Cemil Baran

If you listen to Turkish politicians these days, if you read the Turkish newspapers, if you listen to the commentators on Turkish TV then you can not avoid becoming enraged. Apart from a few columnists who have retained their personalities and healthy understanding of people, they distort the facts in an incredible way and by doing so attempt to fool the public at home and abroad.

They always say the same, as if they are programmed to do so.

“Turkey has been fighting terrorism for years but we have always been unable to convince Europe and America of this. Hopefully they will now understand us better”.

Do such words have anything to do with the reality? Have Turkey really been fighting terrorism or has it been more against the innocent Kurdish nation whose land they occupy, whose rights they deny and who they mercilessly oppress and exploit?

To ban 20 million Kurds (this refers only to the Kurdish people from North Kurdistan, i.e. that part within Turkish borders) from reading and writing in their native language, to sing in their own language, to speak, to name things – what kind of fight against terror is this?

And what about the “murders by unknown perpetrators” involving hundreds, even thousands, of Kurdish and Turkish intellectuals who have spoken out against policies they see as being wrong?

Is this also called fighting against terror? Do these people really believe it themselves?

No, they are not so stupid. But what is certain is that it is foolishness which gives rise to the distortion of facts and the lies which are constantly dished up about the terror. Because what they are doing does not serve the interests of Turkey nor the Turkish people. The consequences of the policies which they have pursued over the years are plain to see. They have allowed the country to deteriorate. Crises, corruption, poverty, torture, oppression…but they still keep to their policies. Can it be said that these are clever people who do such?

A country can not be governed with lies and demagogy. If it is then this is what results from it.

Even somebody like myself, who knows the country fairly well, is still amazed that the political and media worlds are at such a low level.

Of course, they mean the PKK, Hizbullah and other similar such organisations. But are not these the outcome of their own policies of oppression? Didn’t they, with help from their own secret services, initially set them up?

For years Öcalan himself said in many of his speeches, writings and interviews that the PKK had been set up by the regime. To quote: “I was surrounded by MIT agents. The state supplied us with bread and weapons for 3 years (up to the putsch of September 12^th), and even protected us. What was required of us was to fight against the other Kurdish organisations. For 3 years we did everything that was required of us….”

It is clear what Öcalan means here. Everyone who understands Turkish politics and observes events, has known this for years. The Turkish state itself created the PKK but they then slipped their reigns which were taken up by Syria, Iran etc.(But Turkey have now gathered them up again). This is the same as with Osama bin Laden and his organisation who the USA had organised against the Soviet Union, but who then lost the reigns…

And what about Hizbullah? This organisation was also set up by the Turkish state. Their members were trained in the camps of the Turkish gendarmes. Their activities were being guided by Turkish officers and police. After the PKK’s capitulation and the change of circumstances, Hizbullah was also no longer of use….

Just like Hitler, who at a certain point in time no longer required the SA.

States are ruthless. They carry on as in Machiavelli’s “The Prince”. When necessary, they sacrifice their own people.

Whoever isn’t yet aware of this must really be simple-minded! But those writers in the Turkish media world, those unashamed liars, are well aware of it but they don’t say it.

It is all obvious. Turkish statesmen, like their writers, lie to the Turkish people and the world from beginning to end.

They themselves are the cause of so much bloodshed, devastated families, burnt down thousands of Kurdish villages, deportation millions of people from their homeland, the suffering and the poverty. That is why it is a disgrace when they make others responsible.

Let us look at these slanderous claims from a different angle. They say:

“When we were fighting against terror, the Americans and Europeans remained silent. They even supported terror, they harboured the terrorists….”

If they mean by terror “PKK-Activity”, as they call it, does this then have anything to do with the reality? Did not the European states, above all Germany but also France and England, ban the PKK and their sister organisations because, on the one hand, they felt threatened by violent acts in their own countries, but also because it pleased Turkey? Did they not arrest a large number of activists and bring them before the courts?

If they had supported the PKK why was it that Abdullah Öcalan never received a visa or right of asylum in these countries?

Was it not the USA who located him in Kenya, had him captured and deported to Turkey?

Is it not the USA and the European Union who are content just to comment and make proposals on the language and media ban on Kurds in Turkey, and then provide Turkey with money, weapons and political support? Have we, the Kurds, received tens of billions US dollars from the IMF? And what about the supply of weapons and protection by NATO?

What is clear is that Turkish politicians and the Turkish media don’t just mean the PKK when they speak of “terrorists” but all Kurdish organisations, Kurdish associations and even the Kurds themselves. They consider the economic, political and military support that Turkey receives from the West is inadequate. They would probably like to see the Europeans ban Kurdish names and language and to throw the Kurds into prison, just as they themselves do.

This is the typical mentality of the oppressor.

We would like to look at the whole thing from another aspect. Let ‘s put aside Turkey’s role concerning the PKK and Hizbullah. Have Turkey really armed themselves against any form of terror?

The Turkish government and press also lie about this. Their friendly stance towards certain groups and powers is apparent. Turkey covertly supported these terrorists with weapons and finance. Those who hijacked the Russian ship on the Black Sea were not treated as terrorists. It appeared as if they were going to be brought before a court, but then they were simply let free. They then carried out new attacks.

Turkey also supported the Muslim Brotherhood against Syria.

They closed their eyes to many murders on Turkish territory by the Iranian secret services.

Even more significant are the many plots, attacks and murders by state directed terror organisations such as the  Contra Guerrillas and the JITEM (Turkish gendarmerie secret service), at home and abroad, e.g. in Europe, in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Criminal and mafia gangs were established with the help of people such as Abdullah Çatlı and Alaettin Çakıcı, with a drugs and money laundering network with an annual turnover of hundred billion dollars.

As can be seen, Turkish politicians and their scribblers are very experienced when it comes to distorting the facts. It appears as if they want to cleanse the Turkish regime, a machine of oppression and torture rarely seen in the world, of all guilt and to blame the Kurds and Europeans because of all these crimes.

They try to fool the whole world, above all the public at home. But people are not blind. Nobody believes these lies.

It is the Turkish people above all who should demand accountability for these lies.

They have to say to the Turkish authorities: “You have lied to us for years! The terrorist organisations are a result of your doings! You established the PKK and Hizbullah! It is you who have brought things this far through oppression and terror, instead of recognising the rights of the Kurds and bringing peace and democracy to the country. You are the murderers of our children!”.

They have to say: “It is you who exploit our country’s resources, who rob us, who allow us to starve, who fail to provide us with work and expose us to poverty. You unashamed liars, rulers of Turkey!”

But do the Turks say such? Do the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who have lost their children in the dirty war, say such?

Up to now they haven’t. We just do not know when their eyes will be opened, when they will finally recognise and name these liars and oppressors who treat them as fools.

On the day that this happens the game will be over and the turning-point will have been reached.