HTS jihadists with links to Al-Qaeda have been crucial in defeating Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Most Western headlines won’t focus on this, but a terrorist group (with a wanted terrorist at its helm) was largely responsible for the ‘rebel’ victory they’re praising. And now, the UK is considering taking the group of its terror list to help legitimise the new Syrian regime.
Sorry, WTF?
While mainstream media outlets have focused on using fairly neutral words like ‘rebels’, ‘insurgents’, or ‘militias’ to describe Syria’s jihadist victors, the fact is that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was the group at the forefront in the last battle against Assad.
Currently, the UK has proscribed “Al Qa’ida (AQ)” on its terror list. And it notes that “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” and others “should be treated as alternative names” for the group. Because of this, lawyer Iain Darcy points out:
if any British politician associates with the new regime, they will be breaking British law
HTS and its leader Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani have tried to convince the world not to focus on their record of human rightsabuses, particularly againstwomen. They’ve miraculously ‘changed’, apparently.
For now, however, al-Jawlani still has a $10m bounty on his head. And HTS remains on the US terror list.
So it looks like the US and the UK may need to drop their ban on HTS and its leader if they’re going to deal with the new Syrian regime.
If HTS comes off the terror lists, so must the Kurdish freedom fighters who defeated Daesh
At the end of November, the British police went after people it claimed were supportive of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK and its allies in Syria were at the centre of the fight against Daesh (Isis/Isil), and were pivotal in defeating it.
Around the First World War, the UK and France artificially divided the Middle East between themselves (and the emerging state of Turkey), leaving people like the Kurds stateless. After Turkey came into existence in 1923, in the shadow of the Armenian genocide, it thoroughly repressed its Kurdish population. After increasing social tensions in the 1970s, a right-wing coup occurred in 1980. The PKK arose in this context and has been fighting the Turkish state since the 1980s.
Because Turkey claims the PKK are terrorists, its Western allies agree. But it’s important to note here that Turkey’s war criminal leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also called anti-war students “terrorists”. It also ignores the fact that Turkey’s government ended peace talks with the PKK in 2015 largely because a left-wing, Kurdish-led revolution had emerged in northern Syria and had attracted international attention for its brave resistance to jihadist attacks. It saw this, and decided to attack both the PKK and its allies in Syria (as it continues to do today).
The UK echoes Turkey’s claims that the PKK is “a separatist movement that seeks an independent Kurdish state in southeast Turkey”. But as the BBC has reported, the group changed its aims in the 1990s, with military leader Cemil Bayik insisting:
we don’t want to separate from Turkey and set up a state… We want to live within the borders of Turkey on our own land freely… The struggle will continue until the Kurds’ innate rights are accepted
The PKK and its allies have condemned all attacks on civilians. They’ve reportedly never attacked Western targets. And European courts have previously criticised the political weaponisation of the ‘terrorist’ designation. But their left-wing ideology includes a desire for self-governance, which centralised states like Turkey oppose.
All war is terror. All war must end.
UN human rights expert Francesca Albanese recently emphasised the subjective nature of using the term ‘terrorism’, as opposed to recognised legal framework regarding genocide and war crimes. She said:
The discomfort I have in using the terrorism framework is that it doesn’t exist in international law. There is no definition of what constitutes terrorism under international law that is agreed among member states.
This is an important point to make. Because while it may be philosophically possible to argue that some acts of war are more or less justifiable than others, the truth is that all war is terrorism. And both the US and Britain have done more than their share of that.
If the UK and US now decide to forgive HTS terrorism in order to ‘stabilise’ the situation in Syria, they must also reconsider the case of the PKK and its allies in Syria and elsewhere. Without that, there will be no stability. Because Turkey will continue to have a green light to terrorise people in Syria and beyond with impunity, claiming it’s doing so in the ‘fight against terror’.
Journalist Rêbîn Bekir was driving near the Kurdish town of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq on the morning of August 23, when a rocket slammed into his car. The vehicle immediately burst into flames. Bekir was lucky. He was thrown from the car by the explosion and survived with injuries. But Bekir’s colleagues, Gülistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn, died instantly, their bodies burned beyond…
Istanbul, July 3, 2024—Turkish authorities should not contest the appeals of eight journalists sentenced to six years and three months in prison on Wednesday and stop prosecuting journalists with baseless claims of terrorism, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
The 4th Ankara Court of Serious Crimes convicted eight journalists on charges of membership in a terrorist organization as part of a mass trial of 11 journalists employed by the pro-Kurdish outlets Mezopotamya News Agency and JİNNEWS. They remain free pending appeal. The other three journalists were acquitted.
“Turkish authorities charged a group of Kurdish journalists with membership in a terrorist organization while presenting no solid evidence to back their accusations and yet somehow found eight of them guilty,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should not fight the journalists’ appeals and must stop filing baseless charges of terrorism against members of the media.”
The authorities detained the 11 journalists in October 2022 and indicted them in February 2023. CPJ emailed the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office for comment but received no immediate reply.
Sulaymaniyah, June 24, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi Kurdish authorities to immediately and unconditionally free Syrian journalist Sleman Ahmed, who has been detained for eight months, and drop all charges against him.
Ahmed — an Arabic editor for the local news website RojNews — is due to stand trial before Duhok Criminal Court in northern Iraqi Kurdistan on June 30, RojNews editor-in-chief Botan Garmiyani and Ahmed’s lawyers Nariman Ahmed and Reving Hruri told CPJ.
The news follows the filing in April of an Urgent Action to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances by CPJ and the MENA Rights Group to clarify Ahmed’s fate and whereabouts.
Ahmed was arrested on October 25 while entering Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region from Syria, where he had been visiting his family. The Security Directorate (Asayish), which is responsible for border security in Duhok Governorate, accused Ahmed of carrying out “secret and illegal” work for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The separatist PKK is designated a terrorist organization by countries and institutions, including the U.S., Turkey, and the European Union. Iraq’s National Security Council banned the group from operating in the country earlier this year. Ahmed’s outlet, RojNews, is pro-PKK and regularly reports on its activities.
Ara Khder, a spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Office of the Coordinator for International Advocacy, told CPJ in an email on May 26 that Ahmed had been arrested under the order of the Duhok Investigation Judge under Article 1 of Law No. 21 of 2003 and charged with espionage. Ahmed was being held in the Duhok Security Directorate’s prison.
“Accusing Sleman Ahmed of espionage and holding him for months before giving him access to his lawyers is yet another setback to press freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said CPJ Program Coordinator, Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Iraqi Kurdish authorities should release Ahmed immediately and drop all charges against him.”
‘We had no idea where he was’
The journalist’s lawyers told CPJ that Ahmed had no legal representation until May 22, when they were able to visit him in prison and receive official recognition as his legal team.
“For six months, we had no idea where he was, just so we could get his approval to be his attorneys,” said Hruri.
“For the first time since his arrest, he was also able to have a brief phone call with his family,” the journalist’s other lawyer, Nariman Ahmed, told CPJ.
The journalist could face life imprisonment if convicted under Article 1 of acts intended to undermine the stability, sovereignty, and security of the Kurdistan Region’s institutions.
Four other Kurdish journalists have been jailed for three to six years under the same article on charges of endangering the national security of the Kurdistan Region.
While Khder said in her May 26 email that Ahmed had access to his family, Ahmed’s lawyers and his brother, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed, told CPJ that the family had not been allowed to visit him.
“They only allowed him a two-minute phone call to confirm he is alive, no more, no less,” the journalist’s brother told CPJ in June via messaging app. “They don’t allow us to visit him in prison.”
Garmiyani told CPJ that RojNews rejected the charges against Ahmed. “This is merely a plot to imprison him. We demand his immediate release,” he said.
CPJ called Duhok Asayish Director Zeravan Baroshky for comment but did not receive any reply.
Istanbul, October 5, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Turkish authorities on Thursday to immediately release journalists Dicle Müftüoğlu and Sedat Yılmaz, who have been held in pretrial detention for more than five months, and to stop using terrorism legislation to criminalize journalists.
Müftüoğlu and Yılmaz, both editors at the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency, were charged with membership and leadership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group and political party that Turkey classifies as a terrorist group, according to the indictments, which were reviewed by CPJ. The journalists face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty under Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws.
The 40-plus-page indictments, which the chief public prosecutor’s office in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, presented to the court on September 6, mainly focused on the structure of the PKK. The indictments did not mention the journalists until the final pages and three of the four state witnesses cited were anonymous. The journalists’ travels, financial transactions, and logs of phone calls with other journalists, politicians and human rights activists were also cited as evidence.
“Turkish journalists Dicle Müftüoğlu and Sedat Yılmaz have been held behind bars since April, waiting for the state prosecutor to prepare these indictments, which rely heavily on secret witnesses and present everyday journalistic activities as criminal behavior,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities must immediately release both editors and stop using terrorism charges to jail journalists for months on end in retaliation for their reporting.”
Müftüoğlu, who is also co-chair of the local media advocacy group Dicle Fırat Journalists Association, and Yılmaz were arrested on April 29 in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır. The journalists, who were being held in Ankara, will be tried separately in Diyarbakır on dates that were yet to be determined, their lawyer Resul Temur told CPJ. Temur said that the evidence against the journalists was “not solid” and included “unfounded claims” that their media outlets were “terrorism tools.”
In April, 17 Kurdish journalists and a media worker were charged with membership of the PKK. At a hearing in July, the 15 defendants who had been held under pretrial arrest for 13 months were released on bail, pending trial.
Turkey was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with 40 behind bars at the time of CPJ’s latest annual worldwide census of imprisoned journalists on December 1, 2022.
CPJ’s emails to the Ankara chief public prosecutor’s office requesting comment did not receive any reply.
Diyarbakır, July 11, 2023—In response to Tuesday’s opening of the trial of 17 Kurdish journalists and a media worker on terrorism charges in a court in Diyarbakır, Turkey, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:
“Turkish authorities must immediately release the defendants and drop the terrorism charges, which are solely based on their journalistic work,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should also take necessary steps to ensure that pretrial arrest cannot be weaponized against the members of the press.”
The journalists and media worker were charged with membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They are employed by local ARİ, PEL, and PİYA production companies and produce Kurdish-focused shows and content, which the indictment alleged were propaganda for PKK. The government has designated PKK as a terrorist organization.
The defendants — 15 of whom have been under pretrial arrest for 13 months — have denied the charges and, if convicted, face up to 15 years imprisonment under Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws.
Kurdish people from across Europe travelled to the suburbs of Paris, France, on 3 January for the funeral of three Kurds murdered in a racist attack. Gunman William Malet killed two men and one woman on 23 December, in a attack on the Ahmet Kaya community centre in Paris’ 10th district.
His victims were Abdurrahman Kizil, singer and political refugee Mir Perwer, and Emine Kara, a leader of the movement of Kurdish women in France.
Organisers chartered buses to bring people from across France and some neighbouring countries to the ceremony in Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, local sources said. Tears and cries of “Martyrs live forever!” greeted the coffins, wrapped in the flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish-controlled Rojava territory in northern Syria.
The huge crowd followed the funeral on giant screens erected in a car park. The screens showed coffins surrounded by wreaths beneath a portrait of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Police arrested Malet after the murders, and charged him on 26 December. Malet told investigators at the time that he had a “pathological” hatred for foreigners and wanted to “murder migrants”. As well as killing Kizil, Perwer, and Kara, Malet wounded a further three people. The suspect had a violent criminal history. At the time of the murders, he had just left detention for attacking a Paris refugee camp with a sabre in 2021.
A history of Turkish persecution
Many Kurds in France’s 150,000-strong community refuse to believe Malet acted alone. They called his actions a “terrorist” attack, and pointed the finger at Turkey.
Ten years ago, men believed to have ties with Turkey’s secret services shot dead three Kurds connected to the PKK. The murders took place in Paris’s 10th District. Coincidentally, their funerals were held in almost exactly the same spot as those of Kizil, Perwer, and Kara. More recently, the now-banned Turkish ultra-nationalist group Grey Wolves was blamed for an attack in Lyon. Members of the group beat men at the city’s Kurdish cultural centre in April 2022.
Celik, a local who attended the 3 January funeral, said:
We feel like they’re doing everything they can to crush us, whether it’s here or in Turkey.
Malet’s murders led to confrontations between Kurdish people and French police in the streets of the capital.
A chance to pay respects
The Democratic Council of Kurds in France (CDKF) said the 3 January ceremony was an:
opportunity for those who wish to pay their final respects… before the bodies are repatriated to their native soil [for burial]
CDKF activists will lead a march on 4 January in tribute to the December victims. The route will include the street where the shootings took place.
On 7 January, a “grand march” of the Kurdish community will set off from Paris’s Gare du Nord rail hub. Organisers had originally planned to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2013 shootings, but will now mark the most recent murders.
Thousands attend the funeral of the martyrs of #Paris terrorist attack
The Democratic Kurdish Council in France called for participation in a march to be held in the French capital on January 7. pic.twitter.com/MhgrE7LJhh
Content Warning: graphic descriptions of state violence and disrespect for the dead
In 2021 and 2022, I was part of two delegations to Bakur, the part of Kurdistan that lies within Turkey’s borders. The delegations were comprised of people from different groups and organisations in the UK, including the Canary, the Industrial Workers of the World union, anti-repression groups, and the Kurdistan Solidarity Network. We conducted interviews with people from different organisations in the region.
One of these organisations was the Amed (Diyarbakır) branch of MEBYA-DER, whose full name is ‘Aid and Solidarity Association for People Who Lost Their Relatives in the Cradle of Civilizations’.
MEBYA-DER is comprised of Kurdish families who are collectively demanding justice while fighting against the Turkish state’s assimilationist policies, which seek to destroy their identity and struggle both in life and death. Its main aims are to ensure the return of their relatives’ bodies and proper research into the cause of their death, and to campaign for justice against the state’s inhumane attacks on the dead.
A member told us:
The state pursues psychological war, especially against the families of martyrs.
Remembering the fallen
Defending the memory of the fallen and carrying on the struggle that they gave their lives for is a practice that exists across the world. In Kurdistan, nearly every family close to the Kurdish Freedom Movement has lost at least one person. The martyrs and their sacrifices are central to the political, social, and spiritual history that is written and lived by millions of people in the movement.
The importance of the martyrs is also recognised by the Turkish state, which identifies them – and the traditions surrounding them – as a threat. The state frequently desecrates individual bodies, often in highly violent and misogynistic ways, and damages or destroys entire graveyards beyond its national borders.
One member of the association told us:
I am a mother of three martyrs. I was charged [and threatened] with three years of prison, but not sentenced. The only thing that happened in my life is that I had three children who were killed. They indirectly and, actually, directly tell us: you either die or are imprisoned if you don’t obey. We cannot talk about human rights, democracy, or justice [of the state] – only violence and repression. Of course we fight back.
Recovering bodies from the hands of the state
Another member of MEBYA-DER told us:
Our main aim is to reach martyrs’ bodies, because the state creates a lot of problems to reach them.
The bodies of those killed in the conflict are often “returned in pieces”, or are never returned to their families at all. There are massive delays before the bodies are returned, and before the necessary DNA testing can be carried out in order for relatives to identify their loved ones. One of the mothers told us:
264 cemeteries were excavated to allegedly test DNA from the bones, but later on they found that the bones taken from the graves were actually used in the roads as a material.
In other instances, the military or state would publicly present parts of the bodies to intimidate people and to create provocation.
Last month, one father picked up the remains of his son – a civilian killed by the state during the 2015 siege of Sur in Amed. The bones of Hakan Arslan were handed over in a white bag to his father, mimicking the degrading treatment of the remains of Agit İpek, Mahsum Arslan, and other guerillas who were sent via the post in storage boxes and white bags to their families.
Children’s bodies decapitated
One of the mothers in MEBYA-DER said:
Some friends here have family members who were martyred and at the same time they have someone in prison. They witnessed many brutal cases of state violence against the dead bodies and the prisoners. I have seen that some of our children were decapitated – this was done after they were killed.
All of these actions of the state are extensions of colonial violence into the grieving process. Even ceremonies are weaponised, with severe limitations on attendance and armed entourages of the military and police.
The mother continued:
Only three family members can attend the ceremony. The police escort you to the cemetery and you are not allowed to wash the bodies, which is important in Islam.
Investigating the causes of death
One of the biggest struggles is determining the causes of death, with limited access to specialist equipment and no institutional recourse to carry out tests. According to one parent:
When I talk about my son who was martyred, he died with 16 others in Dersim. When we found them, there were no wounds. We were able to get only 3 bodies out of the 16 martyrs. They were killed by chemical weapons. When their bodies were found, their eyes were completely filled with blood.
Since the state knows that these chemicals can only be analysed up to a certain point after death, they refuse to give up the bodies. It has been 4 years. There were many attempts within those 4 years, with no response.”
In 2019, a photo of 13-year-old Mohammed Hamid Mohammed covered in horrific burns went viral. The attack happened in northeast Syria during the military offensive named ‘Operation Peace Spring’ that Turkey launched against the region. His burns are widely considered to be from white phosphorous. However, nothing has happened since then to hold the Turkish state to account.
Steve Sweeney, an English journalist, travelled throughout South Kurdistan in Iraq during 2020 and 2021 to investigate reports of chemical weapons being deployed by the Turkish state. In interviews he conducted with local shepherds, civilian families, and military personnel, Sweeney recorded various accounts of acute pathology symptoms consistent with chemical weapon attacks, and the deaths of people and livestock. The Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has declined to investigate.
“even the dead are attacked.”
Cemeteries are often attacked by the state and vandalised, especially if they contain the graves of Kurdish guerillas. Members of MEBYA-DER showed us the photographs, below, from a cemetery in Lice, Amed province, taken in 2021. The cemetery is known to contain the remains of many people who died in the liberation movement.
A Kurdish cemetery with desecrated gravestones
Repression
According to one member of MEBYA-DER:
The Turkish state has announced all Kurdish struggle, and indirectly the Kurdish people, as terrorists.
We are doing demonstrations and gatherings to raise awareness. Before, we used to protest in [offices of] the Bar Association, now we protest outside the courthouses and prisons and do press conferences. We do everything we can through social media as well. Even though I haven’t done anything, the state comes twice a month to raid my house because of my family [who are martyrs].
These actions are also taken by organised mothers in Istanbul, Van and Batman. Known collectively as the Saturday Mothers, they undertake public sit-in protests and vigils, often for hundreds of weeks at a time, against the enforced disappearances of their relatives and other grave injustices.
Imprisoned for involvement in legal organisations
In November 2021, co-chair of MEBYA-DER Şeyhmus Karadağ (below, right) was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in prison. One month later, co-chair Yüksel Almas (below, left) was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Yüksel Almas (left) and Şeyhmus Karadağ (right) – Picture via ANF
Yüksel Almas was imprisoned because she attended commemorative events for the martyrs murdered by the state, and for giving interviews and speeches. She spoke publicly about the burning of her native village by the Turkish army in the 1990s, the torture carried out, and the process of fleeing.
She demanded that the perpetrators of extra-judicial executions and forced disappearances are brought to justice, that the state reveal the locations of mass graves, and that they hand over the abducted bodies of those killed in the Kurdish liberation struggle.
This is a state strategy of making legal organisations effectively illegal by bringing baseless terrorism cases against their members person-by-person. Once enough members have been convicted, the state can brand the entire organisation as ‘terrorist’ and outlaw its existence. This attack is not limited to MEBYA-DER. A member of the organisation told us:
“It doesn’t matter which organisation it is – all face this.
Prison as warfare; isolation as a weapon
The prisoner solidarity organisation TUHAD-FED (Legal and Solidarity Associations Federation of Prisoners and Convict Families) told us how prisoners were kept without proper nutrition or access to healthcare, and were being tortured. While prisoners are individually repressed by the prison, it is also designed to destroy the ecosystem of the community. This is a microcosm of the state’s enclosure of Kurdish society, with the words “we are living in a prison” being echoed by several people we met during our time in the region.
In a country where it is both illegal to criticise the president and the state – something as small as a social media post or a flyer for a student march has serious consequences. Many people we met had cases due to these types of actions.
TUHAD-FED told us that Turkey is testing a new ‘S-type’ prison system that relies on isolation as the main method of control. It is a secretive programme with little public information. Prisoners are kept alone. This is a development on the F-type prison system introduced in 2000, in which two prisoners are kept together per room and communal time is severely restricted.
This contrasts with the ward-style prison system which comprises the majority of the prisons in Turkey – people spend time together as a group, and may have the ability to interact with between six and 20-or-more people at a time throughout the day, depending on the prison type.
In 2000, there was massive resistance within Turkish prisons against the introduction of the F-type system. It was recognised as a method of psychological warfare imported from advanced capitalist states like the US and UK as a direct method to break the organisation of prisoners.
At least 816 prisoners carried out death fasts. 122 people were martyred during the fasts, and others died in military occupations of the prisons when the state tried to crush the resistance. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) publicly approved of the F-type’s introduction.
The founder of the Kurdish movement, Abdullah Öcalan, has been incarcerated on the prison island of İmralı since 1999. For most of those 23 years, he has been kept in solitary confinement, a procedure that is internationally considered to be torture.
One MEBYA-DER member reflected on how Öcalan’s treatment is a mirror for the treatment of Kurdish people:
Isolation of our leader is complemented by isolation of our culture, language, our legal activities, and the state creating obstacles for our work.
As elections loom, tension increases economic crisis
With elections planned for June 2023, Erdoğan’s attempts to maintain his 20-year regime are relying increasingly on nationalist and colonial policies of “eradicating the terrorist threat” through desperate attempts to crush the democratic structures of the Kurdish movement, and all of the left. Meanwhile, Erdoğan is positioning himself as a necessary geopolitical actor and a peace-maker between Russia and Ukraine.
As these crises of the state unfold, organisation across Kurdish society continues. As one member of MEBYA-DER told us:
We will fight until we get our freedom in every sense. Until our leader is released. Until we get the freedom of language and culture. Let our voices be heard wherever you are!
February 15 2022 will mark the 23rd anniversary of the capture of Abdullah Öcalan, the co-founder of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).
The PKK has fought for Kurdish freedom and autonomy since the 1970s. Turkey has defined the PKK as a ‘terrorist group’, and most Western states have followed suit, as they see Turkey as a key trading partner and NATO member.
Öcalanwas abducted by the Turkish state from Nairobi in 1999. He’d been forced to leave Syria – previously a PKK safe haven – the year before. The events leading up to Öcalan‘s capture have been dubbed an ‘international conspiracy’ by the Kurdish Freedom Movement.
Öcalan was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment because Turkey was in the midst of a bid to join the EU, and it needed to be seen to comply with EU laws.
He has spent the last 23 years in isolation on the Turkish prison island of İmralı. International human rights bodies have repeatedlycalled for an end to his solitary confinement.
Despite being in solitary confinement, Öcalan has still been able to put across his ideas for a new society, as part of his legal defence writings. His ‘new paradigm’ – of a stateless direct democracy based on women’s freedom and an ecologically sustainable society – has inspired both the Rojava revolution in Northeast Syria, and the movement for democratic autonomy in Bakur (the part of Kurdistan that lies within Turkey’s borders).
Taking to the streets
A demonstration is planned in London on Saturday 13 February, calling for Öcalan‘s freedom. The Kurdish People’s Assembly of the UK tweeted:
This February marks 23 years that Abdullah Öcalan has been illegally detained, in conditions amounting to torture, on the prison island Imrali.
Join us at 1pm at Portland Place in London on 13 February to demand freedom for the 'Mandela of the Middle East'. pic.twitter.com/2GNTbtnW6h
Supporters of the Kurdish Freedom Movement are taking part in a “long march” across Europe to Strasbourg, calling for “Freedom for Öcalan”. Strasbourg houses the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe.
“We cannot get any news from Mr Öcalan“
Last December, I travelled to Istanbul and interviewed Ibrahim Bilmez for The Canary.
I was on the way to join a delegation to Bakur made up of radical journalists, including three of us from The Canary, as well as representatives from the Kurdistan Solidarity Network and defendant and prisoner solidarity organisations.
Bilmez has been Öcalan‘s lawyer for over 18 years. He told me:
the most important thing on the agenda for us at the moment is that we cannot get any news from Mr Öcalan. That’s been going on now for eight months.
Bilmez told me that he was concerned about his client’s deteriorating health. According to Bilmez:
So eight months ago, news came on social media from verifiable sources saying that Öcalan‘s health was very bad, and that he could be close to losing his life… That was last March [2021]. And at that point they gave permission for his family to speak with him on the phone.
No visits since 2020
Bilmez said that Öcalan has not had a visit from friends, family, or his supporters since 3 March 2020, and that even these visits had only been achieved by popular pressure. In the period immediately preceding the 2020 visit, there was a forest fire which had spread to the İmralı prison. Kurdish people in Turkey took to the streets and demanded proof that Öcalan and his fellow prisoners were still alive, and this eventually led to the state authorising the visit.
The hunger strikes broke the isolation
Öcalan‘s lawyers have not been able to visit him since August 2019. Again, those legal visits only came about because of the determination of the Kurdish movement. In 2018, thousands of Kurdish prisoners launched a wave of hunger strikes, demanding the end of Öcalan‘s isolation. According to Bilmez:
The reason that it was possible for the lawyers to actually visit in 2019 was because of the hunger strikes that happened in the prisons, by Leyla Güven from the [People’s Democratic Party] HDP and other prisoners. And that was what put the pressure on, so that lawyers would come and visit.
Leyla Güven‘s successful hunger strike lasted 200 days and almost led to her death. Last year, the state took revenge on her, sentencing her to a further 22 years in prison.
Bilmez said that between 2011 and 2019, there had been no lawyer visits permitted at all. Öcalan has not been allowed any legal visits since 2019 either
Bilmez told me that there had been another hunger strike in Summer 2021, aimed at breaking the isolation of Öcalan, but that a decision had been made early on to quit the strike. This was because – back in 2019 – Öcalan himself said that he couldn’t endorse hunger strikes as a strategy, and called on the movement to find different ways to change things.
“No law applies”
I asked Bilmez what the conditions were like for Öcalan in prison. He said:
he was taken there in 1999, and until 2009 he was the only prisoner in that prison. After 2009, five other prisoners from the Kurdish movement were taken there as well, but they are in separate cells.
Now there are only four people left there [including Öcalan].
Bilmez said that the Turkish state is acting with complete impunity in Öcalan‘s case:
The government has done whatever it wants with him since 1999. No law applies, there’s no transparency there.
My comments might not come across as objective but – as a lawyer – I can say that it’s the case, and this is backed up by the report of the [Council of Europe’s] Committee for the Prevention of Torture. They visited İmralı eight or nine times, and that’s the basis of their report.
Imprisonment of Öcalan‘s lawyers
I asked Bilmez if he had faced criminalisation himself for representing Öcalan. He told me:
In November 2011, there was the biggest ever operation against lawyers in Turkey. Over 40 lawyers [who were connected to representing Öcalan] were arrested and had their houses raided in the middle of the night. They arrested lawyers from [the cities of] Diyarbakir, Ankara, Izmir and Wan, and took them to Istanbul.
35 of us were put into prison, including myself.
I was in prison from 2011-14. Now I have been released – with conditions – but the case against me is still ongoing.
The alleged crime was simply that we were lawyers for Öcalan. They allege that we’re a tool, a vehicle for his ideas and his organisation.
Bilmez said that – on the way to İmralı – he had been physically attacked by Turkish fascist groups, and that on one occasion:
a group of 50 or 60 fascists came to attack us with stones and sticks. The police were forced to protect us in some way, but they didn’t really put much effort into it.
Bilmez considers it likely that that these attacks were done in coordination with the Turkish state.
The importance of international solidarity
I asked Bilmez if there was anything that people from the UK could do to pressure the Turkish government over Öcalan‘s situation. He told us that it was important to focus on the cases being taken outside Turkey:
We have cases with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
These international cases are very important. We’re constantly trying to open cases, or keep cases going – but still Öcalan‘s conditions stay the same. So it is very important to keep up the international pressure and awareness, and to raise your voice.
Bilmez gave examples of how international solidarity makes a difference. He pointed out:
One of the big unions in the UK, which has 1000s of members, specifically mentioned Abdullah Öcalan at one of their big protests, to see this from here was very meaningful and very important.
Another example was that there was a boat full of activists who went from Athens to Napoli raising awareness about Öcalan‘s right not to be isolated. And that was done on the same day as when he had been taken captive in 1999.
These kinds of events are really important. In Turkey the law basically doesn’t mean anything in these political cases, and there’s no independent media here either. So that’s why international political pressure is so important.
A template for further violations
According to Bilmez, the isolation of Öcalan has provided a template for many of the abuses which are now being carried out by the Turkish state. He said:
The kind of violations that have happened in İmralı, and with the wider Kurdish question – these have become the template for Turkey. This injustice that was acceptable in those spaces is now the norm in Turkey.
This first happened in İmralı, and nobody raised their voice. So it has become the standard in Turkey. That the law is there to be bent.
Its time for Freedom for Öcalan
The Kurdish Freedom Movement is calling for an end to the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan as an urgent step. But, more than that, they want an end to his imprisonment. This is seen as a stepping stone to ending the oppression of Kurdish people, and to a radical democratisation of society.
According to Ayşe Acar Başaran, spokesperson of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Women’s Assembly:
The years-long isolation of Mr Öcalan is a manifestation of the government’s approach to the Kurdish issue. The government has dropped the democratic solution to the Kurdish problem following its alliance with the ultra-nationalist MHP since 2015.
The HDP are part of the movement for radical democracy in Turkey, inspired by the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan
we see that the imprisonment of Abdullah Öcalan is not limited to him as a single person – but with him an entire people, an entire movement is being tried to punish and destroy. The imprisonment of his person is vicariously linked to the attempt to suppress an alternative to patriarchy, fascism and capitalist modernity.
10,000 people are currently imprisoned in Turkey for connection with the Kurdish Freedom Movement. In 2016, Turkey was listed as the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, and they are still being jailed in large numbers.. During our time in Turkey and Bakur, we spoke to many people facing prison for their political organising, as well as many families of prisoners. Emily Apple wrote in The Canary about just how wide ranging the repression is:
Everyone is charged with “membership of a terrorist organisation”. But these are not terrorists. These are lawyers, journalists, MPs, co-op members, and human rights activists. Their crime is being Kurdish and supporting radical democracy in the face of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s fascistic regime.
A lot of the people we spoke to told us how important Öcalan‘s freedom was to them, that freedom for Öcalan would also mean freedom for them and their loved ones. Öcalan is widely seen as the key to restarting peace negotiations with the Turkish state.
Even after 23 years of extreme isolation – and all of the efforts of the Turkish state to silence him – Öcalan still inspires revolutionaries not just across Turkey and Kurdistan but worldwide. It’s clear that the movement will continue fighting for his freedom, and for the stateless, radically democratic society that he envisioned.
Featured image is a screenshot from a video of a protest at the Durham Miners Gala
The Kurdistan Freedom Movement – together with solidarity groups and human rights organisations – are calling for an end to Turkey’s use chemical weapons.
Turkey – which is denying it has used chemical weapons – has been a signatory to the chemical weapons convention since 1997.
According to the Kurdistan Freedom Movement and its supporters, however, the use of such weapons has increased since Turkey invaded guerrilla held areas in South Kurdistan – the area of Kurdistan that lies within Iraq’s borders (also known as Iraqi Kurdistan).
Since Turkey’s armed forces invaded northern Iraq/South Kurdistan on 23 April 2021 there have been reports that it has been using chemical weapons against Kurdish guerrillas in the regions of Zap, Metina and Avasia.
These areas are held by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and associated guerrilla forces. The PKK is demanding an end to the repression and authoritarianism of the Turkish state, and is part of the movement for a radical democratisation of the region through a bottom up system called democratic confederalism.
The frequency of the use of these weapons and their lethality has increased in the past two months – there are now reports of over 300 separate uses. The evidence of this international crime and the casualties resulting from chemical weapons use are mounting up.
“All living beings and nature are completely destroyed”
The Kurdistan Communities Union – or KCK – described the effects of the use of these weapons:
The chemical weapons used by the Turkish state are lethal weapons that cause suffocation, burns, impairment of the nervous system, and cauterization and destruction of tissue. In the areas where these weapons are used, all living beings and nature are completely destroyed. In addition, the remnants of these weapons settle in soil, water and plants, massively endangering the health and survival of the local population for years to come.
Dr Rûken Samsun, who’s a guerrilla fighting as part of the YJA Star Free Women’s Troops, told reporters from Firat News Agency:
These chemical weapons affect human reflexes and nerves. There are also chemical gases that burn and suffocate the human body. Suffocation occurs when living things are deprived of oxygen. Chemical weapons are banned worldwide. The use of chemical weapons against the guerrillas is immoral.
The interview with Samsun can be viewed here:
Effects are being felt by the civilian population
The 5 November KCK statement highlights that Turkey’s chemical weapon attacks affect Kurdish civilians, as well as the guerrillas:
It is well known that chemical weapons are being used not only against the guerrillas, but also against the local civilian population. As a result of the use of these weapons, the civilian population is already suffering from severe health problems that have now reached extremely worrying levels. Many people in the region have been directly affected by the use of chemical weapons and have therefore tried to visit civilian hospitals in the region. However, they are being prevented from doing so by the KDP [authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan] and the Turkish state and are instead being treated in secretly established military hospitals. Although all these facts are known, the crimes against humanity committed by the Turkish occupation forces through the use of chemical weapons are still not recognized. This denial and the accompanying silence or open support provide legitimacy to these crimes.
Why are you silent?
The KCK concludes its statement with a call on people worldwide to speak out:
As the KCK Health Committee, we are reaching out directly to all institutions, organizations, human rights defenders, and environmental and animal rights activists who are committed to securing the future of humanity: Why are you silent?
It also makes a specific call for several international organisations – the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the United Nations (UN), the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), and Doctors Without Borders – to condemn Turkey’s use of chemical weapons:
We would like to take this opportunity to directly address the OPCW, UN, CPT and especially Doctors Without Borders: Why are you silent regarding the genocidal crimes of the Turkish state in Kurdistan and the Middle East? To remain silent on the use of chemical weapons means to become accomplices and supporters of this crime. In particular, we would like to make the following appeal to the OPCW and Doctors Without Borders: We call on you to live up to your tasks, investigate the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish occupation forces in the guerrilla areas of South Kurdistan as soon as possible and without further passing of valuable time and to thus stop this crime. We would like to emphasize here that we are ready to provide all necessary support and assistance for these efforts.
Calls for an arms embargo and sanctions against Turkey
The Kurdistan National Congress, meanwhile, is calling for support from people worldwide:
[we] call on all international institutions, governments and the international public
……to condemn Turkey for its crimes and use of chemical weapons
….to put Turkish government and state officials on trial for their crimes against humanity and war crimes
….to impose sanctions on Turkey for using chemical weapons
….to impose an arms embargo on Turkey.
We call on the international press to break their silence and start reporting on Turkey’s use of chemical weapons.
We call on the international public and all democratic forces to show solidarity with the Kurdish resistance and support the Kurds’ demand for an immediate stop of Turkey’s attacks and use of chemical weapons.
A delegation of people from all over Europe has travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan to protest against the Turkish invasion and bombing. And this statement from the Defend Kurdistan campaign explains the urgency of the situation:
In April, the Turkish state initiated a new, wide-ranging military campaign in South Kurdistan in the regions of Matina, Zap and Avashin. Heavy battles continue in these regions, with the Kurdish guerrilla forces fiercely resisting this illegal invasion. These large-scale attacks target not only the Kurdish guerrilla forces, but also the achievements of the Kurdish people, with the aim of occupying South Kurdistan. To date, the response to these attacks on the international level has unfortunately been muted. Seizing on this silence, the Turkish regime has put in place their plan to occupy all of Rojava (the region of North and East Syria) alongside South Kurdistan. In so doing, Turkey is determined to ethnically cleanse this vast area – 1400 km long – from North-West Syria to the Iraqi-Iranian border. At the same time, Turkey is waging a drone war against the Maxmur refugee camp, a gross violation of international law. Connected to this policy of ethnic cleansing, the Turkish military also hopes to depopulate the Sinjar region, home of the Yazidis—and thereby achieve what ISIS could not.
We, as a delegation from all over Europe, have come to Kurdistan aiming for peace and freedom. Politicians, academics, human rights activists, syndicalists, journalists, feminists and ecologists from over ten countries wanted to get direct impressions of the situation and stand up to end the war and destruction.
Pierre Laurent, deputy president of the Senate of France, said on behalf of the delegation:
We are a peaceful and solidary peace delegation in solidarity with all the Kurdish people and we will build diplomatic pressure to stop the Turkish invasion of Southern Kurdistan.
Stop the weapons exports to Turkey
The delegation has been gathering testimonies from people who have suffered as a result of the Turkish bombing. They spoke to Peyman Talib, a woman who lost her leg as a result of a Turkish drone attack.
”They say Turkey only attacks right at the border and only attacks PKK. But that is only an excuse. I am a civilian and I live close to the city and they attacked me anyway. They do not care about human rights.“#defendkurdistanpic.twitter.com/ArP5vYfvKL
However, the delegation has been prevented from travelling freely around Iraqi Kurdistan. On 20 June, the delegation was prevented from visiting the Mexmûr refugee camp by the Iraqi military. The refugee camp has been bombed by Turkey earlier this month.
One tweet reads:
Turkey bombed the refugee camp #Mexmûr on June 5th, following a thread Erdoğan had made a few days earlier. The #Delegation4Peace wanted to visit the people of Mexmûr today in solidarity, but was stopped and sent back by the Iraqi military at a checkpoint.#defendkurdistanpic.twitter.com/4C8jbkTj45
And on 21 June, the group was denied access to Qandil.
Qandil has been under increasing attacks from the Turkish military in recent months. Turkey is attacking Qandil because the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has its base in the region, but its drone attacks and shelling are deadly and indiscriminate.
Demonstrators met by warning shots
Demonstrations broke out after the delegation was refused access to Qandil. Demonstrators were met with warning shots by security forces:
Because the way to #Quandil is still closed a demonstration started.
Already after 200m the demonstration was stopped by warning shots and has to return.
Several Kurdish movements who joined the international delegation in their attempt to reach Qandil have criticised the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which controls the area, for preventing freedom of movement.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party is accused of trying “to legitimize Turkish occupation”. Defend Kurdistan’s statement reads:
Unfortunately, the Kurdistan Region (KRG) and the Iraqi government have done little to stop Turkey’s occupation attempt. In particular, it has been disappointing for us to see how Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) officials have even tried to legitimize the Turkish occupation. Whatever Ankara’s economic pressure might be, the KDP must not allow itself to be turned into a Turkish proxy, as the consequences of this war can be grave for all of Kurdistan and the region.
“We need the internationalists as a voice in their countries to stop these attacks“
One of the people the International Peace delegation spoke to in the village of Kuna Masi said:
We need the internationalists as a voice in their countries to stop these attacks
The international delegation is part of a global movement against the Turkish attacks, and in solidarity with the people under attack in Northern Iraq and North and East Syria. You can follow the delegation’s progress on Twitter here.
