27 headless bodies

[Gavur]

Kurdish Tv Blames Turkish Police For Three Blasts

Roj TV, Copenhagen
23 Nov 05

A second Semdinli [reference to bomb blast on 9 November which some
have blamed on the security forces] incident occurred in Sirnak's
Silopi District today. Once again, the perpetrators of the recent
spate of explosions in this district turned out to be state forces.

The Firat News Agency reports that the Silopi explosions were carried
out by JITEM [alleged intelligence unit within the Gendarmerie].

The blasts in Silopi began on 11 November, when the official vehicle of
the chief public prosecutor was bombed and they continued with blasts
at the district security directorate and at a clothing store. The
perpetrators of these blasts have been identified. They are members
of JITEM, a body that includes army personnel, confessors and village
guards.

Following the confession of a village guard who was caught throwing
a hand grenade at the Silopi security directorate two days ago [21
November], the investigation revealed that JITEM carried out the
three explosions in the district in 10 days.

Sabri Binzat, Mehmet Ozkan, C.D., C.B., D.A., and A.K. who are
linked to JITEM were detained. In their statements, they assumed
responsibility for the said explosions. It is reported that Sabri
Binzat and Mehmet Ozkan are village guards, and that a person whose
name has not been revealed was a confessor. A media ban has reportedly
been placed on the investigation.

[Gavur]

Turkish Premier Tells Kurds Government Will Investigate

TURKISH PREMIER TELLS KURDS GOVERNMENT WILL INVESTIGATE ALLEGATIONS OF SUMMARY EXECUTIONS
Selcan Hacaoglu

AP Worldstream
Nov 21, 2005

The prime minister assured the restive Kurdish population in Turkey's
southeast Monday the government will investigate allegations of summary
executions by security forces that have sparked violent protests.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accompanied by Interior Minister
Abdulkadir Aksu and Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, addressed hundreds
of Kurds under tight security in the southeastern town of Semdinli
on an unscheduled visit.

The government wants to show it is determined to investigate
allegations that Turkish security forces may have been behind a
Nov. 9 bombing targeting a convicted Kurdish guerrilla in Semdinli,
which is in the Hakkari province bordering Iran and Iraq.

The allegations _ which led to violent clashes between Kurds and
security forces which have left at least four people dead over the
past two weeks _ raised fears that security forces might have been
carrying out a summary execution, a common practice in the early
1990s in the fight against Kurdish rebels.

"Our government will follow this issue until the end," Erdogan
said. "Let's be calm in the face of these incidents. Hate will not
bring anything good to us. What will happen to this region after
then? Let's join our hands and remove this hatred."

The investigation is sensitive because it involves members of the
military, one of the most powerful institutions in Turkey. Turkey,
meanwhile, has begun EU membership negotiations and must address
concerns about the country's human rights record.

Authorities have charged three sergeants from the paramilitary police
and a Kurdish rebel informant in the Nov. 9 bombing.

The EU, which started entry negotiations with Turkey last month,
has already been critical of Turkey's poor human rights record. The
European Commission recently issued a progress report that said
it was still uncovering evidence of torture and ill-treatment of
minorities. EU membership negotiations are likely to last at least
a decade.

In his speech, Erdogan vowed that all citizens would be free to
express their ethnic identity within the limits of Turkish citizenship.

"We all have sub-identities ... no one should be offended by this,"
Erdogan promised. "A Kurd can say: 'I am a Kurd.'" "We have to
continue living brotherly, shoulder-to-shoulder, no matter what ethnic
group we belong or religion," Erdogan said.

That inclusiveness may be the norm in Europe but is a controversial
concept in Turkey, where many see ethnicity as having the potential
to break apart the nation.

Erdogan rushed to the southeast after a Kurdish demonstrator was shot
dead Sunday night in the southern city of Mersin. Hours earlier,
Kurdish protesters, including supporters of the outlawed Kurdish
rebel group, Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, set an armored police
car on fire in Istanbul.

Over the past two weeks, another three demonstrators have been
shot dead in the southeastern town of Yuksekova, also in Hakkari
province. After Semdinli, Erdogan visited Yuksekova.

[Gavur]

Turkish Premier Convenes Meeting To Discuss Bombing Blamed On Security Forces

Suzan Fraser

AP Worldstream
Nov 25, 2005

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with government and military
officials on Friday to discuss allegations that Turkey's security
forces may have attacked a convicted Kurdish rebel with a grenade.

The Nov. 9 attack on a book shop in the mainly Kurdish town of Semdinli
_ which killed one person but not its apparent target _ sparked days
of rioting that left four dead and raised fears that security forces
may have been trying to carry out summary executions. Such executions
were common in the early 1990s in the fight against Kurdish rebels.

The government has promised a thorough investigation of the bombing
and no cover-up, and parliament this week voted to set up its own
committee to probe the attack.

But adding to the government's woes, a court on Thursday ordered the
arrest of five detained men, including two government-paid and -armed
village guards in connection with the bombing of a police station in
the southeastern town of Silopi.

Erdogan met with Chief of Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, Land Forces
commander Gen.

Yasar Buyukanit and Gen. Fevzi Turkeri, commander of the paramilitary
forces, the Prime Minister's office said. The Foreign, Justice,
Interior and Defense ministers were also attending the meeting.

The book store was owned by Seferi Yilmaz, a former guerrilla with
the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who was convicted and served 14
years in prison for participating in the group's first armed attack
in August 1984.

Yilmaz and bystanders chased the suspected bomber, a PKK informant,
to a car outside and captured the suspect and two paramilitary police
standing next to the car.

In the car, which allegedly was owned by the paramilitary police,
there were reportedly hand grenades similar to the one used in the
attack, guns, plans showing Yilmaz's shop and a list indicating which
Kurdish clans were pro-state and which were not.

Bombings in Silopi in recent weeks have targeted a prosecutor's
car, a police station and a shop. It was not immediately clear why
village guards, charged by the state with protecting villages against
separatist guerillas, would be involved in an attack on the police
station in Silopi. But earlier, Turkish authorities had placed the
blame for the attack on the PKK, considered a terrorist organization
by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Some 37,000 people have died as a result of the fighting between the
Turkish military and Kurdish rebels.

[Gavur]

Turkey: Justice denied to tortured teenage girls

Press release, 04/22/2005

Amnesty International today called for Turkey's Court of Appeal to urgently re-examine the case of four police officers acquitted of the torture and rape of two teenage girls after a massively delayed and grossly inadequate investigation and trial.

"This trial has already taken over four years and has been postponed more than 30 times," said James Logan, researcher on Turkey at Amnesty International. "For it to be dismissed at this stage over an entirely bogus technicality is abominable. Justice has not been served."

The police officers had been charged with subjecting Nazime Ceren Salmanoglu, then 16 years old, and Fatma Deniz Polattas, then 19 years old, to horrific torture including rape with serrated objects, beatings, suspension by the arms, and forced "virginity tests" in early March 1999. The women say they were also denied food and drink, prevented from sleeping or using the toilet, and forced to strip and remain naked in a cold room. Confessions regarding their membership in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) obtained during the torture, were used to sentence both women to long prison terms. Nazime Ceren Salmanoglu was released at the end of last year under changes made to the Turkish penal code. Fatma Deniz Polattas is still in prison.

The court today dismissed the case against the police officers because of "insufficient evidence", based on the General Board of the Forensic Medical Institute's assessment that the psychiatric reports submitted did not constitute valid evidence. This is unacceptable for several reasons: first and most critically because at least one of the doctors on the Board had previously received disciplinary punishment for covering up torture. In addition, many members of the Board are not specialists in these types of cases, and in any case an expert committee from the Institute had previously determined that this evidence was indeed valid.

Extraordinary delays have marked the judicial proceedings from the outset and only after extensive psychiatric evaluations corroborated the allegations did the trial finally begin on 14 April 2000. The court then waited 28 months for medical reports to be forwarded from Turkey's Forensic Medical Institute.

Amnesty International urges the Court of Appeals to reverse this decision to allow investigations and prosecution to take place and bring those responsible for these violent crimes to justice.

"The Turkish justice system has failed victims of human rights violations once again," said James Logan. "If the Court allows this decision to stand, it will be sending the clearest message yet that the state sanctions violence and brutality committed by police and security officers."

http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGEUR440182005

[Gavur]

'JITEM' case as Important as Semdinli's

ERHAN BASYURT
12.07.2005 Wednesday - ISTANBUL 05:35



Two noncommissioned officers, a master sergeant and a confessor involved in Semdinli incidents were arrested. The Van High Criminal Court accuses the suspects in the Gendarmerie intelligence of “establishing an organization with the aim of committing a crime” and “breaking the order.” The case to be tried in Van and the upcoming developments are very important in establishing the supremacy of the law.


The judicial process in Semdinli is going on in the right direction since the media is pursuing the issue and the government has also its declared determination. However, ”the case of JITEM” (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-Terror Unit) with similarities to Semdinli, followed a different process a short time ago.

The confessor Abdulkadir Aygan, who served at JITEM for a certain period of time, made striking statements to the Ozgur Gundem newspaper on March 8-15, 2004. Aygan mentioned many unsolved murders, including those of Esref Bitlis and Ugur Mumcu, and claimed someone called Murat Aslan, accused of being a PKK supporter, was kidnapped by JITEM with a “white Toros car” as he was walking in Yenisehir, Diyarbakir with two of his friends on March 10, 1994. Aygan claimed Aslan was first taken to the JITEM Headquarters in Diyarbakir, then to the Silopi JITEM Headquarters, and afterwards to a place in the vicinity of Kortuk village near the Tigris River, where he was doused with gas and set afire. Aygan claimed this action was carried out by Commander Abdulkerim Kirca, the JITEM head at that time.

In excavations made at the alleged crime scene, following pressure from Izzettin Aslan, the father, and under the supervision of the Silopi prosecutor and the Diyarbakir Bar Association, the bones of a burned human corpse were found. DNA test revealed that that was really Murat Aslan’s corpse. The Diyarbakir Bar Association and the Human Rights Association of Turkey filed a lawsuit against 31 people, whose names were mentioned in the confessions on February 8, 2005.

Diyarbakir’s High Criminal Court Prosecutor Mithat Ozcan demanded life sentences for eight people among those accused of involvement in the case, for “having established an organization in order to commit a crime,” “torture,” and for “premeditated murder.” Retired Commander Abdulkerim Kirca, Gendarme Master Sergeant Yuksel Ugur still in service, JITEM member confessors Abdulkadir Aygan, Muhsin Gul, Fethi Cetin, Kemal Emluk and his wife Saniye Emluk and Mahmut Yildirim, with the code name “Yesil” (Green), were among the suspects.

However, in a very interesting manner, just a day later, Prosecutor Ozcan was made to withdraw from the investigation. Other cases he was investigating at that time were also taken from him. In addition, a decision on the “lack of jurisdiction” was made on three of the eight suspects on the grounds they belonged to the military and their files were transferred to the Diyarbakir Military Prosecutor’s Office of 7th Army Corps Command. The arrest order for the other five suspects was annulled on the grounds they could benefit from past amnesties. Though the suspects are also from the military in Semdinli case, the case is being tried at the Van Criminal High Court, but transferring the case to the 7th Army Corps in the JITEM case was a serious contradiction. Besides, no progress has been made for six months.

Such coincidence in the Semdinli case as Land Forces Commander Yasar Buyukanit saying, “I know Ali Kaya, he is not the kind of person who can commit a crime,” was also seen during the JITEM case. Commander Kirca was awarded the “State Medal of Honor” in Ankara on the same day the prosecutor sent the case file to court.

Clarifying the Semdinli and JITEM cases is very improtant with regards to the supremacy of the law. Both cases must not overshadow the great accomplishments the Gendarmerie has achieved so far in the fight against terrorism. If the judiciary finds these officials guilty of breaking the law, cleaning up the Gendarmerie would not weaken the establishment, on the contrary, it would strenghten it.


December 2, 2005
ZAMAN

[Gavur]

Susurluk accused Bucak to be retried

The New Anatolian / Ankara





Court overturns Bucak acquittal

Sedat Edip Bucak, a key name in the Susurluk case will be retried following the overturning of his acquittal.

Istanbul Second High Criminal Court overturned Bucak’s acquittal ruling yesterday. Bucak will be retried on charges of “forming a gang to commit a crime” in the Susurluk case.

The crash of an armored Mercedes into a truck near the southwestern town of Susurluk on a cold night in November 1996, which killed three of the car's four passengers, provided the clearest indication of links between mafia, police and state officials. What began as a routine police investigation into the accident showed that the Mercedes' passengers included an ultranationalist fugitive, a top police official, a member of parliament and the fugitive's girlfriend, a former beauty contest winner. True Path Party (DYP) Deputy Sedat Bucak was the only survivor.

Bucak’s legal immunity was lifted for the Susurluk investigation and he faced charges of “hiding the wanted Abdullah Catli and not informing the authorities of his whereabouts”, “forming a gang to commit a crime” and “carrying an illegal weapon”, filed by the State Security Court Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Bucak faced 11 to 20 years of imprisonment.

As Bucak was re-elected as Sanliurfa deputy on Apr. 18, 1999, the trial was suspended and the file was sent to Parliament requesting the lifting of his immunity on May 3, 1999.

On failing re-election in the November 2002 elections, Bucak’s file was sent to Istanbul Second High Criminal Court as the State Security Court was no longer authorized to hear cases related to Article 313 and 314 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

The court ruled in favor of Bucak’s acquittal on June 26, 2003 in relation to the charge of “forming a gang to commit a crime” and postponed hearing the other charges.

Reviewing the original decision, the Court of Appeals ruled that the reason given for his acquittal didn't agree with the contents of the file and overturned the ruling. The Court also warned that Bucak shouldn't’t be tried as a gang member but as a gang leader due to his position.

[Gavur]

Crime and patriotism

Monday, January 23, 2006






Opinion by Doğu ERGİL
I would not have felt the need to write this article if villains like Mehmet Ali Agca were not celebrated as heroes and still protected by a network that Turkey has yet to rid itself of. His prison sentence has been terminated by downsizing the period he will stay behind bars. He was met at the gate with flags and chants of 'Turkey is proud of you.' He was rushed to the military draft center for a deferment of his military duty, which he never did serve, and was then ushered in from the commander’s door of the GATA Military Hospital, where he received a report indicating his antisocial and behavioral disorders (Source: Derya Sazak, 'Organized Things' in Milliyet, Jan. 19, 2006), thus closing the door to performing his obligatory military service, which is emphasized as a 'patriotic duty' in popular culture.

Doğu ERGİL
I would not have felt the need to write this article if villains like Mehmet Ali Agca were not celebrated as heroes and still protected by a network that Turkey has yet to rid itself of. His prison sentence has been terminated by downsizing the period he will stay behind bars. He was met at the gate with flags and chants of “Turkey is proud of you.” He was rushed to the military draft center for a deferment of his military duty, which he never did serve, and was then ushered in from the commander's door of the GATA Military Hospital, where he received a report indicating his antisocial and behavioral disorders (Source: Derya Sazak, “Organized Things” in Milliyet, Jan. 19, 2006), thus closing the door to performing his obligatory military service, which is emphasized as a “patriotic duty” in popular culture.

However, there is a second aspect of the problem that involves thwarted popular values and social conduct, born out of socialization into these values, which may be summed up as total obedience to authority (read this as the state) and emphasis on national security over basic civil rights and the rule of law. The first resulted in a kind of nationalism in which the nation was made subservient to the state, and the second resulted in the creation of an extra-legal zone in which life was given and taken in the “internal battlefield” (against "internal enemies") for the security of the nation as defined by officialdom. Both of these outcomes are contradictory to the democratic future that Turkey aspires to and to becoming a part of “contemporary civilization,” as its founding father had envisioned. However, they are a seminal part, even the spirit, of our political culture and school curriculum, which aim to turn out nationalists rather than citizens.

Looking at the hasty appeal of the minister of justice to the High Court of Appeals to re-evaluate the duration of the prison sentence that Agca had to serve, it seems a gross mistake must have been made. First, the penalties given for trying to kill the pope in Italy and for assassinating prominent journalist Abdi Ipekci in Turkey are two different crimes and are not deductible from each other. Secondly, the craft exercised between the lawyers and judges to reduce the sentence for the murder committed by Agca as well as for the multiple armed robberies committed in Turkey reeks of nepotism and has to be seriously looked into. Thirdly, the amnesty Agca is benefiting from for his crimes is the last of three since his criminal acts, and he has no right to serve a reduced sentence according to the one from which he has been released. All of these facts put together give a strong impression that this criminal is protected and still looked after since the bloody 1970s and 1980s.

At a time when these facts are debated by the public, a statement was issued by the Office of the Chief of General Staff, criticizing casual association of such concepts like “special forces,” “counter-guerilla,” “Gladio” and “deep state.” The military authority is quite right; these concepts or organizations have too often been used interchangeably and haphazardly. However, in the remaining part of the statement is a remarkable paragraph that reads something like: Such incriminating and exaggerated writings and comments on an organization that was established during the Cold War, like similar ones in many other countries that perform very delicate duties against the aggressor, will not only harm this organization but also weaken steps taken in defense of the motherland."

Forgive my naiveté, but isn't this an admission that such an organization has existed since its establishment, meaning the days of the Cold War? If the Cold War is over, why still cling to such secret organizations that were formed to wage war on the home front? Who is the enemy? Which group of citizens is targeted? Who is in charge and who is responsible to the public, the elected authority and the judiciary?

My second concern is the values that make up our national political culture, which was summed up by ex-Prime Minister Tansu Ciller: “Whoever takes a shot or shot at in defense of the country is venerable!” This statement was made at a time when extrajudicial assassinations had reached their peak and when an unnamed civil war was being waged in the second half of the 1990s. In this atmosphere those small-town boys, who had no chance of upward mobility, were prone to be used by domestic and foreign forces and were badly abused as triggermen to eliminate the “enemies” of their manipulators. Their mentality was shaped by nationalism bordering racism, a dose of religiosity and a lot of xenophobia spiced by anti-Semitism. Educational and professional skills were replaced with a romanticized use of sheer force as “saviors” of an endangered motherland that they were capable of and trained for. Most likely, they did not even know who they were really serving except the people they were in contact with. However, they were used throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s against the country's internal enemies, against ethnic terrorists abroad (like ASALA) and in Cyprus. In return, their crimes were covered up, and they received a cut of the illegal gains accrued from untaxed black market activities. The investigation of the Susurluk incident brought this infamous relationship to light and put it on record. However, almost nothing has been done to pursue the illegal relationships that were realized in “defense of the country.” The deep network remained intact.

Now the critical question is, will the majority of Turks and the politicians they elect allow business to continue as usual and condemn Turkey to the twilight zone of constipated democracies and semi-free countries, or will they take steps to cleanse its black-red political past and carry their country into the club of open and transparent countries?

[Gavur]

Turkey Charges Kurdish Ex-deputies For Praising Rebel Leader

Agence France Presse -- English
January 26, 2006 Thursday 3:26 PM GMT

An Ankara prosecutor has charged two Kurdish former members of the
Turkish parliament with praising jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan,
the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.

Selim Sadak and Hatip Dicle, former deputies for the now-banned
Democracy Party, could be jailed for up to two years if convicted
over an interview they gave in September to the Denmark-based Kurdish
television channel, Roj TV.

The report of the indictments came as a group of 25 Kurds in
neighbouring Armenia staged a hunger strike Thursday in protest over
Ocalan's detention on the prison island of Imrali in the Marmara sea
south of Istanbul.

"Recently the Turkish authorities have toughened Ocalan's detention
conditions. His health is threatened," said organiser Jenia Amirian.

"He is not allowed to see his lawyers. His hour-long exercise sessions
have been forbidden. We want to bring the attention of international
opinion to Turkey's inhumane behaviour," she said.

The news agency said Dicle and Sadak were accused of terming Ocalan's
jail sentence "isolation" and asserting that "this will never be
accepted by the Kurdish people" of Turkey.

The pair spent 10 years behind bars with two other ex-deputies,
Orhan Dogan and Leyla Zana, on charges of backing Ocalan's outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Freed in June 2004 the four are awaiting trial for a third time.

The Turkish government accuses Roj TV of being a PKK mouthpiece.

Ocalan, now 57, was sentenced to death in 1999 for his role in the
PKK's armed struggle for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish-populated
southeast which has claimed 37,000 lives since 1984.

His sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2002 after Turkey
abolished capital punishment as part of reforms to boost its bid to
join the European Union.

Last year, Ankara introduced restrictions on Ocalan's meetings with
his lawyers, whom it accused of carrying orders from the rebel leader
to his militants who have recently stepped up their armed campaign.

[Gavur]

Turkey’s “Deep State” Surfaces in Former President’s Words, Deeds in Kurdish Town

2/8/2006
MRMEA - By Jon Gorvett
When a former president and seven-time prime minister of Turkey says that the country has not one state but two, many naturally sit up and take notice.

When he says this a few days after nationwide riots, sparked by an alleged plot by one of those states to murder a long list of its opponents, it becomes clear that in Turkey, the nature of the state is no abstract political discussion.

Indeed, with two dead and the rioting spreading from the Iranian border to districts of Istanbul, the remarks by Suleyman Demirel made in a mid-November interview with NTV television had a certain urgency to them as well.

“It is fundamental principle that there is one state,” Demirel noted—but added, however, “In our country there are two.”

Demirel, who was president of Turkey from 1994 to 1999, led a string of governments in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, including one brought to an abrupt end in 1980 by a military coup.

“There is one deep state and one other state,” he elaborated. “The state that should be real is the spare one, the one that should be spare is the real one.”

On Nov. 9, in the southeastern town of Semdinli, few would have disagreed with Demirel’s assessment.

Around lunchtime, eyewitnesses claim, a white “Dogan” car, registered in the central Anatolian city of Konya, drew up near the Umit, or “Hope,” bookstore.

The store was run by Seferi Yilmaz, who is widely thought to have been a sympathizer of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), the ethnic Kurdish guerrilla organization that has been fighting Turkish troops for some 20 years now in order to realize its aim of Kurdish independence. There is no doubt that Yilmaz had served 15 years in prison for alleged PKK membership.

Reportedly, what happened next was that one of the car’s occupants threw a bomb into the bookstore, located in a busy shopping area. The device exploded, killing Yilmaz and seriously wounding another man. The bomber then took flight and headed back for the car. However, the crowd pursued the suspect and surrounded the vehicle. A tussle then ensued, and the occupants of the car reportedly opened fire, killing another man and wounding four others seriously.

The police then arrived, and arrested the car’s four occupants, taking them away to a nearby police station. But by this time members of the crowd had broken into the vehicle, allegedly discovering several AK-47 rifles and a Turkish Gendarmerie Intelligence (JITEM) ID-card in the trunk. There was also reportedly a “hit list” of other targets.

“The state that should be real is the spare one, the one that should be spare is the real one.”
Reportedly, many in the crowd also recognized the car’s other occupants as plainclothes JITEM officers—claims later borne out as the police prepared to prosecute the four men they had arrested. Three were JITEM NCOs, while the person who allegedly carried out the bombing was a PKK “confessor.”

Kurdish groups and human rights organizations have in the past often described how such “confessors”—captured PKK members—sometimes are given the chance to go free or take a lesser punishment in return for betraying other PKK members, or even for carrying out attacks against them.

The discovery that the bombing had apparently been an operation of JITEM—one of the most notorious of the undercover security services operating in Turkey—sparked fury among the local, mainly ethnic Kurdish population. Rioting ensued for several days, and spread to other Kurdish communities across the country.

The story also broke in the Turkish press, with allegations that the attack revealed yet again the existence of the “deep state.” It was this dark force to which Demirel subsequently referred.

Defining the “deep state” is not so easy, however. Some argue that it is a hangover from the Cold War, when Western powers sought to establish a network of armed groups that would stay behind in countries that might have fallen to the Soviet bloc. While these groups were then abolished in most countries when the Soviet Union collapsed, the theory is that in Turkey this never happened. Instead, the group continues to operate, an unofficial underground army tied to organized crime and a bevy of corrupt politicians, police and bureaucrats.

Politics Abhors a Vacuum
A wider view of the “deep state,” however, and one that is not uncommon, sees it as a product of Turkey’s weak central state.

Perhaps one way of demonstrating this is to look at the state’s response to the Semdinli incident. The government in Ankara, with the support of the opposition, quickly pushed a bill through parliament setting up an official enquiry. The prime minister himself, Recip Tayyip Erdogan, made a surprise visit to the town and swore that the perpetrators of the bombing would be punished, while also calling for calm and an end to the rioting.

However, some also remembered that Erdogan had visited the southeast’s regional capital, Diyarbakir, back in September and caused great hope of some progress in addressing the region’s considerable problems. Recognizing the existence of the Kurdish issue for the first time, he received strong praise from local Kurdish leaders for doing so.

Since then, however, little if anything has happened. Indeed, many commentators remarked in Semdinli that the prime ministerial delegation looked particularly lost during their visit, perhaps overwhelmed by the strangeness of the situation in which they found themselves, as people in the crowds that had come to see them began to chant complaints and even abuse.

Returning to Ankara from Semdinli, the government came in for further attack—this time from the Turkish military.

A Nov. 24 meeting at the prime ministry with military officials, called to discuss “terrorism,” ended with politicians retreating from their earlier enthusiasm for a full investigation in Semdinli. The military also criticized the politicians for linking the incident to the “deep state,” stressing instead that the PKK—and Kurdish groups across the border in northern Iraq—should have been held responsible.

In the southeast, many will interpret this as another indication of Ankara’s weak political ability to really affect what is going on in the region. The real powers, many ethnic Kurds say, are the military, the police, the gendarmerie and JITEM, along with an array of tribal armies, village guards, other intelligence services and secretive death squads. The “deep state” is all these people, many in Diyarbakir would argue, rather than some Cold War-era hangover. This interwoven pattern of interests will also resist attempts to democratize the southeast—or, for that matter, Turkey in general—as any such attempt would immediately undermine its power.

Dealing with this second state will therefore likely be the biggest challenge facing the government in the years ahead, as its efforts to match European Union standards in particular oblige it to try and unify the mechanisms of power, bringing them under electoral control.

Semdinli may therefore just be the start of a very long—and bumpy—road.

[imported_RUDO]

It is heart-breaking.But it is the Turkey's reality.We always live it everyday.And we lose our hopes.