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Report: Kurdish PKK in Turkey to mint own currency

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200660_newsdetailThe Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is readying to introduce its own currency, including banknotes featuring its imprisoned leader, Turkish media reported on Sunday. 

Turkish intelligence sources earlier warned that the PKK had printed sample banknotes using a photo of its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan, on the front face of the bills. Turkish media outlets shared a picture of a “Kuruş” banknote featuring Öcalan that was allegedly prepared by the PKK. The PKK expects Öcalan to be the one to introduce the currency at the 12th general assembly of the outlawed group, media reports speculated on Sunday.

Political analysts said the move comes amid intensified PKK efforts to win recognition as a sovereign entity. One interesting detail seen on the banknote allegedly designed by the PKK was that it read “Central Bank of Diyarbakır” in Kurdish on the bill. Diyarbakır is a province of Turkey and the PKK claims sovereignty over it as the future capital of a larger Kurdistan in the region.

Separate sources have earlier claimed that the outlawed group has illegally established its own monitoring and supervisory agencies, such as an independent ministry of finance and court of accounts. The alleged PKK move also follows a similar maneuver from another militant group in the region, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ISIL announced plans in November to mint its own coins to be used in trade in the regions of Iraq and Syria that it keeps under control.

The PKK currency reports have arrived at a sensitive time. Tensions ran high in the southeastern town of Cizre early on Saturday as armed clashes broke out between members of the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H), an affiliate of the PKK, and Hüda-Par, a Kurdish Sunni Islamist party.

The clashes between the PKK members and supporters of Hüda-Par — which is also known as the Turkish Hezbollah, though it has no affiliation with Lebanon’s Hezbollah — have raised fears of further conflict, while recalling bitter memories of the early 1990s during which the conflict between the two groups claimed the lives of hundreds of people.

Turkey clashes at least two people killed in southeast between (PKK) and Huda-par

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clashes-pkk-turkeyClashes between, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Huda-Par, in southeast Turkey have left two people dead. report presstv

According to a local governor’s office, the deadly skirmishes occurred in the town of Cizre on Saturday and also left three people injured.

The town has seen an escalation in tensions since Friday night, when the Huda-Par militant group assaulted tents belonging to the PKK, a security source said. The unnamed source added that clashes in Cizre are continuing sporadically.

Huda-Par has long been antagonistic toward the PKK, which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s.

Violent street fights occurred between the Huda Par group and the PKK in southeast Turkey in October, when the ISIL terror group was battling Kurdish forces in the mainly Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria.

The Turkish government has not intervened militarily against ISIL terrorists, in a move which has angered the country’s Kurdish residents.

Turkey launched a peace process with the PKK in 2012 to end the Kurdish struggle for independence. The PKK declared a ceasefire with Turkey last March after its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, ordered an end to the armed campaign for autonomy.

It is feared that negotiations between Ankara and the PKK for a peaceful resolution would be derailed due to the standoff over Kobani.

 

The Turkish government didn’t help 180,000 refugees from Kobani’: crisis coordination

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turkey5276ANKARA,— Kobani Crisis Coordination released a statement, claiming that the government only helped with the lodging of 10,000 refugees from the Kurdish city Kobani in Syrian Kurdistan who came to Turkey in the past three months and left the remaining 180,000 to municipality and other local groups. Report Ekurd
5 camps
Currently, 11,000 refugees are being hosted in 5 camps under Kobani Crisis Coordination.
The coordination officials said that the government’s ongoing efforts to build a refugee camp with a capacity of 32,000 people occupied their sixth camp’s space with a capacity of 11,000 people.
On the other hand, it was reported that around 42,000 refugees from Kobani are being hosted by the local population in the greater Suruç district area in Turkish Kurdistan. It was also reported that the coordination is sending out supplies to around 69,200 refugees in the southeastern province of Urfa. 

The distribution of refugees according to cities is as follows: Adiyaman (7,500), Diyarbakir (11,000), Malatya (3,000), Batman (3,000), Mardin (4,000), Antep (4,500), Antalya (1,800), Hatay (1,000).

“AKP must account for the spending of international aids”
“The government’s aid agency, AFAD, didn’t help these 180,000 refugees from Kobani at all. The international to AFAD wasn’t used for AFAD.
The coordination also urged Justice and Development Party (AKP) to account for the spending of international aids with detailed listings.

“In addition to the fact that the government makes on efforts for 180,000 refugees from Kobani, an explanation must be made. On the other hand, 20 percent co-pay in hospital treatment must be ended immediately. The obligatory migration urges the realization of an extended aid policy and projects.”

 

Turkey, Will Kurds help Erdoğan reach his ambitions?

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By ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

Prominent intellectual Mehmet Altan ran quite a thought-provoking article with the title “Fascism in the west, autonomy in the east?” on April 30 on the T24 web portal.

The central theme of his piece was the following: The Kurds will no longer be a part of the struggle for democracy in Turkey because they have a different agenda now. They will give Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the presidency he has long desired, in exchange for the regional autonomy of Kurdish regions.

Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has not and most probably will not have enough seats in Parliament to make constitutional changes on its own. However, if Kurdish deputies support his ambitions, Erdoğan may be able to change the Constitution, not only to the presidential system but also to create quite an authoritarian regime in this country.

After publishing his article, Altan received quite a strong reaction from some circles close to the AKP. They, like they do all the time, accused Altan of intending to destroy the Kurdish peace process, and they said Altan’s hatred of the AKP made him so blind that he has even started to wish for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to take up arms once again.

Actually, there was nothing in Altan’s article inciting the PKK to violence or anything like that. Personal attacks targeting Altan are textbook examples of a new trend of how you can be branded if you voice any suspicions about the peace process and its possible gains.

I remembered all of this because the deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Enis Berberoğlu, put quite interesting questions to a pro-Kurdish political party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

Because of the 10 percent national election threshold, HDP members used to run as independent candidates in national elections. However, for the upcoming elections, the HDP has declared its intention to run as a political party rather than as individual candidates in the elections. There is a small problem here: Almost all surveys show that the HDP has quite a high risk of failure of passing this threshold, with their votes presently around 8-9 percent.

Berberoğlu, referring to all these facts, asks why they would assume this risk and if there is hidden bargaining between them and the AKP. These are important questions. Because if the HDP cannot pass the national threshold, almost all of the votes given to them will go to the political party that receives the majority of the votes, and undoubtedly that will be the AKP. If this happens, the AKP will have the majority, allowing it to change the Constitution on its own.

So, can there be such a hidden bargain between Abdullah Öcalan — the leader of the PKK who is serving a prison sentence on İmralı Island — and the AKP as part of the peace deal?

Well, if that is the case, not only will we witness a trick against the national will of Kurds and Turks but we will also hear the sound of the footsteps of fascism, as was pointed out by Altan.

This kind of hidden agreement would definitely be an immoral deal because it would obviously be tricking people into something they might not be happy about. In that case, the Kurds will be voting for the AKP while they think they are giving their votes to the HDP. AKP voters will also be deceived because they will be voting for their party without knowing major undertakings of their political party.

And the result would definitely spell a disaster for democracy in Turkey because, in this case, Erdoğan will be able to overrun an already weakened Turkish democracy.

Well, I defiantly never wish to see the PKK take up arms again, but I do not believe such a peace process will ever bring peace to any corner of this country. I hope there is no such hidden agreement, or it will be ceased.

ISIS attacks Kobanê people under Turkish army supervision

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12.24.2014

ISIS gangs attacked people from Kobanê this morning with heavy weapons from the cover of a Turkish military post. Reported by firatajans.

ISIS gangs that are suffering heavy blows every day in Kobanê have begun to attack civilians. People from the village of Merdesimbêl near Kobanê brought their vehicles to an area 50 metres from the Mert Ismail military post on the Suruç border around 2 months ago, then crossed the border. The gangs then stole hundreds of vehicles from under the noses of Turkish troops, whereupon residents of Alişar who brought their vehicles to the same area have not abandoned them. The people have resisted the threats and attacks of gangs and Turkish soldiers alike.

This morning around 40 gang members based in the village of Alişar attacked the people from the security area within the military post. 100 people initially resisted, then took refuge in the military post. The soldiers, in two armoured vehicles, ignored what was going on right next to the military post. As the gang members occupied the area where the vehicles were parked, the soldiers withdrew to the confines of the post.

In the past ISIS gangs have attacked from security areas, killing one person in the village of Swêdê and 4 in the village of Boydê. The gangs are continuing their attacks, claiming the vehicles as booty.

Kurds draw pride from defense of Kobani

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P3

By Mohammed A. Salih,

KOBANI, Syria — Entering Kobani, I didn’t know what to expect. In the thick of night, it was impossible to see very much. Apart from the occasional barking of wild dogs, there wasn’t much to hear either. In the morning, I was surprised to find that most of the buildings in the vicinity were still standing. The western side of the town, where I was, has apparently been spared much of the intense fighting between the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Islamic State (IS) forces.

Surprisingly, there are still a fair number of civilians left in the city. Walking through the streets of western Kobani, one sees children running around and playing as if nothing unusual is afoot. Many of the people who stayed have joined the YPG forces to help defend their town against IS.

As fearless and calm as the people might look, Kobani is still a very dangerous place. On Dec. 16, three civilians were killed by the type of IS-fired mortars that regularly fall in and around YPG-controlled areas. That morning, a father, his son and their neighbor became victims. The father, Ahmed Abud, was an Arab man married to a Kurdish woman. After IS overran his village, he had sought refuge in Kobani. He is survived in Kobani by his wife and a daughter.

“He was a very good man. We used to help each other in moments of need,” said Abu Yasin, one of Abud’s neighbors. “He wanted to go back to his village once it was liberated.”

Walking around the streets of Kobani, one sees rocket shells as well as unexploded shells lying around. One particular type built by IS militants is called the Hell Mortar. It is made from a large gas capsule, used in this part of the world for cooking, soldered to a long pipe fitted with a multi-bladed tail.

The confrontation between Kurdish forces and jihadists has brought this once-unknown town in northeastern Syria worldwide attention. The feeling of pride is ubiquitous. Kurdish fighters and civilians alike boast how their small town has held fast against IS’ mighty military machine and brutal campaign for more than three months. Their experience is in contrast to many other areas in Iraq and Syria that fell to the militants in a matter of days.

The sound of coalition fighter jets overhead is a constant feature of life in Kobani. On the night of Dec. 14, coalition fighter jets carried out 12 rounds of strikes in response to an operation by IS to break through YPG lines on the eastern and southern fronts, the scene of the heaviest fighting in recent weeks.

In addition to YPG fighters, there are also units of the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighting in Kobani. The peshmerga are mostly deployed to the rear lines, acting as a support unit. When IS starts launching mortars or other assaults, the peshmerga can be heard firing their own mortars, canons and Doushkas (DShK), Russian-made heavy machine guns. One occasionally sees FSA fighters on the streets. Local officials claim that only one FSA group, the Northern Sun Battalion, is playing an active role in the fighting.

One particular place of interest in Kobani is the official crossing with Turkey, the Mursitpinar border gate. It was the site of heavy clashes between Kurdish forces and IS militants on Nov. 29, starting at around 6 a.m., when a suicide bomber drove an armored military vehicle through the gate and detonated it. The large crater and heavy destruction caused by the vehicle and some of its remnants are testimony to the magnitude of the incident.

Some senior YPG commanders were apparently sleeping in a nearby building that night, and their presence helped with a swift response to IS’ attempt to infiltrate Kobani. After nearly 15 hours of clashes, Kurdish forces pushed the IS fighters back, preventing them from crossing into the town.

Kurdish officials in Kobani are still baffled by what happened and are quick to point fingers at Turkey for facilitating passage of IS fighters through its side of the border. Video of the fighting and the scene at the border gate appear to strongly support Kurdish claims that the IS operation indeed originated from the Turkish-controlled side of the Mursitpinar gate. Turkish officials have denied that the jihadists used their territory for the attack.

“We knew Turkey was lenient with IS, but we could not believe they would go so far as allowing them to cross their territory to attack us,” said Ismat Sheikh Hassan, the defense minister of the local government in Kobani. “We do not know if this was done with the consent of the senior levels of Turkish government or just some local officials.” Hassan also said YPG forces occupied some buildings on the Turkish side of the border and only agreed to evacuate them after Turkish soldiers returned to their posts.

Kurdish fighters have been able to score gains against IS in recent weeks. Coalition airstrikes and the peshmerga’s deployment have played a significant role in boosting the YPG’s offensive and defensive capabilities. Morale appears to be high among fighters. They are optimistic that they will be able to reclaim the town, but taking the broader Kobani area of some 400 villages is a long shot.

In addition to Syrian Kurdish fighters, there are also many Kurdish fighters from Turkey among the YPG’s ranks, along with foreign fighters from Iran and Algeria. Erdal, a 19-year-old Kurd from Turkey, appeared upbeat when I met him on a street not too far from the border gate. He wore a bandage on his neck to protect a small scrapnel wound from a mortar.

“IS beheads people to scare their enemies. It’s psychological warfare. They want to make their enemies run away,” said Erdal, smiling as he spoke. “But not us. We have proven they are not as strong as they claim. If we were afraid, we could not have stood here and fought them for so long.”

As of Dec. 23, Kurdish fighters had held their ground against IS for 100 days.

Mohammed A. Salih is a journalist based in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan. He has written about Kurdish and Iraqi affairs for local and international media.

Kurds say Mount Sinjar siege broken

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Agence France-Presse

n_75808_1Iraqi Kurds claimed Dec. 18 to have broken a siege on a mountain where Yazidi civilians and fighters have long been trapped as the US said air strikes killed several Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leaders in recent weeks.

Officials said the twin successes dealt heavy blows to ISIL’s command and control as well as their supply lines, and were the latest in a string of apparent setbacks for the group in recent weeks.

The Kurdish advances came during a two-day blitz into the Sinjar region involving 8,000 peshmerga fighters and some of the heaviest air strikes since a US-led coalition started an air campaign four months ago.

Masrour Barzani, the son of the Kurdish president and the intelligence chief for the Iraqi autonomous region, said the peshmerga advance had broken the siege on Mount Sinjar.

“Peshmerga forces have reached Mount Sinjar, the siege on the mountain has been lifted,” he told reporters from an operations centre near the border with Syria.

The peshmerga said they recaptured eight villages on the way and killed about 80 ISIL fighters in the initial phase of the offensive launched from Rabia on the Syria border and Zumar on the shores of Mosul dam lake.

They also lost seven men on Wednesday in Qasreej village when they failed to stop a suicide attacker who rammed an explosives-laden armoured vehicle into their convoy, officers at the scene told AFP.

“This operation represents the single biggest military offensive against ISIL and the most successful,” a statement from Barzani’s office said.

A devastating ISIL attack on the Yazidi minority’s Sinjar heartland in August displaced tens of thousands of people and was one of the reasons put forward by US President Barack Obama for launching a campaign of air strikes in September.

Amid fears of a genocide against the small Kurdish-speaking minority, tens of thousands of Yazidis fled to the mountain and remained trapped there in the searing summer heat with no supplies.

Kurdish fighters, mostly Syrian, broke that first siege but remaining anti-ISIL forces were subsequently unable to hold positions in the plains and retreated back to the mountain in late September.

The peshmerga commander for the area said troops had reached the mountain and secured a road that would enable people to leave, effectively breaking the siege. Several thousand are still thought to be trapped there.

“Tomorrow most of the people will come down from the mountain,” Mohamed Kojar told AFP by phone, explaining the offensive had secured a corridor northeast of the mountain.

A Yazidi leader atop the mountain, however, said he could see no sign of a military deployment. A peshmerga commander explained that any evacuation would only begin on Friday.

Kurdish officials said the operation had dealt the jihadists a blow by cutting their supply lines and forcing them to retreat to urban bastions such as Tal Afar and Mosul, their main hub.

Jihadists still control the town of Sinjar, on the southern side of the mountain, and many of the surrounding villages.

In Washington, meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that three top ISIL leaders in Iraq had been killed in US air strikes in recent weeks.

“I can confirm that since mid-November, targeted coalition air strikes successfully killed multiple senior and mid-level leaders” in the ISIL, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement.

“We believe that the loss of these key leaders degrades ISIL’s ability to command and control current operations,” he added.

The most significant figure was identified as Haji Mutazz, better known as Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, who was deputy to the group’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

There was no hint that Turkmani had been killed on the jihadist social media accounts and forums that usually relay such information.

The jihadist group proclaimed a “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria nearly six months ago after sweeping through Iraq’s Sunni heartland and throwing the country into chaos.

A second wave of attacks in August against Sinjar and towards the borders of Kurdistan triggered a US intervention that has now grown into a 60-nation anti-IS coalition.

The strikes were extended into Syria on September 23.

The military fightback appears to have gradually turned the tide on the jihadists, who have suffered a string of setbacks in Iraq in recent weeks.

Battle lines are more static in Syria, where the West is not coordinating its air campaign with the regime.

December/18/2014

US Congress removes Iraqi Kurdish parties from terrorist list: Official

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n_75584_1The two leading Iraqi Kurdish parties have been removed from the United States terrorist list, a senior U.S. official has announced.

The Kurdistan Democratic Union (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have been recognized as Tier III terrorist group under the Patriot Act of the U.S. since 2001, although both organizations are long-time U.S. allies.

“Congress has passed the NDAA [The National Defense Authorization Act] w/a provision removing PUK & KDP from the list of designated organizations under U.S. immigration laws,” Ambassador Brett McGurk, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, tweeted on Dec. 13.

“This unfair designation complicated visa processing for many Kurds wishing to visit the US. We are pleased to see it fixed,” McGurk, who is also the deputy special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), added in another tweet that also carried the hashtag #TwitterKurds.

In February, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani refused to travel to the U.S. and meet President Barack Obama until Washington removed the region’s two main parties from its designated terrorist list.

In April, two prominent U.S. Senators, Robert Menendez and John McCain, introduced a bill to remove the Kurdish political parties from the U.S. terror list.

Fuad Hussein, Chief of Staff to the Presidency of the KRG, said that U.S. officials have informed their Kurdish counterparts about the Congress decision. “The bill is now sent to President Barack Obama. We hope that he will sign it,” Turkey’s semi-official Anadolu Agency quoted Hussein as saying.

More than 700 Iraqi Kurd fighters killed since ISIS offensive

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700-kurd-killedSix months into the jihadi offensive in Iraq, the autonomous Kurds said Wednesday they had lost more than 700 fighters and argued the burden of hosting a million displaced civilians was becoming unsustainable, AFP reported.

Since ISIS launched a devastating offensive from Syria on June 9, Iraq’s Kurds have been involved in battles along a frontline stretching more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).

A statement from the region’s military forces, known as the peshmerga, said 727 members of the Kurdish security forces had been killed and 3,564 wounded since June 10.

The dead and wounded included “officers, non-commissioned officers, members of the Asayish (intelligence agency), of the police and some peshmerga veterans,” it said.

The peshmerga ministry said 34 members of the Kurdish security forces are also still reported as missing.

The last overall toll released by an official Kurdish source was on Aug. 8, when the regional presidency’s chief of staff Fuad Hussein said 150 peshmerga had been killed.

Davutoğlu, Kurdish HDP co-chair Demirtaş responsible for any bloodshed:

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n_75421_1Davutoğlu declares that HDP co-chair Demirtaş will be responsible for any violence in protests against a controversial new security package.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has upped the stakes in the Kurdish peace process, declaring that Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş will be responsible for any future bloodshed in the country.

“Our minds have always been clear about the resolution process. We haven’t hesitated. But the statement by Demirtaş saying, ‘We will stop the security package in the streets,’ is very irresponsible,” Davutoğlu was quoted as saying by CNNTürk, speaking to a group of journalists on board a plane returning from Warsaw to Ankara on Dec. 9.

The prime minister’s remarks came in response to an earlier statement by Demirtaş, the co-leader of the HDP, a key player in the Kurdish political movement represented at Parliament, which appeared in daily Bugün earlier in the day.

Demirtaş particularly criticized the controversial new government-led security package, saying “protests in the street” will halt the bill in its tracks. The package, which is still yet to be adopted, would lead to the adoption of a controversial judiciary bill that has stirred angry debate about measures allowing searches to be conducted on the basis of mere “reasonable doubt,” without any concrete evidence.

“I’m warning Demirtaş. If he is saying they will turn the streets into lakes of blood, then he is responsible for each drop of blood to be shed. Public order is a need for everybody – for Demirtaş, too,” Davutoğlu said.

According to Demirtaş, the government is using the deadly Kobane protests of Oct. 6-7 as a pretext for the security package, the implementation of which would result in the “killing of young people who would fall like flies.”

“If you adopt this bill, it will backfire. People will not be scared, and they will take to the streets,” the HDP co-chair said.

The debate between the government and the HDP executives over public order and security was particularly heated after street unrest that peaked on Oct. 6 and 7 and led to the deaths of dozens of people in clashes between rival groups. The unrest followed protests over the government’s perceived inaction toward Syrian Kurds besieged by jihadists in the town of Kobane.