Tag Archives: Kurdistan

Kurds, Too, Have A Dream

Under the totalitarian rule of President Recep Teyyip Erdogan of Turkey, the article you are about to read would be considered “terrorist propaganda” and warrants would be issued for its author and associates. To voice disagreement with the government, to ask for peace or even to report as journalists about those that do is identified as a separatist and thus terrorist activity. To be a Kurd has even far worse consequences.

Written by Carol Benedict.

From a 1979 rally in Washington, this photo captures the spirit of peaceful resistance that reflects the Kurds' desire for peace and freedom. Photogragh from "Voices of Peaceful Resistance" exhibit, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; Image by John Benedict.

From a 1979 rally in Washington DC, this photo captures the spirit of peaceful resistance that reflects the Kurds’ desire for peace and freedom. Photogragh from “Voices of Peaceful Resistance” exhibit, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; Image by John Benedict.

The Kurds are the largest ethnic group on the planet with no country or land to call their own. Currently estimated at approximately 40 million strong, the Kurds live primarily in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Armenia within a region known to them for millennia as Kurdistan, with millions in diaspora throughout the entire world including the United States.

Since January 15, 2016, a “Vigil For King’s Dream in Kurdistan” in Washington, DC has taken a presence across Massachusetts Avenue from the Turkish Embassy. Organized by Kani Xulam, founder and director of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN), the group is attempting to bring attention to the atrocities taking place in SE Turkey as that country descends into conditions of civil war.

Turkish diplomats have been the victims of up to 27 attacks worldwide by Armenian terrorists. Five of those have been in the U.S., three in California alone — one in 1973, and two in 1982. Despite the fact that none took place in Washington, to this day the Turkish ambassador’s residence off of Sheridan Circle, as well as the Turkish Embassy, enjoys round-the-clock protection from the Secret Service.

Massachusetts Avenue, also called “Embassy Row” because it is the location of the majority of international embassies, was closed today. This is the first time in all the years Kani has been in Washington that he has seen this happen.

On Thursday, March 31 2016, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Washington DC, he was also scheduled to speak at the Brookings Institute. He was greeted by protestors that offered him booing and rejection. Holding banners that read “End Turkish Denial,” “Erdogan: War Criminal on the Loose” and “Stop Turkey’s War on Kurds!” they shouted at the entourage. “Baby Killer Erdogan!” “We charge you with genocide!” “Long Live Kurdistan!” filled the air.

The group was several organizations who shared the same disdain for the Turkish President. They included those involved in “A Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan,” Amnesty International and others. Reporters and supporters alike were subjected to attacks from plain clothes Turkish security.

The protest today exploded into chaos. One FB post read:

Local Washington D.C. police officers were forced time and again to get between Erdogan’s security forces and journalists and protesters. At one point, an officer placed himself between one of Erdogan’s security guards and a cameraman he was moving to confront, while another angrily confronted several Turkish security guards in the middle of the street, telling them, “you’re part of the problem, you guys need to control yourselves and let these people protest.” Another Turkish security official pulled his colleague away after he began arguing with the officer. Other members of Ergodan’s team stood in front of the Brookings building, motioning for the protesters to come closer, and making obscene gestures.

“Today’s confrontation in Washington vividly illustrates how little Turkey’s government values human rights such as freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. Those who were present at today’s protest saw firsthand the consequences of governments that violate human rights,” said T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director for Europe, in a press release.

Our nation’s capitol is no stranger to peace vigils, demonstrations and protests. In January of this year, a woman died who had maintained a 32 year 24-hour vigil in Lafayette Square.

Concepcion “Picciotto, also called Connie or Conchita, manned a 24-hour vigil against nuclear proliferation from a makeshift camp next to the White House. The vigil site needed to be continuously attended by someone in order to remain in place… She had been a fixture at the encampment site in Lafayette Square since 1981, frequently speaking to tourists about nukes.”

Kani, as a resident for the last 23 years, knows this city quite well. Not only an impromptu “tour guide” during our visit that skirted congestion and tangled streets of hills, buildings and pedestrians safely, he has learned the history that made Washington DC the historical and tourist magnet that it is, drawing on average 67,000 visitors per day.

Seeing the White House from all directions, the Naval Observatory (Washington DC residence of Vice-President Joe Biden), all the buildings representing the functionality of the American government, seeing Obama’s Marine 1 helicopter depart, becoming entangled with traffic because of a demonstration in support of Palestinians: all this in one afternoon gave us reference for how hectic this city is around the clock.

All of this backdrop of the nation’s capital does not distract Kani from his work. It is a relatively never-ending pursuit of searching for news reports as well as responding to inquiries from those wanting information. AKIN lives up to its name on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.

Azad Kobani and Carol Benedict wave pennant flags for the YPG/YPJ fighting forces in Rojava. Photo by John Benedict.

Azad Kobani and Carol Benedict wave pennant flags for the YPG (Men’s Units) and YPJ (Women’s Units) fighting forces in Rojava. Photo by John Benedict.

Kani’s decision to organize the “Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan” stems from two major directions: the support of like-minded individuals and recognition of the similarities between the Civil Rights Movement in America and the Kurdish struggle.

An astute scholar of history, Kani aligns the words of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech with the voices of the Kurds across the world. He, like so many of us, believes in peaceful resistance as a means toward change. His past public actions have included rallys and hunger strikes to draw attention to the voices of over 40 million people begging for freedom.

He is not alone. Manning the street every day the Vigil site is able to be open is a native of Kobane, Syria and former parliamentarian of the Syrian government, Azad Kobani. He, too, has made this struggle for peace his life work.

Azad Kobani takes warmth from the fire as he reflects on the Kurdish struggle. (Image via FB.)

Azad Kobani takes warmth from the fire as he reflects on the Kurdish struggle. (Image: FB)

Standing the Vigil Site with Azad was a lesson in determination. Faced with a language barrier, we were unable to converse fluently. But Azad is a master at communicating regardless. He quietly took the yellow YPG pennant flag representing the men’s forces that are fighting ISIS in a region referred to as Rojava by the Kurds. In silence, he waved at every car, holding the flag. Realizing this is something he has done every day possible since January 15, I pulled the green YPJ flag representing the women’s fighting forces from the barricade fence and walked to the other end of the Vigil Site.

We got honks and waves back as people slowed down to read our signs and take our pictures. Many were tourists, that will undoubtedly show the photos to their friends and say, “Look! We were in Washington DC and there was this protest we drove by…” and the Vigil message spreads.

These are the seeds from which awareness and change can grow. Since all major media outlets refuse to cover this issue for the shockingly horrifying human tragedy that is unfolding before our very eyes, this has become the only hope that many have for the dreams of living their life with the same self-determination and freedom as the rest of humanity is afforded.

Kani’s words will never leave my thoughts:

“Americans complain too much. They should spend a week living as a Kurd in Turkey, then see how their perspective would change.”

About the Author:
Carol Benedict is an independent researcher studying Kurdish history, culture and politics for 3 years. She is also a human rights activist.

Whispers of War in North Kurdistan — a photo essay

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Many Kurdish towns across Turkey lie in ruin, but Yüksekova — a bulwark of the PKK — has so far escaped destruction. Still the war is always present

By Alex Kenman. Published 3-8-2016 by ROAR Magazine

Egid called me today to tell me that the situation in his hometown is rapidly deteriorating. It’s been nine months since I last saw him in Yüksekova, or Gever in Kurdish, in southeastern Turkey.

Egid is a positive man. Despite the hardships he and his people face on a daily basis, he has the capacity to enjoy life to the fullest wherever he is. Actually, it may well be that it is precisely because of those hardships that he is so positive, as a sort of self-preservation mechanism. Violence, repression and uncertainty are common themes in his daily life.

On July 20, 2015, Süleyman, a 25-year-old teacher, was killed together with 32 other primarily Kurdish activists in the Suruç suicide attack. Two days later, when his body was brought to Yüksekova, the whole city shut down. Hundreds of cars filled the main highway to show their respect and thousands of people attended the funeral.

I often envy him for his positive attitude. With him, any ordinary situation would turn into something special; whether we would be secretly drinking beers at night in his cousin’s van, or simply having a chat over a cigarette in the kitchen. He has learned to appreciate and accept life the way it is.

Egid often calls me to cheer me up, when by all means it ought to be the other way around. He tells me how I should feel blessed to live in such fortunate circumstances.

But this time it was different.

He called to say he had lost all hope. He seemed upset, explaining that while he and his family are okay right now, he doesn’t know what will happen in a few weeks’ time. They are expecting the Turkish military to come soon, after the snow has melted, to do to Yüksekova what they already did to Cizre, Sur, Sirnak, Nusaybin and all those other places: “To wipe out all terrorists.” They fear they will be trapped inside their houses, with no food, medical care, media, or observers, and that they will risk getting killed whenever they step outside. In English this situation is translated as a “curfew”, but that’s not the right word to describe the situation. It’s a military siege.

The distribution or possession of PKK magazines like this may lead to imprisonment and terrorist charges. Nevertheless, they remain popular throughout Yüksekova, a center of resistance.

Yüksekova, just like Cizre, is one of those towns infamous for its decades-long resistance. The PKK has always been very popular here, and it still is. Referring to Yüksekova and the surrounding Hakkari province, Abdullah Öcalan once said, “This is where we are strongest.” Indeed, beyond the military outposts this territory is ruled, or at least strongly contested, by the PKK.

From here, Qandil — where the guerrilla’s headquarters are based — is only a stone’s throw away, on the other side of the border between Turkey and Iraq. Traditionally, Spring is when the fighting starts, as the snow-capped mountains become a little bit more accessible, both for the Turkish army and the PKK.

It is in Hakkari where one can come to a true understanding of what the Kurdish struggle is all about. The ever-present conditions of the ongoing war are impossible to ignore, and it inevitably maneuvers its way into all aspects of daily life.

This sports hall was set on fire during a protest. Governmental buildings are often set on fire as they are easier targets than police and military buildings.

Yüksekova has thus far escaped the fate of many other towns and cities across Bakur, or North Kurdistan. Egid’s family’s house is still safe, for now, but guarantees are a scarce commodity in these critical times. If the Turkish military attacks, the people of Yüksekova will resist fiercely, that much is sure.

Back in 2013, Egid feared that if the peace process were to come to an end, the war would erupt like never before. He saw the youth around him, the next generation, and realized that they were much more radicalized than him. So much so that these youngster appeared to be willing to fight to the very end. This is what the region has witnessed with the YDS, the so-called “Civil Protection Units”, made up of heavily armed and radicalized youths.

In the people’s experience, the situation now is worse than it was at the height of the conflict in the 1990s. People are desperate, and every time it seems impossible for things to get worse, the conflict is escalated to a whole new level.

A VICIOUS CYCLE OF VIOLENCE

One night in August we sat in front of Cihan’s house, one of Egid’s friends. We smelled the teargas and tried to discern the different loud bangs in the distance. Were they explosions, gunfire, or something else? We tried to figure out what was going on, but with the internet not working and the media silenced, this proved an impossible task. Cihan said that things hadn’t been this bad in years, that there’s often the sound of gunfire but not for three hours straight, as happened that particular evening.

Some say there are so few birds left in Yüksekova because they all died from the teargas, which fills the air of the town on a regular basis. Ironically this has created a metal recycling business among kids to earn some money.

We were lucky this time, because the fighting often takes place right next to the house. The traditional thick walls of the house have too often proven their necessity as bulletproof entrenchment.

The sound of gunfire and whiffs of teargas that reached us were only the whispers of the war that was taking place around us, but they carried with them the fear for the well-being of friends and family elsewhere in the town.

Cihan is from a politicized family. His younger brother has just been released after five years in jail. His father had been in prison for ten years, and many of his uncles and cousins are still locked up, while others are with the guerrilla forces in the mountains.

Sahit never says goodbye. He isn’t accustomed to it, because in prison you never leave. He was imprisoned at the age of 15, as a preventive measure. It would be 17 years before he was eventually released. “The world changed. It was a new world, I felt like aliens had landed. When I left there were one or maybe two televisions in the whole city. Now everyone had one. Most of all, I left as a child, but I didn’t realize I had grown up. Society had changed and I didn’t know how to cope with it.”

Rojda’s family originally came from Iran, their grandfather was a famous revolutionary who fought the Shah in Iranian Kurdistan. They fled when her husband would risk a death sentence in Iran. In Turkey he was betrayed, and served a long time in jail. Her youngest son has been in prison too. When he went on hunger strike together with many fellow Kurdish prisoners in 2012 to ask for more rights, she joined in solidarity.

Cihan’s brother tells about the first night of their father’s imprisonment. They put him in a certain position, one thumb bound to the ceiling in such a way that he could just reach the floor with his toes. The prison guards laughed “Welcome! This is just your first night, we’ll be easy on you”. Cihan’s father still has a problem with that thumb.

They tortured the man for a month. For ten years he was imprisoned. When he came back he was a mere shadow of the man he used to be. He would not join family dinners, and although his smile never left his face he became a very distant person. His world consists of the house and the front yard — the outside world is something he can’t handle.

“We love enough to die for the sake of life.” Above, Mehmet Hayri Durmuş, Kemal Pir, Akif Yılmaz, Ali Çiçek started a hunger strike until death in 1982 in Diyarbakir prison. The people at the bottom row were also on long hunger strikes.

Each of the rooms in the house has a television. At least one was always on. Apparently it eased his mind. However, when the situation throughout Turkey started to escalate, Cihan’s father became more restless. The news was all about the latest clashes and the question that was on everyone’s mind: “Will there be war?”

The present situation that has been going on for so long is about whole generations and entire cities being traumatized; about daughters and sons getting killed, brothers and sisters imprisoned. Despite all that, even while for a moment even Egid lost his hope, he picked himself up and said: “It doesn’t matter, we will win. We will teach them the reality is right, unavoidable. You were there! You are my friend and you took all these pictures. Maybe one day you will show them.”

They came at midnight. First they went to the wrong house. We were away doing construction work, and came home late in the night. They took him violently. We don’t know when he will be released. My oldest son is a guerrilla, he joined at his seventeenth, he is 22 years old now. I haven’t seen him for almost six years. My imprisoned son was photographed at a protest. It was unfair.

They came through the garden in the middle of the night, and broke our door and windows. They aimed a gun at my daughter’s head. They searched everything and then took my son. They beat him with sticks, they beat him in front of us. They tortured him for eight days, until he had a heart attack. He had to go to the hospital.
He was 18 or 19 when they took him. It’s been ten months now. They accused him of killing three soldiers. The thing is, it’s all a lie. The killers have already been arrested, and the court says he’s not guilty. Still, they keep him. Next month there will be another court case.

We were still awake as we just came back from work. Around 3am the special forces came. They tried to break open the door. I opened it and asked what they wanted. They just rushed in and aimed their gun at my little boy. When I shouted “don’t do that!” they put me on the floor, face down, and broke my finger. They also attacked my neighbor and broke three of his teeth.
My son was sleeping, they arrested him. Later they came back with him, they wanted the gun. There wasn’t a gun. I swear to allah, we do not have a gun. They started beating my son. My son was very angry. They kept beating him. We can actually forgive them. We just want our son back.

Amid Crackdown on Dissent, Nobel Laureates Demand Freedom for Turkish Journalists

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Case of Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, who face life in prison, demonstrates “the sorry state of freedom of expression in Turkey”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-24-2016

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo: public domain)

In a letter denouncing the “the increasing climate of fear and censorship and the stifling of critical voices in Turkey,” over 100 noted international writers including Nobel laureates urge Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to free two journalists facing potential life sentences.

Signatories to the PEN International letter, dated Thursday, include Margaret Atwood, J.M. Coetzee, Monica Ali, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Yann Martel.

“In recent years,” the letter states, “the Turkish authorities have made extraordinary efforts to silence critics and dissent, as documented in PEN’s recent report on free expression in the country. This has had an impact on all areas of Turkish society, from the harsh repression of peaceful protesters in Gezi Park; to the increasing crackdown on freedom of expression online; to the arrest and detention of dozens of writers, journalists and academics.” Continue reading →

Turkish President Continues ‘Vicious Campaign’ Against Dissidents

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President Tayyip Erdoğan wants the country to redefine its anti-extremism law to include journalists, politicians, and academics

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-16-2016

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has unleashed what Human Rights Watch dubs “a harsh campaign vilifying the academics…terming them vile, equal to terrorists, base and dark.” (Photo: Agencia de Noticias ANDES/flickr/cc)

Representing a further crackdown on free expression in Turkey, President Tayyip Erdoğan said this week he wants the Turkish parliament to redefine the country’s anti-extremism law to include journalists, politicians, and academics.

“It is not only the person who pulls the trigger, but those who made that possible who should also be defined as terrorists, regardless of their title,” Erdoğan said on Monday, one day after a suicide bomb attack in the country’s capital of Ankara killed at least 34 people and wounded 125 others. Continue reading →

Turkey: Will the US choose the wrong side of history again?

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Turning Turkey into the next Syria has already begun – and the US could play a pivotal role in stopping it

Written by Carol Benedict, Independent Journalist

Historic Armenian church in the Sur district of Diyarbakir destroyed by Turkish army February 21, 2016. Image via Twitter.

Continued reports coming out of Turkey indicate a dire situation, worsening daily for the civilian population in the southeast region that is predominantly Kurdish. American media still refuse to cover this crisis, leaving most Americans clueless of not only what is wrong in Turkey, but why their own government is now in a precarious situation which has distasteful outcomes regardless the decisions made.

Because the US has a track record of basing policy decisions on oil and strategic military interests, it remains to be seen if they can take the moral high ground in the war against terror, or if they will buckle to the whims of a megalomanic bent on the destruction of the civilian Kurdish population within his own country.

President Erdogan and the Turkish government have taken revenge on the Kurds for their recent gains in the country’s elections in 2015. After winning a representative portion in parliament during the June elections, Erdogan called a snap election in November to take back any gains the Kurds had achieved. Since that time, efforts to decrease the support of his political opponents has resulted in his AKP government waging a literal ground war and extermination campaign against the HDP.

In the middle of last August, the government enacted curfews and sieges in the Kurdish cities, using the discarded peace talks and escalating violence with the PKK as an excuse. They set about destroying Kurdish homes, cemeteries, schools, villages, historical landmarks and art from ancient cultures to dehumanize the Kurds. President Erdogan has stated that this campaign will not end until south east Turkey has been “cleansed” of all “terrorists.”

Official reports from the Turkish press claim all those killed in the SE region of Turkey since August are terrorists. They make this claim by declaring the political party of the Kurds, the HDP, to be a terrorist group because of the simple fact that there are Kurds in the HDP and the PKK is also comprised of Kurds. In their minds, that makes anything Kurdish associated with terror, a just enough reason to massacre all Kurds, effectively beginning a genocide in the SE of Turkey.

The following press release was written by Hişyar Özsoy, Vice co-Chair for Foreign Affairs, Peoples’ Democratic Party in Ankara.

Don’t let tomorrow be too late for Sur!

The indefinite, round-the-clock curfews that the AKP government has declared in Turkey’s Kurdish provinces since August 16, 2015 continue to deepen the emergency situation that undermines basic human rights and freedoms in the region, including the right to live and personal safety. As of today, curfews have been effective in seven provinces and twenty counties for a total of 395 days. This curfew policy directly and clearly violates imperative provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey as well as basic principles of international humanitarian law, first and foremost the provisions of Geneva Convention for the protection of civilians in war and conflict zones. The last and most destructive example of systematic violence and massacre threats under the curfew rule occurred in the town of Cizre, Şırnak province, before the eyes of indifferent Turkish and international publics: at least 165 civilians who had taken refuge in the basements of residential buildings amidst military operations were bombarded to death by Turkish security forces.

Whereas the AKP government continues to absolve itself of the responsibility to account for the basics of the civilian massacre in Cizre beyond the cliché of “fighting terror,” we are, once again, terrified by the news that most recently came from Sur district of Diyarbakır, which has been under curfew for the last 78 days, since December 11, 2015. According to local sources and the press, as of February 18th, around 200 people, including children and injured individuals, remain trapped in the basements of residential buildings in Sur district, where armed clashes have been taking place. For the last two days our party officials and members of the parliament have been trying to communicate with the government representatives, demanding official investigation of these claims and the opening of a safe corridor for the transfer of trapped civilians. Yet, all our efforts and demands remain unanswered. We are extremely concerned about the possibility that the massacre in Cizre may be repeated in Sur.

Under these circumstances, we are further concerned about the ongoing silence of the international public against the violence and massacres in Kurdish cities. As the military attacks against the trapped civilians were going on in Cizre, we had told the international public that their silence and indifference was bolstering the AKP government and its security forces in their unlawful and inhumane practices in Kurdish cities. Had the international public raised a powerful voice for the protection of the lives and safety of the trapped civilians in Cizre, perhaps we would not have had hundreds of dead bodies retrieved from beneath the ruins of Cizre today.

Now at the wake of a similar possible tragedy to take place in the Sur district, we are appealing to the international community once again. We are calling on all international institutions, humanitarian organizations and activists to take urgent responsibility and approach the Turkish government without any delay for the termination of curfews and state violence in Kurdish cities, and particularly for the protection of the lives of the civilians that are trapped inside the basements in Sur. Don’t let tomorrow be too late for Sur!

Sur, Turkey: Indefinite 24-hour curfew, over 200,000 in danger. Image via Twitter.

Meanwhile, in the REAL war on terror…

The Kurds in Iraq have an established military force, called the peshmerga, which in Kurdish loosely translates to mean “He who confronts death.” In Iraq, it was the peshmerga forces, working with the US coalition, that were able to repel ISIS in the northern territory of Iraq. It was the peshmerga, together with other Kurdish forces including the PKK, that were able to rescue the Yazidi population held captive on Mount Sinjar in 2014.

In northern Syria, the most successful and fierce ally in the Syrian war against Daesh (ISIS) has been the YPG/YPJ forces. The YPG (men) and YPJ (women) are Kurdish forces in Rojava, the Kurdish name for northern Syria. Their ongoing campaign against Daesh has taken back cities and territory the terrorist group had occupied. It was a direct result of their actions that the city of Kobane did not fall to Daesh a little more than a year ago. They are also helping refugees fleeing the area around Aleppo, where the war in Syria has worsened since Russia has joined the air campaign of bombing and shelling.

As these Kurdish forces continue to win against ISIS and work with the US coalition forces, Turkey has begun shelling and bombarding them. The AKP recently labeled the YPG/YPJ forces as terrorist organizations to justify their actions and President Erdogan has challenged the US to pick a side in this particular battle.

A History NOT worth repeating

The US government has befriended – and then de-friended – the Kurds in 3 past interactions.

Writer Rick Noack in an August, 2014 article in The Washington Post, points out the US history of betrayal regarding the Kurds;

1972/1973 – Iraq’s Ba’ath party has become a threat in the eyes of the U.S. government. President Nixon and Iran’s shah begin to fund the Kurdish pesh merga guerrillas and support their claims for autonomy. In 1972, Saddam Hussein had signed a “Friendship and Cooperation” treaty with the USSR.

1975 – After the surprising Algiers Agreement between Iran and Iraq is reached, the U.S. stops its support for the Kurdish rebels which causes the fragmentation of the opposition and an increased vulnerability to Saddam Hussein’s renewed attacks. While he exacts brutal revenge on the Kurds (including a catastrophic chemical weapons attack in 1988 that kills thousands) the U.S. breaks off all official relations to the opposition it previously backed.

1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait, prompting the First Gulf War, which ends the alienation between the U.S. and the Kurds that had lasted for more than a decade. Iraq is defeated in Kuwait, but a subsequent uprising of Shiite Iraqis and Kurds (Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party is primarily seen as Sunni-supported) fails to gain U.S. support. The uprising is unsuccessful but Kurdish areas receive greater autonomy in 1991 when a ‘safe haven’ is set up by the UN. A U.S.-backed opposition group called Iraqi National Congress will be based in Kurdistan in the following years. However, inner-Kurdish cleavages emerge.

1996 – As a result of these rivalries, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) attacks the Iraqi National Congress in Erbil with the help of Saddam’s army. Many rebel fighters are captured and executed by the attackers after the U.S. refuses to provide air support.

2003 – The U.S. invasion of Iraq results in cooperation between the two main Kurdish adversaries, the KDP and the PUK. Kurdish forces fight alongside U.S. troops against Saddam’s government.

2005 – A regional Kurdish parliament is formed. Soon afterwards, oil discoveries lead to a fear within Iraq’s central government in Baghdad that the Kurdish autonomous region could try to secede. Furthermore, tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq arise and provoke clashes. Turkey’s tough measures against its own Kurdish population extend over the border into Iraq.

In a recent telephone conversation between President Obama and President Erdogan, Obama “emphasized the unwavering commitment of the United States to Turkey’s national security as a NATO Ally. The two leaders expressed their support for the understanding reached in Munich last week on the cessation of hostilities in Syria and called on Russia and the Assad regime to halt airstrikes against moderate opposition forces. The leaders pledged to deepen cooperation in the fight against all forms of terrorism, including the PKK, and reiterated their shared goal of degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL.” (emphasis added by OWW)

Words between world powers matter. America’s presence in the Middle East is fraught with resentment, hatred and bitterness based on the double standards, back room deals and treachery we have a demonstrated track history of waging. In our rush to defeat Daesh, we are willing to sacrifice innocent civilians and trample on human rights, so long as another world leader does it too.

After being on the wrong side of history on more than one occasion in the ME, it is time for Americans to force our policy makers to base decisions on the right reasons: humanity deserves no less.

Enough greed, power and capitalism has guided our decisions far too long, and we will no longer allow our military and foreign aid money to be used for the purposes of a genocide against the civilian Kurdish population within and around Turkey. Erdogan’s hatred is not our hatred, and we refuse to acquiesce to the notion that Kurds are terrorists because Erdogan says they are.

We encourage each of you as individuals to call, write or occupy the offices of your elected officials until they listen to these concerns.

We must demand that weaponry and ammunition sales to Turkey be halted until the war inside Turkey has ended and all sieges and curfews in all Kurdish cities have been lifted.
We must demand that the US continue viewing the YPG/YPJ as an important ally in the war against terror, and pledge to not turn our backs on them as Turkey demands we do.
We must demand humanitarian and human rights observers be allowed into SE Turkey’s Diyarbikir region until a reasonable stability has been restored to the civilian population of the area.

In addition, we strongly encourage you to support a Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan, a peace vigil taking place in Washington, DC, across the street from the Turkish Embassy. After 35 days of presence in Washington, the Turkish Embassy has responded with misrepresentative signs and personal insults, but no invitation to talk with anyone from the group of Kurds and Americans calling for hostilities in Turkey to cease. You can learn more about the vigil or make contributions to it by visiting this website.

Occupy World Writes will be sending one of our co-founders to visit the vigil in Washington DC during March. Those of you who live in and around the DC area are encouraged to visit in person, as well as spread the word via social network and other means.

About the Author:
Carol Benedict is an independent researcher studying Kurdish history, culture and politics. She is also a human rights activist and advocate. She earned her BA in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota, Winona and graduated with honors.

Unchanging state security policies in southeast Turkey

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The region’s people already know quite well that any policies pursued in the region are military-related, and have not brought peace but only more conflicts.

By Özlem Belçim Galip and Cemal Özkahraman. Published 2-2-2016 by openDemocracy

Centerpiece of the project: Atatürk Dam. Wikicommons/US federal government. Public domain.

In order to fight effectively against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), the prime minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, recently announced that his government will preside over a new security structure for the Kurdish inhabitants of Şırnak, Cizre, Hakkari and Yüksekova, in the south-east of the country, by changing the status of these cities and towns, transferring the administrative functions of Şırnak and Hakkari within 90 days to Yüksekova and Cizre. Apart from any ensuing socio-political conflict, this will also result in many administrative challenges. For example, 15 state institutions and 500 officers will be relocated.

Above all, this decision reflects the fact that the Turkish state is quite prepared to make changes in the region without reference to either negative outcomes for local people or judicial restrictions. The government knows that it holds all the necessary authority to make any judicial changes it feels appropriate with regard to its long or short-term planning. Continue reading →

Noam Chomsky supports A Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan

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Written by Carol Benedict

Noam Chomsky. Photo via AKIN.

As A Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan presents a daily display across from the Turkish embassy in Washington DC, support continues to grow for the dedicated individuals staffing the Vigil. With an expected storm bringing blizzard-like conditions to the DC area this weekend, the group is warmed by the knowledge that others are with them in spirit.

One such supporter is world-renowned US academic Noam Chomsky.

Professor Chomsky was recently singled out by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for having signed the same statement as 1,128 academia inside Turkey, calling for an end to the war against the Kurdish population of Turkey.

Under direction from Erdogan, arrests have begun of the signatories, with many others having their offices raided and the universities and colleges dismissing them from their positions.

Chomsky was accused by Erdogan of “ignorance and sympathising with terrorists.”

Kani Xulam, organizer of the Vigil, communicated the following message to his supporters.

“We contacted Professor Chomsky and told him of our Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan and asked him for a message of solidarity for our participants and supporters. He wrote us back and expressed his support for our undertaking and wished us success in making the US policy harmless toward the Kurds.”

The following is Professor Chomsky’s reply to the group:

Very pleased to learn about what you are doing. The intensifying repression in Turkey is deplorable, and should be a matter of deep concern, particularly for those familiar with the grim history. I hope you will have success in arousing understanding, awakening concern, and bringing about the changes you call for in US government policy.
Noam Chomsky

A Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan will remain until the indiscriminate war against the Kurdish population in Turkey ends. Many visitors to the Turkish Embassy are not cordial toward the Vigil’s participants. We believe that if the embassy would like the Vigil to end, they should ask their government to stop killing innocent Kurdish people within Turkey.

About the Author:
Carol Benedict is an independent researcher studying Kurdish history, culture and politics. She is also a human rights activist and advocate.

Turkey’s “Thousand Year-Old Friendship” with the Kurds belies truth

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Written by Carol Benedict. Published with Author’s permission.

Supporters of Turkey’s position take aim at the Kurdish Vigil across the street in Washington, DC. Image via Twitter.

As news unfolds of the growing human rights crisis in Turkey, the response has been to project the views of the regime and dictatorship of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to nations even within their NATO alliances.

Most recently, the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC has taken aim at an organization holding a Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan across the street from the embassy. On January 15, the Vigil began after realizing that during the previous evening, the embassy had hoisted a ostentatious flag and several banners repeating mistruths about Kurdish issues.

A native of Kurdistan, Kani Xulam is a commentator on the history and politics of Kurdistan, and advocates for the right of the Kurdish people to self-determination. He is the director of the American-Kurdish Information Network, and is involved in the Vigil in Washington.

Xulam stated the reasons for A Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan clearly in a statement published prior to the beginning of the event. His subsequent announcement was featured in an article, Is America’s Best Muslim Friend In the Middle East Being Crushed? The group is using the hashtags #KurdsHonorDrKing and #TwitterKurds.

Within Turkey, access to news has been controlled by the government. Any website or other social platform presenting views other than that of Erdogan’s is being blocked. Journalists attempting to cover the stories of the atrocities, human rights violations, indiscriminate killings and sieges and curfews on entire neighborhoods are being arrested, detained, tortured, and, in some cases killed.

What Turkey wants is for the international community to begin identifying all Kurds within their borders as associated with any organization labeled by the Turkish government as a terrorist group. If this goal can be accomplished, Turkey will achieve the dream of Erdogan to secure his life-long dictatorship over his country by perpetrating a mass genocide on the millions of Kurds residing within Turkey’s borders and will expect the world to look away as he claims they were protecting their nation.

There has never been a question of Turkey’s undeclared support and backing of the terrorists groups such as Daesh (IS). During the siege of Kobani a little more than a year ago, the military sat on the Turkish border and refused to allow Kurdish persons to cross to help defend the Syrian town. Meanwhile, evidence surfaced proving ISIS militants were allowed to cross at free will, bringing supplies, weaponry and additional fighters with them.

For years, those wishing to join the fight Daesh is waging across the Middle East have routed their access through Turkey. It has been documented in multiple credible news sources that ISIL fighters traveled through Turkey on their way to join the terrorist group. It was not until Daesh began attacking within the country of Turkey that access became more difficult, and yet it remains possible to this day.

Most Americans remain uninformed about news out of Turkey. It is seldom covered in US news media outlets, and usually only occurs when sensational headlines are associated. But more Americans need to pay attention, because their tax dollar is being used to commit these violations and atrocities within Turkey against an innocent civilian population.

President Barak Obama recently appealed to Americans to support his executive orders to remove loopholes in background checks for gun purchases in the US. During this speech, he remarked that we can no longer allow our children to be innocent victims of the senseless violence taking place in communities across America.

We must ask what difference there is in American children here and Kurdish children in Turkey, that the man who would say this can continue to approve and sign that which is needed for the US military industrial complex to continue to sell and ship weaponry and ammunition to a country that is using that weaponry against the children in their own country.

It is said that those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Humanity has seen this kind of treatment toward an ethnic group in the past, and each time we recoil in horror and swear we must never allow this to happen again. And now it IS happening again.

Anyone with a heart and soul that values humanity must take action and support all efforts to make the world aware before it is too late once again.

If you are reading this and can not physically join the Vigil that is currently taking place in Washington, DC across from the Turkish Embassy, you at least can share this and other news with any and all people that still have a beating heart within their chest.

About the Author:
Carol Benedict is an independent researcher studying Kurdish history, culture and politics. She is also a human rights activist and advocate.

Academics for Peace: “enemies of the state” in Turkey

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About 1,100 Kurdish and Turkish academics signed a letter condemning the ongoing atrocities by the Turkish army. In response, Erdoğan accused them of treason

Authored by Francis O’Connor & Semih Celik. Published in ROAR Magazine on 1-16-2016.

Police are arresting Academics in Turkey for signing a declaration. Photo via Twitter.

Police are arresting Academics in Turkey for signing a Declaration for Peace. Photo via Twitter.

“I am fine with everything except for imprisonment,” says a recently appointed Assistant Professor from one of the most prominent universities of the country, in Ankara.

“Everything happened so quickly. First, we signed the statement, the next day President Erdoğan was condemning us with the worst of adjectives, immediately after that, came the inquiries.”

His personal anxiety in the face of the latest clampdown on academics in Turkey is one example, but it is representative of the common mood among hundreds of young academics who have become part of a movement “Academics for Peace” through their signing of a statement.

KURDISH AREAS UNDER SIEGE

Since August last year, the Turkish government has imposed intermittent open-ended military curfews on an array of Kurdish cities in its campaign against young militants in the YDG-H, which is linked to the PKK. These have been dramatically scaled up since mid-December, however, when a number of cities — most notably the Sur district of Diyarbakir, Cizre, Silwan, Şırnak and Silopi — were put under military siege.

In these cities, around 200,000 civilians are trapped in what remains of their houses, in some cases for up to 30 days — many without electricity, water or even food in some places. Injured civilians have been prevented from accessing medical attention and have subsequently died of their wounds. Families have been prevented from reclaiming the bodies of their loved ones.

According to the Turkish Human Rights Foundation, the civilian death toll as of January 8 is 162 civilians, including 32 children, 29 women and 24 victims over 60 years of age. These extensive sieges involve enormous deployments of soldiers and police officers encircling urban centers before targeting them with heavy artillery, oblivious to the presence of local residents.

A CLAMPDOWN ON ACADEMICS

In light of Turkey’s flagrant disregard for both its own laws and international human rights protocols, more than a thousand Kurdish and Turkish academics signed a letter declaring that they would not pay silent witness to the ongoing atrocities. They announced: “we will not be a party to this massacre by remaining silent and demand an immediate end to the violence perpetrated by the state.”

The letter further called for an immediate end to the curfew, the presence of international monitors in the affected districts and a restoration of the peace negotiations which Erdoğan deliberately scuppered in an effort to restore the AKP’s electoral dominance last summer.

In response to the call for an end to the violence, Erdoğan decried the signatories’ ignorance, accused them of favoring colonialism and ultimately of treason. In the immediate aftermath, state prosecutors initiated legal proceeding against all the original signatories of the declaration, charging them with “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” and “overtly insulting the Turkish nation, the State of the Republic of Turkey, Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the Government of Republic of Turkey and the judicial organs of the state.” These charges can result in sentences of up to five years in prison. Twenty-two of the signatories have already been taken into custody.

In addition to these legal proceedings, the Council of Higher Education (Yükseköğretim Kurumuo, or YÖK) has vowed to take further punitive measures against the signatories. YÖK has demanded that Prof. Bülent Tanju from Abdullah Gül University in Kayseri resign, while individual university administrations — contrary to all legal protocols — have suspended or fired their own staff members, such as in the case of Professor Latife Akyüz in Düzce University.

In cities like Bolu and Kocaeli in northwestern Turkey, police have raided the houses of signatories. Incidentally YÖK was established by the military government in 1982 as a means to limit universities’ autonomy and restrict their capacity to serve as sources of opposition to the state.

A CAMPAIGN OF DEMONIZATION

In parallel to this blatant suppression of freedom of expression, a concerted media and political campaign is trying to further demonize the signatories. Turkey’s far-right MHP party has been to the forefront these efforts: one of its Istanbul deputies, İzzet Ulvi Yönter, declared that “the government should immediately take action and fight as it does in the districts of Sur, Cizre, Dargeçit and Silopi against the terrorists in universities.”

Meanwhile, other figures with links to fascist or Turkish nationalist organizations such as the criminal Sedat Peker have threatened: “at that moment, the bell will toll for you all … I would like to say it again: we will spill your blood and we will shower in it!”

This cannot be dismissed as an idle threat. Turkey has a long and shameful history of murdering intellectuals, critical academics and journalists. Calls like these are seized upon by university students of extreme right-wing political organizations like the Grey Wolves, responding with insults and threats to the signatories, mostly by marking and sticking threatening letters on their office doors promising to “make the city hell” for their own professors.

Students have also acted upon their threats by raiding their professors’ offices. Prof. Kemal İnal’s life, for instance, was directly threatened by his own colleagues. As a result, he was one of the two signatories to withdraw their signature. The threats, both from state officials and public figures, have found support among the pro-government and pro-state segments of Turkish society, contributing to the signatories’ stigmatization and leading only to further polarization.

A SENSE OF SOLIDARITY

The threats and legal measures have created a strong sense of solidarity among the academics who had signed the statement. Nearly all of the more than 1,100 signatories have declared that they stand firmly behind their words. Their efforts have been further supported by their own students in universities, and in a wave of statements of solidarity from filmmakers, journalists, publishing houses and authors.

However, given the horrendous human rights credentials of the Turkish state, anxiety caused by the inability to foresee what is awaiting them makes it harder to bear the smear campaign launched by the government and state institutions. “What is the worst that could happen?” worries one comrade who had signed the statement. The ambiguity of criminal codes and their arbitrary application since the 1990s leaves this ghastly question mark hovering in the signatories’ minds.

For a younger generation of academics who have been politicized in post-1990s Turkey, the immediate example is the unlawful imprisonment, for months, of thousands of Kurdish university students and professors, activists, journalists and members of the pro-Kurdish party under the accusation that they were members of the “civilian” wing of PKK, the KCK, in 2011.

The likelihood of spending months in prison makes losing academic positions a concern of lesser importance. Many of the affected academics who have established ties with institutions outside of Turkey maintain the possibility of fleeing abroad in order to be able to continue their professional careers in environments with a minimum breach to their freedom of expression.

Despite this gloomy and pessimistic picture, initial feelings of sorrow, weariness, fear and anxiety have been transformed into hope as a result of the ever-growing sense of solidarity. Another comrade, a research assistant from a private university in Istanbul whose contract has been suspended due to the ongoing investigations, expressed her happiness for the huge number of solidarity messages she has received in a single day.

In this light, we should consider that the ultimate outcome of the clampdown on the Kurdish activists in 2011 was broader solidarity and a better organized Kurdish movement, whose mobilization made the peace talks and the ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish armed forces possible.

At the moment, our conversations end with a sense of hope generated by the acts of solidarity of friends, colleagues and total strangers. Solidarity remains the only force to beat the darkness that prevails in the country for more than 40 years. Another comrade reminds us the famed verses of one of the most prominent contemporary poets of Turkey, Murathan Mungan: “Our path might cross through steppes/Yet; the streets will reach the sea.”

A COLLECTIVE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

Tonight, thousands of brave academics, journalists and activists across Turkey are anxiously awaiting a knock at the door — a knock that could potentially escort them to years in prison or add them to the tragic list of great minds murdered for views considered impermissible by the state. Similarly, tens of thousands of civilians are cowered down in the basements of Silopi, Cizre and Sur, parents attempting to lull hungry children to sleep while being bombarded by their own government.

Emboldened by his success in the November elections, Erdoğan is determined to quell any internal opposition and to silence all voices which resist his violent authoritarianism. The Turkish state’s willful disregard of its own citizens’ well-being and rights, and its determination to punish those who refuse to remain silent in face of its atrocities, demands a collective response from international political actors, activists and civil society.

Let us collectively raise our voices and act in solidarity with our Kurdish and Turkish colleagues and comrades under threat in Turkey. Solidarity demonstrations are being organized across the globe, across Europe, North America and of course in Turkey itself. The barbarism and inhumanity of Erdoğan and his regime needs to be halted.

The world can no longer remain complicit by its silence.

About the Authors:
Francis O’Connor is a Germany-based researcher from Ireland. He completed his PhD at the European University Institute on the Kurdish struggle in Turkey.
Semih Celik is a PhD candidate at the European University Institute, department of History and Civilization.

Is America’s Best Muslim Friend In the Middle East Being Crushed?

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Written by Kani Xulam. Published with Author’s permission.

Turkish Embassy in Washington DC, about to be visited by local Kurds and their supporters. Photo by Brian Johnson & Dane Kantner (originally posted to Flickr as Turkish Embassy) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Why is President Obama silent over brazen human rights violations in Turkey?

Will America turn a blind eye to the shelling of Kurdish civilians by Ankara?

America supplies the Turkish state with weapons to murder Kurds, the only group that has bravely fought and defeated the West-hating Islamic State cutthroats.

This American policy of apathy stands logic on its head, and makes a mockery of common sense.

Basic human decency cries out against such blatant injustice!

Kurds have not attacked Turkey. We only want what Abraham Lincoln justly hailed: “Self-government is better than good government.”

Kurds have never had a legitimate, let alone good, government under the Turks, and are now saying: mind your manners or else you are not welcome in our neighborhoods and cities.

Kurds share a country with the Turks—Turkey, which is fast becoming like Syria, an exporter of refugees and a brutal workshop for radical Islamists.

Kurds want to be a credit to the human race, and help Turkey turn into something like the old state of Czechoslovakia—a country that did not discriminate among the Czechs and the Slovaks at its birth and allowed their peaceful separation in 1993.

Kurds know that war is like an earthquake, and should be avoided at all costs—and if it has to be waged, it should only be done in self-defense, as Kurds are doing against Islamic State and Turkey now.

Kurds are horrified by news accounts of a 10 year-old Kurdish girl, Cemile Cagirga, murdered on the steps of her home by a Turkish sniper on September 7, 2015. The Turkish lockdown of her city heartlessly forced her mother to keep her child’s decomposing body in the freezer till the authorities allowed her to bury her child five days later.

Kurds are shocked to see on homemade videos that a three month-old Kurdish baby, Miray Ince, was shot in the face by another Turkish sniper in Silopi. When the child’s 80 year-old grandfather tried to rush her to the hospital, he too was shot dead.

The Ince family is still waiting to bury two generations in one day.

Kurds hate waking up on a Sunday morning to learn that a 38 year-old Kurdish woman, Melek Apaydin, sat down for breakfast in her home on Sunday, January 3, 2016—only have a shell from a Turkish tank blast her brains all over her living room.

Six thousand miles separate us from this gore and madness and yet as diaspora Kurds we are expected to sleep through it every night and report to work every morning as if it were business as usual.

It is not. Our loved ones can tell you that we can’t sleep at night, and can hardly make it through the day, wondering if peace with liberty will ever grace our lands again!

Unfortunately, Turkey is waging merciless war against the Kurds.

And yet, we come here in peace, ready to undergo suffering to make up for America’s sin of indifference towards this humanitarian crisis and Turkey’s sin of intransigence towards our immediate relatives.

Today, January 15, 2016, marks the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

He resisted the domination of whites over blacks, as we are resisting the domination of Turks over Kurds.

He also urged America to seek peace with Vietnam, as we are asking Turkey to do in Kurdistan.

We don’t claim to know how God works out these things.

We want the world to know that we will continue on the same road of nonviolence with Dr. King till death or victory comes our way.

To the Turks who are working in the embassy behind us, you can put an end to our presence here by urging your government to stop waging war on our loved ones, and lift the shroud of death hanging over our cities.

To the Kurds living in America, you can join our vigil.

To the Kurds living in other countries that respect the rule of law, you can ignite similar protests—until the world is aflame with our bold cry for justice.

To the Americans who are here or will see this statement of ours on the Internet, you can remain true to your noblest ideals—such as when your bravery buoyed Dr. King and crowned blacks with justice in America.

“He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it,” Dr. King declared.

American support for Kurdish justice, with the same vigor given Dr. King, can spark brushfires of freedom that will light up the world with courageous cries for freedom in Turkey and Kurdistan!

Thank you.

About the Author:
Kani Xulam is the Founder and Director of the American-Kurdish Information Network, an educational organization based in Washington, DC. He was featured in the 2010 Kevin McKiernan award-winning documentary, “Good Kurds, Bad Kurds.”