Commanders of the armed forces request that Mayor of Diyarbakir [Amed] be removed from his post

AKPasha Inc's efforts to get rid of DTP and its politicians is nothing new. Check the discussions during AKPasha Inc's Security Meeting held on 4 January 2006.

[...]
Commanders of the armed forces request that Mayor of Diyarbakir [Amed] be removed from his post:

All units of government must show their decisiveness about terrorism. We have two expectations. The first one is that the mayor of Diyarbakir is committing a crime. Conditions for his [Mr. Baydemir] removal [from his post] by the Ministry of Internal Affairs have ripened. This request is not out of legal norms. If tolerance continues, the terrorist organization will bring its activities all the way to the cities. Our second expectation is that the village guards [korucular] are targets of sympathizers of the terrorist organization; we benefit from their contribution to the security forces. There are two problems regarding these issues. First: we cannot make up for the loss of village guards. We want the declaration and action plan of 2000 to be reviewed. The second [problem regarding village guards] is with softening down the volunteered village guard system.

Minister of Defence: The Ministry of Internal Affairs thought about removing Diyarbakir's Mayor [Amed's Mayor Mr. Baydemir] from his post. But because of problems with legal justification of such an action, they changed their mind.

Prime Minister: As you know, we discussed the issue of Diyarbakir's Mayor at the National Security Council Meeting (NSCM) [MGK]. There are some judicial problems regarding this issue. The issue of carrying of a corpse [of a slain guerrilla] was taken to the court. However, the court decided in their favor. His removal from his post by the the court is different than if we were to do it. If we remove him it will be misunderstood. These mayors are not one, there are 56 of them.

Well, now there are 99 of them! Is it clear now why DTP is being attacked and its mayors and party members are being arrested? Erdogan continues:

They tried to do something during the latest disaster but as the government we cut them off. We have something in the works regarding temporary village guards. We will issue a new law.


Right after the meeting, the following discussion took place between the commanders of forces [pashas]:

Commander of Gendermerie Forces: When a mayor goes out [of country] he must request permission from the governor. We will have Governor of Diyarbakir not let Mayor Baydemir go out [of country].

Chief of General Staff [Gen. Özkök. Replaced by Buyukanit later in the year]: In fact DTP doesn't like it when mayors (especially Baydemir) go abroad without permission. If we can find bad seeds to plant, cause division among them so they will fight one another, then weakening them will be easier.

Commander of Army Yasar Buyukanit [the previous General Staff who recently left the post]: I don't believe the government is sincere. On this issue, I concur with the Commander of Gendermerie Forces. Most of the advisors for the Prime Minister have originated from the region [Kurdistan] and this is one of the issues negatively impacting the fight against terrorism [emphasis added].

Fast forwarding to 29 April 2009, we see pretty much the same thing at play:

The reporters, during the press meeting today, asked Chief of General Staff Ilker Başbuğ about soldiers coming to the parliament during the visit of Obama and not coming to the parliament at other times.

Chief of Gen Staff Başbuğ said "As armed forces we can never have a position or thought on protesting the parliament or political parties" then he continued on, referring to the DTP group in the parliament:

"However, without a certain political party clarifying its relationship with the terrorist organization or its position on the terrorist organization, it's impossible for us to be in the same environment with them. The public will understand it that we won't be in the same environment with a political party that can't distance itself from the terrorist organization and can't clearly express this. Nobody should expect us to be in the same environment with them."

What changed from 2006 to 2009, with three different Chiefs of General Staff taking post? Nothing, really. DTP members are being singled out, arrested, talked down, discriminated. Kurds, even when they try to serve the state at AKPasha Inc's side are still not trusted and viewed as a threat.

DTP Parliamentarian Hasip Kaplan said the following on 22 April 2009 during a session at the parliament:

"I would like to make this clear: tomorrow we are going to celebrate National Sovereignty Day, right? Since the day I was elected -(showing the inscription on the wall behind him) here 'sovereignty belongs to the nation without any condition'- my general staff, the land forces commander, came and sat here only when Obama was here. I came out of ballots; if they don't respect the votes of 3 million people... The head of ruling party, the prime minister of 7 years, still refers to my party as "that party". If he doesn't acknowledge me or the will of the people on 22 of July, he just lost on March 29, in the east and southeast, if he is losing the local election in the town that made him the prime minister (Siirt), if he loses in Van and Diyarbakir from where he has ministers, if he cannot enter Şırnak, he cannot come here and call me "that party"

Tell me Mr. Hasip doesn't have a point!

Kurdish Children and AKPasha Inc

Everyone knows AKPasha Inc wants to close DTP but they can't do so. That would cause serious problems in accession talks to EU. EU frowns on shutting down political parties. What was left for the AKPasha Inc to do was arrest the DTP politicians and not close the party. Essentially same thing only more passive aggressive. Being passive-aggressive is the modus operandi for the fascist thugs like the AKPasha Inc.

In Colemerg (Hakkari), on 23 April 2009, a group of 50 people were protesting against recent AKPasha Inc attacks on DTP; arrest and detainment of over 300 DTP officials and party members. Police intervened with tear gas and water cannons and the group responded by throwing stones.

Additional support arrived for the police and they attacked the crowd. Of the many children running from the police, one of them, a 14 year old, fell off the cliff and hit his head on a rock. He is dead. The other child, who is 15 years old, was caught by one of the special forces and repeatedly beaten by the butt of an automatic rifle and kicked. Although this is not something unusual for the AKPasha Inc, this time it was caught on camera.The child will have to stay at the hospital because his life is still in danger. His skull is badly cracked. Hevallo has posted a video which shows the whole thing including another police officer who walks over to beat the kid but he doesn't. He walks away to his buddy and congratulates him. The kid is on the ground, unconscious. No calling of medical personnel. They just left him to die. His family members arrived on the scene to call an ambulance.

AKPasha Inc police last year caused mayhem during 1 May celebrations in Taksim. Here is their picture congratulating one another after their victory over public:
I wonder how they celebrated killing one and deadly injuring another Kurdish child? They must have rushed to hamam.

Here is one thing many people don't know because it's hardly reported:

"Yesterday [23 April 2009] at about 18:00 power to the city was cut. There is still no power. The public still didn't see the images of the child being beaten by butt of a rifle. There is no Internet either."

Perhaps you didn't know but AKPasha Inc cuts off power and all communication lines, including cell phone communications when they attack the public. It's common practice. TSK has been using this tactic for years.

Passive Resistance Alone?

A Kurdish Tale
The hunter asked the rabbit. "You have shorter legs than my dog, yet you can run faster. How come?" To which the rabbit responded: "I am running for myself, your dog is running for you"

Discussions have been going on for some time about how Turkey generously will let PKK to disarm itself and those who haven't been a part of armed conflict would be allowed to return home based on a "regret and cooperation" law again courtesy of AKPasha Inc. There are a few problems with this:

• PKK guerrillas didn't go up to the mountains for a picnic. They are individuals who chose the way of armed struggle because they didn't see any hope for any change in the fascist and brutal Turkish Regime.
• These people experienced that passive resistance alone meant you are sheep for slaughter. Passive resistance needs backing of someone powerful.
  

I would like to hear from those who support passive resistance alone. Please explain to me about 17500 civilians who went missing (killed) in the regime's hands after they were taken into custody. What did the world do about these missing people other than calling the fascist regime "an advanced democracy"? Who, just who is going to justify torturing two month old babies to get a guerrilla speak? Who is the real terrorist here?

A note for those who spend their lives for protecting the fascist regime with lies and misinformation. It's a Turkish paper (Radikal) that wrote about torturing of a two month old baby by the interrogators.

I challenge those who get into polemics on armed struggle to simulate a luxurious version of guerrilla lifestyle at the comfort of their home. Here are a few pointers:

• Take a few cold showers in the winter. Make sure you have no fire to warm you up.
• Don't eat anything for two days. Make do with 2 liters of water meanwhile.
• Ok, you were not required to sleep in the snow or on the rocks. But sleep on the carpet, no covers allowed.
  

Please understand, this is a luxurious version. You were not asked that you should be constantly on the move, walking atop mountains. You were not asked to refrain from using toilet paper, painkiller, and so on. You could have been asked to give up on hundreds of other things you currently enjoy. Just to make sure things are in perspective for you, you were not asked to be a small group of people (say four or five) who has nothing but AK-47s with limited ammunition and you have thousands of soldiers and guards coming at you. The soldiers have access to F-16s, Cobra helicopters, night vision, artillery, phosphor bombs, and every other state of the art military hardware. So, you are ballsy enough to do all that and someone will come and be generous enough to let you apologize for rebelling against their wrongdoing. What would you do?

The guerrillas don't drop from the outer space. They are people who are courageous enough to say NO to being hurt, mistreated, and sacrificing themselves for their loved ones. You can't tell people you are going to deny them their basic rights, massacre them, kill their brothers and sisters, humiliate them, and have them just sit back and thank you for it by supporting your system and basically give up on the values that make them human.

Let's now bring the recent "operations" of the AKPasha Inc against Democratic Society Party (DTP) to put things in perspective a little better. Turkey says "lay down the guns, come down from the mountains, and be a part of the democratic political process". So, you will detain over 240 people because they work at or belong to a legitimate party which kicked your as* in the elections? You will then put them up in jail and call that a democracy? That's AKPasha Inc's current Political Process for you. The detained and arrested people are politicians, lawyers, and alike who didn't touch a gun. God forbid if these people even had a toy water gun in their possession or be part of any corruption (AKPasha Inc, hint hint), I am sure the magazinews channels would be running stories 24/7. Does this revenge-for-losing-elections-in-Kurdistan campaign presented by AKPasha Inc give you an idea of what they would do to PKK guerrillas if they laid their arms and came down to cities without democratization of the fascist system?

Given the status quo, Kurds need both passive resistance but they also need an armed force for defence of their people. If you don't want someone to have to defend themselves, you don't attack them. Killing civilians at a peaceful event where they simply want to plant trees is just off-limits.

Wrath of Losers: AKPasha Inc

Update: As of now, there are 187 DTP officials and party members taken into custody. On 17 April 2009 alone 46 people were taken into custody. The AKPasha Inc has been raiding DTP offices everywhere and conducting searches. Conducting searches basically means break and take whatever you can so they cannot operate.

The AKPasha Inc keeps screaming with their actions that they don't want peace. On Tuesday 14 April 2009, the police raided residences and offices in 15 provinces and detained 53 people. Leading members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) were among those detained. Gun TV was one of the places raided. Police confiscated Gun TV's equipments and the tv station was unable to broadcast anything. Now, court has shut down Gun TV for a month.

DTP vice chair Kamuran Yüksek, DTP vice chair Bayram Altun, DTP vice chair Selma Irmak, Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers Seracettin Irmak, Ebru Günay and Şinasi Tur, and Batman municipality building director Heval Erdemli are among those taken into custody.

Oh, but did you think the AKPasha Inc would be content with this much of human rights violations? Read on... Azadiya Welat and Özgür Mezopotamya Newspapers have been shut down for a month as well:

In the 11 April 2009 issue of Azadiya Welat, articles on the pages 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 8 were considered as part of organisational propaganda.
An interview with Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers, commemoration adverts, another article on Obama and "thank you" advertisements by winning mayoral candidates of the DTP were all put into the indictment.

Here comes the real gem from the AKPasha Inc:

It has been said that a news item on the 8th page which discussed the results of a survey on Barack Obama in the USA, entitled “Wind of Socialism in the USA” (Bayê sosyalîzmê li Amerîkayê gur dibe) was also considered part of the “organisational propaganda.”

Full story on this gem is here.

Make sure you check out Rastî's excellent post.

Denial and Destruction

Nusret Demiral recently spoke to Turkish media (see Sabah daily, April 10, 2009) recently and stated his regrets that he wasn't successful in having Kurdish parliamentarians executed. Demiral was referring to Leyla Zana and her colleagues who took their parliamentarian oath in Kurdish. Leyla Zana served a ten year prison sentence for that oath alone. Mr. Demiral goes on denying existence of Kurds and Kurdish language. He says Kurds are Turks. Same old military propaganda. Remember the post on if you tell a lie often enough you will end up believing in it yourself? The delusional ex-chief prosecutor of High Tribunal Court has certainly got his brain washed clean with fascist lies. This is the man who ordered the police to surround the Turkish Parliament for 18 hours in 1991. He goes on saying he wanted to protect the lives of Kurdish Parliamentarians (so why in the earth he would say they should have been executed, it beats me) but he makes sure they serve ten years in the prison. How sad is that such an old man expresses "his regrets" so bitterly. Nusret Demiral belongs to an interesting species. If you were to amputate his index fingers, he would go mute.
This old crook has directed torture too. Below is an excerpt from Erol Ozbolat's statements published in Kurtulus, Issue: 29, May 7, 1999. Mr. Ozbolat was detained in Ankara on February 11, 1991.

During the late days of my custody, I was taken to a lonely field and asked to run away. They were aiming to murder me and later claim that I was shot while escaping. During these tortures, the conspiracy was tried to be supported piece by piece by the testimonies taken torture. From the beginning, the torture interrogations were directed by the DGM prosecutors who, themselves, came to the torture center. The DGM prosecutors who came to the torture center and joined the interrogations were Nusret Demiral, Talat Salk, Nuh Mete Yuksel. I was subjected to torture every time they wanted to make me sign the scenarios prepared by the DGM prosecutors. In the last 9- 10 days of the 1-month-custody, I was not tortured. They waited for the wounds of torture to heal. On the 30th day, I was taken to DGM and arrested on March 11, 1991, depending on the testimonies, which I was made sign by torture. Directing the tortures were not the only little masterpieces of the DGM prosecutors, they prepared fake documents as well. These documents are available in the trial file. As a result of this conspiracy I have been sentenced to death penalty.

So, another example of denial, which more subtle. Well, look at the picture below. It shows Beşir Atalay, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Turkey, who recently made racist remarks against Kurds due to DTP's victory in North Kurdistan, and his Iraqi counterpart Jawad al-Bulani after signing an agreement against Kurds. They shake hands on drinking Kurdish blood. How ironic is that the folders are colored red??

Beşir Atalay said "We expect both the central Iraqi government and the regional administration in the north to undertake concrete steps". This man would rather choke than use the term Kurdistan Regional Government. He is in Iraq and KRG is clearly spelled out in the constitution. He is not respecting Iraq's constitution and shaking hands on it. Well, Arabs love it as long as something is against Kurds. Good luck to KRG in pleasing their Arab and Turkish and Persian brothers.

Turkey's Strong Democracy

Each time an American President visits Turkey, they say something along the lines that Turkey is a strong democracy, it's an advanced democracy, and so on. It's quite strange to call a regime which cheats on elections, oppresses and tortures people, and denies them their identity.

Let's show two examples of Turkey becomes a strong democracy. The first Youtube video is during Newroz celebrations of 2008. Can you count how many police officers gang up on the boy at the beginning of the video? They never let him go, nor do they detain him. Everyone of those cops try to reach and make his mark for the strong democracy Turkey has. In a democracy, the police uses force only in self defence and then detains the person without torture. These cops are just beating that kid up endlessly. It doesn't stop, they keep going. They remind me of African wild dogs going after a lone zebra. Brutal. This boy and other "demonstrators" were trying to celebrate their new year, Newroz, at their home. Really a strong democracy isn't it?

On April 4, some people wanted to celebrate Mr. Ocalan's birthday in Amara. All these people wanted to do was to be able to go to Amara and plant some trees. They didn't want to make a demonstration, they didn't have guns, nothing. They wanted to plant trees. Two people were killed by security forces and many wounded. This Youtube video shows Mustafa Dağ's blood spilling out on the ground after he had been hit in the head by brutal Turkish "security" forces. You need to have a Youtube account to access the video because it is restricted to 18 years or older.

One thing is certain. It's not the Kurds who benefit from the "strong democracy" in Turkey.

Kurds have no right to protest against unfair election practices

The local elections were held on March 29. DTP (a party representing Kurds and Kurdish Cause) gained majority of provinces in the Kurdish regions with a few exceptions. Agri (Agirî) was one of those. It turns out over three thousand DTP votes were not counted. People discovered half burnt ballots in the trash. According to official counts, AKP received 13,884 and DTP received 11,347 votes. Another 3,000 plus votes would bump DTP up to 14347 plus votes, which means DTP was the actual winner. People have been protesting in Agirî but they have faced severe attacks from the police. 79 people have been arrested. European observers were arrested and released after their cameras were wiped clean. A lot of people were injured. Here is an article from mideastyouth.com describing what happened in more detail. The article also includes a video showing how police corners and beats up people. The video is also on youtube. In another gathering in Amara, soldiers attacked the crowd and killed two people. Close to a hundred people were injured. DTP parliamentarian Ayla Akat Ata was attacked and hit by police when she went to visit the injured at the hospital. The AKP police is known to attack women when they get a chance. Here is documentation on beating of women from last year's Newroz celebrations. You can watch and see the women and children beaters in action on youtube as well.

The unfair elections practices in Turkey are not new. DTP's predecessor, DEHAP had actually won in Mersin in 1999 and even the state tv announced DEHAP's victory. But then, magically, a bomb threat was issued for the building where ballots were kept, the minister of internal affairs of the time wwas the hero who walked into the building. No bomb experts were needed to discard DEHAP votes. A count after the threat, of course, made sure DEHAP lost. Before and during the local elections this year, dirty tricks continued to play out. State officials prevented DTP observers from watching the elections in some places or took in observers of every other party but made DTP observers wait outside for some two or three hours while their rivals were inside. The spectrum of unfair practices include threatening locals through government funded drug trading terrorists called korîcî or jash.

AKP and the state has more elusive elections tactics too. They make sure their people start parties with names similar to that of DTP (such as BTP) or find candidates with similar names to their adversaries. The decoy parties and last minute candidates are decoys to steal votes from parties such as DTP or any other rival. When names are close, some people get confused and stamp on the wrong person/party. This dirty tactic has been in place for quite some time now.

Turkey's Minister of Internal Affairs Cemil Cicek made some racist and facist comments on DTP's success in the Kurdish regions. Although Mr. Erdogan said they don't endorse what Mr. Cicek said, AKP didn't condemn him either. A military general basically endorsed what Mr. Cicek said by saying the military is thinking about the election results in the Kurdish regions. In a true democracy, a politician like Mr. Cicek and General Gurak would have to resign. The AKP acronym stands for "Justice and Development Party". If this is the justice AKP and the state stand for, Turkey and its peoples are doomed.

You tell a lie often enough, you end up believing it

Turkey's president Mr. Gul was recently interviewed by Euronews. Here is the full interview. I will be touching on a segment of the interview, which of course happens to be related to the Kurdish issue.

euronews: “One new question is the Kurdish issue in the north of Iraq. Is Turkey prepared to give any ground over that?”

Abdullah Gul: “To be able eradicate terrorist organisations you have to apply sophisticated programmes and plans ..and Turkey does that.

Sometimes we do it in a public way.. sometimes behind the scenes. Those who want to fight to death and not give up their weapons, then our military must tackle that and fight these people to the end. I must say this.

But there are people on the fringes of terrorist organisations without knowing why they are part of them. It is important to try to get these people back on the normal path.

Until now the Kurdish Regional Government in the north of Iraq has refused to do what is necessary but I am pleased to say during our meetings with them over the last few months they realise that these terror groups are bad news for them as well.”

Yeah, the KRG is so bad that she doesn't help Turkey wipe off Kurds from the face of the earth. Only a messed up and insecure bully who wants to deny people their very basic rights and expects them to help with their destruction can say such a ridiculous thing. What exactly does Turkey want from the KRG? To fight against PKK so that Turkey can persecute Kurds more?? The KRG is smart enough to know that after Turkey is done with "her own Kurds" she will move down to neutralize the KRG.

euronews: “As far as international relations go you are very close to Israel. They consider Hamas a terrorist organisation. But your relations with Hamas are very different to Israel’s. Shouldn’t Hamas be considered terrorists, the same as the PKK?”

Abdullah Gul: “The PKK, Hamas and the Palestinians…they have no links with each other.
There are many groups linked with the Palestinians
in The Middle East. In respect of the Palestinians we would never support suicide bombers. I must tell you that.

But one group, the PKK, is using military means to
create a something outside its own territory and they attack Turkey.

This is where the famous Turkish saying "if you repeat something 40 times, it will come true" plays. The Euronews speaker couldn't just say "wake up, Mr. President, the PKK is in Kurdistan!". What territory is Mr. Gul talking about?? Turkish military is conducting military operations inside the borders of Turkey all the time! Is Mount Ararat in Iraq too? Seriously, if there is no PKK inside Turkey then against whom is Turkey conducting those military operations within its borders??? Civilians (let's remember 4000+ villages Turkey razed) or the PKK? Perhaps both?

On the relationship between Israel and Turkey, it's a co-dependent relationship no different than the one between a drug dealer and an addict.

But the Palestinians on the other hand are trying to defend themselves in their own country.

Kurds ARE defending themselves inside their own country, Kurdistan. They have lived there for over 4000 years (yes LONG before they let his ancestors enter Anatolia. He needs to go read some true history!

There is no discrimination in Turkey against the Kurds. Ethnic indentity doesn’t interest us.”

Whoa! Did he just say that pigs fly? Or did I just hear Ahmedinejad saying there are no gays in Iran?? So, why is that Turkey still denies Kurds their very basic rights?? Record speaks for itself. It's enough to look at the court cases against Kurds' use of letters q, w, x, and other letters. When stupid thugs use those letters it's all fine but when it's Kurds, security forces don't waste a minute. When did President Gul ever speak against such practices??

euronews: “Mr President. The question wasn’t about the moral value of the PKK and Hamas movements. The question is simply that Turkey has a bad relationship with the PKK and yet has a good relationship with Israel which in turn considers Hamas a terrorist organisation. This is a little contradicatory isn’t it? They are, after all, two movements which are struggling over territory.”

Abdullah Gul: “Palestine is a state under occupation and the Palestinians are using military means to end the occupation. Even after United Nations rulings, Palestine is still under occupation.”

Kurdistan has been under occupation by Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Despite all the resistance. Mr. Gul needs to go and check Ottoman archives and see "Kurdistan" state on Ottoman maps!

euronews: “ No, excuse me, because, perhaps…

Abdullah Gul: “Wait a minute. I must explain this important question. When Hamas carries out a terrorist attack, we condemn it. But don’t forget what Israel has done in Gaza.

They killed between 1,300 and 1,800 people ..this is something we can never accept. So if you are comparing Hamas and the PKK you are making a big mistake.”

So, what would Mr. President say about over 17,000 individuals, including women and children who were detained by Turkish security forces and never heard from again? Children and older women included. This figure is aside from civilians, including children killed by Turkish police and military. It's true one shouldn't compare Hamas with PKK as Hamas receives a lot of external support while PKK is supported by the Kurdish people alone.