|
TAK is committing political suicide 5.9.2006
By Vladimir van Wilgenburg, journalist, Netherlands
|
|
|
|
TAK (Teyrębazęn
Azadiya Kürdistan) also known in the English press
as the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons recently claimed
bomb attacks in Marmaris, Istanbul and Antalya. As a
result innocent people were killed.
Last year I witnessed the bombing of a dolmus (Bus)
heading to the beach. I was sleeping and suddenly
heard a blast. After the attack you could see blown
of arms and legs, crying tourists and later on a
great show of Turkish nationalism, with Turkish
flags hanging everywhere.
Frankly we almost do not know nothing about this new
organisation. The Turkish media immediately blames
the PKK, but this is “Turkish” speculation. The
organisation could have ties with the PKK, but it
seems to be a split off. The TAK states on their now
offline website: “The Turkish State tries to solve
the problem with destruction and denial methods of
Kongra-Gel and HPG which take political balances
into consideration are weakness, therefore, 1.5 year
ago we were separated from the organization and
established TAK organization”. But the organisations
also wants the liberation of the PKK-leader Ocalan.
Some Kurds say that the Turkish Intelligence service
(MIT) is behind to get more support for a harder
line versus the Kurds. Even an Turkish student that
condemned the attacks, said some Turkish generals
were happy with the attacks.
Turkish inhabitants of Kusadasi mainly blamed the
PKK after attacks in this the western holiday resort
of Kusadasi. The mainstream international media
reported that the TAK has links with the PKK.
Turkish special forces believe that the split is a
ruse and that the Kurds have most likely adapted as
a model the similar "schism" in the Irish Republican
Army (IRA).
Security analysts say TAK was set up by former PKK
guerrillas dissatisfied with the group's tactics[1].
This is confirmed by the offline TAK website
Teyrebaz.com[2]. The new Turkish top general[3]
confirmed that the TAK is a group that “severed
their links to the PKK and are out to increase the
tone of violence to make a name for themselves”.
The Firat News Agency[4] said on Tuesday that the
PKK condemned the bombings. This news agency which
is located in Amsterdam, was described as one of the
most effective PKK organisations by the Dutch
national intelligence services[5]. Before Murat
Kariyilan the leader of the armed PKK forces also
condemned TAK’s campaign.
Kongra Gel (People’s Congress of Kurdistan)
Presidency condemned the bomb attack and indicated
that they were in search of peaceful solution
without violence for the resolution of the Kurdish
question and they are expecting a response on this
regard. They also expressed their condolences for
the dead.
Why terrorism?
Some international newspapers claim that it’s
unclear what the TAK wants. But I think TAK’s
purposes are very clear: Revenge. TAK consists of
Kurds dissatisfied with the current political
developments. Tim Jacoby[6] of the university of
Manchester has an interesting view. In an article
about the military regime structure of modern Turkey
he concludes:" The state's policy of excluding all
attempts to access the political centre provoked
types of resistance which tended to favour the
violent pursuit of total solutions making the
emergence of moderate civil response strategies
impossible". And I think this is the reason of TAK’s
violent terror campaign. One can conclude that the
radical positions of the TAK and the PKK are a
result of the hard-line stance of Turkey. This was
seen after security forces killed three children and
arrested hundreds of children after the
demonstrations of August.
The TAK website states that the “democratic and
peaceful methods which had been unilaterally carried
on for seven years by our leader [Ocalan] have had
no response. Turkish State’s denial-destruction
policies and approaches that pretend not to see the
problem had continued. The methods of state to solve
the Kurdish problem had been insistence of surrender
and dishonour life. It continues with:” The policies
of assimilation, depriving of all kind of human
rights, massacre, the mentality of “the best Kurd is
the dead Kurd” which had been carried out throughout
the history of the republic are still continuing“.
Because Turkey is ruled by nationalists since
Ataturk, it’s unlikely that Turkey will ever accept
a status quo or a peace treaty with the PKK, but
only the destruction of the PKK. One of the most
moderate Turkish presidents Turgut Ozal planned to
have negotiations with the PKK. But even Turgut Ozal
was thinking the “Kurdish problem” could be solved
by assimilation and economics. He died before he
could carry out his plans.
Erdogan and the AKP recently also made statements.
But the TAK says that this cannot solve the problem
in essence. “We do not perceive that the statements
which had been done by the government and Erdogan
are approaches to solve the problem and we do not
take them seriously”. TAK states that the Turkish
State tries to solve the problem with destruction
and denial methods of Kongra-Gel and HPG which take
political balances into consideration are weakness,
therefore they separated.
One Turkish columnist [7] wrote that:” organizations
commit such attacks in their most difficult times,
at times when they lose their last hope”. And he is
right. I concluded this out of discussions with TAK
supporters on internet. But this Turkish columnist
doesn’t see why they lost their last hope. It’s
because they don’t see a solution for the Kurdish
issue in a foreseeable future. But still a lot of
Turkish intellectuals only seem to talk about the
destruction of the PKK and terrorism instead of
talking about a sincere solution and the normal
Kurdish population.
Even a Kurd of Iraq on a Kurdish community website
[8] showed some sympathy for the revenge attacks.
“The Turks have been killing and humiliating Kurds
for hundreds of years, they've banned our language,
destroyed our culture, bombed our villages, murdered
our children and now they are even bombing areas
outside of their borders just because Kurds live
there. Their foreign minister has even said that
they would oppose a Kurdish state in south America,
why should they have a tourism industry when Kurds
have nothing? They only understand force and pain,
maybe if a Turkish mother has to bury a son every
time a Kurdish mother has to do the same, they will
begin to understand that we are not their slaves”.
One disillusioned Kurd said that nobody has offered
an alternative to terrorism. You can be against it,
but what will happen next?
Targets and tactics of the TAK
The top priority targets are the “military
bureaucracy, economy and tourism, while terror of
state is not stopped”. The TAK stated that they will
revenge the murder of 13 thousand people, Semdinli,
the killing of the young boys in August and the
oppression of the Turkish state.
The military bureaucracy is seen as the oppressive
system against the Kurds. And therefore is justified
as a target. This can also be seen in the attacks of
the PKK. The economy is seen as the main supply
basis for weapons of the oppressive system. Since
the Turkish military can buy weapons because of the
Turkish tax payers, the economy is seen as a
justified target. This was shown in the attacks on
OYAK Bank, a pension fund for the Turkish
military[9].
Tourism is seen as “one of the most important
sources which feeds the dirty and special war, so it
is one of the first targets that we will attack” by
the TAK. Therefore the TAK warned tourists to visit
Turkish area’s in Turkey. The Turkey earns about
one-third of it’s export income from tourism[10].
TAK justify their actions by stating that the
Kurdish people are in a risk of destruction and are
at war. It looks the TAK wants to fight against the
Turkish state by all means.
The TAK operations mostly consists of bomb attacks
with IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices)[11] . TAK
is even giving instructions on their website how to
make bombs and call the Kurdish youth for doing
everything they can to destroy Turkey. Until now
they used IED’s in trash cans, banks, police
stations, water bottles, civilian busses. They also
claimed 23 forest fires in Turkey and an arson
attack on the Ataturk airport in Istanbul.
But according to TAK only a part of their attacks
were reflected in the press, but were shown as
short-circuits of electricity or as compression of
gas. This had the goal to mislead the public
opinion.
TAK also states that it fights against Turkish
assimilation. The ironic thing is that their website
is in Turkish. Why not in Kurdish?
What’s the result of TAK’s policy?
The TAK is committing these attacks in a very
important time for the Kurds (Kirkuk, EU, Kurdish
self-governance, etc). This method that they follow
is obviously not going to work. When Ocalan was
arrested, the Turkish tourism sector experienced a
decrease of visitors. But shortly after that the
tourism industry flourished again.
It’s clear that the Turkish military or state
doesn’t suffer because of these attacks. The only
one’s who are suffering are Turkish, Kurdish
civilians and tourists. Even now when the Turkish
tourism industry is facing a disaster, the Turkish
military still receives their income. The TAK must
be very foolish to think that more attacks will lead
into less money for the Turkish military. It will
only result into more state investments in the
military.
It also increases the widely held belief of Turkish
citizens that the Turkish army is the only state
organisation they can trust. This at a time when
some Turkish military leaders are telling the BBC
that they may have to, once again have to intervene
in the democratic process of their country to
“protect democracy from itself.
One shouldn’t forget that Turkey has the second
biggest army in NATO, second only to the USA
(800,000 personnel). TAK's actions ironically could
be likened to trying to crack a sledgehammer with a
nut.
The Kurdish intellectual Dr Hussein Tahiti [12]
rightfully said that it’s a mistake for any Kurdish
organisation to believe that through terrorising
tourists or killings they can harm their enemy’s
economy or put pressure on the ruling states to
force them into negotiations. Despite of the long
and bloody armed struggle by several Kurdish
organisations the Turkish state has never
negotiated. He also wrote that terrorism and the
killing of innocent people cannot be legitimised.
The Turkish state also realizes that if they give in
to Kurdish demands, they will give a victory to the
PKK or TAK. So it’s another reason to not give in
and to resort to brutal repression of the Kurdish
people. But the new Turkish general declared that
protests, mourning at funerals or deploying troops
are not solutions to the attacks of TAK[13].
One Turkish nationalist I spoke to was happy with
these attacks. According to him this could be used
as a justification to attack PKK bases in
Iraqi-Kurdistan and a tougher approach towards Kurds
in general. One can conclude that TAK’s attack only
benefit Turkish hardliners and threatens not only
the Kurds in Turkey, but also Kurds in Iraq.
The Dutch politician Guido van Leemput (Member of
the Dutch parliament) said to me in an interview
that Kurds will achieve nothing by attacking
civilians instead of military targets. He says that
tourists have shown sympathy for the Kurdish people
in the past. “Why would you bomb these people if
they travel by bus?” said Van Leemput. BBC News 24
showed the grandmother of a wounded 10th year old
boy saying: "Why have they done this to us? We have
done nothing."[14]
He also agrees with me that not the military will
suffer, but the shop keepers in Turkey. A lot of
Kurds are working in West-Turkey to provide their
families with money back home in Kurdistan. So TAK’s
campaign also hurts Kurds.
According to the pro-PKK organisation
Information-Service Kurdistan-Netherlands [15] (IKN)
the Turkish state uses the attacks of TAK to put the
Kurdish freedom movement in a bad daylight. They
declared that the PKK doesn’t have ties with the TAK
and condemns their actions. “Whoever is behind this
attacks, it must be clear that these activities are
against the interests of the Kurdish people”. The
IKN stated that it’s clear who benefits of these
attacks: The Turkish state.
This might be true: recently Great Britain banned
the PKK [16] and affiliated organisations. They also
put TAK on the terrorism list. There is no doubt
that the British government is influenced by the
murders of TAK committed against their citizens (Kusadasi,
Antalya, etc). It seems that TAK’s attacks will also
result in more support for Turkey’s policy towards
the Kurds.
One of the many counter terrorism websites wrote
that if Turkey comes to believe that there is a
strong connection between the PKK and TAK, that will
almost certainly lead to an escalation of Turkish
military activities in Iraqi-Kurdistan[17].
Therefore it’s no surprise that the top commandant
of the Kurdish peshmerge condemned the attacks and
called for a peaceful solution and a dialogue[18].
I also don’t think that Turkish mothers will show
more sympathy to the Kurdish issue, if they have to
burry their sons. The fascist nationalistic party
MHP in the past got a lot of support from Turkish
mothers that lost their sons. It’s a fact that the
MHP used burials of Turkish soldiers to get more
support and increase Turkish nationalism. TAK’s
policy will therefore result more support for
Turkish nationalism. Which will result in more
support for Turkish nationalistic parties. And off
course these parties won’t give the Kurds what they
want.
Sadly recently Kurds civilians forecasted more bombs
[19]. When asked what they thought the future would
hold one young man said: "More bombs." He blamed the
Turkish government for the Kurdish problem.
"The Turks say we must all live as one in this
country. We are not one. They live better than us
and we to them are all terrorists," he said
Conclusion:
One can expect more bombs in the future. But the
goals of the TAK will never be achieved. The Turkish
state won’t free Ocalan or give Kurds more rights if
they attack the Turkish economy, military or
tourism. It’s also clear that they can’t hurt the
military or the Turkish economy. It’s also safe to
say that TAK’s actions threaten Kurdish autonomy in
Iraq and Kurds in Turkey. TAK’s actions will
increase Turkish nationalism and support for a
harsher stance towards the Kurds. Kurdish civilians
are also hurt by their attacks, because they benefit
from the Turkish tourist industry and also live in
Turkish city. It will also pave the way for more
international support for Turkey against Kurdish
organisations. This was already shown by the British
government. It could also result into less sympathy
for the Kurds, by tourists who normally support the
Kurdish point of view.
I can only come to the following conclusion: TAK is
committing political suicide. And their attacks will
hurt the Kurdish cause on a severe way, if nothing
is done to stop them.
Peshmerga spokesman Muhammed Qazi [20] gave the best
solution for the currently problem. He said the best
way to eliminate popular support for militant
groups, is for Turkey and other nations in the
region to address the legitimate concerns of their
Kurdish minorities.
http://vladimirkurdistan.blogspot.com
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 