"The Long Arm Of The War Profiteers?"

The Kurdish Movement Must Find A Way To Discuss With Its Critics In the last issue of the 'Kurdistan-Rundbrief', we published a statement from the Central Committee of the PKK, issued on January 6, 2000, which commented on an attack carried out by some guerrillas from the ARGK. [The text was not distributed on kurd-l, but English and German versions can be found on the net. -ATS] Among other things, the PKK Central Committee said: "The attempts at provocation and destruction, personified by M.Can, Kazim, and Isa, are directly responsible for the continuation of the line of organized collaboration which was responsible for the sabotage of the ceasefire in 1993." The statement continued with a critique of Turkey's desire to execute Ocalan: "At this critical time, provocateurs within our party have joined the aims of the international conspiracy. Despite positive efforts by our party, these poor souls, motivated by treason, have made themselves into the long arm of the war profiteers and the international conspirators. (...) The representatives of this tendency represent within our party the long arm of the clique in that they resist all form of change or renewal, they insist on being bandits, and they show our party to be unorganized, unprepared, and weak in the face of the international conspiracy." This document is a further sign of the serious struggle regarding the future strategy of the struggle which has been raging within Kurdish ranks since the arrest of Ocalan. The persons named in the statement are by no means unknown within the Kurdish movement. M.Can is Mehmet Can Yuce. He was arrested in 1980, one week after the military coup in Turkey, and has been imprisoned in Canakkale Prison in Ankara ever since. For years he was a regular columnist in Kurdish newspapers, most recently 'Ozgur Politika'. He wrote papers critical of the present line of the Presidential Council of the PKK together with Meral Kidir. Kidir was a defendant in the Dusseldorf PKK Trial in the late 1980s. After several years in prison in Germany, he returned to the Near East following his release and has been imprisoned in Turkey for the last few years. Therefore, calling their actions "collaboration", namely working together with one's political opponents, is exaggerated. Accusing these political prisoners of being responsible for the "sabotage of the ceasefire in 1993" from inside a Turkish prison is absurd, and it raises serious doubts about whether the many Kurdish prisoners in Turkish custody can count on solidarity from their movement if they criticize the political line of the movement. The other persons named in the statement, "Kazim" and "Isa", refer to two guerrilla commanders in Dersim, who, together with 50-100 guerrillas, were retreating, following the orders issued by the Presidential Council. During this retreat, they were attacked by the Turkish military. During the heavy fighting which ensued, a helicopter was shot down and six Turkish officers were killed. What happened next is not clear. Even reports in the Kurdish media about the clashes in Dersim are contradictory. In any event, the commanders decided not to continue with their retreat, and instead they went back into the mountains. Perhaps they did, in fact, refuse to follow the orders of the Presidential Council, perhaps it was a rebellion against the ARGK Central Command. But at this point, that is still speculation. In any case, to conclude from these events that the two commanders are "the long arm of the war profiteers" is completely exaggerated. The "war profiteers" are those people who own corporations which profit from arms sales and wars, or the generals who receive personal benefits from the continuation of the war. But what personal gain is to be had by guerrilla commanders who continue the war because they don't wish to be manipulated by the Turkish military? The serious and exaggerated language used by the Central Committee of the PKK in its statement is disturbing. It arouses in people, even friends of the Kurdish movement, the impression that the PKK and its institutions have become weak and confused, and can only respond to criticisms, not with arguments, but with defamations and smear campaigns against their critics. If this continues, further attacks like the one on Selahattin Celik or the direct threats like those made against Necdat Buldan are to be feared. The Kurdish movement should take back its accusation of "war profiteers" which it made against the critics in its own ranks, and it should find a way to open a discussion. Perhaps this will be achieved at the next Party Congress of the PKK, which sources say will take place in the near future. written by the editors of 'Kurdistan-Rundbrief' (Source: 'Kurdistan-Rundbrief', No. 2, Vol. 13 - January 26, 2000; Translated by Arm The Spirit)

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