In a metropolitan shantytown where many Kurds who sympathize with the PKK reside...
... one Kurdish Istanbulian explained to the TIME Magazine that the modern residential complex just across the highway was a symbol of the Turkish state.
When Turkish soldiers die in combat against the PKK, "many of the Turks living there (in the modern residential complex) hang national flags from their balconies," says another resident in the mainly Kurdish shantytown.
In response, he continues, Kurdish protesters "sometimes throw stones or Molotov cocktails at their windows."
These words remind me of Serap Eser, who was killed near my home by a Molotov cocktail thrown by PKK sympathizers...
Rest in peace.
* * *
In Turkey's national parliament where the number of Kurdish members is close the number of Turkish members...
Pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Leyla Zana has said “weapons are insurance for Kurds” as long as the Kurdish issue exists.
When Zana was imprisoned for giving support to a terrorist organization and inciting hatred and violence in the past, she was idolized by some European institutions.
Her latest words sound -once again- as if she is not a peace dove at all. Like many other BDP parliamentarians, she can't keep away from appearing as a Kurdish nationalist with a violent rhetoric that would be deemed illegal in any democracy.
But what about her European sponsors now?
Rest in peace.
* * *
In Denmark, where the drug-smuggling PKK keep laundering money and extorting "fees" from many Danish Kurds with threats, like they do in many other EU countries...
A court fined Roj TV, a Kurdish satellite channel, for broadcasting propaganda for the PKK, but did not withdraw its license.
Manouchehr Zonoozi, a former manager of Roj TV, was photographed when doing some journalism at a PKK training camp!
So, the current situation in Denmark is very interesting: The Danish authorities accept that the PKK is a terrorist organization and Roj TV is indeed its mouthpiece.
However, they still opted to let this Roj TV keep brainwashing Kurds through the satellite, inciting them, especially the poor and unemployed teenagers in metropolitan shantytowns like the TIME correspondent has recently visited in Istanbul.
Imagine if it could be possible for Al Qaeda and its media outlets in any Western country...
If the Danish government wouldn't revoke Roj TV's broadcasting license after this court decision, what would happen to the EU standards on so many levels?
Rest in peace.
* * *
In my own conscience...
I'm asking myself if I'm not contradicting with myself by calling for a ban on Roj TV.
After all, there are now 97 members of the news media in jail in Turkey and -like every self-respecting journalist should do- I've been campaigning for their release.
So why did I start to campaign for media censorship now, when it comes to Denmark?
No, there is no contradiction, I assured myself. Unlike several other free press campaigners, I don't discriminate between Turkish and Kurdish journalists who are arrested, although many of them are being accused by the government for having links to the PKK. In the Turkish prosecution process, the evidence against Kurdish journalists is not strong enough to prove a link similar to the one between the PKK and the Roj TV. None of them posed with PKK weapons, at least. It seems like they were arrested, only because they were criticizing the government.
Moreover, revoking the license of a TV station which has doubtlessly become a terrorist mouthpiece is not comparable to the mass arrests of dissident journalists. When it comes to Denmark, it should even be easier to understand it, as their former prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was the person who was in charge of NATO when they bombed the Libyan state television on July 30, because it was spreading pro-Gaddafi "terrorist propaganda," killing three journalists in the building.
Rest in peace.
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