The Global Imperialist Kurd Card & The Hypocrisy Of The West

Turkish Armed Forces launched the implementation of the "Operation Peace Spring" plan at October 9 2019.

The operation is being conducted by respecting the territorial integrity of Syria and in the framework of the "Right of Self Defense" in Article 51 of the UN Charter(1) and also the rights of Turkey emanating from international law.

Similar to Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch, during the planning and execution of the operation, only terrorists and their fortifications, trenches, positions, weapons, vehicles and equipment are being targeted while utmost attention and diligence is being paid to ensure that civilians/innocent people and historical, cultural, religious buildings and infrastructure in the area of the operation as well as friendly and allied elements likely to be in the region are not harmed.

On the 7th of October 2019, the White House announced that American forces would withdraw from Northern Syria ahead of an anticipated Turkish military operation in the region. The western countries must have invested too much hope in their YPG-PKK narco-terror organization for their future plans that the reactions worldwide were a big shock; were the Americans abandoning their loyal Kurdish allies? But as the world watched on, the Turkish military launched Operation Peace Spring. This must have stirred up a hornet's nest that suddenly from all over the world mainstream or so called alternative media's negative propaganda against the Turkish Republic started.

The Turkish Republic is not invading Syria. The Turkish Army has started this operation in order to build a buffer zone due to the existence of all terrorist elements of PKK-YPG & ISIS (DAESH) in the region. How come an invader country welcomes more than 4.5 million Syrian refugees, some of whom are even Kurds, and let them stay in the country safely while the rest of the world has been shamefully ignoring and neglecting them?

No, Turks are not ethnically cleansing Kurds, not inside the country or in neighboring countries such as Syria or Iraq. The Turkish Army's mission is to fight against terrorist groups, many of which are mostly Kurdish despite many foreigners and ethnic groups within them. Our army and the security forces inside the country have been fighting against PKK terror since 1974 (2)

Turks and Kurds have lived together for thousands of years. During the 100 years of the Turkish Republic, out of twelve Presidents, two of them were of Kurdish origin and many army generals, high ranking officials, bureaucrats, and politicians are ethnic Kurds. There are many marriages between them. Today, more than 1/3 of the Turkish parliament consists of Kurdish-origin members. Prior to WWI, the Kurds were just one minority among a myriad of others within the Ottoman Empire. The British and French tried to employ divide and conquer politics with this ethnic minority, and since then many other countries are trying to do so too. They have been a useful tool for Imperialists.

Since September 3rd, 2019, 17 Kurdish families have staged a sit-in outside the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party's (HDP) local office in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Many come from the poorer parts of Kurdish society and blame the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), whose militants are in a decades-long battle with the Turkish government, for recruiting or even kidnapping their children. They blame the HDP because their children were last seen in the HDP's branch office in Diyarbakir. (3)

PKK has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than four decades, targeting both civilians and security forces. Young teachers are tortured and killed, schools, plants, and work machinery burned, and civilians including six-month-old babies and even Kurdish-origin citizens were burned and killed. Turkey has been warning the US, NATO, Russia and all EU countries, who are always ignorant about terrorist attacks of PKK-YPG, which caused more than 40.000 death and misery in our families for years.

The PKK has been designated as a "terrorist" organization by Turkey, the United States, 28 European countries, and Japan. The YPG is a proxy army and accepted as the Syrian branch of PKK that includes non-Kurdish elements and many foreign fighters such as French, British, Australian, German, Danish, Armenian and African. (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has officially confirmed that its sees the Democratic Union Party (PYD) as the Syrian wing of the internationally-recognized terror group PKK. Under its "The World Factbook" section and Syria subcategory, the agency listed the Syria-based PYD as a PKK branch under foreign-based terrorist groups. (9)

The Syrian government in the 1970s and 1980s supported Kurdish groups in Iraq and Turkey. In the 1970s, Syria provided a haven for Iraqi Kurds, particularly members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Syrian government backed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) against Turkey by providing arms and training to its fighters based in Syrian-controlled Lebanon. Under heavy Turkish pressure in 1998, Syria ended its support for the PKK, expelled PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan from his home in Damascus and closed PKK camps in Syrian-controlled Lebanon.

Since 2011, major human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented hundreds of violations of human rights and international law by the PYD/PKK terrorist group in northern and northwestern Syria 10)(11)(12)(13). International groups report on the YPG-PYD/PKK's jurisdictional violations, drug smuggling, the use of children under age 18 in the PYD/PKK's police force and armed wing as child soldiers, abuse of prisoners and unsolved abductions and murders. They also detailed arbitrary arrests of political opponents, violating people's rights in areas mostly populated by Kurds, Arabs, Turkmans, Assyrians, and other groups, hundreds of people being sent to prison in Afrin and Ayn al-Arab without any trial and many other war crimes in Syria.

Another report released by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that in 2017, PKK/PYD terrorists killed 316 civilians in Syria including 58 children and 54 women. It also said that the PYD/PKK terror group held 647 individuals in 2017, including 47 children and 46 women, while Daesh (ISIS) held 539.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurds have also fled their homes for safety in Turkey or northern Iraq. Some left due to poor economic conditions in Syria and others due to political pressure from the PYD-YPG/PKK.

Local civilians living in the areas of northern Syria were subjected to serious abuses by PYD-YPG/PKK terrorists including forced displacement and home demolitions, and in some instances this was done to entire villages of Arabs, Syrian Turkmen and Kurdish civilians in areas of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. Amnesty International reports indicate that there had been forced displacement and demolition and the confiscation of civilian property, which constitute "war crimes." In June 2015, there was concern expressed by the UN Human Rights Council regarding the displacement of Syrian Turkmen from their homes in villages south of Hasakah and Tal Abyad. (14)

Russia's acknowledgement of the Turkoman community in northern Syria and its victimization by US-backed Kurdish forces had been an important milestone (15).

It was the PKK/YPG Kurds who first did the slaughter by ethnically cleansing Northern Syria of its Arab and Turkmen populations, thus they occupied Northern Syria and began exploiting its resources like oil & gas. Thanks to the Turkish army, that area is being returned to its rightful owners that are Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds & other ethnic tribes. PKK/YPG Kurds violated the peace & stability of the region in an egregious way by chasing out other tribes and populations, which was a terrible humans right violation in the first place. PKK/YPG also cooperates with and receives help from Israel at the expense of other ethnic minorities. Terrorist Kurds (not the civilians) & Israelis are collaborators. (16)

Those PKK-YPG militants are not the heroes and brave fighters that the media portrays them as being. Have they cleared out ISIS-DEASH yet? Still more than 70.000 ISIS-DEASH operatives are all around Northern Syria and part of Northern Iraq.

Most of the people do not know that the PKK-YPG is a Marxist-Leninist narco-terror organization and one of the three biggest drug cartels. If they fight against imperialism like they claim, how come they are being supported by all kind of western secret service agencies that have infiltrated the PKK/YPG-PYD's human and drug-trafficking terrorist organization?

The PKK is The World's Third Largest Narco-Terrorist Organization

The primary funding sources of the PKK's income is the trade in drugs (heroin and cannabis), tobacco and human trafficking. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that the organization makes about $75 million annually from heroin. To be able to finance its activities, the PKK seeks to get involved in every stage of drug trafficking including cultivating cannabis, the shipment of drugs to Europe and their distribution in European countries. In addition to this, the forced collection of taxes and "protection" of tradespeople (the same as how the mafia does) and donations and aid money from the Kurdish diaspora in Europe contribute to their funding too. (17)

The terrorist group generates significant income through the provision of protection services for the networks that transport/smuggle drugs into Europe, and in that regard, the PKK reached an exceptional level in its drug trafficking undertakings. Interpol reports estimate that up to 80 percent of the illicit drug markets in Europe are supplied by the PKK-controlled trafficking network. The Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran triangle is the global hotbed of the drug trade. The PKK has been exerting control over the drug trafficking route extending from Afghanistan-Iran to Turkey to Europe for years. (18) The PKK and its offshoots such as the PYD/PKK in Syria are webbed criminal networks which use the main international drug routes such as the Caucasus, Africa, and the Balkans in order to reach the European drug markets. The group has an annual income up to $1.5 billion generated just from their drug trafficking activities in Europe. Turkey has conducted decisive anti-narcotic operations against the PKK since the 1980s in order to halt the group's terrorist activities.(19)(20)(21). The US State Department's annual terrorism report and special reports by NATO intelligence branch have extensively documented this subject as well.

A recent NATO Terrorist Threat Intelligence Unit (TTIU) report found that the PKK is involved in illegal economic operations such as smuggling, tax evasion, and other forms of organized crime, including drug and counterfeit money trafficking as well as illegal foreign currency exchanges. The report also stated that PKK members apply coercion in collecting funds. (22)

In 2015, Europol recognized the existence of PKK training camps in Belgium, as well as in the foothills of the Alps in Switzerland in 2017. (23)

Narco-trafficking and terror are inseparable illegal acts. The business of organized crime and terror organizations works this way. One way the drug goes, the other way the weapons arrive. The Colombian FARC is a good example.

Since 2014, the YPG/PKK became increasingly dominant and now control about 1/3 of Syria with the support it received from the U.S. led International Coalition. At the beginning of 2018, the PYD/YPG lost the Afrin region as a result of the military operations of the Turkish Armed Forces. Now they only control the areas of Manbij, Tabqa, and Tall Rifaat in the west of the Euphrates. The PKK/PYD-YPG are responsible for an increasing in the consumption of drugs in the region, a development that was facilitated by local production. Drugs are easily sold in many places. The price of drugs is even cheaper than the price of cigarettes. In addition to the cannabis used in the region, the most known drug is Capticol. During the operation in Afrin, the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) captured millions of Capticol pills and seized production facilities in many regions. (24)

The European countries and the USA loudly raised awareness among their people of ISIL's oil smuggling business. Each time they accused Turkey of being complicit. They sadly never talked about the hundreds of kilograms and hectares of marijuana fields left behind by the PKK/PYD when they had to leave Ayn-el Arab (Kobani).

For the moment, the Turkish Army operation is "paused" for 120 hours by the latest agreement between Turkey-USA on October 17th. On the 22nd of October, Turkish President Erdogan will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the latest developments. If the PKK/ YPG-PYD narco-terror organization does not leave the territory by that time, Turkey should have every single right to continue the operation whatever the price will be.

Serap Balaman Morel

21 October 2019

Sources: 

(1) Resolutions 1373 (2001), 1624 (2005), 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014), 2249 (2015) and 2254 (2015) adopted by the UNSC on the fight against terrorism.

(2) A timeline of the PKK's war on Turkey: 1974-2019 : https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/a-timeline-of-the-pkk-s-war-on-turkey-1974-2019-30618

(3) https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/09/turkey-pkk-conflict-mothers-pressure-on-hdp-mounting.html

https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2019/10/15/father-of-abducted-17-year-old-girl-joins-kurdish-families-protests

https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/why-are-turkey-s-kurdish-families-camping-outside-hdp-headquarters-29698

https://www.pressreader.com/turkey/daily-sabah/20190917/281526522761947

(4) https://www.trtworld.com/mea/new-report-confirms-pkk-ypg-connection-9761

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3gMoxTRk8M

(5) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/syria-kurds-isis-raqqa.html

(6) https://www.jstor.org/stable/26469849?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

(7) https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmfaff/518/51807.htm

(8) https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2017/12/10/americas-kurdish-allies-in-syria-drift-toward-the-regime-russia-and-iran/

(9) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sy.html

(10) Amnesty International documented similar cases in its October 2015 report "Syria: We Had Nowhere to Go." https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/2503/2015/en/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlOzoCHaNeM

(11) https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/human-rights-groups-reveal-pyd-pkk-violations-in-syria/1044185

(12) http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/3053-PYD-Foreign-Fighter-Project-1.pdf

(13) https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/10/syria-us-allys-razing-of-villages-amounts-to-war-crimes/

(14) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Turkmen

(15) https://astutenews.com/2018/10/13/russia-winks-at-turkey-by-recognizing-the-turkoman-community-in-syria/

(16) https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/10/21/syrian-kurdish-militia-pleads-for-israeli-help-against-turkey

(17)http://e.forbes.co.il/6-pkk-kurdistan-workers-party/

(18) https://www.pkkresearchcenter.com/pkk-finances/pkk-and-drugs/

(19) http://turksam.org/pkk-is-the-world-s-third-largest-narco-terrorist-organization

(20) The European Police Office (EUROPOL) reported that the narco business generated an annual income between $1.5 billion to $3 billion for the PKK terror group. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/drug-trafficking-financial-lifeline-of-pkk-terrorism/1397868

(21)https://www.europol.europa.eu/activities-services/main-reports/european-union-terrorism-situation-and-trend-report-2018-tesat-2018

(22) https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/pkk-criminal-networks-and-fronts-in-europe

(23) https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/pkk-continues-to-be-europes-favorite-terror-group/1614987

(24) https://setav.org/en/assets/uploads/2019/06/52_PKK_Drug.pdf

More:

Hidden Threat - Part 1: The PKK in Europe : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwKd92qBu2U

Hidden Threat - Part 2: The PKK in Europe : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNL06cuM70o

A report recently published by the European Union's police agency, Europol, suggested that the PKK uses Europe as a logistic and recruitment base, generating income through illegal activities https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2018/06/22/europol-pkk-raising-money-recruiting-militants-in-europe

http://regionalrapport.com/backup/afrins-federal-kurds-getting-exactly-deserve/