NEWS
1. DIHA journalists who exposed child abuse in prison detained
2. Report on Children Prisoners in Pozantı
3. Kurds on indefinite hunger strike in Europe
4. Ninety people end hunger strike in Istanbul
5. Fax from Imralı prison
6. More prisoners join hunger strike
7. Bodies of Kurdish guerrillas at the hands of Turkish soldiers
8. Roboski report: civilians clearly visible
9. Rights group accuses Turkey of covering up its ‘dirty war’
10. Syrian Opposition Eyes Turkey for Arms Support
11. Kurds in detention – Aleppo and Damascus
12. Disunity in Focus at Anniversary of the Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad
13. European Parliament calls for peaceful solution to Turkey’s Kurdish question
14. Kurdish Youth meet UNICEF and Save the Children over abuse claims
15. “After victory for free speech in France, Turkey’s turn next?”

COMMENT, OPINION, AND ANALYSIS

16. Turkey wants to end Kurd conflict
17. Besikci’s spirit walks in Diyarbakir
18. Sex, Flag, and Ocalan: Facebook Embraces Turkish Censorship
19. Repression against Kurds never stopped
20. Expert Discusses Kurdish Diaspora In Europe
21. Erdogan’s Kurdish Challenge
22. Turkey’s Regional Influence Tainted by Human Rights Violations
23. Pan-Kurdish Nationalism in Diaspora
24. Dr. Mahmud Othman discusses Iraqi political process
25. Turkey’s Other Troublesome Neighbor – OpEd
26. Syria: CIA, M16, French, Mossad, Saudi Involvement Unreported In Imperialist Media

ACTIONS AND APPEALS
27. SYRIA: Journalists and bloggers arrested; fears for safety
28. Strasbourg: Hunger strikers sent letter to International Institutions

 

NEWS

1. DIHA journalists who exposed child abuse in prison detained
7 March 2012 / ANF
The raid, on Tuesday, of Dicle News Agency (DİHA) Adana office rises disturbing questions once again about freedom of the press and the rights of journalists to do their work without fearing to be intimidated or detained. It was DIHA Adana journalists in fact who first exposed the child sexual abuse incidents in Pozantı Prison.  DİHA journalist Ali Buluş who was released on 26 December 2011 from Ermenek prison was taken into custody again on Tuesday along with Özlem Ağuş who has been detained for the third time in a month.

2. Report on Children Prisoners in Pozantı
8 March 2012 / Bianet
“Imprisoned children are just one single aspect of the problem” said Mersin Deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü in his report about rights violations at the Pozantı Closed Prison for Children and Juveniles in Adana. “What we are facing are the basic problems of Turkey – poverty, the Kurdish question and antidemocratic state sovereignty – they are reflected by children and redound upon society”, Kürkçü explained in his report. He underlined that a lasting solution for these problems could only be achieved by taking serious social, economic and political steps.

3. Kurds on indefinite hunger strike in Europe
3 March 2012 / AK News
More than 100 Kurds across Europe have joined 15 protestors on an indefinite hunger strike – and thousands more are expected to join them in solidarity. Around 15 Kurdish politicians, writers and journalists began their hunger strike yesterday outside the European Council building in Strasbourg, France, where the European Parliament and European Court of Human Rights is also located.  The action has already spread as more than a hundred Kurds across different EU countries, have declared their support in joining the strike action over Kurdish Workers Party leader Abdulla Ocalan’s imprisonment and Turkey’s treatment of Kurds.

4. Ninety people end hunger strike in Istanbul
4 March 2012 / ANF
Ninety BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) Bağcılar branch members will end today in Istanbul the solidarity three-day hunger strike they begun on Friday. The hunger strike has been launched to protest against the isolation of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan as well as the military and political operations. BDP Bağcılar Chair Mehmet Star Varsak said that the Turkish state left them with no options but going on a hunger strike. “We are starving ourselves for an end to the oppression of the Kurds,” noted Varsak. The hunger strike will end at 12.00 today and a press release will be read to the media.

5. Fax from Imralı prison
4 March 2012 / ANF
Cumali Karsu who is held in the same prison with PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, Imralı Special Type Prison, has sent a fax to Asrın lawyers office.  The fax content has been disclosed. Karsu writes: “I am in the position of writing some lines only in case of urgency under current prison conditions. Recent months – he added – have been characterised by a complicated process. As far as we can read from newspapers, we understand protest actions are going on in the country and above all in prisons”. Karsu continued by writing that “although these actions are understandable, it is not strongly necessary to bring these indefinite action to a point where risk for the body and mind is big. We believe – he concluded – these actions should find an end which do not affect people phisically.” Clearly the fax was referring to the hunger strikes going on in many prisons and cities.

6. More prisoners join hunger strike
7 March 2012 / ANF
In a statement on behalf of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) and PAJK (Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Party) prisoners, Deniz Kaya has said on Tuesday that prisoners in 12 more prisons will join the indefinite hunger strike that has been going on for 22 days to protest the isolation of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan as well as the military and political operations. “We will continue our action until we hear a concrete statement by our leader about his health and safety” said the statement which also noted that oppression and rights violations in prisons increased since the beginning of the hunger strikes.

7. Bodies of Kurdish guerrillas at the hands of Turkish soldiers
2 March 2012 / Roj Helat
A great number of mass graves have been discovered in the cities of Kerboran, Silopi and Basya in which the remaining bodies of Kurdish guerrillas were found. A question that might raise here is that how many Kurdish guerrillas who have lost their lives in battle with Turkish army since 1984 have been dumped into these mass graves? According to a report by Amed branch of Human Rights Organisation IDH, there are 235 mass graves in 20 cities of North Kurdistan (south-east Turkey) in which 3,248 bodies are hidden.

8. Roboski report: civilians clearly visible
6 March 2012 / ANF
Military Electronics Industries (Aselsan) expert have released a report on Heron video images of Roboski slaughter. The report has been presented to the Parliament. The report, which tells the event minute-by-minute, underlines that the people and donkeys could clearly be distinguished in images and that their moves were clearly apprehensible. The Turkish military air strike near the village of Roboski on 28 December killed 34 civilians, included 18 children. The Heron video images of the bombing were watched last month by experts from both Aselsan and Turkish General Staff as well as the deputies at the Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights.

9. Rights group accuses Turkey of covering up its ‘dirty war’
2 March 2012 / The National
A Turkish human-rights group has accused authorities of trying to block an investigation into suspected extrajudicial killings by security forces in the Kurdish region of the country. Up to 10,000 civilians disappeared in the Kurdish region during the 1990s, according to the Human Rights Association (IHD). The area saw the heaviest fighting between Turkish security forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a separatist rebel group that launched a guerrilla war against Ankara in 1984.

10. Syrian Opposition Eyes Turkey for Arms Support
5 March 2012 / Voice of America
The Syrian National Council has called for a bureau to be created for facilitating arms to the opposition in Syria. This is posing a dilemma for Ankara, which has been strongly supporting the opposition but has refrained, at least publicly, from backing the arming of the opposition. Ankara has refrained from commenting on the Syrian National Council’s call for a bureau to be created to provide armed support for the Free Syrian Army, an armed militia that is fighting against Syrian security forces. The Syrian National Council, or SNC, an umbrella organization made up of opposition groups, made the call on Thursday in Paris and named Turkey as a possible location for the bureau.

11. Kurds in detention – Aleppo and Damascus
4 March 2012 / Support Kurds in Syria
Members and supporters of Democratic Union Party – PYD who are detained in the Central Aleppo prison will begin a hunger strike every Wednesday because of the oppression used against them by prison authorities, and because the Syria authority did not execute the Presidential amnesty in relation to political detainees, especially Decree 61 which has not been enacted since it was issued 30 May 2011.

12. Disunity in Focus at Anniversary of the Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad
2 March 2012 / Rudaw
The chairman of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Selahattin Demirtas, attended the 66th anniversary of the Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad in Erbil last week. Demirtas delivered a speech at the ceremony in which he implored divided Kurdish political parties to unite. Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani, the prime minister and leaders of Kurdish political parties from Iran and Turkey attended the celebration.

13. European Parliament calls for peaceful solution to Turkey’s Kurdish question
2 March 2012 / AK News
An open and democratic debate for the peaceful solution of the Kurdish issue in Turkey was called for by the European Parliament in Brussels. The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) approved Thursday a resolution (with 54 votes against 7) on the 2011 Progress Report on Turkey, which includes several criticisms of the attitude of the Turkish authorities towards Kurdish politicians and citizens. The EU’s progress reports comment on the both the progresses and shortcomings of a country, and provides recommendations for improvements.

14. Kurdish Youth meet UNICEF and Save the Children over abuse claims
5 March 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
On Friday 3 March, a group of 20 Kurdish youth met with UNICEF Official Jon Sparkes and June (surname not known) and then SAVE THE CHILDREN Officials Ishbel Matheson and Jude Bridge to discuss the abuse, torture and rape suffered by Kurdish children in Pozanti Prison, Adana, Turkey. The first meeting took place at UNICEF as the youths entered the building and requested to see officials after their emails and phone calls were left unanswered for days. After a few minutes of waiting and confusion by UNICEF staff, UNICEF O perations Manager Jon Sparkes and his colleague June (surname not known) appeared and accepted to meet with the spokespersons of the group.

15. “After victory for free speech in France, Turkey’s turn next?”
2 March 2012 / Bianet
Reporters Without Borders hails yesterday’s ruling by the Constitutional Council that a proposed lawpunishing the “denial of legally recognized genocides” is unconstitutional. It had been on the verge of being signed into law by President Sarkozy.”We are pleased that freedom of expression has not been sacrificed to a cause, no matter how just the cause may be,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The dangerous breach opened by this law has been closed for the time being but it has already damaged the credibility of the democratic values defended by France and those who defend human rights and the Armenian cause in Turkey.

COMMENT, OPINION, AND ANALYSIS

16. Turkey wants to end Kurd conflict
5 March 2012 / IOL News
Turkish Gendarmerie Colonel Ridvan Ozden was killed in 1995, his wife says, not by Kurdish militants, but by his own colleagues for opposing their “dirty war” and saying the solution to the Kurdish problem was not through “killing and being killed”.  Times have changed however. Turkey now acknowledges that alongside military offensives to crush the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), there can be a place for talks with related groups to find a peaceful way to end the 27-year conflict.

17. Besikci’s spirit walks in Diyarbakir
3 March 2012 / The Kurdish Globe
An introductory meeting of the Ismail Besikci Foundation was organized in Diyarbakir on February 26. In attendance were Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Member of Parliament Leyla Zana, Head of the Diyarbakir Municipality Osman Baydemir, Diyarbakir Sur District Mayor Abdullah Demirbas, as well as representatives of Kurdish NGOs, intellectuals and writers. The Ismail Besikci Foundation was founded on 29 November 2011. The first introductory meeting took place in Sweden on January 14 and the second in Istanbul on February 18.

18. Sex, Flag, and Ocalan: Facebook Embraces Turkish Censorship
2 March 2012 / The Armenian Weekly
A recently leaked document reveals that in addition to censoring sexually explicit, violent, and hate-inciting materials, the social networking site Facebook has special rules for content deemed unacceptable to the Turkish state. Gawker.com recently posted the document leaked by a former employee of oDesk, the firm contracted to police the content shared by Facebook users.

19. Repression against Kurds never stopped
6 March 2012 / ANF
Eighteen years have passed since the pro-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP) deputies were arrested at the door of the Parliament. However, the same oppressive mentality lingers on by means of political operations, arrests and imprisonments against the Kurdish politicians. Steps for a solution to the Kurdish issue have turned out to be military and political operations, revealing that policies have not changed since Kurds started doing legal politics in 1989.

20. Expert Discusses Kurdish Diaspora In Europe
5 March 2012 / Rudaw
Dr. Khalid Khayati is a professor at the Department of Ethnic Studies of Linköping University – Sweden. He is a Kurd from Mahabad city in Iranian Kurdistan. He has lived in Europe for more than two decades. Khayati is a researcher and expert on the Kurdish diaspora in Europe. In this interview with Rudaw, Khayati discusses the history of the Kurdish diaspora and their role in introducing the Kurdish nation to the outside world.

21. Erdogan’s Kurdish Challenge
3 March 2012 / Huffington Post
The attack came at night. Fifty young Kurds returning from Iraq were within sight of the Turkish border when rockets began to explode around them. It was late December and freezing cold. “Five or six took refuge behind the rocks. They all died…” said Servet Encu, one of the 15 survivors.The men were not “militants”. But the government had perceived a threat due to recent deadly attacks on military posts in the area. The authorities called them smugglers, but they were carrying essential provisions purchased from fellow Kurds in Iraq to their desperately impoverished brethren in Turkey.

22. Turkey’s Regional Influence Tainted by Human Rights Violations
5 March 2012 / Huffington Post Blog
Turkey is well known for countless things, heavenly beaches and immaculate holidays but for Kurdish people it is known for notorious violations of Human rights, which has been overlooked by the international community for decades. Turkey’s influence in post-revolutionised Middle Eastern countries continues to grow, but if Turkey is an indicator of how Arab countries will treat ethnic groups, it will be a step back, not forward for the Arab world. In order for Turkey to exert itself as a regional authoritative force, especially since it has not been accepted into the European Union as a member, it must champion Human rights, instead of hiding its bloody track.

23. Pan-Kurdish Nationalism in Diaspora
4 March 2012 / Huffington Post Blog
Nationalism can often be in response to a threat whether internal or external. For much of Kurdish history, we have faced internal threats – in the form of civil wars, and external threats from neighbouring governments that took every step possible from committing genocide to war crimes in order to stop our demand for a Kurdish state. This led to thousands of Kurds being exiled and displaced. The diaspora Kurdish community is huge, and among young people there is growing Kurdish nationalism, which is largely due to the rekindling of Kurdish identity. In the past couple of decades, Kurdish people were forced to feel ashamed of their customs and etiquettes, but recently, things have changed tremendously with the advancement of social networking and stronger leadership in Kurdish communities.

24. Dr. Mahmud Othman discusses Iraqi political process
3 March 2012 / The Kurdish Globe
Member of the Federal Parliament from the Kurdistan Alliance and prominent political adviser Dr. Mahmud Othman, in an interview with The Kurdish Globe, discussed the Iraqi political process. Othman says Iraqi policymakers have failed to establish a prosperous and institutionalized country following the fall of the former regime in 2003. He states the Constitution is not implemented the way it should be, and the political blocs do not adhere to it.

25. Turkey’s Other Troublesome Neighbor – OpEd
6 March 2012 / Eurasia News
As leading politicians from around the world met in Tunis last Friday as the “Friends of Syria” to discuss what to do next to help Syrians under siege, many eyes turned toward the pivotal role Turkey, Syria’s large and influential northern neighbor, can play in shaping the eventual outcome. But Turks themselves are equally focused on another neighbor just as troublesome: Iraq, with its rising sectarian tensions and semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The potential for the Iraqi political standoff to deteriorate into a full sectarian conflict, with all that might portend for Kurdish irredentism both in northern Iraq and in Turkey proper, fills Ankara’s strategists with almost as much angst as the Syrian nightmare.

26. Syria: CIA, M16, French, Mossad, Saudi Involvement Unreported In Imperialist Media
25 February 2012 / Nor Khosq
What is unfolding in Syria is an armed insurrection supported covertly by foreign powers including the US, Turkey and Israel. Armed insurgents belonging to Islamist organizations have crossed the border from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The US State Department has confirmed that it is supporting the insurgency. A monolithic unified slant media cartelrestricts reports to indiscriminate killing of civilian protesters by Syrian government. Now that the West’s war on Gaddafi is going well, American news commentators can in rare moments proudly admit that the CIA is heavily involved. No so, when if comes to Syria. It’s too early. The public has not been yet been properly taught to hate Syria’s President Assad sufficiently.

ACTIONS AND APPEALS

27. SYRIA: Journalists and bloggers arrested; fears for safety
23 February 2012 / American PEN
PEN International fears for the safety of leading journalist Mazen Darwich, who was arrested on February 17, 2012, along with 13 fellow press freedom activists and bloggers from the Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. Darwich and six bloggers in the group remain detained incommunicado at an unknown location, and are considered to be at serious risk of torture and ill-treatment.

28. Strasbourg: Hunger strikers sent letter to International Institutions
6 March 2012 / Mesop
A letter signed by 15 hunger strikers has been sent to the European Council, the European Parliament, and the EU Committee for the Prevention of Torture. Read the letter in full: http://www.mesop.de/2012/03/06/strasbourg-hunger-strikers-sent-letter-to-international-institutions/