The Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government is holding an “independence referendum” today under the chairmanship of Massoud Barzani; which is opposed by many other countries, including Turkey and Iran. Voting began in a controversial referendum.
Below I add two writings about this topic. First article was written by a Turkish journalist known with his opponent identity, Yilmaz Ozdil on this subject yesterday. He summarizes the historical events begining from 1992 until todays at the triangle of Ankara-Barzani-USA at his article. You can read in it, CIA, Pentagon operations to support Kurdish peshmergas, including PKK terrorist organization. Maybe you will smile painfully when you learn how millions of dollars of American taxpayers have been given to the Kurdish peshmergas by USA government, while even an ordinary American could not find 5 dollars for a day, the peshmergas did not have money less than 100 dollars in their pockets. When you read the article, also you can be surprised while PKK is being accepted as terrorist organization, (it is in the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations at US department of state web page) how US gives them huge support.
The second one is the soL News interview with Kemal Okuyan, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), regarding the debates on the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum.
“The treaty of Dombra”
September 24, 2017, written by Yilmaz Ozdil, Sozcu newspaper
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February 1992
USA said to us, “you will invite Barzani,”; ours said, “okay.”
Barzani came to Ankara very the first time in history. He was under the patronage of Turgut Ozal, the President of the Republic of Turkey at that period. Barzani stayed at MIT (Turkish Intelligence Service) facilities; he was hosted by Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel. He was as timid as a mouse. He was not allowed to speak in Kurdish. He spoke Arabic and translated into Turkish. In those days we gave a Turkish Republic passport to Barzani; we gave him money, weapons, wheat, and even started to give the electricity of his district.
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Because of USA’s wants, we had gave him an inch, now the time had came to give him a mile.
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Eight months later
October 1992
We were doing joint military exercises with USA in the Aegean Sea. Two sea sparrow missiles were thrown from Saratoga, the American aircraft carrier. The bridge of the Turkish destroyer ship, Muavanet, was shot by Saratoga. We had five martyr soldiers and 22 wounded soldiers. USA said “sorry”, they said that they shot us by mistake.
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However, the sea sparrow missiles were not kind of the missiles that can be called “mistakenly pressed its button”. It was passed six stages for ignition, commander’s approval was required. It was not guided bullets of the type “fire and forget”. After the sea sparrow missiles were fired, there was a need for a guide to shoot the target; the ship that fired the missiles, had to see the target ship on the radar. The chance of accidental ignition was not even one in a million.
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Well, what was it?
The “hammer power” of USA deployed in Incirlik and Pirinclik (Turkey’s military bases used by NATO) was needed to seperate Iraq and build Kurdistan. Ankara was being obstinate. Muavenet was shot at those days. Ankara had taken the message! Turkish Grand National Assembly extended the “hammer power” military operation period immediately. We never obstinated again. It was clear that the same thing was going to happen in everytime. For that reason, we have always extended the period of “hammer power” until the USA entered Iraq in 2003; and we have never objected.
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(As a matter of fact, the name of the air elements to join the operation was not hammer power; it was “poised hammer”. Its means was that the bullet was squeezed into the barrel, triggered the gun, the cock was lifted. Propaganda’s masterpiece came to play right in here. Because of not to disturb to our dear society, its translation consciously was made wrong, and it was translated for giving “hammer power,” meaning into Turkish.)
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Three years later, 1995 …
CIA has organized the peshmergas. It organized the coup to overthrow Saddam. They botched, they screwed up. It was not possible even to establish the municipal police organization from the Peshmerge tribes in those days, if we put the armed forces aside; they had no training, no ability to fight; it resulted with the fiasco.
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CIA has begun an air evacuation operation for the peshmergas immedietly. Nearly 10,000 Kurdish peshmergas, which were used as cat’s paw by CIA, were taken away from Iraq, so that they would not have been destroyed by Saddam. The peshmergas together with their families, were brought to Turkey over Habur border gate, between Turkey and Iraq. They were emplaned to USA transport aircrafts from Batman province of Turkey; they were taken away to the island of Guam on the Pacific Ocean.
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Why they were taken to so far away? Because there was one of the major air and sea bases of the United States on this island which is almost in the place that God forgot. The peshmergas that failed in for their first attempt, were going to be trained to be successful at a later time.
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Some of them was giong to use by training by the Special Activities Division and use them in covered operations. Some of them was going to train in some academic matters and train for being bureaucratic cadres for the future Kurdistan, such as the central bank, the population administration, the tax office.
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However, there was a small roughness before the peshmergas were taken away. The CIA had taken the peshmergas from the border and brought them to the pilgrimage center in Silopi-Turkey, by under the control of the American Adana-Turkey consulate; but there were no passports of the peshmergas, no identity information. More precisely, of course they had, but the Americans said no. The Americans did not want to give the peshmergas’ identity informations to Turkey.
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The Americans gave advice to us. They told us, “there is an appropriate substance in your passport law for kind of this situation; get their fingerprints, let them pass.” Ours hemmed and hawed, but they had no choice. They were not in the state to tell “we don’t let them pass”. An expert team of 5 people was brought from Ankara. Fingerprints were taken from the peshmergas, and let them pass. Their fingerprint informations have been put into the MIT (Turkish Intelligence Service) archive.
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Three years later, 1998 …
The peshmergas who were brought to Guam grown mature, and took the name of “Guamerge”. Again, they were brought to Iraq, some of them through Turkey and some through Jordan.
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In this period, the PKK was the most beneficiary of the authority gap in Northern Iraq, and they settled well to the Qandil Mountains . Especially after the Guamergeler turned, the PKK’s passage to the region accelerated. PKK cooperation with the Peshmergas had rised.
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There had been PKK members among those peshmergas who were taken to Guam?
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The Turkish intelligence service which tried to find the answer to this question, sent a message to Barzani. Kurdish tribal leaders in the region were invited to talk about the PKK activities. An appointment was arranged. In Northern Iraq, we had a meeting under our control. After some chatting, the Turkish side expressed their discomfort, and the Kurdish tribal leaders listened to them silently. At that time the tea service was being done. The waiters were of course not the real waiters. After drinking tea, tea cups were collected by the waiters. Who used the tea cup was labeled with his name in the kitchen. The tea cups were brought to Ankara in the packages.
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The fingerprints on the tea cups were matched with those who were taken Guam by America. Bingo! The 17 Kurdish tribal leaders who open supported to PKK, were in Guam.
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Four years later, 2002 …
The US administration has now comprehended it clear that Saddam will not be overthrown with the covert operations. Now, they had to bring in American troops and fight. The American congress approved the $189 million appropriation; the paramilitary forces of the CIA were activeted as a vanguard force.
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They bought over 6,000 soldiers of Saddam’s army. Easy to say, six thousand; the Americans gave each one of them a satellite phone, set up a perfect intelligence network. Saddam’s army began to follow second-by-second. Even if the Saddam went to toilet, the Pentagon would know.
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In July of 2002, the CIA team took the road from Turkey. They called themselves “the broken toys group”. It was an experienced team who worked in many countries of the world. They came to the city of Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq with a convoy of land vehicles and ammunition trucks and set up the base. They gave the name of “pistachio” to their base with greenwashed.
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In October 2002, this time a convoy of money trucks arrived in Sulaymaniyah. They had taken the road from Turkey too. There were the hundred dollar banknotes in cardboard boxes. A million dollars weight was 20 kilograms. In order to disrupt the upcoming war’s substructure, US has distributed more than $100 million in cash to build militia power, buy men, sabotage.
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Even one day, Kurdish leader Talabani requested from Americans, “Do not give $100; you give us $100 as $1, $5, $10”. The Americans asked “why?”. Talabani responded: “Everybody has $100 banknotes, everyone in here does not carry the money which is less than $ 100. We drink a cup of coffee, we give $100 to coffee shop. Because of the keeper of a coffeehouse does not have any money under $100 banknotes, he cannot give money in change.”
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So, the generosity of the Americans, the abundance of bribery, had put the peshmergas into trouble!
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In the meantime, if you ask what Turkey was doing at the same days… According to the CIA reports, four Turkish intelligence officers were assigned to follow the base in Sulaymaniyah. But they were watching a movie in a room, instead of following the Americans! The leader of the CIA team had made this sorrowful note about the Turkish intelligence: “They did not have even the slightest information about what we did, and our purpose. When they were closed in the room, we were developing our cooperation with the Kurds.”
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March 1, 2003
The AKP (the political party that formed the government, and was built by Recep Tayyip Erdogan), said okay. But the parliament resisted. Thanks to the CHP, Republican People’s Party (the main opposition party), the military resolution requested by the US did not pass through the Turkey parliament.
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Immediately the button was pressed for the destruction of the Turkish Armed Forces and the CHP.
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The date was specially selected. On July 4th, on American Independence Day, the American soldiers have put a sack over Turkish soldiers’ heads in the Northern Iraq.
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Our liaison office in Sulaymaniyah was busted by heavy armed American soldiers. 11 Turkish officers and surgents with maroon berets were arrested by putting their heads into the sacks, with handcuffing behind the back, and striking with the rifle butt by Americans. America’s message to Turkey was clear:
“Now, this is Kurdistan, get your nose out of my business, do not poke, go away,” was said. With this event, Turkey has stood up, except the AKP government! It was alleged that a diplomatic note was sent to the US, which was denied after three seconds. Our leader of the century for the first time controverted it by himself. “This is not a musical note, every time when you want it, is not sent, it has seriousness,” he said.
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Our heads had been put into sacks, we were insulted, but our leader of century was not finding this event serious.
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September 2006 …
The map of Kurdistan has appeared very first time. The American colonel who gave a speech in the NATO defense college in Rome, has opened the map of the Middle East and clearly wrote Kurdistan on the half of Turkey’s soils on map! The Turkish officers in the briefing left the hall collectively. Turkey’s general staff protested the event, but the aim was clear… Kurdistan was a NATO project.
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Same month, September 2006 …
The AKP government has invented the “counterterrorism coordinatorship” to degas of our dear society. It was supposed that we would coordinate the fight against terrorism with our American friends.The Americans would give us instant information.
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Our side(Turkish) counterterrorism coordinator, Gen. Edip Baser told how the Americans gave us instant information by himself:
“Where does the ammunition of weapons come to PKK? They come from Northern Iraq, where is under control of Barzani. Whose control Barzani? America. We have held nine meetings with the American side. We spoke with the president’s chief security officer at the White House. We gave them a cd. An American soldier was sitting in the driver’s seat of the truck which carried the supplies to PKK! We said that we can not tell these to the Turkish public. I have asked to them, “how can we still say that we are friends?” I have returned to Turkey after this meeting, I have prepared a report with three articles, and sent it to my acceptor in America, general Ralston by adding, “I am waiting for a response within 15 days,”. And they discharged me from duty at very same day!
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Was the vileness of “instant information” limited with just that? No… Damien McElroy, a reporter of the British Daily Telegraph newspaper, interviewed with PKK manager Murat Karayilan on Qandil Mountain, and wrote: “There is a heliport on the mountain Qandil and it is lightened with spots… American officers in Iraq come to Qandil often with the helicopter, they are negotiating with the leader’s staff of the organization. The jeeps belonging to the private security company that the US government employs in Iraq, parked in the camps at Qandil.”
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Was the vileness of “counterterrorism coordinatorship” limited with just that? No … A major general, the assistant of Edip Baser, the coordinator of the Turkish side, explained how the counter terrorism was done:
“We asked the room from the Prime Ministery of Turkey, they did not give. We asked for the copier, and they gave it six months later. We did not have a faks machine, we were sending the fax from the side rooms. We did not even have a computer. They did not give a cell phone. We wanted an appointment, they did not give an appointment. They did not even give us greetings. They gave us one cell phone line and they gave it to us after 7 months. We even paid for tea and sugar money from our pockets.”
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Six years later, 2012 …
Barzani, who benefited from the authority gap in Syria, decided to enter the Kobane. Our dear government stormed around. It has been said, “we would put Barzani in his place,” or etc. Riiing… the phone rang. Obama was calling. Our leader of the century picked up the phone, and talked. The official web site of the White House has put a picture which was related to this talk; Obama had a baseball bat in his hand at the picture!
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It was a kind of English version of our Cranberry stick.
It was the message of “I break the heads of those who touch Barzani”
Ours instantly got down off the high horse.
Barzani forces passed to Syria from Iraq.
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It was not enough.
That same year, 2012 …
Barzani was invited as a guest of honor to the AKP (Turkey Republic government party) congress. He made a speech in Kurdish. The party members have applauded Barzani by the slogan “Turkey is proud of you”.
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It was not enough.
A year later, 2013 …
Barzani who said that “If Turkey would interfere with Kirkuk (a city in Northern Iraq), we would interfere with Diyarbakir (a city in the south east of Turkiye),” was invited to the AKP meeting in Diyarbakir.
He made a duet with singer, Sivan Perver. Barzani and our leader of the century, greeted the crowd with hand in hand at platform. Very first time, our leader of the century used the word of Kurdistan. Barzani made a speech in Kurdish. Bulent Arinc, deputy prime minister of the period, was touched and cried while Barzani spoke.
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It was not enough.
A year later, 2014 …
The Turkish Grand National Assembly issued a memorandum allowing foreign soldiers to be in Turkey. This was obviously Barzani’s memorandum.
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As if there was no other day on the calendar, on 29 October, on the Republic Day of Turkey… Kurdistan made official parade on the territory of Turkey with its armed forces, gun carriages, guns, and Kurdistan flags. The peshmergas entered to Turkey from Habur border gate between Iraq and Turkey. Turkey counties, Silopi, Cizre, Nusaybin, Suruç were used as the route. They used the Mursitpinar border gate to pass to Syria, Kobane from Turkey. Some of them came with Turkish Airline airplanes. Turkish Airline, the flag carrier of the Turkey Republic carried Kurdistan military. They did get on from Erbil, Iraq and they arrived to Sanliurfa, Turkey. They’ve continued on the highways and made show. They did set off fireworks, and the folk dances were played during the road. Some of them had American flags on their uniforms. “Biji Serok Obama” (in Kurdish biji means “long live”) slogan was shouted. MIT(Turkish intelligence service) escorted them. They drove to Mardin-Urfa highway and ate at the petrol station. Even the money for the meals of Kurdish peshmergas, were paid by the Republic of Turkey government. What was the prime minister of the AKP saying when the dignity of the Turkish people was being trampled? He was saying that “I kiss my brothers’s forehead in Kobane.”
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Two years later, 2016…
Pentagon began to openly deliver weapons to the PKK without secret. The number of trucks full of guns sent by Pentagon is 1,100. One thousand one hundred in writen!
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A year later, 2017 …
Barzani came to Ankara. For the first time in history, the flag of Kurdistan was raised at our capital. What AKP prime minister, Binali Yildirim said? “There is a Kurdistan parliament, it has a prime minister, there is its own flag; it is recognized,” he said.
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Barzani, who was not even allowed to speak Kurdish in Ankara 25 years ago, has now become a man who raised the flag at Ankara.
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Again 2017 …
Barzani is holding a referendum on independence. The AKP, in order to calm down of our dear society, it is pretending to take parliament resolution.
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It has been very long article, hasn’t it?
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There is a short one too.
A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse.
Can Turkey tolerate an independent Kurdistan? Or, will these conflicts of interest lead Turkey to a military intervention?
We still do not know whether the referendum will be carried or not. Nor do we know how the outcome of the referendum will be implemented… Barzani is as inconsistent and unprincipled as the AKP government is. However, that does not mean that Turkey’s military intervention is a low probability. In the first place, it is definite that Erdoğan and even his yes-man Bahçeli need a “war” for their own personal salvation, or that they see the “war” as a way out. Barzani’s referendum move offers a sound justification to Erdoğan for declaring a war. His opportunities are limited in Syria or the Aegean region. Furthermore, the accumulated tension in our region invites military confrontations today. Wars stem from the intra-imperialist conflicts, yet the economic interests alone do not determine when and how wars break out. In this bourgeois system, rationality and logic are not prerequisite for armed conflicts in any case.
What would be the outcome of such an intervention?
Turkey has become an active part of an illegitimate war or wars for years. No one could emerge as a winner from such an intervention. No matter what ethnicities they belong, the poor will be the loser of such an intervention.
Is it not possible to set forth that a pro-U.S. and Israel-backed Kurdish state could be prevented through a military intervention?
It is a worldwide fact that new states, or rather quasi-states have been founded following the collapse of the Soviet Union, posing a great harm to the peoples of the world. In today’s conjuncture, no new state could be advantageous for the oppressed and toiling people. In our example, it is apparent for whom a Barzani-led Kurdistan would serve. Nevertheless, that does not justify the AKP-led policies of Turkey today. Above all, Turkey’s credentials are extremely poor in such matters as the disintegration and partition of the countries in the region. Turkey was very enthusiastic about the disintegration of Yugoslavia. They wanted to divide Syria into tribal states by means of a bloody scenario.
Further away, the AKP government is carrying out separatism in Nigeria. Turkey played a big role in Barzani’s consolidation in Iraq. Now they want to sink the country into a war! In principle, we should reject Turkey’s cross-border military mobilization. For what reason will the poor youth wage a war? For the investments of Turkey. To whose profit? A handful of capitalists. The region suffers from such policies and politicians that continuously change sides but never side with the people. Turkey was also disputed with the Iraqi central government until yesterday while Barzani was a guest of honour, now we witness the friendship of Baghdad-Ankara. We cannot take this friendship seriously. The conflicts of interest are available at this point.
Today, what they attempt to foist under the mask of Turkey’s interests is, indeed, the interests of Turkey’s hegemonic, exploitative, predatory, dishonest and thief class. Shall we follow those, who turned this country into a playground of the U.S. and NATO in the name of the said class, only for they talk about the “homeland” at the moment! What will save Turkey from all this chaos is to build a pro-people, socialist and egalitarian system that will eliminate the entire ethnic and sectarian discriminations without excluding any citizen while enhancing the whole richness of the country.
The current order in Turkey has dragged the Kurdish question to this situation. The denial, exclusion and elimination policies and the initiatives or the peace process carried out with bargains behind closed doors without apparent goals… That is not the true path. In turn, the similar policies developed by those who are acting in the name of the Kurdish people also led to the same results. Such policies that ignore or downgrade the contradiction of labour-capital, that highlight not social inequalities but ethnic distinctions instead would not generate solutions. The international dimensions of Turkey’s Kurdish question have further complicated today, and those who have led the country into a pro-U.S. trajectory for forty years and committed murders in the name of the NATO say “We are against a pro-US Kurdish state,” now! That is nothing more than a charade.
But, cannot we consider the foundation of a Kurdish state in Iraq as self-determination of a nation?
Some consider so, doubtlessly. However, that is not a Marxist or progressive approach as some allege so. Some are talking about such self-determination that is independent from every other aspect while humanity is amidst the fight of backwards-progressive, while class inequalities further deepen and all the worldwide capital groups clash in a playground! Today this right has turned into a trump card for imperialist rivalry just as yesterday. The workers should unite against the exploiters in order to avoid this trap. Why would Barzani and the Kurdish people have a common destiny? “But Kurds want so,” that misses the essence of the point. All the nations and countries should resolve their problems on their own, but, at this point, we should side with the oppressed, progressive and legitimate forces. If a referendum is held tomorrow and the people are asked “Do you prefer sharia?” and if this referendum results in favour of the “yes” side with 51 percent, shall we bow it considering it as “people’s will”? Those who argue today that the referendum in question will pave the way for the emancipation of the poor Kurdish, Arab or Turkmen people in Iraq are telling lies. No, that will not happen so, but new conflicts will emerge, leading the poor peoples to clash each other.
A similar situation exists in Spain at the moment. A referendum will take place for Catalonia’s independence.
The situation is very different in Spain. Catalonia is a very rich and developed region. There is also no ethnic pressure in its usual forms. Moreover, the Catalans do not like the rest of Spain. Barcelona regards Madrid as the countryside. Now they want to build their own state. An underlying selfish motivation is re-generated today mainly by the aim of not transferring resources to the rest of Spain. Many countries have similar regional inequalities, and if every region acts only with the principle of self-interests, humanity will suffer from great pains and new conflicts will emerge. Suppose that a country’s water resources are located in a certain region, and that country says, “Water is mine,” or industrial or energy resources. They could not resolve this problem. Capitalism is such a social system that fosters and legitimates selfishness. It does not pay attention to social interests. Catalonia’s independence has nothing to contribute to humanity, no matter how they decorate it. That does not stand for legitimating the present order in Spain. The people should unite and shift this infamous order.
We suppose that the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) is against the referendum on the Kurdish state?
Would the opposite be possible? We are against both Barzani and the independence of a “Barzanistan.” We are against Turkey’s military mobilisation as well. To answer how to prevent it: only a unitary policy is possible; working peoples will unite against imperialism, exploitation and reactionary forces. Those who do not tend to agree with this option will get drowned in the midst of nationalisms and infamous market economy.
When I’ve started blogging about three years ago, I have said my opinions about region and Kurdish conflict at many bloggers page. I remember it had started with a Italian blogger who made PKK propaganda in English. It continued with many bloggers pages like this. I have tried to tell that PKK and the Kurdish peshmergas were/are used by CIA and Israel, and PKK is a terrorist organization.
Many of the bloggers banned me by saying many bad things against me. Even I can say most nice of them was who said to me “you are Stalinist”.
The thing what I have seen during 3 years was many western leftist saw the PKK and peshmergas as “freedom fighters”. And I’ve asked many time to myself, “why”? While everything is clear and open in front of their eyes, why they insist to see them as the freedom fighters? They don’t see that they are used by propaganda tools by Israel-USA for their benefits at the Middle East?
And now, while Barzanistan, so-called Kurdistan is being established, I am wondering that will these western leftists think their shares in bigger conflicts that will emerge at Middle East after today?
unnecessary news from earth 