A new kind of psychological warfare...

Yasemin Çongar interviewed the widow of a soldier recently killed during a PKK raid. The interview is highly emotional.

The interviewee says (as many other articles from the Turkish media have) how remote the garrison was, had no doctor, not even antibiotics, and so on. She continues on about what she heard. She repeats "the things soldiers say are conflicting because they were all in shock" (it's a known fact that people who survive traumatic events can give conflicting statements). She also talks about how soldiers ran into a room and welded the only door from inside and this is how they survived. But it gets more interesting. The interviewee gives figures about how many PKK militants were killed and that the 'terrorists' carried their dead and left. Ms. Çongar, an experienced reporter, of course never thinks to ask how the soldiers could count anything since they trapped themselves into a room without any window and how come one could believe those traumatized soldiers now. The answer is simple. All rules of logic and justice can be set aside when it's about dealing with Kurds in general and PKK in particular. But on the bright side, now we know that the traumatized TSK soldiers can see through the walls. But how come such supreme beings can weld a door from inside so the guerrillas don't reach them?

The interviewee tells more interesting things such as "they [the TSK soldiers] found used up courage-boosting injections on the floor left by the terrorists [the PKK guerrillas] and also adrenaline capsules". Ms. Çongar, the veteran reporter, of course forgets to ask how one could ever know such things without analysis and how could one really be sure who used what if there really were such things. Apparently the remotely located garrison without a doctor and antibiotics had a CSI lab operating with the speed of light! Bravo Ms. Çongar!

TURKEY'S DIRTY WAR AGAINST THE KURDS

The German media hardly says much about Turkish state's terrorist acts on Kurds due to heavy trade between the two countries. The following article has made its way to Spiegel Online. You can read the full text here:

'We Used to Murder People at Night When the Soldiers Weren't Around'

By Daniel Steinvorth in Istanbul

When members of the special Turkish police unit Jitem arrived at night, Kurdish inhabitants of southeast Turkey knew there would be another disappearance. Investigators are now looking into the activities of this allegedly disbanded secretive organization from the 1990s -- and the 'death wells' where its victims were hidden.

[...]

Shot 'Like an Animal'

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of civil rights activists, politicians and businesspeople suspected of having ties with the PKK were kidnapped and murdered. No one knows their exact number, and it was only in rare cases that the victims were even identified. Many corpses were dumped into wells; others were doused in acid and thrown into fields. The horror of the sight was meant to serve as a deterrent. But the majority disappeared without a trace and are still listed as missing.

One of the missing is the Kurdish construction worker Ramazan Solmaz. His wife Piroze last saw him on January 15, 1993. "He was on his way to work when they caught him," she says. "That's all I know. There are no traces, no clues. I'd just like to know where his body is. I just want to bury him." Piroze and a friend have put their faith in Cizre's bar association. "My husband, Selahattin, was shot in broad daylight in 1998 right on the street," say her friend, who is wearing a pitch-black version of the traditional Kurdish gown. "Just like that. Like an animal."

At the time, the women didn't even think about filing a criminal complaint. In Cizre, confronting those in power had its consequences. The powerful included not only the soldiers and the people from Jitem, but also members of the radical-Islamic Turkish Hezbollah, a militant Kurdish organization unrelated to the Lebanese Hezbollah. The war between the Turkish army and the PKK raged in the mountains surrounding Cizre. But in the city itself, it was this group that held power over life and death. A brutal leader of this clan named Kamil Atak once let himself be nominated to become mayor. As local politicians will tell you, the former shepherd used to take pleasure in "feeding" his captives to his Hezbollah fighters.

Spreading Fear and Anxiety

Even after the state of emergency was lifted in 2002, Atak remained under the protection of state security forces. Just over two months ago, on March 23, police arrested Atak as part of a nationwide operation after he garnered the attention of investigators working on the "Ergenekon" case. Soon after Atak's arrest, authorities also arrested Cemal Temizöz, a colonel in the military police, who also sowed fear and anxiety among the inhabitants of Cizre.

[...]

Jitem's Bestial Interrogation Methods

For the top brass in Turkey's military forces, the issue of Jitem remains taboo. The government continues to deny its existence. According to the semiofficial version, at least, the organization served as something like a "counterguerrilla" force against the PKK that completed its mission long ago and has since been disbanded. The last fact seems to have been confirmed by former Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, when he claimed in a television interview that Jitem "no longer" existed.

By far the most comprehensive reports of Jitem's activities can be found in the memoirs of the organization's former agents. One of them is Abdülkadir Aygan, who now lives in Sweden. Aygan tells a shocking tale of having first been a member of the PKK before being recruited to work for Jitem. "We used to murder people at night during the long hours when the soldiers weren't around," Aygan says, describing Jitem's activities. "Many of the people we captured had been indicted by a court or the gendarmes," he adds. "But many of them had also been denounced by their completely normal fellow citizens. No one survived an interrogation by Jitem people."

[...]

Seeking Certainty and Closure

In the end, all the searching and inquiries of Ergül's brothers had been in vain. But after Aygan's confession, they did succeed in figuring out where Ergül had been dumped, where fishermen later hid his body and where his unidentified corpse had been buried in an anonymous grave not far from the lake. "Now we're waiting for the results of a DNA test," says Ergül's brother Ata. "Then we will finally have some certainty."

This is a sign of progress -- but there are also contradictory signals coming out of Turkey. For the first time, the country seems prepared to come to terms with its recent past. But even though light is now being thrown on the dirty war waged during that period, the war between the Turkish military and the PKK continues to rage. In military terms, the separatist movement has been significantly weakened, and its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has been in prison for years. But it is still capable of launching deadly bomb attacks, such as the one in late April, when a remotely denoted bomb threw a military vehicle into the air, killing nine Turkish soldiers.

The government avoids talks with the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), which has channels of communication with the PKK. Instead, in recent weeks, the government has preferred to impose order high-handedly by arresting more than 200 DT politicians.

One would think after all these came out the Turkish state would try to solve the Kurdish problem in a fair and just way. Alas, that's not the case.

Kurdish MPs Get Worse Treatment than State Terrorists

Turkey has always been a country of contradictions. Ahmet Altan's article summarizes the reality of contradictions nicely. Partial translation of his article dated 16 May 2006 is below:

[...]

Now we are up against a new issue.
Prosecutors want to question five DTP parliamentarians.
They [prosecutors] claim the crime these parliamentarians committed are "crimes against the state" and therefore is not covered under "immunity".

And a chain of strange events start...

One of the parliamentarians they want to take and try was in prison when she was elected. She became a candidate from the prison and because she was elected and "gained immunity" she was let go.

The "immunity" that parliamentarian has gained could get her out of prison but another prosecutor could say that her crimes was not covered under "immunity" and wanted to imprison her again.

The crime one of the parliamentarians had committed for which the parliamentarian wanted to be questioned was to say "Mr. Öcalan".

How is it a crime to call someone "Mr.", that's a mystery in itself, but...

The real funny thing is the fact that the other day a court has decided that the words "Mr. Öcalan" did not constitute a crime.

Courts says "it's not a crime" but prosecutor says "no no", "you don't know it, this is a crime".

Of course, there are also quite "grave" sides of the story.

Mehmet Ağar and Sedat Bucak [two Susurluk criminals who have blood of a lot of innocent Kurds on their hands] are on trial for the crime of "building a terror gang".

"Building a terror gang" is not a crime committed against the state but calling someone "Mr." is a crime against the state.

You obviously see that it is not the "law" that's important here but the "person".

Ağar is immune regardless of whatever he does because he is "the state's" man.

DTP parliamentarians are not immune because they are men of their peoples and the opposition.

Now, are we to call this jurisprudence?

DTP parliamentarians are saying that "we will not go to get questioned", "let the prosecutor come and take us."

Truth be told, everything is possible in Turkey but still I don't think the prosecutors will be crazy enough to raid the Parliament.

I don't know what they [prosecutors] will do but either DTP parliamentarians will sit at the Parliament and start an opposition or they [DTP Parliamentarians] will be taken into custody by the police as they leave the Parliament, like it happened in 1994 [also in 1991].

All these will happen during the time President Gül says "good things will happen".

[...]

As long as you break the laws as one of the thugs in state's heroin trade business then you are alright. If you actually try to do your duty as a parliamentarian and try to actually represent the people who elected you, then you will face all kinds of prosecutions! This is "the strong democracy in the region" for you.

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.

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.