NEWS
1. Turkish forces kill 15 Kurdish women: Interior Ministry
2. Protestor sets herself on fire
3. 15 Kurdish women rebels killed as Turkey faces increased turmoil
4. Kışanak: Kurds will not forget the 15 woman guerrillas
5. Protests against Amara ban – UPDATE
6. Police attack demonstrators celebrating Öcalan’s birthday
7. Tens of thousand send HPG members to their last journey
8. Court repeals closure ruling for Kurdish paper in Turkey
9. KESK Protest under Tear Gas
10. RedHack Supported KESK Protest – Quarrel at Parliament
11. Over 3000 people taken into custody since 1 January
12. Turkish court agrees to try Kurdish militant case
13. 15 Years in Jail for 7 Speeches
14. Prosecutor demands 5 years for Kurdish MP Dicle
15. “Sivas Massacre Case Won’t Be Closed Until We Say So”
16. UPDATE 3-Blasts temporarily halt Iraq oil flow to Turkey
17. Kurdish demo begins in Strasbourg
18. British centre right MEP Marina Yannakoudakis has told parliament that Turkey is ‘not ready’ for EU accession.
19. Bozkurt: Women’s Rights on Agenda of EU Negotiations
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
20. From Northern Ireland To Northern Iraq: Inside Turkey’s New Kurdish Policy
21. New Kurdish strategy of Turkish State: same old story
22. Interview – Head of CHP Kemal Kilicdaroglu: Kurdish Issue Can be Solved by Brave Decisions
23. On Trial in Turkey: Two Generals and One Constitution
24. The Sad Syrian Situation
25. How Bashar Assad Has Come Between the Kurds of Turkey and Syria
26. Syrian Kurds: are they the key to ending the Syrian crisis?
27. The SNC’s Istanbul meeting and self-determination of Syrian Kurds
28. The squeeze on Iraq’s Kurds
29. Coddling Iraqi Kurds
30. Ungor to Talk at NAASR on ‘Genocide in Context of Territory’
REPORTS
31. Foreign Affairs Commission Report: UK-Turkey Relations
32. Human Rights Foundation Daily Human Rights Report
PETITIONS
33. Support the Kurdish hunger strikers!
NEWS
1. Turkish forces kill 15 Kurdish women: Interior Ministry
24 March 2012 / Press TV
The Turkish Interior Ministry says security forces have killed 15 Kurdish women during clashes in the southeastern province of Bitlis. The fighting broke out in a rural area of Bitlis on Saturday. According to local security sources, the women were members of one of the women-only units of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The Saturday clashes come a day after Turkish security forces carried out an operation against the PKK terrorists near the Iraqi border. Seven Turkish forces and six PKK members were killed during the operation.
2. Protestor sets herself on fire
3 April 2012 / Dicle News Agency
Günaydın Yaman (22) who set herself on fire in the Kepez Town of Antalya yesterday is still at a life-critical point. Notes discovered in Yaman’s home include messages to the prime minister and the Kurdish people. Yaman who says to PM Tayyip Erdoğan, “The Kurdish people will never submit to you” in her notes also calls on to the Kurds to wake up and unite. Yaman’s mother has said that Günaydın was very affected by the deaths of the 15 woman People’s Defense Force (HPG) members in Bitlis and Siirt.
3. 15 Kurdish women rebels killed as Turkey faces increased turmoil
30 March 2012 / WNN Breaking
Before the killing of 15 women members of what Turkey considers a ‘terrorist organization,’ tensions set the stage with national protest and tear-gas in Turkey’s capital city of Istanbul as well as the city of Diyarbakir in the southeast region of Turkey on March 18, 2012. As Kurds hit the street to celebrate the historic Kurdish date for Newroz (New Year) government officials warned them to stay away. The Kurdish crowds went to the streets in spite of a Turkish Ministry warning that New Year celebrations would be celebrated ‘officially’ according to Turkish policy, with a celebration of Newroz on March 21. As a result, Turkish police forces and thousands of Kurds faced off as security forces tear-gased the crowds and stones were thrown by those on the streets.
4. Kışanak: Kurds will not forget the 15 woman guerrillas
30 March 2012 / Dicle News Agency
A religious memorial service was held for People’s Defense Force (HPG) members Welat and Şehriban Argış in the Bismil Town of Diyarbakır today. Speaking during the service, Diyarbakır MP Leyla Zana said, “Women are the greatest force of a society. That is why they are afraid of women.” Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-Chair Gültan Kışanak who visited the mourning tent for HPG member Şükran İmaç in Siirt said that the Kurds will not forget the 15 woman guerillas who were killed in a gunfight in the mountains of Bitlis.
5. Protests against Amara ban – UPDATE
4 April 2012 / ANF
Security forces are being deployed in and around Amara and Urfa as well as in the whole of the Kurdish region, as people took to the streets to celebrate Öcalans birthday since early last night. The Interior Ministers ban on the Amara march to celebrate PKK leader Abdullah Öcalans birthday today, 4 April, has been protested against in the region where shops have been closed in many districts including Cizre, Suruç and Derik.
6. Police attack demonstrators celebrating Öcalan’s birthday
4 April 2012 / Dice News Agency
The police have attacked without warning hundreds of demonstrators who were gathered to celebrate Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s birthday in Şırnak. The police attack with tear gas came before the demonstration began. The demonstrators responded by throwing stones at the police. The street fights are ongoing.
7. Tens of thousand send HPG members to their last journey
30 March 2012 / Dicle News Agency
Three funerals of People’s Defense Force (HPG) members who were killed in a gunfight in the mountains of Bitlis took place in Van, Batman and Alibey Village (Diyarbakır) today. Thousands met HPG member Bedriye Akti’s funeral in Van today. Akti was lain to rest by women along with slogans in favor of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its leader Abdullah Öcalan. It was the seventh funeral in four days in Batman, as Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Batman MP Ayla Akat Ata pointed out after the funeral ceremony for Selma Avcı (Rozerin Berfin). Avcı’s father said, “We do not regret anything. We will walk on the way of our martyrs.” A convoy of 500 cars brought Asuman Mucel’s funeral to the Alibey Village of Diyarbakır where it was met by thousands shouting ‘Martyrs do not die.’
8. Court repeals closure ruling for Kurdish paper in Turkey
31 March 2012 / AK News
A court ruling to suspend the publication of a pro-Kurdish newspaper in Turkey for one month has been overturned after lawyers for the paper appealed the decision, reports Today’s Zaman. The İstanbul 14th Criminal Court last week ordered Özgür Gündem (Free Agenda) to suspend publishing for one month, citing the “dissemination of propaganda for a terrorist organization” in its March 24 edition. This referred to material about the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
9. KESK Protest under Tear Gas
29 March 2012 / Bianet
Members of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Employees (KESK) came to Ankara on Wednesday (28 March) to demand the withdrawal of the so-called 4+4+4 Education Draft Bill and the Draft Law on Public Servants’ Trade Unions. The Ankara Governorship had denied permission for the organized protest actions one day earlier. Thereupon, the Ministry of the Interior and the General Police Directorate sent out a circular to the provinces to stop the busses that were going to set off to Ankara. 85 KESK members who came to Ankara from Adana on Tuesday evening were taken into police custody. Entry to the capital was denied to groups from Izmir, Aydın, Balıkesir, Manisa, Kocaeli, Bursa, Malatya, Batman, Urfa, Konya, Hatay, Zonguldak and Tokat.
10. RedHack Supported KESK Protest – Quarrel at Parliament
30 March 2012 / Bianet
RedHack hacked several websites of police directorates all over Turkey in order to support the protest of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Employees (KESK) against the 4+4+4 Education Draft Bill. RedHack defined the aim of their latest hack attack on Twitter: “Our action was done in protest of the oppression against KESK, the press and RedHack. We attribute our action to Mahir Çayhan who became a martyr* on 30 March ’72”. On Thursday morning (29 March), access was blocked to the websites of dozens of police directorates as the result of the RedHack action. A list was published in the internet with all hacked police directory sites.
11. Over 3000 people taken into custody since 1 January
2 April 2012 / Kurdish Info
According to figures compiled by ANF, at least 1,366 people were taken into custody and among them hundreds were sent to prison in Turkey within the last one month. As Turkey continues to hold the record of political arrests in the world, hardly a day passes without the detention and arrest of journalists, union members, lawyers, intellectuals, students, elected representatives, children and human rights defenders. The number of detained people, which was some 60 thousand by the time AKP came to power, has exceeded 140 thousand at present.
12. Turkish court agrees to try Kurdish militant case
3 April 2012 / Reuters
Turkish court on Tuesday agreed to try 193 people accused of having links with Kurdish militants in a high profile case that has seen Ankara’s attitude towards freedom of speech criticised internationally. The defendants stand accused of maintaining links with the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK) which is allegedly the urban wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group Turkey, the United States and the European Union list as a terrorist organisation.
13. 15 Years in Jail for 7 Speeches
30 March 2012 / Bianet
Şerafettin Halis, former Tunceli Deputy of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), received a prison sentence of 15 years, six months and 15 days on charges of “membership in an illegal organization” and “making propaganda for an illegal organization”. The verdict was given by the Malatya Special Authority 3rd High Criminal Court on 28 March. The sentence stems from seven speeches Halis delivered during the run-up to the elections on 12 June 2011 and in the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.
14. Prosecutor demands 5 years for Kurdish MP Dicle
30 March 2012 / Dicle News Agency
The fourth hearing of the case against Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Diyarbakır Co-Chair Zübeyde Zümrüt and Diyarbakır MP Hatip Dicle whose deputyship was dismissed by the Supreme Committee of Elections (YSK) after the elections of June 12, 2011 took place in the 7th Diyarbakır High Criminal Court today. The prosecutor demanded five years for Zümrüt and Dicle on the allegation of producing propaganda of the illegal organization. A letter written by Dicle to Zümrüt was presented as evidence to the court. The prosecutor has claimed that the expression ‘Kurdish liberation movement’ signified the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The next hearing will take place on May 9.
15. “Sivas Massacre Case Won’t Be Closed Until We Say So”
2 April 2012 / Bianet
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Kadıköy, İstanbul this weekend to protest the outcome of the Sivas case, where several defendants accused of participating at the 1993 massacre were acquitted due to a statue of limitations. The police presence was strong at Sunday’s meeting. Following the call of major Alevite organizations, protestors began arriving at the scene early in the morning. There was participation from outside Istanbul, too. Socialist and dissident groups and parties also supported the meeting.
16. UPDATE 3-Blasts temporarily halt Iraq oil flow to Turkey
5 April 2012 / Reuter
Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for blasts on a Turkish oil pipeline on Thursday that temporarily cut off the flow of Iraqi oil from Kirkuk. Turkish officials reported as many as three explosions which sparked a fire along pipelines that carry Iraqi crude to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. No injuries were reported.
17. Kurdish demo begins in Strasbourg
4 April 2012 / Kurdish Freedom
Thousands of people gathered in the French city of Strasbourg early this morning, 4 April, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan’s day of birth, to support the hunger strikers in the city and to call on relevant European institutions to break their silence about the repression imposed on Kurdish people. The demonstration in front of the European Council building in Strasbourg is mainly joined by the Kurdish people coming from France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Austria and Switzerland. The demonstration with the slogan “Freedom for Öcalan, status for Kurdistan” also provides solidarity with the people who have been on a hunger strike in Strasbourg since 1 March to support the hunger strikes in Turkey prisons that began on 15 February.
18. British centre right MEP Marina Yannakoudakis has told parliament that Turkey is ‘not ready’ for EU accession.
30 March 2012 / The Parliament
Yannakoudakis, a Conservative member, was speaking during a debate in the mini plenary in Brussels on Thursday on possible Turkish accession.She was among numerous members who voted against continuing negotiations on Turkey’s membership of the EU in a debate and vote on the progress Turkey is making towards EU accession. The debate and vote are topical as Turkey has threatened to withdraw cooperation with the incoming Cyprus presidency of the EU in the second half of this year. Despite protracted negotiations, the long running Cyprus problem remains unresolved and Ankara is known to be becoming increasingly inpatient at the lack of progress on reunifying the holiday island, which has been divided between the Turkish-run north and Greek south since 1974.
19. Bozkurt: Women’s Rights on Agenda of EU Negotiations
30 March 2012 / Kurdish Info
The European Parliament accepted Emine Bozkurt’s report on the “2020 Perspective for Women in Turkey”. The report will be discussed at the European Parliament General Assembly in May. The Commission on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality” of the European Parliament (EP) accepted the “2020 Perspective for Women in Turkey” report prepared by Emine Bozkurt. Bozkurt is a Dutch politician of Turkish descent and has been a member of the European Parliament since 2004. She is part of the EP Socialist Faction.
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
20. From Northern Ireland To Northern Iraq: Inside Turkey’s New Kurdish Policy
29 March 2012 / Radikal and Worldcrunch
The Turkish government wants to isolate the armed Kurdish rebel group PKK, while opening up to the Kurds themselves. Ankara takes a lesson from Europe’s recent past, with an eye on how Kurds in Iraq and even Syria will affect the outcome.
Across Turkey, the Kurds’ traditional celebration of Newroz has sparked unrest and a police crackdown. It also has forced Ankara to show its hand on its Kurdish policy that is undergoing major changes.
21. New Kurdish strategy of Turkish State: same old story
3 April 2012 / Kurdish Globe
There is a debate nowadays on the “new strategy on the Kurdish issue” or the “new Kurdish plan of the Turkish State” in the Turkish political agenda, started by Ankara’s Turkish newspaper representatives. The failure of the Turkish State in governing the Kurdish question and increasing conflicts recently has created the need of a new ground and a new strategy based on this ground. There has been a huge discussion in both the Turkish government and between Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) on this issue. As a result of these meetings, a new Kurdish plan of Turkish government has emerged.
22. Interview – Head of CHP Kemal Kilicdaroglu: Kurdish Issue Can be Solved by Brave Decisions
3 April 2012 / Rudaw
At a recent convention, Kemal Kilicdaroglu secured the chair of the general secretary of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) for another term. Kilicdaroglu, a Kurd, was born in the city of Dersim in Turkish Kurdistan in 1948. His party, established by the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, has been the main target of criticism by Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the past several years.
23. On Trial in Turkey: Two Generals and One Constitution
4 April 2012 / Bloomberg
The trial began in Ankara Wednesday of two retired Turkish generals, Kenan Evren and Tahsin Sahinkaya, surviving leaders of Turkey’s 1980 military putsch. It’s being treated in Turkey a little like South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission — though without the reconciliation. The September 12 coup, as it is known, proved a defining and reviled moment in Turkey’s modern history. About 500 groups, institutions, individuals and political parties have applied to take part as co-plaintiffs in the case against the two men.
24. The Sad Syrian Situation
5 April 2012 / Strategy Page
Debate continues in Turkey as to whether or not the government has a new strategy for dealing with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Of course, the deeper question is whether or not the Turks can adequately address the political and cultural demands of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. The so-called new strategic approach to the PKK appears to be that the government will no longer negotiate with the PKK. However, the government has never officially negotiated with the PKK, since it considers the PKK to be a terrorist organization.
25. How Bashar Assad Has Come Between the Kurds of Turkey and Syria
5 April 2012 / Time
The proximity is striking. Nusaybin, a Turkish town of about 80,000, sits on one side of the border. Qamishli, one of the biggest cities in northeast Syria, is on the other. A thin strip of land — fields, watchtowers and rows of barbed wire — is all that lies in between. “We’re like one town separated by a fence,” Nusaybin’s Mayor Ayse Gokkan says, her third-story office overlooking the border area. Nusaybin, like most cities in southeast Turkey, is predominantly Kurdish, as is Qamishli. Cross-border marriages are common, and most people on one side have at least a few relatives on the other. The towns’ economies are intertwined — or used to be, until the Syrian government decided to close the border crossing three months ago.
26. Syrian Kurds: are they the key to ending the Syrian crisis?
30 March 2012 / Middle East Voices
A tent city among the ruins of a former tobacco factory along the Turkish-Syrian border is home to Syrian refugee Ciwan and his four-year-old son. The Yayladagi camp is swarming with Syrians fleeing the bloodshed of their homeland. But for Ciwan, a Syrian Kurd, it’s unfamiliar living among the predominantly Arab population. “Over there I lived mostly with my people, but here I am with them, it’s not very easy but slowly I am getting used to it,” he said. His unease defines the struggle of Syria’s largest ethnic minority, the Kurds. The violent year-long political and social upheaval in Syria has left the country’s estimated two million Kurds reeling.
27. The SNC’s Istanbul meeting and self-determination of Syrian Kurds
3 April 2012 / Kurdish Globe
Prior to the meeting of Syrian Friends in Istanbul, the Syrian opposition met in Turkey to create a singular opposition umbrella under the Syrian National Council to be recognized as the sole representative group in a post-Assad period. Despite serious efforts by the Syrian opposition and its regional backers, the Kurdish opposition group, the Kurdish National Council, walked out from the meeting and declined to sign the National Pact announced by the SNC.
28. The squeeze on Iraq’s Kurds
4 April 2012 / Washington Post
Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, knows trouble: His movement has endured multiple wars, diplomatic betrayals and even chemical weapons attacks on its civilian population in its struggle to survive in the tough territory between Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran and Ankara. Maybe that’s why Barzani is grimly unsparing in his description of what the region currently looks like from his capital in Irbil, 14 months into the misnamed “Arab Spring.”
29. Coddling Iraqi Kurds
4 April 2012 / Foreign Policy Magazine
Iraqi Kurdish leaders are pressing Washington to codify a “special relationship” with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The idea has gained support among certain members of the U.S. Congress, think-tanks, and others concerned about diminishing U.S. influence in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s concentration of power, and the destabilizing Iranian role in Iraq. A special United States-KRG relationship, they argue, could hedge against these threats and better assure U.S. interests in the region. Others assert that the United States has a responsibility to protect Iraqi Kurds, who have proven to be a valuable and dependable ally.
30. Ungor to Talk at NAASR on ‘Genocide in Context of Territory’
3 April 2012 / Armenian Weekly
On Thurs., April 26, historian Ugur Unit Ungor will give a lecture entitled “Race and Space: The Armenian Genocide in the Context of Population and Territory,’” at 8 p.m. at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center on 395 Concord Ave. in Belmont. The eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire used to be a multi-ethnic region where Armenians, Kurds, Syriacs, Turks, and Arabs lived together in the same villages and cities. From 1913-50, successive Turkish regimes subjected this region to a thorough policy of ethnic homogenization.
REPORTS
31. Foreign Affairs Commission Report: UK-Turkey Relations, 4 April 2012.
32. Human Rights Foundation Daily Human Rights Report, March 2012.
PETITIONS
33. Support the Kurdish hunger strikers!
Peace in Kurdistan is supporting the international on-line petition to demand justice for Kurdish political prisoners. For further information on the strike and solidarity actions, click here.