Tag: Kurds

  • Letter to The Honorable Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey

    Letter to The Honorable Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey

    9 September 2012

     

    The Honorable Abdullah Gül

    T.C. Cumhurbaşkan

    06689 Çankaya

    Ankara

     

    Dear Mr. President,

    Would you allow me to show my concern about maintaining your well-deserved prestige and to tell you that your star which, until now, has shone so brightly, risks being dimmed by the most shameful and indelible of stains.

    You have passed healthy and safe from the troubles pertaining to your rise to the presidency. You seem to have won over the hearts of the citizens. But what filth this wretched “Syria Affair” has cast on your name and the name of your country. The government of Turkey, in primary collaboration with the government of the United States of America, has dared to attempt to destroy the duly constituted government of Syria. In that process it has funded, encouraged and armed a motley gang of terrorist killers that include numerous members of Al-Qaeda and other recognized terrorist groups. The Hatay region of Turkey is being used as a staging area for attacks on a neighboring country, a country that until recent months had enjoyed great favor with Turkey. Hatay, perhaps the most enlightened, peaceful region in Turkey, now is under occupation by gangs of terrorist killers. The people are regularly accosted on the streets by these ruffians, and asked if they are Alevites. You will be next, they are told. The shops and restaurants are being ripped off by these foreign mercenaries. Send the bill, to Tayyip, they say, He sent for us. And rather than protect the citizens the police turn a blind eye. What is going on, Mr. President? Who is ruling this country?

    Many innocent Syrian people, including my wife’s uncle in Damascus, have been murdered by this assembled-in-Turkey terrorist machine. Moreover, the good citizens of Hatay are daily threatened by this scum that the government of Turkey has organized, of course with the help of the CIA, proven by history to be experts in unspeakably violent subversions. This lawless behavior, indeed a crime against the Syrian people, and a war crime in terms of the Geneva Conventions, is the supreme insult to all truth, all justice, all morality and all religion. Now Turkey is willingly sullied by this filth. History will record that it was under your presidency that this crime against humanity was committed. Something must be done Mr. President.

    As these government and foreign operatives have dared to drag the reputation of Turkey through the filth of deceit, lies and murder, so shall I dare. Dare to tell the truth, as I swear to tell it, since the normal channels of the media and the Turkish justice system have failed so miserably to do so. My duty as a good citizen is to speak, and not become an accomplice to this murderous travesty of justice. My nights would otherwise be haunted by the spectre of innocent men, women and children, not so far away, suffering the most horrible tortures of war.

    And it is to you Mr. President, that I shall proclaim this truth, with all the revulsion that an honest man can summon. Knowing your integrity, I am sure that you do not know the truth. If you did, you would have long ago taken action against this blatant attack on Turkish sovereignty. The ruling power is complicit in this attack. And the opposition is hopelessly divided and incompetent. So to whom if not you, the first magistrate of this country, shall I reveal the vile baseness of those who are truly guilty, the ones steeped in innocent blood up to their elbows.

    As you know, Mr. President, the problem has always been Turkey. Blessed with abundant natural resources, an edenic environment for agriculture, waters teeming with fish, vast olive groves overlooking the sea, a winning warm water climate, the land nexus between east and west, Turkey has always been a target. And being a target is most uncomfortable and always susceptible to treachery.

    Since the death of the founder of modern Turkey, who tossed the imperialist occupying powers into the sea, Turkey has been in a state of decline, particularly regarding its susceptibility and submission to western interests. First it was Communism! Communism! Communism! And a nervous America needed an Islamic green buffer zone against godless Russia. So Turkey said Yes! Yes! Yes! Please forgive us for not joining all you western imperialists in World War II. Please allow us to become a “green zone.” And  please, please, please take some incredibly fertile land from our agricultural heart in Çukurova, eight kilometers east of Adana. And of course build your airbase, said Turkey, but please like us and respect us. So America built its airbase in the fertile heart of Turkey. And that was the beginning of America’s close relationship—meaning CIA involvement—with Turkey. Vital rural education programs were abandoned lest those evil Communists infiltrate. And in the villages, ignorance remained. And the politicians knew it. And the plunder began. And today, Mr. President, the headquarters for this foul deed being done to Syria, the Syrian people, and the Turkish people is at Incirlik Air Base. What goes around, comes around, Mr. President.

    At the root of it all is one man, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the head of the AKP ruling party and the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey. A man of bombast, scowls and ill-humor, he seems not to like anyone. It’s the strangest thing, Mr. President, to observe his grin when visiting the White House in Washington DC. And then the pain that comes to his face when he returns to his native land. He came to power in a landslide election in 2002 that was repeated four years later. Could it have something to do with the lack of education in the provinces, Mr. President? Since he came to power he has relentlessly embarked on a policy to divide and weaken the republic. I am sure you have noticed this, Mr. President. Haven’t you?

    Who is this man? Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he is grown so great?

    I suspect American hamburgers and hotdogs, Mr. President. For he and his ilk are of them. And now, during these days of tragedy, there are no longer any secrets, Mr. President.

    Who is this prime minister who so disparages, dismisses, defames and divides, to wit:

    • What head of government would jail the senior officers and the command and general staff of a nation’s armed forces and within months enter a de facto war against its hitherto peaceful neighbor, Syria?
    • What head of government would actively solicit the entry into its country of known terrorists?
    • What head of government would defy the will of the people as expressed by the existence of a parliament by arming known terrorists at the behest of a foreign power, i.e., the United States of America?
    • What head of government would jail many hundreds of students for protesting their desire for a free education? Some are sentenced to as much as an eight year imprisonment for being members of a “terrorist” organization because they wore traditional poşhu headscarves.
    • Who is this prime minister of a secular, democratic, equal rights espousing country who:
    • In Istanbul 2010 International Women’s Day, opined to a conference of representatives of women’s organizations that women are not equal to men. His wife sat stoically on the dais.
    • On International Women’s Day, 2008 encouraged women to have three and even better, five, children each.
    • On 16 August 2008, called martyred (killed in action) Turkish soldiers “kelle”, a derogatory expression likening them to heads of cattle.
    • In 2011 changed the name of the Ministry for Women and Family to the Ministry of Family and Social Policies thus further effacing and disparaging women.
    • In 2011 on International Women’s Day, he was asked why honor killings had increased 14 fold since 2002 under his regime. In bizarre logic, the prime minister said the enormous increase was because more murders were being reported, thus apparently both praising and loathing improved administrative procedures.
    • After the Turkish Air Force with the help of American “intelligence” from drone observation aircraft bombed and killed 34 innocent Kurdish citizens on 28 December 2011 in Uludere, the prime minister announced his opposition to abortion preposterously likening it to rape. He thus deflected attention from the massive loss of life caused by the Turkish military.  No viable explanation has yet been given.
    • In 2011, in a gross demonstration of his Taliban state of mind, the prime minister ordered the destruction of The Statue of Humanity by the acclaimed sculptor Mehmet Aksoy. The statue stood in Kars on the Armenian border. The prime minister called the statue dedicated to Turkish-Armenian peace, “ucube,” a “freak.”
    • And now, in primary collusion with agents of the United States of America, the prime minister and his oh-so-willing underlings have launched an illegal, unconstitutional aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic, a sovereign nation. Can they have so soon forgotten the international crime and human disaster that such illegal recklessness brought to the innocent Iraqi people? Have they so quickly become emboldened to disregard the will of the Turkish people who so courageously chose not to collaborate with the western rape of Iraq in 2003?
    • And now, in primary collusion with agents of the United States of America, the prime minister and his oh-so-willing underlings have launched an illegal, unconstitutional aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic, a sovereign nation. Can they have so soon forgotten the international crime and human disaster that such illegal recklessness brought to the innocent Iraqi people? Have they so quickly become emboldened to disregard the will of the Turkish people who so courageously chose not to collaborate with the western rape of Iraq in 2003?
    • Has he forgotten the many historical foreign connivances of America? Has he forgotten the murderous campaigns of subversion that featured ruthless CIA involvement? Has he forgotten the American CIA killer-puppet Pinochet? Has he forgotten the destabilizing bombings, the tortures, the disappearances of pregnant women who were executed after giving birth, their children re-engineered for the “new” Argentine society? Has he forgotten the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia, a state terrorist training camp? How about the KUBARK program, the CIA how-to-do-it interrogation manual, the book that destroys victims’ minds? Deep, disorienting shocks, day and night jumbled, electroshock, humiliation, silence, noise, sensory deprivation, the slow destruction of brains, has he remembered any of this? And now Turkey has the very same type of organization teaching assassination, sabotage and terror. Mr. President, in times like these we must remember our Nietzsche: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”
    • Has he forgotten Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Cuba (1959-present), Congo (1960), Cambodia (1961-73), Brazil (1965), Argentina (1976), Indonesia (1965), Vietnam (1961-74), Laos (1961-73), Cambodia (1961-73), Greece (1946-81), Chile (1973), Afghanistan (1979-present), El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua (1980s), Grenada (1983), Turkey (1980-present), Agfhanistan (1979-89) (2001-present) and Iraq (1991-present)? These are all victims of terror American style.
    • Has he forgotten the human wreckage caused by these American assaults? Surely he remembers the horror that America brought to Turkey in 1980, the torture, the mass imprisonment, the executions? Has the prime minister not had his fill of the criminal antics of the USA and its CIA? Most of humanity has, Mr. President? Have you?

    And now Syria, a new horror brought to the Syrian people courtesy of Turkey and America.

    And of course, the not-so-secret planning that turns out to be so terribly fatal. Earlier this year, General Dempsey, David Petraeus, now the CIA capo, and Hillary Clinton came to town, and came to down, and still come to town. A typical American foreign policy team, one civilian and two generals. In case you haven’t been paying attention, Mr. President, American foreign policy has shrunken to its bare essentials: military muscle-flexing and threats. Culturally insensitive and hopelessly hypocritical, it relies on force alone. In between these American visits the Turkish foreign minister feverishly visited Washington. Their cartoonish visits are insulting to Turkey. Meanwhile, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Mu’ammar al-Khaddafi Human Rights Award winner for 2010, soon after the award ceremony ended commenced raining bombs on al-Khaddafi’s head. He then proceeded (like Hillary Clinton) to celebrate his former host’s murder by evisceration via sodomy with various sharp instruments. Then he turned his invective on his former Syrian friend, Bashar al-Assad. How seductive must be the eye-popping smiles of that most incompetent, amoral American secretary of state.

    The deep and treacherous pockets of Saudi Arabia and America’s other military stooge, Qatar, would provide the financing of their fellow Arab neighbor’s demise. In violation of its constitution Turkey now provides a safe haven for the so-called Free Syrian Army, a collection of mercenaries and terrorists dredged up by the collective intelligence services of Turkey, the USA, Israel, and any other western jackals that want some of the action. How does such a safe haven in Hatay differ from the safe haven provided to the PKK in Iraq? Make no mistake, Mr. President, the Free Syrian Army is the equivalent in every way of the America-financed mujadhideen, the “freedom fighters” of the 1980s war in Afghanistan. And venal Turkish businessmen, having been denied projects in Iraq due to governmental blundering, rub their hands together anticipating post-war reconstruction contracts in Syria.

    And lately, again the CIA visited Turkey in the form of its boss, the military man, the general, David Petraeus, a man who as an honorable West Point cadet swore to not lie, cheat or steal, all of which he now does with wanton abandon for his country. Who would not say that this man has not become a monster? And the day after Petraeus left, the prime minister suddenly became a latter-day Mehmet the Conqueror shouting that “In a short time we will go to Damascus and God willing pray in the Emevi mosque.” And a day later 25 soldiers were exploded into very small pieces carrying ammunition in an armory in the middle of the night in Afyonkarahisar. A minister blamed God. The commanding general blamed the media. As usual, all explanations were garbled. As usual, the circumstances are highly suspicious. As usual, an investigation is pending. Chaos, chaos, always the chaos.

    Isn’t this all this a disgusting business, Mr. President?

    Of course, Mr. President, all the posturing about meetings and speeches are hoaxes. This rape of Syria was cooked long ago in Washington. How so? On 20 August 2012 a car bomb exploded in downtown Gaziantep. Warnings had been issued weeks ago that this would. But despite this “intelligence,” the car bomb was carried by a flat-bed truck and offloaded in front of the police station. So much for being alert. Nine people were killed, scores injured. But suddenly something spilled out of a blacker-than-black bag. It seems that three American neo-con think tanks (the Brookings Institute, the America Enterprise Institute and the War Studies Institute) had figured it out in advance months ago at a Washington DC conference. It was attended by representatives from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. First it was called a “scenario,” later a “plan,” then, amazingly, it wasn’t called anything. It just disappeared, never to be mentioned again.

    What’s the difference? Well, hundreds of generals and other senior staff officers remain jailed because of a laughable military coup “scenario” called “Sledgehammer” (Balyoz). This cartoon involved bombing mosques and shooting down Turkish planes. The so-called evidence was slathered across on the front page of so-called newspapers like Taraf, Mr. President. Hundreds of senior officers were arrested, Mr. President! A mammoth investigation and round-up ensued. The army’s command and general staff was purged. But about the American bomb “scenario?” Nothing! The story ran in the press for one day. After that a great silence has prevailed. Why, Mr. President? No arrests. No investigation. No questions. And soon thereafter the CIA’s David Petraeus came to town again, this time peddling another deceitful scheme. How disgusting, Mr. President.

    And guess what familiar names surround the think-tank bomb fiasco? Richard Perle of the 1980 Turkish military coup infamy, Eric Edelman and Douglas Feith, neo-con diplomatic thugs from the recent Bush regime. It all smells to the highest of heavens, Mr. President.

    This is the plain truth, Mr. President, and it is terrifying. It will leave an indelible stain on your presidency. I realize that you may have no direct power over this issue, that you may be limited by the Constitution and your entourage. You have, nonetheless, your duty as a man, which you will recognize and fulfill. As for myself, I have not despaired in the least of the triumph of the right and justice. I say with the most vehement of conviction: truth is on the march, and nothing will stop it. Today is only the beginning, for it is only today that the positions have become clear: on one side, those who are guilty, who do not want the light to shine forth, who crave war and power, on the other hand, those who seek justice and peace and eschew the disgusting laws of the jungle.

    Yes, Mr. President, truth is on the march. The full deception is apparent. And now the Turkish government stands alone in the eyes of the world as a deceiver par excellence. A conniver for the base interests of its American boss. A subversive conspirer who illegally arms, quarters and trains secret terror forces, and by doing so subverts its own constitution. How can this not be treason, Mr. President?

    Mr. President, when the truth is buried underground by lies and deceptions and subterfuges, it grows and builds up so much force that the day it explodes it blasts everything with it. We shall see whether we have been setting ourselves up for the most resounding of disasters. Sadly, it seems clear that Turkey is well along its own road to perdition.

    Today, the endgame now rages inside and outside Turkey. The dangers to the nation and its citizens are clear and present and deadly. And all these dangers lay bare the full deceit of the plan. All is now in plain sight, particularly the vastness of the crimes.

    Herein follows some of the international laws and agreements possibly broken by this violent, criminal cabal organized and directed by the United States of America and the Republic of Turkey, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and The State of Qatar, among others. These are the laws and statutes possibly breached by this vile bunch, headquartered in Istanbul and Incirlik Air Base in Adana. And whose international terrorist militants who are trained and staged in the Hatay region in southeastern Turkey. Of course, there are other higher level operators far distant from Turkey that can easily be traced through the nefarious deeds of their hired henchmen. We know who they are, and where they are, Mr. President. Their list of offenses is long and grievous, Mr. President, particularly for a nation whose government takes great pride in its religious piety.

    I accuse this monstrous cabal of possible crimes against the following standards of civilized behavior.

     

    CRIMES AGAINST MANKIND

    Realizing that the Republic of Turkey is the sole operator within your jurisdiction, I nevertheless accuse all the above mentioned parties and their agents of committing the crime of naked, treacherous aggression, of committing crimes against peace, of committing crimes against humanity, and of committing war crimes against the Syrian people of catastrophic proportions. These grave offenses are described in greater particularity as follows:

    The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey

    Declaration of State of War and Authorization to Deploy the Armed Forces

    Article 92.

    1. The power to authorize the declaration of a state of war in cases deemed legitimate by international law and except where required by international treaties to which Turkey is a party or by the rules of international courtesy to send Turkish Armed Forces to foreign countries and to allow foreign armed forces to be stationed in Turkey, is vested in the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
    2. If the country is subjected, while the Turkish Grand National Assembly is adjourned or in recess, to sudden armed aggression and it thus becomes imperative to decide immediately on the deployment of the armed forces, the President of the Republic can decide on the mobilization of the Turkish Armed Forces.

     

    United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314: Definition of Aggression

    Aggression is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations.

     

    Charter of the United Nations

    Chapter VII: Action with respect to threats to peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression

    Article 40.

    In order to prevent an aggravation of the situation, the Security Council may, before making the recommendations or deciding upon the measures provided for in Article 39, call upon the parties concerned to comply with such provisional measures as it deems necessary or desirable. Such provisional measures shall be without prejudice to the rights, claims, or position of the parties concerned. The Security Council shall duly take account of failure to comply with such provisional measures.

     

    International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

    Article 20.

    1. Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.
    2. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

     

    Nuremberg Tribunal Charter
    The Tribunal established by the Agreement referred to Article 1 hereof for the trial and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis countries shall have the power to try and punish persons who, acting in the interests of the European Axis countries, whether as individuals or as members of organizations, committed any of the following crimes.

    The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility:

    (a) Crimes Against Peace: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing;

    (b) War Crimes: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity;

    (c)Crimes Against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

    Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan.

    Note: the above provisions were codified as legal principles by the International Law Commission of the United Nations.

     

    Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol 1) (2nd part)

    Article 50. Definition of civilians and civilian population

    1. A civilian is any person who does not belong to one of the categories of persons referred to in Article 4 A (1), (2), (3) and (6) of the Third Convention and in Article 43 of this Protocol. In case of doubt whether a person is a civilian, that person shall be considered to be a civilian.

    2. The civilian population comprises all persons who are civilians.

    3. The presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character.

     

    Article 51. Protection of the civilian population

    1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances.

    2. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.

    3. Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this Section, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.

    4. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are:

       (a) Those which are not directed at a specific military objective;

       (b) Those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective;

       (c)  Those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol; and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.

    5. Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:

    (a) An attack by bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects; and

       (b) An attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

    6. Attacks against the civilian population or civilians by way of reprisals are prohibited.

    7. The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military operations.

    8. Any violation of these prohibitions shall not release the Parties to the conflict from their legal obligations with respect to the civilian population and civilians, including the obligation to take the precautionary measures provided for in Article 57.

     

    Article 52. General protection of civilian objects

    1. Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects which are not military objectives as defined in paragraph 2.

    2. Attacks shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military of advantage.

    3. In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used.

     

    Article 57. Precautions in attack

    1. In the conduct of military operations, constant care shall be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects.

    2. With respect to attacks, the following precautions shall be taken:

    (a) Those who plan or decide upon an attack shall:

    (i) Do everything feasible to verify that the objectives to be attacked are neither civilians nor civilian objects and are not subject to special protection but are military objectives within the meaning of paragraph 2 of Article 52 and that it is not prohibited by the provisions of this Protocol to attack them;

         (ii) Take all feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods of attack with a view to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects;

     

    The Nuremberg Principles

    These principles define a crime against peace as the “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for accomplishment of any of the forgoing.”

    Mr. President, these are grievous, heavy offenses. I well realize that some, in particular the government of the United States, may consider them to have become “quaintly” obsolete. But that is not the opinion of the overwhelming majority of mankind and its nations. I have hitherto considered the Republic of Turkey to be among those nations advocating the primacy of the rule of law. Unfortunately, given the current situation, I am no longer so sure.

    Finally, I must turn to another aspect of morality, the concept of divine justice. Because of the outrageous hypocrisy of the accused parties these are the most disgusting and egregious of charges, Mr. President.

     

    CRIMES AGAINST GOD

    I accuse these Turkish ringleaders and their murderous operators, these so-called Muslims who take such great public pride in proclaiming their faith while reviling the faith of others, in particular, the Alevites, I accuse these blatant hypocrites of sinning against the word of God as revealed by his esteemed prophet, Muhammad, as proscribed by the following verses of the Holy Koran:

    Sura 4:92 that says “It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer.”

    Sura 4:93 that says “He that kills a believer by design shall burn in Hell forever. He shall incur the wrath of God, who will lay his curse upon him and prepare for him a mighty scourge.”

    Sura 5:60 that says “Shall I tell you who will receive a worse reward from God? Those whom God has cursed and with whom He has been angry, transforming them into apes and swine, and those who serve the devil. Worse is the plight of these, and they have strayed farther from the right path.”

    Sura 49:11 that says “Do not defame one another…”

    Only God can judge them. And God will do it in God’s good time. But in the meantime, while these so-called Muslims and their non-Muslim supporters, advisors, financers and protectors still live in this world so should they be compelled to adhere to the laws of this world else we all become like them, demons and monsters.

    I realize that this letter is long. But so is the list of transgressions against humanity by the current Turkish government and its enablers. I have but one passion, Mr. President, the search for light, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My protest is simply the cry of my very soul.

    With my deepest respect, Mr. President,

     

    James (Cem) Ryan, Ph.D.

    Founder, West Point Graduates Against the War

     

     

     

    PS. With apologies and thanks to Emile Zola who would surely understand.

     

    Cc.  International Criminal Court, Office of the Prosecutor, The Hague, The Netherlands

     

  • Turkey’s Kurdish Problem Morphs But Remains

    Turkey’s Kurdish Problem Morphs But Remains

    Kurds and (the Turkish) Way

    By ANDREW FINKEL

    latitude 0905 Finkel blog480

    ISTANBUL — When I first started covering Turkey in the early 1990s, my foreign colleagues and I were sometimes mocked for referring to the brewing resentment in southeastern Turkey as “the Kurdish problem.” There was no sectarian or ethnic discrimination, we were told; the problem was terrorism. The Kurdistan Workers Party, better known as the PKK, resorted to violence and extortion, which no civilized society could abide.

    How can Ankara deal with Kurds beyond its borders if it can’t manage relations with its Kurds at home?

    The major flaw in this argument was that the Turkish state also resorted to tactics unworthy of a civilized society. For years, to argue for Kurdish rights — let alone regional autonomy — or simply to write in Kurdish could mean prison; such acts were considered aiding and abetting terrorism. Kurdish political parties were shut down. Political activists were tortured. In what became Turkey’s own dirty war, thousands of people were assassinated or disappeared.

    It’s not just the Kurds who suffered. Fear of Kurdish secession has long been the canker in Turkish democracy, the justification for a raft of laws that restrict human rights and the freedom of expression. Now it is compromising Turkey’s attempt to play a greater role in its region, particularly as Syria implodes. How can Ankara deal with Kurds beyond its borders if it can’t manage relations with its Kurds at home?

    And as long as Turkey blurs the line between terrorism and legitimate protest, it will continue to alienate its Kurdish population while legitimating the men of violence.

    A Kurdish man wearing a T-shirt with the portrait of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed PKK leader, guards a checkpoint near the Syrian-Turkish border.Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA Kurdish man wearing a T-shirt with the portrait of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed PKK leader, guards a checkpoint near the Syrian-Turkish border.

    The Justice and Development Party (AKP) was aware of this challenge when it came to office in 2002. And so in early 2009, after having consolidated power, it initiated a “Kurdish opening.” It started a Kurdish-language television station and offered amnesty to young PKK militants to lure them back into civilian life.

    But that opening famously shut down in October 2009, after the PKK tried to cast as a victory parade the return of a group of its militants at the Habur border crossing with Iraq. The AKP, despite commanding a strong majority in Parliament, simply wasn’t prepared to brave nationalist sentiment and the many Turks who saw compromise as weakness. Just as in Northern Ireland, where a bloodier-than-thou faction of the IRA was shadowing the peace process, there were factions within the PKK with no intention of giving peace a chance.

    After Habur, the Turkish government abandoned the carrot and picked up the stick. It was determined to stop the spread of a campaign of civil disobedience to cities with large Kurdish populations, by way of mass arrests and pretrial detention.

    These harsh policies have brought Turkey little security, and the bloody events in Syria are now making matters worse. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has voluntarily ceded control of the Kurdish north of his country to the Democratic Union Party, a Syrian variant of the PKK. There has recently been an upsurge in PKK attacks against Turkish soldiers and police near the Iranian border, as well as a rise in acts of random terrorism — including a bomb explosion on Aug. 20 near a police station in Gaziantep that killed 10 civilians. Many suspect the bloodshed is the direct result of political games in Syria, as well as a ploy by Iran to use the PKK against the Turkish government to punish it for supporting the Syrian opposition.

    Ankara has not responded so far, but it could get sucked into the conflict by trying to enforce a buffer zone along the Syrian border. It is already trying to get the international community to establish a no-fly zone to protect the growing tide of refugees from Syria. Some of those are deserters from the Syrian Army, and there is little doubt that the Turkish government is encouraging them to re-enter the fight on the side of the rebels.

    Andrew Finkel

    All this has prompted Cemil Cicek, the speaker of Parliament and a former hardline AKP minister of justice, to call for a “national consensus” — code for re-opening the Turkish government’s Kurdish initiative and granting Kurds more power locally. This sort of plan might have worked miracles decades ago. And it might still succeed today, except that Cicek is being criticized, and by his own party.

    Instead of declaring that there is no Kurdish problem, as it did two decades ago, the Turkish government now appears to be saying there is no Kurdish solution. Does that count as progress?

    Andrew Finkel has been a foreign correspondent in Istanbul for over 20 years, as well as a columnist for Turkish-language newspapers. He is the author of the book “Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know.”

    via Turkey’s Kurdish Problem Morphs But Remains – NYTimes.com.

  • Keffiyeh Crime in Turkey

    Keffiyeh Crime in Turkey

    The Case of Cihan Kırmızıgül

    Keffiyeh Crime in Turkey

    by MICHAEL DICKINSON

    On February 20th 2010 Cihan Kırmızıgül, a junior industrial engineering student of Galatasaray University, was waiting at a bus stop in Istanbul after a visit to a college friend’s home. Suddenly he was approached by Turkish police who arrested him violently, one cracking his skull with a blow from his rifle butt, and took him away to be detained at a prison in the west of Istanbul, charged with “membership of an illegal organization” and “harming private property”. The reason for his surprise arrest was the scarf he was wearing around his neck – the traditional black and white checked Arab headdress known as the ‘keffiyeh’.

    The keffiyeh, called a ‘poshu’ or a ‘pushi’ scarf in Turkish is also common among Palestinians and the Kurds in the South of Turkey. It’s a useful garment. It keeps your neck warm in the winter and protects your head from rain and hot sunshine. It’s not such a common sight in cosmopolitan Istanbul however, and unfortunately for Cihan Kırmızıgül, just at that moment police in the area were on the lookout for anybody wearing one. Unbeknownst to Cihan, shortly before he joined the bus queue there had been an attack on an empty supermarket in the district by a group of about 50 people who threw Molotov cocktails at the building before fleeing the scene. The assailants were suspected members of the outlawed PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) and all had been wearing keffiyehs.

    Simply for sporting the same item of clothing (and also being Kurdish) Cihan was arrested on the suspicion that “he might have been part of the incident” and charged with being a ‘terrorist’. Whilst being held in prison custody a series of 8 court hearings began.

    In the second hearing a ‘secret witness’ stated that he had seen Kırmızıgül throwing a Molotov cocktail. Later on, the secret witness changed his statement and said, “Kırmızıgül was not at the scene of the incident, I have never seen him before”. However, the court decided to keep Kırmızıgül in detention.

    In the text of a petition calling for Cihan’s release fellow Galatasaray students wrote: “Kırmızıgül’s continued arrest has turned into a hefty and unjust punishment because law requires “presumption of innocence” until convincing and lawful evidence is presented in court concerning his alleged crime.”

    Finally, on the 23rd March 2012, after 25 months detention in prison, where he lost weight and was subjected to physical and psychological violence, and not allowed to continue his studies or take exams, Cihan was finally released pending trial of his case. However, after less than 2 months out of captivity, at the court hearing on May 11th he was found guilty of “committing a crime on behalf of an organization without being a member of that organization”, “throwing Molotov cocktails”, and “damaging property”. He was sentenced to 11 years 3 months of imprisonment in total. The judge decreed that “The piece of cloth called “pushi” (keffiyeh) was strong criminal evidence.”

    Suat Eren, Kırmızıgül’s attorney said after the trial: “There are hundreds of files like Cihan’s. For that reason, I believe Cihan’s case must be supported by the public, as such attacks continue unabated against defenseless people by relying on the powers of the state. I define this as terror. This constitutes attacking a defenseless person. People are not taken into custody at a moment’s notice, or live in fear of their houses being raided in a state of law. ”

    727338 detayA spokesperson from Amnesty International said: “Anti- Terror Laws have to be changed and comply with the international standards. It’s very important to implement fair trial standards at all prosecutions in Turkey. We are very concerned as Cihan is back to prison and the hearing is based on the conflicting testimony of witnesses and the keffiyeh (Puşi) he was wearing.”

    The case has come under widespread criticism, with protest demonstrations by supporters and sympathisers, and teaching staff from Galatasaray University wearing badges featuring the slogan “Don’t touch my student!” Famous Turkish singer Aysegul Erce has written and performed a song about the case, dedicated to Cihan Kırmızıgül – “For Justice. For Freedom..” Exactly.

    Michael Dickinson lives in Istanbul. He can be contacted via his website – https://yabanji.tripod.com/

    via Keffiyeh Crime in Turkey » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

  • ‘U.S. drone targeted civilians in Turkey’

    ‘U.S. drone targeted civilians in Turkey’

    A U.S. Predator drone had reportedly fired the first bomb in an airstrike that killed 35 Kurdish civilians in southeastern Turkey last month.

    c 330 235 16777215 0 images stories jan02 09 03 turkey1In its main headline on Sunday, Turkish Aydinlik newspaper quoted “credible sources” as saying that the US drone had launched the airstrike by targeting the victims.

    The report added that Turkey’s F-16 fighter jets had arrived at the scene between 16 to 18 minutes later.

    In December, Turkey said that its warplanes mistakenly targeted Kurdish smugglers, thought to be members of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group, in the village of Ortasu in the southeastern province of Sirnak close to the border with Iraq.

    According to the report, the U.S. drones that have been stationed in Incirlik Airbase in southern Turkey are completely directed by US personnel in Nevada and Turkish Armed Forces have no control over them.

    The U.S. delivered four Predator drones to Turkey last year, as part of Washington’s gesture of support to the Turkish fight against PKK terrorists.

    More than 45,000 people have lost their lives since the PKK launched an armed campaign against Ankara in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast in 1984.

    (Source: Press TV)

  • Conference in Munich Highlighted Assyrian Human Rights Issues

    Conference in Munich Highlighted Assyrian Human Rights Issues

    Munich (AINA) — On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of signing an agreement between Germany and Turkey to recruit migrant workers from Turkey (German: Anwerbeabkommen), official celebrations were held across Germany. State representatives of Germany and Turkey met in Berlin, while celebrations were held in various cities in late October through November. However, most of those events did not properly reflect the ethnical and religious mosaic of Turkey. Most politicians and the mainstream media continue to talk about “Turkish workers” that came to Germany as ‘Gastarbeiter’ (guest worker), ignoring the fact that among the migrants also many Kurds, Assyrians (Turkish: Süryani), Armenians and Alevis arrived in Germany to work and live with their families.

    munichconf

    During December 15-18, Kurdish Mesopotamia Association organized an anniversary event on this same occasion with a rich program that included three political panels, an exhibition and a musical event. This was done in cooperation with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party in Munich along with the city’s cultural board.

    The political panels were held on Friday, December 16th in Munich’s old City Hall with more than 300 people attending, including Kurds, Assyrians, Alevis and Germans.

    The first panel focused solely on the situation of the Assyrians in Turkey. Panel speakers were Erol Dora, the Assyrian member of Turkish Parliament, attorney and member of the Peace & Democracy Party (BDP) together with the former chairman of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) and lawyer Yusuf Alatas, while moderation was done by Haydar Isik, a Kurdish writer.

    The second panel discussed the situation of the Kurds in Munich while the third panel focused on the political conditions of the Kurds in Turkey; the latter highlighted BPD member Leyla Zana, also member of Turkish Parliament, as well as attorney Yusuf Alatas.

    The panels were opened by a short speech of Munich’s mayor Hep Monatzeder who said that based on the agreement signed between Turkey and Germany “people from all ethnic groups came to Germany to work and live here. Among the people who came to Germany were Assyrians and Kurds that were in Turkey even not [officially] recognized to exist”.

    After an opening message by Haydar Isik, who moderated the first panel, Erol Dora gave a short historical outline on the Assyrians in Middle East as indigenous people, briefly touching their current political and social situation in Iraq, Syria and Iran.

    With respect to Turkey, Dora focused on the legal status of the Assyrians in the Turkish Republic in the framework of the Treaty of Lausanne (of 1923), underlining that Assyrians lacked recognition as a ‘non-Muslim minority’, whereas Greeks, Armenians, and Jews received certain religious and cultural rights; still all of them have been discriminated. Dora further touched on the background of the mass migration of Assyrians from Turkey to Europe since the 1970s, hinting that currently more than 80,000 of Assyrians from Turkey and other Middle-East countries live in Germany.

    Lawyer Yusuf Alatas characterized the situation of the Christians and specifically that of the Assyrians as a “bleeding wound” and stressed that they “are among the oppressed people in Turkey”. But compared to others, “they are oppressed religiously, too”, he said. He stressed that, “as long as the Kurdish question in Turkey is not solved”, issues related to democratization will not be resolved in a satisfying manner. Alatas pointed out that, despite Turkey’s constitutional commitment to equal rights for all citizens, Assyrians “have not even been regarded as citizens”. Despite being one of the oldest people in the region, they have actually been “regarded as aliens”. According to Turkey’s constitutional court, all people are equal, but obviously some are not!

    Alatas as well briefly addressed the legal status of the ‘acknowledged’ minorities in context of the Lausanne Treaty and pointed out the school situation and the supposed educational freedom they enjoy: each of the minority schools has to accept a deputy director of Turkish origin while the children have to start class lectures every morning with nationalistic Turkish songs praising Atatürk, like “Türküm dogruyum ….Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!” (“I am a Turk, honest and hardworking… How happy is the one who says I am a Turk!”).1

    Alatas concluded his initial statements by calling the Turkish school textbooks, where Assyrians are depicted as collaborators and indicted of treason, a scandal and also criticized the continuing legal siege of Mar Gabriel Monastery.

    Early in the same week (see hristiayangazete.com), Dora organised a press conference at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, criticizing the textbooks published by the Turkish Education Ministry as abusive to Assyrians and Armenians. Dora also met with the Education Minister Ömer Dinçer on December 15, 2011 to discuss the problem; according to a statement by Dora, the Minister expressed his discomfort with the textbooks and that they “were printed in 2009, which is earlier than he took office.” The Minister promised to act immediately on removing the insulting statements. Dora is convinced that the Minister will do his duty to make sure that the children and youth will not grow up in a world full of prejudice.

    By Abdulmesih BarAbraham

    1Türküm, doğruyum, çalışkanım. İlkem, küçüklerimi korumak, büyüklerimi saymak, yurdumu, milletimi, özümden çok sevmektir. Ülküm, yükselmek, ileri gitmektir. Ey büyük Atatürk! Açtığın yolda, gösterdiğin hedefe durmadan yürüyeceğime ant içerim. Varlığım Türk varlığına armağan olsun. Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!

    English: I am a Turk, honest and hardworking. My principle is to protect the younger to respect the elder, to love my homeland and my nation more than myself. My ideal is to rise, to progress. Oh Great Atatürk ! On the path that you have paved, I swear to walk incessantly toward the aims that you have set. My existence shall be dedicated to the Turkish existence. How happy is the one who says “I am a Turk!”

  • Turkey: the ‘progressive’ land of repression

    Turkey: the ‘progressive’ land of repression

    Turkey claims to be a successful democracy, but for thousands of political protesters, it is anything but

    Ayca Çubukçu
    guardian.co.uk

    Riot police and Kurdish d 007

    Riot police and Kurdish demonstrators.

    Turkish riot police clash with Kurdish demonstrators in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, December 2009. Photograph: Ibrahim Yakut/EPA

    There is a growing disjuncture between those who promote modern-day Turkey as a democracy and those who experience Turkey as a land of arbitrary detentions, political repression and military destruction.

    In the past two years, the Turkish state has imprisoned thousands of its citizens under the sweeping rubric of counter-terrorism operations. The recent wave of arbitrary detentions known as the KCK operations has cast such a wide net that participation in a single protest or petition could constitute evidence of an intention to commit terrorism – if not directly, then certainly by association.

    Today, even relatively privileged academic colleagues in Turkey face the prospect of sharing the fate of Professor Büşra Ersanlı of Marmara University, whose detention in October 2011 as an alleged terrorist was proudly defended by the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development party (AKP).

    Professor Ersanlı’s imprisonment has received considerable attention in Turkey and beyond, prompting petitions, protests, and academic initiatives by her colleagues and others concerned with the deteriorating prospects of democratic politics in Turkey. Organisations such as Human Rights Watch have issued statements condemning Ersanlı’s arrest as “part of a crackdown on people engaged in legal political activity with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy party”.

    A political scientist by training, Professor Ersanlı is one among thousands of Peace and Democracy party (BDP) members – including elected parliamentarians, mayors, students and intellectuals – who have been imprisoned on account of their activism in support of the rights of Kurdish citizens in Turkey.

    Some “progressive” commentators insist that Turkey, compared to many other states, at least in the Middle East, is an example of a successful democracy. Just observe, they suggest, the booming economy in the midst of a global recession, the popular wedding of “moderate Islam” and “secular” parliamentary politics and the emergence of an independent Turkish foreign policy critical of Israel and supportive of democratic forces in the Arab spring.

    But is this the most that the peoples of Turkey, the Middle East and the world could hope for? Why should contemporary Turkey constitute the limit of our political imagination? Why should a state that parades its “development” through drones it purchases from the US, a state that imprisons professors, journalists, translators, lawyers, workers, and students and treats as terrorists the members of a political party representing millions of citizens – why should such a state be one to promote or follow?

    Last summer, at a cafe near Istanbul’s Taksim Square, I met a dear friend, Ayşe Berktay, a renowned translator, researcher and global peace and justice activist. Having not seen each other for months, we chatted as usual for a few hours about our families, lives and politics.

    I am not sure when, if ever, Ayşe and I will meet at a cafe again. She is now imprisoned for an unknown period of time.

    My colleague Professor Büşra Ersanlı and dear friend Ayşe Berktay are only two women among many other members and supporters of the BDP who were imprisoned as suspected terrorists in October. Another wave of arbitrary detentions followed in November, and yet others will certainly come. Whether one chooses to call them “ordinary citizens” or “activists”, increasingly, politically engaged people in Turkey are expecting that strangely familiar, five o’clock in the morning knock on their doors.

    This is only one reason why the widening gap between those who promote contemporary Turkey as an example to be followed by the democratic forces of the Arab spring, and those who experience the Republic of Turkey as a threatening agent of political repression, is increasingly troublesome.

    At this historical moment, when daring political energies and creative imaginations are at work worldwide – from Tahrir to Taksim Square, from Damascus to Diyarbakir – we can demand much more than the example officially offered by Turkey. To do otherwise would risk betraying not only the future of democratic politics in Turkey and beyond, but all those who have already paid dearly for that future through the imprisonments, deaths, wounds and disappearances they have endured, even welcomed, during long periods of military rule and parliamentary politics alike.

    via Turkey: the ‘progressive’ land of repression | Ayça Çubukçu | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.