Some Questions to Israel

February 13, 2008
The Conservative Voice, NC
by Axin Arbili

As a Kurd, I want to know from the State of Israel;

Why is Israel allied with the Turkish military? Why does Israel support the Turkish forces in murdering Kurdish civilians? Why does Israel provide unmanned aerial vehicles, intelligence, and equipment used by the Turks to attack the Kurdish liberation movement, capture, torture, murder our freedom fighters? Why does Israel participate in the Turkish crimes against humanity? Why does Israel support the Turkish military dictatorship and thus a status quo that is barbaric, criminal, genocidal? Why does Israel support the Turkish propaganda, tyranny, fascism?

What are the benefits of this partnership for Israel? Why does Israel value an alliance with a state which is Islamic, which has traditionally, emotionally, religiously always sided with the Palestinian Muslims? Why does it believe in a friendly Turkish state which actually permits and supports anti-Israel, anti-Jewish propaganda in its schools, media, mosques? Are the Jews still dhimmis of the Turks, as they were under the Ottomans? Is Israel afraid of Turkey? Has Ankara perhaps threatened you, forced you to cooperate?

Or is Israel simply following US guidelines for maintaining Western “strategic interests” in the Middle East? Why did Israeli governments and Jewish organizations in the USA help prevent, on behalf of the Turkish regime, the recognition of the Armenian genocide by Senate and Congress? Why is the genocide, after nine decades of proven facts and documentation, still not been recognized by your own parliament? Isn’t that a shame for the State of Israel and for all those conscious of the Shoah? How can Israel complain about Ahmadinejad’s statement of the Holocaust being a myth when at the same the Jewish parliament refuses to recognize the Armenian genocide? Shouldn’t Israel be different from other nations? Shouldn’t Israel be a beacon of moral conscious, truth, hope, and justice for the world? Why is Israel engaged in double games and double-standards of realpolitik?

But what really is Israel’s gain in all of this? In what ways does Israel profit from collaborating with the Turkish regime and military, a state which denies the existence and rights of 30 million people, which is suppressing their identity, language, and culture, which is burning and bombarding their villages, which is humiliating, terrorizing, murdering innocent men, women, and children just because they are Kurds who want to live as free Kurds. Don’t the Jews have any empathy at all for the suffering of a defenceless people? Why is there no word of condemnation from Israel about the Turkish atrocities and crimes? Why is Israel silent? Is it just (weapons) business as usual, are profits more important than human life?

At least why doesn’t Israel remain neutral, why is it engaged on the Turkish side? Does Israel hope the Turks will be on their side in case of war with Iran? Don’t the Jews know that the Turkish Muslims will not fight another Muslim state that has the same strategic interests in the region, which is the domination over the Kurds, occupation and exploitation of Kurdish lands? Don’t they know that the Turkish and Iranian regimes have agreements on that and are cooperating for decades? Do the Jews really believe that their purpose is served by supporting a state of terror and crime, and that this will lead to more security in their neighbourhood, to peace with the Arabs?

Why help bomb a movement that truly strives for freedom and democracy, that could be a natural ally of Israel?

What are Israel’s reasons for a pact with the Devil?

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Turkey is not far from committing Kurdish genocide

11 February 2008
Kurdish Aspect, CO
Kurdishaspect.com - By Dr Hoshiar Molod (Saudi Arabia)

In response to a previous article, some readers have sent me prejudiced comments indicating disapproval of the article “In response to their brutality, Kurdistan should boycott Turkish products[1]”. One reader described me as being backward and not realistic in urging a boycott of Turkish products. Another reader compared my views to those of German Nazism and French nationalists.

I would like to ask those readers of their views regarding the Turkish aggressive attacks on the innocent people in Kurdistan. Every civilized person should support the boycott of Turkish products in view of the cruelty the Turkish government practices in the region. A boycott is more powerful and is more effective than demonstrations in the streets, because it affects Turkey’s economy. Turkey’s policy in the region and the rest of the world is quite insensitive and ignorant.

Turkey’s double standard is very obvious when the Turkish President sending friendly messages to Europe and presenting the democratic side of secular Turkey while restarting on fighting the PKK. Turkey has to apologize for the Armenian genocide instead of committing another massacre in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The comments by some readers intended to undermine my view on boycotting Turkish products are some examples of the double standard that Turkey has always presented. When something is not in Turkey’s favor, it’s acceptable for the Turkish public and Turkish business communities to take the boycott approach.

A boycott was carried out by the Turkish streets in response to the implementation of the human right laws by European countries. In 2000 the Turkish consumer association boycotted Belgian made products[2], asking Belgian to undermine its civil society and extradite someone to be executed in Turkey. In 2006 various Turkish supermarkets also boycotted French products[3], because the French parliament passed the Armenian genocide bill.

The question is why the Turkish society sometimes excuses the boycott approach and sometimes speaks negatively about it?

It is the double standard of Turkey’s international policy. When any other government’s view is not in favor of the Turkish politics in the region, the Turkish streets are encouraged to protest against that specific government by boycotting the products of that country.

The Armenian genocide is a crime against humanity and the world is no longer ignoring that illicit act by the Turkish government. It is ironic that despite their differences both Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama are in agreement on the issue of the Turkish government recognizing the Armenian genocide[4].

The fact of the matter is that Turkey has never recognized the genocide of the Armenians and is not very far from committing another massacre in Kurdistan. The only reason for the Turkish attacks is to undermine Kurdish existence.

Apart from the Kurdish public, no one else seems to care about the situation in Kurdistan. Therefore I would like to renew my plea to the international community to boycott Turkish made products not only because Kurdistan is being attacked by the Turkish war machine on a daily basis, but actually because of the appalling record that Turkey has in the crimes against humanity such as the killing of Kurds and the genocide of the Armenians.

Finally, you should realize that with any Turkish made product you buy, you are backing, encouraging and promoting the denial of the Armenian genocide[5], the Assyrian genocide[6], the Greek genocide[7], and contributing to the recent killing of innocent Kurdish civilians by the Turkish government.

End notes:

1- www.kurdishaspect.com, Tuesday, 15 January 2008, In respond to their brutality, Kurdistan should Boycott Turkish products.
2 - www.news.bbc.co.uk, Tuesday, 22 August, 2000, Turkish consumers boycott Belgian goods.
3- The Journal of Turkish weekly, Sunday, 15 October 2006, Turkish Supermarket Chains Boycott French Goods.
4- www.turkishdailynews.com.tr, Thursday, 17 January 2008, Hillary wins White House (In dreams of Turkish officials).
5 - International Herald Tribune, Thursday, 12 October 2006, French lawmakers approve bill on Armenian genocide.
6- www.aina.org, Sunday, 4 March 2007, EU Conference Calls on Turkey to Recognize Assyrian Genocide.
7- www.cnn.com, Saturday, 10 February 2001, Greek genocide decree angers Turks.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Genocide; is it a question of national identity?

Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Kurdish Globe, Iraq
By Eleni Fergadi

Last Saturday, the International Conference on Genocide against the Kurdish people commenced in Martyr Saad Adbullah's conference center here in Erbil.

The conference, which lasted for three days, began two weeks after the burial ceremony of the remains of the Anfal victims with the somewhat sober aim of "academic" remembrance of sorts; in a way to present the research that has been undertaken on this very black page of Kurdish history and at the same time "internationalize" these events with the hope that similarly to the national recognition it has received by the Federal High Court as genocide, the same would follow on an international level.

Scholars, writers, politicians and artists were invited to this conference to present their own perspectives and research on the Kurdish genocide from the Ba'athist government-simply put and in the words of the organizers-to present "a record" of the atrocities that began with the deportation of around 40,000 Kurds from areas surrounding Kirkuk on July 10, 1963, and the destruction of more than 800 Kurdish villages during that time. Much followed throughout Kurdistan, such as the bombardment of the cities of Qaladze (April 24, 1974) and Halabja (April 26, 1974), the chemical attacks during 1987-88, the infamous Anfal Campaign (1988), as well as the destruction of villages that were burned to the ground, the indiscriminate killing of civilians and the bombardment of refugee camps.

The daughter of the late Saad Abdullah, in whose memory the conference center was built, and current Minister of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs, Mrs. Chinar Saad Abdullah, presented a detailed account of crimes perpetrated against the Kurds, providing startling statistics: The province most affected by the atrocities was Dohuk (70.33%), with Suleimanya (42%), Kirkuk (22%) and Erbil (17%) following; in terms of nationalities and religious affiliations, those who suffered the most were Kurds (99%) and Muslims (98%). In gender terms, 66.61% of victims were male and 33.39% female. The minister, while stressing the abhorrence of the Anfal Campaign, stated that in its duration "all human rights and ethics were violated."

The minister also provided figures relating to the preferred targets of the attacks (see Table above) and stated that 17% of those who survived the attacks suffer from mental and physical illnesses, pointing out that many families, having lost all possessions, still have to live under dire conditions.

At the Conference, the Chief of Staff of the presidential office, Fuad Hussein, reiterated that the aim of such a conference is "not only to deal with questions, but also to discuss the genocide...from different angles," expressing his hope that the workshops and panel discussions "will lead us to the answer of the question why this genocide...happened." Mr. Hussein also stressed that "just as our language, geography, history...form part of our national identity, so the genocide against the Kurds is the most important aspect in the formation of the Kurdish Nation." He added, "This tragedy must not only form part of our history, but it must also become a guideline for us to build a society far removed from hatred and violence....In this way we hope that one day we can feel so sure of ourselves that we can tell our children...and all the future generations...that the killings...will never happen again."

Within the framework of the conference, a documentary film on the genocide against the Kurds (Kurdistan TV) was shown on the first day (visitors could then watch it in a special amphitheatre that was held for this purpose); a series of photographs and artwork were exhibited and singers Diyari Qaradaghi and Melek performed Kurdish songs about Anfal. More than 60 papers were received by the ministries organizing the event; however, the time limit only allowed 37 to be presented. The papers will be published in a book on the subject and another conference will take place in Europe in the near future.

On Monday, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani visited the conference.

An interview on trauma and national identity

The Globe spoke with Dr. Zafer Yörük, a lecturer at the University of Kurdistan-Hawler and a specialist in identity politics, about the Kurdish genocide and the process of Kurdish nation-building, and it was discovered that in a nation-building process, such as the one Kurdistan is currently undergoing, there is more than meets the eye.

Dr. Yörük, what do you think of the International Conference on the Genocide against the Kurds?

"A few weeks ago, we witnessed the burial ceremony of the remains of victims, and this conference that followed shows both that the genocide and particularly the memories of Anfal are still fresh... this makes me fairly confident that the genocide can be called what in psychoanalysis is a trauma and in this case a collective one."

What is collective trauma?

"Trauma is a medical word used widely in the field of orthopedics to refer to the moment to define the cause of a broken leg or arm. When used as a psychiatric term, trauma refers to the same moment or experience, with the only difference being that what is traumatized is the soul and therefore healing the wound requires much more than a mere cast for a couple of weeks. In the case of collective trauma, we are talking about a different kind of scar, more so, because it was experienced collectively." Dr. Yörük explained: "Traumas determine our behavior usually in the form of a personality disorder. People repress their trauma; that is, they try to forget them and think that they never happened, but in reality the scars of the past traumas survive in our unconscious and come to the surface without us realizing it. For example, people who cannot cope with boundaries and authority in their adult lives definitely carry serious scars inflicted upon their souls by their fathers. Now, families and communities can share a collective trauma even though they have never experienced it themselves."

Can you be more specific?

"Older generations, who have experienced a trauma collectively, like the Kurds did, cannot repress; that is, they cannot simply ignore it, try to forget it and thus they 'speak it' to the younger generation in order to cope with it. This collective transmission is similar to what we call repression in the case of the individual. Vamik Volkan, an American psychiatrist, provides us with an interesting example when he discusses the Long March of the Red Indians. When a reporter interviewed a Navajo Red Indian on the subject, it was as if the interviewee was referring to an event that had taken place yesterday, but the journalist soon realized that the Long March had actually occurred 125 years before. Volkan argued that, for the Red Indians, the Long March is as real as the rising sun in the morning, even though they might not have experienced it themselves, even if it was an event that took place more than a century ago...the older generations projected their experiences to the younger ones and thus shaped the latter. So much so that the trauma itself has become the major collective bond that united the Red Indian community together; it has become the major plaster of a social identity. The problem with this style of building collective/national identity lies in what I said above. The scars of trauma have many negative effects on human behavior; they result in serious personality disorders. Therefore, if the genocide ends up as the most important factor of the Kurdish national identity, then there are dangers ahead...."

Are you implying that the Kurds should forget? And what do you mean by dangers? What are they?

"No, no, on the contrary...Kurds should be invited not to forget; that is, to remember what happened. But they should also be invited to forgive. From the beginning of the history of the 'person' and of the 'word' we have learned that the best way of coping with trauma is remembering it; that is, not repressing it, but at the same time trying to find ways to forgive those responsible. The beloved Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, for example, who was murdered last year outside his office in Istanbul, was well aware of this problem. In every public interview he gave, Dink systematically called on his people not to rely on the Armenian genocide for the existence of the Armenian nation and that is because he knew very well the potential disorders of such a practice. What are those disorders, you may ask? If you look at the emerging Turkish nationalist discourse preceding 1915, then you can see that the sole element that it relied on was some trauma that the Turkic-Islamic peoples of Central Asia, the Balkans and Caucasus had experienced during the 19th century. When these elements arrived in Anatolia from Russia and the Balkans, they not only brought with them a shared traumatic scar but also the feeling of revenge and compensation for what they had been through. It is precisely the reliance on a trauma in the Turkish nation-building that resulted in the Armenian genocide. The hatred and the consequent search for revenge and compensation were all projected onto the Christian peoples of Anatolia, particularly the Armenians, even though the only thing the Armenian population shared with the perpetrators of the past was that of religion; they were Christians. It is exactly this vicious circle, this chain of events that I am talking about. What I have said so far can be summarized as follows: In the process of nation-building, a collective trauma may be 'selected' to play a positive bonding role, but such selection also means the emergence of 'collective personality disorders.' Simply put, if the Kurdish nation insists on building itself by relying on the trauma of the genocide, then the potential danger of seeking compensation is very real. The Kurds should definitely remember, but they should also forgive."

What would you propose then?

When we are talking of building a community, a nation, then peoples' minds usually go back to the beginning of the 19th century, when nation-states and nationalism were mushrooming. When nationalism emerged, there were particular circumstances, such as modernity, new technologies and alienation. Almost 30 years have passed since Benedict Anderson showed that the nation is not natural, something that existed and exists 'just like that'; rather, it is what he called 'an imagined community.' Hobsbawm defined nation as 'an invented community' and I would rather call it 'a fabricated community.' Now, nationalism draws on both positive and negative aspects: The positive are usually a glorious past that is being reclaimed for today; for instance, Kurdish nationalist discourse refers to the glorious Med Empire, and the Kawa rebellion against the tyrant Dohak, and relates all these events to the Kurdish New Year (Newroz). It is these aspects that are imagined to be somehow shaping and determining the Kurdish identity of today. The Anfal and the genocide in general adds the traumatic dimension in play....No one should be allowed to deny that the genocide is as real as the rising sun, borrowing from Volkan's abovementioned example, but building an identity by emphasizing the genocide is a recipe full with traps. I think that in the 21st century the best way of creating a polity isn't by relying on methods left over by the 19th century, but to seriously activate and promote the norms of citizenship, solidarity and trust, as the primary bonds to cement a community together as one, the precondition of which are participation, accountability and transparency."

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

The Legalization of the Anfal Campaign as Genocide and A Crime against Humanity

January 26, 2008
Kurdish Aspect, CO
Kurdishaspect.com - By Dr. Nouri Talabany

Genocide is the greatest crime against humanity since its express purpose is the annihilation of a chosen group of people who have their own distinctive culture, and those guilty of this crime must be punished. The Ba'athist regime in Iraq, for about thirty years, committed a great many crimes against the people of Kurdistan, some of which are considered as genocide and crimes against humanity since they did, indeed, target a particular group of people with the express intention of exterminating them. The main perpetrators of these crimes and their accomplices, whether ordinary individuals or those in positions of power, are equally culpable, no matter the reasons for the crime – be they political, social, religious or any other.1

Genocide is considered an international crime. In an international document, signed in Paris, in December 9th, 1948, and rectified by the Iraqi Government in January 20th, 1959, defining the crime of genocide and aiming to prevent and punish the perpetrators of this crime, the General Assembly of the United Nations designated it a crime against humanity and asked that its perpetrators be indicted before either an international or internal court.

The "Anfal" is named after a sura of the Quran. It was a genocidal campaign in which the Ba'athist regime sought to exterminate the Kurds. In Iraqi Kurdistan it resulted in the deaths of more than 180,000 civilians, most of whom were buried alive in the desert near the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. They were killed, not because they were involved in an armed struggle with the Iraqi government, but simply because they were Kurds. The majority were villagers and some were taken from concentration camps where they had existed in appalling conditions since being forced from their villages. Their killers made no distinction between men and women, young and old, healthy and infirm; their aim was their annihilation. The consequences are long-term and far-reaching and affect almost every family in Kurdistan. Families knew nothing of the fate of their loved ones and had no means of discovering their whereabouts. It created enormous social problems, as women had no means of knowing whether their husbands were dead or alive and so could not remarry, and many children were orphaned. Some of the elderly and infirm were eventually released; they know what happened and are eye witnesses to this atrocity. Approximately 100 of them gave evidence to the Iraqi High Criminal Court when the accused were tried.2

The Iraqi High Criminal Court, in a decision taken on the 24th June, 2007, decided that the Anfal was genocide according to the internationally accepted definition as stated in the Convention of 1948 to which Iraq was a signatory. This recognition that Anfal was genocide is long overdue. This High Criminal Court, which tried some of the higher echelons of the Ba'athist regime, sentenced most of the accused to death. All those who are guilty of complicity in this crime, be they leaders or collaborators, Arabs or Kurds must be put on trial. Throughout history, the Kurds have suffered greatly while the outside world remained largely uncaring, but the Anfal operation was carried out openly, with assistance from some large European companies who supplied the chemicals, so that no one can plead ignorance, nor can we forget.

The Anfal campaign is comparable to other horrendous genocides, such as that of the Armenians during the First World War and the Holocaust in which millions of Jew were exterminated by the Nazis.3

When the trial of the accused began, I hoped that some international expert in genocide and crimes against humanity would assist the lawyers defending the families of the Anfal victims. Most Kurdish lawyers have no experience of dealing with crimes of such magnitude, since they have been cut off from the outside world as a result of the political isolation of Kurdistan for many years. Most of the state administration, both military and civil, and including different organisations of the Ba'ath Party, share the guilt for this crime. The Iraqi state is legally responsible for the Anfal operation and its consequences, as it is also responsible for the repayment of loans to many states, companies, and even some individuals, outside Iraq. Most of these loans were used to finance the wars that the Ba'athist regime began illegally against neighbouring countries like Iran and Kuwait, or to subjugate their own people. Currently, many of these countries, companies and individuals are still being repaid. In the same way, Iraq must undertake responsibility for compensating the relatives of the Anfal victims. Some government officials and their supporters make the excuse that the Ba'athist regime made no distinction between the killing of Kurds or Arabs, but they choose to forget that the express purpose of the Anfal, in which most state organisations participated, was the annihilation of the Kurds. Again, we must ask why the Iraqi government accepts responsibility for the repayment of these loans to the Ba'athist regime, yet appears not to be responsible for compensating the families of the victims of the Anfal because they are Iraqis.

During the Second World War, the Nazis killed millions of Jews. After

the war, the elected government of West Germany, led by Konrad Adenauer, compensated the families of those killed although it was in no way responsible for Hitler's crimes.4 For about ten years, it even compensated the state of Israel which was seen as having inherited those who lost everything and everyone in the Holocaust.

The German government asked the Jewish people for forgiveness and, in the same way, the Iraqi state must ask forgiveness of the people of Kurdistan and the relatives of the Anfal victims. This must be done by an Act of Parliament. This is a vital safeguard because, if it is done simply by a letter from the Prime Minister or by a declaration by his government, it would leave the way open for a future government to refuse to honour any decision taken by their predecessors. In fact, just such a situation occurred on June 26th 1966, when the government of General Naji Talib refused to honour the Declaration of the government of Dr. Abdul Rahaman Bazaz which set out the steps to be taken to peacefully resolve the Kurdish issue at that time.

In Arbil, in April 2002, at a Conference on the Anfal Operation, I proposed that the government and parliament of the Kurdistan region should ask the Iraqi state to ask forgiveness from the people of Kurdistan when Sadam's regime ended, and that it should then compensate the relatives of the Anfal victims. The Conference approved my proposal but, more than four years after the fall of the Ba'athist regime, no such action has been taken. In May 2007, I made the same proposal to the Parliament of Kurdistan in a session specially convened to discuss the crime of the Anfal campaign, hoping that they would act upon it. More recently in a seminar held in Arbil in July 2007, attended by many MPs from the Iraqi parliament and the acting Speaker and MPs from the Kurdistan parliament, I directed my words at the acting Speaker of the Iraqi parliament, stressing on reconciliation even for the past,5 but I added that forgiving does not mean forgetting because it is difficult to erase such crimes from memory.6 Asking forgiveness does not imply that either the Iraqi people or the present government are responsible for the Anfal operation, just as the German people and government, after the Nazi regime, were not responsible for the Holocaust. It is time for the Parliament and political parties of Kurdistan to insist on the Iraqi parliament asking forgiveness because, if the demands of our people are not met now, it is unlikely that this will happen in the future.

Before the fall of the Ba'athist regime, the Kurdish activists of the Diaspora, together with some international human rights organisations, e.g. Middle East Watch and Amnesty International, some MPs from several European countries and senators and representatives in the US, tried to persuade the international community that the crime of the Anfal operation was genocide. This was recognized by a Special Iraqi Court which, after examining the documents and hearing the evidence of the surviving relatives of the Anfal victims, convicted some high-ranking officials of the Ba'athist regime of genocide, crimes against humanity and even war crimes and condemned most of them to death. The result of these crimes was the death of more than 180,000 Kurdish civilians and the destruction of more than 4000 villages and small towns. The attack on Halabja in 1988 was not the only instance of the use of chemical weapons. They were used in several areas, from 1986 onwards, against civilians who refused to leave their mountain villages. These villages proved inaccessible to Iraqi troops so chemical weapons were used to destroy them.

The international community must take note of the findings of the Special Iraqi Court and act whenever and wherever any middle-eastern government threatens their Kurdish populations with a repetition of these crimes. The Holocaust and the Armenian genocide have been condemned by some European parliaments and the crime of "Anfal" must be similarly condemned.

1 For more details see Nouri Talabany, The Crime of Genocide (in Arabic), Al Kaza, organ of the Union of Barristers in Iraq (Nikabet Al – Muhameen), Vol.3, 1970.

2) Al Mahkama al Ginaya al -Ulia), established by Law No (10), in 2005.

3 "The Forgotten Holocaust", the Independent, 28th August, 2007. Robert Fisk's special report on the Armenian genocide, with previously unpublished images.

4 Konrad Adenauer, German Christian Democrat Politician, Chancellor of West Germany 1949-1963.

5 The Conference was on (Practical Federalism in Iraq), held in Arbil on 10 – 15 July 2007. It was organised by both (International Alliance for Justice) and (No Peace without Justice) and attended by many experts in constitutional law from several federal states, e.g., Canada, the USA, India, Belgium, and Australia, plus representatives of many civil organisations in Iraq and Kurdistan.

6 In the Introduction to the 2nd edition of my book, "Attempts to Change the Ethnic-National Composition of the Kirkuk Region", London, 1999, in Arabic, I expressed these sentiments, hoping that the Iraqi government which would come to power at the end of the Ba'athist regime would end the policy of the Arabization of the Kirkuk region as a step to reconciliation, though this does not mean that the victims of that policy will forget.

Nouri Talabany, Professor of Law and Member of the Kurdish Academy, Independent MP in the Parliament of the Kurdistan Region.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Sins of Our Fathers

December 26, 2007
CHOWK
Mahvish Zehra

The more Turkey denies the 1915 genocide of Armenians, the less the world believes it

Watching movies can be an educational experience. I have come across many interesting facts about history, different places, and life in general from watching movies. And wittingly or otherwise, they have left lasting impressions. Take the Jewish Holocaust for example; I don't think any person exposed to the media is ignorant of it. Every person reading this will have knowledge about the Holocaust, and be naturally against all the factors that brought it about.

For me, movies like 'Life is Beautiful' with the adorable Roberto Benigni, and the ways he tries to conceal from his young son the horrors of the concentration camp they are in, form a part of my impressions of the Holocaust. The destitution of the Jewish people captured by Adrien Brody in 'The Pianist', and the ruthless and coldly calculated extermination of the Jews shown in many other movies, form the major body of Holocaust knowledge that people are exposed to. While the Jewish people rightly deserve the sympathy of the whole world, why may I ask, the same sympathy is not afforded to other peoples similarly persecuted?

About two years ago, I stumbled upon a very interesting movie that I have not been able to forget. It was about another holocaust, one that happened around 1915, of a people I had not heard much about before: the Armenians. The film is titled 'Ararat', after Mount Ararat where biblically, Noah's ark came to rest after the flood. The Armenians call it 'Our Ararat' and see it as a symbol of their history and resistance. It is located in eastern Turkey and since 1920, some claim, it has been officially closed to the Armenians across the border from visiting it.

Armenians trace their history back to at least 2000 BC. They are one of the oldest Christian nations in the world, and the first nation to have adopted Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD. Only about one-fifth of Armenians live in present day Armenia, the rest scattered about the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. Members of rock band, System of a Down, and singer Cher, are some famous Armenians.

Preceding the genocide of 1915, the Turks and Armenians lived in relative peace with each other. No doubt, the Armenians lived as second-class citizens in the Ottoman lands due to their Christian status. As the Ottoman Empire's power was deteriorating, revolutionary and nationalistic sentiments grew among its peoples. The Armenians, as a major Christian majority, desired independence as other Christian nations had received. They also clearly remembered the widespread killings they had been subjected to in the 1890's and in 1909, when they had demanded more rights and security from the Ottoman government. The Turks viewed the Armenians as getting in the way of their nationalistic aspirations, and under the pretext of 'disloyalty', planned out the genocide of 1915.

Ararat shows very graphically the treatment meted out to the Armenians at the hands of the Turks, which resulted in the mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians. The Director, well-respected Canadian, Atom Egoyan, seems less concerned about winning awards or being a success at the Box Office then about making a lasting impression on his viewers. Scenes showing an Armenian woman being raped by a Turk while her toddler daughter clings to her ankle, or adolescent girls being burned alive, seem to scream out against the silence around the genocide. A silence being borne by Armenian descendants such as Egoyan, for more than 90 years.

Walking away from the film, one is not left untouched. It reminds one of the Jewish Holocaust in many ways. The cold and calculated extermination of the Armenians, and the brutal methods that were used in the process, bring to mind the Jewish concentration camps and gas chambers. Researchers have unearthed that Armenians were killed with hammers and axes to save ammunition. There were mass drownings and live burnings. Internationally renowned expert on the Armenian genocide, Professor Vahakn Dadrian, has produced a document written by General Mehmet Vehip Pasha, commander of the Turkish Third Army, who visited an Armenian village and found all the houses packed with burned human skeletons. General Pasha wrote in the document, "in all the history of Islam, it is not possible to find any parallel to such savagery."

It is not the point, of remembering and rehashing past events, to make a show and drama out of misery. Or to carry out performing rituals of our fathers we fail to understand anymore; it is to learn lessons. To make a vow to ourselves not to let anything remotely close to that event happen again. If we, people of today, have any reason at all to claim to be better than those of yesterday, it is because we have before us their mistakes and faults to learn from.

They say the similarities of the Armenian genocide with the Jewish Holocaust are not coincidental. There were many Germans present in the Ottoman lands who were witness to the mass killings and deportations, and thus carried back accounts to the rest of the world. Hitler thus had full knowledge of the genocide, and used it to learn from while planning out his own. For example, while ordering the mass extermination of the Polish, before the invasion of Poland, he is known to have said: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

The Turkish government denies any genocide took place, and claims that the Armenian killings took place during a time of political turmoil and fighting during World War One. To call the mass killings 'genocide' or even to speak of them in Turkey could leave you facing charges, as Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk discovered. In 2005, during an interview with a Swiss newspaper, Pamuk said: "A million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in this country and I'm the only one who dares to talk about it". These remarks left him facing 3 years in prison for 'public denigration of Turkish identity'.

Recently, Turkey finds itself embroiled in the Armenian genocide issue, as the U.S House of Committee approved a resolution, calling the 1915 Armenian massacres genocide. Turkey viewed the resolution as an insult and threatened the U.S that "great harm" would be done to their bilateral ties. Turkey is a very important U.S ally in the Iraq War, providing key logistical support to U.S troops in Iraq. Support for the resolution has since faltered as the U.S is more concerned about keeping good relations with Turkey, than taking the risk of passing a resolution that only recognizes the genocide, and nothing more.

The point of accepting responsibility for past sins, I repeat, is not to make a show out of misery. It is to learn lessons and better ourselves, so that those mistakes may never be repeated: of causing such misery, or letting it happen while we stand idly by. As Turkey plans an offensive into Northern Iraq against Kurds, who have been struggling for independence for years, it may seem poised to repeat the sins it denies so vehemently. The worst kind of sin is the one we refuse to acknowledge as a sin at all.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

For Kurds In N. Iraq, A Familiar Foreboding Shelling by Turkey Leads Many to Flee

Thursday, November 1, 2007; Page A01
Washington Post Foreign Service
By Sudarsan Raghavan

Do you believe if Turkey says it is only after the PKK? Once successful they will try again guaranteed. See below:

"Michael, Deshtetek's mayor, is worried about history. He sees parallels with Turkish massacres of Armenian Christians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.

"We believe what happened in Armenia can happen to us at any moment," Michael said.

From the gates of the church, he gazed up at the Turkish base and flag, his back straight, his silence defiant."

DESHTETEK, Iraq, Oct. 31 -- The last three women left this tiny hamlet on Monday, carrying no more than their clothes and prayers. They joined 250 villagers who fled in the past two weeks, locking their homes and their yellow church and driving away on a desolate road scarred by war. Only 11 men remain, their lands separated from Turkey by a thin, emerald river winding through a fertile valley.

For several months now, Turkish forces have been shelling this rugged terrain from mountain bases, including a massive one perched above Deshtetek, in an effort to root out Kurdish guerrillas. An immense Turkish flag, its white crescent and star gleaming in the sun, is painted on the mountainside.

During the rule of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, Deshtetek's community of Chaldean Christians was driven from here, their ancestral homeland, to Mosul and Baghdad. Two years ago, they came back to this remote edge of northern Iraq to escape religious persecution and sectarian violence. Now, as the shelling from Turkey intensifies, a familiar dread has returned to their lives.

"This is our fate," said Zaito Warda Michael, 75, Deshtetek's mayor. "We have to flee all the time."

Along Iraq's border with Turkey, Kurds are caught in the crosshairs of a long-simmering conflict between Turkey and the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which threatens to open a new front in the Iraq war. Several thousand civilians have fled their homes, propelled as much by the shelling as fear of the unknown. The pace of their departures picked up after Turkey's parliament two weeks ago voted to authorize the military to invade. Turkish attacks, including aerial bombings, have burned scores of fields and orchards, the villagers' main source of income and food.

But the campaign has done little to stop the guerrillas. On Monday, it took a half-hour's drive from Deshtetek, through these forbidding mountains, to run into four fighters, wearing grenade belts and clutching rifles, heading into Turkey. Their outpost was less than a mile from a border checkpoint operated by the Kurdish regional government, the semiautonomous body that administers northern Iraq.

The Iraqi Kurds have had an ambivalent relationship with Turkey. During a period of intra-Kurdish strife in the mid-1990s, Turkish forces were allowed into northern Iraq to pursue the PKK, and they remain in the area. On Wednesday at least 10 Turkish tanks were parked around their military base near the town of Bamerni.

Following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraqi Kurds feared the Turks would enter their region to undermine Kurdish autonomy and seize Iraqi oil. Since then, Turkish investment in northern Iraq and cross-border trade have grown.

As fellow Kurds, many villagers sympathize with the PKK, which has fought to carve a Kurdish state out of Turkey but now seeks Kurdish autonomy. But the villagers deny Turkish accusations that they support the guerrillas. They have little confidence that Iraq's weak central government can solve the crisis and place their hopes in the Iraqi Kurds' main Western backer. "Our destiny is in the hands of the United States," said Yusef Ali, 50, a farmer in the village of Kashan, which was shelled last week.

The tensions arise in a region finally reaping peace after generations of suffering, in contrast to the rest of the country. "We want to build irrigation projects, a church, a mosque, or pave a road," said Khalid Aziz, the mayor of Batifa, to which many families have fled. "We don't want war. We have witnessed too many wars in our lives."

Jamil Oraha, 53, moved back to Deshtetek from Mosul after Sunni insurgents started using the telephones in his call center to threaten Iraqis working with the police and the U.S. military. They warned Oraha that they would detonate a hand grenade in his store if he didn't cooperate.

For 13 months, he found stability in his village, along with other Chaldean families, Catholics who observe a rite of worship developed, in part, in the Mesopotamian region. The regional government built 25 houses colored in shades of cream and lime-green. Families returned from Mosul, Baghdad, even as far away as the southern city of Basra. That they faced a Turkish military base across the valley was never a threat. "We knew our roads and lands. They knew theirs," Oraha explained.

In February, their calculus changed. Shells began to fly over their village, pounding mountainsides, valleys and farms. Since then, Turkey has bombed this patch of Iraq's border at least 97 times, with as many as 800 shells and six aerial assaults, said Col. Hussein Thamer, the regional head of Iraq's border guards. No Iraqis were killed, but several were injured, he said.

"The Turks always say their target is the PKK," said Thamer, whose men patrol 125 miles of Iraq's border with Turkey. "But since February, nobody from the PKK has been injured."

In the office of Aziz, the mayor of Batifa, colorful folders are stacked on the floor, each an accounting of damage caused by the shelling. So far, he said, 1,100 farmers have filed complaints. One farmer lost 300 apple trees, each one at least 20 years old, he said.

On Monday, an hour after the last female residents left Deshtetek, the remaining men gathered inside a house, where a rifle rested against a sofa. All stayed behind to protect their lands and property.

"We have no choice," said Salim Michael Warda, 39, a farmer. "All we own in our lives is here."

Since the attacks, the village school has shut down because teachers were afraid to commute to the border. Their pastor also left. The men can no longer fish in the river. They said they have thousands of dollars worth of ripe walnuts they cannot take to market.

"Now, we are afraid to go out -- we can't even go get wood," said Zarro Kutto Zarro, 53. "If we go out, they will hit us."

A few days ago, at least 20 shells struck the lands around Deshtetek. One tore a six-foot-wide hole in the narrow, buckling road leading out of the village.

Three miles away along the same road, which coils through a line of oatmeal-colored mountains stretching from the border, the Muslim village of Parekh sits silent, save for the howling wind. Once there were 400 residents. Now, there are six.

"They fled because the news was bad," said Sabria Yusef Amar, frail and angular-faced, in her 50s.

She has lived alone since her family fled. Shells struck the mountainside above their house, but Amar refused to leave the village where she was raised. She was tired of running, she said.

"Whatever God has decided, it will happen," she said.

In the late 1980s, Hussein's government evicted Amar and her family and took them to a desert camp. Several of Amar's relatives were executed, she said, their bodies never found -- victims of the Anfal campaign, in which Iraqi authorities systematically killed tens of thousands of Kurds. She later moved to Zakho and didn't return to her village until two months ago, when the regional government built her family a small purple house.

"We were so happy. I felt that our life before Anfal would come back," Amar said. "Now we are afraid that the Turks will come here and deprive us of this gift."

About 1 a.m. Oct. 21, shells began to rain around Kashan. Sayran Hussein, 40, grabbed her children and hid in a nearby canal until dawn, as did scores of other villagers. The next morning all 30 families, including nearly 100 children, fled to Zakho.

Several days later, they heard on a newscast that Turkey's prime minister would visit Washington in November. They returned to their village, reasoning that any invasion would surely wait until after that meeting. Just in case, they left the elderly and the frail in Zakho.

On Sunday, a group of village elders gathered on a porch to discuss the geopolitics that rule their plight. During the Anfal campaign, the entire village -- people living in mud houses and caves -- fled to Turkey, where officials initially blocked U.N. assistance and confined the Kurds to camps.

"Saddam killed us and chased us to Turkey. We came back from Turkey. Now, Turkey is chasing us and trying to kill us," said Abdullah Abdal, 80.

He, like his neighbors, believes that Turkey's motive is to seize control of Iraq's oil -- not tackle the PKK. "There are 25 million Kurds in Turkey. They love the PKK. They should solve their problems inside Turkey," said Abdal. "We have nothing to do with the PKK."

Others expressed admiration for the guerrillas.

"The PKK are also Kurds," said Hadji Abdullah, 53. "Why should we fight and kill them?"

Less than a mile away, large charred patches pock the mountainside, where gray and orange shell fragments lay scattered.

"With artillery and bombs, we can hide. But if they launch an offensive, where can we hide?" said Yusef Ali, as he and his 5-year-old child picked up some bomb fragments.

"Turkey is practicing what Saddam was doing to us. That's why we're afraid," said Fateh Mahmoud, 53, a farmer. Seconds later, he added: "The U.S. has always supported us. Why are they not applying pressure on Turkey to stop these attacks?"

In Deshtetek, Jamil Oraha is worried about the future. "The central government can't protect itself. How can we ask it for help?" Oraha said, shaking his head. "We can't go back to Mosul. We can't go back to Baghdad. The cheapest house in Zakho is $400 a month. Where can we go?"

Michael, Deshtetek's mayor, is worried about history. He sees parallels with Turkish massacres of Armenian Christians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.

"We believe what happened in Armenia can happen to us at any moment," Michael said.

From the gates of the church, he gazed up at the Turkish base and flag, his back straight, his silence defiant.

Staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

The accepted genocide of Kurds in Turkey

26 October 2006
KurdishMedia.com
By Dr Rebwar Fatah

Since the Armenian genocide, Turkey has done very well to hide and disguise its dark history from the international community. But a shady past rarely dawns a bright future.

Instead, Turkey is re-branding itself with Europe-friendly terms to essentially get rid of what it has always wanted to be rid of. Turkey’s tidy up of its language: words with a distinct Kurdish origin wiped out and replaced. Indeed, anything that is not strictly Turkish has been linked to “terrorism” – a trigger word guaranteed to win the sympathies of the international community.

The Turkish constitution does not recognise Kurds in Turkey, and so often labels them as terrorists, providing a convenient scapegoat for military uprisings and other political issues. Thus,“terrorist” becomes a synonym for Kurds.

Turkey frequently argues that the PKK is a terrorist organisation; hence all Kurdish organisations are banned for what they may imply.

Turkey is desperately in need of an imaginary threat to its “national security”, “territorial integrity” and “sovereignty”, achieved by “separatist/terrorist” Kurds. The scale of the suffering Kurds and destruction of Kurdish homeland does not fit into any “terrorist” definition. In 1999, the death toll of Kurds killed in Turkish military operations increased to over 40,000.

According to the figures published by Turkey’s own Parliament, 6,000 Kurdish villages were systematically evacuated of all inhabitants and 3,000,000 Kurds have been displaced. This sounds like an elimination of a people, a culture and a homeland.

If Turkey is genuine in its elimination of terrorism, it must take brave steps, accepting Kurdish people and their homeland, Kurdistan, and ending its history of oppression.

Professor Noam Chomsky called the Turkish response to Kurds an “ethnic cleansing”, resulting in the death of thousands, the emigration of over two million people and the destruction of approximately 6000 villages.

In fact, these methods by which Turkey has sought to oppress the Kurdish people are similar to those used by Saddam Hussein in the recent past, including the destruction of Kurdish land, mass evacuation and deportation. In some other areas, Turkey has used more oppressive methods to achieve its “Final Solution” of the Kurdish Issue. Some have found this unsurprising, given Turkey’s Ottoman ancestry. During World War I, for example, the Ottoman Empire allied itself with Germany, and in the conflict’s immediate aftermath conducted a programme aiming to exterminate the Armenians, Greeks, Yezidis and Alwis. To date, however, Turkey denies these genocidal campaigns.

The oppression of Kurdish people within Turkey can be defined as genocide in various ways; cultural, linguistic and physical all play a part in the cleansing of Kurdish ethnicity from Turkey itself, and are still embraced by the Turkish constitution.

The head of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Commission, Lord Avebury, said of Turkish atrocities in 1996 that, "Just as many people in western Europe turned a blind eye to Hitler's preparations for the Holocaust in the thirties, the democratic world ignores the evidence of incipient genocide against the Kurds in Turkey today."

As history has shown in Iraq, Turkey cannot attempt to solve the Kurdistan issue with violence and oppression; the days have well passed in which campaigns of genocide can be “successfully” conducted, and Turkey must look to the future, realising that modern Kurds are not as Kurds from the dark ages.

Examples of atrocities by Turks

The history of Turks from Ottoman Empire to the Turkish State is a continuous attempt to eliminate any ethnic and religious group that come in contact with them.

1821, April 22 - Execution of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregorios and loosing of Turkish mobs on the Greek inhabitants of the cities and towns of the Turkish mainland, as a reprisal for the Greek upraise in Peloponisos.

1822 - The Sultan takes new reprisals to terrify the Christians on the Island of Chios. 50,000 Greeks are murdered.

1850 – 12,000 Armenians and Nestorians are massacred by Turkish government.

1860, April 7 - The Sultan orders a massacre of the Maronite villagers in Lebanon.

1860, July 6 - Syrians are massacred under the direction of Ahmed Pasa in Damascus. 11,000 killed.

1876 - Turkish authorities suppress an uprising in Bulgaria. 15,000 people are massacred in the area of Plovdiv in Bulgaria, among them are a number of Armenian members from the local colony. 58 villages and 5 monasteries are destroyed.

1877, June 28 – After the Russian retreat during the Russo-Turkish war, the Turkish army and Kurdish Guerrillas destroy Christian villages. Roughly 6,000 Armenians die.

1892, Summer – 8,000 Yezidis, near Mosul, are massacred and their villages are burned by orders of Ferik pasha for refusing to accept Mohammed.

1894, September to 1896, August - Sultan Hamit applies the policy of genocide to Armenians.

1894, August and September – 12,000 Armenians are killed in Sassun.

1895, October - The first organised genocide takes place in Constantinople and Trebizond.

1895, November and December - The Turkish authorities organize a large massacre throughout the country.

1896, June - Massacre of Armenians at the city of Van.

1896 – 300,000 Armenians are massacred in Constantinople.

1896, May 12 – 55,000 Greeks are murdered in the island of Crete, while the conflicts between Greeks and Turks in the island continue.

1909, March – 30,000 Armenians and some American missionaries are massacred in Adana, Tarsus and other towns of Cilicia by the Young-Turks.

1909 – Revolt of the Arabs in Yemen is suppressed by the Young-Turks.

1911, October 1 - Emilianos, Bishop of Grevena, is assassinated by the Turks.

1912 - The Turkish army retreat from East Thrace and loot the villages of the Didimoticho and Andrianopole districts. Villages in the Malgara district are burnt. The same happens in Kessani. Assassinations and massacres accompany the destruction and looting in this predominantly Greek region.

1913 - The re-occupation of Eastern Thrace by the Turkish army leads to atrocities against Greeks. 15,690 are massacred.

1913, February - The Greek inhabitants of Crithea are compelled to leave their village in East Thrace by the Turkish authorities. A brutal looting follows.

1914, January to December - More than 250,000 Greeks are exiled from East Thrace and the region of Smyrna. Their properties are confiscated.

1914, May 27 - The Christian population of Pergamum is ordered to leave the town within two hours by the Turkish authorities. The terrorized inhabitants take refuge in the Greek island of Mytilini.

1914, May and June - The Turkish authorities enact all kind of persecutions in the Greek region of west Asia Minor. The coast of Asia Minor is devastated. In Erithrea and Fokea Greeks are massacred.

1914, July and August - The Turkish government creates "the forced labour battalions". It is a new scheme for the extermination of the Greek-Ottoman citizens drafted in the Turkish army. By this method 400,000 Greeks are exterminated through hunger, hardship, maltreatment and deprivation.

1914, August – 12,000 Assyrians are murdered by Djevdet Khalil Bey. The number of Assyrians of all faiths, massacred by the Turks since 1895 is up to 424,000

1914, September - Greeks of the Makri region are killed by the Turks.

1914, November - By orders of the Turkish government many villages of Eastern Thrace are forcibly evacuated (Neochorio, Galatas, Callipoli etc.). Thousands flee from their ancestral homes to Greece.

1914, November and December - By order of the Turkish government, the region of Visii and part of the Saranda Eklisiae is evacuated. 19,000 Greeks are exiled in Anatolia and their properties looted. According to the Ecumenical Patriarchate records, 119,940 Greeks were expelled from East Thrace.

1915, April - Organized arrests of a large number of Armenian intellectuals and prominent national leaders in Constantinople and the provinces. They are deported to Anatolia and are killed on the way. The Armenian soldiers of the Turkish army are disarmed and massacred by the thousands. The Armenian population is exiled to the Syrian Desert and massacred.

1915 - The Turks initiate a fierce persecution campaign against the Syrian Orthodox and Nestorian inhabitants of Hakkari, Mardin and Midyat regions. One of the first victims was Adai Ser, Archbishop of Sert. This annihilation campaign which included large scale massacres and destruction continued till the end of World War I.

1915, August 20 to 1916, May 6 - The Ottomans hang 35 Lebanese and Syrian national leaders in Al Burj square in Lebanon and Al Marja square in Syria, with the charge of "struggling for freedom". Under Ottoman rule, a total of 130,000 Lebanese and Syrians are killed.

1916 - The Turks force the inhabitants of different regions of Pontus to immigrate to Sivas. Only 550 survived out of 16,750 inhabitants of the Elevi and Tripoli regions. Of the 49,520 inhabitants of Trebizond only 20,300 remained alive.

1916 - Destruction of the region Riseou-Platanou of Pontus.

1917, Spring – 23,000 Greeks, inhabitants of Cydoniae, are deported.

1917, November - 400 Greek families are expelled from S.W. Asia Minor. Their properties are looted.

1918, April - Another 8,000 Greek families are expelled from S.W. Asia Minor.

1920 - Chrisanthos, Bishop of Trebizond, is condemned to death in Absentia by the Court Martial of Ankara. The Bishop of Zilon dies in jail.

1920 – 30,000 Armenians are massacred in the areas of Kars and Alexandropole by Kemalists.

1920, September - Kemalist Turkey attacks Armenia. The Armenians fight against the Turkish army, but finally they succumb on the 2nd of December 1920. The Turkish victory is followed by a massacre of the Armenians and the annexation of one half of Armenia's Independent Republic of May 28, 1918, to Turkey.

1920 to 1921 - Another 50,000 Armenians are executed by Kemalists.

1921, June 3 – 1,320 Greeks, inhabitants of Samsus, are arrested by Kemalists. The next day 701 of the detainees are killed. The victims are buried in mass graves behind the house of Bekir Pasha. The rest are exiled to the interior of Anatolia.

1922, September 9 - The Turks enter Smyrna and ignite it. Massacres of Greeks and Armenians are organized. The death count is around 150,000 persons.

1924, July 10 - The Turkish army suppresses the Kurdish revolt in Hakkari. After 79 days, 36 villages are vandalized and destroyed, and 12 others are erased.

1925, February – 30,000 Kurds are killed during a revolt against the Turkish authorities. It is estimated that the Kurds have suffered the loss of 500,000 people by massacres and displacements by the Turks over the years.

1925, March 3 - The great Kurdish revolution bursts out at Elazig under Seyh - Sait 10.000 Kurds seize Harput and attack Diyarbakir, the Capital of Kurdistan After the complete destruction of 48 villages. The revolution was suppressed at 7/10/1927 drowned in Kurdish blood.

1927, May 30 - 2,000 Kurdish fighters are killed in Amed (Diyarbakir) and Agri. For many days, the waters of the Murat river are turned red by blood.

1937, May 23 - The Turkish government forbids the edition of the newspaper of Constantinople "Son Telegraph", because it has referred to the Kurdish sufferings.

1938 - Turkey annexes the Sanjak of Antiohie-Hatay. Armenian and Arab population is exiled.

1942, November 11 - The law of taxation on property of the non-Muslims of Turkey (Varlik Vergisi) is voted. It is an attempt of economic extermination of the Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities economic authorities.

1955, September 6 - The Turkish authorities organize a great pogrom against the Greeks of Constantinople. 29 churches are burnt and 46 are looted. The graves of the Ecumenical Patriarchs and Christian cemeteries are vandalized. Thousands of shops are destroyed. Hundred of women are raped.

1963 - 1967 - Turkey provokes the instability of the newborn Republic of Cyprus by using agents.

1964 - Turkey unilaterally denounces the Convention of Establishment of Commerce and Navigation of 1930 (between Venizelos and AtaTurk). The Greek citizens are forced to leave Turkey immediately. Their relatives are obliged to expedite their departure from the country. A secret law is issued denying Greek citizens all their property rights in Turkey.

1964 - The Turkish government expels 12,000 Greeks of Constantinople declaring them as spies. Their properties are confiscated.

1964 - All minority schools on the islands of Imvros and Tenedos are closed while Turkish jails are established. The properties of the Greek population are expropriated. The Greek minority flee the islands. It is noteworthy that both the Greek island Sof Imvros and Tenedos are ceded to Turkey according to the Treaty of Lausanne because they lay at the entrance to the Dardanelles. According to Article 14 of the aforementioned treaty the protection of person and property of the native non-Muslim population is guaranteed. However, the intransigent Turkish policy of uprooting and annihilation of non-Turkish ethnic groups, and the systematic efforts to Turkify the islands with mass settlings of Turks are the reasons that today, from the 12,000 Greek inhabitants only 300 elderly people remain, for whom emigration would be pointless.

1967 - Vandalism in St. Anna's church in the village of Agridia in Imvros, another example of the Turkish policy of "national purification".

1973 - 1974 - De facto questioning of Greece's sovereign rights over the Aegean continental shelf, through the granting of research licenses to the Turkish government petroleum company (TRAO) and the sending of the research vessel "CARDALI" to conduct research in the area.

1974 - De facto questioning of Greek air space of 10 n.m., for the first time since 1931. Continuous and massive violations of Greek air space (over 500 in 1995 alone). Over 80 percent of violations occur at less than 6 n.m. from the Greek coast and even over the Greek islands. De facto arbitrary rejection by Turkey of Athens F.I.R. (until 1980).

1974, July 20 - The Turkish army invades the independent and unarmed island of Cyprus, a sovereign member of the U.N. and seizes the 40% of its territory, on the pretext that is necessary for the security of Turkish-Cypriot minority, which comprises the 18% of the whole population. In this campaign called "operation peace" by Ankara, 5,000 Cypriots are killed, 1,619 are kidnapped, hundreds are tortured, raped and exiled to Turkey.

1978, December 25 - Turkish fascists massacre hundreds of Kurds in Marash.

1978, December 28 - Proclamation of Martial Law in 15 provinces of Northern Kurdistan prohibiting for years any information about the suffering of the Kurdish people.

1978, December - 110 Kurds are massacred in the Northern Kurdistan, city of Kahramanmaras.

1979, December to 1980, September - Conflicts between the PKK and the Turkish state provided a distinctively ethnic source of violence. Few thousands Kurds were killed (mostly civilians) in different incidents.

1980, July - An outbreak of violence erupts in Corum, central Anatolia, causing 30 deaths and a mass exodus of terrified Alevis from the region.

1983 - A law banned the use, either in speech or in writing, of any language not recognized as the official language of another country (in effect, Kurdish).

1984 - Turkey shuts off the supply of water from the Alkuwik river which originates from Turkey and reaches the south of Allepo, Syria, leading to the desertification of the area after its plains dried out.

1988, February - A pogrom night is organized to Armenian population in Baku and Sumgait regions with a replica organization of the terror night of Constantinople in 1955.

1989 - Passage of arbitrary Turkish law establishing Turkish "Search and Rescue" rights over half of the Aegean, in direct violation of ICAO rules.

1991, August to December - The Turkish Air Force and Army attacks the PKK groups in Southern Kurdistan with continuous bombing of Kurdish villages. More than 100 Kurds, including women and children, perished and 150 were injured.

1992 - Ankara builds the "Ataturk" dam on the river Euphrates and severely decreases its flow to Iraq and Syria, thus threatening the agriculture and economic survival of both nations.

1992, January to 1993, October - Turkish bombing of Kurdish villages. 4,800 are injured among which 2,000 eventually perish.

1994, May to August - Renewed Turkish raids on Kurds claim the lives of 400 Kurdish villagers and injure more than 200.

1995 - A pogrom night is organized by the Turkish government at Gari Osman Pascha district in Istanbul against the Alewi, a religious population.

1995, March 20 – 35,000 Turkish soldiers enter Southern Kurdistan under the pretext of fighting the PKK groups that, according to Ankara, had taken refuge there. Through indiscriminate bombing, torture and forced marches on PKK minefields, 200 Kurds are killed, most of whom were non-combatants. More than 50,000 Turkish troops moved into Southern Kurdistan. Along four routes, a 335 kilometres long border was breached and eyewitnesses noted that advanced Turkish teams were sent some 40 kilometres inside South Kurdistan. Civilian Kurds have been killed and refugee camps have been bombarded from the air.

1996, January 31 - The Turkish army lands some of its men on the smaller of the Imia islets which constitutes an integral part of Greek territory according to international treaties and agreements dating back to 1923. It is the first time that Turkey openly lays claims over actual Greek territory.

1996, May 6 - After a renewed, intensive six-week military campaign, Turkey withdraws its last soldiers from southern Kurdistan. The final number of the Kurdish casualties is more than 400. The injured are even more.

1996, August - During a week of peaceful demonstrations on the borders of occupied Nicosia, the Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators killing two people and injuring forty.

1997, February - Ankara responds to the Cypriot government's plans to purchase air-defence systems by threatening to invade and occupy the free areas. A threat often adopted since 1974.

1999 - The death toll of Kurds killed in Turkish military operations rises to over 40,000 and according to the figures published by Turkey's own parliament, 6,000 Kurdish villages were systematically evacuated of all inhabitants and 3,000,000 Kurds have been displaced.

Reference

Chomsky, Noam, ‘Alpaslan Isikli to Noam Chomsky – Email Conversations’ archived at: http://www.universite-toplum.org/text.php3?id=61 (22nd October 2006)

Levene, Mark, Creating a Modern "Zone of Genocide": The Impact of Nation- and State-Formation on Eastern Anatolia, 1878–1923, Holocaust Genocide Studies 12: 393-433. Archived at: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/3/393 (22nd October 2006)

Koivunen, Kristiina, ‘The Invisible War in North Kurdistan’, p.27 archived: http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/val/sospo/vk/koivunen/theinvis.pdf (22nd October 2006)

Lord Avebury, House of Lords, 22nd January 1996

occidentalis.com, The Turkish crime of our century, 22 October 2006, http://www.occidentalis.com/article.php?sid=1939&thold=0

The chronology of the events is taken from a number of sources.

My thanks to Michelle Johnson and Chris Lacey.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.