1. EUTCC resolution calls for restart of direct negotiations
11 December 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan campaign
The EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) held its 9th International Conference last week In Brussels, with politicians, academics, NGO workers and political activists from Kurdistan, Europe and across the world gathering for two days of discussion. The final resolution, which is reproduced below in full, reflected the main focus of the conference this year by calling for direct negotiations to resume between the Turkish government and the PKK. This echoes the call made made Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Despond Tutu at the recent launch of the International Peace Initiative (IPI). A special resolution was also passed calling for the release of Kurdish politician Adem Uzun from French custody, which is also below.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/eutcc-resolution-calls-for-restart-of-direct-negotiations/
2. Papers from the 9th International EUTCC Conference
11 December 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan campaign
Several conference papers from last week’s EUTCC Conference, entitled The Kurdish Question in Turkey: Time to Renew the Dialogue and Resume Direct Negotiations, have been made available in English. The final resolution of the conference is also available, and you can download the opening speech by Kurdish MP Leyla Zana(pdf) and Dutch academic Joost Jongeden’s paper, Rethinking Politics and Democracy in the Middle East.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/papers-from-the-9th-international-eutcc-conference/
3. EU conference calls for dialogue
7 December 2012 / ANF
The 9th conference on EU, Kurds and Turkey ended in Brussels on Thursday. It focused on "The Kurdish Question in Turkey: Time to renew the dialogue and resume direct negotiations". At the conference a call was made for the release of KNK (Kurdish National Congress) member Adem Uzun, who is still in prison in Paris pending trial, after being arrested in France last October. In their final resolutions participants underlined that "What is going on in Turkey today appears to be an attempt to stifle Kurdish voices and impose on the Kurds a unilateral solution to fundamental issues of security and the future of the country.".
http://en.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5445 <http://en.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5445>
4. Demirtaş: Negotiations need to be among equals
7 December 2012 / ANF
Speaking at the 9th International Kurdish conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş underlined that negotiations between the Turkish state and the Kurdish people should be carried out on the basis of equality. And this, he said, could be ensured by the liberation of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, the main actor in any negotiations. Referring to the speech by KNK (Kurdistan National Conference) executive council member Zübeyir Aydar at the conference, Demirtaş said that; "What Mr. Aydar has repeated here at this conference is an official declaration: one of the parties to this conflict is ready for negotiations. As this party has clearly stated what it is expecting from the negotiation process, it is now the Turkish government that needs to be brought to the negotiation table.”
http://en.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5444 <http://en.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5444>
NEWS
5. Kurdish mayor among dozens detained in Turkey on militant links
8 December 2012 / Reuters
Turkish police arrested dozens of Kurdish activists and politicians on Saturday, including a provincial mayor, in their latest push against alleged supporters of armed militants. Selim Sadak, mayor of Siirt, was among about 60 people detained in simultaneous operations in three southeastern cities, police said. Many are local officials from the legal, pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and civic groups. Turkey has jailed thousands of Kurdish politicians, academics, lawyers, journalists and others since 2009 on charges they support the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought the state for autonomy in a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1984.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/08/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE8B707I20121208 <http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/08/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE8B707I20121208>
6. Turkish prisons: a photograph of the state of human rights
12 December 2012 / ANF
Human rights organizations in Diyarbakır held a press conference in front of E Type Closed Prison on Tuesday to mark Human Rights Week (10-17 December) organized by IHD (Human Rights Association) Diyarbakır branch, MAZLUMDER, TİHV (Human Rights Foundation of Turkey), Diyarbakır Bar Association and Chamber of Doctors.Speaking on behalf of six NGOs, Mazlum-Der executive Nurettin Bozkurt evaluated the current situation in Turkey prisons as a picture of the practices by the present political regime. Bozkurt indicated the cases of torture and ill-treatment in custody, imprisonment of relevant and irrrelevant people in so-called KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) operations, solitary confinement imposed on Kurdish Leader Abdullah Öcalan and the Pozantı incident as the most apparent examples of the state's psychological warfare mentality that regards human dignity as an object.
http://en.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5464
7. Turkish justice system cast into major doubt
11 December 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Grave concerns are mounting over a mass trial of lawyers in Istanbul who are being charged and tried for terrorism offences. The 47 lawyers in the dock had represented Kurdish leader and founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party Abdullah Ocalan (pictured) who has been in jail since 1999. Outside observers fear that the lawyers are actually being tried simply for carrying out their work as lawyers. Evidence against them had been gathered by tapping their private meetings with Ocalan – a flagrant breach of confidentiality – and the defendants were not given full access to the prosecution case against them, impeding the preparation of their cases. The trial seems to have been initiated as part of a wider clampdown on Kurdish opposition parties and organisations launched by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government immediately following the last national election two years ago.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/turkish-justice-system-cast-into-major-doubt/
8. Set journalists free in Turkey: EFJ campaign update
11 December 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan campaign
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists has written a special report on the imprisonment of journalists worldwide – and Turkey occupies the proud position of number one jailer in the world. As ever, the EFJ has been ensuring that this information get circulated widely as part of their Set journalists free in Turkey campaign, and has provided a link to the report below as part of their weekly update.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/set-journalists-free-in-turkey-efj-campaign-update-8/
9. Özgüden: International Pressure Needed To Stop Jailing Of Journalists In Turkey
12 December 2012 / Info Turk
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says a record 232 journalists are currently imprisoned around the world, with Turkey being the worst offender. In a report released December 11, the U.S.-based media watchdog says 49 journalists are behind bars in Turkey -- a NATO member and EU candidate country – compared with 45 in Iran and 32 in China. The CPJ says most of the imprisoned Turkish journalists are Kurdish reporters and editors held on terror-related charges and in connection with alleged antigovernment plots. Turkey was already subjected to harsh criticism in an EU progress report in October, which listed freedom of expression, as well as the right to a fair trial, as areas of particular concern. RFE/RL correspondent Eugen Tomiuc talked to exiled Turkish journalist Dogan Ozguden, the head of the Brussels-based Journalists’ Association of Turkey, about the report’s findings.
http://www.info-turk.be/412.htm#International_ <http://www.info-turk.be/412.htm#International_>
10. Turkey: more than 1500 days of preventive detention amount to punishment, says EFJ ahead of hearing in “Ergenekon” case
12 December 2012 / EFJ
As the so-called "Ergenekon" trial is about to resume in Istanbul, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its Turkish affiliate the Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikasi (TGS) are concerned about the fairness in the case of two Turkish journalists who have been in detention for more than 1500 days . The EFJ says their trial has been marked by lack of due process and procedural violations. "Today more than ever before, the EFJ is determined to continue defending the journalists' right to a fair trial ," said EFJ President Arne König. "After more than 1.500 days behind bars, it is now obvious that detention is not used as a means of precaution by the Turkish authorities, but as a punishment for critical journalists".
http://europe.ifj.org/en/articles/more-than-1500-days-of-preventive-detention-for-turkish-journalists-amount-to-punishment-says-efj-ahead-of-hearing-in-ergenekon-case
11. Criminal complaint on Roboski reached International Criminal Court
11 December 2012 / ANF
The International Committee Against Disappearances (ICAD) Netherland Section has brought the Roboski massacre to the International Criminal Court. ICAD filed a criminal complaint to the International Criminal Court in the city of Den Haag concerning on one hand the Roboski massacre which claimed the lives of 34 Kurdish civilians and on the other hand the attack on Tamils in Sri Lanka in 2009. The criminal complaint by ICAD defined the Roboski massacre as a crime against humanity and demanded the trial of Turkish President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of Defence Nejdet Özel. ICAD also presented documents on the massacre to the ICC.
http://en.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5460
12. Exclusive: UK military in talks to help Syria rebels
11 December 2012 / The Independent
A plan to provide military training to the Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime and support them with air and naval power is being drawn up by an international coalition including Britain, The Independent has learnt.
The prospect of Western intervention comes as opposition groups, which have been disorganised and divided, at long last formed an umbrella political group and a command structure for their militias. Their foreign backers are said to believe that the 22-month-long civil war has now reached a tipping point and it has become imperative to offer help to the revolutionaries to enable them to make a final push against the regime.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/exclusive-uk-military-in-talks-to-help-syria-rebels-8399658.html
13. Syrian rebels defy US and pledge allegiance to jihadi group
10 December 2012 / The Telegraph
A total of 29 opposition groups, including fighting "brigades" and civilian committees, have signed a petition calling for mass demonstrations in support of Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist group which the White House believes is an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The petition is promoting the slogan "No to American intervention, for we are all Jabhat al-Nusra" and urges supporters to "raise the Jabhat al-Nusra flag" as a "thank you".
"These are the men for the people of Syria, these are the heroes who belong to us in religion, in blood and in revolution," read a statement widely circulated on Syrian opposition Facebook pages.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9735988/Syrian-rebels-defy-US-and-pledge-allegiance-to-jihadi-group.html
14. More than 63,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq: UN
8 December 2012 / Daily Star
More than 63,000 Syrian refugees have fled the bloody conflict in their home country for neighbouring Iraq, according to figures released by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Saturday. The intense fighting between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels battling to overthrow him has sparked a huge exodus of Syrians to neighbouring countries. There were 63,496 Syrian refugees in Iraq as of December 5, a weekly update released by the UN said. Most of them -- 54,550 -- were in the three-province autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, while 8,852 were located in Anbar province in the west and 94 in other provinces. The 21-month conflict in Syria has also seen tens of thousands of Iraqis who had fled to their country's western neighbour return home.
http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Dec-08/197741-more-than-63000-syrian-refugees-in-iraq-un.ashx#axzz2EbM2aCFm
15. Genel in Kurdish oil link to Turkey
7 December 2012 / The National
Genel Energy, the biggest oil producer in Kurdistan, plans to fund a pipeline from the autonomous region in Iraq to Turkey. Tony Hayward, the company's chief executive, expects work on a 1 million barrel per day (bpd) pipeline from Kurdish oilfields to the Turkish border to begin in the first half of next year, even as relations between Ankara and Baghdad have soured. "We are intent on investing and funding that development," he said at an energy conference held in Erbil this week. Genel will complete a pipeline connecting its Taq Taq oilfield to another field this month. The new pipeline would connect that field to the border.
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/energy/genel-in-kurdish-oil-link-to-turkey
16. Hot Issue: New Arab-Kurdish Front Could Strengthen Assad
10 December 2012 / The Jamestown Foundation
Clashes between Kurdish militias and armed Syrian opposition groups in Aleppo starting at the end of October in Ras al-Ayn near the Turkish border have raised the specter of a possible Arab-Kurdish civil war in Syria. An Arab-Kurdish civil war would weaken the efforts of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and non-FSA affiliated groups to take over strategic areas in northern Syria such as oil-rich Hasakah province and Aleppo. Any fighting between the Syrian armed opposition and Kurdish militias trying to establish their authority in Kurdish-dominated areas could strengthen the resolve of the Assad-government. Moreover, the fighting could indicate that Turkey is facilitating the entry of Syrian armed rebels into Syria to prevent the influence of Kurdish groups affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=40221&cHash=76a6154321d72e1033f9fb9a652d3bcd <http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=40221&cHash=76a6154321d72e1033f9fb9a652d3bcd>
17. World Citizen: Turkey Feels the Heat From Baghdad-Kurdish Tensions
6 December 2012 / World Politics Review
There is practically no space left on the Middle East’s geopolitical plate for another conflict. Like it or not, however, the long-simmering animosity between Iraq’s central government and the country’s Kurdish minority is reaching a boiling point. The conflict has recently heated up dangerously, and it shows no sign of cooling down.
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/12545/world-citizen-turkey-feels-the-heat-from-baghdad-kurdish-tensions
18. German Justice Minister awards Ludovic-Trarieux Prize to imprisoned Turkish lawyer Muharrem Erbey
11 December 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan campaign
It is a symbolic action: Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has awarded one of the most important prizes for lawyers to a man who has been held in custody for three years. The German FDP politician appealed to Ankara to end the imprisonment of Muharrem Erbey. Berlin – Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has awarded the Ludovic-Trarieux Prize, one of the most important human rights prizes for lawyers, to Muharrem Erbey, who is in prison in Turkey. He has been in prison for three years, not until September was the trial against him begun.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/german-justice-minister-awards-ludovic-trarieux-prize-to-imprisoned-turkish-lawyer-muharrem-erbey/
19. Nations without States: Big nations versus small people
13 December 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan campaign
The committee of Nations without States coalition has written to the EU Head Representative at Europe House, calling for justice and self-determination for all. The coalition produced a declaration for World Human Rights Day on 10 December, which begins:
As a coalition of activists, engaged in campaigns on behalf of the world many small, stateless and subjugated nations; we make this important appeal for justice and fundamental rights of the world’s disempowered, persecuted and suppressed small nations, such as the Kurds, Kashmiris, Tamils, Chechens, Sikhs, Nagas, Igbos (Biafra), Matebele, Karens, Ogoni, Tibetan, Uyghurs, Swarak, West Papuans, Banda Acehans and more.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/nations-without-states-big-nations-versus-small-people/
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
20. The Kurds and Human Rights
11 December 2012 / Peace in Kurdistan campaign
The Kurds constitute one of the world’s largest populations without a nation state of their own. This great injustice is the root cause of the abuses and discrimination to which Kurds are still subjected to at the present day. This occurs despite the fact that the Kurds are one of the oldest peoples of the Middle East and can trace their lineage back thousands of years; the first mention of the existence of Kurds is traced to reference to ‘Karduchoi’ made by the classical Greek historian Xenophon in The Expedition of Cyrus. Today, the actual size of the Kurdish population is very hard to establish because of the difficult circumstances in which the Kurds find themselves, but the number is usually estimated at approximately 40 million. The majority of the communities of Kurds are distributed unevenly between the four states of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/the-kurds-and-human-rights/
21. For Turkey, world's leading jailer, a path forward
11 December 2012 / Committee for the Protection of Journalists
Turkey has no business being the world's leading jailer of journalists. But the numbers don't lie. With 49 journalists imprisoned for their work, according to CPJ's annual worldwide prison census, released today, Turkey holds more individuals behind bars than Iran (45), China (32), or Eritrea (28). How did Turkey find itself in this situation? Unlike the other countries that top CPJ's imprisoned list, Turkey has a relatively open and vibrant media. It is an emerging democracy, a NATO member, and a candidate for European Union integration. The use of imprisonment as a media pressure tactic in Turkey is selective. The imprisoned journalists in Turkey fall into two broad categories: Kurdish journalists the government alleges are linked to a violent separatist movement; and leftists and ultranationalists accused of conspiring to overthrow the government.
http://www.cpj.org/blog/2012/12/for-turkey-worlds-leading-jailer-of-the-press-a-pa.php
22. “Chemical Weapons in Syria: Fact, Fiction, and Fib,” by Aron Lund
8 December 2012 / Mesop
On the WMD discussion in your last post, which I think was spot on: My guess is that what’s happening is that some intelligence agencies are really picking up signals of WMD motion on the ground, but that the dramatic “mixing sarin and putting it into bombs” info is pure propaganda. It seems designed to spook the public, make a case for intervention, and, to some extent, force the hand of the Obama administration. In the unlikely event that Assad has really started activating his WMD capacity, it could be for a military purpose or as a political signal. There are basically three things he would be interested in: 1) to threaten any would-be intervention force, e.g. Turkey, 2) to remind everyone that he could carry out a lethal last strike on Israel if the regime falls, 3) possibly, to shift chemical material over to allies in Lebanon, to create a kind of second-strike capability if the regime is attacked and unable to respond.
http://www.mesop.de/2012/12/09/chemical-weapons-in-syria-fact-fiction-and-fib-by-aron-lund/
23. Hrant, embarrassment, a disaster
6 December 2012 / Todays Zaman
The government has introduced a new institution which we all welcomed at first. I am talking about the newly established ombudsman.
However, the government’s choice to fill the role has shaken all the country’s democrats from head to toe. It’s like a bad joke; it is an insult to anyone with a little intelligence in this country. Our conscience was deeply wounded with this appointment.The government appointed, through parliamentary election, one of those judges from the Supreme Court of Appeals who voted in favor of punishing Hrant Dink under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) for the infamous article that brought about charges of “insulting Turkishness” to be the ombudsman.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-300405-hrant-embarrassment-a-disaster.html <http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-300405-hrant-embarrassment-a-disaster.html>
24. Why Turkey is paranoid about the Kurdish role in the Middle East
6 December 2012 / eKurd
Turkey‘s real issue is not with the Syrian President Assad killing his people or concern about a lack of democracy in Syria. Rather, Turkey’s problem is with the Kurdish people. Actually, an authoritarian Assad was good for Turkey to oppress the Kurds and keep them silent, but Turkey realized that, if it does not go against Assad, Western powers will get rid of Assad sooner or later. Therefore, it is better for Turkey to help the opposition groups in the name of democracy, so that it can fight against the Kurds who do not have any kind of autonomous region in Syria and Turkey like they do in Iraq. Hoping to topple Assad, it wants to replace him and put one of its own people in charge, so that it can run Syria from behind the scenes. Since Turkey lost Iraq to Iran, which is dominated by the Shias, an Islamic sect that most Sunnis do not consider true Muslims but a cult religion, it remains opposed to the Shias.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/12/turkey4351.htm
25. As noose tightens on Assad, rebels ask: what comes next?
9 December 2012 / The Observer
Syrian rebel fighters are at last allowing themselves to believe what seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago. After a bloody three-week siege of Damascus, they are so confident that they may be on the brink of seizing the capital that they are allowing themselves to consider what would happen in the chaotic aftermath of a victory. And it is not just in Syria that anxiety is growing about what might follow the fall of the beleaguered Syrian regime. Fear is growing among its neighbours, too, about what might then ensue. The security establishment and presidential palace, so far unbending pillars of state control, are now well within reach, rebel fighters on the outskirts of Damascus say. But to hold on to the city once it falls, they believe, means turning their minds to what comes next.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/09/syria-fall-of-damascus-aftermath
26. VIDEO: SERHILDAN, le soulèvement du peuple kurde
4 December 2012 / Youtube
A film by Chris den Hond, from 2004 (in French).
http://youtu.be/8KWJoBd29BE
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