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.

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.

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!