INSTITUT KUDE RPARD IS E Information and liaison bulletin N° 371 FEBRUARY 2016 The publication of this Bulletin enjoys a subsidy from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGCID) aqnd the Fonds d’action et de soutien pour l’intégration et la lutte contre les discriminations (The Fund for action and support of integration and the struggle against discrimination) This bulletin is issued in French and English Price per issue : France: 6 € — Abroad : 7,5 € Annual subscribtion (12 issues) France : 60 € — Elsewhere : 75 € Monthly review Directeur de la publication : Mohamad HASSAN Numéro de la Commission Paritaire : 659 15 A.S. ISBN 0761 1285 INSTITUT KURDE, 106, rue La Fayette - 75010 PARIS Tel. : 01-48 24 64 64 - Fax : 01-48 24 64 66 www.fikp.org E-mail: bulletin@fikp.org Information and liaison bulletin Kurdish Institute of Paris Bulletin N° 371 February 2016 • TURKEY: A RECORD OF ALL OUT REPRESSION • IRAQI KURDISTAN: ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES AND A POLITICAL CRISIS • ROJAAVA: WHILE “GENEVA III” FOUNDERS THE KURDISH-ARAB ALLIANCE MAKES FRESH AD - VANCES TURKEY: A RECORD OF ALL OUT REPRESSION st n the 1 of the month covering part of the lens. More - Following publication of this news, the UN Commissioner over, the HDP announced that it while the Turkish Army announced O for Human Rights at had been unable to communicate that it had killed 600 rebels since Geneva expressed in - for the last three days with a group December (it has not been possible dignation and urged of 31 civilians, some of whom to obtain independent confirma - Turkey to conduct an enquiry into were wounded, who had been tion of these figures) the HDP co- the death by shooting of an un - trapped for several weeks in a cel - President, Selahettin Demirtaş, armed group of civilians in Kur - lar in Cizre, which has been under accused the Turkish security forces, th distan. The incident occurred a curfew since mid-December. At on the 9 of “carrying out a mas - about tens days previously at least one of them had died during sacre” in the country’s Kurdish re - Cizre and was revealed by a video the previous two weeks. gion. The Turkish press reported a he described as “extremely shock - raid by the security forces on a ing” which rapidly spread like a On the same day some hundreds building in the Cudî quarter of virus on the web. It shows a group of civilians took advantage of the Cizre on the 7th in which about 60 of civilians led by a man and lifting of the curfew that had been wounded people were trapped for woman carrying a white flag who imposed of the Western quarter of over a week. The Turkish Minister are pushing want appear to be Sur (the walled old town which of the Interior, Efkan Ala, for his corpses on a handcart. Suddenly dates to Roman times) of Di - part describer the reports of civilian the group seems to be struck by yarbakir to flee the fighting area. deaths in a cellar in Cizre as “disin - what appears to be a series of The Eastern part of Sur, however, formation”, adding that “ the place shots, the cameraman’s blood even remains under a 24-hour curfew. (building ) doesn’t even exist ”. • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 371 • February 2016 A war tactic without any consider - this month a campaign (so far un - the inhabitants of the areas con - ation for civilians successfully) to remove the PKK cerned. The Turkish “security” forces have from the official list of terrorist or - been using the same tactics since ganisations. Continuing all out repression the renewal of hostilities: faced Alongside the acts of violence in with the PKK youth who set up A plan of security and development the field and some promises of a barricades and proclaimed “ democ - It is against this background of vio - better economic future in more dis - rd ratic autonomy ”, they besiege the a lence that, on the 3 , the Turkish tant tomorrows, the legal repres - rd quarter or even a whole town, place Prime Minister announced, in an al - sion is continuing. Also on the 3 , a the area under a total and continu - most surrealist manner, that he lecturer of Political Science at ous 24-hour curfew for weeks at an would reveal during his next visit to Ankara University, Resat Baris end and subject it to intense Mardin, a “ security and development Unlu, was charged with “terrorist shelling, sometimes by tanks sur - plan ” for the Kurdish region. The propaganda” after he set his stu - rounding the town Turkish media, moreover, have an - dent a question in an examination nounced that the plan included a paper regarding the PKK’s impris - Some buildings become completely substantial security element with a oned chief. The question was to uninhabitable either because they strengthening of the deployment of compare two articles by Ocalan, have received direct hits from shells the Army and police in towns con - one published in 1978 entitled: that kill civilians in their living sidered to be “sensitive”. Indeed, on “The Way to Revolution in Kurdis - th rooms or because the water, elec - the 6 , Davutoğlu did announce at tan” and one published in 2012, tricity and heating have been cut off Mardin plans to invest 25.5 billion “Democratic Modernity for the — and this in a region with a freez - Turkish lire (about 9 billion euros) — Construction of local Systems in the ing cold climate in winter. Because while still refusing the decentralisa - Middle East”. Indeed, the PKK’s of the curfew, it is strictly forbidden tion called for by HDP or any re - ideas have undergone considerable for anyone to go out into the street, newal of negotiations with the PKK. changes over this period. The so that civilians are caught in a trap. Ankara Prosecutor clearly did not When their supply food and water Since the founding of the Turkish find this a legitimate subject for re - is exhausted many of them have no Republic, the various Turkish gov - flection since he decided to charge other option than to go out to seek ernments from the Kemalist ones to the lecturer with having tried to supplies and the “security forces” the AKP’s, who chosen the military “legitimise Ocalan’s opinions snipers target them for breaching option for “ dealing with ” the coun - amongst his students” and “trans - the curfew. These may be children try’s Kurdish Question have al - mitting the idea that he was a polit - seeking some bread or old people ways announced simultaneously ical leader”. Unlu faces up to seven who have nothing left in their the imminent “eradication” of ter - years imprisonment. homes. Anyone who tries to take rorism and a number of “ develop - th the wounded to a place of shelter is ment plans ” for the Kurdish region. On the 6 , a German-born Kurdish shot at as well. Wounded people What has been the result? Today, 32 footballer in Diyarbakir’s Amedspor who have been unable to find shel - years after the first Army opera - team, Deniz Naki, was targeted — ter in their buildings cellars cannot tions against the PKK in 1984, the the Turkish Football Federation an - be rescued because the troops and PKK is still ever present and Turk - nounced that it had suspended him police forbid ambulances to enter ish Kurdistan continues to suffer an for a year and fined him 6,200 euros the besieged areas. enormous arrears of development for statements of “ ideological propa - compared with the rest of the coun - ganda ” and “contrary to the sport - Faced with such abuses of power try — to such a point that local ing spirit”. What was Naki’s one may well ask, which are the ter - councillors have ended up by boy - offence? He had called, in the Turk - rorists in Turkey? If the State so de - cotting any announcements of this ish daily Evrensel, for the end of the scribes the PKK youth who set up kind … Indeed, the only invest - fighting between the PKK rebels barricades in their quarters of the ment the State made in the Kurdish and the Turkish security forces. how should we describe the force region was the massive “GAP proj - Questioned about his suspension, used by the State to “reconquer” ect” of building dams — a project Naki commented: “ We have no other them and the war-like tactics used that Kurdish local councillors and choice but to call for peace ”. Satellite without the slightest consideration many international experts con - for the civilians, whose “security” sider to be more a matter of pillag - The authorities have also continued they are supposed to be ensuring? ing Kurdistan’s natural resources to their offensive against critical In this context we can understand the benefit of the West of the coun - media. The Satellite RV Channel why over a hundred Members of try than a real attempt at develop - IMC TV, founded in 2011 is consid - the European Parliament launch ment to the that would advantage ered the only pro-Kurdish and anti- n° 371 • February 2016 Information and liaison bulletin • 3• government channel, announced 0While all the parties are agreed on clared that he had the right to expel that the Turks at operator had the need for a Constitutional re - the refugees on his land to the EU stopped broadcasting its pro - view that have serious differences and was threatening to do so. grammes under written court or - on the kind of change required. ders. The Prosecutor’s letter, President Erdogan, backed by his The month was also punctuated by justified this by the character of party, wants a Presidential regime many popular protest demonstra - th “propaganda for a terrorist organi - that would enable him to have ex - tions.