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Arzu Demir
”The truth regarding the Gare offensive is: The Turkish state killed their own soldiers and police. Moreover, they violated international conventions and committed war crimes by using chemical weapons during this operation,” writes Arzu Demir for the Yeni Özgür Politika. The Garê operation, announced by Turkey’s President Erdoğan on 8th February with, “I will share a gospel [good news] with you,” resulted in a catastrophic military and political defeat. The guilt is huge and they are using all possible mechanisms to try to cover up this crime.
The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Member Duran Kalkan spoke on a broadcast for Medya Haber TV on 16 February, describing the attack thus: “They were completely defeated”. According to Duran Kalkan’s statement, the aim of the attack was “to neutralise the People’s Defence Forces HPG / Free Women’s Unit (YJA) command control system”. As they utterly failed to achieve their goals, 13 detainess, who had been kept safe by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed by the Turkish forces itself. Once again, it was seen that the “gospel” given to the people by the Palace (refers to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s presidental palace) was nothing but death, as always.
The Palace regime encouraged and instigated, as usual, the incitement of false propaganda, aggression and chauvinism to cover up this humiliating defeat against the HPG / YJA Star guerrillas and to cover up the fact that they had killed their own 13 soldiers. Detention, investigation, and political lynching continued after that.
The main target of course for all this hostility is the Peoples’ Democratic Forces (HDP), targeted as a ‘usual suspect’. They started to fabricate lies that the HDP were “responsible for the deaths of 13 people”. An investigation was also launched against HDP MPs Hüda Kaya and Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu regarding their statements on the Gare operation.
As can be clearly seen in the video posted by the HDP on its Twitter account, they have made numerous calls for the state to contact the PKK for the release of the those very same captive soldiers, police officers and MIT (Turkish National Intelligence Organization) members.
However, none of them were ever given a response. The following information shared by HDP Co-chair Mithat Sancar at HDP’s party group meeting at the Turkish Assembly is important: “All of those 335 people, who have been detained in the last 22 years have been able to meet with their families as a result of the attempts.” Actually, it was not a secret how to ensure the safe return of the detainess, but the Turkish state did not even try.”
The spear is too big to fit in the sack. (Editors note: Turkish idiom for an issue that is so big it cannot be covered up) Not only was there a cost to the lives of their own soldiers, but they also used chemical weapons during this attack. The HPG Press Centre stated that ”Due to chemical gas, which is prohibited to be used by the Turkish army within the conventions of warfare, and considered a war crime, they could not enter the camp. It is possible that the Turkish army killed the prisoners first with chemicals and then came and then shot them.” The HPG also stated that they will announce more on the killing of the captured soldiers as they obtain detailed information themselves.
Hulusi Akar, the Minister of Defence stated on February 16th in the Parliament: “Also, only tear gas was used at the entrance of the cave in response to hand-grenades and small weapons in the area; it was not possible to use just any kind of weapon or ammunition.”
The government’s guilt is major. They do everything to cover up this crime. The following information given by Gürsel Özbey, the father of the soldier Semih Özbey, who was among the 13 Turkish officials killed, is quite interesting: “They only showed the face of my child. They said they couldn’t show his body.”
Why are the bodies not shown? It is not possible to explain it with a sentence like, “Because of a human feeling, they may not have wanted to show a broken body to their family”. The second option remains; they are hiding something. When the body is revealed, it would become clear what they are hiding. The truth is that the Turkish state killed its own soldiers and police. Moreover, they violated international conventions and committed war crimes by using chemical weapons during this operation.
It is not the first time is has been alleged that the Turkish state has used chemical weapons. The Turkish state used chemical weapons during the attack in which 36 guerrillas lost their lives in Hakkari’s Kazan Valley on 22 October 2011 as stated by their families, human rights organisations and political parties. They were taken from Malatya to the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute because they were burnt like coal…
The BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) which were the leading pro-Kurdish party of that time at the Turkish Assembly requested an independent delegation to carry out autopsies to investigate the chemical weapon usage, but their request was not given a response. Thus, another crime committed by the state was covered up.
Ten years after 2011, from Valley Kazan to Mount Gare, this time the Turkish state has again been accused of using chemical weapons against its own law enforcement members – soldiers, police officers and intelligence officers.
What happened in Gare will further deepen the crisis of the fascist regime.
