The Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV station will be taken off the air in 48 hours, as the French government has recently given an ultimatum to Eutelsat, a Paris-based satellite provider, arguing that the channel incites people to hatred.
I support the decision, because Al-Aqsa TV is nothing but a harmful propaganda machine, directly targeting the minds of the youth by abusing religious values. Letting this channel broadcast its pseudo-Islamic indoctrination via satellite is a shame, so legally stopping it is totally justified in my eyes.
However, when it comes to the traditional double standards of several Western European countries, even such a rightful decision may sound misguided.
The countries which can easily restrict Hamas' right of free speech generally defend that they can't do anything to the EU-based propaganda machine of PKK, because it would be against media freedom.
The number of countries and international organizations that list PKK as a terrorist organization is greater than the number of countries and international organizations that list Hamas as a terrorist organization. So we can say that the international consensus is more widespread when it comes to the PKK terrorism. However:
"Despite Brussels' designation of the group as a terrorist organization, the EU continues to permit the broadcasting of the organization's networks on the Hot Bird 3 satellite owned by the French company Eutelsat. Medya TV started transmissions from studios in Belgium via a satellite uplink from France. Medya TV's license was revoked by the French authorities. A few weeks later Roj TV began transmissions from Denmark. It has also been argued that the Netherlands and Belgium have supported the PKK by allowing its training camps to function in their respective territories. On November 22, 1998, Hanover's criminal police reported that three children had been trained by the PKK for guerrilla warfare in camps in the Netherlands and Belgium. After the death of Theo van Gogh, with increasing attention on domestic security concerns, the Dutch police raided the 'PKK paramilitary camp' in the Dutch town of Liempde and arrested 29 people in November 2004. Denmark allows Kurdish satellite television stations (such as Roj TV), which Turkey claims has links with the PKK, to operate in Denmark and broadcast into Turkey."
Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende has recently proven without doubt that Roj TV is organically linked to PKK. Later, they even published the photographs of some Roj TV officials in PKK's headquarters in northern Iraq, documenting their financial links to the terrorist organization.
So it's basically the same situation with Al-Aqsa TV and Roj TV. Even the satellite provider is same. And considering the number of civilians who have recently been killed by these terrorist organizations, it is clear that Turkey is even in a more urgent situation.
Unfortunately, the European Commission who has recently warned the French authorities to stop the Hamas broadcast don't do so when it comes to PKK. So Denmark keeps playing three monkeys, continuing its self-centered, cowardly immoral policies.
As if this is not enough, the very same countries which are the main reasons that a terrorist organization like PKK could remain so powerful, can still shamelessly ask for support from Turkey, say, in the bid of their prime ministers as a candidate to the leadership of NATO or in the war on terrorism or in curbing illegal immigrants or in defending their rights to develop nuclear energy.
Here, I obviously mean the United States, the UK, several northern European countries including Denmark, as well as Russia, Greece, Cyprus, Iran and Syria; but they are not the only problem here.
Such developments can really show why the EU, as well as the whole international system, is doomed as long as they persistently try to live on with such double standards.
With the AKP government, it is shown that neither Turkey is an exception anymore, as it also started to develop its own double standards, especially when it comes to grand-scale international issues which cannot be solved without starting by adopting an ethical position first.
Though, can you expect political ethics from the majority of the officials in countries like Denmark, France, Belgium and the Netherlands which are all surrendered to racism and xenophobia as it's also demonstrated by the latest election results? And what about Turkey?
You say.
In Brussels, the capital of the EU, you can't organize a massive march with Osama bin Laden portraits, even if it's totally peaceful; because Al Qaida is listed as a terrorist organization by the EU. However, on March 6th, hundreds of PKK supporters rallied in the middle of Brussels with the portraits of Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of PKK, as well as PKK flags. They attacked the Turkish shops around and the Belgian police didn't pop up before a Turkish shopkeeper was beaten severely by the mob. Don't tell me that Belgium is a small, vulnerable country who is really afraid of a PKK backlash. Weren't they also small when they were exploiting and colonizing Africa with genocides? Maybe now they should start using some of the loot to invest to protect some of their own citizens, Belgian-Turks, and to be in harmony with the international community which includes Turkey as a significant actor.
