John Dolva

Attacking the PKK Means Defending ISIS

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.

HARVEST

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.

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.

The history (formal) of us intelligence goes back to Benjamin Franklin, back to when he organised the department of Postal Inspection in the USPO which he had set up previously. At the time of the Civil War there were about 16 PI's active. The second in command in the Confederate governement came from the USPO to form the mirror department in the confederacy and went back to it after the war. During the war the PI's on both sides were important in intelligence gathering. In the time before and after the department operatives grew and shrunk as needed, but it had an unbroken history until Nixon disbanded it in 1970.

edit add, typos : also of interest : with the sacking of JE Day(63), Kennedys replacement brought an end to the close collaboration between the USPO Post Master General and the CIA.

With the change to the USPO/PI(70) department Nixon ended the patronaged position(automatic cabinet membership) of the PMG.

By Workers World staff posted on July 31, 2015

From a talk by Greg Butterfield at a Workers World Party forum in Los Angeles, July 23, 2015.

According to the United Nations, at least 6400 people have been killed since the start of Ukraine’s so-called anti-terrorist operation in April 2014 against the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics of the Donbass mining region bordering on Russia. This is widely understood to be a vast undercount. Donbass officials estimate 10,000 deaths, while a German intelligence report leaked last winter put the death toll closer to 40,000.

The number of casualties is growing. There is daily shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and neo-Nazi volunteer battalions, in violation of the Minsk ceasefire agreements — often as many as 50 to 60 incidents in a single day.

The weekend of July 18-19 saw some of the heaviest shelling in months in downtown Donetsk, capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic. As usual, the attacks were concentrated on civilian areas, including a grocery store. Two civilians were killed. On July 22 alone, 76 incidents were recorded in and around Donetsk city, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Not coincidentally, the intensified shelling began two days after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt appeared on the floor of Ukraine’s parliament in an unprecedented attempt to quell infighting among factions loyal to U.S. imperialism that have made up the Kiev government and state structure.

But let’s turn our attention closer to home. Many of you will remember an incident that happened one year ago here in Los Angeles. On July 1, 2014, a passing motorist captured on video the brutal beating of Marlene Purnoch, an African-American grandmother, by white California Highway Patrol Officer Daniel Andrew.

This horrendous incident came as no surprise to those who know the CHP’s notorious history of racism and brutality. But it may come as a surprise to southern California residents to learn that two weeks ago, the governor of Odessa, Ukraine, announced that the CHP will be training police there as part of the regime’s effort to weed out “disloyal” elements.

Odessa Gov. Mikhail Saakashvili also announced that Washington will be paying the salary for all his staff. This past Saturday, July 18, Saakashvili received the latest shipment of 100 U.S. military Humvees at the Odessa port.

Who is Saakashvili? He’s not from Odessa, or even from Ukraine. He’s a former president of the republic of Georgia, who fled corruption charges at the end of his term, and a well-known Washington stooge. He was appointed governor of Odessa by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in May. The city of Odessa has suffered under violent occupation by fascist gangs since May 2, 2014, when anti-regime protesters were massacred in the House of Trade Unions.

This link between police brutality in southern California and fascist terror in Odessa isn’t just an interesting factoid. For us, as anti-war organizers, as Black Lives Matter and immigrant rights activists, as internationalists and communists, our most important challenge in the coming weeks and months will be to find ways to create a bridge between the new, militant movements of the oppressed fighting U.S. state-sponsored terror at home, with the resistance movements fighting fascism and imperialism abroad, including in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Why Ukraine? Why now?

Once we get a sense of the devastation that’s being carried out in the Donbass region, and the incredible amount of resources being poured into Ukraine and the surrounding region, we have to ask: Why Ukraine? And why now?

Why are hundreds of U.S. Army paratroopers in Lvov, western Ukraine, training members of the Ukrainian National Guard, including the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion? And why, despite an amendment sponsored by Rep. John Conyers and passed by the House of Representatives in June exposing the fascist character of Azov, is this training program on track to be expanded starting in November, according to Ben Hodges, commander of the U.S. Army in Europe?

Why has NATO carried out an unprecedented 14 war games in Eastern and Central Europe, Central Asia and the Alaskan Arctic in the past year? Why did the latest set of war games, called “Noble Jump” and held in Poland in June, include U.S. Special Forces rehearsing an attack on rebels in Donbass?

To be sure, Ukraine is a country rich in natural resources, once known as the breadbasket of the USSR, with powerful mining and other industries in the eastern region developed in Soviet times, and a well-educated, skilled working class. Since the destruction of the Soviet Union, it has served as a crucial gateway for transporting Russian oil and gas to the European Union. For all these reasons, Ukraine is desired by the Western imperialist powers. The chance to get hold of these resources was the main reason that Germany and other European Union powers supported the right-wing coup in Kiev in February 2014.

But the U.S. has greater ambitions. Not only does Wall Street crave Ukraine’s privatized industry and resources — not only does Monsanto want to control the fertile farmland — not only does Washington seek to control the flow of fuel to the countries in Europe that are both military allies in NATO and economic competitors — but at the heart of the Ukrainian crisis is the long-term U.S. strategy of overthrowing and breaking up an independent, capitalist Russian Federation.

On June 23, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced the latest U.S. provocation — to “pre-position” U.S. heavy weaponry in six Baltic and Eastern European countries as part of the expansion of a NATO Rapid Response Force from 13,000 to 40,000 troops. That means stationing hundreds of Pentagon tanks, armored infantry vehicles, self-propelled howitzers and other weaponry near Russia’s western border.

And on July 9, during Senate confirmation hearings, the nominee to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., declared Russia the “greatest threat” to U.S. national security.

The Republican-Democratic “conflict” over arming Ukraine is a sideshow. Their differences are merely tactical. Sen. John McCain and the Republicans want to openly arm the Kiev junta, while President Barack Obama prefers to do it covertly, using third countries. For example, earlier this month, Ukraine inked an arms agreement with the Gulf monarchy of Qatar, a major U.S. arms client.

Suppressing and dismantling Russia has been a prime goal of both Democratic and Republican U.S. regimes since the fall of the Soviet Union more than 20 years ago. It was back in February 1992, during the waning months of the George H.W. Bush administration, that a Pentagon “Defense Plan” was leaked to the New York Times, which stated in no uncertain terms that the main U.S. aim was to “prevent the emergence of a new rival” in the post-Soviet world, and that Russia was the main target. This has been a guiding principle of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy ever since.

NATO has expanded by 12 members in Eastern Europe and the former USSR since 1999, with five additional states considered official “aspiring” members, including Ukraine, despite promises made by Washington to Mikhail Gorbachev before the fall of the USSR, and provisions of the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act.

This crisis is not going away. No matter who is elected president next year, no matter which capitalist party controls Congress, the campaign to demonize Russia, threaten the people of Donbass and repress the Ukrainian opposition will continue, and the danger of a wider war will grow.

Historically, wars have been used to derail fightback movements at home, from the Wobblies in World War I to the CIO in World War II to the anti-globalization movement after the 9/11 attacks. That’s why we must begin now to educate the anti-war movement and build links with Black Lives Matter, the Fight for 15 and the struggle for immigrants’ rights.

Thank you for that James. I've been stumbling independently towards what that essay concludes. I'm reading Goebbles diary of the last days where he talks a lot (he dictated the entries) about how the air war was critical, about the new jet fighters and the V2. This essay fills gaps as well as explaining many other matters of interest. Methinks the truth is in there.

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.

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."

Sunday, July 26, 2015

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.

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.

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.

I see the hourglass as a shape to explain the assassination hierarchy.

Those at the base carried out the assassination. They had no knowledge of those at the top and did not do it for the same reason.

Those at the top were pure pragmatists. They knew and manipulated those below them.

The intermediary followed and gave orders.

For example :

Financiers, MIC, Int
........Walker
..Segregationists

I suggest that this book may cover the base and in combination with other work ends up covering the lot.

edit typo

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

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.

We have posted here previously about the efforts of Turkey’s Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF) to take a strong role in rebuilding Kobanê. The work was moving forward under competent leadership and with a broad vision under the slogan “We defended Kobanê together, we will build it together!” The plan was to move a large number of SGDF members from İstanbul, İzmir, Ankara and Amed to Kobanê for work projects that included healthcare work, rebuilding a people's museum and needed reconstruction work. The group reached the Suruç district of Urfa bordering Kobanê this morning.

And then it happened.

Two members of the group were taken into custody with a search warrant.

The young people went to the Amara Culture Center for a breakfast meeting and talks with the families of BÖG (United Forces of Freedom) Commander Bedrettin Akdeniz (Suphi Şoreş) and YPJ member Leyla Doğan (Leyla Nisêbîn), both of whom both fell as martyrs in the battle against ISIS in Serêkaniyê and Kobanê. They were accompanied by members and leaders of the HDP (People's Democratic Party), ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed) and BEKSAV (Science Education Artistic Culture and Arts Research Foundation) as well as sports fans and members of an anarchist group. A press conference had been planned.

A suicide bombing, most likely carried out by a young woman working for ISIS, was carried out in the garden of the Amara Culture Center. The number of casualties has been growing through the day. At last word we knew of 31 people killed in the blast and the word was that many others are expected to die from their injuries. There was a simultaneous ISIS/Daesh attack attempt in Kobanê that was intended to hit either the Mihemed Dira School, in the southern part of Kobanê, or a checkpoint staffed by Rojava’s People’s Defense Forces (YPG) near the school. YPG fighters destroyed the vehicle carrying the explosives before detonation.

At the Amara Culture Center people risked a second bomb attack to help the wounded and get people to hospitals and secure the scene. Most of the bodies of the dead remained in the garden.

Kurdish film director Garip Çelik was filming when the explosion took place and he told ANF news service that the explosion took place as the group was issuing their press statement. He pointed to ISIS and said that the attack was organized and professional. There is a tragic series of before-and-after photographs which we will not run here showing the young people relaxing and then showing their mutilated and bloody bodies on the ground.

Garip Çelik had gone to Suruç from İstanbul with members of the SGDF. He told ANF that he was going to Kobanê to make a documentary and said that the day began with a breakfast in the garden of Amara Cultural Center. ID photocopies were collected and a press statement was issued in front of the Amara Cultural Center. The young people were preparing to apply to the governor’s office for passage and in order to take care of other legal matters. Garip Çelik said that he was filming at the time of the explosion and that as soon as the press statement ended a violent explosion tore bodies apart and turned the garden into a bloodbath. He said that arms and legs flew over him right after the explosion.

Garip Çelik emphasized in his account that that the explosion happened right at the center of the crowd and he reported that people at the crime scene were speaking of a 16-year-old stranger among the crowd. He noted that the police came to the crime scene after the explosion only to attack civilians there and said that ambulances arrived too late and that many injured people were taken to hospitals in civilians’ cars. Garip Çelik told ANF that he was in the first bus that entered Suruç and that the police searched all buses carefully but skipped theirs. He said that he lost many friends in the explosion and pointed at the role of ISIS as he said that the attack was organized and professional.

Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) Urfa co-chair İsmail Kaplan said after the attack that a suicide bomb caused the blast in Suruç district of Urfa and that the bombing targeted around 300 members of the SGDF before they were scheduled to cross into Kobanê. He said that at that point over 50 people have lost their lives and that dozens had been wounded.

People's Democratic Party (HDP) Urfa deputy Dilek Öcalan spoke to ANF about the blast and said, “We have learned that the blast was caused by a bomb placed in a bag which was detonated during the assembly of the youths.” Dilek Öcalan said at that point that around 30 people had died. “We cannot provide an exact figure of casualties as many bodies have been scattered around in pieces,” she said, and issued a call for urgently needed blood donation for the wounded people. Donations of blood proved to be problematic. The governor of Urfa confirmed that a suicide attack had been carried out and gave the number of people killed as 28.

Protests against the attack were immediately organized. The DBP (Party of Democratic Regions) Amed provincial organization called a demonstration today that will be carried on with the HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party), DTK (Democratic Society Congress) and KJA (Free Women's Congress and others. The ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed) called a demonstration in Ankara for this evening and made the offices of the ruling reactionary Justice and Development Party (AKP) the point of their protest. A rally was also organized in the German city of Dortmund and will be led by the Rozerin Women's Assembly.

People gathered spontaneously at Galatasaray High School in Istanbul and agreed to a sit-in action and march set for this evening. İsmail Eroğlu was quoted in alternate media as saying, “The goal of this attack was to remove the bridge of fraternity between two peoples,” and he held the AKP responsible for the bombing in Suruç.

HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş provided commentary on the terrorist attack to Med Nûçê and said that the attack could not have been organized without the support of the Turkish state, that the transitional government is directly responsible for the attack, and that the AKP has to prove and clarify whether it is with or against ISIS. He condemned the massacre and offered condolences to the families of those who were killed and called on the people civilians to take security precautions everywhere.

Selahattin Demirtaş described the bombing as a carefully planned attack and noted that the attack targeted revolutionary youth who were engaged in International solidarity on the three-year anniversary of Rojava’s Revolution and aimed to send the message that the revolution will be ended at all costs. He described Suruç as the symbol of solidarity and resistance in Turkey and said that the attack aimed to break the will of the people. He also said that more than 30 people had lost their lives in the blast and that HDP parliamentarians and leaders were with the injured people receiving treatment in hospitals.

Selahattin Demirtaş said that one body was completely torn apart and that the attack was probably a suicide bombing. He said that the attack took place despite intensive intelligence activities being carried out in the region and he announced that a coordination unit has been formed by HDP, DBP, HDK and DTK in order to help the wounded people. The HDP Central Executive Committee will meet in Ankara tomorrow. The HDP CO-chairs will be in Suruç in the near future.

Selahattin Demirtaş said that ISIS may have carried out the attack, but that the transitional government is directly responsible for the attack and he said that the state turned a blind eye to ISIS mobilizations within Turkey and showed its sympathy for ISIS when it described Rojava’s People’s Defense Forces (YPG) as a more dangerous organization than ISIS. Selahattin Demirtaş criticized Turkey’s government for its silence towards ISIS and its threats against the HDP and said that attacks like the one today will not force the HDP to give up on their principles of peace, democracy, and justice. He appealed for solidarity and asked people to take precautions against possible acts of ISIS barbarism.

The HDP Co-chair stated that intensive intelligence activities were being carried out in Suruç and that the state recorded the identity of everyone who traveled to and from there. He talked about how his convoy was not permitted to enter Suruç recently, he emphasized the extent of state surveillance in the town and he said that no one can argue that one person managed to infiltrate into the crowd and carry out the suicide attack without state support.

HDP Mardin deputy Mithat Sancar told mainstream media that the attack was not a surprise and was not unanticipated. Mithat Sancar told journalists that “This attack has been anticipated since the bombings in Diyarbakır before the elections. We warned government officials. We warned of provocations at every opportunity. The usual suspect seems to be ISIS...Information that organizations such as ISIS have been forming cells in the region was shared with government officials. It is the government's responsibility to take precautions. It should have taken precautions regarding security and intelligence, but unfortunately this did not happen...Because of the bombing, according to the first reports, there are 28 dead and those injured number in the hundreds. There are people who are seriously injured.”

The KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency also issued a statement on the massacre in Suruç and argued in their statement that Turkey’s AKP government created ISIS in Syria and Turkey and that they will account for the massacre. The KCK called on all democracy and freedom forces to stand against dirty AKP policies.

The KCK commemorated the martyrs who fell in the Suruç massacre and promised to honor their memories and said that it is no longer possible to distinguish ISIS members from Turkish intelligence agents and that the AKP’s enmity towards Kurds brought ISIS to Turkey.

The KCK stated that the AKP government supports ISIS in order to use it as an instrument of its policies in the Middle East and aims to liquidate Rojava’s revolution. As a result of this policy, ISIS and gangs from all over the world have used the border between Turkey and Syria for logistical and mobilization purposes. The KCK said that the biggest supporter of ISIS fascism in the Middle East is the AKP government and charged that the attack in Suruç was carried out with the knowledge of Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) in order to target Rojava’s Revolution and intimidate people who show solidarity with the revolution.

The KCK statement said that the attack in Suruç explained why the AKP has been calling on the guerrillas to abandon their arms, and said that it showed that the AKP was aiming to release its “hounds” upon Turkey and Kurdistan in order to establish its authoritarian and fascist perspective in the region. The KCK statement noted that the Turkish state was aiming to massacre Kurds through an alliance it made with the enemies of the Kurdish people. The KCK emphasized that the AKP wages a proxy-war through the fascist gangs and stated that the attacks before and after the June 7 elections were a clear indication of the war the AKP is waging against the Kurdish people, the Freedom Movement and Kurds’ allies. The statement emphasized the role of the Turkish state and MIT in the planning of this attack and said that the AKP has to account for these attacks.

The KCK said, "With the liberation of Tal Abyad by the YPG/YPJ (Rojava's People's/Women's Defense Forces) from ISIS, the AKP reacted as if it had been seized from itself, threatened the Rojava Revolution and then went on to announce that it would intervene if the YPG happened to liberate Jarablus city from ISIS occupation.” The KCK said that these facts prove the cooperation and deep relations between ISIS and the AKP that work to defend this savage organization the most.

The Kurdistan Communities Union also said that the AKP's understanding of the PYD as more dangerous than ISIS reveals the level of its animosity towards the Kurds and added that the massacre in Suruç was perpetrated by the anti-Kurd AKP and its partners. The KCK said, "It is obvious that the responsibility for this massacre rests with the Turkish state that commits massacres without restraint on the basis of animosity towards Kurds. Massacres have been gradually normalized in Turkey under the rule of a mindset and party aiming to suppress the Kurdish people and the Kurdish Freedom Movement. This is a truth proven by the attitude and reaction manifested by the AKP government in the face of the attacks before and after the June 7 election.”

The KCK said that it is not a coincidence that most of the victims were young people who sympathized with the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and that they have supported Rojava's Revolution since the very beginning, adding, "This attack has revealed that the AKP is targeting not only the Kurdish people and the Kurdish Freedom Movement, but also all the socialist circles and friends supporting the Rojava Revolution. The AKP government wants to see no power resisting it, which is why it has also targeted the support of the socialist youths for the reconstruction of Kobanê.”

The KCK stated that the AKP's war against the Kurdish people has revealed the fact that it waged, and wants to wage, this war together with the fascist gangs with whom it shares a common mentality.
"It is understood that the AKP and its leader, which has not a democratic but an authoritarian mindset seeking to achieve domination over Turkey, will from now on be waging a war against the democratic powers in Turkey as well in a cooperation with the fascist gangs," the KCK said. The statement emphasized that Turkish President Erdoğan and his AKP wanted to turn Turkey towards a dirty war against Kurds and democratic forces and said that all who defend democracy and freedom must immediately stand up against this dirty policy of the AKP which will continue pursuing such policies until the Kurdish question is resolved and animosity subsides.

Only an uprising of the Kurdish people and democratic forces that can prevent this dirty policy, the KCK said, and called on the Kurdish people and democratic forces to enhance the struggle against the AKP government, the primary force responsible for the Suruç massacre, and to intervene against its policies with an urgently needed democracy program.

For our part, we think that Pervin Buldan, the HDP parliamentary representative from Istanbul, and Leyla Güven, an HDP representative from Urfa, said it best and in only a few very meaningful words when Pervin said today that "The youth had visited us. They said they had plans for the anniversary of the Kobanê victory and that they had met with the (provincial) governor and ministry about it...Yesterday they called me again and said that they wanted to cross to the city today, and that they needed to meet with the governor about it," and Leyla said, "As a state, if the Turkish Republic has not provided security, its responsibility for this is extremely serious. There has been an immense massacre. There is uncertain information about the death toll. It's being said that there are none left alive from the group." From these comments we see the enthusiasm of the young people as they celebrated the third anniversary of Rojava's Revolution and all that they sacrificed for their dreams.

Prior to this terrible terrorist attack in Suruç the police attacked people celebrating the third anniversary of Rojava's Revolution in the Xaçort neighborhood of the İpekyolu district of Van. Police attacked and then fired tear gas canisters, deliberately targeting houses in the neighborhood. Sixteen people, including children and a pregnant women, were hospitalized after the police attack and many houses had their windows broken. HDP deputies Remzi Özgökçe, Yurdusev Özsekmenler and Tuba Hezer, HDP Van provincial co-chairs Hamiyet Şahin and Münir Aras, and other HDP leaders went to the neighborhood after hearing about the incidents and reacted strongly against the attitude and of the police forces.

Also prior to the Suruç massacre the Turkish military fired rounds at Mt. Judi and started forest fires which burned for three days. Legend has it that Mt. Judi is where Noah's ark landed. The fire destroyed several villages over the weekend as Turkish forces failed to intervene. Local people tried to stop the fires but could not do so. The Assyrian village of Aksu was burned to the ground. The Assyrians are survivors of a genocide in Turkey and many Assyrian people had to abandon their villages due to years of war on Mt. Judi and in the surrounding area. Some people had recently returned and were attempting to rebuild their homes and their lives, but now this in doubt.

"If you can't do agriculture and pastoralism when you return to your village, if you can't benefit from the mountain and nature, you have no chance of living there," a villager told JINHA. "So they destroyed the trees, animals, all living things. People can't live on ashes...This year returns to the villages accelerated...The soldiers have a clear order about the evacuated villages; they stop people returning to them. From the day we got here until today, they have tried to stop us." Environmental activists have started a campaign to plant 50,000 trees on Mt. Judi, an ecologically fragile area.

In line with all of this, then, we understand the point recently made by the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) that the ruling reactionary Justice and Development Party (AKP) ended the two-and-one-half-year-old ceasefire between the Kurdish liberation forces and state with its isolation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan ("Leader Apo") and the implementation of psychological warfare. The KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency said that the AKP had never respected the ceasefire in the first place.

The KCK said that the AKP ended the ceasefire when Turkey's President Erdoğan rejected the Dolmabahçe agreement and decided to implement the isolation of Leader Apo three-and-one-half months ago. The KCK said that it is not the time to call upon guerrillas to abandon their arms, but to negotiate and take serious steps for the solution of the Kurdish issue. The KCK argued in a written statement that the Kurdish Freedom Movement gave the Turkish state many chances for a solution to the Kurdish question and that the majority of the ceasefires took place during AKP’s time in power. The KCK also noted that the AKP used these chances for winning elections and referendums and deepened the conflict. This approach put Turkey in a politically difficult spot and Leader Apo responded to the state’s call for a ceasefire positively, believing that the AKP government was no longer seeking results through war and conflict.

The KCK recalled that the AKP had made a commitment to making certain constitutional and legal changes for the solution of the Kurdish issue if the guerrillas called a ceasefire and began to withdraw from Turkey. The KCK stated that they began to withdraw guerrilla forces on May 8 and bring them to the Medya Defense Zones, but the AKP never implemented the changes it had promised and showed that it had no intention of solving the issue with Bülent Arınç’s statement that the PKK could "go to hell."

The KCK stated that the Dolmabahçe agreement was published on February 28 as a result of meetings between Leader Apo and government officials. The KCK emphasized that this was the first agreement that was publicized, and which offered a framework for the negotiations. President Erdoğan later revealed his mentality by saying that there were no such things as the Dolmabahçe agreement, negotiations or the Kurdish issue at a time when the Dolmabahçe agreement had built Turkish and Kurdish people’s hopes for the solution of the Kurdish issue and the establishment of a permanent peace. The KCK noted that the people rejected the policies of Erdoğan and his AKP in the June 7 elections and supported the option of democratization and the solution of the Kurdish issue that Leader Apo and our movement had offered to the peoples of Turkey. The KCK stated that the AKP government continued its old policies and ignored the Kurdish issue as if the election had never taken place.

The KCK emphasized that the AKP government and Erdoğan called upon the guerrillas to disarm and withdraw from Turkey in order to manipulate the current agenda, ignore the results of the June 7 elections and continue their policy of not solving the Kurdish issue. The KCK also highlighted that it is no longer the time to call for disarmament, but it is the time to take serious steps and negotiate for the solution of the Kurdish issue. The KCK said that there is no alternative method to end the conflict and that similar issues from other parts of the world were not solved with methods such as the ones that the AKP currently attempts to implement.

The KCK criticized the isolation of Leader Apo, who had established the ceasefire and offered his manifesto for a democratic solution in 2013, and said that the AKP ended the two-and-one-half year old ceasefire with its isolation of Leader Apo and the implementation of psychological warfare. The KCK ended their statement by calling on Kurdish people and democratic forces of Turkey to resist AKP manipulation and to organize and struggle for democratization and the solution of the Kurdish issue in Turkey.

By Greg Butterfield posted on July 20, 2015

Workers World interviewed Maxim Chalenko, secretary of the Communist Party — Lugansk Regional Committee in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LC). Chalenko is a founder of the Forum of Communist, Socialist, Workers’, Environmental and Anti-Fascist Forces. He helped to organize the Donbass International Forum titled “Anti-Fascism, Internationalism, Solidarity” held on May 8 in Alchevsk. This is part I of the interview.

Workers World: Where did you grow up and go to school? How did you become involved in the communist movement?

Maxim Chalenko

Maxim Chalenko: I was born on June 30, 1980, in Severodonetsk, in the Lugansk region [then part of Soviet Ukraine]. I spent most of my youth in Lugansk city, where my family moved in 1990. I graduated from Lugansk School Number 57, then East Ukrainian State University with a degree in history and archiving.

I’ve been active in the communist movement for 17 years. In 1997, I joined the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine (the youth organization of the Communist Party of Ukraine). I organized protests for the restoration of students’ rights in 2000-2003, and became a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine in 2000.

In Kiev, I was active in the movement “Ukraine without Kuchma” in 2002, when police violently broke up our tent camp. Later, I organized a series of protests of workers and miners in the Lugansk region.

I was elected secretary of the Zhovtnevy District Committee of the Communist Party in Lugansk, then secretary of the Communist Party — Lugansk Regional Committee, secretary of the Lugansk Municipal Committee of the Communist Party and as a deputy to the Lugansk Regional Council.

WW: As a young person, what it was like to live through the collapse of the Soviet Union?

MC: As the son of a Soviet soldier, the collapse of the USSR hit me very hard. The destruction of this great country, whose cornerstone was to protect the workers’ interests, made many in the military burn with a desire to defend the Soviet Union. But unfortunately, after the collapse, those actively serving in the military were forbidden to speak of the USSR.

Many communists began to focus their efforts and energy on trying to build a just, socialist society within the framework of the national states formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, including us in Ukraine. Perhaps this was one of the main reasons for our failures.

In my opinion, the disintegration of the Soviet Union into national states, which each went into its own sociopolitical process, only sped up the transition from the socialist to the capitalist path. A powerful, ideologically cohesive communist movement was then split and disorganized.

WW: Tell us about the activity of the communists in Lugansk following the U.S.-backed coup in Kiev in February 2014.

MC: After the anti-people coup in Kiev — and even during it, at the end of 2013 — we organized the first militia squadron to protect the civilian population of Lugansk from fascism. Our goals were to protect the population from aggression, provocations and attacks by neofascists, and to protect monuments related to our history and culture. We worked to block the arrival of neo-Nazi militants from the West.

We also took on the important task of opposing attempts by the Lugansk authorities to negotiate the conditions for their surrender to the Kiev junta. After all, capitalists in power are indifferent to the problems of the people; all that is important is to preserve and increase their capital. We understood this, and moreover, saw it happening in practice.

Powerful politicians, dominated by members of the Party of Regions, were negotiating the surrender of Lugansk to the neofascists. With the tacit consent of the Kiev junta, they appointed new regional heads of the Interior Ministry, Prosecutor’s Office and Security Service of Ukraine, whose purpose was to suppress the anti-fascist resistance in Lugansk.

We proposed to organize a broad anti-fascist front to stop the spread of fascism to the east and also raised the issue of geopolitical choice. At that time, the issue of the restoration of the USSR came to the fore.

In the face of resurgent fascist ideology, including aggressive nationalism, we must intensify international work to demand the restoration of the USSR. We believe that now more than ever we have the basis to do it.

WW: What organizing and activities have you conducted since the start of the war?

MC: In April and May 2014, Lugansk residents were very worried about Slavyansk [in neighboring Donetsk] and its inhabitants, who were subjected to Ukrainian military aggression. We organized the first collection and shipment of humanitarian aid from Lugansk to the defenders of Slavyansk. No one realized that in a month we ourselves would need help.

Later, when the war came to our door, we actively engaged in the collection and transfer of humanitarian aid to Lugansk from Russia. We were really helped by the Communist Party committees of Rostov and Voronezh. These two areas border Lugansk, and even before the war we had established a wonderful comradeship with them. We appealed for help and they immediately responded, organizing the collection of food, medicine and clothing through their party structures. Almost every week throughout the summer, we brought this assistance into the LC.

Then, in early September, when the ceasefire agreement was signed in Minsk, we held a reregistration of the party ranks and started to restore our party structures. Some people had left, some had disappeared and did not respond to phone calls. Several communists were killed. The secretaries of the party committees were scattered, mainly engaged in solving problems in their cities. At that time communication and transportation were restored, and within a few months, we restored ties with all local organizations.

WW: Why did you decide to organize an international solidarity forum this spring?

MC: There were two reasons: First, it was the landmark 70th anniversary of the victory of socialism over fascism [the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II]; second, and most important, today the left wing in Donbass is in great need of international support and assistance from allied organizations.

In spite of high ideals, including our own, the movement of the People’s Republics along the socialist path has not been simple and unambiguous. Yes, at the initial stage, all the revolutionary movements of the streets and squares were associated with anti-fascism and the desire of the majority of the population to take the socialist path of development. But no one really voiced the slogans “factories to the workers” and “land to the peasants,” and the socialistic character of the republics remained only in form but not in essence.

The forum was significant in that it gave youth of Europe and the world an understanding of the conditions in which we are fighting today.

Next: The Donbass International Forum and the future of socialism in Lugansk

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Also see:

1. Lugansk: Left forces unite, call international solidarity conference
2. Lugansk communist: ‘We fight first and foremost for peace’
3. After death of Mozgovoi, ‘Donbass communists need solidarity more than ever’
4. Lugansk: Left forces unite at conference
5. From Baltimore to Donbass — Resisting fascism, imperialism and war

Given imperialism's, led by washington, demonstrated support for reactionary centres of control it has surprised me that this attempt to log the anti-fascist struggle by the free republics over the past year has not been shut down before.

There is a turning point at the moment.

The media supporting the kiev junta can no longer ignore the growing evidence clearly exonerating the much maligned free republic defenders. The fascist nature of the ukrainian coup is clear for all to see and inturn the nature of its supporters is revealed.

At this point the inevitable occurs.

No matter. The logs are there for any student of the past year to read through (for now)...

Hunts' Alien Presence

I've waited to post here because I want to be sincere and respectful. I had written early on, but not posted, : 'May he rest in peace. My condolences to family and friends.' and it seemed so trite. I can see why now. I realise I was shocked. Gary seemed like a constant. I can now see that he had friends among people I deeply respect.
To have someone who I'm personally ambivalent about (I don't know Gary, I got the usual emails and such) be spoken of so kindly by people I know better makes my initial thoughts ok. May he Rest in Peace and may his Family and Friends find Peace and Comfort in their times of Sorrow.

Releasing a statement to mark the third year anniversary of Rojava Revolution, KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency commemorated revolutionary martyrs and described Rojava Revolution as the first major revolution of the 21st century.

In its statement, KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency stated that Rojava was not only a Kurdistan revolution but also a revolution of the Middle East. KCK pointed out that the revolution of democratic society, democratic confederalism, democratic socialism and democratic autonomy, described by Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) as Democratic Modernity, would take its place in history and trigger more revolutions by impacting the rest of the Middle East. KCK commemorated the martyrs who fell during the making of Rojava revolution, and promised to honor their memories by achieving victory.

KCK emphasized the 20 years-long work of Leader Apo in Rojava, Syria, and the Middle East as the foundation of Rojava Revolution, and said that the 40 years-old Kurdish Freedom Movement led by Leader Apo realized the Revolution in Rojava. The statement by KCK also underlined that Rojava Revolution survived against all sorts of attacks because of the content Leader Apo gave to Rojava as well as the spirit of July 14 resistance in Amed, noting that such a revolution characterized by determination could not be defeated.

In its statement, KCK remarked that a revolution that is based on a democratic society and the system of democratic confederalism was bound to stand tall in the face of attacks because of the power democratic society gave to the revolution. KCK emphasized that the women’s liberation perspective systematized in the democratic revolution empowered the entire society and made the revolution invincible.

Pointing out that Rojava Revolution also revealed peoples’ resistance through its heroic martyrs who fell in the defense of their peoples’ freedom, KCK said that peoples’ resistance was the only security of Rojava Revolution, and this resistance was made possible with the women’s revolution inside Rojava.

KCK said; “Despite being the smallest part of Kurdistan, Rojava has produced a revolution that is recognized and supported by the entire world”, and noted that Rojava Revolution enabled the worldwide recognition of Kurdish identity, and the day of Kobanê on November 1 contributed to the invincibility of the revolution by bringing international support to Rojava.

“Receiving the support of peoples and democracy forces in the world is more invaluable than anything, morally and materially, and this support has contributed to the legitimacy of Rojava Revolution”, KCK said, emphasizing that Rojava Revolution would resist all attacks and repel brutal ISIS gangs with its heroic resistance.

Recalling that ISIS was a fascist group of gangs that was threatening not only the Kurds but also all peoples of the world, KCK noted that resisting these fascist gangs meant resisting reactionary forces in the Middle East, and Rojava Revolution would unlock the door of a revolution in the Middle East by defeating ISIS.

Describing ISIS as counter-revolutionary, KCK said that the defeat of ISIS and its allies such as Turkey would initiate a revolution across the Middle East and end the decades-long chaos of the region. KCK said that a Middle Eastern Revolution would not only end reactionary politics that have emerged as a product of the 5 thousand years-old statist system, but also establish a free and democratic life by taking the region’s moral civilization as opposed to the West’s material civilization as its basis. KCK reassured that Rojava Revolution, led by Leader Apo’s principle of democratic revolution, would soon succeed and enlighten the entire globe.

KCK ended its statement by saluting all martyrs that fell in the heroic defense of Rojava Revolution, and said that the resistance of these martyrs would soon liberate all peoples and establish a democratic and communal life in the region.

Pang Yatsenyuk didn't offer at all, like the president of Zimbabwe, a hand and heart to B. Obama.

Addressing potential investors from the USA, the Ukrainian prime minister declared: "Today we can call it business engagement. And we expect a business wedding as soon as possible. Let's create a business and family". That the potential groom was smitten with love, the video about the bride propagandizing her unearthly beauty and advantage of investments in the family budget was brought even. Trouble, however, that is known to all: the bride who is fairly dragged, and the groom without any business family got for a long time through a window into her bedroom.

If to be serious, tour to the USA, Canada and Britain of the prime minister of Ukraine which dismissal is predicted in the fall, it was frankly problem, if not failure.

For example, signing of the document on completion of negotiation process on creation of FTA between Ukraine and Canada, the only tangible result of voyage, isn't a merit of the euromaidan power at all. Negotiations on creation of FTA began in 2009 and proceeded even at "zlochinny Vlada" of V. Yanukovych when in 2011 basic provisions of the contract were fulfilled and even its signing is planned.

For the rest A. Yatsenyuk's dialogue with potential investors can be characterized one phrase: spoke-balakali, і … lit s_l. From the advertized 150 largest American companies which allegedly attended the Ukrainian-American business forum some firms which and work so long ago at Ukraine are mentioned in reports. And the positive from their activity in the domestic market is very doubtful.

In particular, A. Yatsenyuk reported that within a business forum with the Westinghouse company discussed questions of deliveries to Ukraine nuclear fuel, and also increase of power of the operating nuclear power units, participation in programs of modernization and increase of safety of the Ukrainian NPPs. Attempts to introduce counterfeit American fuel already led to increase of accident rate of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants. And experiments on increase of power of power units are so risky that led to "working-to-rule strike" of staff of the Southern Ukrainian NPP. After that on the Zaporozhye NPP Americans, contrary to danger of new Chernobyl, simply didn't launch the second power unit on workplaces of workers.

And the American gas speculator of TrailStone, for example, was already marked out by deliveries to Ukraine of gas at the price of 461 dollars for one thousand cubic meters, at that time when the price of the Russian gas made 329 dollars.

Pure manilovism are plans for deliveries by the Frontera company of the liquefied gas from capacities of the American company in Georgia. First, for a start it is necessary to construct LNG terminals in Georgia and in Ukraine. Secondly, the confirmed reserves of natural gas of the company in Georgia make 300 billion cubic meters and even if to direct all this gas on Ukraine, it will be enough at most for 10 years. In reality for the sake of 3-5 years of deliveries terminals which projects are discussed years 15, practical Americans obviously won't build.

But after liberalization in October, 2015 of the Ukrainian market of gas willingly will join in trade in gas in the country that will lead to sharp increase in prices for gas and bankruptcy of "Ukrneftegaz". On a twist of fate exactly during A. Yatsenyuk's visit to the USA the American power concern Chevron declared final leaving from Ukraine. The largest world exporter of gas is interested only in cutting off of Russia from the European gas market and strengthening of deliveries of energy carriers of own production, using Ukraine as means for decrease in a role of Russia.

It is doubtful for Ukraine and the value of agrarian giant Cargill, one of most large exporters of oil-bearing crops considerably promoting growth of cultivated areas of the plants exhausting chernozems.

Ukraine shouldn't wait for real investments. The Ukrainian market, besides the USA and the EU solving geopolitical problems of multinational corporations attracts only financial speculators similar to the Horizon Capital fund headed by N. Yaresko who declared investments into the Ukrainian platform on electronic trading of Rozetka.ua.

Who in senses will want to make investments in the country which not today tomorrow will declare a default, and its army continues to fire at the cities in the Southeast, and in Zakarpatye neo-Nazis and bandits arrange full-scale fights for control over smuggling? The Fitch rating agency, the IMF and the European Reconstruction and Development Bank worsened the forecast of falling of economy of Ukraine to 9% which will be followed by devaluation of hryvnia to 97% in comparison with 2014 and inflation in 48%. Though, most likely, the international financial structures varnish reality as real falling of GDP only in the first quarter 2015 exceeded 17%.

Owing to falling of a standard of living of the population also volumes of domestic market of the country fall. The economic expert A. Okhrimenko specifies that "the currency market contracted. For today the currency turnover of Mezhbank makes about 200 mln. dollars against 2 billion in 2013. Thus, the turn fell by 10 times. To the country comes 10 times less than currency, respectively, import is limited, it fell to 37-38%. What at us deliver today? Gasoline, drugs. Under all other articles – clothes, cars and so forth – sharp falling. For example, according to customs in 6 months, footwear delivered 70% less in comparison with 2013".

In such situation of investment only leave the country that we also observe in Ukraine, from where only last year "ran away" to 15 bln. dollars of the USA. Level of foreign investments fell to 300 mln. dollars. According to the People's Deputy A. Vilkul, Ukraine for a year of war broke links not only with Russia. In particular, the project with Brazil on the Alkantara spaceport was broken, cooperation with American "Boeing" is stopped.

No wonder that to A. Yatsenyuk the second year isn't possible "to marry off" to Americans and Canadians, for example, focused on domestic market of "Tsentrenergo", a number of combined heat and power plant and regional power companies, including "Donbassenergo" and "DTEK Dneprenergo", "DTEK Zapadenergo", "DTEK Donetskenergo". If in 2014 Ukraine planned to receive 29 bln. dollars from privatization, today the sum is much more modest, only 17 billion UAH. According to A. Gritsenko, Yatsenyuk's government thereby plans to commit a crime against the Ukrainian people in interests of a small group of oligarchs.

However, "the first chanceless" A. Gritsenko is right only in one. The Kiev power really commits a crime before the Ukrainian people, destroying to please the USA the national economy remains. During visit to Canada A. Yatsenyuk directly declared that the purpose of sale of assets is destruction of the Ukrainian business. How differently to understand words: "I don't want that the Ukrainian oligarchs bought the state companies. We would like that our Canadian friends got these assets"?

Logic alien if to consider that at the same time the prime minister was going to deliver production of the destroyed Ukrainian mechanical engineering and industrial goods to Canada. For the sake of favor of the western owners A. Yatsenyuk supported also measures of rigid budgetary economy completely, having called the parliamentarians who introduced a number of the laws facilitating financial burden of the Ukrainian citizens, sleepwalkers in the Verkhovna Rada.

It would seem, behavior of the Ukrainian government, restless between desire to receive somewhere money and the hands destroying remains of economic base of the country and investment climate, absolutely absurdly. But it only at first sight.

Interest of the western capital in Ukraine is narrowest and concerns only several spheres, such as agrarian sector, nuclear power, pharmaceutics and some other. A. Yatsenyuk also presented these branches as foreign investments, priority for attraction. Meanwhile, as the former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine S. Arbuzov, these branches — considers "not the best set for removal of the economy diving down from deep crisis". But the condition of real economy, as well as employment of the population, interests A. Yatsenyuk a little. Its task – "to optimize" Ukraine so that to reduce expenses of the western investors in difficult structure of the Ukrainian economy and the population which didn't fit into the market.

In this context Ukraine has one more highly liquid asset which A. Yatsenyuk tried to sell during the tour not less actively, than from a dead donkey ears. It is russophobia and readiness to burn the country in a war flame. This asset enjoys much bigger popularity, than the outdated Ukrainian enterprises. On the eve of foreign voyage of A. Yatsenyuk the new appointed Ukrainian ambassador in the USA V. Chaly openly declared that "we receive the weapon including lethal, and anybody can't forbid sovereign Ukraine it. Another thing is that it isn't accepted to advertize the list of the countries, but it is more than ten states only from Europe".

Approach is absolutely clear. War and economic crash will allow to get rid of surplus of the population, and the country will turn into a raw appendage of the West with several working branches where foreign investments will come. A. Yatsenyuk also works on this scenario together with the American and Canadian friends. Only what it is related to interests of Ukraine and its citizens?

Forces of the YPG/YPJ (People's/Women's Defense Units) have taken control of all the roads leading to Hesekê. After encircling the ISIS gang groups in the city, Defense Units also seized control of the juvenile's prison.

ISIS gangs had made advances in some neighborhoods and seized many public buildings in Hesekê after regime forces did not resist to the attacks gangs launched on the city on 24 June.

With operations against ISIS in the city, YPG/YPJ forces continue to reseize the points te gangs took from regime forces without facing any resistance.

GANGS ENCIRCLED

As a result of operations against ISIS gangs attempting occupation efforts near the city of Hesekê, fighters of the Defense Units cleared and took control of a large area extending from Mount Evdileziz to Xabur River one week ago.

The Juvenile's Prision which witnessed fierce clashes has also been liberated by YPG/YPJ this morning.

Defense Units have also encircled all the gang groups in the neighborhoods of Neşwa and Xiwêran and at the Panaroma Crossroads of strategic importance at the southern entrance of the city.

With the operations conducted last night, YPG/YPJ forces have also taken the Dêr Ez-Zor road under their control. All the gang groups in city center have thus been surrounded.

Yesterday, YPG/YPJ forces liberated the power center to the south of the city.

Commenting on prospects of development of a situation in Ukraine in the light of events in Mukachevo, the Chairman of National Council of DNR noted that the Kiev authorities try to set the profascist mode so they won't be able to do without nationalist formations like "Right Sector" in the state.

"The Ukrainian power tries to set the profascist and pro-Nazi mode, it and allows them to operate Ukraine now. Therefore if "Right Sector" will leave, on its place there will be other similar organization" — the chairman of NANOSECOND noted.

The head of parliament of DNR emphasized that the Kiev authorities and pro-nazi groups in Ukraine are in symbiosis.

"And if now move away Yarosh or still any odious leaders, others with which the state of Ukraine in the same way will sign the secret contract on terror of the population" will come to their place — Andrey Evgenyevich is sure.

Department of public relations of National Council of DNR

The following reports come from Dnepropetrovsk.

According to the employee of the Ukrainian intelligence services who wished to remain the unknown from the region to Kiev moved forward a number of divisions of the Right Sector.

Protection of the main office of the battalion "Dnieper-1" and division "Right Sector" down the street Komsomol, 58 is strengthened;

The Dnepropetrovsk bodyguard of Yarosh in number of three tens people left Evropeyskaya hotel down the street of Lenin, 22 and at present is near the leader.

About fifty fighters of the Right Sector, natives of Galichina, left Astoria hotel on Karl Marx Avenue and went to Mukachevo.

At once some divisions moved forward to Kiev in full arms.

Four hundred fifty fighters of the Right Sector, under Manko's command, left children's camp "Druzhba" of the Pokrovsk area, and from medical a dispensary "Forest" down the street Maurice Thorez, 63.

The village of Petrikovka was left by 500 fighters of the battalion "Dnieper-1" in the direction of Kiev. 400 fighters of the battalion "Krivbass" and a battalion of territorial defense of the Dnepropetrovsk TRO-40 area moved forward to Kiev from Krivoy Rog.

All departments of SBU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are in a condition of the increased readiness. The Administration of the President of Poroshenko considers a question of involvement of divisions of the Ukrainian army for suppression the nepodkontrolnykhvooruzhennykh of formations.

On entry into Kiev posts of fighters of "Right Sector" are already equipped. In Mukachevo partial evacuation proceeds.

There is information that negotiations between the Kiev power and the leader of the Right Sector Yarosh ended with anything.

In confirmation of the serious intentions Yarosh removed some divisions of the Right Sector from Donbass and directed towards Dnepropetrovsk.

the Right Sector extremists launched an attack on a cafe and shot at a traffic police station. The attacks claimed the lives of three people, another 11 were wounded. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry sent armored vehicles to Mukachevo, two militants were wounded and detained, and two dozen disappeared in the woods after a siege.

The Transcarpathian region is the birthplace of Stepan Bandera, who was the leader of the terrorist branch of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and a Nazi collaborator during World War II. The area has many hideouts dug and carefully camouflaged by gunmen during the post-war years.

"The Kiev authorities have never had full control over nationalist armed groups," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying. "It was not control, it was an agreement between the state machine and extremists whose actions were meant to intimidate political opponents and the regime’s enemies beyond the legal framework."

Purgin noted that the Right Sector, a Ukrainian extremist organization outlawed in Russia, and other radical groups had already demonstrated in Donbas their inability to maintain a civilized dialogue. "Their methods of ‘dialogue’ are well known to people living in the former Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are now controlled by the Ukrainian army. They are known in other places too," he said. "But such flagrant effrontery — people in Ukraine saw for the first time."