Showing Kurds what can happen to them

Turkish security forces used anti-tank mines to kill a minibus full of civilians, including women and children. Nine people died. Four people, one of them a baby is seriously injured. This event was much different than Guclukonak incident because it was designed to send a message to the public about what can happen to them if they don't act the way Turkey expects them. The minibus exploded 2 Kms from the village of Geçitli (Peyanis) of Hakkari (Colemerg) where the recent referendum was boycotted. The village used to be korucu (para military forces used by the military for operations against the PKK) but they laid down their arms and didn't want to fight the PKK. The Turkish military has been pressuring the village into taking up arms and against the PKK. Two Turkish Military backpacks filled with explosives, TSK manuals, a mortar shell (made by MKE -TSK armament supplier-) made into a road side bomb, can food (tuna fish, chocolate, coke -the food the TSK special forces possess-). The explosion, of course, occurred under the nose of a military garrison full of latest military hardware including Cobra helicopters and commandos.

Prime minister Erdogan and President Gul implied that PKK was responsible although the PKK denied involvement immediately. These two state men failed to explain all the military gear left behind by the TSK thugs. They failed to explain one more very, very important point. Whenever there is a PKK activity, there is immediately an operation with Cobras, Herons, F16s, and thousands of soldiers. There was nothing this time.

Any sensible state would have immediately traced the serial numbers of the explosives and the mortar shell recovered. Why hasn't Turkey done that yet?

Can it be that Erdogan and Gul are trying to avoid retaliatory remarks from their Israeli counterparts?

Can Kurds trust the Turkish State?

Setting the feelings aside and speaking of experience, the answer is no. Turkish state has always promised something to Kurds and always changed its mind about the promises made. This goes back to the start of the republic. The latest example is the peace groups who came from Qandil Mountain and Maxmur Refugee Camp in South Kurdistan. They arrived in October 2009 with promises from the state and the government. They were tried on 17 June 2010 and arrested. ANF has the story.

Where are those who kept talking "this time it will be different" and "the Kurds must trust the state and the government this time"? Well???

ECHR Convicted Turkey of Extrajudicial Killings

Well, well, what do we know? The "model for democracy in the region" has earned another star on it's shoulder. It's been convicted again by the ECHR. Here is an excerpt from bianet:

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) convicted Turkey of violating article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights on "the Right to Life".

The operation subject the ECHR's decision was carried out in Adana on 18 October 1999 upon an unsigned notification that had been submitted to the Adana Police. In the notification it was claimed that a certain private home was a cell of the militant leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C).

22-year-old Erdiç Arslan, who was in the house during the raid, and 32-year-old Murat Bektaş, who lived next door, were killed by the police in the course of the operation.

According to the ECHR, the official detention and seizure report prepared subsequent to the raid was signed by 40 police officers, trials were filed against six police officers on the grounds of "killing people".

Germany can be proud of herself for the monster she created.

1,144 Kurdish Politicians were Arrested in 2009

This post makes use of data appeared in Özgür Gündem which used the data from the Diyarbakır (Amed) branch of the İHD's report on the arrests in Kurdistan. In 2009, a total of 1444 Kurdish politicians were arrested. I went ahead and tabulated the data so we can do some analysis.

Month	Detained	Arrested
January-March	1118	302
April	539	265
May	184	67
June	362	129
July	66	18
August	110	34
September	182	35
October	358	90
November	190	13
December	1366	491
Apr-Dec Total	3357	1142
Grand Total	4475	1444

Let's state some facts now so we can examine the data and draw some meaningful conclusions.

It is usually a trend to have a high number Kurds getting arrested during every February and March. This is because February is the month Mr. Öcalan was kidnapped and brought to Turkey and March is the month Kurds remember Halabca Massacre. 21st of March is Newroz and the reaction of Turkish security forces to Kurds have been violent and oppressive. Countless videos on YouTube shows police beating up defenseless kids and women during Newroz celebrations. So, since we established that the January-March quarter seems to be fitting the old trend and can be considered "normal" by the thugs of the fascist regime. The experience also suggests that after Newroz things usually "calm" down and the arrests/detainments usually slow down until the next cycle. Well, obviously 2009 was different.

What was so different about April-December, the three remaining quarters of 2009? 3357 Kurds active in politics were detained and 1142 of them were arrested in this 9-months period. Well, the Kurdish party Democratic Society Party (DTP) won a major victory in local elections in Kurdistan and the local elections were held on March 29, 2009. Of course, it took sometime for the official results to be announced. Despite all the state (including military and police) support the AK Party had in the region, including giving away washing machines and food in combination with advice from security and state officers about for whom the Kurds should vote, sprinkled with Kurdish votes being stolen and burned here and there, DTP accomplished a major victory in Kurdistan. AKP and the Generals were furious. One of AK Party's major figures, Chicken Little Çiçek, has basically said that "They [Kurds] are now at the gates of Armenia and we have to assess this situation very carefully and act accordingly". This statement was in effect the same with what the Generals said: "We are assessing the outcome of local elections carefully".

So the arrests of Kurdish politicians begun on April 14 and continued. DTP was closed on 11 December 2009 and even some shepherd was banned from participating in politics with the allegation of being a DTP politician.

The arrest wave in December of 2009 was the last major blow by the AK Party government and state to Kurdish politicians so that the AK Party may get some votes in Kurdistan when elections come up in 2011 or should AK Party decides to hold early elections.


Recently Kurdish politicians were lined up and handcuffed. The picture was widely circulated on the Turkish media to make sure Kurds get the message of what can happen to them if they ask for their rights. These politicians have had nothing to do with any kind of violence. What they did was to greet their people in Kurdish at political meetings but their main crime was to speak for Kurds and defend their rights under a legal political party. The arrests of Kurdish politicians have continued in January. I will incorporate that data when I get my hands on it.

I never trusted the AK Party and the state about the so called "Kurdish Initiative" which was later renamed as "Democratic Initiative" and now renamed as "National Unity Initiative". I am sure the AK Party and the state are proud of themselves as they can do all these things to Kurds and still be referred as "an advanced democracy" by their masters.

Highest Turkish Court Closes DTP

Democratic Society Party, the voice of Kurdish people in North Kurdistan was closed and banned on Friday 11 December 2009. The state basically told it's Kurdish citizens that democratic means will not bear fruit. The AKP and its supporters as well as the intelligentsia in Turkey were constantly talking about how things were going to be different this time and Kurds should stop being paranoid and trust the state and the AKP.

To date, Kurds have not had ONE single reason to trust the Turkish state. Closure of DTP has just confirmed Kurds' suspicions. So, how is this different? Where are those who were trying to get Kurds trust the oppressor? I hope closure of DTP has also served as a gentle reminder to Kurds in South Kurdistan.

Zaroken Roj must unite and rely on themselves and themselves alone. If there is to be peace, it has to be on Kurds' terms. Oppressors' compassion only dictates slavery.

How Do The Turkish State's Terrorists Get Promoted?

A 14 year old Kurdish girl Ceylan Onkol was tending her sheep in a Kurdish village on the outskirts of Amed (Diyarbakir). She was hit by a missile or shell fired from a Turkish Military (TSK) garrison. She was hit in the groin area and blown into pieces. The public prosecutor didn't go to the area, neither did a doctor. It was a complete cover up of terrorism against children in Kurdistan, terrorism by the TSK.

Whenever the fascist state tries to protect its terrorists it uses the excuse of "the investigations are underway". How do you conduct investigations without following proper procedures beats me but that's another story. We want to high light something else. We want to know how many of the Turkish state terrorists have ended up behind bars because they torture and kill even children. Do you know what happened to the police officers who broke Cuneyt Ertus' arm? What happened to those who were captured in Şirnex (Şirnak) while planting bombs to kill civilians? What happened to TSK terrorist Col. Cemal Temizöz? Col. Temizöz is on trial for hundreds of extra judicial killings and torturing civilians. The prosecutor is asking for multiple times of life time sentences for him but guess what? He is still on duty.

We remember the Uğur Kaymaz incident. On Sunday 21 November 2004 a 12 year old Kurdish boy was killed by police officers. He was shot multiple times at point blank range from his back. On 18 June 2009, the High Tribunal Court ruled that the police who shot Ugur from his back have acted in self defence. The police chief Kemal Dönmez who was involved in murdering of Uğur Kaymaz was promoted. Kemal Dönmez was promoted despite his known ties to the Ergenekon terror organization of the terrorist state.

So, really, what happens after these investigations? These terrorists continue their jobs and receive promotions.

Before you try to talk about legitimacy of a terrorist state and blame the existence of Kurdish freedom fighters to justify the terrorist actions of the Turkish state, I recommend you read about the Dersim genocide and the Zilan massacre. Both of these happened way before the Kurdish freedom fighters were around.

Put yourself into the shoes of the family members or friends of those children and then answer this. Do you understand why Kurdish defence forces exist?

Kurdish Cities Sustain the Highest Loss

Turkish Ministry of Defence has published the statistics of dead security forces. Oral Çalışlar recently wrote an article about it. Of course, the data wasn't published widely in Turkish media. The data presents which cities the dead security forces are from. It turns out that in terms of highest losses, six of the top ten cities are Kurdish. The security forces from Kurdish cities (Kurds) are sent to the front lines to fight the PKK. The fascist regime's policy of pitting Kurds against Kurds continues regardless. A Kurd is worthless to the state even if he sides with the state. Here is the data for top ten cities:

City	Number of Dead Security Forces from the City	City Population (2007 census)
1. Şırnak (Şirnex)	302	416,001
2. İstanbul	284	12,573,836
3. Hakkâri (Colemerg)	264	246,469
4. Ankara	260	4,466,756
5. Diyarbakır (Amed)	233	1,460,714
6. Konya	203	1,959,082
7. Mardin (Mêrdîn)	199	745,778
8. Sivas (Sêwas)	198	638,464
9. Adana	186	2,006,650
10. Van (Wan)	177	979,671
Total	2,306	25,493,421
Total Number of Killed Security Forces from the Kurdish Cities in top 10 and sum of their populations:	1,373	4,487,097
Total Number of Killed Security Forces from Non-Kurdish Cities in top 10 and sum of their populations:	933	21,006,324
Percentage of Losses from Kurdish Cities (in top 10)	59.54

For the top-10 cities which gave the highest loss of security forces, Kurds make up 60% of losses. I actually wouldn't be surprised if it was higher because we know there are millions of Kurds living in cities like Istanbul and Adana. Unfortunately the identity of security forces originating from those cities are not available to the man on the street but I am sure TSK takes their identities into considerations before deciding where to send those people. After all pitting Kurds against Kurds is one skill the fascist regime has mastered.

The data reveals more. We don't see the most racist and ultra right wing cities (where the thugs attack Kurdish civilians at any chance they get) in the top 10 above. What's going on here, really? Can it be that the fascist regime is actually trying everything to protect those worthless thugs by pushing Kurds to the front lines?

Children Tried Under Charges of Terrorism

Although the state for whatever reason cannot kill Kurdish children as easy as it used to, now it is imprisoning children as terrorists. If you are a 12 year old who is in the vicinity of the events where other 12 year old kids throw stones at the armored vehicles who crushed their parents, well guess what? You or any other children, "guilty" of throwing a stone or not can be in prison for decades. That is, if they don't put you among ultra-right-wing prisoners who are in prison because of robbery, rape, extortion, etc. and have you killed by them. This is what happened to Yasin Akyüz, who was strangled to death and he was just 15 years old. Did the officials even find out who did it? I am sure they looked into the mirror.

Bianet has a recent piece on trying children as terrorists:

[...]

The Anti-Terrorism Law was effected in 1991 and renewed in 2006. It states that children aged between 12 and 18 years accused for terror should be detained, interrogated and tried under the same conditions as adults. Tilbe Saran and Murat Garipoğlu from the organization Civil Platform object to the law, warning that with every day that passes by another victim of the law is being added.

So the Kurdish children can be killed at their homes, have their villages razed, beaten, forced to migrate, and when they actually show some character, the state wants to destroy them in prisons. Here is the most "interesting part" of the article:

According to the group's information 127 children are currently detained. 3000 children are on trial but the Ministry of Justice does not confirm a precise figure.

[...]

The ministry of justice of a nation state does not confirm a precise figure on its OWN citizens who are on trial or in prison? Seriously, what kind of a state, mind you an "advanced democracy" are we talking about here?! Ministry of just-ice seems to be a better term considering the cold blooded murders it has been carrying against Kurdish people.

Sun will shine and ice will melt. Only then things will be just.

The Zilan River Massacre: Part 2

This is Part 2 of the article on Zilan River Massacre that appeared in Gündem. You can read Part 1 on this blog as well.

Zilan River was filled with Corpses

Right after this massacre, the semi official newspaper of the state, Cumhuriyet daily, in its 16 July 1930 issue reported the massacre of Zîlan as below:

‘The villages of Agri that joined the bandits have been burned down and their residents were sent to Erciş. The number of bandits destroyed during the Zilan operation is over 15 thousand. The number of those who fell before a battalion and died is guessed to be over one thousand. Five brigands who made it to Zilan River surrendered. The war in this place has been very fierce. The Zilan river has filled up with corpses.’

Faik Bulut’s book titled ‘Kurdish Uprisings in Turkey’ which included some documents from the Archive of War History has also included the [Turkish] General Staff’s order dated 01 July 1930. The General Staff orders ‘All of the villages in the region of uprising that have participated in the uprising shall be completely burned down.’

Also, the General Staff’s order on 03 July 1930 says this: ‘… To show the people who rise up will be punished, the villages that participated in the Oramar events and the clans in the meadow must be identified and bombed with the air force.’

These documents [included in Faik Bulut’s book] further state that ‘On 02 July 1930 the following activities occured: Kaymaz, Haçan, Kölesor, Çilli ve Osmanlı villages were bombed by airplanes; the villages in the Patnos region that joined the uprising were subjected to machine gun fire and bombings.

According to the government of the time ‘The actions [by state officials and forces] in the uprising cannot be considered as criminal’. The region was a 'fire at will’ zone. The law number 1850 on 20 July 1931 approved this:

Item 1: During the uprising in Erciş, Zilan, Ağrı mountain regions and following that due to the tracking and punishment operations in the jurisdiction of First Public Controller and in Erzincan’s Pülümür town, from 20 June 1930 to 1 December 1930, any individual or group actions of the military forces, government employees, and anyone who acts with or for them, including watchmen, paramilitary [korucular], and regular citizens, related to getting rid of the uprising and events associated with it are not criminal.

Item 2: This law is in effect on the day of its publishing.

Item 3: The representatives of judiciary and internal matters are charged with the implementation of this law.

After the massacre, the Zilan River was declared a military zone closed to the public. After a while, a Government Farm was started there. Later, immigrants from Afghanistan, Turkmen, were brought and settled in the region. There are still villages in the region whose inhabitants are completely Turkmen.

The Zilan River is one of the most painful episodes of the painful struggle of Kurds. Thousands of people, from swaddled babies to old people were killed.

We believe that those who think they can finish Kurds by killing them have been wrong. Those who committed massacres after Zilan River, in Halepçe [Halabja], Qamişlo, Dersim, Lice, and other places and times, could not finish the Kurds’ struggle for freedom. Kurds, because of their struggle for freedom, have faced these massacres and paid heavy prices. Without a doubt, the sacrifices made by the Kurdish people will not be in vain and this people, in the end, will gain their freedom.


Sources:

İdris ERTAŞ - Tarihe Kazınmış Belgeler; Soykırımlar-III /
Ahmet Kahraman - Kürt İsyanları -
Tedip Ve Tenkil-
M. Remzi Bucak - Bir Kürt Aydınından İsmet İnönü'ye Mektup
Sıddık Güler - Dicle Haber Ajansı
Mehmet Ali Aslan - Kürt Trajedisi

There other eye witnesses who survived the massacre. Here is what another one says:

I think İsmet İnönü gave the order

Kakil Erdem, who is currently 94 and lives in Kündük village, was 17 years old at the time of the massacre. He is one of the few witnesses who survived. He goes on:

“The soldiers were stabbing pregnant women and cutting their babies out. I watched them behead people. They skinned heads of three of my relatives before my eyes. I saw them beating two brothers to death with wood.”

Erdem says when the massacre started, he ran towards the mountains and watched the events from where he hid. “Thousands of soldiers from the 7th Army Corps came to the villages. They surrounded the 72 villages in Zilan. They killed everyone in these villages; men, women, old, young, children, babies, everyone was killed. İbrahim Bey and Derviş Bey were commanding the unit. As they were killing people, we had to run and hide. Some people hid in the wheat fields and beneath their things. Then we all escaped to the mountains. We stayed hungry for days. We went back to the village after the soldiers left. They had killed 35 relatives of mine. I watched them beheading many people. My oldest brother is alive, he saw these too.”

Erdem responds to some allegations which say that the government of the time did not know about the events: “I think İsmet İnönü gave the order. Derviş Bey is father of Alparslan Türkeş. As I think of them, I get chills. I never forgot that massacre. They killed those they captured. Most of the people who died in this massacre were those who fought [side by side with Turks] in the war of independence. They had fought for this country. I did my military service in Sarıkamış. The people we fought together against the enemy later came and killed us.”

What kind of brotherhood is this?

The Zilan River Massacre: Part 1

Below is Part 1 of the translation of the article appeared in Gündem. Many thanks to a Zarokek Roj (child of sun) who helped with the translation.

The Zilan River Turned Red

The Kurds, during the First World War at the beginning of 20th century, sent hundreds of thousands of Kurdish soldiers to fight side by side with Turks at every front Turks were fighting. Kurds did that to protect Islamic values, their freedom, and because they considered Turks brothers.

After the war was over, the response the Kurds have received were promises that were not kept [by the Turks], the splitting of their homeland into five pieces, the denial of their identity, and bans. In response to this injustice, uprisings break out at every corner of Kurdistan.

One of these uprisings is the one at Agri [Agirî]. After the Turkish state suppressed the Agri uprising, it started an all out annihilation campaign against Kurds at the Zilan River, in the Town of Erciş [Erdîş], Van [Wan] on 13 July 1930.

After the Agri uprising was over, the Kurds took refuge in the Zilan valley. The commander of the Army Corps, Salih Pasha, with the military operation, conducted a massacre against the Kurds taking refuge in the Zilan valley. The Zilan region was bombed with airplanes. The passages to the region get sealed off and tens of thousands of soldiers surrounded the region; the massacre began. From a new born baby to 90 year old elderly, people of all ages, male and female, were raked by machine guns and stabbed with bayonets.


The Bodies Rot

A total of 44 villages were set on fire and around 15 thousand people were tied to one another [and] massacred in the valley. A soldier who was part of the massacre tells the story:

“They made women, children, babies, everyone living in the region, thousands of people to get into the Zilan river. Then these people were surrounded by machine guns. They [the commanders] put us, the privates, on the machine guns. Behind us, there were corporals and sergeants who had their rifles aimed at us. Behind the corporals and sergeants, in the third row, there were commissioned officers waiting with their loaded pistols, ready to fire. If we didn’t fire, the noncommissioned officers were going to shoot us. If the noncommissioned officers didn’t shoot us, the commissioned officers were to shoot them and us. We pulled the triggers. Thousands of bullets spit fire on the people in the river. The horrible cries of women, children, old and young men echoed in the river. After a while the cries turned into moans. Then the moans ended too. Along with old and young men’s bodies, corpses of thousands of women, children, babies in swaddling clothes were left in the pool of blood. The corpses began to rot after a while.”


I was Under the Corpses

A few of the injured, fainted [and] remained under corpses. They survived. For years, they have been telling of this tragic story. Tayfun Susak, -he is known as Tayfunê Zîlan in Bulanik- tells the story:

“Soldiers under the command of Captain Derviş Bey [Captain Derviş Bey is father of Alpaslan Türkeş] attacked the seven villages on the Zilan River with the excuse that we were going to start an uprising. They started killing everyone. In a short time, bodies were all over the place. I fell when I was running. In a short while, I was under corpses. They thought I was dead. They piled corpses. I was under corpses. After the soldiers left, I came out. I was the only survivor in my family. My father, mother, and all my relatives were killed. Very few people survived. And those who survived, like me, they lost their sanity.”

Susak says he was arrested by the soldiers after the events. He continues: “Sometime later, the soldiers came back to the region and took the survivors to Muş, Agri, and Dogubeyazit. I was among them. We suffered hunger and torture in these places. Then I was made to care for soldiers’ livestock for a few years. After this, they took me to Elazig Mental Hospital. I stayed there for a long time. They were treating us like animals there. I suffered a lot in that hospital. After things got better in this area, they set us free. I wanted to go back to my village. When I went there, there was nothing left. Houses were destroyed too. So I came to Muş and settled in the town of Bulanik. Since I came here, I have been living on handouts.”

We shall not forget.

Read on to Part 2.