OLD, DEAD, CRIMINAL

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress."
~ Mark Twain.

Yeah, okay . . . I wasn't going to say anything, but after hearing an overblown, completely undeserved eulogy for the dead Tom Lantos on the local public radio station, I'm not letting it pass.

You'll remember Tom Lantos from Sibel Edmonds' Rogues' Gallery. He spent most of his time in Congress, in the service of the Deep State, helping to hand Turkey the American weapons it needed to carry out a genocide of the Kurdish people. That's quite an accomplishment for the only Holocaust survivor in the US Congress.

And since he was a Holocaust survivor, he knew exactly what genocide was. He knew that what Turkey does to its own Kurdish population is genocide. He knew what the Ottomans did to their Armenian population was genocide. Yet, cynically, he introduced the Armenian Genocide resolution into Congress last year because he was still sore over Turkey's refusal to allow a US deployment from Turkey into Iraq in 2003, not because this self-styled Congressional human rights "expert" gave so much as a fig for a bunch of dead Armenians or the feelings of Armenian survivors. But, Lantos was always like that.

His only concern about "terrorism" in Turkey extended to attacks against synagogues and American allies, giving Lantos the chance to preach Global War on Terror, Inc., from his pulpit in the Congress.

Lantos never recognized the terrorism of the Turkish state against the Kurdish people which resulted in tens of thousands of dead in some twenty years, the forcible removal of Kurds from their lands and villages, the torture, rape, and extrajudicial murders that were so commonplace in the 1990s. Lantos never recognized Turkish terrorism that, in legal terminology, is properly called genocide.

The best obit comes from 2003, from the keyboard of Wayne Madsen, writing for Counterpunch:

He is a fake, a phony and a complete fraud. He constantly stresses his victimhood: first as a Holocaust survivor in Nazi-run Hungary and then as a refugee when the Communists took power. He fancies himself as the leading human rights specialist on Capitol Hill. In fact, this odious so-called Democrat is a master of deception and propaganda and a wallower in corrupt campaign money.

A variation of "corrupt campaign money" may be exactly why Sibel Edmonds included Lantos' photo in her gallery, only instead of campaign money, Lantos may well have been on the take for Turkish bribes, bribes that helped secure his loyalty to that great American and Israeli ally.

But Madsen's article mentions a minor item, something seemingly innocuous: "The relationship between Lantos and Hill and Knowlton, the agents of past brutal dictatorships in Indonesia and Turkey, makes Lantos's congressional monopoly on human rights advocacy an outrageous fraud."

Hill and Knowlton (H&K) was Turkey's PR firm of choice, at least in the 1990s. Lantos worked with H&K to sell the Gulf War. Interestingly enough, H&K also spins PR for the nuclear industry.

In addition to taking Turkish bribes, Lantos also may have been involved with the nuclear side of Turkish espionage, too, along with the State Department's former number 3, Marc Grossman.

All of it would be so ironic if it weren't so disgusting, and that's why we need public hearings on everything Sibel Edmonds knows.


NEWSFLASH: Some nice person--thank you to her--sent me some links in email. Apparently the Clinton-Çelebi relationship is starting to make the rounds of the fascist right-wing and has prompted a response by the Jewish community of Chicago in defense of Çelebi and the Turkey-Israel relationship.

From NRO's blog:

Sirs: As a reader with high regard for NR, please let me assure you that Mehmet Celebi is most definitively neither an anti-Semite nor an ulta-nationalist. Nor was he a producer of the vile "Valley of the Wolves." A company of which he is co-owner supplied actors without knowing in advance of the movie's ugly slant. Mr. Celebi—a respected young entrepreneur—is in the vanguard of fruitful co-operation between Chicago's Jewish and Turkish communities. The future of harmony with moderate Muslims lies with people like Mr. Celebi.

Believe me, I know. I am chair emeritus of our city's Jewish Community Relations Council as well as ex-National Vice-Chair of ADL and am deeply involved with Turkey and its Jewish community. If you want further proof, check with Chicago's Jewish Federation and ADL. The fact that this story originated with Kurdish sources should have put you on guard. As a lawyer and writer, I am appalled that you didn't check with Mr. Celebi and people who know him. I don't mind your opposition to the Clinton campaign, I am supporting a Republican, and I recently published a denunciation of the Clinton-Sandy Berger machinations to hide the truth that Bill once passed an opportunity to nab Osama and then lied about it. But please make some effort to check your facts. Elementary decency should impel you to remove these lies from your website and apologize to Mr.Celebi and the Clinton campaign.

Thanks for listening.

Joel J. Sprayregen, Esq., Chicago IL.

The racist who wrote this letter is concerned that Çelebi's association with Kurtlar Vadisi Irak is the result of a lie "originated with Kurdish sources." That should give you an idea of how tight the genociders are with each other.

For more on the Mehmet Çelebi's support of Clinton; his actual, real-and-for-true involvement with Kurtlar Vadisi Irak; and his racism, see the following:

Hillary Horning In on Hastert

Politics, Folly, and Schizophrenia

Clintons, Kurds, More Conflicts of Interest

The Video Hillary Doesn't Want You to See

And here's a little something to go along with the video.


Spread the word.

ERDOĞAN'S HYPOCRISY ACT IN GERMANY

"Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it."
~ Lily Tomlin.

Here's hypocrisy for you. Compare:

A crowd of 16,000 expatriate Turks cheered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a vast indoor auditorium in Germany on Sunday as he told them to resist assimilation into the West. The political rally by Germany's biggest ethnic minority upset German politicians, who objected to a major public event on German soil being advertised on posters in Turkish only.

Erdogan indirectly addressed those concerns, saying it was right for Turkish immigrants to learn German and other languages so they could integrate, but wrong to abandon their Turkish heritage and assimilate.

"Assimilation is a crime against humanity," he told the crowd. Many Turks had travelled from France, Belgium and the Netherlands to hear his hour-long address in the shiny venue, the Koelnarena.

Contrast:

Turkish policy towards the Kurds was for many years determined by the 1924 constitution, which refused to acknowledge the possibility of any ethnic identity other than that of the Turks. The only exception to this rule was in the case of non-Muslims.

[ . . . ]

According to the constitution, those Turkish citizens who were not Turks in ethnic terms were to be assimilated. It was under this principle that the Republic carried out its policy towards the Kurds.

The Kurdish revolts which were repeatedly directed against this policy were put down in short order, and the policy of "Turkification" functioned almost perfectly until the 1970s.

[ . . . ]

But a new Kurdish opposition, which fundamentally opposed the government's policy on the Kurds, arose in the early seventies. This opposition, led largely by doctors, lawyers and students who had studied in Western Turkey, was characterised by a left-wing rhetoric.

The military putsch of 1980 saw the movement, which was increasingly finding support among the poor Kurdish farmers, thoroughly destroyed.

In the following years, the government pushed its policy of assimilation more energetically by means of military repression. In spite of the transition to a civilian government in 1983, the state of emergency in the areas where the Kurds lived remained in place.

The most public result of this policy of repression was the clear domination of the Kurdish opposition by those who supported a military line. The PKK, which wanted to win an independent Kurdistan using a strategy of guerilla warfare, emerged as almost the only important Kurdish organisation after 1980.

Contrast again:

An important development in the world of journalism that Can Dundar and Ridvan Akar witnessed to shows how the military coup in 1960 was a rejection of the Kurds and the Kurdish question.

The Cabinet of the military coup prepared a report that became an important letter of decisions and signed by a colonel, were sent to the coalition of AP-CHP under the chairman of Ismet Inonu.

[ . . . ]

The leaders of the military coup put the report into the archives and now 47 years later the report is being revealed.

The report rejects the Kurds and the Kurdish question. But in reality the report reveals the Kurdish question and the Kurds in Turkey. The report seeks to achieve assimilation. The report wants the Kurds to be forcedly cut off from relations with all their roots and their language and this way their identity shall be annihilated.

It is very obvious that the politics of assimilation that have been the main politics of the state. From the leaders of the military coup of 27 May.

Another important aspect of the report is that the Kurds shall be forced by the state to leave their homes in the Southeast and it continues as follows:

''In the region Turks shall be placed in order to 'make those who believe that they are Kurds' into Turks and Turks from the Black Sea shall be replaced in the region so that Kurds shall be convinced to leave for places that are economically better and through this way more Turks will be placed everywhere.''

Another contrast:

In Turkey, the Kurds contributed to the War of Independence (1919-23), but in the immediate post-1923 period Kemal Atatürk rejected the Kurds’ demands for autonomy, severely crushed Kurdish revolts in the 1920s and 1930s and pursued a strategy aimed at their assimilation into the Turkish nation, using both education and military force. For decades, Turkey, whose Kurds make up to 20 percent of the country’s population, simply denied that they existed — they were “mountain Turks” — and systematically tried to destroy their Kurdishness (Kurdayetî in Kurdish, Kürtçuluk in Turkish); the Kurdish language and open expressions of Kurdish culture were forbidden. More than 50 years after his death, Atatürk’s stamp on the basic character of the state continues to cast a long shadow that few dare to challenge openly.

So, who is guilty of crimes against humanity, Tayyip?

Compare:

"I can well understand that you are against assimilation," he said. "It is important to learn German, but your Turkish language should not be neglected."

Contrast, from Amir Hassanpour:

The policy of Republican Turkey since its establishment in 1923, is a typical case of what has been called "linguicide" or "linguistic genocide" (cf. below). Replacing the loosely integrated Ottoman state, Republican Turkey was established as a highly centralized, secular and westernized nation-state based on Turkish ethnic identity. The practice of centralization and Turkification led to a number of Kurdish revolts (in 1925, 1927-31, 1930-38) which were severly repressed (cf. Jwaideh 1960:593-640).

Policy on the Kurdish language was based on a more general and long-term aim of changing the ethnic composition of the Kurds, who formed the most numerous and densely populated non-Turkish people in the country. To achieve this end, the Turkish government deported hundreds of thousands of people from Kurdistan to Turkish-inhabited regions of the country, conducted mass executions after each revolt, the resettled Turkish immigrants from Europe in the Kurdish areas in the 1920s-1940s (documentation is available in Rambout 1947; Kenda 1980a:58-68; Bedr Khan 1928). By the late 1930s, all the Kurdish provinces were effectively controlled by the military who, established a police post in every village of some size (van Bruinessen 1984:8).

Forcing the Kurds to abondon their language and become native speakers of Turkish is the primary goal of the language policy. Various methods have been used in the past seven decades to eliminate the Kurdish language.

[ . . . ]

The all-round attempt to eliminate the Kurdish people and their language has partly succeeded in thinning out the once densely populated Kurdistan, in Turkifying large numbers of Kurds, and bringing Kurdish national culture (oral and written literature, music, and dress) to the verge of extinction. The harsh methods of repression have made it difficult for the Kurds to reveal their ethnic identity. A Western student of "political elites," for example, found out that few Kurdish deputies "professed (or acknowledges) an ability to speak Kurdish" (Frey 1965:109). Similarly, a Kurdish official involved in taking the 1965 census observed that many Kurds who were not familiar with Turkish preferred to declare themselves as Turkish speakers to avoid trouble (Kendal 1980a:48).

[ . . . ]

Although the Kurdish language in Turkey is not dead yet, prospects for its extinction do exist. "Language death" has happened and is happenning in all parts of the world (Dorian 1981:1-2) largely due to non-linguistic reasons (Adler 1977:2). In Turkey, the Armenian people and their language were eliminated largely through physical extinction planned by the Ottoman and Republican regimes.(15) Similar methods have been applied to the much larger Kurdish population and, if regional amd international conditions permit, the Armenian experience may be repeated. (16) President Özal's policy on lifting the ban on spoken Kurdish in January 1991 does not indicate a change in the ideology and politics of the Turkish state. This policy is tactical and is part of the desperate efforts to save the Ataturkist state in the face of a serious economic, political, cultural and ideological crisis. (17)

Another contrast, from Mehmed Uzun:

Uzun was the author of about a dozen novels in Kurdish and Turkish, including "In the Shadow of a Lost Love," and was considered one of the leading pioneers of modern Kurdish literature.

He fled to Sweden in 1977 after serving a brief prison term on Kurdish separatism charges for his writings in the magazine Rizgazi, of which he was a managing editor.

In 2000, Uzun was again prosecuted for instigating separatism for a speech he made in Diyarbakir, in which he slammed Turkey's ban on the Kurdish language and called for Kurds to be educated in Kurdish. He was not present for the hearings, but through his lawyer submitted written testimony. Uzun was acquitted.

"Turkish should remain as the official language, but Kurds should be educated in Kurdish in their own regions," Uzun had said in his speech.

Speaking Kurdish was forbidden until 1990. Turkey continued to ban the use of the Kurdish language in schools, official settings and broadcasts other than music until 2002, when — under pressure from the European Union — it allowed a limited amount of Kurdish programs on state-owned radio and television. It still refuses to allow Kurdish education in schools, saying it would divide the country.

[ . . . ]

He recalled how he was punished on his first day at school for speaking Kurdish.

"I was slapped because I spoke Kurdish — I couldn't even speak Turkish!" he told Milliyet.

Yet another contrast, from Osman Baydemir:

The beginning of talks with the EU in 1999 led to the improvement of conditions for the Kurds in Turkey. Prior to that, Kurdish people were forbidden to name their children Kurdish names, but now this has changed. Also, the Kurdish language which is not officially recognized was dealt with differently on an official level; today Turkish television broadcasts 45 minutes in the Kurdish language.

Although we consider these to be major developments, we also consider 45 minutes to be too short. Over the span of 80 years, the Turkish state used to tell us that there was no such thing as ‘Kurd’ or ‘Kurdish’. You are the mountain Turks, meaning that you live in the mountains. The state used to consider us backward Turks. At last they have recognized us as Kurds (laughs), which is a considerable improvement for us.

However; the problem is that despite some modifications, the authority’s manner in dealing with and resolving the Kurdish issue has not radically changed. In fact, starting from October 2005, the Turkish state began to retract these small steps that it had taken towards reform and the military confrontation flared up once again and the killing resumed.

Furthermore, the cultural rights of the Kurdish people have diminished. The situation in 2002 and 2003 was far better than the current situation. For example, Abdullah Demirbas, the former mayor of the Sur district in Diyarbakir who was dismissed from office, as were all the members of the municipal council [which was dissolved], who all suffered the same fate because they had offered some municipal services in other languages, Kurdish and English along with the Turkish language.

Another example is the fact that there are 30 lawsuits filed against me, all of which are related to use of the Kurdish language. On the Kurdish New Year, or Nowruz [celebrated 21 March] we used to send out greeting cards. I wrote in the greeting cards “Happy New Year” in Turkish, Kurdish and English and I sent them to the president, prime minister, the MPs and the heads of courts in Diyarbakir.

[ . . . ]

The truth is that the human mind cannot accept such practices. In the 21st century, there exists a language that is spoken by 20 million people, which is the Kurdish language, and it is prohibited. There are dozens of similar examples pertaining to the letter ‘w’.

Compare:

He [Erdoğan] said ethnic Turks abroad should be more confident in standing up for their interests, and should win election as mayors and members of European national parliaments.

Contrast, from the last election:

With parliamentary elections approaching later this year, Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish political party is finding itself at a crossroads, beset by increasing pressure from both within and without.

In recent weeks, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) has endured a crackdown, with dozens of its top leaders arrested or jailed and several of its offices raided by the police. An Ankara court in February sentenced party co-chairs Aysel Tugluk and Ahmet Turk to 1 1/2 years in prison after DTP workers distributed political pamphlets in the Kurdish language, violating Turkish law. Soon after, Turk was sentenced by another court to an additional six months for "praising" Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the guerrilla Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), by referring to him in a speech as "sayin Ocalan," the equivalent of "Mr. Ocalan" in Turkish. Tugluk and Turk are free pending an appeal.

Local DTP have also been caught up in the crackdown. For example, Metin Tekce, the DTP mayor of the city of Hakkari in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, was sentenced by a court on March 19 to seven years in jail after he said in a press conference that the PKK was not a terrorist group and that he was proud to be Kurdish. "The state is giving us a lot of trouble. They are coming after us systematically," says Osman Keser, the DTP mayor of Yakapinar, a municipal district of Adana, a large city near Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

"Anything we say now gets us in trouble," adds the mayor, who is among 56 other DTP mayors currently facing charges for having written an open letter in support of Roj TV, a Kurdish-language satellite network broadcasting out of Denmark. The Turkish government is trying to shut the channel down.

[ . . . ]

"The crackdown is a process of intimidation and judicial harassment of the party," says Reyhan Yalcindag, vice president of the Human Rights Association, a Turkish watchdog group. "As human rights defenders, we are very concerned."

Contrast, from the Federation of American Scientists:

The Turkish government has consistently thwarted attempts by the Kurds to organize politically. Kurdish political parties are shut down one after another, and party members are harassed and imprisoned for "crimes of opinion." Most famously, in 1994 Leyla Zana--who, three years prior, had been the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish parliament--was sentenced to 15 years for "separatist speech." Her party was banned. More recently, in June the leaders of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) were sentenced to several-year prison terms for allegedly having ties with the outlawed PKK guerillas. The state prosecutors' evidence consisted largely of press releases found in the HADEP offices from a news agency close to the PKK.

Yet another contrast, from Human Rights Watch:

Meanwhile, attempts to organize and articulate the Kurdish identity through parliamentary politics have been consistently frustrated. Since 1971, every party that has explicitly voiced the need to tackle the problems of the Kurdish minority has been closed down as "separatist" under Article 81 of the Law on Political Parties which forbids mention of racial or religious minorities. In the 1990s alone, eight political parties were shut down on these grounds. The People's Labor Party (HEP) and its successor parties have been subjected to relentless persecution by the state and its security forces for over a decade.

HEP scored notable successes in the 1991 election, winning twenty-two parliamentary seats. However, when HEP deputies went to take up their parliamentary seats, there was a near-riot in the assembly. Leyla Zana, a HEP deputy, appeared wearing the "Kurdish colours" (red, yellow and green) in her hair and announced in Kurdish that she was taking her parliamentary oath in Turkish under protest. Many of those enraged by this act mistakenly believed that these were the colours of the PKK. The Ankara State Prosecutor, who drew up the indictment against Zana, was among those who reacted strongly to the incident. As HEP began to be perceived as the political wing of the PKK, it became very dangerous to be a local HEP official. Brutal raids on the party's offices were carried out with monotonous regularity, and those detained were, almost without exception, tortured.

Kurdish political leaders have also been murdered. Fifty-seven members and officials of HEP and its successors DEP and HADEP have been killed since 1991. In September 1993, the DEP parliamentary deputy Mehmet Sincar was shot dead in broad daylight. The killers were never arrested, and many believe the security forces were behind the killings. There is a good deal of evidence to support such a claim. Muhsin Melik, president of the Urfa branch of DEP, was attacked outside his office in Urfa in June 1994. Before he died, he made a statement in front of witnesses that he recognized his assailants as police officers who had been following him for some time.

Don't talk the talk if you won't walk the walk, Tayyip.

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE MOUNTAINS

"Photography teaches that how well you see has nothing to do with how well you see."
~ Anonymous.

First prize in the People in the News Stories category of the 2008 World Press Photo contest by Swiss photographer Philippe Dudouit for Time Magazine showing PKK fighters in southern Kurdistan/northern Iraq 2007 (AP Photo/Philippe Dudouit/Time Magazine).

Thanks to KurdishInfo for bringing the photos to everyone's attention and check the KurdishInfo page for information on each of the photos:

TURKEY'S EU-FUNDED WAR CRIMES IN KURDISTAN

"In Turkey, where the majority of an estimated 25 to 30 million Kurds live, resistance is costly; as the pictures show, even your dead body is not immune from abuse and degradation."
~ Kani Xulam, "Turkey's War Crimes".

ANF, via Özgür Gündem, suspects executions without judgement during recent clashes in Bingöl:

The operation in Dallıtepe village, Bingöl, in whcich TSK clashed with HPG guerrillas, has some contradictory statements from various sources. On the night that the conflict took place, news agencies (Cihan News Agency and Ihlas News Agency) provided news to the Turkish media that five guerrillas were killed and five were captured alive. In addition, the chief of police of Adilcevaz, Bitlis, called Salih Toro to tell him to come and identify one of the martyred guerrillas--his brother--and also that five guerrillas were captured alive.

Salih Toro went from Bitlis to Bingöl to identify the body of his brother based on the information given by the Adilcevaz police station. When he arrived at the Bingöl state hospital morgue, he was shocked to see ten corpses, because he had been told there were five corpses. His brother was not among any of the ten corpses. He realized that the information he received from the police station and the scene he witnessed at the hospital was inconsistent.

Toro then applied to the Bingöl IHD. DTP's Bingöl provincial chairman Ömer Faruk Ersöz mentioned that there were bullet wounds on the heads and through the hearts of the guerrilla corpses. Having previously been a member of a medical staff, Ersöz has some familiarity with wounds. "I used to be a medical staff member. Therefore I know how living organisms react when wounded. The HPG guerrillas that have been shot in the head and through the hearts might have suffered close-range shots. The skin of some of the corpses was peeled and the possibility of this kind of peeling happening during operations is very low. The skin appears as if it had been peeled by a knife."

Turkey abolished capital punishment for all crimes in 2004 but extrajudicial murder continues and all Turkish security forces enjoy impunity.

The hevals at KurdishInfo compiled reports from DIHA and ANF to continue the story--which grows more shocking (English):

In the Bingöl countryside of Dağlıtepe, 10 HGP-guerrillas lost their lives and were taken to the mortuary where the corpses were thrown on a heap allegedly because of a "lack of space". The pro-Kurdish party DTP and Turkey’s Human Rights Association (İHD) said that this was a crime and inhuman treatment.

The Democratic People’s Initiative is urging people to take a stand and see off the guerrillas’ funerals.

The governor of Bingöl, İrfan Balkanlıoğlu, said, "some of them weren’t circumcised". In response to this statement, the DTP province chairman Ömer Faruk Ersöz reacted: "There is a mentality which makes politics upon peoples genitals. The governor should immediately apologise to the people", demanded Ersöz.

The Human Rights Association’s department chairman in Bingöl, Mehmet Şirin Yanılmaz, asserted that "whatever opinion, whatever nation one might be from, the treatment meted out is inhumane. What kind of mindset doesn’t even show respect for the dead? Therefore one must treat everyone with humanity", insisted Yanılmaz.

The Democratic People’s Initiative said that the Turkish government and its army insist on war: "Despite all the efforts to achieve a cessation of fighting, the AKP and its supreme commander Yaşar Büyükanıt keep on insisting on war. It should be well understood that it is this organisation which thrives on blood and conflicts among people", they maintained.

[ . . . ]

As for the guerrillas who lost their lives, the Initiative said that they "send their condolences to the martyrs of freedom and democracy, to the guerrillas’ families, the people, its unquestionable force the PKK, and its military force the HPG. The Kurdish people should take care of their guerrillas wherever they may be. The people should see off the funerals of our guerrillas", they encouraged.

Balkanlıoğlu needs to provide proof of his own circumcision because we certainly can't take his word for it, the dirty, dirty boy. And this incident raises questions about the humanity of good Turkish Muslims like Balkanlıoğlu. Is this the behavior Balkanlıoğlu's religion teaches? Is this the behavior the religion of the mortuary workers teaches them? Or were they simply born as dirty, uncircumcised pigs?

Guess who's been helping to fund these atrocities? The EU. From ANF via Özgür Gündem:

It has been revealed that the EU is subsidizing the TSK under the name of a donation program. Seeing the TSK as the major impediment against democracy, the EU donated 497 million euros in 2007 to the Turkish General Staff.

These donations are made for the TSK's modernization. The EU's economic aid, supplied for the last five years, indicates the EU's hypocrisy. In the EU's 2007 donation program planning, the Turkish General Staff received most of the aid.

For the modernization of the TSK, the EU gave 497 million Euros in economic aid in 2007. This aid will continue in 2008, 2009, and 2010. According to this plan, the EU will donate 538 million Euros in 2008, 566 million Euros in 2009, and 653 million Euros in 2010.

It's kind of odd, don't you think, that the Turkish military and government are so very eager to receive money from the hands of dirty, uncircumcised Europeans?

Well, maybe it's not so odd after all.

DTP MARCHES TO THE MOUNTAINS

"I greet you all from the bottom of my heart. This march is a march of honour. We march so that no mother has to cry for her children any more. We want an honourable life and we want the whole world to see it."
~ Osman Baydemir.

Hevallo has some photos of the DTP's march to the mountains, along with a report from Bianet on the march and its purpose.

TDN also has a report touching on events from Istanbul to Urfa, Kars to Batman to Şirnak, and they are facing the usual regime-enforced hassles:

The DTP's Istanbul deputy, Sebahat Tuncel, who was with the convoy, said at 11:00 p.m., "we are being searched for the fourth time. We left Istanbul at noon. We will go to Şırnak even if it takes a week." The police confiscated the placards on the buses before allowing the convoy to proceed.

The DTP's Şanlıurfa chief, İbrahim Ayhan, claimed the DTP's supporters from all around the country were being prevented from traveling to Şırnak, claiming that drivers of buses and vans were being fined. The DTP's Şanlıurfa deputy, İbrahim Binici, said their attempt was a last ditch effort to protect the brotherhood in the country, adding that they will call for peace in tents they erect at Kasrik.

The vans with which the DTP's convoy from Adana was traveling had to be replaced with buses because the police said the vans did not have the commercial license needed to travel outside the provincial borders.

[People attend a demonstration in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir against cross-border operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq by the Turkish Army February 5, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer (TURKEY)]












And so it went in Kars, Batman, Dersim.

Şırnak deputy, Hasip Kaplan, said if they are prevented from practicing their rights and freedoms, they will resort to civil disobedience. He said their choice for Karsik has a symbolic meaning, adding that the region was routinely used by the military for target practice.

The military has increased security around the Karsik region, which separates the Cudi and Küpeli mountains.

Of course, Fethullah Gülen's Zaman resembled Chicken Little, by attempting to blame DTP for "rais[ing] tension":

The first group, made up of 3,000 supporters including those coming from İstanbul, Mersin and Gaziantep, departed Diyarbakır for Şırnak despite the fact that the Interior Ministry did not issue permission for such an activity.

Before leaving for Diyarbakır one DTP group gathered in front of the DTP building on İstanbul’s Tepebaşı Street and marched towards Dolapdere Street, carrying a banner that said “We march against the [military] operations and in favor of a democratic solution.” DTP İstanbul deputy Sabahat Tuncel spoke to the press at the gathering and said that the group’s aim was to highlight the Kurdish problem and to put an end to tension in southeastern Anatolia.

“Turkey’s agenda is busy with other topics, but the Kurdish question is more urgent,” Tuncel said. However, she refused to comment further on what they will do in Diyarbakır and Şırnak. The group then departed in seven buses.

[Protesters hold portraits of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir February 5, 2008, during a demonstration against cross-border operations against the PKK in northern Iraq by the Turkish Army. REUTERS/Stringer (TURKEY)]










Yes, Turkey's agenda is busy with other topics like turban--the headscarf--a ridiculous distraction for a so-called secular society that is conducting a 30-year war against one-fourth of its own citizens and is bombing the citizens of a neighboring country.

The gathering of so many Kurds in one place increases the pucker factor of the Turkish military (and so it should given the institutionalized incompetence of the TSK):

The gendarmerie maintained a heightened level of security in the province of Şırnak yesterday as groups of pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) supporters began returning from Mt. Cudi, where they had gathered on Tuesday to protest Turkish military operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Or maybe all those brave defenders of America's puppet are simply afraid of little, old Emine Ayna:

Speaking to the press before their departure, DTP Co-chairman Emine Ayna, who joined the march to the mountains, called for Parliament to put an end to the legislation that allows the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to conduct operations against the PKK in northern Iraq and for the PKK to lay down its arms.

Ayna noted, "We hope that our demands will be more meaningful and heard better from here since this is the location where most of the deaths occur."

Saying that the lack of action in dealing with the Kurdish issue had caused deaths, Ayna argued that the Turkish government needs to decide on a solution as soon as possible. She also argued that the PKK is an outcome of the Kurdish problem, adding that rooting the PKK out would not help solve the problem.

Ayna also said: "Each death provokes more hatred among the people. We can solve all the matters by discussion, without anyone dying. Turkey should seek the solution within itself. The US and Europe move only in accordance with their own interests. The permanent solution lies in the equal and free union of all the people of Turkey."

The whole purpose of the march to the mountains is to protest the joint US-Israel-Turkey bombing of South Kurdistan:

Turkish warplanes bombed more than 70 targets in northern Iraq on Monday as part of the government's ongoing battle with a militant Kurdish group that uses the area as a base for attacks in Turkey.

Villagers said they were unable to flee the bombing, which took place at about 3 a.m., because heavy snow had closed many roads.

The severe weather also made it impossible for local officials to determine whether the strikes caused casualties, said Brig. Gen. Omar Sharif of the Iraqi border forces.

[ . . . ]

Sharif said bombs hit the villages of Khou Kurki, Khunereh, Sheneeneh and Lolan in the Sidikan area of Irbil province. He said the bombing lasted at least three hours.

Again its the villagers who are unable to flee the bombing, not the guerrillas because the guerrillas aren't there. Turkey continues to bomb civilians, just like their allies, the Americans and Israelis, and the KRG supports Turkish operations by banning journalists from the region.

I guess it's true then, that the Americans really did bring democracy to South Kurdistan--the same democracy that the US has long supported in Turkey.

PUPPET MASTER AND PUPPET

"Fie, fie, you counterfeit. You puppet, you!"
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has something on the recent arrest of journalists who had visited Qendil to check on the people who'd been forced out of their destroyed homes by joint US-Israel-Turkish bombing of the northern region of South Kurdistan:

Security forces arrested five journalists on 1st February near the Sengeser control post, in Suleimaniyah province, as they returned from the Kandil mountains on the Iraqi-Turkish border. Rahman Gharib was mistreated after he tried to resist the police.

“We went there the evening before to meet people who are suffering from Turkish bombing. We saw that much of the infrastructure - including schools and hospitals - has been destroyed. We interviewed the residents of isolated villages and took photos of the damage”, the journalist told Reporters Without Borders.

They were arrested as they tried to rejoin several colleagues who were waiting for them. Rahman Gharib, Bayez Mohammed, of Hawlati, Salam Abdallah, of the website Kurdistan Post, and freelance journalists Kerwan Salar and Mohammed Çawsin were questioned briefly. Surwan Omar, of the news agency Kurdistan News, was beaten by police when he tried to approach the group.

Earlier, in November 2007, IFEX and RSF had called on the KRG to lift the ban on journalists going to Qendil:

"Kurdistan is one of the few regions in Iraq where local and foreign journalists can move about freely without constant risk to their lives," RSF said. "This ban is a serious violation of their ability to report on the clashes in Iraq between the PKK's fighters and the Turkish army. The regional government in Erbil and the national government in Baghdad must stop blaming journalists for crises."

On 19 November, the Kurdish regional government prohibited journalists from going to meet PKK combatants who have found refuge in the Qandil mountains on the border between Iraq and Turkey. Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Jamal Abdullah said "media reports have led to an acceleration of the crisis with Turkey."

The Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said several journalists were arrested near the Turkish border as a result of the regional government's decision.

Jamal Abdullah is wrong, of course. Erdoğan's November 5 meeting with Bush is what really led to an acceleration of the so-called crisis with Turkey. It's been that way all along.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane. In November 2002, the AKP came to power in Turkey. Since Erdoğan, the chairman of the AKP, had been tried and convicted of inciting religious hatred for modifying and reading, in public, a poem by Ziya Gökalp. As a result of his conviction, Erdoğan was forbidden by law from holding any political office, including the office of prime minister.

Naturally, once in power, the AKP government set about immediately changing the law specifically so Erdoğan could take over as prime minister. But who gave the okay for any of that to happen? Think it was the Paşas? Think again:

In December 2002, US President George W. Bush stunned the Turkish political establishment in Ankara by inviting Erdogan to the White House. "You believe in the Almighty, and I believe in the Almighty. That's why we'll be great partners," the American president is said to have told his counterpart.[6] Proceeding on to Europe, Erdogan received assurances that the EU would commence accession negotiations with Ankara in December 2004 if Turkey undertook sufficient political and economic reforms.

In part because of American and European de facto recognition of Erdogan's authority, the Turkish military accepted the new administration's amendment of the constitution to lift the ban on Erdogan's political activity and holding of a by-election to allow for his entry into parliament (a requirement to be prime minister).

Now you know why the neocons went rabid over the TBMM's refusal to allow an American troop deployment from Turkey: The puppets failed to deliver to their masters.

Ironically, it was "a freshly vacated [parliamentary] seat in the province of Siirt" that facilitated Erdoğan's entry into the TBMM, which then catapulted him into the prime minister's office, which was, in turn, dutifully vacated by Abdullah Gül.

In the final analysis, it was the Bush Administration that put Erdoğan into office. What role did Fethullah Gülen, who is sheltered by the US, play in this bit of politics?

It's too bad officials of the KRG, like Jamal Abdullah, don't know much about Turkish history. Or maybe they just look the other way.

Since the Paşas have been broadcasting new airstrikes against PKK in South Kurdistan--according to totally unconfirmed statements on the Paşas' website--and since the KRG assists Ankara in its psychological warfare and Western propaganda operations by forbidding journalists to report from the region . . . and since the Ankara regime uses the US and Israeli examples to justify its aggression . . . and since everyone is preparing for a Turkish land force invasion in the next few months, you might want to check out a guide to US use of aerial warfare to get an idea of what to expect from the Ankara regime. From TomDispatch.com:

One hundred thousand pounds of explosives delivered from the air is now, historically speaking, a relatively modest figure. During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a single air wing from the USS Kitty Hawk, an aircraft carrier stationed in the Persian Gulf, did that sort of damage in less than a day and it was a figure that, as again last week, the military was proud to publicize without fear of international outrage or the possibility that "barbarism" might come to mind:

"From Tuesday afternoon through early Wednesday the air wing flew 69 dedicated strike missions in Basra and in and around Baghdad, involving 27 F/A-18 Hornets and 12 Tomcats. They dropped nearly 100,000 pounds of ordnance, said Lt. Brook DeWalt, Kitty Hawk public affairs officer."

As far as we know, there were no reporters, Iraqi or Western, in Arab Jabour when the bombs fell and, Iraq being Iraq, no American reporters rushed there -- in person or by satellite phone -- to check out the damage. In Iraq and Afghanistan, when it comes to the mainstream media, bombing is generally only significant if it's of the roadside or suicide variety; if, that is, the "bombs" can be produced at approximately "the cost of a pizza" (as IEDs sometimes are), or if the vehicles delivering them are cars or simply fiendishly well-rigged human bodies. From the air, even 100,000 pounds of bombs just doesn't have the ring of something that matters.

[ . . . ]

Who could forget all the attention that went into the President's surge strategy on the ground in the first half of last year? But which media outlet even noticed, until recently, what Bob Deans of Cox News Service has termed the "air surge" that accompanied those 30,000 surging troops into the Iraqi capital and environs? In that same period, air units were increasingly concentrated in and around Iraq. By mid-2007, for instance, the Associated Press was already reporting:

"[S]quadrons of attack planes have been added to the in-country fleet. The air reconnaissance arm has almost doubled since last year. The powerful B1-B bomber has been recalled to action over Iraq… Early this year, with little fanfare, the Air Force sent a squadron of A-10 ‘Warthog' attack planes -- a dozen or more aircraft -- to be based at Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. At the same time it added a squadron of F-16C Fighting Falcons… at Balad."

[ . . . ]

American military spokespeople and administration officials have, over the years, decried Iraqi and Afghan insurgents for "hiding" behind civilian populations -- in essence, accusing them of both immorality and cowardice. When such spokespeople do admit to inflicting "collateral damage" on civilian populations, they regularly blame the guerrillas for turning civilians into "shields." And all of this is regularly, dutifully reported in our press. On the other hand, no one in our world considers drone warfare in a similar context, though armed UAVs like the Predators and the newer, even more heavily armed Reapers are generally "flown" by pilots stationed at computer consoles in places like Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas. It is from there that they release their missiles against "anti-Iraqi forces" or the Taliban, causing civilian deaths in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

We know there have already been civilian deaths from the Ankara regime's air war in South Kurdistan. We know that there has been US and Israeli assistance to the Ankara regime. We should, therefore, expect to see the Ankara regime assimilate US tactics to a greater extent in the future.

Remember:

The Real News transcript.

Don't forget what the results of negotiations, between the puppets and the puppet masters in the months before the Iraq war, were supposed to be:

A veteran diplomat who led a Turkish delegation through tough negotiations with the US over military cooperation on the war in Iraq has revealed details of the talks in a book, which is expected to be published in the upcoming days.

[ . . . ]

If the government motion had been adopted by Parliament at the time, Turkey would have the opportunity to send its troops into the entire area where the PKK members are located; thus it would be able to contain the PKK threat, Bölükbaşı has suggested in his book, excerpts from which were published yesterday in the daily Milliyet.

If the motion had been approved, Turkey's de facto border with Iraq, which is called the "Rain Line," would extend from the south of Habur to the border between Iran and Iraq, Bölükbaşı explained in his book, which contains a map simulating the line on which Turkish troops would be deployed.

According to the map, Turkey's border with Iraq would extend 40 kilometers inside Iraqi soil and would contain the entire zone in northern Iraq which has been used by the PKK.

In other words, the results were invasion and annexation.

Who recognizes his failure and is pushing for these very results right now? Washington's puppet, R. Tayyip Erdoğan.

GIRALDI ON SIBEL, THE MEDIA, AND CONGRESS

"From what I understand, from what she has to tell, it has a major difference from the Pentagon Papers in that it deals directly with criminal activity and may involve impeachable offenses. And I don't necessarily mean the President or the Vice-President, though I wouldn't be surprised if the information reached up that high. But other members of the Executive Branch may be impeached as well. And she says similar about Congress."
~ Daniel Ellsberg.

There's something on why Sibel Edmonds, whose "story about high level corruption in the United States government involving Turkey and Israel," must be heard, from Phil Giraldi at The Huffington Post:

Why should Sibel be heard? Mostly because her story, if true, involves corruption at the highest levels of government coupled with the sale of secrets vital to the security of the United States. One of her claims is that a senior State Department officer who has been identified as Marc Grossman, recorded by the FBI while arranging to pick up bribes from a Turkish organization, also revealed the identity of the CIA cover company Brewster Jennings to a Turkish contact in late 2001. The Turk then passed on the information to a Pakistani intelligence officer who presumably warned the AQ Khan nuclear proliferation network that the CIA was apparently pursuing. Some might call that treason and it should be noted that it occurred two years before Robert Novak's notorious exposure of Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings which led to the conviction of Scooter Libby.

Not only does Giraldi rip the US media for its silence on Sibel's story, but he names those who've been approached with the story, and have ignored it. The question is: Why?

But the media remains silent in spite of considerable efforts to get them on board and provide some coverage of her very serious charges. Since the recent Sunday Times articles, her story has been brought to the attention of news editors at MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, to PBS's Bill Moyers, to The New York Times, The Washington Times, and to both ABC and CBS news in an attempt to arouse some interest. But there has been no response, not even a courteous "Thank you very much for contacting us...." What are so-called gadflies like Olbermann and Moyers afraid of? The suggestion that the media does not want to face the potential legal consequences of the gag order has been cited but lacks substance as much of the Sibel story is already out in public and the details of her allegations can be pieced together without actually interviewing her in violation of the state secrets privilege. Also, no one in the media has actually claimed that the lack of interest is based on the potential legal consequences. The silence has been deafening, suggesting that other forces are at work.

You see, journalists are supposed to investigate, delve into, examine, nose around, probe, pry, and scrutinize. But the servile American media today does not include anyone who's capable of digging into a story. They won't dig into it when you give them all the initial information. They won't look at it. As Giraldi notes, they won't even give you a response. Why? They're owned.

Gore Vidal said: "To keep information from the public is the function of the corporate media".

Noam Chomsky agrees and expands on the idea: "The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly".

Edward Herman, who has collaborated with Chomsky on the manufacturing of consent in the US media further explains: "The propaganda system allows the U.S. Ieadership to commit crimes without limit and with no suggestion of misbehavior or criminality; in fact, major war criminals like Henry Kissinger appear regularly on TV to comment on the crimes of the derivative butchers".

Giraldi also sets Congress in the crosshairs:

Congress has a responsibility to look into Edmonds' allegations. Congressman Henry Waxman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been stonewalling Edmonds and her supporters, preferring instead to look into steroids use among professional athletes. To be sure, some in the media and Congress are undoubtedly nervous because the Edmond's story involves Israel and corrupt officials both in Washington and Tel Aviv. Many of the American former and current officials involved are considered to be particularly close to the Israeli government and to the Israeli lobby AIPAC. Others fear that FBI investigative reports or wiretaps revealing illegal contributions or bribery of congressmen could open up a can of worms that many would prefer to keep closed.

In other words, Congress is protecting its own--in an attitude no less servile than that of the US media.

Daniel Ellsberg has gone on the record to state that Sibel's story "is far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers". The Washington Post received the Pulitzer Prize for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's investigation and reporting of the Watergate scandal. To use Ellsberg's words, Sibel's story "is far more explosive" than Watergate and I have no doubt that a future Pulitzer Prize would be the result of any serious, comprehensive journalistic investigation of Sibel's story of the corruption and international and domestic intrigue surrounding "the theft and sale of United States defense secrets, most particularly nuclear technology".

More from Giraldi on Sibel:


Found in Translation.

Phil Giraldi chats about Sibel Edmonds, including mp3 (Sibel chat starts at 24 minutes into the interview).

Sibel, Giraldi, American Conservative Mag from May 2006.

TURKEY, ISRAEL, REALPOLITIK

"The more dubious and uncertain an instrument violence has become in international relations, the more it has gained in reputation and appeal in domestic affairs, specifically in the matter of revolution."
~ Hannah Arendt.

More on Israel's assistance to Turkey, in oppressing the Kurdish people, from Murat Karayılan via KurdishInfo:

Israel is not only assisting the Turkish state’s war machine, which is used to annihilate the Kurdish guerrillas, through technological sharing, but is also actively taking part in surveillance and inspection. During the course of the last year Israel has played a significant role in the killing of many of our militants. In the coming month Israel’s defence minister will visit Turkey.

[ . . . ]

It is very strange that on the one side Iran is in a partnership with Turkey to kill our militants, while on the other side Israel, by sending its special personnel to work alongside the Turkish Army, is also actively taking part in the killing of our militants. This is a serious paradox. The pragmatism and interest driven actions here have distorted all truth. This is why we call on the Israeli state to withdraw from these actions. We do not want the Jewish people to be an enemy of the Kurds. If they continue to be an enemy of the Kurds then the Kurdish people do have things that they can do and we will discuss this. But first we will try diplomatic means. Israel needs to reconsider its position.

Mîr at Rastbêj has a new post which should help to sort out some of the other alliances Turkey is using against the Kurds:

In Northern Kurdistan there were two main parties that received the most of the votes. One was the AKP and the other was the DTP, the pro-Kurdish party. After the elections, the AKP neither kept its promises about the Kurdish cause nor attempted to do so. Furthermore, it stood in a position to mediate or reconcile the other political parties in order to approve a parliamentary consensus for cross-border operations against the PKK. With the exception of the DTP, the AKP succeeded in receiving overwhelming approval for military operations from the other political parties. With this move, the AKP aimed both to marginalize the DTP in the parliament and forcefully silence the PKK.

Today, the DTP is under a severe political lynching campaign orchestrated primarily by the AKP, with the other parties willingly joining the campaign. Unlike the Turkish parties, the DTP was the only party in the parliament that opposed the use of military force in general, and cross-border operations in particular. Rather, it suggested achievable democratic solutions for solving the Kurdish Question. However, since the solution of Kurdish Question would end the dominance of the Turkish generals and the parties that benefit the status quo, the DTP labeled as the “separatist party” which praises terrorism. The DTP has subsequently been sued for immediate closure.

Then there's Erdoğan in bed with Büyükanıt:

When one looks back on the presidential elections, where Gul had been nominated by the AKP, one can clearly see the arm wrestling between the AKP and the Turkish generals for dominance in Turkish politics. The Turkish military never wanted Gul as president because it feared that the AKP would legislate laws to curb its powers. Gul, as president, would approve them immediately. However, something very different happened. Gul got elected without any serious opposition from the Turkish military. A question, then, becomes obvious: what made the Turkish generals accept Gul's presidency? The answer lies in the private meeting between Erdogan and the chairman of the Turkish General Staff ,Yasar Buyukanit, in Dolmabahce Palace, a short time before the July 2007 elections. Apparently Erdogan and Buyukanit came to a deal about Gul's presidency, in which the AKP would touch none of Turkish generals' privileges and would support their policies to the end. The AKP also used the monopoly of media manipulation to cover the generals’ black operations against the Kurds, such as Semdinli.

[ . . . ]

In short, the AKP and the Turkish military (TSK) agreed on classic annihilation policies, dictated by the generals, towards not only the PKK but also all the Kurdish people in general.

Finally, there's the spiritual leader of AKP:

The Kurds are historically conservative people and strictly adhere to their religion. It is this fact that religious people, primarily the shekhs and imams, had a distinctive position among the Kurds.

Today, knowing this fact, the AKP is using religious people, sects, associations, and schools to brainwash the Kurds and to cut their emotional and political affiliation with the PKK. Fethullah Gulen’s movement, which has strong ties to the AKP, is the most dangerous group due to its secret agenda. It is everywhere in North Kurdistan.

“Recently the Turkish based Zaman newspaper reported that Fethullah Gulen had filled planes with Turkey’s top businessmen and flown them to southeastern Turkey so they could go door to door to distribute meat and other foods to the poor in key cities.... Fethullah Gulen, founder of an Islamic educational movement and spiritual leader of tens of thousands of devotees around the world, has made a social revolution in Turkey. He is now one of the most influential people in Turkey. His followers will act upon whatever he says, doing what he wills… Today southeastern Turkey is in flames; the Kurdish people one more time are being labeled as terrorists. What kind of bridge of love and isles of peace is Gulen building in southeastern Turkey? Did Gulen ever dare to stand up against the unjust military presence involved in burning houses, kidnapping Kurds, raping women, and depriving everyone of the most important right of speaking their own language? Did he ever mention in public that the Turkish government is wrong and that Erdogan’s policy is oppressive?

Axin Arbili argues that "Support for Cruel Regimes Breeds Terrorism" at The Conservative Voice. There are bones of contention there for everyone to pick at: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey:

The West knows that the Mullah regime is not popular. It is rejected by most Persians, it is hated by the Kurds, Arabs, Azeris, who suffer from state oppression and terror. There are many dissidents and resistance movements, the strongest of which is the Kurdish PJAK. As with the Kurdish freedom fighters in Turkey, the PJAK were forced to take up arms to protect the Kurdish community against Teheran’s aggression and human rights abuses. These groups have the people’s backing, they want the end of the Mullah dictatorship; they want freedom and democracy for Iran. A change is possible from inside, without foreign military force. Only if carried out by the Iranian population themselves, the change and achievement would be seen legitimate and lasting. Although the West talks a lot about regime change, it does not give any open and substantial support for these groups. Although it talks about freedom and democracy all the time, it denies indigenous peoples, with their own distinct languages and ancestral homelands, their right for self-determination. Millions of people continue to be suppressed by hostile majorities in the Middle East.

[ . . . ]

The existence of the pseudo-democratic, pseudo-secular state of Turkey, too, is based on this understanding and cooperation. The Turkish case is an open and empirical textbook of the murderous double-standards and hypocrisy of the West. It is the only Islamic country in the NATO and the only Islamic candidate for membership in the EU. While negotiating membership, its military has been occupying the territory of an EU-member, Cyprus. It receives billions of dollars in economic and military aid from the West. That money and military hardware have been used to maintain occupation of North Kurdistan, oppress and terrorize the Kurdish population, launch raids against South Kurdistan, to crush the Kurdish freedom movement. The Turks are supported by the USA, EU, and UN. They call the slaughter of a defenceless people as "fight against terrorism". Thus Western governments and their media outlets dehumanize and demonize the struggle of 25 million people for freedom. The Turkish tyranny and fascism, a continuation of Ottoman imperialism, is rewarded while the natural, legitimate and honourable resistance of the Kurds is declared a crime. Goebbels would have envied such a masterful global deception, such a perversion of truth and justice.

But Western realpolitik is not bothered about what is right or wrong, it is concerned with securing resources and maintaining control. The present deal with the Turks is about Iran. The West has given green light to the Turkish army to attack the Kurdish resistance in South Kurdistan. As a further treat, America might have offered Ankara some rights over Kurdish oil fields. A full-scale invasion in spring is now becoming a "legal" possibility for the Turks and would not come as a surprise. For the fascist Turks, any form of free, self-governing and successful Kurdish entity, which is South Kurdistan, is unacceptable.

Memorandum: In the spring, let no one send me any panicked emails, or leave any panicked comments, about the fact that Turkey has launched a land invasion of South Kurdistan. You have been warned.

From the monkey-see-monkey-do department, International Socialist Review has a little something on that Little USA-Little Israel known as the Republic of Turkey:

In an eerie replay of the U.S. rhetoric leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Turkish government has insisted that it needs no other nation’s permission—including that of the U.S.—to wage a full-scale attack on the Kurdish rebels. Like Russia’s scorched-earth campaign against Chechnya or Israel’s war on the Palestinians, Turkey’s escalation against the PKK is a clear example of how Washington’s “war on terror” has given nations across the world a political logic to justify inflicting state terror against populations that hold long-standing and legitimate political grievances.

Given this logic, we can make the comparison between Israel's treatment of Gaza and Turkey's treatment of North Kurdistan. Of course, the majority of those who cry for Gaza in Western media have never bothered to cry for North Kurdistan.

Turkey-as-ally doesn't seem to be working, which should surprise no one. However, it's always interesting to see a wrench thrown into the works:

A U.S. warning to scrutinize the activities of Turkey-based Iranian Bank Mellat has not been welcomed by Ankara.

Bank Mellat does not feature in the United Nation's list of individuals and institutions that assist Tehran's controversial nuclear program. "What binds Turkey are the resolutions of the U.N. and not U.S. presidential decrees or congress decisions," a Turkish diplomat told the Turkish Daily News.

[ . . . ]

. . . Stating that foreign banks operate according to the regulations set by the current Banking Law and are controlled periodically, the official underlined that the conditions of suspending one bank's operations are clear. "Obviously we cannot move upon a third party's requests," he said.

The Bush administration issued directives last year cutting off three Iranian banks from the U.S. financial system: Bank Melli, Iran's largest, Bank Saderat and Bank Mellat. Bank Mellat is the only one of those with branches in Turkey, operating in the country since 1981 with three branches in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir.

Ha! May the Turkey-Iran (and Israel) alliance give Michael Rubin a heart attack.

THE VIDEO HILLARY DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE

A video on Hillary, Çelebi, and others. Many thanks to the friend who sent the link:

What would Sibel say?

PREPARATIONS

"lap·dog: 1: a small dog that may be held in the lap 2: a servile dependent or follower."
~ Merriam-Webster.

About the only distraction--and I do mean distraction--in the Turkish media lately is the headscarf question. I was wondering, if Turkey approves the wearing of the headscarf for women, will it reinstate the wearing of the fes for men? Will more intensified feudalism follow?

When the US-Turkey-Israel aerial bombing of South Kurdistan began, there was talk in the DTP about organizing human shields to stay in Kurdish villages in an attempt to deter the bombings. Although I haven't seen anything about this lately, it may be that the KRG, acting on the orders of the Americans, has forbidden DTP's plan. Here's why I think so:

Our team met with a number of Kurdish NGO's to see how we might work together to protect and aid the villagers. We had learned that the attacks by Turkey were aided by US military intelligence and with US permission to fly within Iraq's airspace. Our group decided to start by writing a denouncement of US military involvement which resulted in civilian deaths and extensive property damage to villagers. Additionally we requested that the US use diplomatic tactics to help bring the warring parties to the table.

We heard this was published in both Kurdistan and Turkey. We tried to publish it in the US but encountered difficulties.

CPT learned that many families wanted to return to their homes but were afraid because of the continuous flyovers by Turkish air force. These flyovers and cross border attacks continue to this day. We submitted a proposal to accompany villagers home and hope that we could offer some protection by having an international presence there. The proposal was met with much enthusiasm and appreciation. Most of our efforts were focused on making this proposal a reality.

That's when CPT began to encounter obstacles. Necessary paperwork was delayed. Difficulties with registering as an NGO and extending visas appeared. By the end of January we were told we had one month to work out the NGO registration or we would have to leave the country.

[ . . . ]

Little by little, hints were dropped that the snag was with our government. Some hints were subtle, others more blatant.

On January 30, we were called to the passport office in Suleimaniya. Our one month extension visa was taken from us and we were given one week to leave the country. The residency officer expressed deep sympathy. "We love you, we want you to work here, it is not us who want you to leave, look to your embassy," he pleaded.

[ . . . ]

Was someone from our government upset by the work we had begun with the villagers in the mountain villages of Kurdistan? Was it the exposure of civilian deaths resulting from US military intelligence sharing?

So, there you have it. It may very well be that the US wants no more bad publicity as a result of its brutal and barbaric foreign policy. I'm willing to bet that's also the reason that there's been a stand-off between journalists and peşmêrge in the South. Journalists have been protesting the KRG's censorship of PKK. The stand-off culminated this week in an attack against the journalists by peşmêrge, who used night sticks and rifle butts against the journalists. Five journalists were detained after the attack: Rahman Xelil, Kerwan Salar, Selam Abdullah, Bayiz Muhammed, and Muhammed Çawşin.

A couple of items from Özgür Gündem. The first is a warning issued by the PKK to Israel:

The KCK mentioned the technical support by the US and Israel to Turkey for the air strikes against the regions under the control of the guerrillas. KCK had the following statement:

"The US is giving technological support and permits the attacks in the Medya Defense Zones and intensified attacks implemented in the North (Northern Kurdistan). These two actions, carried out simultaneously, mean the annihilation of the Kurdish people, which is permitted and supported by the US. In addition to the US, the Iraq government also permitted and is a partner to these attacks. Israel, on the other hand, is supplying technical and tactical support in order help Turkey kill more Kurds. Israel sent technical staff even to Batman and is supporting Turkey technically and tactically. This is Kurdish enmity. Israel must stop its Kurdish enmity. There is nothing that it can gain by this. Otherwise, the Kurdish freedom movement will have to reexamine its policies regarding Israel. While the international forces try to push Turkey into Iraq one more time, they are sacrificing the Kurdish people for their own benefit.

In other news, don't be surprised by a cross-border land forces operation in the spring:

The Turkish army had two cross-border operations, one in December and one in January. These two attacks were the largest in Turkish history and were permitted by the US, and indicated the level of the war. However, according to PKK sources, they had only five martyrs.

As a result, the attacks that aimed to annihilate the enemy did not succeed. Even though the Turkish general staff had proclaimed that all targets had been hit successfully, and that about 300 "terrorists" had been killed, they stressed the psychological superiority of the war, that they acquired it after these attacks. Thus it becomes a case of psychological war superiority.

Nowadays there is an urgency in the general staff and the people who are very close to the general staff are commenting that this urgency is the preparation of a land cross-border operation. If it is the case, the general staff is admitting the failure of their aerial strikes.

The urgency in the general staff thus stresses the necessity of a land cross-border operation. The general staff vice chairman, Ergin Saygun, was in Baghdad during the second air strike and he was coordinating the operation with his American colleagues from there. Afterwards, he mentioned that he would go to the US for more comprehensive plans. Then the chief of general staff, Yaşar Büyükanıt, went to England. Therefore the Turkish general staff is searching for options.

If one closely looks at these ongoing incidents, one can easily get the idea that the general staff had decided for a land cross-border operation into South Kurdistan, which means the war will be heightened in this way.

For the cross-border operation, firstly, there must be new preparations. There must be available political support. The season must be right and military preparation must be increased. All the urgency that we observe in the Turkish general staff is an indicator of the preparation for such an operation.

In the near future, this will not be a possibility anymore but will become reality because there is no other point to which AKP and general staff policies can go.

At first glance, with the coalition between AKP and the general staff, one may say Turkey is the decision-maker. However, we think the contrary. The forces that want Turkey to have a military operation against South Kurdistan are the American and British governments. For this reason, operations against PKK is not Turkey's decision, but the decision of the US and the UK.

Now Turkey is being pushed into the war in the Middle East as a main actor and, undoubtedly, the US, the UK, and Israel want this. The AKP and the current general staff are only the executors, not the decision-makers, of this policy. Thus, with such an operation, Turkey is going to be included in the Greater Middle East Project. The period which started as "war against PKK" will change to war against the Kurds. Turkey, which has been pushed into the Iraq war, will then be directed against Iran or wars against others. A Turkey, which is dragged from one war to another will be in a position in which it unconditionally obeys the US.

This is the game. Turkey is being dragged into this game. What a pity, isn't it?

Can everyone say "puppet"? "Lapdog"? "Putz"?

And is the reason why the KRG prevents journalists from going to Qendil and NGO's from protecting Kurdish villagers against Turkish aggression?

WHAT MUST BE DONE?

"Political and economic strikes, mass strikes and partial strikes, demonstrative strikes and fighting strikes, general strikes of individual branches of industry and general strikes in individual towns, peaceful wage struggles and street massacres, barricade fighting–all these run through one another, run side by side, cross one another, flow in and over one another–it is a ceaselessly moving, changing sea of phenomena."
~ Rosa Luxemburg, The Mass Strke, Chapter 4.

I want to direct you over to the Saker for an article on the Evolution of Evil. Here are a few snips:

The biggest challenge for dissidents and rebels is to avoid feel-good therapeutic activism having virtually no chance of removing evil and tyranny. Idealism without practicality tactics without lofty goals, and symbolic protests pose no threat to power elites. Anger and outrage require great strategic thinking from leaders seeking revolution, not mere change. And social entrepreneurs that use business and management skills to tackle genuine social problems do nothing to achieve political reforms. To the extent they achieve results they end up removing interest in overthrowing political establishments that have allowed the problems to fester.

What is the new tool of tyranny? Technological connectivity achieved through advanced communications and computer systems, especially the rise of wireless connectivity. The global message to the masses is simple: Buy electronic products to stay plugged in. Connectivity may give pleasure, but it gives even more power to elites, rulers and plutocrats. It allows them to coordinate their efforts through invisible cabals, to closely monitor everything that ordinary people and dissidents do, and to cooperatively and clandestinely adjust social, financial and political systems to maintain stability and dominance.

In this dystopian world all systems are integrated to serve upper class elites and the corporate state, not ordinary people. When ordinary people spend their money to be more shackled to connectivity products, they become unwitting victims of largely invisible governmental and corporate oppressive forces. They are oblivious that their technological seduction exacerbates their political and economic exploitation. Though some 70 percent believe the country is on the wrong track, they fail to see the deeper causes of the trend. And if Americans were really happy and content with their consumer culture, then why are they stuffing themselves with so many antidepressants, sleeping pills and totally unhealthy foods? In truth, the vast majority of people are in denial about the rotten system they are trapped in (aka The Matrix). They are manipulated to keep hope alive through voting, despite the inability of past elections to stop the slide into economic serfdom.

What to do? Economic rebellion in the form of "[s]uspensions in discretionary consumer spending used as a political weapon could force reforms." Stop lending credibility to The System by "boycotting elections." Finally, "seek forms of direct democracy that give [ ] political power."

Read the rest at the Saker's place.

Speaking of economic rebellion, let me quote something from last September on Cryptogon:

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.

A mass strike would easily work in conjunction with economic rebellion and a boycott of elections, particularly as a complement to economic rebellion. For more on mass strikes, see the work by the same name, written by Rosa Luxemburg.

This is the type of coordinated strategy is needed for both Turkish-occupied Kurdistan and the Diaspora.