Kurdish journalist jailed

A Turkish tribunal has sentenced Ozan Kilinc, editor of Kurdish-language newspaper Azadiya Welat, to 21 years for "support of the PKK". His actual "crime" seems to be to have dared to mention or allow to mention the illegal (but highly popular) party's name in the newspaper, allowed mentions to Abdullah Ocalan as "leader of the Kurdish people" and not licking the boots of the Turkish conscription Army by calling its casualties "martyrs" as seems to be standard among Turkish media.

Ozan Kilinc (image from Azadiya Welat)

As BBC reports, this kind of brutal repression seems way too common: a 15 year old girl sentenced to 8 years for hurling stones to the police, a journalist asked 32 years for writing a book critical of the police investigation in the murder of another journalist...

In other words: more or less like in Spain. They should definitively allow them into EU, but first let Basques and Kurds get out of it.

Iran heading to become the second agnostic post-Muslim country

After Albania, of course.

That is the impression I had in the past, as it is easy for me to compare the Iran of the ayatolahs with Franco's Spain. The totalitarian military-religious regime of Franco led to a Spain that massively deserted from religion and the army too. The reputation of such institutions has not recovered in 35 years.

Discussing with Iranians online, when this was still possible (they might be dead or imprisoned now for that, I have no way of telling), I also got that impression clearly: that Islam was not anymore a real force in Iran and that the young generation was uninterested or rather disdainful of religion. Some flirted with Zoroastrism (specially exiles in the very religious context of North America) but I don't really think it is any alternative.

But what has really confirmed me in that belief is reading to Eastern Kurdish activist Rahim Kaderi today at Gara with occasion of his visit to our little and similarly oppressed country:

... consider please that 70% of Iranians are now younger than 35 years. We knew from long ago that this was a time bomb for the regime but it is now when it is exploding. Imams have been complaining from some time now that the young ones do not go to the mosques. From being the "generation of the Revolution" that the theocracy hoped for, they have become in something radically opposed to the official religious and militaristic ideology. I understand that this is one of the main reasons behind the revolts and not the so much denounced "Western interference", which Teheran clings to stubbornly.

I don't think that it is an spontaneous revolt either because I see it as a very well organized movement, though I could not say who is behind. The West is only concerned about the Persian nuclear race, not human rights in Iran.

He is also hopeful that the political way will produce changes in Turkey. Not because it is what Turkey wishes for but because it will be reality which imposes itself: the reality of the existence of the Kurdish People.

Two Kurds killed in protests

The ban of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) has only brought more confrontation in Turkey: Kurds, who are 15-20% of Turkish citizens but whose homeland is in the southwest, crossing also into Syria, Iraq and Iran, have reacted angrily at this decision, taking to the streets.

The protests ended in violent repression at Bulanik, where two people were killed apparently by a shopkeeper with an AK-47, reports Al Jazeera.

As Zeina Khodr reports at The Europe Blog of Al Jazeera, the banishment of the DTP has only caused further legitimacy for the Communist Party of Kurdistan (PKK), which has led armed struggle against Turkey for decades now:

I met a group of old men drinking tea at one of Diyarbakir's cafes. They seemed to have the answer to that question.

"Now that they banned the DTP … our real representative is the PKK. The PKK is our party and our leader is Abdullah Ocalan. He was the person who woke up Kurds to their rights," Hajj Moustapha Alay told me.

See also my previous entry on the latest developments at Kurdistan.

Update (Dec 19): a reader has corrected me, mentioning that the two victims in this particular case appear to have been shot by a civilian, a shopkeeper armed with battlefield weapons. I have corrected the corresponding sentences - and my apologies for the confusion.

Increase in repression of Kurds leads to street fighting

After commenting on Catalonia and Greece (I did not mention Greek financial troubles though, but it is the next "Dubai" or "Iceland" quite obviously), and in what seems to be the aggravation of the existing class and ethnic conflicts in Europe, it's indeed obliged to mention also the difficult situation that Kurds under Turkish occupation are going through again.

Never mind that sectors of the PKK have actively expressed their will for a peaceful solution, even turning themselves to Turkish authorities as a sign of such a determination. Turkey is a hyper-nationalist country with a weak identity that only seems to be able to exist as opposition to some "enemy", preferably weak and within its borders, just like its Western counterpart: Spain.

It seems that instead of looking for a solution, the Turkish Republic is again attacking its own citizens, just because they reject to be forced into the uniform corset of Turkishness. They have banned a major Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP).

It is the 10th major Kurdish party to be banned by the Constitutional Court, what strongly suggests that it is the high tribunal and the restrictive constitution the ones that needs to be banned instead.

The announcement has caused the 21 MPs of this formation to abandon all parliamentary activity without renouncing to their seats. It has also caused major protests and clashes in North Kurdistan.

Kurds make up between 20% and 25% of the population of the Turkish Republic but their language and culture have been essentially forbidden, though with some shy tolerance measures in the last decades, mostly makeup to show up at Brussels. Kurds demand recognition of their culture and identity and the eshtabilishment of a Kurdish autonomous regions where they are majority. Historically Turkey, based on an extreme version of the French Jacobine model of nation-state, instead has rejected any compromise with the minorities, causing the genocide of Armenians and the ethnic cleansing of Greeks. The approach to Kurds, mostly Sunni Muslims like Turks, were to call them "mountain Turks" and get their language and identity banned. This "solution" did not last for long and eventually Kurds took up arms against the invader state.

The conflict looks far from being solved because that won't happen while the Turkish state keeps its arrogant imperialist attitude.

Neanderthal killed by humans?

Was Shanidar 3 deadly injured by a projectile thrown from afar? Was this projectile the creation of Homo sapiens?

This is the fascinating criminological question that has been asked by Steven Churchill and colleagues (abstract) and that I have come to known by Mundo Neandertal (in Spanish, with interesting discussion in the comments section) and Science Daily.

Shanidar 3 is a Neanderthal male specimen from Iraqi Kurdistan, who died at the age of 40-50 after he suffered a puncturing wound in his chest, wound that was not immediately lethal (the injury had began to heal) but that surely caused his death in a matter of days or weeks. He is dated very loosely to 75-50,000 years ago.

Shanidar cave

According to the experiments realized by Churchill's team, the injury must have been caused by an object that hit in a descending 45 degrees angle, with low energy and momentum. This is inconsistent with a close fight injury, such as one caused by a knife or a spear at short range, instead it seems caused by a projectile thrown from a distance.

The injured rib

So far it seems convincing.

Was this caused by a modern human, a Homo sapiens individual, or was just domestic violence among Neanderthals? This is not so clear but there are indications that point in that direction: it has been argued that modern humans in Gravettian Europe had femur deformities consistent with a life of hurling spears or other weapons and, importantly, that Neanderthals did not show such traits.

Churchill showing the possible murderous weapons: a Neanderthal wooden spear and an atlatl used by modern humans (though not documented until later times)

Also if Shanidar 3 lived in the latest dates of the estimated range, c. 50,000 year ago, that would be coincident with the probable dates of human migration from South Asia into the west, migration that would have got them into Neanderthal territory unavoidably, with possible clashes like the one suspected here.

And that is it. We cannot really reach to further solid conclusions on light of the available evidence. The suspicion stands anyhow: granpa did it. Did he?
.

On the Turkish "parade" in Southern Kurdistan

Again La Haine has quite interesting article recopilating different views on what the heck was the Turkish army launching a massive operation against the PKK in the midst of winter. The article by K. Zurutza is in Spanish and, while it's all very interesting, I will not attempt to translate it but some quotes can still be very illustrative.

To begin with, Hassan a former PKK guerrilla says:

No one can believe the figures of Ankara: they are unbelievable. A guerrilla is like a rabbit running through the mountains (...)
I remember one day in 1996 when we surrounded some fifty soldiers. They had no chance and we killed all them and only four of our men died. Two days after, Turkish TV announced that they had "eliminated 70 terrorists" and lost four soldiers.

Abdullah, an elderly man from Dohuk believes that:

An operation into the mountains in full winter is a nonsense.

Haci, a mobile telephone worker makes a suggestive analysis:

It's all because of Kirkuk, it has nothing to do with the PKK. The Turks have been nervous since some time ago, as the referendum about the integration of Kirkuk into Southern Kurdistan approahches. They don't want to even hear of a Kurdish neighbour controlling one of the largest oil reserves of the Middle East.

In the final (appendix-like) part of the article, originally from the Basque newspaper Gara, Khider Domle, journalist and professor at the University of Dohuk, suggests that the Western powers, do not have a real plan for the region, that Turkey is oil hungry and that fears that what has happened in Kosovo might happen in Northern Kurdistan as well.

Kurds claim victory against Turkey.

Kurdish Media reports that the PKK claims victory against Turkey in the recent combats in Southern Kurdistan (Iraq). While the Turkish figures talk of 23 soldiers (27 according to BBC) 237 peshmergas (more that 240 for the BBC) killed in the fight, the PKK claims that 130 Turkish soldiers were killed along with a downed Black Hawk helicopter, while giving no figure of their own casualties.

It is still not clear why the Turkish army retreated just after the visit of US secreatry of defense, R. Gates. My own hunches go in three possible directions:
1. That the offensive was being a disaster, as the PKK claims.
2. That the Southern Kurdish autonomous government blackmailed the USA in one way or another, maybe threatening to attack Turkish troops along with the PKK.
3. That it is related somehow to the developements in Lebanon (danger of Hezbollah takeover) and Palestine (Israeli genocidal impunity).

In any case it seems that the Middle East is becoming something too hot for the USA to handle properly.

Turkish army in Southern Kurdistan (1)

I've been following as much as possible the latest Turkish invasion of Southern Kurdistan (Iraq). I say "as much as possible" because there seems to be a blanking of information not just by Turkey but also by the Kurdish autonomous government in Kirkuk. Journalists have been forbidden to head to the border to report on the invasion. That doesn't mean that Southern Kurdistan is happy about the Turkish intervention and in fact there was a standoff when Turkish troops stationed in Iraq (since 1991) attempted to leave their bases to join the operations: the Kurdish peshmergas surrounded them and eventually they had to turn back.

One thing that makes little sense to me is why these operations are being carried out in the midst of Winter. The PKK militias are deep in the mountains and these are true ice cubes in this time of the year, not the best scenario for the Turkish army to make fast gains, right?

It is worth mentioning that the Kurdish authorities at Kirkuk and the PKK do not really get along: historically regional and global powers have played the Kurds selectively against their rivals and the parties in power in Southern Kurdistan, supported by Turkey and the USA historically are not sympathetic of USSR and Syria backed PKK (PKK stands for Kurdistan Workers Party, though nowadays they are less Communist than they used to). Nevertheless the sister organization PJAK, that acts in Iran (Eastern Kurdistan) has support from the USA and is not listed by them as "terrorist organization".

Right now, the situation seems to be as follows: the PKK has shooted down a Turkish helicopter, while the Turks have destroyed 5 bridges in northern Iraq. Casualties' figures are confuse: the Turkish soldiers killed by the PKK may be between 15 and 47, depending who you believe; Turkey claims 112 PKK casualties but I suspect many are actually civilians (if the figure is not inflated).


One of the five bridges bombed by Turkey and map of Kurdistan (Kurdish ethnic majority).

Ref: Al Jazeera: 'Turkey ignores Iraq pull-out plea'.