Turkish Media

By Leon J Williams

When I mention the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons/Teyrêbazên Azadiya Kurdistan (TAK) to Turkish people living in Turkey they seem to have never heard of them. Instead stating that all ‘terrorist’ activities carried out in Turkey are the work of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party/Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan).
Why do the Turks think this? Because of the Turkish media, they are told that it is the work of the PKK and the fact that the TAK are FORMER members of the PKK seems to be hidden away from the public.

I was reminded of this issue this morning when I read an article from the Turkish tabloid Hürriyet Daily News with seeming ‘good news’ about Turkey’s progress in its EU application, further reading confused their own audience with some of the comments reading:

“I did not understand exactly what this means, Will they open new chapters or not?”

“Is it really what the headline says, to me it sounds like another delay”

I flicked over to EuroNews only to find an almost opposite headline about the same story…

Left: EuroNews Right: Hurriyet Daily News

Daily Headline – 21/03/13

Kurdish independence bid from Turkey over?

It seems that the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) has given up on its 30 year guerilla campaign for an independent Kurdish state.

Abdullah Ocalan the imprisoned PKK leader will announce today, the day of Newroz (Kurdish and Persian new year), that there will be a ceasefire between them and the Turkish authorities.

Ocalan has stated that in his ‘peace roadmap’ that the Kurdish people did not demand a separate independent state, but that substantial constitutional and judicial changes that would guarantee Turkey’s Kurdish population all cultural rights and give more power to local authorities.

There is still uncertainty about what will happen next as negotiations between Ocalan and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan continue. One hope is that Abdullah Ocalan will be released from prison and take up party politics for the 2015 Turkish general elections. This could lead to a democratic independence bid.

Turkey has 3 major parties:

1st AKP – similar to UKIP (right-wing)
2nd CHP – similar to Labour (centralist)
3rd MHP – similar to the BNP (far-right)

Turkey has 3 left-wing parties, the BDP, TKP and EMEP. At the 2011 elections the BDP didn’t take part and their candidates all stood as independents as their former incarnation, the DTP had to disband due to being pro Kurdish.
If the BDP stood as a party they would be the 4th largest with TKP and EMEP both being very small parties.

Whatever happens with Ocalan and the Kurdish situation one thing is for sure, Turkey will continue to be incredibly right-wing and extremely religious and reactionary for a long time to come.

Turkey arrests Marxist Communists

By Leon J Williams

This morning 85 Marxist Communists, including 15 lawyers were arrested by Turkey’s Islamic right-wing government in various parts of the country.

The lawyers belong to a firm that often defends left-wing activists.

Currently there are no concrete reasons why the arrests took place.

A Turkish lawyers’ association, CHD, accused the state of “an all-out attack against people and institutions who oppose the system and struggle for democracy and freedom”.

Although these Marxists, who belong to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP-C) are listed as a terrorist group they (unlike the PKK) do not target civilians.

For more details click here.

Turkey, the home of European terrorism

By Leon J Williams

The Global Peace Index 2012 has been released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). European nations fared pretty well with Turkey being the worst and 130th globally out of 158 nations.

Iceland was once again the best place in Europe and indeed the world.

Here’s a break down of some of the countries:

1st Iceland
2nd New Zealand
3rd Denmark

29th UK
70th Cuba
77th Greece
88th USA
89th China
128th Iran
130th Turkey
150th Israel
152nd North Korea
153rd Russia
158th Somalia

Full listing can be found here.

Turkey, who some say is in Europe while others say it is part of Asia/the Middle East will no doubt blame the troubles in Syria and the PKK situation for their poor standing in the tables but the AKP government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan must accept its role in failing to resolve issues which effect the safety of their citizens.

It will come as very little surprise after the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace prize last year that Europe hosts some of the safest places in the world while the Middle East, other Arab countries and the US fared appallingly.

The EU’s Nobel Peace Prize did come under some criticism at the time but hopefully tables like this will help clarify why exactly the prize was awarded.

Kurdish activists murdered in Paris

By Leon J Williams

News is filtering through the media of three female Kurdish activists being murdered in Paris.

One of the murdered is Sakine Cansiz a co-founder of the Kurdish separatist group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The other two are:
Fidan Dogan a Paris representative of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNC) political group and Leyla Soylemez a diplomatic relations junior activist.

For more details click here.

Who murdered them and why?

Initial suspicions will undoubtedly point to the Turkish government who have been at war with the PKK for 25 years and have been known in the past to murder people who disagree with the government such as journalists and communists.

On the 1st of January the Turkish government announced that it was in talks with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah öcalan after admitting that they couldn’t defeat the PKK.

Is this a sign that the Turkish government is turning to more desperate measures?

You cannot defeat a local opposing force purely by armed struggle

By Leon J Williams

The Turkish government is in talks with imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan after Prime ministerial advisor Yalcin Akdogan effectively admitted that Turkey couldn’t defeat the PKK through purely military means. He said:

“You cannot get results and abolish an organisation only with armed struggle”

The PKK are fighting for the creation of a homeland for Kurdish people which currently span across the current borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

What strikes me about what the advisor has said is that it has taken the Turkish government over 25 years to realise this yet the US still doesn’t as it continues its warmongering, failure after failure.
If the US could realise this and like the Turkish government turn to dialogue with their enemies then the world would instantly become a little safer as well as bolstering America’s international image and credibility.

For more on this story click here.