FESTIVALS, FASTS AND FALLING APART

Back in Alimlikoy, I asked the shepherd why he hadn't just agreed to become a guard. "Why would we?" he asked. "We have our fields and our animals. We have an income. Besides," he said with some emphasis, "why should we try to do a job that not even the state can accomplish?"
~ Kevin McKiernan, "Turkey's War."

A friend has pointed out that there are photos available to view at the Beytussebap website of this year's sheep-shearing festival. In the top left margin, click on "Foto Galeri" and then look for "Berxbir 2006." Then enjoy the photos from the zozans, but beware if you are the slightest bit homesick, these photos may exacerbate your condition. There are other great photos of the beautiful Beytussebap area, too. Gelek sipas, heval.

Our brothers and sisters in Limassol, Free Cyprus, held a hunger strike this weekend to protest the isolation conditions of Serok Apo and to protest the Turkish state's act of terrorism against the Kurdish people last week, in what is now being called the Amed Massacre.

Turkish-occupied Cyprus is an embarrassing contradiction for the TC, because here is the one place where the Ankara regime demands "separatism," "federalism," and "recognition of Turkish identity" for ethnic Turks, yet at the same time it denies these very things to ethnic Kurds in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. Cyprus is a member of the EU, but EU-wannabe, Turkey, refuses to recognize it and continues to occupy it. Of course, that might be as much a spineless EU problem as it is a hypocritical Turkish problem. Actually, it's amazing that the spineless EU bothers to consider an aggressor against an EU country as a potential EU membership candidate.

I guess consistency is not a strong point for either Turkey or the EU.

There's another piece of news that I've held for a week because other news took priority, but since this last week has been something of a deja vu as regards NATO's Gladio operations, now may be the right time to point out this one, from the Guardian:

UK agents 'did have role in IRA bomb atrocities'

The controversy over claims that Britain allowed two IRA informers to organise 'human bomb' attacks intensified this weekend.

A human rights watchdog has handed a report to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which concludes that two British agents were central to the bombings of three army border installations in 1990.

[ . . . ]

The 'human bomb' tactic involved forcing civilians to drive vehicles laden with explosives into army checkpoints and included deadly sorties near Newry and Coshquin outside Derry. Six British soldiers and a civilian worker at an army base died in the simultaneous blasts on either side of Northern Ireland.

British Irish Rights Watch said: 'This month BIRW sent a confidential report to the Historical Enquiries Team on the three incidents that occurred on 24th October 1990... at least two security force agents were involved in these bombings, and allegations have been made that the "human bomb" strategy was the brainchild of British intelligence.

[ . . . ]

The group has issued several detailed reports previously outlining cases of collusion between loyalist terrorists and the security forces. These include the Pat Finucane murder and the killing of Raymond McCord Jr by the Ulster Volunteer Force. In both cases, British Irish Rights Watch claim many of the loyalists involved in these murders were agents for the security forces - allegations that were later substantiated.

Wow! How familiar does that sound? I guess the British government decided to take some of that Gladio know-how and apply it to their Irish "problem." Not surprising, I suppose, considering that the "Stay Behind" idea originated in Britain. No wonder Britain has worked hand-in-glove with Turkey against Kurds; it's the result of a good-old-boy network. I wonder how many other bombings the British government committed and then pinned on the IRA?

The last item today is on the growing discontent with the Turkish military by the Turkish public, from Eurasianet:

"I will not say ’long live this country, ’"said Neriman Okay, the mother of an army lieutenant killed in action on September 1, as she stood over her son’s coffin, news outlets reported. "I didn’t bring my son up to be a soldier, and I do not accept his death. He died for nothing."

In many places, what Okay called her "rebellion" would barely raise an eyebrow. In Turkey, it has been front page news for over a week.

[ . . . ]

Much of the media coverage has tended to see Okay’s words as a protest against the government. That tendency has grown since Prime Minister Erdogan responded to criticisms of soldiers’ deaths by announcing that "military service is not a place where you just take it easy."

In a country with an 800,000-strong conscript army, some observers think the comment could spell the beginning of the end for Prime Minister Erdogan’s government. Yet, while Neriman Okay did target the premier, her criticisms went much further.

"Sending boys who have never shot a gun to fight terrorists who’ve been in the mountains for 20 years is pure stupidity," she told one newspaper after the funeral, describing her son’s inadequate training. "This should be a job for professionals."

Not surprising, that part about "inadequate training." That's what the TSK is known for, and that's why it prefers to lord it over unarmed Kurdish civilians and volunteer for "peacekeeping operations" in places where hostilities have virtually ended. Mehmetcik is basically cannon fodder that ensures the Deep State's interests. On the other hand, every Turk is born a soldier, as the Turkish educational system loves to point out:

Authorities have traditionally treated critics of military policies swiftly and harshly. A textbook read by all Turkish students suggests that a man who has not done his military service "cannot be useful to himself, his family, or his homeland." It’s a point of view backed by Turkish law, as novelist Perihan Magden discovered this July. Her article defending conscientious objection earned charges of "turning Turks against the military." She faced three years in jail, but was acquitted.

The article goes on to remark that it would be impossible to bring Neriman Okay to court for her public slight against the TSK, but that's not true. It would not be impossible to bring her to court, but it would extend the humiliation of the Ankara regime. Besides, they have other ways of dealing with problems like this.

Whoever reads the article in its entirety, should be aware of the almost impercetible racism of these lines: "Two hundred and fifty soldiers have died -- 27 in the last month alone -- since the PKK broke its unilateral ceasefire two years ago. Every death hardens the attitudes of the Turkish public."

What does the author think the Ankara regime's murders of 40,000 Kurds has done to the attitudes of the Kurdish public? But they never ask that question, do they?

LET THE COVER-UP BEGIN

"The murders and terrorist acts committed by the MHP were actions of the Special Warfare Department. Their purpose was to intimidate the opposition and prepare the conditions for a coup."
~ Serdar Celik, "Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force."

In the aftermath of the Turkish state's contra-guerrilla operation in Amed this week, some 200 intellectuals in Turkey are saying, "Enough is enough," in a call to PKK to lay down arms and end its legitimate struggle for Kurdish rights under Turkish occupation.

How does one determine when enough is enough? Apparently, all those murdered by the Turkish state during the Amed serhildan, which spread to other cities in "The Region," did not quite add up to "enough," because we heard no call at that time for an end to the violence. Nor did all of those murdered by the Turkish state during the first round of the Dirty War (between 1984 and 1999) constitute the proper critical mass to equal "enough," and that was some 40,000 Kurds murdered. Obviously, Turkish intellectuals have some secret formula by which they determine "enough is enough," a formula derived, no doubt, by virtue of the fact that the intellectuals are, well, intellectuals.

On the other hand, only one Turkish intellectual has ever had any criticism of Turkish atrocities against Kurds.

It's interesting to note that when PKK called a unilateral ceasefire which lasted from 1999 until 2004, these same intellectuals remained silent and completely inactive politically as regards the situation of Kurds under Turkish occupation. They had their ceasefire, handed to them by PKK, and yet they did absolutely nothing toward ensuring full equality of Kurds. Last August, after Erdogan came to Amed and mumbled something about Kurds, PKK called a one-month unilateral ceasefire in order to see if Erdogan would act on his words. As it turned out, Erdogan was full of nothing but hot air.

For intellectuals, especially Turkish intellectuals, talk is cheap, cheaper even than a Kurdish life.

Another point of interest is the timing of both the DTP call for PKK ceasefire, as well as the sudden clamor for the same from intellectuals. Both come well after PKK's declaration for a political solution, which was issued almost a month ago, on 20 August. In that time, neither DTP nor any Turkish intellectual has had any comment on any of PKK's points. The fact is that the timing of these calls for an end to the Kurdish people's legitimate struggle against fascism has nothing to do with PKK and everything to do with the upcoming elections.

The US and the pashas are renewing their contra-guerrilla operations in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan in order to pull some power from AKP. Both are hoping that a de facto state of emergency with accompanying "psychological operations" will divide the Turkish electorate, thus helping to pull power from the unreliable AKP. AKP knows this, hence the sudden desire for "peace" by Turkish intellectuals. The Americans, however, want Turkish domestic instability so that the close relationship that the Ankara regime has forged with Iran will be reduced, and compliance with US interests increased.

Already, the Amed massacre is in the process of being covered up, just as so many other crimes against Kurds have been covered up by the Turkish state. Remember Semdinli? The residents of Semdinli found evidence in the attackers' vehicle, a vehicle which was registered with JIT, the Jandarma Intelligence organization, and news of that evidence made its way out of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. All of that evidence, plus the capture of the attackers themselves by the residents, proved that the state was behind the bombing, yet a full disclosure of the state's complicity has never been made public.

If the residents had not captured the Semdinli evidence, the state would have blamed that bombing on the PKK, as some of the Turkish media tried to do and as the parliamentary commission on Semdinli tried to do. However, the history of "The Region," and the Turkish state's continued attempts to genocide the Kurdish people is long and hard.

Since security forces form a big part of the Deep State, they are in the perfect position to be able to recreate a bombings to fit their purposes. After all, these are the same people who have always dressed like gerîlas and committed their atrocities with impunity throughout both North and South Kurdistan--something the Americans trained them to do. In addition, it's well-known that Turkish security forces tend to "lose" evidence, or simply make up, evidence. In other words, the state has no credibility.

This time, however, the cover-up of the state's contra-guerrilla operations has an unusual twist: security forces in Amed were alleged to have been given "extraordinary powers" to invade homes and search for the perpetrators of the bombing without having to bother with search warrants. This is a joke on two counts. First, these occupation forces don't need any kind of paperwork, including search warrants, to do anything against Kurds. Secondly, did we hear any news of security forces being granted so-called extraordinary powers to investigate any one of the bombings which TAK openly claimed as its own?

In another move towards cover-up, TIT's website was already pulled from the Internet, but not before the photos and information on their bomb which they posted was "captured" by DozaMe, and republished on KurdishInfo.

Of course, there's really no need for any investigation because Turkish security forces already know well who committed the Amed massacre. It was they, themselves.

In the meantime, Our People's Hope continue their operations against the occupation forces.

ADVERTISEMENTS, BETRAYALS, AND KURDS

“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”
~ Arthur Miller, American playwright.

Well, well, well . . . it looks like those on the American Right are a little uptight with Arianna Huffington's reply of "So what?" to FOX's Bill O'Reilly's assertion that Saddam persecuted Kurds.

Here's her quote:

So what? Our job is not to go there and save the Kurds. Our job to keep Americans safe.

Read more here.

I don't quite understand why the Right is worked up about this, because Huffington's attitude is typical of the American attitude toward Kurds and typical of the American attitude toward Americans. All right, I lied. I understand very well what the American Right is so worked up about, and it sure as hell has less to do with Kurds than it does with a big Republican win in the midterm elections or defense of Bush as Bush.

O'Reilly even managed to run one of the KDC's advertisements so that Huffington could see happy Kurds thanking America. It made no difference to Huffington that the Başûrî truly have been overjoyed at the fall of Saddam, and that is one of the problems of the commercials; it's a general "Thank You," and not specific. In other words, the commercials are propaganda in that they do not tell the whole story of America's betrayal of the Kurdish people.

After all, where were the Americans in 1988, when the Anfal campaign was in full swing? Do some time travel back to 1975, and find out where the Americans were for the Algiers Agreement. Where was America when its Secretary of State said, "Covert action should not be confused with missionary work," as America sold out the Kurds to Saddam and the Shah? Where was America when Stephen Pelletiere and the Army War College were placing the blame for the chemical attacks against Helebçe and the surrounding area on the Iranians, in order to cover for the American ally, Saddam?

Where was America during the serhildan in Syrian-occupied Kurdistan, in March, 2004, or where was America during the serhildan in Iranian-occupied Kurdistan last July and August?

Where were the Americans for decades, as America's Other Ally, Turkey, used American weapons' systems to brutalize the Kurds under Turkish occupation? Doubters should check the US Department of State's own human rights reports--as sorry and lame as they are--from 1995 to today. When you finish go research everything that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have on the subject. Then research the findings from the ECHR--always too little, too late where Turkish atrocities are concerned--on the volumes of findings that court has leveled against America's ally because of its racist brutality against Kurds.

Where is America, at this moment, regarding the Kurds under Turkish occupation?

Why, America is sitting with the pashas, directing them in their new campaign of genocide. America is reestablishing it's Gladio operations in Turkey. America is an accessory to the crime of the continued brutality of the Kurdish people, including Tuesday's murder of Kurds in Amed.

But it's all done to keep Americans safe! Search in vain, for you will find none of this on any nightly newscast, and certainly not on FOX . . . unless, of course the Bush Administration needs a little help for the war effort, or the Democrats want to find and exploit a crack in the Republican facade.

Let's not BS around with this. Nowhere, on the American political spectrum, is there anyone who is innocent. Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty in this regard, and do you know why that is, dear Rastî reader? There is no serious political debate whatsoever in the United States, no serious dialog, no discourse. There is nothing whatsoever, not even from those vastly overrated intellectuals ensconced securely in their shining, white, Ivory Towers, where they are snugly protected from any contact with the reality of their own people, much less with the reality on the ground of the Kurdish people.

Where the KDC's advertisements went wrong was that they didn't really explain anything about Kurdistan Başûr and it certainly did not explain anything about America's betrayals of Kurds for the sake of "keep[ing] Americans safe." Nor is there any American support for democratic Kurdish movements, even in Başûr. Those few who know about the recent uprisings against the KRG because of corruption and lack of services and jobs only find them utilitarian for their political purposes. They don't really give a damn about Kurds living or dying . . . just like old Arianna Huffington.

It should be abundantly clear that the situation of Kurds will not be improved by hoping in America or anyone else. The only hope of Kurds can only come from Kurds.

REVENGE, RESURGENCE, AND RESISTANCE

"You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security."
~ quoted by Chris Floyd in "Global Eye: Sword Play," The Moscow Times.

The Turkish Revenge Brigade (Turk Intikam Tugayi--TIT) has claimed responisbility for the Amed bombing, as first reported by KurdishInfo. DozaMe has some great information on this news, including photos of the bomb used, provided by TIT on its website.

TIT is a branch of the Gray Wolves (MHP and Ulkucu Hareket) that was founded in 1969 at that premier institution, the School of Political Science at Ankara University. TIT has been involved in a lot of the deep shit of the Deep State, and they seem to specialize in assassinations. They were involved with the murder of the Turkish Cypriot journalist, Kutlu Adali, back in 1996:

The Cyprus Union of Journalists has protested to international unions of journalists about the cruelty of the Denktash regime in the Turkish-occupied northern part of the island, to bar a Union delegation to attend yesterday the funeral of murdered prominent Turkish Cypriot columnist, Kutlu Adali.

[ . . . ]

A group calling itself ''Turkish Revenge Brigade'' (TIT), an underground terrorist organisation of Turkey's right-wing fascist Grey Wolves group, claimed responsibility for the murder.

Adali was well known for his harsh criticism against the pseudo-state and its policy of implanting Turkish settlers in the occupied areas following the Turkish invasion of 1974 and occupation of 37 per cent of the island's territory.

Given what Adali was against, it's no wonder TIT iced him. Adali's wife later brought charges against the TC at the ECHR. One of the facts she submitted to the court includes the following:

200. On 8 July 1996 the pro-“TRNC” government newspaper Kıbrıs had reported that it had received a statement from a fascist group calling itself the Turkish Revenge Brigade claiming that they had killed Kutlu Adalı. This group was linked to the so-called “Grey Wolves”, the youth movement of the Turkish Nationalist Action Party. They had close and long-standing links with members of the Turkish armed forces, the Turkish police, the Turkish National Intelligence Service (“MIT”), the Turkish paramilitary apparatus, Turkish ministers, and the Turkish mafia. Moreover, two days after the killing of Mr Adalı, the applicant's family had received a telephone call from an anonymous person who had given the names of Mr Hüseyin Demirci and a man whose first name was Orhan, who she said were responsible for the murder. The applicant had discovered that Mr Demirci was a member of the “Grey Wolves” and of the CDO and that he was being paid by the security forces. Orhan was a colonel in the Turkish occupying forces. The applicant had given this information to the police, but they had failed to investigate properly. Despite her complaints to the police and the security forces, no steps had been taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.

That is taken from the judgement of the Strassbourg court on 31 March, 2005. Not only is the judgement an excellent read to get an idea of how these Gray Wolf organizations operate, but it also gives a feel for the whole idea of the occupation of Cyprus. We might as well consider it another good lesson on the brutality of the fascist Ankara regime, and of all those so-called civilized nations, like the US and Europe, who have forever supported this occupation. But then, it was "their boys" that did it, right?

TIT was also responsible for the attempted assassination against IHD's chairman, Akin Birdal, in 1998, from Amesty International:

However, in the immediate aftermath of the attempted murder the then Prime Minister claimed that the shooting was an ''internal settling of accounts'', linking the HRA to the PKK. In fact, investigations led to the indictment of members from an ultra-nationalist group, the ''Turkish Revenge Brigade'' (TIT), including a retired army officer and a serving gendarmerie officer. On 29 December 1999 nine men were sentenced to prison terms from one to 19 years in relation with this crime.

Now, this attempted assassination occured in Ankara and was widely condemned by the international community, thus the TC had to do something to save its image abroad. Kutlu Adali should have been so lucky to be murdered by TIT in Ankara. Of course, the TC and it's lapdog media set up the assassination attempt of Birdal by creating a media frenzy, from Info-Turk.be:

The would-be assassins who gunned down Turkey ís top human rights activist got their training, in secret, from a non-commissioned officer with neo-fascist sympathies serving with a top anti-terrorist intelligence unit.

[ . . . ]

Deretarla, just 17 years old, has told police that he was trained for the attack in a secret woodland camp north of Istanbul. His trainer was one Cengiz Ersever, a non-commissioned officer serving with the countryís paramilitary gendarmes.

[ . . . ]

According to the gunmenís own testimony, as widely reported here, he was targeted after the media printed the leaked testimony of former Kurdish guerrilla commander Semdin Sakik, who was snatched by a Turkish special forces unit earlier this year.

In a wide ranging series of allegations attributed to Sakik - some of which he has since denied - a long list of critics of the government and military were "named" as "Kurdish agents" and supporters of the Kurdistan Workersí Party (PKK) guerrilla force.

According to the alleged testimony of Sakik, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was supposed to have said that while Birdal "is not affiliated to the PKK, he is more PKK than anybody else in the organization".

Without Birdal, Ocalan allegedly said, the PKK "would not be able to establish the present influence we have in Europe".

The unsubstantiated claims, quickly denied by Birdal, gave a green light to Ersever, Deretarla and Eken, who had formed a covert death squad specifically to target such "enemies of the state."

"We decided to kill Akin Birdal when we read Sakik's testimonies in the dailies," the gunmen are said to have told the police.

According to evidence presented to the courts here, Ersever signed the two up alongside 15 others to form a death squad code-named the Turkish Revenge Brigade. All were members of the neo-fascist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) whose youth wing, the Gray Wolves, have been implicated in the murders of thousands of dissidents over the last three decades.

"I have scores of others in my list. Those who are the enemies of the Turkish military and the police are also my enemies," Ersever reportedly told police interrogators. The original Turkish Revenge Brigades killed dozens of left-wingers during the civil strife of the late 1970s. One brigade member, Mehmet Ali Agca, later tried to kill the Pope.

Remarkably, Ersever's name has come up before in similar contexts.

He was recently named by witnesses testifying at a parliamentary commission investigating the so-called Susurluk Affair.

The Turkish prime minister at the time, Mesut Yilmaz, clearly lied about the assassination attempt being an"internal settling of accounts" between PKK and IHD, when it was, in fact, a Deep State operation that he was trying to cover up. TIT was allegedly broken up in the wake of the trial of those guilty of the attempted assassination of Birdal, but as we have seen this week in Amed, the break-up never really happened.

TIT began to resurface again In 2005, when it sent death threats to Eren Keskin, and other leaders of IHD, according to Human Rights Watch. The same letter also notes other victims of TIT.

The big question is why is the Dirty War being renewed now?

The AKP has proven itself unreliable as far as US interests go, and has pulled the TC back from both the US and the EU, while cultivating Iran. The US would like to see a destabilization of the TC's domestic political situation in order to make it more dependent, and therefore more controllable, in preparation for America's dealings with Iran. The pashas are willing partners in this endeavor because their hands will remain firmly on all the levers of power.

Since Turkish national elections will take place next year, America's window of opportunity is open, with the engineers of the 1980 coup willing to subvert political mechanisms in order to avoid the image problems associated with military coups. The new anti-terror law is one example of this; the elections will be another. By avoiding the coup image problem, the invertebrates in the EU will be able to stand by idle, something that they do best.

In the meantime, the Kurdish people remain the unwilling sacrificial lambs to be forcibly offered on the altar of joint American-Turkish interests. Instead of "winning the hearts and minds" of the Kurds by genuine and concrete steps to ensure their full equality within the TC, both the US and TC are relying on their old, established methods of Gladio's heyday.

Hurriyet is carrying Joe Ralston's ironic reaction to the Amed bombing:

General Ralston for his part spoke yesterday about the large exposion Tuesday evening in Diyarbakir, promising to relay to President Bush details from the incident in Turkey's predominently Kurdish southeastern city. Ralston also promised that concrete steps would be taken in the US-Turkish anti-PKK coordination efforts, saying "The Turkish public will see some real advances."

All you have to say, Joe, is: "Our boys did it!"

Perhaps now is a good time for HPG to consider their own destabilization operations . . . in Turkish-occupied Cyprus. Such a move will suck away more resources from the fascist Ankara regime, helping to spin the whole game out of everyone's control and forcing them to the negotiation table.

UPDATE ON AMED

"Our boys have done it!"
~ Paul Henze, CIA's Ankara Station Chief, 1980.

Overnight, the death toll from Turkey's latest attack in Amed (Diyarbakir) has risen to 11. Meanwhile, the hevals at KurdishInfo are carrying several items of interest regarding the Ankara regime's most recent murder of Kurds in Amed.

Of particular interest is Kongra-Gel's statement on the attack, which notes the significance of the date, 12 September. Last night, I mentioned that it was no coincidence that the US "PKK Coordinator," Joe Ralston arrived in Ankara on the 12th, but as Kongra-Gel correctly notes, 12 September is the anniversary of the US-backed 1980 coup. From Wikipedia:

The US-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 have done it."

"Our boys" refers to the Turkish National Security Council (MGK), in other words, it refers to the pashas. For more on Paul Henze, check this interesting read from an Ethiopian perspective.

President Carter was also well-aware of what was going on with the American operations, from an article in Kurdistan Report:

Carter, who was at the opera when he heard about the coup, called Paul Henze, the CIA agent responsible for Turkey, and told him: " Your people have just made a coup".

Both the Wikipedia link and the Kurdistan Report link give information on the MHP's involvement with Gladio, and how these organizations created the period of chaos prior to the coup, which provided the justification of the coup. All of the chaos leading up to the coup was instigated by the US, with the help of "their boys."

Interestingly enough, Bianet has a recent report on the fact that the mechanisms of the 1980 coup remain intact, with the perpetrators never brought to justice for their crimes. The recently passed new anti-terror law is but one example of the continuing influence of the monsters of 1980 exerting their influence today. Semdinli is another example. Yesterday's bombing in Amed is another.

KurdishInfo has another article on the bombing, with a statement from Amed's mayor, Osman Baydemir, as well as some infomation on the increase in the numbers of JITEM in Amed:

Baglar municipal is the poorest in Diyarbakir. Diyarbakir is the lagest Kurdish city in Turkey. It comprises mainly of forcibly displaced people due to the terror of Turkish military forces from the region. For this reason for the incident to take place at Baglar and after a call for peace does create intrigue as to who is behind the incident. A short period before the incident former members of JITEM was called to Diyarbakir.

A separate building by the 7th Army Corps Commandship was allocated 3 weeks ago to educate JITEM and confessors on operational and intelligence matters.

In a third article, the people of Amed have taken to the streets against the regime, while Special Teams and snipers take up their positions around the city. No doubt the Ankara regime's murderers are setting their sites on more Kurdish children, and using their own attack against the Kurdish people as a pretext to invade the homes of the poor, as reported by Reuters.

It's time now to end all cooperation with the Americans, throughout Greater Kurdistan, and throughout the Diaspora.

TURKISH STATE BOMBS AMED

Article 7: Nothing in this Definition, and in particular article 3, could in any way prejudice the right to self-determination, freedom and independence, as derived from the Charter, of peoples forcibly deprived of that right [ . . . ] particularly peoples under colonial and racist regimes or other forms of alien domination: nor the right of these peoples to struggle to that end and to seek and receive support, in accordance with the principles of the Charter and in conformity with the above-mentioned Declaration.
~ United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX). Definition of Aggression

A bombing in Amed has killed at least seven people (some reports indicate eight dead), and wounded 17. Five of the dead are children, from the AP, carried on the Globe and Mail:

A bomb struck a predominantly Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, killing seven people and wounding 17, the local governor's office said.

Authorities said the bomb in the city of Diyarbakir was made from powerful explosives and was set off by a cell phone timer. Although nobody claimed responsibility, the blast occurred in a region where Kurdish separatist rebels are known to be active.

The explosion happened around 9 p.m. and an investigation had begun, according to a statement from the provincial governor's office, which gave the casualty toll.

The deputy governor of the surrounding Diyarbakir province, Ahmet Aydin, said children were among those killed and two of the injured were in serious condition at a local hospital. Local news stations said five of the seven killed were children.

A Kurdish news agency reported that the blast took place near an elementary school. Witnesses said the blast threw body parts over a wide area and left pools of blood from the killed and injured.

Diyarbakir is Turkey's largest Kurdish-majority city, and the blast came as Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in the region have stepped up their attacks.

Britain's Independent is among those reporting eight dead.


Just as the Çatak bombing last week, so this bombing is manufactured to appear like a TAK bombing. But just as I mentioned last week, TAK does not operate in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. HPG does operate in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, but doesn't do this kind of operation. Additionally, no one claimed responsibility for the Çatak bombing, but HPG regularly publishes the results of its operations and TAK claims their own operations. JITEM, however, is always reluctant to claim any operations. It would disturb the facade of Turkish democracy.

With the mention of JITEM, we are reminded that the Turkish government is the only organization that operates in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan and carries out just this kind of operation. Remember Semdinli? Who is it that murders Kurdish children in Amed? Remember Enes Ata? As Enes Ata's father, Selamettin Ata stated in a Guardian article earlier this year, at least 90% of the city sympathizes with the PKK.

Amed is PKK's city.

It is no coincidence that this most recent attack against the Kurdish people happened on the same day that "special envoy" Joseph Ralston arrived in Ankara. The US is backing Turkey in its renewal of the Dirty War, and the bombing in Amed is one more sign that "psychological operations," a special kind of warfare for which the US trained Turkish security forces, are being resurrected.. Gladio will still be useful to both the US and Turkey, because the Gladio structure is necessary for the fascists to maintain power. American-inspired disappearances, extrajudicial murders, ethnic cleansing, illegal detentions, and torture will be renewed very soon, most likely at the same scale they were at the height of the Dirty War. The impunity enjoyed by Turkish security forces and police will continue, as always.

After all, who is it that runs secret prisons around the world, and who is it that permits the transport aircraft to land within their "territorial integrity?" Check Amnesty International for more. Notice how many of those flights landed in Diyarbakir.

DTP's call for PKK to begin a ceasefire, therefore, comes at the wrong time. DTP should have supported PKK's offer at the end of August, and should have pressed the issue in the media. Their call is too little, too late. Besides, there is no point in any more unilateral ceasefires, not when the last one (the five-year freebie) gained nothing for Kurds but dead gerîlas. Turkish fascism does not need PKK to exist and increase; it only needs the Turkish government to do that. Proof? Turkish fascism began in 1923, long before there was any PKK.

To the courageous people of Amed: Berxwedan û Serkeftin!

You know how to do it.

SOWING LIES, REAPING CONFUSION

“It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before”
~ Anonymous.

I was talking to a friend the other night, and he said to me that the end of the ceasefire and the renewal of clashes in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan had come as a shock to the Turkish people. They believed their government, and the government-controlled media, that told them the Kurdish freedom movement died with the capture of Apo, and when the unilateral ceasefire began, lasting for five years, they mistook it for The End, for peace.

My friend is right.

Now, the Turkish people are angry and confused because they were lied to by their government; they have no idea why their children are dying. The Turkish people have no idea of the atrocities committed by their government against the Kurdish people. In this respect, their government lies to them by omission. This ignorance of the reasons why one fights is something that doesn't affect Kurds, because Kurds know why they fight. Kurdish gerîlas know very well why they fight. Kurdish parents know very well what their children fight for.

It would seem that Mr. Erdogan doesn't get it. Last week, Erdogan told a crowd in Balikesir that military service was not a time to relax, that it was dangerous and was no vacation. Strangely enough, a vacation in Turkey is dangerous too, but I suppose the irony of this is lost on someone as dense as Erdogan.

Later, in an opinion piece on TDN, criticized the fact that no child of the Turkish elites has ever done military service in "The Region," even though all are required to do military service. This is true. Those who end up on the wrong end of an HPG weapon are never from the elites, but are always from those who don't have the money or the influence to avoid serving as occupation troops in North Kurdistan.

By Friday, those attending a funeral of a dead Mehmetcik protested in Bergama, indicating that they had caught on to this discrepancy between the privileged and the ordinary people. They began to call for Erdogan to send his own son to "The Region," and what an honor it would truly be for the religious prime minister to have a martyr for a son. Still, fat chance that such a thing will happen. Meanwhile, it looks like ordinary Turks are less and less willing to send their children to Lebanon, even though pundits like Ilnur Cevik believe Lebanon will be much safer than Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

On that, I'll agree with Ilnur, for a change, even while I wonder if his son served in the occupied territory.

The truly unfortunate thing is that all of this could end in a matter of days if the Ankara regime were willing to meet the conditions set forth by Koma Komalên Kurdistan at the end of August. It could end in a matter of days if the racist Ankara regime were willing to engage the Kurdish people with the justice that is due them by virtue of their humanity.

Sadly, it appears that the stench of Turkish dead has not reached the elites yet, even while the ordinary Turk is reeling from it. Instead, the regime cries to the US for help in coordinating a war that has a very cheap price fo those elites. After all, it's only the unprivileged of Turkish society that pay for the stupidity and pig-headedness of their own rulers.

On the other hand, the ruling elite doesn't even treat the Turkish people with the justice that is due them by virtue of their humanity.

In spite of all this, no one should expect that the Kurdish people must remain passive for the sake of the stupidity and pig-headedness of the Ankara regime. Like every other people on earth, the Kurdish people have the obligation to defend themselves from vicious aggressors.

The truth of the matter is that, in a just world, these elites would not only be concerned with saving their children from death as part of a brutal, military occupation force, but they would also be worried about saving their own necks from the wrath of the Turkish people.

NEWS THAT'S NOT FIT TO PRINT IN AMERICA

“The American people deserve to know that they're not just watching the administration's spin on their local newscasts -- they're paying for it, too.”
~ John Kerry.

A friend sent me an interesting piece of news from Turkish media. Apparently, in October, 2005, Marc Grossman went on board with Turkey's Ihlas Holding as a consultant. The announcement came after a meeting with Ihlas' CEO, Ahmet Mucahid Oren. There's another notice from the Ihlas Holding site itself, which is kind of nice because it's got a picture of Grossman and Oren sitting together, possibly discussing globalism and how Grossman's going to spin the propaganda for Ihlas' media empire.

What, exactly, is Ihlas Holding? It got its start in the newspaper publishing business in 1970, and is still active in media, but it has since expanded into other areas, including marketing, construction, health care, education, insurance, and real estate investment. Ihlas recently sold its TGRT television to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and Atlantic Records. There's more basic info on Ihlas at Google Finance.

The odd thing is that when I checked around for this news in English, I couldn't find a thing about it. Not a single, English word on it. Why is that? What are they trying to hide?

I wonder about it because you would think that becoming a consultant for one of Turkey's largest business concerns would be something for Grossman to crow about, especially given that he's a vice-chairman of The Cohen Group, which is nothing but a bunch of former generals, diplomats, and assorted bureaucrats who advise businesses in the global market and fix problems for them. . . kind of like an American version of ASAM (see yesterday's post for more on ASAM).

After all, The Cohen Group's chairman and CEO, former Defense Secretary William Cohen, took the time to publicly acknowledge his other vice-chairman's appointment as the US "special envoy" to advise Turkey on the PKK. Yeah, I'm talking about Joe Ralston. In fact, this is what Cohen had to say about Ralston's appointment, from TDN:

"I am pleased that General Ralston has been selected for this assignment that is very important to our nation as well as to the stability of Turkey, Iraq and the region," Cohen said

But Grossman never got the same public pat-on-the-back from the boss over his job with Ihlas. Isn't this another feather in his cap? Isn't this another illustrious notation on his resume? He's not even blowing his own horn about it.

With the size and scope of Ihlas Holding, I suppose Grossman's monthly $100,000 salary is small change, and if you take a look at that link, you'll see I'm not the only one who has noticed The Cohen Group's close ties to Turkey. However, that article does mention a few other details, such as JINSA honors bestowed on General Cevik Bir and General Ilker Basbug, who recently took over Yasar Buyukanit's old digs as Land Forces Commander.

Also mentioned is the interesting connection with Fethullah Gulen. It says that the Gulen Gang and the Ihlas Gang have close, insider connections. This would mean that Grossman, as a consultant to Ihlas, and a vice-chairman of The Cohen Group, is that much closer to Gulen and his Nurcular. If you don't know about the Nurcular, there's an excellent little backgrounder on Gulen and his gang here, by Aland Mizell.

From Mizell's article, Gulen operates way behind the scenes, something that he began at least as far back as Turgut Ozal's time. Ozal, the guy who negotiated the Turkish-Islamic synthesis with the Turkish general staff, was a member of Gulen's Gang. You might ask, why would the official gatekeepers charged with maintaining the purity of Kemalism go along with the creation of this synthesis? Simple. They thought they could control it, kind of like they thought they could control their creation of Turkish Hezbollah. Their attitude is that if there will be communism in Turkey, they will bring the communism. Ditto on Islamism. When it became clear that Gulen was intent on taking control of the state from the Turkish general staff, the pashas were willing to do whatever was necessary to maintain their power.

With that, Gulen high-tailed it to the US, where he sits now, in control of the same network that spreads the same ideology that has turned Turkey into a highly anti-American place (as well as highly anti-semitic). Let's not forget that Gulen's network is worldwide. Given the connections that we are digging up on the Deep State in America, it is no longer so surprising to see Gulen safe and sound under the sheltering wing of his American protectors.

Isn't it fascinating about all the good dirt that never makes it into the American media? Again, why is that?

I wonder what Sibel Edmonds would say?

ANOTHER NODE ON THE WEB

Delbert McClintock: There ain't no spiders here.
Collins: Look! There's a giant spider web over there in the corner.
Delbert McClintock: Well yes, a spider web would reveal an arachnid presence.
~ Arachnophobia (1990)

Earlier in the week, the Turkish media rumor mill suggested that Edip Baser would be named as Ralston's Turkish counterpart in the continuing genocide against the Kurdish people under Turkish occupation, as can be seen from an article at TNA. There is a bit of a bio on Baser at that TNA link. Apparently, from the year 2000 until his retirement in 2002, Baser was busy murdering Kurds as the commander of the Turkish 2nd Army, based in Malatya. The appointment is confirmed by the Islamist Yeni Safak.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Baser has already worked closely with Ralston, when both were members of their respective chiefs of staff. In February, 2000, then Deputy Chief of Turkish General Staff Baser went to Washington as the guest of then Deputy Chief of American General Staff Ralston. The discussions at the time centered on the sale of US arms to Turkey in light of the fact that there had been "significant improvements in the field of human rights in Turkey,"--a fact that existed only in the fantasies of the Ankara and Washington fascists.

In April, 2000, Baser was an invited guest of JINSA. In pointing out the close military cooperation between the two fascist regimes, Baser mentioned Turkey's cooperation in Operation Northern Watch (ONW), conveniently omitting the fact that, while US forces were ostensibly protecting Başûrî Kurds, US sorties were called off whenever the Turkish general staff took a whimsy to drop a load of American-purchased ordnance on the same Kurds. Baser also references the non-existent "dramatic improvement in Turkey's human rights record."

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch report on Turkey in the year 2000 was somewhat less enthusiastic than General Baser on Turkey's "improvements" in the human rights arena:

The Turkish government made almost no progress on key human rights reforms in 2000, and failed to take advantage of the opportunity presented by a marked reduction in armed violence by illegal organizations. This was in spite of the strong incentive coming from the European Union, which offered long-awaited recognition to Turkey as a candidate for membership, subject to its meeting human rights conditions. While the government procrastinated, politicians and writers were prosecuted and imprisoned for expressing their nonviolent opinions, and detainees in police custody remained at risk of ill-treatment, torture, or death in custody.

[ . . . ]

The military, still an overriding force in politics, was a factor in holding back change, particularly with regard to freedom of expression. The army publicly aired its views on a wide range of non-military issues, including the selection of presidential candidates, and justified these intrusions by reference to its purported role as guardian of the republic against separatism and religious fundamentalism.

[ . . . ]

In December 1999 Turkey was finally recognized as an E.U. candidate, but the opening of formal negotiations was conditional on satisfaction of human rights criteria. Apparently inspired by this, an excellent program of urgent reforms was announced in January by the then State Minister with Responsibility for Human Rights Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, but little of the program was actually implemented.

More of the same is available from the Federation of American Scientists.

In November, 2005, the Centre for European Security Studies (CESS) completed a project to identify the appropriate role of the Turkish military within a democracy in order to assist Turkey vis-a-vis the Copenhagen Criteria. This project was undertaken in conjunction with the Centre for Eurasian Strategic Studies (ASAM), but the outcome of the project, which can be read here, was not acceptable to ASAM. Baser was a member of the CESS task force on the ASAM side because Baser is a member of the ASAM executive board.

Although the CESS report is extremely pro-Turkish and denies the existence of Kurds under Turkish occupation, which means that there is no mention of the Ankara regime's atrocities against the Kurdish people in the entire report, still the mere suggestion that in order for Turkey to become a democracy, it must subjugate its military to civilian authority, was too much for extremists like Baser and ASAM. Further reading on this matter can be found at the TDN archive from September, 2004.

In fact, ASAM began it's propaganda through the Turkish media immediately upon its withdrawal, as reported by a CESS newsletter, pages 1 and 7.

ASAM is an interesting organization in itself. It's run by retired pashas and diplomats who tend to be highly nationalistic and isolationist. ASAM is also funded by Ulker, and when you think "Ulker," you shouldn't think "cookies," you should think "Green Money" . . . as in Islamist money. Take a look at something that Michael Rubin wrote last year on Green Money:

Erdoğan has been silent on the issue, perhaps because he is heavily invested in green money business. In August 2001, Rahmi Koç, chairman of Koç Holding, Turkey's largest and oldest conglomerate,[27] commented on CNN Türk that Erdoğan has a US$1 billion fortune and asked the source of his wealth.[28] According to Sedat Ergin, Ankara bureau chief for Hürriyet, Erdoğan holds substantial financial stakes in three different firms,[29] which both Turkish military and intelligence officers and, according to numerous interviews, the man-on-the-street as well, believe subsidize Islamist politics. The Erdoğan family controls approximately 50 percent of Emniyet Foods,[30] the distributor for Ülker, Turkey's leading confectionary company. Recep Erdoğan is a shareholder in Ihsan Foods, which distributes Ülker's dairy products and owns a 12 percent stake in Yenidoğan Foods Marketing, which distributes Ülker soft drinks. According to numerous Turkish diplomats and officers in the Turkish General Staff, the Turkish military refuses to buy Ülker products for its conscripts so as not to subsidize Islamism.[31] Nevertheless, since Erdoğan's accession, Ülker has become increasingly visible, perhaps as businesses seek the prime minister's favor. Across Istanbul and Ankara, Ülker's ColaTurka has begun to replace Coca-Cola in kiosks and store shelves.

It's absurd to imagine that the Turkish general staff, TSK officers or Turkish diplomats would refuse to buy Ulker products, especially since their think-tank, ASAM, is financed by Ulker. It is no inconsistency that we see Islamists making common cause with former pashas and former diplomats, not since the 1980's anyway, and the creation of the Turkish-Islamic synthesis. What's more, at the murky point where the synthesis takes place, you will also find the Deep State, and we know that Ralston has his place in one of those nodes on the web that is the Deep State, right alongside a number of other arachnids.

But, more on that . . . later.


BY THE WAY . . . since I am a firm believer in freedom of speech, I would like to point out a recent comment that was posted here, because it would be a shame to miss it. The comment in question is as follows:

Anonymous said...

When will you inferior kurds stop the terrorism? Turkish government nneds to follow saddam's way and use chemical weapons to end this kurdish "disease". I cannot see any other way out of this kurdish problem

You see, even when people speak of their desire for the genocide of "inferior" Kurds (the Turkish version of The Final Solution), I let them to speak their piece.

The person who posted this comment must be one of those democratic, American Turks, who's posting from Rice University in Houston, Texas, IP 128.42.70.# (Rice University), domain name, rice.edu, posted on 7 September. Rice University is the home of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Kurds will remember James Baker as the Secretary of State under Bush v.1, whose footdragging over Kurdish refugees prolonged their misery for weeks. . . until Peter Galbraith managed to drag Baker's ass, by helicopter, to one of the refugee "camps" in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan to see the disaster for himself.

That's how Baker seriously got the message about how uptight the Turkish general staff was over a million more "inferior" Kurds inside "their" border.

But, I digress. The best thing about this comment is that when I speak of the genocide of the Kurdish people, smartasses like this prove me right.

Sağol, arkadaşım. Go Owls!

NATIONAL FLAGS, ANTHEMS, AND GENOCIDE

"Fear an ignorant man more than a lion. "
~ Kurdish proverb.

I feel the need to opine about all this hullaballoo about the Kurdistan flag.

It seems that the fiasco began back on the first of September, when Masûd Barzanî ordered the removal of the Iraqi national flag from Kurdistan government buildings, to be replaced by the Kurdistan flag. Since then, everyone's been getting into the act, Arabs, Turks, Americans, to criticize the flying of the flag of Kurdistan.

Leave it to a bunch of ignoramuses.

If anyone had actually bothered to travel to South Kurdistan (that's the part of Kurdistan that ignoramuses habitually refer to as "Iraqi" Kurdistan or, as I prefer to call it, Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan) recently, they would have noticed that there are no Iraqi national flags flying in Dohuk and Hewlêr Governorates. At least, if they had been paying the slightest bit of attention, they would have noticed this. Those are KDP-controlled areas, and no one flies the Iraqi national flag there. Instead, the Kurdish tri-color, with its bold sun, is everywhere. Even the mountains are draped with the Kurdistan flag, as if they were dressed with huge red, yellow, and green cloaks.

No one would have noticed an Iraqi flag until they crossed into PUK territory which, for me, was somewhere around Koysinjaq, and even there, you didn't see a lot of the Iraqi national flag.

Later in the year, on 25 July to be exact, there was this report by that intrepid Kurdophile, Peter Galbraith, on The Boston Globe:

There are not many places in Iraq where the locals want to celebrate American Independence Day. But, in Iraq's self-governing Kurdistan region, the newly elected government decided to host a Fourth of July party for their American allies. Top coalition officers were invited along with US civilians, food and drinks ordered (the secular Kurds serve and drink alcohol), and the Kurdistan prime minister had prepared his speech. Then America's top diplomat in the region delivered an ultimatum: She would not attend unless the Kurds flew Iraq's flag at the party. The Kurds refused and canceled the party.

As the article continues, it's clear that Kurds despise the Iraqi national flag because it is the flag of the Ba'athi, of Saddam Hussein, the former ally of the US, which the State Department flunky was obviously defending. It's the flag of genocide.

Of course, what all the hypocrites are really worried about is the possibility of Kurdish freedom, and just listen to what the jackasses are braying about so loudly in Baghdad:

On Saturday, Sunni Arab lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq slammed Barzani's decision.

"What will be taken by force today, will be returned by force another day," he said, without elaborating. "We can defend our dignity, our people and our land ... and no one should be under the illusion that he could take a tiny bit of somebody else's land."

Let's see, when was it exactly that Arabs arrived in the region? And what did they find when they arrived? Kurds.

Of course, if these bold Baghdad politicians really think that they can defend their dignity, let them come to Kurdistan and try. They'll be sent packing in no time with their dignity dragging along behind them. Naturally, the Americans defend the Arab position:

The United States criticised on Tuesday a decision by the leader of Iraq's Kurds to ban the Iraqi national flag, weighing into a bitter dispute that has sparked threats of Kurdish secession.

The U.S. embassy initially called a decree issued by the president of Iraq's Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani "inappropriate" and said it did not enjoy U.S. support.

But in a revised statement later on Tuesday, U.S. envoy in Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad said: "Decisions on Iraq's national symbols must be made by the Iraqi people as a whole through an established constitutional process," adding that Washington was committed to "Iraq's unity and territorial integrity".

In the revised statement, the embassy did not give any explanation for deleting parts of the original statement.

Rewind back to Peter Galbraith's comments on the subject from last year:

For Iraq's Kurds, the flag episode epitomizes America's ingratitude for their role as an ally in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein and as the strongest supporter of US postwar policies. They note that American diplomats have no qualms about calling on Shi'ite politicians who display portraits of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini and that the United States has pushed for the inclusion of Sunni Arabs, many former Ba'athists, in the constitution drafting committee. Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafaari was warmly received at the White House even though his party, Dawa, was on the State Department terrorist list until a few years ago for the 1982 suicide bombing of the US embassy in Kuwait.

Oh, looky there. . . Americans inviting terrorists to the White House. How Turkish of them.

Speaking of the Turks, the Islamist ragsheet, Zaman is burning down the presses by saying that Kurds are now pushing for a national anthem, but if they had ever bothered to watch Roj TV, they would know there is already a Kurdistan national anthem, Ey Reqîb. Read it all at Wikipedia in the flavor of your choice: Kurmancî, Soranî, or English, and the national anthem is played every single day on Roj TV.

You can even listen to an audio file of Ey Reqîb, here.

The Turks can continue to try to silence Roj TV so that they don't have to acknowledge Ey Reqîb or the Kurdish people, and al-Maliki can continue vainly to insist that Saddam's flag be flown from "Iraqi" flagpoles--there are no "Iraqi" flagpoles in Kurdistan--but the reality of Kurdistan vis-a-vis her ever-loving neighbors, who usually insist on going by the self-designated title of "brothers," is still being unearthed, as this report from the Mail & Guardian describes:

Iraqi security forces on Monday found the remains of 18 Kurdish men, women and children whom they believe were buried alive in a mass grave during the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

Colonel Sarhad Kadar of the Iraqi police said the mass grave had been found in Tarkalan, 25km south-east of the northern city of Kirkuk in the grounds of an abandoned military camp dating from the 1980s and 1990s.

"They were alive when they were buried," he said.

During the late 1980s, Saddam's forces carried out a brutal scorched-earth campaign against northern Iraq's Kurdish minority in a bid to stamp out separatism and secure Kirkuk's oil fields.

Other mass graves of Kurds have also been discovered in the last few days, and similar graves have been found in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

On the one hand we have the Kurdistan flag and Ey Reqîb, and on the other hand we have the reality of the attempted genocide of the Kurdish people. We can tell which of these is the greater evil to the world-at-large by noting which makes a bigger ruckus in the media, and it would appear that the symbols of Kurdish national life are considered to be the greater of the two evils. For some, it will be so out of ignorance; for others, out of malice. To paraphrase the Kurdish proverb, the wise will fear an ignoramus more than an enemy.

Mark my words: neither the ignorant man nor the lion have shed a tear for Kurdistan's mass graves, but they will threaten to drown the world in their tears on the day that the failed state of Iraq collapses.

MORE BOMBINGS IN "THE SOUTHEAST"

"For states that support terror, it is not enough that the consequences be costly - they must be devastating."
~ George W. Bush.

The hevals over at KurdishInfo managed to dig up a nice little article about the situation in "The Southeast" which mentions the Mehmetcik body count from this last weekend and the bombing at Çatak in Wan province.

Apparently the bomb was set off in a trash can outside a tea house, killing a police and a city worker and injuring 14 others. The odd thing about this is that this bombing was carried out in imitation of some of TAK's bombings, but it occured in Turkish-occupied Kurdsitan, where TAK has not been operative. From The New Zealand Herald:

A bomb explosion ripped through a cafe in southeast Turkey on Sunday evening, killing two people including a police officer, and injuring nine others, police said.

[ . . . ]

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest bombing, which occurred at around 9pm (6am Monday NZT) in a tea garden in the district of Catak in Van province, a police officer in Van said.

"A bomb exploded in a rubbish bin in a tea garden, killing two people and injuring nine," the officer said.

The explosion occurred in the Gumus tea garden, which is frequented by civil servants, according to the CNN Turk website.

The BBC also had something on the bombing, but managed to make themselves look utterly ridiculous about it. Take a look:

It follows a series of bombings in Turkish resorts and Istanbul last week in which at least three people died.

A separatist militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (Tac), has said it carried out those attacks.

Tac. . . what the hell is Tac? How do you get Kurdistan Freedom Falcons out of "Tac?" Where's the "K?" Morons, man. . . lazy, sloppy, journalistic morons.

Let's think about this bombing, shall we? It takes place in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan where TAK doesn't operate, but it appears to be using one of TAK's methods. HPG does operate in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, but teahouses are not on their list of targets. Besides, HPG has already issued a statement denying that this was there operation, on their site, with a pickup on the statement by Firat News.

[By the way, check out the short bio there on Şehîd Baran Erzurum. It is HPG gerîlas of Turkish origin that are also our only hope.]

So the Çatak bombing doesn't quite fit any Kurdish operatives. It does, however, fit with JITEM operatives, the same people who bombed the Umut Bookstore, in Semdinli last November. It also fits the pattern of bombings elsewhere in "The Southeast" last November, from DozaMe:

NEWSDESK, Nov 24 (DozaMe.org) - A second Turkish military black-op intelligence (JITEM) unit has been unveiled and six people have been arrested by police for carrying out bomb attacks on a Turkish prosecutor's car, a Turkish police station and a clothing warehouse, all in the city of Silopi in northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey) between Nov. 10 and Nov. 22.

The JITEM unit consisted of six members, among them two Kurdish paramilitary Village Guards, one unnamed informer and three other unnamed members whose affiliations were kept secret by the Turkish state prosecutor in Silopi. The three members whose affiliations were kept secret are believed to be Turkish military personnel.

The JITEM members Sabri Binzat (Village Guard), Mehmet Özkan (Village Guard) and four others only named as C.D, C.B, D.A and A.K, are accused of three bomb attacks in the city, among them the bomb that was set off on Nov. 10 under the Turkish state prosecutor Talip Demirezen car outside the building of the Sirnak Governorship's Silopi Provincial District.

The other thing that this JITEM bombing reminds me of is the ongoing investigation of retired Turkish big mouth, Altay Tokat. Some of you may remember that he's the one who blabbed about setting off bombs in "The Southeast" in order to get civil servants to take the situation seriously. Previously, Amed and Şirnêx prosecutors offices had opened investigations on Tokat, but it looks like the Turkish General Staff is now doing the same, from Bianet:

Turkey's Chief of General Staff Prosecutor's Office has drawn up its indictment against retired Lieutenant General Altay Tokat for his public revelation that he was responsible for ordering one or two clandestine street bombings when assigned to the Southeast region "to bring judges and civil servants in line".

[ . . . ]

According to a report filed by Ersan Atar in the mass circulation daily Sabah newspaper, the 4-page indictment against Tokat charged that his statements in the media "gave the impression that the Turkish Armed Forces were using the methods used by the terrorist organization".

I object. There is nothing inconsistent in Tokat's blabbing because the TSK and related forces are terrorist organizations, sponsored by a terrorist state, Turkey. When this story broke, Al-Jazeera carried an AFP report on it:

Tokat told the magazine: "The civil servants, the judges who come from western Turkey do not realise how serious the situation is [in the southeast]... They walk around without a care, do what they want," he was quoted as saying.

"So to get them to shape up, I had [the bombs] thrown at two spots close to their homes," he said.

He described the attacks as carefully planned acts of "psychological warfare" that harmed no one, but did not further identify the targets of the attacks, nor the town where they took place.

The retired general's remarks were in response to comments defending a deadly hand grenade attack on a Kurdish-owned bookstore in November 2005, in Semdinli, for which two soldiers were each sentenced to nearly 40 years' imprisonment last month.

"What are we supposed to do? Stand by while he (the store owner) carries messages to the PKK? This (the grenade attack) is called acting outside the law? Such law is unacceptable," Tokat told the magazine.

Funny . . . Yasar Buyukanit was the commander of the Diyarbakir 7th Army Corps from 1996 to 1998. Tokat served in "The Southeast" from 1995 to 1998, which means that he served under Buyukanit. Buyukanit, as commander, would have known what was going on. Since Buyukanit knew the Semdinli bombers, non-commissioned officers who were assigned to "The Region" at the time, and he knew them well enough to refer to them as "good boys," then certainly he knew what one of his senior officers was up to.

That's the point, isn't it? The Wan prosecutor was sacked for trying to investigate Buyukanit's dirty links to the dirty war of genocide, and now Tokat the Blabbermouth is being investigated by the Turkish General Staff, for committing bombings against Turkish civilians under Buyukanit's watch, bombings the likes of which have been common knowledge among Kurds for some time.

Funny, too that MHPer Tokat identifies the civil servant targets of his hand grenades as judges, while speculation is that the same gang of nationalists were behind the Council of State attack, à la Susurluk.

Let's hope that what goes around, comes around. . . soon. Very soon.

Berxwedan û Serkeftin!

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE PAWN

“I know of no higher fortitude than stubborness in the face of overwhelming odds.”
~ Louis Nizer.

There was an article yesterday on Time Magazine on the Kurdish struggle in Turkey and Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, and this article seems to predict a military response to PKK's recent statement offering conditions leading to a possible bilateral ceasefire. Nothing new there, now that Buyukanit and Ralston are both on board. The clincher comes in the last paragraph of the article, in which Time spins a spiral staircase out of alleged steps the Ankara regime has taken to improve rights for the Kurdish people.

Fact is that these "steps" are merely cosmetic and that forcible assimilation of the Kurdish people remains the goal of the TC.

Speaking of Ralston, we know that he was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during Operation Northern Watch (ONW), and we know that ONW was the continuation of Operation Provide Comfort (OPC). OPC was an idea devised, in part, by Turgut Ozal in order to encourage the removal of Southern Kurdish refugees back to South Kurdistan in the wake of the failed 1991 Serhildan. Ostensibly, both OPC and ONW were put in place to protect Southern Kurds; in reality, they were instruments to benefit Turkey. Coalition sorties from Incirlik Airbase remained under Turkish control, subject to the whims of the Ankara regime:

The recent history of Incirlik offers a small window on the moral incoherence and dubious alliances that characterize US foreign policy in the region. Since Turkey reviews US access to the base every six months, it has had a powerful lever with which to influence the United States--and in turn, the United States has made costly compromises to preserve its access. "If a Turkish Ayatollah Khomeini came to power tomorrow," a high-level military official recently commented to me, "the US would still stay on bended knee to avoid losing that base."

The most scandalous of these compromises involves the US role in northern Iraq. The ostensible humanitarian purpose of the northern no-fly zone is to safeguard 3.3 million Iraqi Kurds. Unfortunately, US concern for the Kurds extends only to those being attacked by our enemy Saddam, not to those being attacked by our ally Turkey. Over the past fourteen years more than 23,000 Kurds fighting for greater autonomy and self-determination in southern Turkey and northern Iraq have died at Turkish hands. When Turkey sends US-made F-16s or thousands of troops to attack the Kurds across the border, as it did last December, Washington looks the other way. It's an "obscene piece of hypocrisy," writes John Nichol, the British pilot who was shot down in 1991 and tortured by Iraqi forces. "Turkish authorities ground our aircraft so that their own can attack the very Kurds that [we were] protecting just a few hours before." One investigation by Air Force Times revealed that the Turks were grounding more than 50 percent of US missions.

By the way, keep reading in that article to get an idea of how Turkey's so-called reforms are mere cosmetics and "The few improvements Turkey has made do not apply to the southern Kurdish regions, where almost all of the cases of torture occur." It's even worse for Kurds today, with the new anti-terror law.

Ralston was among those who, in early 2001, was among those American military officers who began to campaign for an end to ONW, from this Stars and Stripes article:

Media reports last week stated that Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston recommended that the Bush administration end ONW patrols, wary of losses at a time when Iraqi attacks against U.S. and British planes have intensified.

Those reports stated that Ralston, commander in chief of the U.S. European Command, favors responding to specific Iraqi threats in the no-fly zones.

Maj. Ed Loomis, a EUCOM spokesman, declined to comment on the accuracy of those reports.

At the same time, "you hear noises" that Turkey won’t renew ONW, said Michael Gunter, a U.S. expert on the Kurds.

Turkish leaders "flirt" with Saddam, "and certainly have more relations with him than we do," Gunter said.

Turkey allows U.S. and British planes to fly ONW missions from Incirlik Air Base at a time when Ankara politicians are moving closer to Baghdad, and Turkish officials are complaining that sanctions against Saddam are punishing Turkey’s foundering economy.

But Turkey needs ONW to keep tabs on Kurdish separatists, whom the Turks have fought for 16 years, Gunter said.

For those who can remember, the situation in the 1990's bears an eerie similarity to the situation today. Consider this, from a UK review of the no-fly zones in March, 2001:

Since 1991, Turkey has continued to invoke a pre-war bilateral agreement with Iraq, which had lapsed at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, allowing Turkish forces to conduct cross-border operations in pursuit of PKK members . Turkey has regularly bombed and shelled border areas, on occasion resorting to large-scale ground offences into northern Iraq, supported by air strikes, to attack PKK bases. These incursions always took place within the northern NFZ, which applies only to Iraqi aircraft.

According to that review, the inconsistency of the US position regarding the Kurdish people--or what most of us would consider extreme hypocrisy--was apparent to British lawmakers who questioned US bombing of Iraqi military targets while turning a blind eye to Turkey's own military targeting of the Kurdish people, military incursions into South Kurdistan, and Turkey's refusal to grant any human rights to Kurdish people under its occupation. Neither did the US have any objections to Turkish moves to establish a "security zone" inside South Kurdistan along the border with Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, thus violating Iraqi "territorial integrity" and "sovereignty."

The inconsistency vanishes when one realizes that the only American policy for the Kurdish people is the "good" Kurd/"bad" Kurd dichotomy. We have yet to see whether the KDP will join again with Turkey in taking up arms against HPG. At this point, however, I believe it is unlikely that KDP will do so, since the majority of HPG combat forces are already in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

It was politics, and not humanitarian concerns for Kurds, that was the impetus behind ONW. Given what we know of Ralston's ties to the Deep State, how much of his recommendation to end ONW was based on Turkish political considerations and possible advantages and not, as he claimed, based on concerns about American "losses?"

As a political commentary from Russia's RIA/Novosti opines, the Kurdish people are the "indestructible pawn" on the Middle Eastern chessboard. Kurds will retain that position for the foreseeable future because there is no one ready or willing to genuinely negotiate the political solution that has already been offered, just as there was no one ready or willing to use the previous 5-year unilateral PKK ceasefire to any mutual benefit.

Of course, being the ancient and indestructible pawn on the chessboard is one of the advantages of Kurdistan, since we know that neither the US, nor Turkey, want to do what has to be done in order to win. 40 years in the mountains, on foot, is not cost-efficient for them in any respect. All we have to do is hold on and not swerve in this little game of chicken.

Anybody want to take a ride?

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

"A conflict of interest is a situation in which someone in a position of trust, such as a lawyer, a politician, or an executive or director of a corporation, has competing professional or personal interests. Such competing interests can make it difficult to fulfill his or her duties impartially. Even if there is no evidence of improper actions, a conflict of interest can create an appearance of impropriety that can undermine confidence in the ability of that person to act properly in his/her position."

~ Wikipedia.

The following is the transcript of the daily press briefing with the US Department of State for 29 August, 2006:

QUESTION: Yes. Mr. Casey, anything to say about the U.S. Coordinator on PKK issues in Turkey, retired Air Force General Joseph Ralston?

MR. CASEY: Well, I think you saw our statement that we put out yesterday on this subject.

QUESTION: Mm-hmm.

MR. CASEY: But obviously we're very pleased that General Ralston, who's of course both the former Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, has accepted this role being a Special Envoy. This reiterates the commitment that we have to working with Turkey and working with the Government of Iraq to end the threat posed by PKK terrorism resulting from northern Iraq or from any other place.

I should also take the opportunity, Mr. Lambros, to reiterate something that Sean told a few of you yesterday, and which is that we obviously condemn the PKK-sponsored attacks that have occurred in Turkey over the last couple of days. This has resulted in numerous injuries and several deaths. Clearly this is an unacceptable practice. The PKK needs to stop all hostile actions against the Turkish people, and we strongly stand with our friends and allies in Turkey in saying no not only to PKK acts of violence but all forms of terrorism.

QUESTION: Why your government appointed a military person and not a political or diplomatic one? Is there any particular reason?

MR. CASEY: Well, I think as we said in our statement, I think General Ralston is an individual with unique qualifications. He has served extensively in Europe, including again as Supreme Allied Commander for NATO, as well as the head of the United States European Command. He is very familiar with these issues. And obviously, as the PKK is a terrorist group, it is something that requires the work of all parts of our governments not only from the political or diplomatic side, but also from the side of coordination among our security forces. And I think General Ralston is very well qualified both to work the political aspects of this as well also to certainly understand the security dimensions of the problem.

QUESTION: Do you believe the Coordinator Ralston will report directly to the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by definition who -- I'm saying Mr. (inaudible) by definition, he's the popular Prime Minister of Turkey (inaudible) 2003 to the present?

MR. CASEY: Well, I know Special Envoy Ralston will be coming here shortly in the next few days to meet with officials here in this building. My understanding is his primary chain of responsibility will be through here. That of course involves conversations with officials like Assistant Secretary Welch who handles Middle Eastern issues, Assistant Secretary Fried who deals with European concerns as well as certainly Under Secretary Burns, who's been actively involved in this issue as well.

QUESTION: Same subject?

MR. CASEY: Yeah, sure.

QUESTION: So is he going to have an office in the State Department building? And do you know whether he's planning to go to the region anytime soon?

MR. CASEY: Well, again, I don't have any specific travel plans for him to share with you, although we'll keep you updated on that. In terms of whether he physically has an office here or not, I honestly don't know right now. There are some -- in some cases, some envoys have requested that kind of office space; others have not and I'm just not aware of what his plans are.

[ . . . ]

QUESTION: Yes, on Turkey. Mr. Casey, the other day, Turkish F-16 in the Iranian (inaudible) strike PKK position in northern Iraq, which provoked a strong reaction by Massoud Barzani against that. Any comment? Do you have anything on that?

MR. CASEY: I really don't have anything for you on that, Mr. Lambros. Again, the only thing I would say is that it's very important that we and the Iraqi Government, and the Government of Turkey all work together to end the threat posed by the PKK.

QUESTION: As we understand, PKK has two branches: the political one and the military one. Which from the two you consider not a terrorist one in order to negotiate with Ankara?

MR. CASEY: Look, Mr. Lambros, the discussions and what the envoy will be doing is talking with the Government of Turkey and the Government of Iraq. We are not engaged in conversations with the PKK or with any other terrorist organization.

QUESTION: And the last one, since --

MR. CASEY: I'll tell you what, we're out of last ones.

QUESTION: Very important, since --

MR. CASEY: They're all important.

QUESTION: Since General Joseph Ralston, as coordinator, will be involved (inaudible) that via (inaudible) Turkey and PKK are entering a kind of political dialogue, how will be this mechanism?

MR. CASEY: No. You can assume that General Ralston will be talking with officials of, again, the Government of Turkey and the Government of Iraq on how they and we can all work together to coordinate actions to assure that the PKK cannot conduct terrorist activities.

QUESTION: What are the reactions of PKK in this negotiation?

MR. CASEY: Again, I think we're pretty clear on that one.

We are very clear on that one, particularly with regard to US propaganda and claims to fostering the spread of "democracy" in the Middle East. Naturally, these claims are further illuminated by the fact that the new American "special envoy" to coordinate the continued genocide of the Kurdish people, Joseph W. Ralston, also happens to be a member of the 2006 Advisory Board of the American Turkish Council.

Ralston's intimacy with long-time ATC supporting organization, The Cohen Group, and his place on the ATC's advisory group as the representative of the same "consultancy" lends credibility to speculation that the ATC is a de facto branch of the US government. From Dissident Voice, February, 2005:

Operating tax-free and out of the media or watchdog spotlight is the most powerful “non-profit” association in the United States, the American Turkish Council. Like the thousands of Associations operating inside the Washington, DC Beltway, the ATC is chartered to provide “legal and ethical” venues for American-Turkish government and business interests to meet face-to-face to improve business, security and cultural relations between the two countries. The ATC, and other Associations, has a dues structure and committee structure that includes a government relations or “educational” committee that lobbies the public and US government representatives on behalf of its members. But that’s where the similarity ends.

While the ATC is an Association in name and in charter, the reality is that it and other affiliated Associations are the US government. Theirs is the voice that matters and is the one that is heard on television and radio networks through the mouths of newsreaders, senators, congressmen, presidents and military leaders. It is in and through such Associations that US political, economic and military policy is made and the American public subsequently “educated” to support policies that are not, and could not, be debated in public because of their illegality, audacity, complexity and, arguably, necessity. Instead, the creation of policy and action -- or even reaction to events -- is hammered out in corporate boardrooms, foreign governments, research institutes, and think tanks. It all comes together in Associations like the ATC.

Is it coincidence that the new American "special envoy" is also the director of the defense industry's The Timken Company, and is a director on the boards of both URS Corporation and ATC Golden Horn member, Lockheed Martin?

What we have here is a huge conflict of interest which proves to us the total insincerity of the United States with regard to democracy in Turkey, or for the Kurdish people. As such, there is no reason for Kurds to cooperate with the US or with Turkey.

Instead, let us prepare ourselves for another long road through hell, since the Americans will continue to use Kurds as pawns in the Deep State's game. The best outcome that can be hoped for is that both the US and Turkey are bled to the point that they decide on the practicality of coming to a political solution with the Kurdish people. Western states and their militaries have lost the will to fight for "existential" reasons; instead, they fight for their markets, from Global Guerrillas:

The western way of war in the 21st century is a pale shadow of the warfare it waged in the 20th. The reason is simple: for western societies war is no longer existential. Instead, it's increasingly about smoothing market flows and tertiary moral concerns/threats.

According to that analysis, the West no longer has the will to engage in real warfare. Turkey should be included under the umbrella of the West, because it is a member of NATO, desires to become a member of the EU, and therefore has the same lack of will to fight anything protracted. It also wishes to increase its economy, especially in energy. On that long road through hell with the PKK, and with TAK, or with any other Kurdish group that may develop in the future, Turkey should be concerned about its economy. Any operations that will help to destabilize Turkey's economy, should receive the highest priority.

A few recent examples of operations aimed at economic disruption include the recent HPG operation that disrupted the Turkish-Iranian pipeline near Agri, as well as TAK bombings of resort areas and the setting of forest fires in Turkey proper.

In order to learn to live within its limits, Turkey and the US should be aware of the following, also from the Global Guerrillas link:

Given an inability to resolve conflicts through nation-building and state collapse, western states should endeavor to deescalate conflicts rather than ignite them. Escalation is a false God that promises a return of the motivational clarity found in the wars of the 20th Century. It cannot deliver this. The only thing it provides is a widening and deepening of the conflict through the proliferation of opposition.

Exactly, and this "proliferation of opposition" as regards the Kurdish situation has already entered the discussion, from an article on KurdishMedia:

There are four main reasons for this dangerous development of Eagles of Free Kurdistan [Note: Kurdistan Freedom Falcons--Mizgîn]:

1. The world’s indifference to the plight of Kurds and denial of their basic national and cultural rights in Turkey.

2. The US and Europe’s hypocritical and unfair labelling of Kurdish nationalsits as terrorists in spite of their readiness for dialogue, democracy and peaceful solutions to all problems.

3. Disillusion with even PKK’s compromising approach to Kurdish question in Turkey after the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocelan and its giving up the aim of free independent united Kurdistan.

4. The most important factor for this ominous development is what happens elsewhere: in Lebanon, in Palestine, in Iraq and everywhere else where there is violence. In this age of satellite TV, the Internet and global information, a new generation of Kurds can see on daily basis that the groups that most attract attention and international respect and recognition are those that advocate violence, especially criminal indiscriminate massacres of civilians. These methods are also most effective in resisting and fighting oppressive states with formidable killing machines and repressive apparatuses.

Did anyone notice that the State Department spokesman in the transcript never once made reference to Turkey's denial of all rights to the Kurdish people? That would be an example of the world's indifference. There is also the hypocrisy of The List® when we consider that both Turkey and the US negotiate or have relationships with others that they consider to be terrorists, such as the US negotiating with the Iraqi insurgency or Turkey inviting HAMAS to Ankara. Or in the recent US support for a ceasefire that guarantees an increase in strength for Iran's Hezbollah in Lebanon.

How many times have I heard the question from Kurds: "If we start to blow things up, do you think they'll listen to us?" Perhaps this is the right tactic after all because the US is not interested in a ceasefire as a step to a solution, but as a way of doing a favor for its Turkish business partner. This is why Ralston, with his unique qualifications as an ATC tool, was appointed to his new job.

PKK, as the representative of the freedom struggle from Turkish occupation, is ready to discuss the possibility of a bilateral ceasefire, in order to negotiate a political settlement to the atrocities that the US and its puppet regime in Ankara have inflicted on Kurds for eight decades, but until the US and the Ankara regime come to their senses and realize their crimes, PKK will continue to fight.

And let's remember that, for Kurds, the fight is not for financial reasons, markets or greed. The fight is for existential reasons, dignity and honor.