Necmettin Salaz
“Turkey launched the operation but it failed, it killed its people and is now retreating. It did not listen to one of the families of the detainees who said: ‘Do not launch the operation, you are going to kill our children”, writes Necmettin Salaz in Yeni Yasam News Letter.
Two days passed right after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Tayyip Erdoğan stated on TV to his followers that: “I will give you good news on Wednesday”. The press then announced that Turkey had launched an operation in Garê mountains which is forty kilometres away from Turkey’s borders.
After prolonged bombardments by Turkey, a large number of soldiers landed in the area through the use of helicopters. According to initial reports, several soldiers – two of them of high rank – were killed and many others were injured during the clashes.
State officials were so confident that the operation would be successful over a short period of time: it was as if it were an American movie. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas would be captured and also the soldiers, police, and National Intelligence Organization (MIT) officials who were detained by the PKK would be ‘saved’ and ‘brought back’ to Turkey. This would be great news for the target audience.
The people of Turkey who are suffocated by poverty and the pandemic would be kept busy with this ‘great news’ and the agenda of the country would change. However, it did not work this way.
The visit of Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar to Silopi was a sign that the operation was not going well. The People’s Defence Forces (HPG) announced on the 14 February that Turkey’s assaults were thwarted and forced to retreat.
However, very specific information was also announced by the HPG. Turkish warplanes had bombed the place where the detained Turkish citizens were being kept so that Turkey intentionally killed these people that had been sent to the region to gather information.
As soon as this news was announced, all of the AKP affiliated media platforms published the news that “the PKK killed the prisoners”. So-called democratic newsletters and websites also joined them in this condemnation. However, the whole world knew that those detainees had been kept by the PKK for a long time and they had not faced any ill-treatment and were being treated according to guidelines in international law. If the PKK was aiming to kill the detainees, why would it kill them at that time instead of killing them when they had initially been captured?
Turkey launched the operation but it failed: it killed its people and now is in retreat. It did not listen to one of the families of the detainees who appealed to the authorities: “Do not launch the operation, you are going to kill our children”.
Now, people do not believe their lies. They know that they can do anything to continue to stay in power.
What about the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP’s) reaction regarding the attacks? It was announced that the KDP did not join the operations. It is confirmed information. However, KDP officials already knew that the offensive was going to take place. Building new police stations and checkpoints in the region, sending recruited Roj powers to the region, building barriers between camps, trying to prevent cooperation between areas, developing logistical support bases – these are all signs of that.
All these initiatives represent support for the attacks in the Garê region. If Garê were not strong enough and could not resist, Turkey would be entering this region that is 40 km from its border and many Kurdish people would have lost their lives. Who would have been responsible in such a scenario? Would not people correctly ask who was responsible for such actions? And who was responsible for extending cooperation for such actions?
Concerning the peoples’ reactions, people of the region took to the streets and protested against the attacks by chanting slogans such as: “Kurdish people don’t bow their heads”.
To sum up, the Garê adventure of some people has failed due to the resistance of Kurdish patriots. After a while, it will fall off the agenda just like Heftanin and the rulers of Turkey will find new imaginary stories for its people to consume. Maybe the domestic and national car will be served again to feed the news, or the stories about travelling to the moon will resurface. We will see …
