LET THE COVER-UP BEGIN

"The 'deep state' is made up of elements from the military, security and judicial establishments wedded to a fiercely nationalist, statist ideology who, if need be, are ready to block or even oust a government that does not share their vision."
~ Gareth Jones, reporting for Reuters on TDN.

Trabzon . . . The shooter was from Trabzon; why am I not surprised? Trabzon, the spawning ground of the MHP and its assassins, the Gray Wolves.

IHT reports that Ogun Samast, the shooter, is seventeen and from Trabzon. "Described as a quiet but courageous boy by his uncle," yet he dropped out of high school and was kicked out of a soccer club due to "undisciplined behavior." Described as "totally open to manipulation," by one of the soccer officials.

They also say "he couldn't have done this alone," that "[s]ome people must have exploited him," and

Kazim Kolcuoglu, head of the Istanbul Bar Association, said that young people are sometimes used as assassins because they face lower penalties than adults convicted of the same crime.

Exactly. In addition, ordinary criminals are routinely granted a general amnesty, something that never applies to political prisoners. More from IHT on another suspect:

One of the suspects, Yasin Hayal, an alleged Islamic militant who learned to make bombs from Chechen militants at a camp in Azerbaijan and who served 11 months in jail for the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon in 2004, is suspected of masterminding the attacks on both Dink and Father Santaro.

Did you get it? A Turkish Islamist bombs a McDonalds in Turkey and only gets 11 months in jail. What happened to Turkey's noble war on terror? Ask yourself why an Islamist who bombs a McDonalds only gets 11 months in jail.

Does anyone remember that Alparslan Aslan, the shooter in the Council of State attack last May, was also an Islamist with ties to ultra-nationalists? From DozaMe:

The Atabeyler gang’s existence — believed to be an ‘open secret’ in the corridors of Ankara — was unearthed by the Turkish AKP administration after an attack on the Turkish Council of State on May 17, 2006. The Turkish judge Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin of the Second Chamber was killed and four other judges were wounded. The assailant, Alparslan Aslan, a lawyer with Islamic fundamentalist and Turkish ultra-nationalist sympathies, was arrested for the murder.

Alparslan Aslan’s interrogation led to the arrest of several retired and serving military service men and police officers. The operation was named as “Atabeyler Operation” but satisfying results could not be obtained due to interference by the higher Turkish military echelon who claimed most of the suspects as “their own.” A reference in Turkey enough to make anybody an ‘untouchable’.

Alparslan Aslan is an Islamist and an ultra-nationalist. He reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" before murdering a judge, and he claimed to have no connections to any organizations. Yasin Hayal is an Islamist, and since he's affiliated with Chechen militants, he's most likely a Turkish ultra-nationalist as well. Here's a history lesson on that, from CNN:

Today the most active group aiding the Chechens is a branch of the Gray Wolves movement called Nizami Alem, or "universal order." Nizami Alem is an ultra-nationalist group created from a split in the official Gray Wolves political party, known by its initials MHP.

Nizami Alem accuses the Gray Wolves of not being sensitive enough to Islamic thought. For its part, Nizami Alem maintains strong ties to the more radical Muslim groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Turkish allies of the Chechens have a party known as the BBP (or Party of Great Unity). Positioned on the extreme right of the Turkish political spectrum, the party is enjoying considerable success.

You can get an idea of some of BBP's stupidity and one of the axes they have to grind with AKP, here. They also didn't like the idea of the Pope's visit, from Genocide Watch:

A group of Turkish ultra-nationalists protested anew against Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to the country next week. The group also occupied Hagia Sophia . . .

[ . . . ]

The group of protestors belonged to the Great Unity Party (BBP), an ultra-nationalist political formation in current Turkey, a mixture of extreme nationalist thought intermingled with Islam. It was led by Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultra-nationalist lawyer who has won notoriety for launching multiple court cases against Turkish intellectuals, contesting the official line on the extermination of Turkey's Christian minorities of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians under Ottoman rule, which Ankara ostensibly rejects as genocide, or condemning human rights abuses against Kurdish nationals.

Maybe they should haul Kemal Kerincsiz in for questioning.

Nizam-i Alem is mentioned in the IHT article about Hrant Dink's murderer, Ogun Samast, but it is much more likely that Yasin Hayal is affiliated with Nizam-i Alem because he has the Chechen connections. CNN also conducted an interview with an Islamist who had been a former fighter in Chechnya. At the time of the interview, he was living in Istanbul:

Suddenly, after seeing those images of the war [in Chechnya], I decided to go to Chechnya as a volunteer. The next day I talked about it with a Turkish friend of mine, a former Gray Wolf. He belongs to the ultra-nationalist branch of that movement, known as Nizami Alem, or "Universal Order." I put myself in their hands.

Do you know about the myth of the gray wolf? It is the heroic wolf that shows the Turkish people the road out of Asia, leading them to their new homeland, Europe. In the same way we will lead the Caucasian people to freedom. A few days after my encounter with the Nizami Alem nationalists, they took me to a training camp here in Turkey, where they taught us to use weapons. Then I went to the front.

[ . . . ]

What I do know is that there were many ex-military men among them from the Turkish armed forces, who are close to the Nationalist movement, and maybe one or two agents from the Turkish secret service.

Yeah, "maybe one or two agents" from the Turkish government were involved with Nizam-i Alem, and their purpose was to keep the group's operations under control in Turkey, not to forbid it from operating. They thought they could keep Turkish Hezbollah under control, too, and where did that get them? Notice, in the complete interview, what the mujahedin said about who's running heroin and how well he digested the Turkish ultra-nationalist propaganda on the Kurdish struggle.

Nizam-i Alem, Atabeyler, MHP, Gray Wolves, ex-Turkish military . . . these are the threads of the Deep State. Whoever is pulling these threads is the one who ordered Hrant Dink's murder. Given the way political murders have always been handled in Turkey, we are not likely to learn who the puppet masters are. This is normal. Anyone remember Yesil?

In this case, for the murder of Hrant Dink, they have set the stage well. They have acquired a willing participant who is underage. He's a virgin, as far as his political affiliations go, meaning that he's clean; he isn't directly linked to the ultra-nationalist groups mentioned here. He had been taken by his handlers--Yasin Hayal?-- to Istanbul five times in the last fifteen days and was paid a sum of money by them. He does not change his clothes after committing the murder and confesses immediately. He knew he was meant to be the fall guy. I bet the police won't even bother to torture him.

He'll spend a couple of years in jail and then go free. Yasin Hayal and his other accomplices may do a few more years, and then they'll be free, too.

And so it always goes.

FEEDING THE MONSTER

"This much is crystal clear that those who tried to single me out, render me weak and defenseless succeeded by their own measures. With the wrongful and polluted knowledge they oozed into society, they managed to form a significant segment of the population whose numbers cannot be easily dismissed who view Hrant Dink as someone 'denigrating Turkishness.'"
~ Hrant Dink, last editorial in AGOS, 10 January 2007, courtesy of Blogian.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has noted four key points about the murder of Hrant Dink. Among them is this one:

U.S. complicity perpetuates Turkey's denial.

The Turkish government is able to maintain its denial - against all evidence and the tide of international opinion - in large part due to the U.S. Administration's refusal to speak with moral clarity about the Armenian Genocide:

-- The State Department remained almost entirely silent on Turkey's prosecution - and persecution - of Hrant Dink.

-- The State Department is blocking the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

-- The State Department fired a U.S. ambassador, John Evans, for speaking the truth about this crime, and is now seeking to send a new ambassador to Armenia, despite his record of having denied the Armenian Genocide.

The State Department's enabling of Turkish denial must be good for business.

I see that the BBC is running an obituary for Hrant Dink. Notice the last couple of lines:

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died or were driven out of Turkey in 1915, in what many Armenians say was a genocide at the hands of Turks.

Ankara denies the allegations, saying the death were a part of World War I in the dying days of the Ottoman empire.

See? Not even the BBC has the has the courage to admit that there was a genocide, but leaves the matter as if it were still to be determined. I guess that's because the UK and Turkey have such "cordial" relations. . . I would be interested in hearing Taner Akcam's opinion of Hrant Dink's murder, especially since he is also a target of the dirty bozkurtlar, the long-time assassins of the Ankara regime. As the Armenian Yekir noted earlier this month:

In an October 6, 2006, newspaper column in the Turkish Armenian journal Agos, Akçam criticized the prosecution of Agos managing editor Hrant Dink for using the term `genocide,' thereby `insulting Turkishness' under the notorious Article 301 of Turkey's penal code. Highlighting the term `genocide,' Akçam declared himself an accessory to the charges against Dink, and urged readers to join in Dink's support.

SwissInfo reports that Erdogan is continuing with this nonsense about the murder of Dink as an attack on "all of us." Shut up, already.

There also appears to be no claim for responsiblity in the murder, which is not unusual. The Ankara regime rarely admits its murders.

Except for the brief imprisonment of a relatively few ultra-nationalists in the wake of the US-backed September 12 coup, throughout the history of the TC, ultra-nationalist groups and individuals have enjoyed unfettered reign. Ultra-nationalists such as Taha Akyol are responsible for flooding the mass media with fascist propaganda to provide a justification for Gray Wolf brutality. Such was the case when Turkish newspapers waged a media attack against Akin Birdal before his attempted murder, and so it is now with the murder of Hrant Dink. From SwissInfo:

Newspapers said racism and nationalism, which is on the rise ahead of elections in May and November, were ultimately to blame for Dink's death.

[ . . . ]

"Those who created nationalist sentiment in Turkey have fed such a monster that there are many youngsters on the streets who do not find the ... state nationalist enough and are ready to take the law into their own hands," wrote Ismet Berkan in his column in Radikal, one of Turkey's main dailies.

"Politicians, journalists and film makers also contributed to the creation of this murderous nationalist atmosphere."

Ismet Berkan is correct. In all the news that I've read on the aftermath of the murder, I have not seen the slightest move toward Hrant Dink's life goal, that of forcing Turkey to come to terms with its past. In all of the media frenzy and the hype about "attack against the state" or sudden feelings of solidarity with Turkey's beleaguered Armenian minority, no one has uttered the G-word. No one has come to terms with anything in the past.

As an example of what this monster looks like, take a look at this video, a portion of System of a Down's documentary on the Armenian Genocide, titled Screamers. Keep in mind that this is part of the monster that the enablers in the US State Department and US Congress have helped to feed for decades:

Will Pelosi have the intestinal fortitude necessary to bring an Armenian Genocide resolution to a successful end? Time will tell and we'll be watching.

iArarat has made several posts on the murder, including a link to Robert Fisk's commentary on Hrant Dink. As a matter of fact, Artyom has the same taste in his mouth from certain reactions to the murder as I do. Commenting on certain Turkish editorials that are crying about the threat to "Turkishness", he says:

Turkishness …? My spellchecker does not even recognize such a word, let alone a concept. It is for the sake of this Turkishness that Hrant was murdered, not in spite of it. Do these people not get it? Is image everything for heaven’s sake? Where is the sense of decency? Do not turn Hrant’s death into a remedial PR campaign!

Seriously, there is no sense of decency, a point which adds to my disgust. Speaking of disgust, it looks like Hadi Elis at KurdishMedia is feeling the same.

Onnik Krikorian is building a collection of news and comments, including his own:

This is a calamity not only for Armenians, but also for every Turk and the country’s aspirations to become a member of the European Union. Actually, this murder is a disgrace and a crime that merits serious action from both within and outside Turkey. If anything, this should now be reason enough for Turkey to own up to its past and to re-evaluate the treatment of its minorities.

Enough is enough.

[ . . . ]

Time will tell if Dink’s death will result in even more hatred, or push Turks to consider what type of country they want to live in. As one Turkish human rights lawyer said to me in London over a decade ago, until Turkey can own up to it’s past, it will never be able to create a democratic future.

And on that, I totally agree.

And I second the agreement. Turkey's owning up to its own past is crucial for the creation of democracy, something which Koma Komalên Kurdistan recognizes as well, and accounts for its demand of a truth commission as part of a political settlement to the Kurdish situation. It also accounts for Ocalan's continuing calls for the same. Even in this regard, Ismet Berkan at Radikal has pinpointed the biggest problem facing any attempt to establish a truth commission, and that is the extreme nationalist atmosphere in Turkey that has been nurtured by the state via the media. Indeed, a monster has been created.

Turkey is its own worst enemy. It continues to oppress its best, even to the point of murder, for the sake of its inability to come to terms with the question of identity. Hrant Dink, Behci Asci, Akin Birdal, Eren Keskin, Ismail Besikci, and Taner Akcam are a few examples of those who have dedicated their lives to the improvement of the human condition in Turkey. I think, too, of all those murdered by the state since it came into existence in 1923, and of those brutalized beyond healing by the state, and I wonder how many of those dead would have been other Hrant Dinks, other Behci Ascis, other Akin Birdals, or Eren Keskins and Ismail Besikcis. How much would those lost ones have accomlished in this battle against the great enforcers of the status quo? And that is the problem with loss; one never realizes the full extent of the meaning of that loss, or of what what might have been.

Funny . . . only one of the hyper-neocon blogs has any reaction to Hrant Dink's murder, LGF. Apparently the only concern of the commenters there is to bolster the position of their beloved Turkish general staff.

And the disgust goes on . . .


Post Script: Notice that I mentioned Taha Akyol. His son, Mustafa, is now blogging, and Mustafa is an interesting guy. He's the director of international relations for the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, a suborganization of The Journalists and Writers Foundation, which is a business concern of Fethullah Gulen. Mustafa has written for The American Enterprise, a propaganda organ of the ultra-neocon AEI. He's also published in The Weekly Standard--start-up funds provided by Lockheed Martin--another neocon propaganda site, as well as for neocon FrontPage Magazine, and the Unification Church's The Washington Times.

In short, Mustafa Akyol is an active player in the Deep State in America.

UK PLANS FOR TURKISH OCCUPATION?

"There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust."
~ Demosthenes.

Check out the following, from Bits of News (Many thanks for the link, heval):

As the sectarian violence in Iraq becomes akin to civil war, the US and UK have reviewed their respective strategies. While President Bush has made a new commitment to 'victory' in Iraq, Tony Blair and the British have taken a more pessimistic view of the future and have begun to formulate alternative political alignments. The possibilty [sic] of the partition of Iraq is now being discussed, with Turkey assuming responsibility for Northern Iraq which is mainly occupied by Kurds. This is contrary to the US commitment to grantng [sic] the Kurds greater autonomy by means of a referendum.

[ . . . ]

While most commentators focus on the Sunni / Shi'ite rift, UK policy advisors have been assisting Tony Blair to formulate a policy which will effectively lead to the partition of Iraq. The background to Mr Blair's strategy lies in the longstanding and cordial relationship between the UK and Turkey. These ties have been greatly strengthened since 2004 when the UK became a vocal advocate of improving the international status of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, a state which is only formally recognised by Turkey. This relationship has also been nurtured by Cherie Blair's representation in 2006 of a UK couple who were being sued in the UK by a dispossessed person from the Greek Republic of (South) Cyprus. In addition, the UK has been Turkey's staunchest ally in the difficult EU accession negotiations. There have however, been setbacks to this relationship. Tony Blair was persistently tried to persuade Turkey to commit troops to Iraq, so far, without success.

[ . . . ]

While US policy has been generally viewed as favourable towards the Kurds and their desire for an autonomous administration or even a secessionist state, the UK has been sympathetic towards Turkish concerns for security and the suppression of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) is considered a terrorist organisation. As Mr Blair's overtures for Turkey to send troops to Iraq have not borne fruit, he is now proposing that Turkey effectively occupies the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq. In return, Turkey will be expected to contribute to the pacification of Iraq. From a Turkish perspective, the opportunity to extend its sphere of influence to Mosel and Kirkuk in North Iraq is enticing. It will be given a free hand to search for and destroy PKK fighters who reside in Iraq and mount terrorist attacks in Turkey. In addition, Turkey would have control of the valuable oilfields of the Kirkuk region and the pipeline linking Kirkuk to Bayji and then north to Turkey.

Unfortunately for the British, they have never experienced Turkish occupation. If they had, their relationship with the Ankara regime would be significantly less "cordial," and if the British had the guts to stand up to such an occupation, would they also be labeled "terrorists?"

Let me point out that I do not know the source of this news, except to say that it's also being carried on a site for real estate sales in Turkish-occupied Cyprus. What would a Turkish occupation of South Kurdistan be like? Well, Turkish-occupied Cyprus gives us an idea, because to consolidate its position in South Kurdistan, the Ankara regime might follow a pattern of occupation similar to that of Turkish-occupied Cyprus, and a report by the UN gives us an idea of how that occupation would be carried out:

Forty thousand Turkish troops landed on the island, in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, the Treaties of Guarantee and Alliance and the relevant principles and norms of international law. As a result approximately 37 per cent of the island remains occupied. Forty per cent of the Greek Cypriot population, representing 82 per cent of the population of the occupied area were forcibly expelled. Thousands of people, including civilians, were killed, wounded or ill-treated. Moreover, the whereabouts of hundreds of Greek Cypriots, including women and children and other civilians, many of whom were known to have been captured by the Turkish Army, are still unknown.

The Turkish occupation authorities resorted to a policy of systematic destruction of the cultural and religious heritage of Cyprus.

Since the Turkish occupation army has assumed effective control of the northern part of the territory of Cyprus, Turkey has pursued a systematic State policy of colonization. To this end, Turkey has relocated, as at the end of 1996, about 109,000 of its citizens to the area under its military occupation. The policy of the Turkish Government also led to the shrinking of the Turkish Cypriot population, mainly through emigration, from 120,000 in 1974 to approximately 89,200 by the end of 1996 . . .

. . . the European Commission on Human Rights found the Government of Turkey responsible for gross massive and continuing violations of human rights in Cyprus, including murders, rapes, expulsions and refusal to allow more than 180,000 Greek Cypriot refugees, almost one third of the entire population, to return to their homes and properties in the occupied part of Cyprus [ . . . ].

On 15 November 1983, in the middle of yet another United Nations initiative, the regime installed by Turkey in the part of Cyprus occupied by Turkish troops issued a declaration by which it purported to create an independent State. Turkey immediately accorded recognition to the secessionist entity which, however, has not been recognized by any other State. Further secessionist acts followed.

[ . . . ]

In its search for a peaceful solution, the Cypriot Government, despite the continuing illegal occupation, agreed to intercommunal talks being held in line with the aforementioned resolutions. These talks are continuing even today. Success has not been possible because of the Turkish intransigence and partitionist designs.

[ . . . ]

From the above it is evident that the Government of the Republic of Cyprus is prevented by armed force from exercising its authority and control and ensuring implementation and respect of human rights in the occupied area.

This is the pattern of Turkish occupation, and it is the same as the pattern used to "pacify" North Kurdistan in the 1920s and 30s.

The best outcome of such an occupation would be the unification of the Kurdish people across all borders and the ensuing slaughter of Mehmetciks, but practically speaking, I don't believe we are at the point of such a scheme being put into place. The US wants to maintain control of the energy resources of Iraq, including those of South Kurdistan, Mûsil, and Kerkuk. The US knows that if the Ankara regime occupies, it will not leave, thus jeopardizing the control over South Kurdistan's energy resources. A Turkish occupation would most likely cause Iran to react in order to rebalance the regional power, possibly leading to a seizure--even if a soft one--of Southern Iraq and its energy resources. At the top domain level, we could be sure to see more regional involvement by the SCO, since Iran has observer status in that organization, causing problems for both Turkey and the US as they hope to consolidate their own power in the Central Asian republics.

However, the idea of the UK government proposing such a plan is consistent with information that was leaked to Britain's Sunday Telegraph at the end of October, 2006, which read, in part, as follows:

A top-secret memo seen by The Sunday Telegraph, reveals Tony Blair and his senior officials have drawn up an extraordinary "wish list" of how they would like to see the world looking just 10 years from now.

[ . . . ]

The memo, circulated to senior ministers and security officials, envisages a significant – and controversial – expansion of the European Union to include Turkey and some Balkan states. These must be "stable" and "on their way into the EU", according to the classified document.

A contentious section deals with the Kurdish populations of Turkey, Iran and Iraq, all of whom face repression. To avoid being seed beds for terrorism, these populations must be "acquiescing in their treatment". In the Middle East and south Asia generally, there must be "no new failed states, dictatorships or wars" – an extraordinary state of affairs to hope for, let alone to expect.

The editors of the Sunday Telegraph characterized the memo as "a wildly optimistic vision that might leave even the most naive of political students gaping in disbelief," as does the occupation plan as mentioned in Bits of News. I also doubt that the UK would engage in a plan that would be against the strategic goals of the US, no matter how "cordial" the UK relationship with the TC. However, as a bit of wargaming or a matter of exploring other options for the region, mindful of the West's history of betrayal of the Kurdish people and contributions to Turkey's genocide of Kurds, the idea of a Turkish occupation of South Kurdistan is one that should be kept in mind.

HRANT DINK MURDERED BY DEEP STATE

NO! NO! NO!




Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has been murdered by bozkurtlar in Istanbul, no doubt with the approval and assistance of the fascist Ankara regime, from CNN:

Outspoken journalist shot dead in Istanbul

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- A prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist who spoke out against the killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire early last century was shot to death Friday.



Hrant Dink, 53, editor of the Armenian-Turkish language weekly Agos newspaper, was shot dead in front of the Istanbul publication as he was leaving.

The killing prompted swift denunciation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the attack was a "shock" and an "insult" to the Turkish nation and a "dark day" -- not only for Dink's family but for all of Turkey as well.

"The dark hands that killed him will be found and punished," Erdogan said, in televised remarks.

Bullshit, you dirty little errand boy, Erdogan. You'll find and punish your "dark hands" in this murder just like you did for the Semdinli bombing. Remember how you were swore to get to the bottom of that one? Or how about the Council of State attack? There's another one that your filthy regime pulled off and about which we'll never hear the truth.

Authorities are looking into a lead that he was shot four times by a young man who appeared to be 18 or 19 years old.

Described as a "well-known commentator on Armenian affairs," Dink has faced a number of cases in connection with "insulting" the Turkish state for his writings.

"Some of the trial hearings have been marred by violent scenes inside and outside the courtrooms, instigated by nationalist activists calling for Dink to be punished," said a profile on the Web site of Pen American Center -- the writers' group that promotes free expression.

Agos, an Armenian-Turkish language weekly, was established in 1996.

Andrew Finkel, a journalist in Turkey and a friend of Dink's, emphasized that the killing was "a tragedy" for a country attempting to "come to terms with its past."

Read the rest at the link.

Turkey is making no effort to "come to terms with its past." It is still a fascist regime and it has no intention of changing. Even the EU knows this and not only goes along with Turkey, but enables it at every opportunity, and why not? Europe is the native home of fascism. The US encourages Turkish fascism because the only thing the Americans love is money, and fascism keeps their war industry and politicians rolling in their blood money.

On IHT, Erdogan is braying about how this murder was not the murder of an individual, but an attack against Turkey's "unity."

I have news for you, there has never been any unity in Turkey and, at the rate things are going, there isn't going to be any unity for a very long time.

I am too angry and disgusted with everything and everyone to continue with this, and what does it matter what I say anyway? Nothing will ever change.

Ax! Şev xoş, heval.


Update from Bloomberg:

Just before his assassination, Dink had complained of death threats he was receiving from nationalists.

"My computer is laden with lines filled with angry threats,'' Dink wrote in a Jan. 10 article for Agos. He said he found one letter "extremely worrying'' and said police took no action after he complained.

Police have arrested two people in connection with the murder, NTV television reported. Police believe a male aged 18 or 19 may have killed Dink, CNN Turk television reported citing unidentified police officials.

Police took no action because the police did this murder, just like they have done so many others in Turkey.

Police in riot gear surrounded Dink's office in downtown Istanbul. Forensic teams were combing the pavement outside for clues to the murder.

That's right, provide protection for a corpse, you dirty fascist bastards. Make sure you get rid of all the evidence . . . we wouldn't want any blowback, would we?

LEGAL MATTERS

“I am starting a hunger strike for the abolishment of isolation in prisons. I am on a hunger strike for the right to life in a country where law and justice have are being destroyed”
~ Behic Asci.

First, some good news for the Kurdish Freedom Movement, from Reuters:

EU court clears way for PKK terror-list challenge

LUXEMBOURG, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The European Union's top court ruled on Thursday that the brother of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan had the right to fight the inclusion of the group on the EU's terrorist list.

This was the second legal success in weeks for a group challenging the EU terrorist list. A lower court recently annulled an EU decision freezing the funds of an exiled Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahideen.

The European Court of Justice ruled a lower court was wrong in 2005 to dismiss a lawsuit by Osman Ocalan seeking to have the PKK removed from the list requiring EU states to freeze an organisation's assets.

It ordered the Court of First Instance, the EU's second most senior court, to re-examine the case.

"The Court of First Instance wrongly deduced from examination of Mr Ocalan's statements that the PKK no longer existed and could thus no longer be represented by him," the higher court ruling said.

"The Court of Justice concluded that Mr Ocalan is acting validly on behalf of the PKK and can also instruct lawyers to represent it."

The PKK case is politically sensitive because Turkish nationalists accuse Brussels of promoting Kurdish separatism by insisting on cultural rights such as broadcasting and schooling in the Kurdish language as conditions for EU membership.

The Turkish government blames the PKK for more than 30,000 deaths since the group launched an armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. Attacks have increased since the PKK called off a unilateral ceasefire in 2004.

The United States, like the European Union, blacklists the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

After the ruling in the Iranian case last month, the EU Council's Secretariat, representing member states, said it would consider appealing on points of law to the higher European Court of Justice.

It played down the implications, saying the court had not annulled the regulation establishing the terrorism list, or other persons or entities named on it.

The Dutch office of the Al Aqsa Foundation, a group with alleged ties to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, is also challenging inclusion on the terrorist list.

It argues, like The People's Mujahideen, that EU member states erred in not giving the reasons for their decision, depriving the group of a chance to defend itself.

More on that from the IHT and from Al-Jazeera.


At the end of November, 2006, a US federal court in Los Angeles struck down portions of Executive Order 13224 because the order's designation of "specially-designated global terrorists" was vague and permitted no recourse for those labeled as "terrorists" to challenge their inclusion on The List. The ruling came as a result of a challenge by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of the LTTE and the PKK. More on that from December.

The ruling by the EU Court of Justice should not only set the stage for the PKK to challenge the freezing of assets, but also to challenge the "terrorist" designation by the EU. It was Serok Apo's desire to bring the case of the Kurdish people and the Turkish state to a European court so that the atrocities committed by Turkey against the Kurdish people would be brought to the attention of the world. It was through this means that Serok Apo hoped to begin a political process that would lead to peace:

Mr Öcalan [ . . . ] expressed his belief in the basic principles and democratic safeguards of the European Union. For example, his statement to the exile publication Özgür Politika on 16 January 1999 is worded as follows:

“I believe that a concept of law as expressed in the legal framework of the European Union should be developed for the Kurdish question and I have expressed according demands. I wish to underline [our demand] that a legal commission founded on the principles of the European Union should go on fact-finding and research missions in Kurdistan and, if necessary, an international court should be established.”

Mr Öcalan repeatedly made clear that he was prepared to stand trial before such an international court himself under the sole condition that Turkey be tried, too. But his hopes and demands were not met.

Now, eight years later, it appears that the PKK is poised to bring the case of the Kurdish people to a European court.


In other legal news--and only six years late--it appears that, in spite of continued government opposition, there will be some kind of investigation into the infamous prison massacres of December, 2000, known as "Operation Return to Life," from Bianet:

Istanbul regional administrative court gives way for an investigation into security forces' operation in prison facilities in December 19, 2000, which left 32 people dead.

The court overturned the governorships rejection for an administrative investigation for a third time.

The security operation, ironically named "Return to Life", was aimed at breaking resistance of political prisoners against the new F-type facilities.

Activists and NGO reports say gross human rights violations were committed during the operations.

Before and after the operations 122 people died in hunger strike, protesting the isolation of convicts in F-type facilities. Lawyer Behic Asci still continues his hunger strike.

While the government is still resistant to act for improving the conditions in facilities, several members of the cabinet met with the demanders in recent days for a solution.

The prisoners involved in these massacres were not your run-of-the-mill criminals; when run-of-the-mill criminals in Turkey are tried and sentenced for 10, 20, or more years, they are granted general amnesties after a few years and are back on the street. Not so with political prisoners. Political prisoners can be detained in remand custody for 10 years--meaning that they can be held in custody that long before they come to trial. In the mid- to late 1990s, Turkey wanted to introduce American style (F-type) prisons for political prisoners, which would isolate them in small cells. Previously, Turkish prisons were "barracks" style, and prisoners were allowed to mix freely with each other, support each other, educate each other. This was a means of survival. Human Rights Watch has documented the routine in an F-type prison:

Small group isolation is a regime whereby prisoners remain in their cells, shared with from two to five other inmates, for lengthy periods of time with no other human contact and little or no possibility for activities, proper exercise, or educational programs. In fact, most prisoners held under the Anti-Terror Law at Kartal Special Type Prison typically sit in their cell for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, with only the possibility of a half-hour family visit once a week.

[ . . . ]

Prisoners reported that on arrival at Kartal they were held for two weeks or more in solitary confinement before being transferred to cells holding up to six people. The cells are not spacious, but provide room for bunks, atable, a shower, and a toilet. Although there is no natural light within the cell, a door leads into a high walled courtyard with an estimated area of sixteen square meters to which the prisoners seem to have more or less unrestricted access. Photographs confirm that the prison has few if any external windows. The door from the corridor to the cell is kept closed night and day.

Prisoners rarely see human beings other than their cell-mates and rarely if ever leave their cell. Prisoners' families and former prisoners reported that meals are usually delivered under or through the door. Although some cells are permitted to have a television or radio, no facilities are provided for proper exercise or sport, and no access is provided to a library or canteen. Therefore, apart from weekly family visits lasting half an hour, prisoners have no social-or even visual-contact with any person outside their cell.

What is such confinement like for the political prisoners in Turkish F-type prisons? Again, from HRW:

The family of Yunus Çalis, who was seventeen when first imprisoned at Kartal Special Type Prison in April 1999, said that he had become very depressed and withdrawn, and that he told them: "I feel as if I am in a grave here-the only way out is to join a hunger strike or burn myself."

Gursel Avci, charged with membership of an illegal armed Islamist organization, wrote to Human Rights Watch:

For those in solitary confinement, life in the cell is like death. The [prison authorities] are doing this in order to induce psychological crisis. For those in groups of three or four the situation is not much different in the long term. The yard is very small, airless, and does not see the sun for most of the time. Getting out for half an hour once a week for your visit is like a festival. Those from other cities, without visitors, do not leave these unhealthy conditions for months on end. The prison is just steel and concrete. There is no opportunity for sport or walking. Sports equipment is forbidden ...The saz [a stringed musical instrument] is forbidden.

Ali Osman Zor, who, according to his lawyer, has been in solitary confinement since January 2000, wrote: "Your senses of taste, smell, hearing, feeling, and sight fade. You cannot laugh at anything and you cry at the smallest thing." Zor expressed his sense of vulnerability, stating: "Isolating a person takes away all their sense of personal security... You feel that you could be killed at any moment. Of course, their aim is to encourage that fear and to urge you to suicide or at least to break you psychologically."

Here's a short video with some scenes from the "Operation Return to Life" massacres:

This is why political prisoners in Turkey protested the move to F-type prisons, using death fasts as a means of protest. Many of the prisoners involved with the "Operation Return to Life" massacres were in the midst of their death fasts and, therefore, in a weakened condition. Claims by the Turkish government that it only used necessary force are lies. A dossier of the massacres can be found here.

The isolation of prisoners in the F-type prison creates an environment that allows the Turkish state to take full advantage of the torture of prisoners--something for which the Turkish state is renowned--and to get away with murder, in the literal sense.

Here's more on the situation, from Desmond Fernandes:

Even as the Blair government and Bush administration have continued, post-9/11, to vigorously endorse the initiatives of the Turkish state in its ‘War on Terror’, Behic Asci, a member of the Turkish Association of Progressive Lawyers, has sought to alert people to the repercussions of ’‘’these highly questionable types of activities, which are never mentioned by Bush’s or Blair’s aides publicly: “The Turkish legal system provides no protection for … political prisoners [many of whom have been questionably charged with ‘terrorist offences’] held in isolation. In one instance, when a guard demanded one of Asci’s clients stand up for a prisoner count, she responded that given [that] she was in an isolation cell, there was no need for her to stand to be counted. Enraged at this small show of defiance, the guard attacked the prisoner, crushing her skull against the cell wall. When Asci appealed to the court to protest his client’s mistreatment, his suit was rejected as part of a ‘terrorist campaign’ against F-type isolation prisons. The court concluded that the prisoner must have crushed her own skull …

Many of the prisoners Asci represented have [also] had their feet taped together and their hands taped behind their backs. Left alone, immobilised, for hours or days at a time and unable to avail themselves of toilet facilities, they are forced to endure the indignity of repeatedly soiling themselves. Many of Asci’s clients, both men and women, had been raped while in custody, often by prison guards using batons. Asci related another experience of one client during a court hearing who had been held in isolation and who had to halt midway through reading a statement to the court. He had lost his hearing” through mistreatment “and could no longer hear his own voice.

Prisoners in the[se] F-type prisons typically suffer from a range of psychological illnesses including stress, anxiety and depression. The authorities also routinely deny [‘terrorist’] prisoners medical assistance and access to legal representation. According to Asci, prisoners are arbitrarily refused visits from family members that they are legally entitled to. Their books, newspapers and other reading material are confiscated. The letters sent to their families are heavily censored - if they ever arrive at all”.

Behic Asci is now close to the end of his death fast, which he took up in protest against a system that allows no legal resource or protection for political prisoners in Turkey. Asci felt "he could no longer sit back and watch his clients die."

If only there were more Turks like Behic Asci . . . and if only those Turks were in a position to made a difference. They would be the ones with which democracy and peace could be achieved.

AMERICANS RAID MAXMUR

"Not even one bullet was found during the operation."
~ Abdurrahman Palef, Maxmur Camp official.

American forces in Iraq raided the Maxmur refugee camp today, from TDN:

An official of the Mahmur district, Abdurrahman Palef, said that Iraqi army and coalition forces launched the operation to the camp, which harbors around 10,000 Kurdish refugees from Turkey, yesterday morning. Spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Turkey, Metin Çorabatır, confirmed that there had been a raid on the camp.

Palef said that the aim of the operation was to get a head count, identity verification and see if there were any military elements at the camp," reported Doğan News Agency. "Not even one bullet was found during the operation," he said. "There are no problems."

[ . . . ]

Meanwhile, a representative of the Mahmur Refugee Camp, Hüseyin Seyhan, said to a Kurdish news agency that it had been a "routine control" operation.

"Around 500 Iraqi soldiers searched the camp," he said to the pro-Kurdish ANF News Agency. "In the morning hours they came and asked to conduct an official search, demanding we help them. We made an announcement to the people residing at the camp, and then a house-to-house search was made." Seyhan confirmed that U.S. soldiers joined the search. He added that the inspection was done ahead of the population count to be done by the United Nations on Jan. 26. "We helped the soldiers during the search," he said, according to the ANF Web site.

Must have been a slow day in Baghad and Anbar Province for the Americans to make a raid on Kurdish refugees, but it sure as hell was a lot safer. After all, not even one bullet was found among these Kurdish refugees who had been driven from their homes by Turkish security forces years ago. From HRW:

A further cause for concern is Kurdish refugees from Turkey sheltering in Northern Iraq. The largest group is living in precarious circumstances at the Makhmur refugee camp. In March 1994 helicopters and jets bombed the villages of Kumçatı, Sapanca, and Gever in Şırnak province near the Iraq border, killing thirty-six civilians, including at least seventeen children. Villagers reported that in the days leading up to the attack, gendarmes had subjected them to death threats because they had refused to join the village guard corps. After the bombing, several thousand Kurdish villagers crossed into Northern Iraq seeking safety. About 4,800 are still in Iraq, in a camp established at Makhmur, below the 36th parallel. It is alleged that the camp is unofficially controlled by PKK/KADEK. In 2002 the Turkish government asked the Iraqi government to close down the Makhmur camp and hand its inhabitants over for trial. Clearly, if this group of refugees were forced to move northward toward the militarized zone in the event of a conflict, there is a risk that they would be subjected to human rights violations at the hands of Turkish forces.

First of all, what does it mean to say, "It is alleged that the camp is unofficially controlled by PKK/KADEK?" It means that many of the people in Maxmur are pro-PKK. They're in their present situation because they refused to become Koy Korucular--the hated Village Guards. Get over it. People will choose their own political allegiances. Secondly, notice that the Turkish government has been pressing for Baghdad to return the refugees and hand them over to the Turkish government for trial. What will they be tried for, for having their homes, villages, and way of life utterly destroyed by the Ankara regime? For being witnesses to the war crimes of NATO's second largest army? Yeah, that's the ticket.

From an interview with CNN-Turk at the end of September, 2006, check out the following questions and replies, given by Lockheed Martin Board of Directors member Joseph Ralston:

CNN-TURK: Along the line of thought of Northern Iraq not being a refuge for the PKK anymore, are you, in principle, for the closure of the Mahmur Camp?

GENERAL RALSTON: Absolutely. The UN has said that we need to close the Mahmur Camp. There are certain steps that you need to do in order to carry that out. And that’s certainly one of the things we’ll be talking to the Iraqi officials about.

CNN-TURK: Can we say that the Mahmur Camp will be closed in the foreseeable future?

GENERAL RALSTON: I don’t know if you can say that or not. There are steps that have to be done in order to do it. It’s certainly the intention to close the Mahmur Camp as soon as possible.

Will the US forcibly return these refugees to Turkey, so that Turkey can detain, torture, and imprison them after a sentence in a Turkish kangaroo--OOPS! Excuse me-- security (i.e. military) court? Remember, they refused to become traitor Village Guards. Will this be the result of some kind of deal between Lockheed Martin, the American Turkish Council, and The Cohen Group? Will it be good for business? Stay tuned.

Let's note also that it was NATO weaponry, supplied by NATO countries to the Turkish security forces, that enabled Turkey to engage in numerous massacres and destruction of Kurdish villages under Turkish occupation. Patterns of abuse by Turkish security forces are well-established, again from HRW:

In a thirteen-year-long conflict with the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), Turkish security forces established a reputation for systematic torture and extrajudicial killing. When Turkish police, gendarmes, or soldiers had difficulty in distinguishing between rural civilian populations and armed insurgents, they drove the peasantry off their land and burned down thousands of settlements to create free-fire zones in the countryside. Soldiers torched villagers' homes, destroyed their crops and orchards, and machine-gunned their livestock. No official record was kept of these operations or the destruction wrought in the course of them, and no compensation was paid. Even by official figures, widely considered to be a serious underestimate, 380,000 people lost their homes. Most of the displaced are now living in poverty in the metropolitan areas of the country. Government return programs are a sham, without sufficient funding or political will to regenerate the fragile peasant economy. This pattern of violations has been corroborated by judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which found Turkish security forces responsible for torturing, killing, and "disappearing" Kurdish villagers and burning them out of their homes.

Let's further note that TESEV has already established that the number of displaced Kurds is at least three times the official figure and HRW has recently issued a report on the scandal which passes for Turkey's compensation law:

The sums proposed by assessment commissions had never fully compensated displaced persons for the losses they had suffered. But until this year, the sums in some cases were comparable with compensation sums for displaced families ordered by the European Court for Human Rights. This all changed in January, when the court rejected the application of a Tunceli villager in Içyer v. Turkey on the grounds that the Compensation Law was an effective domestic remedy. Thereafter, the more than 1,500 cases pending before the court were dismissed on the grounds that the applicants had not exhausted the effective domestic remedy provided by the Compensation Law.

Since the European Court for Human Rights announced its decision in the İçyer case, there has been a noticeable deterioration in the implementation of the Compensation Law. Increasingly, damage assessment commissions appear to apply arbitrary and unjust criteria in calculating compensation, resulting in absurdly low compensation amounts in many cases. These calculations consistently seem to favor the government and appear to be biased against the victims of government abuse.

“A compensation process to benefit the displaced has now become a way to relieve the state of its liability,” said Cartner.” The derisory sums offered are not only unjust, but they also undermine any possibility for the villagers to rebuild their lives.”

The UN will be complicit if any harm comes to the Maxmur refugees, since the UN has appointed a Turkish wolf to guard the Kurdish sheep, from the TDN article:

Spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Turkey, Metin Çorabatır, confirmed to the Turkish Daily News that there had been a raid on the camp and said the U.N. agency was not involved. "For some time, there have been talks between Turkey and the UNCHR over the future of the camp and a possible voluntary return of the residents," he told the TDN over the phone. "But lately we were observing increased political activity at the camp. We believe radical elements were settling down there."

Noting that since the 2003 attack against the U.N. in Baghdad, the Mahmur Camp was not run by UNHCR and thus there was a lack of authority at the camp, Çorabatır added that the raid might be a first step in determining the future of the camp.

There should be no Turk in charge of Kurdish refugees, especially since these refugees are not located in Turkey, and it is a bold lie to say that the UN was not involved in the raid. I have no doubt that this Turkish UN official has been advancing Turkish interests with regard to the Maxmur refugees, and the racism of Metin Corabatir is very clear from the complaint that no authority existed at the camp, as if Kurdish adults, who had taken care of their own business in their own villages before the fascist Ankara regime destroyed them, were not capable of establishing their own authority with regard to their lives at the refugee camp. This racist Turk must be removed from having any authority over Kurdish people.

The best quote of the day comes from Maxmur official, Abdurrahman Palef: "Not even one bullet was found during the operation."

Compare with comments attributed to Abdullah Gul, Foreign Minister for the fascist Ankara regime, in a few weeks ago:

Gul also noted that negotiations are underway to evacuate Mahmur camp (held by members of terrorist organization).

What an odd kind of "terrorists" are these, Abi? With not even a single bullet to their names, they are totally unlike the terrorists who make up the Turkish security forces. It looks like the egg is on your face, pal. You'd better wipe it off before you accompany Yasar Pasha on his trip to DC next month.


By the way . . . There's a documentary produced by Barry Lando and Michel Despratx for French TV on US (and French) complicity with the Saddam regime. It goes into support for Saddam's chemical weapons production and the reactions of the US and French governments to the Helebçe chemical massacre. Apparently, the UN is also sitting on a lot of "secret" documentation in order to protect the guilty.

You can get more information from AlterNet and view a couple of video clips from the documentary.

The documentary has been aired in other countries, but not in the US. Big shock.

We need to get this broadcast here.

KONGRA-GEL STATEMENT ON IRAQ

KONGRA-GEL has published a statement on the current situation in the Middle East. Here is a portion:





Solutions for Iraq

Divisions in Iraq

It would not be realistic to say that Sunni and Shiite Arabs and Kurds in Iraq can live together as they have done before. Iraq is divided and faced with a sectarian war. The only option to prevent the intensification of this war and stop it from engulfing the entire region is to establish a confederal structure in Iraq.

This will ensure that the problems in Iraq and the region will not further deteriorate. Policies such as supporting the Shiites or Sunnis, which only ensures hegemony over each other, will deepen the current conflict and create more divisions in Iraq. Unless there is a policy change and the problems of Iraq are not resolved, a regional war and more divisions are inevitable.

Confederalism in Iraq

Today Iraq is a federation and moving towards a loose federative model. There are some forces who are debating and proposing confederalism as a solution. The KKK (Confederal System of Kurdistan) regards this as a realistic model. The problems in Iraq can only be overcome with a confederal state structure. The solution to the issues in Iraq is directly linked to the free expression of peoples’, who have the freedom to express and organize theeservies according to their own identity and an organization. This must be acknowledged. Strengthening one group over the other to obtain domination is very a dangerous approach. It will only serve the purpose to further deepen and intensify the divisions and conflicts.

The Shiites should be able to organize accoding to their own identity and the same applies to the Sunnis, Kurds and Turkmen’s. They should be able to express theeservies freely. If the problems are evaluated along these lines a solution is possible. The prevention of division, conflict, disintegration and break-up in Iraq is possible. Also a bloody war amongst peoples’ can be prevented. The proposed solution will also positively affect the Middle East region. Any other solutions will only further deepen the problems.

An Inter-Kurdish United Strategy

It is obvious that the dominant states in the region who believe they will gain strength from the current developments will harden their policies on the Kurdistan freedom struggle. For this reason, during this new period the development of the Kurdish national unity, solidarity and a united strategy is necessary. The KKK has shown that its precious call for a national conference on the latest developents was correct and necessaire. We believe that Kurds should have confidence in themselves, they should put their unity onto solid grounds, and continue their struggle with determinator in the context of a united strategy. There is a historical role for Kurdistani patriotic organizations in Turkey, Iran and Syria. All achievements of Kurds must be defended, firstly those of South Kurdistan. They have been obtained through great efforts and tens of thousands of martyrs of our people. Kurds should establish a base for the permanent resolution of the Kurdish question and develop a political strategy. For this reason it is important to defend the Kurds’ achievements which forms the basis to the political resolution of the Kurdish question as a whole.

Kurds must organise a National Conference

The latest situation shows that all the developments in the Middle East will have an affect on all forces in the region; however, the Kurds will be the most affected. There is a high probability that Kurdistan will become the centre of conflict and that there will be more devastation and suffering. The Kurdish people and political circles must recognise this and organise a national conference withoutdelay. It is also vital that decisions on joint policies are made to resolve problems.

If the Kurds fail to organise a national conference and do not strengthen unity and solidarity, this will create a dangerous situation. If Kurds do not prepare and organize themselves, then Kurds will experience even greater suffering. But, if these developments are foreseen and organizational preparations are made accordingly, then resistance can develop on these foundations. We can reduce the damage and danger to a minimum. Kurds can become an important force in the region.

Precautions exclusively taken in South Kurdistan will not save it

A policy concerning Kurdish Islamic circles in Kurdistan is necessary to prevent an Islamic, secular, Kurdish, Arab conflict and instability among forces in Kurdistan, especially the forces in South Kurdistan. The efforts to prevent such a danger through the unification of peshmerga forces to include Kirkuk into Kurdistan must continue.

But precautions taken only in the South will not be adequate. These are necessary; however, relationships with the other parts of Kurdistan must be strengthened. If this does not lead to national solidarity and if a national conference is not swiftly organized, decisions exclusively taken in South Kurdistan will not save the South. This must be recognised by the south Kurdistan forces. They need to abandon narrow political frameworks. Instead, they need to see the national democratic interests of the Kurdish nation as a whole and realize their responsibilities on these matters. Only then will the dangers theatening South Kurdistan and Kurds everywhere be lifted.

KKK´s unilateral ceasefire and Turkey`s reaction

Turkey and its international allies

Turkey has been a member of important international bodies such as NATO, The Council of Europe, and the OSCE. It is a candidate for EU membership. However, Turkey has entered in an anti-Kurd alliance with Iran and Syria, despite the differing and opposing nature of these regimes. It was against the intervention against Saddam and now it has a similar attitude regarding Iran and Syria. In Turkey’s opinion, there was a change in Iraq and the Kurds have gained some sort of status; if there are changes in Iran and Syria, the Kurds there will also gain similar rights. Turkey sees this as a threat against its security. That is why it opposes any changes in Iran and Syria and it does not hesitate to set up alliances with them in order to preserve the status quo.

The reason why Turkey is in this situation is the fact that it has not resolved its Kurdish question. If a solution to this question is found, Turkey will no longer make alliances with regressive regimes and it will take a stand against them. A Kurdish resolution in Turkey will lead to the establishment of a Turkish, Kurdish and Jewish alliance for democracy and change in the Middle East and with the participation of Arab, Persian and other peoples in the region who are seeking democracy and change, will create a new balance of forces in the region and consequently the concept of a New Middle East will gain a solid ground.

KKK´s unilateral cease-fire and Turkey

Following the resistance of the Kurdish population against the attacks of the Turkish government, in particulat in 2003, our Movement for Freedom has made significant progress as concerns the development of a democratic outlook in its organizations and the situation of the guerrilla forces. The movement has reached the point where it will be able to resist strongly the politics of denial and oppression of Turkey. In addition, the struggles for freedom against the regimes of Iran and Syria have grown stronger. These developments in the four parts of Kurdistan enable the Kurds to be in a strong position and to exert considerable influence on regional stability and international politics.

The relations between the Kurds and the Turks have become a major issue in the region and as a result of these developments, the solution of the Kurdish problem will have an enormous impact on the international situation. It is in this context that different forces made declarations and appeals for a ceasefire on several occasions. Among these are the recent written declaration of the US on 15th August, the Federal Republic of Iraq and the Regional Government of South Kurdistan. In Turkey several appeals have been made by different organizations, by the DTP (Democratic Society Party), intellectuals, writers, Mothers for Peace, religious leaders of Kurdistan and musicians. Some of these appeals have been made in the press, others by diplomatic means.

1. The declaration of the ceasefire started on 1st of October 2006. Depending on the steps that will be taken and the development of events, the period of the ceasefire will continue or not.

2. There will be no use of arms as long as our forces are not attacked, but in case of an attack aimed to annihilate our forces, they will defend themselves by all means necessary.

3. During the whole period there will be no military activity with the exception of the activities that fulfil our logistical needs and to safeguard our natural security.

4. The board of command of the HPG (People’s Defence Forces), the position of our forces, their movement and their programme will be reorganised according to the agreements of the ceasefire.

5. All the officials, organizations and institutions in the Movement for Democracy and Freedom in Kurdistan will at all levels (ideological, political, practical) contribute to the success of this ceasefire. In addition, all the tasks and programmes will be re-arranged in accordance with the decision of this declaration.

6. This decision concerns all the forces of the Koma Komalen Kurdistan. Noone will oppose this position; all will make their utmost efforts to contribute to the success of the ceasefire.

Reaction of Turkey to the unilateral cease-fire

The hawkish Armed Forces Chief General Yasar Buyukanit has vowed to fight the PKK, which still enjoys considerable support in the Southeast, until the last guerrilla is killed.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is under pressure to crack down on the PKK to stem the rising nationalism ahead of elections this year. His AK Party, which has roots in political Islam, fears concessions on Kurdish rights or looking soft on the PKK will weaken the party at the ballot box next year.

US policy on the Kurds

The US-led intervention in Iraq has led the US to become directly embroiled in the Kurdish question.

In the present situation it is imperative for the US government to win the friendship of the Kurds in Turkey, Iran and Syria especially as these governments seek to maintain the present status quo of their anti-Kurdish alliance. It will be crucial for the US not again to make the Kurds victims of such an alliance.

In the past weeks important developments have taken place in particular regarding the politics in Turkey and Iran. The Turkish state continues to insist on military operations in South Kurdistan. It exerts huge diplomatic pressure on the US, PUK and KDP as the present status of South Kurdistan greatly worries Turkey. We firmly believe that the cause of the Kurdish problem does not lie in Qandil but in Ankara.

The first step in this strategy should be that the US government takes a more pro-active role in the quest for a peaceful solution to the conflict with the PKK. Although the previous Clinton administration labelled the PKK a “terrorist” organization and would generally refuse to negotiate or encourage negotiation with its leaders, it moved beyond this static policy in Israel, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. There, all parties realized it would be counter-productive to rule out dialogue with groups that had built a significant constituency and represented real grievances of substantial segments of the population.

As regards Turkey the US has not only diplomatic but also important economic influence. It is a positive sign that the US refuses to agree to support Turkish military operations in South Kurdistan. It will be imperative to continue to hold this position in future. But the resolution of the Kurdish question demands far more commitment. The US has the means to bring the parties of the conflict together and open the road for a dialogue. Such a commitment will not only be a step to benefit Turkey and the Kurds but the whole Middle East.

Turkey is making every effort to get the US to fight the PKK who found refuge in Kurdistan in Iraq. Turkey has been fighting the PKK since 1984 without apparent success and want the American government to rescue their failing endeavor and engage in a bloody fight with the PKK.

The US government should understand that without finding a solution to the Kurdish problem in Turkey, the solution they are planning to impose on Iraqi- Kurdistan will turn into a strategic mistake, a No Solution. Democratization of Turkey should be one of the principal objectives of the US foreign policy in the Middle East, as it will be one of the main factors for helping to find a solution to the Kurdish problem in the region.

It is for this reason that governments who have formed “the alliance of three in coordination against the PKK” should not not label our movement “terrorist” and abandon all plans to eliminate it. It is obvious that the problem cannot be resolved by means of violence, as events in the past have already repeatedly shown on many occasions. The leading powers should rethink their policy and consider our project for a democratic solution; this would be the best way forward. The US and especially the Iraqi Government, that knows the Kurdish problem only too well, should play a constructive role during the period of the ceasefire that we have launched.


The entire statement is available at TECAK.

SCREW YOUR FEELINGS

“Sometimes my feelings are so hot that I have to take the pen and put them out on paper to keep them from setting me afire inside; then all that ink and labor are wasted because I can't print the results”
~ Mark Twain.

Headline at TNA: "Kirkuk (sic) belongs to all Iraqis."

Really? Then why were no Kurds present at this little Turkish-sponsored love fest, hmmm? That's rhetorical because I know why there were no Kurds present: Given the Turkish state's penchant for genocide, the real meaning behind the love fest is that Turkey intends to genocide the Kurds of South Kurdistan, too. After all, Turkey has a lot of experience in conducting genocide and no doubt gave Saddam a lot of useful pointers on the matter.

I can picture it now. The Turkish general staff on one side of the border, Saddam on the other, two good neighbors chatting over the fence, so to speak, as to the best methods of how to get rid of those pesky Kurds, just as two neighbors might have a friendly discussion on how to get rid of the crabgrass in the lawn . . .

Cuneyt Ulsever at TDN got his poor little feelings hurt by the pow wow in Ankara last weekend, in which certain Kurdish intellectuals gathered to try to sort out the problem of Turkey's pesky Kurds. It seems like the best they could come up with was something like, "Kurds are the best friends of Turks." Don't you just love that? Although it's not quite as sickening as saying that Kurds and Turks are brothers, or some such nonsense as the laughing Foreign Minister came out with recently, still it runs directly counter to that old foundational adage: Turk'un Turkten baska dostu yoktur, meaning, essentially, "the only friend of a Turk is a Turk."

But what hurt Cuneyt's little feelings is the fact that Yasar Kemal said that Turks call the Kurdish gerîlas, terrorists, when they are, in reality, the hope of the Kurdish people and the only ones to defend the rightful Kurdish cause under Turkish occupation.

Then, Cuneyt tells us what a terrorist is:

In the dictionaries, the word “terrorist,” on the other hand, is explained as a person that “terrorizes, scares, and spreads terror.”

Even though there is not a consensus on the meaning of the word in the political terminology, “terrorist” means a person who “creates horror, fear, and terror among the civil population in an unorganized army in order to psychologically predominate the nation whose organized army he is fighting against.”

Today, anyone who targets the life of innocent, unarmed civilians is accepted as a terrorist. A terrorist's cause can even be legitimate. However, a person or organization that targets civilians should not be advocated.

Any action that targets civilians needs to be seen as heinous action. Otherwise, we will all become victims of the “my terrorist is a good one” reasoning.

Cuneyt has already fallen into the "'my terrorist is a good one' reasoning" because Cuneyt has never discussed, and never will discuss, the fact of the Ankara regime's murder of innocent Kurdish civilians as, for example, at the end of last March in the Amed Serhildan, in which the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the murder of Kurdish women and children:

“You who let your children roam the streets, or let your children be used by the terrorist organizations, tomorrow your cry will be in vain. Our security forces will act against anybody, whether it be children or women, that works as a tool for terrorism. I want this to be known. Nobody should make wrong calculations.”

Whose terrorist is a good one now? And who stood with Erdogan as he said this? The Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe:

"Terrorism cannot have any justification under any pretext.

We are mindful that terrorism threatens European countries, resulting in violent attacks perpetrated in Spain, the Russian Federation and the UK.

We also condemn and reject the violent activities of the PKK/KONGRA-GEL terrorist organisation which has recently escalated its criminal activities which resulted in loss of life and material damage in Turkey."

Whose terrorist is a good one now? Who immediately began murdering Kurdish children? Turkish security forces:

The killed are:

In Amed

* * Abdullah Duran (9). Duran was killed on March 29 by a bullet from a Turkish soldier while he was sitting on the terrace outside his home in the Baglar district of Amed.

* * Tarik Atakaya (22). Atakaya was killed on March 29 with one bullet to his neck and several through his back by Turkish special forces in the Baglar district of Amed. Atakaya didn’t have any involvement in the riots according to several independent reports.

* * Mehmet Isikçi (18). No clear reports on where and how Isikçi was killed.

In Istanbul

* * Hüseyin Demir (24). Demir was killed by Turkish police on March 29 during a demonstration against the killing of the 14 HPG guerrillas in the suburb of “May 1st” in the district of Umraniye in Istanbul.

And that was just the beginning. Read more from the Amed IHD's report. Whose terrorist is a good one now?

What triggered the anger of the Kurdish people? The actions of Turkish security forces:

For killing children and elders and wounding hundreds of people by shooting at them during the protests. And also for using gas against the guerrilla forces of HPG during a period when HPG declared one sided truce.

Whose terrorist is a good one now?


Who tortured Kurdish children under detention? The Turkish state:

A total of 202 children had been detained in relation to the incidents in Diyarbakir between March 28 and April 1, 2006 and 91 of them were arrested after their initial custody period. As result of an appeal made by the Diyarbakir Bar Association, 34 of the imprisoned children were later released.

The Bar Association Center had disclosed then that 95 percent of the children detained by security forces had been subject to torture and mistreatment.

Whose terrorist is a good one now?


This is only recently, and doesn't go into the 40,000 Kurds murdered by the Turkish state during its Dirty War of the 1990s. Oh, yeah, let's not forget that the 40,000 figure is simply an official estimate and not the actual number. Since the recent TESEV study has confirmed that the Turkish state's previous estimates for the numbers of Kurds it forcibly displaced were dismally low, and the new study indicates the number may be from 950,000 to 1.2 million Kurds forcibly displaced, we can take the Turkish state's estimate of 40,000 Kurds murdered during the Dirty War to be a dismally low estimate as well. The new TESEV figure for forcibly displaced Kurds is still much lower than human rights groups estimate; they place the number of displaced between 3 and 4 million Kurds.

Whose terrorist is a good one now?


This is only recent stuff . . . This doesn't get into the estimated one and a half million Kurds deported and massacred between 1925 and 1938. It doesn't go into the Resettlement Law of the 1930s. It doesn't mention the thousands of Kurds murdered during the "pacification" campaign that followed the Ararat Rebellion. In other words, it doesn't even scratch the surface.

Whose terrorist is a good one now?

Who was it that did the March 16 massacre? The Taksim Square massacre? The Bahçelievler massacre? The Maras massacre? Who was it that did the Guclukonak massacre? Who murdered innocent civilians in Şirnex, Cizîr, and Nisêbîn during Newroz in 1992? Who was it that bombed innocent civilians in South Kurdistan while the coalition of the worthless stood by and let it happen?

Bearing in mind that I'm not even getting started here, whose terrorist is a good one now, along with all those who helped them?

Oh, and about those two red herrings--Hizbullah and Hamas--well, if PKK had billions of dollars pumped into its accounts like Ankara's two favorite Arab groups get from the West, Turkey, as we know it, would cease to exist because it would become totally irrelevant. You don't even want to go down that road with me, old Cuneyt, old buddy, old pal.

By the way, Gunduz Aktan, you go right ahead and "contribute to the protection of the rights of Turcomans within the territorial integrity of Iraq" just like you did when Saddam was slaughtering them in droves . . . right alongside Kurds.

By the way, I don't give a damn whose feelings I hurt.

WHO'S BEHIND THE SURGE?

"Only weeks before Halliburton made headlines by announcing it was pulling out of Iran—a nation George W. Bush has labeled part of the “axis of evil”—the Texas-based oil services firm quietly signed a major new business deal to help develop Tehran’s natural gas fields. Halliburton’s new Iran contract, moreover, appears to suggest a far closer connection with the country’s hard-line government than the firm has ever acknowledged."
~ Newsweek, February 16, 2005.

There's an interesting article from Der Spiegel on the new Iraq strategy. It mentions the Congressional grillings given last week, not only to Condoleeza Rice, but also to the new Defense Secretary, Robert Gates. However, if anyone doubts the influence of a certain American think-tank on the situation in the Middle East, take a look at this:

Some 4,000 soldiers are to move into Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold, in the coming months. And an additional 17,500 US troops will aim to turn all of the capital Baghdad into a secure "Green Zone."

Bush's original concept for the war in Iraq was deceptively simple: topple Saddam Hussein and hand the country over to the Iraqis. His latest plan has at least moved closer to reality. The strategy paper put together by US Deputy National Security Advisor Jack Crouch lists the most pressing tasks: disarming militias, fighting al-Qaida, battling widespread unemployment, improving electricity supplies, finding a lasting reconciliation between Iraq's major ethnic and sectarian divisions, and rolling back Iran's growing influence.

It appears Bush has been sold on deploying more troops -- which is even viewed skeptically by the Pentagon -- by a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. The neoconservative think tank already played a key role in the run-up to the Iraq war. Fred Kagan, a 36-year-old military historian, has been drumming up support for the so-called "surge" deployment of more troops for months. "It is time for America to go to war and win," he wrote in his recent AEI position paper titled "Choosing Victory."

Remember the name of that think-tank: American Enterprise Institute (AEI). It is the ideological whorehouse of the American government.

There's another "expert" affiliated with AEI, who is as influential with the current administration as he is wrong, and that's Michael Ledeen. At the beginning of January, it was Ledeen whose report of Khamenei's death were exaggerated. It is Ledeen who is pressing for an American military adventure in Iran.

Which Iranian is most closely linked to Ledeen? Manucher Ghorbanifar, the central Iranian player in the Iran-Contra scandal. The Raw Story reported in April, 2006, that:

The Department of Defense and Vice President Dick Cheney have retained the services of Iran-Contra arms dealer and discredited intelligence asset Manucher Ghorbanifar as their “man on the ground,” in order to report on any interaction and attempts at negotiations between Iranian officials and US ambassador to Iraq, Zelmay Khalilzad, current and former intelligence officials say.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, three intelligence sources identified the Iran-Contra middleman as having been put back on the payroll, acting as a human intelligence asset and monitoring any movement in discussions about Iran’s alleged burgeoning nuclear weapons program.

“Khalilzad has been authorized to enter into discussions with the Iranians over the issue of stability inside Iraq,” one former intelligence source said.

Was Ghorbanifar the "intelligence" source behind the American raid on the Iranian consulate in Hewlêr last week?

Ghorbanifar is so illegitimate an intelligence asset that the CIA "issued an unusual `burn notice' on Ghorbanifar, instructing its personnel not to deal with him and warning that he was known to spread false information to advance his own interests." More on that from Laura Rozen, at War and Piece, quoting a transcript from a 2005 edition of Meet the Press:

MR. RUSSERT: One of the legitimate issues raised about Iraq, however, was: Was the information given to us about weapons of mass destruction credible and accurate? The American Prospect, a liberal magazine, has been reading your book and analyzing it and talking to people. "The Prospect has learned that the true identity of `Ali' is Fereidoun Mahdavi, formerly the shah's minister of commerce and, more importantly, the close friend and business partner of Ghorbanifar, legendary arms dealer, infamous intelligence fabricator, and central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal that almost brought down the Reagan administration. It was `Gorba,' as he was known back then to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, the rogue National Security Council officer, who lured the Reagan administration into secretly selling U.S. missiles to the Islamic regime in exchange for the release of Western hostages.

... Mahdavi says that he has this network in Iran that he gets information from,' says Akbar Etemad [a former minister in the shah's government.] `Each time, he says his information will come true in two months' time. But all that information is fake. Ghorbanifar and Mahdavi work very closely together. Ghorbanifar is unreliable. In that sense, he might be dangerous. The CIA shares that harsh assessment of Ghorbanifar. If the intelligence community had any clue to Mahdavi's association with Ghorbanifar, it is scarcely surprising that its officials rebuffed Weldon's overtures on behalf of `Ali.' Many years ago, the CIA issued an unusual `burn notice' on Ghorbanifar, instructing its personnel not to deal with him and warning that he was known to spread false information to advance his own interests."

In another article by Laura Rozen in The American Prospect, Fereidoun Mahdavi aka "Ali" admits:

The former minister continued: “I am well-known in Tehran. How can I call Tehran? But Ghorbanifar is something else. He has all the contacts within Iran. Nobody has so many information and contacts that he has. Now if he is using that information through me to try to buy power indirectly, that is his business. I do it because I have known him for many years.”

What is happening here? Ledeen's long-time pal, Ghorbanifar, is the source of information that is being dispersed through any number of individuals, but he is the single source of it all. Are Ledeen's "sources" in Iran all getting their information from the one unreliable source? It certainly sounds that way.

In the July/August 2006 issue of Mother Jones, Laura Rozen connects three key persons in one location, at the same time, to plan a war against Iran. Those three are Larry Franklin, of Lockheed Martin fame (see Saturday's post), Michael Ledeen, and Manucher Ghorbanifar. Get it? In December, 2001, one of Lockheed Martin's old directors for strategic planning, an AEI Freedom Scholar, and a discredited Iranian arms dealer were planning a war on Iran.

If, as Der Spiegel notes, AEI thinkers are behind the current change in Iraq strategy, can the machinations of Franklin, Ledeen, and Ghorbanifar be far removed? How many of their fantasies, passed off as "intelligence," is feeding the current frenzy? And why, after so many disasters like the Iran-Contra scandal, or the domination of US foreign policy by Lockheed Martin, are people like this Franklin, Ledeen, and Ghorbanifar still deemed as credible by anyone?

For more schemers and liars behind the push for an Iran war, there's another reference from Mother Jones. Included in the MJ list are Abram Shulsky, Elizabeth Cheney (yes, that's the daughter of the vice-president), David Wurmser, Elliot Abrams, Michael Ledeen, and Manucher Ghorbanifar. Also listed are the Iran Policy Committee and Foundation for Democracy in Iran, and the Committee for the Present Danger--any danger. Pick whichever danger you want and these schemers and liars will manage to turn a buck on it.

Note that the Iran Policy Committee is a big backer of the MEK, proving that one man's terrorist is the same man's freedom fighter as long as it's all about corporate interests. In fact, you can get an idea of what a professional CIA propagandist can churn out when the bucks hang in the balance, by checking this apologia pro-MEK. Keep in mind that MEK was backed by Saddam and interfered with the Kurdish uprising in 1991.

As much as I'd love to see the mullahs get their just desserts (and East Kurdistan get its moment of chaos to break free from the brutality of the Iranians), the idea that likes of Ledeen, Ghorbanifar, Lockheed Martin, and the AEI are manufacturing the "intelligence" against Iran is more than enough to discredit any plan that they might propose; additionally, it would be extreme folly for the PKK and PJAK to assist these vermin with their goals in Iran, just as it will be extreme folly for the KRG to assist these vermin with their goals in Baghdad. After all, their bottom line is not democracy, their concern is not human rights, and their interests are not Kurdish interests.

They are, in a word, haraam.