1 NATO helps (indirectly) Turkey bomb Kurdish PKK bases.

NATO helps (indirectly) Turkey bomb Kurdish PKK bases.

Picture: American F-15 Strike Eagle warplanes on a training exercise with Turkish F-16 fighter jets in Turkey, June 17. (Details in the black box) A few days later Turkish fighter jets (almost certainly also F-16s) were used to bombard Kurdish PKK guerilla bases tucked away far into the mountains. American military expertise being used indirectly to target the Kurds in the PKK. The bombardment was backed up by ”by tank, howitzer and mortar attacks” according to Firatnews. i The attack comes at a time when many – how many I don't know - of the PKK fighters are away from the bases fighting hard against ISIS in Syria and in the Shingal mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan. PKK men and women fighting and dying in the struggle against ISIS – on behalf of us or humanity since we won't commit to boots on the ground. (Except perhaps a few dozen special forces soldiers operating covertly). So this is how the Turkish government conducts peace talks with the PKK, which faithfully has observed a ceasefire for two years? (As far as I am informed!)

2 NATO helps (indirectly) Turkey bomb Kurdish PKK bases.

By the way, the Turkish government has been quite helpful to ISIS, as is well known: 1) The Turkish government never effectively sealed it's borders to Syria and consequently ISIS fighters could easily enter Syria across the Syrian-turkish border, 2) The Turkish government – and in particular Prime Minister Erdogan - has shown a rather hostile attitude towards the Syrian Kurds in Rojava, still not allowing an open humanitarian corridor into the ruined city of Kobane and still not allowing even limited military help to come across the border and reach Rojava. (With a few exceptions) Prime Minister Erdogan has even stated that ” We will never allow a state to be formed in northern Syria, south of our border”. ii Any person with the most basic knowledge about Syrian Kurdistan or Rojava knows immediately how absurd this insinuation is. Rojava has never been about the carving out of a new independent State in North Syria. On the contrary the clearly stated goal has always been Rojava as an autonomous region within a federalized democratic Syria. As it happens, I have myself heard Asya Abdullah, Co-chair of the PYD, emphazise exactly this goal at a meeting in Copenhagen in March. (PYD is the dominant political party in Rojava)

Meeting in May in Rojava with PYD leadership. Asya Abdullah can be seen in the left corner of the picture. I want to return to one of the previous sentences: ”American military expertise being used indirectly to target the Kurds in the PKK.” This is outrageous. It is a stain on NATO and it is a stain on the US. Why haven't the Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemmed these attacks by Turkey? Where is the political leadership in the US and Europe?

Dear Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: Will you allow this to continue? Dear President Barack Obama: Will you allow this to continue? Will you allow US military assets to be used indirectly to target the PKK Kurds?

3 NATO helps (indirectly) Turkey bomb Kurdish PKK bases.

Abdullah Öcalan - The imprisoned Kurdish PKK leader

Source of picture unknown.

As far as I understand, Turkey has kept Abdullah Öcalan in isolation for about two months or more, he has not been allowed to communicate with his friends outside of the prison, which is an inhumane treatment. (Perhaps he has not even been allowed to see his lawyer, but I am unsure of details) iii What is going on?

Lawyers protest the isolation of Kurdish leader Öcalan

iv

4 NATO helps (indirectly) Turkey bomb Kurdish PKK bases.

PKK is still on the EU and the US terrorlist, even though they have opened up for a peace process, but I can remember that Yassir Arafat, Nelson Mandela and the leaders of IRA were also once considered terrorists (at least by some). They were all later accepted as partners in political peace- and reconcilation processes. And what about Fidel Castro? By many accounts he was ruthless and had no respect for human life whatsoever as he fought his way to power in a bloody revolution. Ever since he came to power he has been a communist dictator, many Cuban citizens have been sentenced to jail only because of political dissent – and there were even more ugly things, mass executions. Actually, these executions, numbering in the thousands, have ”put the Castro regime on a ”Genocide Watch” list of governments guilty of genocide. v Yet, Barack Obama still shakes hands with Raul Castro and reopens an American Embassy in Havana because the previous policy ”failed to advance our interests”. (I am not arguing against this renewed US policy towards Cuba, just trying to give some perspective.) vi But The Kurds in the PKK is still out in the cold. The world should not forget the imprisoned Kurdish leader. Firstly, because he is no more or no less human than any of us and should be treated accordingly. Secondly: he is not a warmonger, he is a voice of reason and is seeking a peaceful solution to "the Kurdish question". Abdullah Öcalan may never be the reciepent of a Nobel Peace Prize. But he does deserve some credit (or perhaps a lot of credit), because, with regard to the Kurdish issue, he has – as mentioned above - chosen to seek “a democratic solution and peace that suits the spirit of the age”. Quote from Abdullah Öcalans newroz message, march 2015. vii Only Heaven knows how much of an influence and inspiration his distant leadership has been to the Rojava kurds - who have done remarkably well under very very difficult circumstances - and they are certainly not ashamed to publicly honour him as their inspirationel leader number one. May he blessed with a long life.

5 NATO helps (indirectly) Turkey bomb Kurdish PKK bases.

PKK and the terrorlist. How can EU allow the PKK to be on the terrorlist under the current circumstances? The Turkish Army and police has killed quite a number of Kurds - both Rojava Kurds and Turkish Kurds - in the last year or soviii , but the PKK has faithfully sought to stick to it's ceasefire. (I repeat myself again: this is as far as I understand it, and I am pretty well informed.) Yet the Turkish Army shells guerrila bases with artillery and has – as mentioned previously - even bombarded PKK bases from the air... but we still label the PKK as ”the terrorists”. See footnote: ix I am afraid that perhaps ”the listing of the PKK as terrorist by the international community has given Turkey the confidence and legitimacy to embark on a mass criminalisation of Kurdish civil society.” x (In the words of Dr. Vicki Sentas.) Dr Sentas furthermore writes that: ”Between 2009 and the start of 2013, almost 40,000 people were prosecuted for “membership of a terrorist organisation” in Turkey, according to government statistics. In its campaign to urge the British government to lift its ban against the PKK, the campaign group Peace in Kurdistan argues that the ban“distorts the whole political process by ensuring that anyone who expresses an opinion on controversial issues in Turkey can be held to be an associate of terrorism and prosecuted with the full force of a law that is as indiscriminate as it is unjust.” The bottom line The picture I get from various sourcesxi clearly indicates that the Turkish Army (TAF) in the recent months has been relatively aggressive against the PKK forces, who hide in the various ”guerrilla zones” - primarily mountain areas. TAF is regularly conducting ambushes, fortifying new military outposts, and making many surveillance/reconnaissance flights. As TAF moves closer and closer to the guerrilla outposts clashes may become inevitable.. Even as the PKK soldiers may seek to avoid clashes, the apparent continued expansion by TAF may provoke new clashes.

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Guerrillas Patrol Makhmour Countryside, Iraq http://www.joeyl.com/blog/all/post/guerrilla-fighters-of-kurdistan

6 NATO helps (indirectly) Turkey bomb Kurdish PKK bases.

Time for Justice, Dialogue and Solution These developments are disturbing. At the ”THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS” in autumn 2006, Bianca Jagger was appointed one of the patrons. I wil close with her words: it is

”Time for Justice, Dialogue and Solution. At the current time, there is a pressing need for the European Union, the Turkish government, Kurdish communities and political parties, politicians, writers, lawyers, human rights defenders, and concerned citizens to meet and engage in meaningful dialogue and consultation to secure a better future for all. Support needs to be extended to those movements and initiatives that aim to secure ‘justice, dialogue and solutions’ to problems faced by the Kurds and others. At the moment, there are many interests that seek to derail initiatives for peace, equal rights and the right to life: We must stand firm and support initiatives such as the ones that are being explored and debated at the EUTCC conference in Brussels.” xii I ask those, who read this to consider appropriate (democratic and peaceful) protest and action: Write to a MP, organise a demo, write and ask the press why they are so silent on this issue or some other action............ Many are already doing so – for sure – but most are still on the sidelines.

Picture: General Secretary of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. Our top political leaders may not want to think about these issues at all, they may prefer to avoid it altogether, so we have to ”help” them a little bit on the way.

7 NATO helps (indirectly) Turkey bomb Kurdish PKK bases.

Heine Strømdahl , https://twitter.com/Heinedk , [email protected] Copenhagen 06-07-15 This version may be revised a little bit in the next few days.

Updated and slightly revised: 08-07-15 01:07:07

With the hope of Christ, in whom I believe all the highest and noblest and best aspirations of man(kind) – including the (longing) for an accepting universal fellowship of brother- and sisterhood across ethnicity, language, age and generations, can only realized.

i http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/hpg-turkish-army-conducted-bombardment-with-warplanes ii http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-vows-to-prevent-kurdish-state-in-northern-syria-as-iran-warnsturkey.aspx?PageID=238&NID=84630&NewsCatID=338 iii http://anfenglish.com/news/lawyers-protest-the-isolation-of-kurdish-leader-ocalan iv http://anfenglish.com/news/lawyers-protest-the-isolation-of-kurdish-leader-ocalan v http://www.cubaverdad.net/genocide.htm , http://www.genocidewatch.org/images/GenocidesandPoliticidessince1945withstagesin2008.pdf vi https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/17/statement-president-cuba-policy-changes vii http://kurdistantribune.com/2015/ocalans-historic-newroz-message-calls-for-new-era-full-text/ viii

Names of some of those who lost their lives: https://twitter.com/AJANSAMED/status/586851059609509889/photo/1 RIP see also report from Amnesty International: Kobani protests in Turkey Human rights failures. ixAccording to a Twitter account, that is said to belong to the PKK, several minor clashes between the Turkish Army and PKK forces have occured during the second quarter of 2015. The PKK have released a detailed ”balance sheet” (se picture below), which lists four ”attacks” by the PKK during these three months. It is not known if these four attacks all were purely defensive. The sheet seems to indicate that the Turkish Army is quite aggressive in it's operations against

the PKK.

https://twitter.com/ArjDnn/status/618516129674346496

PKK (HPG) war balance. Clashes ag. #Turkey & ISIS (in Shingal) in April, May &June. #TwitterKurds v @Navendaparastin

x http://www.law.unsw.edu.au/news/2014/05/violence-britain-how-war-terror-criminalises-ordinary-people xi The sources I have relied most upon is http://www.diclehaber.com/ , http://www.firatnews.com/ , and to some extent http://ekurd.net/ , http://www.basnews.com/en/ and others xii http://bnk.institutkurde.org/images/pdf/LSD1YT3Q6M.pdf