Stop labelling PKK-fighters as terrorists
Turkey is bombing PKK camps in Northern-Iraq in retaliation for the killing of soldiers by the PKK. The first civilian deaths have been reported. The EU doesn’t protest the violence, because the PKK is on the EU list of terrorist organizations. But the label ‘terrorist’ contributes to maintaining the crux of the problem, which is the still unsolved Kurdish issue. It’s about time we stopped referring to PKK fighters as ‘terrorists’.
There is no generally accepted, international definition of the term ‘terrorism’. That has everything to do with the eagerness of several political players to use and misuse the term, and their willingness to take advantage of it for their own purposes. The question whether an organization is terrorist or not is thus a purely political one. Also the decision of the EU to put the PKK on the list of terrorist organizations was political. It was taken in 2002, under heavy pressure from both Turkey and the United States. The United States needed Turkey’s friendship in their war on terror after the attacks in New York, and the best way to buy Turkish friendship is to call the PKK terrorists. The EU couldn’t be left behind.
That’s almost ten years ago now. At the time, there was some hope that governing party AKP, which came to power for the first time in 2002, would work on finding a solution to the long-lasting Kurdish issue. Not only by military means, as before, but by carrying out democratic reforms and thus taking away the breeding ground for ‘terrorism’. The AKP indeed took democratization seriously on several issues, and in 2005 the access negotiations between Turkey and the EU were opened.
Education in mother tongue
But the AKP, which has been governing alone since 2002, has not delivered on solving the Kurdish issue through democratic means. In 2009 a ‘Kurdish opening’ was announced, but it never really lead anywhere. Even when the PKK repeatedly respected months of lasting cease-fires and thus gave the government the chance to reform without being accused of ‘bending before terrorists’, nothing happened.
The Kurdish demands though, are not unreasonable. When the PKK started its violent political activism, in August 1984, an independent country was the goal. Now the organization strives for autonomy in the south-east of the country, which is mainly inhabited by Kurds. Other Kurdish demands: education in their mother tongue, the abolishment of the election threshold of ten percent, the release of Kurdish political prisoners. Most demands are not negotiable for Turkey. They erode the unity of the country, one of the sacred doctrines the nation state is built on.
Not only did the AKP refrain from doing anything concrete to solve the Kurdish issue, but there was even a tactic added to the arsenal with which the Kurdish people are being suppressed. In the eighties and nineties PKK fighters, Kurdish activists, politicians and intellectuals were killed in their thousands, while nowadays they are being prosecuted en masse. There are for example hundreds of Kurdish mayors and officials on trial for using their right to freedom of expression, referred to by Turkey as ‘making propaganda for a terrorist organization’. Kurdish journalists are still being locked up when they report on the Kurdish issue from a Kurdish perspective, and democratically elected politicians are banned from taking their seats in parliament because of legalistic arguments.
A sentence that suits a state of law
By labelling the PKK as ‘terrorist’, its legitimate goals are being branded as irrelevant too. And at the same time the label is used to justify violent and legal reprisals against Kurds. Every bomb on Northern Iraq is self defence against terrorism, every court verdict against a Kurdish politician a sentence that suits a state of law. It stirs up anger and frustration among Kurds – no wonder the number of youths wanting to join the PKK is on the rise, as became known last week. Politically they see no possibilities whatsoever, so they see no other option than to ‘go to the mountains’, as it’s described in Turkey.
The PKK cease-fire is over. Soldiers die. Young men, often conscript soldiers and mostly inexperienced. Which leads to Erdogan’s decision to start air strikes on PKK camps in Northern Iraq, because, as he said, ‘our patience has come to an end.’ It can hardly get more cynical than that. The international recognition of the PKK as a terrorist organization has a disastrous effect on any chance for peace. It maintains a circle of oppression and violence. Time for a new political signal: strike the PKK off the list of terrorist organizations.
This article is outrageous. What will you say to thousands of civilians including children slauhtered by these animals if you dont consider them as terrorists?? You are just an ignorant occidental journalist who sees things without thinking twice. Just wake up and do your job right watch the records. They even kill their own people in the villages of the east. I am shocked by this article that is nothing less than the proof of the ignorance defining people like you. Journalist? let me laugh. Encouraging terror, dishonour, crime against humanity and animosity is not journalism. Fréderike Geerdink; get out of Turkey. pkk fighters, lol. then al qaeeda are also fighters not terrosist, same for Eta in Spain. Outrageous, stunning stupidity of an article. For the memory of thousands of turkish soldiers, innocent children and women slaughtered by these animals receiving weapons from israel and armenia, you cannot say that.
According to the universal laws, only the governments have the authority to own weapons. Who is PKK and what are they doing in our country with guns and explosives in their hands and aiming our soldiers? Besides, we all know what PKK has been doing to our civilian soldiers ( Yes, we have military obligation in this country and most of those soldiers are teachers, engineers, lawyers, workers,doctors,etc). And yes, hundreds of them were kurds! They shed their own blood. Oh, yes, maybe they did not tell this part of the story to you.
You should better change the view of your point from today, in order to understand what is really going on.
Regards,
Great article. When the labelling of “terrorist” is removed, only then can there be a progress development in this area. The way people are using the term of terrorism is getting ridiculous, in particular in this context when we see the degree to which minorities in Turkey are being oppressed.
Turkey is a country with many problems, they cannot shoot and kill these problems. Turkey needs to, in similar ways as other countries, stop being such an ignorant and chauvinistic regime and actually start taking some responsibility and solve the existing problems in the country.
Thanks for this very insightful article!
B.
which turkey are you living in, darling? after killing thousands of civilians and active soldiers, how can you try to get people to refuse saying pkk as terorists. it might seem nice to call them ‘freedom fighters for kurdish people’ but the truth is, now there are fighting for no reason. kurdish people are living equally with the others more than ever before. then pkk fighting for what? pkk is a puppet of israel and the others, aiming to make turkey weaker. tons of money are going to eastern part.
also, you didn’t mentioned about murdered turkish soldiers in your article. the uniform they are wearing, does not mean that they deserve to be killed by ‘freedom gerillas(!)’ they are just 20 years old, and they are not designed as war machines. but they are being killed perfidiously; ambushes, mines etc. last time the pkk dogs placed a bomb under the corpse of their friend killed by turkish soldiers. they aimed to blow up the bomb when turkish soldiers come to move the death body. there are many stories like that explaining what kind of sons of bitches they are.
finally, many young and -maybe- innocent people are dying on this field. guns are not the solution. even pkk terorism or state terorism (if exists). in your article you took a side, and tryed to justify a ‘terorist organization’. they are harmful both kurdish people and turkish people; by convincing kurdish youngs to join their mountain crew, and killing turkish soldiers.
PKK has its own share in making things difficult in the last couple of years. PKK supporters would admit it in private conversations. Not acknowledging this gets you to an unbalanced article.
Beside the terrorist activities, have you ever heard about ;
The PKK was designated as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for its more than two decades-long participation in drug trafficking. The drug trade is one of the PKK’s most lucrative criminal activities. Nearly 300 individuals connected to the PKK were arrested on drug trafficking charges from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, more than half of them in Germany. Such activity continues to this day. Turkish law enforcement seized a number of drug shipments and drug labs that belonged to the PKK. The PKK has also relied extensively on taxing drug shipments that move through its territory. PKK has units on the borders of areas it controls to collect money from drug traffickers and a number of Turkish drug smugglers are reported to have given money to the organization.(Wikipedia)
If you are using weapons for whatever reason you wish to pursue than that can only be explained with terrorism. One can only cause terror by death,injury and mass destruction based on one sided decision to fight without leaving any room for negotiations..
very well written article, I wish more people read this article,
one should ask himself, is PKK really a terroririst oganization like Al-qaeda ?
sometimes using Words in a wrong place , makes the word to loose it meaning …
yes it is since it kills innocent civilians.its as simple as that. period.
Well, PKK might have used harsh methods that labeld them as terrorists, but Turkey is also a terrorist, chauvnstic fashstic state, which gives any minority so harshly oppressed to resist.
to all reasonable Turks: The cruelty of PKK is just a reflection of the State’s cruelty, PKK is a reaction to decades of misery and violence of Turkish state.
We, the Kurds are the autochtonous people of the region, Turks you came lately(13th century) from Central Asia.
There is another fact, which is that the military has benefitted alot from this small PKK force in the mountains, milking the Turkish state for supposdly mmilitary equipement.
The Turkish army in many occasions proved to have itself a big hand in narcotics. Everyone is making money from narcotics in Turkey, even the God fearing Islamists.
Well written and very brave article. Turkey should stop bullying Kurds and we should stop labeling Kurds ‘terorist’ because Kurds resist the assimilation, discrimination, and oppression. It is time for EU and western countries to put dirty politics behind and support the Kurdish cause.
Thank you so much for your important article! The reality is that the Turks have been educated and brain-washed in school to think that the Kurds are the bad guys. But it is Turkey that has occupied Kurdistan, and the Kurdish people have always strived for their land of Kurdistan to be an independent state. We have a distinct own language, history, culture, nationality, traditions. The day will come when Kurdistan claims its independence, and there is nothing that Iran, Turkey, Syria or Iraq can do about it. Interesting how all these countries are founded on strong nationalistic, militaristic, islamic and totalitarian regimes. Tell me if the issue of Kurdistan’s independence is not a greater threat for peace in the Middle East then Palestine? A nation of 40 million people without their own state – resisted by Arabs, Turks and Iranians. The world needs to deal with its colonialistic heritage.
and one more thing to add, Turkish Prime minister recognizes Hamas as freedom fighters but he calls PKK as terrorists. Hamas targets have been nondiscriminatory where they will target civilians, whereas PKK targets military posts! That is hypocrisy!! And its well also documented that Turkish state used counter-guerrilla tactics killing Kurdish civilians and blaming PKK or Kurds.
This is indeed a very good article and you make a point that i can say i agree with. I don’t really want to start name calling but when it comes to terrorism i have a few questions.
Who commited false flag operations? As a part of Psychological warfare to change common attitude and public oppinion for their benifit.
Whos bodies do you see in the several mass graves that have been found lately in Turkey?
Who terrorized the kurdish population, denied them their basic human rights and even denied their existence?
Who burnt down and destroyed 4000 villages? Creating a mass internal immigration and in some cases forced deportation.
Fighting without a reason, is a horrible lie. The laws in Turkey still deny Kurds the constitution makes no mention of kurds at all. We are still governed by people that hate us, fear us and people that would much rather just get rid of us.
Lastly, don’t you see that the PKK uprising and the other uprising before the PKK were a result of Turkeys policy towards kurds. There is a pattern here you’re truly blind if you cannot see it. Opression leads to uprisings. If the situation was reversed you would not just sit there and take it without doing everything in your power to stop it.
What Turkey has been doing, what Turkey still is doing is pure and simple…it’s ethnic cleansing, cultural cleansing and it is based upon racist principles such as Turkish superiority over every ethnic group. The system is based upon inequality and will forever remain so if nobody does anything about it. That’s were PKK and all the other kurdish parties come in. The PKK is in no way perfect and they have done things i cannot defend and will not defend. But at the same time they are a glimmer of hope for many million kurds out there. So the next time you start calling out the word “terrorist” think about what your own side has done. There might just be a reason for this 26 year old conflict and spiral of violence.
Thank you! Tears came to my eyes when I read it! Incredibly brave and should be circulated to the winds! I will certainly be doing that! The Kurdish people who suffer with these labels embrace you!
to all kurds, why don’t you have a country then? why didn’t you fight to have a country ? Turks came after so what? we fought and we won and we created our country. Turks were nomads and we had one of the greatest empires in history. The fact that you lived in a region before another nation doesnt make you the legitimate owner of the lands. you have to fight and bleed and die to appropriate yourself a land. you didnt make like the 200 and so nations of the world who have a country, ITS YOUR FAULT. Its too late now, you will never have a country. the colonial times are over. following your logic, the usa should give back their lands to native americans who were there first. The strong ones always win. If your weak you lose and wake centuries later. kurds are paranoiac and they chose violence instead of peace. you will never have a country stop dreaming.
Written by “My” 23 august.
“This article is outrageous. What will you say to thousands of civilians including children slauhtered by these animals if you dont consider them as terrorists?? You are just an ignorant occidental journalist who sees things without thinking twice.”
—————-
What will you say to thousands of civilians including children (a 6month old baby died a couple of days ago from turkish bombs) slaughtered by this fascist state?
You are just an ignorant person who sees things without thinking twice.
For your information: Its perfectly clear that PKK doesnt mainly target civilians. I wish i could say the same about the Turkisk military force.
This is great article. Its neutral, unbiased, academic and peacefully approached article. PKK been created as a reaction of Turkish policies for decades. Ankara must understan that this is a political issue has to be solved by political means, it is not a military issue to be solved by military means. Erdogan believes that SriLAnka has successed in it war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE. In fact, it exacerbate this issue. Yes thay successed in the battle but didnt successed in the war.
I’m here nither justifying what PKK doing, nor standing beside Turkey. I’m addressing the issue acaemically as peace researcher. This problem has to be solved politically. Kurds question in ME in crucial to be answered.
Dino
ignorant as you are I inform you that five civilians have just been taken hostage by these animals today.
Gotta love My’s fascist rethoric.
Honestly My, you’re confirming PKK. Turks only seem to understand the language of violence – thus we try to communicate in your retarded language 😉
And yes, go ahead and boast about all raped women, killed Armenians, deported Greeks, killed Kurds and your strength. As a European historian said: “wherever the Turk goes, a trail of blood follows” 🙂 You just confirm that many Turks still haven’t grown out of their barbarian, savage, completely uncultivated heritage. 99% of everything you call Turkish today are products of peoples who were there before you – Hagia Sofia, the musical instruments, the religion, the mosques, the churches, Armenian cultural sites, Jalaluddin Rumi and even the cultivated Ottoman Dynasty we read about in history-books were a result of racial-mixes.
With that said, you didn’t build any empire. You had a major role, of that there’s no doubt, but I stress that the advanced cultures YOU preyed on were susceptible to your military savagery, and thus the beautiful things Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, Arabs, Romans, Cilics etc. produced all fell into your hands. You simply stole an empire that was supposed to be inherited by more worthy people – could you deny that during the late Ottoman History, while Young Turks were active, that the word “Turk” itself had a hideous connotation and that many Turks were ashamed of calling themselves that? 🙂
You’re parasites, good-for-nothing immigrants that brainwash your own children into believing that might is right – hence EU will never let you in and no matter how fancy clothes you will clothe yourselves in, you will never be on the same foot as the Indo-European man. That is the sole reason and not because you are supposedly Muslim (your shamanistic and heathen heritage still seem to haunt you in your completely godless and secular law-making – compare to the developed spirituality of Kurds and Greeks, theists before you guys even saw the bloody sun).
If anything, Kurds aren’t war-mongerers. Kurds are possibly the most naive people in the world, but not war-mongerers. We didn’t conquer any nations – we didn’t even try. We simply lived and live in our mountains, our villages, our soil and enjoy the freedom of being a human – of being an Indo-European with a healthy legacy. We have always been the Defenders. The Defenders of Faith (Salah ad-Din), while you expanded aggressively into Europe. We defended our villages and cities as you migrated to find new women to rape and new villages to plunder. You are the scum of the earth and by waltzing around acting high and mighty over a people that has lost more blood than you, more children than you, seen its land plundered and stolen, faced genocides and unspeakable horrors your pathetic warlords have ofte been cause of shows that you aren’t neccessarily better than the Nazis or the Israelis you now condemn.
Ne mutlum diyene barbarian, it seems. What you can’t grasp by right, you take by force. And even if you slaughter the last Kurd, and assassinate the last journalist who talks about your Armenian genocide, or retake all the conquered lands, or exterminated the history and the languages of the people you’ve subdued – you will never gain any RIGHT.
If having a glorious empire means that we must perform the same hideous crimes you’ve comitted, then I spit on you. The only thing I wish for is that my people is safe, that the villages no Turk has visited (beside invading soldiers) should be keep clean of your filthy Mongol hands and American rifles.
Are we less humans than you, for killing your invading men in uniforms? Then what about the Armenian children who posed no threat?
Are we less humans than you for having no country? This country is supposed to be ours, but you made it solely yours – forcing us into slavery.
We love the freedom your disciplined hordes never have understood. We sang songs while you used the drums of war. Don’t dare to speak to any Kurd in a degrading manner, fiend.
Pathetic Mongols. Shoot every Kurd if you like. That’d be a fitting act of experienced barbarians like you.
And PS. Be fucking happy that I probably am one of the few Kurds who use this rethoric and have these ideas. We’re a patient people, but for some of us, the time is soon out. So be prepared for a total war of survival.
For there’ll be a day when the Indo-European man has to learn the ways of war, in order to quell the massive hordes of parasites that invade our civilization – you whine about PKK? How odd you must be, expecting to not get any resistance at all 🙂
“But Kurds are having it good NOW!” A people that denies the Armenian genocide denies it past – just like you’re trying to do now. You try to escape the crimes against us, Turk. We won’t let you come off that easily. 😉
And lol, boasting about Turks “dying and bleeding” for stolen land, yet calling PKKs attacks terrorist?
Hypocrit-fucks.
Well done! Well written.
The people that see the PKK as terrorists
are blind! Can’t you see what the turkish
government is doing to innocent people? The
The biggest terrorist is the turkish government!
They do not accept human rights for the
Kurds. Half of the population of Turkey are Kurds.
Seperation is unacceptable.
Kurds are Freedom Fighters! As you
could see they’ll all supporting each other
peacefully. No matter what, the Kurds will
always defend their Rightness!
Fantastic piece of journalism! right on the point that the world is a sleep about all the attrocities that turkish terror state doing against kurds on daily bases just because you think PKK is a terrorist you dont have the right to terrorise kurdish actvist,imprison mayors and kill children and call them terrorist.
Thank you for your braveness
Journalism isn’t about making the majority happy, it’s about revealing things the don’t see or like to see, like this article.
Turks has a lot to win the sooner they realize that even Kurds must have their human rights & nationalrights like Turks demand for northern Cyprus and migrant Turks in Germany.
PKK, is a fact, over 15 000 000 Kurds are supporting PKK, why not sit and try to solve this with their leader? Ocalan is a peacefull person and are able to create a bridge between Kurds and Turks. Is turkey misses this chance then the new generation will demand much more than what PKK are wiling to accept.
Keep up the good work, thank you very much for the article.
Oremar
Very good written article. I’ve always thought that the marking of the PKK as terrorists have been unfair. Turkey does not consider that Hama is a terrorist organization, but the PKK is. What is the difference? Is it because the PKK is Kurdish? This conspiracy is justified Turkey’s attacks on the Kurds. There is also a thing as state terrorism. Turkey is one such and will always remain so. While Erdogan condemns Assad attacks on civilians, he bombs other civilians. Hypocrisy is what Turkey is. Disgusting.
Long live the kurdish people!
Great article. The writer maintains an objective point of view as she has done before. She is neither a Kurdish supporter nor a Turkish supporter. For that she deserves respect even at times she writes some things I don’t agree with.
Now the dead rhetoric presented by PKK/Kurd haters. Well, dudes, why don’t you talk about Dersim Genocide? How about Zilan River Massacre?
You can read about Zilan here:
http://zarokenroj.blogspot.com/2009/08/zilan-river-massacre-part-1.html
You want to see the enemy? Take a good look at the mirror. You created the PKK, nobody else.
Now, here is a nice article for you to read. It talks about how USA has been training you and why your damned special ops are so messed up. When you read this, remember that those very same people may turn against you one day. Enjoy reading “Turkey’s US-backed War On Terror: A Cause For Concern?”:
http://www.variant.org.uk/27texts/Kurds27.html
Berfo
Great, great article. It’s all so typical of human beings: you put a label on something (“terrorist” in this case) and it saves you the effort of having to think about it. The fact is, when one militarily-organized and uniformed armed group attacks another military group, it is not terrorism. Grown-ups call it War. But of course, asking the Turkish government to act like grown-ups is like asking them to eat pork during Ramadan.
Thx a lot for the article!
This is certainly what is needed to solve the biggest problem in Turkey.
As you might know, by law when you mention PKK, you must say (write) terrorist otherwise you’ll be prosecuted and jailed. This is how they force the terror label on PKK internally, and the world powers make turkey happy by labeling PKK as terrorists, and justify the war and sell all kinds of weapons.
This is quite sad, but I think that the Kurds have made everything to solve this by peace and dialog, if the Turks don’t take this opportunity, then a division of Turkey will be a fact.
Quite funny that all turks know that Kurdistan and Turkey are two different lands & cultures, that why they always say “Sehitler ölmes, vatan bölumes” (Our martyrs never die and this country is not going divide).
Pls take care of yourself and be aware of problems due to this article. Kurds will stand by you!
Saman
Well written and objective article. Turkey must realize bombing, killing, torturing, prosecuting and banning Kurds will not and I am saying it again will not solve the issue. Just today Altan Tan a PM from Diyarbakir district was sued for 23 years in prison for ‘being present and not stopping chantings’, this shows you that the article is right on the spot. By labeling the Kurdish freedom movement as ‘terrorist’ gives Turkey more power to commit more atrocities against Kurds.
Are you sleeping? A journalist ! Life is not as seen in Uskudar and communicating with some PKK supporters 🙂
Akp took the votes of Kurdish People. PKK stayed in 90’s Still they have the same sayings. But Turkey is changing. Terrorism will finish. PKK is a Terrorist Organisation. Although having your support it will end because Akp is listening what Kurds saying and taking votes of Kurds. PKK can not stand and loosing votes in democratic ways. As I said Life is not communicating just with PKK supporters. Shame!
wow kurds here seem so enthousiastic…for what? for not having a country and being proud of some animals living in caves declaring themselves freedom fighters? and above all, coward ”freedom fighters”. Disguising in turkish soldiers uniforms and shooting ppl, attacking at night while little children sleep. Come, face us in a real battle, come like the greeks and romans and ottomans were doing. face to face with all your men. Kurds will no longer be, in that case. You are nothing but litlle bugs for us. You bite us, thats all. Being a coward and stabbing us in our back doesnt make you freedom fighters but real terrorists. you cant be humans. and you say you are muslims.
I don’t know where did you get the idea of ‘PKK is not terrorist’. But you are completely wrong about it, the action of PKK is what makes the PKK terrorist. You can just slay 30,000 people with some sort of racist purpose and say my race is being assimilated. We first called them ‘eşkiya’, who is belting weapons and live in caves on mountains, then they acted on cities and they are acting still with childrens on streets of Diyarbakır, Hakkari and the other cities of eastern Turkey. We had lots of action with PKK, political and millitary, but they didn’t come to a reasonable conclusion.
By the way, Germany has 6 million Turks in its borders, but they aren’t belting weapons and live on mountains, even they have the worst jobs of Germany to do.
Do not go to the Beyoğlu to talk about PKK or Ramadan, come to Dıyarbakır, Gaziantep, Osmaniye, Trabzon etc. we are not leaving Beyoğlu, Armenians does.
Frederike, as a Greek from Cyprus I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This article makes clear what is today’s “enlightened” Turkey. Of course it has changed since a few decades ago but can anyway really speak about democracy and respect of human rights?
Whoever “my” is he writes down the Turkish establishments point of view very vividly:
“The fact that you lived in a region before another nation doesnt make you the legitimate owner of the lands. you have to fight and bleed and die to appropriate yourself a land. you didnt make like the 200 and so nations of the world who have a country, ITS YOUR FAULT. Its too late now, you will never have a country. the colonial times are over. following your logic, the usa should give back their lands to native americans who were there first. The strong ones always win. If your weak you lose and wake centuries later. kurds are paranoiac and they chose violence instead of peace. you will never have a country stop dreaming.”
But I do dream of a free Cyprus, after liberating the occupied part by Turkey and I do wish to the Kurds to gain their right of self-determination. And I hope more Turks will wake up and realize what the Neo-Ottomans really are. Their ideology differs little from that of the Kemalists.
Turks dont understand the meaning of democracy, I feel sorry for them cuz they have been missundrestanding the meaning of freedom buy listning to som military facist generals. I never met a Turk who is a kurdfriend and believe in giving freedom to any other nations in turkey. Iam asking you as a turk: if you change place with a kurd whats would you do guys? I mean if turkey was kurdistan and you lived as a minority in kurdistan and we called you mountain kurd? You never allowed to call your childirens in turkish, turkish names is forbidden, 30milion turs didnt excisted in the greate and powerfull kurdistan, kurdish goverment didnt cared about investments in the turkish areas, your Turkish village and your women’s get raped by Kurdish solders, military operations goes on since yor grandfather were born, you always getting hit, discriminated by Kurdish society in media, on street, at work internationally and your best friends puts in Gail and all this becaus you are turk and all you whant is to accepted in your own ocapited land. Why so much hate? Ha!? I wounder if you really could put yorself in my words without saying this bullshit, and telling me WHAT WOULD YOU DONT DO against the turkish regime? No mr. Turk that is how we kurds everyday lives with. It called “Turkish torture” so dont come and talk big words about human rights and other nations, change begin with your self and when you put your self in other proples situations then you may understand and may begin show respect peoples right and se kurds as human just like other humans. And be sure a day will come and kurds will not live forever isolated by 4 devils, we will be free and it’s payback time, wish I live until then. Se you mr.Turk. good article
Hi all the people in this world ,as I can say the ffff Turk rubbish are so Wild , Kurdish people are powerful and so friendly . they are a oldest peoples in Middle east and first country in there .soon that day is coming you fff turk people scared off and our people are still waiting for .that day i hope it for is a day for Kurd’s, I wish i well be a live in his time . Love you Kurdistan& KURD’S .Miran lordtay
it well be a damn for turk , animals is better thin turk ,The name of a wild leader Kamal ata turk is coming from a dog woofing this. Is history to trust me is a turk people wild .they are best people to eating people .I have never see scare film like them.If is not help from other country’s for them, Kurdish people can fu ck them up by a week after. every KURD’S IN WORLD is PKK, PKK IS US WE ARE ALL PKK……JWANRO kurdistani
Another foreign journalist who thinks she knows Turkish issues very well by just spending few years in this highly complicated country.
Miss Frederike, you are mixing defending Kurdish rights with defending terrorists.
Based on your logic Al-Qaeda is also not a terrorist organization but the defender of Muslim rights. Or is not it the case as Al-Qaeda attacks to Westerners therefore they shall be classified as terrorists?
PKK is killing people for their (maybe rightful) claims but this doesn’t justify their killings. PKK is a crime organization which is heavily involved not only in arm trafficking but also drug trafficking.
Armed conflict is of course an unknown issue in your native Netherlands, so it is very easy for you to say “why do these people fight for?” Your country decided to pull its soldiers from Afghanistan just because of a dozen of list soldier. In this country we lost over 40,000 people due to this conflict and you can not expect from public to forget those deaths and label their murderers as “freedom fighters”. Our sons, brothers, cousins were killed while they were serving their military duty and do you really expect the families of those soldiers to understand the cause for the fight of PKK?
If PKK wants to be classified as a non-terrorist organization they simply drop their arms and put an end to this conflict. Then we will stop calling them a terrorist organization.
you better leave Turkey, because only thing that you can do is criticize Turkey on every level, you are pro pkk terrorist. Even you dont know the ,history of Turkey, you fail being a journalist and it surprise me also that there are no turks that got to read your propaganda….go away from turkey and live in iraq instead of turkey…I hate people like you! telling things without research…do you know how many turks even kurds got killed the past 15 year? we are not talking here about 1000 but 10.000 by their cowardly way of attacking…and oh, maybe you dont know, pkk are financially supported by Israel, France and America…
The Turkish government has killed tens of thousands of Kurds in the past several decades in the effort to deny the Kurish nation sovereignty. The Kurds are in the same position as the Palestinians and Tibetans and every other occupied people on earth. This is obvious on the face of it, and as only Chinese will claim that Tibet is a part of China, only Turks will claim that its Kurdish areas are an inherent part of Turkey. It’s about power and control on the one hand, and a fight for autonomy and freedom on the other. American patriots were terrorists are far as King George was concerned, as were Algerians fighting the French–and every other people rising up against their oppressors, at every time in history. So it goes. The Kurds have no Dalai Lama or Gandhi to hold them back from violence, but for those of us who owe our freedom to the killers who fought under George Washington, it’s hard to blame them for that.
An article from the last year and a very funny comment from Henderson by referring to completely different issues from all around the world…
I am not even talking about the comments with full hatred above. Lots of lie and ignorance…
So Frederike… What did change since last year ? Did you make the world a better place by your news/articles that satisfies some people and does not satisfy others. Is it comfortable to be a certain part in a long/old debate ? Would it be harder to put some real effort on issue to figure out what’s really going on ?
Everyday people are dying and all we see is the same old nonsense. Shall we call pkk as heroes or terrorists or whatever ?
I still can not see any good explanation in your articles how did this all begin ? You just take it from the perspective which suits you most and do not know (or worse do know but don’t tell) the rest…
So manipulating your readers… You and others manipulate
And then in Turkey major media is manipulating Turkish citizens.
Well done everybody. Keep up the good work !
Dear Frédérike,
I really enjoyed your article and it made me realize how much people struggle with going out of their comfort zone and wanting to understand reality. It is not that they cannot, but Turks CHOOSE not to understand the real cause behind Kurdish people’s grievances. It is so sad to see how ignorant some Turkish people’s comment are. I believe it is equally ironic how some people seem to play the religion card or pointing the finger to other nations, as if this justifies the arbitrary discriminations which has been happening in Turkey for almost a century.
How does Atatürk differ from Hitler looking at the Dersim genocide..oh we don’t talk about it..and they just kill anyone who mentions it (or anything bad about Turkey) bc some people are just purely ignorant and too stubborn to accept the truth. This simple: Turks = Nazi