Kurds will fight back if Turkey enters Iraq (PKK Terror message from British paper)

Times Online ^ | 3/10/2003 | Anthony Loyd

[a_Turk]

THE most powerful Kurdish militant group has threatened to resume its war with Turkey, should Ankara’s Armed Forces enter northern Iraq.

“We will undertake military actions throughout Turkey, in the countryside and cities, on military, economic and bureaucratic targets,” said Othman Ocalan, 47, a commander of Kadek, the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, formerly known as the PKK.

A bear-like figure who said that he possessed nothing but the uniform in which he stood and a .38 Smith & Wesson seized from a dead Turkish commando officer, Mr Ocalan was speaking in his Qandil Mountain stronghold in Iraq.

The younger brother of the group’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, and a leading member of its Central Committee, Othman Ocalan withheld support of a US invasion of Iraq and rejected the proposed postwar disarmament of Kadek while the Kurdish issue remained unsolved.

“Until the British and American policy on Kurdistan clears we won’t back them,” he said. “There will be no Kadek disarmament if the US demands it. In this instance we will resist them very strongly.”

With some 10,000 fighters deployed inside Turkey, Iran and northern Iraq, Kadek also wields great power among the Kurdish diaspora in Europe, where it can put thousands of Kurdish activists and demonstrators on the streets.

Mr Ocalan made clear that for him the future of the Kurds was paramount and the fate of Saddam Hussein almost incidental.

Although other Kurdish rebel armies claim larger gross numbers than Kadek, Mr Ocalan’s group is a full-time, professional army. Espousing a mix of Marxist-Leninist ideology with pan-Kurdish nationalism, members of the armed wing are lectured by political cadres on the outlook of figures such as Ché Guevara, Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong for up to six hours a day. Sex and marriage are discouraged and fighters have neither pay nor possessions other than their uniform and weapons.

“I never hung out in bars with girls, even during my years in Europe,” said Akif, a 27-year-old fighter, who spent his teens in Wood Green and Westminster. “For me the cause was always more important than possessions, and after the bad treatment I received by officials in Britain I wanted to return to my Kurdish roots in this clean ideological environment and participate in the struggle.”

The indoctrination and hardiness of its fighters and leadership was vividly apparent in their snowy Qandil Mountain base. The terrain, accessible only by foot, mule or pack-pony, was a natural fortress of cloud, buttressed peaks and plunging ravines. Eight Kadek fighters died in a recent avalanche here — they are said to be commonplace.

Fighters armed with Ak47 and M16 rifles could be seen ascending valleys in patrol-sized groups on their way to bases at higher altitude, where they have been strengthening positions and distributing ammunition in anticipation of action. Word of the potential Turkish entry to northern Iraq appeared to have galvanised them with a new morale. The cult-like atmosphere, with its emphasis on self-sacrifice, was enhanced by a shrine to Kadek dead at the foot of the Qandil range. Dominated by the portrait of Abdullah Ocalan and the organisation’s red and yellow flag, photographs of assassinated leaders, slain fighters, suicide bombers and self-immolating protesters hung from whitewashed walls.

“For us martyrdom is the bridge between the people, the comrades, and the cause itself: the cement of unification,” explained Raperin, a 34-year-old Syrian Kurd fighter and one of the women who comprise a third of Kadek’s strike forces.

In 1997 the United States named the PKK as one of the world’s top 30 terrorist organisations. To date it has not struck American targets, but Othman Ocalan did not rule out a change in strategy. “We don’t want to oppose America and in this matter we will tread very carefully. But if they don’t change our label as terrorists then we will oppose them with all means,” he said.

“Kurds in the east, in the north, in Europe will back Kadek. Any force which does not find a solution for all parts of Kurdistan will gain our antipathy.”

Formed in 1978 to counter the repression of Kurds living in Turkey, in 1984 the PKK began a guerrilla campaign. Some 20,000 people died as the group’s militant wing attacked Turkish security forces, judicial figures, teachers, landowners and local authorities. The Turkish Army responded with equal brutality, using tactics not unlike those of Iraq against Kurdish guerrillas. Up to 3,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed or emptied by the authorities during the creation of a security zone in southern Turkey, while two million Kurds were displaced northwards.

After Abdullah Ocalan’s arrest in 1999, the PKK changed its tactics. Renaming itself Kadek in 2002, its leadership contended that the armed struggle was on hold pending the “democratisation” of Turkey, a decision that it declared to be reversed last month.

[a_Turk]

Take this pro-terror article with a grain of salt.

Note the location on the map. KDP territory. These are people the US government is planning on arming.

This threat means nothing. We're going there and we'll clean the terrorists out once and for all.

Anyone interested in the history of PKK terror in Turkey, here's a link.

[a_Turk]

ping..

[fourdeuce82d]

he possessed nothing but the uniform in which he stood and a .38 Smith & Wesson seized from a dead Turkish commando

Unlikely. Given the Euro-aspirations of the Turks, it would probably have been a Browning Hi-Power. Unless the turk was a re-enactor type.

[aristotleman]

The Kurds need to think logically and stay put. They have more to gain by making peace at this time.

They can be in a representative government, if they behave.

Otherwise they will become terrorists, and even the American forces will hunt them down.

I hope that the moderate ones will prevail.

[Republicanus_Tyrannus]

Yup. You were right as usual. D**ned terrorist. First shot fired by his bloodsoaked rapist crew on any of our allies will earn the swift application of 7.62 justice in their skulls.

[a_Turk]

Turkish soldiers carry NATO standard gear, whatever that may be in side arms today, I don't know.

[eleni121]

The real terror: Turkish Terror

Kurdish people have suffered:

4,000 villages burnt and evacuated

3 million villagers displaced and thousands murdered

[ellery]

Espousing a mix of Marxist-Leninist ideology with pan-Kurdish nationalism, members of the armed wing are lectured by political cadres on the outlook of figures such as Ché Guevara, Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong for up to six hours a day. Sex and marriage are discouraged and fighters have neither pay nor possessions other than their uniform and weapons.

Yeah, this hardly sounds like an ally the US needs...

[a_Turk]

YOU WROTE: The real terror: Turkish Terror

Here's what some Israeli reporters found out about Assyrians who live in Turkey. Thes Assyrians were harassed and robbed by the PKK and sought shelter from the Turkish military.

Assyrian community speaks Aramaic, provides a warm welcome to Israelis

But then they became victims of the bitter conflict between the Turkish authorities and the Kurdish underground, the PKK.

PKK fighters used to enter the village, asking for shelter, food, supplies—and money.

Eventually, Abraham and his family moved to Adabashi, close to the border, where a Turkish military presence deterred PKK activities.

You with your irrational Turk-hate ARE REALLY GETTING ON MY NERVES!

IT'S NOT ONCE, NOT TWICE BUT CONSTANT

WITH YOU IT'S ONE LIE AFTER ANOTHER!

IF YOU MUST MAKE LIGHT OF OUR 36000 DEAD TERROR VICTIMS THEN STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY FACE!

GOODBYE!

[Kenny Bunk]

The Kurds need to think logically and stay put. They have more to gain by making peace at this time.

Old Kurdish Proverb. "If the world were a logical place, then men would ride sidesaddle.."

[Mihalis]

The Turks have shown over the centuries that terror is in their blood. The massacre of Chios, the massacre of thousands of Armenians and the massacre of thousands of Kurds are all testaments of the Turkish murderous streak. You will never become part of the civilized world.

[Kenny Bunk]

Whoa, easy, Turk, don't get sidetracked here.

You know the Kurds of the PPK have been sold in the US as brave and courageous freedom fighters, along the lines of the ridiculous snow job done for the Albanians and the KLA in Kosovo. (As if George Washington personally financed the Revolution by stealing cars and running whorehouses in other countries!)

Getting gassed and oppressed by Saddam Hussein didn't hurt the Kurd sympathy-worthy victim status either. Naturally, the Kurds, always giving difficulty to the Turks, attract Greek support, at least on this site. (I would suspect the Greek government itself doesn't want very much to do at all with them!)

The Turks are also (IMHO) being very hard-headed about giving these feral mountain bandits their own reservation to play in. I (although the present administration doesn't seem to agree either) really thought the Turks would have welcomed the idea of knowing where their Kurdish problem children were every night.

The only thing Westerners want to really really know about Turkey right now is, "OK how Muslim are you guys and can you keep your "Fundamentalist" Clymers in control?" Most Americans (who know about it) are very sympathetic to the great experiment begun by Ataturk, but we are very wary of it being wiped out by mad mullahs, idiotic imams, and Muslim jackasses with dynamite in their unhygienic undergarments.

So, keep up your really valuable work for us all on the internal Turkish situation and don't get suckered too far into the personalized Greek-Turkish feud on this bandwidth. It makes for great personal arguments, but you gotta know it's a sideshow.

As a matter of fact, on a goverment to government basis, the Turks and Greeks have been playing very nicely together of late!)

[Mortimer Snavely]

“I never hung out in bars with girls, even during my years in Europe,” said Akif, a 27-year-old fighter, who spent his teens in Wood Green and Westminster. “For me the cause was always more important than possessions, and after the bad treatment I received by officials in Britain I wanted to return to my Kurdish roots in this clean ideological environment and participate in the struggle.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Spoken like one truly brain-washed. Just the sort of which suicide bombers are made.

Don't worry though, poster George W. Bush knows exactly how to handle these sorts. He'll arm them to the teeth, and no, he assures us, there won't be an independent Kurdistan.

Anyone want to lay any bets on how controllable folks like Akif are, or who they will ultimately obey?

[Destro]

I agree with you on the snow job done for the Albanians but I have seen nothing positive about the PKK - other Kurdish groupsm yes but not the PKK.

I am also sure Greece would love to see Turkey stuck in the rocky hills of Kurdish Iraq bleeding a second generation of Turks white.

All Turkey has to do for Greece is take the PKK bait and cross the Iraq border.

[Beck_isright]

It won't be much of a fight. The PKK will be wiped out. I just wonder if the Armenians will host them once Iran is eliminated as a base in the future.

[eleni121]

Assyrian holocaust

Armenian genocide

Greek genocide

"It is a sign that Turkey is purged of the traitors, the Christians, and the foreigners, and that Turkey is for the Turks.''- Mustapha Kemal

For Greek Assyrian and Armenian Orthodox Christians, terms like jihad, giavhour, and infidel, which are used by modern-day mass murderers such as Osama bin Laden, are nothing new. Turkish leaders have used these words to denigrate and provoke hatred of Christians for centuries, ranging from the era of the Ottoman Empire to the present day history of the Turkish "Republic", which has sponsored violent pogroms against its Greek and Armenian minorities. Although Mustapha Kemal became known for secularizing Turkey, he waged his war against civilian Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian populations in Asia Minor as a jihad.

Turkman - if you can't handle the truth get out!

[a_Turk]

You get out. This is not a quote of Ataturk. You are a faceless liar.

[aristotleman]

You sound like 17 year old children.

Is this the way to debate on Free Republic?

Do you have any *thoughts* or *Comments
to contribute to this forum, or just anger?

Or every time a turkish person posts something, you feel the need to spew some hatred?

Is this what greeks are about, you think?

Shame on you.

[Mihalis]

There is more substance in my two-line comment above (post#11) than you will ever be able to comprehend.

If you want an elevated discussion, answer on substance.

[aristotleman]

Not interested, kid. Your hatred speaks for you.