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Terrorist State of Turkey Court orders books of 2 journalists to be removed from shelves

December 16, 2015 By administrator

Hasan Cemal. (Photo: Today’s Zaman)

(ZAMAN)A Gaziantep court has ruled that two books, one of which was authored by prominent journalist Hasan Cemal and another journalist, Tuğçe Tatari, be removed from store shelves.

According to media reports, all copies of Cemal’s book titled “Delila: Bir genç kadın gerillanın dağ günlükleri” (Delila: A young woman guerrilla fighter’s mountain diaries) and Tatari’s “Anneanne ben aslında Diyarbakır’da değildim” (Grandmother, I actually wasn’t in Diyarbakır) will be removed from store shelves across Turkey. Both books are about terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the camps of the terrorist organization located in northern Iraq.

The Gaziantep 3rd Penal Court of Peace ordered the books to be removed from shelves due to “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization in a way that would make the organization’s methods involving force, violence and threat seem legitimate or promote them with compliments, openly provoking people to commit crime and praising the crime and criminals.” The court gave the decision based on Article 25 of Law No. 5187, the Press Law, and Article 28 of the Constitution, which regulates the freedom of press.

The decision came after the books removed from shelves were seized by police officers in an operation against suspected the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) — an umbrella group that encompasses the terrorist PKK — the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) — an affiliate of the PKK — and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) members on Oct. 11. Detention warrants for as many as 21 people were issued as part of the operation that was authorized by the Gaziantep Public Prosecutor’s Office and carried out in various provinces that include Balıkesir, Hatay and Siirt.

One of the detainees was carrying two of Cemal’s books, including the one that was removed from shelves, and another was carrying Tatari’s book.

In addition, journalist Ahmet Şık was fined TL 4,000 for the compensation of the spiritual damages he caused the Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım by allegedly insulting him in his book titled “Paralel yürüdük biz bu yollarda” (We walked these roads in parallel).

Tatari’s lawyer Aslı Kazan Gilmore spoke to the press about the issue, saying the decision to remove the book from shelves is unlawful and that they would file an objection to it. “It is obvious that the decision was given without the book having been read. The written order doesn’t even include the name of the publishing house, although its logo was on the book’s cover. As the court didn’t order it, neither the writer nor the book’s publishing house was informed about the decision. We will file an objection against the decision and also claim the damages that stem from its removal,” Gilmore said.

The Platform for Independent Journalism (P24), for which Cemal is the chairman, reacted against the decision on its website and Twitter account, saying that they regard the removal of the books tragic for the mentality of the actors behind the decision. “The decision to remove books from shelves, which is against both domestic law and the ECHR [the European Convention on Human Rights] is the manifestation of eagerness for martial law and the desire for war and a coup. They [the government] won’t succeed in intimidating [society] by removing the books that were published years ago and have reached thousands of people,” the platform stated. He added: “The decision to remove books from shelves has shown us that the freedom of expression in Turkey has been reduced to a right that only protects the ruling party’s hate speech … As the P24 Platform for Independent Journalism, we demand from the state of the Republic of Turkey and its judiciary to stop these unlawful interventions that disregard the freedom of speech and the right to information.”

Cemal criticized on Wednesday the removal of the books from shelves in the column he wrote for the T24 news portal titled “I’m with my books and freedom” by referring to the incident as “another blow to freedom of expression”, “ban on criticism” and “censorship.”

Also speaking to the press, Tatari said she wrote the book to promote peace. “I wrote this book during the settlement process. It is a work that was done to urge people to connect with and understand one another with the intent of sustaining peace. It’s shameful to ban this book as if it’s a dangerous item,” Tatari said.

The removal of the books has brought to mind a return to military-era rule, according to a number of social media users who reacted to the ban by referring to the Sept. 12, 1980 coup, which was the bloodiest military intervention in the history of the Turkish Republic.

Zaman daily’s Copenhagen-based correspondent Hasan Cücük posted an ironic tweet on his Twitter account, saying “welcome Sept. 12!”

In June 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s rights were violated when a book he was writing titled “Kürdistan Devrim Manifestosu, Kürt Sorunu ve Demokratik Ulus Çözümü” (Manifestation of the Kurdistan Revolution, the Kurdish Question and A Democratic Nation Solution), was confiscated and destroyed in 2012.

A panel of trustees who were appointed to Kaynak Holding in a government-backed move against the faith-based Gülen movement in November has decided to have copies of all books written by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen removed from the shelves of hundreds of NT Mağazaları bookstores across the country in another explicit example of censorship.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) also passed an omnibus bill in November of last year, the 47th article of which prevented publishing houses from printing the “Risale-i Nur” collection — written by prominent Islamic scholar Bediüzzaman Said Nursi — as the publishers are not the legal heir of the author.

Now, 35 years after the coup, memories of the death, torture, pain and oppression of Sept. 12 continue to haunt the country with government-led operations against opposing media, violence stemming from reactions to terrorist attacks by the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) turning into violent attacks against Turkey’s Kurdish population and military curfews.

Turkey: Young Kurds take up arms as clashes increase in Turkish Kurdistan

August 27, 2015 By administrator

Kurdish youth fighting security forces in Sirnak province in Turkish Kurdistan, August 2015. Photo: Twitter

CIZRE, Turkey’s Kurdish region,— In Kurdish parlance, “going up to the mountains” has always meant joining the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), the armed group ensconced in the highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan. But in Cizre, a Kurdish town in Turkish Kurdistan on the border with Syria, the phrase may be losing its meaning amid a violent stand-off between Kurdish militants and Turkish security forces.

“We don’t need to join the PKK, because the PKK is the people,” says Ridvan, a young local, as he picks up his automatic rifle and prepares to go on patrol, a woollen balaclava pulled over his face.

Six of his friends, all in their late teens or early 20s and armed with machine guns follow him. One of them is carrying an rocket-propelled grenade. (Their names, and Ridvan’s, have been changed.) Some members of the squad refer to themselves as the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H). Others do not appear attached to the name. “Call us whatever you like,” says one. “There’s no difference between us and the PKK.”

Over the past month and a half, according to figures cited in the Turkish media, clashes in the Kurdish south-east have claimed the lives of at least 60 members of Turkey’s security forces, 88 militants, and 15 civilians. Police have also rounded up over 1,000 suspected PKK sympathisers in operations across Turkey and have declared over 100 areas in the south-east “special security zones”.

The fighting began when the PKK claimed responsibility for the assassination of two Turkish policemen in what it referred to as retaliation for a July 20 suicide attack linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) in a Kurdish town that killed 33 people, most of them Kurdish activists.

The PKK has accused the government of complicity and negligence in the attack. The government responded with a military offensive, including air strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq, killing over 800 insurgents, according to the semi-official Anadolu Agency. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once credited with granting Turkey’s 15m Kurds new cultural rights, has since been accused of stoking violence in the south-east to shore up the nationalist vote ahead of snap elections this autumn.

The unrest reached Cizre at the end of July when Abdullah Ozdal, 23, was gunned down during street protests. Just days later another young man, Hasan Nerse, 17, was killed by police. Locals, as well as the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), allege he was shot at close range after being handcuffed.

Anticipating arrests, militants across Cizre raised barricades, dug ditches, and mined a number of roads to prevent police vehicles from entering their neighbourhoods. A policeman, Salih Huseyin Parca, was killed here two weeks ago in a PKK rocket attack. A civilian died when a roadside bomb planted by the militants exploded under his car.
The town shuts down early. “In the summer, this place used to be buzzing until one or two in the morning,” says Kadir Kunur, the HDP co-mayor. “Now it’s a ghost town at night.”

Armed groups appear to be in control of large parts of the city, as well as a number of other towns in the south-east, patrolling streets, raising new barricades, and staging regular attacks on police targets.

The sight of locals sporting rocket launchers inside the city has raised eyebrows in Cizre, where clashes between the PKK and the Turkish army claimed scores of lives in the 1990s.

“A few years ago, these kids were throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, and some went to jail. Now they have guns,” says Cihan Olmez, a local journalist, who reports seeing well over 100 young gunmen in Cizre this month.

“The PKK is a organisation that learns,” says Nihat Ali Oczan, a former major in the Turkish army and security analyst. “In the 1990s their strategy did not work, but now they have adapted, they have decentralised, giving a bigger role to volunteers and local groups.”

“The difference this time around is both sides, but especially the PKK, have had time to prepare and train,” says Aliza Marcus, a Washington-based Kurdish expert.

The Cizre militants deny taking orders from the PKK leadership in northern Iraq, insisting their decision to take up arms was their own. They also have little patience for ceasefire calls made by their own politicians, including the

HDP, which won 92 per cent of the vote in Cizre during parliamentary elections this June and garnered 13 per cent of the vote nationally.

“Let them appeal for peace, but the only one who can make us lay down our guns is Apo,” says Hewal, another young militant, referring to the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who was central to peace talks but has been denied a chance to meet visiting delegations of HDP lawmakers, his main channel to the outside world, since April.

The war in Syria has added to the mobilisation of young Kurds in Cizre, with scores slipping across the nearby border to join the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a PKK offshoot, to fight Isis militants.

Not so Hewal and his group, who take positions atop a barricade looking out for approaching police vehicles. “We didn’t go to the mountains and we didn’t go to Syria, because we guessed this was coming,” says Ridvan. “Now the war is right here.”

Turkey: another 12 soldiers killed in PKK attack, clashes in past 24 hours

August 19, 2015 By administrator

(Photo: Cihan)

Eight soldiers were killed in a bomb attack carried out by members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist organization in Siirt province on Wednesday afternoon, while four other troops died in clashes between Turkish security forces and PKK terrorists in the Lice and Hani districts of Diyarbakır on Tuesday evening.

In a statement released on its website, the military said “separatist terrorist organization members” detonated a handmade bomb planted on the highway between Siirt’s Şirvan and Pervari districts as a military vehicle was passing by. Eight soldiers were killed in the attack. The Cihan news agency said three members of the security forces were among the deceased. Ambulances were dispatched to the area to aid the wounded soldiers.

In addition, a soldier who was injured in fighting in the southeastern district of Lice on Tuesday later died in the hospital, raising the number of soldiers killed in the Lice clashes to two.

Six Turkish soldiers had suffered injuries when a clash broke out between security forces and PKK members on Tuesday afternoon in Lice. The soldiers were taken to Diyarbakır’s Dicle University Hospital by helicopter. One of the soldiers, who was in critical condition, died from his injuries, according to the military.

The military said reinforcement units, helicopters and a reconnaissance airplane had been dispatched to the area. Another two soldiers were killed and one was wounded in a clash with terrorist PKK members in Hani, >another district in Diyarbakır, on Tuesday evening.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the military said approximately 100-150 people from the town of Gömeç in Hani attempted to form a human shield against an operation launched when PKK terrorists closed the Diyarbakır-Bingöl highway to traffic on Monday evening. PKK terrorists disguised themselves as villagers, and a clash broke out between them and security forces at around 8:55 p.m. Two soldiers were killed and another was wounded during the exchange of fire, according to the military.

In the meantime, a police officer was injured in a PKK attack carried out against a police station in the Bağlar district of Diyarbakır. The police responded to the attack by PKK terrorists who opened fire on the station. The terrorists then fled the scene. The injured police officer was taken to Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital for treatment.

Source: Zaman

Germany: Özdemir warns of ‘Mini-Pakistan’ in Turkey as Germany sharpens travel advisory

July 29, 2015 By administrator

German politician Cem Özdemir has slammed Turkey’s president, saying the country was turning into a “mini-Pakistan.” The German foreign office has warned of possible terror attacks on transport systems in Istanbul.

The co-chair of the Green party in Germany’s Bundestag, Cem Özdemir, issued strong words Wednesday against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying Turkey would be “plunged into chaos” under his leadership.
His comments followed Turkey’s retaliation against attacks on its soil by launching airstrikes against the “Islamic State” (“IS”) militant group in Syria, but also against the minority Kurdish militant group PKK’s headquarters in northern Iraq. A peace process to end some 30 years of deadly violence between the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the Turkish government, which had been underway since 2013, was called off by Erdogan this week.
“We cannot look away when a country, which until yesterday wanted to join the EU, is transforming under Erdogan into a mini-Pakistan with an authoritarian ruler, right on the European border,” Özdemir, who was the first person of Turkish heritage to become a member of Germany’s parliament back in the 1990s, told the “Passauer Neuen Presse” newspaper.
According to Özdemir, the long-time Turkish leader had been turning a blind eye to “Islamic State” and Turkey’s actions against the group were merely symbolic.
“It’s to deceive us in the West. Hardly any positions from ISIS are being attacked and relatively few ISIS supporters have been arrested,” he said, using an alternative name for IS.

Travelers urged to be vigilant

Meanwhile, the German government has warned its citizens of an increased risk of terror attacks in Turkey, especially in the city of Istanbul, in the wake of Ankara’s assault. The foreign office has updated its advice to citizens planning to travel there and is urging them to monitor the situation carefully.
“There could be increased attack activity by the PKK,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.
“Beyond that there are indications of possible attacks on the underground rail network and bus stops in Istanbul,” the ministry added.
Data from Turkey’s tourism ministry, released Wednesday, showed the number of foreign visitors fell by 2.25 percent during the first six months of this year, news agency Reuters reported. During that time 14.89 million people visited Turkey.
Germany is a NATO partner of Turkey and home to about 3 million people of Turkish origin.
se/kms (Reuters, dpa, AFP)

Source: DW.com