It has been obvious, since January 2004 and the clash between Osman Öcalan and Murat Karayilan, that the warmonger wing of the PKK had taken control of the party.
Increasing fights in 2005, targeted murders against members of the PWD, and blind bomb attacks in Kurdistan and in Western Turkey were a sign that the democratization of Turkey was not welcomed by the new leadership of PKK. TAK, who claimed the attacks against foreign tourists in Cesme and Kuşadası is said to be an “uncontrollable group” operating independently from the PKK. Funnily enough, it would probably be the first Kurdish group to achieve this: in the past every attempt to build a independent group or party, in Kurdistan, Turkey or Europe, was mercilessly crushed. There can only be one voice of the Kurds, and this voice is Öcalan’s. The idea of a TAK conducting bomb attacks against the will of PKK is thus hard to believe.
Here is an extract of an allegedly TAK e-mail sent to journalists
In everywhere of Turkey, the bombs will explode, the assassinations and sabotage actions will happen. We will not recognize any rule. Everything and everywhere are targets for us. We concentrate on the target, attack the target with revengeful spirit and we destroy it. We are calling about tourism.
It is one of the most important source which feet the dirty and special war, so it is one of the first targets that we will attack. We warn the foreign and native tourist to not go to the tourist areas in Turkey. We are not responsible for who will die in the actions that will happen in those areas. Turkey is not secure country and never will be. Because we are a people which have a risk of destruction and we are in a war.
In their last attack in Friday march 31st, the “target” of high importance on which they concentrated was apparently a rubbish bin in the Fatih Area of Istanbul. The vengeance’s victim was a simit sellor. Who knows if he was not Kurd? What exactly is the death of tourists or innocent civilians supposed to give to Kurds? Anti-Kurdish propaganda in Turkish press, justification of repressive policies, and undermining of the democratic reforms, genuinely or not realized since November 2002 in Turkey. Yes genuinely or not. Denouncing every progress realized by Turkey on the road to European accession as “cosmetic” and “hypocritical” is hard to understand. As if it was preferable to live under a convinced fascist regime than under an hypocritical democracy…of course, Turkey is reforming on European pressure and against the will of Kemalist fossils and every improvement is a harsh fight between government and military, intellectuals and civil servants, but the fact is that things changed and should keep changing.
But what would PKK gain from peace and democracy? This is the impossible equation of this party: it can only be important in a context of terror and chaos. Who can seriously believe that the new leadership decided to resume fighting because “democratization” was to slow, as if ambushes and bomb attacks had ever contributed to democracy in any country? The truth seems to be that a Kurd with a little new hope in the future tends to forget that he is first and foremost supposed to die for Apo. Numerous Guerilas fled PKK after Öcalan treason in 1999, some choosing to serve a few years in Turkish jail instead of staying in camps in South Kurdistan.
This says a lot. During a trip in South Kurdistan in august 2005 I met among PDK or PUK peshmergas ex-members of PKK who chose to place themselves under the protection of the south Kurdish parties, denounced as “feudal” or “tribal” by Öcalan…
If every right of Kurds are respected by Turkey, PKK role is over. It becomes a useless archaic party, unable to recruit and trying to prevent its last guerrillas to try to come back to a normal life. Every mention to democracy or human rights by PKK is an insult, as proved the execution of Kani Yilmaz. As a Kurd you just have no right to disagree with the line of the party.
What is Murat Karayilan saying in his March 27 declaration?
For years, the Turkish State has attacked the liberation struggle in different ways, notably by trying to find an alternative to its leadership. This was especially directed against Mr Abdullah Öcalan.
Translation: Turkish Bastards! They keep trying to find a solution outside PKK!
It is actually far from being true! Turkish State has always been very happy that PKK was the “only voice of Kurds”, it was too easy to gather the public opinion against the methods of this party and justifying every human right abuse, every act of torture, “unexplained disappearance” and unlawful execution by the struggle against “separatist terrorism”.
Let’s be honest: the emergence of a democratic Kurdish party, as HADEP was trying to be in its time would have been a catastrophe, for PKK like for the warmongers in Turkish Deep State: Anti EU and PKK have a common interest: war and oppression are for them a key to power, power they don’t want to lose. PKK stopped fighting in 1999 in the middle of one of the harshest period of repression against Kurds. The Ecevit government during 1999, ruling with MHP fascists was respecting the best tradition of Turkish fascism, negationism and fake belief that the Kurdish problem was only one of terrorism. PKK did not fight THIS Turkey in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. What did they do? They tried to recover from the stunning “my mother is a Turk, long live Atatürk” issued by Öcalan at his trial, denounced the Dersim Guerrila which wanted to keep on fighting, organised contradictory congresses, executed opponents…but didn’t fight against Turkey.
Now nobody in Kurdistan can hid his support to Mr Öcalan. Especially in Turkey, every Kurd has the right to say that he or she sees in Öcalan his leader and his political will. There is no need to hide what millions of people showed publicly.
Translation is easy! Just change “has the right” by “must” and “no need to hide” by “would better show”. PKK lost a lot of support among Kurds. Why did the rioters in Diyarbakir burn some (Kurdish) shops? Because these shops refused to close at the order of the PKK. So, lucky Kurds from north Kurdistan, you know what you will face if you do not genuinely show your support to Öcalan. PKK felt the Kurdish people slip from its hand, it is time to go back to business.
Not understanding the message delivered by Kurdish People will not in any case allow resolving the Kurdish question
Do we really need to translate there: PKK will not allow the Kurdish Question to be resolved without PKK. Better war, oppression, death, than a democratic society without PKK. Should we still think that PKK is fighting for Kurdistan? It is not for a long time fighting for independence anymore. It pretends to fight for Öcalan but in reality only use his name to justify its action. It is only fighting for itself, for keeping his grip on the society.
The riots happening in Kurdistan for a few days are a huge blow for Kurds.
They take place a few weeks after an historical Kurdish conference in Istanbul, immediately dubbed as “cosmetic” by PKK. They give weapons to the worse fascists among the Turkish military, in a context where they as well feel that they are losing their power. The “flag incident” last year gave a pretext to Turkish press to start a chauvinistic nationalist campaign against Kurds, after the burning of a Turkish flag by a few kids in Diyarbakir for Newroz 2005. The most ridiculous thing maybe is that the rioters are officially protesting against the death of PKK guerrilla in clashes with Turkish Army. As if you could chose to make war to a country and expect it not to retaliate: of course, in a war, people get killed. TAK’s bomb attack in Istanbul on Friday March 31st was supposed to be a “reprisal” for the killing of 14 PKK members. Courageous enough: the army kills some guerrillas; let’s kill some civilians as retaliation.
PKK strategy looks like they want a “palestinalisation” of the conflict: bloody riots, bomb attacks against civilian targets for “reprisal”, and kids killed in protests, immediately given the rank of martyrs. This is exactly what North Kurdistan needs: Repression, violence, a new state of emergency and new Shehids.
How sad is it that the only hope can come from Turkish State! Will they be clever enough to avoid a blind repression, will they keep on their reforms now that PKK is trying to prove them how wrong they were to reform… Fifteen years ago, the same riots in Cizre provoked the death of more than one hundred people: the methods seem to have changed, but for how long will the response of the State be so relatively “moderate” compared to its usual standards?
DTP position is courageous: Osman Baydemir called for peace and asked the rioters to go home. He should be denounced as a “fascist traitor” or a “Turkish agent” very soon.
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