“GENOCIDE, WAR CRIMES AND THE ROLE OF THE AKP GOVERNMENT IN OBSTRUCTING THE PEACE PROCESS IN TURKEY – AN APPEAL TO UK MP’S TO SIGN EDM 2267”
November 3, 2011
Last week, our lobby of MP’s and protest outside the Turkish Embassy
in London sought to bring attention to the recent wave of arrests
of academics and politicians in Turkey. These arrests came as no
surprise. Have successive UK governments not turned a blind eye to
the fact that the modern Turkish State came about following the seal
of approval by Britain and its allies (in the Treaty of Lausanne) of
the successful and merciless Genocide of the Armenian, Assyrian-Syriac
and Greek populations as well as ‘Others’ from 1915 onwards? (by the
CUP and/or Kemalist led nationalists). Have we not turned a blind eye
to continued persecution of its national ‘minorities’ by the state of
Turkey since its inception? What will it take, I wonder, for a British
Prime Minister to robustly call for the government of Turkey to respect
its National Minorities, to bravely face its Genocidal past, and to
confront the reality of its totalitarian present posing as a democracy?
Anyone associated with human, cultural, political and ‘minority’
rights protection work, alongside work exposing the anti-democratic
policies and practices of the state as it applies to prisons and
the targeting of political prisoners, mass graves and the neoliberal
framework (even within the educational sphere) faces targeting under
the anti-terror laws, in the name of catch-all “anti-KCK [Kurdistan
Communities Union] operations”. The Platform for Solidarity with
Arrested Journalists (TGDP) has just issued the following statement:
“Who is next? The terror of mass detentions and arrests against
Kurdish politicians who act in accordance with the Anti-Terror Law
(TMY) and against journalists is a direct attack on free speech,
freedom of demonstration and assembly and press freedom. TMY
operations have no credibility at all with unfounded allegations”
(BIA, 7 October 2011). According to BIA (3 October): “Members and
executives of the Human Rights Association, the [teachers’] education
union and the social service sector union were taken into custody in
Urfa on 27 September. Private homes and the branch head offices were
searched. The head offices of the Human Rights Association (Ä°HD), the
Education and Science Workers’ Union (Egitim-Sen) and the Health and
Social Service Workers Union (SES) in the south-eastern city of Urfa
were raided simultaneously on Tuesday morning” (27 September). At the
same time, the homes of executives of the association and the union
offices were searched. A total of 23 people were taken into custody,
among them Ä°HD Branch President Cemal Babaoglu … and Egitim-Sen
Branch President Halit Å~^ahin”. Even Kemal Aydin, Executive of the
Association for Solidarity and Support of Relatives of Disappeared
People (YAKAY-DER), and Deniz Zarakolu, editor of Belge Publishing
House (also a noted academic, political scientist and translator)
were taken into custody after a raid on 4 October 2011.
On Friday 28 October, Info-Turk confirms that “a large-scale manhunt
in Istanbul against Kurdish and human rights activists” took place in
which Ragip Zarakolu (director of Belge Publishing House and Chair of
the Publishers Association’s Freedom to Publish Committee of Turkey)
and Professor Busra Ersanli (Faculty of Economic and Administrative
Sciences, Marmara University, a constitutional analyst and a member
of the Peace and Democracy Party’s/BDP’s intra-party constitutional
commission) were detained. As the Director of Belge, Ragip has
published key path-breaking books on the Armenian, Assyrian-Syriac,
Greek, Kurdish and ‘Other’ genocides and the nature of Turkish state
terror. He is the recipient of Turkey’s Journalist’s Society’s Press
Freedom Prize (2007 – alongside the late Hrant Dink and Gulcin
Cayligil), the International Publishers Association’s Freedom to
Publish Prize (2008) and the International Association of Genocide
Scholar’s (2007) Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Battle
Against Deniers of the Armenian Genocide and All Denials of Genocides.
Selahattin Demirtas, BDP co-chair, in response to the latest
wave of detentions, clarified that democratic initiatives were
being silenced by the state: “We will not be able to talk about a
healthy constitution-making process if we go ahead like this. We
will have no party member who can join efforts for [drafting] a new
constitution” (Info-Turk, 30 October). The Ankara Initiative for
Freedom of Thought has launched
the following signature campaign that we encourage you to sign,
which protests at the above detentions: “That’s enough!” Click the
signature form (Destek icin imza formu) at the above web-address and
submit it with the mention of name (adi soyadi), profession (meslegi)
and city/country (sehir ve/veya ulke).
Coverage of popular demonstrations against repressive state policies
and practices has also been criminalised in Turkey (something that
has received scant coverage in the British mainstream press). Several
Turkish journalist organisations have concluded that the repressive
atmosphere has intensified since the Prime Minister’s meeting with
national media owners and executives on 21 October, in which he “urged
journalists to show restraint in their coverage of the conflict”
(reported by Info-Turk, 30 October). Following state pressure, on
24 October, five leading Turkish state agencies issued a communique
which, disturbingly for freedom of expression advocates, announced
that: “Common principles have been adopted concerning the coverage of
terrorist incidents”. These included sweeping agreements to engage in
censorship of news and to “comply with the publication bans issued by
the competent authorities” (reported by Info-Turk,30 October). For
Reporters Without Borders: “Minimising the scale of human losses or
choosing not to report certain operations will just increase mistrust
of the media. Complete and objective coverage of developments in
eastern Turkey is an essential precondition for reaching a peaceful
solution to the Kurdish issue” (reported by Info-Turk, 30 October).
The Turkish government, moreover, continues to engage in Armenian,
Assyrian, Syriac, Greek, Greek Cypriot, Kurdish and ‘Other’ genocide
denialism even as ‘minorities’ continue to face discrimination
and targeting of various kinds. Equally of concern are recent
‘security/migration co-operation’ undertakings between Turkey and
France and Turkey and the UK, respectively. Reporters Without
Borders has already cautioned that: “We hope that the French
authorities”, which signed a security agreement on 7 October,
“will be much more discriminating than their Turkish counterparts
as regards combating terrorism … We urge them not to be sucked
in by Ankara’s indiscriminate and repressive approach” – which,
we have seen, has targeted academics, politicians, journalists,
respected book publishers, human rights organisation and teaching
union representatives, musicians and students under the guise of
‘anti-terrorism’ [anti-PKK/KCK/DHKP-C] initiatives (see our previous
Press Release, 19 October) – “which causes many collateral victims,
including journalists” (reported by Info-Turk, 30 October). On 25
October, UK Home Secretary Theresa May “pledged stronger support for
Turkey in efforts against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party-PKK,
speaking after talks with [Turkish] Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin”
(Hurriyet, 26 October) resulted in a joint declaration on migration
co-operation. “‘We have imprisoned any PKK member found and a number
of others supporting PKK have been arrested … We’ve strengthened
and will continue to strengthen our work to counter terrorism’,
she said” (Hurriyet, 26 October). She made no statement criticising
Turkish state terrorism of the kind described in this release, merely
underlined and emphasised the UK government’s intensified support
forTurkey’s ‘anti-terrorism initiatives’. Perhaps not coincidentally,
and seemingly to highlight the state’s commitment to ‘monitor’
Kurdish ‘activists’, soon after, it was reported by Sadie Robinson
(27 October, Socialist Worker, Issue 2275) that British police with
automatic weapons approached a Kurdish tent outside St.
Paul’s cathedral, where, with others, Kurds were peacefully gathering
to register their anti-capitalist/anti-bankers protest:
Police armed with machine-guns raided a Kurdish tent at the Occupy
protest outside St. Paul’s Cathedral [in the evening]. Protesters
quickly gathered around the tent to support those inside. Evahi
Emanon … told Socialist Worker: ‘This is a peaceful protest –
guns are a bit over the top. They’re trying to find an excuse to
clear us out’. One officer said police were ‘responding to a call’
and that ‘threat warranted a police armed response’ … After more
than half an hour of searching the tent, police left, [of course],
having found nothing.
Deniz Cetiner is a student and one of those in the Kurdish tent: ‘In
Turkey, we live with this kind of operation every day … It’s not new
to us. They [absurdly] said there could be a gun inside here – but they
found nothing. We’re here because we are against the capitalists'”.
We ask MP’s and concerned members of the public to please take note
of the findings of two recent reports – one by the noted academic
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (presented on 10 October 2011 at the Frankfurt
Book Fair) and the other by a Human Rights Delegation from Hamburg
and Stuttgart (based upon a 21-day Human Rights Delegation visit in
September 2011). They add weight to the already substantial evidence
pointing towards the repressive character of the Turkish government
which is frustrating any moves towards a peaceful, non-military based
resolution to the Kurdish conflict. Instead, genocidal policies and
practices, as well as war crimes continue to be committed against the
‘Other’. Freedom of expression and association has been under immense
attack as our previous Press Release noted (19 October). In light of
all of these troubling developments, we ask MP’s to please consider
signing Early Day Motion (EDM) 2267 and we also ask concerned members
of the public to please alert their MP’s to this important EDM:
TURKISH – KURDISH PEACE NEGOTIATIONS: That this House is deeply
concerned at the worsening of relations between Turkey and the Kurds
since the election in June; warns against the consequences of the
renewed wave of arrests of leading Kurdish politicians, civil society
activists and professionals; calls on Turkey to halt immediately
its cross-border military operations and bombing of Kurdish camps
inside Iraq; believes that this policy of seeking a solution to
the Kurdish question by military means and increased repression
will prove futile and can only provoke future unrest and conflict;
and urges the Government to exert its influence on Turkish leaders to
change course and take steps towards a negotiated settlement with the
legitimate representatives of the Kurdish people. Primary Sponsor:
Hywel Williams MP.
The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Group Vice President has noted
that ongoing ‘operations’ in Turkey represent a “policy of war”,
not “a policy of negotiation”: “The Kurdish issue is a problem with
political, economic, social, cultural, historical extents and its
solution must be ensured at the Parliament through peaceful and
democratic means … [But] the way [it is] following is the way of
crimes against humanity and genocide” (ANF, 5 October 2011).
The report by the Human Rights Delegation from Hamburg and Stuttgart
concludes that “the number of war crimes committed by the Turkish
military has risen sharply again since 2009. These crimes include
torture and the mutilation of dead guerrillas, extra-judicial
executions of civilians and captured guerrillas, and the use of
chemical weapons”. The report, in full, attached with this release,
clarifies that:
We know from an analysis of international conflict resolution
processes that progress towards peace and democracy can only be
achieved through open dialogue by all the parties concerned – for
resolution of the Kurdish question this means the BDP Government,
Abdullah Ocalan and the PKK – and through the proper acknowledgement
and condemnation of war crimes. A precondition of this is that mass
graves should be properly and expertly opened in accordance with the
UN protocols on the prevention and investigation of extra-judicial,
summary or arbitrary executions. Setting up a truth and justice
commission in Turkey would be a further step in the right direction
towards exposing genocide and femicide in Turkey and Kurdistan and
paving the way towards a political solution of the Kurdish question …
We have seen and experienced the reality that those who criticise
or expose injustices in Turkey are again increasingly likely to
be arrested or even killed. We condemn in the strongest terms the
repeated and targeted killing of civilians and BDP officials by
Turkish security forces.
Moreover: Since the parliamentary elections of June 2011, the
Erdogan Government has been seeking a “Tamil solution” to the Kurdish
question, and is implementing a modified form of this. In this context,
escalation of the military conflict with the PKK – in contravention of
international law – and the massacres in conjunction with systematic
attacks on the civilian population, are manifestly politically
motivated. The free expression of opinions and constructive work on
behalf of local communities is punished by imprisonment. For the last
month or so, in dribs and drabs, action has been taken against about
50 people a day.
A policy of this kind is not acceptable.
The fact that the Turkish Government describes peace endeavours by
the Kurdish side and commitment to human rights asterror represents a
barrier to any political solution … The detention of two delegation
members clearly shows that the raising of human rights violations is
not tolerated under the AKP Government … The AKP is evidently keen to
do all it can to prevent this kind of publicity and anything that might
foster the possibility of peace talks. Anything other than submission
to the neo-Ottoman grand plan of the Erdogan Government is to be
interpreted as terror or propaganda for a terrorist organisation. The
governments of Europe are standing by and doing nothing – or they
are giving political and/or material support to Erdogan’s policy
… Against this background the practices of the dirty war are once
again increasing, as they did in the 1990s. European leaders should
be ashamed of their support for this policy. Despite the repression
and increasing breaches of human rights and international law, going
as far as the attempted annihilation of the Kurds as a people, the
Kurds refuse to abandon their continuing fight against systematic
injustice and tyranny.
The report also details the manner in which: Following re-election of
the AKP Government in June 2011, the mood in Turkey and the country’s
Kurdish provinces has darkened. In Istanbul, people speak of a radical
gentrification programme in the city areas around Taksim Square. For
at least three years now the Kurdish population, along with Sinti and
Roma, have been systematically driven out of these areas. Mafia-style
methods are routinely used in this exercise … Since the election,
moreover, the countless street cafés and music bars in Taksim and
Beyoglu are no longer allowed to put their tables and chairs outside
on the street after ten o’clock in the evening. Police officers,
either in civilian clothes and visibly armed or in uniform, roam the
streets Wild-West-style keeping a close eye on what is going on. The
free and relaxed nightlife of the area around Taksim Square, with
its pronounced and emancipatory subculture of music, art and theatre,
seems to be a thorn in the AKP’s side …
In addition, persons with a slightly darker complexion or who look
Kurdish often have to endure racist abuse by the police during
random identity checks. They are insulted by the “security forces”
on account of their Kurdish or Armenian origin, and are told they
should “Go home” … The reality now is [also] that it is not “just”
thousands of activists – 4,400 Kurds were imprisoned in connection
with the KCK trials – but the whole of the Kurdish population who
are being oppressed [emphasis added].
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas’ presentation, ‘Kurdish as a mother tongue:
No linguistic human rights, and linguistic genocide in education’,
also concludes that “it is the econo-military systems of UK, USA,
and Turkey that benefit when contributing to conditions which
reproduce the continuation of the economic, educational and human
rights underdevelopment in Kurdistan today”. These systems need to
be challenged even as:
Kurdish is not allowed to be used as the medium of education
(the language of teaching, Unterrichtssprache) in any [public]
school in Turkey … Subtractive submersion education with Turkish
as the teaching language for Kurds (and other minorities) is the
main educational problem. It leads to “illiteracy” or low levels
of literacy, lack of school achievement, identity deprivation,
dispossession of children’s linguistic and cultural capital. It is
organised against solid research evidence …
Education offered to Kurdish children in Turkey is [also] specifically
guilty of genocide according to the following two definitions: Article
II(e): ‘forcibly transferring children of the group to another group’;
and Article II(b): ‘causing serious bodily or mental harm to members
of the group’. Our conclusion is also that subtractive education [of
this kind] fulfills legally the criteria for a crime against humanity.
This should be tried in courts …
What the Kurds want in relation to language and culture is [also] just
the same basic rights that any dominant groups have: cultural autonomy,
including the right to learn their language(s), and use it/them
freely in society, including schools. The right to mother-tongue based
multilingual education cannot in any way be seen as a “special” right;
it is a necessary linguistic and educational human right … Denial of
linguistic human rights (LHRs) and the continued linguistic genocide
(linguicide), also in education, creates and feeds conflict; granting
LHRs is necessary for solving conflicts …
Even if many legal changes have been accepted (at least on paper),
Turkey is not even approaching the international human rights
standards yet, neither in education nor in other aspects of linguistic
rights. The situation has again become MUCH worse since late June
2011. If a state is systematically creating and perpetuating poverty,
and cultural and political disempowerment along ethnic and linguistic
lines (among other things through subtractive monolingual majority
language medium education), THIS is what may lead to conflicts.
http://www.armenianlife.com/2011/11/03/genocide-war-crimes-and-the-role-of-the-akp-government-in-obstructing-the-peace-process-in-turkey-an-appeal-to-uk-mps-to-sign-edm-2267/