Brad Pitt and the Girl Guerrillas
The celibates of Ocalan
The green and brown scrub brush in the Qandil Mountains acquires a thick layer of snow by late fall. In happier times, these peaks at the border between Iraq and Iran would offer tourists spectacular views, but these days the only sightseers are men and women with AK-47s slung over their shoulders. They are Iranian Kurdish guerrillas based among their Kurdish brethren in northern Iraq, and at the moment, they may be the closest thing the Bush administration has to an ally in its confrontation with Tehran.
Kurdish and American sources say the United States has been supporting guerrilla raids against Iran, channeling the money through organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan; last fall, The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh reported that Israel is also providing equipment and training. When I arrived in Sulaymaniyah, the Kurdish city closest to the Iranian border, it was hard to miss the Green Berets in civvies walking down the main street. "Suli is like some Balkan city years ago," one U.S. officer told me. "You've got spies everywhere. Everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing." The seedy Ashti Hotel looked like something out of a Graham Greene novel, its smoke-filled lobby a meeting place for obscure diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, and spies. Men sat around staring at glasses of strong tea; every now and again they'd pour a bit of tea into their saucers, let it cool, and slurp it down. I met a Kurdish military adviser at the Ashti, and when the U.S. Army came to escort me for a story on its operations, Humvees pulled up by the hotel.
Getting to the actual guerrilla camps was relatively easy. Kurdish officials unconvincingly insisted they had no idea how to find the fighters, but cabdrivers had no trouble pinpointing the camps. As my four-wheel-drive vehicle climbed the mountainside, young women in green pants and the distinctive twisted Kurdish headscarf appeared along the road. They were fighters with the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or pjak, which claims its troops are almost 50
percent female.
Part underground movement, part cult, pjak requires its fighters to eschew sex and study the teachings of Abdullah Ocalan, a Nietzsche-quoting Turkish Kurd who is its spiritual leader. Ocalan's political organization, the radical Kurdistan Workers Party (pkk), is classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. pjak's relationship with the party is supposed to be arm's length, but I had to pass through two pkk checkpoints on my way to the guerrillas' camp, each of them relaying information up the line via walkie-talkie. Finally, the fighters welcomed me into a room with a threadbare carpet on the floor and a kerosene stove blasting heat; posters of Ocalan hung on the wall along with the pkk flag. While waiting for their leaders to descend from the mountains, I asked one of the women what they did to stave off boredom. "We watch satellite TV," she said, insisting that they cared only for news programs before confessing, with a shy smile, "We like Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson."
That was about the only American influence anyone at the camp would admit to. The fighters' commander had recently died in a flash flood, and his replacement—a fortysomething man with prematurely gray hair who stood perhaps 5 feet 5 inches—introduced himself as Zenar Agri. He informed me that in 2006 the guerrillas had killed about 100 Iranians in their cross-border skirmishes. He said they were not getting U.S. help, then smiled, "But we would love to have American support." He also told me that before the pkk's emergence, "the Kurds didn't know about their history and how to struggle," but now Kurds could follow Ocalan's road to liberation.
Back in the valley, I found a different kind of Kurdish organizing at the
University of Sulaimani, where many
Iranian Kurdish activists have come to study. The scene could have been any U.S. campus; almost everyone wore blue jeans, and only a few of the women had their heads covered. I sat down with two Iranian students who said they had come to Iraq illegally, following smugglers' trails over the mountains. They talked openly about the competition between Iranian Kurdish parties to attract U.S. support. Hiwa, a film student who described himself as the future Stanley Kubrick of Kurdistan, told me Washington ought to be ecumenical: "All parties should have connections with the U.S."
So far, Washington seems to feel the same way. The two main Iranian Kurdish parties, Komala and the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (kdpi), have been allowed to operate openly in northern Iraq; both say their focus is on political organizing within Iran. "We have not opposed armed struggle," Mustafa Hejri, leader of the kdpi, told me. "But for now we believe political activity benefits the party more." Hejri, along with other top kdpi and Komala officials, went to Washington last year for meetings at the State Department and on Capitol Hill. They "listened to us and asked questions," Komala leader Abdullah Mohtadi told me. "It was a step forward." Most other Iranian opposition leaders I spoke to were critical of U.S. policy toward Tehran and said the administration's allocation of $85 million to "promote democracy" in Iran had backfired by making the population rally around the embattled Islamist government. The Kurdish Iranian parties, on the other hand, told me they were looking forward to getting U.S. funding. "We're pragmatists," Mohtadi told me. The United States "can't make democracy by force, but it can topple dictators."
Reese Erlich's book, "The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the Middle East Crisis," will be published in September 2007. See his interviews with Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and other Iranian opposition
leaders at: motherjones.com/iran_dissidents.
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Dear Sir,
Anatolia being the cradle of many diverse civilizations and cultures, present day Turkey, boasts of its ethnic, religious and cultural
Richness. Consequently different ethic identities including Kurdish are accepted and acknowledged in Turkey. The state does not categorize its population on ethnic lines nor does it impose an ethnic identity on them. Censuses never count people on the basis of
Their ethnic origins. This does not however prevent an individual to identify himself in terms of a specific ethnic category. This is a private affair and ultimately a matter of personal preference.
Public expressions and manifestations of ethnic identity are prohibited neither by law nor by social custom. No individual in Turkey can claim to be subjected to prosecution, let alone persecution or discrimination, due to his ethnic background. No one, for instance can allege that the ethnicity has prevented him from entering universities or from practicing a certain profession.
Consequently, Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin have occupied prominent places in all walks of life as, for example, president, PM, ministers, generals, ambassadors, businessmen. Even the most militant circles concede the fact that there are no obstacles to social mobility of individuals from different ethnic origins to any profession or career, whether public or private. There are no impediments placed before anyone of' any ethnic origin to take active part in national and local politics provided they do not incite terrorism. Turkey’s citizens of Kurdish origin therefore make their voices freely heard in local administrations, municipalities and national Parliament. Otherwise how could you explain the fact that almost a quarter of the members of Parliament are of Kurdish origin? It is therefore utterly insensible to talk about "minority" status for an ethnic group in Turkey, when no rights and privileges have been reserved for any "majority.” It is equally absurd to claim a Kurdish “self-rule" as ethnicity is not a factor in the political and demographic geography of Turkey. Contrary to widespread belief',
The majority of Turkey’s citizens of Kurdish descent do not live in the country's southeastern parts but live in western Turkey.
The issue we are faced with is not, in essence an "ethnic” or ‘Kurdish" issue as is referred to by some. Should that have been the case, terrorist violence would not have been confined to the southeastern provinces. The problems are of economic and social nature. In order to aggravate and exploit the hardships of the region, the terror organization PKK has systematically destroyed schools, set forests on fire, blew up railways and bridges, planted mines on roads, burned down construction machinery and demolished health centers. It targeted ordinary people because it aimed to subjugate the region's local population into supporting its evil deeds. These attacks were also designed to make the region uninhabitable.
The PKK has indiscriminately murdered the very people on whose behalf it purports to act i.e. Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin. Many Kurds living in the southeastern and eastern parts of Turkey have migrated to other parts of Turkey, fearing the PKK terrorism and extortion, and to save the lives of their children who were abducted by this terror organization.
The issue is also not one of “Turks versus Kurds" but of combating separatist terror. It is cardinal importance to differentiate between a militant organization, which resorts systematically to terrorism as well as all kinds of organized crime, and the phenomenon of Kurdish ethnically.
The factors that hindered economic development of the region would have been eroded by now were it not for terrorism. However, terrorism has visibly abated in regions of southeastern Turkey where economic and social developments have recently been brought to a certain level.
Decrease in terrorism will no doubt be conducive to further developments in the socio- economic life of the region as a whole.
The international connections without which a terror activity of this magnitude could have been sustained. Indeed, as has become clearly evident with the developments of recent months, some countries, certain neighbors in particular, have been caught with their hands deep in this dirty game which took more than 30000 lives. The PKK baby killer lead Abdullah Ocalan was caught at the Greek embassy in Africa. PKK has many offices in Europe; some European diplomats have visited the PKK offices in Syria, Lebanon and Europe. PKK is considered as the good terrorist for Imperialist countries even though they officially accepted them as terrorist. For this reason that recently PKK killings of Turkish civilians and military have not been mentioned in the western news in detail. The Turkish military has said that there is a strong need to go to north Iraq and hit on the PKK camps but as explained above this need is rejected by the western countries. Turkish government gets no support from western countries on terrorism at all but ironically PKK gets this support.
Looking at the past history, Kurds and Armenians have been used by the west in order to achieve their economical benefits. Unfortunately, divide and rule has become the major tool of Imperialist countries to share the world market with promises of democracy. One trillion dollar of military sales clearly explains that the weapons industry to have long term contracts in order to survive with the expense of creating artificial wars in the developing or poor countries. The peace in the world would create many problems for these super rich companies; therefore, the wars will continue in future to serve the demands of the greedy.
When talking about the economic hardship in southeastern Turkey, I can not help but point out the negative consequences of the Gulf War. It should be remembered that Iraq had become Turkey's second largest trading partner at the end of 1980s. Measures taken against Iraq and sanctions in general have virtually killed trade between Turkey and Iraq. Turkey lost more than $100 billion dollars due to economic sanctions. This has compounded the economic problems of Turkey's southeastern provinces as trade with Iraq was the major source of income for those provinces. This development along with the vacuum of power created in northern Iraq, played into the hands of the PKK where it could lure the youngsters of the area to join this terror organization.
With this in mind, I am surprised and saddened to observe that columnists in most of the western papers disregard the sacrifices Turkey has made in that respect for the sake of preserving regional security and stability.
I would like to remind that in contrast to the racist heritage and tendencies of some countries, Turkey has had no concept of racial differentiation, and there have been no instances of racial conflict or discrimination in Turkish history.
I hope you will publish this article for info to many people who do not know much about the issue.
Sincerely,
Ekrem Ergonul
first i wona say something about your comment,if all the people thinking like i think they should know how turkish people is,the turkish people is realy nationalism,the turkish people just can see selv not more country or more diffrent nation,why pkk is tirorist?just because they do like u do?or just because they fighting for fredom?or just because they are kurdish people?why u all turkish people and goverment dont accept other nations like kurd in the turky?how if u was kurdish people u should fighting for fredom or no?we cant stay like that never we fighting to our country our nation,and remember u turkish have a north kurdistan u should know it is not yours,it is a kurdish nations place,and we belive history go and read som history about midle east then u have that,and remember pkk is not a muslim party or somthing like that,,they are a worker party and 2/1 is women and girls soldiers,and realy love them ,
never ever kurdish wanna accept turky_iran,,if you wont to stop blood fight ,u must give them fredom ,,
I love the internet! One can look up any information and get answers at a moment's notice. I would suggest to Mr. Ergonul, an obvious Turkish nationalist, that he re-read his history since the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. Repression of the Kurdish language, culture, even the mention of "Kurdish" or "Kurdistan" was forbidden and considered to be a crime for which severe punishement was administered. The 1925 Kurdish uprising led by Sheik Said led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Kurds. Since 1979, Turkey has ruled Kurdistan through military law and a State of Emergency.
We all know of Turkish brutality, just look at the Armenian genocide. I'm sorry Mr. Ergonul, your just another self serving "spin-meister."
There is no doubt that Kurdish PKK and PEJAK organizations are terrorist organizations.
This has been recognized by the US European Unity and many other countries.
There are many cases, which clearly show PKK directs attacks on civilians and even to their own people. Recently PKK a militant’s suicide bomb attack in Diyarbakir killed four young grammar school children and angered even PKK supporters. 1993 They butchered whole Kurdish family, women and children. There is a strong feudal social structure in Kurdistan which undermines human life and women rights.
This doesn’t hide the oppression of Kurds in three countries. They have right to speak their language, get education in their own universities, economically prosper and liberate themselves from feudal Kurdish rule, educate their girls and women.
The two feudal Sikhs or leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan were they were killing each other during Saddam's regime. Sometimes they collerabated with oppressive Iran Shah’s regime. Sometimes with Soviets and KGB. Ironically Turkish Government stopped this infighting between Barzani and Talabani. They even fought against PKK. They are corrupt and oppressive feudals where women’s rights are nil. Whole government structure is filled with their corrupt relatives.
Now they are becoming fast as a peon of war powers in the regions
The US imperial pipe dream needs ally in the midst of Arab nations and
Israel needs ally to weaken and attack on Syria, Iran and control the region and expand the dreams of greater Israel and Zionism.
In Iraq 650 000 people died based on lies and manipulations of Bush and neocons who are a war criminals to my understanding and one day my people will stop this abusive war and select a decent president who can chance the direction of this nation.
If Israel is planning to use Turkish PKK, and Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian regions to attack those countries and backstab the Arabic countries Kurds will suffer the most because they are landlocked and only food and other technological material comes in from Turkish border.
Also it is a shame to my Jewish brothers in Israel who lost six million people to Holocaust, racism and prejudice, should stop acting like invading Nazis to the Palestinian land. Gaza reminds me Warsaw Ghetto every day which shames all decent human beings.
I read the article of Turkish gentleman Ergonul again I found it is rosy and nationalistic. To certain extend there are truths in it but he is avoiding to realize the two military juntas destroyed human rights in many directions. I was visiting professor at those times of 1971 1982. Turkish military Junta imprisoned, tortured and killed many progressive people Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals. Some of them I know personally, including Prof Mumtaz Soysal, Prof Bahri Savci, Prof B. Esen lawyers, writers like Yashar Kemal, Orhan Kemal, Azis Nesin many journalists and other dear able people. Some of the professors, Prof Necdet Bulut, Prof Bedrettin Comert killed by neo-Nazi MHP party militants who collorebated with the Junta generals and other foreign intelligence services like CIA and MOSAD.
Shooting Pope by Nazi militant was one of those cases.
Turkey and her people never overcame this jingoistic militaristic nationalism. Argentine, Greece, Chile took generals to court. Unfortunately weak or destroyed intellectuals in Turkey were never able to do this.
Turkish military is very corrupt, neglects democratic rules and able to discuss or threat democratic parties are still heroes.
Turkey will never able to reach democratic levels of modern society unless they control generals. When the general learn to shut up that is the first step for democracy.
Dear Stuat Rovin,
I ask you to read a little bit more of neutral literature. First of all, it is not very hard to guess that you come from one of those imperialistic countries that have tried to share Turkish lands after WW1 but which were driven out by turkish patriotism. In history it has always been attempted to break Turkish territory apart especially by the English which have done a good job colonizing the Middle East. Thus, its big losses and the fact that the "sick man" of anatolia won its war of independance against a much stronger enemy made them aigain support terrorism. Besides, Turkish people have lived in todays Turkey for ca. 1000 years in harmony with all ethnic groups even though they have been the ruling ethnicity they have never oppressed anyone. When people in Europe burned women accused of witchcraft, the Ottomans obeyed the principle of freedom of religion. No doubt that the Turkish govt has forbidden the Kurds live their culture but only because it tried to maintain its territory which is not only inhabited by kurds but also by arabs armenians turks persians and all other ethnic groups. The Turkish govt gives everyone the same rights regardless where they come from and of which race they are. Consequently, its natural that there is only one offical language that is to learn by everyone.(how could the govt teach all languages of all ethnic groups??in which is taht the case??why arent indian or spanish offical languages of the us??)
