2
May 2005
2. "Turks’ patriotism raises flags as EU talks near", the country’s sacred symbol is cropping up as nationalism rises.
3. "Turkey Sees ‘Political Ties’ With Armenia", some EU politicians, notably in France, home to Western Europe’s largest Armenian population, have said Turkey should recognize the alleged genocide of Armenians before being allowed to start accession negotiations with the wealthy bloc.
4. "Antisemitism in the Turkish Media", the rising antisemitism in the Turkish media is a complex phenomenon that manifests itself in several forms.
5. "Mass grave may hold 1,500 Kurds in Iraq", investigators have uncovered a large grave in Iraq that may contain the bodies of 1,500 Kurds killed in the 1980s. It could produce evidence needed to prosecute ousted leader Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants for mass killings during his regime.
6. "Corruption instead of development in Iraqi Kurdistan", one might expect the Kurdistan region to be leading the way in the development of Iraq's civil society and infrastructure after more than a dozen years of self-rule.
1. - Reuters - "Rebel Kurd group claims bloody blast at Turk resort":
TUNCELI / 1 May 2005
A Kurdish rebel group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in a western Turkish resort town that killed a police officer, a news agency known to have close links with the group reported.
A spokesman for the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK), a group known to carry out urban attacks for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was quoted as telling the Europe-based Mezopotamya News Agency that the TAK was behind the bomb blast in Kusadasi on Saturday.
Four policemen were wounded in the explosion that occurred when they investigated a suspicious package next to a statue of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the town centre.
Police were setting up a security cordon after a report of the package in front of the statue when the explosion happened.
The spokesman also said the group was behind two incidents last week in Istanbul where police defused bombs placed under a bridge and at a municipal bus park.
The spokesman said the organisation was planning urban attacks and warned the "Western tourists to stay away from Turkey".
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984
and more than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, but violence
subsided after the 1999 capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan. 
2. - Reuters - "Turks’ patriotism raises
flags as EU talks near":
The country’s sacred symbol is cropping up as nationalism rises
ANKARA / 30 April 2005 / by Gareth Jones
Anyone visiting Turkey in recent weeks might be forgiven for thinking the country had just gone to war or at the very least won a major soccer tournament.
Public buildings, homes, buses, taxis and private cars have been festooned with the national flag, which bears a white Islamic crescent moon and star on a red background.
Rallies and protests featuring the flag have been held across Turkey. In the eastern city of Erzurum, the German ambassador was prevented from cutting a cake decorated with the Turkish flag on the grounds it could signify disrespect.
This outpouring of patriotic fervor was sparked by an incident last month in which youths tried unsuccessfully to set fire to a Turkish flag during a pro-Kurdish demonstration in the port city of Mersin.
An overreaction? Turkey’s military General Staff did not think so. It issued a statement vowing to defend the nation to its "last drop of blood." Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced sternly that the flag was a sacred symbol for Turks.
Security officers detained the 13- and 14-year-old boys accused of setting fire to the flag, along with nine others.
’Feeling cornered’
The flag-waving has raised some questions about Turks’ state of mind as they prepare for the start of talks in October to join the European Union, a club founded on the rejection of nationalism that enjoins its members to share sovereignty and focus on common values.
"Turks are feeling cornered, besieged from outside and betrayed from within," said Dogu Ergil, head of the liberal think-tank TOSAM. "The explosion was waiting to happen. In Mersin, somebody simply lit the match."
The perceived threats from outside include EU pressure on a range of sensitive issues including Cyprus, as well as the presence of U.S. troops in neighboring Iraq. Inside Turkey, he said, people fear "betrayal" by Kurds and other ethnic or religious minorities.
The reaction to the Mersin incident is just one of a number of signals troubling advocates of Turkey’s EU membership.
Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic tract Mein Kampf has shot onto the best-seller lists. Turkey’s best-known novelist Orhan Pamuk has received death threats for backing Armenian claims of genocide at Turkish hands in World War I. A government minister said Christian missionaries threaten national unity, even though only a handful of Turks have converted.
Perception gap widens
The Constitutional Court struck down a law allowing foreigners to buy real estate, and the president threw out a bill ending restrictions on foreign ownership of national broadcasters, saying it would harm national interests.
The ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP, has vowed to press ahead with those two laws. But the impression from these incidents is of a country succumbing to paranoia and trying to retreat into its shell, diplomats say.
"The perception gap between Turkey and the EU is wider than at any time since the AKP came to power" in November 2002, said one Ankara-based European diplomat.
The diplomat noted that nationalism is a founding principle of the Turkish Republic and is viewed as a very positive force, while Europeans are far more mindful of its destructive power, which led to the decision to set up the EU.
"Turkey did not go through the catharsis of World War II. To reject nationalism here is to reject the republic and (its founder Kemal) Ataturk. This difference in experience can feed a sense of incompatibility between Turkey and Europe," he said.
Emin Sirin, an independent member of the Turkish Parliament,
said the Turks’ "pressure cooker" discontent stemmed
mainly from a sense of hurt pride over the EU’s treatment of their
country.
3. - Al Jazeera - "Turkey Sees ‘Political Ties’ With Armenia":
ANKARA / 30 April 2005
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was reported yesterday as saying Turkey was ready to build “political relations” with neighboring Armenia despite their disagreements over history and territory. Turkey broke off diplomatic ties with the ex-Soviet republic in 1993 over Armenia’s occupation of territory inside Azerbaijan, a regional Turkic-speaking ally of Ankara.
Ankara also angrily rejects Yerevan’s claims that 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey says the Armenians were victims of a war which claimed even more Muslim Turkish lives.
But Erdogan, worried the genocide issue could harm Turkey’s plans to start European Union entry talks in October, recently urged Armenia to help set up a commission of historians from many countries to establish what really happened.
Erdogan renewed that invitation in an interview with Milliyet newspaper, adding: “On the one hand, political relations could be established. On the other hand, work (on the archives) could continue. There is no Chinese Wall between us.”
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said this week he was ready to accept Erdogan’s proposal for a joint commission to probe the genocide claims but he also said it was necessary to improve broader relations first. Erdogan did not mention the possibility of restoring full diplomatic relations, but his comments were the clearest sign yet that Turkey wants to mend fences with Armenia.
Some EU politicians, notably in France, home to Western Europe’s largest Armenian population, have said Turkey should recognize the alleged genocide of Armenians before being allowed to start accession negotiations with the wealthy bloc. But German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who is due to pay an official visit to Turkey next week, ruled out any linkage between the start of EU entry talks and the Armenian question.
“This (recognition of genocide) cannot be a precondition. This is about bilateral relations. It’s for the historians to decide (what happened),” Schroeder told Turkey’s NTV commercial television in an interview broadcast yesterday. He also praised Erdogan’s offer to open up Turkey’s archives on the period and his call for an international commission. “It’s very important for a nation to look at its history with an attitude of self-criticism,” Schroeder added.
He said an expected vote in the German Parliament in the coming weeks on a resolution concerning the alleged genocide should not upset relations between Ankara and Berlin. Turkey has in the past threatened countries that do recognize the massacres as a genocide with diplomatic sanctions.
Erdogan also accused the European Union of fanning nationalism in Turkey by interfering in the issue of its minority Kurds, the newspaper said. Turkey has eased restrictions on Kurdish language and culture as part of its drive to join the EU, but some politicians and top generals fear Kurdish separatists are trying to use the more liberal climate to extract more concessions.
An unsuccessful attempt by youths last month to burn a
Turkish flag during a pro-Kurdish demonstration triggered protest rallies
and marches by angry Turks across the country.
4. - The Middle East Media Research Institute - "Antisemitism
in the Turkish Media":
29 April 2005
The rising antisemitism in the Turkish media is a complex phenomenon that manifests itself in several forms:
1. Animosity towards Jews, Judaism and ’Jewish lobbies.’ Jews are targeted as individuals, a community, people and "race," and as a sinister political entity seeking Jewish dominance on world affairs, businesses and media. Jews are demonized in many conspiracy theories including causing earthquakes, globalization, and the creation of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia.
2. A hostile approach towards the Jewish citizens of Turkey, questioning their loyalty; blaming them of treason and for the fall of the Ottoman Empire; characterizing them with derogatory adjectives; inciting the public by citing Koran verses hostile to them; and creating an atmosphere conducive to violence. [1] This type of antisemitism also targets Masonic lodges and freemasons for their alleged connections with Judaism.
3. Antisemitism that in recent years has turned into a harsh campaign, which some Turkish intellectuals have called "a witch hunt" against the ’D?nme’ [2] who are regarded as ’hidden Jews’ posing as Muslims. They are blamed for helping to found the modern Republic of Turkey as a ’spare’ Jewish state, for holding all key positions’ in Turkey and for ruling the country.
4. Antisemitism directed at Israel and Zionism. The word ’Zionists’ often replaces the word ’Jews’ in the press.
This is the first part in a series of reports which will be released in the coming weeks. The following are excerpts from articles in the Turkish press dealing with antisemitism (the format of the text appears as in the original):
"The Disgusting Form of Racism Called Antisemitism, is Fast Growing and Causing the Increased Interest in ’Mein Kampf’"
In an article titled ’Mein Kampf and the Protocols of Zion’, Ayse Hür wrote in the left of center, liberal daily Radikal: [3]
"Recently there are two interesting books in the ’bestseller’ lists: Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the Protocols of Zion. Mein Kampf which is the ’handbook’ for the ultra- nationalists of Turkey was translated [into Turkish] and published about 45 times between the years of 1940 and 2005. […] the Protocols of Zion, which inspired Mein Kampf, was published in full or in summarized form over 100 times during 1943-2004. Mein Kampf which is thought to sell about 1,000 copies a year, is now being marketed by 11 publishers.
"[…] Sami Celik, the owner of Emre Publications, who recently printed 31,000 copies told Aksam newspaper on February 27, 2005: ’Following our research and observations, we thought that Mein Kampf would be a book that would be sought after and read by the public. […] Mein Kampf was [indeed] affected by [recent] developments and its sale figures peaked.’ [4] As a matter of fact it has become a sort of handbook for the [electorate] base of MHP [the ultra-nationalist ’National Movement Party’] and ’Genc Parti’ [the Youth Party]. Some claim that it is very popular among the students at police academies.
"In the same newspaper [Aksam] we read sociologist Prof. Mustafa Erkal who said: ’Reading Hitler is a reaction. Israel’s policies and goals cause a reaction. Naturally, people get curious about Hitler’s antisemitism and want to learn more about what he did and wanted to do.’ What our academician failed to say is the fact that in Turkey, as in the rest of the world, animosity toward the Jews, that disgusting form of racism called antisemitism, is fast growing and causing the increased interest for Mein Kampf. We know that publishing this book in Europe is banned; and in Germany even its possession is a crime. […]
"Having ’Mein Kampf’ and the ’Protocols’ on our bestseller list today, must make us think twice before we claim ’there is no antisemitism here.’"
"It is the Jews Who Should Read Mein Kampf"
Columnist Arslan Tekin of the nationalist-Islamic daily Yenicag, wrote in an article titled ’Yes, Mein Kampf should be taught in schools:’ "Everybody should read it, and should learn the reasons why Hitler came about." [5]
11 days later, Tekin wrote in his column in Yenicag: [6] "Can a Hitler rise in America? It can happen… What was [true] for Germany before Hitler came to power is [now] exceedingly true for America. Big banks, big TV organs, big newspapers, all the tools that can trap the public opinion are in the hands of the Jews… Politics is run by them too.
"What is the proportion of the Jewish [population] in America of 200 million [sic]. Must not even be two percent. They have an image beyond what their numbers merit. I am sorry for the Jews… How come they do not think about the effect their disproportionate ’grandeur’ would have on the majority of the [American] people! In Germany, Hitler did not rise just single-handedly. He only answered the questions asked by his people.
"Hey Jews! The world cannot bear to have another Hitler [because of you]. Your disproportionate [presence]; your recklessness; your daring to burn the world for [even] one Jew, makes the American people and everyone in the world ask the question: ’what’s happening here?’ Do you know how the US is seen now? [It looks like] the biggest Jewish empire of the world. […]
"I, like everyone else, am seeing this situation… Hitler’s Mein Kampf must be read especially by the Jews.
"A madman like Hitler does not just come about [without a reason]… The book which you define as ’nonsense’ has set the world on fire. The Jews should think about the reasons [why]."
"Hitler Was a Man of Foresight"
Abdurrahim Karakoç, a columnist at the Islamic newspaper Vakit praised Hitler: [7]
"[…] It is impossible not to admire the foresight of Adolph Hitler, who is presented to public opinion as ’racist, sadistic, and monstrous.’ Way back then, Hitler foresaw what would happen these [present] days. He cleansed off these swindler Jews, who believe in racism for a religion and take pleasure in bathing the world in blood, because he knew that they would become [this] big a curse for the world.
"[…] Hitler indeed was a man of foresight […] So Hitler did the job, yet Israel is presented to the world public opinion as the innocent victim.
"[…] The second man with foresight is evidently Osama bin Laden. If a stone hits a dog’s leg somewhere in the world, Osama bin Laden gets blamed. […] Bin Laden had foreseen what would happen in Iraq, in Palestine, and in the prisons of Guantanamo.
"He [Osama] alone, or perhaps with a few friends, defies the superpowers of the world and sets fear inside the very shelters of the oppressors. […] It was Hitler yesterday, and it is Osama bin Laden today […]"
"Couldn’t You Find Other People to Send to Turkey, Than the ’Jew’ Edelman and the ’Jew’ Feith?"
In reaction to a Wall Street Journal article by Robert Pollock [8] [on the rising anti-Americanism in Turkey] columnist Serdar Kuru wrote in the nationalist Turkish daily Ortadogu: [9]
"[Pollock’s] article determines that Turkey is becoming a paranoid third world country. And the reason they think we are paranoid is the widespread belief among Turks that America is [nothing but a] toy in the hands of Jews who have designs of aggression against Turkey. The author of the article seems to be annoyed at the exposure of the Jewish identities of the American Ambassador Edelman and later of [Douglas] Feith during his visit [to Turkey].
"[…] In reality it is clear who ordered this poor shooter [Robert Pollock, WSJ] to write this article […] Our problem is with the Zionist Jews who have grabbed every corner in America and the Evangelist Christians that they [the Jews] feed, who plan [together] to set on fire the whole world and our country. The ones who are disturbed by people, who oppose their plans, are the same ones who prepare these plans.
" The Wall Street Journal, where this article was published belongs to the Dow Jones Corporation. Peter R. Kahn, the head of Dow Jones is Jewish and is a member of CFR. This man’s wife Karen House is the head of the Wall Street Journal. She too is Jewish and a member of CFR. Mrs. Karen is also the director of RAND, the think tank that prepared the world domination plans for the Bush team. Vice President of Dow Jones, Joseph Stern, is one of America’s most famous Jewish lawyers. A Board of Directors member is Lewis Campbell who owns Textron the gun manufacturer and heads the security operations of the capitalist Round Table. One other Director of the Board is former president of American Express, Harvey Golubda and he is Jewish.
"By now you must have understood why Wall Street Journal is disturbed by Turkey’s anti-Zionist attitude. This Jewish Dow Jones Corporation also has an exchange fund called "Dow Jones Islamic Market Turkey." This strange exchange fund [claims] to do brokerage with no interest. Some stupid fools who think they can make money without paying interest must be entrusting their monies into the hands of Jews. As you can see my friends, the reactions to the Turkish attitude towards American and Zionist expansionisms are not objective […] they are coming from the Zionists themselves.
"Is it our fault that behind every immorality, incitement, conspiracy and filth there is a Zionist ? Couldn’t you send to Turkey people other than the Jew Edelman and the Jew Feith? […]"
"Our Times are Similar to 1930’s in Germany"
In the leftist-liberal daily Radikal, Murat Necip Arman wrote: [10]
"The discussions we are having now are almost identical to the ones they had in Germany during the 1930’s. At those days the press articles were not openly targeting the non-Germanic races yet, but were often arguing that they [the Jews] dominated the economy and that they were conducting [secret] activities that would ruin the fiber of the German society.[…]
"On New Year’s Eve, in a TV channel which does not feel the need to hide its ties to a [Turkish] political party, it was recounted at great length that the Jews are a cursed people and that for this reason it was obligatory for the Muslims to eradicate them [the Jews]. […] it should not be forgotten that to openly say such a sentence constitutes a crime. […] While this neo-antisemitism is recklessly manifested in almost all media organs, in the eyes of the masses Israel’s aggression towards Palestinians provides justification for such a dangerous kind of racism.
"[…] This animosity towards the non-Muslims, the like of which we have not witnessed in many years, is hovering over Turkey and agitating masses of people who are not bothered by its [grave] consequences.
"As I said, what we have here [in Turkey] presents similarities with Germany of the 1930’s. I hope common sense prevails in Turkey and this dangerous trend does not lead to frightening results. […]
"At least the national press must keep in mind its social responsibility in presenting these matters with a cool head. Political parties can play dangerous games for political gains. […] But the media’s common sense is essential […]"
"Persecution by Hitler Much Exaggerated"
Upon the German Government’s decision to ban the publication of the Turkish Islamic daily Vakit in Germany, a columnist at Vakit, Hüseyin ?zmez, wrote: [11]
"[…] It is true that persecution [of Jews] by Hitler is much exaggerated. We are sick and tired of [listening to] stories of the inhuman persecution and torture he committed against the Jews. It is said that Hitler himself was a Jew… that he committed cruelty only to force the Jews to migrate from Europe to Palestine … and that it was the Israeli Zionists who dictated these acts upon him, at the time they were founding Israel. Two great powers (money and media) are in Jewish hands. The ’treacherous local collaborators’ and some international organizations are also in their command.
"All humanity knows the fact that they [the Jews] are unequalled in [their] lobbying [skills]. With all this power and the tools, they can make or break anyone. […] Who can oppose them? We saw the best example of this in what the German Interior Minister did to our newspaper Vakit. Against all the European human rights agreements, German police was putting pressure on our paper. We were in the midst of a judicial process. Our paper was illegally shut down […] Then the German Interior Minister interfered. He banned our paper. […] This was a [perfect] example of execution without a trial. […] It is obvious that he [the interior minister] was directed [by someone high above] into making such a decision. […] This is how powerful the Zionists are. And this is the supposedly ’civilized and modern’ West.
"[…] the German Interior Minister, who was so angry at us because we said ’Hitler had not killed six million Jews,’ cannot be German. We are very curious to know whether he is a Jew?"
"Jewish Paranoia"
Columnist Yusuf Kaplan of the Islamic Yeni ?afak writes: [12]
"Jewish paranoia ( = fanaticism) is a phenomenon found in Jews that is an integral part of their character, blood and soul. Since paranoia is the form of Jewish existence and self- expression, they have never refrained from exposing it at every occasion, in the past and the present.
"[…] the Jewish paranoia can reach barbaric, cruel and inhuman dimensions […]
"Jewish paranoia has determined the color and the shape of our times. What keeps this paranoia alive is the power that the Jews possess [which enables them] to shape and direct the politics, economies and cultures of especially the western countries.
"[…] Jews also rule the Western universities and world media. […]
"Jewish desire to dominate everything in the Western countries, and the way they easily and arrogantly exploit organizations and individuals to serve Jewish interests, may end up causing a short circuit within the democratic institutions of the West. Their nosy interference with everything, and their actions beyond the reach of their size, have already started to draw serious reactions in the Western countries. Because the Jewish paranoia is blown to extreme, forced and artificial dimensions, it can explode any day and take care of them [the Jews] and cost them dearly."
"The Jews and Christian Zionism"
In his article titled ’Globalization Projects and Nationalists’ Israfil Kumbasar of the nationalist-Islamic daily Yenica?, summarizes a lecture by Mehmet Gül [13] at a recent [pan-Turkic] Turan Cultural Foundation’s meeting: [14]
"[…] The only ’secret’ power behind the globalization project are the Jews and the masons!...
"The ’Jewish Zionists whose goal is the ’total Jewish domination of the world’ claim that a ’messiah’ will come down from the sky and will build the ’World Kingdom’!...
"The same expectation is widely shared by the ’Christian Zionists’ who accept all that the ’Old Testament’ says!... The Christian Zionists believe that all humanity will become Christian with the coming of Jesus, the ’son of God’!...
"The Neo-Con representatives of Evangelism that amalgamates the ’Christian Zionism’ and the ’Jewish Zionism’ are ruling America now!...[…] they are looking for ’sacred allies’ in the Islamic world, who will serve their purposes!...
"In recent years some communities with ’messianic views’ are appearing within the Islamic world […] !...
"[…] We can understand the games played on the Muslim world if we learn that the ’Wahhabism’ which originated in Saudi Arabia is plotted by the ’masons’ to ’leave the Muslims behind.’ Bahaism, Kadianism […] and other ’messiah waiting’ Muslim communities all help serve ’the new world order’!... […] it seems that these ’Zionist Muslims’ will soon say that ’greater Israel’ is the will of the great architect of the universe’!... The Muslim Turks who follow them will only see the realities when it is too late and our lands between the Euphrates and the Tigris will already be in Israeli hands.
"[…] ’Messianic belief’ is a ’Zionist trap’ for all humanity! […]"
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[1] On November 15, 2003, two major synagogues in Istanbul were bombed by Turkish Islamic terrorists, killing 26 and wounding hundreds, most of them Muslim Turks who were in the vicinity. On August 21, 2003, a Jewish dentist, Dr. Y.Yahya, had been murdered in his clinic. The perpetrator confessed upon his arrest that he had wanted to kill ’a Jew’ [after what he read about the Jews in the press]. On March 9, 2004, a Masonic lodge in Istanbul was also attacked by two suicide bombers, killing one and wounding five, and the bombers were later found to have had ties with the synagogue bombers. A gun used in the attack against the Masonic lodge proved to be the same one used in the execution style murder of the Jewish dentist.
[2] The ’D?nme’ are descendants of the Jewish followers of a self-proclaimed messiah, Sabbetai Sevi (1626-1676) who was forced by the sultan to convert to Islam in 1666. They consider themselves Muslims and officially are recognized as such. D?nme is the Turkish word for ’convert’ but it carries overtones of ’turncoat’ as well.
[3] Radikal 2 (Turkey), March 13, 2005.
[4] According to the most recent reports, ’Mein Kampf’ has climbed to second place in Turkey’s ’Bestsellers’ list. The first place is occupied by a book titled ’Metal Storm,’ a futuristic novel set in 2007 when Turkey is attacked by the U.S. military, after which a young Turkish hero explodes a nuclear bomb in America.
[5] Yenicag (Turkey), March 15, 2005. This Turkish daily newspaper is a synthesis of radical Islam and MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) nationalism.
[6] Yenicag (Turkey), March 26, 2005.
[7] Vakit (Turkey), August 17, 2004. In February 2005 publication of this newspaper was banned in Germany, for antisemitic incitement and its denial of the Holocaust.
[8] The Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2005.
[9] Ortadogu (Turkey), February 19, 2005. Ortadogu is a nationalist Turkish daily close to MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) which was a coalition partner in the previous government.
[10] Radikal (Turkey), January 23, 2005.
[11] Vakit (Turkey), February 28, 2005.
[12] Yeni Safak (Turkey), February 21, 2005. This Islamic daily newspaper is known to be an unofficial mouthpiece of the AKP government. The newspaper’s owner and PM Erdogan have become in-laws, after the recent marriage of their children.
[13] Mehmet Gül is a former member of Parliament from MHP (Nationalist Movement Party), and he was addressing a Turan [pan-Turkic] ultra-nationalist gathering.
[14] Yenicag (Turkey), March 4, 2005.
5. - AP - "Mass grave may hold 1,500 Kurds in Iraq":
BAGHDAD / 1 May 2005
Investigators have uncovered a large grave in Iraq that may contain the bodies of 1,500 Kurds killed in the 1980s. It could produce evidence needed to prosecute ousted leader Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants for mass killings during his regime.
International forensic experts this week examined the mass grave site in Samawa, on the Euphrates River, about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad. Many of those buried in the 18 trenches were believed to be Kurds killed in 1987 and 1988 during a scorched-earth campaign, said Gregg Nivala, from the U.S. government's Regime Crimes Liaison Office.
``These were not combatants,'' he said. ``They were women and children.''
During the campaign known as Anfal, which means ``spoils of war'' in Arabic, hundreds of thousands of Kurds were killed or expelled from northern Iraq. The campaign included the gruesome 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja. The Saddam regime was carrying out a program of removing Kurds from the northern homeland and replacing them with Arabs. Many of the Kurdish victims were buried in Iraq's central and southern desert.
The Samawa site contained a skull with pink and white dentures belongs to an old woman, investigators said. A skeleton nearby was that of a teenage girl, still clutching a brightly colored bag of possessions. The trenches were full of the skeletons of Iraqi Kurds, still in their distinctive, colorful garb, buried where they fell after being shot dead nearly 20 years ago.
Outgoing Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin, himself a Kurd, said half a million people perished and 182,000 are missing.
``We must know what happened (and deal with) collective memory, so we can do justice, rather than revenge,'' Amin said.
The first 100 remains of the estimated 1,500 at the site would be used to certify cause of death, the identity of the victims and their origins, the investigators said.
Identification cards found on as many as 15 percent of the victims link them to Kurdish villages in northern Iraq. The clothing reinforces that those found in the graves were Kurds, Nivala said.
Many were wearing their best clothes, or multiple layers, as if told they would be relocating, he said.
Saddam and Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as ``Chemical Ali,'' are the main defendants facing charges for the Anfal campaign.
Investigators called the mass graves evidence of ``a widespread and systematic crime, committed over a long time, we think with the knowledge and direction of high-level members of the regime.''
At least some things were known about the mass graves and those buried there, the investigators said.
Sixty-three percent of the victims were children or teens younger than 18. Ten were clearly infants. It may have been a rainy day when they were shot dead, sinking into the mud after they were struck down. They were killed with bursts of fire from AK-47s, the Russian-designed automatic rifle.
The Iraqi Special Tribunal had interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses in connection with the Anfal campaign.
Other abuses also are being investigated.
6. - Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) - "Corruption instead of development in Iraqi Kurdistan":
30 April 2005
One might expect the Kurdistan region to be leading the way in the development of Iraq's civil society and infrastructure after more than a dozen years of self-rule. While Kurdistan has flourished on many levels, it lags behind in many areas that are essential for democratic development. In addition, corruption and government control are pervasive, leaving many Kurds feeling helpless, apathetic, and in disbelief that they are living in a "new" Iraq.
At the root of the problem in the Kurdistan region is the absence of the rule of law. Generally speaking, rule of law means that governments act according to written laws and regulations. Rules are applied consistently, whether to citizens or elected officials. Rights are upheld and protected through a functioning judicial system. Government authority is limited, and private property is protected. In the absence of the rule of law, arbitrary practices by the government discourage personal initiative, breed apathy, cynicism, and distrust.
It is easy to lose focus on the need to develop the rule of law when the rest of the country is wrapped up in an insurgency and is struggling with more critical infrastructure issues such as electricity and clean water. In the absence of international aid agencies, civil society development in Kurdistan is stagnant, leaving the regional governments to fund projects they deem worthy. Party membership is a requirement for anyone wanting to advance his or her cause.
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) must be free of party and governmental control if they are to flourish. Unfortunately, the climate in Kurdistan is not conducive to such development. Kurds say the desire is there, but many outside the parties lack the wherewithal to navigate the halls of bureaucracy in order to establish an NGO. Many say the impression is that no organization can get off the ground without the support of the Kurdistan administrations. Kurds not affiliated with either of the two dominant parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) or the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), see little hope of achieving such goals.
Another marker of a developing civil society is independent, functioning trade unions. A 22 April article on ft.com highlights the struggling trade union movement in Kurdistan. "Kurdish [union] leaders are clearly also officials of, or closely linked to, the two main parties," the reporter observed. "In a session with Imad Ahmed, the PUK leader in the region, he gives the game away by saying, 'the unions are weak: they are dominated by the parties. They need to become stronger and more independent.'" A visiting British trade union delegation wondered "why a union movement that is poor and needs funds as well as training is able to drive [the guests around] in big Toyota Land Cruisers and BMWs," the article noted.
There are signs everywhere of the same government control that was practiced by the regime of Saddam Hussein. Residents in KDP-controlled territory say it is impossible to voice dissent against KDP leaders or their relatives, who are said to have profited immensely from lucrative business deals. Enterprising Kurds say that in order to open a company or secure a permit, a cut, in the form of a payoff or a stake in the business must be paid. Perhaps the most lucrative practice allegedly employed by some government insiders is the revenue gained from taxes on oil tankers and other importers upon entering and leaving the KDP controlled areas of Turkey.
Kurds say that a different set of standards exists for foreign investors and expatriate Kurdish investors. Nowhere in KDP-controlled areas can the Iraqi national flag be found -- only the KDP and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) flags fly outside government buildings and military installations.
A 27 April report by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (http://www.iwpr.net) claims that the investment climate in the eastern part of Kurdistan controlled by PUK leader and new Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is the best in Iraq, but Talabani's administration has also been accused of corrupt practices. Some critics say that left unchecked, party members and parliamentarians from both the KDP and PUK have usurped land and taken control of natural resources for their own personal use, growing wealthy off of smuggling and shady business ventures. Meanwhile, the parties maintain budgetary control over their administrations, and many report that economic data is a closely held secret.
The newly elected parliament resembles the last one, with its members split evenly between the two major Kurdish parties. The former parliament was known for the corrupt practices of its members, who often showed more interest in profit than in knowing the concerns of their constituency. The parliament functions in much of the same fashion as the rest of Kurdish administration.
Fereydun Hilmi wrote in a December 2004 article published on kurdishmedia.com that the problem stems from a lack of accountability and control. "The executive administration, which is owned by the party, is appointed one by one by direct order from the men at the very top or via party recommendations and not as a result of the qualifications or suitability or experiences of those holding office. Their allegiance is therefore to the people above them while the people below them [the major part of the masses] do not get any attention. Because of the lack of planning and the prevalent corruption, no department is required to prepare any job descriptions for their staff."
Party control over the media helps perpetuate the abuse. Kurdish peshmerga forces, also tied to the parties, operate with impunity as well. Kurds quietly speak about peshmerga forces seizing goods imported by the few humanitarian organizations operating in Kurdistan for their own personal use. As the peshmerga cruise across Kurdistan in new pickup trucks and land cruisers -- all sans license plates -- their authority is not questioned. The political and security apparatuses are further complicated by tribal loyalties that impede the establishment of the rule of law.
Kamal Berzenji wrote in an article published by kurdishmedia.com in December 2002: "The members of the [Kurdish] security services...try to make a business out of their powers by accusing and arresting anybody whom they think they could blackmail and extract money from." He says the practice has its roots in Hussein's Ba'athist regime, but was also practiced during the Kurdish civil war in the 1990s. "One of the reasons [for that war is] business -- and profit making by some Kurdish warlords on both sides. Some of them grew [into] millionaires by confiscating and stealing the property of his fellow Kurdish brothers."
With no functioning judicial system in place, party members and representatives go about their business free from prosecution. In a conference paper republished this month on kurdishmedia.com, Rebwar Fatah identified three systems that can loosely describe the judicial system in Kurdistan: the civil, security, and tribal systems. "The judicial system needs to be independent and free from any external interference," he wrote. "The concept of 'rule of law' must be implemented."
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld addressed the issue of corruption during his visit to Baghdad this month, telling newly elected officials that it must be rooted out. And there have been reports of across-the-board corruption within the interim administration of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. While Baghdad remains the focus, Kurdistan runs the risk of falling behind rather than leading the way in the new Iraq.
Articles published here do not necessarily reflect views
of Kurdistan Regional Government.