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The Turks go after Kurdish rebels ... and
kill 200 sheep?
31.12.2007
By Gordon Taylor
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December
31, 2007
Two weeks ago, the Turkish Air Force launched fifty
jets, most of them Lockheed-Martin F-16s, toward
targets in the Qandil Mountains of Kurdistan
'northern Iraq'. In the following hours, according
to bianet.org, some $20 million was spent for fuel,
bombs, and missiles, twelve villages were damaged,
and five PKK Kurdish guerrillas were killed along
with two civilians. Doing the math, we see that ten
F-16s were needed to kill one guerrilla, giving us a
cost of $4 million per guerrilla.
For veteran Turkey-watchers none of this was a
surprise; nor should it be for anyone who monitors
our own “defense” spending. The Turkish Armed Forces
have been doing exactly this sort of thing to
Kurdish villages for decades, sometimes with planes
and helicopters, but most of the time with forces on
the ground. This time, however, because they crossed
into Iraq, American newspapers took an interest. In
a Tuesday 2/18 editorial, the Boston Globe called
the Turks' attack "worse than useless," and similar
editorials have appeared in the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer. In Istanbul, the pro-Kurdish
daily Ozgur Gundem,www.ekurd.net
now confined to an
Internet-only edition after repeated closures by the
Turkish government, has made good use of the Globe
editorial, especially its conclusion that: "Bush
ought to urge Turkey to make the PKK superfluous by
granting full cultural and linguistic rights to the
Kurds and developing the impoverished Kurdish region
of southeast Turkey." (Hey, it's a start.)
The civilian casualties, by the way, have been
confirmed by the UNHCR, so you don't have to worry
about believing the Turks when they say that no
civilians were harmed. About 1800 villagers have
been displaced. And there were other casualties.
Agence France-Presse added: "According to the HCR,
more than 200 head of animals also perished in the
raid."
Now this is interesting. In other words, the F-16s
killed only 7 people, but they blasted more than 200
animals. [Q: Does PETA know about this?] Most of
these animals would have been sheep and goats. Keep
in mind the fact that, despite Christmas legend, no
shepherd in the Middle East would be caught dead
"keeping watch over his flocks by night" in the
middle of December. It's just too cold. Those 200
animals were not outside: they were underground, and
probably in the peasants' houses.
The latter is important, as night temperatures in
those mountains now hit -15 C. All traditional
houses in Anatolia and Kurdistan contain
subterranean stables that are directly attached to
the human living quarters, which are also
earth-sheltered. The massed animals (sheep, goats,
cows) are thus a vital source of heat for the human
beings who live with them.www.ekurd.net
In fact, the testimony
of 19th-century travelers makes it clear that
peasant houses during the winter become like a steam
bath, so efficient is this method of heating.
Here is another consideration. The American military
has been giving the Turks "real-time" intelligence
about the PKK locations. Prior to the Turks' air
strikes, our guys reportedly detected "movement" and
evidence of "meetings," and it was on that evidence
that the Turks struck. What kind of sensors provided
that evidence? We can assume that the Americans use
infrared sensors, which detect heat. Thus the more
warm bodies detected, the greater the threat,
especially if those warm bodies are walking together
to a central meeting place. Are we beginning to get
the drift?
Try this scenario. The scene: Ops HQ, Diyarbakir Air
Base, Turkey. The phone rings. Capt. Mehmet Fubar,
Turkish Air Forces, picks up. It is Col. Bart
Guanaco, USAF, calling from an orbiting AWACS:
Fubar: Hello!
Guanaco: That you M'met?
Fubar: Bart dearest! How does scope look?
Guanaco: Incredible, amigo. A real bingo party down
there.
Fubar: Binko? What is?
Guanaco: Bandits all over the screen: one o'clock,
three o'clock, you name it.
Fubar: Please speaking English, dearest Bart.
Guanaco: M'met, I think we got us a PKK meetin' goin'
on.
Fubar: Really! Tell me!
Guanaco: Amazing. They think they can go underground
and hide, but these dudes are givin’ off so much
heat they must be
havin’ an orgy. Listen: here's the coordinates...
And the rest is history.
Far-fetched? You tell me: how else you manage to
kill only seven human beings and over 200 sheep?
Mr. Taylor is a former teacher in Turkey and the
author of Fever and Thirst: An American Doctor Among
the Tribes of Kurdistan. Academy Chicago Publishers,
2005.
hnn us
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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