Kurdish rebel commander warns fighting may resume in Turkey

December 24, 2014 By administrator

A Kurdish rebel commander has warned that fighting in Turkey’s southeast could resume by June if efforts to end a 30-year insurgency make no progress by then, news reports said Wednesday, Dec 24, according to the Associated Press.

Murat Karayilan’s comments came days after Turkish and Kurdish officials declared a “new phase” in the peace process after widespread protests by Kurds in October had threatened to derail the talks.

Karayilan told Iraq-based Roj News that imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan would be freed from prison by April and wiykd attend a congress of his Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, if the talks progress according to a plan drawn up by Ocalan himself.

However, Karayilan threatened to resume hostilities before Turkey’s June elections if the government fails to advance the peace process by then. His comments were carried by Turkish and Kurdish media on Wednesday.

“If steps are not taken, we will start the war before the elections,” Karayilan was quoted as telling Roj News.

Turkish Deputy Prime Yalcin Akdogan responded on Wednesday, slamming Karayilan’s comments as “unreal, untimely, inopportune and provocative.”

Turkey began talking to Ocalan in 2012 with the aim of ending the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.

Ocalan declared a cease-fire in 2013 and ordered the PKK to withdraw fighters to bases in neighboring northern Iraq as part of the peace efforts. The ceasefire is still in place but the PKK halted the withdrawal a few months later, saying Turkey had not taken any steps to reciprocate.

Kurds accuse Turkey’s government of using the lull in fighting to its advantage during elections and of not taking any concrete steps to advance the peace process in return.

Ocalan has been serving a life-term in prison on an island south of Istanbul since 1999 but retains influence over his fighters.

Kurdish protester killed in clashes with Turkish police

December 6, 2014 By administrator

AFP, Ankara
Sunday, 7 December 2014
An 18-year-old Kurdish protester was killed Saturday in unclear circumstances during clashes with police in the majority Kurd region of southeast Turkey, local authorities and witnesses said.

The victim, Rojhat Özdel, was killed by a bullet while anti-riot police responded to stone-throwing protesters at the rally in the city of Yüksekova, according to witnesses.

Local authorities said that the young protester was “implicated in the violence against police forces.”

An autopsy will be carried out to determine the cause of his death.

Another protester was wounded in the clashes.

The protest rally had been called to commemorate the death of three demonstrators in the same city in a confrontation with police a year ago.

Tensions remain high in Turkey’s east and southeast after violent pro-Kurd riots that left more than 30 people dead in early October.

The protesters were demonstrating against Ankara’s refusal to intervene militarily to help the Kurds defend the Syrian border city of Kobane which has been under siege by jihadists from the Islamic State group.
Last Update: Sunday, 7 December 2014 KSA 23:36 – GMT 20:3

6TH ANNUAL KURDISH YOUTH FESTIVAL POSTPONED DUE TO GROWING CONCERN OVER CURRENT SITUATION IN KURDISTAN

November 18, 2014 By administrator

see below Video complement of www.gagrule.net 2013 KYF

Kurdish Youth Festival Over the past several months, Kurdistan has been facing a serious threat from the terrorist militants of the group that calls itself the Islamic State. In addition to security concerns in the regions, the situation has led to a growing refugee crisis and increased hardships for the people living in Kurdistan. This is a perilous time for Kurds and Kurdish forces have put their lives on the line for the security and safety of the people of Kurdistan. Thousands have been killed and millions have been displaced from their homes. Kurds around the world have been watching with held breaths over the danger facing their fellow countrymen.

The Kurdish Youth Festival committee has made the decision to postpone the 6th annual Kurdish Festival that was originally planned for January 9, 10, and 11, 2015 in San Francisco, California to an indefinite future date. The committee believes that in the wake of current events, it would be irresponsible to hold an event in January while so many are facing unimaginable devastation and loss.

The Kurdish Youth Festival committee would like to apologize for the postponement, especially to those who have already made travel and accommodation plans. If you have already purchased air travel to attend the festival, please provide the committee with a copy of your airline receipt prior to October 26th, 2014. The Kurdish Youth Festival will reimburse attendees for the cancellation of any airline tickets booked for the January 2015 festival. Please send the airline receipt to kyf@kurdishyouthfestival.org.

Unfortunately, these circumstances are beyond our control but we intend to make the next Kurdish Youth Festival an unforgettable event. Please stay tuned to our social media for updates on the new dates for the next festival event.

In the immediate term, the committee members will focus their time and efforts on assisting the humanitarian efforts to help the refugees that have been affected by the crisis. If you would like to help, please contact us. We will be continuously announcing our efforts as they are confirmed.

The committee would like to thank all attendees and sponsors for their continued support. We hope to see you at the next festival and we are hopeful and optimistic that we will make it through these hard times by uniting and working together for our people.

Check back for updates!

While you wait for further announcement, check back from time to time to see the latest news about the new dates and other activities in which our committee and volunteers are taking part. We really hope to see you at the next festival! This is only a postponement as no threat can ever fully disrupt the pride we take in celebrating and sharing the Kurdish culture with the world.

Video complement www.gagrule.net Kurdish youth festival 2013 San diago

Turkey’s Kurdish client state

November 15, 2014 By administrator

Iraq’s Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani (R) speaks with Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz (L) at the Iraq-Kurdistan Oil and Gas Conference at Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Dec. 2, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Azad Lashkari)

By Denise Natali

Several months ago, the international media and political pundits were predicting imminent Kurdish statehood. Many in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) believed, and perhaps still do, that the KRG could independently export crude oil to Turkey and create a viable, autonomous revenue source. These expectations were fueled by “energy agreements” between Erbil and Ankara, a cold war between former Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and international oil company interests in the Kurdistan region.

Instead of statehood or enhanced autonomy, however, the KRG has become more dependent on Turkey while remaining tied to Iraq. This dependency has deepened with the Islamic State (IS) threatening the region, territorial and resource disputes in Iraq remaining unresolved and Ankara and Baghdad pursuing a rapprochement. It leaves the KRG more deeply lodged between regional powers and enhances Turkey’s control over Erbil’s energy and political agendas.

The Ankara-Erbil alliance initially presupposed “mutual interdependence.” Turkey could access KRG hydrocarbons, reduce its dependency on Russian and Iranian gas imports and become a regional energy hub. The KRG also represented a security partner against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and a Sunni Muslim ally where Turkish “soft power” could be extended. For the KRG, Turkey was a direct energy export route, commercial partner and alternative to Baghdad. To enhance this partnership and leverage Kurdish nationalist interests, KRG officials strategically permitted Turkish companies into the Kurdistan region’s commercial, banking and energy sectors.

Ankara-Erbil commercial ties may have helped develop the Kurdistan region and benefited certain elites, but they have not enhanced the KRG’s economic autonomy. Although Turkey remains the KRG’s largest external trading partner, about 85% of the “trade” between Ankara and Erbil, estimated at $7 billion in 2013, comprises KRG imports of food and luxury items, paid for with revenues from Baghdad. Most imported goods from Turkey are consumed in the Kurdistan region and are not re-exported as value-added products. In addition, exports from Iraqi Kurdistan represent only about 5% of the KRG’s trade activities, most of which involve the re-export of alcohol and tobacco from Turkey to other countries, including Iran.

Indeed, the KRG-Ankara oil export gamble was supposed to change this scenario by giving the Kurdistan region a self-sustaining revenue base. Yet, after six months of “independent” oil exports through the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline, the KRG has further exposed its economic vulnerability and deepened its financial crisis. Despite the 30 million barrels of oil the KRG has reportedly sold through Turkey, the opaque nature of the sales — cargoes roaming the high seas with radars off, boat-to-boat transfers, undisclosed pricing mechanisms and legal disputes — has done little to de-risk large-scale oil exports. The KRG has thus far only received about $2 billion from oil sales, a small fraction of its annual budgetary needs and nowhere near the revenues required to pay civil servant salaries or international oil company costs. Plummeting world oil prices have further disadvantaged contentious and highly discounted Kurdish crude while benefiting energy importers, like Ankara.

In circumventing Baghdad, Ankara and not Erbil has assumed greater control over the KRG energy sector and related revenues. In fact, Turkey has become the KRG’s new financial patron. With unpaid monthly salaries of about $720 million, investment at a standstill, tourism undermined and financial and oil disputes with Baghdad unresolved, the KRG has borrowed billions from Ankara (and private investors) over the past six months. According to local sources, Turkey also recently paid two months of KRG civil servant salaries, manages KRG oil revenues in an account at the Turkish Halkbank and holds Kurdish crude in storage tanks in Ceyhan. Although Baghdad and the KRG have attempted to negotiate another oil export and payment deal, part of the KRG’s oil revenues remain with Ankara.

Turkey’s financial influence also strengthens its leverage over Kurdish nationalist politics, at least the part involving President Massoud Barzani. Although Iraqi Kurds have expressed their “disappointment” with Ankara’s lack of military support against the IS onslaught, they are unable to effectively challenge Erdogan without undermining their own financial interests and energy prospects, particularly with the ongoing budget cut-off by Baghdad. In fact, as Erdogan addresses Turkey’s IS and PKK threat and the Kurdish peace process falters, he will likely expect Barzani to help rectify the mistakes he made on Kobani. This effort would also help Barzani counter the PKK’s surge in popularity, especially after the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) peshmerga’s withdrawal from Ninevah and the PKK’s rescue of Yazidi groups.

Even then, the extent to which Barzani or the KRG can influence transborder Kurdish nationalist politics will be on Erdogan’s terms. The Iraqi Kurdistan parliament may have voted to support Syrian Kurds with military and humanitarian aid to Kobani (airdropped by the United States), but it needed Ankara’s approval to send peshmerga into Kobani. The limited number of peshmerga that Erdogan eventually permitted to cross Turkish territory consisted of KDP-affiliated troops, but not Democratic Union Party or Patriotic Union of Kurdistan forces.

These trends not only refute the imminent Kurdish statehood discourse, but reveal the changing nature of the Kurdistan region’s autonomy. Any further effort to exchange Baghdad for Ankara not only risks undermining the KRG’s economic viability, but its political maneuverability as well. These vulnerabilities are reinforced as Baghdad and Ankara attempt to reach an entente, IS and militant Sunni Arab nationalists threaten the KRG internal border, Iran remains influential in the Kurdistan region and Turkey seeks to safeguard its territorial integrity. They place Ankara at the center of the Kurdistan hydrocarbons sector, alongside Baghdad, and further challenge the KRG’s ability to autonomously shape its energy future.

Denise Natali

Columnist

Denise Natali is a columnist for Al-Monitor. She is also a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, where she specializes in Iraq, regional energy issues and the Kurdish problem. The views expressed are her own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the US government.

Syrian Kurdish woman Giving birth safely over the border, names Obama to say thanks for US airstrikes

October 26, 2014 By administrator

Sultan Muslim and her family escaped ISIS’s siege of Kobane and fled to the border
After reaching the border town of Suruc, Muslim gave birth to her seventh child and named him Muhammed Obama Muslim
The family says they are grateful for coalition airstrikes and hope US assistance will allow them to return home safely

By Pete D’amato for MailOnline

A pregnant Syrian Kurdish woman who fled ISIS and made it safely to Turkey named her newborn Obama out of gratitude for US-led airstrikes.

Sultan Muslim, her husband and their children were on the run for a month after fleeing the besieged border town of Kobane.

When they arrived at a refugee camp in Suruc, the family welcomed their newest addition and Muslim named him after the American president, because of the US’s air campaign against ISIS.

Newborn: Sultan Muslim, a mother of seven, named her four-day-old child Muhammed Obama Muslim to offer thanks for US assistance in fighting ISIS

‘I gave my son this name from my heart. I will never change this name,’ Muslim told Agence France-Presse, having given birth on Wednesday.

‘He dispatched planes, aid for us. Because of his help maybe we will get rid of this cruelty and get back to our homes,’ she added.

‘We named him Muhammed Obama Muslim,’ said Mahmut Beko, the boy’s father.

‘We want Obama to help us so that we can get back home. We are also human beings. We, the Kurds, attacked whom, fight against whom?’ he asked incredulously.

Brutal fighting between the Islamist extremist group ISIS and Syrian Kurdish militias known as the YPG has engulfed the border town of Kobane as ISIS militants attempt to rout YPG fighters.

A US-led coalition has attacked ISIS forces with airstrikes, which has weakened but not destroyed ISIS fighting power.

We were stranded at the border for days, without water or food,’ said Muslim. ‘We did not take any clothes to wear. We did not have any blankets. I was pregnant and had no chance of taking a bath.’

Many Kurds view American aid as crucial in keeping out the tide of ISIS extremists.

‘Like the Americans, the whole world should help the Kurds in Kobane. We have no true friends other than the Americans,’ said Turkish Kurd Selami Altay.

Along with many other Kurds in the region, Altay watched the fighting in Kobane from a hilltop overlooking Syria.

At the sight of new airstrikes, which have so far reportedly killed more than 500 ISIS fighters, the crowd erupted in cheers and chanted, ‘Obama, Obama.’

Syrian Kurdish official rejects Erdogan report of deal with FSA

October 25, 2014 By administrator

A senior Syrian Kurdish official on Friday, Oct 24, rejected a report from Turkey’s president that Syrian Kurds had agreed to let Free Syrian Army fighters enter the border town of Kobani to help them push back besieging Islamic State insurgents, Reuters reported.

The Free Syrian Army is a term used to describe dozens of armed groups fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad but with little or no central command. They have been widely outgunned by Islamist insurgents such as Islamic State.

Erdogan said on Friday said 1,300 FSA fighters would enter Kobani after the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) agreed on their passage, but his comments were swiftly denied by Saleh Moslem, co-chair of the PYD.

“We have already established a connection with FSA but no such agreement has been reached yet as Mr. Erdogan has mentioned,” Moslem told Reuters by telephone from Brussels.

Turkey’s unwillingness to send its powerful army across the Syrian border to break the siege of Kobani has angered Kurds, and seems rooted in a concern not to strengthen Kurds who seek autonomy in adjoining regions of Turkey, Iraq and Syria.

Ankara’s stance has also upset Western allies, as Islamic State’s capture of wide swathes of Syria and Iraq has caused international shock and U.S.-led air strikes began in August to try to halt and eventually reverse the jihadist advance.

Erdogan told a news conference on a visit to Estonia that Ankara was working on details of the route of passage for the FSA fighters, indicating they would access Kobani via Turkey.

But Moslem said talks between FSA commander Abdul Jabbar al-Oqaidi and the armed wing of the Kurdish PYD were continuing about the possible role of FSA rebels. “There are already groups with links to the FSA in Kobani helping us,” he said.

FSA commander Al-Oqaidi, speaking to Reuters in Suruc, a Turkish border town across from Kobani, said there had been an agreement to begin establishing a united defense force and initially 1,350 FSA fighters were to go to Kobani for help.

“These fighters will come in two or three days,” he said. “The fighters will come from the northern Syrian countryside. These fighters are not coming from the fighting fronts against the Assad regime. These are reserve fighters.”

U.S. officials said on Thursday that Kobani, nestled in a valley overlooked by Turkish territory, seemed in less danger of falling to Islamic State after coalition air strikes and limited arms drops, but the threat remained.

Moslem said he was disappointed with Turkey’s response so far. “When I conducted my meetings in Turkey, I was hoping the help would come in 24 hours. It’s been more than a month and we’re still waiting,” he said.

In a separate interview published in a pan-Arab newspaper, Moslem said that the battle for Kobani would turn into a war of attrition unless Kurds obtained arms that can repel tanks and armored vehicles.

He told Asharq al-Awsat that Kurds had recently received information that Islamic State wanted to fire chemical weapons into Kobani using mortars, after having surrounded it with around 40 tanks.

ISIS forces launch multiple attacks on Kurdish territory in Iraq

October 21, 2014 By administrator

ISIS militants launched about 15 near-simultaneous attacks on Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on Monday in what Kurdish government officials and the news agency Rudaw said was a fierce and renewed push for territory, CNN reported.

ISIS also launched attacks against Mosul Dam, a strategic prize, and also renewed its offensive on the Sinjar mountain range in northern Iraq.

An ISIS-commandeered military truck loaded with explosives targeted a Peshmerga checkpoint along the security belt circling the dam, killing six security force members and injuring seven others critically, according to Peshmerga spokesman Said Mamazeen.

At almost the same time, ISIS militants launched an attack on the Nineveh Valley near the dam, which was repelled by Peshmerga forces using European and American weapons, the spokesman said.

Another Kurdish military official, who asked not to be named for protocol and security reasons, said that despite the attacks, it would be difficult for ISIS to gain control of the dam because of the large numbers of Peshmerga forces in the area.

Kurdish heroism versus ISIS barbarism

October 15, 2014 By administrator

By John Wight

On the Turkish frontier, in and around the town of Kobani in northern Syria, the world is witnessing the very best of humanity alongside the very worst.

The very best are, of course, the Kurdish defenders of the town, whose courage and heroism in resisting an onslaught by the forces of the Islamic State (IS) over the past few weeks is such that songs will be written about them in years to come.

Indeed, the sight of those men and women, many barely out of their teens, holding the line with light weapons against repeated assaults from three sides by militants from an organization whose brutality has shocked the entire world conjures up parallels with Barcelona, the Warsaw Ghetto, even Stalingrad in microcosm. And given the medieval ideology of IS, under which women are reduced to the status of slaves, the fact that women are playing such a key role in the town’s defense adds an extra dimension of defiance to the barbarism they are facing.

The Islamic State (IS, previously known as ISIL and ISIS) has emerged and erupted across northern Syria and Iraq as a direct consequence of the West’s disastrous policy of military intervention in the region, going back to 2003 with the war in Iraq. Moreover, in pursuit of its domination of this oil-rich part of the world, Washington and its allies have extended themselves in propping up a constellation of corrupt regimes across the region — specifically Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait – while at the same time failing to arbitrate a just settlement for the long suffering Palestinians.

During this crisis the previously mentioned Gulf states, along with Washington’s NATO ally Turkey, have managed to navigate a pernicious policy of providing indirectly if not directly support to IS over the past couple of years, while maintaining the facade of fighting terrorism. Until recently, IS fighters moved freely across the Turkey-Syria border and large shipments of arms were allowed to enter Syria from Turkey, as witnessed and recorded by outraged Kurds.

It is no wonder that Kurdish exile communities are demonstrating throughout the world demanding an end to Turkey’s support for the Islamic State. In Turkey itself those demonstrations have resulted in fatalities, reminding us that Turkey’s history of denying its own Kurdish minority’s legitimate rights is a shameful one. In addition, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains determined to see the conflict in Syria continue until the Assad government is toppled, regardless of who and what replaces it, thus placing him on the side of barbarism.

As for the Saudis, the fact this vile regime retains the support of the West is an affront to decency – especially when we consider that the medieval and obscurantist creed of Wahhabism, near indistinguishable from the fundamentalist perversion of Islam which underpins the ideology of Al-Qaida and its offshoots such as the Islamic State, has no place in the 21st century.

It is inhuman and incompatible with human rights and yet it is the ruling orthodoxy taught to millions in the Kingdom.

So why is the West an ally of the very state which exists to promote a barbarous medieval ideology across the region and wider Muslim world? The answers are oil, a multi-billion dollar trade in arms, and strategic advantage. But even on those terms, the Frankenstein’s monster of IS demands a major reorientation of this policy and alliance.

In truth, if Washington and its European allies were serious about defeating IS in Syria and Iraq it would order air strikes not only against its forces on the outskirts of Kobani and in northern Iraq, but also against Erdogan’s government in Istanbul followed by air strikes to root out the Saudis in Riyadh. The world should not make the mistake of holding its breath waiting for this to happen, however, as currently in the White House resides not a president but a comedian masquerading as one.

Obama’s recent announcement that he was still formulating a strategy to deal with IS, weeks after the group’s eruption across the region, suggests a president who feels the need to consult his advisers and ponder the issue endlessly before he even takes a trip to the bathroom.

This is not a game. The Kurds defending Kobani, the Syrian people as a whole, the Iraqi people — the people of the Middle East in their entirety — demand an end to the double dealing, opportunism and hypocrisy that has defined the West and its allies’ role in creating the conditions for the carnage being visited upon them by this murder cult.

The plight of Kobani gives those who are currently fighting for their lives defending it the right to make a pact with the devil himself in order to defeat those who mean to torture, rape and behead them. As such, only the most callous would criticize recent US air strikes against the IS forces in and around the town — air strikes its defenders have been pleading for.

However, ultimately, it will only be when the West desists from its wrongheaded policy of treating President Assad of Syria as an enemy rather than a pillar of resistance to this poisonous ideology, and understands that a coalition which includes Turkey and the Saudis is no coalition at all, will the region finally begin to emerge from this disaster.

Sadly, anyone betting on such an eventuality is likely to lose their money. For as the man said: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Source: RT.com

Kurdish PKK commander threatens to resume war on Turkey

September 26, 2014 By administrator

By Amberin Zaman for Al monitor

Amberin Zaman is an Istanbul-based writer who has covered Turkey for The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Voice of America. A frequent commentator on Turkish television, she is currently Turkey correspondent

On Sept. 24, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) issued a highly critical statement. In a nutshell, it said that Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had “eliminated” the conditions of a mutually observed 18-month cease-fire between the PKK and the Turkish army. It said that, in response to “the AKP’s war against our people, our leadership council has decided to step up its struggle in every area and by all possible means.” I had heard similar words on Sept. 21 from Cemil Bayik, the top PKK commander in the field, during a three-hour meeting I had with him in a tent in the Kandil mountains.

“We may resume our war at the end of September. We have the authority to resume the war,” Bayik said.

“What of the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan?” I asked.

“We have a division of labor. Our leader has the authority to make peace,” he replied.

I couldn’t believe my ears. “Are you sure?” I asked repeatedly, because his words could have profound consequences for Turkey and its government.

Bayik responded positively: “We will be making a statement to this effect,” he said.

I thus decided to wait for the PKK to make its statement before publishing this interview. I did not want to be the first to impart the gloomy news. Because in the repressive climate that is gripping Turkey, I might have been accused of warmongering. So, is there a real risk that the insurgency will resume? Won’t Ocalan have the final say? Is the PKK’s statement no more than a tactical move aimed at putting pressure on the government? I would say yes to both questions. That said, with every passing day that the AKP government fails to take concrete steps to solve the Kurdish problem, the risk of the cease-fire’s ending grows. I raised all of these issues with Bayik, who hasn’t set foot in Turkey since 2000. The following are the highlights of the interview he gave to Al-Monitor:

Al-Monitor: How is the Islamic State (IS) onslaught against Kobani (the Syrian Kurdish-majority town of Ayn al-Arab on the Turkish border) affecting the peace process in Turkey?

Bayik: The attacks by Daesh [the initials of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham] against Kobani helped elucidate two things. One was whether Turkey’s collaboration with Daesh is continuing or not. The other is whether the peace process is continuing in the north [i.e., Turkey] or not. What emerged is that Turkey is continuing its relations with Daesh and that Turkey will not solve the Kurdish problem in the north. Because a Turkey that supports Daesh’s attacks against Kobani, that seeks to depopulate Kobani and lobbies for the establishment of a buffer zone cannot sever its ties with Daesh. Because if it did so Daesh would expose all of Turkey’s dirty laundry, and document the links between them.

Al-Monitor: Are you able to prove that these links exist?

Bayik: Before Daesh attacked Kobani, Turkish officials contacted the YPG [the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units] official responsible for Kobani. They warned him that should the YPG attack the Shah tomb [the Ottoman Tomb of Suleiman Shah inside Syria, which is guarded by Turkish troops and considered Turkish territory] that Turkey would retaliate in kind. I repeat, they said this before we were aware that Daesh would attack. Isn’t this strange?

Second, two days after the campaign against Kobani started, a Turkish train stopped at an Arab village near [the IS-controlled] Tal Abyad border gate and unloaded weapons and ammunition that were taken by Daesh. There are eyewitnesses to this transfer. And during this period the [Turkish] hostages [held by IS in Mosul] affair is supposedly resolved. These events are all interlinked. Turkey then opens the Mursitpinar border gate with Kobani just as Daesh fires Katyusha rockets at Kobani and surrounding villages to sow panic among the people. Turkey opens the border gate on the third day of the attack so that the people can flee to Turkey. This is what Daesh wants as well. This proves the collusion between them. Because Turkey has long wanted the establishment of a buffer zone. Its aim is to prevent the Kurds in Rojava [Syrian Kurdish areas in western Kurdistan] from winning a formal status. By emptying Kobani and provoking a mass exodus of people, Turkey can then claim before the international community that its own security is at stake and set about establishing a buffer zone.

Al-Monitor: Very senior Iraqi Kurdish officials told me that Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey’s national spy agency (MIT), had as recently as last week offered to mediate between the Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). Doesn’t this contradict your claims?

Bayik: Not at all. Turkey always supported the KDP against the PYD. Now they [the Turks] are supposedly trying to drive a wedge between the PKK and the PYD and to draw the PYD into an alliance with groups that are close to [the Turks] and to bring them in line with their own [Turks’] Syria policy. There are thousands of Syrian Kurds within the PKK. During the war [against Turkey] 1,500 Syrian Kurds were martyred. Many Syrian Kurd commanders from the PKK went over to Rojava to train YPG forces and to help them in the fight against Daesh. Such matters do not always work the way Turkey intends them to through money and weapons. And there is no friction between the YPG and the PKK as claimed. They are acting together in the south [Iraqi Kurdistan] in Kirkuk, in Shengal, in Rabiya. The only force to defend Rojava is the PKK.

Al-Monitor: IS has some very modern weapons. Aren’t you having trouble combating them?

Bayik: Yes, they have modern American weapons they seized in Mosul. Our own weapons aren’t effective against the American tanks that they use. Besides, we are used to fighting in mountainous terrain and now we are forced to do so in open plains. But we are a movement that adapts quickly to new circumstances.

Al-Monitor: Getting back to the peace process, you say that you have realized that the AKP will not solve the Kurdish problem

Bayik: We realized this a while back. There is tremendous pressure on our leader [Ocalan] and a very ugly psychological war that is being waged against him. Propaganda is being spread to demean him in the eyes of the people.

Al-Monitor: To the contrary, what we see is that Ocalan has been legitimized before the public as never before.

Bayik: You may not see this, but there are those who know and it’s reached all the way to us. I am telling you openly: Turkey must immediately stop these psychological ops tactics and end its pressure on our leader.

Al-Monitor: Can you be more explicit. What kind of pressure?

Bayik: I do not want to share all the details. It may not be appropriate at this time. But there is no improvement in the internment conditions of our leader. Recently, his sister and nephew visited him and they were put in a room where nobody could breathe. The nephew protested to the prison guards, saying they were aware of our leader’s breathing difficulties. Their response was that they would have to meet there and that was all. Moreover, they forced the meeting to end before the allotted time. The new government is trying to force our leader to roll back his demands by applying pressure on him. This applies especially to the negotiating points. But as they know he won’t back down, they are going to use this as an excuse to set the stage for war.

Al-Monitor: Are you saying that Turkey wants to resume the war?

Bayik: Absolutely. If this were not so, they would have worked harder at solving the problem. They would have improved the internment conditions of our leader. They would have accepted the presence of third-party observers in the peace talks. And they would have allowed the negotiating sides to carry equal weight. All they have done is to pass a bill to “end terrorism” in the parliament [legislation that effectively formalized the talks without actually referring to their substance]. And they did so kicking and screaming. We are concerned with actions, not words. The negotiations have still not started. They want to keep the talks on a dialogue level. They want to deceive our people. We have been in dialogue for years. We went back and forth to Oslo for years [the secret Oslo talks that ended in 2009].

Al-Monitor: Did you go to Oslo?

Bayik: No.

Al-Monitor: Have you had contact with any Turkish officials over the phone?

Bayik: No. I haven’t touched a phone since 2003 for personal security reasons.

Al-Monitor: During the presidential campaign of [the left-wing People’s Democracy Party (HDP) Kurdish candidate] Selahattin Demirtas the Kurdish political movement gained a lot of ground. Demirtas won support from most unexpected quarters. By talking in this manner, aren’t you undermining peaceful politics?

Bayik: As we are at the center of this process, if we say there is no progress in the peace progress, that means there is no progress because there is no one better placed to assess this. We have paid a very heavy price during 40 years of conflict. Thousands of our fighters and cadres were martyred. Thousand of Kurdish villages were burned and destroyed. Thousands of our people fell victim to extrajudicial killings. And now we see that the numbers of village guards (a state-paid anti-PKK Kurdish militia) are growing. Army garrisons are being built, together with supply roads. We are sticking to the cease-fire but they are not. And they took advantage of the cease-fire to launch a war against Rojava. We gave them time. We said they had until the end of September to take certain steps. We said that unless they do so by the end of September the war would resume.

Al-Monitor: Did you say “we will resume” or “may resume”?

Bayik: “May resume.”

Al-Monitor: But don’t you need Ocalan’s authorization for this?

Bayik: We decide on war. The authority to end the cease-fire lies with us. But our leader Apo [“Uncle,” Ocalan’s nickname] decides on peace, on the continuation of the peace process. His role is different from ours. We are complementary.

Giant pictures of Ocalan are scattered across the Kandil mountains in northeastern Iraq. (photo by Amberin Zaman)

Al-Monitor: But if Apo says peace must prevail, you won’t be able to decide on war. Thus the final decision rests with Apo.

Bayik: Ocalan is our leader. We are a movement that obeys its leader. We are loyal to our leader. But unless Turkey takes some steps, how can our leader say, “No, do not fight?” We are having trouble restraining our fighters as it is.

Al-Monitor: What are your demands from Turkey?

Bayik: The internment conditions of our leader need to be improved. We cannot negotiate in his present conditions. Third-party observers must be allowed to take part in the negotiations. They can be from civil society, from the parliament or from an international organization. It can also be a foreign power. And the support being given to Daesh against Rojava must end. Rojava is part of the peace process. This is clear.

Al-Monitor: Just as you have won plaudits for your role in helping the Yazidis in Sinjar and for your prowess in combating IS, and just as the international community is debating delisting the PKK and American cooperation with the YPG, would you not be throwing this all away by attacking Turkey, a NATO member?

Bayik: No. We are a legal movement. And nobody can blame the PKK. Until now we have declared nine unilateral cease-fires since 1993. In 2013, on the occasion of Nowruz (the Kurdish New Year), we freed all our prisoners. We ended the war and began to withdraw our fighters from Turkey. We are not eyeing anyone’s territory. We are not seeking independence. All we want is to live freely with our own identity, culture and values in democratic conditions.

Al-Monitor: But is it not risky to open a second front against Turkey when you are fighting IS in Rojava?

Bayik: We have been fighting for 40 years. If need be, we shall fight for many more years. We are fighting because we are being forced to do so. We are not going to surrender after 40 years. No power can implement its strategies in the Middle East without taking the PKK into account.

Al-Monitor: You speak of democracy but in recent days a group that calls itself the PKK’s youth wing has been burning down schools in the southeast of Turkey. Do such actions have any place in a democracy?

Bayik: Burning schools is wrong. But our people built schools there with their own means. They want to study in the Kurdish language, so why is the state forbidding this? There is a great deal of anger among our youth. Even we are having trouble restraining them. When we ask them why they burn schools, they respond, “Why are our schools being shut down?” There is a lot of alienation. The number of people joining our ranks last month has exceeded that in 1993. In 1993, around 1,000 people would join every month. Last month, 1,200 people joined.

Al-Monitor: The Turkish government spokesman Huseyin Celik said that we can now talk with Kandil (the PKK leadership). No sooner did Ahmet Davutoglu become prime minister, he made very positive statements about the peace process. For the first time, a government is talking directly to Ocalan and announcing this to the public. It has done more than any of its predecessors to solve the Kurdish problem. Does none of this mean anything? Besides, why would the government want to go to war before the elections?

Bayik: Yes, the government continues to speak positively about the peace process. And the pro-government media is helping to propagate this upbeat mood. This is a delaying tactic, a deception. They are trying to portray Apo as being optimistic when in fact he continually criticizes the AKP during the talks. They want to drain the process of all its substance and they want to manage it at their whim. What was their aim? To win the [March 2014] local elections and then the [August 2014] presidential elections. And now they want to win the 2015 [parliamentary] elections.

It’s true that they would not want to resume the war before the elections. They want the cease-fire to continue, but they want it to continue without making any concessions, save for a few unimportant gestures. After the 2015 elections, their position may change.

Kurdish reporter killed in Iraqi Kurdistan

August 11, 2014 By administrator

New York, August 11, 2014–A Kurdish journalist was killed in Makhmur district, south of the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, on Friday when shrapnel from mortar shelling hit her in the chest, according to news reports. Deniz Firat, a freelance reporter, was covering clashes between Kurdish forces and insurgents with the Islamic State, an Al-Qaeda splinter group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, the Firat News Agency said.

“As the violence in Iraq increases, all parties involved need to ensure that journalists covering the conflict are treated as civilians and can report safely,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator.

Firat, who was from the Kurdish city of Van in eastern Turkey, had been embedded with Kurdish forces, according to Rahman Gharib, general coordinator for the local press freedom group Metro Center to Defend Journalists, and news reports. She was reporting for the Firat agency, an outlet based outside Turkey that offers a pro-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) viewpoint. She also reported for several pro-Kurdish TV stations, including Sterk TV, Med NUÇE, and Ronahi TV.

Kurdish forces regained control over Makhmur district after U.S. air strikes in the region on Friday, according to reports. The strikes aimed to stop the Islamic State offensive in northern Iraq, reports said.

The escalation of violence and the instability in Iraq have led to a substantial increase in the risks that journalists face in the region. More than a dozen journalists have been killed in the past year in Iraq, according to CPJ research.

Firat’s body was sent back to Turkey after her funeral, according to news reports. The Metro Center organized a candlelight vigil in Sulaymaniyah for the journalist.