tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46533069100956133892024-03-13T03:27:42.433-07:00Climbing Mount Ararat: Love and Betrayal in KurdistanAmy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-67885801613992057232013-03-18T22:02:00.000-07:002013-03-19T04:46:00.564-07:00Three Reasons the PKK Should Lay Down ArmsMarch 19, 2013 by Amy L. Beam
<p>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MbXf-gOY0jk/UUfn5Q_zNLI/AAAAAAAAAVc/pX16-f6YT2M/s1600/argus.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MbXf-gOY0jk/UUfn5Q_zNLI/AAAAAAAAAVc/pX16-f6YT2M/s320/argus.jpg" /></a> <br>
<b><font size=1>Argus - world's largest camera</font></b>
<p>
On the eve of Abdullah Ocalan's call for peace in Turkey, I add my fervent plea to the PKK to lay down their arms. I have a great deal of sympathy for the Kurds' demands for their ethnic and human rights. Last year in Istanbul a young Kurd told me, "No matter what anyone thinks about the PKK, it is because of the PKK that I can speak my language today."
<p>
The reasons for laying down arms have nothing at all to do with assigning fault or blame to any group. Laying down arms is not equivalent to defeat. It is simply the only logical thing to do to save one's life.
<p>
My plea to the members of the PKK is like a mother on her knees begging her child not to walk into death's trap. Live to fight another day . . . <i>in another way</i>. The battle for Kurdish rights in Turkey can never be won with guns in the mountains. The PKK must put down its arms because of Turkish and U.S. tactics for "finishing off" the PKK. These tactics are so terrifying that I am compelled to warn the PKK. Please don't shoot the messenger.
<p>
<b><font color=107C92 size = +1>Reason 1: <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGxNyaXfJsA" target="_blank">ARGUS</a></i> - Greek Mythological Monster with 100 Eyes</font></b>
<p>
In an environment of State secrecy where the public cannot pry information out of the U.S. military, the NOVA documentary <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGxNyaXfJsA" target="_blank">ARGUS</a></i> starts out with a peculiarly uncharacteristic statement by engineer Yannis Ontenyadis saying, "For the first time we actually have permission from the [U.S.] government to show the basic capabilities. It is important for the public to know that some of these capabilities exist." When did the U.S. military ever want to share its secrets? And why?
Because <i>Argus</i> will terrify into submission all those labeled as enemies of the State. <i>ARGUS</i> is the 21st century equivalent of the Atom Bomb that ended WWII when it was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The PKK simply cannot win against <i>ARGUS</i>.
<p>
<i>ARGUS</i> is the equivalent of 100 Predator drones looking at a medium size city at once. Its cameras use the same technology as miniature imaging chips like those used in cell phone cameras. <i>ARGUS</i> melds together video from each of its 368 chips to create a 1.8 billion pixel video stream. When mounted on a drone that can hover for hours in one location, Argus can provide a "wide area persistent stare" to cover 25 square miles from 20,000 feet (6 km) in the sky. Touch screen technology allows the user to point to any location and open a window to see the detail of that area. Objects as small as six inches can be identified. <i>ARGUS</i> streams 5,000 hours of live video to earth in one day. The video is archived so one can go back in time and look at what was happening at a specific location at a specific time.
<p>
<i>ARGUS</i> development was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The software, called Persistics after the concept of persistent ISR — intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance — is tasked with identifying objects on the ground, and then locking on to them and tracking them indefinitely.
<p>
According to a US Embassy Ankara cable published by Wikileaks, on Nov. 5, 2007, the United States and Turkey formalized an <a href="http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/12/07ANKARA2867.html" target="_blank">agreement to share ISR</a>. The United States flies drones over eastern Turkey to identify PKK locations. It passes this intel to Turkey to fly strikes against the PKK. The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3917QFTPsAI" target="_blank">Roboski Massacre</a>, Dec. 28, 2011, in which 34 innocent Kurds were killed is an example of the cooperation between Turkey and the U.S. Neither country took responsibility.
<p>
The original goal was to deploy <i>ARGUS</i> in Afghanistan, but that never came to pass. It isn’t entirely clear what ARGUS’s future is; it was meant to be mounted on Boeing’s high-altitude A160 Hummingbird helicopter, but the chopper has since been scrapped. If <i>ARGUS</i> is to be deployed, it may be strapped to the underbelly of a Predator drone. If <i>ARGUS</i> is deployed to Turkey, there will be no place to hide, no place to run, whether in the mountains or the city.
<p>
<b><font color=107C92 size = +1>Reason 2. Attack of the Robobee Drones</font></b>
<p>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cls9vZEC6rg/UUf0Hmy9UJI/AAAAAAAAAVs/bFHuGZ_h3io/s1600/US-Military-DragonFly-RoboticDroneSpiesOctober12-2007.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cls9vZEC6rg/UUf0Hmy9UJI/AAAAAAAAAVs/bFHuGZ_h3io/s320/US-Military-DragonFly-RoboticDroneSpiesOctober12-2007.jpg" /></a>
<p>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=QmWD76jwjbQ" target="_blank">Robotic drones</a> have been in development for some years. They are now as small as a dragon fly and are equipped with audio and video recorders and radar sensors so they can fly into a building, photograph and map it and return to base. YouTube is loaded with videos, such as <a href="http://youtu.be/msHJLwYWX30" target="_blank">Attack of the Drones - USA</a>, showing various drone designs. This video received so many negative comments that all 3728 comments were removed. There will be nowhere, even inside one's home, to maintain privacy.
<p>
<b><font color=107C92 size = +1>Reason 3. Torture and Death at the Hands of Turkish Soldiers</font></b>
<p>
The new battle space is cyber warfare. Anyone who wants to gain public support for their cause must use the internet to tell their story. The United States has declared cyber space as another battlefield and has multimillion dollar programs to mold public opinion through mass propaganda campaigns and psychological warfare. The war is a war for people's hearts and minds. Governments are trying to control and censor the free flow of information on the internet.
<p>
Since the Kurdish prisoner hunger strike in 2012 in Turkey, people using Twitter have followed the news on hashtag #twitterkurds. For many months an American troll, mistaken by many to be Turkish, has been repeatedly posting 34 photos to anyone following #twitterkurds news tweets. The photos are of dead, mutilated bodies of PKK with Turkish soldiers standing around in most of them. Many of them show clear signs of torture such as a decapitated head, a man being dragged by a rope around his neck and between his teeth, eyes gouged out, bodies torn apart and more terrorizing photos. I urge readers not to search for these photos because they are deeply traumatizing which is exactly the intended effect.
<p>
As soon as the troll's account is blocked for spam, he/she opens a new Twitter account and continues to post 3 or 4 photos per minute for 3 to 8 hours per day. The troll has also, on occasion posted text messages, even stating he/she is an American citizen. He/she replies to tweets written in Turkish, Farsi, French, Spanish, and English. The troll is well-versed on Middle East history.
<p>
These 34 photos have been posted thousands of times and many remain on pic.twitter in spite of being flagged. Twitter uses image-matching software, so if a Twitter account posts a photo more than one time, Twitter recognizes it as the same photo and numbers the duplicate photos from 1 to 9. In spite of complaints for months from Twitter users and in spite of Twitter's image-matching software, Twitter has refused to block these photos. No one does this for hours per day, months on end without pay.
<p>
It is my belief that this is a military psychological operation intended to terrorize members of PKK and anyone sympathetic to the Kurdish cause. Why else does Twitter refuse to block these images? The message is clearly intended to show PKK members how they will be mercilessly tortured to death by Turkish soldiers. These photos are documentary evidence of Turkish war crimes.
<p>
<font color=107C92 size = +1><b>Both Sides: Please Stop Killing Each Other</b></font>
<p>
The question as to who is practicing terrorist tactics is debatable. What is clear is that the PKK cannot win with outmoded 20th century warfare tactics, regardless of how righteous their goals may be. It is time for the PKK to lay down its arms and work through peaceful protests and political avenues for full Constitutional rights for Kurds.
<p>
For a peace effort to be successful and lasting, Turkey must release its political prisoners and stop bombing Kurdish villages at the same time it is engaged in peace negotiations. PM Erdogan must take strong action against the hate attacks against Kurds in recent days and weeks by Turkish fascists. It is time for a new Constitution that grants full citizenship rights to Turkey's minority of 15 million Kurds.Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-88223120918906840982013-03-12T07:52:00.000-07:002013-03-12T12:15:55.467-07:00PKK 9 Demands from 2009 Peace Opening - Same List 4 Years LaterOn Oct 20, 2009 a "peace group" of 34 Kurds accused of PKK membership crossed the border from Iraq to Turkey as part of PM Erdogan's "Democratic Opening" peace process with the Kurds. Five out of 34 of them were arrested at the Harbur Border crossing.
<p>
After many hours of hearings by a judge called especially to the border, the five were released. Reportedly 3000 cars and buses were waiting at the border to transport the returnees to Diyarbakir, and thousands of people had gathered along the route to cheer them on.
<p>
These events contributed to the derailment of the 2009 peace process. Millions of citizens in Turkey and international supporters hope the peace process in 2013 will be successful and Kurdish rights will be realized in Turkey. In order for peace and a resolution to the Kurdish issue to succeed, the military must stop the bombing missions on the PKK at the same time it states it is engaged in peace negotiations with Ocalan, PKK leader imprisoned since 1999 on Imrali Island.
<p>
We hope the 8 Turkish hostages scheduled for release by the PKK on March 12, 2013, will soon be reunited with their families and that the release of students, journalists, and politicians in Turkey, accused of supporting or associating with a terrorist organization will soon follow. The names of those being released are Zihni Koç , Abdullah Söpçeler, Kemal Ekinci, Nadir Özgen, Kenan Erenoğlu, Reşat Çaçan, Ramazan Başaran ve Hadi Gizli.
<p>
<b>The nine demands stated in 2009 by the PKK peace group are as follows:</b>
<p>
<ul>
<li>The road map Ocalan created should be referred to the
authorities of concern and should be made public.</li>
<li>Military operations should be terminated. Peaceful and
democratic ways to solve the Kurdish issue in the political
sphere should be developed.</li>
<li>The Kurdish identity should be protected under equal terms
in the Constitution.</li>
<li>We should be able to freely speak our mother tongue
(Kurdish). We should be free to learn it, promote it, and
live our values, our culture, and geography within our
language.</li>
<li>We should be able to freely name our children with Kurdish
names, educate them in Kurdish, and raise them in that
environment.</li>
<li>We should be able to freely live our history, culture, and
literature and protect them.</li>
<li>We should be able to develop a democratic social
organization established under our own identity. We should
be able to freely engage in politics. We should be able to
express ourselves freely.</li>
<li>We should be able to safely live in the villages, towns,
and cities of Kurdistan under sufficiently developed
conditions far from the oppression of special team members,
village guards, and the police.</li>
<li>We demand more democratization in Turkey and we would like
to have a more democratic Constitution.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Read more at US Embassy Ankara cables from 2009 posted by Wikileaks:<p>
<a href="http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=09ANKARA1513">09ANKARA1513</a><br>
<a href="http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=09ANKARA1604">09ANKARA1604</a>
Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-64513516543228142032013-03-09T05:36:00.000-08:002013-03-09T09:03:22.312-08:00Was the Assassination Order of Sakine Cansiz Posted on Facebook?<i>March 9, 2013 by Amy L. Beam, Ed.D.</i>
<p>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PP1r7eB6wi8/UTrfAmPlo4I/AAAAAAAAATY/tAB6vQjsncY/s1600/537875_388374344586449_581321853_n.jpg"><img border="1" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PP1r7eB6wi8/UTrfAmPlo4I/AAAAAAAAATY/tAB6vQjsncY/s320/537875_388374344586449_581321853_n.jpg" /></a><br>
Posted Jan 4, 2013, on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/kirmizi.sari141905">Kirmizi.Sari football Facebook</a>
<p>
March 9, 2013, marks two months since Kurdish activists Sakine Cansız, Leyla Söylemez and Fidan Doğan who were all shot in the head execution-style inside the Kurdistan Information Center, Paris office on Jan 9, 2013. French police charged a Turkish man named Ömer Güney with the assassinations. Cansiz (code name "Sara") was a founding member, along with Abdulla Ocalan, of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey.
<p>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R0G2cXBA3Dk/UTrfGGBwc8I/AAAAAAAAATo/XzkfY7MUgkU/s1600/sakine+cansiz.jpg"><img border="1" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R0G2cXBA3Dk/UTrfGGBwc8I/AAAAAAAAATo/XzkfY7MUgkU/s320/sakine+cansiz.jpg" /></a>
<br>Sakine Cansiz, assassinated Jan 9, 2013
<p>
<b>Sakine Cansiz Was Targeted</b>
<p>
US Embassy Cable <a href="http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/12/07ANKARA2917.html" target=_blank>07ANKARA2917</a>, posted on Wikileaks, sent to the Secretary of Defense in Washington, DC, Dec 7, 2007, identified Sakine Cansiz as the primary financier in Europe for the PKK:
<p>
<font face = arial size = -1><i>"The United States works together with Turkey to <font color=red>implement the President's directive for effective action against PKK terror</font>, we must also redouble our efforts to shut down the financial support that flows from Europe into PKK headquarters located in northern Iraq. . . . We need to identify and interdict PKK money that is flowing into northern Iraq. . . . <font color=red>by going after . . . Sakine Cansiz</font>. . . . We can help by providing the most extensive dossiers possible and coordinating with law enforcement and intelligence counterparts in Europe to ensure these two terrorists are incarcerated."
</i></font>
<p>
<b>Germany and France Were not Cooperative</b>
<p>
In 2007, Germany refused to extradite Cansiz to Turkey after holding her for 40 days. The court stated that Turkey had not provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Cansiz had broken any laws. Cansiz then moved to France.
<p>
Unfortunately, the Embassy cables shared by Bradley Manning and posted on Wikileaks end in 2010. Publicly, the U.S. continues its policy of solidarity with Turkey to "finish off" the PKK. What was the strategy adopted by the U.S. and its ally Turkey after Germany refused Turkey's request to extradite Sakine Cansiz and France granted her asylum?
<p>
<b>Dangerous Double Speak</b>
<p>
Even as PM Erdoğan is holding peace talks with imprisoned Ocalan and stating he is ready to "drink hemlock" for the sake of peace, Turkish war planes continue to strike PKK targets in southeast Turkey and the Qandil Mountains in Iraq, killing four PKK guerillas Feb. 26. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in his visit to Ankara last week, reaffirmed the US commitment to help Turkey fight the PKK. Turkey's policy remains to finish off the PKK and to make a distinction between "good Kurds" and "bad Kurds".
<p>
One cannot avoid the logical suspicion that Sakine Cansiz's assassination, along with Leyla Söylemez and Fidan Doğan, suggests government(s) involvement, particularly in light of the arrests and <a href="http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?223249-France-Spain-arrest-21-allegedly-linked-to-PKK" target=_blank>extradition requests in Spain, France,</a> and Germany of suspected PKK financiers since the assassinations. Is the message behind the assassinations to European governments "If you don't extradite these suspects, there will be more assassinations"? On Feb 9, PM Erdoğan said “[Turkey’s] patience is running out."
<p>
<b>FaceBook Communication Hiding in Full View</b>
<p>
So, who killed Cansiz, Doğan, and Söylemez? It is possible the order was issued online through social media. Every other form of contact leaves traceable records: phone calls, email, tweets, and airline tickets. One could conceivably use a carrier pigeon but the internet is much easier. The truth is hiding in plain view on Facebook. This is not a new concept. During World War II, the French Resistance reportedly communicated through newspaper ads and even in lines of poetry.
<p>
According to press reports, Paris police showed a photo of an Ömer Güney, copied from the FaceBook page of Omerr Günayy. I refer to this as <b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/okyay.gunay.3" target=_blank>Facebook Omer Guney #1</a></b>. He showed a link to his cousin who is holding up his Turkish police badge and sitting in a police car. Twice the link was removed and twice it was restored <i>after Ömer Güney was arrested</i>.
<p>
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/okyay.guney" target=_blank>Facebook Omer Guney #2</a></b> was created Mar 7, 2010, and was never changed after Mar 11, 2010. The very first photo posted on Omer #2's FB page was of a roaring lion which is a symbol for Galatasaray, the most popular Turkish football team. Omer #2 is followed by a FB friend in Sweden who posted photos on Jan 3, 2013, of two men dressed in PKK-like costumes, also, photos of PKK leader Ocalan, PKK guerillas, the Roboski massacre, and a video of carrier pigeons in flight.
<p>
<b>FB Omer Guney #1 is portrayed as a nationalistic Turk.<br>
FB Omer Guney #2 is portrayed as being sympathetic to the Kurdish cause and the PKK.</b>
<p>
The photos of Omer Guney #1 and Omer Guney #2 are of the same person with a distinctive mole near his left eye. <font color=red>Two different personalities were created, thus allowing those involved in any later assassination cover-up story to use the Facebook personality most suitable to the story and delete the other one.</font>
<p>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPZl_fbFwO0/UTrkcrlHDbI/AAAAAAAAAUI/pgjLSko359s/s1600/omer.gonay.3+standing+20120405.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPZl_fbFwO0/UTrkcrlHDbI/AAAAAAAAAUI/pgjLSko359s/s320/omer.gonay.3+standing+20120405.jpg" /></a><br>
Facebook Omer Guney #1<p>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0z-h6z3MwKA/UTrkqyzFq0I/AAAAAAAAAUQ/0x3aG1u1S0c/s1600/okyay.guney+00+FB+portrait+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0z-h6z3MwKA/UTrkqyzFq0I/AAAAAAAAAUQ/0x3aG1u1S0c/s320/okyay.guney+00+FB+portrait+crop.jpg" /></a><br>
Facebook Omer Guney #2
<p>
<b>Was <a href="http://http://www.facebook.com/kirmizi.sari141905" target=_blank>Sari Kirmizi FaceBook</a> Football Page the Messenger?</b>
<p>
FB Omer #2's page, okyay.guney, was following another FaceBook page account named <a href="http://http://www.facebook.com/kirmizi.sari141905" target=_blank>Kirmizi.Sari</a> featuring the Galatasaray football team, but not the official page. It was created Dec 30, 2011, by Tom Hayes, a peculiarly American name for a Turkish sports team. Between Dec 30, 2011, and Jan 3, 2013, over <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kirmizi.sari141905/photos_stream" target=_blank>500 photos were posted</a>, one or two at a time. All of these photos were related to the Galatasaray team showing game plays, football player celebrities, fans, cheer leaders, sports jerseys and stadium shots. This FB account has 4,084 followers. One of them was FB Omer Guney #2.
<p>
On Jan 4, 2013, five days before the assassinations, FB user kirmizi.sari posted an unlikely photo of a uniformed soldier kneeling and aiming a rifle. The watermark on the photo is FB.com/dikkat.troll which translates to "Danger Troll." A troll in internet slang means someone who posts inflammatory or off-topic messages in an online community with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
<p>
On that day two photos were posted. Since then the FB account has been abandoned. Take your screen shots before it, also, is deleted.
<p>
<b>Was This the Signal for the Assassination?</b>
<p>
Here are the last four photos to be posted by Kirmizi.Sari. Could the soldier aiming his rifle have been the signal to assassinate Sakine Cansiz and her unfortunate Kurdish colleagues? If investigators can find who created this account, possibly they can discover who is involved in the assassination plot. Call it a crazy, off-the-wall conspiracy theory, but can anyone offer a more plausible explanation for the Kirmizi.Sari Facebook account, which Omer Guney followed, posting this photo, and then being abandoned after posting 500 sports photos?
<p>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bb05VfqjBKA/UTrlgsDZ37I/AAAAAAAAAUc/Mt8B-F-twfs/s1600/537875_388374344586449_581321853_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bb05VfqjBKA/UTrlgsDZ37I/AAAAAAAAAUc/Mt8B-F-twfs/s320/537875_388374344586449_581321853_n.jpg" /></a><br>
Was this a signal to Ömer Güney to assassinate Sakine Cansiz?<br>
Watermark "FB.com/dikkat.troll" Dikkat means danger.
<p>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HB9NmOIqnJA/UTrly8R4PdI/AAAAAAAAAUk/KwWi3gUx_VY/s1600/537920_388379741252576_18437300_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HB9NmOIqnJA/UTrly8R4PdI/AAAAAAAAAUk/KwWi3gUx_VY/s320/537920_388379741252576_18437300_n.jpg" /></a><br>
Laughing in your face!<p>
<p>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RjqQx-bzlA4/UTrvk_MIJ4I/AAAAAAAAAVA/4w8HICJOPVQ/s1600/20130104+kirmizi.sari141905+peace+brother.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RjqQx-bzlA4/UTrvk_MIJ4I/AAAAAAAAAVA/4w8HICJOPVQ/s320/20130104+kirmizi.sari141905+peace+brother.jpg" /></a><br>
"I have not forgotten the peace brother."
<p>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zNYE7IQySo0/UTrvx-z2OBI/AAAAAAAAAVI/YBeBJ3lIuJo/s1600/20130104+kirmizi.sari141905+devil+is+in+details2.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zNYE7IQySo0/UTrvx-z2OBI/AAAAAAAAAVI/YBeBJ3lIuJo/s320/20130104+kirmizi.sari141905+devil+is+in+details2.jpg" /></a><br>
"The devil is in the details:)" <br>
See reflection of photographer in the window.
<p>
<b>A Chronology</b>
<p><font size=1>
June 12, 2010 - Facebook Omer Guney #1 created (probably his real personality)
<br>Mar 7, 2011 - Facebook Omer Guney #2 created, first photo posted was of a roaring lion for sports team
<br>Dec 30, 2011 - <a href="http://www.facebook.com/kirmizi.sari141905" target=_blank>http://www.facebook.com/kirmizi.sari141905</a> sports team Facebook account created
<br>Jan 3, 2013 - Sweden FB friend following Omer Guney #2 posted <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kawan.mirawdali/photos_albums" target=_blank>photos of men in PKK costumes</a>
<br>Jan 4, 2013 - Last photo posted of soldier pointing rifle by <a href="http://www.facebook.com/kirmizi.sari141905" target=_blank>http://www.facebook.com/kirmizi.sari141905</a>
<br>Jan 9, 2013 - Assassinations of Sakine Cansız, Leyla Söylemez, and Fidan Doğan
<br>Jan 19, 2013 - Paris police arrest Ömer Güney for the triple murders of Cansız, Söylemez, and Doğan
<br>Jan 25, 2013 - The links to who FB Omer Guney #2 is following and who is following him were hidden
<br>Feb 1, 2013 - Amy Beam wrote the "<a href="http://climbingmountararat.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-murder-mystery-of-sakine-cansiz.html" target=_blank>Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansiz</a>" about Omer Guney FB accounts.
<br>Feb 2, 2013 - Murat Şahin, former Turkish MIT intelligence agent, says <a href="http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/2/turkey4492.htm" target=_blank>Ömer Güney is a member of MIT</a>
<br>Feb. 24-25 - Both Omer Guney Facebook accounts were deleted <i>while he was (supposedly) in jail</i>
<br>Mar 9, 2013 - kirmizi.sari141905 FB account inactive since Jan 4, when soldier aiming rifle was posted
</font>
<p>
<font color=red size=+1><b>Who was changing and then deleting the Omer Guney Facebook accounts if he was locked up?</b></font>
<p>
<b>Where Is Ömer Güney Now?</b>
<p>
Since arresting Ömer Güney Jan 19, Paris police and both the French and Turkish governments have fallen silent about the assassinations. Answers about these assassinations must be found and shared with the public as part of the "Imrali talks" and achieving peace in Turkey. If Güney was unknowingly set up to take the fall, his life, too, may be in danger. According to Güney's uncle, Ömer Güney claims that he was present with two other men, but he himself did not kill any of the three women. It remains a disturbing mystery.
<p>
<i>Amy L. Beam, Ed.D. has been a software engineer for 30 years. She now runs a tourism business in eastern Turkey with Kurdish partners. She is writing her book: </i>Climbing Mount Ararat: Love and Betrayal in Kurdistan.<p>
Copyright 2013 Amy L. Beam<br>
<a href="mailto:amybeam@yahoo.com">amybeam@yahoo.com</a><br>
Twitter @amybeam<br>
<a href="http://climbingmountararat.blogspot.com" target=_blank>http://climbingmountararat.blogspot.com</a>
<p>Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com0Turkey38.963745 35.24332200000003526.356862500000005 14.589025000000035 51.5706275 55.897619000000034tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-44287215997538218392013-02-26T21:30:00.000-08:002013-02-27T14:41:45.154-08:00Appeal to Secretary of State John Kerry on his Visit to Ankaraby Amy L. Beam, Ed.D. - Feb 27, 2013
<p>
<b><i><font size = +1 color=red>Secretary Kerry, I want you to understand that distinguishing between the "bad Kurds" (PKK) and the good Kurds is emphatically a false distinction that will doom the peace process to failure. Kurds are staunchly united.</font></i></b>
<p>
I am a U.S. citizen conducting tourism business in eastern Turkey with Kurdish partners since 2007 and have gained a first-hand understanding of the Kurdish issue. I am one of only a handful of foreigners doing business on-site in eastern Turkey, and possibly the only American. So I feel as well-qualified as any diplomat to offer my on-the-ground insights and recommendations.
<p>
With the growing repression of free speech and the encroachment on Constitutional rights in the United States, it is not often that I support my government's policies.
<p>
However, <font color=red><b>I applaud Ambassador to Turkey Ricciardone for his outspoken truth about the arrests, long pre-trial imprisonments, and trials of Kurdish journalists, politicians, activists, and students in Turkey.</b></font> Not since U.S. Ambassador Morganthal spoke out against the treatment of Armenians in 1917 has a US Ambassador to Turkey addressed the truth so publicly and directly.
<p>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vkGlJZuKmf8/US2VhbYXpTI/AAAAAAAAASo/WerKjssDB4g/s1600/kurds+arrested.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vkGlJZuKmf8/US2VhbYXpTI/AAAAAAAAASo/WerKjssDB4g/s320/kurds+arrested.jpg" /></a>
<p>
Turkey wasted no time in publicly telling the U.S. not to meddle in its business. This is public posturing by Turkey, because behind the scenes the US cooperates closely with Turkey to fly drone surveillance and pass the intel to the Turkish military to attack the PKK. In exchange, the U.S. gets Incirlik Air Force base near Adana and NATO's missile defense radar system near Malatya.
<p>
Ambassador Ricciardone heard the bomb at the door of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara loudly and clearly both figuratively and literally and responded appropriately. It was long overdue. I urge you to back Ambassador Ricciardone statements.
<p>
In examining the recent events affecting the Kurdish population in Turkey, since I first went there in 2007, I find an alarming parallel with events experienced by Armenians in 1914-1915 leading up to the deaths of approximately one million Armenians. Turkey is now conducting mass arrests and mass trials of over 40 people at a time of both journalists and Kurdish lawyers. These mass arrests are occurring in flagrant disregard for international opinion or human rights. Thousands of BDP politicians (not just KCK politicians) have been arrested and imprisoned without trial. They are accused of aiding a terrorist organization.
<p>
In April 2011, in Dogubeyazit, Turkey where I conduct Mount Ararat trekking tourism, the Mayor of Dogubeyazit was knocked down by police and sent to the hospital while defending the Kurdish Community Center in the very center of town. The Community Center was a social meeting place in a large tent. The police attacked Kurdish citizens with tear gas and tore down the tent without provocation.
<p>
In May 2011, 12 Kurdish candidates running for Parliament were stricken from the ballot. This is what led to Kurdish protests in every city until the names were restored to the ballot. The unrest has escalated since then. The Kurdish issue cannot be resolved by isolating the PKK.
<p>
On June 14, 2012, in Dogubeyazit, Turkey arrested 16 Kurds in one day. Most of them ran the local city government. Some were active in BDP. One was a famous singer. Across eastern Turkey dozens, if not hundreds, of elected Kurdish mayors have been arrested and imprisoned. They stand accused of aiding a terrorist organization.
<p>
Last week in cities around Turkey, mobs of nationalistic Turks attacked BDP party members openly while police were reportedly lax in protecting them.
<p>
Two days ago in Agri, 9 Kurdish soldiers were severely attacked with clubs and knives by Turkish soldiers. The orchestrated rounding up and imprisoning of Kurds and the brazen public violence against Kurds is escalating rapidly.
<p>
According to US Embassy Ankara cables from 2007, the US is committed to sharing ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaisance) with Turkey in its goal to annihilate the PKK. This public position to annihilate the PKK enflames the Kurdish issue and emboldens nationalistic Turks to attack Kurdish citizens both verbally and physically. While Americans do not know that the U.S. flies drone surveillance over Turkey, all Kurds know it. They know the U.S. was a participant in the Roboski Massacre, which killed 34 innocent young Kurdish men, Dec. 28, 2011, two weeks after the U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq and moved its drones to Turkey.
<p>
<b>Secretary Kerry, I want you to understand that distinguishing between the "bad Kurds" (PKK) and the good Kurds is emphatically a false distinction that will doom the peace process to failure. Kurds are staunchly united.</b>
<p>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N2LDjfJMAVA/US2WrZGHtTI/AAAAAAAAAS0/EWRgrlayfyY/s1600/20130112+kurds+protest+cansiz+killing+paris+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N2LDjfJMAVA/US2WrZGHtTI/AAAAAAAAAS0/EWRgrlayfyY/s320/20130112+kurds+protest+cansiz+killing+paris+2.jpg" /></a><br>
<font size=-1>Kurds protest Jan 9, 2013, assassinations in Paris</font>
<p>
In my time spent in eastern Turkey, I found no Kurds who do not have a family member who is either in prison for political reasons, in the PKK, or has been killed by the Turkish military. How can you tell a Kurdish person he or she cannot associate with their friends and family, especially if it is their own son or daughter?
<p>
In January 2013, the KCK Executive Council issued a statement that Turkish press statements that the PKK will "lay down its arms" and "withdraw from Turkey" are "surely false and have nothing to do with reality." This position is one that is intended to isolate the PKK and set them up to be killed. Turkey and the US are also pressuring Iraq to force the PKK to leave the Qandil mountains. <b> Where can 10,000 Kurds go? This process, if carried through, is a genocide in the making.</b>
<p>
A successful <b><font color=red>peace process must include amnesty for PKK so they can return to their families in Turkey</font></b>. I call upon Secretary of State John Kerry to <b><font color=red>remove the PKK from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, so that concerned individuals, journalists, lawyers, and elected officials can engage in dialogue toward a peace process without fear of years of imprisonment.</font></b>
<p>
Over 40 lawyers representing Abdullah Ocalan are charged with being associated with a terrorist organization. The absurdity of this is obvious. How can they defend their client without "associating" with him?
<p>
<b><font color=red>The peace process must include a ceasefire from the Turkish military</font> which continues to attack and kill Kurds in Turkey on a weekly basis at the same time it says it is engaging in peace talks. (Even as I wrote this, the Turkish Air Force carried out bombing missions for 12 hours on Feb 26 in the regions of Zap, Kandil, and Gare, killing 4 PKK guerillas.)
</b><p>
On the issue of the U.S. pressuring Turkey to adopt harsher anti-terrorism financing legislation that removes judicial due process and enforces stiffer accounting practices, this does not serve the peace process. The U.S. pressured PayPal and Master Card to put an illegal, extrajudicial financial embargo on WikiLeaks. It should not export this form of extrajudicial measures to Turkey.
<p>
Eastern Turkey remains underdeveloped and functions as a cash society. Many Kurds do not conduct business with written contracts, check books, bank accounts, credit cards, or receipts. <b><font color=red>Enforcing more stringent accounting practices at this time will cause a severe economic hardship to Turkey's Kurdish citizens and will hinder any potential peace process.</font></b> It will be perceived by Turkey's Kurdish population as yet one more attack on them.
<p>
One cannot negotiate in sincerity when taking the food from the table of Kurdish families. Eastern Turkey still functions with strong tribal traditions of solidarity and social assistance in the absence of meaningful government economic development efforts.
<p>
I urge the U.S. to <b><font color=red>support the Kurds' call for education in their mother language, Kurdish.</font></b>
<p>
In 2012, when visiting a Kurdish village and chatting with two 15-year-old girls in their very limited English, I encouraged them to continue studying English. They laughed and answered, "We do not have time to study English. We must spend all our time studying Turkish so we can understand our teachers." Do not think the Kurds are simply posturing in their request for Kurdish language education. They speak Kurdish, not Turkish, in all of eastern Turkey. The issue of having your own language banned from schools and official public use simply burns in the heart of every Kurdish-Turkish citizen.
<p>Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-62966600112470612272013-02-01T11:05:00.001-08:002013-02-06T08:27:27.286-08:00The Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansiz<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<head>
<TITLE>Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansiz, PKK Leader</TITLE>
<meta name="Description" content="Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansaz, Kurdish leader assassinated in Paris. US Embassy cables targeted Sakine Cansiz to block flow of funds to PKK in Iraq.">
<meta name=keywords content="Amy L Beam,Sakine Cansiz,Leyla Söylemez,Fidan DoğanPKK,Abdullah Ocalan,kck,kurdish issue,wikileaks cables,US Embassy Ankara,Roboski Massacre,drones,Turkey, Kurds,Kurdistan,Paris murders,Omer Guney,manufacturered consent,MIT,CIA,Pentagon,Syria,FSA,pkk assassination,wikileaks,prisoner hunger strike,van,Jan 9 2013,Feb 2 2013">
<meta name="Revisit-After" content="1 days">
<meta name="Language" content="en">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en">
</head>
<font face=arial size=2>
by Amy L. Beam<p>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mWUJSsUs3mA/UQwRXT-ICWI/AAAAAAAAASU/YKXEVzhT-0M/s1600/20130113%2Bkurds%2Bprotest%2Bcansiz%2Bkilling%2Blondon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="258" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mWUJSsUs3mA/UQwRXT-ICWI/AAAAAAAAASU/YKXEVzhT-0M/s400/20130113%2Bkurds%2Bprotest%2Bcansiz%2Bkilling%2Blondon.jpg" /></a>
<br>
On Jan. 9, 2013, Kurdish activists Sakine Cansız, Leyla Söylemez and Fidan Doğan were all shot in the head execution-style inside the Kurdistan Information Center, Paris office. Cansiz (code name "Sara") was a founding member, along with Abdullah Ocalan, of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey.
<p>
They were assassinated on the same day that the Turkish government announced a preliminary ceasefire plan with the PKK. PKK leadership denies there have been any talks outside of a few meetings with Ocalan. The expressions used in the news; "the PKK, will withdraw its forces on such a date”, "there are negotiations at such a place,” or even, "some number of groups to lay down arms" are surely false news and have nothing to do with reality, says the PKK.
<p>
On Jan 21, 2013, French police charged a Turkish man named Ömer Güney with the triple murder.
<p>
The Turkish government has suggested two possible motives, either an internal PKK feud, which the PKK leadership has denied, or an external country with a vested interest in continuing the armed conflict. This story examines the second motive within a geopolitical, historical, and cultural context to help the reader understand how governments and media produce disinformation to manufacture consensus.
<p>
<font size=+1 color= #4D71A3><i>Who wanted Sakine Cansiz eliminated and why?</i></font>
<p>
Click on each link to go to a 2000-word .pdf file. Be patient while it opens.
<p>
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/parismurders-pt1">The Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansiz Part 1: The Crime</a></font> <br>
<font size = 1>
The Victims<br>
The Suspect: Omer Guney<br>
Going Viral and the Myth of Mainstream Media Fact-checking<br>
First Comes the Motive, Then Comes the Investigation<p>
</font>
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/parismurders-pt2">The Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansiz Part 2: Kurdish Issue and Free Speech</a> <br>
<font size =1>
Internet Designated as an Enemy of the State<br>
Cyber Warriors: Fake Personas and Manufactured Consensus<br>
The Kurdish Issue<br>
Abdullah Ocalan, Kurdish Leader Abducted 1999<br>
CIA's Secret Anti-Terrorist Weapon: Disruption<br>
Peace Talk Strategy by Erdogan Government<br>
PKK and the Humanitarian Law Project: US Supreme Court Outlaws Free Speech<p>
</font>
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/parismurders-pt3">The Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansiz Part 3: US Vested Interests in Turkey</a><br>
<font size = 1>
Wikileaks US Embassy Cables Target PKK and Sakine Cansiz<br>
US and Turkey Launch Partnership to Target PKK, 2007<br>
Sakine Cansiz Targeted to Block Money Flow to PKK, 2007<br>
Turkey Asks U.S. for "Kinetic Action" against PKK, 2009<br>
War for Profit: US Offers Reapers to Turkey, 2010<br>
US Supports Turkey in Destroying the PKK: The Roboski Massacre, 2011<p>
</font>
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/parismurders-pt4">The Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansiz Part 4: Omer Guney, Accused Assassin</a> <br>
<font size = 1>
Examination of three different Facebook pages for Omer Guney. Some speculations, conclusions, and a lot of open questions. If Omer Guney is in jail, then who was changing his Facebook pages?<br>
http://www.facebook.com/okyay.gunay.3<br>
http://www.facebook.com/okyay.guney<br>
http://www.facebook.com/omer.guney.9028<p>
</font>
<a href="http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/2/turkey4492.htm">The Murder Mystery of Sakine Cansiz Part 5: MIT Accused</a> <br>
<font size = 1>
As of Feb 1, 2013, the day this story was first posted, my Twitter account has come under attack. The hashtag #twitterkurds, which has been reporting news since the Kurdish prisoner hunger strike began in September 2012, is under heavy automated cyberattack by hundreds of "Personas" as written about in Part 2. Yesterday the twitter account of a Swedish parliamentarian came under this attack. On Feb. 6, 2013, EU parliamentarians met to discuss the Kurdish issue and a path toward a ceasefire. The troll is posting photos of dead bodies of PKK in an effort to stop the news and terrorize Kurds. Supporters should add #twitterkurds to their tweets, block the troll, and demand Twitter remove the photos from pic.twitter.<p>
</font>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-28926347287793330952012-11-16T22:18:00.000-08:002012-11-16T23:57:17.006-08:00The Kurdish View of the Kurdish Issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="clear: left; color: black; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">With the Kurdish hunger strike in Day 66, the reason for much of the media silence is because Turkey is imprisoning journalists who write about the Kurdish situation. So alarming is the rising number of arrests that an occasional newspaper called Tutuklu Gazete, or "Jailed Newspaper" publishes statistics on the number of journalists, elected officials and other politicians who are arrested. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">On Sept 10, 2012, a mass trial for 44 Kurdish journalists began. Most are charged with "membership in an armed organisation," which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, according to the Anatolia news agency. The organisation is not the PKK, it is the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), a Kurdish political party that the government accuses of aiding the PKK. The stated goal to “annihilate the PKK” and destroy the KCK might, by some people, not represent actions of a “moderate leader” as</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: BebasNeueRegular, 'Arial Narrow', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ceylan Yeginsu<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 24px;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: BebasNeueRegular, 'Arial Narrow', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">d</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">escribes Erdogan in the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/hunger-strike-exposes-turkeys-festering-kurdish-problem-883414" target="_blank">International Business Times, Nov. 15.</a> Erdogan scorns hundreds of hunger strikers who are risking death for the cause of Kurdish rights. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Some observe, with sarcasm, that the fact there is a trial at all for the journalists is a step in the right direction. "It is better than the past," says Huseyin Akyol, editor of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem, eight of whose staff are on trial. Mr. Akyol, a 23-year veteran of the paper, offers a stark perspective. "In the 90s the state killed us, we lost 76 journalists and distributors and they blew up our offices. Now they just imprison us - although life in prison is difficult."</span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Turkey currently tops the world for jailed reporters according to a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20083163" target="_blank">report published in October 2012</a> by the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists. It found 76 journalists were imprisoned as of 1 August, 2012, of which 61 were identified as being detained because of their reporting. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Prior to the elections of June 2011, 13 Kurdish candidates for parliament (mostly BDP) were banned from running for office which led to massive protests forcing the government to restore 12 names to the ballot. From the Kurdish point of view, this is what caused the escalation of violence resulting in over 800 deaths of both soldiers and Kurds since then.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OWMHCil1oII/UKdCtKNIH6I/AAAAAAAAAMc/XIUKVurnd8c/s1600/kurds+arrested.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OWMHCil1oII/UKdCtKNIH6I/AAAAAAAAAMc/XIUKVurnd8c/s400/kurds+arrested.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kurdish mayors, politicians, and journalists arrested in Turkey</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Over </span><a href="http://www.rojhelat.info/english/taybet/2223-31-kurdish-mayors-behind-bars-in-turkey-" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" target="_blank">33 elected mayors </a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">of eastern Turkey’s Kurdish towns and cities had been arrested as of April 2012. That number continues to grow. On June 7, 2012, the mayor of Van was arrested along with 4 other mayors. In Dogubeyazit on June 14, 2012, 15 Kurds were arrested without charges and taken to Agri jail. Many were employees in the local city hall and a few worked in the local BDP office. The mood of the town grew sullen. People were depressed and angry. These alarming scenes of arrests throughout eastern Turkey have been escalating since 2009 when Erdogan began his campaign to destroy the KCK. The arrests have left Kurds in a growing sense of outrage. </span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.dc4mf.org/en/content/fewer-taboos-turkey-more-reporters-prison" target="_blank">7748 people have been imprisoned </a>and over 3800 people have been arrested during operations against the KCK. Many elected officials and politicians arrested are members of BDP, not KCK. Many people, including children, remain in prison without being charged. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The press rarely reports about the US drones that fly over eastern Turkey 24/7 and report locations of suspected PKK camps to the Turkish military, nor does it report on the hundreds of innocent Kurds that have been killed by bombing raids called out by the drones. I spoke in person to a Turkish Air Force helicopter pilot in May 2011 who told me he was trained in Atlanta, Georgia, to fly the helicopters. He explained that the US passes drone information to the Turkish military for action. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303877604577380480677575646.html" target="_blank">U.S. drone flights in support of Turkey</a> date from November 2007, when the Bush administration set up what is called a Combined Intelligence Fusion Cell in Ankara. U.S. and Turkish officers sit side by side in the dimly lighted complex monitoring real-time video feeds from Predator drones. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Right after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Ercis and Van on Oct 23, 2011, displacing nearly one million residents, instead of sending aid to the area, the military sent 10,000 soldiers into southeastern Turkey in a military campaign against the PKK and flew bombing raids resulting in more deaths. When international aid agencies offered earthquake aid to Turkey, the government turned down the aid, leaving bewildered observers and survivors asking, “Why?”</span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">In Dec 15, 2011, US Secretary of Defense Leon <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOFoywQiVno" target="_blank">Panetta met in Ankara with President Abdullah Gul </a>and Turkish defense leaders to finalize a 111 million dollar deal for the U.S. to move its drones from Iraq into Turkey and to sell 3 AH1 Super Cobra helicopters to Turkey. Panetta expressed the United States’ solidarity in its fight against the PKK. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">It appears the US wants the PKK finished off so it can stage its continuing Middle East wars from Turkish soil without interference. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">On December 28, 2011, <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/uludere-report-on-its-way-despite-objections.aspx?pageID=238&nID=32597&NewsCatID=338" target="_blank">36 innocent Kurdish young men</a> with their mules were bombed and killed on a Qandil mountain trail between Iraq and Turkey. The Turkish government blamed the “mistake” on “bad intelligence”. The U.S. predator drone flew away after reporting the caravan's movements, leaving the Turkish military to decide whether to attack, according to an <a href="http://www.wikileaks-forum.com/index.php?topic=11270.0" target="_blank">internal assessment by the U.S. Defense Department</a>, described to The Wall Street Journal. "The Turks made the call," a senior U.S. defense official said.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kwEwWRBVNxc/UKc7Y4sELEI/AAAAAAAAAMI/ro47xq-SuH4/s1600/20111228+36smugglers+killed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kwEwWRBVNxc/UKc7Y4sELEI/AAAAAAAAAMI/ro47xq-SuH4/s400/20111228+36smugglers+killed.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="ctl00_ctl01_ctl00_lblHeaderText">Uludere bombing, based on US drone intelligence, killed 36 innocent Kurds </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">It has been more than 30 years since it was reported that high flying spy planes could identify the license plate number on a car or calculate the height of a man from his shadow. Is the public so gullible as to believe this bombing raid was a mistake? A person can no longer take a naked swim in the privacy of her backyard pool for fear of showing up on Google Earth! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The message was clear. The Qandil mountain trails between Iraq and Turkey should be closed now that the U.S. was transferring its drones to Turkey. In May 2012, NATO and the US established its radar base for the missile defense system in Malatya in southeast Turkey, with little or no international press coverage, in spite of regular protests outside the gate of the military base. In exchange for US drone coverage, as well as US drone and helicopter sales to Turkey, in support of Turkey’s campaign to annihilate the PKK, Turkey allows the US to maintain military bases on Turkish soil. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NGXZxQr_WbM/UKc1p0aP3xI/AAAAAAAAAL0/8ZKdaQwQS1g/s1600/AH-1_SuperCobra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NGXZxQr_WbM/UKc1p0aP3xI/AAAAAAAAAL0/8ZKdaQwQS1g/s1600/AH-1_SuperCobra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NGXZxQr_WbM/UKc1p0aP3xI/AAAAAAAAAL0/8ZKdaQwQS1g/s1600/AH-1_SuperCobra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NGXZxQr_WbM/UKc1p0aP3xI/AAAAAAAAAL0/8ZKdaQwQS1g/s400/AH-1_SuperCobra.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The </b><a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=293295" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;" target="_blank">3 AH1 Super Cobra helicopters were delivered</a><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"> by the US to Turkey on September 23, 2012, two weeks after the prisoner hunger strike for Kurdish rights began. </b><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The AH1 Super Cobra is armed with Hellfire missiles. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The Obama administration formally notified the US Congress on Oct. 28 of an unusual proposal to sell three AH-1W Super Cobra twin-engine attack helicopters to Turkey from the US Marine Corps inventory. Under the administration's plan, the Marines would get two new, late-model Textron Inc Bell AH-1Z Super Cobras in exchange for the three, twin-engine AH-1W aircraft that would be transferred to Ankara, a congressional official told Reuters last year. Such sales from the US military's current inventory are extremely rare, Reuters noted.</span><br />
<b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">One must ask how many schools could have been built for Kurdish school children for the price of those 3 Super Cobras?</span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">According to a <a href="http://freepdfhosting.com/9223e436d7.pdf" target="_blank">letter from the hunger strikers</a>, they are asking for more humane conditions for Abdullah Ocalan, held in solitary confinement for a year-and-a-half. His attorneys have not been allowed to visit him. A <a href="http://www.hezenparastin.com/eng" target="_blank">website</a> (<a href="http://www.hezenparastin.com/eng">http://www.hezenparastin.com/eng</a>), which is blocked in Turkey, contains a letter from Ocalan describing his deteriorating physical condition. He explains that has body trembles from lack of sufficient air in his tiny cell. He feels he is suffocating. I ask, what country in the world, abiding by international legal standards, justifies denying a prisoner the right to meet with his attorney (other than, of course, the United States at Guantanamo gulag)?</span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Why is the demand by the hunger strikers for Kurdish rights and easing of prison conditions for Ocalan and the right to meet with his family and lawyers so difficult to agree to? On what principal is the Turkish government standing firm in its position against the hunger strike? </span><br />
<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Amy L. Beam, Ed.D. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">educator and tour operator</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">amybeam@yahoo.com</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">http://www.mountararattrek.com </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">http://climbingmountararat.blogspot.com</span>Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-40409500947190735162012-11-09T12:38:00.000-08:002012-11-12T18:42:13.430-08:00Photos and Links of Kurdish Hunger Strike Supporters<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0BRtwiaS8Wg/UJ1Vdu5SysI/AAAAAAAAAEo/rUW0Rx64LS0/s1600/candle+for+hunger+strike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0BRtwiaS8Wg/UJ1Vdu5SysI/AAAAAAAAAEo/rUW0Rx64LS0/s400/candle+for+hunger+strike.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Light a candle in support of prisoners on hunger strike for Kurdish rights.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunger strikers d</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">emand three reasonable things. Mr. Erdogan, please don't wait until it is too late.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Education in their Kurdish
language</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. The right to use Kurdish in
courts</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. Easing of conditions for Abdullah Ocalan and access to his lawyers</b></span></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGbpdqs_owI/UJ1VeSf-ATI/AAAAAAAAAEw/RmNnardm64g/s1600/day56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGbpdqs_owI/UJ1VeSf-ATI/AAAAAAAAAEw/RmNnardm64g/s400/day56.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hunger strike began on Sept 12, 2012</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ADhXhZGq3Xg/UJ1VfY79Y2I/AAAAAAAAAE4/vNWmci92qc4/s1600/hungerstrike+day50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ADhXhZGq3Xg/UJ1VfY79Y2I/AAAAAAAAAE4/vNWmci92qc4/s320/hungerstrike+day50.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Solidarity actions with hunger strikers in 20 cities</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://en.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5331" style="text-align: start;">http://en.firatnews.com/index.php?rupel=article&nuceID=5331</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bpaapRH7Gl8/UJ8gSL0TywI/AAAAAAAAAJI/_Jgme_fo_4A/s1600/LA+kurds+support+strike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bpaapRH7Gl8/UJ8gSL0TywI/AAAAAAAAAJI/_Jgme_fo_4A/s1600/LA+kurds+support+strike.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Kurdish hunger strike in front of CNN building in Los Angeles on November 12th: KNCNA </span></span><a href="http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/11/turkey4307.htm">http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/11/turkey4307.htm</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vEScpSamTXI/UJ8cogL7yrI/AAAAAAAAAI0/fweNcaZqH-o/s1600/kurd+politicians+join+strike+day60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vEScpSamTXI/UJ8cogL7yrI/AAAAAAAAAI0/fweNcaZqH-o/s400/kurd+politicians+join+strike+day60.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Prominent Kurdish politicians join militants' hunger strike in Turkey, Nov 10, 2012</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/kurdpoliticians">http://tinyurl.com/kurdpoliticians</a> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LtJQHIVCOQ0/UKGyAI_JOOI/AAAAAAAAAK8/QbUjEpmPJq4/s1600/brussels+supporters+20111111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LtJQHIVCOQ0/UKGyAI_JOOI/AAAAAAAAAK8/QbUjEpmPJq4/s400/brussels+supporters+20111111.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brussels train station supporters Nov 11, 2012</span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lgb94-PhBMs/UKGyBXzN0XI/AAAAAAAAALE/n9I2WcmTHSs/s1600/diyarbekir+supporters+20111111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lgb94-PhBMs/UKGyBXzN0XI/AAAAAAAAALE/n9I2WcmTHSs/s400/diyarbekir+supporters+20111111.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #222222; font-family: QuicksandBold, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;">Amed-Diyarbakir/ Serkeftin, Nov 11, 2012</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aVGsq0IQ6I8/UKGyDqyFoHI/AAAAAAAAALM/TLEai1xNNag/s1600/istanbul+supporters+20111111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aVGsq0IQ6I8/UKGyDqyFoHI/AAAAAAAAALM/TLEai1xNNag/s400/istanbul+supporters+20111111.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Istanbul </span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Taksim</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, supporters of Kurdish hunger strikers, Nov 11, 2012</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XdD2L4ak1CU/UJ1Vg08TGxI/AAAAAAAAAFI/VRIYH6de_0E/s1600/kurds+protest+in+adana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XdD2L4ak1CU/UJ1Vg08TGxI/AAAAAAAAAFI/VRIYH6de_0E/s400/kurds+protest+in+adana.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Supporters of Kurdish Hunger Strike in Adana, Turkey</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xgef4H_zA3s/UJ1VpMK61jI/AAAAAAAAAGA/Mmd-hI-aDmI/s1600/van+hungerstrike+march2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xgef4H_zA3s/UJ1VpMK61jI/AAAAAAAAAGA/Mmd-hI-aDmI/s400/van+hungerstrike+march2.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Supporters of Kurdish Hunger Strike in Van, Turkey </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CHQPHs-Agig/UJ1kQDUD6GI/AAAAAAAAAHI/9QK2AoGi_N0/s1600/diyarbekirde_empty_streets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CHQPHs-Agig/UJ1kQDUD6GI/AAAAAAAAAHI/9QK2AoGi_N0/s400/diyarbekirde_empty_streets.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #323232; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Empty
streets in Diyarbakir: Protestors in Solidarity with Hunger-Strikers<o:p></o:p></span></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/11/01/protests-in-diyarbakir-in-solidarity-with-hunger-strikers/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/11/01/protests-in-diyarbakir-in-solidarity-with-hunger-strikers/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XQNJnBr07qI/UJ1Vi7bcHwI/AAAAAAAAAFY/7kCyfQtlpiE/s1600/kurdstoronto3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XQNJnBr07qI/UJ1Vi7bcHwI/AAAAAAAAAFY/7kCyfQtlpiE/s400/kurdstoronto3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nov 2, 2012, Supporters of Kurdish hunger strikers in Toronto</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: 12px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.ajansakurdi.com/around-100-students-taken-into-custody-in-denizli.htm/" style="font-size: 9pt; text-align: center;">http://www.ajansakurdi.com/around-100-students-taken-into-custody-in-denizli.htm/</a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fYM5d2LgidY/UJ1VgE_wCZI/AAAAAAAAAFA/yq3tPfW8CIU/s1600/kurds+ireland+hungerstrike+nov7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fYM5d2LgidY/UJ1VgE_wCZI/AAAAAAAAAFA/yq3tPfW8CIU/s400/kurds+ireland+hungerstrike+nov7.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nov 7, 2012, Kurds in Ireland go on hunger strike in support of hunger strike in Turkey<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/11/turkey4294.htm#Related Articles"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/11/turkey4294.htm#Related Articles</span></a></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ftI8jE1jL0/UJ1Vmg20YeI/AAAAAAAAAFw/gA79XjBf5r0/s1600/stockholm+hunger+strike+supports+oct30+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ftI8jE1jL0/UJ1Vmg20YeI/AAAAAAAAAFw/gA79XjBf5r0/s400/stockholm+hunger+strike+supports+oct30+2012.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Oct 30, 2012, Supporters of Kurdish hunger strikers outside Parliament in Stockholm</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.trust.org/alertnet/multimedia/pictures/detail.dot?mediaInode=c7f293a2-f0a4-40c7-a442-6064c1b32707"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.trust.org/alertnet/multimedia/pictures/detail.dot?mediaInode=c7f293a2-f0a4-40c7-a442-6064c1b32707</span></a></span></h1>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VKAL3hVAQOE/UKD7l-xY9uI/AAAAAAAAAKk/oJcMB_uQ4yU/s1600/stockholm+day60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VKAL3hVAQOE/UKD7l-xY9uI/AAAAAAAAAKk/oJcMB_uQ4yU/s400/stockholm+day60.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stockholm supports Kurdish hunger strikers on day 60</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<h1 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -.5pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></h1>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XpphoohDjRI/UJ1Vcx3N98I/AAAAAAAAAEg/Dahdv0veotc/s1600/FPphotoNov6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XpphoohDjRI/UJ1Vcx3N98I/AAAAAAAAAEg/Dahdv0veotc/s400/FPphotoNov6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.5pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: windowtext; padding: 0in;">Turkey's Kurds' critical hunger strike</span> </span><span class="postby"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;">By Julia Harte</span></span><span class="postby"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;">, Nov 6, 2012</span></span></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/11/06/kurdish_hunger_strike_pushes_turkey_toward_the_tipping_point">http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/11/06/kurdish_hunger_strike_pushes_turkey_toward_the_tipping_point</a></span></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xGIoHsatuaY/UJ1VnlAqkbI/AAAAAAAAAF4/O1vgxKPKe0w/s1600/tinyurl.com+slash+kurdhungerstrike+ocalanposters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xGIoHsatuaY/UJ1VnlAqkbI/AAAAAAAAAF4/O1vgxKPKe0w/s400/tinyurl.com+slash+kurdhungerstrike+ocalanposters.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kurdish children in Lebanon support Hunger Strikers, Sept. 9, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9pt;">At Root of Kurdish Hunger Strikes, Decades of </span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Struggle by </span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="http://english.al-akhbar.com/author/emiko-jozuka" title="Articles by Emiko Jozuka"><span style="color: windowtext;">Emiko Jozuka</span></a>, Nov. 8, 2012</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/13468"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/13468</span></a></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n6hoHbug8ts/UJ1cF7MwRdI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/yWLtKFF_T5M/s1600/istanbul+armenians+support+hunger+strike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n6hoHbug8ts/UJ1cF7MwRdI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/yWLtKFF_T5M/s400/istanbul+armenians+support+hunger+strike.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Armenians in Istanbul support Kurdish
hunger strikers, Nov 9, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt;"><a href="http://news.am/eng/news/127934.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://news.am/eng/news/127934.html</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uudDgzskNKM/UJ2KrvPwavI/AAAAAAAAAIg/nqDtwKX8YYU/s1600/bakirkoy+womens+prison+nov9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uudDgzskNKM/UJ2KrvPwavI/AAAAAAAAAIg/nqDtwKX8YYU/s400/bakirkoy+womens+prison+nov9.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: #f8f8f8; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bakırköy Women’s Prison, police fired water canon on supporters, </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Nov 9, 2012</span></span></span></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://kurdishhungerstrike.tumblr.com/" style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">http://kurdishhungerstrike.tumblr.com/</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--vRUMscCHME/UJ1hlDxamVI/AAAAAAAAAG4/sSAg7ArmK9o/s1600/women+peaceful+waterhosed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--vRUMscCHME/UJ1hlDxamVI/AAAAAAAAAG4/sSAg7ArmK9o/s400/women+peaceful+waterhosed.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Police water hose
and tear gas women in Gever for Friday prayer, Nov 9, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/kurdshosed">http://tinyurl.com/kurdshosed</a></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hjnu1YsgXcw/UJ1n_-qkbyI/AAAAAAAAAHc/mmgIuQ-AJIg/s1600/chicago+kurdish+cultural+center.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hjnu1YsgXcw/UJ1n_-qkbyI/AAAAAAAAAHc/mmgIuQ-AJIg/s400/chicago+kurdish+cultural+center.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chicago Kurdish Cultural Center supports prisoner hunger strike, Nov 1, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="http://www.kurdishcenter.org/press-release-in-support-of-political-prisoners-on-a-hunger-strike-in-turkish-prisons/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.kurdishcenter.org/press-release-in-support-of-political-prisoners-on-a-hunger-strike-in-turkish-prisons</span>/</a></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xlGC_Mo7e2c/UJ1VkmHZ0QI/AAAAAAAAAFg/4KjOJCfaOIg/s1600/oslo+hunger+strike+supports+nov+8+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xlGC_Mo7e2c/UJ1VkmHZ0QI/AAAAAAAAAFg/4KjOJCfaOIg/s400/oslo+hunger+strike+supports+nov+8+2012.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kurds in Oslo march in support of Prison Hunger Strikers </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--_5HHnAI2-M/UJ2F5bSIT-I/AAAAAAAAAIM/eWmg9MPW-DU/s1600/adelaide+australia+supporters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--_5HHnAI2-M/UJ2F5bSIT-I/AAAAAAAAAIM/eWmg9MPW-DU/s400/adelaide+australia+supporters.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adelaide, Australia, demonstrators support Kurdish hunger strike, Nov 9, 2012</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WsvEVOjkf1E/UJ1wxR6dnuI/AAAAAAAAAHw/1PG26kRa8_U/s1600/women_teargassed_cnn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WsvEVOjkf1E/UJ1wxR6dnuI/AAAAAAAAAHw/1PG26kRa8_U/s400/women_teargassed_cnn.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CNN news reports on peaceful sit-in of mothers in support of Kurdish hunger strikers</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/cnnkurds">http://tinyurl.com/cnnkurds</a></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Me_fExSYJQ/UJ1wyiD9_gI/AAAAAAAAAH4/InLMlNnH7mI/s1600/women_teargassed_cnn2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Me_fExSYJQ/UJ1wyiD9_gI/AAAAAAAAAH4/InLMlNnH7mI/s400/women_teargassed_cnn2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Police tear gas Kurdish
women in Istanbul peacefully supporting hunger strikers</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2012/10/31/pkg-watson-turkey-kurdish-crackdown.cnn#/video/world/2012/10/31/pkg-watson-turkey-kurdish-crackdown.cnn">http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2012/10/31/pkg-watson-turkey-kurdish-crackdown.cnn#/video/world/2012/10/31/pkg-watson-turkey-kurdish-crackdown.cnn</a></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-16051366950816713532012-11-04T00:23:00.002-07:002012-11-06T09:35:53.604-08:00Prisoners on Hunger Strike for Kurdish Education<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2Apgm1s89BY/UJYRKBEj60I/AAAAAAAAAEI/Ww0T2fTJzmM/s1600/peace+mothers+ankara+hunger+strike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2Apgm1s89BY/UJYRKBEj60I/AAAAAAAAAEI/Ww0T2fTJzmM/s400/peace+mothers+ankara+hunger+strike.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Nov. 4, 2012<br />by Amy L. Beam</span><br />
<br />
As 683 prisoners begin the 54th day of their hunger strike in 66 prisons across Turkey, panic grows over the looming possibility of their deaths. I implore Turkish leaders to immediately open the way for peace. In partnership with local Kurdish guides, I operate Mount Ararat Trek, sending climbers to the summit of Agri Dagi (Mount Ararat), near Dogubeyazit in eastern Turkey on the border with Iran and Armenia.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<h3>
<b><span style="color: #073763;">Computers in Every Classroom in Kackar Mountains</span> </b></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
In 2011, I visited the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueJZ5ZoOxPE" target="_blank">Kackar Mountains</a> to
expand our tour programs. From Yusufeli, the narrow, rough road winds
up, up, up through a steep river canyon bordered by sheer rock cliffs. The road ends in a sidewalk wide enough for
one vehicle to drive to Yaylalar, a village of two pensions at 1900 meters. <br />
<br />
Though only 60 kilometers from Yusufeli, the treacherous drive to Ogunlar takes three hours. I remarked to my Kurdish business partner at the amazing feat of running electric and phone lines up the mountain road. “When you have your own country, you can do anything. You can take electricity to the top of a mountain like this,” he answered. They even have cable TV and internet connection at the top.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MMqakZsaz3Y/UJXqMr9dQzI/AAAAAAAAADI/p2r619jHblQ/s1600/yaylalar+power+lines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MMqakZsaz3Y/UJXqMr9dQzI/AAAAAAAAADI/p2r619jHblQ/s400/yaylalar+power+lines.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Electric and phone lines run all the way to the top at Ogunlar, Kackar Mountains</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QmcKiBvsgak/UJXrLuhUPyI/AAAAAAAAADY/2xkX1_ACL7c/s1600/village+below+yaylalar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QmcKiBvsgak/UJXrLuhUPyI/AAAAAAAAADY/2xkX1_ACL7c/s400/village+below+yaylalar.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Village below Yaylalar in Kackar Mountains </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back home in
Dogubeyazit, Murat Camping Hotel and Restaurant, which is located only 6 km
above Dogubeyazit, continues to request a mobile phone tower to be put on the
hill for guests to have internet access.
For two years it has been promised “next week.” Like a hundred empty promises to Kurds, it
remains unfulfilled. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Ogunlar we chatted with the pension owner’s son, a university
graduate with a degree in computer science. He teaches computer science in a
local public school in the Kackar Mountains.
I expressed surprise, “You mean you drive all the way down to Yusufeli
every day to teach! How is that
possible? The drive takes three hours each way.”<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Oh, no,” he explained. “I teach in a primary school just
down the hill from here. The school has one
computer in each classroom plus a computer lab. I am their full-time computer
science teacher.”<br />
<br />
On our return to Yusufeli, I was on the lookout for a village
school large enough to merit a dedicated computer science teacher. There was none I could see. But I did look over the cliff edge of the
road and was baffled to see a stunning new soccer field with neat white lines
and new green sod. It was grand enough
for a World Cup playoff. I could not spot
a town, let alone a school.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #073763;">Atatürk and Broken Toilets for Eastern Turkey</span></h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
By sharp comparison, we often take our Mount Ararat climbing tours on cultural tours of the area surrounding Dogubeyazit. A stop in a local primary school is a highlight for both the visitors and students who gather around to practice their English and have their photo taken. In May 2011, Murat Şahin and I took our American visitors to visit Kazan Elementary School where Murat’s father attended school. The children, eager to love and be loved, ran to the fields to pick wild flowers to present to us. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pogif9p18Cg/UJXoR_4jyiI/AAAAAAAAAC4/eDdLbNr2RpU/s1600/kazan+school.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pogif9p18Cg/UJXoR_4jyiI/AAAAAAAAAC4/eDdLbNr2RpU/s400/kazan+school.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kazan Primary School in eastern Turkey, near Dogubeyazit</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M_aHo4xW1Qs/UJXo5vt-BbI/AAAAAAAAADA/dBKNA_wiGVk/s1600/kazan+school+amy+beam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M_aHo4xW1Qs/UJXo5vt-BbI/AAAAAAAAADA/dBKNA_wiGVk/s400/kazan+school+amy+beam.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kazan students give wild flowers to Amy Beam</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our visitors from Montana, Olivia Ximenes and
Patrick Harrington, were so distressed to see the condition of the one-room
school house that they donated a huge box of school supplies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Kazan school inside" border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JY56H_VysOw/UJXu5040zsI/AAAAAAAAADw/sQKqQScqDv8/s400/kazan+school+inside.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="" width="325" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">American visitors standing under <span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Atatürk</span></span><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"> </span>portrait inspect Kazan one-room school </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sQIwUnkoUkA/UJXu7uudi4I/AAAAAAAAAD4/Sd3QB2aIPgQ/s1600/kazan+school+toilets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sQIwUnkoUkA/UJXu7uudi4I/AAAAAAAAAD4/Sd3QB2aIPgQ/s400/kazan+school+toilets.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outdoor toilets at Kazan school, Agri<span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>The teacher had a tiny table for her desk. The toilets were outside in total dilapidation
with no running water. On the school room
wall was a display of student reports on Kemal Atatürk. The various photos of Atatürk were larger than
the written reports. Atatürk’s picture
was plastered everywhere.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VEXEKaNbo2A/UJXu45QadGI/AAAAAAAAADo/LWk2e4-XJ-M/s1600/kaza+school+ataturk+lesson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VEXEKaNbo2A/UJXu45QadGI/AAAAAAAAADo/LWk2e4-XJ-M/s400/kaza+school+ataturk+lesson.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; text-align: start;">Atatürk nationalistic lessons in Kazan primary school</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kazan school had perfect attendance of its 16 students. One reason why more parents do not send
their children to school is because parents feel the
Turkish-centered education is undermining their Kurdish culture. Also, their children literally do not
understand the Turkish language. Kurdish
is the predominant language spoken in this region. Many adults in rural areas
do not know Turkish. <br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #073763;">How Many Cobras to Build a School?</span></h3>
<br />
We returned to
Dogubeyazit and met with an Agri government official who promised to repair the
toilets and paint the school. This was
completed in September 2011 with government funds matched by donations from
Murat Camping in Dogubeyazit. But toilets do not make a school.<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XcyWeHU-F0M/UJXsdbmg7vI/AAAAAAAAADg/VsfpQN1p-fQ/s1600/kazan+students.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XcyWeHU-F0M/UJXsdbmg7vI/AAAAAAAAADg/VsfpQN1p-fQ/s400/kazan+students.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">eager students at Kazan primary school near Dogubeyazit, Agri, eastern Turkey</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Don’t the children of
eastern Turkey villages deserve to have a computer lab and dedicated computer
science teacher, just as much as the children in the remote Kackar Mountain
villages</i>? The future of Turkey
depends upon the education of <i>all</i> of
its children. Why is bilingual education
so hard to accept? <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #660000;"><b>How many schools
could have been built for the price of the three AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters and Hellfire missiles that Turkey
bought in September 2012 from the United States to annihilate the PKK?</b></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a visit to the small village of Gungore near Little
Ararat, I spoke with two teenage girls attending school in Dogubeyazit. They could count to ten and manage a simple
conversation in English with me. I
encouraged them to keep studying English because it is their pathway to opportunity. They giggled at my suggestion and corrected
me, “No, we do not have time to study English. It is hard enough for us to
learn Turkish so we can understand our teachers!” <br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #073763;">Unrelenting Vitriolic Hatred</span></h3>
<br />
One must understand the Kurds are not making up their demand for education in the Kurdish language just to be contrary. It is truly difficult to learn when the teacher is speaking a language you do not understand.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The teachers in the schools of eastern Turkey are
predominately from the west of Turkey.
If I may dare to distinguish them, they are mostly <i>Turkish</i>, not <i>Kurdish</i>. Though this is a distinction that is banned
under a strict government policy of assimilation, it is, nonetheless, how Turkish
citizens voluntarily categorize themselves in Turkey. Turkish teachers are required to teach in the
east for two years. I met one group of
such teachers in Dogubeyazit who asked of me, “We know why we are here. We <i>have</i>
to be. We cannot wait to leave. But we cannot understand why <i>you</i> are here by choice when you don’t
have to be. You do not even represent an
NGO.”<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Herein lies part of the hostility between Kurds and Turks. When an entire segment of the population is
reviled and considered “throw-away,” this creates deep-seated resentment and
bitterness.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In day 52 of the hunger strike, I turned to Twitter to read
the tweets. Fuat Kircaali, a Turkish
businessman, tweeted:<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.25pt; margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"></span><span class="username"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">@FuatKircaali</span></span>
After more school bombings, Erdoğan to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>#Kurdishlawmakers: "You decide !
Either "parliament" or "blood" you can't have it both ways
!"<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>#PKK<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I could not
resist replying to his tweet:<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; padding: 0in;">@FuatKircaali</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">If<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">#Erdogan</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>would
let the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">#Kurdish</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>parliamentarians out of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">#prison</span>, maybe they
would have a chance to decide.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">#PKK</span> <span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">#kurdistan</span><o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mr. Kircaali got
the last word with his tweet:<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; padding: 0in;">@amybeam</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Erdoğan is a gentleman. I wouldn't send a
single BDP<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">#PKK</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>lawmaker
to prison, I'd execute the m…..f….rs. <span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">pic.twitter.com/Ke8dySSF</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I edited his vulgarity for the reader. The point is that millions of Turkish
citizens are in a rage at Turkey’s Kurds.
Kircaali’s tweet typifies the vitriolic hatred to be found everywhere:
on the internet, in the newspapers, in buses, trains, restaurants, schools, and
overseas. How would you feel, what would you do if you
were a member of a minority group subjected to such day-in and day-out unmasked
hatred? Would you want to be assimilated
into the very group that detests you, rejects you, vilifies you, and limits
your access to education, to learn in your own language, and to exercise basic
rights of free speech?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #073763;">The Question of Language Instruction in Kurdish</span></h3>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the subject of language, I admit I am a purist. I spent six years as an English teacher in
the States, and I have always held a firm belief that language unites a
people. When I pass through Immigration
at the Miami Airport, I resent having to ask the government employees to speak
to me in English, not Spanish. Guatemala and Nigeria, with over 30 different <i>languages</i>, not dialects, are stark
examples of how language holds a country back from unification. I held dearly to my cherished belief until
one day a friend in Tucson, Arizona, who is married to a bilingual Mexican-American
man, forced me to re-examine my logic.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A friend of hers complained about the Spanish-speaking population
of Arizona, “Why can’t they go back to where they came from?” My friend’s husband pointed out that they
already <i>are where they came from</i>. His parents, grandparents, great-grandparents
were born on the same land as present-day Tuscon. Arizona used to be Mexico in the 1840s and
was conquered by the United States in the Mexican-American War. In 1848, <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Mexico ceded to the U.S. the northern 70% of modern-day Arizona.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Like the Mexican-Americans, Kurdish
people of eastern Turkey have been living on the same land for hundreds of
years. </span>At the conclusion of World
War I, the victorious Allies mapped out Kurdistan in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. Kurdistan was to be a self-ruled homeland for
25 million Kurdish people who share one cultural identity and speak one
language.<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Article 147 of the Treaty of Sèvres dictated that <i>Turkish nationals who belong to racial,
religious or linguistic minorities shall enjoy the same treatment and security
in law and in fact as other Turkish nationals. In particular they shall have an
equal right to establish schools with the right to use their own language.</i> </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<h3>
<b><span style="color: #073763;">The Betrayal of Kurdistan</span></b></h3>
<br />
The treaty was never
ratified. The re-conquest of these areas by the
forces of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Atat%C3%BCrk" title="Kemal Atatürk"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Kemal Atatürk</span></a> caused the Allies to
accept the renegotiated 1923 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lausanne" title="Treaty of Lausanne"><span style="color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Treaty of Lausanne</span></a> which carved up the Ottoman Empire. The Republic of Turkey was born with Kemal Atatürk as its leader.<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span>Kurdistan was torn into four parts: eastern Turkey, western Iran, Northern Iraq,
and Northern Syria. The Kurds became minorities
in these new countries. Atatürk immediately outlawed the teaching of Kurdish in schools and the use of the Kurdish
language. Under a policy of
assimilation, it was forbidden to mention the <i>existence</i> of Kurds
within Turkey. Kurds were officially labeled <i>mountain Turks</i> and the land of Kurdistan
was renamed Eastern Anatolia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
The promise
to create a self-governed homeland for Kurds was broken. Across nearly a century, the longing for
Kurdish identity has not been extinguished.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4653306910095613389" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Kurds are not immigrants to Turkey in
the same way that my grandmother emigrated from Italy to America. The teacher sent my grandmother’s youngest son
(my Uncle Ferd) home from school with a note reading, “Keep your child home
until he learns to speak English.” My
grandmother diligently learned English and so did her children, including my
mother. In spite of being two
generations removed from my Italian roots, when I was growing up in suburbia,
USA, we had an American custom of asking one another, “What are you?” to
identify our heritage. I answered “Italian,”
though I had never stepped foot in Italy, did not speak Italian, and am not
Catholic. Although I understood I was
most assuredly American, I always answered “I am Italian.” I knew what tribe I was from.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">So how does it hurt Turkey for its
Turkish citizens to honor their heritage and say, “I am a Kurd?” Why does this throw Turks into such a blind
rage? The Kurds in Turkey are <i>already
home</i>. It is a logical, reasonable
demand for Kurds to wish to speak their mother language, express their culture,
enjoy equal rights and opportunities, and participate fully in the affairs and
politics of their own country: Turkey. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">It is not a forced common language that
will heal the wounds of Turkey; it is <i>love
and equality</i>. The continuing atmosphere
of vitriolic hatred and a policy of forced assimilation of Kurds and
annihilation of the PKK is not the path to peace<span style="color: #990000;">. I call upon the leaders of Turkey to
recognize the legitimate requests by the hunger strikers and avert the looming
tragedy of their deaths. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><i>Amy L. Beam, Ed.D., operates Mount Ararat Trek (</i><a href="http://www.mountararattrek.com/" style="font-style: italic;">www.mountararattrek.com</a><i>) in
partnership with Kurdish guides. She is
completing her book </i>Climbing Mount Ararat: Love and Betrayal in Kurdistan<i>, for
2013 publication. She can be contacted
at </i><a href="mailto:amybeam@yahoo.com" style="font-style: italic;">amybeam@yahoo.com</a></span><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4653306910095613389.post-55397446433662503352012-10-12T14:25:00.001-07:002012-11-03T20:20:34.042-07:00The Unsolved Disappearance of Donald Mackenzie<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I first visited Dogubeyazit in eastern Turkey in February
2007.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At that time I made a website to
promote tourism to Mount Ararat (<a href="http://www.mountararattrek.com/">http://www.mountararattrek.com</a>).</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I managed the website and the email for
reservations.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since 2010, I have been
managing not only the website, but the entire tourism business in partnership
with local Kurdish guides.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am very
familiar with the Ararat tourism culture and people.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spent 2011 and 2012 in eastern Turkey for
the climbing season.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I never met Donald Mackenzie, the Scotsman who disappeared
searching for Noah’s Ark, but I have talked with many who knew him well. I learned about Donald in October 2010, after
he was reported missing. At that time I
began asking Mount Ararat climbing guides whom I personally know if they knew
anything about Donald’s disappearance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One guide told me the local Jandarma asked all the guides to
look for signs of Donald when they were guiding. They also sent a team of about six guides to
search for him in the area he was last seen.
The guide who told me this, told me he organized the search effort. They looked for one or two days but the
weather was bad. By October the
mountain is covered in snow. Since for
every incident regarding Mount Ararat there are at least three or more versions
of the story, one must take <i>all</i>
information with a grain of salt. This
is a polite way of saying that the guide who told me in 2010 that he searched
for Donald is a known liar. I do,
however, believe him about the search effort.
It is unfortunate that lying, cheating, and stealing are endemic in the Mount
Ararat tourism industry. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The reasons for this subculture are complex. Generally it is driven by poverty, the need
to support large families throughout the winter months, gullibility of foreign
tourists (like taking candy from a baby), and pressure from religious ark searchers
who refuse to accept <i>no</i> for an
answer. The general feeling among local guides is that
Noah’s Ark does not exist on Mount Ararat, but if foreigners want to push money
at them to search, many will acquiesce.
Donald falls into this third category of religious believers and ark
searchers. However, there is another
category of Ararat summit climbers and ark searchers: those who do not want to pay what it costs to
mount an organized, safe expedition.
There are hoards of people in this category which drives guiding prices
down so low that the expeditions become dangerous because necessities are
eliminated, such as knowledgeable guides, water, enough food, cooking gas,
horses, and permits. Donald was an
example of someone who did not have money to spend. After
a number of previous visits, he felt he could climb without assistance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mount Ararat is a military controlled zone. Climbing permits from the government are
required for each climber. The use of
permits has been hard to control by the Turkish government. Many tourists are taken to Mount Ararat
without permits. They may pay a guide or
company 50 euro or 50 dollars (or more) for a permit, but that does not
guarantee that the guide will pay the government for it. The normal tourism trekking path to the
summit of Mount Ararat is from the south side.
Donald was not anywhere in this area when last seen. So it would have been unlikely for guides to
find any signs of him on the south side while guiding their tourist groups to
the summit. I was told by the guide mentioned
above that they also searched on the northwest side of Mount Ararat near Lake
Kup.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He told me that Donald had been to Ararat to search for the
ark six times. During one of his visits
he had met a man who lived in a village on the north side of Mount Ararat. They became friends and the man offered his
sister to Donald to marry. Both Donald
and the sister agreed to the marriage idea. According to the story, Donald helped the brother get a visa to the UK and the brother was
reportedly living in London while the sister was still living in her parents’
home in Turkey. I have heard it said
that the father stipulated that Donald could marry his daughter, but could not
take her away to live in the UK. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In the Kurdish
culture in eastern Turkey, it is important for family honor that women remain
virgins until marriage. A woman who
breaks this rigid tradition risks being killed by her own family. The man also may be harmed. This is no longer common practice to kill the
woman, although the family may banish her to another town to live. The people of Turkey, as well as the people of the world, feel it is barbaric to kill
a woman for this reason and they do not in any way condone it. One hears occasionally every year of a woman
being murdered in a village, but it is not reported in the news. One
goes to prison, one goes under the ground.
The local people are just as saddened and appalled as your readers would
be. The Turkish government <i>does</i> bring charges, so murdering women
for having premarital sex (which is <i>not</i>
illegal in Turkey) is by no means condoned by the Turkish government or
citizens. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have heard no information one way or the other about
Donald’s Kurdish fiancé or their friendship, if any. I assume she is still living at home with her
family. I never heard one rumor or
story about Donald and the Kurdish woman, so I offer this information about
local culture only to give a fuller understanding of the environment. Anything more than that would be unwarranted
speculation and would be unfair to the woman’s family. When Donald was reported missing, his car was
left at this family’s home in the village.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The same guide who told me he organized a search team for
the Jandarma told me, also, that Donald was last seen by a shepherd camping in
his tent on September 28, 2010. The
shepherd descended with his sheep in the evening. When he returned the next day, there was no
sign of Donald or his belongings, so that day Donald was reported missing. This is hearsay which I have not validated. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A guide told me that without getting prior
permission, Donald shipped a box of Bibles to him before his arrival so that
he could distribute Bibles. This guide lectured
Donald never to do that again because it put the guide in jeopardy to be receiving
a big shipment of Bibles. Although
Turkey is a secular country, most Turkish people are Muslim. All citizens of Turkey have their religion
listed on their birth certificates. So
religion, like nationality, is designated at birth. While most of the population is Muslim, that
does not mean that they are all deeply religious. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the cornerstones of the Kurdish culture in eastern
Turkey is its hospitality to friends and strangers alike. It is a moral imperative to welcome anyone
who turns up at one’s door. It is not
surprising that Donald made friends, felt at home, and apparently came to love
the Kurdish people and eastern Turkey which drew him back time and again. I have lived and worked among the Kurdish
people in Dogubeyazit. They are my
business partners and friends. Religion
is never a topic of our conversation.
Like young people all around the world, they are more interested in work
opportunities, iPhones, and making FaceBook friends. Eastern Turkey is a region in which I feel
particularly safe and welcomed. I have
no doubt that I could travel as a single woman in all of eastern Turkey and be
welcomed into any house to spend the night.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">n 2011, I met an Ararat guide who had previously guided Donald on the north side of Mount Ararat three different times. This guide, whom I will refer to as Arthur to protect his anonymity, became good friends with Donald who attended Arthur’s wedding. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Donald explained to Arthur that he had no money, Arthur
brought Donald to his home to sleep and took him guiding without pay. He also introduced him to a local motorcycle
mechanic who was <i>not</i> a Mount Ararat
guide. On the blog site created by
Donald’s brother at <a href="http://ararathunt.blogspot.com/">http://ararathunt.blogspot.com</a> there is a photo of Donald on a motorcycle,
so I assume this is why Arthur introduced him to a motorcycle mechanic who then
wooed Donald away from Arthur.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Dogubeyazit, when one is hungry, there is always someone
willing to say he is a guide and to take a gullible tourist climbing for a lesser
amount of money. We disparagingly refer to them as “street
guides” who are constantly stealing business from the legitimate, experienced
guides. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last Arthur heard of Donald
was that he was hanging out with the motorcycle mechanic who possibly (probably)
also took Donald climbing on Mount Ararat.
After Donald was reported
missing, the mechanic left Dogubeyazit and was reported to be living in a
distant part of Turkey. In contradiction to this report is the blog by
Donald’s brother who says he was introduced to the mechanic, Moussa, living in
his village near Ararat on September 28, 2012.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In April 2010, a local Turkish guide named Ahmet Ertugrul,
nicknamed Parasut (pronounced parachute), in partnership with a Dutch filmmaker
named Gerrit Aalten, a Dutch film distribution company named FCCE, and a
Chinese organization named Noah’s Ark Ministries International (NAMI) held two
press conferences in Hong Kong and Beijing.
They announced they were 99.9% certain they had discovered Noah’s Ark on
Mount Ararat but that they were keeping the location secret to “protect”
it. National Geographic reported on
this announcement which resulted in worldwide publicity for their claim. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I and others, including Dr. Don Patton and Dr. Randall
Price, have exposed this claim for what it is:
a fraud. See <a href="http://www.mountainararattrek.com/ark">www.mountainararattrek.com/ark</a>
for details of the fraud. Only those
religious zealots who refuse to accept the facts of this fraud still cling to
their belief that Noah’s Ark was discovered on Mount Ararat. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2010, when Donald heard about the Parsut/NAMI claim to
have discovered Noah’s Ark above Lake Kup on the north side of Mount Ararat, he
returned to Turkey to search for the secret ark site by himself. Donald
went to Mount Ararat without government permission.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The north side of Mount Ararat is extremely dangerous to
climb. Continual rock and snow
avalanches in and around the A’Hora Gorge area put climbers’ lives in constant
danger. The government does not give
permission to anyone to climb in this area.
Although the government is often accused of wanting to hide the truth by
not granting permission to ark searchers, the more likely reason is that the
government is protecting people from themselves by keeping them out of certain danger.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is another danger on the north side of Mount
Ararat. The Turkish government and its
Kurdish citizens in eastern Turkey have been in conflict since 1984 when the
PKK was organized. In Turkey it is
illegal to call one’s self Kurdish or to refer to eastern Turkey as Kurdistan. All citizens are Turkish. Kurdistan was christened eastern Anatolia. This conflict dates back to World War 1 when
the 25 million Kurds living in Kurdistan were divided into the four countries
of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Kurds
became minorities in each country. In
1923, Kemal Ataturk, the leader of the newly created country of Turkey,
immediately outlawed the speaking or teaching of their native Kurdish
language. They were to be referred to
as “mountain Turks,” not Kurds. The PKK
is an armed struggle for the Kurdish people to express their Kurdish identity
and receive full equal rights. Many
residents in eastern Turkey view the PKK as their freedom fighters. Over 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in this conflict since 1984. It is hard to find a Kurdish family that has not been closely touched by the death or imprisonment of a relative or friend.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The PKK is said to control Mount Ararat from 2250 meters and
above while the Turkish military controls it below. In recent years, as soon as all guides and
tour operators report to the Jandarma that their last group of climbers is off
the mountain, usually in late September, the military has had military
exercises on the mountain, including shelling it. I witnessed the poofs of smoke myself from
the Igdir (north) side. In 2011, Turkey
contracted with the Iranian military that crossed into Turkey and mounted a
joint operation on Mount Ararat against the PKK. It is foolhardy and dangerous for one to go secretly
on Ararat after the climbing season. A
lone person could be mistakenly shot by the Turkish military or PKK.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The added complexity to asking questions about Donald’s
disappearance and getting answers is that since the PKK is designated as a
terrorist organization by Turkey, anyone talking with them can be imprisoned
and charged with aiding terrorists.
Over forty Kurdish/Turkish journalists are now on trial for reporting on
PKK activities and the ongoing conflict.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week a guide friend of mine lamented that he and his
cousin can no longer go partridge hunting on Ararat for fear of being mistaken
for PKK and killed. Partridge season
begins in October. In 2011, when they began their partridge
hunting trip, a huge military Cobra helicopter rose up over the mountain and
circled overhead. There they were with
their shotguns in plain view against the white snow. They hid under an overhanging rock for 15 minutes,
praying they had not been seen, until the helicopter left; then they rapidly descended. Their partridge hunting days on Ararat are
only memories now.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In September 2012, a guide found remains of an old green
army-style tent and gear on the north side of Mount Ararat. While this was quickly reported as Donald’s
missing gear, my guide friend Arthur reports that it was probably an old
military camp site. Bones from food were
found, suggesting this was not Donald’s site since it was uncharacteristic for
Donald to carry meat with him. On the
blog site of Donald’s brother, he shows a photo of a business card of “Colin
McDonald” supposedly found with Donald’s few items and proving it was Donald’s
campsite. I have enough experience to
know by now that it may or may not have been found at the campsite. In this region truth is an elusive concept. The guide who took Donald’s brother to Ararat
in September 2012, also is one of a number of liars who owes me and many others
money. I once asked this guide who I
could trust. He candidly answered, “No
one. Don’t even trust me.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2012, a number of documentary film makers descended upon
Dogubeyazit and also contacted me for assistance in making a documentary on
Donald McKenzie’s disappearance. This
rush of wannabe documentary makers is providing yet a new wave of business
“opportunity” to the local opportunistic guides, many of whom are willing to
take them anywhere and come up with whatever evidence they are seeking, whether
real or fake. Donna D’Errico, American
actress, went twice to Ararat in 2012 and was deceived by two
different guides whom I know. She wrote me, “<i>I now have experienced what you
were trying to warn me about! I should have listened to you, and I see
that now</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After Donald’s disappearance in 2010, Turkish government
authorities interviewed repeatedly those people who knew Donald. Government officials are aware of where the
motorcycle mechanic lives. There are no
answers to Donald’s disappearance. There
is no evidence of foul play, so how can there be a charge of murder? Did Donald get killed by an avalanche or
fall into a gorge to his death (a more likely scenario)? Was he robbed (of money he did not have),
then murdered? Did religious Muslim
extremists murder him for proselytizing?
Was he mistakenly killed as a PKK member? This will probably remain forever an unsolved
mystery. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Copyright
2012, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED by </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr. Amy L. Beam</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mount Ararat
Trek</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.mountararattrek.com/">http://www.mountararattrek.com</a> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amy L. Beam
is an IT professional who now works in Mount Ararat tourism. She is currently writing her book, <b><i>Climbing Mount Ararat: Love and Betrayal in
Kurdistan</i>, </b>scheduled for completion in early 2013.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qE2VfPoTENw/UHiJWp_X4TI/AAAAAAAAAA4/60L-Ojqz40A/s1600/amy+ararat+20110610+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qE2VfPoTENw/UHiJWp_X4TI/AAAAAAAAAA4/60L-Ojqz40A/s200/amy+ararat+20110610+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Amy L Beamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795038970190519916noreply@blogger.com