Tag: PKK

A Fired News Anchor Strikes Back

For the last few years, dark-haired news anchor Banu Guven was one of the main and most popular faces of Turkish news network NTV. This summer, soon after Turkey’s June 12 parliamentary election, Guven was unexpectedly fired. The network has said little about why she was let go, but Guven claims it was because her bosses were worried that the airtime she wanted to give Kurdish activists and politicians in the run-up to the election might anger the government of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). According to Guven, her request to interview Leyla Zana, a popular candidate (and now MP) with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), was shot down. Meanwhile, another pre-election show she did with well-known Kurdish novelist and activist Vedat Turkeli, in which her guest praised the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and threw his support behind the BDP, has since been removed from NTV’s online archives and appears to have further angered her bosses.

Guven has now issued an open letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing his government of fostering an environment that has forced media outlets to practice self-censorship if they want to stay alive. This accusation has been put forth before, mostly by members of Turkey’s more secularist news organizations, but Guven is probably the most high-profile media figure to make the claim.

The government might not be the only one to blame in this. Turkey’s media landscape is increasingly becoming dominated by large conglomerates that also have various other business interests, from roadbuilding to textiles, which they do not want to jeopardize by crossing Ankara. The Council of Europe’s Commissioner of Human Rights, who recently visited Turkey and issued a report about press freedom, raises this as one of the “worrying” trends he saw in the country. Today’s Zaman columnist Yavuz Baydar also tackles the question of how the interaction between business and politics is shaping news coverage in Turkey.

via Turkey: A Fired News Anchor Strikes Back | EurasiaNet.org.

July 15, 2011
PKK mass grave found in Turkey

A Kurdish satellite channel alleges the discovery of a mass grave in southeastern Turkey, which holds the remains of former members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

There are two women among the 12 bodies found at the site located in a village in the city of Diyarbakir, Newroz TV reported on Friday.

It claimed that they had been killed by the Turkish military in 1993.

PKK, which is known as a terrorist group by much of the international community, has been fighting Ankara since 1984 for an independent state in the southeastern Turkey.

The channel — which is linked to the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), a PKK offshoot — accused the military of trampling on humanistic standards in its battle against the Kurds by leaving behind ‘hundreds’ of such graves.

Those killed allegedly did not have any weapons as they had just joined the ranks of the separatists.

HN/HGH/MMN

via PressTV – PKK mass grave found in Turkey: Report.

June 27, 2011
Worry over PKK, Kurds shape Turkey’s Syria policy

By Aaron Stein for Southeast European Times in Istanbul – 22/06/11

The potential for unrest in Syria’s Kurdish populated areas sparks concern. [Reuters]

”]Ankara’s partnership with Damascus is crumbling in the wake of Syria’s uprising and brutal government crackdown. Since events spiraled out of control, one of the major looming issues for Turkish security planners is how the chaos, and the threat of Syrian collapse, will impact Turkey’s domestic Kurdish problem and the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Syria’s normally restive Kurdish population in the northeast of the country, contiguous to the Kurdish populated regions of Turkey and Iraq, have so far not been the centre of anti-regime protests and regime crackdowns. However, the prospect of a harsh military response in Kurdish populated areas, similar to those occurring in the Arab populated northwestern Syria, and the resultant refugee flows to Turkey’s border, have Turkish policy makers worried.

There is also a fear that, “if Syria were to destabilise further, the PKK could find a new safe haven in Syria or amongst the Syrian Kurds, similar to the situation in northern Iraq,” Saban Kardas, assistant professor of international relations at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, told SETimes.

The threat posed by Kurdish nationalism and separatist violence has underpinned Turkey’s relationship with Syria since the mid-1980s. Up until 1998, the relationship was marred by Syria’s harbouring of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

After agreeing to kick out the PKK leader in 1998 and Ocalan’s subsequent capture, relations between the two countries improved dramatically. In the wake of the war in Iraq in 2003, Syria and Turkey bolstered security ties in order to contain the perceived threat of growing Kurdish nationalism.

Turkey invested a lot in cultivating its relationship with Syria, often resisting calls by the United States to isolate the regime for its ties to Iran, meddling in Lebanon and Iraq, and its support for Hamas.

Warming relations with Syria was seen as “the best example of Turkey’s changing foreign policy”, said Kardas, adding that “It was the cornerstone of Turkey’s Middle East policy.”

Maintaining regional stability is Turkey’s primary foreign policy priority. Wary of upsetting the status quo, Ankara has rejected rapid regime change in favour of an “evolutionary style, which would transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one through slow, structural and peaceful changes”, Nuh Yilmaz, director of the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) in Washington told SETimes.

At the outset of the al-Assad regime’s bloody crackdown, Turkey reacted cautiously but “the refugee crisis has forced Prime Minister Erdogan’s hand politically,” William Hale, SOAS Emeritus professor told SETimes. “He [Erdogan] could not go on sitting on the fence saying that his good friend [al-Assad] would somehow turn Syria into a democratic government.”

Since the outbreak of hostilities, over 10,000 Arab refugees have fled Syria for Turkey, drawing comparisons to the flood of Kurdish refugees that escaped Saddam Hussein’s brutal crackdown in 1991. Turkey and allied forces responded by establishing a safe zone on the Iraqi side of the border with Turkey to protect refugees and provide humanitarian relief — which was later expanded into a protectorate over the Iraqi Kurds in the form of a no-fly zone. Amidst the chaos, the PKK was able to consolidate its positions in northern Iraq and launch cross border raids in Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Turkish press has reported that the Turkish military has developed plans to create a buffer zone in northern Syria in the event of regime collapse, sectarian violence, and mass refugee flows to Turkey.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.

via Worry over PKK, Kurds shape Turkey’s Syria policy (SETimes.com).

June 23, 2011
France, Turkey and PKK: Democracies vs. Terrorism

Maxime Gauin, JTW

France was for years one of the less cooperative countries in the fight against the terrorist group called “Kurdistan’s Worker Party” (PKK), like Germany and unlike UK or Sweden. The PKK benefited from both the romantic image of “freedom fighters” (despite the numerous slaughters of unarmed civilians) and the distorted, one-sided, image of Turkey as a cruelly repressive State. It was not until 1993 that the PKK was really banned in France, and despite this interdiction, the cooperation was more than limited during rest of the 1990s.

But this time is over. Especially since 2006-2007, several investigations launched in the Paris tribunal led to the arrest of dozens of PKK’s members. Eleven were sentenced in 2009 for arsons which fortunately neither killed nor wounded anybody, conspiracy and fundraising for terrorist activities. During the trial, the prosecutor said “The PKK is indeed a terrorist organization” and “the perpetrators knew perfectly that they acted in conformity with the goals of the PKK”. The tribunal pronounced sentences longer than those asked by the prosecutor; for instance, 5 years in jail and (after the future release) a definitive deportation from French soil. It was apparently for the first time that PKK’s members were sentenced in France for terrorist activities; the precedent sentences were pronounced for ordinary criminal acts.

Several reasons can explain this change. Since the end of the 1990s, the Turkish governments have improved the situation of the human rights and of the economic development in eastern Anatolia, in the context of Turkish candidacy for European Union; and the voice of Turkey became gradually more laud. Since 2001, the international cooperation against terrorism has improved for obvious reasons. In 2005, Thierry Fragnoli was named investigative magistrate in the counter-terrorist section of the Paris tribunal, and he took in charge following the files of the PKK and of the DHKP-C. A strongly independent and careful magistrate, Mr. Fragnoli is less than impressed by the common prejudices on Turkey and PKK. In 2006-2007, the PKK attributed the great mistake to the attack organized against peaceful merchants of Turkish origin, in France and other countries. It became much harder to present the PKK as “freedom fighters against the oppressive Turkish State”. Kurdish merchants blackmailed and racketed by the PKK have eventually the courage to file complaints since 2007, in Marseille, Nice and other cities. Eventually, in 2008, the US and Iraqi governments accepted to reinforce seriously the coordinated fight against the PKK. The French government followed.

In the last few years, Thierry Fragnoli and the policemen of the Sous-direction antierroriste de la police nationale (SDAT, sub-directorate of counter-terrorism of national police) acquired a deep knowledge of the PKK networks in France and Western Europe. Since January 2010, about seventy persons have been arrested for participation to PKK activities, including eighteen since January 2011. Several dozens of them are now in preventive jail. Especially the networks of fundraising and the training camps are targeted by racket. Taking profit of the French experience in counter-terrorist cooperation (especially since the Franco-Spanish agreement of 1984 against ETA), the investigators act in collaboration with the services of other countries, especially Italy. In February 2010, eleven people were arrested in Marseille, Grenoble and Montpellier; and at the same time seventy others (including seven French citizens) were arrested by the Italian police in Pisa.

The decline of political sympathy for the PKK in France is rather obvious. The comments of “La Provence” (Marseille), hardly a pro-Turkish newspaper, are now relatively objective about the PKK. On June 4 of this year, five other people were arrested in Arnouville and Évry (Parisian suburb), including the suspected treasurer of the PKK in Western Europe (indicted since 2007 and already arrested sometime in 2008 for non-respect of the judicial control) and two other “important leaders of the PKK” according to the ministry of Internal Affairs. The arrests were motivated by a complaint about racket. PKK sympathizers attacked the police; the intervention of an anti-riot was needed to disperse them. Several people were wounded, cars were damaged and dustbins burned. The spokesman of the ministry of Internal Affairs explained that the incidents happened because some people wanted to prevent the arrests in some way.

But only the declining French Communist Party (PCF) and the even more declining Coordination Council of France’s Armenian Associations (CCAF) wrote a communiqué supporting the arrested persons(people). The CCAF’s text was written by his national co-chairman Jean-Marc “Ara” Toranian, who was a spokesman of ASALA from 1976 to 1983. By that time, Mr. Toranian had expressed a great sympathy for the PKK. He did not change. French democracy did.

Monday, 6 June 2011

Maxime Gauin (JTW)

via France, Turkey and PKK: Democracies vs. Terrorism, 6 June 2011 Monday 19:35.

June 15, 2011
PKK leader threatens Turkey with ‘great war’

Kurdish separatists claim attack which left policeman dead as jailed leader issues ultimatum ahead of Turkish elections.

”]A masked demonstrator poses with a banner for the outlawed PKK during protests in Istanbul in April [Reuters]

Kurdish separatists have claimed responsibility for an ambush on a police convoy in northern Turkey, and warned the country’s government it faces a “great war” if it fails to enter “meaningful negotiations” after next month’s elections.

Wednesday’s attack in the northern province of Kastamonu left one policeman dead and another wounded.

“A retaliation attack was carried out by our militants on a police car that was part of a convoy…the attack only targeted police. It is not an attack on civilians or the prime minister,” said a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) statement on the Firat news agency website.

The group’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan told Firat that “all hell would break loose” unless Ankara opened talks with Kurdish groups within six weeks, and within days of the country’s June 12 parliamentary elections.

“June 15 is the deadline. Either a meaningful negotiation process will begin after June 15 or a great war will start and all hell will break loose,” Ocalan said via his lawyers, Firat reported.

Earlier on Friday Turkish police arrested up to eight people over Wednesday’s ambush in which gunmen opened fire on a police car escorting a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) campaign bus from an election rally by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Edrogan in Kastamonu.

Erdogan had left the rally by helicopter before the attack occured. TRT news said eight people had been detained during police raids in Ankara, suspected of planning another attack.

Speaking to reporters after visiting the wounded officer on Friday, Erdogan said the attack bore the hallmarks of the PKK and accused the group of targeting his party, which is expected to win a third consecutive term in next month’s vote.

“We knew that the separatist terrorist organisation would use these undemocratic methods ahead of the elections,” he said.

The PKK ended a six-month ceasefire in February and there have been fears of rising violence before the election.

“This attack is a message to the AKP to withdraw its police who suppress Kurdish people. As all know, the police have carried out very harsh interventions on Kurdish people recently,” the PKK statement said.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in a separatist conflict in southeastern Turkey since the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984.

PKK operations are generally focused on the mainly Kurdish southeast, but there had been prior warning of possible attacks in the Black Sea region.

via PKK leader threatens Turkey with ‘great war’ – Europe – Al Jazeera English.

May 7, 2011
Europol report shows how PKK funds terrorist activities in EU

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is involved in activities such as drug smuggling, trafficking in human beings and money laundering in European Union states, according to a report released by the EU’s police agency, Europol.

“Information obtained from EU Member States shows, for instance, that both the PKK/Kongra-Gel are actively involved in drugs and human trafficking, the facilitation of illegal immigration, credit card skimming, money laundering and fraud for the purpose of funding terrorist (support) operations,” Europol said in its 2011 EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report.

Turkey has repeatedly criticized EU countries for not effectively fighting the PKK and its umbrella organization, Kongra-Gel, particularly by not prohibiting its fund raising and propaganda activities.PKK/Kongra-Gel has been on the EU’s list of terrorist organizations.

“The PKK/Kongra-Gel … also collects money from their members, using labels like ‘donations’ and ‘membership fees,’ but are in fact extortion and illegal taxation. In addition to organized extortion campaigns, there are indications that the PKK/Kongra-Gel are actively involved in money laundering, illicit drugs and human trafficking, as well as illegal immigration inside and outside the EU,” the report said. “In March 2010, a simultaneous and joint operation against the PKK/Kongra-Gel was carried out in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Turkey. Investigations into the PKK/Kongra-Gel were also conducted in Italy, Romania and Slovakia. These investigations into PKK/Kongra-Gel activities were linked to recruitment, financing, logistical support, propaganda and training camps.”

The report also mentioned propaganda activities and said Roj TV, a Europe-based television station which Turkey says is a mouthpiece for the PKK, is used by the group in such activities.

“Separatist groups use international propaganda and their own media (TV and radio stations). Member states report that separatist organizations, such as the [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] LTTE, ETA and the PKK/Kongra-Gel, spread their ideas at cultural gatherings, during demonstrations and sporting events, and through television channels, such as the Tamil Television Network and Roj TV,” said the report.

The report also said the PKK was pursuing a “double strategy” of resorting to violence in Turkey, while seeking legitimacy abroad. It said: “The announcement, in June 2010, of the PKK/Kongra-Gel intention to enter a more violent period of its history was immediately followed by the declaration of a ceasefire which was, in turn, belied by the bomb attack in İstanbul in October 2010. No execution of attacks in the EU show the PKK/Kongra-Gel’s double strategy of armed struggle in Turkey while at the same time seeking to gain a greater degree of legitimacy abroad.”

The report said the PKK was likely to pursue this double strategy. It also noted that the terrorism threat posed by the group to EU states can currently be considered as “relatively low.”

“However the large number of PKK/Kongra-Gel militants living in the EU and the continuing support activities in the EU, like large demonstrations organized in the past, show that the PKK/Kongra-Gel is in a position to mobilize its constituency at any time and is an indication that it maintains the capability to execute attacks in the EU,” it added.

TR Defence

May 5, 2011