6
September 2006
1. "Turkish Election Law Challenged at Human Rights Court", Turkey's election system, which is being scrutinized as the country tries to join the European Union, came under attack today as a lawyer for two pro-Kurdish politicians argued in court that the rules were discriminatory.
2. "TAK is committing political suicide", TAK (Teyrjbazjn Azadiya Kurdistan) also known in the English press as the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons recently claimed bomb attacks in Marmaris, Istanbul and Antalya. Murat Kariyilan the leader of the armed PKK forces also condemned TAK s campaign. Kongra Gel (People s Congress of Kurdistan) Presidency condemned the bomb attack and indicated that they were in search of peaceful solution without violence for the resolution of the Kurdish question and they are expecting a response on this regard.
3. "Martyr" Families Say "No Troops To Lebanon", families of soldiers killed in action in troubled Southeast region blame government and call on Ankara to refrain from sending troops to Lebanon. Reaction to government policy mounts in wake of new funerals for soldiers killed in clashes with PKK.
4. "Journalist To Face "Abetting" Charges", arrested 3 months ago on allegations made by a state repentant, Reporter Demirkaya is to be tried for "aiding and abetting the PKK". He faces 10 years imprisonment if found guilty and on separate trial for covering the release of kidnapped soldier Kirandi.
5. "Kurds raise flag, fears of war", verbal sparring between those who believe Iraq is in a state of civil war and the Bush administration, who insists it is not, may find the argument increasingly in favor of those who believe the country is affected by civil divisions, and may be slipping towards greater chaos.
6. "Syria frees 75 Syrian Kurds", seventy-five Syrian Kurds arrested by security forces in the northern city of Aleppo March 20 have been freed, the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said Monday.
1. - Bloomberg - "Turkish Election Law Challenged at Human Rights Court":
5 September 2006 / by Anna Jenkinson
Turkey's election system, which is being scrutinized as the country tries to join the European Union, came under attack today as a lawyer for two pro-Kurdish politicians argued in court that the rules were discriminatory.
Mehmet Yumak and Resul Sadak brought the case to the European Court of Human Rights after their Democratic People's Party secured 46 percent of the vote in the southeastern province of Sirnak in 2002 elections, and yet they were denied a seat in the national parliament. Parties must win 10 percent of the nationwide vote to enter parliament.
``The majority of votes cast remain unrepresented in parliament,'' Tahir Elci, the politicians' lawyer, told the court in the French town of Strasbourg. ``We can no longer talk about democracy,'' he said, adding that the electorate is ``manipulated.''
Most of Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds live in Istanbul and in the southeast of the country, a region that borders Iraq, Syria and Iran and where more than 30,000 people have died since 1984 in fighting between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party. The Turkish government, which began EU membership talks in October, says the 10 percent electoral threshold is needed to maintain political stability.
It is a way to avoid ``the dangers of excessive fragmentation,'' Ahmet Munci Ozmen, representing the government, told the court. Members of the national parliament represent ``society as a whole,'' not a particular region, he said.
Kurdish Issue
Elci argued that the 10 percent hurdle exacerbates the issue of Kurdish integration. The Democratic People's Party, which only secured 6.2 percent of the nationwide vote, is trying to find peaceful ways to resolve the situation, he said. The failure to represent the people's wishes in parliament risked creating ``total instability,'' he said.
Turkey's courts in the past have closed down pro-Kurdish parties and tried some of their members on charges of supporting the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
European parliamentarians have also called for a lowering of the threshold, with the parliament's foreign affairs committee last night voting in favor of a report that said Turkey must quicken the pace of reforms. The report will be debated by the full parliament at the end of the month.
EU Limits
In an interview after the hearing, Elci said he hoped the court's ruling would have an effect on Turkey's next parliamentary elections, which are due by November 2007. He also highlighted that as well as a ruling in his clients' favor, the constitution would also need to be amended for any changes to take effect by that date.
``The electoral system in Turkey isn't balanced, it isn't democratic,'' Sadak, who was also at the hearing, said in an interview afterwards. ``I've tried three times to get elected and there are always obstacles that push me aside.''
Among EU countries that have a proportional representation system, the highest electoral threshold is 5 percent, which is found in nations including Germany, Poland and Latvia.
While acknowledging this maximum in EU countries, Ozmen argued on the Turkish government's behalf that many of these nations have additional complementary measures.
Established case law shows that countries have a lot of leeway in deciding their own electoral systems, as is highlighted by the differences among countries, he said.
``It is impossible to tell which system is the best,'' Ozmen said. ``There is no system where votes are not wasted.''
Vote Breakdown
In the Nov. 3, 2002, parliamentary elections that were at the center of today's hearing, the Democratic People's Party, or Dehap, won 47,449 votes in Sirnak. However, the national threshold resulted in two of the three parliamentary seats allotted to the province being filled by the Justice and Development Party, which obtained 14,460 votes, and the third going to an independent candidate, who got 9,914 votes.
Yumak and Sadak argue that the threshold interferes with the free expression of the people in their choice of the legislature and therefore infringes the right to free elections.
``A national threshold of 10 percent violates the spirit of proportional representation,'' partly because large parties tend to be overrepresented, Arend Lijphart, a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, said by e-mail before the hearing. This doesn't mean that there's no place for national thresholds, he added.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm in Brussels, will be following the case ``very closely,'' commission spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said by telephone.
The court will deliver its judgment at a later unspecified
date. The case is 10226/03, Yumak and Sadak v. Turkey. 
2. - Kurdish Media - "TAK is committing political suicide":
5 September 2006 / by Vladimir van Wilgenburg
TAK (Teyrjbazjn Azadiya Kurdistan) also known in the English press as the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons recently claimed bomb attacks in Marmaris, Istanbul and Antalya. As a result innocent people were killed.
Last year I witnessed the bombing of a dolmus (Bus) heading to the beach. I was sleeping and suddenly heard a blast. After the attack you could see blown of arms and legs, crying tourists and later on a great show of Turkish nationalism, with Turkish flags hanging everywhere.
Frankly we almost do not know nothing about this new organisation. The Turkish media immediately blames the PKK, but this is Turkish speculation. The organisation could have ties with the PKK, but it seems to be a split off. The TAK states on their now offline website: The Turkish State tries to solve the problem with destruction and denial methods of Kongra-Gel and HPG which take political balances into consideration are weakness, therefore, 1.5 year ago we were separated from the organization and established TAK organization . But the organisations also wants the liberation of the PKK-leader Ocalan. Some Kurds say that the Turkish Intelligence service (MIT) is behind to get more support for a harder line versus the Kurds. Even an Turkish student that condemned the attacks, said some Turkish generals were happy with the attacks.
Turkish inhabitants of Kusadasi mainly blamed the PKK after attacks in this the western holiday resort of Kusadasi. The mainstream international media reported that the TAK has links with the PKK. Turkish special forces believe that the split is a ruse and that the Kurds have most likely adapted as a model the similar "schism" in the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Security analysts say TAK was set up by former PKK guerrillas dissatisfied with the group's tactics[1]. This is confirmed by the offline TAK website Teyrebaz.com[2]. The new Turkish top general[3] confirmed that the TAK is a group that severed their links to the PKK and are out to increase the tone of violence to make a name for themselves .
The Firat News Agency[4] said on Tuesday that the PKK condemned the bombings. This news agency which is located in Amsterdam, was described as one of the most effective PKK organisations by the Dutch national intelligence services[5]. Before Murat Kariyilan the leader of the armed PKK forces also condemned TAK s campaign.
Kongra Gel (People s Congress of Kurdistan) Presidency condemned the bomb attack and indicated that they were in search of peaceful solution without violence for the resolution of the Kurdish question and they are expecting a response on this regard. They also expressed their condolences for the dead.
Why terrorism?
Some international newspapers claim that it s unclear what the TAK wants. But I think TAK s purposes are very clear: Revenge. TAK consists of Kurds dissatisfied with the current political developments. Tim Jacoby[6] of the university of Manchester has an interesting view. In an article about the military regime structure of modern Turkey he concludes:" The state's policy of excluding all attempts to access the political centre provoked types of resistance which tended to favour the violent pursuit of total solutions making the emergence of moderate civil response strategies impossible". And I think this is the reason of TAK s violent terror campaign. One can conclude that the radical positions of the TAK and the PKK are a result of the hard-line stance of Turkey. This was seen after security forces killed three children and arrested hundreds of children after the demonstrations of August.
The TAK website states that the democratic and peaceful methods which had been unilaterally carried on for seven years by our leader [Ocalan] have had no response. Turkish State s denial-destruction policies and approaches that pretend not to see the problem had continued. The methods of state to solve the Kurdish problem had been insistence of surrender and dishonour life. It continues with: The policies of assimilation, depriving of all kind of human rights, massacre, the mentality of the best Kurd is the dead Kurd which had been carried out throughout the history of the republic are still continuing .
Because Turkey is ruled by nationalists since Ataturk, it s unlikely that Turkey will ever accept a status quo or a peace treaty with the PKK, but only the destruction of the PKK. One of the most moderate Turkish presidents Turgut Ozal planned to have negotiations with the PKK. But even Turgut Ozal was thinking the Kurdish problem could be solved by assimilation and economics. He died before he could carry out his plans.
Erdogan and the AKP recently also made statements. But the TAK says that this cannot solve the problem in essence. We do not perceive that the statements which had been done by the government and Erdogan are approaches to solve the problem and we do not take them seriously . TAK states that the Turkish State tries to solve the problem with destruction and denial methods of Kongra-Gel and HPG which take political balances into consideration are weakness, therefore they separated.
One Turkish columnist [7] wrote that: ‘organizations commit such attacks in their most difficult times, at times when they lose their last hope’. And he is right. I concluded this out of discussions with TAK supporters on internet. But this Turkish columnist doesn’t see why they lost their last hope. It’s because they don t see a solution for the Kurdish issue in a foreseeable future. But still a lot of Turkish intellectuals only seem to talk about the destruction of the PKK and terrorism instead of talking about a sincere solution and the normal Kurdish population.
Even a Kurd of Iraq on a Kurdish community website [8] showed some sympathy for the revenge attacks. ‘The Turks have been killing and humiliating Kurds for hundreds of years, they've banned our language, destroyed our culture, bombed our villages, murdered our children and now they are even bombing areas outside of their borders just because Kurds live there. Their foreign minister has even said that they would oppose a Kurdish state in south America, why should they have a tourism industry when Kurds have nothing? They only understand force and pain, maybe if a Turkish mother has to bury a son every time a Kurdish mother has to do the same, they will begin to understand that we are not their slaves.’
One disillusioned Kurd said that nobody has offered an alternative to terrorism. You can be against it, but what will happen next?
Targets and tactics of the TAK
The top priority targets are the military bureaucracy, economy and tourism, while terror of state is not stopped . The TAK stated that they will revenge the murder of 13 thousand people, Semdinli, the killing of the young boys in August and the oppression of the Turkish state.
The military bureaucracy is seen as the oppressive system against the Kurds. And therefore is justified as a target. This can also be seen in the attacks of the PKK. The economy is seen as the main supply basis for weapons of the oppressive system. Since the Turkish military can buy weapons because of the Turkish tax payers, the economy is seen as a justified target. This was shown in the attacks on OYAK Bank, a pension fund for the Turkish military[9].
Tourism is seen as ‘one of the most important sources which feeds the dirty and special war, so it is one of the first targets that we will attack’ by the TAK. Therefore the TAK warned tourists to visit Turkish area’s in Turkey. The Turkey earns about one-third of it’s export income from tourism[10].
TAK justify their actions by stating that the Kurdish people are in a risk of destruction and are at war. It looks the TAK wants to fight against the Turkish state by all means.
The TAK operations mostly consists of bomb attacks with IED s (Improvised Explosive Devices)[11] . TAK is even giving instructions on their website how to make bombs and call the Kurdish youth for doing everything they can to destroy Turkey. Until now they used IED s in trash cans, banks, police stations, water bottles, civilian busses. They also claimed 23 forest fires in Turkey and an arson attack on the Ataturk airport in Istanbul.
But according to TAK only a part of their attacks were reflected in the press, but were shown as short-circuits of electricity or as compression of gas. This had the goal to mislead the public opinion.
TAK also states that it fights against Turkish assimilation. The ironic thing is that their website is in Turkish. Why not in Kurdish?
What s the result of TAK’s policy?
The TAK is committing these attacks in a very important time for the Kurds (Kirkuk, EU, Kurdish self-governance, etc). This method that they follow is obviously not going to work. When Ocalan was arrested, the Turkish tourism sector experienced a decrease of visitors. But shortly after that the tourism industry flourished again.
It s clear that the Turkish military or state doesn’t suffer because of these attacks. The only one s who are suffering are Turkish, Kurdish civilians and tourists. Even now when the Turkish tourism industry is facing a disaster, the Turkish military still receives their income. The TAK must be very foolish to think that more attacks will lead into less money for the Turkish military. It will only result into more state investments in the military.
It also increases the widely held belief of Turkish citizens that the Turkish army is the only state organisation they can trust. This at a time when some Turkish military leaders are telling the BBC that they may have to, once again have to intervene in the democratic process of their country to protect democracy from itself.
One shouldn’t forget that Turkey has the second biggest army in NATO, second only to the USA (800,000 personnel). TAK's actions ironically could be likened to trying to crack a sledgehammer with a nut.
The Kurdish intellectual Dr Hussein Tahiti [12] rightfully said that it s a mistake for any Kurdish organisation to believe that through terrorising tourists or killings they can harm their enemy s economy or put pressure on the ruling states to force them into negotiations. Despite of the long and bloody armed struggle by several Kurdish organisations the Turkish state has never negotiated. He also wrote that terrorism and the killing of innocent people cannot be legitimised.
The Turkish state also realizes that if they give in to Kurdish demands, they will give a victory to the PKK or TAK. So it s another reason to not give in and to resort to brutal repression of the Kurdish people. But the new Turkish general declared that protests, mourning at funerals or deploying troops are not solutions to the attacks of TAK[13].
One Turkish nationalist I spoke to was happy with these attacks. According to him this could be used as a justification to attack PKK bases in Iraqi-Kurdistan and a tougher approach towards Kurds in general. One can conclude that TAK s attack only benefit Turkish hardliners and threatens not only the Kurds in Turkey, but also Kurds in Iraq.
The Dutch politician Guido van Leemput (Member of the Dutch parliament) said to me in an interview that Kurds will achieve nothing by attacking civilians instead of military targets. He says that tourists have shown sympathy for the Kurdish people in the past. ‘Why would you bomb these people if they travel by bus?’ said Van Leemput. BBC News 24 showed the grandmother of a wounded 10th year old boy saying: "Why have they done this to us? We have done nothing."[14]
He also agrees with me that not the military will suffer, but the shop keepers in Turkey. A lot of Kurds are working in West-Turkey to provide their families with money back home in Kurdistan. So TAK’s campaign also hurts Kurds.
According to the pro-PKK organisation Information-Service Kurdistan-Netherlands [15] (IKN) the Turkish state uses the attacks of TAK to put the Kurdish freedom movement in a bad daylight. They declared that the PKK doesn’t have ties with the TAK and condemns their actions. Whoever is behind this attacks, it must be clear that these activities are against the interests of the Kurdish people . The IKN stated that it s clear who benefits of these attacks: The Turkish state.
This might be true: recently Great Britain banned the PKK [16] and affiliated organisations. They also put TAK on the terrorism list. There is no doubt that the British government is influenced by the murders of TAK committed against their citizens (Kusadasi, Antalya, etc). It seems that TAK s attacks will also result in more support for Turkey s policy towards the Kurds.
One of the many counter terrorism websites wrote that if Turkey comes to believe that there is a strong connection between the PKK and TAK, that will almost certainly lead to an escalation of Turkish military activities in Iraqi-Kurdistan[17]. Therefore it s no surprise that the top commandant of the Kurdish peshmerge condemned the attacks and called for a peaceful solution and a dialogue[18].
I also don t think that Turkish mothers will show more sympathy to the Kurdish issue, if they have to burry their sons. The fascist nationalistic party MHP in the past got a lot of support from Turkish mothers that lost their sons. It s a fact that the MHP used burials of Turkish soldiers to get more support and increase Turkish nationalism. TAK s policy will therefore result more support for Turkish nationalism. Which will result in more support for Turkish nationalistic parties. And off course these parties won t give the Kurds what they want.
Sadly recently Kurds civilians forecasted more bombs [19]. When asked what they thought the future would hold one young man said: "More bombs." He blamed the Turkish government for the Kurdish problem.
"The Turks say we must all live as one in this country. We are not one. They live better than us and we to them are all terrorists," he said
Conclusion
One can expect more bombs in the future. But the goals of the TAK will never be achieved. The Turkish state won t free Ocalan or give Kurds more rights if they attack the Turkish economy, military or tourism. It’s also clear that they can t hurt the military or the Turkish economy. It’s also safe to say that TAK’s actions threaten Kurdish autonomy in Iraq and Kurds in Turkey. TAK’s actions will increase Turkish nationalism and support for a harsher stance towards the Kurds. Kurdish civilians are also hurt by their attacks, because they benefit from the Turkish tourist industry and also live in Turkish city. It will also pave the way for more international support for Turkey against Kurdish organisations. This was already shown by the British government. It could also result into less sympathy for the Kurds, by tourists who normally support the Kurdish point of view.
I can only come to the following conclusion: TAK is committing political suicide. And their attacks will hurt the Kurdish cause on a severe way, if nothing is done to stop them.
Peshmerga spokesman Muhammed Qazi [20] gave the best solution for the currently problem. He said the best way to eliminate popular support for militant groups, is for Turkey and other nations in the region to address the legitimate concerns of their Kurdish minorities.
Notes
[1] Kurdish rebels warn of "hell" after Turkey blasts , Reuters
[2] Teyrebaz.com (Website offline)
[3] Mehmet Ali Birand, Office of the chief of general staff closes doors until 2010 , Turkish Daily News
[4] Kongra Gel condemns bomb attacks, Kurdmedia.com
[5] Turkse terroristen houden kantoor in hartje Amsterdam , Telegraaf. (Translation: Turkish terrorists have an office in the heart of Amsterdam)
[6] Tim Jacoby, For the People, Of the People and By the Military: The Regime Structure of Modern Turkey , Political Studies, (Vol. 51, No. 4, 2003), pp 669-685.
[7] Ihsan Bal, Marmaris Bombings: Is the Target British?, Turkish Weekly
[8] Vivakurdistan.com - A website for the Kurdish community and youth
[9] Cunning attack by TAK leaves 18 wounded in Adana , Kurdishinfo
[10]Stephen Kinzer, Safety Concerns Slow Tourism to Turkey, The New York Times (May 16, 1999)
[11] Stratfor , Flash Bulletin
[12] Hussein Tahiri, Terrorism has no place in the Kurdish national struggle, Kurdmedia.com.
[13] Mehmet Ali Birand, Office of the chief of general staff closes doors until 2010 , Turkish Daily News
[14] Latest blast prompts fears of Kurdish terror campaign, Times Online
[15]Bulletin of Information Group Kurdistan-Netherlands (IKN). Redaction by the Agri Solidarity Committee, (Augustus 15-31 2006)
[16] Ibid.
[17] Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, TAK Terror Group Carries Out a Series of Bombings in Turkey, Counter Terrorism Blog
[18] Iraqi Kurds Condemn Rebel Attack in Turkey, VoaNews
[19] Turkish Kurds forecast more bombs , Telegraph
[20] Iraqi Kurds Condemn Rebel Attack in Turkey, VoaNews
3. - Bianet - "Martyr" Families Say "No Troops To Lebanon":
Families of soldiers killed in action in troubled Southeast region blame government and call on Ankara to refrain from sending troops to Lebanon. Reaction to government policy mounts in wake of new funerals for soldiers killed in clashes with PKK.
ISTANBUL / 5 September 2006
Mothers, fathers and brothers receiving news of the loss of their loved ones sent off to fight an unending conflict in Southeast Turkey have started to react to the government for its failures in curbing the growing body count in the region while gearing up to send Turkish troops to a more troublesome Lebanon.
"The government should resign" and "troops should not be sent to Lebanon" were the highlight of interviews with Turkish martyr families published in the mainstream national media in the past two days, somewhat breaking through a tradition of silence on comment and criticism related to developments in the Southeast region.
"Are our children less valuable then yours?" asked one relative of a soldier killed in action while the brother of another shaved his hair crew-cut military style reportedly in protest of the government. "My son is not a sacrifice" told a mother whose son was killed in an attack.
One father summed up growing sentiment among martyr families. "Instead of sending soldiers to Lebanon, they should send soldiers to Kandil".
Reaction is mixed. The government is blamed for not doing its best to control the threat of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has recently increased cross-border attacks over Iran and Iraq. News of preparations to devote troops to Lebanon appears to have boosted grief and suspicions that while dealing with that issue, Ankara is not doing its best to deal with a more pressing internal one.
The funerals of Gendarme Second Lieutenant Zeki Burak Okay, Gendarme Private Emrah Yigit, officer Ahmet Sevki Erin, Second Lieutenant Faruk Isik, private Mehmet Ozturk, private Deniz Yuzgec and expert sergeant Mustafa Dag were recently held in their hometowns throughout Turkey after they were killed in clashes with the PKK in Sirnak, Cukurca and Van on September 1, Friday.
Deniz Yuzgec (27) was from the western Turkish city of Izmir. He was recruited into military service on February 24 a month after arriving from Germany where he had lived for five years. But he will not see his birthday which he had planned to celebrate with his family on September 19.
Mother Ayfer Yuzgec says "My son is not a sacrifice. Because the state did nothing for my son. He was neither given an armored vest nor an armored vehicle. I invite the government to resign". Father Ismail Yuzgec adds that "as a father of a martyr I both have many feelings and no feelings at all" while brother Barbaros appears in a newspaper report clipping his hair military style to protest the government.
Newspapers report that Yuzgec was killed in a PKK attack while on border patrol at the Iranian border in the Saray district of Van. He died while being taken to hospital after shot at long range from PKK militants on the Iranian side of the border.
Speaking at Yuzgec's funeral ceremony held in Izmir Bostanli, his mother was quoted pleading with the Aegean Army Commander saying "please do not send soldiers to Lebanon. Let such pain not be lived there too."
From Afghanistan to Sirnak
First Lieutenant Ahmet Sevki Evin was reported as an officer of the Peace Corps in Afghanistan and appointed to the southeastern Turkish town of Sirnak only 55 days ago.
His father Abdurrahman Evin says "May God give those who have made us live this pain the same pain. May He give it to their own children".
"They don't send their own children there" Evin was quoted as complaining. "Do the children of deputies, the prime minister go there? They do not. They can't deal with a handful of looters".
First Lieutenant Evin was killed in a remote controlled bomb attack on his unit at Findik township on Friday.
In the same explosion, infantry Mehmet Ozturk died on the scene, Infantry Second Lieutenant Furkan Isik died after being hospitalized with severe injuries.
Evin leaves behind his English-teacher wife Nihal and 1-year-old son, Efe.
"Instead of troops to Lebanon end this grief"
Murat Ozturk was informed of the death of his conscript younger brother Mehmet in Sirnak at a local police station. Quoted by the press, he explained, "We had lost our father two years ago.
The day before he [Mehmet Ozturk] called me and my mother, telling us he would be out on an operation and that if we could not reach him, there was nothing to be concerned about. Instead of sending troops to Lebanon, the government should end such pain and grief".
Mother of six children, Emine Ozturk heard of the loss of her son in the western town of Bursa where she was called on grounds of someone being ill.
"This is an incident we expected" she said. My baby, when he came on leave 3.5 months ago told me and others he saw 'I will return as a martyr. I will not return normally'. What he said happened."
Furkan Isik's web site never finished
Infantry Second Lieutenant Furkan Isik who was killed in Sirnak was working on a private web site before his military service. But in the lack of time, he wrote on its home page "To be with you in March 2007".
Frequently speaking to friends from Sirnak, Isik was quoted telling them how bad the situation was and warning them that he might not return.
Neriman Okay: I did not send my son to die
Second Lieutenant Zeki Burak Okay (25) was a computer engineer who got engaged months ago and started his military service only a month ago.
Says mother Neriman Okay, "I sent my son to good schools. I did not send him to military service to die. It is time these are accounted for. I am telling them, they should not send soldiers to Lebanon".
"Those who sign the law to send soldiers to Lebanon" she adds, "should send their own children there".
Father Sezai Okay continues, "My son did not fire a single shot. How can he protect the border?." He refuses to accept his child is a permissible sacrifice for the country.
"If they send soldiers to Lebanon I'll be at their collars"
"My son is not a martyr. My son did not make war in Gallipoli. He did not fight at Inonu. He did not fight at Anafartalar" says father Sezai Okay. "My son was killed in a war that no one knows what its about. It is not clear what this is for".
"The name of this is not a war. Is it not a pitty for this country. Instead of Lebanon, send soldiers to Kandil mountain. If these politicians send soldiers to Lebanon, let my two hands be at their collars".
Father Okay also called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying, "My son, just like your son, was educated at the best schools in America. Why do you not send your con to fight with the PKK? Are our sons worth less?" as he cried.
At a touching funeral ceremony held for Burak Okay and Mehmet Ozturk, mothers of both deceased were portrayed embracing each other in tears and Neriman Okay telling Emine Ozturk, "I am the only one who can understand your grief and pain. They have had our sons killed".
More deaths and more grief
Yet another PKK attack on Friday, using long range rifles and rockets, claimed the life of Gendarme Second Lieutenant Zeki Burak Okay (25) and Gendarme private Emrah Yigit (21). The three hour clash between PKK militants and security forces under attack at gendarme sentry posts in the Cukurca district of Hakkari, left behind two injured.
Kocatepe mosque echoed with the scream of Private Emrah Yigit's mother. Elif Yigit, in a funeral ceremony attended by the Chief of General Staff and Force Commanders, cries in public while heard saying "the commanders have come for a wedding".
Other relatives are quoted shouting "Don't send soldiers elsewhere. First clean out the PKK".
* This news report is a compilation of reports that
have appeared in the Sunday and Monday issues of Turkey's mainstream
Hurriyet, Milliyet and Sabah newspapers
4. - Bianet - "Journalist To Face "Abetting" Charges":
Arrested 3 months ago on allegations made by a state repentant, Reporter Demirkaya is to be tried for "aiding and abetting the PKK". He faces 10 years imprisonment if found guilty and on separate trial for covering the release of kidnapped soldier Kirandi
MALATYA / 5 September 2006 / by Erol Onderoglu
Arrested three months ago on allegations made by a former member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who surrendered to security forces in Tunceli, Dicle News Agency (DIHA) reporter Rustu Demirkaya is to be tried for "aiding and abetting" that organization.
Attempts made by Demirkaya's attorney Baris Yildirim for his release have yielded no results and the journalist will appear as defendant before the Malatya 3rd High Criminal Court on September 21. If found guilty of the charges, Demirkaya faces 5 to 10 years imprisonment.
Meanwhile, the case launched against Demirkaya for his involvement in the coverage of the 4 August 2005 release by PKK of kidnapped private Coskun Kirandi will be held on September 8.
Detained while covering Kirandi's release together with three journalists and five human rights activists, Demirkaya is charged in this separate case for "conducting propaganda of the organization and its aims".
In prison for 3 months
Demirkaya was initially arrested and sent to the Tunceli Prison on 14 June after being apprehended according to statements made by a state repentant identified as Engin Korumcu. He was later transferred to Malatya prison where he is currently held.
Korumcu claimed he was a member of the PKK organization and made statements that involved Demirkaya. The journalist's lawyer Yildirim has since been arguing that it was a violation of the law for him to be placed under arrest merely due to claims made by a "repentant".
Demirkaya's recent problems started after he filed a news
report on a criminal complaint made against Tunceli Province Gendarme
Regiment Commander Namik Dursun who was accused of fraud. He was detained
on May 4, 2005 for this report.
5. - UPI - "Kurds raise flag, fears of war":
WASHINGTON / 5 September 2006 / by Claude Salhani
Verbal sparring between those who believe Iraq is in a state of civil war and the Bush administration, who insists it is not, may find the argument increasingly in favor of those who believe the country is affected by civil divisions, and may be slipping towards greater chaos.
Iraqi Kurds living in the semi-autonomous northern part of the country lowered Iraqi flags this past weekend, replacing them with Kurdish banners over official government buildings in Iraqi Kurdistan. Their actions sent immediate shock waves to Baghdad, where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki derided the move by the Kurds, calling it 'illegal.'
And when Baghdad complained, the Kurds threatened to secede.
This move by the Kurds has also sent up red flags in neighboring Turkey, where Ankara eyes any move towards Kurdish independence with much trepidation, less it encourages its own Kurdish population to emulate their Iraqi brothers.
Addressing the region`s parliament, Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region, said Iraq`s flag was a symbol of his own people`s past oppression. He asked the regional parliament to adopt the new flag.
Barzani told his parliament: 'If at any moment we, the Kurdish people and parliament, consider that it is in our interests to declare independence, we will do so and we will fear no-one.'
Baghdad reacted with a statement from the prime minister`s office, saying that 'the Iraqi flag is the only flag that should be raised over any square inch of Iraq, until parliament makes a decision as laid down in the constitution.' The statement avoided any direct mention of the Kurdish flag.
Are the Kurds taking the first step towards independence? The Kurds, who are scattered between Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, have long dreamed of an independent country. And more than once they were promised support in that dream by Western powers in exchange for their support. The Kurds repeatedly showed loyalty only to be repeatedly let down.
The first attempt in modern times by the Kurds to establish a homeland occurred at the end of World War I, when President Woodrow Wilson supported the notion of Kurdish self-determination. And despite the fact that the idea of an independent Kurdistan was mentioned in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres, an independent Kurdistan was omitted from being penciled in post WWI maps.
The new Turkey of Mustapha Kemal (Ataturk) rejected the treaty in 1923, denying the Kurds their state. This was the genesis of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, a conflict which continues to this day. In fact, in recent days Kurdish separatists are believed to have been responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in Turkish tourist resorts.
In 1924, shortly after Ataturk rejected the idea of a Kurdish state, Turkey banned the Kurdish culture and prohibited the use of the Kurdish language. In Iraq, sporadic fighting between Kurds and the central government occurred from 1964 to 1975. That was when the Kurdish leader at the time, Mustafa Barzani, turned to the United States for help.
Appealing to then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Barzani asked for assistance, telling Kissinger: 'Our movement and people are being destroyed in an unbelievable way.' Relying on an agreement reached with the shah of Iran, the United States, once again, abandoned the Kurds to their fate.
Persecution of Kurds continued in Turkey, in Iran and most notably in Iraq, particularly under the regime of Saddam Hussein. One of the most horrendous acts against the Kurds was committed in the town of Halabja, in 1988, when mustard gas was used against the civilian population. More than 5,000 people, including women and children, died in the attack.
The 1990-1991 Gulf War changed the fate of Iraq`s Kurds. In the aftermath of Iraq`s invasion of Kuwait, the no-fly zone established by the United States to protect its pilots offered Iraqi Kurds an almost divine protection. In the years after the first Gulf War, Iraqi Kurdistan began to enjoy unprecedented autonomy as Baghdad pulled its administration out of the region, leaving the two main Kurdish political parties to establish a local government.
The Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq has prospered further since the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Kurdish leaders are closely watching Washington`s attempts at pacifying Iraq and establishing a working democracy. Should Washington`s efforts fail, the Kurds are prepared to breakaway from Iraq and live happily off revenues from the oil in the Kirkuk region.
That, however, is a point of contention with Baghdad and particularly with Iraq`s Sunnis, who stand to lose more than Iraq`s other major politico-religious group, the Shiites. The Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south sit on top of large oil reserves. This leaves the Sunnis, who have ruled Iraq in the past, in the middle of the country with little or no oil revenues. And this is something they will fight for.
More likely than not, so too will Turkey be prepared to
fight to prevent the Kurdish dream from becoming a reality.
6. - AFP - "Syria frees 75 Syrian Kurds":
DAMASCUS / 5 September 2006
Seventy-five Syrian Kurds arrested by security forces in the northern city of Aleppo March 20 have been freed, the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said Monday.
"The Syrian authorities on Sunday freed 75 Kurds detained March 20 in Aleppo during celebrations to mark the Kurdish New Year," the group's president Ammar Al Qorabi said.
He said that the releases meant that all those arrested during the celebrations had now been freed, while calling on Syrian authorities to "free all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience."
Some 3,000 Kurds bearing Kurdish flags gathered March 20 in an Aleppo neighborhood to celebrate Noruz, the Kurdish New Year.
The security forces used tear-gas to break up the demonstration, during which stones were thrown at police. More than 100 people were arrested, although some were held only briefly.
The secretary-general of the Kurdish Democratic Progressive party, Aziz Daoud, called the latest releases "positive," and said that they were "in response to an open letter sent by Kurdish lawyers to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad."
Daoud said that he hoped that the releases "will be followed by the release of other Kurds being held, in particular the 45 arrested during a Kurdish demonstration at Qameshli [northeast of Damascus] June 5, 2005."
The protestors had been calling for an investigation into the murder of popular Kurdish cleric Maashuq Khaznawi, an outspoken advocate of Kurdish rights.
In March 2004 five days of deadly clashes pitted Kurds
against the security forces and Arab tribesmen in Aleppo and Qameshli.
The authorities said that 25 people were killed, but Kurdish sources
put the death toll as high as 40.