Kurdistan Bloggers Union

Info-Turks, via Kurdmedia.com gives a list of antidemocratic articles of the New Penal Code, in spite of Commissioner UE's praisings. But I doubt that public could realize, without a deep knowledge of Turkish context, why, though US calls it "democracy" and though its possible entering in UE, Turkey is still that I call a "democratorship", I mean half democracy half dictatorship. So I am going to analyze a bunch of "democratic articles".

"Article 215 - Praising a committed crime or a person who committed this crime: up to 2 years (if committed by the means of media, to be increased one-half).

So it means that if someone does not condemn firmly and openly Kurdish guerilla, (if you say, for example, that Kurdish rebellion had serious reasons to start) you could be condemned for praising crimes.

Article 216 (new form of Article 312) - Instigating a part of the people having different social class, race, religion, sect or region to hatred or hostility against another part of the people in a way dangerous for the public security: up to 3 years (if committed by the means of media, to be increased one-half).

Practically, It means : if you pretend to promote another culture than Turkish, (Kurdish, or Assyrian, or Alevi's) you could be charged to instigate hostility between communities. For example if you say that Kurds are not Turkish moutainers, but a real nation, with cultural and national rights... Or if you say, like Assyrians, that they are not only a religion, but a national group.

Article 220/8 (new form of Article 169) - Propaganda of an organization founded for committing crime: up to 3 years (if committed by the means of media, to be increased one-half).

It could concern all Kurdish cultural centers, all private courses for learning Kurdish, all parties, all ssociations (there are a lot for caring of refugees and political prisonners). Just an accusation to have organic links with the PKK and it is enough for throwing everybody in jail.

Article 285 - Spreading confidential information on a legal investigation: up to up to 3 years (if committed by the means of media, to be increased one-half).

A very interesting article : since many years, Turkey is regularly condemned for extra-judiciary executions, unknown-author murderings, etc. Imagine a Turkish citizen, whose son, or father, or daughter, etc., has disappeared (mysterious disappearances is a real problem in Turkey). If that people tries to seek for the truth and interferes in the investigations absence of police investigation, if a journalist makes a report about that question (many disappeared people vanished in police headquarter, or after having been interrogated), then they could be condemned to have spread information on a legal investigation uninvestigation.

Article 301 (new form of Article 145) - Insult to the Turkish flag or to anything having the Turkish State’s symbol (crescent and star): up to 3 years (if committed by a Turkish citizen abroad: to be increased one-third); Insult to the Turkish national anthem: up to 2 years (if committed by a Turkish citizen abroad: to be increased one-third).

It has always existed, not interesting.

Article 302 (new form of Article 159) - Insulting the Turkish national identity, the Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey: up to 3 years (if committed by a Turkish citizen abroad: to be increased one-third); Insulting the Turkish Government, the judicial organs, military or security institutions: up to 2 years (if committed by a Turkish citizen abroad: to be increased one-third).

That is the question, as said Hamlet... "insulting the Turkish indentity" : if you say that you are Kurd you insult the Tukish identity, if you talk about "Kurds in Turkey" you do it to... Or if you suggest that may be, Turkish judicial organs could apply iniquitous laws, or evoke some Barbareous acts committed by Turkish army....

Article 306 - Acting against fundamental national interests for directly or indirectly receiving benefits from foreign persons or institutions: up to 10 years. (According to the statement of reasons for this article, written by the Parliamentary Commitee of Justice, a citizen who demands the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers from Cyprus or declares that the Armenian genocide actually took place during the First World War, can be pursued by virtue of this article).

Or if a Turkish citizen criticizes a possible invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan by Turkey... or saying that Turks have nothing to do in Kirkuk.

Article 319 - Instigating the people against military service: up to 2 years (if committed by the means of media, to be increased one-half).

I you refuse to participate to the next "dirty war" in "South-Eastern Anatolia" mmmh ?

Article 324 - Spreading unfounded news or information during a war: up to 10 years (if committed as a propaganda campaign against the military and in accordance with a foreigner, up to 20 years).

For example, revealing that Turkish army burnt and destroyed near to 4000 villages, or has done crimes against humanity, and crimes of war.

330 - Unveiling the information that should remain confidential for the sake of the State’s security or its internal and external political interests: up to 10 years (if committed during the war or the preparation of the war: up to 15 years).

For example unveiling connexions between military power, mafia and PKK in South-Eastern Turkey...

Article 331 - Unveiling, with the purpose of political or military spying, the information that should remain confidential for the sake of the State’s security or its internal and external political interests: Life prison.

Idem. Or unveiling a gathering of troops at the Iraqi border.

Article 337 - Unveiling the information that is forbidden by the competent authorities and should remain confidential because of its nature: up to 5 years (if committed during the war or the preparation of the war: up to 15 years).

Idem. Or unveiling that members of Turkish secret services prepared some terrorist acts in Iraqi Kurdistan....

Article 338 - Unveiling, with the purpose of political or military spying, the information that is forbidden by the competent authorities and should remain confidential because of its nature: up to 15 years (if committed during the war or the preparation of the war: life prison). (Info-Turk, September 27, 2004)

Idem.

So, as you can see, though Us call Turkey a democracy, and though it could be soonly a UE candidate, there's still hard work to democratize our good friends' institutions...

Being very busy with guests and feeling that the ladies (Piling, Dilnareen and Delal) could write better columns than mines makes me hesitate but as Rosemary from iraqthefuture was very kind to send a link to the PM's speech, I will say my honest opinions as she insisted!

Well I dont know about you guys but recently I have started to apply this pattern when I listen to any speech: "bear in mind what I know about the topic, how well I know about it, waht I expect and what I look for specifically and some more!"
So as a person who at least have lived more pain than PM who kept telling ppl that he was exiled and have suffered alot, by a quick search I got this:
"In 1971 he moved to London in order to continue his medical education. Some have reported this as an exile, but some of Allawi's old counterparts have claimed that he continued to serve the Baath Party, and the Iraqi secret police, searching out enemies of the regime. However, he fell out of favor from the Baath party for undisclosed reasons in 1975 (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact)." link
I leave that for u!
I was looking for these words from the PM (I will never call him my PM unless he calls me an Iraqi Kurd, and not mention me only when he wants to show how tyrant saddam was, and not call Kurds; my Kurdish brothers! coz in UK if u get decieved by word BROTHER u might not recover!)so these words: federalism, unified, equality, minority rights, the Kurdistan Regional Goverment, a goverment to serve the nation! no more war, keep away from terrorism and other war related words, change everything!
But I heard alot of: we stand by you, you stood by us! you fought for freedom of Iraq! never the above words!
I would also make the first part of my speach as: we are succeeding in Iraq BUT just when I really mean it!
If I were him(I know i would never be!), I would have made my first part of my speech: "Thanks America!" coz that is why he is standing there, otherwise he would not be standing there! After the election, I believe he will be thanking someoen else!!he said he is realistic, if he is so how can he say "on behalf of Iraqi ppl" while the Iraqi ppl; i mean the Sadr guys and the mojority of Shia in south listen to Sistani! not Mr.PM!
I must say I am not a politician nor a very good Kurdish mind representer but I am saying all this from MY point of view of course!
I DO NOT LIKE PRAISING, whatever is excellent is excellent already, lets talk about what is not OK, what is going badly, what we have to do! yes we need to thank and be grateful but that must not start and end his speech! everything is not as excellent as his life and his suit and his smile as though NOTHING is wrong in wrongly mapped Iraq!
I opened my eyes to this world by the chemical bomb by a prime minister whom Mr Allawi supported for a while, and I will never trust another Iraqi pm unless he can prove himself to be the Prime Minister of the people of Iraq not an arab leader democratised slightly by american marines!
finally, dont u think he was quoting too much, just like me?

updated 2 times, if still mis-spellings please pardon me!

Since the beginning of the war, Turkey repeats constantly that it wouldn't accept any kind of independant or autonominous Kurdish political entity, that it won't accept any kind of discrimination for Turkmen in Iraqi Kurdistan, etc. Or, it threatens to... what ? That is the question, precisely : what could do Turkey to prevent a Kurdish state (if it happens) ?

Everybody, of course, thinks of a military invasion : Turkish army entering by force in Northern-Iraq, occupying the Kurdish region, and... and what ? Will it stay in Northern-Iraq, as another occupied power, and cooperate friendly with the American army in the same effort to build a democratical and unified state ? hum... could you imagine Turkey building a democracy out of its own borders ? So it would be a hard occupation, like in Cyprus, with a minority of Turkmen ruling a large Kurdish area ? I am sure that most Turkmen would not be so stupid to accept a such deal... So it could only destroyed the Kurdish forces, and give back Kurdistan to the central government in Bagdad. But in that case, if Turks abandon all control on Kurdistan, they probably have to invade it each year, as in 90s against the PKK....

More seriously, I wonder if Turks shout and threaten that they'll never accept a Kurdish state even in Southern-America, just because they know that they could not prevent it without great dammages for Turkey itself. I wonder if the more they complain the more it means that they could not do anything. Because they know that a military intervention in Iraq would be a black scenario for Turkey, more than for Kurds.

In a such violent action, Turkey has much to lose and a few to gain.

Firstly, if Turkey enters in Iraq and starts a new war, it will lose probably all its chances to become a EU member. And Turks want badly to become European, especially economical and trade circles, that are already furious because of its comedy of Law adultery... Secondly, Turkey is in an very very bad economical situation, like a puppet in the hands of the International Monetary Fund, and breaking all hopes to enter in EU could make a little Black Thirsday in this country... So the government that could decide to make war in Iraq should face a strong opposition from its own buisenessmen and political opposition...

But each Turk has been educated as a potential war-winner, as the greatest race in the world, as a Gengis Xan's son, etc... so they could decide to make war, all the same.

The problem is that the myth of an invincible Turkish army, derives from the War of Independance, when Ataturk was victorious agaisnt foreign invaders. Since that time, the Turkish strategy is based mainly on an attitude of defence, against external and unseeing ennemies acting inside the country... I mean that they use to fight in their own state, more like jandarma than like real soldiers sent to a foreign country where nobody talks Turkish, and without any safe communications, roads, infrastructures, etc... Even when Turkish batalions invaded Nothern-Iraq to eliminate the PKK, they did not go very far out of their border... And even in Turkey, army has been never able to oppress definitively the Kurdish rebellion... Though it had done everything for that : burning villages, displacing or murdering civilian people, starving the country, etc... All the same, guerilla is still a problem in South-East, and this time US or NU could not tolerate a second Kurdish genocide in Iraq, just because if you make a genocide against your own citizens inside your own country (as Saddam or Turkey had done in 80s and 90s), it is only an internal political problem. If you do it out of your political borders, you could be bombed like in Serbia. This is a question of savoir-vivre...

So the Turkish army could not burn so easily 4000 Kurdish villages and displacing millions of Kurds... But it could have to face a strong resistance from Kurds (and other Iraqis I guess). And a strong hostility from neighbours countries. And bringing war to Iraqi Kurdistan, will oblige it to face hard reprisals in its own country, like a boomerang effect : borders are not open only in one direction... And a such intervention could make enter Kurdish guerilla as terrorist groups inside Turkey... Öcalan's tactic was ever to struggle in the South-East only, never in Turkish regions (probably because he was afraid to be expelled from Syria). So that only Kurds suffered because of guerilla, Turks did not realize what is war in their own city, their own region. In that case, they would do.

Then a Turkish victory is not certain, not at all. And if Turkey is defeated, it would make a general collapse in this state. Since its fundation, its nationalism has been built on the legend of a victorious and proud army, and the prestige of Turkish soldiers is still very great in the country. Thus, army has always had a great impact on policy and politicians (not for the best, btw...). A shameful defeat could put an end to this balance of forces.

So in this black scenario, after an unsuccessful invasion, Turkey could have lost a EU membership, and gain a bad, long and bloody occupation in a foreign country or a piteous retreat...

So, for all these reasons, and because I know that Turkish military staff is often barbarous but not stupid (they are even clever Barbarians), I am not sure, not at all, that Turkey has the real intention to invade Iraqi Kurdistan, whatever happens.

Last week I watched Abbas Karostami's movie, Wind will carry us. It remembered me how much I am fond of Kurdish villages. Some of villages are exceptionnally beautiful but in general, Kurdish villagers (gundî) say : "my village is the most beautiful in the world". And I answer authomatically : "Did you see ALL the world ?" ; "No, but my heart knows it" is the frequent conclusion... Well some villages are situated in mindblowing landscapes, some others are modest in appearance but life in villages is the same, in any part of Kurdistan : still, time passing like a river, not so quickly, no in a borrying way, but with the good tempo, especially in summer... Slow mornings, lunch, sleepy afternoons, lively nights... Of course, peasants are working hard, but if you are a foreign mîvan (guest) you are spoiled like a goddess... good deal... the other side of the coin is that you are a mîvan, so it means that 150-200 persons want to see you and it is quite impossible to refuse, or there will be a war between them and your hosts for twenty generations... Then "sleepy afternoons" become often "visit afternoons." : you lay down on the flat bed, in the saloon, ready to close your eyes, and suddenly everybody jumps on their feet, announcing : "mîwaan (visitors)" , and arranges the room in order, and you get up, welcome people, everybody sits down around you, you make a turn for greeting (if there are 10 persons you ask to each of them "çawa yî ? - rinde, tu çawa yî - spas dikim, bash im" and so on... so on)...

Then after everybody has greeting everybody, presentations begin. Your host designs a woman, absolutely similar to the others (same dress and scarf) : "Here is Fatma (or Nazlé, or what you want). She is the aunt-of-the-cousin-of-the-nephew-of-the-father-of-Mustafa-that-you-have-seen-yesterday". Silence. I guess that I should say something : "Aoh...Merhaba, çawa yî ?". Your host, (very willingly to help you) insists : "You remember Mustafa-the-son-of-the-uncle-of-the-cousin-Rêbwar ?" Of course you remember. After all, this Mustafa is just the 15th Mustafa you have met in the week. I give an advice :Never confess that you don't remember a guy. Never. Because this guy remembers you (of course you are the ONE stranger to visit him for the last 20 years and he is the 500° visitor you see, but it is not a valuable objection). So after all these preliminaries, you are ready to answer to their questions. Not difficult, always the same questions : You speak Kurdish, where did you learn, how is Paris ? what is the most beautiful place, their village or Paris ? and the funniest : Do you miss your mother ? What do you miss the more, your beloved or your mother ? (they laugh a lot when you answer NO to the first and "your beloved" to the second). Well, after you have made them laughing, they begin to talk each other about their own buiseness, marriages, diseases, children, etc., above your head without caring of you anymore (but you have to stay there and listen patiently, because, as your host recalls you, they are coming to see YOU). Ok. So after one hour, and two or three glasses of tea, people get up, hosts protest, with a mask of indignation : "Where are you going ?", or "Do you leave so soon" ?, visitors explain that they are busy (in general they have another visits to do), so you get up too, "merhaba, xitrê te, etc." , your legs are quite numb and you would like to walk a bit, but five seconds after the leaving of people, you hear another cry : "Mîwaan !" and the second batch of visitors is coming... (now you can read all that passage again, because it is the same scenario and the same dialogues for each visit)... and it goes on until evening, where you have a few time for eating, just before the first visitors of evening :))....

Sometimes, in a crisis of revolt, you could exige to make a walk because you NEED to move your legs. And as people around you are ready to kill themselves for your comfort, they accept of course. You go out of the house, you walk five minutes, then neighbours call you, you have to enter in their house, to sit down, and to drink tea... In average, you could steal 10 minutes of walking for 1 hour of sitting-and-drinking...

One of the finest time I have had in a village was in Rêzan in 1994 (under the village of Barzan, where I would like to stay firstly, because they have a guesthouse, but I was kidnapped by Peshmergas' chief, who blocked the road because I should stay in HIS house, with HIS family... ). So I stayed in Rêzan, a nice place near to the river. It was the civil war, but the village was quiet and peaceful, built around a road leading to Iran. Pesghmergas watched the road all the day, and may be the night, though I have never seen a car nor a truck passing on this road, just a tractor, going at morning to fields, and coming back at evening. But they watched the road as a strategic place. Probably their life was quite dull, so they were very happy to have a French tourist with them. I was invited to eat lunch in their small blockhouse. Rûber (the chief) said with solennity : "Sandrine ! Men have cooked for you !" And they brought a huge marmit of rice and meat. "Very nice men, thank you" I answered, thinking that if I had to eat all that meal, they should carry me in a wheelbarrow, after... So 10 peshmergas sat down around me, and we began to eat, legs crossing and their kalashnikov (or another specy) targetting the roof and me sometimes.. "Would you be so kind to not kill me by mistake ?" (I adore to tease them). So they jumped and tried to explain me all together that no, I should not worry, guns were not put on, well, they showed me how to do... Moreover, they were really good shot, and they practiced by fishing. Yeah, fishing with a gun seemed to be a national sport. They shot trouts from a high bridge. I tried to fish in a more classical way, with a rod, but I've never caught one. Vexing. Should have better to learn shooting.

But in villages I learn beautiful Kurdish. I mean there are the places where language is very pure, (zimanê paq û zelal, as we say), more than in cities, and I am proud to speak like a gundî :)). In 2001, I was in Diyarbakir, in the shanty towns around the Great Walls. There are refugees from everywhere, Mardin, Mus, Bingöl... Young people spoke often a awfulf Kurdish, full of Turkish words, I hardly understood them. But when I talked, there was like a light on their faces, a sunrise of surprised happiness. They said, slowly, like watching the awakening of their memories : "You're speaking like my grand-father.... " "You're using the words I heard when I was 8, in my village..." as if I were a magician sweeping the dust of the past, bringing the picture of things that had diseappeared, and will never come back : the burning villages 's voice, the memories of these exiled peasants... their songs, their tales, their trees, the mountains and their shepherds...

So Kurdish villages are one of the places I love the more, with bazars and otogar stations, where you're waiting your bus and when people, all around you, comment your travel, your nationality, and explain what you are doing there, without knowing that you understand them... but this is another tale :))...

Ayad Allawi was in Hawleer(so called Arbil) capital of KRG in a semi-secret visit to ask the Kurds to take the security of the sunni triangle (i had suggested this in a comment), and it was refused by Kurdish leaders (most probably Barzani side).

Allawi suggested that Kurdish police and peshmarga to handle the terrorists and other security activities in a broader role!

All these were refused by the Kurdish leaders, as peyamner.com's unnamed source says.

In his visit Allawi has told the Kurdish leaders about his visit abroad and informed them about the details of his visits.

A saudi newspaper has said that Allawi and Ibrahim Al-jafari are in dispute over the allegation that Allawi in Aljafari's opinion is about to give more roles to the Kurds in the Iraqi Gov than the Shia parties, and the PM wants to give back power to some ex-bathists in order to calm down the riots in Falluja like places! I want to add something, the other night there was a program on KurdSat tv and I heard sentences like: "It is early to decide whether Allawi's goverment has literally failed to achieve any of its objectives and so we can say he has totally failed!" I think it would have been stronger if they had the program after today's explosions!

Hello ladies & gentlemen, here is my first post in KBU, I thank Dilnareen, Hiwa and Kurdo for my nomination, I thank my scenarist, my manager, my mom and dad... (hush, not this one).

Well this first post will be just a way to get in touch with my new readers (and to accustom them to my rotten frenchie's english language), and to give a general view of French point of view (not mine, please) about the last events in Iraq. I won't talk a lot about France or Europe, but in the blogopshere much people seem to be American citizens and it was just for showing that people in Europe are so ignorant of Middle-East issue as in America, no need to be jealous...

Concerning France, precisely, the public opinion get worried about our French hostages. Or at least, French media are disturbed because two confrères have been taken like hostages, and they present it as a national drama and say that people are worried a lot. Journalists mix often their own preoccupations with the street's one. I could hear this week on radio : "USA might realize that they let the power to an Iraqi government which was not still ready for it". Well I roared with laugher... because I remembered, last May, last June, all that pressure, that insistance, a real campaign in fact, making by our politicians and our media (and Kofi Annam too if I don't mistake). The leitmotiv at this time was : US should leave Iraq, they should let the power to Iraqis, only to Iraqis, and let them ruling by themselves... But now that 2 (only 2) French journalists are in trouble, our public opinion makers are ready to accuse US for their laxism, hum... Well, perhaps after 20 French hostages, they will claim for another American occupation in Iraq...

Some huge demonstrations have been organized in Paris, calling to their liberation (I wonder how they believe that Islamist killers would be impressed by that : "Oh... thousands of French people made a walk in Paris and tell that we are bad guys, sorry... we release our hostages immediately"). Some Muslim associations or institutions should state that they condem such actions, (so that's a relief ! our own Muslims won't rapt us between Republique and Bastille), but as the President of a French Muslim representation kissed a Hezbollahi imam in Lebanon, there is a polemic now, and French muslims call each other every name under the sun... Muslim or not, they are French, you know, and we adore internal polemics and slanging match...

And Kurdistan in that play ? Well, indeed, a very few people in France know where is Kurdistan on a map. And nobody talk about Kurds in media. Quite surprising, because at least, the Kurdish area is safer for Western journalists than Iraq. But Kurds seem to have disappear in our media... for many reasons I think. Firstly, in Kurdistan, if we compare to the South, life is not bad, and if we except Kirkuk, it is desperately quiet and still... and the official position of journalists is that Iraq is a chaos, since the falling of Saddam. An absolute chaos. Hardly better than under Saddam. Then Kurdistan is not so chaotic enough to be shown. The another problem is our guilty conscience because of the Kurdish genocide. Not because our governemnts had strongly and constantly supported Baathists until the end (in our democracies, simple citizens have in reality nothing to decide concerning Foreign policy), but because the anti-war attitude was in a large majority, and Bush is often presented as so bad as Saddam, etc., but mass graves of Kurds or Shiits are quite embarrassing... so Kurds hardly exist in Iraq.

In France, Kurds exist only in Turkey, as a way to refuse Turkish membership in UE.