Proposed Military Strike on Syria

[John Dolva]

KCK's Cemil Bayık: AKP is ISIS, and ISIS is AKP

Holding the AKP responsible for the massacre in Suruç, KCK Executive Council Co-President Cemil Bayık said the information, data and documents revealed so far have proved that AKP is ISIS, and ISIS is AKP.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 10:30 AM

BEHDINAN - ANF - SEYİT EVRAN

KCK Executive Council Co-President Cemil Bayık made significant assessments to ANF regarding the massacre perpetrated agains members of the SGDF (Federation of Socialist Youths Association) which left 32 people dead and over a hundred wounded.

Holding the AKP responsible for the massacre, Bayık said the information, data and documents revealed so far have proved that AKP is ISIS, and ISIS is AKP.

'SURUÇ MASSACRE JOINTLY PERPETRATED BY AKP AND ISIS'

Pointing out that the attacks in Kobanê, as well as those in Adana, Mersin, Bingöl and Amed in the pre-election process, and the most recent one in Suruç, were all carried out in cooperation between the AKP and ISIS, Bayık recalled that savage attacks were conducted against the Kurdish people in both Suruç and Kobanê on the anniversary of the Rojava Revolution. Bayık condemned the perpetrators of these massacres, offered condolences to the families of the martyrs, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded.

Remarking that these massacres were all perpetrated under the responsibility of AKP, Bayık recalled their continuously voiced previous warnings against the AKP policies backing ISIS, adding that the AKP didn't pay attention to these warnings because it maintained its enmity towards the Kurdish people.

"AKP pursues enmity towards Kurds both inside and outside its borders, owing to which it backed the ISIS and brought the flock of savage murderers to this point today. AKP's relation with ISIS is based on Kurdish enmity. In order to choke the revolution in Rojava, AKP first used Al Nusra and put ISIS into play when Al Nusra proved itself not to be strong enough. AKP and ISIS are conducting a joint attack. By backing the ISIS, AKP is waging a joint war against Kurdish Freedom Movement both in Rojava and North Kurdistan. It is the AKP that stands behind the murder of hundreds of peoples in bombings in Adana, Mersin, Amed and Suruç", Bayık said.

KCK Executive Council Co-President emphasised that the AKP aimed to overcome the deadlock it was currently facing by enhancing instability and war against the Kurdish people. Bayık, according to whom AKP wants to lead the country to early elections by creating a perception of instability without an AKP ruling alone. "Because there is no other way left for AKP to seize the power alone, It wants to use its last chance and assure itself by means of these practices, paving the way for such deadly attacks in order to ensure instability."

Bayık remarked that AKP which pursued a policy completely against Kurds and democracy wanted to win the elections by rendering the HDP, democratic and leftist powers ineffective. Stressing that the AKP pursued a war policy and enhanced the multidimensional war against Kurds, Bayık said the AKP and Erdoğan himself was the major cause of the actions and massacres committed by ISIS in Bakur (North) Kurdistan.

Bayık also underlined that the Kurdish people, democratic socialist powers, democrat Muslims, Alevis, Circassians, Arabs, Syriacs and Êzîdîs must be well aware of this truth, adding; "All these circles should therefore stand against the AKP-ISIS collaboration and massacres, and bring them to account.

'PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE DEFENSIVE MEASURES'

KCK Executive Council Co-President Cemil Bayık put emphasis on the necessity for the peoples, belief groups and democratic-socialist powers in Turkey and North Kurdistan to go into action against ISIS and AKP to hinder further massacres and deaths. Bayık said it was unavoidable for peoples to establish their own self-defense systems in order to stand against these pro-massacre powers and bring them to account. "They should no more ask this government and this state to protect themselves. The AKP government and state, a party to these attacks and their perpetrators, cannot be expected to protect them. On the contrary, they should protect themselves from this government and state which indeed stand behind these massacres. How could such a massacre ever be committed in Suruç where the government so to say has kept a sharp lookout? It is of course the AKP government and the state under its rule that has had this massacre committed there."

According to Bayık, this reality has proved once again that Kurds and other peoples cannot avoid such massacres unless they themselves establish self-governance and self-defense, and revealed the meaning and essentiality of democratic self-administration, democratic autonomy and self-defense on which Kurdish leader Öcalan and Kurdish people have put emphasis for years.

"Either the Kurdish question will be resolved, Turkey will be democratized and our people will attain self-administration and self-defense on this basis; or our people will establish this system themselves. Our people can no more leave their national existence and life to the mercy of the colonialist Turkish state and its governments. Could a state, which subjects the Kurdish people to repression and cruelty and wants to massacre them, be expected to defend them? This is why it is essential that our people establish their self-administration organs everywhere, which is the only way for them to protect themselves from such attacks", Bayık underlined.

'THE AIM OF THE MASSACRE IS TO ESTABLISH A BUFFER ZONE'

Bayık underlined that another purpose of the Suruç massacre was to suppress the democratic and socialist powers trying to guarantee their future by embracing the Rojava Revolution, and to establish a buffer zone.

Recalling that Turkey has long imposed the issue of a buffer zone on regional and international powers despite all the objections, Bayık said last month's Kobanê attack and the following Suruç attack were also perpetrated to give the international powers the message that such massacres will repeatedly take place unless a buffer zone is established in Jarablus area. He said Turkey organized all kinds of massacres to make this objective of its real.

"Kobanê has revealed the reality of both ISIS and AKP, and of some Kurdish collaborative powers, as well as ruining all their plans, in which the people of Suruç also played a major role by manifesting great self-sacrifice and courage and waging great resistance together with the people of Kobanê. Kobanê and Pirsûs (Suruç) have continuously been targeted for destroying the plans of ISIS, AKP and collaborative Kurds, enhancing the revolution and growing the hope of the peoples."

'THEY MURDERED THE CONSCIENCE OF THE SOCIETY'

Bayık noted that the aim of the massacres in Kobanê and Pirsûs was to hinder the uniting of Kobanê and Efrin cantons, and to help ISIS breathe and gather strength after the heavy blows and defeats it has suffered in Rojava (West) Kurdistan.

"Besides hindering these youths from going to Kobanê, they wanted to make the sensitive circles step back by means of a suicide attack. Massacre of these youths means massacre of Turkey's peoples and their future. These youths represented the conscience and future of this society. By going to Kobanê, they wanted to realize the idea of peoples' fraternity and joint struggle that was revealed at June 7 election, and to strengthen the basis for a new Turkey. By committing this massacre, the ISIS and AKP, both of which have lost in the June 7 elections, attacked the fraternal living of Turkey's peoples and cultures. They wanted to kill and bury in darkness the desire born by the Rojava Revolution and Turkey's peoples for democracy and freedom", Bayık said, underlining that the peoples and democratic circles, belief groups, youths and women should see the AKP and ISIS savagery and protect their existence, freedom and future in response.

Putting emphasis on the need for struggle and enhancement of solidarity among the mentioned groups, Bayık once again commemorated the martyrs with respect and vowed to enhance the struggle for which their bodies were torn into pieces, and to carry it to victory.

Pointing to the AKP government's efforts to put pressure on HDP and wage a psychological war against the party, Bayık said the aim here was to differentiate HDP from PKK and to make the HDP confront the PKK, as has been done since the founding of the pro-Kurdish HEP party.

KCK Executive Council Co-President underlined that Turkey's efforts to equate PYD to PKK aimed to clear and justify the ISIS, and to start a fresh attack on the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Bayık said everyone should force the AKP to adopt an attitude and give a fight against ISIS, as the present lack of action and reaction would otherwise serve nothing other than covering up the ISIS-AKP relations. Bayık said AKP couldn't adopt an attitude against ISIS because of the fact that ISIS would air all its dirty linen in public.

'OUR PEOPLE SHOULD EMBRACE THE MARTYRS'

Bayık stressed that the peoples of Turkey should grow their unity and fraternity stronger in response to these attacks, and give the necessary answer to the AKP government and its savage partners by ensuring mass participation in each funeral for the martyrs.

"The martyrs should be conduce toward the fraternity and unity of our peoples. It is not possible to be worthy of their memories otherwise. Turkey's left-wing and democratic powers should ensure a stronger unity with the Kurdish Freedom Movement and create a free and democratic future for Turkey by enhancing the unity and joint struggle revealed at June 7 elections", Bayık emphasised.

KCK Executive Council Co-President ended by calling on the peoples of Turkey to step up the freedom and democracy struggle and to lead uprisings in Turkey and North Kurdistan in response to the Suruç attack.

[Steven Gaal]

Syria conflict: 'Unprecedented' assault on Zabadani

Syrian government forces launched an offensive to drive the rebels out of Zabadani in early July

Syria's war

The UN envoy for Syria says Syrian government air strikes have caused "unprecedented levels of destruction" and death in the town of Zabadani.

Large numbers of barrel bombs have reportedly been dropped on the area in the Qalamoun mountains north-west of Damascus, close to the Lebanese border.

Zabadani has been under attack for weeks by the Syrian army and fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.

It is the last significant town held by rebel forces in the Qalamoun region.

Its capture is seen as crucial to consolidating the government's control over the border zone between Lebanon and Syria.

Civilians 'caught in middle'

The army and Hezbollah launched an offensive to drive the rebels out of Zabadani on 3 July. Earlier this week, they advanced deeper into the town after having besieged it from all sides.

Citing local sources, Mr de Mistura said in a statement late on Tuesday that the Syrian air force had been dropping barrel bombs - large cylindrical containers filled with explosives and shrapnel - on areas in and around Zabadani.

It has caused "unprecedented levels of destruction and many deaths among the civilian population," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

An alliance of Islamist and jihadist rebel groups had retaliated by firing rockets and heavy mortar shells on the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya, near the northern city of Idlib, where a large number of civilians were trapped, Mr de Mistura added.

A citizen journalist posted video footage purportedly showing air strikes on Zabadani

"In both cases, civilians are tragically caught in the middle of the fighting."

Overnight, there were fierce clashes and air strikes in the Zabadani area, causing casualties on both sides, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday morning.

The Syrian state news agency, Sana, meanwhile reported that soldiers had destroyed a 70m (330ft) tunnel used by rebel fighters to smuggle supplies from Zabadani to nearby Madaya.

More than 230,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. Four million others have fled abroad to escape the fighting and more than seven million have been displaced internally.

Earlier this month, the head of the UN's refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, called it the "worst humanitarian crisis of our generation".

[John Dolva]

Saturday, July 25, 2015 at 2:45 PM

BEHDINAN - ANF

KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency has released a statement regarding the airstrikes conducted by the Turkish army against guerrilla zones since last night.

KCK recalled that the Turkish state had unilaterally ended the ceasefire already, which was in effect since 2013 Newroz, by continuing the aggravated isolation on Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and the construction of military outposts, dams and roads for military purposes, murdering a number of people and implementing mass arrests. The statement pointed out that with the most recent mass arrests and airstrikes that also targeted many civilian settlements, the Turkish state has carried the long-lasting aggression policies to a new level and a total warfare.

"Despite coinciding with a process of relations with the U.S. and reactions to the Suruç massacre, these attacks are actually the practice of Tayyip Erdoğan and AKP government's policies that had been decided and planned yet before the elections", KCK said.

KCK recalled that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and AKP government had planned to win the June 7 elections through propaganda on the necessity of the presidential system after creating an environment of tension in the country, adding that the peoples of Turkey, however, failed these plans and policies that would enable Erdoğan to get more authoritarian, ended the 13-year-old AKP ruling and blocked the ways for it to come to the power alone.

According to KCK, Erdoğan and his team did never accept the election results and went into action to reverse them, pursuing another plan, an early election, by once again creating tension and a perception of both internal and external threat.

Recalling Bülent Arınç's remarks that "hard days lie ahead of the terrorist organization on which we will inflict severe blows", and Erdoğan's remarks that "They shall either lay down arms or bear the consequences", KCK said that these words already revealed everything bare and was an open declaration of what was going to be done.

Commenting the Turkish airstrikes and mass arrests as a bare declaration of war, KCK said the attacks have been started because Turkey knew very well that the Kurdish Freedom Movement wouldn't remain silent to such attacks.

KCK ciriticized the policies and remarks imposing disarmament on the Kurdish freedom movement, stressing that this issue was brought to the agenda as a first thing while it should have been the last one to be discussed in the process of negotiations.

The policy pursued by Erdoğan and his team today is a repetition of the policies pursued by Tansu Çiller, Doğan Güreş and Mehmet Ağar in 90's, KCK said.

'ERDOĞAN AND HIS TEAM INVOLVED IN CONSPIRACY AGAINST PEOPLES'

Pointing out that Erdoğan and his team was involved in a conspiracy against the peoples, KCK said Erdoğan and his team couldn't bear losing the elections and thus started seeking new plans after their both domestic and foreign policy collapsed.

KCK noted that the Suruç massacre has so far been discussed only as a means of elimination of the tension with the U.S. and the West, and conciliation with the U.S.

KCK said the Suruç massacre was the practice of MİT (Turkish Intelligence Service) Undersecretary's plans on preparing the ground for entering Syria after having several artillery fires opened from inside Syria.

"Suruç massacre was perpetrated for this purpose and Turkey has been engaged in certain conciliation with the U.S. over this massacre. The Turkish state, which has been walking arm in arm with the ISIS till yesterday, and is still pursuing the same policies with it, has started making an effort to have the U.S. by its side with regards to its own regional policies as a victim of ISIS, and in its attacks against the Kurdish Freedom Movement. The incidents at Kilis border were also planned and practiced to develop relations with the U.S. and to attain legitimacy for attacks against the Kurdish Freedom movement."

KCK also remarked that Turkey has felt a need to create a perception that it has severed its ties with the ISIS and is now standing against it after the exposure of its close relations with the ISIS and the difficulties it faced both inside and outside the country.

According to KCK, by means of this perception operation, the Turkish state now wants to manifest the ISIS and PKK-PYD as same and to set the stage for an attack on Rojava Revolution.

'ERDOĞAN AND AKP PURSUE A POLICY OF SACRIFICING PEOPLES'

KCK stressed that Erdoğan and the AKP government were preparing for another election now and pursued a policy of sacrificing peoples in order to create tension and conflict to achieve this goal. The multi-directional adventurous policy it pursues today, and the war it has waged against the Kurdish Freedom Movement, are a manifestation of this truth, KCK noted.

KCK pledged that it will be Erdoğan and his team but not the peoples and democratic powers that will be weakened and defeated in this struggle.

'AKP WANTS TO PUNISH THE PEOPLES THAT CAUSED ITS DEFEAT IN ELECTIONS'

Emphasising that Erdoğan and his team wanted to punish the peoples that caused their defeat in June 7 elections, KCK recalled government officials' words that "Those backed by terror and those supporting them will pay the price" which pointed the HDP and its supporters as a target after the elections.

Pointing to the already ongoing attacks and mass arrests against HDP members and democratic powers, KCK said it would be nothing but credulity to expect the AKP to abandon this approach of its.

'FREEDOM STRUGGLE MUST BE ENHANCED'

KCK underlined that the only thing needed to be done by democratic forces today was to unite, enlarge their alliance and enhance the democracy and freedom struggle against the fascist gang mob of Erdoğan.

KCK remarked that this struggle would be carried to victory by means of democratization on the basis of Kurdish question's resolution and permanent peace rather than abstract remarks of peace without a political objective.

The objective must be the achievement of democratization and resolution of all problems in Turkey, KCK said, and underlined that the a united and joint struggle of all democratic forces in Turkey alongside the Kurdish Freedom Movement would be the key and guarantee of success over Erdoğan and his team.

KCK ended its statement by calling on peoples and democratic forces to enhance the struggle promptly.

Saturday, July 25, 2015 at 3:25 PM

NEWS DESK - ANF

Guerrillas of the TİKKO (Turkey's Workers and Peasants’ Liberation Army, the armed forces of the TKP/ML,Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist) have carried out a retaliatory attack in Dersim in response to the Pirsus (Suruç) massacre which left 31 socialist youths dead on July 20.

According to information received from local sources, TİKKO guerrillas conducted a retaliatory attack targeting the Anuska military outpost in Hozat district of Dersim on July 22 to condemn the Pirsus massacre.

A tank hit by heavy weaponry was greatly damaged in the attack, while no information was available as to the casualties of the Turkish army.

On the other hand, an activity of Turkish warplanes was observed over the area between Anuska and Sırıkan outposts at 7 am this morning.

[John Dolva]

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Turkey blocks social media and carries out massive repression. the US cooperates in the war against the Kurdish liberation movement and the people's movement pushes forward

A few words from us on the serious situation in Turkey and North Kurdistan today are in order.

Over the past two days at least 590 people have been detained by security forces in Turkey and North Kurdistan. US media is generally describing these arrests or detentions as targeting ISIS and ISIS sympathizers, but the truth is that these arrests and detentions are focused more on the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), most often descried as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front (DHKP-C). The YDG-H, PKK and the Kurdish freedom movement have been the most active forces fighting ISIS in Rojava (northern Syria) and Turkey. Attacks on the Kurdish freedom movement and on the left in Turkey and North Kurdistan only help ISIS and Turkey's ruling reactionary Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP, in turn, leads a lame duck government and has not had a parliamentary majority since the June 7 elections. So, briefly stated, Turkey's lame duck government is operating without a popular mandate in carrying out an assault on Kurdish and progressive forces under the guise of attacking ISIS and this assault actually benefits ISIS. Granted that some ISIS positions are being hit by Turkish forces, but this only shows that ISIS fighters are pawns in an imperialist game of regional chess.

There is more. It is not only the Kurdish freedom movement that is being attacked, bad as that is. Turkish police raided the guesthouse at the Ankara headquarters of the progressive educators' union Eğitim-Sen and have attacked the People's Democratic Party (HDP) as well. The police claim that they received reports that the Eğitim-Sen guesthouse was housing wounded people from Kobanê and justified the raid on that basis alone. The Turkish military has also used the current situation to restart the construction of military installations that women stopped earlier this month by using direct action protests. Work on the construction of military installations in Dargeçit, Turkey (located in the southeastern Mardin province) has resumed. These are the so-called "security cottages" which are being built along a road leading to the Ilısu Dam, a "security dam" which has caused a heightened militarization of the area and provoked protests and even armed struggle actions for some time now.

And there is more. The third wave of Turkish military airstrikes and shelling against ISIS forces in Syria has come with renewed and strengthened assaults on at least seven positions held by the PKK and the liberation movement in Kandil in northern Iraq. We want to make it clear that this attacks are hitting civilians as well as liberation forces.

The US and the Turkish government agreed on a military action plan which is making these assaults possible. US forces now have use of the Incirlik base for air strikes. The widely-reported assumption earlier this week was that the US would use the base for air strikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Only later was it reported that Turkey and the US would cooperate to create a security or safe zone and a partial no-fly zone in norther Syria, now misnamed as an “ISIS-free zone” since Rojava is already an ISIS-free zone, in order to contain opposition from Kurds, the Syrian regime, Russia, Iran and world opinion. The Turkish government has been calling for such zones for some time now in order to attack revolutionary Rojava. Even if we believe that the US will remain in the lead and that attacks against ISIS positions remain primary for the US, it is clear that Turkish long-range artillery units will be used and it is reasonable to assume that they will attack Rojava as they have been attacking the guerrilla-held Kandil region. The expected Turkish attack on Jarablus is only likely to complicate the regional situation. Kurds and the Kurdish freedom movement and anti-ISIS forces on the ground, including forces of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which cooperate with the liberation movement, have every reason to feel betrayed by the US at this point.

We have tracked many of the recent arrests, the police killing of an activist in Istanbul yesterday and attacks on the Kandil region over the past several weeks and the need to restart the peace process initiated by the Kurdish freedom movement in Turkey and North Kurdistan on this blog. The Kurdish movement and progressive forces should not lose sight of the peace process even as the chances of it reviving fade under current conditions. We agree with those we have quoted on this blog in recent days who say that now is not the time to call on the liberation movement to disarm, but it is the time to call on the Turkish state to take positive action regarding settlement of the Kurdish question and democratization. What we have not tracked to this point is the cynical plan by the US and the Turkish government to use the FSA to contain advances by Rojava's heroic People's and Women's Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ). Both governments are gambling or assuming that this can happen and that it will work to their benefit. We say that even attempting this would be a dangerous maneuver, and especially so at a time when Turkey has a minority government and may be facing snap elections.

The US is showing no obvious concern for conditions within Turkey as the situation deteriorates. Turkish authorities today banned a peace demonstration planned to take place in Istanbul tomorrow. The demonstration and the popular forces making up the peace bloc in North Kurdistan and Turkey went into high-gear motion after an ISIS bombing killed 32 people in Suruç on Monday, most of them young people affiliated with the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) youth affiliate, the Socialist Federation of Youth Associations (SGDF) and most of them headed to Kobanî to do construction and public service work. Given the likelihood that the Turkish state, or elements within the state, cooperated with ISIS to carry out the bombing, or were at least passive while having the opportunity to intervene and prevent it, it is hypocritical in the extreme for Turkish authorities to now use that bombing as an excuse to prevent anti-ISIS and peace mobilizations and to use the terrorist attack as a justification for a military drive into Syria. The ban on the demonstration is a blatant provocation and it is certain that demonstrations will be met by police using water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas as this has been happening since the July 20 terrorist attack. Popular forces have already responded with protests in Ankara, which involved at least 1000 people and was met with heavy police repression and the detention of at least 35 people, and with at least two armed struggle actions. The violent repression of a demonstration in Istanbul's Kadıköy district was met by Molotov cocktails street fighting. One young protester in Cizre was shot and killed by police today and two women were shot and wounded by police in Izmir and an HDP office in Izmir was attacked. Street fighting and defensive guerrilla activity are underway in many areas. Tensions are high and are escalating across Turkey and North Kurdistan. As we say, the US has show no official interest in the crackdown on civil liberties in Turkey and North Kurdistan since securing the use of the Incirlik base. Neither has the US intervened to stop an attack on Rojava or an assault on Jarablus.

There is more still. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu briefed Federal Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani before beginning the airstrikes against the guerrilla-held Medya Defense Zones (Kandil). Elections are scheduled to be held in the Kurdish Regional Government area (so-called "Iraqi Kurdistan") in August but that has seemed increasingly unlikely to us in recent weeks. Barzani and his clique have not been true friends of the Kurdish freedom movement and have maintained at least cordial relations with Turkey's government. Barzani's cooperation with the Turkish state now shows the potential for the regional war, deadly and bad as it has been, to spread and upset other states as well.

Several good efforts have been pushed forward this week by Kurdish and progressive forces in Turkey and North Kurdistan which are now under threat. People's Democratic Party (HDP) Group Deputy Chairpersons İdris Baluken and Pervin Buldan and all 80 HDP parliamentarians had requested a general parlimentary meeting to evaluate government policies inside and outside of Turkey in light of the war danger. The HDP tied this discussion to the refugee crisis, the government's refusal to deal with Rojava's administration, the continuing regional conflicts, the failure of the authorities to take necessary security precautions, the breakdown of the peace talks between the Kurdish freedom movement and the state and the failure of the authorities to bring the perpetrators of the 2013 Reyhanlı attacks and other terrorist attacks to justice.ions that commit the most brutal atrocities of human history.

HDP Urfa Parliamentarian Ziya Çalışkan also offered a parliamentary resolution this week for the investigation of ISIS activities and actions in Turkey. In his resolution, Ziya Çalışkan stated that it is now necessary to investigate ISIS activities, mobilization efforts and actions in Turkey. He emphasized that the elimination of the ISIS gangs is critically important for the peace, security and well-being of Turkey. The resolution followed the Suruç massacre. Ziya Çalışkan correctly said that the heinous ISIS attack was intertwined with the Turkish state’s policies on Syria and that these policies make the situation in Syria worse, create chaos in the region and make the chaos even less predictable and take Turkey from a path towards peace. He said that the Suruç massacre will not be the last ISIS attack and said that ISIS activities in Turkey have either been ignored or have been seen as mundane events by the media and that this has encouraged the gangs’ actions. Ziya Çalışkan emphasized that the government’s defense against ISIS over the past 3 years has been based on the view that ISIS was not a threat for Turkey.

In his resolution, Ziya Çalışkan noted the ISIS attacks in Hatay’s Reyhanlı district (2013) and in Niğde (2014), at the Mosul Consulate (2014) and at the Süleyman Şah Tomb (2014), in İstanbul’s Sultanahmet neighborhood (2015) and at the HDP's Adana and Mersin headquarters (2015), and a the HDP's Diyarbakır rally (2015). He stated that civilian politics and parliament must be used to settle scores with ISIS and that ISIS is trying to draw Turkey into the bloodbath and civil war in Syria.

We also saw ISIS supporters in Konya's Karatay district raid the homes of Kurdish citizens and threaten them with beheading and bombing their homes this week. Police forces observed the conflict and armed attack but did not intervene. ISIS supporters carried out an armed attack against people who joined a march in the Saraçoğlu neighborhood to condemn the Suruç massacre and attacked the family of a former leader of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), wounding his wife and son, and also attacking a local HDP leader. This neighborhood is a stronghold of the HDP so we can say that this was a politically charged provocation. Police later detained some young people who were attacked by the pro-ISIS group.

Meanwhile, Rojava's heroic People's and Women's Defense Forces (YPG and YPJ) took control of the road between Sirîn and Raqqa and have sought to liberate Sirîn. Raqqa is the regional capital of ISIS. At last word ISIS gangs were holding the people of Sirîn hostage in order to use them as human shields. ANHA news service reported that ISIS forces are not allowing anyone to leave the town and are planting mines on the roads around the town in order to prevent people from escaping. The gangs have also been training children as suicide bombers and preparing grown-ups to be used as human shields there.

The YPG has said that their fighters in Hesekê, West Kurdistan, have advanced in the Neşwê neighborhood and that YPG and YPJ forces have taken control of another important junction there. YPG and YPJ forces also liberated 3 other locations after intense clashes and now have most of the Neşwê neighborhood under control. The YPG have intensified their efforts in Kobanê and have advanced on the village of Şuxha and Malha. The YPG/YPJ advances have gone to the Aziziyah neighborhood, south of the city, and to Mount Kezwan to the east. The Defense Units are narrowing the circle around the ISIS gangs in Hesekê from the western front of the city also.

We must also mention that French lawyers have alleged that the Turkish intelligence service (MIT) was behind the killing of three Kurdish women activists in Paris in 2013. Le Monde has published the official French inquiry into the case of the killing of Kurdish women Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez in Paris in 2013. The 70-page document reportedly points to an MIT role in the massacre. The three women are rightly regarded as martyrs by politically conscious people. Sakine Cansız had a strong role in the formation of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).

Ömer Güney, the man who killed the three women, was apparently in contact with a high-level MIT official identified as "K.T." Ankara has not responded to allegations concerning this contact. "Numerous elements allow us to suspect the implication of the MIT in the instigation and preparation of the murders," the report has been quoted as saying, and the charge that Ömer Güney was acting as a spy and was in contact with a number of MIT agents remains. The killer asked for the Turkish embassy in Paris to be alerted when he was arrested The Kurdish freedom movement has pressed for the release of this report and the three women martyrs are remembered and invoked by the liberation movement.

We mention these final points and the movement's recent initiatives in order to make the point that the Turkish government is reacting to the people's advances and has much to be worried about. Government policy and actions this week have formed in reaction to the people's struggles and are signs of weakness. The government today blocked the Rudaw, BasNews, DİHA, ANHA, daily Özgür Gündem, Yüksekova Haber, Sendika.Org and RojNews websites and has slowed or blocked access to Twitter and Facebook in Turkey and northern Iraq.

[John Dolva]

Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 9:45 AM

BRUSSELS - ANF -SERKAN DEMİREL

PYD (Democratic Union Party) Co-President Saleh Moslem spoke to ANF regarding the war the Turkish state has started against Kurds under the pretext of fight against ISIS.

Moslem remarked that Turkey actually waged a war against Kurds by pretending to be standing against ISIS and used ISIS as blackmail against Kurds. Moslem underlined that they would be resisting to all the policies Turkey would pursue against Rojava or the Kurds in Jarablus region.

'SURUÇ MASSACRE WAS CARRIED OUT AGAINST KOBANÊ'

Recalling the Suruç massacre which left 31 socialist people dead on July 20, Moslem said this massacre was carried out against Kobanê and gave a message of mass killing against those supporting and standing by Kobanê. Moslem said the Suruç massacre was perpetrated as part of Turkey's policy against Kurds and Rojava.

'AKP WAGED A WAR AGAINST KURDS OVER ISIS IN THE PEACE PROCESS'

Pointing out that AKP and Erdoğan actually pursued a different plan against Kurds by claiming to be making peace since 2013, Moslem said creation of ISIS and having it fight the Kurds within this process was also a part of this plan. Moslem stressed that AKP indeed prepared for war by arguing to be making peace, adding; "Within this process which was called peace, they created ISIS and made it fight against Kurds. Although not directly, their indirect acts proved this to be true."

'THE SO-CALLED ANTI-ISIS FIGHT ACTUALLY TARGETS KURDS'

Pointing out that Turkey was stuck in a difficult situation when the entire world started questioning who supported ISIS and provided a passage route for them, Moslem said; "Turkey would either stand by ISIS which it supported, or be on the side of those fighting ISIS. To smooth away the pressure it faced, it now wants to wage the actual war it had planned against Kurds by pretending to be standing against ISIS."

Emphasizing that Turkey planned to combine the two processes it run with the PKK, and against Syria and Rojava, Moslem said that with its decision on ISIS, Turkey wanted to use ISIS as blackmail against the Kurds. Moslem said; "What Turkey implies to Kurds is that 'Either you lay down arms or I sic ISIS on you'. Turkey has put this policy into practice with a massacre in Suruç."

'WAR WITH KANDİL IS TAKING SIDES WITH ISIS AND FIGHTING AGAINST KURDS'

Moslem, according to whom Turkey has started a war against Kurds under the pretext of fight against ISIS due to international pressure, strongly criticized the airstrikes Turkey has recently launched against the guerrilla-held Medya Defense Zones. "They are shelling the guerrilla who waged a struggle and fight against ISIS in Shengal, Kirkuk and many other places, and stopped their advance in all these regions. What sort of an anti-ISIS fight is it then, now that Turkey is shelling those fighting ISIS? So, it means this is a war waged against Kurds from the front of ISIS."

Moslem also stressed that Turkey's policies were clearly seen by the entire world now, no matter how hard it tries to cover them, adding that the NATO member countries to gather today also knew very well against whom Turkey actually waged a war. He said both NATO and the whole world was much aware of the fact that YPG and YPJ is the only force fighting ISIS today.

Noting that the concept of the agreement the U.S. has made with Turkey was not known well to anyone yet, Moslem underlined that YPG and YPJ would be fighting against all probable dangers against Rojava and Kurds in other regions.

'PEOPLES WILL DECIDE WHOSE RULE THEY WANT'

Answering a question regarding the recently emerging plans in line with the agreement between the U.S. and Turkey, which is to clear the 40-km area in Jarablus region of ISIS and to leave it to FSA, Moslem said it is the peoples living in that region that will decide who will have the control over there.

PYD Co-President said that YPG and YPJ were not present in that region for now, but that some forces fighting ISIS were already there, adding; "The local people, Kurds and Arabs living there have long waged a war against ISIS and they cannot be ignored. It is yet no certain whether Turkey will take sides with those forces or hit them in the event of entering that area."

'YPG AND YPJ ARE THERE TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE'

Calling attention to Turkey's policy against Syria and Rojava, Moslem said nobody would allow Turkey's attempts towards these regions, saying they knew very well that Turkey wanted to choke the Rojava Revolution by putting its long-existing plans into practice by means of the agreement it has made with the U.S.

Moslem emphasised that they would be standing against the attitude Turkey would develop against Kurds in Jarablus and other regions under the pretext of fight against ISIS, adding; "Everyone should know very well that YPG and YPJ are there to protect the people. We will be resisting to all the policies anticipating to leave some certain regions to ISIS or its brother organizations and target the Kurds. Just like they resisted to the regime and ISIS so far, YPG and YPJ will continue resisting to anyone targeting them."

[John Dolva]

Notes from Sirrîn

YPG/YPJ and Burkan El Fırat had launched an operation to liberate Sirrîn as part of the “Kobanê Martyrs Revenge Operation” nearly a month ago. The joint forces entered the town after five days long siege.

Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 11:15 AM

SIRRÎN - ANF -SEDAT SUR

We are able to enter the town of Sirrîn, liberated at the end of the YPG/YPJ and Burkan El Fırat operation, on the second day. We can move freely in one part of the town where YPG fighters finished removing mines and traps.

We are not admitted to the town on the first day of the liberation due to the mines and traps ISIS gangs had left behind as they were escaping. We enter the town on the second day, but we can only move freely in one part of the town where YPG fighters finished removing mines and traps. Town’s civilian residents have been transferred to a safe location and will be held there until the town is cleared completely.

YPG/YPJ and Burkan El Fırat had launched an operation to liberate Sirrîn as part of the “Kobanê Martyrs Revenge Operation” nearly a month ago. The joint forces advanced on the town as they liberated 25 villages to the south and west of Sirrîn, and entered the town after five days long siege. Because of the mines and traps ISIS gangs had left behind almost all over the town as they were escaping, YPG/YPJ transferred Sirrîn’s residents to a safe location and began to clear mines and traps. Journalists could enter the town on the second day of the liberation.

LARGE ISIS ARMORY

Access to the town happens through one road YPG/YPJ fighters keep open, and all other roads have been closed off in order to prevent probable ISIS attacks with explosive vehicles. YPG fighters wait at the town’s entrance where large amounts of guns and ammunitions seized from the gangs are being kept. There are mortars, kalashnikovs, BKC rifles, assault rifles, explosives and thousands of bullets that YPG/YPJ seized from ISIS gangs here.

BEHEADING AND TORTURE SQUARE

Upon our arrival, we go to the town square where ISIS gangs displayed their brutality to civilians. ISIS gangs tortured prisoners here and beheaded those whom they branded as serious offenders, in order to ‘set an example.’ YPG fighter Amed Çınar, who is an expert on Sirrîn, states that the square was the gangs’ torture center where people thought to be serious offenders were publicly beheaded in the square after execution decisions arrived from Raqqa. Çınar says that such sights would never repeat in Sirrîn and they would construct a free life here.

ISIS TORTURE HOUSE

We stop by the building ISIS used as a police station and torture house, located next to the square. Dilgeş Kobanê, a fighter from Kobanê who is knowledgeable about Sirrîn, says that ISIS gangs carried out gruesome tortures in the station here and innocent people would be executed after they accepted responsibility for crimes that they had not committed. We learn that the gangs kept people in a small room that does not have any windows for months until they died there.

YPG CLOTHES IN ISIS HEADQUARTERS

We reach some of the houses that ISIS used as military buildings, which have now been cleared off mines and traps. We encounter YPG clothes here, as Sirrîn was an important attack center ISIS used against Kobanê. As you can recall, some of the gangs in the ISIS brutal massacre in Kobanê city center and Berxbotan village on June 25 had come from Sirrîn. These gangs wore YPG clothes and the clothes we find here are another indication of ISIS’s use of Sirrîn as an attack base in Kobanê massacre.

TURKISH NOTES, FOOD AND CLOTHING BRANDS

We move to another house that was used for military purposes. We encounter notes in Turkish in a notebook we find here. Notes have been written by a Turkish gang and include military information. It is common knowledge that hundreds of Turks join ISIS with the encouragement of the Turkish state. We also encounter tens of food and clothing items with the brands of Turkish companies from Bursa, İzmir and Konya. We learn that many of the vehicles in the town had come from Turkey, and all of these findings confirm Turkish logistic and jihadist support to ISIS.

ALCOHOL BOTTLES IN AN ISIS CHECKPOINT

ISIS gangs, who treat civilians brutally and execute people who they claim to be offenders, propagate against the use of alcohol, which they consider as a crime. However, the remains of a checkpoint gangs used in Sirrîn tells otherwise. We find empty and half-full alcoholic beverage bottles here, which indicate that the gangs are not sincere with their imposition of religious law. Gangs’ use of religion in order to oppress and deceive people illustrates that ISIS is nothing more than a paramilitary group of gangs.

HAPPINESS FOR THE YOUNG AND OLD: YPG/YPJ

YPG/YPJ forces’ encounters and dialogues with the children of Sirrîn are worth seeing. YPG fighters and two children greet each other in an area where YPG fighters are clearing mines. Children cannot speak Kurdish and the fighters cannot speak Arabic, but the two groups communicate with hand signs and get along well in a short period of time. Hesitant at first, the children are encouraged by the fighters’ warm attitude and begin to make jokes. One of the woman fighters caresses and kisses the hair of a child, and the child’s hesitant face immediately turns happy. An old man with a walking stick approaches YPG/YPJ fighters, begins to speak of ISIS brutality and expresses his happiness at the arrival of YPG/YPJ forces in Arabic. YPJ warrior gives her food to the old man, shakes his hand, and tells him that everything would be good from now on.

YPG/YPJ fighters bring a smile to the faces of everyone, young or old, in Sirrîn on their first day here.

CHILDREN’S VICTORY SIGNS

If we include children’s reactions as a sociological indicator of a society, we can say that the people of Sirrîn greeted YPG/YPJ forces with great joy. Women and children whose houses and neighborhoods had been mined are transported to a safe location near the town’s entrance. Women are children go through a health screening here and all of their needs are met. Children of Sirrîn greet us with victory signs when we arrive at the area where women and children are accommodated. Women and children of Sirrîn who managed to get along well with YPG/YPJ fighters in a couple of days illustrate how the fighters are received here: "We have waited for the hevals’ (friends’) arrival for a long time. We are happy that they finally arrived and freedom came to Sirrîn."

YPG’S FLAG OF FREEDOM NOW WAVES IN SİRRÎN

A colorful YPG flag representing freedom now waves in Sirrîn Square where people were beheaded and even banned from smoking. After a challenging initiative, YPG/YPJ accompanied by Burkan El Fırat forces representing Arab people liberated Sirrîn and brought the philosophy of equality and sisterhood from Rojava to the town. YPG, who had handed over the administration of Girê Spî after the liberation of this town, is preparing to do the same here in Sirrîn. The democratic model set up in Girê Spî will be established here and lead the way for Syria.

[John Dolva]

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Turkey’s military attacks against the Kurds continue---a statement from the Kurdistan National Congress issued today

New Evidence for Turkey-ISIS collaboration:

Since the 24th of July, daily a bombing campaign has been launched by the Turkish military over Kurdish guerrilla forces and civilians in Iraqi Kurdistan. Close to 60 (F-16 and F-4) jets carry out bombing campaigns daily, targeting several locations. This military strategy has led to extensive environmental damage to the surrounding areas, injury of civilians and hundreds of villages evacuated. Moreover, large areas of farming land as well livestock have been bombed as a result of the indiscriminate bombings. There is no effort by the Turkish military to reduce the collective human and environmental damage that the indiscriminate bombing is causing.

The Turkish president Erdoğan, and prime minister Davutoğlu, have stated explicitly that they intend on continuing the bombing campaign against the Kurds indefinitely. There appears to be complete disinterest on the part of Turkey to continue the bombing campaign on ISIS. This demonstrates that the single attack on ISIS was merely a cover to target the real objective of this war: the Kurds.

Likewise, for the past four days, Turkey has prevented the crossing of the bodies of 13 martyred YPG fighters killed in the war against ISIS. They have also attacked and terrorised the gathered mourners and families of the martyrs through gassing, water cannons and other disproportionately violent methods. Further evidence of Turkey’s moral support for ISIS is the refusal to allow the passing of the bodies of the YPG fighters killed in fighting ISIS in Rojava.

How long will the International coalition allow Turkey’s deception to continue?

Turkey is manipulating the international public opinion and the coalition against ISIS to wage a clear and deliberate war against the Kurds. Since the Turkish state “decided” to stand with the international coalition against ISIS, it has waged only one bombing campaign against ISIS, and only weapons warehouses were targeted. Instead the bombing campaign against the Kurds have continued non-stop since the 24th, and not only targeted the guerrilla forces, but also civilian areas.

The international community is yet to witness a second attack by the Turkish military on ISIS posts, ISIS warehouses, and ISIS strongholds. In contrast, daily attacks against Kurdish forces political activists, democratic forces, human rights groups, as well the as targeting of members of the democratically elected HDP party is ongoing. This targeting of the Kurds by Turkey is continuing both in and outside Turkey. Over the past 12 hours the Turkish government has arrested over 351 Kurdish activists and bombed Iraqi Kurdistan twice. Predictably, no bombing of ISIS has occurred.

How long will the UN, EU, and the USA continue not to act against Turkey and its war against the Kurds, which is only serving to strengthen ISIS and its terrorist objectives in the region?

To stay silent or inactive against Turkey’s deliberate policy of targeting the Kurds will prepare the base for a new genocide and give ISIS the morale to target the international community. It is important that the international community understands that the Turkey’s policy of bombing the Kurds is not going to resolve the ongoing the Kurdish issue peacefully.

If there was doubt over Turkey’s support for ISIS, the current disproportionate attacks against the Kurds is ample evidence. By weakening the Kurds, Turkey empowers ISIS, logistically, economically and militarily.

[John Dolva]

The Turkish government decided Oct. 12 to permit U.S. fighter-bombers to launch attacks on Syrian targets from Incirlik Air Force Base near the Turkish-Syrian border. This decision marked the latest escalation of the U.S.-led “war on ISIS.” It is a further step toward a major U.S. invasion into Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, two key battles are raging, with the Islamic State (also called ISIS or ISIL) forces on the offensive.

In Syria, Kurdish guerrillas in the Kurdish-majority town of Kobani at the Turkish border are defending the town against ISIS. The Pentagon announced that the U.S. carried out a half-dozen air strikes on Oct. 12, mainly against ISIS’ heavy armor. ISIS has captured most of its weapons from U.S.-backed forces in the first place.

In Anbar province and at the Baghdad Airport in Iraq, the Iraqi army has been yielding ground despite heavy U.S., Dutch and other air support.

These wars involve a confusing array of state and guerrilla forces in battle against each other. With alliances, all temporary, changing so quickly, only a Marxist evaluation of the forces can even begin to make sense of them.

U.S. imperialism is main threat

The most important concept is that the gravest threat to the people of the region comes from U.S. imperialism, which is the lynchpin of world imperialism and the killer of millions in Iraq alone. No one should expect that U.S. intervention will liberate the region from ISIS or any other reactionary force.

The Turkish state is a regional capitalist power, a NATO member and an oppressor state. Besides exploiting its own working class and peasantry, the Turkish ruling class oppresses the Kurdish people and nation within Turkey’s borders. It thus considers the PKK (Workers Party of Kurdistan) its main enemy. Turkey’s regime has supported the opponents of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria, including ISIS.

The Arab monarchies — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the other Gulf states — are ideological soulmates of ISIS, and their ruling classes have funded and armed ISIS in the past. Now these oppressive tyrannies — which all depend on U.S. imperialism — have given lip service to joining the U.S. “coalition.” Qatar and the UAE have flown a few bombing sorties into Iraq.

The recent change of government in Iraq still left the regime a client of U.S. imperialism. Its army and some of the militias have oppressed Sunni regions of the country and killed more civilians than ISIS has. Thus, many of the tribal fighters — not to speak of the guerrillas who were once officers in former President Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist army and have been resisting the U.S. client regime — consider the Baghdad government a more dangerous enemy than ISIS.

Who battles ISIS on the ground?

Syria and Iran — capitalist nations with exploited working classes — are both combating ISIS. But world imperialism has targeted these two states through military threats and economic sanctions while demonizing them. The two governments have fought back to survive and their resistance deserves internationalist solidarity.

The PKK and its sister party in Syria (YPG — People’s Protection Units) are liberation organizations of the Kurdish nation. Both directly fight ISIS on the ground. So, too, do the Hezbollah guerrillas from Lebanon, who have successfully resisted Israeli invasions of their country in the past. However, the imperialists define all three groups as “terrorist.”

The best way for anti-imperialists in the West to show solidarity with these fighters is to demand the U.S. State Department and the European Union stop defining them as “terrorist” groups. A demonstration of tens of thousands of people, mainly Kurdish immigrants, in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Oct. 11 raised this as a main demand, along with freeing PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan after 15 years of imprisonment in Turkey.

Washington, to serve its own ends, has manipulated al-Qaida and other groups similar to ISIS in the past — most notably in Afghanistan and partially in Libya and Syria. But such groups created instability across North Africa, upended Libya and took over the Syrian opposition from U.S. puppets. Starting this June, ISIS threatened to drive the U.S. and its clients out of Iraq.

Despite its current clash with U.S. imperialism and its client states from West Africa to Pakistan, ISIS plays a thoroughly reactionary role throughout the region. Its reactionary — even medieval — viciously anti-woman and virulently sectarian program prevents and disrupts the development of an anti-imperialist front that would cross ethnic and sectarian lines. Only such unity can prevent imperialism from exploiting differences among the peoples and using them to divide and conquer.

The general secretary of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, has called for such a united front of the peoples and nations of the region to fight ISIS and similar forces, which he considers dangerous enemies of the peoples. But, he said, they should not join President Barack Obama’s imperialist “coalition,” which he rightly considers a threat to the region and the world. (al-akhbar.com, Sept. 23)

For anti-imperialists in the West and especially in the United States, the most important thing is to oppose U.S. intervention in Iraq and Syria, even if the present manifestation of that intervention is to bomb ISIS targets. Senator John McCain has demanded ground troops. This could quickly become a U.S. ground war against Iraq and Syria.

In this confusing war, many are saying, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” For anti-imperialists it is better to apply the Leninist slogan: “The main enemy is at home.”

The reactionary Justice and Development Party (AKP) government of Turkey, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, began a military offensive on July 24 against the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and against people of Kurdish origin throughout the geographical area of Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Another primary target of this offensive is Syria’s government.

Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters arrive in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk.

The Turkish regime has also arrested 1,200 people within Turkey, charging them with “suspicion of terrorism.” Most are from Kurdish and/or leftist groups. A Turkish politician from the AKP’s rival capitalist Republican People’s Party (CHP), Faruk Logoglu, said, “The true target of the AKP regime is not the I.S., but the PKK.” (Junge Welt, Aug. 3) The PKK has been defending Kurdish regions against Turkey’s army with a guerrilla war since 1984.

U.S. imperialism and its NATO military alliance has given the Turkish offensive its full political, diplomatic and military support. The Turkish regime is now allowing the Pentagon to use Turkish airbases at Incirlik and Diyarbakir in the southeast of the country to carry out bombing attacks in Iraq and Syria. In return, the U.S. and NATO are allowing Turkey to set up a “buffer zone” inside Syria in Rojava province.

Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952, after its armed forces intervened under U.S. command against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Washington sends more military aid to Turkey’s armed forces — second in size in NATO only to the U.S. — than to any other countries except Israel and Egypt.

Through most of the post World War II period, Turkey had its closest military ties to U.S. imperialism and closest economic ties to Western Germany. Currently, Turkey does significant trading with Russia and China. About 3 million people of Turkish background, including Kurds, live and work in Germany now as second-class residents, and Germany’s arms industry sends weapons to Turkey.

The pretext for Turkish aggression is the alleged war against the Islamic State. It is also the pretext for U.S. and NATO support and for the Pentagon intervention in Syria and Iraq.

Since the war within Syria opened up in 2011, the Turkish regime has supported and armed those forces fighting the Bashar al-Assad government, including the reactionary Islamic forces like the Islamic State. Only after the Islamic State opened a successful offensive in Iraq in 2014 and Washington designated this group as an enemy did Ankara even try to hide its support.

Behind Erdogan’s offensive

The first step leading to Erdogan’s offensive against the Kurdish movements throughout the region and against the left within Turkey was the surprising setback for his party in the June elections. Hoping to win 60 percent of the seats in parliament, the AKP instead lost its majority and won only 258 of the 550 seats. A new leftist coalition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), with much support from the Kurdish population won 13 percent of the votes and 79 seats.

What had boosted the mood among Kurds and left forces in Turkey just before the election was the military victory by armed, mostly Kurdish elements against the Islamic State in the town of Kobane in the Kurdish region of northern Syria. Women played an active role among the Kurdish fighters of the PKK and its Syrian sister party. The popular liberation fighters became a rallying point for leftists all over Turkey and among European communists.

Because of the severe damage in Kobane, progressive youth were rallying on July 22 in Suruç, Turkey, just six miles from the town in Syria, planning to go there to reconstruct buildings for Kobane’s youth.

As Workers World warned in its June 21 article reporting on Turkey’s June 7 national election, “The Turkish police, intelligence services and the massive armed forces, with nearly 700,000 personnel and with close ties to both the U.S. and German armed forces, are still the power behind the electoral façade.” It took only a month for Erdogan to move in the direction of using the repressive apparatus of the state to reverse his electoral defeat.

The rally in Suruç was hit by a suicide bomber, allegedly an operative of the Islamic State, which left 32 of the socialist youth dead. Many suspected the hand of the Turkish political police in arranging or allowing the bombing to take place. This suspicion grew as Erdogan used the terror attack on a left group as a pretext to arrest 1,300 people, all but 140 of whom were leftists, and accuse them of terrorism, as well as to launch the bombing attacks.

In Iraq, the Turkish Air Force described its targets in Iraq not as the Islamic State but as “PKK camps.” The official state Anatolia news agency claimed that the airstrikes had killed 260 and wounded 400 PKK fighters in Turkey and northern Iraq as of July 30, including the brother of the co-chairperson of the HDP.

It is common for oppressive forces to exaggerate their military successes, just as the U.S. did in Vietnam. The PKK response was that they had few casualties among fighters but that many civilians, including children, were killed in the northern Iraq town of Zergele.

NEWS DESK - ANF

Securing the city center of Hesekê in Rojava, joint forces of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) and the Women’s Defense Units (YPJ), alongside fighters from the Syriac Military Council and the Al-Sanadid Military, continued Aug. 4 to conduct firm military activities around the city.

YPG Press Office said in a written statement that in southeastern Hesekê, combined Defense Units operated near a farmland along the village of Rajman which was cleansed of suspected ISIS gangs on the night of Aug 3. After violent clashes that lasted overnight, the rural location was thoroughly liberated of the ISIS occupation. There, ISIS forces casualties could not be immediately verified through initial reports.

One combatant of Defense Units who contributed a great support to the successful performance of the operation was martyred on the fields of the battle.

According to the statement, military forces of the Burkan al-Firat (Euphrates Volcano) Joint Operations Room (YPG/FSA: Free Syrian Army joint units) endure steady operations against the ISIS group near the newly-liberated town of Sırîn, southern Kobani region.

Yesterday, Aug 4, in the south of Sırîn, the Defense Units initiated a fresh movement against the gangs around the village of Milha, eliminated an ISIS element during an instant overnight assault.

Leading further security-providing procedures inside the town Sırîn, the Defense Units on Aug 4 were able to discover a small weapons cache of the ISIS gangs, including 1 PKM, 2500+ bullets, 1 RPG rocket launcher, 1 AK rifle and a number of other equipment.

Thursday, August 6, 2015 at 4:45 PM

ANKARA - ANF

HDP applied to the UN regarding extrajudicial executions and massacres. In its application that included examples of state killings, HDP warned that the massacre of civilians could increase, and demanded the prosecution of perpetrators.

HDP Co-Presidents Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş applied to the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns regarding AKP government’s unlawful, arbitrary and extrajudicial executions. In its application, HDP demanded the investigation of extrajudicial executions and disappearances carried out by the Turkish state since July 20, 2015.

STATE EXECUTIONS REMINDED

The HDP application had information on the following events that form the basis of the application:

Turkish soldiers killed a woman from Rojava named Firas Feyad on July 23, 2015. Turkish police opened fire on protestors in the Yafes neighborhood of Şırnak’s Cizre district, and killed Abdullah Özdal who was 23 years old.

11 years old Beytullah Aydın fell from the 7th floor of a building on the Öğretmenler Street of Diyarbakır’s Bağlar district as he was running from a police attack on July 26, 2015.

35 years old Bülent Ecevit Güngör was shot in his head with a hard object in Mersin city center as he was sitting in his balcony and watching the street protests over Suruç massacre, and recent air strikes and arrests.

Police fired upon protestors and killed university student Seyithan Dede in Mardin’s Nusaybin district on July 26.

Anti-terror police squads raided a house in the Fevzi Çakmak neighborhood of Ağrı on July 29, 2015, and killed 3 civilians inside the house.

The murdered civilians are brothers Sezai and Ahmet Yaşar, as well as Mirzettin Göktürk. Contrary to police accusations, the three civilians were murdered inside the house where they were living with their families, and there was no shootout since the civilians did not have any guns on them.

Police shot fires on a civilian vehicle in the Nusaybin street of Şırnak’s Cizre district between 23:00 and 23:30 on July 29, 2015 and the vehicle stopped by hitting the curb on the side of the road.

17 years old Hasan Nerse got out of the car in a critically injured status, and police officers handcuffed Hasan and tied his feet together before shooting him once again. Hasan Nerse was kept bleeding for more than half an hour, during which officers took photos of Hasan and shared hateful posts on social media using these photos. Moreover, the nurses from the ambulance that arrived at the crime scene did not examine Hasan. Police officers threw Hasan Nerse’s body in a large back and put it at the back of the ambulance, where Hasan lost his life.

'MASSACRES OF CIVILIANS MAY INCREASE'

Yüksekdağ and Demirtaş underlined the necessity for UN mechanisms’ investigation of these events, and the prosecution of the executions’ perpetrators. HDP Co-Presidents stated that these events were clear examples of the Turkish state’s extrajudicial killings and disappearance of its citizens, and expressed their fears at the possible increase of such murders and massacres. Yüksekdağ and Demirtaş emphasized the importance of international institutions and related mechanisms, and called upon Christof Heyns and his organization to investigate these unlawful, arbitrary and extrajudicial executions.

[John Dolva]

HARVEST

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Different approaches to peace and justice in the movements in North Kurdistan and Turkey today---and US and EU obfuscation as the people's struggle deepens

We believe that every healthy progressive or revolutionary movement develops different lines of struggle and that the movements in Rojava, North Kurdistan and Turkey prove our point. We do not mean by this that there should be a "two-line" struggle between bourgeois and proletarian lines, but if matters are that simple within a movement then that struggle should be raised, but we instead mean that people should come to work within social movements with the idea of developing approaches and trying to win others over to their political positions in principled and revolutionary ways. Differences should be settled in revolutionary ways and there should be room for every honest democratic, progressive, anti-imperialist, national-democratic and revolutionary approach within a movement. Tonight we will look at some of these lines of struggle underway in Turkey, North Kurdistan and Rojava.

* Collective bargaining has opened for public workers in Turkey. Yesterday police in Ankara attacked union members who were attempting to march on the Labor and Social Security Ministry as negotiations formally opened. The progressive Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) once more took the lead in mobilizing people and faced off against police using tear gas and riot shields to attack the workers. KESK leader Lami Özgen asked the police for permission to march and the police answered with their attack. Police allowed some of the union members to march if they didn't block the street. KESK is holding to their line that the negotiations should be postponed until the political situation in the country stabilizes and a new government is formed, replacing the lame duck government which lost its parliamentary majority in the June 7 elections. The KESK position makes sense since a lame duck or interim government either can't make lasting decisions or is likely to low-ball and pressure the unions or seek to destroy the workers' unity. The negotiations have begun, but KESK can exercise some influence in determining how far they go and can pressure the government and be both a force for a reasonable coalition government and a force for change if early elections are called.

The workers are going into negotiations knowing that wage increases will come in 2016 and 2017 and that these pay hikes will affect around 2.3 million public workers and 2 million retirees. The key monetary question is how the raises are calculated and how they are distributed and how losses in real wages are addressed. The Civil Servants’ Trade Union (Memur-Sen) will be at the center of the negotiations with relatively modest demands. KESK will probably ask for something like 25 percent increases in public worker salaries.

* One worker was killed and four were trapped when a steel construction spine and molds for a viaduct at a construction site collapsed and brought down scaffolding in İzmir today. Three workers were missing and seven workers were missing at last word.

* Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu met with Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, co-leaders of the progressive Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), today and the party leaders discussed needed peace initiatives. In a post tat we put up on Sunday we again criticized the liberal/social-democratic CHP for negotiating with the ruling reactionary Justice and Development Party (AKP) while both HDP and CHP leaders, including Kılıçdaroğlu, are under attack by the ruling party. We noted that the CHP is not only negotiating to form a coalition government with the AKP, but is also talking to them about economic reforms which seem to most benefit the AKP at this point. The AKP may not yet grasp that the CHP's orientation towards the EU will benefit both parties in the long-run. The CHP seems most concerned with Turkish economic growth slowing or stopping and a developing economic crisis linked to the country's current political crisis. CHP negotiations with the AKP have been almost a marathon that has not yet produced clear results. The fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has seemed to zigzag on the matter of a coalition government and early elections in recent days as it watches the CHP-AKP dance from the sidelines and tries to build a fight against the HDP.

Today's HDP-CHP meeting probably sought common ground between the parties on the war danger, social unrest and terrorism. A CHP leader said, "We want everybody to feel at ease. Turkey will never ever be divided...No peace can be demanded with weapons in hand. We want to highlight the necessity for all parties to adopt a common stance against terrorism. The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) should know that peace cannot be achieved by (resorting] to arms... The PKK should immediately drop weapons and adopt the language of peace. And the state should do its part. In order to let pro-freedom voices be heard, the PKK should absolutely drop weapons.”

HDP deputy parliamentary group leader İdris Baluken took a different line and correctly blamed Turkey's President Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for causing tension in the country with the goal of once more leading a single-party government. “The weight of politics reduces at times of such conflicts. That’s why we have discussed that weapons should be silenced. Both sides should remove their hands from the triggers of their weapons. The operations should cease and the PKK should end its attacks,” İdris Baluken said. This is not a new position for the HDP to take, but repeating this line at this time shows clearly that the HDP can maintain a nuanced position under pressure and not cave to the CHP.

HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş meanwhile announced that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has taken the HDP's line seriously and is willing to take part in new rounds of negotiations with the state. From the point of view of much of the freedom movement, this would mean in concrete terms that the peace process initiated by the Kurdish freedom movement and stopped by the government be restarted---and behind that stands a number of justifiable assumptions and demands that either the current lame duck Turkish government or some future government must engage with. When İdris Baluken spoke in relation to the HDP-CHP meeting he no doubt had this in mind.

The right-wing and the government will certainly challenge whatever Selahattin Demirtaş does, but he backed up his point by telling Deutsche Welle Türkçe that “(The PKK) has perceived (the message.) Even an answer came to it. In Europe Remzi Kartal said they were ready to return to the table and a ceasefire.” Remzi Kartal is a leading member of the Kurdish liberation movement, he now lives in forced exile in Europe and he served in Turkey's parliament in 1991 from the People’s Labor Party (HEP), the Social Democratic People’s Party (SHP) and the Democracy Party (DEP). If his distance from the guerrilla-held Kandil region is a problem, his pragmatism can be trusted and his experiences in the banned parties give what he says special weight. Perhaps more to the point, this shows and elevates the HDP's role as a force for peace and justice and the only legal party capable of being able to move the Kurdish question forward.

Selahattin Demirtaş returned to the line that the PKK and ISIS cannot be seen as equivalent, a comparison that the Turkish state has used to confuse matters and influence the media with. The US media seems particularly vulnerable to this comparison. Selahattin Demirtaş reminded
Deutsche Welle Türkçe that the PKK has been involved in peace talks with the Turkish state for 3 years now and declared a ceasefire. “It is wiser and more beneficial for Turkey to establish a dialogue with an organization that is ready to talk rather than conduct airstrikes,” Demirtaş said. He took an optimistic approach when he said that “Peace would end when hopes fail” and we hope that his optimism is justified.

İdris Baluken seemed to say today that a coalition between the AKP and the CHP will help the country overcome the current crisis and social conflict. Mainstream media quoted him as saying, "We voice the necessity for the conclusion of coalition talks (between the AKP and the CHP) instead of (going to a) snap election...The president desires an early election and is pressuring the AK Party to that end.” This feels like a tactical move and a defensive position in the face of attacks on the HDP by the AKP. It sometimes seems that some HDP vacillate on whether the HDP could weather an early election or not. On the other hand, we have pointed out on this blog that the HDP is facing tremendous repression now and that that repression and the war danger brought into play by President Erdoğan works against the HDP and that the early elections benefit the AKP by design.

* As we said above, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is watching from the sidelines and seems focused on fighting against the HDP. The MHP is clearly there to be used as part of the right-wing arsenal. It is also a loose cannon in that arsenal. MHP leaders today said that they have a list of “dishonorable, whisky-drinking rich people” who voted for the HDP instead of the MHP and that that list contains the names of "3,000 dishonorable people.” The MHP is making a play here for the AKP in saying that wealthy people voted for the HDP only to stop the AKP from keeping their majority in parliament, but given the MHP's past role as a violent contra force this is not an idle statement or threat. Anyone on their list might be blacklisted or attacked. Mainstream Turkish media notes that the Turkish word for “dishonorable” (şerefsiz) borders on the vulgar in a way that does not exist in English.

* The European Union and the US are alarmed by the situation in Turkey, or are at least pretending to be. The EU today issued a statement saying that the EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations “acknowledged the commitment of the Turkish authorities to stepping up the fight against ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and reaffirmed the EU’s strong support for these efforts...At the same time, the commissioner expressed the EU’s deep concern about recent developments which have a negative impact on the Kurdish-Turkish settlement process...The EU acknowledges that Turkey has the right to prevent and react to any form of terrorism, which must be unequivocally condemned. We count on Turkey to live up to its important and strategic role for the whole region, by refraining from any action that could further destabilize the region.”

The US took a more ham-fisted approach when State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said, “These attacks (by the freedom movement--ed.) are only exacerbating the continuation and the cycle of violence here. We want to see these attacks cease. We want to see the PKK renounce violence and re-engage in talks with the government of Turkey. And as I said, we want to see the Turkish government respond proportionately.”

Another report on his remarks has Toner saying, “We want to see the PKK stop its attacks against Turkey and then for the Turkish government to respond proportionately. We want to see all that violence end, and we want to see the efforts of Turkey but also the coalition's efforts as well as the anti-ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) groups fighting in northern Syria focus on combating ISIL.” There is something childlike in this statement---the words, perhaps, of a very demanding child. We think that the reality of the situation is closer to the point that the US and the EU could stop the government's attacks against the people almost immediately by demanding that the war be against ISIS only and acting affirmatively in order to make that happen.

Toner went on to say that “I don’t know the specifics of these attacks (Turkish military attacks on Zargala village in the Kandil region--ed.), but often---not often, but sometimes, when you have airstrikes or civilians in the area, they can be affected---but these are airstrikes being carried out against PKK targets. And again, just going to the root of this, the PKK has carried out attacks against Turkey. We have defended Turkey’s right to self-defense in this case, but we want to see the violence end, we want to see the PKK cease its attacks, and as I said, the Turkish government to respond proportionately.” Toner voiced some faith in the Turkish government's willingness or ability to investigate the massacre in Zargala.

The EU and the US are turning reality upside down here, but the EU has at least shown some willingness to take what HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has into consideration when speaking about the peace process initiated by the Kurdish freedom movement 3 years ago. The US government, on the other hand, has a kind of unthinking mantra going. The Turkish state passed the threshold of "responding proportionately" back in the 1970s and has done great damage to the peace or resolution process. If that process does restart, it will be because the liberation movement once more exercises and shows great patience. Turkey is not being attacked and its war against the people benefits ISIS.

Some reports claim that 260 liberation movement fighters have been killed and some 400 wounded in the eight waves of attacks which have been carried out since the air campaign began. These reports put aside the matter of the hundreds of people who have been arrested in Turkey and those who have been killed and wounded in the massive assault on human rights underway there.

* We began this report by talking about lines of struggle with the progressive, democratic, national-democratic revolutionary and revolutionary movements. We will close with a report from the People's Defense Forces (HPG) and YJA Start (Free Women's Forces) guerrillas.

The guerrillas are continuing to carry out retaliation actions as the attacks of the Turkish army continue. The People’s Defense Forces (HPG) has said that at least 8 Turkish soldiers were killed and a Sikorsky-type helicopter was damaged in guerrilla actions. On the other hand, reconnaissance flights by unmanned military aerial vehicles have been carried out over the Qandil region of the Medya Defence Zones, the Şemzinan area of Hakkari, the Oremar area, the Gare area, the Metina area and the Zap region since August 1.

Turkish military jets have flown over the Avashin area and the Zap region and the rural areas of Iğdır in this period and bombings by the Turkish military have continued. Kurê Mizgeftê Hill, Çiyayê Gostê, Martyr Armanç Hill, Geniş Hill, Martyr Hozan Hill and the Kale Veragol areas, Martyr Rahime Hill, Martyr Bager Hill, Martyr Agit Hill, the Şukê and Martyr Gafur Hill areas, the Govendê area, the Martyr Ronahi area, Xeregol, Hakan Hill and the Şelale areas, Gundê Eriş and Dola Heştididu haveall been hit in recent days. This is not a complete list and we apologize for repitition. Turkish jets supported by drones bombaed the Canmeda, Şelale, Gundê Zerê, Gundê Erbiş and Xeregol areas on the border with the Zap region of the Medya Defence Zones yesterday.

HPG guerrillas attacked the police headquarters in Amed’s Bağlar district on July 31. The number of police officers killed or wounded during this attack is not yet known. Guerrillas carried out an assassination attack and killed one soldier at the Kısımlı guard post located in Van’s Başkale district today. Guerrillas also attacked the special operations police force in the police station in Amed’s Pasur district yesterday. Guerrillas hit the Mılıka guard post in Amed’s Pasur district and the soldiers guarding the dam in Amed’s Farqin district yesterday. They destroyed one container and one cabin near the dam, killing 4 soldiers who were inside the cabin.

Guerrillas blocked the road between the Genç and Selvê regions of Bingöl between on August 3, and informed civilians on the road about recent political events. HPG guerrillas also blocked the roads between Van’s Çaldıran district and Ağrı’s Bazid district on August 3, and destroyed a government vehicle there. Guerrillas are holding the road between Iğdır and Kağızman as well as the road between Dersim and Erzincan.

Guerrillas attacked a watch post located in the military hospital in Bitlis’ Tatvan district at on August 2, and killed a specialist sergeant during this attack. The Turkish army carried out an operation around the hospital after the HPG attack which ended without results.

Guerrillas sabotaged an armored vehicle traveling on the road between Bitlis and Baykan on August 3, and heavily damaged the vehicle.

Turkish soldiers, accompanied by drones, carried out an operation in the Kaniya Masiya and Kanê Gorkê regions of Muş’s Malazgirt district at on August 3, and arrested civilians there.

The HPG reported that a Skorsky helicopter was used to attack guerrillas in an area between Van and Ağrı’s Bazid district on August 3. The military retreated after the guerrillas’ responded with heavy weapons fire that damaged the helicopter.

Guerrillas sabotaged the natural gas pipeline in the Sarıkamış district of Kars today and the bridge leading to the Bêzelê guard post in the Mehendê region of Hakkari’s Şemdinli district yesterday. The guerrillas destroyed one part of the pipeline as well as the bridge, and have had control of the road between Gevrê Civiyan and Bêzelê in Hakkari since August 3.

[John Dolva]

Attacking the PKK Means Defending ISIS

The following interview between ANF news service and Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) Executive Committee Member Duran Kalkan addresses many of the issues being brought forward in European media but blocked in the US. The interview was first posted last Thursday. We have not edited it. The HPG is the People's Defense Forces, most often associated with the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). Davutoğlu is Turkey's current Prime Minister. Liberal media is saying that he is more willing to talk to Turkey's opposition and resume the peace talks with the Kurdish freedom movement than Turkey's President Erdoğan is. The AKP is the ruling reactionary Justice and Development Party. Since the June elections the AKP has led a lame duck government and has greatly escalated the war danger in the region. The YNK is the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a leading opposition force in the Kurdistan Regional Regional Government (so-called "Iraqi Kurdistan"). The HDP is the progressive People's Democratic Party, which holds 80 seats in Turkey's Parliament and is being severely threatened and tested by the AKP and fascist forces. The CHP is Turkey's Republican People's Party, the liberal/social-democratic party and Turkey's second-oldest political party. The PYD is Rojava's Democratic Union Party.

Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) Executive Committee Member Duran Kalkan stated that the Turkish state was waging an all-out war, and the only possible response for HPG guerrillas and civilians was to display an all-out resistance.

PKK Executive Committee Member stated that they valued the calls for a ceasefire, and HPG has only been retaliating in a limited way so far. Kalkan criticized Davutoğlu’s statement that they hit 400 targets in one night, and said that guerrillas had the right to retaliate for each attack but have not yet responded in full force.

Kalkan asked what would happen and whether society’s democratic and local self-rule would be strengthened in the case that PKK stopped retaliating. He said that those who would like the clashes to end would have to focus on the reasons for these clashes, and the best response to AKP fascism would be strengthening Democratic Autonomy.

In his interview with Med Nuce TV, which was translated by ANF English service below, Kalkan noted their strategy had not included fighting the army, and guerrillas would have not retaliated if the state had not bragged about ‘hitting 400 targets in one night.’ Kalkan highlighted that AKP was using the army for the protection of its political power, and everyone should resist against the police and protect their neighborhoods in order to prevent further arrests. Below is the English version of Med Nuce TV’s interview with Duran Kalkan, translated by ANF English service.

AKP Government carried out Zergelê massacre on the first year anniversary of Shengal massacre. What does this mean?

I condemn Shengal massacre and commemorate the martyrs who lost their lives during ISIS attacks on Êzîdî Kurdish people in Shengal. I also commemorate guerrillas such as Genco, Dilgeş, Armanç, and Berxwedan who fell during the defense of Shengal. AKP fascism carried out a massacre in Qandil’s Zergelê village in a way similar to the ISIS massacre in Shengal. Perpetrators of Shengal and Zergelê massacres, ISIS and AKP, are brutal, and everyone faces a power that does not hesitate spreading terror. I strongly condemn Zergelê massacre and commemorate the slain civilians with respect. AKP attempts to portray the massacred civilians as PKK guerrillas are deplorable, even YNK declared some of Zergelê martyrs to be its civilian members. AKP is pretending to fight ISIS, but is actually attacking and targeting Kurdish people and the PKK.

PKK has been in a war against ISIS since August 3, 2014, and this war divided the entire world into two camps: powers that support ISIS and the democratic forces that oppose ISIS. Kobanê resistance was the democratic struggle of the latter camp, and everyone against fascism came together in opposition to ISIS.

TURKISH INTELLIGENCE AGENTS WITHIN ISIS ATTACKED TURKEY

Attacking the PKK is defending ISIS, AKP claims to be fighting against PKK and ISIS as a third party but this is nothing more than a deception. Turkey has been sending hundreds of trucks to ISIS and supporting the gangs in Rojava, Turkey’s attack on the PKK means Turkish support for ISIS. Like NATO’s objection to recent Turkish air strikes, everyone fighting against ISIS should raise their voices in opposition to Turkish policies.

Turkey pretends to be fighting ISIS, but it was Turkish intelligence agents within ISIS who recently attacked Turkish soldiers. Turkey was able to make the US believe that Turkey was under ISIS attack through this deception, and began to attack us under the pretense of fighting ISIS. AKP is in alliance with ISIS and everyone should decide whether they support this alliance or the struggle of democratic union centered around Kurdish resistance. Turkey is a threat for all Kurds and could even bomb Hewler or Kirkuk, just like they have threatened to bomb Kirkuk as we recently found out. Turkey’s anti-Kurdishness makes it look like a bull that attacks whenever it sees something red. All Kurdish powers in alliance with AKP should stop collaborating with Turkey in exchange for petty interest calculations.

HDP AND CHP INTERPRETED THE PROCESS TOO LATE

How did the war restart when everyone was expecting peace after June 7 elections?

Remember our statements after the election describing the victory of HDP as the restructuring of Turkey for more peace and democracy. Despite its electoral loss, AKP acted as the government and made the important decision of restarting war. AKP was either going to respect election results and negotiate the steps for democratization laid out in the Dolmabahçe statement of February 28, or reinitiate armed conflict as it had planned during the National Security Council meeting on October 30, 2014 in order to restore its political power. Unlike AKP claims, we were not giving commands to HDP and our statements after the elections were more of a warning to everyone who favored democratization. HDP and CHP interpreted the political process too late, and did not foresee the current war as we had done right after the elections. Our commentary on the elections was not a ‘PKK intervention’ but a call to democratic forces so that they take initiative and ensure the transformation of İmralı meetings into a negotiation. I would like to ask the Turkish public and the supporters of AKP, what harm was there in previous KCK statements asking for negotiations based on the 10 principles of Dolmabahçe statement centered on Leader Apo’s freedom, the transformation of the parliament to a constituent assembly, the drafting of a democratic constitution, the implementation of legal reforms, and the end of the fascist military regime of September 12 in Turkey.

THERE ARE CRACKS WITHIN THE REGIME

Once again, PKK’s warnings were not acts of terror but demands for peace and democracy. We only made statements after the elections, but the state responded with the political genocide operations (arrests of over 1000 political activists) and air strikes on July 24. AKP rule is nothing but a fallen government, AKP officials such as Bülent Arınç should stop making statements frequently since they have not been elected on June 7. Irregularities like this one show that there are cracks within the regime, Arınç has been in the spotlight even more than the Prime Minister himself!

AKP government got aggressive on July 24 because it is losing its power, and the only way for AKP to win the upcoming elections would be preventing the masses from voting from now on. The transition government’s declaration of war is not legitimate because this government did not receive enough support from the voters on June 7.

IN EXCHANGE FOR WHAT DID YOU AGREE WITH THE U.S.?

Turkish officials recently said that they made an agreement with the US, in exchange for what was this agreement made? Remember previous agreements between Turkey and the US in 2007, 2008, and 2009? Those agreements helped neither Yaşar Büyükanıt nor İlker Başbuğ (former Chiefs of Staff), and the most recent agreement would not help Tayyip Erdoğan or Ahmet Davutoğlu. The decline in AKP’s power will inevitably continue. Davutoğlu’s recent statement conveying surprise at the presence of armed people within Turkish borders is manipulative, PKK guerrillas within Turkey have been armed for 35 years. AKP’s inability providing solutions is the main reason behind Davutoğlu’s fake surprise, this inability led to AKP’s use of the army and the police force for committing crimes and murdering civilians.

WE DID NOT PLAN TO FIGHT THE MILITARY

As the PKK, we did not have any plans or strategies of fighting against the Turkish military. We were engaged in solving the problems of democratization and self-administration. Davutoğlu’s use of the army for attacking us, and boast of ‘hitting 400 targets in one night’ led to the on-going armed conflict. AKP is using the police force and the army in order to save its political rule. I would like to remind the conflict between the army and AKP in recent history, and end by saying that AKP’s rule is temporary and AKP.

GUERILLAS HAVEN'T PULLED THE TRIGGER YET

This process is also witnessing calls for a cease-fire from many circles. Is such a development possible?

Right, HDP became a little more active, so did the CHP. Some democratic circles are calling both sides to take hands off the trigger and return to the negotiation table. We appreciate these calls but it must be known that this conflict wasn't started by our side. It is not right to talk about the actions by PKK without mentioning the most recent Amed (Diyarbakir) and Suruç massacres, and increasingly ongoing repression and arrests.

On the other hand, guerrillas haven't pulled the trigger yet. Their current actions are limited retaliation. Prime Minister Davutoğlu himself announced that 400 targets were hit during the first night of airstrikes, which gives the guerrilla the right to retaliate 400 times. Besides, a few thousand people have been detained and arrested after that, which also requires retaliation. In this regard, guerrillas haven't taken up arms or pulled the trigger yet.

Separately, the problem is not the presence of a conflict but the reasons behind it. PKK is not a military force that just took up arms and took to the mountains for no reason. The government is not conducting these attacks for no reason, either. There are causes of this conflict and there can be no ceasefire or solution without a consideration and settlement of these causes.

Guerrillas had not fired a single bullet since early 2013 but what did the government do in response? Nothing. Two and a half years passed in vain. We do not want to end up in the same situation. We didn't take to the mountains for no reason, nor are we giving a fight for nothing. We defend and need a free and democratic life. This is what we fight for.

The conflict will not end unless its causes are eliminated. The reason for this conflict is not that 'PKK took to the mountains and took up arms', as they claim it to be. We took to the mountains but we are putting forward significant solution proposals. Leader Apo made a major effort to be able to develop a solution for democratic politics but they disappointed all these.

'THERE EXISTS A DICTATORSHIP OF THE APPOINTED ABOVE THE ELECTED'

The problem is caused by the monist, chauvinist, nationalist and dictatorial ruling of the AKP. There is no democratic ruling, society isn't given the opportunity to rule itself.

To give an example, the deputies, mayors and village headmen are elected but they have no influence on the local administration because all the authority is held by the governors appointed by Ankara. AKP says 'we ended the hegemony of the appointed above the elected, we are establishing the ruling of the elected', but this is a lie. The ruling belongs to the appointed, not the elected. This is not how democracy and democratic ruling can be achieved. There exists a dictatorship of the appointed provincial and district governors above the elected representatives. This is not democracy. Neither Kurds nor Turkey can be ruled with this system any more.

This is a matter of mindset and politics due to the existence of an anti-democratic and fascistic mindset, strategy and policy bearing enmity towards the Kurds. The Turkish state and authorities who say nothing against the activity of ISIS and Al Nusra in Syria voice objection against the effectiveness and self-ruling of PYD in Kurdish areas.

They wouldn't recognize the KDP either if it didn't fight the PKK. They are now calling KDP a friend because of their need for a fight against PKK. They are now having talks with the KDP but we didn't forget about the past. Yet in 2007-2008, Yaşar Büyükanıt and İlker Başbuğ refused to have talks with the KDP whom they described as 'clan leaders'.

'WHAT WILL CHANGE WHEN WE ANNOUNCE A CEASEFIRE?'

Democratic change and transformation cannot take place unless they are realized in the present mindset, strategy and politics. As the most democratic force in Turkey, we are giving a major fight for democracy for 35 years now, and we will continue doing the same in the future as well, until Turkey is democratised. We have made great self-sacrifices, lost our fighters and waged a struggle under the most challenging circumstances.

Everyone should answer the question what will happen when we declare a ceasefire. Will there be a democratic ruling? Will the peoples, Kurds primarily, be able to get organized with their own identities? Will women be free? Will society develop local democratic administrations? Will the dictatorship of the AKP-appointed governors on local administrations end? We want to see and understand this. All these points are the causes of the present conflict. Those wanting an end to this conflict should rather focus on these issues and seek a solution on this basis. There can be no solution unless these causes are eliminated.

ALL-OUT TOTAL RESISTANCE IS THE ONLY SOLUTION

What should the democratic forces and peoples do in the face of ongoing attacks by AKP?

AKP had already decided to attack us before the elections. They just put this decision into practice after failing to accept the election results and the developments in Rojava. Yet, everyone should know that AKP, which is attacking so heavily with the anger over these developments, has no power to remain standing. The government wants to come back to the power by means of arms, military and police forces, and it wants to succeed this over Kurds.

In the face of the total warfare concept put into effect, the only solution is all-out resistance. The peoples and Turkey's society should resist this fascist attack which targets Leader Apo, guerrillas, people and democratic politics.

'RULING OF APPOINTED GOVERNORS SHOULDN'T BE ACCEPTED'

We should uncover our democratic will against those trying to impose their own fascist, chauvinistic and centralist will on us. All of society, democratic forces, NGOs, women and youth should manifest their democratic will in all areas and refuse a ruling by appointed governors. Democracy means self-ruling, which is why the whole of society should establish their own local administrations.

WE SHOULD BREAK THE FASCIST WILL

This does not mean separatism or splitting the country. This is democracy and Democratic Autonomy which unites people, unlike fascism and a monist mindset that separates, splits, otherizes and excludes them. Everyone should declare their freedom and reveal a democratic will against the fascistic centralist will and the attacks aiming to break our will.

This is the only existing conflict and the only reason for a conflict. The monist, fascist, chauvinistic and dictatorial will of the AKP needs to be broken by the establishment of democratic local administrations. There is no need to do anything else to achieve this, like press briefings or statements which serve nothing.

EVERYONE SHOULD RESIST THE POLICE

The people and society wants self-rule within Turkey's Democratic Nation. They are not separatists and they are not engaged in a conflict with the state forces. Yet, they are of course defending themselves in the event of an attack or intervention by the army. However, people should resist the police coming to them for arrest, and not allow any attempt for any arrest. Everyone should defend their neighborhoods, villages and towns. They should manifest their own will and defend themselves. This is what struggle means. A struggle on this basis will reveal a permanent effect and break the monist will of the AKP fascism, and the impositions of the MHP, which will thus eliminate the causes of this war.

Right, guerrillas are playing a role and our Leader Öcalan is resisting but there is no answer we can give to the AKP fascism other than developing our democratic self-rule, founding our own assemblies and ruling ourselves on the local level. This is what Democratic Autonomy and democratic self-rule means.

Living one day freely is better than living as slaves under this much repression. They say they will hit and destroy us, and they may do that, which, however, doesn't matter. Kemal Pir (PKK founder who died in a hunger strike in 1982) also praised a 'free life' when he started a death fast in prison. His stance should be realized in every neighborhood, village, town and city. Freedom must be declared and defended. This is what needs to be done, and this is the stance that needs to be adopted.

[John Dolva]

Turkish contra forces enter Syria, fighting and repression continue across Turkey and North Kurdistan, the government crisis continues and social movements hold on

We posted quite a few items on Saturday after three days of not posting but we were once more overtaken by the speed of events in Rojava, North Kurdistan and Turkey. Let's try working back from where we are now to last week in order to better grasp what is taking place.

Turkish contra forces enter Syria

At the top of our news is the story that occupying forces organized by the MİT (Turkish intelligence service) and affiliated to the Turkish state entered Azaz city today from the Bab Al-Selamê border gate in Azaz city. This entry in Syria was certainly expected by many people, but the Sultan Murat Brigade and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Brigade are relatively new creations by the Turkish state and are armed with heavy weapons and are carrying Turkish flags. They were reported to be heading towards the villages of Kefferan and Delhan. The Fatih Sultan Mehmet brigade may also have left İdlib for Azaz city.

Recent fighting across Turkey and North Kurdistan

Mainstream Turkish media is reporting that at least 6 Turkish security personnel and an unknown number of civilians and fighters were killed in attacks in Istanbul and North Kurdistan today. A car bomb exploded in front of a police station in Istanbul’s Sultanbeyli district early this morning, taking the lives of at least two assailants and one police officer and starting a fire which caused part of the building to collapse. The US consulate building in Istanbul’s Sarıyer district was later hit. The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) claimed responsibility for the embassy attack. A woman alleged to have been part of the attack was taken by the police. She had been released from prion early last month after having been arrested for being a DHKP-C member and was deliberately wounded by police today. Fascists gathered in front of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) District Headquarters on Fatih Boulevard after the attacks and damaged the office by throwing rocks and stones. Fighting continued in Şırnak’s Silopi district with four police officers dead after their armored vehicle hit a land mine there. Liberation forces opened fire on a Sikorsky model military helicopter in Şırnak’s Beytüşşebap district and killed one soldier and wounded at least 7 others. Turkish Cobra helicopters then bombed positions held by the liberation movement there. Silopi represents an advanced level of struggle between the people and the state at this point as the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) has built a base in area and people have used trenches to protect themselves from military incursions there. Three civilians and one police officer were killed there on Friday.

Police violence and repression are also features in the struggle in Silopi. After an earlier bombing targeted the police they responded by randomly firing on civilians as liberation forces fought back. Police also blocked and attacked Silopi's Zap neighborhood, where young people had dug trenches. A young man named Temer Şeflek was seriously wounded by police gunfire and was unable to reach the hospital due to the heavy police blockade and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) representatives intervened to get him to the hospital. The police siege on the neighborhood is on-going.

On August 7 a delegation led by HDP Parliamentary representatives traveled to Silopi to investigate the police terror that began there the previous day. HDP representative Meral Danış Beştaş said that the scene "recalled Gaza and Kobanê." Meral Danış Beştaş said, "The state started a war against the people. In two homes, a fire was knowingly started. The scene we saw was a summary of how savagely the state has attacked the people." The delegation attempted to meet with responsible state officials there but were rebuffed. "The people have the right to defend themselves. Today, in Silopi, there is rage and there is suspicion," Meral Danış Beştaş said.

Liberation forces also continued defensive and retaliatory actions in Diyarbakır’s Lice district today. No casualties were reported in the fighting there, which involved exchanges of gunfire between the armed struggle groups and the police. Police continued their heavy-handed repressive response in the region. In Dersim Province ("Tunceli") liberation movement fighters fired Biksi machine guns at two military helicopters. Yesterday fighters said to have been associated with the Turkish Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (TKP/ML), the Organization for Liberation of Turkish Workers, Peasants (TİKKO) and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fired onm the Çiçekli Gendarmerie Station in the area. The emerging pattern is hit-and-run guerrilla actions followed by state repression. In this situation the security forces are especially tense throughout Turkey and North Kurdistan, political parties are issuing important statements and the liberation movement is continuing to hold their positions. There is also some pressure being applied to the ruling reactionary Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the liberal/social-democratic Republican People's Party (CHP) to form a coalition government as the violence continues. Some of this pressure comes from the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation, which represents about 30,000 companies in Turkey, and forms in response to the continuing drop in the Turkish Lira. The CHP seems to want to pass the ball while the fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) blames the peace process initiated in 2012 by the Kurdish freedom movement for the clashes even as they push the AKP and the CHP to form a government.

Political approaches

Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, has taken a somewhat more measured approach than other foreign powers by calling for a de-escalation of the violence and linking this to recent democratic gains made in Turkey and then linking democratic progress to the peace process. “The recent increase of violence in Turkey which has resulted in the deaths of civilians, soldiers and police officers is very worrying. I call on all in Turkey to refrain from violent actions and reactions. Nobody will gain from this escalation. It endangers the progress that has been achieved over the last years. The peace process which is essential to stability in the region has to be resumed,” he said today.

Leaders from the AKP and the CHP issued separate but expected statements against terrorism today. The CHP has moved to a point where they describe terrorism as Turkey's biggest problem now, a point which is escaping US media attention when the US media looks at the region. Turkey's Prime Minister Davutoğlu took the AKP line in his statement and called on all parties to oppose the Kurdistan Workesr' Party (PKK) and to call on the PKK and the liberation movement to disarm. “I call on all political party leaders to embrace public order, democracy and take a common stance on the issue of laying down arms,” the prime minister said yesterday on his Twitter account.

These statements are important in that they point to how a new government may be forming or the conditions under which early elections may be called. The deadline for forming a government is Aug. 23. Talks underway between the AKP and the CHP must take up the question of violence, but they must also be negotiating meetings and they will broaden to include other participants from both parties if they progress.

Responses from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)

Most important for us, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) leaders who are closest to the peace process---the İmralı delegation---said yesterday that the AKP-led government has lost its credibility in taking up the process and no longer gives the committee permission to meet with Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish liberation movement. The HDP leaders correctly argued that the AKP had “lost decisiveness” in not permitting meetings between the committee and Abdullah Öcalan. The process cannot continue if Abdullah Öcalan can't hold negotiations meetings and confer with socially representative committees. The İmralı delegation wants Abdullah Öcalan to be given an “official status” in the peace process and they want a transparent peace process as well.

Along similar lines, HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has been quoted as saying that the AKP must put distance between the party and ISIS at a peace rally organized by the Peace Bloc in İstanbul on yesterday afternoon. “Esteemed interim prime minister (Ahmet Davutoğlu), stop pouring orders on us. You must first keep your distance from terrorism. Keep your distance from ISIL terrorism. We conducted civilian politics and we led you to lose your parliamentary majority. What did you do then? You have resorted to arms. Actually, the party that has to keep its distance from arms and terrorism is none other than the AK Party,” Selahattin Demirtaş was quoted as saying. He has also been quoted as having said that the ruling AKP intentionally triggered the violence which has built over recent weeks in order to push the HDP below the legal 10 percent electoral threshold in a possible early election.

Selahattin Demirtaş called for an immediate mutual cease-fire between the PKK and the security forces and said that his party has never been involved in a violent incident and has never supported the use of arms. He emphasized the HDP's use of people's politics people's power to win the June 7 elections. “The arms that the AK Party sent to ISIL, the bombs that you sent via trucks, the logistical support you provided to ISIL and your contributions to facilitate ISIL gaining new terrorists...these are all crimes. Did we carry out those crimes? You did all this. The only party that wants to benefit from the use of arms is you. The only one that resorted to arms when you could not defeat the HDP via democratic means is you. You hope for help from death,” he said.

The HDP continues to focus on peoples' unity during the crises. Selahattin Demirtaş said at the rally that “If you observe the AK Party's deeds, you will understand how a war is waged and designed. If you want to see war, please look at the dirty politics and dreams of the AK Party. However, if you want to see how peace is established, please look at those who have gathered in this square...Kurds, Turks, Alevis and Sunnis will come together like this and join forces to prevent you (the AKP) from waging this war that you dream of...Just like you can declare war, the public can declare peace. What you must do in the face of the unity of the people and their desire for peace is to only be silent. You must submit to the will of the people...The mothers of the police officers, soldiers and guerrillas must stand up and say they don't have any sons to be sacrificed. They should also tell (the government and President Erdoğan) that they will never sacrifice their sons so that you can stay at palaces, oppress people or rob people easier. You should also say that you did not raise your sons for this...The biggest madness in Turkey is the one that is currently being imposed by the AK Party. No one else imposes war on us. The public wants peace. The PKK also announces that it is ready to make peace and ready to implement the blueprint that was read out in Dolmabahçe, but the AK Party insistently says it wants war instead.”

Selahattin Demirtaş also said “If they want an early election, we will make them regret that. Are you ready for it? They will never reach that goal of 41% again” and “Peace does not solely mean the silence of the arms. Of course mutual cease fire is also necessary and we demand it right now. The government can no longer remain silent to this demand” and “The ballot boxes will be set again. And this time we will directly hit the target and bury the AKP into the ballot box.” These points were overlooked in mainstream and foreign press reports covering the rally.

The Peace Rally was held in İstanbul's Bakırköy district as a show of solidarity with the martyrs who died in the July 20 terrorist attack in Suruç and in order to call for peace. The organizing slogan was “AKP wants war, we will build peace” and the rally was built by at least 90 organizations. Thousands of people attended the rally with signs in Kurdish, Turkish and English. Labor unions were prominent and women frequently chanted “Women will not allow you to wage a war!” At one point everyone at the rally yelled "Peace!" on cue. “The Palace wants war; people want peace” and “ISIS, the murderer; AKP, the collaborator” were also prominent slogans at the rally.

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)

The KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Foreign Affairs Committee released a statement arguing that some dark forces, press-media agencies and circles in South Kurdistan have recently been spreading propaganda with reports claiming that the PKK will launch an attack on the Kurtdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the governing party in South Kurdistan. The KCK statement is linked to the above-mentioned statements and crises because it forms a strong argument for Kurdish unity against the Turkish state at a particularly dangerous moment.

The KCK said that these circles argued that the "PKK will attack KDP whom they hold responsible for the recently-started and on-going airstrikes of the Turkish state against Medya Defense Zones held by guerrillas in South Kurdistan" and then described these reports as propaganda and as unfounded claims. The KCK condemned these stories and called on all of the Kurdistan people and political-social forces, the people and political parties of South Kurdistan in the first place, to be sensitive to the games played by these dark forces. The committee further stated that such propaganda, reports, comments and rumors are apparently being spread by those who can't accept the gains achieved by the Kurdish people, the Freedom Movement and democratic forces in Turkey and in the Middle East.

The KCK sees these provocative approaches as working along parallel lines with the recently launched attacks on the Kurdish Freedom Movement in North Kurdistan and Turkey and the airstrikes in South Kurdistan and says that these provocations aim to cause conflicts between Kurdish forces and to eliminate the gains of the Kurdish people and the movement in the four parts of Kurdistan. The Kurdish movement isn't considering any conflict with the KDP, or any other force from Kurdistan, but is instead focused on efforts being made for national unity during the current process as the Kurdish people are facing serious threats and dangers in all four parts of Kurdistan. "Our movement believes the existing problems can be solved through talks and dialogue between the Kurdish political powers in (the four parts of Kurdistan)," the KCK statement said.

The KCK also pointing to the danger of such traps and plots in the current situation, which is fragile in every part of Kurdistan because of gains made there, and said that intensifying the work for National Unity will be the best answer to be given to those who want to create a conflict among Kurds. The KCK Foreign Affairs Committee ended its statement by calling on all of the Kurdistan people, political parties, organizations and individuals, the people of South Kurdistan in the first place, to adopt clear attitude and intensify the work for National Unity in response to the efforts for creating such a conflict among Kurds.

Turkey handed 6 wounded YPG fighters over to Al Nusra

Along quite different, but related, lines, HDP Group Deputy Chair İdris Baluken held a press conference in Parliament regarding the handing over of six injured fighters from Rojava's heroic People's Defense Forces (YPG) to the Al Nusra jihadist organization in Syria. The YPG fighters had been acquitted of charges by a court but were taken into custody and sent to the Foreigners Department of the p0olice. İdris Baluken said that the six were handed over to gangs affiliated to Al Nusra at the Cilvegözü (Bab al Hawa) border crossing. We made mention of this in a previous blog post.

The HDP Group Deputy Chair remarked that the Undersecretariat of Interior Ministry admitted that the six YPG fighters were handed over to Al Nusra groups. He described this as a war crime and called for Prime Minister Davutoğlu and the government to explain what happened.

İdris Baluken framed the present conflict environment in the country as "a consequence of the AKP government's war concept" and said, "As we stated before, the conflict must end as soon as possible. The PKK should turn back to the ceasefire position and the government should stop the operations. Negotiations should be re-initiated."

In Parliament the Group Deputy Chair submitted a point to Prime Minister Davutoğlu saying, “In consideration of the 1949's Geneva Convention, the Turkish state, which also is a party to it, openly committed a war crime by the hand of the AKP, and the possibility arose for the trial of the perpetrators of this crime at the Hague Court of Justice.”

Kobanê's Foreign Affairs Minister İbrahim Kurdo also said that they expect an explanation from Turkish authorities about the handing over of the 6 YPG fighters to Al-Nusra. The YPG Kobanê Command had previously announced that Turkey handed over the 6 wounded YPG fighters to Jabbat Al Nusra gangs at the Bab El Hewa border gate in İdlib and also demanded an immediate explanation from the Turkish authorities. The Turkish authorities have remained silent and we have not seen a mainstream news media source pick up the details of the story and follow through.

The Kobanê Foreign Affairs Minister said that they cannot get any information about the YPG fighters who legally crossed into Turkey for treatment at the Mürşit Pınar border gate. He said that they expected a clear explanation as to whether or not the 6 YPG fighters were handed over by Turkey to Al-Nusra gangs after their treatment and he stressed that ISIS is a terrorist organization founded against all humanity and attacking without differentiating between the peoples. He also said that it is the YPG/YPJ (People's/Women's Defense Forces) that have waged a struggle against the gangs and protected the 900 km Turkish border from them for over 4 years now. İbrahim Kurdo also pointed out that Turkey should provide support to YPG forces in order to cleanse the entire area of this terror.

İbrahim Kurdo said that Turkey should stand against the forces that provide support to the gangs within its borders if the allegations of Turkish state support for ISIS and ISIS-like gangs are true. He said that the reason ISIS attacks Rojava is that “There is a model implemented in Rojava that takes equality and freedoms of the people as its basis. This model is against the monist model based on one language, one religion and one race model adopted by ISIS. This is why Rojava is being attacked by the hand of ISIS.”

İbrahim Kurdo looked to the future and said that Rojava's Efrin and Kobanê cantons will be united through the liberation of Jarablus, just as the cantons of Cizîrê and Kobanê were united with the liberation of Girê Spî. He underlined that none of the three cantons in Rojava constitute a threat for Turkey and added that they don't want to have any problems with Turkey and can live in peace as neighbors.

Several incidents showing the real face of the Turkish state

* Two children were wounded after the blast of an explosive device that they found in the trash in the Hacıbekir neighborhood of Van.

* Clashes broke out between guerrillas and Turkish soldiers in the Tale, Pire Şine and Dize areas located between Hakkari and its Çukurca district. Guerrillas have warned civilians to stay away from the clashes area so as to avoid any harm.

* The HDP Law and Human Rights Commission has filed an official complaint on the torture, threats and humiliation civilians have experienced at the hands of special operations police in Hakkari’s Yüksekova district. The HDP complaint stated that special operations forces took 52 workers into custody during their operation at a private construction site to the north of Selahattin Eyyubi Airport on August 5 and tortured the workers during the police raid. Video footage of the event has been posted on this blog. The HDP complaint noted that a higher-up civil servant was shouting out sentences such as "You will see the power of the Turkish State" and "I know all of you" at the handcuffed workers who were forced to lie on the ground.

The HDP complaint emphasized that the on-going political genocide operations are targeting their success in the June 7 elections, and the public servants’ torture of workers in Yüksekova has been widely interpreted as the state’s reaction to the 94 percent vote in Hakkari for the HDP on June 7.

The HDP said that all armed personnel at the crime scene were responsible for the torture of the workers and that the reverse handcuffing of civilians lying down on was clearly a threat that defied the honor of humanity. The HDP highlighted that such treatment will undoubtedly continue if the state fails to punish the perpetrators and that the torture of the workers aimed to take revenge on Kurdish people and that this can be heard in the discriminatory statements of the perpetrator who said, "What has the Turkish state done to you? You will all see the power of the state!"

A JINHA report on extrajudicial executions has stated the following:

According to Istanbul lawyer Gülizar Tuncer, recent legal changes in Turkey have dramatically increased the scope for extrajudicial executions.

In the 1990s in Turkey, counter-guerrilla forces in the Kurdish provinces utilized a strategy of extrajudicial executions and forced migrations of villagers. For years, the state apparatus involved serious and systematic human rights violations and crimes against humanity.

Turkish armed forces designed a strategy of "low-intensity war" in the region. In 1993, the Special Warfare Department was converted to the new Special Forces Command. With this change came the aim of "domination of the field and permitting no harbor in the region for the PKK organization. The strategy was implemented in the years 1993 to 1995, under Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, when extrajudicial executions were among the systematic rights violations used.

The form of extrajudicial executions has continued until today, if not with the same intensity. Since the elections of June 7, the state of calm and lack of clashes present in the region since 2012 has been pushed to an end. Most recently, on July 25, police executed a woman--Günay Özarslan--in a dawn raid on her home in Istanbul. Soon after, on July 31, special teams raided a home in the province of Ağrı, executing two of the brothers living in the home along with one other.

According to lawyer Gülizar Tuncer, the Internal Security Law has revived the legal framework for these killings. This framework had been abolished in 1999, when the Constitutional Court canceled the power to "directly and without hesitation open fire," part of the Anti-Terror Law. Since the Turkish Parliament passed the Internal Security Law in February despite strong opposition, police once again have the power to kill civilians at will, Gülizar explained.

"This has now become a power granted to them under the law. It's under the law, but it's not just," said Gülizar. "With this law, they can kill people, quite comfortably."

The law allows police to open fire on people for reasons such as carrying ball bearings and slingshots, covering their faces or attempting to throw Molotov cocktails. Gülizar noted that Turkey has not yet seen the full implementation of all powers granted to police under the law. When this happens, said Gülizar, the situation will deteriorate. She noted that the new law makes it difficult to struggle for justice in the courts. The Constitutional Court of the European Court of Human Rights might provide some respite, but the process would be difficult.

Reports from the guerrillas

The HPG (People's Defense Forces) and YJA Star (Free Women's Troops) guerrillas continue to respond to Turkish army attacks. The operations and military activities of the Turkish army are continuing and increasing. Turkish army drones carried out reconnaissance flights over the Medya Defense Zones, the Çerçela region, the Avashin area and border, the Gare region, the Heftanin area and border, the Metina region and the Zap area yesterday and today. Turkish army drones have also been carrying out reconnaissance flights over the Geliyê Zilan region of Ağrı.

Guerrillas responded to Turkish army attacks with the Martyr Reşit Serdar initiative by sabotaging a military convoy twice as it was heading to Çukurca from Hakkari. Two armored vehicles were heavily damaged during the action, and the number of dead and injured soldiers was not yet determined at the time of this report. Turkish army Cobra-type helicopters fired on the area between Hakkari and Çukurca and guerrillas who control the region responded to the helicopters with heavy weapons fire. Guerrillas have had control of the area between Şemdinli’s Gewreyê Cühiyan area and Bezelê for the past week. HPG guerrillas carried out an action against the Beykent Commando Batallion in Siirt’s Kurtalan district at yesterday and hit 2 positions, destroying 1 position completely and killing 2 soldiers. Guerrillas also hit the District Gendarme Command and hit several soldiers in front of the barracks. The number of dead or injured soldiers had not yet been determined at the time of this report. HPG guerrillas took action against the 7th Corps Command in the Amed city center at yesterday and, again, the number of dead and injured soldiers had not been determined when the report was issued. Guerrillas hit three watch posts that were guarding the military armory in Ağrı’s Doğubeyazıt district with B7 rockets and weapons on Saturday. The watch posts were heavily damaged and the number of dead and injured soldiers remains unknown. The Turkish army launched an operation in the area after this action, but ended its operation after it did not produce results. The HPG stressed that the Turkish army has increased its storage and deployment activities in Erzurum and Ağrı, particularly in Ağrı’s Eleşkirt district. Guerrillas hit the Çiçek military post located between Dersim and Ovacık on August 9, and shot 10 soldiers in front of the post at close distance. Cobra-type helicopters fired randomly in the area surrounding Zergoyi and Arman villages during the army’s operation after guerrillas’ action.

The guerrillas in the Medya Defense Zones keep watch 24 hours a day and state that they will respond to every possible attack. Aerial defense systems that the guerrillas call "dushka" and that guard the skies from the ground are part of a new lifestyle for the guerrillas. The guerrillas keep watch in the mountain lines that lie across Kurdistan and use BKC rifles and other types of heavy weapons as well as dushkas. They warn one another through the line of communications established in case of land and aerial incursions into the guerrilla zones.

Guerrilla Derviş Şino told ANF news service that he uses a 12,5 doçka and said that they are prepared for any type of aerial attack. Derviş Şino also said that the negotiation and solution process that developed after Newroz of 2013 ended with the Turkish army air strikes that began on July 24 and pointed out that these attacks actually began on April 5 with the isolation of Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan). The attacks on the guerrilla-held Medya Defense Zones, the massacres of civilians, political genocide operations and military operations are aiming to carry out more massacres by channeling the masses into the streets. As the militants of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, Şino stated that they will not stay silent in the face of the attacks and said that they are prepared to prevent the enemy from being successful.

The People's Defense Forces (HPG) reported that two guerrillas were martyred in an self-sacrifice action against the Pozantı Police Headquarters in Adana on July 31. One other guerrilla lost his life in the Medya Defense Zones on August 4.

The HPG provided details about the guerrilla action that targeted the Pozantı Police Headquarters on July 31, and said that two guerrillas entered the building after shooting two policemen at the main entrance gate. The two guerrillas carried out a self-sacrifice action during the fighting which left many police officers dead or injured. The statement said that the police gave the bodies of the two guerrillas to a fascist mob and treated them in insulting and degrading ways.

The two martyred guerrillas are Yakup Nas, nom de guerre Şiyar Şiyar, from Mersin, and Ali Baybariz, nom de guerre Welat Rıha, from Hatay. Another guerrilla by the name of Azad Serhat was wounded during the Turkish airstrikes on the Medya Defense Zones on July 25-26 has also lost his life. The HPG has identified the martyred guerrilla as Ali İhsan Askar, nom de guerre Azad Serhat, and born in Van. He died on August 4.

We cannot end this long post without saying something about the class struggle and the environmental struggle in Turkey and North Kurdistan.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) submitted a motion to parliament today for a detailed report on the institutional, administrative, legal and economic factors in work accidents. This is being spoun as part of an effort to "establish a holistic approach to prevent such incidents" in mainstream media, but it is indeed needed and will work best iof combined with the HDP program on worker safety and union rights.

The motion was submitted by CHP deputy parliamentary group leader Özgür Özel and deputy leader Sezgin Tanrıkulu and other CHP deputies. The often-repeated statistics justifying the motion are as follows: in the first nine months of 2014, 1,414 workers died in workplace disasters, getting Turkey third place in terms of the numbers of deaths in workplace accidents or massacres, right behind El Salvador and Algeria. The CHP believes that work accidents can be prevented with the right safety and health measures and by using contemporary economic policies and the CHP criticized the government’s inability to address this question. Some 12,686 workers have died at work in the last 12 years. “It is understood that, so far, the government didn’t approach this subject with all the seriousness it requires, and the few legal regulations made were unable to prevent work accidents; far from reducing the work accidents and in the view of continuous increases and repetitions of such accidents, government officials kept repeating the same memorized sentences each time,” the motion says. “It is indispensable to take into account all these dimensions, in the light of scientific data and experts’ opinions, and to analyze other examples in the world in order to prevent work accidents.”

Meanwhile, we can see how workers in Turkey and North Kurdistan are faring when we look at the protest carried out by the Dershane Teachers' Platform in Ankara's Güvenpark today. They were there to protest against the Ministry of Education, which had once promised the teachers jobs after the preparatory schools ("dershanes") they worked at were closed down, or were scheduled to close down, after the AKP-led government banned privately owned university preparatory courses in 2014. The closures were an attack on the Hizmet movement. The promised jobs never materialized even as some of the prep schools became public schools.

The Platform is a unitary organization that is independent of any party or union. Their protest was organized under the slogans “Ministry of Education, keep the promises made to prep school teachers,” “Prep school teachers are being mistreated” and “Minister (of education), who is going to earn a living for me?” A spokesperson for the Platform said today that “We are unemployed prep school teachers who were also educated in (the institutions of) Turkey. We are being treated unjustly. After the Constitutional Court's decision to annul the law (that closed prep schools), the government's promise to us, those who had completed six years as prep school teachers, is off the agenda...As to the reports regarding our employment in basic high schools, while 20 or 25 teachers work in a prep school, this number decreases to 10 or 15 in a transformed basic public school. While there were 10 prep schools in a district with a population of 10,000 people, this number has now decreased to two basic high schools. The situation is no different in metropolitan cities, since not every institution receives permission for conversion...When the concept of (the impact on our) family is considered, the extent of the mistreatment becomes evident.”

Environmentalists and people who protested against the construction of the 2,600-kilometer road project planned to connect upland areas in the Black Sea region have been searched with trained dogs by gendarmerie forces in Rize province while heading to a local festival. This is the so-called "green Road" project which stands to do so much environmental damage. We have profiled these brave people, their efforts to block construction equipment and their broader struggle in other blog posts. Their sit-ins have been met by police violence and some of the land that they have been trying to save was clear-cut by companies even as a court sided with the people.

Perhaps 300 residents of Rize’s Çamlıhemşin district were stopped and searched in the Amlakit village by gendarmerie forces working with trained dogs yesterday while on the way to the Samistal village to attend the yearly Vartevor festival. “We are sad to see this sort of search of us. What does that mean to search us in our land? We grew up in these upland areas as shepherds,” one of the people who was searched said. Another person involved in the struggle said, "We want to leave a breathable place for our grandchildren.”

Police also attacked a people's non-violent action carried out against a gold mine using cyanide in Turkey's Ordu province. The English company Stratex International plans to build a gold mine that uses cyanide in the mining process near the Yukarı Bahçeler village in the Fatsa district of Ordu province. The struggle against the mining operation has been underway for about 10 months now. There is a tent encampment at the site and legal processes are moving forward.

The company has constructed cyanide pools. The people from the region and environmentalists marched against the mine. One sign at the demonstration famously read "The dead can't wear gold." Military police and armored vehicles blocked the people's march and then the police attacked the people at the mine entrance. At least two people were wounded in the clash.

[Steven Gaal]

US Airstrike Kills Eight Civilians in Northern Syria

Attack Targeted Munitions Factory, Leveled Homes

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by Jason Ditz, August 14, 2015 antiwar.com

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A solid year of US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria has led to a significant, but more or less entirely denied, civilian death toll. The most recent incident came Tuesday night, with a US attack on the northern Syrian village of Atmeh, along the Turkey border.

The village is in al-Qaeda-held territory, and had a small munitions factory, which was the intended target of the US airstrikes. Instead, the attack triggered explosions which leveled several civilian homes, killing at least eight civilians and wounding an unknown number of others.

The Pentagon isn’t acknowledging this incident so far, but says that it has received a total of 31 official reports, and dismissed more or less all of them as “not credible.” 17 were dismissed out of hand, and others were rejected after an “investigation” that they never publicly released the results of.

Several hundred civilians are believed to have been killed, though the Pentagon is only confirming two were actually killed in their attacks. The Pentagon did confirm attacking Atmeh that night, but never said what the target was, and would only say they were “looking into” the reports.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

Self-governance comes to life in Cizre-Botan

People of Cizre-Botan are determined to not recognize the AKP and govern themselves.

Monday, August 17, 2015 at 4:00 PM

ŞIRNAK - ANF

Peoples started to declare self-governance after the AKP’s decision to end the ceasefire and implement war policies. People of Şırnak’s Cizre district are working towards realizing this project and have banned soldiers from entering their neighborhoods.

After leading the first uprisings in North Kurdistan in the 1990s, Şırnak’s Cizre district launched a new uprising initiative and the City Assembly declared ‘self-governance’ in response to the AKP government’s war policies.

Young people dug trenches and keep watch at the barricades put up in Nur, Yafes, Cudi, Sur and Konak neighborhoods as well as 10 other areas. City Assembly Co-Presidents and opinion leaders have spoken to ANF regarding their initiative.

'WE WILL NOT RECOGNIZE ANY INSTITUTION TIED TO THE AKP'

A Nur Neighborhood People’s Initiative Youth Branch member stated that they dug trenches and placed hundreds of young people across Cizre for self-defense purposes, and would not allow the attacks and oppression of the AKP government’s police officers. The youth branch member noted that the people of Cizre had no expectations from the AKP-led state, and were determined to keep the oppressive and denialist police and military forces from their living spaces in order to protect the future of their children. The member recalled that the AKP government aimed to destroy the will of Kurdish people despite Leader Apo’s sincere and prudent approach, and the people have decided to no longer see legitimacy in the AKP-led state until Leader Apo gains his freedom.

'IT IS AKP, NOT THE STATE, THAT WE SEE AS ILLEGITIMATE'

City Council Co-President Mehmet Tunç recalled that the model of self-governance was first introduced in Kurdistan in 2005, and the self-governance today was declared by the City Council that brings together the town’s people and non-governmental organizations. Tunç criticized the security forces’ recent violent and inhumane approach to civilians, and said that they would not work with these forces until infiltrators from organizations such as ISIS and the Gulen movement are completely cleared of police and military ranks.

City Council Co-President Tunç emphasized that their self-governance decision was being manipulated, and it was AKP, not the state, that they saw as illegitimate. Tunç added that they also did not recognize state institutions led by the AKP such as the governorship and the police force, and highlighted that the peoples of Cizre-Botan were determined to govern themselves, mobilize, and build their own economy and defense.

Tunç criticized the 200 years of oppression Kurdish people have endured at the hands of central powers, and said that Kurdish people no longer accepted the impositions of espionage or colonist policies. Tunç ended his statements by saying that they were determined to implement their decision of self-governance no matter what it may cost them, and the recent threats of Erdoğan would not prevent the construction of people’s bottom-up economy, politics, and system.

[John Dolva]

Latest news

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Turkish forces kill a youth in Silvan

Qamişlo explosion leads to casualties13:00 19/08/2015 10

This morning at 9:20, a vehicle was detonated in the city of Qamişlo, in Rojava, killing and injuring workers.

Clashes ongoing in Şemdinli and Varto12:59 19/08/2015

Clashes are continuing in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari province as police try to close trenches in the streets, while soldiers have bombed a PKK graveyard in Varto.

Kurds decide on self-government in the face of war12:58 19/08/2015 10

Since Turkish President Erdoğan's new wave of attacks in Kurdistan in the wake of Turkey's June election, people of all ages have joined the effort to defend and govern themselves in the area.

Assyrian women take up self-defense10:35 19/08/2015 2

Assyrian women have begun self-defense training in order to protect their people from Daesh attacks.

Co-mayors attacked in police raids in Diyarbakır10:33 19/08/2015 3

In the Diyarbakır province of Northern Kurdistan (Turkey), police have started an arrest operation in several towns, violently arresting nine including local co-mayors.

Istanbul neighborhood of Gazi declares self-government10:24 19/08/2015 4

In the Gazi neighborhood, the people have declared that they are rejecting the AKP's police and military attacks and have declared self-government.

KJK calls for support for Kurdish people's demand for self-government10:13 19/08/2015 1

The KJK has issued a statement calling for support for the Kurdish people's legitimate demand for self-government.

Diyarbakır takes to the streets against attacks10:04 19/08/2015 2

The people of Diyarbakır protested the AKP's new attacks in Northern Kurdistan (Turkey) with noise demos and protests yesterday evening.

Turkish jets bomb guerrilla positions09:59 19/08/2015

Turkish army jets bombed the Haftanin guerrilla-held area yesterday night.

Nusaybin women and youth dig trenches09:58 19/08/2015 10

Residents of the town of Nusaybin in Northern Kurdistan (Turkey) dug self-defense trenches, with women ululating as they joined the trench-digging effort.

[John Dolva]

Press Release Kurds in Turkey under threat of massacre

August 18, 2015

Turkish army besieges and attacks several Kurdish provinces and villages

With Erdogan’s ending of the Kurdish-Turkish peace process on the 24th of July a new total war against the Kurds is under way. Since this date Kurdish mountains, villages and geography have been under daily attack and bombardment. For almost a week the Turkish Special Forces, supported by the army, has declared a state of emergency in Kurdish towns and are undertaking extrajudicial killings in the region.

Most recently in districts like Varto, Semdinli, Farqin, Yuksekova, Nusaybin and Lice a state of emergency has been declared, civilians have been targeted, workplaces have been bombed and houses have been set alight. They are not allowing for those that have been killed as a result of these attacks to be buried and those that have been injured to receive treatment. All entries and exits from these towns and provinces have been banned, while the security forces are terrorizing the people in the regions that have been cut off from the rest of the country. Main power supplies and water supplies to these towns are being purposefully cut.

The people living in these places are very worried and say that they are facing the threat of massacre. Until now several civilians have been reported killed, however, according to local sources the death toll is much higher than what is being reported on by the state. The Turkish army has also besieged the rural regions surrounding these districts and is conducting heavy bombardments in the villages; these bombardments are still continuing.

The main reason behind these attacks and the extrajudicial killings of civilians is down to Turkish President Erdogan giving unlimited powers to the security forces. This is yet another sign of the animosity of the AKP towards the Kurdish people. By attacking the Kurdish people, the Turkish government and President Erdogan are morally and practically supporting ISIS.

• We call upon the international public to stand against this war effort led by the Turkish President Erdogan.

• We call upon the EU and the member states, the USA and the UN to break their silence over the threat of massacre against the Kurds in Turkey.

• We call upon the international media to take an interest in the issue that has a significant bearing on the fight against ISIS in the region

KNK