NEWS
1. Turkey’s Newroz Festival turns into fireballs
2. Turkish police use tear gas to stop Kurdish New Year Newroz celebrations
3. 112,000 tourists on third day of Nawroz
4. “I Haven’t Seen Such Violence since Vietnam Protests”
5. Newspaper banned for one month in Turkey
6. Press freedom takes another hit in Turkey as Özgür Gündem is shuttered for one month
7. Turkey must lift ban on pro-Kurdish daily
8. Threat to Human Rights Association – Website Hacked
9. MURAT KARAYILAN: Kurd militants threaten Turkey if it enters Syria
10. Turkey, US Join Hands on Iran, Syria and PKK Fight
11. US Vows to Use All Predators in Turkey
12. VIDEO: ‘Buffer zone along Syrian border, national suicide for Turkey’
13. Health situation of Kurds on hunger strike is alarming
14. CAMPACC seminar brings Kurds, Tamils, Baloch and Basques together
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
15. New Kurdish strategy and silencing guns
16. Scent of the Spring in Turkey: Mmmm… Oleorensincapsicum!
17. The Globe interviews Jaffer Sheyholislami at Diyarbakir Kurdish Language Conference
18. ANARCHISM Á LA KURDE: AGAINST STALINIST STRUCTURES & CENTRALISM
19. Rupture
20. NCB: Observations regarding the invitation to the Istanbul conference
21. Syrian Kurds: Time to Assert Their Rights
22. Turkish Solitaire – Analysis
23. U.S. Helping Turkey Reduce Dependence on Iranian Oil – and more from the Turkish Press
STATEMENTS
24. Turkey Must Immediately Lift the Ban on Ozgur Gundem, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign Statement
25. Letter by Demirtas and Kisanak to members of the European Parliament
NEWS
1. Turkey’s Newroz Festival turns into fireballs
26 March 2012 / Kurdish Globe
The beginning of the Kurdish New Year begins with violence and death as Kurds defy the ban implemented by the Turkish State. Kurds in Turkey welcomed Newroz, or “New Day,” with fear, conflict and deaths. In many cities, including Diyarbakir and Istanbul, Kurds clashed with Turkish security forces. Turkish police attacked thousands of Kurds trying to join the Newroz celebrations and used tear gas, water cannons and batons to break up Kurdish demonstrations. Demonstrators hurled stones in retaliation.
2. Turkish police use tear gas to stop Kurdish New Year Newroz celebrations
18 March 2012 / eKurd
Thousands of Kurds clashed with police Sunday in Istanbul and the southern city of Diyarbakir after police used water cannons and tear gas to prevent Kurdish New Year Newroz celebrations.Turkish authorities had rejected a Kurdish demand to mark Newroz on Sunday as it was a holiday and had declared Wednesday as the official day for the festivities. Police fired tear gas and used water cannons to prevent thousands of Kurds from gathering at the main square in Diyarbakir, the capital of the Kurdish-majority south, an AFP correspondent said. But the crowd of more than 5,000 pressed on despite the police action and assembled at the city center to mark Newroz.
3. 112,000 tourists on third day of Nawroz
24 March 2012 / Gulan Media
The number of tourists on the third day of Nawroz hit 112,000 Friday – bout double the number who visited Kurdistan during Nawroz last year, the Tourism Committee said. Friday’s figures mean an increase of about 36% from the first day of Nawroz when 82,000 tourists from other non-Kurdish parts of Iraq and the neighboring countries visited the region for the Nawroz and spring celebrations.
The number of visitors during the three day Nawroz festivities this year is about double the number from last year when only 57,000 tourists visited the region.
4. “I Haven’t Seen Such Violence since Vietnam Protests”
26 March 2012 / Bianet
This year’s Newroz celebrations were marked by tear gas and police violence. Even though the dozens of cases of violations during the celebrations were not reported on the Turkish main stream television channels, the encounter of European parliamentarians with tear gas in Turkey made it into the European press. Delegations from Denmark, Italy and Sweden were in Turkey during the Newroz celebrations. A delegation of eleven women, five members of the Left Party and six women from women’s networks, came from Sweden. They visited women politicians and women organizations in the south-eastern cities of Mardin and Diyarbakır and also attended the Newroz celebrations.
5. Newspaper banned for one month in Turkey
26 March 2012 / Hurriyet
An Istanbul court has ordered the closure of daily Özgür Gündem for a month on allegations that it “promotes a terrorist organization.”Police raided the daily’s Istanbul headquarters late March 24 and seized the newspaper’s addition for yesterday, according to the daily’s website. The daily, which closely monitors and reports developments related to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK), has 11 journalists behind bars due to their alleged links to the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the alleged urban wing of the PKK.
6. Press freedom takes another hit in Turkey as Özgür Gündem is shuttered for one month
26 March 2012 / Kurdistan Commentary
Özgür Gündem, the pro-Kurdish daily, was suspended again after a court decided on Saturday that the paper was ‘spreading terrorist propaganda.’ Police then raided the printing press where Özgür Gündem is published and confiscated Sunday’s edition of the newspaper. The newspaper will be closed for a month because the court ruling says that news, photographs, and commentaries published on pages 1, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the 25th March edition were making propaganda for a terrorist organisation. See those pages via the online edition of yesterday’s paper here.
7. Turkey must lift ban on pro-Kurdish daily
26 March 2012 / Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the one-month suspension of pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem, and calls on the Turkish government to allow the newspaper to function. “We are appalled by the police raid and court suspension of Özgür Gündem and call on Turkish authorities to return confiscated copies and allow the daily to resume its work immediately,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. “The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claims commitment to reform yet continues to use trumped-up charges to silence press outlets that cover sensitive issues. To be meaningful, pledges must be consistent with actions.”
8. Threat to Human Rights Association – Website Hacked
23 March 2012 / Bianet
The internet site of the Human Rights Association (İHD) was hacked on Wednesday (22 March). The association announced in a statement made on Thursday that the attack was related to the press release entitled “Newroz Piroz Be!” regarding this year’s Newroz celebrations.In the press release published on their website, the İHD condemned the attack on Kurdish politician and MP Ahmet Türk during the celebrations in Batman. The organization had furthermore declared in the press release to document the rights violations that occurred during the Newroz celebrations in a public report. They demanded to launch an effective investigation regarding the deaths and injured.
9. MURAT KARAYILAN: Kurd militants threaten Turkey if it enters Syria
24 March 2012 / Gulan Media
Turkish Kurd militants threatened on Thursday to turn all Kurdish populated areas into a “war zone” if Turkish troops entered Syria, a sign the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has allies in Syria may be taking sides in the conflict there. A renewed alliance between Damascus and the PKK would anger Turkey and could prompt it to take an even stronger line against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over his brutal repression of anti-government protesters.
10. Turkey, US Join Hands on Iran, Syria and PKK Fight
26 March 2012 / The Journal of Turkish Weekly
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President Barack Obama discuss Syria and Iran ahead of a nuclear summit in Seoul, finding common ground on the need to send ‘non-lethal’ aid to Syrian insurgents. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed yesterday on the need to send “non-lethal” aid to Syrian rebels, including communications equipment, a U.S. official said after their meeting in Seoul.
11. US Vows to Use All Predators in Turkey
27 March 2012 / The Journal of Turkish Weekly
The United States has promised to use its all of its Predator unmanned aircraft based in Turkey to assist Turkey in its fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), daily Hürriyet reported. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said U.S. President Barack Obama also told him that cooperation between Turkey and the US will extend to operations against PKK outposts outside Turkey, during their two-hour, 15-minute meeting in Seoul, prior to the international nuclear summit there.
12. VIDEO: ‘Buffer zone along Syrian border, national suicide for Turkey’
27 March 2012 / Press TV
On Monday, Syrian opposition groups gathered in Istanbul, ahead of the second so-called “Friends of Syria” meeting which will be held in Turkey on April 1. Turkey shares a 900-kilometer border with Syria. It has allowed thousands of Syrian gunmen to take shelter and regroup on its soil.
13. Health situation of Kurds on hunger strike is alarming
28 March 2012 /Kurdish Info
The health situation of 15 Kurds on hunger strike in Europe and 400 in Turkish prisons is deteriorating, with a number of lives in jeopardy. The chairmen of the Kon-Kurd confederation of more than 140 Kurdish associations in Europe Ismet Kem confirmed to AKnews that the life of some of the Kurds on hunger strike is already in danger. The 15 protestors in Europe and the 400 Kurds in Turkey will continue the hunger strike until their demands are met. Kem called on EU and international institutions to act before the lose of human life.
14. CAMPACC seminar brings Kurds, Tamils, Baloch and Basques together
18 March 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Nearly 80 activists came together to share experiences about state repression against the various struggles for self-determination in which they are involved. Strategies that provide ideological justification for repression include the global ‘war on terror’, ‘national security’ and proscription. Support comes from national contexts and international networks, especially involving the US, the UK, the EU and the UN Security Council. Together these forces underpin the current global agenda suppressing and delegitimizing struggles for self-determination. The seminar addressed common strategies for resisting repression and for strengthening solidarity across nationalities in the common struggle for a more just world.
View videos of each speaker here:
Opening by Saleh Mamon and Introduction by Les Levidow: http://youtu.be/VUynCZGOeDE
Tamil speakers
Jan Jananayagam, http://youtu.be/QWKqHBCyPLw
Sivakami Manoharan, http://youtu.be/gsr8CeCy75c
Kurdish speakers
Ali Has, http://youtu.be/AHF2UqfVXUg
Mehmet Aksoy, http://youtu.be/segKbal_uVs
Baluch speakers
Shahzavar Karimzadi, http://youtu.be/M1P2WCdhH-I
Hyrbyair Marri, http://youtu.be/g0FLs19-1qo
Basque speaker: Oier Imaz, http://youtu.be/tTw88M27dm4
Sindhi speaker: Lakhu Lohana, http://youtu.be/5yqQokb6H_M
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
15. New Kurdish strategy and silencing guns
28 March 2012/ Todays Zaman
Turkey’s new Kurdish strategy, disclosed recently by a senior bureaucrat, has drawn serious criticism from Turkish intellectuals who are advocating that courageous political moves be made to reduce the threat of terrorism beyond solely utilizing security policies. Being one of the journalists who ran the story after listening to the senior bureaucrat, who did not want to be named, I do not agree with the criticism that the new strategy on the Kurdish question can be ruled out from the start.
16. Scent of the Spring in Turkey: Mmmm… Oleorensincapsicum!
23 March 2012 / Al-Akhbar
T.S. Eliot sure would have revised his famous line from The Waste Land to “March is the cruelest month” if he only was lucky enough to witness Newroz celebrations in Turkey. He would have written massively on oleorensincapsicum, the main component of tear gas, which has become the “official Turkish delight.” The poem would have been something like this:
“March is the cruelest month, breeding
blood out of the dead land, mixing
police violence and lynching campaigns, stirring
ethnic hatred with spring rain.”
17. The Globe interviews Jaffer Sheyholislami at Diyarbakir Kurdish Language Conference
26 March 2012 / The Kurdish Globe
“The connection between nation and language is not necessarily essential because it doesn’t really exist. There are nations that do not have a unique language or even one language.”
-What do you think about the conference especially the title of conference, on Kurdish national language? I really wonder about your opinions about identity and national language? What is the relation?
Jaffer Sheyholislami: It is a very good conference. First of all it is very well organized. I personally had a chance to see Amed. Everybody is very well taken care of. Lots of papers were presented, and I have personally gained lots of knowledge about many aspects of the Kurdish language that I really didn’t know about before.
18. ANARCHISM Á LA KURDE: AGAINST STALINIST STRUCTURES & CENTRALISM
25 March 2012 / Mesop
Interview with Kurdistan Anarchists Forum (KAF*)
What does it mean to be a “Kurdish anarchist”? Are there any characteristics that you would say are different to the “classical” European anarchist approaches of the 19th century?
19. Rupture
27 March 2012 / Today’s Zaman
No one was really afraid of the secession of southeast Turkey, which is mainly inhabited by Kurds, despite many years of clashes with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an organization intent on establishing a regional Kurdish state under its leadership. Neither its power nor its number of members or arms was sufficient to overcome the Turkish army. However, harsh methods to suppress the PKK and the political-administrative authoritarianism that led to its emergence are said to have created a feeling of disenchantment and alienation on the part of Kurds who are having second thoughts about living as loyal citizens of the Turkish Republic.
20. NCB: Observations regarding the invitation to the Istanbul conference
26 March 2012 / Support Kurds in Syria
A number of activists and opposition figures including members of NCB have received unsigned emails which call for their participation in the Syrian opposition conference to be held in Istanbul on 26 March 2012. The following names were attached to the emails: Khalid Bin Mohammad al-Attiyah – Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Qatar, and Halit Çevik – Ambassador, Ministry of State for Foreign Affairs of Turkey. The letter states that this is based on the call from the Arab States Ministerial Council issued on 12 November 2011, and the Chairman’s conclusions of the International Conference of the Friends of the Syrian People which was held in Tunisia on 24 February 2012. The letter says this is: ‘’a conference which will bring all major opposition groups and figures committed to a peaceful political transition in Syria.” Commenting on this call, we point out the following.
21. Syrian Kurds: Time to Assert Their Rights
28 March 2012 / eKurd
Regardless of what may come out of Kofi Annan’s peace plan to end the internal conflict in Syria, and whatever may emerge from the Arab League meeting this week in Baghdad, the prospect of Assad’s fall offers the Kurdish minority in Syria a historic opportunity to gain equal political and civil rights. Given the totalitarian nature of Baathist rule under Assad, the regime’s fall in Syria will take the entire system of government down with it, much like Saddam’s Iraq in 2003. But unlike Iraq’s Kurds who have enjoyed virtual autonomy since 1991 when the United States enforced a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, Syria’s Kurds are less organized and more divided. Syrian Kurds need to close ranks, fully join the Syrian people in pursuit of freedom, and not allow this historic window of opportunity to slip away.
22. Turkish Solitaire – Analysis
21 March 2012 / Eurasia Review
After Syrian security forces liberated first the area west of Homs and then the area northwest of Idlib, it became obvious that now only a foreign invasion can overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. And Damascus is doing its best to exploit its advantage as quickly as possible: It got a new constitution approved by referendum, proclaimed a national unity government and scheduled parliamentary elections for May 7.
23. U.S. Helping Turkey Reduce Dependence on Iranian Oil – and more from the Turkish Press
26 March 2012 / Gatestone Institute
A United States State Department spokesperson has said the U.S. is working with Turkey to reduce its dependence on Iranian oil and find alternative sources of supply in a bid to further squeeze the Islamic republic over its suspected nuclear program; a reduction of oil imports from Iran may also help Turkey bypass U.S. sanctions. The U.S. exempted Japan and 10 European Union nations from financial sanctions because they have significantly cut purchases of Iranian crude oil, but left Iran’s top customers China and India, and its allies such as Turkey and South Korea, exposed to the possibility of such steps.
STATEMENTS
24. Turkey Must Immediately Lift the Ban on Ozgur Gundem, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign Statement, 28 March 2012.
25. Letter by Demirtas and Kisanak to members of the European Parliament, 28 March 2012.