Kurdish people of Qandil are attacked, killed and displaced

The governments of Turkey and Iran started a joint campaign of killing and displacing the Kurds of Qandil under the "justification" of attacking the Kurdish P.K.K. and Pjak forces there. The US government has claimed that the government of Turkey has the right to defend itself from the P.K.K. terrorists.  A familiar affair, as we have heard such "justifications" from Israel's government and "the right of imperialist governments to defend themselves" repetitively.

In response to the atrocities of Iran's and Turkey's governments, the world (most of the progressives, radicals, conservatives and liberals alike) have been standing by silently and showing absolutely zero concern toward the pain of the invaded Kurdish people. The Kurdish opposition groups are mostly Marxists with much more promising progressive potential than most of the other oppositional groups in the region. Yet, they receive little to no attention from the world's progressives. All parts of the political spectrum are mind-blowingly susceptible to mass media's hype and fashion. Thus those parts of the events that are unprofitable to the corporate media tend to get no attention even from those who consider themselves skeptical of mainstream media.

On the other hand, the flag-loving activists who attached the flag of Turkey to Palestine's on May 2010 (in response to the massacre of peace activists at the Gaza Freedom Flotilla) and became delusional about the Turkish government's phony support of Palestinians, have shown no interest in explaining how the government of Turkey is killing and oppressing Kurdish people somewhat similar to Israel's government does against Palestinians. The lack of such explanations maybe stems from the fact that it's not fashionable to express concerns over the suffering of Kurds or it would make it harder to celebrate and romanticize the rise of new governments, similar to the Turkish government, in the region. Similar to the Turkish government means friendly toward the US and Israel government policies with expressions of phony support for Palestinians, and some minor cosmetic surgery.

The security forces of Turkey's government attacked the Kurdish protesters who were moving to Qandil (as human shields) to protect the people there from the attacks. One of the protesters, Yildirim Han, was severely injured and he consequently died in the hospital.

The letter below is written by Leyla Zana. It was originally published here first.

  

Leyla Zana:

"While the world is going through a very fast process of change and transformation and the Middle East is witnessing new developments, our people who are deprived of the fairness of the history still continue their struggle for “existence” at the cost of their lives.

When it comes to the Kurds and their political status, the world opinion keeps remaining silent and condoning the right and boundary violations, bombings on villages, houses and people, regardless of women, men and children, cross-border operations and the ongoing aerial operations. This situation is greeted with great astonishment by our people and considered difficult to understand.

The constant attack position of these powers and their intention to destroy all the values of Kurds do not comply with the character of the 21st century and the principles of fairness in the world. 

The latest aerial attacks on Qandil, which have killed a civilian family in the region, are defended by Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey which is currently trying to set an example of a “model country” to the Middle East and conducting negotiations to be a member of the EU. In a statement to a national newspaper, the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, saying that “the operations are legitimate and true”, didn’t abstain from defending the attacks which target civilians. (Bülent Arınç/Cihan News Agency/22.08.2011)

I would like to express my regret that the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey is increasing the policy of violence against Kurds as the Western world is holding up him as an example to the Middle East. I am greatly worried that we may face a modern dictatorship while the dictatorial regimes in the Middle East are falling down. The state’s attitude which forces the whole society to think the same with itself and the closure cases against the worldwide multilingual Roj TV need to be accepted as a sign in this regard. 

In brief, the military, political, diplomatic attacks launched against the Kurds and most importantly, the boundless attacks on our civilian people are in front of the eyes of the world public opinion. It is possible to foresee how the destruction of an oppressed people’s children will deepen the deadlock. 

All efforts of the Kurdish side are intended for finding a democratic and political solution to this problem. Although Mr. Ocalan has many times silenced the weapons since 1993 and created opportunities for obtaining the rights of the Kurdish people on a democratic ground as well as convincing his public that the problem can be solved in this way,www.ekurd.netthe state has negated all these processes with a negative attitude and turned a blind eye to these opportunities. Resisting extraordinarily about defining the problem, the state has at every turn considered and applied violence as the single method of solving the Kurdish problem. 

Mr. President,
In the testimony of the whole world’s humanity, the geography which has been in a conflict environment for two hundred years is now expecting peace and quiet.
Kurdistan's geography should not be a second Paletsine and the Sri Lanka simulation shouldn’t even be associated with the situation in Turkey. Otherwise, a social chaos and an ethnic war among the peoples will be unavoidable, which will no doubt drag the world peace and humanity into more disaster. 

I expect and wish that you will meet the requirements of your both conscience and position.'' 

Leyla Zana: Who in 1995 won the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights award, and several other Kurds were elected to parliament in 1991, but lost their seats in 1994 after their party was outlawed for links with the PKK. In March 2003, Zana and her co-defendants were allowed a retrial after their original conviction was condemned as unfair by the European Court of Human Rights in 2001. Zana and three colleagues spent 10 years behind bars for speaking Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament and for collaborating with the rebels. She was the first Kurdish woman to be elected to Turkey's parliament. They were released in June 2004."