1. Thousands march in Istanbul in solidarity with Kurds
29 June 2013 / GuardianThousands of protesters marched to Istanbul's Taksim Square on Saturday chanting slogans against the government and police after security forces killed a Kurdish demonstrator in south-east Turkey. The protest had been planned as part of larger unrelated anti-government demonstrations that have swept through the country since the end of May, but became a voice of solidarity with the Kurds after Friday's killing.
"Murderer police, get out of Kurdistan!" some protesters chanted. "This is only the beginning, the struggle continues. The murderer state will pay!" Turkish forces killed the man and wounded 10 others when they fired on a group protesting against the construction of a gendarmerie outpost in the Kurdish-dominated region.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/29/march-istanbul-kurds
2. Kurdish protester's killing fuels anti-government march in Istanbul
29 June 2013 / Russia TodayThousands of protesters have gathered in Istanbul in an anti-government rally to denounce government use of force against the demonstrators and to show solidarity with the Kurds after a Kurdish protester was killed in southeastern Turkey on Friday.
Saturday’s Taksim Square protest was dispersed after a couple of hours following a police warning, as law enforcement used shields to push the crowd away from the square. Water cannon trucks were also present but no water was fired.
"Murderer police, get out of Kurdistan!" some protesters chanted as they approached the cordoned area. "This is only the beginning, the struggle continues. The murderer state will pay!"
Around 1,000 people have remained after the warning and were pursued by police on to the side streets where ten people were detained according to the Hürriyet Daily.
http://rt.com/news/turkey-istanbul-protest-kurds-433/
3. Pro-Kurdish party urges Ankara to 'take step' for peace
30 June 2013 /Ahram OnlineA pro-Kurdish party said it will launch on Sunday rallies in several cities to press the Turkish government to "do its part" to settle the nearly three-decade old conflict in southeast Turkey.
"Our party is calling on our people as well as all oppressed and ignored segments of society to say 'Government, take a step' in order to step up the struggle for democracy," the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said in a statement. The party is calling on Ankara to "do its part" for a democratic solution to the bloody conflict and to "stay away from any actions" which could undermine the peace process. The BDP said one of its main demands was to ensure freedom for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been serving a life prison term on a remote island off Istanbul since his 1999 capture.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/75319/World/Region/ProKurdish-party-urges-Ankara-to-take-step-for-pea.aspx
4. Slow pace of peace process infuriates Kurds in Turkey
30 June 2013 / Middle East OnlineTurkish riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands of demonstrators who gathered in the Kurdish-majority southeast on Sunday to press the Turkish government to advance the peace process. Some 8,000 demonstrators were clustered in front of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) building in Diyarbakir city for the "Government, take a step" rally.
A group of masked rioters threw stones at the police for their refusal to allow the demo, and the police responded with tear gas and water cannon. Four people including a journalist were injured in clashes, which were still continuing in some thoroughfares of the city. The BDP said Sunday it would launch rallies across Turkey to press the government to carry out reforms for a settlement to the nearly three-decade old Kurdish conflict.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=59795
5. Police attacks BDP demo in Amed
1 July 2013 / ANFThe demo BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) staged in the main Kurdish city Amed on Sunday was denied permission by police on the grounds of the “illegal” banners and flags protestors carried, those of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and KCK (Kurdish Communities Union).
Tens of thousands gathered in front of BDP office to join the demo which was organized to call on the government to take urgent steps in the ongoing resolution process.
Three other demos BDP staged in the Adana, Mersin and Antep were also joined by thousands of people who demanded a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Protestors also strongly condemned the Lice attack in which one person was killed, Medeni Yıldırım, 18, and ten others were wounded in the village of Yakacık on 28 June.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/police-attacks-bdp-demo-in-amed.htm
6. Öcalan: Solution process cannot advance with one-sided steps
2 July 2013 / ANFKurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan's brother Mehmet Öcalan spoke to DİHA (Dicle News Agency) about the details of the meeting he had with his brother in İmralı prison yesterday. His brother said the Kurdish leader said the government must take urgent steps for the democratic solution process which -he reportedly said- cannot advance with one-sided steps. Öcalan also demanded that light be shed immediately on the Lice attack. Mehmet Öcalan said his brother had complaints of constant inflammation of throat, nose and mouth. Öcalan reportedly said him that he needed to wash his face almost a hundred times a day because of his eye problems that made his eyes burn and stream. He said Öcalan wanted to see an independent delegation of doctors because of his health problems.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ocalan-solution-process-cannot-advance-with-one-sided-steps.htm
7. HPG: Counter Forces Are Behind Attacks
28 June 2013 / BianetHPG released a statement, saying that counter forces were behind yesterday’s attacks in Dersim (Tunceli). According to Firat News Agency (ANF), HPG detected a series of activities of counter forces in villages of Dersim province as well as Tatvan and Hizan districts of Bitlis Province. HPG Press Liaison Center (HPG-BİM) claimed that the attacks in Dersim were made by counter forces.
“On June 26 a counter force team committed a shooting spree in Dersim’s Kanoğlu village, breaking into the village and oppressing people.”
HPG-BİM claimed that counter forces were active in the southeastern province of Bitlis as well as Dersim. “Counter forces who disguise themselves in our (HPG) uniforms oppress people in the following areas of Bitlis province: Êz, Kusoka, Cihangez villages (Tatvan district), country side of Hizan district.”
http://www.bianet.org/english/minorities/148060-hpg-counter-forces-are-behind-attacks
8. TTB Releases Video on “Humanity and Doctors”
28 June 2013 /Bianet“We are announcing once more time, TTB will always stand behind doctors as well as others who participate the [Gezi] process.
“Let PM excuse us. Turkey’s doctors will never accept becoming the doctors of a PM who says ‘my police’”. “We will always be by the side of those, including PM himself, who need our help within the universal principals of humanity. We will always be their doctors. “If those who throw tear gas bombs and exercise violence have a prime minister, TTB has the humanity to be in solidarity with. Such are the last words from a “Humanity and Doctors” video released by Turkish Doctors Union on the Gezi Resistance process.
During the Gezi Resistance, volunteer doctors, medicine students and healthcare professionals provided first aid and care to those who were injured due to police violence.
http://www.bianet.org/english/health/148050-ttb-releases-video-on-humanity-and-doctors
9. Danish court fines pro-PKK broadcaster, cancels licenses
3 July 2013 / HurriyetMesopotamia Broadcast, which operates a number of channels that are accused of being mouthpieces of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has been found guilty of promoting the militant group by a Danish court and stripped of its broadcasting rights.
The court fined Mesopotamia Broadcast, which controls Roj TV, MMC and Nûçe TV, and stripped them of their right to broadcast after ruling that the broadcaster did indeed receive support from the PKK, the Copenhagen Post reported today.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/danish-court-fines-pro-pkk-broadcaster-cancels-licenses.aspx?pageID=238&nID=49949&NewsCatID=351
10. Roj TV fined, loses broadcast rights
4 July 2013 / Kurdish GlobeThe Eastern High Court (Østre Landsret) today fined the companies behind the Kurdish TV station Roj TV and stripped them of their right to broadcast after deciding that the TV station did indeed receive support from the Kurdish separatist organisation, the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Roj TV A/S and Mesopotamia Broadkast, the two companies that own Roj TV, were each fined five million kroner for promoting terrorism in the years between 2007 and 2010. Two companies were accused of promoting terrorism via TV-channel broadcasts,? the High Court verdict read. ?The court found that PKK was a terror organisation that the accused companies had promoted through their broadcasts. http://www.kurdishglobe.net/display-article.html?id=F1EB530F960941F033B062962C05A9AF
11. Turkey ordered to pay compensation for killed Kurds
3 July 2013 / The News InternationalEurope’s rights court on Tuesday ordered Turkey to pay 325,000 euros ($423,000) in compensation to the parents of five youths, including a 13-year-old girl, killed by the army who claimed they were armed Kurdish rebels. The youths were killed in January 2005 in the country’s southeast by Turkish soldiers who claimed they were militants with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who had opened fire on them. The victims were a 24-year-old mother of three, three girls aged 13, 15, and 16, and a 22-year-old man. The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Turkish authorities had failed to prove claims the youths had been armed and that a proper investigation had not been carried out into their deaths.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-187416-Turkey-ordered-to-pay-compensation-for-killed-Kurds
12. Kurdish Party Rejects US Condemnation of ‘PYD’s Deadly Response’
2 July 2013 / RudawIraq’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party and controls most of Syria’s Kurdish regions, rejected a US State Department statement, blaming the PYD for clashes in the town of Amude in which several Kurds were killed. On Monday, the State Department released a statement blaming the PYD for its “deadly response to peaceful demonstrations in the city of Amude, where PYD authorities have killed six people, wounded dozens, and detained 90 activists during several days of clashes.”
“There is no justification for these attacks or the PYD’s attempts to repress freedoms of expression and assembly by silencing those who peacefully advocate for democracy and human rights,” the statement said. “We are appalled by reports of the PYD torturing detainees and demand that it immediately and unconditionally release all detained activists,” the statement said.
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/02072013
13. Report: Regional Events Could Drive Powerful PKK in Germany to Violence
30 June 2013 / RudawWith an estimated 13,000 supporters, the Kurdistan Workers Party is the “biggest foreign and radical force” in Germany, and events in Syria and Turkey could drive the group toward taking the path of violence in Germany, an official report says.
The 2012 report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV) also mentions the Kurdish Hizballah group in Turkey, and claims that the radical Ansar al-Islam fighting in Syria “receive support and assistance from the Kurdistan Region.”
But the 379-page report, whose contents were revealed by BFV President Hans-George Maassen and Hans-Peter Friedrich, the federal interior minister, devotes 23 pages to the PKK.
http://rudaw.net/english/world/30062013
14. Set journalists free in Turkey: EFJ campaign update
3 July 2013 / Peace in Kurdistan campaignAn update from the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) international campaign to set free all journalists in Turkey.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/set-journalists-free-in-turkey-efj-campaign-update-17/
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
15. Turkey Protest Violence All Too Familiar to Kurds
28 June 2013 / Al MonitorThe brutalization of Turkish society by the Turkish security forces for most of modern Turkey's life, and particularly since the military coup of 1980, has inevitably resulted in an internal crisis of governance and the lack of a civic mentality. However, it is wrong to lay all the blame for the crisis that came to a head in Istanbul’s Gezi Park at Prime Ministers Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s doorstep. The recent demonstrations offer an opportunity to address police brutality in Turkey, in particular the legacy of the country’s three-decade war in the southeast, where the same police force that fired tear and pepper gas at protesters in Gezi Park honed its ruthless response to dissent on the country’s Kurdish minority.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/gezi-park-turkey-kurds-brutality.html
16. Turkish Kurds Find Common Ground With Protesters
1 July 2013 / Al MonitorHow did Turkey’s Kurds view the protests that recently engulfed most of its western cities? This was the question I had in mind when I briefly visited the country’s Kurdish southeast in June. The prevailing mood I encountered was a far cry from the jubilant and self-assured atmosphere back in Taksim Square, still occupied by demonstrators at the time. Erupting at a rare moment of optimism surrounding the negotiations for a permanent settlement between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the protests in the country’s west had puzzled people in the east and led many to worry about their impact on the nascent peace process. Echoing the logic of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — a divisive figure in the southeast, as in the rest of the country — several Kurdish friends suggested that "a button" had been pushed to derail the talks.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/07/turkish-kurds-common-ground-gezi-park-protesters.html#ixzz2Xwlq6uZz
17. Can the 'Spirit of Gezi' Transform Progressive Politics in Turkey?
3 July 2013 / JadaliyyaOne of the humorous slogans invented by the Gezi Park protesters was: “We are Mustafa Keser’s soldiers!” The namesake of this insider joke is a folk singer who has nothing to do with politics except the accidental similarity between his name and that of the founder of the republic, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk). The slogan was minted in response to the Kemalist protesters, who identified themselves as “Mustafa Kemal’s soldiers.” Despite this joke and many other reasons for division, the Kemalists and anti-Kemalists managed to coexist peacefully throughout the protests, perhaps because all participants realized that their differences mattered little in the face of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) government’s concerted plan to eliminate all organized resistance to its neoliberal and socially conservative agendas.http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/12616/can-the-spirit-of-gezi-transform-progressive-polit
18. Kurdish peace process in need of a rescue
1 July 2013 / Al Arabiya88 years ago, Kurdish rebel leader Sheikh Said rose up against repressive policies of the new Turkish Republic, rallying thousands of his supporters to fight against what they believed is the state that had turned against Islam by abolishing the Caliphate in Istanbul.
His small army had made steady progress in a very short period of time and captured several districts in the southeastern and eastern Turkey, a rural area predominantly populated by Kurds. His rebellion was clustered around several districts of Diyarbakır, particularly Lice.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/world/2013/07/01/Kurdish-peace-process-in-need-of-a-rescue.html
19. Kurdish smugglers struggle to feel Turkey peace dividend
3 July 2013 / GuardianPeace often comes at a price. For the Kurds of south-eastern Turkey, that price has been a crackdown on a decades-long economic practice: smuggling. Since the settlement talks with the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) got under way secretly in October, Turkish security forces have increased their presence. In the Şemdinli district, for example, 14 new military fortifications and checkpoints have been set up. People in one of Turkey's poorest areas feel harassed by the new security measures aimed at closing down the smuggling routes that have sustained the region through the conflict. Several checkpoints have been torched by Kurdish protesters and residents have organised day-long roadblocks between the military outposts. The conflict reached a new high last Friday, when Turkish security forces opened fire on civilians protesting against the construction of a checkpoint in Lice in Diyarbakır. One person died while nine were reported wounded.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/03/kurdish-smugglers-turkey-peace
20. Turkey stands at the crossroads. Will it opt for democracy?
3 July 2013 / GuardianThe contrasts that define modern Turkey were never more apparent than last weekend, when thousands of people gathered in Istanbul to support equal rights for gays, transsexuals and bisexuals. The protesters marched along Istiklal Avenue waving banners and rainbow flags, creating a scene that felt unique in today's Muslim world. The placards, written in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Arabic and English, were imbued with mettle and humour. "Homosexuality is not a disease. But racism is," said one of them. "So what if I am a fag?" asked a banner. Another read: "We are the soldiers of Freddie Mercury."http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/03/turkey-stands-crossroads-democracy-protests
21. Out of Control: the Syrian Rebels and the US
3 July 2013 / CounterpunchSyria is convinced the US cannot control the rebel groups it is arming and will be unable to get them to declare a ceasefire that would be central to any successful peace talks, says the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister. This puts a further obstacle in the way of negotiations in Geneva proposed by the US and Russia which seem the best chance of ending the Syrian civil war. It now appears they will either not take place, or if they do, they will achieve nothing. Faisal Mekdad says in an interview in Damascus that the Americans “provide arms and money but they have absolutely no control. Nobody will listen. The US has been trying to unify this opposition for two years and you can see the results: more disintegration.” Mr Mekdad has been at the centre of Syrian foreign policy at a time when the country has been progressively isolated, while still managing to retain crucial allies.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/03/out-of-control-the-syrian-rebels-and-the-us/
22. Iran awaits 'Kurdish Spring'
29 June 2013 / Al JazeeraArmanj Berxwedan fidgets anxiously in a plastic chair at the centre of a rebel camp in Iraq's Qandil Mountains. A Kalashnikov rifle leans on the tent that doubles as the camp's library and dining hall. The pimply faced, 18-year-old guerrilla from Iran is a member of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), and thinks he could soon be back on the frontlines. It is only a matter of time, he says, until the "Kurdish Spring" reaches his country. After a century of political exclusion, Kurds are making landmark advances across the Middle East. The Kurds of Syria have built a de-facto autonomous zone in parts of the country's north since the Assad administration pulled back its forces last summer. Talks between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) edge towards a settlement to the bloody conflict there. The Kurds of Iraq boast a federal region that enjoys a semblance of democracy and prosperity.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/06/2013627152045730568.html
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