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Banned
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powerclown,...your solution is to confine war reporting to US military propagandists because the mega-corporate owned US mainstream press is "too liberal" to be allowed to file first person accounts and video coverage from it's own reporters....
My reaction is simply to post that my opinion is too far apart from yours for me to hope that anything can be accomplished by devoting time to posting on this topic......I suspect that your opinion is influenced by the "idea" that the "liberal opposition and it's allies" in the US press "lost" the Vietnam war by tying one of the US military's hands behind it's back, or some such premise.....and I've spent plenty of time rebutting that "stuff" in past threads here....
Do you know any Turks, powerclown? The few who I know who were birn in turkey and emigrated to the US will tell you that the kurds do not only want the area in northern iraq as an independent state. They also comprise a population of 12 million in turkey who want to annex all of southeastern turkey.
There has been no progress since the radio free Europe article from 17 months ago, and reports from 4 months ago show a political battle between the powerful secular turkish military leaders and the pro mulsim government of the turkish prime minister.
The current state of affairs offers no chance for what you hope can happen, as any turk will probably tell you. Politically, the US does not have time for such a dream to come true, and admission into the European commonwealth is not nearly enough of a carrot to put aside the political, ethnic, and religious issues that will make a turkish military move against any newly declared independent kurdish state a foregone conclusion.
Quote:
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle...4f740e7c5.html
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Turkey: Government Under Growing Pressure To Meet Kurdish Demands
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
(RFE/RL)
15 August marked the 21st anniversary of the start of Turkey’s Kurdish insurgency. On 15 August 1984, suspected militants from the Marxist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), killed two police officers in twin attacks in the Anatolian villages of Eruh and Semdinli. The killings marked the start of a 15-year armed campaign for Kurdish self-determination. Following a series of military setbacks and the 1999 capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, PKK militants declared a unilateral truce and sought refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. But citing Ankara’s refusal to suspend hostilities, the group in 2004 called off its cease-fire and reportedly resumed attacks against Turkish targets. Regional experts say that while most Kurds would like the PKK to renounce violence, the responsibility for establishing a lasting peace ultimately falls to Ankara.
Prague, 17 August 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Turkish security forces accuse PKK rebels of seeking to rekindle the deadly conflict that claimed some 35,000 lives – mostly civilians -- between 1984 and 1999.
In the past few months, clashes between militants and government forces have been reported in southeast Anatolia, where most of Turkey’s 12 million Kurds live.
....Pressed by the European Union, which it hopes to join within a few years, Ankara has liberalized its legislation with a view to granting Kurds greater cultural and social rights. But most of these legal changes have yet to be implemented.
Turkey has rejected dialogue with the PKK, which it considers a terrorist group. It has also banned several pro-Kurdish parties for allegedly maintaining links with the rebels.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 12 August made a landmark visit to eastern Anatolia’s main city of Diyarbakir. During the trip, he pledged to solve the Kurdish problems “with more democracy and civil rights.”
Groups close to the PKK described this statement as “significant” but said they wanted to see how it would translate into action.
David Morgan from the Kurdistan Solidarity Committee, a nongovernmental group that lobbies for Kurdish rights in the British parliament, said he is rather skeptical. Citing similar statements made by Turkish leaders in the past, he said there is no guarantee Erdogan’s pledges will have any practical effect.
“Historically, Turkish leaders have gone to Diyarbakir to make such statements," Morgan said. "When Prime Minister Tansu Ciller made statements similar to that [in the mid-1990s], saying that there should a ‘Basque solution’ to Kurdish problems, it led to a further intensification of military action on the part of the Turkish army. So it’s not clear what will happen. I think the Kurdish people in the area are quite concerned that [Erdogan] made that statement; they're not hopeful in that respect. It could be made to address the European audience.”
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for Turkey. And not only because of the approaching 3 October deadline for starting EU accession talks.
PKK officials blame the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) for recent bomb attacks in Istanbul and Turkey’s sea resorts. They say the TAK is a dissident group that recognizes Ocalan as its leader, but not the authority of the PKK.
Turkish officials in turn say the TAK is just a cover for the PKK.
But McDowall said it is unclear what link exists between the two organizations. He said he believes the Kurdish separatist movement might have split into different subgroups, much as the Irish Republican Army did in the late 1990s.....
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Quote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5391880.stm
Last Updated: Friday, 29 September 2006, 11:29 GMT 12:29 UK
Turkish PM rejects ceasefire call
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected a ceasefire call from jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Mr Erdogan said a truce was only possible between two states, describing Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as "a terrorist organisation".
He said the PKK "must lay down its arms" so there could be peace.
His comments follow Ocalan's statement on Thursday in which he urged the PKK to observe an unconditional ceasefire.
"A ceasefire is done between states. It is not something for the terrorist organisation," Mr Erdogan told Turkey's private Samanyolu TV channel.
Mr Erdogan's rejection comes as no surprise, the BBC Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says.
She says Turkey has always insisted there can be no dialogue with the PKK - a group listed as terrorists in the US and the EU.
Instead, the Turkish government has said it will pursue the Kurdish militant group until it is eliminated or surrenders.
As violent attacks by the PKK have escalated in recent weeks, Turkey has been talking tougher than ever, even threatening military intervention in northern Iraq where the group has its bases, our correspondent says.
'Democratic dialogue'
In a statement from his prison cell, Ocalan said "the PKK should not use weapons unless it is attacked with the aim of annihilation".
He said it was "very important to build a democratic union between Turks and Kurds. With this process, the way to democratic dialogue will be also opened".
Ocalan is serving a life sentence on the prison island of Imrali after being convicted for treason in 1999.
The PKK implemented a five-year unilateral ceasefire after Ocalan's arrest, but resumed armed activities in 2004.
In 1999, the PKK also dropped its demands for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey.
In recent years it has instead been calling for Ankara to open a political dialogue, increase cultural rights for Turkey's Kurds and release imprisoned PKK members, including Ocalan.
But Ankara has ignored all such calls.
More than 30,000 people have died since the PKK took up arms in 1984.
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Quote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5398842.stm
Monday, 2 October 2006, 15:15 GMT 16:15 UK
Turkey's top general has rejected a unilateral ceasefire by armed Kurdish rebels, vowing to fight on "until not a single armed terrorist is left".
General Yasar Buyukanit, the new chief of military staff, said the PKK must "lay down arms unconditionally and give themselves up".
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) called the truce last week.
The PKK's conflict with Turkey has claimed more than 30,000 lives since it began in 1984.
A spate of bomb attacks has hit Turkey over the past month, some of them blamed on a group called the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (Tak), regarded as an offshoot of the PKK.
Announcing the ceasefire last week, senior PKK leader Murat Karayilan said he hoped the decision would lead to renewed dialogue with the Turkish authorities.
But earlier ceasefires have been ignored by the Turkish government and have later lapsed.
Secular guardian
Gen Buyukanit also warned of a rising reactionary threat to his country's secular values.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says the comment was directed at the current government, which has its roots in political Islam.
It follows similar comments on Sunday from the President of Turkey, Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
The government has rejected the complaints.
<b>Turkey's military sees itself as the guardian of the secular state, and has forced four governments from office in five decades, our correspondent says.
</b>
Analysts in Turkey say the powerful military is making its position abundantly clear ahead of presidential elections next May, which it fears may be won by the current Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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Secular leaning turks take great pride in describing the check on the emergence of religious fundamentalism that the turkish military has so reliably provided. An independent kurdish state is not negotiable, because non-kurdish turks are convinced that it would not be bounded by turkey's present border with northern Iraq. Turks have convinced themselves that there was no armenian genocide, and official admission that there was is one of many hurdles that a turkish government is required by the European Union to "jump" if turkey hopes to qualify for admission to the union. Instead, turks dismiss the pre-conditions as "excuses" meted out to block turkey's admission to a "christian club". They save face by telling themselves that Europe blocks turkey's inclusion "because they are muslim".
Last edited by host; 01-21-2007 at 08:05 PM..
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