Tweet
Early today, three Kurdish activists; Fidan Dogan, Sakine Cansiz and Leyla Soeylemez, were found shot to death in Paris…
… Three Kurdish activists were shot dead in what authorities called an “execution” in central Paris, prompting speculation that the long-running conflict between insurgents from the minority group and Turkey was playing out on French shores.
The slayings came as Turkey was holding peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party, which seeks self-rule for Kurds in the country’s southeast, to try to persuade it to disarm.
The conflict between the group, known as the PKK, and the Turkish government has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a news conference in Senegal on Thursday that his country was determined to press ahead with the talks despite the events in Paris, which he suggested could be the result of internal strife or an act to sabotage the talks.
The PKK does have a history of internal killings. But many Kurdish activists and militants were also victims of extra-judicial killings blamed on Turkish government forces in the 1990s.
Initial reports were contradictory but pointed to a grisly crime scene. One Kurdish organisation said the door of the building where the women were found just after midnight was smeared with blood, that two of the women were shot in the neck and one in the stomach and that the killer used a silencer. French radio reported that all three were shot in the head.
The killings set off a round of accusations, with each side accusing the other of being behind the deaths. Police tried to contain hundreds of Kurds who flocked to the building in eastern Paris where the bodies were found Thursday, many blaming Turkey and calling the deaths a “political assassination.”
Now, who really is the culprit…? From the Voice of Russia…
Who was behind PKK assassination in Paris?
…Recently the Turkish Government began peace talks with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is being held by the Turkish authorities on the prison island of Imrali located off the coast from Istanbul.
On Wednesday there were reports in the Turkish media that an agreement had been reached on a plan to end the conflict which has raged on since 1984 and has claimed over 40,000 lives.
There are many on all sides to the conflict that are against any kind of a peace settlement. These include Turkish elements who do not want to see the Kurds receive any kind of recognition or autonomy and among radical elements of the PKK itself who do not want to see any concessions made to Ankara and who believe that any kind of a peace plan will include giving up certain demands…
…It is important to recall that Turkey recently authorized military incursions into Iran, supposedly for operations where the Turkish Regular Army is in hot pursuit of PKK militants.
With military build ups by NATO and the US in the region and the constant search for a pretext to invade Iran and Syria, there are many of those actors who would also see any kind of peace as detrimental to planned provocations and optional scenarios which will allow for an invasion of either Iran or Syria.
According to Reuters Remzi Kartal, a Kurdistan National Congress leader, said: “This is a political crime, there is no doubt about it. Ocalan and the Turkish government have started a peace process, they want to engage in dialogue, but there are parties that are against resolving the Kurdish question and want to sabotage the peace process.”
Here’s a great question asked by Hurriyet’s Yusuf Kanli…
A Kurdish state?
Irrespective of who says what, the creation of a Kurdish state – unless established by Turkey – will lead to a regional fire, the consequences of which cannot be fathomed. The creation of a Kurdish state will pose a serious threat to Turkey’s territorial integrity sooner or later. Thus, like other countries with an ethnic Kurdish population, it is not in the best interest of Turkey to support Kurdish statehood aspirations. This being said, I must underline as well that history evolves without obtaining the consent of countries or leaders.
As David Hirst wrote for the headline in a Jan. 9 story in The Guardian, “This could be the birth of an independent Kurdish state.” Later, he wrote: “The great losers in the breakup of the Ottoman empire could be winners in the wake of Syria’s civil war and the Arab spring.” It was indeed a very interesting article which was built on an article written by the editor of Iraq’s al-Sabah newspaper suggesting that it was time to settle the “age-old problem” between Iraq’s Arabs and Kurds by establishing a “Kurdish state.”…
…Would Kurds then, depending on developments in Syria, emerge as the real victors of the “Arab Spring” and crown their victory with an independent state? Could the losers of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire now emerge as the winners in the wake of Syrian dissolution? Would Turkey prefer the emergence of an oil-rich neighbor dependent on Ankara as regards its security to the continuation of shaky and troublesome ties with al-Maliki’s Iraq?
Indeed, according to rumors abundant in the Turkish capital, Turkey has already provided assurances to Barzani that should northern Iraq come under the aggression of Baghdad, he may be rest assured that Turkey would be there to protect their “Kurdish brothers.” With Turkey’s initiative to solve its Kurdish problem sailing in very difficult waters (Three Kurdish women “shot dead” in Paris, one reportedly a founding member of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) gang, as well as the latest PKK attack on a military outpost in the southeast), it might be problematic to defend “Kurdish brothers,” but still…
Would Turkey really support the creation of an independent Kurdish state? Why should it if a huge portion of Turkey’s territory and people would aspire to join in that new state? Or, are the game-makers planning to enhance Turkey with the addition of the Ottoman Mosul province?
Here’s another excellent question…
Why Is Israel Watching the PKK?
No country in the world watches the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as closely as Israel. Its electronic eyes monitor terrorist camps around the clock; it listens to and records their communications. Israeli satellites are constantly overhead, and there are unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles that occasionally appear and disappear.
Israel has turned the PKK camps into reality TV shows. Not just for important exercises: Israel watches everything live, from their folk dances to the food they eat and of course their moves toward Turkey — not to mention the human intelligence coming from inside sources.
Why do you think Israel is so interested in the PKK? Why is this organization so important to Israel?
After Israel, the country that shows the second most interest in the PKK is the US. The capacity of the US to monitor the PKK is much higher than Israel, but these days their interest is not as intense. But whenever the Americans want, they can cut into PKK lines and watch who is doing what. Moreover, the US has weapons that could penetrate the PKK’s caves and destroy them, but they don’t want to give them to Turkey.
The Arab Spring brought more local actors to the Kurdish issue. A new, anti-Turkish bloc centered around Iran has emerged because of Ankara’s position on Syria. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq, the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon are founding members of this bloc. On a global level, their partners are Russia and China.
For several reasons, Iran finds it difficult to adopt a directly confrontational stance against Turkey. In indirect challenges, the cheapest method is to use terror. This is why Iran, Iraq and Syria have become a free zone for the PKK. The Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD), as a part of the anti-Turkey bloc, is trying to put pressure on Ankara via Maliki and the PKK. Turkey’s moves with Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani and Northern Iraq are a way of responding to the bloc…
Cui Bono…?
*gah*
11 Comments
The person who stands to gain politically from these Murders is the same person who claims that he is allowed to order Assassinations anywhere in the world anytime he wants, and pardon himself for it.
By having his Terrorist goons kill these activists, President Obama has repaid Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan for Turkey’s logistical aid in the Genocides in Syria against the Syriac Christians and the Alawite Shia.
I would look to Turkish domestic politics before encouraging speculation and American self-flagellation. Erdogan and his party have taken Turkey away from a state in which the military dominated Turkish politics. There are still elements in the military who are not happy with that state of affairs. The issue of Kurds in Turkey is an ethnic one involving discrimination. Accommodation of the PKK likely appears to some folks in the Turkish military like neo-Confederates view supporters of African-American voting rights–worthy of assassination. There are a lot of folks in Turkey with a motive.
On the other hand, the operation looks like a classic Mossad move. But given Ergdogan’s openness to talking with the PKK, that would point to an Israeli agenda of undercutting Erdogan.
Who stands to gain from these murders is someone who is interested in undermining the stability of Turkey. It is unlikely that that is the United States for a variety of strategic reasons.
When you look at regional powers, there are multiple possibilities, but none with a history of assassination in European capitals.
If you were looking at history, you could include Russia. But Putin’s Russia does not seem to have the agenda of Imperial Russia nor has Russia been implicated in overseas assassinations like the ones in Paris.
And, as a matter of means, the US pattern is to use rendition and not leave the bodies around for forensic investigation.
Thanks for the info. Probably we’ll never know. My knowledge of Turkish politics is limited, but my guess is that, for once, Team USA is probably not involved in this one.
Who is? Don’t know. Seems possible that it’s more of an internal Turkish issue. IF, in fact, it truly reflects a Mossad style of assassination, then my next guess is that some ex-Mossad type was hired. It’s my understanding that, unsurprisingly, there are ex-Mossad mercenaries for hire world-wide. Probably also true for ex-Navy Seals, etc.
But the choice of having this war – which provided cover-fire for the Murders – was Obama’s alone: Brahimi has been begging him for months to stop arming the invaders.
Link regarding Brahimi’s position?
And I should care, because…? Why should any American care about what goes on in friggin’ Kurdistan?
Oh, because the ISRAELIS must be to blame, of course.
Look. I don’t know, and I really don’t care. Much, anyway. I am neither Turkish nor Kurdish, so this is none of my business. Both Turks and Kurds probably approve of my attitude.
We Americans have no business Over There.
Because Turkey is a NATO ally (that has already invoked the mutual defense clause to get a Patiot missile battery) that could be involved in a war of independence that spans Turkey, northern Iran, and small parts of Syria and Iran. And that war would put Iraq’s northern oilfield in the middle of the battleground. Which would distress the PtB and put pressure on the US government to look after “American interests”.
Which could make Russia either uneasy or opportunistic and lead to their involvement or the threat of their involvement–allowing all the old folks in the US to hate the Russkies all over again.
So you would have a civil war in Turkey and Iraq to go along with the curent one in Syria and who knows what Iran would do in that situation. Or how Kurdish nationalism would play against Arab nationalism.
Why should you care? So we’ll take the policy that we have no business over there.
I’m with the Mossad theory, but as to why, I have no answers.
CT, great read, altho left unfinished in the answering of the murders.
Great links and quotes . . . complicated but, I vaguely understand it now a bit better than I did before thanks to your work.
I’m with The Kurds, thru it all and thru history. They need a state and formal land like Palistineans do.
However, the Kurds are as fucking crazy as The Turks, and rule #1 in ME Affairs remains, You Don’t Fuck With The Turks.
Give the Kurds a country, and well, altho I’m FOR it, I have NO doubt they will then want more and become a problem for regional interests.
But given how fucked up that region is, with or without USA involvement, perhaps one more factor like a Kurdish State won’t matter one whit.
;-)
But this does not fully explain access, deed done, nor WHY Obama would want these 3 women dead.
And let’s face it, Obama is just a face in the crowd, the real evil doers and owners and operators of this is corporate fascism.
So to ascribe to Obama these things, is rather off the mark and misses the big pic and global raison d’etre of the corporate fascists.
I usually like and agree with your musings, but this one I find misses the real mark.
Obama is just a figurehead. As are all our Presidents.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/121021/international-mediator-lakhdar-brahimi-appeals-peace- Here he pleads “any sincere effort to find a political solution to the crisis” must be “centered around the principle of halting the terrorism and … commitment by the countries involved in supporting, arming and harboring the terrorists in Syria to stop these actions;” and by “countries involved in supporting, arming … the terrorists,” he can only mean the United States.
Here, http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/10/24/245591.html we see that Obama’s ally whom he also classified as “Terrorist,” al Nusra, condemns the ceasefifre idea.
And remember (Larue too), that our two staunchest allies in the anti-Syria coalition, Turkey and Al Qaeda In Iraq, stand a lot to gain by clothes-lining the Kurds, who have enjoyed some autonomy in Northern Iraq for the past two decates.
And because Obama is the one person who can order Assassinations anywhere and anytime, corporations’ ethics require them to hire the one guy who can get the job done, get away with it, and make the “Liberals” go along with it.