In this video from Istanbul, Turkey, ’19th March of 2005, ten thousands of people said NO to occupation in Iraq. No war!!!’
From the World Socialist Web Site:
Bush gives green light for Turkey to attack PKK in Iraq
Historical, political issues in the Turkish-Kurd conflict
By the editorial board
10 November 2007
US President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on November 5 in Washington to commit a further crime in sorely afflicted Iraq. With logistic support from the US, the Turkish army will move against members of the PKK (Kurdish Worker’s Party), which is hiding out in the Qadil mountains of northern Iraq.
Bush promised Erdogan that Turkey would be furnished with US intelligence on the camps and movements of the PKK. The Turkish press reported this as a “green light for military strikes,” and following his meeting with Bush, Erdogan announced that operations would be launched against PKK positions in Iraq.
See also here.
Kurdish leaders celebrate Belgian court’s ruling that the PKK is not a terrorist organisation: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Take Iraq Funds OFF The Table
George Bush insists Congress give him $200 billion more to continue the disastrous occupation of Iraq into 2009, and promises to veto any bill that requires him to bring our troops home. That means he will reject Speaker Pelosi’s new plan to provide $50 billion more with a “goal” to bring most troops to come home in 2008.
George Bush is defying the will of the American people, who elected a Democratic Congress in 2006 to end the occupation, not to fund it. The latest CNN poll (11/8/07) shows an overwhelming 68%-31% majority now opposed to the Iraq occupation.
Since Bush will veto any legislation to end the occupation, Congress has no power except to “Just Say No” to any more funds. Speaker Pelosi can do exactly what she did on impeachment – take Iraq funds OFF the table and refuse to hold a vote on any additional Iraq funding.
If Democrats “Just Say No,” Bush will try to blame Democrats for leaving soldiers on the battlefield without bullets. Of course that’s absurd – even without another penny, it would be George Bush’s obligation as Commander-in-Chief to use existing funds to bring our troops home in a safe and orderly fashion. And if he needs any additional funds, Congress will provide them in a heartbeat.
But if Democrats “Just Say No” and Bush steals funds from other programs to keep our troops in Iraq indefinitely, or delays their withdrawal and leaves them exposed to unnecessary harm, it would be the obligation of Congress to impeach him immediately.
So tell Congress: No More Funds for Iraq
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/124
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Turkije probeert terreurgroep Islamitische Staat (IS) te beschermen door de Koerden aan te vallen. Dat heeft Cemil Bayik, medeoprichter van de verboden Koerdische Arbeiderspartij (PKK), tegen de BBC gezegd. Volgens hem wil de Turkse president Recep Tayyip Erdogan dat IS successen boekt om te voorkomen dat de Koerden dat doen.
De beschuldigingen zijn een reactie op de aanvallen die de Turkse luchtmacht uitvoert op stellingen van de PKK, dat als terroristische organisatie staat aangemerkt in de VS, de EU en Turkije, in Noord-Irak. De aanvallen vielen samen met de eerste Turkse luchtaanvallen op IS in Syrië.
‘De Turken beweren dat ze vechten tegen IS, maar eigenlijk zijn ze aan het strijden tegen de PKK’, aldus Bayik. ‘Dat doen ze om de strijd van de Koerden van de PKK tegen IS te beperken. Turkije beschermt IS’. Volgens de medeoprichter van de PKK zijn onderhandelingen de enige oplossing om het conflict met de Koerden te stoppen.
Het geweld tussen de PKK en de Turkse regering is vorige maand na een jarenlange wapenstilstand weer opgelaaid. De Turkse luchtmacht heeft met aanvallen op de PKK-stellingen al 390 PKK-strijders gedood.
Bron: Het Parool 10-08-2015
Naschrift redactie: Het verliescijfer dat wordt genoemd is afkomstig uit de Turkse staatspropaganda en wordt door de PKK ontkend. Zoals was te verwachten neemt de Nederlandse pers dit soort propaganda zonder na te vragen over.
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Bayık in the Washington Post: This is a crucial phase for peace
“By solving its Kurdish question, Turkey could play a decisive role in furthering democracy, stability and peace in the Middle East. Yet the Turkish state refuses to do this.”
KCK Executive Council co-chair, Cemil Bayık, published an open-ed in the Washington Post.
The article reads:
“We are at a critical moment in the conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdish people. We have an opportunity to move a long-standing dispute toward a lasting solution. If we squander this opportunity, it might not come again for a generation.
Since the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923, Kurds have struggled to achieve full recognition as citizens. They have faced myriad forms of discrimination and oppression. After trying fruitlessly for more than five decades to make progress within the political system, we were left with no choice but to resort to armed resistance. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), born in 1978, launched a guerrilla war in 1984. While the Turkish state tried to use nationalism and political Islam to quash our struggle, our party demanded freedom for ethnicities and all faiths from the beginning.
In 1999, Turkish operatives captured PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in Kenya, in an operation supported by the United States. He was sentenced to life in prison on the island of Imrali, where he has been the sole inmate for nearly 20 years.
Ocalan’s capture and imprisonment coincided with the rise to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan and his party won early public support by emphasizing democracy, human rights and justice. Just a few years later, however, when asked about the Kurdish question, Erdogan replied: “If you don’t think about it, it doesn’t exist.”
And yet it did exist, as even Erdogan was ultimately forced to acknowledge. We made a number of efforts to negotiate in good faith with the government, including corresponding cease-fires. Each time, the ruling party’s commitment to peace lasted only as long as proved politically expedient.
Then, in 2012, the PKK implemented a cease-fire that we upheld despite huge obstacles. The PKK released all Turkish soldiers and police officers it had held in captivity, and our forces began a gradual withdrawal from Turkey. That opened a path to negotiations.
On Feb. 28, 2015, after two years of talks, representatives of the Kurdish people and the Turkish state reached an agreement expressing our shared hopes for peace. Yet when Erdogan found that the talks were no longer beneficial to his party’s electoral future, he once again chose conflict.
The regular meetings that had been taking place between representatives of the Turkish state and our leader Öcalan ended. The war resumed with fresh force. Tanks and fighter jets flattened 10 Kurdish cities. The Turkish military brutally killed hundreds of civilians, including women, children and the elderly. Security forces often prevented families from retrieving the bodies of their relatives.
Once again, the state sought to deal a fatal blow to the Kurdish people. Holding power through religious extremism and racism at the cost of democracy and civilian lives, in its current form the ruling Justice and Development Party is a danger not only to the Kurds but also to the Middle East and the whole world.
Erdogan now sees the democratic revolution of the Kurds in Syria and the defeat of the Islamic State as a threat to the Turkish state’s Kurdish policy and his own authoritarian grip on power. Our organization wants to see the liberation of all the peoples of Syria and the true democratization of the country. The Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians of northeastern Syria have already put democratic autonomy, developed by Öcalan during his years in prison, into practice.
We have made our own mistakes in addressing these challenges. We were naive to think that the Kurdish question would be solved solely through dialogue with Erdogan’s party. In trying to solve a conflict so complex and so connected to other challenges, we should have worked harder to include all the democratic forces of Turkey. In the same way, we should have mobilized pro-democracy forces in the Middle East and around the world to contribute to the democratization of Turkey and the solution of the Kurdish question.
In case there is any ambiguity on this score: We once again declare that we are committed to negotiating a political solution of the Kurdish question within Turkey’s borders.
We will repeat what we have said before: Öcalan is our lead negotiator. We agree with all the points in Ocalan’s most recent communications and specify that to ensure a lasting cease-fire, Ocalan’s ability to work and contribute freely is indispensable to us. To be more precise, he must be transferred from Imrali prison to a safe house.
The world has an interest in supporting our aims. Today’s crisis in Turkey is fundamentally a political one. It is a crisis derived from the bankruptcy of the Turkish republic’s century-old Kurdish policy, a problem that lies at the heart of Turkey’s current domestic, regional and global challenges. In this regard, Turkey desperately needs a new understanding of the “nation” that has room for different ethnic and cultural identities. Such an approach should be reflected by a new administrative system that reflects our region’s historic diversity, freed from Ankara’s centralizing stranglehold.
By solving its Kurdish question, Turkey could play a decisive role in furthering democracy, stability and peace in the Middle East. Yet the Turkish state refuses to do this. We, on the other hand, continue to strive for the democratization of the Middle East through the democratization of Turkey.
Source: ANF NEWS DESK 04-07-2019
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