Wednesday, May 08, 2013

A historic moment as two sides attempt to declare peace

Regardless of the outcome, today is historic.  The government of Turkey and the PKK are heeding the will of the people (Turks, Kurds and others) and attempting to reach a peace settlement.  Turkey has been the part of many histroical empires -- including the Hittite, Byzantine and the Ottoman Empire.  From 1918 to 1922, Constantinople was occupied by the French, British and Italians.  The native population fought back, expelled the occupiers and the Republic of Turkey was created.  That's a very brief and incomplete history of Turkey.   Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described the PKK in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk."

After many, many decades of conflict, the two sides are attempting a peace.  BBC News notes, "Kurdish rebel fighters have begun leaving south-eastern Turkey for their safe havens in Iraq under a ceasefire, Kurdish sources say."  Dropping back to April 29th:

Saturday, Hurriyet Daily News noted the withdrawal is supposed to begin May 8th.  Ayla Jean Yackley (Reuters) reported, "Turkish Prime Minister [Recep] Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday hailed the planned withdrawal of Kurdish rebel fights from Turkey as the end of a 'dark era' but warned against potential sabotage of a historic peace process."  World Bulletin added, "As part of measures taken to prevent any confrontation or clash between Turkish security forces and the members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) while the PKK is withdrawing from Turkey, thermal cameras will be turned off, military observation towers will be evacuated and Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will be deactivated, the Sabah daily reported on Thursday."  If it takes, this will be historic and credit will go not only to PKK leaders and Erdogan but also to the peace activists in Turkey who have called for years now for an end to the violence and to the leaders in the KRG who have not been properly credited by the press for their role in the dialogue. 




Selcan Hacaoglu (Bloomberg News) explains, "The bulk of the militants will have gone by the end of June, Gultan Kisanak, co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, said by telephone today. They are withdrawing toward neighboring northern Iraq, taking precautions against possible attack, said Kisanak, citing villagers in rural areas of the country’s largely Kurdish southeast."  There are already hiccups.  Hurriyet reports:


 On the other hand, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated that the militants should leave their arms behind and criticized the PKK chieftains for announcing the exact timeline of the retreat.
“Their announcement of a date etcetera, these kinds of things is wrong. I mean, if you will do something, then there is already no need to announce a date, this and that. The principles of this are leaving and laying down the arms. They would in any case know how to leave from wherever and how they had entered in the first place,” Erdoğan told reporters on May 7 following his address to his parliamentary group.
Erdoğan made this remark when he was reminded that Murat Karayılan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), announced that the militant withdrawal would begin on May 8. He also criticized the media’s publication of some maps outlining the directions of the PKK members’ retreat from Turkey into the northern Iraq. “How they will leave, when they will leave is up to them. Making definitions [on their retreat] is not part of our strategy,” he added.


 If the peace holds, people in southern Turkey and northern Iraq (PKK) (they share a border) will be the immediate beneficiaries.  They'll see less armed conflict (Turkey) and less warplanes dropping bombs (northern Iraq).  Within Turkey, a peace may allow for the various parties to work towards greater equality in the coming years.

Regardless of how it works out, this is a big thing.  War is declared constantly and far too quickly.  Today the PKK and the Turkish government are trying to declare peace.

Al Jazeera notes:

On Tuesday, the Kurdish rebels said they would not renege on their promise to withdraw on the orders of their imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Ocalan called for the historic ceasefire in March from his cell after months of clandestine peace talks.
Huseyin Bagci, professor of International Relations at the Middle East Technical University told Al Jazeera that there was a strong political will on both sides.
"We need a politically stable Turkey now, particularly after the Arab Spring. The political will has never been so strong in our history as it is today.
"In the coming months Turkey will not have clashes. Peace and economic development will take place.
"For the Kurds the next couple of years will bring more welfare and less military oppression. They will have better education and infrastructure within the country.
"Kurds are the winner in economic and political terms in the future."

Peter Kenyon (NPR's Morning Edition -- link is audio, a transcript will be up later today) observes, "But in the meantime, the Turks have begun to notice the quiet.  The absence of PKK attacks in what has come to be known as "the fighting season" begins.  They've also noticed that their sons aren't being killed chasing PKK fighters.  Whether that awareness turns into an active push for peace may be one of the biggest questions facing Turkey this year."

Wars are declared all the time.  They're never 100% won.  That's because a war means one side wins and another loses.  Peace is declared less often.  This ceasefire that the Turkish government and the PKK have entered into may or may not last.  Again, many wars fail.  Peace can fail too.  But this is a historic moment for the PKK, for Erdogan and his government, and for all the Turkish people -- regardless of sect or ethnicity.

The following community sites -- plus Adam Kokesh, Ms. magazine's blog, Antiwar.com, Susan's On the Edge, Pacifica Evening News, Black Agenda Report, The Diane Rehm Show and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- updated last night and this morning:






Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee and serves on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.  Yesterday, her office announced she'd be addressing the very important topic of infertility issues.  Many veterans return with wounds that make start families more difficult.  In addition, veterans without wounds often need assistance with starting families.  These are health care issues and Senator Murry continues to fight so that veterans and their families have the same health care coverage and access as civilians would. 





FOR PLANNING PURPOSES                        CONTACT: Murray Press Office
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013                                       (202) 224-2834

IVF: TOMORROW: Murray to Speak to National Infertility Association on Veterans Legislation

Murray’s Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvements Act of 2013 would end VA’s ban on in vitro fertilization

RESOLVE brings together men and women living with infertility to talk to Members of Congress about issues important to them

(Washington, D.C.) – Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 8th, 2013, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) will give a speech to RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, on her bill to end the VA’s ban on in vitro fertilization, which has prevented thousands of veterans with serious wounds to reproductive organs from accessing fertility care.  Last year, Senator Murray was able to pass the bill through the U.S. Senate after delivering an impassioned speech on the Senate floor that described the challenges veterans and their families face in accessing IVF. Unfortunately, the bill failed to move in the House of Representatives in time to make its way to the President’s desk after Republican leaders there expressed opposition.  Senator Murray reintroduced the bill in January, her first bill in the new Congress.  The RESOLVE group will hear from Senator Murray on their annual Advocacy Day, after which they will come to Capitol Hill to urge Members of Congress to act on Senator Murray’s legislation. 

WHO:          U.S. Senator Patty Murray
                                                 
WHAT:        Speech to RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, on her Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvement Act. Following Senator Murray’s speech, the RESOLVE group will head
                     to Capitol Hill for their annual advocacy day, where they will urge House members to take quick action on Senator Murray’s bill.  

WHEN:        TOMORROW: Wednesday, May 8th, 2013
          Senator Murray will speak at approximately 8:30 AM ET

WHERE:     The Liason Capitol Hill
                      415 New Jersey Avenue Northwest
                      Washington, D.C. 20001
                      Map

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Kathryn Robertson
Deputy Press Secretary 
Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510
202-224-2834
@PattyMurray | @SenateBudget | @MegRoh

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