British government of his most basic human rights were denied, most Kurdish asylum sekeer are homeless in Great Britain, the government does not allow to work, does not help at all.
BBC midland and BBC Coventry and warwickshire still in radio news of his death not announced.
The government of Great Britain Kurdish asylum most elementary to deprive human rights, while the Amnesty International office in London, and the BBC with 33 languages world radio and television programs, but the Kurdish refugees inside the country severely is psychological torture.
Young Kurdish cause of death is not yet known, the Kurds are now raising money for his funeral can send to Iraqi Kurdistan.
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The BBC, like the Fars News Agency liar, and a guard as they support the Islamic Republic.
The BBC is not valid among the Iranian people.
BBC always crimes of Islamic Republic of Iran has supported.
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The numerous campaigns by the local and international human rights groups to stop his execution did not give any result. He was executed in the prison of Sanandaj this morning.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights said "Our thoughts go to Ehsan’s family and friends and all those who are struggling for abolition of death penalty worldwide. We condemn strongly Ehsan’s execution. Iranian leaders must know that hanging and torture will not solve their regime’s massive problems, and they will eventually be held responsible for their acts".
]]>Dama Sharafy Harisiane (18), a first year student at the Brindavan College of Engineering in Bhupasandra here, was depressed for some time now, according to his sister, Dalaram Sharafy Harisiane.
The siblings from Teheran had rented a flat in Vijayendra Enclave. His body was discovered by Ms. Harisiane who came home with her friend at 10.45 p.m.
She told the police her brother was addicted to alcohol and that he had spoken of suicide before. There was no suicide note though the last words he told her were: “I don’t want to live like an animal.”
/http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/11/stories/2009111159590400.htm
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In a speech often interrupted by shouts from opposition benches, Interior Minister Besir Atalay set out a a general overview of the government's initiative, but gave no indication of the concrete steps it would take in the process.
ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey Tuesday said improving democratic rights was key to its plan to end a 25-year Kurdish insurgency, as the government tried to win over opponents who accuse it of giving into "terrorists" and undermining national unity.
In a speech often interrupted by shouts from opposition benches, Interior Minister Besir Atalay set out a a general overview of the government's initiative, but gave no indication of the concrete steps it would take in the process.
"We believe that democratisation will resolve a terrorism problem that has ethnic nationalism at its root," Atalay told the assembly. "This means an environment where everyone feels as an equal citizen of the state and is not seen as the 'other'."
But he underlined that the plan would "never contain elements that would cripple our unitary structure, our unity."
"This is a project of national unity and fraternity," he said.
Since August, the government has sought to build support for its initiative which is expected to give wider rights to the country's estimated 12 million Kurds and thus get the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to lay down arms.
"We are facing a serious terrorism problem that becomes more intractable as a solution is delayed," Atalay said. "It is high time this problem is resolved through real and lasting solutions."
He added that the government could give specific details of its plan in a second-round debate set for Thursday when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to address parliament.
The opposition slammed the government for moves that would underscore ethnic faultlines in Turkey and accused it of caving into the PKK, which has been fighting for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.
"This is a project of treason and destruction," Kemal Erdal Sipahi, a lawmaker from the nationalist opposition, said, adding that the government project would divide the country along ethnic lines.
Onur Oymen, a member of the social-democratic main opposition party, charged that the government was negotiating with the PKK and "legitimasing terrorism."
Media reports suggest the Kurdish peace plan may include lifting restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language, allowing the return of 12,000 Turkish Kurds currently in a camp in Iraq and investing several million dollars to tackle poverty and unemployment in the southeast.
In a new move which could be part of the reconciliation plan, the government Tuesday submitted to parliament a bill envisaging lenient sentences against minors who are caught in pro-PKK demonstrations.
But critics say Erdogan could end up paying a political cost if the government moves to grant specific rights to Kurds.
"The Kurdish opening could result in a net loss in popular support for the ruling party due to a nationalist backlash," Wolfango Piccoli from the Eurasia group, a London-based political risk consultancy firm, said in a note to investors.
Erdogan has said he will not back down from his plan, but also underlined that his government will never negotiate with the PKK and that military measures against the rebels will continue unabated.
The PKK, however, says it will not abandon its armed struggle as long as Ankara keeps up military operations and fails to give official recognition to its Kurds in the constitution.
"Discussing the Kurdish question in parliament is an opportunity to resolve the problem. But parliament should discuss ways to achieve lasting peace and not approach the issue through narrow political interests," the group said in a statement Monday.
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The last glimmers of the dusk sun
Are showing me the path on which to write;
The sounds of leaves under my steps
Are telling me “let yourself fall
And you will rediscover the path to freedom.”
I never feared death. Even now, as I feel its odd and honest presence next to me, I still want to smell its aroma and rediscover it; Death, who has been the most ancient companion of this land. I don’t want to talk about death; I want to question the reasons behind it. Today, when punishment is the answer for those who seek freedom and justice, how can one fear his fate? Those of “us” who have been sentenced to death by “them” are only guilty of seeking an opening to a better and fair world. Are “they” also aware of their deeds?
I started my life in the city of Kermanshah, the name of which has always been on the tongues of my compatriots for its greatness; the city which is called the cradle of civilization. As my thoughts were developing, I came to see and feel the injustice and discrimination; an injustice that targeted me not only as an individual but also as a member of humankind. I went in thousand different directions to find out the reasons behind injustice. Alas, they had made the arena so closed for those who were thriving for justice that I could not find my way in. I immigrated to another arena outside the superficial boundaries to find answers to my questions. I became a Komeleh guerilla in order to find my stolen identity. Yet I never separated from my first home, and once in a while I returned there to renew my memories. And then one day, they found me during one of my visits, arrested me and put me in a cage. The greeting my captors reserved for me from day one convinced me that my fate would be similar to those who had walked before me along that road: torture, fabricated charges, biased court, an unjust and politically motivated verdict and finally death.
Let me put it this way: after being arrested on July 20th, 2008, in Kamyaran, I was taken to the Intelligence Ministry’s local office. A few hours later, as I was blindfolded and chained and could not see or move, a person who introduced himself as the deputy prosecutor began questioning me. His questions were irrelevant and filled with made up accusations (let me remind you that it is strictly against the law to interrogate people in places other than courts and tribunals). This was the first of many interrogation sessions I had to face. The same night, I was taken to the Intelligence Ministry’s provincial headquarters in Sanandaj, where I had to attend the real party: a dirty cell with a disgusting washroom. The blankets had not been washed for years. This was the beginning of three months of going up and down the hall from my cell to the interrogation room, always being beaten along the way. The honorable interrogators were so keen to get a promotion or make a bit more money that they accused me of all kinds of bizarre things, even though they knew of the falsehood of their accusation. They used every means in their power to prove that I had taken part in armed operations. In the end they could only prove that I had been a member of Komeleh and had taken part in propaganda activities against the regime. The 10 year sentence handed by the initial court is good proof that I only had one charge. The 1st branch of the Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj sentenced me to 10 years in prison, to be served in Ramhormoz Prison outside Kordestan. The political and administrative establishment in Iran has always been in favor of centralized policies, but, apparently, in my case, they had decided to reverse course! Recently provincial appeals courts have become the judicial authority to rule in cases related to political prisoners, even in capital punishment cases. Capital punishment cases were the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. So, the Kamayaran prosecutor objected the initial ruling, and, surprisingly, against Iranian law, the 4th branch of the Kordestan Appeals Court changed the 10 year sentence to a death sentence. According to Article 258 of Iranian Criminal law, appeals courts can only issue a heavier sentence when the initial sentence is lighter than the minimum punishment required by law. The indictment presented by the prosecutor stated the charge as Moharebeh (enmity against God). The minimum punishment required by law in similar cases is 1 year in prison. Now, be the judge yourself and compare the 10 year prison sentence (served in exile) with the minimum required to see how illegal, unlawful and political the death sentence is.
Let me add that, shortly before my sentence was changed to the death sentence, I was taken from Sanandaj prison to the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center, where I was asked to make a false confession on camera, show remorse for the actions I had not committed and reject my beliefs. I did not give in to their illegitimate demands, so I was told that my prison sentence would be changed to the death sentence. They were fast to keep their promise and prove to me how courts always concede to the demands of intelligence and non-judicial authorities. How can one criticize the courts then?
All judges take an oath to remain impartial at all times and in all cases, to rule according to the law and nothing but the law. How many of the judges of this country can say that they have not broken their oath and have remained fair and impartial? In my opinion the number is countable with the fingers on my hand. When the entire justice system in Iran orders arrests, trials, imprisonments and death sentences with the simple hand gesture of an uneducated interrogator, what is to be expected from a few minor judges in a province that has always been discriminated against? Yes, in my view, it is the foundation of the house which is in ruins.
Last time I met in prison with the prosecutor who had issued the initial indictment, he admitted that the ruling was illegal. Yet, for the second time, it has been ruled that my execution should be carried out. It goes without saying that the insistence to carry out the execution at any cost is a result of pressures exercised by political and intelligence groups outside the Judiciary. People who are part of these groups look at the question of life and death of a prisoner only based on their own political and financial interests. They cannot see anything but their own illegitimate objectives, even when it is the question of a person’s right to life - the most basic of all human rights. How pointless is it to expect them to respect international treaties when they don’t even respect their own laws?
Last word: if the rulers and oppressors think that, with my death, the Kurdish question will go away, they are wrong. My death and the deaths of thousands of others like me will not cure the pain; they will only add to the flames of this fire. There is no doubt that every death is the beginning of a new life.
Ehsan Fattahian,
Sanandaj Central Prison
HRAI
]]>Online petition - Save Ehsan Fattahian from execution
According to Radio Nowa, Mr. Abdulbaqi Yousef representative Unity Party Kurds, Kurdish in Syria are in bad condition the government of Syria the Kurds with no excuse or with unrealistic charges arrested them then their prisoner.
Also Shalal Gado to the radio said Nova, we as representatives of leftist parties in Syria the sentence was unjust the court has no evidence for their imprisonment.
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He charged last year with Kurdish parties,in the court in Saqez to 30 years in prison and deportation to southern Iran was sentenced.
He is very sick so hair loss is so much, he is bald.
He is a mysterious disease he is not allowed to be treated outside the prison.
He has been detained in prison Minab city, most prisoners are dangerous drug traffickers in southern Iran.
The distance between Saqez and Minab, is more than a thousand kilometers.
Mr. Sharifi family must be at least 24 hours a way so that they reach the Minab.
They are poor families that do not have ability to travel but the government was not accountable.
Saqez city in Kurdistan province northwestern Iran and Minab city in Hormozgan province southern Iran .
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He is very ill and suffering from digestive problems for treatment must be send outside the prison but not allow him.
He has four times the treatment request but officials with the brutal way answers are unacceptable.
Sherko Maarfi charge enmity with God has been sentenced to death.
Also this sentence by appeal court has been confirmed.
Sherko Maarfi lives in danger is serious, he is at serious risk of execution.
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]]>White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that the three were hiking near the border with Iraq and are innocent. He called on the Iranian government to release them quickly.
A senior Iranian prosecutor accused the three of espionage earlier Monday, the first signal that Tehran intends to put them on trial. The announcement came as Washington and Tehran were maneuvering over a deadlock in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.
]]>Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jaffari Doulatabadi said investigations were continuing against the three hikers, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, the official IRNA news agency reported.
TEHRAN (AFP) – Three Americans taken into custody near the border with Iraq on July 31 are facing spying charges, Iran's judiciary said on Monday, as the White House called for their release.
Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jaffari Doulatabadi said investigations were continuing against the three hikers, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, the official IRNA news agency reported.
A statement on their case is to be made in the near future.
"The three Americans arrested near the border of Iran and Iraq are facing charges of spying and the inquiry is continuing," he said.
The United States called for the swift release of the three, insisting they were innocent of the allegations.
The three "are innocent young people, who should be released by the Iranian government. Their release should be expedited," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Berlin there was "no evidence" for Iran to charge the Americans.
"We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever," Clinton told reporters during a visit to Germany for celebrations commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"And we would renew our request on the behalf of these three young people and their families that the Iranian government exercise compassion and release them so they can return home," she said.
"And we will continue to make that case through our Swiss protecting power who represents the United States in Tehran," Clinton said.
Since Washington and Tehran broke off diplomatic relations following the seizure of the US embassy in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Switzerland has looked after US interests in Iran.
Family and friends of the three have said they were hiking in a mountainous border region in northern Iraq near a famous waterfall when they unintentionally strayed into Iran.
A friend of the trio, who would had travelled with them to Iraq for the hike and would have been with them at the time of their arrest but for a bout of illness, appealed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week to free them as soon as possible.
"Mr President, by continuing to deprive Shane, Sarah and Josh of their liberty, Iran is working against some of the very causes it supports," Shon Meckfessel wrote.
"Each of these three has a long and public record of contesting injustice in the world and addressing some of the inequities between rich and poor which you have spoken about through their humanitarian work in their own country and overseas."
Meckfessel wrote that Bauer is a fluent Arabic speaker who "has focused on injustices in the Arab world, in Iraq and Palestine in particular," and said Shourd helped rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina, and helped poor people fight evictions from their homes in the United States.
He described Fattal as passionate about "justice, environmental sustainability and intercultural exchange."
A Swiss diplomat visited the three Americans in Iran's notorious Evin prison last month, according to their families, who said the trio were "in good physical shape."
"We've been assured by the Swiss that they have not been mistreated," said Fattal's brother, Alex, adding that the families remained concerned about the psychological toll the detention is having.
Friends and relatives held vigils to mark their 100th day in detention. The vigils last Sunday were called in 10 US states and eight countries.
]]>Discussion will focus on the latest developments in Iraq and in the Kurdish Region, Solana's office said in a statement this evening.
The meeting will also provide an opportunity to discuss the political and security challenges facing the region, it added.
Barzani will also address the foreign relations committee of the European Parliament tomorrow and "explain how the Kurdistan Region has developed itself as a successful model for the rest of Iraq," said a separate EP statement. KUNA
]]>"Democratic Move", in an official word that refers to Kurdish opening, will be debated in the Turkish Parliament's General Session on Tuesday.
The preliminary discussion of the motion, signed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will take place in the General Assembly on Tuesday.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay will inform the General Assembly on "democratic move" and political party groups will talk about their views on the matter.
"Democratic Move", in an official word that refers to Kurdish opening, will be debated in the Turkish Parliament's General Session on Tuesday.
The preliminary discussion of the motion, signed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will take place in the General Assembly on Tuesday.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay will inform the General Assembly on "democratic move" and political party groups will talk about their views on the matter.
The MPs will later vote whether to open a General Debate.
"The government has launched a 'national unity and brotherhood project', publicly known as the 'democratic move' in order to raise democratic standards and find a lasting solution to terror problem that cost many years, harmed unity and solidarity of the country," the motion said.
The motion said that an appropriate ground to solve the terror problem had emerged, and a genuine and permanent solution should be found to the problem.
All political party leaders, particularly Mr. President, non-governmental organizations and citizens had assumed a positive approach to the process of solving the terror problem, the motion said.
It also said that democratic initiatives had been launched to end the ongoing terror problem, strengthen unity and solidarity in Turkey, and take new steps in fundamental rights and freedoms.
"All steps, taken and to be taken within the scope of the democratic move, aim at improving peace and confidence, brotherhood and solidarity and unity and solidarity, and co-existence in our country, and most importantly leave this will to upcoming generations," the motion said.
The motion said the most important part of the democratic move was to ensure democratization and human rights in the highest level, and implement individual and cultural rights in the most comprehensive way so that it would cover all citizens.
It also said that the democratization initiatives were carried out as a state policy.
"All dimensions of the problem, including political, economic, social, cultural, security and international relations, are taken into consideration in the democratization initiatives," the motion said.
It said that the final decision and solution address of the problem was the Turkish parliament, and asked the parliament to hold a general debate on the "democratic move" process in the following week.
On Monday, Turkish State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said after the cabinet meeting that the government was planning to bring up the democratic initiative to the parliament on November 10.
On July 22, Erdogan announced his government initiated a move to deal with Kurdish issue and the Ministry of Interior was assigned with the coordination of this task.
A week later, Interior Minister Besir Atalay said their government believed the Kurdish issue would be solved with an egalitarian approach through democratization.
worldbulletin.ne
The Turkish minister Davutoğlu spoke with Rudaw about the visit to the Kurdish regional president Barzani. “In the negotiations, there was not one issue, we had to argue about, we agreed on every point.” Davutoğlu said it was also important that Barzani welcomed him in Turkish. “This was the sign, that everything from the start would be successful.”
Davutoğlu said he might visit the Kurdistan region for the second time, due to the ‘warmth and closeness of the people. According to the minister there was a time when Ankara and Erbil had differences, but the relations were always maintained. Davutoğlu said the shift in the relations came, during the attack of the PKK in Daglica (Oremar). “Then the Kurdish authorities were more zealous for better relations with Turkey,” said the Turkish politician, who also said he was happy with the appreciation of Kurds to Turkish companies in the Kurdish region. Rudaw
]]>Newroz is celebrated around 21 March every year. It is the Kurdish New Year, a festival time when Kurds remember their history, and celebrate their Kurdyeti (Kurdishness) by holding parties in large tents and dancing on the stage. In Syria, the Government threatens Kurdish political parties at this time that their supporters should stay at home, suddenly there are no tents for hire, the stages that have been erected are bulldozed, and many people are arrested. There is clear Government interference in the festival.
The Human Rights Organisation in Syria – MAF – informs us that Nashat Mustafa Hanan disappeared from his city of Aleppo on 27 October 2009 in the hands of Political Security. His family know only that he has been transferred to the Political Security department in Damascus.
International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS – is concerned at the growing number of reports concerning political abductions of Kurds in Syria,www.ekurd.netpeople held incommunicado for long periods of time without trial, and the continuing intimidation of the Kurdish community in their ancient homelands. This is held in place by the State of Emergency.
At the same time, the doors to the international community are being opened for the Syrian Government, by both European Union and by Turkey for example. PNA
Bafel Ali Ahmed was arrested on 5 April 2009 by the military security forces in Qamishli without a warrant, for activity in the media with particular reference to electronic media. He was later transferred to the Palestine Branch of Military Security in Damascus, and was released seven weeks later on 24 May 2009.
According to the organisation for the Defence of Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria [DAD], on 5 October 2009 the Vice-President with responsibility for Student Affairs and Administration at Damascus University issued a decision (resolution no.515) regarding Bafel Ali Ahmed,www.ekurd.netthat he be excluded from the University until 15 March 2010.
International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS – would like the international community to recognise that the Syrian Government uses the interference of the State in the personal lives of young political Kurds to intimidate them by:
• arresting them without charge;
• keeping them in confinement for long periods of time;
• by obstructing their educational opportunities and thereby their futures.
Bafel Ali Ahmed’s experience is another example of the use of powers available under the Syrian State of Emergency previously brought to public attention.PNA
]]> EastKurd: Ehsan Fatahian After hearing the death sentence to the hunger strike and most political prisoners have supported him.
Adnan Hassanpour, Anwar Hossein Panahi, Arsalan Awleyaie, Habiboalla Latifi, Lotfollah Lotfollah poor and some other prisoners in Sanandaj have announced the execution Ehsan and their hunger strike until death will continue.
About a month ago the Iranian government a Justice of Kurdistan Province ordered to the execution of a number of political prisoners should be executed.
]]> EastKurd: Justice of Kurdistan province in a letter to the Fatahian family, and his lawyer has communicated that Ehsan will be executed on Wednesday.
He charged enmity with God, participating in protests has been sentenced to death
He is one year in Sanandaj Central Prison has been imprisoned.
Campaign for the Defense of Prisoners the demand of the international community the Iranian government to stop executions to put pressure.
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“So far, 33 people have been reported dead from swine flu, while 2,153 have been diagnosed with this illness,” the newspaper said.
Etemad also reported that 271 classrooms in various schools across Tehran were closed after reports that the A(H1N1) virus was spreading there.
Iran reported its first swine flu death on August 26, that of a 36-year-old woman drug addict.
As a precaution Iran has placed restrictions on pilgrims planning to travel to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim hajj, that takes place later this month.
The economic daily, Doneyah e-Eqtesad, reported that according to the health ministry between five to eight percent of pilgrims travelling to Saudi Arabia will be infected by swine flu.
AFP
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran has hanged four drug smugglers in the southern province of Kerman, Watan Emrooz newspaper reported on Sunday, taking the overall number of executions so far in 2009 to more than last year's total.
The four were hanged in the prison of Kerman on Saturday, the report said.
The latest hanging brings to at least 247 the number of people executed in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP count based on news reports.
In 2008, Iran hanged 246 people, the highest number of executions carried out by any country bar China.
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A delegation lead by Turkish Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan and several MPS visited South-Africa to improve trade relations. When the MPS spoke with 10 South-African MPS, the South-African mps criticized the situation of Kurds in Turkey and compared the situation of the imprisoned PKK-leader, with the imprisonment of ex-president Nelson Mandela.
AKP MP Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat was shocked and said that he was a Kurd and that another MP Gülşen Orhan was also Kurdish. Firat said that the discrimination of Kurds wasn’t so bad as it was during the apartheid regime in South-Africa.
The pro-Kurdish DTP party often compared Öcalan and Mandela. In the early 1990s there were relations between some members of the Kurdistan Workers Party and the ANC (African National Congress) and there was a South-African arms embargo on Turkey in 1995.
Also Mandela declined the Ataturk Peace Prize in 1992 for infringement of human rights for Kurds in Turkey, but in 1999 he accepted the award and the relations between South-Africa and Turkey improved. Rudaw
]]>Kurdish political prisoners in Adra Prison and Sednaya Military Prison, Damascus, Syria are suffering degrading conditions similar to those that were suffered by prisoners in the Middle Ages. Dozens of young Kurds lie behind high walls and inside dark corridors, hidden in isolation from the outside world, with minimum medical services. These are political prisoners, supporters of the Democratic Union Party, the PKK and PYD, and Sittar – a women’s organization. They stay in individual cells deprived of contact with each other and with their families, subjected to various types of psychological and physical torture.
Syrian Human Rights Committee – MAD, has received information that some of these prisoners started an open-ended hunger strike on 30 October 2009 against the harsh conditions and unfair judgments of the Supreme State Security Court.
They intend to continue the hunger strike until:
they receive a fair trial
their isolation ends
they are allowed to leave the prison yard
they are granted visits from parents, and relatives
and they have access to the media, including radio and television bulletins to give them the same conditions as are available to criminal prisoners.
The Syrian Government uses the State of Emergency that has been in place since 1963 to imprison anyone accused of involvement with a Kurdish Political Party, and these arrests are designed to intimidate those who want to work to bring about self-determination for the Kurdish community. The current system is not improving – in fact in Syria the oppression of Kurds is noticeably increasing.
We ask the international community to pay attention to the conditions for Kurdish political prisoners in these prisons in Syria, to investigate the reports of torture and ill-treatment, and to require in their dealings with the Syrian authorities that international standards for the treatment of prisoners are respected. We ask for the release of all political prisoners in Syria.
International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS
6 November 2009
Khalaf Dahowd
Co-Chair:
International Support Kurds in Syria Association [SKS]
Web: www.supportkurds.org
Email: info@supportkurds.org
On Sunday, thousands of Turkish nationalists took to the streets across Turkey to protest their government's recent overtures to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) amid signs that the so-called "Kurdish Opening" launched by the Justice and Development Party (JDP) has stalled.
On Sunday, thousands of Turkish nationalists took to the streets across Turkey to protest their government's recent overtures to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) amid signs that the so-called "Kurdish Opening" launched by the Justice and Development Party (JDP) has stalled.
Al-Ahram Weekly
The "Kurdish Opening", which the JDP subsequently renamed the "Democratic Opening" in response to criticism from Turkish nationalists, was publicly launched in June this year. It was the culmination of a gradual change in Turkey's strategy towards the PKK over the previous 15 months. Since spring 2008, both the government and the security forces have shifted from a policy of confrontation to engagement, starting with the launching of a dialogue with the Iraqi Kurds and then indirect contacts with sources close to the PKK itself. But, publicly at least, the Turkish authorities have adamantly refused to respond positively to the PKK's longstanding demands for direct peace negotiations. Since it returned to violence in 2004 after a five year ceasefire, the PKK's primary aim has been not a military victory but to force the Turkish state to sit down at the negotiating table and recognise the PKK as the legitimate representative of the country's Kurdish minority.
On 19 October, a group of 34 ethnic Turkish Kurds, including eight serving members of the PKK, crossed into Turkey from northern Iraq. Before their arrival, the JDP had announced that the group was coming to Turkey to surrender. Under Turkish law, membership of the PKK is a crime. Anyone suspected even of being sympathetic to the PKK is usually arrested on charges of belonging to the organisation. But, when the eight PKK militants arrived at the Turkish border in their uniforms, they were not detained by the Turkish authorities. In public statements to the press, they declared that they had come to Turkey not to surrender but as emissaries from the PKK. Over the days that followed, the eight were paraded through the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey by the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). Everywhere they went they were feted as conquering heroes. Many of the thousands of ethnic Kurds who turned out to greet them believed that the PKK had finally achieved its goal of forcing the Turkish state to enter into negotiations; and without the organisation even having to renounce violence.
The result was uproar. Turkish nationalists and the relatives of soldiers killed by the PKK -- many of them clutching photographs of their loved ones -- took to the streets across the country. In some towns, Turkish nationalists clashed with ethnic Kurds and supporters of the DTP. Extraordinarily, despite the numerous public expressions of Turkish nationalist hatred of the PKK and rising social tensions between ethnic Kurds and Turks, the JDP did not appear to have foreseen the repercussions of allowing eight serving PKK militants to cross unhindered into Turkey and conduct what their supporters regarded as a victory parade.
Amid fears of serious bloodshed, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the government had suspended any further returns to Turkey of PKK members. He furiously attacked the DTP, which has traditionally been regarded by both its opponents and many of its supporters as being sympathetic to the PKK, warning it not to treat returning PKK members as conquering heroes. "If it goes on like this, we shall go back to what we were doing before," Erdogan said.
Not surprisingly, the DTP refused to back down. With a general election due to be held in mid-2011 at the latest, the DTP is anxious to be able to associate itself as closely as possible with a victory for the Kurdish cause. But the JDP's decision to freeze the return of PKK members has infuriated the organisation's leadership while providing it with a propaganda coup by enabling the PKK to present the Turkish state as the main obstacle to a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish issue.
On Friday, in a statement smuggled out of Turkey through his lawyers, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on the Turkish island of Imrali since 1999, accused the JDP of being insincere. "All this talk of an 'opening" is just a story," declared Ocalan. "The JDP is not sincere. Their real aim is just to liquidate the PKK. They are not interested in peace. If there is a war then there are two sides. And any peace must be made between these two sides. I won't send any more groups to Turkey."
In recent days, the first winter snows have begun to fall in the mountains of the PKK's main battlegrounds in southeastern Turkey, with the result that the organisation is unlikely to be able to mount any major attacks before the spring thaw starts in March 2010. But it is unclear whether, once the fury of the Turkish nationalist reaction has begun to abate, the JDP will have the political will or motivation to use the breathing space created by the winter weather to try again.
There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the JDP's repeated desire for an end to violence which has cost over 40,000 lives. But the JDP was already looking ahead to the next general election. It had originally calculated that, even if its "Kurdish Opening" lost it some Turkish nationalist votes, these would be more than offset by an increase in votes from the country's Kurds. Yet it has been comprehensively outmanoeuvred by the DTP, which has used the return of the PKK militants to boost its own popular support. Even if their fury subsides over the months ahead, it will be a lot longer before Turkish nationalists forgive the JDP for the scenes which were shown repeatedly on national television of serving PKK militants not only walking free but celebrating what they clearly regarded as a great victory.
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Kurdishaspect.com
By Loghman H. Ahmedi
I have received a couple of angry emails from Iranian expatriates accusing our party, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, of treason and separatism in response to our party’s position in regard to the leaders of the Green Movement. In one of the emails an individual claiming that he is a friend of the Kurdish people asks why our party is promoting Kurdish separatism.
The issue of Kurdish “separatism” has since our party was established in 1945, and even before that, been used as an excuse not to grant the Kurdish people their national rights. It is true that our party established the Kurdistan Republic in 1945, after that the Allied Forces took control over Iran as punishment for Iran’s alliance with Hitler’s Nazi Germany. And it is also true that our party sees the Kurdish people in all parts of Kurdistan (Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria) as one nation that has been forcefully divided. And like any other nation, we believe that the Kurdish people have the right to self-determination and the right to create an independent state.
During the rule of the two Pahlavi Shah’s (father and son) it was claimed that all citizens of Iran were “Iranians” with a common Aryan ancestry, hence there were no need for one “group” of Iranians to be granted any “special” rights. Under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei all the citizens of Iran became Muslims, thus talk about “special” rights for one “group” of Muslims is blasphemy and against Islam.
But what is strange is that the Kurdish people, both as “Iranians” under the monarchy and as “Muslims” under the theocracy, have never been equals to the ruling “group”. The monarchy waged war against the Kurdish people based on claims that the Kurdish people were backward seeking “tribes”. Ayatollah Khomeini declared “holy war” against the Kurdish people and labelled our party as the party of “Satan”.
The Kurdish people have always been economically, socially and culturally discriminated, oppressed and mistreated. We have been denied basic rights like studying our own language in schools, denied adequate housing, food, water, and proper education and standard health services. And yet we are suppose to be grateful and loyal to rulers that subjects our people to this?
We do not think that if the Kurdish people in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria would in the future decide to create an independent state that this would constitute as separatism, but rather as the unification of the Kurdish nation.
What is very worrisome is that even some individual Iranians and organizations that our party has helped and given sanctuary in so many different ways, often forgets this and as soon as they do not need our help anymore they portray us as enemies of Iran.
For example, when the current regime in Iran, after that they managed to take control of large parts of Iran, started to purge, execute and force different leftist groups out of Iran, which all supported Ayatollah Khomeini’s anti Americanism. Many of these groups sought sanctuary in Kurdistan with the help of our party, but as soon as they felt that they didn’t need our support anymore they acted in the same chauvinistic manner as the current regime and previous regime does/did. Also, during the last couple of years we have helped several Iranian writers, journalists and human rights activists to flee from the Islamic Republic, some of these individuals ironically started to attack our party as soon as they stopped needing our sanctuary and help.
With that said, our party does not seek an independent Kurdish state, but we rather promote the establishment of a democratic and federal Iran in which the Kurdish people are granted their national rights in Iranian Kurdistan. But for this to be feasible, the Kurdish nation and all of the other nations in Iran must be granted equal rights in all spheres of life.
The time when the Kurdish people and the Kurdish national freedom movement needed to pledge their loyalty to an imaginary notion of Iran has passed, anyone that fears Kurdish “separatism” should instead help fight for the Kurdish peoples rights and work to create an democratic and progressive Iran in which the Kurdish people feels part of and not express paranoid sentiments that will only widen the gap between the different nations of Iran.
Loghman H. Ahmedi is the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s representative to the United Kingdom. He maintains a blog at www.loghmanahmedi.com
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According to reports, the journalists, including one Canadian and two German citizens, were arrested for working without journalist accreditation. The agencies and television channels for which these journalists work were named.
Jafari said that one of the detainees is Iranian journalist working for France Press Agency.
The decision on him will be taken after receipt of a response to a request sent to the agency in connection with the provision of necessary documents.
TREND