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Turkey: BDP rallies to force Ankara to take steps, gov’t balks at threats

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Two Kurdish women make “V” signs in front of a line of riot police in Dağlıca on Thursday during a protest organized by the BDP against mobile bdprallysecurity outposts. The BDP is expected to hold many rallies in September. (Photo: İHA)

AYDIN ALBAYRAK, ANKARA

The rallies the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) is preparing to hold at the beginning of September are seemingly meant to force the government’s hand into taking steps to the BDP’s liking as part of the settlement process launched to settle the country’s decades-old Kurdish issue.

The government is taking it slow, however, after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the military wing of the BDP, did not withdraw all of its armed militants from Turkey as agreed and the first stage of the settlement process has not been completed yet.

The PKK military commanders have issued threatening statements in recent weeks, setting the deadline for the beginning of September for the government to launch steps they claim are required for the process to move forward. The government balked at the threats, with Interior Minister Muammer Güler saying that “these are empty threats.”

“They [the PKK and the BDP] may encourage a popular uprising to reach their goals declared in the announcement of the Kurdish Communities Union [KCK],” Atilla Sandıklı, head of the İstanbul-based Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies (Bilgesam), has said.

The BDP has long criticized the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government for dragging its feet on the introduction of the democratization package, and signaled that it may encourage popular protests in the fall, should the government fail to come up with a package as expected. An autonomous Kurdistan and education in mother tongue are two of the major demands of the KCK’s announcement this summer.

Kurdish rebels detonate bomb under Turkish military vehicle

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March 5, 2013 – 14:35 AMT

Kurdish militants have detonated a bomb under a military vehicle in southeast Turkey, wounding four soldiers, security officials said on Tuesday, March 5, according to Reuters.

148561Turkish intelligence officials and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, began talks last October aiming to end a 28-year-old insurgency in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

As the discussions have advanced, violence has dwindled, with one of the most recent PKK attacks coming in January, when its fighters killed a Turkish police officer in the southeastern province of Mardin.

In Monday’s attack, militants remotely detonated roadside explosives under a military convoy on a road in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province. Four soldiers in an armored vehicle were lightly wounded, officials said.

Turkish military units were hunting the perpetrators, Diyarbakir Governor Mustafa Toprak said.

According to Kurdish politicians, the PKK is now observing a de facto ceasefire and Ocalan plans to declare an official halt to hostilities by the Kurdish New Year on March 21.

But Turkish warplanes have continued to bomb militant targets in the mountains of northern Iraq where thousands of rebels are based, drawing warnings from the PKK that they are jeopardizing the peace process.

Military operations have also continued in southeast Turkey. Soldiers backed by helicopters launched an operation around Cudi mountain in Sirnak province near the Iraqi border, with artillery units shelling the mountain, officials said.

There was no immediate comment from the PKK on Monday’s attack.

Under a plan discussed by Ocalan and government representatives, the PKK would end hostilities and give up its demands for autonomy for Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast in return for greater Kurdish rights, enshrined in the constitution, Turkish media have reported.

Syria’s Kurds Try to Balance Security and Alliances

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By JOSH WOOD
Published: February 6, 2013 NYT

ERBIL, IRAQ — Syria’s Kurds have mostly escaped prolonged bouts of direct conflict in the country’s civil war, but with rebel units pushing east toward the resource-rich Kurdish heartland, Kurdish militias proliferating and calls for greater autonomy growing, this may not remain the case.

Last summer, the Democratic Union Party, known by its Kurdish-language acronym P.Y.D., seized control of many towns and villages in the Kurdish majority northeast. The group also holds territory in a few Aleppo neighborhoods and some towns around the city.

The P.Y.D. is the most powerful Kurdish faction in Syria and has a well trained militia. This is perhaps a product of its ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., a guerrilla group that has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.

The leadership of the P.Y.D. plays down its ties to the P.K.K. But Syrian Kurds often use the names interchangeably, and P.Y.D. offices feature portraits of the imprisoned P.K.K. leader Abdullah Ocalan and Syrian P.K.K. guerrillas killed in fighting with Turkey.

Detractors of the P.Y.D. accuse it of working in collusion with the Syrian government. The party’s leadership and supporters, who say they were struggling against the government to secure rights for Syria’s two million-plus Kurds well before the uprising began in 2011, reject this allegation.

But in the complexities of Syria’s civil war, friendships are not born of common enemies.

The P.Y.D.’s militant Kurdish nationalism, which puts ethnic identity before allegiance to Syria, and their goal of some form of autonomy has put them at odds with Syria’s rebels. After decades of discriminatory policies against the Kurds under the Baath Party, the P.Y.D. is opposed to anybody but Kurds ruling their areas.

Last month, fighting flared in Ras al-Ain, which the Kurds call Serekaniye, as rebel units assaulted P.Y.D.-held areas. Dozens were killed in the fighting.

“Those groups attacking Serekaniye, we don’t consider them as Free Syrian Army,” said Saleh Muslim, the leader of the P.Y.D. Instead, he said the groups that attacked “are mainly just taking orders from the Turkish regime.”

The Free Syrian Army “is a name, or a trademark, not registered to anybody,” said Mr. Muslim. “So anybody can come from his home and get a hold of some weapons and say, ‘I am Free Syrian Army.”’

The push on Ras al-Ain, a town on the Turkish border about 300 kilometers, or 185 miles, northeast of Aleppo, could reflect a number of things: a rebel attempt to gain strategic territory, the lack of coordination among Free Syrian Army units, the spread of armed groups beyond the control of the Free Syrian Army, or the prodding of rebel groups by Turkey to confront the Kurds.

Mr. Muslim believes that Turkey, which is concerned that P.Y.D.-controlled areas along its borders could act as a base for P.K.K. attacks and has warned of intervention if it feels threatened, had something to do with the outbreak of fighting.

“I think it’s a part of the larger plan by the Turkish regime,” he said. “They want to disarm all people, to leave them without defense.”

Beyond the strategic value offered by the northeast, with its access to long stretches of the Iraqi and Turkish borders, the area is home to the majority of Syria’s oil. Before the conflict, oil exports earned Syria $4 billion per year.

The amount of oil that Syria could produce is negligible when compared with other exporters in the region, but with the economy shattered the oil fields are attractive real estate.

There are conflicting reports over who holds the main northeastern oil fields around the town of Rmeilan, though in late January a video appeared online purporting to show members of the P.Y.D.’s militia patrolling the smaller Gir Ziro field nearby.

Beyond the P.Y.D., the other notable political player in Syria’s Kurdish areas is the Kurdish National Council, a coalition of 16 parties. The parties are mostly small and have differing views, though on the whole they are more amenable to working with the mainstream Syrian opposition, which the P.Y.D. rejects.

Click to Continue reading on New York Time

Kurdish rebels deny reports on Turkey withdrawal were “lies” and part of a “psychological war”

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January 31, 2013 – 14:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A Kurdish militant group said on Thursday, Jan 31, media reports about the withdrawal of its fighters from Turkey under a peace process to end a 28-year-old insurgency were “lies” and part of a “psychological war”, Reuters reported.

Turkish intelligence officials began peace talks with the jailed leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) late last year and a recent report said its guerrillas would withdraw to northern Iraq by the Kurdish new year on March 21.

Fierce clashes pit Syrian Kurds against jihadists

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Kurdish fighters are fighting to stop fiercest rebel assault ever since insurgents first arrived in Ras al-Ain.
Middle East Online

ALEPPO, Syria – Fierce clashes raged late on Thursday in the majority Kurdish northern Syrian city of Ras al-Ain, on the Turkish border, pitting jihadists against Kurdish fighters, residents and an activist said.

The fighting comes six months after troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad withdrew from majority Kurdish areas, leaving residents to fend for themselves.

Jihadists have since staged several assaults on the strategic city, and most of its residents have fled.

Syria’s Kurds are divided over the revolt against Assad. Some support the regime, others back the revolt, and still others seek to remain neutral.

On Thursday, “the fighting became more intense in the evening after Kurdish fighters received reinforcements to try to stop the fiercest rebel assault ever since insurgents first arrived in the city” in November, a resident identifying himself only as Mohammed said.

The rebels are loyal to the jihadist Al-Nusra Front, which is listed by the United States as a “terrorist” organisation, as well as Islamist groups Ghuraba al-Sham and Ahfad al-Rasul, said Mohammed.

While earlier reports said no jihadists were involved in the fighting, an activist from Ras al-Ain — a Kurdish opponent of Assad — confirmed Mohammed’s account.

“Armed groups loyal to Al-Nusra Front crossed the Turkish border with three tanks into the city of Ras al-Ain,” the activist, who identified himself as Havidar, told AFP in Beirut via the Internet.

While Turkey supports the revolt against Assad, it is also home to a sizeable Kurdish minority that has suffered much persecution and suppression.

Activists say they fear Turkey may be using jihadists in Syria to fight its own battle against the Kurds.

“The advancing rebels did not use the tanks to fight the regime. Instead, they used them to shell Ras al-Ain,” said Havidar.

Analysts and activists have voiced fears over the potential consequences should fighting between Kurdish militia and jihadists continue.

“We are concerned about continued clashes in Ras al-Ain between Kurdish militia and rebel fighters from Al-Nusra Front and Ghuraba al-Sham,” said prominent Kurdish activist and journalist Massoud Akko.

“Should the fight morph into a struggle between Kurds and Arabs… Syria and the revolt (against Assad) are both in real danger,” said Akko.

“We the Kurds have no problem with the (mainstream rebel) Free Syrian Army, so long as it is fighting the regime, but we see no justification for the assault on Ras al-Ain.”

Police arrest suspects in murder of Kurdish activists in Paris

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French police have arrested two people on suspicion of murdering three Kurdish female activists which last week caused a wave of protests in Paris.

Currently investigators are questioning the detainees.

On the night of January 10 in Paris the bodies of three women were discovered, each of whom had been shot in the head. All three victims were activists of the Kurdish community, with links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey.

Last Saturday, more than 10 thousands Kurds staged a protest rally in the center of Paris, demanding authorities take action in connection with the triple murder.

Voice of Russia, RIA

Crowds at PKK funeral as bosses join peace chorus

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DIYARBAKIR

The southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakır sees tens of thousands come to pay a tearful farewell to murdered Kurdish women as major business leaders join in locals’ pleas for peace

Tens of thousands of people participated in a grand funeral ceremony held yesterday in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır for three Kurish women killed in Paris last week.

Despite worries of possible provocations and sabotage that would turn the ceremony into a violent protest, such fears did not materialize during the peaceful gathering, during which the women’s coffins were covered with the flags of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Speaking at the ceremony, Kurdish politicians, including Ahmet Türk – an independent deputy and head of the Kurdish umbrella organization Democratic Society Congress (DTK) – as well as Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, denounced military operations against Kandil mountain in northern Iraq, where PKK militants are based, once again stressing that Kurdish people demand peace, not war.

“Making peace is not possible while making war at the same time,” Demirtaş said.

Turkish Police forces launched raids in seven provinces early this morning against alleged members of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C),Lawyers taken into custody in morning raids

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ISTANBUL

Report By Turkish Daily News,

Police forces launched raids in seven provinces early this morning against alleged members of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), taking into custody at least 85 people, including 15 lawyers.

The lawyers are accused of “transferring instructions from organization leaders in prison to militants,” daily Radikal reported.

Nine of the 15 lawyers are reportedly members of the Progressive Lawyers’ Association (ÇHD), including an executive board member of the association, Oya Aslan, and Istanbul branch head Taylan Tanay.

An arrest warrant has been also issued for the head of the association, Selçuk Kozağaçlı, after police failed to locate him during the raid.

Kozağaçlı told the Hürriyet Daily News over the phone that he was in Beirut and planning to return as soon as possible, but he did not know the exact reason for the raid on the ÇHD offices.

A police search was also conducted at the ÇHD headquarters in Ankara, while 17 people were detained in İzmir on charges of being members of the DHKP/C.

The ÇHD said in a written statement that the raids were “police terror against defense.”

“The state is in an all out attack against people and institutions who oppose the system and struggle for democracy and freedom,” a statement posted on the association’s website read. Anti-democratic legal arrangements and exercises aim to “suppress society and destroy the opposition,” the statement said, adding that the ÇHD would continue its current stance and “defend the right to defense until the end.”

The lawyers taken into custody, most of whom worked for The People’s Legal Aid Bureau, are known for their stance on human rights and torture issues. They have represented the victims in many of the notorious torture and police violence trials of the recent history.

Among the trials the bureau was involved in were the killings of 12 inmates in Bayrampaşa Prison and five inmates in Ümraniye Prison during the “Operation Return to Life” in December 200 to end the hunger strikes at the time; the murder of Engin Çeber in Metris Prison on Oct. 8, 2008 by prison guards; the death of Nigerian citizen Festus Okey who was shot dead while in custody at Beyoğlu police station; and the trial of Berna Yılmaz and Ferhat Tüzer, two university students who were sentenced to eight years and five months in prison for unfurling a banner that read “We want free education, we will get it,” during a meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Roma citizens on March 14, 2010.

ÇHD Istanbul branch head Tanay and Efkan Bolaç, another lawyer taken into custody Jan. 18, were also the founders of the “İmdat Polis” (Help! Police!) hotline to combat police brutality. Bolaç also represents Ahmet Koca, whose beating by seven police officers in central Istanbul last summer was captured by an amateur camera. Koca is facing between one-and-a-half and five years in prison for “resisting a police officer” and “insulting a public official,” following complaints by the seven police officers.

The DHKP/C is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Another Senior PKK killed in operation in southeastern Turkey by Turkish Govenment

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Another A senior member of  Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been killed during an operation in the southeastern province of Mardin, daily Hürriyet reported today.

The militant was reportedly killed in clashes that erupted when anti-terror police launched a raid on a house in the Nusaybin district of Mardin, after gaining information that PKK militants were staying there.

Hand-grenades and long barreled weapons were used during clashes that lasted almost 30 minutes.

A group of protesters gathered around the house during the raid and clashed with police before security teams dispersed them by using gas bombs.

Mardin Mayor Turhan Ayvaz has confirmed that a senior militant was killed.

The leader of the PKK’s armed wing explains the role of Kurds in the Syrian conflict.

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Murat Karayilan, PKK’s leader Talk to Al Jazeera  13 Oct 2012 13:02

“Turkey does not want us to be part of the changes in the Middle East …. Turkey is afraid of the changes in the region. They are afraid that the Kurds will wake up and also rise like the rest of the people in the Middle East …

There are no PKK fighters inside Syria. This is Turkish propaganda. As far as I know and I follow the Syrian situation very closely, there are PYD  forces in that area but they are not cooperating with the regime or the government forces. PKK is an organisation that wants peace and democracy in the region. PKK has been fighting for peace for 40 years.  PKK supports change and democracy in Syria. But PKK does not accept Turkish interference in Syria. That’s the main problem …

There are many Kurdish political parties inside Syria and they don’t cooperate with either the Syrian government or opposition, they have chosen a third path, in the middle. For example in Aleppo, the Kurds decided to stay outside the fight because they see that the opposition in Syria is backed by Turkey. The opposition has not recognised Kurdish rights. They have not reached an agreement. So the Kurds in Syria have decided to stay neutral. But they also want change …. Generally speaking if the opposition recognise the rights of the Kurds in that area, then the Kurds might join the opposition there …

Now the Kurds in the area are not fighting any battles or getting involved because their goal is not to take over the Damascus regime. The Kurds just want to have their own natural rights. This is the Kurdish reality …. We want a revolution and we are on the side of the revolution. But we believe in a different way of achieving the revolution. We do not support the regime, we are on the side of change and democracy …

The region is heading towards a sectarian war. This is very dangerous. We will not get involved in the Sunni Shia divide. Kurds will stay neutral. We would like to see constructive politics. Turkey is trying to twist our position. Because they want to finish the PKK and they want us to become a target in the current war …

It’s a path for democracy and freedom that started in Tunisia and Egypt. We will take part in this path. The Kurds will not be anybody’s army. We have to stay independent and work with the people. We will be on the side of democracy, if the West brings democracy we will take part in it. But if the West has hidden agendas then we will not take part. This is what we are preparing for …

This is the time to end those kinds of regimes. Sooner or later they will fall. But the use of force alone will only bring more destruction now and later. Change is a must and Assad should not insist on staying in power.”

Murat Karayilan, PKK’s leader