As the world turns, injustice continues. And as injustice continues, the Kurds continue to be without a voice...
Last year, a group by the name of The Children’s Voices of Diyarbakir that consists of Kurdish youth aged 8 to 16 years of age, many who are orphaned, received a rare opportunity to participate in a World Music Festival in California. The kids put on a wonderful performance that could - and perhaps did - even put tears of joy to the eyes of non-Kurdish attendees as much as they did for Kurdish attendees.
This Kurdish youth group is composed of mostly orphans and was put together through a program initiated by Kurds in Turkey to help get the youth off the streets by engaging them in positive activities. At the festival in California, the kids sang a wide range of traditional Kurdish folk songs, played instruments, and even danced for the audience.
Now, back in Turkey, a few of them are facing charges by Turkish prosecutors for singing these songs in California...3 Kurdish teenagers could stand trial for singing rebel song in US
The Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey: A lawyer says three Kurdish teenagers could stand trial for allegedly singing a Kurdish rebel song under rebel flags during a music festival in the United States in October.
Defense lawyer Baran Pamuk says the teenagers were part of a 15-member chorus that allegedly sang a song called “Enemy” during a tour of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. He says an indictment demands their prosecution on charges of spreading the separatist propaganda of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is fighting the Turkish state.
Pamuk said Tuesday a court will decide whether to hear the case. The three are aged between 16 and 17.
Well, the song that was actually sung by these children is entitled, “Ey Reqîb”, which is translated to “Hey Guard”. The song comes from a poem written by a late Kurdish political prisoner from Iraqi Kurdistan named Dildar (1917-1948) who wrote the poem in prison, hence the name.
Nowadays, people tend to translate the title of the song to “Hey Enemy”, as the prosecution did. The song is familiar to Kurds all over the world and has become known as the Kurdish national anthem.
Apparently singing this old piece from 1938 is considered a crime in Turkey, as are the so-called rebel flags that these kids were singing in front of. (The “rebel flags” were actually the Kurdish flag, and not exactly the flag of any particular rebel group or party.) The flag has become the official flag of the Kurdistan region in Iraq, as has the anthem.
News of these children appeared in the Turkish media first in order to rile up the Turkish public by claiming the children were spreading “separatist propaganda” like the AP article states above. Now the Turkish prosecution is working hard to put these children in prison… sadly, we all know what happens to Kurdish children in the custody of officers. (See the video of the Turkish officer breaking a 15-year-old’s arm in front of the camera here.)
By the way, in case you are wondering what happened to the 15-year-old in that video, Progressive Historians summed up a sequence of events on their site about his situation... he is in jail. For a few days, his father had been worried sick about his whereabouts until he saw the video of his son’s arm being broken on Kurdish TV. It was then his father, who can hardly afford it, set out to hire lawyers to defend his son from charges that Turkish prosecutors are planning on pressing against him. (Shouldn’t the officers torturing him be the ones on trial?)
According to the Hakkari Bar Association in Turkey, his arm was indeed broken (despite denials by the Turkish police) and lawyers who were able to visit the boy said his arm is wrapped in bandages.
There is no news as to whether he will be released.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Kurdish Youth stand trial in Turkey for singing a song
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The Ramblings of Mr.Viglen
Hello all, I am Mr.Viglen
I am quite glad that I was invited to join this blog...I am slightly surprised considering I never thought of myself as a writer. I always imagined being a "Writer" would involve a big typewriter and funky glasses. I do find myself occasionaly tapping the keyboard to the right to recreate that feel of a typewriter.
All silliness aside, I am Mr.Viglen and these are my ramblings.
Although I much rather preferred to start my first post with my own thoughts...But I did recently come across an article that has indeed captured my attention and I am currently trying my best to spread this brilliant writing by a brilliant man.
The article in question comes from Dr.Rashid Karadaghi (You will recognize the name of the man , he wrote the very well written Azadi English-Kurdish dictionary) and is titled "Are we angry enough" published in kurdmedia
The amount of awesomness written so coherently and beautifully in a single article exceeds the imagination...Obviously the whole article together makes this an awesomtastic endaveour by Dr.Rashid, however these are my favourite quotes and through my multiple read throughs have begun to memorize these lines :It is time that we Kurds stopped living, thinking, acting, reacting, and speaking in a way that perpetuates the tyrannical rule of the occupier and demeans us as a people. It is high time that we freed ourselves from the ridiculous notion, which some of the defeatists among us have brain-washed us with, that we were dealt an unfair hand by history and fate and there is no escaping it. We must stop behaving like victims and, instead, become masters of our destiny. We must free ourselves from the mindset created by the occupiers that is plaguing us and preventing us from thinking and behaving like a free people. We must take down the prison walls in our mind before we can take them down in the world without."
As the world has become aware of the injustice Kurds have gone through, have us Kurds done anything to correct this? We know that the occupiers seperated us, but have we fought them psychologically as much as we have physically? By this I mean rejecting the notion that we are meant to be relegated to a second ethnicity in a country dominated by an alien ethnicity? Is our victory simply a country recognizing our language? This right can be easily taken away, but a defined border can not.
Through my time debating with people who belong to the colonial nations where Kurdistan resides, the term "blood borders" has been thrown about many a time to legitimize the current sitation. And I do find myslef agreeing with them, to their surprise I do believe that they are indeed blood borders it is because of these borders that we have lost our culture, it is because of these man made borders that we have lost our unity, it is because of these borders that we have become the oppressed.
It is high time we lose the mentality of the defeated who can not arise victorious, we must become the masters of our own destiny as Dr.Rashid calls upon us to do. We are no different and no less human than the nations who occupy us, if anything we have shown that we are a compassionate people despite the massive injustices. However compassion should not become naiivety.
I shall conclude my first post with the words of Ibrahim Ahmed in his well known anthem "Har Kurd Ebin"Dawaya Wilatee Kas Nakam
Pinja Komafee Kas Nabam
Bo Mafee Gel u Xakam
Hata Mawim...Xabatakam !
I am not asking for anyone's Land
I am not trespassing on Anyone's territory
For the Rights of My Land and its People
Until I am Alive....I will fight"
Har Bijit Kak Karadaghi and Har Bijit Geli Kurd.
Cheers for listening to my ramblings,
Mr.Viglen
Monday, April 7, 2008
40th anniversary of Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
I went to the 40th anniversary of Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK). I went to pay respect to this great man. As a non-violent peace advocator, he strived and gave his life for the betterment of his people. Through out the history of
Blacks were freed from slavery based on the
They fought for freedom as the war propaganda and their generals advertised it. At the end of the war, they came back as Heroes who has put their lives at risk to grant the French freedom! Once back in US they faced prosecution and racism. An awakening movement started during this era. As the highlight of the movement, MLK in the sixties preached a struggle of non-violence from 
MLK's resting place and remembrance service
Remembrance of his assassination 40 years later in 
Joe and my friend Ariel Santiago
The most important lesson from visiting MLK’s gravesite, hearing the 40th remembrance ceremony and talking to different people wasn’t from the dignitaries nor the keynote speakers. The lesson I got was from a nice and elderly man. This man in name of Joe was either homeless or close to be homeless. Clearly, he was a man forgotten by the system and society.
Joe has lived on the same street as we met him two blocks down from MLK center for the past 60 years. MLK’s church, house, and barbershop are all on the same street. Joe told us about the difficult days in the 60s. Those days that they could not go to
In middle of his talk, Joe was complaining about today’s attitude. Joe said, “Young Niggas today just wanna jump on top of the table and get all they want! They don’t realize that they have to start with cleaning the bottom first then work their way up to the top”! Joe made the comment based on his own experience and a group of people and a struggle that he is a part of. His comment actually is universal. It is for all people who were oppressed and now have some rights. What Joe said; applies to Kurds 100%.
Same pattern can be seen in our community and among our own young. With southern
To bring
Friday, April 4, 2008
Reaction to EU's PKK Ruling
Just as the Turkish forces have yet again resumed bombing Southern Kurdistan (N. Iraq) to allegedly root out PKK rebel cells, the European Union has annulled its ruling to have PKK on its list of terrorist organizations. According to the BBC, the Court of First Instance (CFI), EU's second-highest court, said that decisions made by EU governments in 2002 and 2004 to blacklist the PKK and freeze its assets was illegal under EU law, ruling that the decision to place the PKK or their aliases on the proscribed E.U. list was "lacking an adequate statement of reason."
The EU court affirmed that the autonomy-seeking PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, and its political wing, known as KONGRA-GEL, were not in positions "to understand, clearly and unequivocally, the reasoning" what led EU governments to add them to the terror list.
The PKK was added to the list in 2002, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Its political wing, KONGRA-GEL, was added in 2004. The United States and Turkey also list the PKK as a terrorist organization. The register was drawn up to respect a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks which demanded that countries crack down on "terror" financing.
But an EU official said a new list of terrorist organizations had been drawn up in December 2007, including the PKK again, which took into account the views of the court in similar cases in the past. The PKK won an appeal last year giving it a right to a hearing and a new case to get it removed from the EU list. According to the Associated Press, Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, has said the EU's anti-terror rules violated democratic principles. EU states decided in April 2007 to inform groups and individuals when they are placed on the EU terror list. Those listed will now be able to ask why they were put on the list and why their assets are frozen. But there are still no procedures for an independent review and for compensation for possible human rights breaches. The Turkish government blames the PKK for allegedly being responsible for 37,000 deaths since the group launched an armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland in the Kurdish populated southeast Turkey in 1984. However, most would argue that the disparity and repression against Kurds led to the formation of the armed separatist movement in 1984.
Kurds, PKK, and Turkey
The Kurdish issue with respect to Turkey is a very deep and complex matter. While the majority of Turkey's Kurds do not openly support separatism from the Turkish state, many do support the PKK, as the only force fighting for broader Kurdish cultural, economic and political rights. For many years, the Turkish government had denied the existence of a Kurdish identity. For decades, the Kurds have experienced both linguistic and cultural persecution. Due to the large number of Kurds in Turkey, successive governments have viewed the expression of a Kurdish identity as a potential threat to Turkish unity as well as its national security. Turkey operates as a democratic country when one considers its representation process in terms of voting, it does not however share the same moral values as other democracies in the world. It has taken advantage of the U.S. and EU's "war on terror" to severely increase Turkish military activity on the Kurdish people, claiming to be wiping out terrorism.
The European Union defines terrorism as:"Certain criminal offenses set out in a list comprised largely of serious offenses against persons and property which as given their nature or context, may seriously damage a country or an international organization where committed with the aim of: seriously intimidating a population; or unduly compelling a Government or international organization to perform or abstain from performing any act; or seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organization."
Although there is no unanimous definition for terrorism, what the EU fails to mention is the fact that it has only applied terrorism to organizations (and not states). If we were to follow the ICC model of universal rights and added rough states to such an equations as well, we would find that Turkey's military activity against the Kurds in Southeast Turkey and Northern Iraq can be viewed as state sponsored terrorism.
Turkey's violation of human rights stem from the its rather archaic political system which believes that democracy could not survive in the face of “ethnic divisions”. The government should be built on the idea that everyone should be treated the same, hence, denying the Kurds minority status or rights in Turkey. The Turkish Constitution bans the formation of political parties on an ethnic basis. Several Kurdish political parties have been shut down by the Turkish Constitutional Court for links to the PKK, and some party members were imprisoned. Despite Turkey’s unwillingness to a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue, the PKK has declared a ceasefire for disarmament numerous times and in 2006, the PKK signed the "Geneva Call Deed of Commitment" stating their willingness to commit a total ban on antipersonnel mines. PKK's call for a unilateral ceasefire in the past was on the following basis: the acknowledgment of the Kurdish identity, language, culture, politics organization, freedom of thought and expression, social development, removal of Turkish forces in the Kurdistan region, as well as the gradual disarmament and legal participation into the democratic social life.
Considering PKK demands, one should note that their demands are in line with a rather just resolution of the Kurdish question through democratic means. To note further, most of their demands are in agreement with the requirements of Turkey for EU membership. However, for critics, Turkey's reluctance to consider these demands shows they have much more a desire to continue their conflict with the PKK than to resolve it and achieve peace.
Turkish Reaction
The Turkish officials' reaction to the EU court ruling is not surprising. In Turkey, skepticism and anger are fueling among the Turkish public concerning EU’s stance on the PKK. Turkey claims that the European court undermines anti-terror efforts. Likewise, Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Erdoğan harshly criticized the member states for assuming what he termed a non-principled and insincere approach towards the issue of terrorism, accusing certain EU members of overlooking terrorists' activities in their countries by using the independence of the judiciary as an excuse.Nonetheless, it should be mentioned again that according to EarthTimes.org, the EU Council in Brussels stressed the listing would continue and PKK assets would remain frozen despite the European Court of First Instance ruling in Luxembourg earlier in the day. On the other hand, perhaps EU's ruling will re-examine Turkey's human rights violations and thus put an end to all forms of terrorism and intimidation where the international community can put pressure on Turkey as well as the PKK to rely on diplomacy and dialog vis-a-vis military forces.
Anfal campaign: a genocidal policy
With regard to the atrocities that have been committed against the Kurds in North-Iraq in the late 1980s, this paper will attempt to apply the theory of the well-known social-scientist, Herbert Kelman, to the Anfal campaign. The Anfal campaign has taken place against the Kurds in 1987-1989, through which more than 182 000 Kurds were the victims of this cruel campaign. In this respect, it is important to ask an important question, which is; under which conditions do the perpetrators go through in order to implement the process of Anfal against the Kurds?
In his article ‘Violence without Moral Restraint’ Herbert Kelman explains the psychological conditions, which the perpetrators are influenced through in order to commit gross human rights violations. For these psychological conditions, Kelman outlines three interrelated processes that are needed in order to restrain the moral obligations by the perpetrators during a genocidal policy. These processes are respectively Authorization, Routinization and Dehumanization. In this paper these processes are briefly explained and applied to the Anfal case in order to answer the above mentioned question.
Authorization
According to Kelman, the genocidal policies occur in the context of an authority situation. The instructions and orders are given from the highest authority organizations and through a process of bureaucracy these orders will be accomplished. The perpetrators of a genocidal policy view these orders as obligations and they appeal to higher authority when the genocidal crimes have taken place.
During the Anfal campaign this process of Authorization is recognizable in a way that in each steps of the Anfal campaign orders and instructions were given from the government (authority situation) and due to the very strict steps these orders were accomplished. First of all, from the highest formal authority in Iraq, the Revolutionary Command Council, this was headed by the former dictator Saddam Hussein, from this highest authority thus Ali Hassan al-Majid was authorized to become the Northern Bureau’s Secretary General between 1987-1989 and to operate the Anfal campaign. From a meeting with the members of the Northern Bureau in May 26, 1987, al-Majid declares his plans to conduct the Anfal campaign ‘This is my intention, and I want you to take serious note of it. As soon as we complete the deportations, we will start attacking them (he means by attacking probably also the Peshmerga forces) everywhere according to a systematic military plan’.
Secondly, each step during the Anfal campaign was conducted according to the commands that were given by the Northern Bureau of the Ba’athy regime, this in assistance with different ministries. For instance, from the Ministry of Defense, the Iraqi Army and Air Forces, the General Military Intelligence (Istikhbarat) and the General Security Directorate (Amn) were leading the special units in order to report day by day reports of the Anfal process. Also, the lower militant bodies such as; Jaysh Al-Sha’abi, Emergency Forces and Jash (pro-government Kurdish militant), they were included in the Anfal process. Thus, from these mentioned governmental agencies that were included in the process of Anfal, one may conclude that the aspect of Authorization was conducted with care during the Anfal campaign.
Routinization
During this process, the criminal actions are transformed into routine, mechanical and highly programmed operations. The individual perpetrators become more in the position of willing to continue with the atrocities in order to justify their actions and to avoid the sanctions for disobedience. For the psychological reasons this process of Routinization is needed to enforce the perpetrators to continue with a genocidal policy.
With regard to the Anfal campaign, if the different phases and steps during the Anfal campaign were not transformed into routines, it wasn’t possible for the Ba’athy regime to enforce the different governmental forces to carry out the orders of the higher authority. From the above mentioned authorization situation and included different government’s agencies during the implementation of Anfal, it can be argued that without routine, bureaucracy and normalization of the official orders, it wasn’t possible to finish the Anfal campaign.
Dehumanization
In a genocidal policy, next to the very strict orders and routinization process, it is also very crucial to view the victims as subjects that are deserved to be killed. This psychological instrument is very common phenomenon when it comes to the dehumanization of the enemy or the victim. Kelman argues that, since the genocidal policies are the most extreme crimes against humanity, in such crimes it is thus necessary to identify the target group as a separate category, which does not belong to the population; therefore, it is also justifiable to destroy this target group. Moreover, the dynamics of the genocide or massacre process itself further increase the perpetrator’s tendency to dehumanize their victims.
This process of dehumanization was also present during the Anfal campaign. From the different documented tapes of Ali Hassan al-Majid with his officers, it becomes clear how he and other officers looked at the Kurds and dehumanized the Kurdish civilians in the so called ‘prohibited’ areas, where the Anfal campaigns have taken place. For instance, in many different meetings, al-Majid called the Kurdish civilians of the ‘prohibited areas as ‘saboteurs’ that are deserved to be punished and to be killed. Also, these people were not deserved to live properly, so it appears from one meeting with the members of the Northern Bureau in April 15, 1988, where al-Majid said; ‘From now on I won’t give the villagers flour, sugar, kerosene, water or electricity as long as they continue living there. Let them come closer to me to hear me, so that I can tell them the things I believe and want in ideology, education and common sense…’. He also didn’t show any respect for the Kurds. From a meeting with unnamed officials in August 1, 1988, al-Majid said; ‘…every Kurd who lives there (in the prohibited areas thus), send them to the mountains to live like goats…’. From these documented tapes, it becomes clear how the Ba’athy officials, including al-Majid have viewed the Kurds and have targeted the Kurds to be their victims, who were defined as ‘saboteurs’ and deserved to be killed. This kind of Ba’athy policy can be labeled as Kelman’s concept of Dehumanization of the victims.
Thus, Kelman’s three processes and at least those of Authorization and Dehumanization were effectively used by the Ba’athy regime as psychological tools to eliminate individual perpetrators’ morals and to incite to commit crimes.
Application of this theory affirms that the Anfal campaign entailed a well-organized strategy and policy intended to destroy the ethnic or national minority of Kurds in Northern Iraq. In other words, the campaign involved the commission of the ‘crimes of crimes’: Genocide. To prevent the future commission of genocide, wherever in the world, it is of the utmost importance to study past genocides and to understand how those responsible for them thought, planned and acted.
This paper is a short part of the original paper ‘Understanding the Process of the Anfal Campaign’, which has been presented by Chalank Yahya during the International Conference on Genocide in Kurdistan in Hawler, January 2008
Reference:
Kelman, H.C. (1973). Violence without Moral Restraint: Reflections on the Dehumanization of Victims and Victimizers; Journal of Social Issues, vol. 29, no. 4, 25-61
Kelman, H.C. & Hamilton, V.L. (1989). Crimes of Obedience. New Haven: Yale University Press
Middle East Watch (1993). Genocide in Iraq; The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds. New York/Washington/Los Angeles/London: Human Rights Watch
Salih, K. (1995). Anfal: The Kurdish Genocide in Iraq; Digest of Middle East Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, 24-39
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Outrageous LA Times Interview with Turkey
This morning, I recceived an e-mail from a friend telling me about an outrageous article published by the LA Times titled: "Genocide, diplomacy and terrorism", which appeared on its website on April 02 2008
The article is a transcript of what appeared to be an interview or a chat with members of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations or ATAA. The author at LA Times claim that the ATAA “stopped by” the journal-I wish I had this type of privileges with the Times, but that is another story- and talked about Genocide, diplomacy and terrorism.
I thought first that the author would ask about the Armenian genocide, the lack of Turkish diplomacy and finally the state terrorism in which Turkey is involved, both in Turkey and outside…boy was I wrong, it instead talked about the imaginary genocide committed by the Armenian on the Turks, and the claimed terrorism of a nation (the Kurdish nation) against Turkey, simply because the Kurds desire what is a God giving right, that is the right to self determination.
What is most shocking and concerning is that the Author seems to lead the interview, but in a direction in which the ATAA members are given opportunities after opportunities to lay down the rhetoric of the racist Turkish State. The Author starts by laying out the reason why the ATAA was invited, since the LA Times endorsed the recognition of the Armenian genocide, the Author wanted to hear ATAA’s position. The interview then goes through a series of questions during which the Author is a mere recorder/typer, and does not interact, reframe, question or ask further explanations to the Turkish delegation even after some horrific and offensive remarks made by them.
The surgical precision in choosing the questions gives an ample platform to the Turkish delegation to go over what seem to be a standard format that the nationalists have designed when talking about the Genocide:
- Portrait the Turkish nation as a victim and here to defend itself
- Turkish death during the Armenian genocide
- European Union refusal to accept Turkey
- Turks want a dialogue, only rejected by Armenians.
- Dismiss Armenian analogy to the other Genocide (in this case the Jewish)
- Reinforce the idea that only fringe Armenian communities pursue the recognition
- Bring up Azerbaijan-Armenia issues
The interview as it is claimed to be seems to be no more than the presentation of bulleted point from the ATAA website. A simple survey of the website should have tipped off the Author, but in this age of black-out in California, I want to give the benefit of the doubt to the Author and believe that he did not get the chance to do his homework.
I would like to recommend to the Author that next time he sits for a chat with the ATAA to ask them why it is so important for Turkey to deny the Genocide. Why would they oppose so fanatically the word Kurdistan while it existed and still exist on their own Ottoman era maps?
And finally I would like to remind the Author, that the Word "Genocide" was specifically created by Raphael Lemkin in the 30’s to describe the atrocities that happened to the Armenian. Before the Armenian Genocide, the word genocide didn’t exist.
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