K.O.M.I.T.E.E. Communique - Nov. 19

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at etext.org>
Subject: K.O.M.I.T.E.E. Communique - Nov. 1994

Statement Concerning The Attack In Bad Freienwalde

"I can't really hold Turkey responsible; we all know about
Turkey, the whole world knows about Turkey. One Kurdish proverb
states: 'Expect the worst from your enemy so that you won't be
disappointed.' But the German authorities, who claim to be
defenders of human rights, these people I blame. They are just as
guilty of murdering Mesut as the Turkish soldiers themselves are.
What have we done to them? Why do they do such things to us? The
Germans also murdered my son. They must be held responsible. I
call on the public to see to it that my son's death is punished.
Please, tell the people there to stop them from sending weapons
here, because we are being tortured and killed by these weapons." 

- statement from the mother of Mesut Dunder, who was killed on
23.9.92 by a German tank, to the German public

     On 27.10.94, we destroyed the barracks of the
Verteidigungskriegskommando 852 in Bad Freienwalde in Markisch
Oberland with an incendiary device.

Germany Is A Partner In The Genocidal War In Kurdistan:
Militarily, Economically, And Politically!

"Turkey, because of its strategic position on NATO's southeastern 
flank, used to be the cornerstone of our security. Today, because
of the developments in the southern regions of the former Soviet
Union as well as in other countries in the Near and Middle East,
Turkey is even more important. A democratic and stable Turkey can
play an important role in this region's relationship to Europe.
(...) Our military aid is the continuation of agreements made by
previous German governments and is of particular importance for
the Atlantic Alliance."

- Helmut Kohl during the parliamentary debate on 2.4.94, where a
central issue was the lifting of the limited arms embargo against
Turkey

     The above statement clearly spells out Germany's role in the
war in Kurdistan. Turkey is the power charged with keeping
regional stability, after having won for itself the reputation at
the international level of being the only power in the area which
can be trusted. Following a NATO meeting Brussels in January
1994, at a trilateral foreign ministers conference in Ankara
between Germany, Great Britain, and Turkey, Foreign Minister
Kinkel proclaimed Turkey's "strategic importance" in Europe's new
security structure because of its proximity to Asia (taz,
21.1.94). In other words, what had previously been a bulwark
against Bolshevik expansionism would now buffer the rise of
Islamic fundamentalism in the Near East, while at the same time
preventing Russia from exerting excess pressure on the new
republics in the Caucasus and Asia. Turkey's final role has to do
with the so-called "Turk states" (Azerbaijan, Kazakstan,
Cirgesia, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan) which are granted to be
"natural" spheres of influence for Turkey on account of the fact
that they are all "brother states with common historical and
cultural ties". The first step towards realizing the hegemony of
this region was the agreement signed with these Turk republics in
Istanbul on 19.10.94 which foresees "increasing political and
cultural relations".
     It is this geopolitical status which Turkey enjoys which is
costing Kurds their lives every day. This function which Turkey
exercises in the region is the reason why genocide can be carried
out with impunity with the approval and support of Western
states. Higher interests must take priority.
     Germany is the most significant pillar of support which
Ankara enjoys. Turkey's 3,000-man anti-terror unit, the "Black
Beetles", known for its killer mentality, is trained by the
Germany's own anti-terrorist elite, the GSG-9. Each year, Turkish
"students" are educated at the Bundeswehr's officers academy and
at various police training facilities.
     Turkey is the largest customer of the world's second largest
arms exporter, Germany. Arms exports from Germany to Turkey
totalled 6.3 billion DM from 1964-94. The "NATO defence aid"
which Turkey receives, enough to equip an entire army, is
virtually free. And this doesn't include the cheap credits for
arms purchases and other "regular" deals which Turkey enters
into. The "NATO defence aid" which Turkey was granted in a 1964
NATO decision will finally expire at the end of 1994. In addition
to the deal for 68 million DM of arms from 1992-94, a report from
the Foreign Ministry has noted that Turkey recently received an
additional 1.5 billion DM in other materials from Bonn. This
included the free delivery of former NVA army weapons from the
former East Germany. The total amount of arms gifts given to
Turkey since 1989 makes the real dimension of this transaction
clear. Here are just a few examples: 30 fighter jets, 170
Leopard-1 battle tanks, 300 BTR-60PB (East German) armoured
tanks, 537 M-113 armoured tanks, 1,000 air-to-air rockets, 5,000
tank shells, RPG-7s (East German) with 200,000 grenades, more
than 300,000 Kalaschnikov machine pistols (East German), and
175,000 gas masks.
     In addition to military aid to Turkey, the German government
would also like to conclude a comprehensive private business
deal: In a Finance Ministry report to Parliament, it was
announced that talks were underway between the Turkish Defence
Ministry and various German corporations. These talks concerned
the "delivery of 115 trailers for transporting tanks" and 10
multi-use helicopters. Bonn is hoping to secure a deal worth
120.7 million DM. Negotiations with the Turkish Defence Ministry
concern deliveries worth a total of 1.8 billion DM (ND, 21.9.94).
     Just because the NATO program will expire in 1995 doesn't
mean that the arms shipments will cease. On the contrary,
"private" deals between German multi-national arms corporations
like Siemens, the Daimler-Benz firms AEG, Dornier, MBB, MTU, and
others, deals which are easier to hide from the public, will
continue. Dornier delivered Stinger air defence systems, DASA
sold Phantom fighter jets. The Leopard-1 tanks were specially
fitted for Turkey by the Kraus-Maffai corporation. German
grenades fired from Leopard-1 tanks were discovered after the
destruction of the Kurdish city of Sirnak in mid-August 1992. The
Kurd Mesut Dunder was dragged to death in Lice behind a German
BTR-60 tank. The ca. 40,000 "village guards", lackeys in the
service of the Turkish "security forces", are usually armed with
G3 guns made by the firm Heckler & Koch. The 300,000 Kalaschnikov
machine pistols found their way into the hands of the secret
police and the "special teams" operating in Kurdistan, men who
are paid per kill. The Foreign Ministry lied for a long time
about the deployment of German weapons against the Kurdish
civilian population. Later, when the facts could no longer be
denied, the government simply stated that no agreements had been
violated. Evidence of the arms deployment led to a brief arms
embargo this spring. But that was just a sham. According a NATO
decision arrived at in Rome in 1991, the security of a member
state could also be affected by terrorism and sabotage, thereby
making the domestic deployment of NATO weaponry permissible.
According to this NATO doctrine: "The security of the Alliance
must be viewed in a global context. The security interests of the
Alliance can be affected by other risks...such as the disruption
of necessary resources by means of terrorism or sabotage." That's
how the Turkish government can justify its military actions in
Turkish Kurdistan. The deployment of German weapons are just part
of a "fight against terrorists", in full accordance with NATO
guidelines. According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Hans
Schumacher, the German government has "full understanding" for
this argument. During his visit to Turkey in July 1993, the
Bundeswehr's General Inspector Klaus Naumann, after meetings with
Turkish Chief of Staff Dogan Gures and Defence Minister Nevzat
Ayaz, stated that the use of German weapons in Kurdistan was
"fully legitimate given the present conditions".
     It is the massive amount of German arms shipments to Turkey
which has made it possible for the Turkish army to massacre the
Kurdish people. In the past two years, 1,500 Kurdish villages
have been destroyed and 4 million Kurds have become refugees. In
August 1994, it also become known that Kurdish refugees were
being detained in concentration camps where they were tortured
and sometimes murdered.
     Without the political, economic, and military support of
Germany, Turkey would not be able to carry out its genocide
against the Kurds. Without exaggerating, it is fair to say that
Germany is just as important for Turkey today as the USA used to
be for Vietnam and Central America. In September, a new wave of
destruction was launched by the Turkish military. In the last
four weeks alone, 30 villages in the Dersim region were
depopulated and destroyed. The forests in the Dersim region have
been continually bombarded from the air and set on fire since
August. According to the newspaper 'Ozgur Ulke', this method of
burning forests and villages has been dubbed "Operation Rome" by
the Turkish military in reference to Emperor Nero's destruction
of Rome. As soldiers involved in the operation have told to the
newspaper, this destruction is just the first phase of a plan
designed to eliminate another 150 villages and settlements in the
Dersim region.
     Germany is the long-arm of Turkey's counter-insurgency in
Western Europe! Or, in the words of Klaus Kinkel, "We cannot
abandon our friends in a difficult situation!"
     The smear campaigns against Kurds living here has reached a
new level of intensity. For years, Kurds have been criminalized
here, subject to persecution, arrest, and deportation. Through
trials against alleged PKK members under Article 129a in the
Dusseldorf PKK Trial in 1986 and the banning of the PKK and 42
other Kurdish organizations in 1993, Germany has opened up a
second front against the Kurdish liberation movement in Europe.
Germany is the major power in the European Union and has taken a
leading role in defeating Kurdish organizations (following
Germany, other EU states like France have also banned Kurdish
organizations). Germany, on its own territory as well, has become
an essential partner of the Turkish military and the political
system dependent on it.
     In September 1993, during a state visit by Turkish Prime
Minister Tansu Ciller to Bonn, definite plans were made to ban
the PKK in Germany. The armed actions by the PKK in Germany just
a few weeks later were just an excuse for the ban, not its actual
reason. Germany thereby took up Turkey's call to "fight against
terrorism". Following the PKK ban, "Thank you, Helmut!" was the
main headline in the Turkish press.
     On 19.07.94, Turkish Chief of Staff Dogan Gures, main
coordinator of the war against the Kurds, was received with full
military honors and spent four days with Bundeswehr General
Inspector Klaus Naumann. According to ministerial reports,
several high-level meetings took place and Gures visited several
military facilities in Germany. At the end of July 1994, Gures
told the Turkish daily 'Hurriyet' that the "necessary contacts"
with European states had been made in order to stop the PKK.
According to him, German Defence Minister Volker Ruhe said he was
"confident" that criminals from the ranks of the PKK would be
deported to Turkey.
     Since the banning of the PKK and all Kurdish cultural
organizations associated with it, all Kurdish gatherings and
demonstrations are banned, even protests against actions by the
Turkish "security forces" in Kurdistan are massively
criminalized, and demonstrations which are held are brutally
attacked by the police. State sponsored hate campaigns in the
media have created the necessary pogrom mentality against the
Kurds. The climax of this was the murder of Halim Dener, who was
shot by a cop for hanging posters in Hannover.
     Kurds living in Germany have practically no right to freedom
of expression or freedom of assembly. This virtual state of
emergency against one social group is also a warning to other
oppositional forces in Germany which could experience the same in
the future. Kurds who have been arrested during protests and
demonstrations, some of whom are now on hungerstrike, are
threatened with rejected asylum claims and possible deportation.  
   "It is unacceptable that violent foreigners abuse our
hospitality and make Germany a battlefield for their civil war",
stated one German politician after the Autobahn blockades. The
deportation of Kurds to Turkey, especially if the individual was
involved in the Kurdish liberation struggle, can mean torture and
death.
     We chose a Bundeswehr facility as a target for our action
because it is representative of Germany's active support for the
Turkish "security forces", and it is representative of Germany's
foreign and domestic policies with respect to the Kurdish
liberation struggle. Especially now, when there is a debate going
on concerning the possible deployment of Bundeswehr troops abroad
as part of UN or other missions, the German military needs to be
the focus of more attention. During the Gulf War, German soldiers
were actually stationed in North Kurdistan in late-1990. Future
deployments as part of NATO missions in Kurdistan cannot be ruled
out. German foreign policy has created the necessary instruments
for direct military engagement and these will be utilized. This
development must be resisted.

Immediately stop all military, economic, and political
cooperation with Turkey!
Boycott Turkish tourism!
Repeal the ban against Kurdish parties and associations!
A right to stay for all refugees!
Solidarity with the Kurdish political prisoners in German prisons
who have been on hungerstrike since 10.8.94!
Support the Kurdish liberation struggle!

Das K.O.M.I.T.E.E.

(Translated from Radikal 12/94)

 ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
   ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++
     ++++ see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++

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