Jail Sentences for Kurdish Children

In Adana, Turkey, on April 27 2009, thirteen children were sentenced to a total of 112 years 10 days. They were found guilty of "committing crime in the name of an organization" which means taking part in a demonstration; "performing organization's propaganda" which means shouting some supportive slogans, "resisting to an officer", which simply means you resist to let one of those thugs smash your skull with butt of his weapon, shoot you with a gas canister or run you over with an armored vehicle. Again in Adana, on April 28 2009, eleven children were sentenced to a total of 84 years 6 months. So, in two days twenty-four children were sentenced to a total of 196 years, 6 months, and 10 days. Eight of the 24 children are 15-years old or below. Four of them are 15, two are 14, and two are 13 years old.

Turkey's democracy is pretty advanced about handing jail sentences to children, is it not?

Enough with killing Kurdish children!

In Wan (Van) an armored police vehicle hit a seven year old Kurdish girl. The girl, named Maziye Aslan, died at the scene. Maybe one day people who are not Kurdish will understand that the song Mihemedo is there for a reason...

Below is translation of the article by Hasan Bildirici published in Kurdistan Post on 26 April 2009 in response to the recent brutality of special forces who caused death of a child and smashed skull of another child with butt of a rifle (check the posts at Zerkesorg or Hevallo for details):

We don't expect justice from you; we are just warning you:

Don't hit our children! We want to remind you that hitting children is a sick behaviour.

It's not your women who gave birth to the children of Kurdistan, a country you have invaded; you haven't fed those children. You didn't caress their head in sickness and hunger.

Your crap-faced officers have melted those kids' fathers in acid wells; dragged mother and grandmothers of those children at the gates of Diyarbakir [Amed] prisons, just because a word in Kurdish slipped out of their lips...

All those bravery tales you tell your women and children are lies. It's true that you try your bravery on our women, who throw their scarfs aside and march on the streets and our dark-eyed children who circle around your vehicles...

Don't hit our children. This isn't a plea. This is an order from the people of Kurdistan: don't hit our children!

We are among those who know it well what it means to stay helpless in front of Turkish racist barrels. There are countless heroes of Kurdistan who showed one wouldn't beg for mercy from those Turkish racist barrels and die with dignity.

Friends of a generation which has raptured death's artery don't beg children murderers. They will order, don't hit our children!

Don't lay a finger on our pretty-eyed children lining up next to the walls of run-down houses you have collapsed on them. We will not trade your whole kingdom, your race borders, F16's, tanks, artillery and crap-faced flock of murderers' infection-fed salaries to one drop of tear from the eyes of those children who grew up with memories of your murderous nights.

Don't hit our children who are orphans of Kurdistan.

If one day, one of your children has a slap from an adult Kurd because of being Turkish, let our hands break as a nation. Even if it's just for this, don't hit our children...

If one day, a civilian or soldier, just because he is Turkish, is shot by a Kurd, let those bullets hit our hearts as a nation [of Kurds].

Even if it's just for this, don't hit Kurdish children.

Carry on the war with dignity, comply with one percent of bravery stories you tell your women and children and don't touch Kurdish children.

If one day, harm comes [by a Kurd] to one line of hair of one of your women because she is Turkish, let her hair be the rope around our neck [for hanging].

Even if it's just for this, don't hit Kurdish children.

If you continue hitting our children, we will say that not breaking your children-murdering hands is to be an accessory in your crime...

This is an order from Kurdistan you made into a field of death:

Don't hit the orphans of Kurdistan.

Carry on the war, honestly, with those at war.

Try this only once...

Hasan Bildirici
Kurdistan-Post, 26 April 2009

The original, in Turkish, can be read here.

Ill Treatment of Children (of Sun) in Turkey

Children are beloved beings and should be treated as such. As their name indicates, they are children, future adults in the making. Most cultures and governments have implemented this simple and universal truth into their laws. You shall not apply the punishment you used for adults to children. It doesn't work. One "advanced democracy" has been practicing the complete opposite of this universal truth. It has been harsh to its child citizens who are Kurdish. Yes, children Zarokên Roj are persecuted in Turkey. We are talking about a democracy in which children are detained because:

"they had had been sweating or were breathing fast, and this had made them suspicious."

[...]

"In our country, a police officer killing a civilian by kicking him and a murderer bombing a McDonald's are released after six years, but children throwing stones are handed 38-year prison sentences. Children will spend their lives in prison for throwing stones, but people who kill others or murderers who throw bombs get away will light punishments and re-enter society."

Full story.

Just a few days ago, a child died because he fell into the river while running away from the police. This child was running so he wouldn't get beaten mercilessly. Another child, who was caught by the police was beaten severely by stock of a rifle. His skull is fractured. The child may die. You can read more on this particular event here and if you choose so, you can watch the video posted. I need to warn you that the video is graphic.

On 22 April 2009, four children were each sentenced to 6 years 11 months in prison. Their crime was to participate in a demonstration organized by the Democratic Society Party (DTP). The court decided these children Zarokên Roj were guilty of "opposing the police" and "acted against the demonstration's law" DTP is effectively the only party that represents Kurds in Turkey and demands Kurds' basic rights. Full story here.

Two children Zarokên Roj performing folk dance in Lice, Amed (Diyarbakir) allegedly carried a portrait of Ocalan. Each child received 6 months 20 days prison sentence. (news on 6 March 2009)

These were all recent events. Just to show you that these practices are not new, I will present two other random examples. The first one is from 2006:

After the funerals in Diyarbakir on 28 March [2006] of four members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who had been killed by the security forces, demonstrations escalated into violent protests during which demonstrators threw stones and Molotov cocktails, and damaged property. Four individuals were shot dead by the security forces. In subsequent days, during further violent demonstrations in Diyarbakir and other towns in the region including Batman, Kiziltepe, Siirt and Nusaybin, the number of civilians killed rose to 13, at least four of them children. According to the available autopsy reports most of them died as a result of gunshot wounds. Many demonstrators and law enforcement officials were injured. On 2 April, in Istanbul, three women were crushed to death by a bus which was set alight following a Molotov cocktail attack allegedly perpetrated by demonstrators. During these incidents, hundreds of demonstrators, including children, were detained. The majority of detainees in Diyarbakir alleged that they were subjected to ill-treatment on apprehension, and torture or other ill-treatment once in custody.

The last one is from 2001.

Twenty-eight children aged from 9 to 18 were arrested on 9 January, accused of chanting slogans for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). They were allegedly beaten and ill-treated, and detained in cruel, inhuman or degrading conditions. Six of them, aged 14 to 16, remain in an adult prison.

And it goes on...

Do you get the point? Zaroken Roj need to free their children, their future!

Kurds Invented Wine???

I couldn't pass this up. It seems Kurdistan was where first wine was made!
From the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology

A major step forward in our understanding of Neolithic winemaking came from the analysis of a yellowish residue inside a jar excavated by Mary M. Voigt at the site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in the northern Zagros Mountains of Iran.

Well, guess whose home are we talking about? The big bad Kurds! ;-) Read on:

The jar, with a volume of about 9 liters (2.5 gallons) was found together with five similar jars embedded in the earthen floor along one wall of a "kitchen" of a Neolithic mudbrick building, dated to ca. 5400-5000 B.C. The structure, consisting of a large living room that may have doubled as a bedroom, the "kitchen," and two storage rooms, might have accommodated an extended family. That the room in which the jars were found functioned as a kitchen was supported by the finding of numerous pottery vessels, which were probably used to prepare and cook foods, together with a fireplace.

You can read about this on Vintage Direct too. Let's hope the French won't be too upset!

DTP are Children of the Sun!

They are children of the sun

They won't give into oppression

No... They won't


No, they won't

They won't...

Won't happen

...


Zaroken roj will never give in!!!




Bijî DTP!

HERE WE ARE!

We, the Kurds, are the children of the sun. We are here. We have been here for over four thousand years and we shall be here.

No matter how brutal and denying the oppressors, how cheap the jash and korucu; we shall remain here; defiant, causing nightmares for the oppressors. Our flame will warm the hearts of our friends and burn the enemies of our people. We are people of fire.