WAGING A WAR AGAINST "DEMOCRACY"?

"In the spring of 1993, on March 17, at a base in Lebanon with Talabani present, Ocalan announced a cease-fire from March 20 to April 15 and declared that the PKK did not intend "to separate immediately from Turkey."
~ Chris Kutschera.

Something interesting from TDN last Friday:

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said Turkish democracy offers significant opportunities to Kurds and warned that waging a war against Turkish democracy would amount to waging war against democracy and the rights of Kurdish people.

Newsflash: There is aTurkish democracy like there is South Kurdistani democracy or Iraqi democracy.

Giving excerpts from his dialogue with the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Talabani said he once sent a letter to Abdullah Öcalan before his arrest in 1999.

"I told him (in the letter) to give up guerrilla fighting and to start a political fight by benefiting from the democratic environment in Turkey. Öcalan then accused me of betraying the Kurdish people, whereas I still believe the same thing," he said.

Öcalan attempted to begin a political dialog in the early 1990s with and when he did go to Europe to seek a political solution from the EU, every door was slammed in his face. Of course, Talabanî's role as a go-between for PKK and Turgut Özal, and adding his machinations with the Americans at the same time, is questionable in hindsight.

Talabani stressed that Turkish democracy was offering important opportunities to Kurds, referring to Kurdish deputies having seats in the Turkish Parliament.

"Kurds are sending their own deputies to Parliament," he said. "They have their own (political) parties and press and broadcasting organs. The new Constitution will grant them broader rights. Therefore, waging a war against the AKP government and the Turkish state would amount to waging war against democracy and even the rights of the Kurds."

Kurds have sent their own deputies to the TBMM before and we all know how that went so the Ankara regime is going to have to prove it has given up its inherent racism and act for the benefit of the Kurdish people, and not take Talabanî's word for it. No one should believe it until they see it.

Overlooking the fact that Kurdish-language media in Turkey is highly censored, or that Kurdish newspapers like Özgür Gündem or Azadiya Welat are routinely shut down for reporting news that the Ankara regime doesn't like. The "new constitution" was already decided in secret by AKP and the Paşas, under conditions that resemble the creation of Turkish-Islamic synthesis by Turgut Özal and the Paşas. That, in turn, led to the rapid growth of Turkish Hezbollah as a clandestine armed force of the Turkish government which was turned against the Kurdish people. Given the long history of the Ankara regime in its relationship with Kurds under its occupation, one would have to be a raving idiot, or worse, to believe that a constitution already agreed to by the regime is going to give Kurds any more rights than they already have under the Paşas' current constitution.

Talabani said Kurdish politicians should contribute to the democratic process in Turkey. "I think Kurdish political leaders including Ahmet Türk (leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, DTP) understand this very well."

The implication of this is that DTP politicians have contributed nothing so far to the "democratic process" in Turkey, which is highly insulting to say the least.

The Kurds in Turkey are fed up with the armed struggle, said Talabani, because the war only brought migration and death.

"However, AKP policies gave them (Kurds) hope. Prime Minister Erdoğan admitted the presence of the Kurdish problem in the country and pledged a democratic solution. Kurds preferred the AKP even in Diyarbakır and sent eight AKP deputies to parliament, while the DTP sent four," he said.

He underlined that the APK has proved it is not a nationalist or racist party.

AKP has proved nothing of the kind. And let's remember what happened after Erdoğan went to Amed: Şemdinli, death threats to DTP and IHD, the state's murder of Ferhat and Fatma Akgül, continued use of chemical weapons against HPG gerîlas, the Amed Serhildan, the wanton murder of Kurdish protestors and the torture of Kurdish children, the Amed bombing, the attempts to cut DTP out of the electoral process, the attempts to disenfranchise Kurdish voters, the new OHAL (State of Emergency).

All of those things came from AKP and none of them are good. As for Kurds being fed up with armed struggle, while it may be true it is also true that politically nothing has happened without armed struggle. As a result this is a struggle that has been forced on the Kurdish people.

To fight the PKK, Talabani said, they will continue political calls and pressure the outlawed group through the media.

"It should not be forgotten that the Iraqi constitution does not allow terrorist organizations to be harbored within Iraqi territory," he said. "Therefore, the Iraqi government will do what needs to be done in line with the constitution as soon as it gets stronger but unfortunately, we cannot take armed action against the PKK and PEJAK (a wing of the PKK) at this stage. I clearly said this to Prime Minister Erdoğan in Riyadh (on the sidelines of an international meeting)."

Talabanî admits that the leadership of South Kurdistan and Iraq will engage in propaganda efforts against PKK. In other words, they're going to lie. Then he calls "terrorist" those who fight against regimes that engage in brutal repression of Kurds. By his own definition, therefore, Talabanî himself is a terrorist, as the Ankara regime claims. After all, Talabanî fought against Saddam Hussein and the Baghdad government when Saddam was an indespensible regional asset of the US and a good ally of Turkey.

Talabani said he has paid a visit to Syria and Iran since he was elected president. "But I haven't received an invitation from Turkey and I can say in advance that it would be an honor for me to come to Turkey if I am invited after the election of (Abdullah) Gül as president."

Besides, maybe Talabanî can get his Turkish diplomatic passport back in case things don't go well in Baghdad.

Not to leave Barzanî out of it:

We are certainly against the use of the Iraqi territory against neighboring countries and will not allow this, said Barzani.

"We clearly told the PKK our position. It should not be forgotten that the PKK is a problem for us too."

What are we to think of these kinds of statements? Double-speak? Political apple-polishing? Truth? In the meantime, TSK continues to bombard Kurdish civilians in South Kurdistan with cluster bombs without damaging the business interests of the Southern Kurdish leadership.

FIGHTING AGAINST IRAN

"They are targeting the area under the pretext that the PKK and PJAK are there, but they're not hitting the positions. Iran's actual goals, which they will not announce, is to strike the U.S. and destabilize Iraq."
~ Anonymous PKK official.

There's an excellent little article by Betsy Hiel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on PJAK. Even though Ms. Hiel tries to go all mysterious when talking about PJAK's origins, at least she gets the translation of PJAK correct--something not even Michael Totten can do. Also, unlike Michael Totten, she actually went to talk with PJAK.

Without further ado:

QANDIL RANGE, Iraq -- Off a rocky mountain road meandering through creek beds, a small, stone military outpost is hidden near the Iraq-Iran border.

Peach, pomegranate and fig trees tremble in the hot breeze. Under a thatched-roof awning, leafy vines cover the outer walls and offer a little relief from the intense sun. A young Iranian guerrilla listens to music on an iPod as his comrades hang Kalashnikov assault rifles, ammunition belts and walkie-talkies on a beam behind the vines.

Amin Karimi, 34, a soft-spoken, bespectacled man, drinks sweet tea and describes his battle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"If they attack us, we will fight," says Karimi, one of nine leaders of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan, or PJAK, an Iranian-Kurdish guerrilla group fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Iran.

That fight has turned more intense in the past month, with almost daily clashes. Except for the rare car-bombing, it is the only warfare in Kurdistan, Iraq's one largely peaceful region, and the only sustained fighting reported inside Iran.

PJAK claims to have destroyed an Iranian helicopter trying to land in Iraq and killed a dozen or more Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers in battles. Iran has shelled the area, forcing villagers to flee and prompting protests by Iraq's foreign minister.

Iran denies launching any attacks. Yet interviews of villagers -- and landscapes littered with twisted metal from artillery or rocket attacks - suggest otherwise.

In nearby Soreguli, a stone-house village of 10 families, Abubakir Khokoresh, 58, stands on ground charred, he says, by Iranian shells and rockets.

"We are afraid," he says. "Some of our livestock were killed and our grain supply for the winter was burned." Asked where the shelling came from, he points toward the border and says, "Iran."

Villagers here and elsewhere accuse Iran and Turkey of coordinating artillery attacks on northern Iraq. Iranian leaflets distributed in border villages warn of more.

[ . . . ]

Meanwhile, Turkey is pressuring Iraq -- including frequent threats to invade -- to rid the mountains of the PKK, a Turkish-Kurdish separatist group. The PKK draws its troops from the 27 million to 35 million Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

PJAK's Karimi is not worried.

"These areas are under our control and there is stability," he says. "They can't make stability and security even in Baghdad, how can you control these areas in the mountains? ... No government can control it -- Saddam couldn't control this area.

"We help the people here."

Most villagers agree, crediting the PKK and PJAK with keeping them safe.

Before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Islamic groups such as Ansar Al Islam, with links to al-Qaida and Iran, controlled areas along this mountainous border; brutally enforcing its rule on villages. Karimi says his fighters are essential to preventing the Islamists' return, because "if an Islamic group comes to these mountains, nobody can take them out."

PJAK doesn't have much time for the America's Kurdish anti-Iranian party of choice:

Karimi dismisses Komala and other Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties

"Until now, we fight against Iran and they fight each other," he says. "It's terrible."

While denying that PJAK is a PKK offshoot, he admits that "our ideas are the same." Like PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned in Turkey, Karimi hopes for a confederation of all Kurds within their national borders instead of a single Kurdish state.

He likens it to the states' rights of America's federal system.

"They have their own rules and they have contacts with foreign countries, but they are American, all of them," he says.

He stresses that PJAK is secular, unlike the ever-growing number of Islamic movements across the Middle East.

[ . . . ]

"Kurdish women have the biggest dynamism ... to make a better life, for democracy and a new system," he says. "They really fight better than us and make politics better than us."

In 2006, Ohio congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who accuses President Bush of exaggerating Iran's threat to U.S. security, and journalist Seymour Hersh claimed the United States and Israel support and train PJAK.

Karimi calls that Iranian propaganda and flatly denies receiving U.S. support.

"We had some contacts because the Americans are here in Iraq and they are our neighbors now," he says. "Sometimes they want to know who is PJAK and what we are doing here ... but we have no cooperation. We don't need it."

Instead, he says, his force is politically independent and "self-reliant. Our people give us everything. Also, we don't know about American priorities and politics (toward) Iran. ... The American government never speaks about Iranian Kurds."

Still, he won't disclose how PJAK is armed.

"Our weapons are the Kalashnikov," he says, shrugging and holding both hands palms-up. "The Middle East is full of weapons. If you have money, you can buy them.

"Everyone has guns in the Middle East."

The entire article can be found at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, along with some photos.

BLACKWATER, COFER BLACK, AND ANOTHER CONFLICT OF INTEREST

"But the flip side of it is you also have guys who are just straight-up thugs who go over there—they’re soldiers of fortune, you know, they’re making six, seven times what a regular U.S. soldier is making. They have much better equipment, much better body armor and they’re simply in it for a buck."
~ Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater USA.

Interesting addenda to the recent Blackwater atrocity:


MediaMatters rightly points out that several major US media have not made so much as a squeak about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's ties to Blackwater:

The CNN.com article, as well as reports by the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and an additional segment during a later hour of CNN Newsroom, all failed to note the reported connection between Romney and Blackwater USA. On September 13, The Boston Globe reported that Romney "tapped" Black, "a former CIA official, who is now a top officer in a private security firm with widespread operations in Iraq, to head his counterterrorism policy advisory group."

From the Boston Globe article linked at MediaMatters:

Mitt Romney today tapped a former CIA official, who is now a top officer in a private security firm with widespread operations in Iraq, to head his counterterrorism policy advisory group.

Cofer Black, who also served as a top State Department counter-terrorism official, is now chairman of Total Intelligence Solutions and vice-chairman of Blackwater USA. That firm came to public attention in 2004, when four employees were ambushed, killed, and mutilated in Fallujah.

MediaMatters further notes that TIME only mentions the Romney-Blackwater connection on a blog on its website. The MoJoBlog included the information early yesterday.

Remember, a vote for Romney is a vote for Blackwater!


Wired's national security blog had a very enlightening post on Blackwater by a guy who's really dug into the question of the use of mercenary forces, P.W. Singer, and Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, was interviewed on CNN International for his take on the recent Blackwater atrocities. The interview can be viewed at Crooks and Liars.

The award for the biggest outright lie about the freaks at Blackwater comes from NROnline. Check this:

[T]he American military bureaucracy could learn a lot from Blackwater. Unlike the Pentagon, Blackwater has thought carefully since 2003 about how best to equip and protect its employees in the specific environment of Iraq, and has acted swiftly to buy appropriate vehicles, aircraft and weapons.

Now this makes one want to ask whether or not the author of that propaganda, Jonathan Foreman, is simply a very bad propagandist or if he's just an outright liar because Blackwater, as everyone ought to remember, sent its employees into Fallujah on 31 March, 2004 short the needed number of personnel with the needed amount of equipment. Hell, they didn't even have the proper maps.

After the families of the Blackwater victims brought a lawsuit against the company, Blackwater turned right around and sued the families. Maybe someone can explain to me exactly how those facts square with Foreman's trash talk about Blackwater thinking "carefully since 2003 about how best to equip and protect its employees in the specific environment of Iraq, and has acted swiftly to buy appropriate vehicles, aircraft and weapons."

I wonder if Cofer Black's previous relationship with the State Department had anything to do with Blackwater? I wonder if that might be another dirty little conflict of interest deal of which the State Department is so fond of? Kind of like State's cosy little appointment of Lockheed Martin director, ATC advisory board member, and The Cohen Group lobbyist, Joseph Ralston? From The Nation:

Government records recently obtained by The Nation reveal that the Bush Administration has paid Blackwater more than $320 million since June 2004 to provide "diplomatic security" services globally. The massive contract is the largest known to have been awarded to Blackwater to date and reveals how the Administration has elevated a once-fledgling security firm into a major profiteer in the "war on terror."

Blackwater's highly lucrative "diplomatic security" contract was officially awarded under the State Department's little-known Worldwide Personal Protective Service (WPPS) program, described in State Department documents as a government initiative to protect US officials as well as "certain foreign government high level officials whenever the need arises."

Oh, yeah. Smells like conflict of interest to me.

You gotta know Blackwater and the US Department of State aren't going to do squat for the Iraqis they've murdered. In the meantime, the Iraqi government now says it may back down on the ban of Blackwater, so I guess if you're ordinary folks and not a member of the ruling elites, or their SS-style protectors, you're just plain screwed.

BLACKWATER MERCENARIES OUSTED

"We will push those crooks, those mercenaries back into the swamp."
~ Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.

Blackwater USA mercenaries are going to be banned from Iraq following their slaughter of civilians over the weekend. From the Guardian:

The Iraqi government said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad.

The Interior Ministry said it would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday shooting. It was latest accusation against the U.S.-contracted firms that operate with little or no supervision and are widely disliked by Iraqis who resent their speeding motorcades and forceful behavior.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.

"We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities,'' Khalaf said.

The spokesman said witness reports pointed to Blackwater involvement but said the shooting was still under investigation. It was not immediately clear if the measure against Blackwater was intended to be temporary or permanent.

The Christian Science Monitor has more, including blog reactions to the banning. There's also something at AFP.


Ah! It's going to be a good day.

EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS BY TSK CONTINUE

"In the course of the last several years, both the Special Rapporteur and her predecessor,
Bacre W. Ndiaye, on numerous occasions approached the Government of Turkey regarding cases of alleged extrajudicial executions and other violation of the right to life. In most of these cases, government forces have been accused in cases of deaths resulting from excessive use of force and deaths in custody, or instances where persons were allegedly found dead after having been abducted by police or security forces."
~ Report of the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Asma Jahangir, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/45.

From Özgür Gündem comes a report on a murder of five Kurdish youths in 2005.

In January 2005, five Kurdish youths were murdered by TSK in Şirnex (Şirnak), with the claim that the youths were HPG gerîlas. However, after an investigation by İnsan Hakları Derneği (IHD--Turkish Human Rights Association), it is clear that the youths were, in fact, civilians and not members of HPG.

The five youths were composed of four females and one male. They were not dressed as HPG gerîlas and IHD determined that the sparse military equipment found on the bodies had been planted after the murders. The one weapon found in the hands of one of the dead was a rusty pistol. The military-style vests and belts found on the bodies appeared to have been put on the bodies by someone other than the wearer. For instance, on one of the female bodies, the belt containing the ammunition pouches was put on backwards. Another of the females had no clothes on whatsoever, save for underclothes, indicating that she had been undressed by someone at some point. The clothes of the dead were civilian clothes, including turtleneck sweaters, which would have been fitting for wear in January. The bodies were not wearing the distinctive HPG uniform.

At the time, HPG made a statement about the murders, saying the victims were civilians and not members of HPG. On the other hand, the official report from Sirnex made the claim that the victims were HPG gerîlas.

Right after the incident occured, IHD chairman Reyhan Yalçındağ, IHD regional representative Mihdi Perinçek, Selahattin Demirtaş (who is now a DTP parliamentarian from Amed/Diyarbakır), and IHD branch chairman Mehmet Bozkurt made a statment in which they noted the following:

1. The incident took place 2 kilometers away from Toptepe village, close to a river bank.

2. The area is very close to numerous military forces, in a well-protected area.

3. The victims were wearing civilian clothes.

4. The prosecutor never went to the scene to investigate the murders, contrary to Turkish law.

5. There was no report from the murder scene and no list of personal effects of the victims, contrary to Turkish law.

4. There were no photos, no coordinates of the murder scene, no videotape recording.

5. Evidence collection was done by the Jandarma forces, who were the main suspects of the murders.

IHD had applied to the Şirnex prosecutor to investigate the case because IHD was highly suspicious that it was an example of a TSK murder of civilians, but the Şirnex prosecutor dismissed the case without any kind of hearing. Following the dismissal, IHD applied to the European Court of Human Rights.

At the time of IHD's 2005 statement, there was no evidence available, but now IHD has come into the possession of video and photos taken of the murder scene and the victims. From these records, it becomes clearer that the victims were civilians and they were murdered by TSK.

The bodies show evidence of torture, such as cigarette burns and other burns. One victim had 11 cigarette burns on the body. The male body shows signs of cutting on the palms of the hands and on the left leg. One of the mothers of the victims could not recognize her daughter's body because of the severe discoloration and bruising. This family had requested the autopsy and ballistics reports, but they were refused the information.

In addition, there are statements from the villagers of Toptepe area:

"Around noontime a group of soldiers came and asked for three donkeys, and we accompanied the group of soldiers with our donkeys. When we got there, five people were there but they were not wearing gerilla clothes. I got the chance to examine the two females that I loaded on my donkey. They had dressed up like we do in daily life. In this region, there is no fighting. Everyone in this village is a witness of this incident, but because of fear of the soldiers, no one can tell about it."

Also there was news last week of TSK's use of cluster bomb munitions in South Kurdistan. TSK fired cluster bombs in the Haftanin region of South Kurdistan, severely injuring three villagers. Near Zaxo, a Turkish helicopter employed cluster bombs, causing severe injuries to a shepherd. Fifteen sheep were killed in the incident.

Unexploded cluster bombs pose a great danger to anyone who handles them, especially to children, as well as causing destruction of livestock property.

The use of cluster bombs is banned by certain international agreements. Israeli use of cluster bombs in Lebanon last year caused an international outcry but, so far, there has been no outcry against TSK's use of cluster bombs against Kurdish civilians.

And don't hold your breath on that.

IRANIAN WEAPONS TO SYRIA TARGETED

"What is most troubling to me as a Jew is that the plight of fifteen million Kurds in Turkey most closely parallels the plight of Jews throughout centuries. For unlike the Iraqi Kurds who have always been at liberty to be Kurds, those in Turkey were ruthlessly legislated out of their ethnic identity and have remained so for more than sixty years."
~ Vera Saeedpour.

Rumors seem to be beginning to fly in Middle Eastern media over Israel's recent attack on Syrian targets last week. Apparently, the Paşas gave the Israeli air force a hand in targeting. From YNetNews:

Turkish intelligence provided Israel with information on the Syrian targets allegedly attacked by the Air Force last week without the Turkish government's authorization, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jareeda reported Thursday.

Al-Jareeda quoted several sources as saying that Israel and senior Turkish military personnel coordinated Israel's invasion of Turkish airspace during the operation to send a message to the ruling Justice and Development party, or AKP. Senior military officials in Turkey, most of whom are secular, oppose the Islamist party's platform.

According to the sources, AKP member and newly-elected President Abdullah Gul is not doing enough to prevent the transfer of arms from Iran to terror groups in Syria and Lebanon via Turkey.

These would be the very same Paşas that permitted news of HPG's derailing of a train carrying weapons from Iran to Syria to flash briefly through the Turkish press at the end of May. As DozaMe reported:

A unit from People’s Defense Forces (HPG) derailed a Turkish cargo train bound to Syria on May 25 near the Suvaran train station in the Genc district of Bingol in northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey.) Local authorities discovered rockets, launch pads, sniper rifles, mortar rounds and other ammunitions in the train.

A Turkish prosecutor in Genc has requested a media censor on all news related to the weapons in the cargo, pointing to paragraph 28 in the Turkish Constitution, paragraphs 3 and 25 in the Turkish Media Laws and paragraphs 285 and 286 in the Turkish Penal Code, according to the Turkish newspaper Milliyet. The prosecutor’s request was accepted by the Genc Criminal Court.

Details of the contents of one of the train cars included:

297 rockets

1,032 mortar rounds

762 Dragunov sniper rifles (Kanas)

54 machine guns

135 boxes of "explosive substance" (C4? A4?)

120 boxes of mortar rounds

775 boxes of "military equipment"

Flash back to August 2006 and let's recall how the Turkish Red Crescent was shipping arms to Syria from Iran:

The Turkish Red Crescent was used twice to arm Hezbollah, a Syrian Red Crescent official told the Kurdish news agency ANF yesterday. The Turkish humanitarian organization’s vehicles were loaded with small arms, unidentified electronic gadgets, and ammunition, the Syrian official said.

[ . . . ]

An anonymous Israeli offical told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Turkey has been used as key transit in Iran’s supply route to Hezbollah. Israel called on Turkey to impose air and ground embargo to prevent Iran from arming Hezbollah.

The Turkish Red Crescent is widely known to be involved in Turkish intelligence operations around the world. In April 2003, Turkish Red Crescent vehicles which were stopped and searched by US forces at a checkpoint in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) turned out to be loaded with weapons and explosives believed by US troops to be used to arm Iraqi Turkmen Front militias. The supplies were marked as ‘humanitarian aid’. Turkish Special Forces posing as aid workers were taken into custody and interrogated before being escorted by US troops back to Turkey.

Not only does Gül, as president, do a lousy job of preventing Iranian arms transfers to Syria (not a very neutral thing for a member of NATO to do), but neither does PM Erdoğan. But the Paşas probably figure that if the Fethullahcı can leak information . . . like diaries of Paşas that outline coup plans or who talks about what to whom at the Hudson Institute . . . then the Paşas should leak what they can, too.

The bottom line is that nothing, but NOTHING, is going to move into Turkey, through Turkey, or out of Turkey without the knowledge and consent of the Paşas.

Except, of course, the big, bad PKK.

DTP will be investigated for its calls for investigations into the accusations that the TSK uses chemical weapons against HPG's gerîlas (I can't figure out why they have that stupid picture of Barzanî and al-Maliki to decorate the article). The article also notes that Gül ended his tour of the military in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan on Friday.

Does everyone remember what happened in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan after Erdoğan's visit to Amed in August 2005? Şemdinli. Amed Serhildan. Amed bombing. OHAL.

Don't you wish these SOB's would just stay in Ankara so that they and the Paşas could kill each other?

DTP-BAITING, TRANSFORMATION, AND PJAK

"We don't just fight for ourselves."
~ Cemil Bayık.

Oh! Now I get it! The Deep State planted a minibus-bomb in Ankara in order to bait the DTP parliamentarians. It makes perfect sense since they never wanted any smart, identity-aware, politically-savvy Kurds in the grand, old TBMM.

There's a bit of stinging criticism coming from a Kurd in New Zealand. Listen to this:

It is almost impossible to change any element in the Kurdish political culture and makeup without altering many others. The crisis is similar to several countries where institutions, especially federal governing structures tend to be mechanistic, inflexible, disjointed, and corrupt. And corruption does not allow innocent voices from being heard.

Positive ideas addressing the crisis of Kurdish institutions in term of an impending sociopolitical paradigm to a fresh framework may sound an earthquake to our leaders. What the Kurds really need is to wake-up to the many faces of the crisis, which the state is experiencing including institutional arrogance, greed, nepotism, and abuse of power. Taking action to solve the institutional crisis would be reassuring and even educational for them.

It is time the political system in Kurdistan is transformed and not reformed as the Kurdish people are in urgent need of something better and not something more. In other words, the healthier route is to transform leadership as a process of continuous change and growth. However, the majority leaders have arrangements with international companies to receive bribes for protecting their interests in the region. In such a scenario, they are unlikely to espouse positive changes necessary for the good of the country and its people.

[ . . . ]

The leaders of Kurdistan blame the people for their country's woes much in line with the argument of St. Thomas who once said that, those attacked for some fault deserve the attack. The question is what really have the Kurdish people done to deserve being attacked and robbed of their wealth? In addition, are they prepared to take responsibility for their country's future?

Read the rest.

The mullahtocracy's guru, Amir Taheri, has a recent piece in which he mentions PJAK:

The group most active in the recent fighting is a new outfit named Kurdistan Free Life Party, better known under its Kurdish acronym of PJAK. Judging by its literature, PJAK is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a guerrilla movement of Turkish Kurds that has been fighting for a Kurdish state in eastern Anatolia since the 1970s.

First of all, PKK has been fighting since 1984, not the 1970s. Secondly, PJAK is not just an "offshoot," but is a part of KCK, which is an umbrella organization containing PKK. If Amir Taheri had ever read "the literature," or had ever done a little research on something as mundane as, say, Google or Yahoo, the facts might be as plain to him as the nose on his face. PJAK is PKK's sister organization, based on PKK's model and, therefore, having both a political wing and an armed wing. PJAK is technically the political wing and, under it, is HRK, the armed wing. PJAK gets its support from PKK.

Ironically, Tehran has given the PKK shelter and support against Turkey for years, as a means of bleeding Nato's lone regional member. Some analysts claim that Ankara may have decided to repay Tehran in its own currency by creating PJAK. Others, however, regard PJAK as an effort by PKK to expand its constituency beyond the Kurdish minority in Turkey.

If "[s]ome analysts claim that Ankara may have decided to repay Tehran in its own currency by creating PJAK," then the only thing it proves that some analysts don't have a clue. It's pretty clueless to state, too, that PKK is trying to "expand its constituency beyond the Kurdish minority in Turkey," when PKK has always had a constituency beyond Turkey . . . Well beyond Turkey. PKK is the biggest transnational Kurdish organization, even attracting members from non-Kurdish populations. PKK never had to create a thorn for the mullah's side in order to "expand its constituency."

What is certain, however, is that most of PJAK's leaders are not Iranian Kurds. Some of the party's key figures are Turkish Kurds who have lived in exile in Germany for at least a quarter of a century. The fact that PJAK has been operating in areas in Iran that are close to PKK strongholds in Turkey and Iraq is another indication that the two parties may well be one with two names.

No, what is certain is that "Turkish" Kurds (i.e. "bad" Kurds), whether they've spent any time in Europe or not, have always been the backbone of the PKK. They've spent the time fighting in the field. They have most of the experience. So if you have a new organization, like PJAK, which also has an armed wing, like PJAK's HRK, you will need commanders with battlefield experience. Coming from PKK, those commanders will most likely be "Turkish" Kurds. Like Cemil Bayık, for example, a founding member of PKK.

None of this is secret so why is Taheri writing as if PJAK were some mysterious organization, possibly from Mars?

Did I mention that PJAK and PKK are members of the same organization, KCK? So they are not "one with two names." But who knows? Maybe all of KCK is from Mars.

As always in the Islamic Republic, however, Tehran's claims of a US-hatched plot to incite the Kurds against the mullahs should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Definitely correct. Kurds don't need the US to incite their hatred against the brutal Teheran regime. Just as Kurds hated the brutal Teheran regime under America's shah, so too they hate it under the mullahs. By the way, Teheran imposed a state of emergency in Iranian-occupied Kurdistan long before PKK ever launched its first attacks against the Ankara regime.

I don't know . . . Amir Taheri should probably stick with what he knows--mullahs--and leave the fighters of the Kurdish freedom movement alone.

REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 12

"Your people have just made a coup!"
~ President Jimmy Carter to former Ankara CIA station chief, Paul Henze.

Let's remember 12 September and the legacy of the CIA's "boys", from Info-Turk:

Today, at the 27th anniversary of the September 12, 1980 Military Coup, it is necessary to recall once more the crimes committed by the putschists who still remain untouched and unpunished:


- The coup d'etat of September 12, 1980 was the second phase of a process of militarization in all fields of the country. Previously, the coup d'état of March 12, 1971 already had abolished or destroyed many democratic rights and institutions by the application of a repression without precedent.

- The Constitution imposed in 1982 by the military junta abolished the last remnants of the freedoms recognized by the Constitution of 1961. The 1982 Constitution denies the basic rights of the Kurdish people and the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek minorities of Turkey. Articles 3, 42 and 66 preach the superiority and the monopoly of the Turkish race and language. Article 4 declares that Article 3 can never be modified, even the modification of this article can never be proposed.

- The Army's domination on the country's political, economic and social life was guaranteed by the privileges recognized by this constitution to the National Security Council (MGK).

- Within two years, more than 650,000 people were taken into custody and subjected to torture.

- Thousands of people were left disabled.

- 210,000 political cases were opened in military courts.

- A total of 98,404 people were tried because of their "thoughts."

- 6,353 people were tried under the menace of capital punishment.

- 21,764 people were sentenced to heavy prison terms.

- Fifty people were executed at the end of political trials.

- Many convicts lost their lives in prison due to maltreatment and hunger strikes to protest this maltreatment.

- Files were opened on 1,683,000 people.

- Universities were placed under the discipline of the Higher Education Council (YOK), depended on political power.

- 15,509 people were ousted from their university posts under Law No. 1402.

- 18,000 public servants, 2,000 judges and prosecutors, 4,000 police officers, 2,000 army officers and 5,000 teachers were forced to resign.

- All political parties were closed down.

- The activities of 23,667 associations were halted.

- The press was censored.

- 4,509 people were sent into exile by the martial law.

- 113,607 books were burned.

- 39 tons of books, magazines and newspapers were destroyed by the State's paper mills.

- 937 movies were banned.

- 2,792 authors, translators and journalists were tried.

- Journalists and writers were sentenced to a total imprisonment of 3,315 years and three months.

In Ankara yesterday, the Deep State commemorated the 1980 coup in a way that only it can.

Let's also remember the victims of the Deep State's bombing last year in Amed.

There's a smart post at Cryptogon that discusses the "incredible asymmetric advantage" individual insurgents have against the enemy. A teaser:

I can’t think of a time in history when the individual insurgent has had such an incredible asymmetric advantage over his opponent. Hierarchical dominator systems—now enjoying primacy on a global scale—exist atop a delicate grid of undefended energy and information infrastructures. With just a bit of intelligent planning, today’s insurgent can turn a small improvised explosive into a weapon of mass profit destruction. Killing soldiers and cops is a waste of time and energy. Killing profits does far more damage to the enemy than killing any number of troops.

Different societies and opponents, however, lend themselves to different forms of asymmetric warfare.

In America (and wealthier parts of the “West” in general), people don’t have to blow up a natural gas pipeline and shut down a factory or cut enough fiber to crash the NYSE and the NASDAQ market systems for a few minutes, hours or days. Voluntary simplicity, or, living well on very little money, kicks evil people in the nuts and gouges out their eyes. (Pacifists may think of this as sending the enemy Joy and Happiness if they desire.) Doing this in the U.S. has a force multiplier effect because the U.S. is the largest source of the funds that keep the global ponzi scheme running. When people in wealthy countries opt out, the action causes major economic damage to the machine.

Now you, too, can be an insurgent against fascist corporatocracy.

HAİNLER Mİ?

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within."
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero.

On Sunday, Özgür Gündem reported on the statement of Celal Talabanî, issued following a meeting with Mesûd Barzanî, that the Southern Kurdish leadership has decided not to allow PKK and PJAK to return to Iraqi territory if they conduct attacks against the neighbors.

Odd. Talabanî must have learned that language from the neighbors because PKK and PJAK gerîlas do not attack; they engage in counter-attacks against brutal, repressive regimes.

Right after Talabanî's statement, Turkish President Abdullah Gül made a statement that brought a new dimension to the relationship between South Kurdistan and Turkey. A journalist reminded Gül about Talabani's statement and asked him if he would talk with Talabani. Gül replied, "Of course I will have talks with him. Ultimately he is an elected official."

Let's recall the situation prior to the Turkish elections in July. Erdoğan and Büyükanıt insistently refused to hold talks with the Southern Kurdish leaders by saying, "We are not going to talk to those tribal leaders" (including Talabanî, Iraq's president).

What has happened to end the so-called tribal leadership of Southern Kurdish officials? What has suddenly made Turkey realize that Talabanî is an elected official? Or, what has changed in Barzanî, who said that any Turkish intervention in Kerkuk would result in Kurdish intervention in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan? After all, Barzani used to have "brothers" in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

On Monday, Yeni Özgür Politika carried an article about Talabanî's growing cooperation with AKP. According to that article, the Southern Kurdish leadership's move is parallel to Turkey and Iran's permanent policies toward the Kurdish people, with the goal of eliminating PKK and PJAK. It should be remembered that these are the only organizations on the frontlines of legitimate Kurdish resistance to the neighboring genocidal regimes.

We might say that Talabanî made his first move in this direction at the end of August when Zaman cited PUK Media's report on clashes between PJAK and Başûrî peşmêrge.

On 4 September, TNA published an interview with Talabanî's chief of staff, Kamran Karadaghî. Regarding PKK, Karadaghî states that the biggest problem is "how you get rid of them." He states that a political solution to the Kurdish situation in North Kurdistan should consist of "dialog" between Ankara and the Southern Kurdish leadership--not a dialog between Ankara and the elected Kurdish officials of Turkey. He implies that DTP parliamentarians should stress their "Turkishness" in the TBMM.

Finally, when asked about Talabanî's feelings about Turkey, Karadaghî replies:

I have no hesitation stating that President Jalal Talabani is a friend of Turkey. He admires Turkey and realizes its importance as a model and key to stabilization and democracy for the entire region. He never misses the chance when meeting with European leaders to express his strong belief that it is not only in the interest of Turkey itself to be a member of the EU, but it is also in the interest Europe, the World and particularly the region. It is Mr. Talabani's conviction, both as President of Iraq and Kurdish leader, that close relations between Iraq and Turkey serves well the interests of their peoples.

Celal Talabanî is a friend of Turkey while Qubad has "Turkish brothers"--and that can be read any way one wants.

Has the opportunity to create Kurdish unity, implicit wıth the US invasion of Iraq, been squandered by the Southern Kurdish leadership? Talabanî's recent statements and his cooperation with AKP--along with the apparent acquiescence of Barzanî to the plot--are reminiscent of the days of the 1990's when both held Turkish diplomatic passports and both joined with Ankara in killing those who ought to be their brothers and sisters, PKK's gerîlas. Both have contributed to the repression of the Kurdish freedom movement in North Kurdistan.

Can anyone say "Hainler"?

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

"Condoleezza Rice testified this morning before the 9/11 commission. Or as they're calling it in Washington — 'The Passion of the Rice'. ... She did a great job. It is not easy raising your right hand while you're trying to cover your ass at the same time."
~ Jay Leno.

Thanks, Anonymous.

And there are interesting things coming out in the media about General Petreaus (dubbed "General Betray-Us" in certain sections of the US media) from what passes for both Left and Right in American politics. The article from the Right mentions the internal Pentagon report that "differs significantly" from Petraeus' dog-and-pony show in Congress.

Of course, Petraeus' record was reviewed on Rastì months ago . . . like in January.

CLASHES IN TURKISH-OCCUPIED KURDISTAN

"When a woman leaves her home and picks up a rifle it is no small thing -- it is a social revolution."
~ Arshem Kurman, PKK Guerrilla.

YJA-STAR began last week to prepare for new Turkish President Abdullah Gul's visit to Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, with clashes last week resulting in the deaths of 22 Turkish soldiers.

On 6 September, there was a clash between the Kurdish women gerîlas of YJA-STAR and TSK in the Culemêrg (Hakkâri) region. YJA-STAR forces attacked a TSK convoy travelling from Çelê (Çukurca) to Culemêrg. Ten Turkish soldiers were killed and a TSK lieutenant colonel wounded in the attack. On the same day, YJA-STAR forces attacked a convoy between Şinê and Dawişê, killing 3 Turkish soldiers.

TSK began major operations, with the support of 12 helicopters, in the Beytüşşebap area--including Mezra Marinos, Çelecengê, Meydan Zengilê, Faraşin, and Paganê--where it lost three troops to the gerîlas.

On 7 September, in the Şêx Cuma area of Bedlîs (Bitlis), there was a clash between the gerîlas and a convoy of TSKers traveling to join operations. Three soldiers were killed and six wounded. TSK responded with bombardment that began some fires.

On 8 September, gerîlas clashed with 30 Turkish soldiers in the areas of Kato Jirka, Meydan Casusê, Aqir, and Deriyê Baqê, in Şirnex (Şirnak). Three soldiers were killed and an additional number wounded.

Major operations are underway in Silopî, Şirnex, including Mount Cûdî. Units involved with the fighting include Village Guards and Jandarma special teams. There are also operations in the Diyadin area of Agirî (Ağrı) and in Êlih (Batman).

Hevallo has a link to a pretty good article on September 11 by Orhan Pamuk and Lukery has an excellent article on September 11 from Sibel Edmonds' perspective. It cuts to the chase and outlines who the real culprits are.

When Condi Rice made the claim that the administration had no idea anyone would ever think of flying airplanes into buildings, it was Sibel Edmonds who called her out and said that Rice's claim was an "outrageous lie".

That's something to think about tomorrow.

OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT TERRORISTS

"The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy."
~ Woodrow Wilson.

Turkey is upset about some alleged Israeli aircraft fuel tanks were found along Turkey's border with Syria. Maybe that's tit-for-tat for Turkey's allowing Iran to ship weapons through Turkey to Syria.

Nine DTP politicians have been arrested for referring to HPG's şehîds as "şehîds." This is the same kind of thing that Ferhat Tunc will be tried for in October. Meanwhile, Sebahat Tuncel defended Kurdish attitudes toward the gerîlas:


"Nobody should expect us to call our children terrorists," she told a gathering in the southeastern town of Batman.

"We want to live in these lands keeping our own differences. This is the first time the Kurds are represented to this degree (in parliament). The ruling party must assess properly this chance," Tuncel said in televised remarks.

The fascist Ankara regime has also extended the OHAL in Culemêrg, Sêrt, and Şirnex until December. Expect unlimited future extensions of the State of Emergency, especially since the regime's new president, Abdullah Gül, will begin a tour of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan this week in order to visit the TSK and have discussions with it. That's right, this is the same Abdullah Gül that the Turkish military ostensibly opposed, but at least it's clear that there is something the Islamist fascists and the secular fascists can agree upon--continued brutal repression of the Kurdish people.

CIA asset Osama bin Laden, who's been instrumental in furthering the War on Terror, Inc.,has a new video out and it's already been denounced as faked due to video freezes. From Booman Tribune via Cryptome:

Osama Bin Laden's widely publicized video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 58 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary events and could have been (and likely were) made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Britain's neoconservative Sunday Telegraph tries very hard to make the video sound legit, even quoting the incredibly stupid CIA director, Michael Hayden:

The tape contained no direct threats, but Michael Hayden, the CIA director, gave a speech on Friday, after he was briefed on its contents, in which he said: "Al-Qaeda is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction, and significant economic aftershocks."

A more accurate rendering of Hayden's Friday speech to the elitist Council on Foreign Relations can be found in an analysis by Scott Horton at Harper's:

CIA Director Michael Hayden came to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Friday afternoon to deliver remarks and to field some questions. It quickly became apparent that General Hayden has never been put through that SERE training program that the Air Force uses to prepare its pilots for hostile interrogation. He did a fine job trotting out his speaking points in his main presentation. But he collapsed into a flustered mass of contradictions as soon as he faced critical questioning. Indeed, check out the podcast that the Council has put up on its website, but go straight to the last 12 minutes of the hour-long appearance—that’s where Hayden faces the tough questions–and where the tires come off.

[ . . . ]

The real question in the end of the day is simple: are the strategies that Hayden is pursing making the country more or less safe? I have a very clear sense of that question and of the answer. The introduction of torture and torture techniques by this administration has been akin to a group of juvenile delinquents lighting a fire in a living room. The drapes and rug have caught on fire and there is every reason to believe the whole house will burn down if it’s not put out by an outside intervention. We expected that Hayden would be a fire marshal on the scene, putting out the fire and removing the matches from the hands of the offending juveniles. Instead, it turns out that Hayden is just another delinquent.

Our nation’s reputation has been trashed around the world. We are now despised and distrusted by populations which only a few years ago were close allies. We have provided the necessary fuel to resurrect and spread Islamic radicalism around the world. Are we safer as a result of these practices? No, our country is far less safe. The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden remains free to tape his appeals and recruit. And our sense is that Al Qaeda is at least as strong as it was on 9/11. Those are the measures of a widespread failure–it’s a failure of leadership, of vision, of ideas.

Amen. We might as well take the video for what it's intended to be: A propaganda prop to stir up new vigor in the War on Terror, Inc., so that all those benefiting financially from this bogus "war" will continue to benefit unopposed.

Finally, McDonald's has officially become a supporter of the Ankara regime's repression of the Kurdish people by opening a restaurant in Amed (Diyarbakır). At least McDonald's will be incapable of offering any serious competition to local restaurants.

IT'S ALL ABOUT FOREIGN POLICY

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi.

The most interesting thing to happen for many years in US politics. In decades, even. Maybe even in a century or two:

"The American people didn't go in. A few people advising this administration, a small number of people called the "neoconservatives" hijacked our foreign policy. They're responsible, not the American people. They're not responsible; we shouldn't punish them."

Well, actually, the American people have abdicated their civic responsibilities, so they are responsible. The media is also responsible, as the jackass Chris Wallace proves by his stupid comment about al-Q.

Ask yourself something: Which family of the American ruling elite has been very, very close to the bin Laden family for many, many years? Who is it that is a CIA asset from during the Afghan/Soviet war?

Wallace also acted as shill for the administration with his BS about bloodbath (like there's no bloodbath now) or about Iraqis that have assisted the Americans (like the US has welcomed Iraqi refugees with wide open arms). Those are all red herrings.

I suspect the hyena that's laughing throughout the debate is Giuliani the Freak.

"When we make a mistake it is the obligation of the people through their representatives to correct the mistake. No, we've dug a hole for ourselves and we've dug a hole for our party we're losing elections and we're going down next year if we don't change it. And it has all to do with foreign policy and we have to wake up to this fact."

Yes, foreign policy is the issue. It's all about foreign policy, so I'd like to know Ron Paul's position on the military-congressional-industrial complex, weapons give-aways (since the American taxpayer subsidizes weapons sales, the term is a huge misnomer) to genocidal and dictatorial regimes, and American participation in the Deep State.

Bush's arming of dangerous regimes and Dick Cheney's KBR-Halliburton war-profiteering are two examples of the foreign policy problem that the US must "wake up to".

Regarding honor, Governor Huckabee: You can't lose what you've never had.
There's more on this debate at Britain's Guardian.

Who won the debate on Rupert Murdoch's neoconservative channel?





Maybe it will be an interesting election year.

THE BATTLE AGAINST BAYDEMIR

"You might as well stand and fight because if you run, you will only die tired."
~ Vern Jocque.

The battle against Osman Baydemir continues, but today he provided a list to prove the Ankara regime's discrimination against Amed. From Bianet:

Baydemir relisted the evidence of "negative discrimination" that he had presented to the Prime Minsterial Office in August 2005:

*We have been waiting for the solid waste project for a year. We prepared a project according to EU standards and criteria. It should have been in third place among all projects, but was put in eighth place. Thus, it was not accepted into the 2007-2009 programme.
Five files on municipal companies have not been taken to cabinet to be approved.

*We aimed to use an area of around 670,000 square metres for the city. Although there was provision for green space, the project was rejected by the Treasury and the land was not alloted to us.

*We moved the Wood Market out of the city and were forced to buy land for the complex. Normally, municipalities are given land for such projects, but unfortunately we had to pay.

*The Tigris Valley Project has become a concrete, applicable product, but the State Planning Agency has not approved it.

*Despite our insistence, the Regional Development Agency was not founded in Diyarbakir.

Baydemir has promised to send an updated version of the report to all members of parliament.

But Baydemir had more proof of the discrimination of the Ankara central government against the Kurdish-dominated municipalities, as outlined in a letter to the EU, dated March 2007:

The Southeast Anatolia Region is one of the two socio-economically most underdeveloped regions of Turkey, which are heavily populated by Kurdish citizens. Population of the cities such as Diyarbakir and Batman has almost tripled due to the protracted situation of conflict related to the Kurdish problem, and urban life and services in most of the provinces located in the region have been paralyzed.

[ . . . ]

Turkey's excessively centralist governmental structure, most of whom do not have political representation in the national parliament due to the 10% national election bar, can express their democratic demands and participate in decision-making processes in and through the municipalities. However, the legal and administrative pressures over the municipalities in the region have recently increased significantly. Especially the municipalities who are members of the Democratic Society Party have been subjected to countless investigations, court cases and penalties. As basic constituent elements of local democracy of the region, our municipalities have been put into a dysfunctional situation due to such practices of the central government.

Now, of course, there are Kurds and pro-Kurdish Turks in the TBMM whose voices will be heard, but that is the only difference between today and March, when Baydemir wrote his letter.

More details on the discrimination of Ankara against the Kurdish-dominated municipalities can be found in the report that accompanied Osman Baydemir's letter to the EU. The letter and the report provide a rebuttal to Erdoğan's words yesterday, after an investigation was opened against Baydemir:

Erdoğan responded to Baydemir yesterday during his party's parliamentary group meeting. “No one can dare abuse our people in a certain town. We have never applied discrimination among our citizens,” the prime minister said. He said their three red lines were ethnic, regional and religious nationalism. “The AKP will not let this society's fault lines be broken,” he said.

AKP's entire record for the last four years is nothing but one continuous exercise in discrimination against the Kurdish people. The discrimination continues in the legal action that is still ongoing against Kurdish singer, Ferhat Tunc:

At a concert in Alanya (district of Antalya, southern Turkey) on 22 July last year, singer Ferhat Tunc had said, "Just as every soldier who dies in this country is counted as a child of this country, so every guerrilla who is killed is a child of this country. My heart burns for every dead soldier, my heart bleeds for every dead guerrilla."

Tunc is being tried under Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terrorism Law for this comment, and is first due in court on 4 October at the Izmir 10th Heavy Penal Court.

In addition, the Malatya Public Prosecution has begun an investigation into Tunc for "spreading propaganda for the Maoist Communist Party (MKP)". AT a concert on 12 August 2006, he had dedicated a song to "the 17". The fact that members of the audience chanted "Dersim [the old name for Tunceli] is proud of you" has been interpreted as proof for his crime.

As for the description of "Maoist," it's a Turkish propaganda ploy that's already been hacked here.

It's clear that the Ankara regime has turned its back on the Kurds.

A WAR BY ANY OTHER NAME

"My life is simple, my food is plain, and my quarters are uncluttered. In all things, I have sought clarity. I face the troubles and problems of life and death willingly. Virtue, integrity and courage are my priorities. I can be approached, but never pushed; befriended but never coerced; killed but never shamed."
Yi Sun Shin.

Bianet has an article by some kind of peacenik in which the wildly popular mayor of Kurdistan's capital city, Osman Baydemir, is criticized for saying that the Ankara regime has declared war on Amed.

Peace junkies are worse than useless and the one writing the article is no different. There is a huge disconnect in the minds of these peace-at-all-costs types because they never seem to remember the little details that cause a people to rebel in the first place. Here we see that the author is perturbed by Baydemir's embrace of war "discourse," but what other workd would accurately describe the Ankara regime's stance toward the Kurdish people, except the word "war?" And Baydemir's adoption of the "war" metaphor is called "unfortunate" and discredits his dedication to his people and his city.

Now let's think real hard for a moment: Who was it that declared war on Amed and the Kurdish people? The time was March 2006. The person was PM Erdoğan. Erdoğan's statement was:

“The events are under control... Security forces will intervene with every possible means indiscriminately, including against women and children.”

This is the same guy who gets his dander up whenever Turkey's ally, Israel, does the same to Palestinians. He's just like his mentor, Fethullah Gülen, in this and I can just picture him bawling his eyes out on cue, just like old Hodjaefendi always manages to do.

Except, naturally, when it comes to Turkish murder of Kurds, in which case they are more than eager to give the order to fire.

After the Amed Serhildan, every attempt by Baydemir and other DTP politicians to talk to the PM were refused. Erdoğan's Islamist party, the AKP, were joined by its opposition, the CHP, in placing their boot firmly on the neck of Kurdistan. The Islamists and the Kemalists can't agree on anything unless it's genocide of the Kurdish people.

And now it's Osman Baydemir who's accused, in so many words, of being a warmonger. Isn't that damned typical?

Osman Baydemir has stood by his people in the most difficult times and he's proven he's not the type to turn tail and run, even in the face of some mealy-mouthed peace-freak journalist who feigns so much concern for this seemingly strange turn in Baydemir's language. But what is it that Baydemir said?

"Only yesterday and today you are trying to declare war on Diyarbakir. I say it clearly, we are here for dialogue, for collaboration. But if you do not join, and if you declare war on Diyarbakir, then I say clearly that the Diyarbakir people, me and my friends, will never run away from a declared war. If you declare war, we are here, the Diyarbakir people are here, the mayors are here. We have been with our people through good and bad times and we will continue to do so."

Bijît, heval! Keep it up! You are absolutely correct.

But our peace-loving author seems to labor under the delusion that war against the Kurdish people is a thing of the past:


In his speeches Baydemir has frequently referred to peace. In an area where in the past only militarist projects were supported, he should be staying away from language which emphasises war.


At this moment in the very same region only militarist projects are being supported. There is an OHAL in Sêrt, Culemêrg, and Şirnex. Chemical weapons continue to be used against the freedom fighters of the PKK and the bodies of şehîds are not returned to their families in order to hide the evidence of chemical weapons on the bodies. The Turkish military, NATO's second largest army, conducts joint military operations with Iran and bombs Kurdish civilians right out of their villages in South Kurdistan. Whole villages in North Kurdistan are denied medical treatment so that babies end up as the victims of murder as a result, and the villagers themselves are slowly starved because the Turkish military refuses to allow food shipments.

In addition to those who joined the ranks of HPG's şehîds in the last couple of weeks, ten Turkish soldiers gave their lives at the end of last week for the stupidity of the Ankara regime's genocidal Kurdish policy, along with a JITEM informer.

If OHAL, the denial of medical treatment, forced starvation, the use of chemical weapons, and continued military operations--including those with the Teheran regime--are not war, then what in the hell should we call this?

Hevallo has more on the same subject and he wants to start a discussion about PKK as freedom fighters, which is exactly what they are.

Context. It's all about context.

CHOLERA AND CORRUPTION

Money and Corruption
Are ruining the land
Crooked politicians
Betray the working man,
Pocketing the profits
And treating us like sheep,
And we're tired of hearing promises
That we know they'll never keep.
~ Ray Davies.

A Lebanese company is going to build a plush, $55 million hotel in Hewlêr, to be completed by October 2009.

Hello! Are any of the power-mongers in South Kurdistan awake?? Could we have clean water first, and a working water sanitation system?

Well, I guess this tells me exactly where the priorities lie for the ruling elites of South Kurdistan. What a waste!

More on the loser ruling elites of South Kurdistan at Uruknet:

Wonder, does the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq has been unable to supply the population with clean while its share of the annual State budget nearly seven billion dollars?? The oil money? In addition to the revenues from taxes and internal customs duties that they don’t share with the central government, not to mention the assistance from here and there to build a school or university or hospital or other assistance obtained by the Kurdish authorities from governmental and non-governmental organizations ..

In fact, the share has been less before the fall of Saddam government, which did not receive more than 13% of oil imports.

Where that money went??

Or is it going to Kurdish warlord’s pockets?

Good question. I'd love to hear the answer to that one.

By the way, can anyone tell me what "Pezak" means?

Hehehe . . . I guess the brilliant researchers at the NYTimes haven't figured out how to use Google yet.

The best thing about the mullahtocracy's bombardment of South Kurdistan is that it will inspire more to join the honorable ranks of the PKK. I mean, who wouldn't love to nail a filthy pasdaran right between the eyes?

WHERE WMD'S REALLY ARE

"All of the efforts that we have developed to pave the way towards peace are being destroyed by military operations. The most recent example of this is that the bodies of the dead killed in a military operation in the provinces of Sirnak were not given back to their families. This situation only strengthens allegations that chemical weapons were used during the operation."
~ DTP Statement on World Peace Day.

Hevallo has been keeping up with the continued joint Iranian/Turkish bombardment of South Kurdistan, so you should check his blog for the latest. He notes the persistent and deafening silence of Western warmongers over this matter. As per the article linked in Hevallo's post:

Even in Washington, where any interference by Iran in Iraqi affairs normally results in accusations and warnings from the Bush administration, any opposition to the Iranian attacks on the border region remains firmly behind closed doors.

Interestingly enough, a short report on a condemnation by the MEK's Maryam Rajavi of the bombardment begins thusly:

Despite international condemnations of the mullahs’ regime for shelling people of Iraqi Kurdistan, the brutal attacks continue.

The question here that immediately pops to mind is: What international condemnations? There have been no international condemnations.

And so it goes because, in addition to the joint Iranian/Turkish bombardment of South Kurdistan, there is another set of war crimes that go unmentioned by the West. But these crimes, too, are not unnoticed. They are the use of chemical weapons by NATO's second largest army against Kurdish gerîlas. From Özgür Gündem:

11 HPG guerrillas were martyred in Uzungecit, Sirnak. It was claimed that chemical weapons were used against the guerrillas. The claim was supported by the deaths of two horses and eight sheep in the area where the operation took place.

On 23 August, TSK operation against the guerrillas resulted in the following HPG martyrs: Zarife Adıbelli (Roza Mardin), Şenay Güçer (Delila Meyaser), Rahime Tuncer (Avesta Amed), İdris Babat (Xwinrej Botan), Ahmet Kara (Adok Farqin), İshak Yakut (Amed Akdağ), Deniz Türk (Andok Deniz), Eyüp Haydar (Erdal Serkeftin), Aziz Muhammed (Eşref Cilo), Nasır Aydın (İsyan Brusk) and Cebrail Turan (Rohat Dilpak)

After examining the bodies of the guerrillas, it was claimed that chemical weapons were used based on signs on the bodies. In addition to the signs, two horses and eight sheep died while they were grazing in the area where the operation took place. Shepherds said, "We took our sheep for grazing as usual. yesterday we took them to the place where the operation took place. Eight of the animals fell down after grazing for a while. After we realized they were dead, we took the rest of the flock away. Meanwhile, two horses died."

It was the use of chemical weapons against the gerîlas that sparked the Amed Serhildan last year:

The clashes started with the killing of 14 HPG (People’s Defensive Forces of Kurdish Liberation Movement (KLM)) guerrilla fighters. The HPG claimed that chemical weapons had been used against the guerrillas and demanded that NGOs should investigate the incidence. The families of the guerrillas said that they saw burns and other signs of chemical weapons on their corpses. This information triggered large-scale demonstrations in Diyarbakir during the funeral.

Chemical weapons had been used in an operation in February 2006, just previous to the one that killed the 14 gerîlas and set off region-wide demonstrations:

Starting on February 26, 2006, multiple Kurdish news sources in Europe broadcast allegations by Kurdish villagers that the Turkish military had used chemical weapons during a military operation against PKK rebels.

[ . . . ]

These allegations motivated many Kurdish residents of the Dargecit District to take part in demonstrations condemning the Turkish military operation. After thousands attended the funerals of the seven men, Turkish forces allegedly set up blockades within the Dargecit District and arrested 28 villagers.

Murat Karayilan, chairman of the Democratic Confederation of Kurdistan, was quoted by Firat (a pro-Kurdish European news agency) as saying, “There is some evidence indicating that the [Turkish] government has used chemical weapons against our legitimate defense forces during the fighting that took place in Kerboran [Dargecit District]. We call on human rights organizations and pro-democracy organizations to investigate those reports.”

In April 2006, DozaMe posted a link to the bodies of several HPG gerîlas who had been killed by TSK's use of chemical weapons in 2003. The bodies appeared to have been burned by a chemical blister agent. Around the same time in April of 2006, Bianet reported on the Turkish government's decision to bury HPG gerîlas in the field where they were killed, even without proper autopsy procedures. Such a decision violates international law as well as the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, it's ironic that Ankara's Islamist-dominated government virtually declared Kurds of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan to be infidels, by adopting the procedure of "burial where killed," as DozaMe noted at the time.

The Kurdish-dominated DTP had called for an investigation into the accusation of the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish military in 2006. Last week, DTP accused the TSK of using chemical weapons, citing the information originally published on ÖG as given above. More on that at TDN. Last Friday, the Ankara chief prosecutor's office brought an investigation against DTP parliamentarian Ahmet Türk for his statement on the TSK's use of chemical weapons in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

From Sabah we learn that the policy of "burial where killed" is still in effect. Naturally this policy suits the Turkish general staff because it allows the state to murder with chemical weapons and then hide the evidence of the use of such weapons of mass destruction on the battlefield.

It should be noted that Turkey is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention and is a member of The Australia Group, an organization devoted to "ridding the world of chemical and biological weapons."

However, a report put together last year by Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy mentioned a secret directive of the Turkish general staff dated 25 February 1986, which outlined the orders and directions given for the use of chemical weapons by the TSK against the PKK. The directive was signed by Major General Necdet Öztorun. In the summer of 1989, a Turkish magazine (İkibine Dorğu) published information about the directive. In 1999, the use of chemical weapons against Kurdish gerîlas in Şirnex was confirmed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Munich. The information was broadcast on the German TV channel, ZDF. Apparently, the chemical used in the attack in Şirnex had been supplied to Turkey by a German company.

As mentioned by Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, there have been a number of reports of the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish military against the PKK dating back to the beginning of the 1990s, including: a chemical attack in February 1988 in which 30 gerîlas were killed in Bakok and reported by The Cyprus Mail; the use of chemical weapons against gerîlas in September 1991, in Dersim near Genç, as reported by The Baltimore Sun; and a reference by IHD of the deaths of 20 gerîlas in July 2001, in Dersim's Elmalı area, by the Turkish military's use of chemical weapons.

Although you won't read or hear about this in Western media because it won't look good that a NATO member is using WMD's against one of it's own minority ethnic groups, at least we know who really has WMD's in the Middle East and who is using them.

In the meantime, check the new body count at DozeMe.

TRAGEDY IN CALIFORNIA

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next."
~ Gilda Radner.

Tragedy has struck for Kurdish activist Kani Xulam. Six members of his family were killed in an airplane crash in Kern County, California on Friday, 31 August. From the LATimes:

It was a typical end-of-summer outing. Having never been to the lake area near Bakersfield, the family members decided to fly up for the long holiday weekend.

"They were supposed to have fun," Sal Yaman, nephew of the Santa Monica resident who piloted the plane, said Saturday. "Now they're all dead. There's no fun left."

The six, including two small children, were killed Friday when a private plane that took off from Santa Monica Airport crashed near Kern Valley Airport in the Sierra foothills, authorities said.

The victims, according to Yaman, included Adam Pasori, 56, the pilot; David Pasori, his brother, in his early 40s; Mila Kuygusuz, a sister also in her 40s; Kuygusuz's two daughters, Nasrin, 5 months old, and Meriem, 2 years old; and Sibel, Adam Pasori's wife, in her 30s.

[ . . . ]

"They were going to a lake in Bakersfield," said Yaman, at an apartment in Santa Monica where at least 20 family members and friends had gathered to mourn. "According to the fire department, Adam wanted to land but had to turn around. When he went to make a U-turn. . . all of a sudden he loses control. He was 300 feet in the air."

Yaman said Kuygusuz's husband, Adam, was driving to Kern County to meet them.

"When he got there, the tragedy had already happened," said Yaman. "An hour earlier, he was calling the family to see how they were, but there was no answer. When he sees all that activity [near the airport], he says, 'This is it.' The cops tell him no one survived."

More at KurdishMedia.

I wish to express my deepest sympathy for Kani Xulam and his surviving family at this time of such terrible tragedy. This kind of loss seems to be much worse because of the sudden and total end to so many lives.

Xodê efû aza bi ketîn. Serê yet mayî sax bin.

Allah rahmet eylesin. Başınız sağolsun.