Sunday 21 March 2010

Recent Operations Against the PKK in Belgium, by Mehmet Ozcan

By Mehmet Ozcan
Saturday, 13 March 2010

In Europe, operations are made against terrorist organizations consecutively. The latest actions that were taken against the PKK and its different variations in Belgium, following operations in Italy, Germany and France, bear traces of serious transformation. The maneuver carried out on March 4 resulted in 22 people being taken into custody, including Remzi Kartal, who is responsible for the PKK in Europe, and his assistant Zubeyir Aydar, and later on 8 of them were arrested.

On March 8, the Belgian police seized Sezai Ucar, who was formerly responsible for the organization's Belgium operations, in Antwerp. As remembered, the manager of PJAK, Haci Ahmedi, who was captured in Germany, was also taken into custody upon the request of the federal prosecutors of Brussels. Furthermore, the Belgian broadcasts of Roj TV, which is the media organ of the PKK terrorist organization, have been terminated. The reason that the operations in Belgium led to detention and arrest is that the suspects had been previously involved in several crimes and terrorist activities.

Moreover, it is reported that these PKK members provided young people living in Belgium with an ideological education and took them to camps in Iraq and Greece to train them to be terrorists.

What is happening in Belgium?

While providing intelligence sharing, the US supports Turkey's struggle against the PKK terrorist organization. It should be noted that the US also puts pressure on European countries in the fight against terrorism. However, the most important thing is that the US accepts these PKK gang-leaders as criminals, just like drug barons, besides having their bloody hands in the terrorist organization. In addition, it declares to the world that these people are in a mafia-like crime structure.

The intelligence, the operations and the dialogue with their European colleagues by the security officials have increased recently. Thanks to this dialogue, it has been revealed that the PKK was hiding behind its political organization identity while orchestrating a dirty and bloody network.

One of the main reasons for these recent anti-PKK operations, which are beginning to spread throughout Europe, is that the evidence would convince the security units of European countries. The European wing of the PKK takes part in all kinds of activities that threaten the internal security of Europe, such as drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, weapons smuggling and human trafficking.

The members of the organization, who gained incredible mobility with the abolishment of borders within the EU, manage a huge stream of black money that extends throughout Turkey, Iraq and Iran. It should be noted that this fact has been previously identified to some extent by the European Union.

As remembered, it has been long time since the EU has included the PKK on the list of terrorist organizations.The Impacts of the OperationsHowever, it seems that a serious amount of time is required to see this acceptance of the EU from the perspective of member countries. In fact, the majority of these countries have already known that the activities of the PKK terrorist organization within their borders contain all kinds of organized crime activities.

If they do not know, this indicates serious security failing on their part. These countries began the operations when the activities of the PKK started to pose a substantial threat to their own internal security.

In starting operations, two external factors were effective: the pressure coming from the US and revealing of the truth by Turkish diplomatic officials. After this stage, it may be mentioned that there is an expected opportunity and a threat for the EU countries.

The serious operations carried out against the PKK reveal the likelihood of terrorist activities in these countries by the organization whose activities have been tolerated for years. The PKK may become the terrorist organization of these countries as well. Yet many of the members of the organization are citizens of these countries.

In this case what needs to be done is to pertinaciously fight against terrorism and increase cooperation with Turkey. If this can be done, since the PKK will not want to leave their prosperous environment, they would be forced to quickly cease their actions. You cannot find anyone from the organization's top level who would leave their comfortable life in Brussels or Paris and return to the Northern Iraq Mountains.

Even at the top level, it is almost impossible to find people besides a wretched few who would leave a comfortable living environment for the mountains. As a matter of fact, this situation is the biggest dilemma for the PKK right now.

Therefore, if the police continue to pertinaciously struggle with the protests and demonstrations that arise as a consequence of the operations, the PKK's area of activity in European countries will have been seriously narrowed.

The potential opportunity that will emerge after this stage interests millions of Turks living in European countries. There are around 5 million people of Turkish origin in the EU countries. Some of them have citizenship of the country in which they live, and some have kept Turkish citizenship.

Over the years, the vast majority of these people have been the living witnesses that the PKK has been supported by European countries, and in this regard they explicitly or secretly blame the countries. The last operations made against the PKK received a warm welcome by the Turkish citizens living in the European countries, some of whom had been victims of the PKK.

If these operations are continued and EU countries can prove their sincerity, they will conduce to an important change in the point of view of millions of Turks who are living in Europe. As a result, this could become an important catalyst in solving the integration problem between the immigrants and countries which are experiencing serious problems with respect to integration. As proof, it is enough to see the positive reflections of the committed operations on the Turkish community living in Belgium.

Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Ozcan
Director of USAK EU Studies


Turkish Weekly is an USAK Publication. USAK is the leading Ankara based Turkish think-tank.

www.usak.org.trwww.turkishweekly.netwww.usakgundem.com

Thursday 18 March 2010

Reflections on the targeted killings of academics on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the war in Iraq



State Destruction as a war aim


Reflections on the targeted killings of academics on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the war in Iraq


Prof. Lieven De Cauter, President of the BRussells Tribunal (18 March 2010)


In Dutch:



While the anniversary of the war in Iraq is approaching, I think of what I wrote seven years ago: that this illegal invasion had nothing to do with the war on terror but was planned well in advance and was not about bringing democracy but about the destruction of Iraq. I was openly taunted for it. At best, they considered me endearing or pathetic in my anger, but not on the level when it came to world politics.


In preparation for an evening on the occasion of this seventh anniversary on March 20, I am reading a book: Cultural Cleansing in Iraq. Why museums were looted, burned libraries and academics murdered. The basic thesis is, believe it or not, that the purpose of the war was from the onset the destruction of the Iraqi state. But there is more: cultural cleansing, tolerating the looting of museums, the burning of libraries and the murder of academics was part of the war strategy, the authors argue. State ending will certainly become established as a concept, alongside genocide and its derivatives as urbicide (destruction of cities), sociocide (destruction of the social fabric) mnemocide (destruction of the collective memory). We do hope so, because unfortunately these concepts and their intertwinement, do not only apply to Iraq.


There was a lot of press coverage about the looting of the museums, albeit the press reports didn’t put the responsibility with the occupying powers, as the international laws of war stipulate; and without identifying it as a strategy of "mnenocide”. In contrast, all these years a deafening silence has reigned on the hundreds of academics who have been victims of targeted assassinations. Strange. In the first three months of the occupation 250 academics were killed.


The BRussells Tribunal has now a list of 437 casualties, a list that serves as a worldwide reference. Because the professors, who documented these killings and disappearances, have been killed or fled the country, it is increasingly harder to keep this list up to date. According to the Christian Science Monitor, by June 2006 already 2500 academics were killed, kidnapped or driven out of the country. Nobody knows how many have been murdered until today. We do know that thousands have been threatened - often through envelopes with bullets - and fled.


Alongside the academics also media professionals, doctors, engineers and spiritual leaders have been targets of intimidation, kidnapping and murder. It is important to know that, in the case of academics, it’s not about sectarian murders, because statistics show that there is no pattern in the killings. However, especially professors in leading positions have been targeted, and not just Baathists.


These murders have never being investigated, the culprits never found, let alone prosecuted. How come? Perhaps because both the occupiers and the new rulers thought it was not important. Or maybe because the use of death squads is part of the strategy, like formerly in El Salvador. That is what the book claims: the murder of academics was and is part of the "Salvador Option".


Conclusion of the authors?

The goal was to liquidate the intellectual class, which should be the basis for the new democratic state. It is that sinister. So sinister that it is difficult to believe. And yet it is true: the elimination of academics and other professionals from the middle class served the first and highest war aim: the destruction of the Iraqi state. "State-ending" instead of "nation building".


According to the editors of the book this war objective was a decision where three parties found each other: the neoconservatives who wanted permanent bases in a geographical strategy of military domination, the Israeli state that did not want a powerful state in its backyard and the oil industry that wanted to lay its hand on one of the largest oil reserves in the world. This I have also written seven years ago. Now it’s there, in black and white, with many footnotes, well documented in a book published by an internationally renowned publishing house (Pluto Press).


Perhaps the world will now finally start to realize.

Worldwide protests from the academic community would be nice. But one minute of silence for their murdered colleagues will not suffice. Because, and that makes it so overwhelming, all this is just the tip of the iceberg: the children who are born severely deformed by the use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium, the lack of potable water, electricity and healthcare, the destruction of the educational system which results in a lost generation, the 1.2 million deaths and 5 million refugees - all these things combined make the war in Iraq the biggest war crime and the largest man-made humanitarian catastrophe in decades. And, it continues.


There is little or no hope of improvement, especially not after the recent elections. Add to this the countless bomb explosions and the sectarian disintegration of the country and you have a picture of hell. And we, we all look more and more the other way. Because we are sick and tired of Iraq after seven years. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth to see that I have been proven right with my thesis about the destruction of Iraq, that so many thought was absurd. Even Bush has been proven right with his famous show on the deck of the USS Lincoln that first May of 2003: "Mission accomplished". Indeed, Iraq is destroyed.


Happy birthday, Mr. President! Yes, tu quoque Obama.



Lieven De Cauter, philosopher, president of the BRussells Tribunal

Friday 12 March 2010

Irak kadınının modern yüzü Türkmenlerden



Perşembe, 11 Mart 2010


Irak'ta yapılan seçimlerde Türkmen kökenli kadın aday Jale Neftçi, seçilmiş ilk kadın Türkmen milletvekili olmaya hazırlanıyor.

Hem Saddam hem de Kürtlerin eziyetlerini çeken bir aileden gelen Jale Neftçi, Türkiye'nin ilk kadın Meclis Başkanvekili ve ikinci kadın bakanı olan Nermin Neftçi'nin de akrabası
Kerkük'te 12 korumasıyla yaşayan ve Irak seçimlerine laik-sünni 'Irakiyye' cephesinin listesinden giren Irak Türkmen Cephesi'nin tanınmış isimlerinden Jale Neftçi seçilmesine yetecek oyların çok üstünde bir destek sağladı. Bugün açıklanması beklenen ilk sonuçların ardından Bağdat'a milletvekili olarak gitmeye hazırlanan Jale Neftçi, mücadelesini AKŞAM'a şöyle anlattı:

TAKTİK DEĞİŞTİRDİK, KAZANDIK: Türkmenler geçen seçimde Irak Parlamentosu'na sadece bir milletvekili sokabilmişti. Bu kez akıllandık ve seçimlere büyük bir grupla işbirliği içinde girdik. Iyad Allawi'nin laik Irakiyye Cephesi'nin altında seçime girdik. 80 milletvekili arasında ITC'den 6-8 arası milletvekili çıkaracağız. Geçen seçime göre büyük başarı.'

SÜNNİ ARAPLAR DA DESTEKLEDİ: Seçilmem için yetecek 5 bin oyun çok üzerinde oy aldım. Sevindirici olan Sünni Arapların da bana oy vermesi. Sonuçlar kesinleştiğinde Bağdat'a giden ilk seçilmiş Türkmen kadın milletvekili olacağım.

DEMOKRASİYE DAHA YAKINIZ: Seçimlerde Kürtlerin bölgeden bölgeye oy taşıması dışında çok büyük olay çıkmadı. Bu seçimle Irak demokrasiye daha yakın. Öncelikle Meclis'te artık sadece dinci partiler değil laikler de olacak.

KÜRTLERİN ETKİSİ AZALACAK: Siyasi dengeler de değişecek. Önceki seçimi Sünniler boykot edince hem Şiiler hem de Kürt İttifakı oylarının çok üzerinde temsil imkanı bulmuştu Bağdat'ta. Bu sayede Cumhurbaşkanlığını, Başbakan Yardımcılığını, bakanlıkları ve Genelkurmay Başkanlığını Kürtler aldı. Ama bu seçime Türkiye'nin de yoğun girişimiyle sünniler de katıldı. Şimdi hükümete girseler bile bu kadar güçlü olamayacaklar. Belki de Cumhurbaşkanı bu kez Kürtlerden seçilmeyecek. Selçuklu'dan beri ailemiz Kerkük'te. 1959'da Kürt Komünistler amcam ve dayıma eziyet ettiler. 1990'larda da Saddam döneminde ağabeyim hapse atıldı. Güvenlik durumu hala hassas olduğu için 12 koruma ve birkaç araçla dolaşıyorum.'

KADININ ROLÜ: Saddam sonrasında kadının rolü çok zayıfladı Irak'ta. Çünkü Irak'ta bu dönem başta gelen siyasi liderler İslami partilere bağlı oldukları için kadınları görmezden geldiler. Ama bu seçimde bizim listesinde olduğumuz Irakiyye gibi laik partiler de girdi. Meclis'e. Bu kadın hakları açısından çok önemlidir.

ÖNCELİK KERKÜK: Seçilirsem önceli
ğim Kerkük olacak. Tabii ki Irak'ın geleceği için hep birlikte hizmet vereceğiz. Ama Irak'ın toprak bütünlüğü ve birliği de Kerkük'ün durumuna bağlıdır. Kerkük'ün hiçbir bölgeye bağlanmaması, özerk statüsünün devamı gerekir.

OLDU BİTTİYE DİRENİRİZ: Kerkük Kürtlere bırakılamaz. Bu şehrin kaderi için illaki oylama yapılacaksa bu da sadece burada değil tüm Irak'ta ya da Bağdat'taki ulusal parlamentoda yapılabilir ancak. Eğer Kürtler oldu bittiye getirip kendilerine bağlamaya kalkarsa, başta biz Türkmenler ama genel olarak tüm Iraklılar karşı çıkacaktır. ABD güçleri de hala Kerkük'te durmakta. Tabii bir de Irak'ın komşuları izin vermeyecektir.

Akşam

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Seçim Videoları - 3


Seçim Videoları - 3
http://www.kerkuk.net/haberler/haber.aspx?dil=1055&metin=2010030219


02 Mart 2010, Salı.

Irak Genel Seçimleri ile ilgili videolar tek sayfada... Yeni videolar için lütfen tıklayın Seçimlerle ilgili yeni videoların başlıkları ve linkleri aşağıdadır.
** ITC ADAYLARI TÜRKMENLERLE BİRARADA** OYLAR, IRAK TÜRKMEN
CEPHESİ'NE
** VARLIĞIMIZ İÇİN, BİRLİĞİMİZ İÇİN CEPHEYE OY VER
** HASTA TÜRKMENLER TEDAVİ EDİLİYOR** DİYALE'DE, ITC ADAYLARINA DESTEK** MUSUL VE TELAFER'DE SEÇİM PANELLERİ DÜZENLENDİ** SEÇİM KLİPİ

Monday 1 March 2010

Continued presence of US combat troops in Kerkuk is illegal and unconstitutional

Tahsin Mohammed Kahiya, who represents the Turkman Islamic Alliance in the Kirkuk governing council said that the continued presence of US combat troops in the city past 2011 would violate the terms of the US-Iraqi agreement covering the continued US presence in the country.

'The US commander's (reported) suggestion of maintaining a US combat brigade in Kirkuk after the US withdrawal from other areas is illegal and unconstitutional,' he told dpa.
'Keeping US troops in the city is not under his authority, but under that of the parliament and the elected government,' Kahiya said, adding that he believed Iraqi security forces were up to the job.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1537619.php/Kirkuk-politicians-divided-on-continued-presence-of-US-troops

Irak dışında seçim merkezlerinin adresleri

Irak dışında seçim merkezlerinin adresleri :

http://www.bizturkmeniz.com/tr/showArticle.asp?id=18832

Al-Hayat: Kurdish Lists confirm “political interferences” in Kurdistan’s polling stations

London (KurdishMedia.com) 24 February 2010:

The Change Movement, Islamic Group and the Kurdish Islamic Union (KIU) presented a memorandum to Iraq’s IHEC in Erbil, fearing “blatant interferences” in the appointment of questionable staff to monitor polling in Kurdistan.

The chairman of the elections committee of the Islamic Group Mr. Zana Rostayi stated to al-Hayat that they received repeated and reliable information that the ruling party in Erbil and Duhok, referring to KDP, directly interferes to appoint supervisors on polling stations, a process that is paving the way for extensive frauds.

He added that professional staffs, that are supposed monitor elections, are being excluded from the process and are replaced by employees from the ruling parties. He also pointed to meetings being held at party headquarters on this matter.

Mr. Zana also said that professional staffs are being purged or marginalized; therefore, the three lists submitted a memorandum to the IHEC office in Erbil and demanded that rapid and effective measures to be taken to prevent the breach.

Source: al-Hayat, February 23rd, 2010. By: Rami Nuri.

Minorities and Iraq’s Parliamentary elections 2010, and Kurdish irregularities in disputed areas

Hereunder is a Communication from the representatives of the Yezidi community in Canada:

Minorities and Iraq’s Parliamentary elections 2010, and Kurdish irregularities in disputed areas

This 2010 elections is the third elections that the Iraqis will have, during the 2005 and 2009 Iraq’s parliamentary and provincial elections, the minorities such as the Yezidis, Chaldo-Assyrians, Sabeans, Kakais, Turkmen, and Shabaks; these ethnic groups had a high hope that they would have equal rights, freedom and share the government responsibilities in their ancient homeland.

During Iraq’s parliamentary elections in 2005, the KRG Officials threatened the Yezidis and paid 25,000 Iraqi dinars which equalled to about $ 20.00 USD at that time for each Yezidi vote they could get; thousands of the innocent Yezidis could not buy foods and drinking water for his/her family members, therefore, they would vote for whoever give them any amount of money. And many people in the KRG region voted more than 10 times by dipping their finger in special oil and then in ink, and also many of the election observers marked more than 100 election tickets.

During the last provincial elections of 2009, the KRG did its brutal tactics of buying votes, threatens Yezidis to vote for the KRG list and relocate more than 35,000 Kurdish families to the Nineveh province from Dohuk, Erbil, and Sulimaniya and gave them fake ideas to be able and vote for the KRG list (Ninawa brotherhood list) and nominated 8 Yezidi candidates and threatened them as soon as they are elected, they have to vote for the referendum that Yezidis’ regions become a part of Kurdistan.

The 2010 Iraq’s parliamentary elections are on its way to come on March 07, 2010, and the minorities are hesitating again as they did in the last two elections, because of election frauds and ballot boxes did not reach many of the minorities’ regions, there were a lot of irregularities by KRG and its illegal militias. Now in the Yezidis’ regions of Sinjar, more than 90% of the election observers are members of KDP or PUK, from the 90% there are about 85% of those are uneducated persons and 5% of those are school teachers who are members of either Kurdish political parties and are being fired from their teaching positions temporary and have been accepted as an election observers to make their part frauds for the KRG’s interest.

The KRG has tried many evil tactics against the Yezidis and other minorities such as to convert those unique ethnic groups into their bloody culture or leave the region. The most worst and funniest things happening in the Yezidis’ regions in Sinjar are these: The KRG and its kuridified militias are telling innocent Yezidis this time a “Yezidi person” is worth only a blanket or a turkey, therefore vote us and get your preferred prize, and if you get your prize did not vote for KRG, you will have to be convert or leave, this time the KRG will spy on Yezidis in this regions.
For these elections irregularities by KRG and its officials, who will be worthless? The “political leaders” who pay the prizes or the “hungry person” who is in need of foods, water, basic human rights and freedoms, securities, etc. as a human beings and if you think of humanity, I strongly believe the worthless persons are the “political leaders” who give out prizes to buy votes from innocent person/persons against his or her will.

The Yezidis and Chaldo-Assyrians are the oldest ethnic groups and have lived on this land for thousands of years now, but we now see we are being forced leave our unique and traditional cultures by Kurdish mostly and other extremists and terrorist groups. When the United States, UK and other coalition forces removed the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein from the power in Iraq, at that time the coalition forces loudly said “equal rights, freedoms, and share of government power” are for all and every Iraqis, they did not say that they will support the Kurdish terrorists of Barzani and Talabani’s organizations against the innocent ethnic groups such as the Yezidis, Chaldo-Assyrians, Turkmen, and Shabaks in the disputed areas (Mosul, Kirkuk, and Diyala provinces) in Iraq.

We Yezidis have found themselves just like blind, mute, and deaf persons between the Arabs and Kurds, with both sides trying to persuade us into backing their cause across a swathe of disputed areas. This has left many of the Yezidis and other minorities unclear about how to vote.

In the Sinjar Mountain and regions, which is connected to Syria border, where the Yezidis make more than 85% of the population; we Yezidis have complained many times to International Communities, that we are afraid of both Arabs and Kurds. We are still alive and see that we and our possessions are being divided between the two.

In the Iraqi constitutional laws, there should be one seat to a minority ethnic and religious groups for very 100,000, the Yezidis alone are at least more than 650,000 thousands and got only one quota seat, therefore, it should be clear to the International Communities, the Iraqi government doesn’t follow its own laws, so how it would protect its non-Muslim religious and ethnic minority groups such as the Yezidis, Chaldo-Assyrians, Sabean and Kakais. So therefore the question is that, where are those International Communities who said they take responsibilities for equal human rights and freedoms?

We Yezidis live in a very complicated situation, we see KRG’s politicians are killing us and sucking our blood and the International Communities keep themselves very silence as they don’t see and hear us. And particularly we fear about our future, what will happen when the United States pulls out its military and still support the bloody Kurdish plan against the innocent minorities in the disputed areas of Iraq. The US knows very well that when its pulled, there would be fighting between the Arabs and Kurdish and also the United States and other International Communities know for sure the victims of this fights would be the innocent Yezidis, Chaldo-Assyrians, Shabaks, Turkmen, and Sabeans. Therefore, the US knows minorities’ issues will be complicated and irresolvable by Iraq’s government, Arabs and Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite. So the question is that who will be responsible the situation.



In the Nineveh province, where Mosul is the capital, is the most multi-ethnicities in Iraq such from Yezidis, Christians, Arabs, Shabaks, Turkmen, and Kurdish and the Kurds don’t even make up 10% of the population in this province and in the Yezidis’ region of Sinjar the Kurdish population is less than 4%, and therefore, what is the presence of Kurdish militias (terrorists) are doing in these regions (disputed areas)?

The minority ethnic groups are being tortured or killed on the daily basis since the 2003 and these brutal acts are still continuing; we minorities are the victims of power balances between the Kurdish militias and Arab extremists. Although the UN, US, UK know that the problems of the disputed areas of Iraq will never be solved unless they remove the brutal and violence creator of Kurdish militias.

So the question is that, what would be the rewards that the US, UK, and France would receive if the minorities are annihilated in the disputed areas in Iraq. The Kurdish say they have been promised by the West to have their own country, that is okay, we are not against them, but as Yezidi and minority, we have lived and survived for thousands of years on this land as God created us. Therefore, we Yezidis don’t want to be a part of this bloody Kurdish plan period. Why is it so hard for junior mullah Barzani and Talabani to understand?


There are only two Yezidis political parties (Yezidis Movement for Reform and Progress and Yezidis Progress party) in Iraq.

Our Advices to all Yezidis to go and vote for one of the Yezidi political party, you make the choice and you make the changes for a better and safer Iraq to live in!