The Kurdish PKK is Not a Terrorist Group

October 4, 2015 By administrator

Cole Forster | The Gateway Online

The maintenance of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party on the Canadian government’s list of terrorist organizations is a bizarre classification given the recent nature of the group. The PKK in its current inception has very little to do with the terror tactics it occasionally employed in the 80s, 90s and early 00s. Correspondingly, the armed wing of the group is smaller than it has ever been, and with regards to Turkey is strictly engaged in insurrection towards military and police installations. If the PKK were today attacking civilians because it saw no other way to redress the grievances of Anatolia’s Kurdish population, then someone arguing for its blacklisting would have a ghost of a point. But this is simply no longer the case.

I proffer no defence of the PKK’s violent actions between 1984-2013, but I invite readers to remember the campaign of brutality and repression visited upon the Kurds in Turkey during those years. The history of Turkey’s “problem” minority is a tragic but resilient one. We are talking about the largest identifiable group of people in the world who don’t have a state of their own. A unique culture, with its own languages, traditions, heritage, and I argue, right to self-determination. But Ankara has always seen the Kurds as an impediment to Atatürk’s vision for an ethnically homogenous Turkey. And for decades the PKK has struggled against state repression in the southeastern quarter of the country.

It’s annoying that I have to waste ink clarifying the obvious, but I will do so anyways to avoid any charge of unfairness. The activity of the PKK in years past is disgraced by the harm that befell civilians. Killing non-combatants is never justified. That being said, I don’t think any thoughtful audience would consider Turkish soldiers complicit in the systematic destruction of an estimated 2,400 Kurdish villages to be pacific actors.

The chronological trend within the PKK has been concurrently towards a more tepid socialism and a deescalation of violent acts towards civilians and foreigners. In 2013 the group’s leader Abdullah Öcalan wrote a letter from the prison cell in which he is being held indefinitely, instructing PKK forces to withdraw across the mountains into Iraqi Kurdistan. This command was followed almost immediately and since 2013 the PKK has sought refuge in the Autonomous Region of northern Iraq. But this retreat has marginalized the PKK in terms of its ability to leverage in discussion of autonomy.

In blacklisting the PKK, Canada is echoing the Turkish government’s position that neither the organization nor its totally benign subsidiaries deserve a seat at the table. The fastest way to broker a peace in this conflict is to invite actual representatives of the Kurdish community to have a say in their own future. This necessarily means including the PKK.

The most compelling argument on this subject is related to the rise of ISIL in the neighbourhood. How can we label the PKK and her affiliates as terrorist groups and simultaneously depend on their bravery in the fight against ISIL? It seems self-evidently hypocritical to condemn the guerillas and then wager against the implosion of the region because of its actions. Remember, it was the PKK who shepherded the Yazidi Kurds to safety on Mount Sinjar. It was the PKK who shouldered rifles to restore Kobanî. And it is the PKK who settles down at night in the mountains of Northern Iraq and wait for the Turks to start shelling them from across the border.

And we repay our brothers and sisters in Kurdistan by taking Erdogan’s side. This great debt we owe tothe people struggling against ISIL on our behalf is reimbursed by freezing their assets, by pigeon- holing a vast umbrella organization for events that transpired decades ago. We recompense their bravery with our cowardice, with confused and dated classifications. As for solidarity, we have abandoned the principal.

Source: thegatewayonline.ca

Russian Air Force decimating terrorist command centers, bunkers, camps, workshops – Defense Ministry

October 3, 2015 By administrator

SU-34 © Maxim Blinov / RIA Novosti

RT Surgical airstrikes by Russian fighter jets have knocked out a number of Islamic State installations in Syria, including the battle headquarters of a jihadist group near Raqqa, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

“Over the past 24 hours, Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-24M fighter jets have performed 20 sorties and hit nine Islamic State installations,” Igor Konashenkov, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman, reported.

Konashenkov added that yesterday evening Russian aircraft went on six sorties, inflicting strikes on three terrorist installations.

“A bunker-busting BETAB-500 air bomb dropped from a Sukhoi Su-34 bomber near Raqqa has eliminated the command post of one of the terror groups, together with an underground storage facility for explosives and munitions,” the spokesman said.

Commenting on the video filmed by a Russian UAV monitoring the assault near Raqqa, Konashenkov noted, “a powerful explosion inside the bunker indicates it was also used for storing a large quantity of munitions.

FRANCE Franco-American Mark Moogalian, Thalys train hero at the Elysee

September 14, 2015 By administrator

Mark Moogalian, France, president

Mark Moogalian, one of the heroes of Thalys, was received yesterday morning by Francois Hollande. This Franco-American English teacher of Armenian origin could tell the president the attack of 21 August in which he was shot in the neck after being snatched from the hands of terrorist automatic weapons. Hospitalized for several days, Mark Moogalian was received over an hour in the company of his wife. Hollande has promised to hand over in person the Legion of Honour at the Élysée.

Monday, September 14, 2015,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Bangkok bombing: Was it the Grey Wolves of Turkey? Ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group

August 29, 2015 By administrator

By Philip Sherwell in Bangkok

Somyot Poompanmoung, Lieutenant General of the Thai police, Photo: Bloomberg

Ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group key suspect in bombing after arrest of reported Turkish national in Thai capital, The arrest of a reported Turkish citizen with bomb-making material by Bangkok police has put the spotlight on the Grey Wolves, a pan-Turkic terror group with cause for enmity of Thais
The Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group, have emerged as key suspects in the Bangkok shrine bombing after the arrest of a reported Turkish national in the Thai capital.
The extremist faction may have committed the worst terrorist atrocity in Bangkok’s history in retaliation for Thailand’s recent controversial deportation of more than 100 Uighurs, ethnic Turkic Muslims, to China.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bomb that that tore through worshippers at the Erawan shrine, killing six Thais and 14 ethnic Chinese Asian visitors.
But in the most significant breakthrough since the August 17 bombing, Thai police have arrested a man carrying a passport, possibly falsified, of Adem Karadag, a 28-year-old Turk.
The man was seized with bomb making material – including the sort of ball-bearings packed around explosives in the device – in a police raid on an apartment near a university popular with foreign students on the outskirts of Bangkok.

His reported citizenship has focussed attention on a possible radical Turkish connection to the bombing.
As The Telegraph reported, Thai police have been investigating the possible role of Turkish visitors to the kingdom as they searched for a suspect matching the composite sketch drawn from surveillance video footage of a man who left a bulky back-pack at the bomb site a few minutes before the blast.
The Grey Wolves have figured as possible suspects because of pan-Turkish anger at Thailand’s deportation of 109 Uighurs to China.
That could make Thais and Chinese prime targets for the group. And the bombing target was a Hindu shrine in the centre of Bangkok that is extremely popular with Buddhist Thais and ethnic Chinese visitors to the city.
Anthony Davis, a respected Bangkok-based security analyst with IHS-Jane’s, first made public the argument that the most likely perpetrators were the Grey Wolves.

He noted that the radical faction took part in attacks on the Thai consulate in Istanbul in retaliation for the Bangkok military government’s deportation of Uighurs, despite widespread criticism by human rights groups that they faced persecution in China.
The Uighur men were separated by the Thais from their wives and children who were sent to Turkey, in a move that infuriated their supporters.
The atrocity does not bear the previous hallmarks of a domestic faction while no international terror group has claimed responsibility, as is the modus operandi of al-Qaeda and Islamic State factions.

The Grey Wolves are a Turkish ultra-nationalist organisation established in the 1960s. Their alleged death squads murdered left-wing and liberal activists and intellectuals as well as staging the attempt on Pope John Paul II’s life in 1981.

The radical Pan-Turkic organisation extended operations in the early 1990s into post-Soviet states with Turkic and Muslim populations, including the Nagorno-Karabakh War in Azerbaijan and the Chechen conflicts.
The group has close ties to Turkish crime mafia gangs that operate in Bangkok and could have provided logistical support for operations in the Thai capital.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Azerbaijani terrorists fight against each other in different Islamist groups in Syria

August 5, 2015 By administrator

Azerbaijan has long earned the status of one of the main sources for recruiting new fighters into the “Islamic State” (IS) whose militants get “serious support from the Azerbaijani citizens,” 365news.biz writes.

Azerbaijani citizen, head of the IS Turkish subdivision, Abdulla Abdullayev, was detained in Istanbul last week. He dispatched the newcomers recruited in Azerbaijan and Caucasus republics to Islamist-controlled territories. Besides Abdullayev, several dozens of Azerbaijanis who were going to join the terrorists were detained, as well.

According to 365news.biz, Abdullayev was considered to be a key figure in the Turkish pit of the armed gang. In addition, IS also has many warlords from Azerbaijan. The leader Abu Khattab Al Azeri is among the most notorious ones with his squad having participated in some notorious acts and terror attacks.

Haqqin.az cites the website Islamazeri as publishing the photo of the 18-year-old militant Hamza Azeri, nicknamed Hamzat Lamro, from Nakhijevan, who fought for IS and was liquidated in the Syrian city Kobani. Notably, Hamza Azeri’s father, Hafiz Azeri, is a terrorist, too, and still goes on fighting for the IS.

The Azerbaijanis are actively engaged and operate not only in the IS, but also in another terrorist organization Al-Caeda which is rival to the IS. For instance, 30-year-old Mahmud Azeri, an Azerbaijani from Baku, is the commander of one of Al-Caeda subdivisions and fights against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops and Shia groups, particularly the IS.
Mahmud Azeri told Timeturk portal, Al-Caeda media wing, that there are hundreds of Azerbaijanis currently fighting in Syria, who are not IS militants. When asked about Al-Caeda’s plans regarding Azerbaijan, Mahmud Azeri said he wished “the Azerbaijanis recognized the true Islam.”

The Azerbaijani terrorists have long been fighting in the ranks of various terrorist groups in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Azerbaijani media reported about the death of about 200 Azerbaijani terrorists Syria alone over the past three years. There have also been frequent media reports about Azerbaijani terrorist commanders’ liquidation.

Azerbaijan has recently increased pressure on the religious activists and communities, which are suspected of having ties with Wahhabis. According to some opinions, the Salafists who joined the Islamist groups in Syria and returned to Azerbaijan with fighting experience can target Ilham Aliyev’s government.

The relationship between international terrorist groups and Azerbaijan originated in the early 1990s. That time, the Azerbaijani army, having failed in the aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), retreated with losses. Trying to save the situation, the Azerbaijani leadership, headed by Heydar Aliyev attracted to the war against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh international terrorists and members of radical groups from Afghanistan (groupings of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), Turkey (“Grey Wolves”, etc.), Chechnya (groupings Basayev and Raduyev etc.) and some other regions.

Despite the involvement of thousands of foreign mercenaries and terrorists in the Azerbaijani army during the war, the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic failed, and the Baku authorities were forced to sign an armistice with the NKR and Armenia. However, international terrorists established ties in Azerbaijan, and used them in the future. The Azerbaijanis were recruited and sent to Afghanistan and the North Caucasus, where they participated in the battles against the forces of the international coalition and Russian organizations.

Source: Panorama.am

Syria SANA: The army eliminates Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS terrorists in several areas across the country

August 3, 2015 By administrator

Units of the Syrian army and armed forces eliminated large numbers of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organizations’ members across the country during military operations against their hideouts and dens, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

An army unit killed all members of a terrorist group affiliated to ISIS after monitoring their movements in al-Qaser village, 60 km to the north east of Sweida, a military source told SANA Monday.

Another army unit clashed with ISIS terrorists while they were trying to infiltrate towards al- Harfoush farm, to the south of al-Haqf village, killing and injuring a number of them and destroying their arms and ammunition.

The news agency said that the Syrian army also carried out successful military operations in the countryside of Damascus, in Aleppo, Homs, Latakia, and other areas of Syria.

Source: Panorama.am

Turkish Bosnia: ISIS set up stronghold in the heart of Europe as terrorists secretly buy land near an isolated village

July 20, 2015 By administrator

BY PATRICK HILL , ED WIGHT

Bosnia, Heartlands: The ISIS stronghold is not mapped by GPS

Security services think the area in Bosnia is used for ISIS training camps and could be a base for devastating terror attacks on the West, Islamic State have established a stronghold in mainland Europe, a Sunday Mirror investigation reveals. Report mirror.co.uk Visit the site to see Video of Bosnian children training in Syria

Terrorists are secretly buying land in an isolated village, surrounded by deep woodland.

Security services think the area in Bosnia is used for ISIS training camps and could be a base for devastating terror attacks on the West.

Crucially, the location gives IS a key strategic position due to its proximity to the Mediterranean which is used by extremists from Syria, Iraq and North Africa.

At least 12 ISIS fighters trained in the village of Osve have left for Syria in recent months and five are reported to be dead.

Terror expert Dzevad Galijasevic said: “From this village a large number of people went to Syria and are going constantly.

“The chosen location of some of the properties is on a hill, where there is no possibility to approach without being seen. It is clear that the source of the terrorist threat is right there. It is a major threat.

“There is no one there who isn’t ready to respond to the summons to jihad.”

We visited the hilltop village 60 miles from Sarajevo and six miles from the town of Maglaj afternoon.

It is not mapped by GPS and is only accessible by steep and winding roads barely wide enough for cars to pass.

A number of houses there appear to have been abandoned or only half built and it is not overlooked by any other settlement.

A number of villagers wore Islamic-style clothing, including two women wearing burkas.

Our guide – our driver and translator – said we were being watched and it was too dangerous to photograph them.

Clearly worried, the dad-of-one said: “We should leave now – our presence here is beginning to cause suspicion. This is a beautiful place but is incredibly dangerous.

“You cannot underestimate the possible threat here. If they see the camera all hell will break loose.”

It is understood that notorious ISIS supporter Harun Mehicevic is among fanatics who bought land in the area. He has purchased two hectares.

Mehicevic fled Bosnia during the 1990s Balkan wars and settled in Melbourne, Australia, where he is considered one of the country’s most dangerous men.

In one ranting sermon, he reportedly told an audience of potential recruits: “Allah will help the mujahideen (holy warriors) establish an Islamic State where Muslims can live with dignity and honour.”

Other known terrorists believed to have bought land in the village include Jasin Rizvic and Osman Kekic, who are both now fighting with ISIS in Syria.

Muslim leader Izet Hadzic – arrested by Bosnia’ and Herzegovina’s security service Sipa in a raid – is also understood to have property in the village, as have many others who have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq.

One villager told our investigators that locals fear the area is a “nest for terrorists”.

The man, who does not want to be named, said: “We regularly hear gunshots coming from the woods up there for long periods at a time. It happens every week.

“I don’t know what they are doing, whether it is target practice or something like that, but it happens regularly. “It is really concerning to hear such notorious members of ISIS are buying land. They keep themselves to themselves but it is better not to ask questions.

“It worries me that I am bringing up my children here. Now could be time to move out but it is not so easy to sell.”

Bosnia is an ideal position for jihadis travelling illegally from Syria to Greece, via Turkey, and then through Macedonia and Serbia.

Guns and other weapons are easier to obtain in Bosnia than in other parts of Europe due to illegal ownership following the conflicts of the 1990s.

Five months ago, anti-terror cops raided the village of Gornja Maoca in the north of the country following reports of houses flying the ISIS flag.

The area is home to followers of the strict Sunni Islam Wahhabi movement. It has been raided by police several times over the past decade due to suspected links with radical groups.

A report on jihadism in Bosnia said: “Returning foreign fighters from Syria and Iraq – battle-hardened, skilled in handling arms and explosives, and ideologically radicalised – pose a direct threat not only to the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also of the region and beyond.” The report, The Lure of the Syrian War: The Foreign Fighters’ Bosnian Contingent, said that between 2013 and 2014, 156 Bosnian men and 36 women travelled to Syria, taking 25 children with them.

It said 48 men and three women had officially returned by last January.

The authors, Sarajevo University associate political science professor Vlado Azinovic and Islamic theologian Muhamed Jusic, also found that Bosnia was ill-prepared to deal with the threat.

The report said: “There is a lack of co-ordination between local law-enforcement agencies on (foreign fighter) issues.”

Kristina Jozic of security service Sipa said: “The return of individuals participating in the conflict in Syria, fighting with ISIS, is undoubtedly a security challenge and a threat, the extent of which is hard to determine.”

She said: “Sipa continuously performs checks of all allegations that can be linked to terrorist activities in any way, whether that is financing, recruiting or other activities related to terrorism.”

She added that the village is under surveillance following a police raid in May.

Director of the Centre for Security Studies in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, Armin Krzalic, said: “Bosnians who went to fight for Islamic State will be treated as a threat to security upon their return whether they have land here or not.”

Chinese police shoot dead ‘terrorist’ Uighurs Islamist militants

July 14, 2015 By administrator

Officers in Shenyang have killed three Uighur men who they say were Islamist militants. Activists have said that Uighurs are merely being discriminated against by a “hostile” governmen,

Police officers in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang shot and killed three Uighur men carrying knives and injured a fourth on Monday evening, according to the local government and state media. They reported that the men were shouting about Islamic holy war, but declined to give any further details of the incident.

“When police pursued the terrorist suspects, four terrorists armed with knives resisted arrest. Police fired shots only after the terrorists ignored warnings,” read an online statement from the Shenyang public security bureau before it was taken down without explanation. report DW.com

State-run Beijing News, citing the provincial government, said the police had killed the militants when they resisted them during a raid.

“When the police tried to enter to investigate, four terrorists wearing headgear, holding knives and crying out ‘jihad’ hacked at the police,” the Beijing News said. The news outlet reported that the men were from Xinjiang, the primary homeland of the Muslim Uighur minority, and that the “accompanying children” as well as one woman, also from Xinjiang, had been apprehended by authorities.

Minority Uighurs targeted

Activists say that Uighurs, targeted as separatists by the Chinese government, are simply fleeing violence in Xinjiang, where hundreds have died in recent years. The government blames the strife on Islamic militants and says Uighurs want to create their own breakaway state.

In a statement about Monday’s incident, Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the exile group World Uyghur Congress wrote: “The accusation that they are suspected terrorists exposes China’s hostile and discriminatory attitude.”

“China’s barbarian policy of shooting people dead before judicial interrogation should be prevented by the international community,” said Raxit.

es/msh (AP, Reuters)

Bulgaria arrests man linked to Paris terrorist brothers

January 13, 2015 By administrator

Bulgarian authorities said Tuesday, Jan 13, they have arrested a French citizen believed to have links to one of the Kouachi brothers, while in Paris President Francois Hollande led an homage to three slain police officers, the Associated Press reports.

Fritz-Joly Joachin, 29, was arrested under two European arrest warrants, one citing his alleged links to a terrorist organization, and a second for allegedly kidnapping his 3-year-old son and smuggling him out of the country, said Darina Slavova, regional prosecutor of the southern province of Haskovo.

Speaking on the private Nova TV channel, Slavova said the first warrant cited his possible association with one of the attackers, Cherif Kouachi.

In Paris ceremony, Hollande went first to the family of Ahmed Merabet, the French Muslim policeman killed in the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. The satirical newspaper lampooned religions and had been threatened repeatedly for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

French police said as many as six members of a terrorist cell involved in the Paris attacks may still be at large, including a man who was seen driving a car registered to the widow of one of the gunmen.

The country has deployed 10,000 troops to protect sensitive sites — including Jewish schools and neighborhoods — in the wake of the attacks that killed 17 people last week.

Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi and their friend, Amedy Coulibaly, were killed Friday by police after a murderous spree at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. The three all claimed ties to Islamic extremists in the Middle East.

Two police officials told the AP that authorities were searching the Paris area for the Mini Cooper registered to Hayat Boumeddiene, Coulibaly’s widow. Turkish officials say she is now in Syria.

One of the police officials said the cell consisted of about 10 members, and that “five or six could still be at large,” but he did not provide their names. The other official said the cell was made up of about eight people and included Boumeddiene.

One of the police officials also said Coulibaly apparently set off a car bomb Thursday in the town of Villejuif, but no one was injured and it did not receive significant media attention at the time.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the manhunt is urgent because “the threat is still present.”

US Congress removes Iraqi Kurdish parties from terrorist list: Official

December 13, 2014 By administrator

The 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.