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Turkish Organized Crime (narcotics trafficking)

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Ioannis Michaletos
Athens, Greece
November 12, 2007

Turkey’s strategic location as a gateway from Asia into Europe, and its proximity to opium producing areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, have long made it an important locus for narcotics trafficking, predominantly heroin.

Turkey itself has long been an opium producer. In the early 1970’s, international pressure—mainly from the Nixon administration in the United States—obliged Turkey to enforce stricter rules for opium production in 1974, strictly limiting it to amounts required for pharmaceutical purposes. Up until then heroin was produced in Turkey as an opium derivative and quantities were sold to the West with the assistance of the Sicilian and Corsican mafias.

The heroin to be sold was transported by ship to Sicily, and then to Marseilles, where the Corsicans had created labs for the production of commercial product. From there it was transferred to New York and other American ports where the Italian-American mafia would organize its distribution. The United States administration at that time declared a war against narcotics and obliged the Turks to seek other sources of opium. Soon enough Turkish operational production bases were established in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The conflict in Afghanistan during the 1980’s, as well as the resurgence of a Kurdish insurgency in southeast Turkey after 1984 and the Iraq-Iran war of the same period; created a convergence of political, criminal, and military operations along the heroin supply chain from Afghanistan to Turkey.

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Moreover, the effective destruction of Beirut in the 1980’s reduced that city’s suitability as a prime port for the narcotics trade and this role was then taken on by Istanbul. Thus, the situation after the end of the Cold War in 1989 found Turkish organized crime groups involved in heroin trafficking much stronger financially from their trade in the previous decades and ready to pursue stronger ties with the supplier countries of Central Asia.

Furthermore, the rise of Albanian organized crime and militant groups in the 1990’s, and the civil wars in former Yugoslavia, provided ample human resources in the Balkans eager to get involved in the drug trade so as to survive financially or gain capital to achieve their political aims. Europe now already hosted considerable Turkish minorities—especially Germany—and some individuals from those Turkish communities were used to act as local retail agents for heroin distribution in Europe.

Trafficking Operations

Key Points

  • Turkish organized crime groups retain tight control over heroin trafficking into Europe.
  • Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria are utilized by Turkish organized crime for heroin warehousing.
  • Synthetic drugs are increasingly being shipped back along the Balkan route from the Netherlands to markets in Turkey.

Turkish organized crime groups function primarily as coordinators, financiers, and facilitators in the drug trade. Their experience in areas such as transportation, company formation, and facilitation management is used for organized crime activities in illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings. Turkey is an important transit country for illegal immigration to the European Union from, for example, China. Turkish organized crime groups are known to be involved in an array of legal businesses that are likely to be a method of laundering proceeds from heroin trafficking. Restaurants, bars, fast-food franchises, real estate agencies, travel agencies, and vehicle repair shops are examples of such businesses.

A large number of heroin shipments enter Turkey each month. They are then delivered, mainly through the Balkan route, to destination countries throughout Europe. In 2004, Turkish law enforcement agencies seized more than 6.5 tons of heroin and 4.5 tons of morphine base, in addition to over 100,000 liters of acetic anhydride, the principle chemical for heroin synthesis.

Historically, the Balkan route is the main overland connection between Asia and Europe. Every year, this route is taken by around 1.5 million trucks, 250,000 coaches, and 4 million cars .The most common way to transport heroin is to hide a relatively small quantity of 20 to 50 kilograms in a truck. Considering the scale of legitimate commercial trade on the Balkan route, combined with the fact that it takes  many hours to a whole day to search a truck, explains why it is virtually impossible to counteract these activities. In 1998, Tim Boekhout van Solinge estimated that 75 percent of the heroin smuggled into Europe is transported along the Balkan route.

Germany is a central redistribution point within Europe. Once heroin reaches Germany, it is repackaged and shipped on from there to the other major European markets, especially Britain and Scandinavia. Moreover, some of the leaders of the Turkish syndicates resided in Germany in the 1990’s and the country became a center of gravity for Turkish organized crime, at least with regard to their European narcotics trafficking operations.

Collaboration

Turkish organized crime groups are usually hierarchical and homogeneous, but over the years they have formed some enduring partnerships with other organized crime groups in Europe. Many Turks involved in the drug trade the Europe are long-term residents within their host countries, which assists them in developing links with non-Turkish organized crime groups and in their move to other areas of crime. In this respect, collaboration between Turkish and Albanian groups in particular has proved beneficial in exploiting large segments of the European market, in many different fields of illegal business.

The alliance of Turkish and Albanian criminal groups is due in part to historical cultural, religious, and ethnic links, and to an Albanian tendency to join and serve larger ethnic groups with whom they feel some affinity. A similar relationship developed in the United States, and in particular in New York, where for decades Albanian crime groups tended to operate under the aegis and influence of the much stronger Sicilian-American mafia families. Albanian “procurement groups” mainly purchase heroin from Turkish wholesale traders who are increasingly using Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania to cache heroin that has passed down the supply chain.

Diversification

Over the past few years, trends have emerged concerning Turkish organized crime that suggest a diversification process is taking place. For instance, there is a firearm trafficking route to Western Europe that runs from Turkey through Serbia and Montenegro. Turkish small arms are increasingly finding their way through the black market into Western Europe via the Balkan route, the same route used to transport heroin and other narcotics. Furthermore, it seems that certain groups of Turkish origin residing permanently in Western Europe, and most importantly in the Netherlands, are increasingly involved in the distribution of synthetic drugs from that country into Germany and Turkey. In exchange, they are supplied with heroin or weapons. In essence, they are diversifying their criminal activities by engaging in the trafficking of both drugs and arms.

Turkish groups retain a tight control over the exploitation of the heroin market in Europe and in Britain in particular. According to the British National Criminal Intelligence Service (now replaced by the Serious Organized Crime Agency) spokesperson in 2006, “Turkish organized crime retains a tight control over the estimated 30 tons a year that feed into the U.K. On average, the authorities seize only two tons per year. The profits are made not by Afghan traffickers or the Taliban but by trafficking organizations in Turkey [and] U.K.-based, Turkish organized crime groups.”

The diversification of Turkish operations also has a geographical element, since over the past few years there has been an increased focus on setting up businesses in Hungary to facilitate drug shipments. Hungary is a new member of the European Union, located right in the center of Europe and close to the main markets of Germany, Italy, and Poland. Moreover, it has less well-developed organized crime monitoring and prevention structures than some of its neighbors, and has become something of a base for Turkish, Albanian, and Chinese groups. It is interesting to note that document forgery is another area of criminal activity that, according to Europol, is growing as an illegitimate source of income for Turkish organized crime.

Presence in the Netherlands

The presence of Turkish organized crime groups in the Netherlands has intensified in the past few years. Police authorities in Amsterdam have reported significantly increased activity by crime groups from the Balkans and Turkey. These groups specialize in smuggling immigrants, narcotics, and arms.

Showing some specialization (Turkish groups have focused on narcotics, Slavic groups on arms) the groups have fought over markets and territories in the city. Police raids have found grenade launchers, explosives, and “heavy weapons suitable for warfare,” believed to be in transit from origins in Eastern Europe to terrorist groups.

As mentioned above, Turkish organized crime has gradually become involved in the distribution of synthetic drugs. As a consequence, the trafficking of drugs such as ecstasy into Turkey has increased. Turkey was in a very good position regarding drug use rates before ecstasy availability increased, and statistics point to a sharp rise in the use of synthetic drugs among young Turks. Social and economic changes, drug prices, and tourism are blamed for a trend that has also altered traditional smuggling patterns in the mainly Muslim country. It is important to note that the dumping of synthetic drugs (at very low street prices) was made possible by the European-Turkish organized crime syndicates that are now finding their homeland to be a lucrative market.

Money Laundering

The increase in the activities of Turkish organized crime, over the past few years, can be illuminated by a review of money laundering activities that have expanded in the country. While the number of suspicious transaction reports submitted by Turkish financial institutions has “increased substantially,” the level of reporting “remains low” when the “size and nature” of Turkey’s financial sector is considered. That was one of the key findings of the Financial Action Task Force’s “Third Mutual Evaluation Report” on Turkey, which rated the country’s efforts to interdict money laundering and terrorist financing.

The major sources of criminal proceeds in Turkey are drug trafficking, smuggling, fraud, bankruptcy, document forgery, pillage, highway robbery, kidnapping, and “serious crimes against the state,” according to the task force’s report. The primary tools for laundering are money transfers and other banking transactions, commercial transactions, accounting transactions, and real estate transactions, the report added.

Moreover, the annual Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development financial report for 2007 revealed the existence of the problem relating to money laundering from organized crime activities. According to the report, “The number of convictions for money laundering in Turkey is relatively low, and the new legislation has not yet been in place long enough to fully demonstrate its effectiveness. Confiscation measures, although complete, have also not yet produced substantial results. The Turkish FIU [Financial Intelligence Unit] is responsible for the receipt, analysis, and dissemination of STR [suspicious transaction report] information for investigation by law enforcement. The number of STRs received, however, is relatively low.”

A closer examination reveals an abundance of undeclared capital flowing into the country over the past five years that has its social and political ramifications as well. Between 2002 and 2003, the summary balance of payments for the net error and omission category—basically unexplained income—increased from $149 million to almost $4 billion.

It is believed that Turkish-based traffickers transfer money to pay narcotics suppliers in Pakistan and Afghanistan through alternative remittance systems. The funds are transferred to accounts in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and other Middle Eastern countries. The money is then paid to the Pakistani and Afghan traffickers.

The Turkish judicial system lacks sufficient training to combat organized crime by pursuing an anti-money laundering policy. Between 2003 and 2005, more than 2,100 money-laundering investigations were launched, but only eight resulted in convictions. One factor contributing to this low conviction rate is the fact that Turkey’s police, prosecutors, judges, and investigators need additional training in dealing with financial crimes. In addition, there is a lack of coordination among law enforcement agencies, and between the courts that prosecute the predicate offences and those that prosecute money-laundering cases. Most of the cases involve non-narcotics criminal actions or tax evasion; but a considerable 30 percent are narcotics-related.

Human Trafficking

In July 2007, Pakistan’s security agencies alerted its European counterparts to a massive human trafficking operation that it had detected. According to this information, organized crime groups were about to transfer 10,000 illegal immigrants from Pakistan to Europe via Turkey, and they were due to arrive—most probably in the Greek Aegean Sea—by early September. Greek security sources confirmed the report, and an operation was allegedly carried out by the Turkish police to locate the immigrants along with the criminal network responsible for their transfer. It has to be noted though that September witnessed a substantial increase of illegal immigration along Greek and Turkish border regions resulting in a special meeting between Greek political officials just a few weeks ago.

Turkish crime syndicates have exploited the strategic geopolitical placement of the country, as an Asian gateway to Europe, in order to expand their operations in illegal immigration and human trafficking.

This is a truly global criminal enterprise and the profits are immense. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Britain, “Globally each year 500,000-700,000 people are trafficked, earning criminals $12-20 billion,” and that might be a very conservative estimation. Most groups that facilitate immigration crime prefer to work within their own ethnic and family backgrounds, and are mainly of British-South Asian, Chinese, Turkish, or Albanian ethnic origin. Criminals charge from 2,000 to 20,000 pounds to bring someone into Britain. Typically, repayment for the journey or for provided accommodations can involve long-term menial, low-paid labor, and in the case of women, forced prostitution. In 2004, it was noted that over one million illegal immigrants were “in transit” through Turkey. It was assumed a third of them would exit the country and head toward European cities.

Besides being a “transit country,” Turkey has gradually become a “target country” with more and more illegal immigrants entering Turkey by sea, air, and land from Asian and African countries.

Facing increasing human trafficking, Turkey introduced an action plan and launched a national task force in 2003 to cope with the issue. According to Turkish Police Director General Gokhan Aydiner, more than 500,000 illegal immigrants have been captured in the country over the past 10 years. In an interview with local private television station NTV, Aydiner said, “The transportation of 575,516 illegal immigrants via Turkey has been hindered and 6,113 human traffickers from 39 different countries have been captured since 1995.”

Countermeasures

The diversification and expansion of Turkish organized crime groups has prompted the Turkish state to initiate a series of bilateral and multilateral security agreements and meetings with neighboring countries, in an attempt to curb the phenomenon. The most important over the past five years have been:

  • An agreement between Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey on combating terrorism, organized crime, and other perilous types of crime (April 30, 2002).
  • A Greek-Turkish protocol on combating organized crime (June 21, 2002).
  • An agreement between Ukrainian and Turkish organs for fighting organized crime to broaden cooperation (March 5, 2003).
  • An agreement between the United Nations and Turkey to increase cooperation against drug trafficking and organized crime (Sept. 3, 2003).
  • A ministerial meeting between Greece, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey on organized crime (Dec. 17, 2005).

Outlook

The general outlook for Turkish organized crime groups is a continuation of their strong role in the contemporary European environment as well as in Turkey.

The heroin trade is mainly in the hands of second generation Turks residing in Germany who collaborate strongly with their Albanian counterparts in a variety of schemes. Interesting trends in the operation of these groups include their diversification into the synthetic narcotics market, with the Netherlands as an epicenter. Moreover, Hungary is becoming a regional hub for Turkish groups, as it has been for a number of other crime syndicates since the early 1990’s. Illegal immigration is a lucrative trade originating from the transfer of Asians to Europe via Turkey, a multibillion-dollar illegal commerce that further empowers Turkish criminal groups.

Money laundering poses a considerable threat for Turkey, and recent international reports indicate a substantial increase in the flow of informal capital into the country. This correlates with increasing organized crime activities originating from Turkish citizens over the past few years.

The Turkish authorities have progressed in forging regional agreements to combat the activities of organized crime groups, and have increased their effectiveness in confiscating narcotics shipments, resulting in numerous arrests. What is important to highlight though is the transnational aspect of the Turkish groups that calls for a coordinated pan-European response.

Finally, a weakness on the part of the Turkish authorities with regard to combating organized crime is the lack of the appropriate skills in dealing with capital laundering and the transfer of illegal funds that fuel support for organized crime groups and allow them to become more influential domestically and internationally.

Armenian delegation concludes several-day visit to Dead Sea Jordan

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Dead Sea, Sept. 22 (Petra)–Members of a government Armenian delegation who have just concluded a several-day tour to Jordan said they would come back again to the Kingdom but on private visits to bring their family members. Standing eastern bank of the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized, the officials from the foreign ministry of the former Soviet republic stressed that they would promote Jordan, the biblical land, to younger generation in their country to know more about the roots of Christianity. The Kingdom of Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its religion in the early years of the 4th century.

“This is my second time to Jordan but the first to the Baptism Site,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Manasaryan, who noted that it was hard for him to describe his feelings towards the spirituality of the place as he was walking out of the river.

“I will do my best to come back again soon but with my family,” he added.

For Manasaryan it is crucial for young Armenians to know more about the roots of Christianity and the religious site is the perfect place for this purpose.

According to the official, Armenians know that Jordan is a holy land for Christians, but he acknowledged that tourism traffic between Amman and Yerevan is still at low levels.

However, Manasaryan expressed optimism that tourists flow between the two countries would strengthen in the months to follow as the Armenian church at the Baptism Site is set to be open in the near future.

“Almost 90 per cent of the church construction is ready now,” he pointed out.

As the official delegation toured archaeological site at the holy place, they commended the level of services provided by Jordan.

It is so good to see that several churches have been built just next to the river and the pilgrims are visiting this place on daily basis to take a breath of peace,” a member of the Armenian delegation said while walking from the River site back to the main entrance.

“The remains found are proving the authenticity of the site and you can sense the peace and tranquillity during the walk,” Manasaryan to describe what he saw.

Among these sites is the place were Jesus was baptized, where the remains of five churches uniquely designed and built since the 5th century as memorials of Jesus baptism can be seen. Other important sites of the Baptism Site include Elijah’s Hill, Cave Church, the Pools, The Bethany Saphsaphas, The Church of Arch and John the Baptist Spring among others.

The site of John the Baptist’s settlement at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized, has long been known from the Bible (John 1:28 and 10:40) and from the Byzantine and medieval texts.

The site has now been identified on the east bank of the Jordan River, in Jordan, and is being systematically surveyed, excavated, restored, and prepared to receive pilgrims and visitors. Bethany Beyond the Jordan is located half an hour by car from Amman.

The Bethany area sites formed part of the early Christian pilgrimage route between Jerusalem, the Jordan River, and Mount Nebo.

The Armenian delegation had other archaeological attractions to see during a tour organised by the Jordan Tourism Board as they visited the Roman Amphitheatre in downtown Amman as well as the Citadel, which overlooks the capital.

“I expect hundreds of tourists from Armenia would be visiting Jordan next year to experience the spirituality of the holy land,” Manasaryan remarked.

//Petra// ON
22/9/2012 – 03:12:24 PM

Turkey should face the past. Yavuz Baydar

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20:18, 19 September, 2012

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS: Apology, in my opinion, is secondary. First and foremost, the emphasis should be on this society’s courage to face the sins of the past. We were deprived of it until today. This is a frightened society. I am not ashamed to say this: We were fed this fear, we were scared throughout all our lives. Our ruling system has been based on fear. We have to change that. The only way is to confront our past. As Armenpress reports citing Huffington Post, these are the words of İshak Alaton, a prominent octogenarian Turkish businessman of Jewish origin. After releasing his memoirs not so long ago, Alaton has become more and more vocal, calling endlessly for an end to the bloody Kurdish conflict as one of the “wise men” ready to be part of a dialogue on reconciliation, asking for the courage to face the crimes that were committed during the collapse of Ottoman rule and asking citizens to speak out. When a ship called the Struma was dragged to the port of Old İstanbul in 1941, Alaton was a 15-year-old witness to the agony onboard. The 60-year-old vessel was the last hope of 769 Romanian Jews fleeing the Nazis, but its engines had stopped at the Black Sea end of the Bosporus. The issue led to pressure on Ankara from Adolf Hitler’s regime, and after 72 days of despair, the Struma was sent by Turkish authorities back into the Black Sea, where it was torpedoed by the Soviet navy. Only one person survived. “Those responsible for this in Ankara are, to my mind, murderers. This society, of which I am a part, has a problem with hiding from its past. We pretend that if we lock them away the problems will be gone. But the corpses that rot in there poison the air that we breathe. Is any serenity possible without confrontation? Let us do it, so that we can make peace with the past.” The Struma disaster, a hidden episode in the republic’s history, is the subject of a new book written by Halit Kakınç, and its preface is written by, yes, Alaton himself. It is not for nothing the subject of “genies out of the bottle.” is to persist on the agenda of Turkey, opened up in a sort of “Turkish perestroika” by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the past decade.  And, only days after the release of the Struma book, another hit the shelves — a potential intellectual bombshell. “1915: Armenian Genocide” is its title and, not only due to its cover but also its groundbreaking content, it overwhelms many others on the subject that have been published. What makes the book outstanding and unique is that it was written by Hasan Cemal, an internationally renowned editor and columnist who is the grandson of Cemal Pasha. This kinship is key to understanding the book’s historic significance: Cemal Pasha was a member of the triumvirate, whose other parts were Talat and Enver Pasha, responsible for the Great Armenian Tragedy, which started with a mass deportation of Ottoman Armenians from their homelands and ended with their annihilation between 1915 through 1916. In his account, Hasan Cemal concludes it was genocide. He does not intend, or pretend, to argue his case like a historian would. His is a painful intellectual journey that takes us through his own evolution, a rather ruthless self-scrutiny of his intellectual past that amounts to an invaluable piece of private archeology. He has done this before. In other books, he questioned his “militarist revolutionary” past, confronting boldly his own mistakes his deep disbelief in democracy, plotting coups, his experience as newspaper editor, etc. But this one is even more personal. “It was the pain of Hrant Dink which made me write this book,” he told the press. Dink was a dear Turkish-Armenian colleague to many of us, as he was to Cemal. He was assassinated in broad daylight on a street of Istanbul by a lone gunman in January 2007, sending shockwaves around the world. “Look at my age; it’s been years and years that I have defended the freedom of expression. But should I keep secret some of my opinions, only for myself? Should I still have some taboos of my own? Should I still remain unliberated? Is it not a shame on me, Hasan Cemal?” In the preface, he writes: “We cannot remain silent before the bitter truths of the past. We cannot let the past hold the present captive. Also, the pain of 1915 does not belong to the past, it is an issue of today. We can only make peace with history, but not an ‘invented’ or ‘distorted’ history like ours, and reach liberty.” The pain of Dink’s memory,  which scarred many of us so eternally may have been a crucial point for it, but by turning a “personal taboo-breaking” into a public one, Cemal opened a huge hole in the wall of denial of the state. It broke another mental dam. This bold exercise in freedom of speech will, in time, pave the way for the correct path. It is up to the individuals of Turkey to do the same, and bow before their consciences. Perhaps this is why there has been such silence over this book in the days since its publication. It is also very difficult to find in bookstores. There are rumors that some chains are refusing to sell it. This may be true, but it cannot now be unpublished. The genie is out of the bottle but the ghosts of the past are also very much alive. The “silent treatment” is proof of that. If anything, it shows how frightened people are. Not only does the state owe an apology for the past, but an even bigger apology is necessary for enforcing, decade after decade, a mass internalization of denialism in this country

NKR PM (Ara Harutyunyan as Prime Minister) “hogged up” whole Stepanakert – paper Zhoghovurd daily

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September 15, 2012 – 13:48 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On September 14, Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan signed a decree to appoint Ara Harutyunyan as Prime Minister. The new PM was instructed to submit a list of government officials in a 20-day term, Zhoghovurd daily said.

According to the daily, the majority of Artsakh residents are disappointed with the decision. Stepanakert people hoped that if re-elected Sahakyan will “get rid of” Harutyunyan seeing as the latter has hogged up the whole city. Harutyunyan owns almost all of major buildings, cafes and hotels in NKR capital.

As Zhoghovurd said citing Artsakh residents, while on a post of PM, Harutyunyan was busy expanding his business. “However, aware of his activities, Sahakyan re-appointed the PM to continue with the “old tradition”,” the paper said.

The ICC (International Criminal Court) and crimes against humanity in Turkey

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By: ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

As you see below, the situation is very complex. But we are left with a quite simple question: While Serbs continue to deliver Serbian butchers to The Hague, who will try Turkish butchers who committed crimes against humanity in the ’90s against Kurds in Turkey?

Finally Ratko Mladic, the former chief of staff of the Army of Republika Srpska, has been arrested and he is on his way to The Hague. This is, of course, a step forward for justice for the victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. I am sure it will be a huge relief for Bosnians to see Mladic accounting for the crimes he has committed before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

This news, of course, was also met with great happiness in Turkey by Turks, who have a deep affinity with the Bosnian victims for historical and religious reasons. Mladic and his men used to call Bosnian Muslims Turks. Whether they are aware or not of Mladic’s deep-seated hatred for “Turks,” Turkish people welcomed the news of the arrest of this perpetrator of genocide, who is called the Serbian butcher in Turkey.

In Turkey, most people focused on Mladic’s arrest without thinking too much about its implications for the Serbian people and political system. Delivering war criminals and genocide perpetrators one after another to the ICTY, an ad hoc international court, is a manifestation of a strong political will on the part of Serbia, is it not? In this way, the Serbian political establishment has parted ways with the bloody past of Serbian fascists. Some Serbs are really facing up to their past atrocities, in spite of strong ultranationalist segments that are still alive in that society.

Interestingly enough, between 1992 and 1995, while Bosnian Muslims and Croats were being butchered, there was another serious crime committed in southeastern Turkey. During the ’90s more than 3,500 Kurdish villages were destroyed and tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings were committed. While most Turks welcome the delivery of Mladic to the ICTY, most probably they don’t know that those involved in this destruction of villages and extrajudicial killings committed crimes that are defined as “crimes against humanity,” and thus they could also be transferred to The Hague if Turkey became a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Under Article 7 of the Rome Statute, crimes against humanity mean, amongst other things, “murder” and “deportation or forcible transfer of population” when committed as part of widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population. This definition is a perfect definition of the crimes that were committed against Kurds in those years. And we also know that the drafters of the Rome Statute also intended to cover the atrocities committed within the borders of a sovereign country. I have not heard about any person being put on trial because of their role in the destruction of villages in southeastern Turkey. Amongst those tens of thousands murders, only 20 of them are now being addressed in a trial in Cizre, murders allegedly committed by Col. Cemal Temizöz between 1993 and 1994 in this district.

We also know that some founders and commanders of JİTEM, which was responsible for most of these extrajudicial killings, are now being tried in the Ergenekon case for being members of this organization. It is, of course, quite significant to see them behind iron bars, but it is also quite sad that we cannot see them giving an account for crimes against humanity. Imagine if Mladic was being tried in Serbia for being a member of a terrorist organization that aims to overthrow the Serbian government. Would it then be said that justice was being served?

Interestingly enough, as far as I can see, most of Turkey’s hesitation regarding the ICC and reluctance to be a part of it stems from the possibility that the prosecutor in The Hague may press charges against people who have committed crimes against Kurds. Retroactive application of the Rome Statute is not a known practice, but bureaucrats in the Turkish Foreign Ministry may be keeping in mind the possibility that the ICC may adhere to the interpretation that in the case of an “ongoing violation” (reluctance to investigate extrajudicial killings and the inability of Kurds to return to their villages that were destroyed) it would be possible for past crimes, which were committed before a state party ratified the Rome Statute, can be tried by the ICC.

As you see, the situation is very complex. But we are left with a quite simple question: While Serbs continue to deliver Serbian butchers to The Hague, who will try Turkish butchers who committed crimes against humanity in the ’90s against Kurds in Turkey?

Artsakh President receives a group of famous astronauts

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On September 16, President of Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan received a group of the participants of a conference titled “Man and the Space,” professor of the Institute of Astrophysics of Canary Islands and European Northern Observatory, Gagik Israelyan, famous astronauts Charles Duke (USA) and Claude Nicollier (Switzerland).

President Bako Sahakyan expressed his gratitude to the famous scientists and astronauts for coming to Artsakh and participating in such an important event, which will contribute greatly to the development of science in the country.

In return, the guests expressed satisfaction over the fact that the first conference in memory of world-famous astronaut Neil Armstrong was held in Artsakh.

Issues related to the development of exact sciences and organizing various international scientific events in Artsakh were discussed as well.

NKR Acting Minister of Education and Science, Vladik Khachatryan, other officials were present at the meeting, presidential press service reported.

 

Armeno-Kurdish Relations: Love Fest or Divorce Settlement Meetings?

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Posted by Dr. Henry Astarjian on August 19, 2012

Like a first date with a potential lover or a last meeting to settle divorce property with an ex, Armenian and Kurdish individuals are in a fest, both knowing full well that negative feelings hover over the canopy under which they are sipping champagne. Both sides, dealing from a position of weakness, manage to create a façade of joviality and happiness for the created opportunity. And both sides realize that in order to settle their differences, they have to accept difficult compromises, and yield serious overdue concessions to the other side. Such are Armeno-Kurdish relations today.

Individuals from both sides, meeting individually in various places and on various occasions, are set to rediscover each other. Recently boy-meets-girl and getting-to-know-you opportunities were created. I am mindful of the visit of Armenian dance troops to Dersim (Tunceli), Armenian Diasporan participations in Newruz celebrations, and in celebrations for renovation of a church in Diyarbekir.

As part of their public relations strategy, the Kurds are desperately trying to makeover their look by attempting to erase the image of savagery, which they perpetrated during the Armenian Genocide. Their first official act came from the Kurdish Parliament in Exile in Brussels through their communiqué #1, in which they apologized to the Armenian nation for all the ills they have committed against us.

Another such sweet event was the celebration in Diyarbekir during the consecration of Surp Giragos Church, when the city hosted Armenian clergy and lay people with signs and flags welcoming their guests “Home”—an uplifting gesture indeed that goes beyond the usual mea culpa! No Armenian, to my knowledge, packed his bag to go “Home,” and none is expected to do so anytime soon.

Armenians, in turn, are making a half-hearted effort to forgive, but not to forget, the Kurdish atrocities perpetrated before, during, and after the genocide. These are very difficult tasks for both.

Kurds, some 30 million of them, have been battling for a century to gain notoriety in their own land. Their major shortcoming has been, and to some degree still is, tribalism. This socio-political structure was a major obstacle in gaining statehood when the pie was being divided at Sevres. This Treaty of Peace, which sealed a lot of deals in dividing the defeated Ottoman Empire, provided in its article 64 a rare opportunity for Kurdish independence:

“If within one year from the coming into force of the present Treaty the Kurdish peoples within the areas defined in article 62 shall address themselves to the Council of the League of Nations in such a manner as to show that a majority of the population of these areas desires independence from Turkey, and if the Council then considers that these peoples are capable of such independence from Turkey and recommends that it should be granted to them, Turkey hereby agrees to execute such a recommendation, and to renounce all rights and title over these areas.”

The mandated year passed, and now over 90 years later, the Kurdish society remains disunited in purpose. This fact does not need much to verify; one look at the societal and political make-up of Turkish Kurdistan or the Kurdish Parliament in Exile based in Brussels would convince one of its authenticity.

Further evidence comes from the recent Buyuk Millet Meclisi (Turkish Parliament) elections where the Kurdish vote was split and their goals shattered as a result.

The most recent disunity and story of betrayal comes from skeptics and conspiracy theorists who believe that Abdullah Ocalan was betrayed by his Kurdish adversaries, or I should say enemies, which led to his kidnapping from Kenya by Turkish special agents.

Kurdish political thought and institutions are so dangerously diverse and divided, that a section of them prefer their status quo within Turkey; others inebriated by religious fervor work for the return of the Islamic Caliphate of yesteryear; and yet others yearn for total independence and statehood.

This being the situational climate, Kurds can offer us only love and good will, which they are attempting to do, and we accept all that with gratitude—but that is not enough! The price of reconciliation is far greater than that. Granted they cannot give us what they don’t have, but sooner or later 30 million or so of them will have to have some kind of self-rule—be it autonomy, federation, or confederation—with Turkey, taking our legitimate rights to Western Armenia with them. This is not acceptable!

To achieve their goals, the Kurds need to forge alliances. Among their most natural allies, aside from the mountains, are the Armenians who spread the span of the globe and can exercise their ideological and political clout to bolster the cause. This can happen if and when our love fest is consummated in concrete terms.

We have the same past, the same political and armed struggle, the same national aspirations, the same future, the same destiny, and the reciprocity of goodwill. Furthermore, regardless of all circumstances, we are locked in and destined to live together. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Kurdish Prince Badrkhan forged an alliance with the Armenians, put together some 40,000-strong armies consisting of both parties, and waged a war against the central Turkish government. At the beginning they gave Turks hell only to live in one when Badrkhan’s brother, who was commanding the forces on the right flank of the attack, betrayed them in lieu of money and perks offered him by the Turks.

When all is said and done, Armenians have their own problems and shortcomings. Physically they are scattered almost everywhere and in most places they are comfortable. The genocide and post-genocide psychological and physical translocations have created a reality of apathy in the nation. In the diaspora, people, especially the political parties, are interested in rehashing failed policies because it justifies projecting guilt on the perpetrators of the genocide, thereby avoiding a commitment to the new, necessary, risky, and difficult issue of Western Armenia.

Poverty of thought prevails in the nation; the intellectual class of yesteryear was either beheaded on the eve of the genocide, assassinated like Hrant Dink, or died a natural death. No! There are no replacements! There is a void, a political thought and action vacuum, which the church is trying to fill affirming the millet mentality and reality. History tells us how disastrous that could be!

The Third Republic is corrupt to the core and sitting on its hands while tens of thousands leave the country, creating an unprecedented brain drain.

The diaspora, neglecting the real issue of regaining our rights in Western Armenia, is busy like the hounds chasing the plastic rabbit dangled in front of us. A church here, a church there, or a monument renovated and returned to us, generates psychological but deceptive comfort. It does not address the real issue of Western Armenia.

Movers and shakers—if there are any in the nation—must have unity of purpose. Bring this issue on the radar screen, and then sip champagne with the Kurds under the canopy of the Sevres Treaty, in a divorce settlement while engaging in love fest.

Turkish Prim minister Erdoğan tells Turkish journalists: don’t cover conflict with Kurds

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By Özgür Öğret and Nina Ognianova/CPJ Europe and  Central Asia Program Staff

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey  is known to lash out publicly at journalists of whose coverage he disapproves. He  has called on media owners and editors to discipline reporters and columnists critical  of his policies, particularly when it comes to the sensitive Kurdish issue. In  more than a few cases, to avoid trouble, newsroom managers have listened and  dismissed the staffers in question.

But Erdoğan’s most recent televised message to  the media crosses from reprimanding into directly instructing journalists to  stop covering the long-standing conflict between the Turkish Armed Forces and  the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). This is unthinkable.

At a live TV debate on August 31, the prime  minister told journalists: “This [news about the conflict] must be ignored;  there is no other way.” He proceeded to claim that U.S., French, and British  media do not cover military action in Afghanistan. (This, of course, is untrue.  A simple Google news search of the keywords “coalition forces in Afghanistan”  returns 21,000 hits.)

Erdoğan brought up the recent kidnapping by the PKK of an opposition member of parliament, who was released two days  later in southeastern Turkey. The prime minister said he believed the  kidnapping had been staged and, by covering the incident, Turkish media served  as a propaganda platform for the PKK. “I really expect the media [to act] as  one hand, one heart,” Erdoğan said. “I want to come to an understanding with  you on this subject. This is a message to all the media. There are soldiers of  all the coalition forces in Afghanistan. There were 158 losses in the last  month, I received the numbers today. However, you cannot see this in either a  British newspaper or in a French one. However, when it is us, print media  covers it all.

“What are they [Turkish media] doing?” the  prime minister said. “The most important target of terrorism is propaganda.  [Terrorism] gets it done for free here. On whose side will the media be?”

Propaganda of terrorism is an umbrella term in  Turkey, where the legal system provides authorities with ample opportunity to  prosecute and imprison journalists, publishers, academics, activists, and  demonstrators on the vaguely defined charge. Dozens of journalists are in  prison in Turkey for their work, the vast majority of them on PKK and  terrorism-related charges.

The prime minister has publicly claimed a  commitment to freedom of the press and freedom of expression as pillars of a  democratic society, including in last week’s exclusive interview  with CNN journalist and CPJ board member Christiane Amanpour. But when he  equates media coverage with abetting terrorism, he sends a message to Turkey’s  judiciary and prosecutors to keep going after members of the press who cover  the sensitive Kurdish story.

In his August 31 statements, Erdoğan  specifically told the media to stop reporting on fallen Turkish soldiers, who  are officially recognized as “martyrs” by the Turkish state. When a journalist  pointed out that readers demand coverage of the issue, the prime minister was  straightforward: “Here, I believe that covering it even in small ways should be  put aside. It should not be covered at all.”

It’s of little surprise, then, that  pro-Kurdish local television station Gün TV is banned from broadcasting its  evening news programs for a week starting tomorrow. The program’s hosts were  also banned from appearing on air–not only on Gün TV but on any station–for the  same period. An astronomy documentary series will be aired instead of news,  local reports said. The ban was ordered by the High Board of Radio and  Television (RTÜK)–the state media regulator–on a complaint made by Mustafa  Toprak, the governor of Diyarbakir province, on request of local police. The  complaint reportedly said that Gün TV was involved in terrorist propaganda by  praising the PKK and its leaders, according to the local press.

Meanwhile, the  trial of more than 40 Kurdish journalists, charged with supporting  terrorism, continued for a third consecutive day in Istanbul today. The  accusations stem from media coverage of PKK activities.

Özgür Öğret is a Turkish freelance journalist and CPJ’s Istanbul correspondent.

Nina Ognianova is coordinator of CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program. A native of Bulgaria, Ognianova has led CPJ advocacy missions to Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan.

Kurdish historian on 1915 Armenian Genocide

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September 14, 2012 | 00:04

ANKARA. – Turkish Taraf newspaper correspondent took an interview from a Kurdish famous historian and writer Naci Kutlay. Armenian News-NEWS.am presents an extract from the interview, where Kutlay speaks of Kurds and their role in the Armenian Genocide.

Slaughters of the Armenians were perpetrated during the nationalist boom?

We should know one thing – the Armenians established their party in 1889 and moved into the phase of bourgeoisie, while the Kurds were not even aware of the developed feudal system. In this period all started to be cautious of the Armenians. And the Young Turks started to scare the Kurds by the Armenians.

Did the Kurds play a role in perpetrating Armenian slaughters?

They did play a great role, as majority of the Armenians were slaughtered by the Kurds.

Following those events almost no Armenian was left in Anatolia, while those who stayed hid their identity. Why the Kurds are still afraid of the Armenians?

I am afraid but the issue is still up to date. The Young Turks have told the Kurds if they will not cooperate with Young Turks in their liberation struggle, Armenians will come back and establish their country. It sounded like a verdict for the Kurds.

Is it possible that continuous silence of Turks and Kurds about the Armenian slaughters is related to the robbery of the Armenians’ property?

It is a very huge factor. If you ever happen to be a guest in any home in Diyarbakir, you will be served exclusively with Armenian plates.

Turkey supports Assad toppling to increase regional influence – expert

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September 12, 2012 – 16:35 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net –  From the very onset, Turkey supported toppling of Syria’s Assad regime as a means of boosting its regional influence, a Turkologist believes.

As Hakob Chakryan told a September 12 news conference, “With Turkey having a hand in toppling of Assad, as pro-Turkish forces become included in the new government, Ankara’s regional influence is sure to soar.”

Arab studies expert Hayk Kocharyan, in turn, shared his views on reaching a settlement in Syria crisis.

“First solution would be a Libyan scenario, with a protracted war. The second one is a Somalia scenario, where the country is divided between a number of armed groups, with anarchy reigning.

However, Syria’s system of values makes the 1st scenario unlikely,” the expert said.

Commenting on Turkey’s remarks, suggesting Ankara’s readiness to welcome Syrian Armenians, the expert noted, “Turkey is interested in the collapse of Armenian communities as inheritors of Genocide legacy.”

“I’m confident, however, that Syrian Armenians would never agree to live in Turkey,” he concluded