1. Kurdish rebels begin withdrawal from Turkey
8 May 2013 / ReutersKurdish militants began to withdraw from Turkey on Wednesday, pursuing a peace process meant to end a three-decade insurgency that has killed 40,000 people, ravaged the region's economy and tarnished the country's image abroad.
Turkish security forces manned checkpoints along the mountainous border with Iraq, keeping watch as the agreed pullout started by the first small groups of up to 2,000 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters.
The withdrawal, ordered late last month by top PKK commander Murat Karayilan, is the biggest step yet in a deal negotiated by the group's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan with Turkish officials to end almost 30 years of conflict.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE9470E420130508 <http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE9470E420130508>
2. PKK Rebels Start Withdrawal From Turkey, Officials Says
8 May 2013 / AFPKurdish rebels have started their gradual retreat from Turkey to bases in northern Iraq, a Kurdish party leader said Wednesday, kicking off a key stage in the peace process with the Turkish government aimed at ending one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies.
The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, declared a cease-fire in March and agreed to withdraw guerrilla fighters from the Turkish territory, heeding a call from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is engaged in talks with Turkey to end a nearly 30-year battle that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/pkk-starts-withdrawal-turkey_n_3237178.html
3. Kurds start to pull out from Turkey
8 May 2013 / The Irish IndependentKurdish rebels have started their gradual retreat from Turkey to bases in northern Iraq, starting a key stage in the peace process with the Turkish government aimed at ending one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies. The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, declared a cease-fire in March and agreed to withdraw guerrilla fighters from the Turkish territory, heeding a call from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is engaged in talks with Turkey to end a nearly 30-year battle that has cost tens of thousands of lives. The group, which has sought greater autonomy and more rights for Turkey's Kurds, has, however, rejected a Turkish government demand that they lay down arms before leaving the Turkish territory.
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/kurds-start-to-pull-out-from-turkey-29252385.html
4. Tweeting Turkey's Kurdish peace process
8 May 2013 / Al JazeeraFighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) began a historic withdrawal from Turkey on Thursday, and netizens followed the buzz online. The withdrawal marks a major stage in peace negotiations between Turkey and the PKK, meant to end one of the world's longest-running insurgencies.
Many on Twitter followed the withdrawal, sharing photos of PKK fighters leaving Turkey and discussing the prospects for peace.
http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201305082203-0022742
5. Erdogan: Terror won't forestall peace with Kurds
5 May 2013 / UPITurkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said those opposing a peace plan with ethnic Kurds are employing terrorism to undermine the process.
In a speech Saturday, Erdogan said the ethnic forces clashing with Turkish soldiers have promised to lay down arms and begin withdrawing back over the border into Iraq, Hurriyet Daily News said.
Erdogan pledged to investigate and bring to justice those in opposition parties who would prefer terrorism to maintain political power.
"The only refuge of the status quo is terrorism. The only footing of the status quo parties, the branch that they can hold on to for [not falling], is terrorism," he said.
Erdogan said investigations will not begin until after the two sides have stopped fighting because he doesn't want to "ruin the peaceful atmosphere."
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/05/04/Erdogan-Terror-wont-forestall-peace-with-Kurds/UPI-49101367692981/#ixzz2SWXUU5p1<http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/05/04/Erdogan-Terror-wont-forestall-peace-with-Kurds/UPI-49101367692981/#ixzz2SWXUU5p1>
6. PKK starts retreat as UK, EU ready to help peace bid
9 May 2013 / HurriyetBritain has offered support to the peace process launched by the Turkish government to solve the three-decade Kurdish insurgency that has cost the lives of nearly 40,000. Ankara has yet to give either a positive or negative response, demonstrating Ankara’s projected stance throughout the recent process as “handling the issue domestically.” Ankara’s policy on the process with regard to foreign partners was expressed by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu recently stating, “This is a family matter. We’d like to solve it within the family.” British Prime Minister David Cameron offered support to the Turkish government on the peace process, during a phone conversation over the weekend with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Cameron congratulated his Turkish counterpart on the government’s latest efforts to find a solution to the Kurdish problem.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pkk-starts-retreat-as-uk-eu-ready-to-help-peace-bid.aspx?pageID=238&nID=46508&NewsCatID=351
7. Turkey parliament speaker says PKK militants have already left Turkey
5 May 2013 / KurdpressTurkey Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek said on Saturday that most of the militants of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have already left Turkey soil and the rest will leave the country soon. According to an agreement between PKK jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan and Turkey government, the PKK was planned to start the withdrawal of its members on May 8. Speaking with aHaber TV, Cicek shocked the interviewer after he said setting May 8 as the day of the withdrawal was expedient and the PKK has already retreated most of its forces. Cicek further added PKK is not Turkey’s main problem as “there are powerful men who will find a replace for PKK to intervene in Turkey national security.”
http://www.kurdpress.com/En/NSite/FullStory/News/?Id=4429#Title=%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09%09Turkey%20parliament%20speaker%20says%20PKK%20militants%20have%20already%20left%20Turkey%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09
8. Turkish PM Erdoğan meets Cabinet members before PKK retreat
2 May 2013 / HurriyetPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a surprise meeting with his ministers, advisers and an intelligence official in Ankara on May 1, less than two weeks before the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will withdraw from Turkish soil. Deputy Prime Ministers Bülent Arınç, Bekir Bozdağ and Beşir Atalay, Interior Minister Muammer Güler, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik, Prime Ministry undersecretary Efkan Ala, National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy leader Hüseyin Çelik, and the prime minister’s senior adviser, Yalçın Akdoğan, were present at the meeting which took place at the AKP’s headquarters in Ankara.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-pm-erdogan-meets-cabinet-members-before-pkk-retreat-.aspx?pageID=238&nid=46085
9. Charter efforts failed, President Gül regrets
7 May 2013 / HurriyetTurkish President Abdullah Gül said yesterday that he was sorry to observe that Turkey’s much-anticipated parliamentary work to write a brand-new Constitution has failed. Talking to a group of journalists traveling with him to Portugal for a state visit at the invitation of Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva, Gül said only amendments to the current Constitution would be possible in this legislative term. Answering questions about a possible shift to a powerful presidential model for Turkey as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has suggested, Gül said he would not become involved in the debate, but added that there should be strong checks and balances regardless of the system.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/charter-efforts-failed-president-gul-regrets.aspx?pageID=238&nID=46352&NewsCatID=409
10. Turkey – a tough place to be a journalist
3 May 2013 / Francis SedgemooreThe National Union of Journalists yesterday marked Word Press Freedom Day 2013 with a public meeting focused on the plight of journalists in Turkey: a multi-party state and would-be EU member that doesn’t warrant the term democracy given the behaviour of the majority party toward its critics. Turkey recognises in law a thousand and one varieties of“terrorist”, and has a reputation for jailing large numbers of journalists.
Modern-day Turkey is a dangerous environment for journalists. Since 1992 Eighteen have been muderedr, 14 of them with impunity. Sixty-six Turkish and Kurdish journalists remain in prison, with many on remand awaiting trial for offences that carry life sentences.
http://sedgemore.com/2013/05/turkey-a-tough-place-to-be-a-journalist/
11. With Abdullah Ocalan from Athens to Nairobi: Exclusive interview with former Greek intelligence officer Savvas Kalenteridis
6 May 2013 / Kurdistan TribuneSavvas Kalenteridis is a blogger, columnist, and a former Greek intelligence officer. In this exclusive interview he talks for the first time about his travels with Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned founder of the PKK. Kalenteridis accompanied Ocalan from Athens to Russia, and later from Athens to Kenya, where Ocalan was ultimately arrested by Turkish officials in 1999.
Q: When did you first become involved with the Kurdish issue?A: I first learned about Kurdish history when I was a student at the military academy. My knowledge about the Kurdish issue deepened while I was working as a consultant in the Greek Consulate, Izmir (1992-1997). There, I was fully aware of the injustice and oppression of the Kurds in Turkey. During my time there I helped a lot of Kurds, and facilitated visas for those who wanted to leave Turkey in order to escape oppression.
http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/with-abdullah-ocalan-from-athens-nairobi/
12. Turkey to zoom in on assassinations of 1993 and after
6 May 2013 / World BulletinThe Ankara Prosecutor's Office has taken a new step to solve the unexplained political murders committed in Turkey in 1993 and afterwards, extending two investigations it is conducting into the suspicious deaths of former President Turgut Özal and former Gendarmerie commander Gen. Eşref Bitlis.
The investigation will focus on the unsolved assassinations of the past 20 years and possible connections between them. Ankara prosecutors Kemal Çetin, Mustafa Bilgili and Hüseyin Şahin will be exchanging information during the investigations. These three prosecutors are in charge of conducting investigations regarding crimes that fall under the scope of Article 10 of the Anti-Terror Law. http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=108224
13. More On Islamic Party Meeting With PKK
8 May 2013 / Transnational Middle East ObserverMember of the Political Bureau of the Kurdistan Islamic Union Abubakir Haladni on the visit of the delegation of the Kurdistan Islamic Union to Kandil and meeting with Pkk leaders and then to meet the delegation with Turkish officials in Turkey, in a statement to KurdIU announced that "attempts by the Kurdistan Islamic Union is a reflection of a plan and strategy Islamic Union in the Sixth Congress of the Union and will continue, we offered that the Islamic Union stepping great strides in the national sphere within the province of Kurdistan and abroad, and made the issue of the establishment of the Kurdish state one of strategy the Union ".
http://networkedblogs.com/L0Ldm
14. Returning Kurdish Politician Arrested Upon Airport Arrival
9 May 2013 / BianetHatice Yaşar, a Kurdish politician who was forced to leave Turkey and move to Sulaymaniyah in 1980, has been detained and arrested yesterday upon her arrival at Ankara's Esenboğa Airport. She was sent to Sincan Prison in Ankara.
"She returned to Turkey after 33 years, at a time that many factions of the society are discussing she brought up before. They should have apologized her, instead they didn't allow her to spend time with her family," Ayşe Bakkalcı and Metin Bakkalcı, Yaşar's family members told bianet.
http://www.bianet.org/english/politics/146470-returning-kurdish-politician-arrested-upon-airport-arrival
15. Peace process will help Turkey’s accession process to the EU
6 May 2013 / HurriyetThe peace process and rewriting of the Constitution are two key issues for the future of Turkey, the European Union’s envoy to Ankara has said, noting that it will bring Ankara closer in line with EU standards. As Turkey and the EU mark 50 years of their relationship this year, the 27-nation bloc needs to give the message that membership will take place, Jean-Maurice Ripert told the Daily News in an interview ahead of May 9, Europe Day.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/peace-process-will-help-turkeys-accession-process-to-the-eu.aspx?pageID=238&nID=46283&NewsCatID=338
16. Kurdish issue blocks Turkey's EU road-Lagendijk
6 May 2013 / World BulletinEuropean Parliament's former member and EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission's former co-chair Joost Lagendijk has said, the EU was following Turkey's solution process very closely. Lagendijk assessed the process of solution to Kurdish issue to the Anadolu Agency in Akcakoca where Turkey-Australia Dialogue Meeting is taking place. Turkey-Australia Dialogue Meeting which was organized by Abant Platform in association with the La Trobe University and the Australian Intercultural Society has kicked off in Turkey's Black Sea town of Akcakoca on Monday.
Lagendijk told Anadolu Agency at the event that Turkey had suffered from the Kurdish issue and PKK terrorist organization over the years and added, EU countries were looking over the solution process very positively.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=108240
17. VIDEO: German Kurds plan their return home
8 May 2013 / Al JazeeraKurdish immigrants living in Germany are watching the pull out closely as the Kurdistan Workers Party - or PKK - begin their withdrawal from Turkey into Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq.
Germany is home to the biggest Kurdish population in Europe - some 800,000 live there.
And many of them support the PKK.
Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer reports from Berlin.
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/europe/2013/05/201358161349732897.html
18. ‘Western Kurdistan could be a model for a free and democratic Syria’, PYD co-president tells London audience
7 May 2013 / Peace in Kurdistan campaignSalih Muslim, co-president of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) addressed a well-attended seminar entitled The Kurds and the conflict in Syria at the London School of Economics last Friday.[1] The LSE Middle East Centre hosted the seminar, which was chaired the Centre’s manager, Robert Lowe.
Providing an overview of the latest developments in the ongoing conflict in Syria, Mr Muslim argued that the anti-regime uprising is no longer a struggle for democracy but a fight for control over the country. The bloody conflict that has ensued since the early pro-democracy protests of 2011, he stressed, is the result of regional and international powers arming the revolution and providing military, diplomatic and practical support to extremist factions.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/resources/pik-campaign-statements/western-kurdistan-could-be-a-model-for-a-free-and-democratic-syria/
19. 60% of Syrian oil controlled by Kurds: PYD leader Salih Muslim
9 May 2013 / eKurdAccording to Salih Muslim, PYD (the main Kurdish party in Syria) co-chair, 60% of oil is controlled by Kurds. "We protect the oil wells," he said, before pointing out that the Kurdish rewrite their history in the Middle East. "The Kurdish people are re-writing their history. We are rebuilding a poorly written history. Today, Kurds are settling accounts with history", he said to ActuKurde. Relying on a draft democratic autonomy, developed by Kurdish imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, the Syrian Kurds are now a major force for the future of Syria. The Kurds are maintaining their neutrality, despite pressure from international and regional forces. "Our position has not changed. - said Muslim - We protect our people. Sometimes we are facing regime forces, sometimes armed groups". Muslim added that Kurds are waiting for the coalition of the Syrian opposition to clarify its position on the Kurds and the future of Syria.
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/syriakurd787.htm
20. Suicide bombers target Kurds in Iraq's disputed areas
8 May 2013 / ReutersThree suicide bombers struck at Kurdish security forces and the local headquarters of a Kurdish political party in the disputed area of Iraq on Wednesday, killing three people, police and medics said. Tensions between Iraq's Sunni, Shi'ite and ethnic Kurdish communities have increased since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December 2011.
Wednesday's attacks took place in a band of oil-rich territory over which both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurds, who run their own administration in the north, claim jurisdiction.
At the heart of the dispute is the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/us-iraq-violence-idUSBRE9470G020130508
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
21. After Decades of War, Can the Kurds Finally Find Peace?
7 May 2013 / CounterpunchOn Wednesday, some 2,000 Turkish Kurd guerrillas will begin their withdrawal from Turkey to an inaccessible mountain stronghold in northern Iraq. Moving in small groups, the fighters will take one to two months to retreat, assuming the Turkish army sticks to a de facto ceasefire, says a leader of the Turkish Kurd rebel movement, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). The pullout is the first step in a fragile process of reconciliation between the Turkish state and its Kurdish minority after 29 years of guerrilla war in which 40,000 people have died.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/07/after-decades-of-war-can-the-kurds-finally-find-peace/
22. Kurds dare to hope as PKK fighters' ceasefire with Turkey takes hold
7 May 2013 / GuardianIn a region that has been on the frontline of conflict for decades, the long years of intimidation, violence, and humiliations in south-east Turkey are giving way to tentative hope for a normal life. Springtime has come to the places where fighting between the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) and Turkey's security forces has been at its most violent. For the first time in more than a decade, Semdinli residents are looking forward to the new season.
"Since the ceasefire was declared a month ago, Semdinli has started to live again," said Pinar Yilmaz, head of the local women's committee of the main Kurdish political party, the BDP.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/07/kurds-pkk-turkey-peace-talks
23. Planned PKK pullout heats up Turkey politics
8 May 2013 / Al JazeeraIn a historic development for Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) will begin to withdraw its armed forces from Turkey on May 8, as part of ongoing talks between Turkish intelligence and imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The eventual goal of the talks is the definitive disarmament of the outlawed group.
The organisation has scaled down its demand from secession to autonomy in the recent years. Now it’s waiting for the Turkish government to make certain amendments to its legal system, including a new definition of citizenship in Turkey, a decentrailisation of state power, and the right to Kurdish language education.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201357182319457288.html
24. Opinion: Kurdish issue resolution may help tackle Armenian question
3 May 2013 / PanarmenianHopes that Turkey could ever solve its almost intractable Kurdish issue have never been as high as they were in the first quarter of 2013. If this peace process can continue with all its ups and downs but without rupture, it could that suggest that another perennial issue as old as the Kurdish issue, the Armenian question, can also be tackled, Turkish journalist Cengiz Çandar says in “No Incentive for Turkey, Armenia To Normalize Relations” article published by the Assyrian International News Agency. “Of course, there is a fundamental difference. The Kurdish issue directly concerns 15 million people living in Turkey as Turkish citizens and more than 30 million other Kurds living in the region and majority populations of tens of millions living in those countries.”
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/157084/
25. As Kurds gain power, Baghdad may be ready for oil deal
7 May 2013 / CS MonitorAs the Iraqi Kurds boost their bargaining power with their first unilateral sale of crude oil on the international market, and new unilateral pipelines coming online soon, Kurdish officials and Baghdad have reached a tentative agreement to restore relations. Last week, the Iraqi central government and authorities of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) put together a seven-point deal that could see the Kurds resume oil exports to Iraq in return for a revision of the Iraqi 2013 budget, which cut two-thirds out of the Kurd’s share. On 1 May, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announced that the two sides had made headway in discussions on the issue following over a month of boycotts of the Iraqi parliament by Kurdish deputies over thhttp://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0507/As-Kurds-gain-power-Baghdad-may-be-ready-for-oil-deale budget discrepancy.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0507/As-Kurds-gain-power-Baghdad-may-be-ready-for-oil-deal
26. Bargaining Power: Kurds on the Rise in Iraq
7 May 2013 / CNBCIt's amazing what a difference economic independence can make. Just ask the Kurds.
The Iraqi Kurds have long wrangled with Iraq's central government on topics ranging from sectarian disputes to energy policy. Now, however, the Kurds have boosted their bargaining power with their first unilateral sale of crude oil on the international market, and Kurdistan has new, unilateral pipelines coming online soon. Growing confidence among the Kurds is a big part of the reason the Iraqi central government in Baghdad has come to the table and tentatively agreed to restore relations with Kurdistan.
Last week, the Iraqi central government and authorities of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) put together a seven-point deal that could see the Kurds resume oil exports to Iraq in return for a revision of the 2013 Iraqi budget, which slashed most of the funds allocated to Kurdistan.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100716337
27. Mem û Zîn Analytical Study*: III, 4 – Mem û Zîn’s dramatic plot
8 May 2013 / Kurdistan TribuneLove and Existence: Analytical Study of Ahmadi Khani’s Tragedy of Mem û Zîn’
Part III, Chapter 4: Mem û Zîn’s dramatic plotThe most important primary element of tragedy as explained by Aristotle is its plot – with complex plots having a better chance, space and scope to create a more successful drama. The plot must be unified and well-structured around central themes, actions and characters. Although, as we have so far demonstrated, Mem û Zîn does have all the elements of tragedy prescribed by Aristotle, it is its sophisticated and well-constructed dramatic plot that establishes it firmly as within this genre. I will present a textual analysis of the development of the dramatic plot in Khani’s work in the next part. Here I just explain the way the plot has been constructed.
http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/mem-u-zin-analytical-study-iii-4-mem-u-zins-dramatic-plot/?doing_wp_cron=1368050695.7988400459289550781250%20http://www.authorhouse.co.uk/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?Book=419087
ACTIONS
28. Write to Adem Uzun!
9 May 2013 / Peace in Kurdistan campaignEarlier in the year, Peace in Kurdistan campaign and CAMPACC began a number of initiatives to demand the release of Brussels-based Kurdish activist Adem Uzun, who was arrested in Paris last October. He was denied bail and he has now spent seven months in prison without a trial date set. In February we sent an open letter to the French Justice Minister, Christiane Taubira, which was signed by over 200 campaigners, politicians, academics and community activists, urging the French authorities to release him. We are also continuing with our postcard campaign.
Most importantly, we are appealing to everyone to write directly to Adem. It is often said that the most frightening thing for prisoners is the fear of being forgotten. We want to make sure that Adem is not forgotten, and a simple letter from you could break the isolation he must undoubtedly feel at this time. We believe and act of solidarity like this will provide him with great comfort and strength.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/write-to-adem-uzun/
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