Wednesday, October 8, 2008

"Bitirin şu Allahın belası savaşı"

It's Turkish, and it is the most direct and forceful headline you will ever see. "End this Goddamn War," it says. It appeared Sunday (10/6/08) in the Istanbul daily "Taraf," and the accompanying text was written by one of Turkey's most courageous liberal editors, Ahmet Altan. The Turkish Army, with all its vaunted prowess and NATO weapons, has suffered a major catastrophe this weekend in the mountains of Kurdistan. The PKK rebels are claiming 65 Turkish soldiers killed, including several officers, with a loss of 9 of their own fighters. The attack, they say, was recorded on video. The Army is claiming otherwise: 15 soldiers lost, 23 PKK killed. Anyway you look at it, it's a heavy toll. The government and press of Turkey are in an uproar, and access to pro-Kurdish websites has been blocked.

As I've said before, a rational government could end this war by negotiation in a month.

Read all about it at Rasti, the website of pro-PKK blogger Mizgin Yilmaz.

P.S. Unlike the CNN we get here, CNN International occasionally has stories that are of real interest. Recently one of their correspondents posted a story about the women fighters of the PKK. For a really depressing insight into the Turkish nationalist mind at work, check out the Comments.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

pkk is a terrorist organization and kills innocent people. turks, kurts, arabs and people living in Turkey are brothers and are not different with each other. Kurthish people have same rights with turks. Fatma Kurtulan trained in northen Iraq is a a member of Turkish parliament now. Turkey is a democratic country and pkk is fascist terrorist organization.

October 8, 2008 at 9:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice to see that you're back on track Gordon :) Well, Turkish nationalists, like the one above, have never been that sophisticated or sage.

The CNN piece is by the way also upp on youtube.

October 15, 2008 at 9:52 AM  
Blogger Gordon Taylor said...

Just a couple of remarks:

I posted the comment by "anonymous" just because I'm grateful for anyone's attention to this pathetic little blog. I won't bother refuting the comment; I think it was probably written by someone in orta okul.

Kawe, I haven't been posting much because I'm overwhelmed with material and I don't feel that I can do it justice. But I'll try to bring out a few more things soon. I'm also trying to get started on a novel. In the meantime I read Mizgin every day, even though she's a lot further left than I am. Be sure to see her post today about Gen. Basbug, and my comment after.

October 16, 2008 at 12:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are far too humble sir. The only pathetic here are the comments of Turkish nationalists.

Your voice is more significant than you might want to admit. I'm very glad to hear that you've working on a new novel.

I also got around to read you comment on Rasti :) I try to read that blog as often as I can. Let me just end with an observation by the Turkish professor Ahmet Insel from Bianet (16/10):

"One wonders what the Ministry of National Defense does in Turkey. If the soldiers are under the control of the civilian government, then the government should answer the questions regarding the Aktütün assault. If they are not, that is, if there is a military government in addition to the civilian one, then that would mean we are not living in a democratic country."

Slam dunk.

October 17, 2008 at 8:41 PM  
Blogger Gordon Taylor said...

Kawe,

Thanks. That quote from Prof. Insel is awesome in its conciseness and relevance. Slam dunk indeed.

October 17, 2008 at 9:46 PM  

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