After years of recruiting and indoctrinating followers, the PKK was formally established on November 7, 1978. In the previous year (1977), he committed his first known murder, that of an ideological rival accused of working for the government. He actually worked for the government PTT telecom brach for some time but was finally fired for lack of attendance.

During the 1980 military coupe in Turkey an arrest warrant for his murders was awarded and he escaped into Damascus, Syria. There with the help of Syrian and Libyan donations formed the PKK. Later on Greece was also reported to be unofficially supporting it. There are alleged Armenian connections as well.

He was know for leading operations from his villa in Syria, never personally entering the battle field. He turned the PKK into a very hierarchical organization not allowing any dissent from its members with Abdullah Ocalan as the supreme commander. This caused several of his top aides and field commanders to switch sides and surrender delivering serious tactical and psychological blows.

At the time of his arrest in Kenya he was travelling on a Greek Cypriot passport supplied to him by his Greek hosts who had put him up for 2 weeks in the Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. When Kenyan authorities found out about this they asked for him and was consequently turned over to the authorities.

Since the 1980s, the group has evolved into a deadly insurgence against Turkey, reaching a strength of some 5,000 by 1992. From his bases in Syria and Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Öcalan conducted a ruthless campaign, ostensibly for Kurdish independence but, as widely available PKK internal documents suggest, the ultimate goal is the creation of a Maoist state in areas of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Starting from 1997 PKK’s operations have started to die down and loose the limited support it had in the Turkish south east and therefore resulted in increased public relations efforts in Europe.

Öcalan’s arrest raises serious issues that include, but go beyond that of dealing with terrorism. Judging by the number of victims, Öcalan is in rarefied company in today’s terrorist Pantheon – only Guzman himself and the other Maoist cum nationalist Vellupilai Pirapaharan of the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka are in the same league.

A video of Abdullah Ocalan’s boarding the private jet with Turkish Special Forces in Nairobi-Kenya was released recently. In it a seemingly exhausted and demoralized man says in Turkish (he speaks very little Kurdish) “If the truth needs to be told, I love Turkey and the Turkish nation and I want to serve it” as his blindlofds are removed inside.

Today Abdullah “Apo” Ocalan sits in a special prison in the Turkish Marmara sea awaiting his trial date.

I have compiled the following to show PKK for what it truly stands, so its numerous crimes are not forgotten.  I have done this through answering in detail 2 allegations put forward by PKK and its sympathizers.  Please read and re-use this material to educate the people around you who in this ever faster  revolving world until recently had many other things to catch up on.  Help them understand, help them remember what the issue is really about.  Pass this around and let the people know the truth.

Members of DTP neither called PKK as a terrorist organization nor terrorists as “terrorists”. Their attitude gets reaction… They call terrorists as if they are “holy warriors of something”…

DTP PMs and fans suggest stopping war and establishing a permanent peace but actually their suggestions seem artificial; because their criticisms only aim at Turkish Government and Turkish Armed Forces. They do not criticize PKK; they even do not call them as terrorists.

This is their democracy… Only for terrorists!

They do not take 30.000 people into consideration who died of terror within last 30 years in this country. Some of them were just traveling in the region and their only faults were to be in that vehicle… Some of them were just sleeping in their beds and their only faults were to live in that village…

PKK terror killed 30.000 innocent citizens and DTP only talks about the “peace” between Turkish Government and those terrorists…

Another definition could be the premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant (civilian) targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience. International Terrorism, means that this group on its own or with closely coordinated others conducts the same actions in more then one country.

Or according to Bruce Hoffman’s recently (1998) published “Inside Terrorism”, terrorism is; “ineluctably political in aims and motives; violent-or, equally important, threatens violence; designed to have far-reaching psychological repercussions beyond the immediate victim of target; conducted by an organization with an identifiable chain of command or conspiratorial cell structure (whose members wear no uniform or identifying insignia); and perpetrated by a sub-national group or non-state entity.”

The PKK killing spree started on August 15, 1984 where 2 police officers were murdered (Eruh & Semdinli villages). In the ensuing years 17,179 attacks resulted in over 30 thousand murders. 3,489 soldiers, 180 police officers and 1,144 armed village guards were murdered. Among the 4276+ civilians massacred were 501 children, 512 women.

You will agree with me that according to pretty much all definitions of terrorism PKK is a terrorist organization. I had earlier writen another paper on the results of some research including numerous clippings of foreign media, detailing the violence caused by PKK, please make sure you take a look at it if you are not sure about PKK’s terrorist status. It is important to remember what PKK has done in the past to understand the mind set within which it operates.

With regards to Turkey, 2 terrorist organizations were listed on The U.S. Department of State, Counter terrorism Office’s list of foreign terrorists in the world (released October 8, 1997). On this list are Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front, (DHKP/C) and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) led by Abdullah “Apo” Öcalan. Another group not mentioned in the list but elsewhere in the report was TKEP/L.

According to a report by Richard Cole of the Associated Press; FBI & U.S. State Department records show that PKK committed more terrorist acts from 1991-1995 than any other such group in the world! International Human Rights organization, who criticezes some of Turkish policy has itself compiled a large list of PKK atrocities against civilians and sent it to the Italian Prime Minister asking that it’s leader face justice.

PKK is a violent organization which has treaded on and violated 7 of the 11 major multilateral conventions related to countries responsibilities for combating terrorism & violence. Many of these call for punishment and or extradition.

It was a part of the G7 (of which Italy is a member) signed a declaration in 1996, which clearly states;

“We reaffirm our absolute condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, regardless of its perpetrators or motives. Terrorism is a heinous crime, and there must be no excuse or exception in bringing its perpetrators to justice. ”

Furthermore the Ministerial Conference on Terrorism of Paris, France, July 30, 1996 specifically touches on this issue in its 13th statement point.

“13. While recognizing that political asylum and the admission of refugees are legitimate rights enshrined in international law, make sure that such a right should not be taken advantage of for terrorist purposes and seek additional international means to address the subject of refugees and asylum seekers who plan, fund, or commit terrorist acts.”

Bombs were blown, people were killed, oil pipelines were set ablaze even while Apo was in Italy by his terrorist underlings. These were very likely were for a show of force by PKK, when Apo had supposedly called a cease fire. Still the current Italian government seems to ignore these points in its own internal babbling, or maybe its just soft on terrorism?.

Of course the Italian Communists like this “Apo” who was described as; “Öcalan is a Communist, complete with hammer and sickle, and he runs the PKK in Stalinist style, complete with executions and purge trials.” by one-time lieutenant of his, Selim Curukkaya, in his memoirs. Who cares if Italian public are loosing billions in lost trade because of the public boycott of Italian products, who cares if the eastern part of Turkey still waits stabilization before investment can take place… And regardless of all the proof of Ocalan’s terrorist activities he has been set free by the Italian court system, very likely a political deal within the shaky Italian parliament.

In an open bow to terrorism Germany, who had also previously labeled PKK as a terror organization (arrest warrants issued for Abdullah Öcalan in 1993 and 1998) changed her mind about extraditing the captured leader in fear of increased violence on her soil. Is it not interesting, that in the land of Germany where there are 2+ million Turks and close to 400 thousand Kurds they are afraid of violence from the Kurds if extradited but not afraid of the feelings of the 2 million+ Turks if he is not extradited?!

While the “peace loving” Europeans were doing all they can to off load this hot potato it was again the Americans who on December 17 stated bluntly that “if Abdullah Ocalan is allowed to go free without facing charges, it would be a blow to the international fight against terrorism”. Yes it would, if it is okay to kill school teachers in Turkey what is the diffrence in killing school teachers in Italy?

This brings us to another important point which needs mentioning. Is PKK a materialization of the Kurdish people’s voice in Turkey?

The PKK’s main target has been the entire populations of all the villages which resisted it and the underlying infrastructure in southeastern Turkey. Indeed, the PKK indiscriminately murders and degrades the living conditions of the very people it claims to represent: the Kurds.

Even though the PKK was included in the list of “terrorist organisations” by Spanish deputy Lopes’s special report on terrorism to the Council of Europe. And later on 25 November 1997 in the Mehdi Zana case, the European Court of Human Rights pronounced the PKK as a “terrorist organisation” thereby setting legal precedent! Time after time, the European Union public was tricked by Anti-Turkish & anti-Moslem lobbies within EU into believing that the PKK was the major representative of the Kurdish cause in and around Turkey.

This was due to their lack of understanding of the issues, historically motivated anti-Turkish sentiments as well as the newly democratised x-communist politicians who looked (in secrecy) favourlably towards a Marxist/Leninst/Maoist, the “proletarian internationalism” movement. These attempts disguised as human rights issues completely ignored the almost 1000 year old brotherhood between the Kurds & Turks who not only share a common religion but history as well.

None of the major Kurdish groups (KDP, PUK, KDPI) in the region support the PKK. In fact have time and time again fought against it. Yet because these groups are not as well funded as the PKK (due to its drug-traficking/extortion/money-laundering or its support by anti-Turkish groups such as Greeks) they are not able to be as vocal or afford long term large scale fights nor produce their own TV news programs. And the ones in Turkey have 2 options, either support PKK or be shot (with family members) by PKK. Either one is not a too bright prospect and hence the one sidedness of a small minority of the Kurds politically active!

There are approximately 9-15million people of Kurdish origin in Turkey according to your definition of Kurdish. If any significant majority of these people were supporting PKK there would be all out civil war in Turkey bombs exploding everywhere, fighting in the streets and all. But this is not happening! The bloodshed the fighting is taking place in the south eastern part of Turkey, the under educated part where the under educated unemployed peasants are the hunting ground for PKK recruiters. Whose job in the recent year has become harder and harder. In reality the terror is going down due to PKK’s failure of its violent conduct of agendas. Hence you see a Abdullah Ocalan to save his own life, running to the west and disowning his previous lietuenants and organization actions as stupid and bloody murderers and terrorists.

Why is the east under educated/un-employed, what is being done about it. There are many things that the Turkish state must do to improve the life standards of its citizens, but none of them include dealings with terrorists. PKK has ruined Kurdish people and regions more then anything else in recent history. Not only by attacking industrial complexes but also by attacking the engineers, teachers, doctors and other civilians. There are pictures of PKK violence on civilians well documented. Some of these pictures are of the civilians mentioned in the IHR report some are newer ones.

Abdullah Öcalan and PKK is not a representative of the Kurdish people of Turkey if he was he would have millions of supporters behind him and not several thousand mis-guided, un-educated ones.

Terrorism, like AIDS knows no borders. The same PKK who kills civilians in Turkey with a bullet helps poison thousands more in Europe with drug-trafficking, extortion, arson, blackmailing and money laundering. Only by working together to make criminals pay for their crime can we battle terrorism.

Italy’s failure to legally extradite Ocalan to Turkey or bring him to justice herself has earned its government bad marks, silenced its right to say anything if a Italian diplomat is killed or a civilian public transport bus is blown to pieces in Roma, and it will deserve no international cooperation! Germany’s reluctance to extradite and honour its own arrest warrants forgos their right to complain about any future terrorist acts on their nation.

Turkey is literally a young nation. According to UN Demographic Yearbook of 1996 only 17% of her population is above 60 years of age leaving behind a large 83% dynamic group. Of the total population 29% are under 15 and are the future of Turkey. The country which they grow up in run by the 83% will point them in their future direction. Turkey is the most liberal example of a industrialized Moslem country, a model for other nations in the Middle East and elsewhere to follow. Just as a Euro-Alienated 83% can only guarantee further friction in between the east and the west, friendlier relations in between can mean a better educated, better off population which can only add to the competitiveness and stability of Europe. A stable bridge to the middle east and central caucasia. PKK is a terrorist organization by its methods no matter how you look at it and it must be dealt with accordingly. This is a test of Europe’s fairness and willingness to cooperate with Turkey and a sign of its dedication to fighting international terrorism.

  It is the latest of several court decisions overturning similar EU decisions, on the grounds that the groups added to the terror list were not properly informed of the decision to blacklist them, nor given a right to appeal the decision.

  The EU court said the two groups were not in the position “to understand, clearly and unequivocally, the reasoning” that led EU governments to add them to the list.

  But an unnamed EU official said a new version of the list was drawn up in December 2007, again including the PKK, which took into account the views of the court in similar cases in the past.

  “For the Council [of Europe], the PKK continues to be on the list,” the official said.

  The PKK was added to the EU list in 2002, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks οn the United States, while Kongra-Gel was added in 2004. The U.S. and Turkey also list the PKK as a terrorist organization.

  Sinan Ülgen, chairman of the Istanbul-based Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, told the Turkish Daily News that the ruling should not be interpreted politically as a sign of the EU’s willingness to support the PKK or to undermine Turkey’s efforts in its fight against the terrorist group.

  “This is a purely legalistic matter,” said Ülgen. 

  He said the EU had apparently failed to inform the terrorist organization in advance of its decision to outlaw the PKK.

  “This ruling does not mean the EU cannot outlaw the PKK. The court decision says that the EU Council, while outlawing the PKK in 2002, has not followed the proper procedure and what’s going to happen next is that the EU Council will continue to outlaw the PKK, but will follow the proper procedure,” Ülgen said.

  “The ruling was issued on procedural grounds,” he added.

  The ruling followed similar judgments by Luxembourg-based court that the EU had failed to give sufficient reasons for listing terrorist groups, including an exiled Iranian opposition group called The People’s Mujahideen. 

  The Iranian group won a 2006 EU court case annulling their listing by the EU. That case set a legal precedent and forced the EU to revamp the way it decides which groups and people to add to its terror list.

  The EU court also recently overturned a decision to freeze the assets of an exiled Philippine rebel leader and the Netherlands-based Al-Aqsa foundation because they were not informed why their assets were frozen – a breach of EU law.

  “The ruling has nothing to do with the exclusion of the PKK from the EU list of terrorist organizations,” said Cengiz Aktar, an EU expert.

  “The PKK continues to be on the list,” he added.

Gov’t cautious, opposition up in arms

  The government, meanwhile, avoided an abrupt reaction to the ruling.

  “The information we have received is not very clear. We’ll make a statement as soon as we get clearer information,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was in Sweden on an official trip, told reporters.

  The opposition took a sharper tone, with Oktay Vural, parliamentary group deputy leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), declaring the ruling “embarrassing.”

  “This decision was made to influence the party closure case [filed against the ruling Justice and Development Party] in Turkey and complicate a solution to the Southeast problem,” he said, urging the government to take a diplomatic stance against EU officials.

  The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) called for calm.

  “The only way to get the Kurdish card from the hands of international powers is to resolve this problem internally. As Turkish citizens of the Kurdish origins, we favor a solution reached in our country,” said Selahattin Demirtaş, parliamentary group deputy leader of the DTP.

  The Republican People’s Party (CHP) considered the court ruling as a new game plotted against Turkey by the imperialist powers.

  “EU counties clearly revealed this time that they are providing logistical support for the terrorist organization,” said Hakkı Suha Okay, parliamentary group deputy leader of the CHP.

  Forty six mayors, including Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir, attended the first hearing of the trial at a criminal court in Diyarbakır, while ten others abstained.

  In a statement to the court, the Justice Ministry said Roj TV was a continuation of Med TV and Medya TV, whose broadcasting licenses were earlier revoked in France and Britain for being linked with the PKK. The executive chairman of the channel is also a member of the executive board of the PKK and its offshoot Kongra-Gel, the ministry also said.

  Senior PKK militants often join the station’s broadcasts by satellite telephone from their mountain hideouts in northern Iraq.

  “I repeat here what we wrote in the letter and I am ready to serve whatever criminal punishment it may entail,” Baydemir told the court. “I am against all types of violence. I am against the Kurdish opposition using violence as well.”

  He said some of the programs broadcast on Roj TV were very useful and added that there would be no need for Roj TV to broadcast from abroad if televisions here could broadcast in Kurdish.

  “We reject the indictment and the accusations it levels,” said Fırat Anlı, one of the mayors at the hearing. He said he was speaking on behalf of all the mayors. He said the indictment did not meet the necessary requirements to be considered an indictment, complaining that it rather looked like a complaint letter by Interior Ministry inspectors.

  The indictment charges that by seeking to prevent the closure of the station, the mayors have committed the offense of “knowingly and willingly supporting” a terrorist group.

  It says that Roj TV hosts PKK leaders, carries PKK statements inciting violence and follows a broadcasting policy “in line with PKK propaganda.”

  Last year, the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen demanded that Denmark revoke the station’s broadcasting license. The Danish government has refused to do so, citing freedom of speech.

  The mayors, on the other hand, wrote to Rasmussen that silencing Roj TV “would mean the loss of an important vehicle in the struggle for democracy and human rights” in Turkey.

  The Roj TV issue has strained Turkish-Danish relations as well. In reaction to the prosecution of the mayors, Rasmussen said in June that putting the mayors on trial over the letter contradicted the values of the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join.

  During a visit to Copenhagen in November, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan boycotted a joint news conference with Rasmussen after the latter rejected his request that a Roj TV reporter be barred from entry.

   The U.S. and Turkey have recently begun to cooperate with each other against the PKK presence in northern Iraq, but the organization’s relatively unnoticed European criminal networks and fronts remain a lifeline that, if unchecked, will allow it to remain well funded and supplied indefinitely. For their fight against the PKK to be successful, Turkey, the United States and the European Union must tackle the group’s European activities.

  The State Department’s April 2007 Country Reports on Terrorism stated that the PKK finances its operations through fundraising and criminal activity in Europe. Similarly, a recent NATO Terrorist Threat Intelligence Unit (TTIU) report found that the PKK is involved in illegal economic operations such as smuggling, tax evasion and other forms of organized crime, including drug and counterfeit money trafficking as well as illegal foreign currency exchanges. The report also stated that PKK members apply coercion in collecting funds.

  According to figures presented at the NATO Reinforced Economic Committee meeting in November 2007, the illicit narcotics industry is the PKK’s most profitable criminal activity. The committee’s subsequent report found that the PKK is involved in all phases of the narcotics trade, from raw production in Pakistan and distillation in Iraq to street sales and “taxation” of non-PKK-produced drugs in Europe. The report also showed human trafficking as the PKK’s second most profitable illicit activity.

  Europol has made a similar case about the PKK’s criminal activities, offering specific evidence in its April 2007 Terrorism Situation and Trend Report: “Two PKK members were arrested in France in 2006 for money laundering aimed at financing terrorism. At the end of 2005, three members of the PKK were arrested in Belgium and another one in Germany suspected of financing the PKK. In Belgium, the authorities seized receipt booklets indicating that the arrested suspects were collecting ‘tax’ from their fellow countrymen. The rise of fundraising activities by the PKK in the EU is related to the escalation of the terrorist campaign of Kurdish terrorists in Turkey.”

  In addition to its criminal network, the PKK also uses fronts and legal loopholes to raise funds in Europe. The TTIU report stated that the group raises a total of $50 to $100 million per year. Although the bulk of this amount comes from criminal operations in Europe, approximately $12 to $15 million is raised through legitimate or semi-legitimate commercial activities and donations. According to Turkish authorities, the PKK has a vast network of 400 affiliated organizations in Europe – about half of which are in Germany – engaged in these commercial activities. The network includes affiliate or sympathizer organizations such as the Confederation of Kurdish Associations in Europe (KON-KURD, headquartered in Brussels) and the International Kurdish Businessmen Union (KAR-SAZ, in Rotterdam).

  The PKK also has a vast European propaganda and fundraising network that includes two news agencies, four television stations, 13 radio stations, 10 newspapers, 19 periodicals and three publishing houses. These media organizations are scattered across Europe and range from Roj TV in Denmark to the Fırat News Agency in the Netherlands.

Purchasing weapons

  Revenues from the PKK’s criminal activities and fronts have long funded the group’s weapons purchases in Europe. Between 1984 and 2006, Turkey confiscated a total of 40,045 PKK weapons. The origin of many of the weapons could not be detected due to intentional destruction of identifying marks by producers, smugglers, or the users. Nevertheless, more than 16,000 of them have so far been traced. Some originated from European countries, including Italy, Germany, Belgium, Hungary and Russia. Moreover, of the 8,015 mines captured by Turkey, 4,857 came from Italy and 2,268 from Russia and the ex-Soviet republics. Such large amounts of weapons, often stored in military depots, normally would not disappear without alerting the authorities.

  The PKK has enjoyed safe conduct in some European countries for quite some time. Today, these nations are beginning to understand the global effects of terrorism and the need for international cooperation and are accordingly taking steps to ban or restrict PKK activities. For instance, as reported by the Turkish daily Sabah, the British Foreign Office acknowledged in January 2008 that the PKK and its affiliate organizations had been active in Britain and other European countries since 2001. As a result, Britain said, “foreign terrorist organizations would not be allowed to exploit the territories of the United Kingdom for any more fundraising.”

  Most European states have also officially recognized the PKK as a terrorist organization (though some, such as Norway, have not yet done so). Accordingly, they are taking some concrete steps against the group. For example, in January 2008, a local Berlin court found a Turkish citizen guilty of leading an underground PKK cell in Bavaria since 1994 and sentenced him to nearly three years in prison.

  According to the European Council’s 2002 Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism, member states are obligated to take necessary measures to ensure that any involvement with a terrorist group – be it directing, funding, supplying, or participating — is punishable by law. Unfortunately, European countries have been slow in implementing this legislation.

  In order to be successful, the U.S.-Turkish strategy against the PKK presence in northern Iraq should include strong U.S.-Turkish-European counter terrorism tools to shut down the group’s European criminal networks and fronts. In this regard, the United States should bring Turkey and Europe together by facilitating joint work among American, Turkish, and European law enforcement agencies.

The other global force and PKK:

  The terrorist actions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) seemed to have been terminated in 1998 by the Turkish military, which had given an ultimatum to Syria after being disappointed with how the politicians were handling the situation, and thus proved that in desperate times, diplomacy could become more influential when enhanced with military power. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the 21st century, the PKK, which aims at once to politicize itself systematically and prepare for asymmetric warfare, has been revived beyond our borders in northern Iraq by other actors. Northern Iraq was placed at the heart of the Greater Middle East Initiative (GMEI) by the United States in order to accommodate the vast oil resources as well as the important water resources that are being managed by the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP).

  Oil and water are abundant in the region, which was implied by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, known for his unorthodox approaches. He had said, “It is important to control oil to control states as water to control people.” Is the fact that the United States put the project at issue into practice in the 1980s, the reason why Turkey was hesitant and idle while it was on the verge of a decisive victory over PKK? Is the existence of the PKK along with the formation of the Kurdish autonomous region, which has evolved into de jure from de facto status, permitted so that they could be used by both the United States and Israel, especially against Arabs but also other states, in the region? After the second Gulf war, EU and U.S.-based aid organizations allocated their resources to Kurds, but not to Arabs and Turkmen. Furthermore, the Turkmen people were, in order to help the peshmerga and change the ethnic demography, deported and massacred by U.S. forces. The ongoing situation in Telafer and the Turkish ruling elite’s ignorance of the situation continue to be our source of sorrow.

Invalid excuses of the US:

  Today, the upsurge of terrorism is the result of the annulment of terror-prevention acts by the government, in order to appear docile to the EU, thus forcing our security forces to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. As a result, PKK terrorists — there are around 4,500 in the north of Iraq and 1,500 in other places — have grown stronger. Also making the group stronger has been the U.S. support of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), who seek an upsurge of terrorism by projecting their organizational power, via politicization, to Turkey. The United States initiated another strategy for Turkey. In addition to supporting “moderate Islam” or “Pro-American Islam” under the framework of GMEI, they support both the PKK and Kurdish groups rather than preventing their development. Turkey should neither endure nor accept this situation. The United States is day-by-day showing its intentions of turning the Middle East into bloodbath under the GMEI and the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative (BMENAI), and also to help — as well as use — Israel. Israel had said, “Turkey’s Southeast is in our interest,” and Turkey should not forget the fact that the Kurds are their only ally in the region.

  The administration in Turkey acts in parallel with the United States, which promotes “moderate Islam,” and yet the artificial zigzags and inexperienced moves, which would in fact be appreciated by the EU, of trimming antiterrorism laws for the sake of — without a doubt — insincerely pleasing the EU and drafting legislation like the Local Administrations Bill and the Public Administration Reform, which make southeastern Anatolian local administrations more powerful both financially and functionally, continue to weaken the government’s central power. In this respect, EU and U.S. actions in southeast Anatolia and their close relations with local administrators in this region, like for example in Diyarbakır, should be taken seriously and opposed. The EU and United States are executing tricks that are against Turkey and not compatible with the rationale of alliance and that are sometimes shaped by creating so-called sub-identities, sometimes with the help of feudal ideas and sometimes by exploiting religious sects, religious orders and clans. The intentions are to, first, create controllable instability and, second, reshape the region on the basis of re-shaping the Middle East, which considerably “diminishes” Turkey, as recently aired in the media.

  At this point, the most important thing that bothers us is the possibility of the creation of a Kurdish state, which would be under the supervision and protection of the United States and Israel, out of Turkish, Syrian, Iranian and Iraqi territory. Unfortunately, the American-controlled NATO’s inconclusiveness in adding the PKK into its terrorist organizations list is the most open way to show its member, and once its outpost, Turkey, that NATO’s understanding of alliance is the “always take, not give” kind of alliance. At this point, the biggest sin is being committed by the United States.

  It seems that the sole superpower’s plans and intentions are to use the PKK as a military backup for the Kurds. If the United States is sincere about the war against terrorism, which was used as an excuse to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq, it would not permit the despicable bloody terrorist organization PKK to be active in Iraq. Although the United States claims otherwise, it has the power to do so. If it has really no power to do so, then the United States should permit Turkey to use force. However, these days, the Turkish public backlash against the United States and its puppet regime in northern Iraq seem to be causing another strategy. We think that this so-called new and counter PKK strategy that the United States has recently adopted is designed to lull Turkey with false hopes and buy some time and is nothing more than a hollow promise. It is clear that recently expressed “measures” by the Kurdish president and foreign affairs minister of Iraq are a tactical move in order to buy time, to impress the Turkish public by shutting down some PKK offices, declaring that they are unlawful and arresting some insignificant terrorists. Hence it is a hollow move in respect to curbing the abilities of the PKK.

Turkey’s strategy:

  Turkey should not be fooled by this trick. We cannot resist PKK terror, which thousands of young compatriots sacrificed their lives by fighting, if we make the same mistakes we made in the past by being passive and waiting for others to help. The issue of resistance has brought us to a point where struggle is inevitable. Our struggle must be for the integrity and independence of our country, the welfare of the nation and the continuity of our democracy. Waiting for the intercession and help of others should be out of the question because time is on the side of those who would like to harm our country.

  Submitting the Turkish nation’s welfare to the hands of foreigner intercession would ruin our country’s future. Turkey is a mighty country. This might is our ancestors’ legacy and was earned with blood. Also the geographical greatness is important for the Turkish nation’s independence and territorial integrity. Giving up one inch of land is unthinkable. Giving up our land would invite other invasions. The result would be the realization of a dream the West has been waiting to fulfill since Lausanne; the expulsion of Turks from Anatolia.

  Although the eminent Atatürk had said, “Peace at home, peace in the world,” when necessary, he put on his uniform as he did to reunite with Hatay. He made a request from us to reunite with former territories of our homeland like Kirkuk, Mosul, Cyprus and Salonika. If Atatürk had followed an ambiguous foreign policy similar to our policy today, we would have never had our contemporary national territories. Turkish history, which is full of struggles, is carried on proudly in sovereignty, independence and freedom. Our aim should be the realization of these three principles. If our adversaries pursue a struggle against us in our land, the best strategy that we can pursue is to protect the Turkish ideal by expelling them from our territories. Let’s not forget: “Ideals are offensive. Those who remain defensive are ready to give up some of it.”

Soviet Union as global force and PKK:

   The Syrian strategy of systematically supporting the PKK is undoubtedly in accordance with Syria’s historical national designs. Within the illusion of a Greater Syria, the acquisition of Hatay has always been a dream. To attain this goal, first Turkey was to be weakened, and to weaken Turkey they would trigger internal disruptions. Therefore, the harsh reality that the PKK terrorists received training in the camps in Syria and Lebanon and were transported from there to the Turkish border in the very vehicles of the Syrian Army and Al Muhabarat should be understood as an extension of this historical strategy of Syria. When Syria, whose military inventory always looks very impressive on paper, was pursuing such a strategy against Turkey, did it rely on its thousands of tanks, artillery and hundreds of warplanes or on the Arab world, which undeniably failed to support the Syrians during their wars against Israel? For the pre-1990 era the answer to this question should be “no.” Firstly, it was obvious that the Syrian Army would be no match against the much stronger and very well-disciplined Turkish Army, which was well equipped — according to NATO standards — to challenge the Soviet Army. Secondly, considering past events, Syria could not rely on the other Arab states, either. In this case, Syria could have relied only on powers other than the United States and NATO, which were evidently the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries. Syria expected that Turkish interference with Syria would have resulted in the harsh retaliation of the Soviet Union. In other words, the global and military force behind Syria, which was one of the two prominent patrons of the PKK (the other was evidently our neighbor Greece), was the Soviet Union.

  The profit to be gained by the Soviet Union from the intensification of PKK terror and even the disintegration of Turkey was not to be underestimated. After all, a NATO member would have disintegrated and thus the Soviet Union would have easily been able to access the Mediterranean, the Middle East and, more importantly, the oil resources in the region. In fact, it should be remembered here that Bulgaria too played a certain role in the enhancement of the PKK’s terrorist power. Given that such involvement of Bulgaria in the issue was encouraged by the Soviet Union, the Soviet support provided to the PKK in the pre-1990 era became more visible. It is clear today that the Russian Federation, being the successor of the Soviet Union, has inherited Soviet methods of foreign policy and thus is continuing to handle the PKK similar to how the Soviets handled the group. This time, however, parallels have been drawn between PKK terrorism and the Chechen movement.

   Focusing on the post-1990 era and elaborating on how Syria remained in support of the PKK until 1998, even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, we arrive at a critical point. Syria did not take into account the fact that it was not in a position to compete, militarily, economically or politically, with Turkey, especially having lost the empowering support of the Soviet Union with the collapse of this giant empire. Furthermore, Syrian military assets, which looked impressive on paper, had become outmoded and thrown on the scrap heap over the course of time.

   On the matter of the PKK, one can not help but wonder about the answers to the following questions: If Syria was to be pacified easily, why then did Turkey very sadly lose thousands of sons and experience so much distress for years? Was it because of the insensitive and almost anti-national policies of the maladroit governments that ruled Turkey at the time? Were Turkey’s passiveness and indecisiveness a result of its miscalculation of the military and political powers backing PKK terrorism? Why did Turkey wait eight years until 1998? Why did not we force Greece, Armenia, the Greek Cypriot administration and Iran, alongside Syria, to answer for their support to the PKK? Was Turkey afraid that these states would form a Holy Alliance and conspire against Turkey? Or was there a concealed truth behind the global actors’ support of these states?

   What caused our setback then? Was it the U.S. deployment of the “Combined Task Force — Poised Hammer” north of the 36th parallel in Iraq that began preparations for a Kurdish establishment in the region? Was it because, in a state of euphoria, we were completely mesmerized by our entry to the customs union? In reality, the situation was no different than the Ottoman signature on the Treaty of Baltalimanı in 1838, which is today accepted as the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. All these points must be examined historically. The first point to be elaborated upon is that the close relationship between the PKK and the Soviet Union was in the pre-1990, era when Soviet Russia was one of the two global powers. Unfortunately, contemporary Russia continued the same attitude towards the PKK for some time. Some significant proof of this is as follows:

  Allegedly, there was a PKK-controlled training camp that was active for many years and which made possible the ideological education of the PKK’s mountaineering staff in Yaroslavl, lying 250 kilometers north of Moscow.

  Materiel captured during Turkish military operations indicated that some of the weapons, including surface-to-air missiles (SAM), were Russian made.

  The Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, once attempted to recognize the PKK, which is something we still remember.

  Öcalan, the leader of the PKK, went to Russia twice after leaving Syria, and his efforts to take refuge in Russia are also still in our minds.

  In 1984 the PKK first entered into open revolt against Turkish authorities, resulting in nearly a decade of bloodshed. It is estimated that some 37,000 were killed before PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was arrested in 1999 and the remaining Kurdish fighters withdrew from eastern Turkey into northern Iraq.

  A combination of security measures applied in conjunction with social reforms has kept the lid on the Kurdish separatists since that juncture. However, following the U.S.-led intervention into Iraq in 2003, the Kurdish warlords in the autonomous northern Iraqi provinces have steadily entrenched their political power, defiantly kept their private peshmerga militias and systematically moved towards declaring an independent Kurdistan.

  The Iraqi Kurdish warlords have also unrepentantly protected the presence of the PKK camps within their provinces. For the United States, this situation has proven particularly embarrassing. The initial justification for toppling Saddam was ostensibly to secure weapons of mass destruction (that never existed), but the war is still being sold by the Bush administration as an “ongoing military campaign in the war against terror.”

  The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States — responsible for numerous bomb attacks against civilian targets — yet after three years of military occupation, U.S. forces have not taken action against the PKK camps in northern Iraq. This is despite the fact that Turkey is a key NATO ally and — as a secular Muslim democracy — a key cornerstone to the State Department’s Middle East policy.

  In fact, last year, when an emboldened PKK first stepped up their cross-border terrorist attacks, the United States officially warned Turkey to refrain from any retaliatory attacks inside Iraqi territory. Reluctantly complying with the American restrictions, Turkish security forces beefed up their presence along the Iraq border.

  Last month the Turks successfully engaged a PKK force attempting to infiltrate Turkish territory, and 14 Kurdish terrorists were killed following a vicious gun battle. When local residents conducted a funeral procession for four of the slain Kurds in the city of Diyarbakir, things turned ugly. Young demonstrators engaged riot police in a series of violent clashes that left 15 dead and hundreds injured. The youthful Kurds were calling for independence and invoking the name of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

  Just prior to Condoleezza Rice’s visit this tense situation was further fueled by yet another gun battle between Turkish police and PKK terrorists. This latest skirmish left seven more Kurds dead near the border town of Silopi.

  In response to the escalation of violence, the Turks mobilized their 7th Army Corps and moved additional troops into eastern Turkey. In total, an estimated 250,000 Turkish military, police and gendarmerie are presently operational in the border region.

  In anticipation of Rice’s visit, many Turks expected their military would be given the green light to enter Iraq to destroy the PKK camps. Instead, the secretary of state offered “increased cooperation” with Turkish intelligence and vowed that the United States would set up a “trilateral mechanism” between the United States, Turkey and Iraq to help contain the PKK.

  The rationale used by State Department officials to deny Turkey the option of military action is that it would further destabilize Iraq. The Americans presently have just a handful of troops in the northern Iraq provinces and this region, as a result of being under the control of Kurdish warlords, is considered the most secure area in the entire country.

  The Pentagon knows that if they attempt to clamp down on the PKK terrorist camps, they will run afoul of the Iraqi Kurdish warlords. To even attempt to disarm the peshmerga militias and replace them with U.S. troops would require the deployment of another 30-40,000 soldiers. With an already overstretched U.S. military barely able to maintain the current manning levels, taking on the PKK is not an option.

  So to recap quickly for those of you who lost track of the bouncing ball, the United States invades Iraq in self-defense but forbids Turkey from making a military incursion against known terrorists because “it might destabilize the region.”

  Whatever happened to George Bush’s simple axiom, “You’re either with us or you’re against us”?