As usual, the governor is wrong. There are terrorists in Turkey who are capable of making such brutal attacks, and they are the Turkish security forces, especially Ozel Timler. At the time, an ERNK spokesman denied the attack:

An unknown force today attacked Kurdish people who were grazing their lifestock in Sunduz Yayla (Sunduz Plateau) in Bahcesary district in Van, killing 23 civilians. Turkish authorities and Anatolian News Agency reported the incident as the doing of the ARGK (Peoples Liberation Army of Kurdistan) guerrillas. We spoke to the Serhat Region Headquarter spokesperson who has denied the Bahcesary-incident at 6:30pm today. The spokesman said: "The people of the Sunduz Plateau had nothing against us and our forces who were aware their existence, had good relations with the people. We had no reason to kill those people. We want to send a message to the press that our forces did not conduct this incident and is not responsible for the killing of these people. We heard that Turkish authorities blame us for the incident. We believe that this incident is a work of the contra-guerrilla which functions under Turkish state control."

Unfortunately, the Bahcesary Massacre was not investigated by international human rights groups, but a similar contra-gerîla operation was, and has been documented by Amnesty International. It has become known as the Guclukonak Massacre. The interesting thing about the Gucuklonak Massacre was that it took place a month after PKK announced one of its many unilateral ceasefires, something to which the Turkish regime did not want to have to make a peaceful response. Instead, they chose to follow the training they had so well received from their US and NATO tutors, and that was to make a violent provocation.

The results of the Gulcukonak Massacre investigating delegation indicated that Turkish security forces committed the massacre. In another instance of history repeating itself, the delegation submitted a request to the Chief State Prosecutor in Istanbul:

". . . accusing Turkey's Chief of General Staff of responsibility for the massacre and of engaging in a cover-up. They made these charges on the basis that on 16 January, on the orders of the General Staff, journalists had been airlifted to the scene where three high-ranking officers had briefed the journalists with a version of events that the delegation believed was manifestly flawed and calculated to mask the real perpetrators."

In a manner similar to what happened to Ferhat Sarikaya, the Wan prosecutor who attempted to indict Buyukanit Pasha for his role in the Semdinli bombing, the regime prosecuted leading members of the investigating delegation and then promptly ignored their findings of the Bahcesary Massacre.

But this is an old story in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, and history is in the process of repeating itself even though some of us remember it. The act of commemoration of the Bahcesary Massacre, coming as it does now when the regime is renewing its dirty war against the Kurds is an indication of the desperation of the regime in the face of continued Kurdish resistance.

The difference now is that Kurds must watch to see how far the complicity of the EU will go when the Turkish regime commits another Bahcesary or Gulcukonak. Will the EU become more deeply complicit with Turkey in the genocide of Kurds by ignoring or covering up the regime's black operations? After Rice's recent visit to Ankara, it is clear that the US will continue to back the genocide. In both cases, it is up to Kurdish activists in Europe and the US to make a proper response.

HPG gerîlas continue to make a proper response, and with 12 Mehmetcik's iced this past week, I am reminded of the words of US General George S. Patton:

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

Inshallah!

A MOMENT OF CHAOS

“Revolution is not a dinner party, not an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly and modestly.”

~ Mao Tse Tung.

For the last few days, I have been watching the news about the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and I think it's important to note that this whole mess goes directly to one source: Iran. Anyone who thinks otherwise simply does not know how things work in the Middle East. The Persians, being the natural cowards that they are, like to use their proxies to fight their battles for them, and in this case they are employing the Ba'athi Syrians and their puppet, Nasrallah.

The other day there was an interesting analysis of the Persian Empire's Lebanese proxy from, of all places, the LATimes. Taking a look at that article, we find the following:

The country's [Lebanon's] elected government was still in meetings Wednesday, arguing over what to say in public, when Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah went before television cameras with a pointed threat for the ruling elite.

"Today is a time for solidarity and cooperation, and we can have discussions later. I warn you against committing any error. This is a national responsibility," the cleric said, looking every inch the head of state.

Any criticism over the capture of the two Israeli soldiers would be tantamount to colluding with Israel, Nasrallah said, making it clear that he expected citizens and officials to heed his orders.

"To the Lebanese people, both officials and non-officials, nobody should behave in a way that encourages the enemy to attack Lebanon, and nobody should say anything that gives cover to attack Lebanon," he said.

Nasrallah was careful to frame the raid — which occurred less than three weeks after Palestinian militant groups, including the Hamas military wing, captured an Israeli soldier in a similar cross-border attack just outside the Gaza Strip — as a noble strike on behalf of Lebanon and Arab nationalism. Its goal was to free Lebanese and other Arab prisoners, many of them Palestinian, held in Israel by forcing Israel into a prisoner swap, he said.

In other words, Lebanon has an elected government like Turkey has an elected government, which means to say that the elected Lebanese government isn't worth so much as a hanging chad. Maybe it's not so odd that this whole business pops up at a moment when Persian chestnuts are being held over an international fire, a fire fueled by Persian desires to acquire nuclear weapons and Persian meddling in Iraq. It makes me wonder if North Korea's big show of missile launches aren't also a Persian inspiration.

It sounds like the Lebanese government got Nasrallah's message, though, from NPR:

In his first public speech since the fighting began, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora condemned Israel's actions as "collective punishment," and said it has "no moral or legal legitimacy." He also indirectly criticized Hezbollah, saying only the state had the right to make decisions of peace and war. Siniora repeated that he had no prior knowledge of Hezbollah's plan to kidnap the Israeli soldiers.

Siniora pledged to expand Lebanese government authority across the country. The government is a delicate mix of ethnic and religious factions, and is considered too weak to confront Hizbollah despite agreeing to a U.N. resolution to do so. This has left the Shiite militia group operating as a quasi-independent force in the south.

Nasrallah is the de facto ruler of Lebanon with Hezbollah as the de facto government, and both answer only to Teheran. A recent article from the NYTimes tries to tell us that the relationship between the evil Persian Empire and Hezbollah are opaque, and therefore "few would suggest that Syria or Iran can issue direct orders to Hezbollah," but then our intrepid reporter goes on to discuss the weapons provided to Hezbollah by Iran:

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, asserted in a May 2005 speech that Hezbollah had more than 12,000 rockets, all of which were believed to be various forms of Katyushas provided by Iran. That coincides with estimates by Israeli and Western officials.

Until now, Hezbollah limited itself to using rockets with a range of 12 miles, but for the past several years Israeli officials have warned that Iran had provided more serious systems, including the 240-millimeter Fajr-3 missile, with a range of about 25 miles, and the 333-millimeter Fajr-5 missile, with a range of about 45 miles. The Fajr-5 could reach the northern Israeli city of Haifa and areas even farther south. On Thursday, Hezbollah-backed Al Manar TV broadcast images of the new long-range missiles. It is unclear how many Hezbollah might have.

The NYTimes report also mentions the 100-200 million USD's that the Persian Empire annually forks over to Nasrallah's boy scouts, but states that this amount is peanuts compared to donations received from Western Shi'a expats.

Hell, yeah! Let a Kurd send a hundred bucks back to Hewlêr so that mom can be fitted with a prosthetic device because she chased a sheep into one of Saddam's minefields and the jackasses at the FBI think they've caught an honest-to-God terrorist, but not so for those supporting totalitarian political Islam of the Persian flavor. Hezbollah supporters are free to donate more than 200 million greenbacks to their favorite charity.

Furthermore, in contradiction to its own editorial efforts, the NYTimes quotes an Iran expert from Stanford University:

“Would Hezbollah use a sophisticated missile that can hit Haifa without permission from Iran?” said Prof. Abbas Milani, chairman of Iranian studies at Stanford University. “I doubt it.”

No kidding. I doubt it too.

MEMRI is carrying some news about the renewed security agreement between Iran and Syria. Quoting Al-sharq Al-Awsat from 16 June:

"Well-informed sources in Tehran have told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the talks held in Tehran between Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani and his Iranian counterpart Mustafa Mohammad Najjar did not only deal with military and security aspects of the strategic cooperation between the two countries, but also with the situation in Lebanon... [The talks also] dealt with the situation in Palestine, and with the ways of assisting the Hamas and the [Islamic] Jihad in their conflict with Fatah...

"In a meeting with reporters after the signing of the military cooperation agreement, the Syrian defense minister stated that 'the American threats against Iran and Syria are nothing new... We are examining ways of countering these threats, and are establishing a joint front against Israel's threats... [since] Iran regards Syria's security as its own.'"

The daily reported that the Syrian defense minister had visited Tehran at the head of a large delegation escorted by army and intelligence officers, and met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian Chief of Staff Hassan Fayrouz and Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Yahya Rahim Safavi.

It further reported that "Iran has agreed to finance Syrian military deals with Russia, China and Ukraine, to equip the Syrian army with cannon, warheads, army vehicles, and missiles manufactured by the Iranian Defense Industries, and to enable Syrian navy drills.

"Syria, on its part, has renewed its previous agreements with Iran which allow Iranian ammunition trucks to pass [through Syria] into Lebanon..."

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat added that the Syrian and Iranian defense ministers "had agreed to establish a 'consultation room' and maintain open communication channels between the two countries in security and military matters."

So, military deals with Russia, China and Ukraine will be funded for Syria by Iran. . . no wonder Putin's at the G8 gathering, acting like an uptight little whore about to lose a client. I wonder what kind of deal Jacques "The Rat" Chirac cut for himself?

For anyone who still thinks that connections between Hezbollah, Syria and the Persian Empire are still too "opaque" to decide who is ordering whom, check out the last paragraph at MEMRI:

According to a May 11, 2006 Al-Sharq Al-Awsat report, a high-level Iranian official who held a closed meeting with a small group of Western diplomats in London emphasized Hizbullah's importance to Iran: "Hizbullah is one of the pillars of our security strategy, and forms Iran's first line of defense against Israel. We reject [the claim] that it must be disarmed..."

The quotes from Al-Sharq al-Hayat implicate Turkey's ally, HAMAS, as being beneficiaries of the security agreement between Syria and Iran. No shock there, either, given that HAMAS operates out of Syria. Most of the opinion writers for Turkish media have been engaged in their usual hypocrisy about the poor, suffering Palestinians and Lebanese, although not a single one of them at any moment in their lives has ever expressed any sympathy whatsoever for the Kurds which they and their government have been murdering for the last 80+ years. In addition, their hypocrisy becomes even more apparent in the light of joint Turkish-Israeli efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.

That's another irony of the situation of Kurds under brutal Turkish occupation. Neither the fascist Ankara regime, nor any of its international enablers have ever permitted any kind of humanitarian aid to reach Kurds. None of these fascists even permit a sincere discussion of Kurdish oppression under the Ankara murderers, which means, of course, that the international community is also guilty of genocide. They are accessories to the crime.

The one blogger that I have read on this situation is Big Pharaoh. He has some interesting commentary, including one in which his Dad weighs in, and that's not something to overlook, since his dad was a general in the Egyptian army. Another good post from Big Pharaoh, and one which highlights the hypocrisy of any so-called Turkish mediation between Israel and Syria, is his post on Syria being next.

If the speculation on Big Pharaoh's post, "Syria Next," is true about the possible takeover of Syria by totalitarian political Islam in the wake of a power vacuum, then it's another irony of the Kurdish situation that the US and Israel, and the West in general, have maintained the status quo and played up to the Turks. It is not the Turks who view Ahmedinejad as the Hitler of our time, but the PKK.

The Syrian Ba'ath army and air force is going to be up the proverbial creek without a paddle when the IAF gets done doing to them what it did to the Egyptians in '67. The Turks will hold their line along the border with South Kurdistan because they're going to want to play the role of "invaluable mediator" between Iran and the West, and they can't do that if they get their noses dirty by becoming involved militarily.

Turkey loves to insinuate itself into these messes, which is a result of its desire to reestablish the same kind of regional control the Ottomans had. It can play itself as the confidante of both the West and the Persians, especially since the Arabs appear to be sitting this one out.

Since Syria may be next in line for a few IAF sorties, this might be an opportune moment for the Kurdish population of Damascus to visit the folks back home in Little South Kurdistan. Besides, when the moment of chaos arrives, I'm sure there will be a need for more Kurdish help in terminating, with extreme prejudice, the last remnants of the Syrian Ba'ath occupiers within Kurdish territory.

Carpe Diem!

THE UNREPORTED WORLD OF KURDISTAN

“The Kurdish people have the right to defend themselves against Turkish army attacks.”
~ Murat Karayilan.

Here's a video from Unreported World on Britain's Channel 4, courtesy of Google Video. Run time on this is just over 24 minutes.

This documentary was filmed in March, 2006, in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan before the Amed Serhildan. There is a synopsis of the video at the Channel 4 site, in case you want to get an idea of what's in the video before you invest 24 minutes of your life on it.

A reference is made to the March, 2006, suicide bombing in Wan and there is an AFP report on that incident at the Institut Kurde de Paris.

The film crew is also on scene while the bodies of Ferho and Fatma Akgul were being collected. They were the parents of Kurdish activists in Europe and they were murdered by the state. There is an article on this at KurdishInfo and a report about the investigation of the murders from IHD.

Another backgrounder can be found at TimesOnline by Matthew McAllester, the reporter in the video. This article refers to the 15-year-old PKK fighter featured in part of the video.

I always find it so ironic that people get concerned about 14- or 15-year-olds fighting, but they never seem to get quite so excited if a 14- or 15-year-old Kurd is murdered by TSK, tortured by Turkish police, ethnically cleansed from their homes by Ozel Timler, or forced into prostitution or crime by circumstances, in order to help their displaced families survive in places where there is as much as 70% unemployment. . . like in Amed, for example. I also noticed a huge lack of interest in the detention and torture of 12-, 13-, 14-, and 15-year olds during the Amed Serhildan, and their placement in an adult prison as well as their being charged as adults. Everybody was pretty quiet on all of that.

Very ironic, isn't it?

If 12-year-olds are old enough to be treated as adults for the purpose of prosecution by the Ankara regime, then they're old enough to take up arms against the Ankara regime. They have the right of self-defense too.

Anyway, enjoy the video. Remember, it was filmed before the Amed Serhildan, so all of the problems you will see, the roadblocks, the funerals, the regime's lies--everything--is much worse now.