16
December 2002
1. "KADEK: They want to drag us into a war", KADEK Presidential Council member Osman Ocalan stated that Turkey wanted to occupy South Kurdistan in order not to grant any rights to the Kurds in Turkey. The Council member emphasized that Turkey was trying to drag KADEK into a war and that was the reason why it isolated KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan.
2. "Ankara makes best of EU snub", Erdogan vows to continue reforms.
3. “Don't give up on Turkey”, after the European Union decided against admitting Turkey as a member anytime soon, Turkish officials could barely hide their bitter disappointment this past.
4. "Turkey to move ahead on human rights, economic reforms", Turkey pledged Saturday to press ahead with human rights and economic reforms after the European Union moved a small step closer to giving the nation a desperately sought-after spot in the EU.
5. "Turkish Cypriots turn on Denktash”, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, came under unprecedented pressure at the weekend when thousands of his once loyal supporters took to the streets of Nicosia to urge him to sign a peace deal allowing their pariah state to merge with the Greek-controlled south and join the European Union in 2004.
6. "U.S. says no comment on report troops in Iraq", the Pentagon says it has no information about an alleged movement of U.S. troops and equipment into northern Iraq from Turkey, reported by Turkey's NTV and the Arabic Al-Jazeera television channel.
7. "Turkey and Armenia: If Turkey wants to belong to the West, it must not deny the Genocide of 1915", the whole world (at least in Germany) is arguing whether Turkey will, or should, or must, become a member of the exclusive club of the European nations. Does the Republic of Turkey belong culturally to Europe or not? Doesn't Asia begin at the Bosporus? What does "culturally" really mean? And just what is "Europe" anyway?
8. "Noam Chomsky - linguist, libertarian, human rights activist”, Chomsky is at present in Turkey in order to receive the Turkish Publishers' Union's 2002 Peace Prize, to speak at the Istanbul International Book Fair, to participate in a seminar and to deliver a lecture on the Iraqi war and the world order in Diyarbakir.
1. - Kurdish Observer - "KADEK: They want to drag us into a war":
KADEK Presidential Council member Osman Ocalan stated that Turkey wanted to occupy South Kurdistan in order not to grant any rights to the Kurds in Turkey. The Council member emphasized that Turkey was trying to drag KADEK into a war and that was the reason why it isolated KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan.
MHA/FRANKFURT / 15 December 2002
Participated by telephone in "Rews" program moderated by Resat Akgul on Medya TV, KADEK Presidential Council member Osman Ocalan stated that Turkey was scared of Iraq operation thinking that Kurds might gain certain rights and was being prepared to occupy South Kurdistan. Ocalan said that they were informed that ten thousands of soldiers were deployed to Silopi.
Ocalan said the following on their stance against a possible occupation: "Maybe PUK will not oppose to such an intervention in South Kurdistan but we do not know what KDP will react to it. Nevertheless such an approach cannot be accepted by the Kurdish people. The Kurdish people cannot accept such a lack of will. In case that PUK and KDP remain silent, the people will ask KADEK for leading the way. Their silence will suit Turkey's interests. Turkey knows very well that KADEK will oppose to it. That is it wants from KADEK to initiate a war."
They want war
Saying that Ankara were looking for a pretext that would not attract any reactions from the Kurdish people and the world states, Ocalan continued with words to the effect: "Therefore they try to make KADEK initiate a war. That is they want to give an impression that KADEK had initiated a war for the People's Defence Forces (HPG)." The Council member pointed out that the isolation on KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan was partly for this aim. Ocalan added that it was PKK that put the Kurdish question into the world and Turkish agenda and KADEK would continue in this way,
"A US operation on Iraq will bring the Kurdish people certain gains, Kurds will take steps in such a climate. They try to keep it from occurring and it is the goal of the plays," said the Kurdish leader.
We will start debates on war
Ocalan made the following warning: "We give time till February 15. We do not initiate a war but we say that in case that the conditions are not improved until February 15 we will begin debates on war. True, there is an uprising in Kurdistan for 15 years. And KADEK can initiate an armed uprising."
Drawing attention that they had launched a campaign for democratic struggle, Ocalan said that they would not abandon it till the next spring but in case that there was no positive step they would make debates on war. "Our President appraised the situation and said that KADEK would take necessary steps on its own will" said the Council member.
Stressing that nobody should take it as a blackmail, Ocalan underlined that the Turkish Republic was responsible for such an approach. Ocalan continued to say the following: "They underestimate us, they still do not know us. It was USA that captivated our Leader. We do not forget it. USA took our Leader captive with the help of international support. And now it claims that the representative of the Kurdish people is PUK and KDP. Their influence and population are evident. KADEK is the one and only representative of the Kurdish people in all Kurdistan. All around the world and in four parts of Kurdistan majority of Kurds are KADEK sympathizers, they support it. KADEK represents the will of the Kurdish people."
The Kurdish leader emphasized that on one hand US was against KADEK and on the other it developed relations with PUK and KDP solely, and it did not take the other Kurdish organizations into account. "We express clearly that USA should not play with the Kurdish people. It claims that it can solve the Kurdish question without representatives of Kurds. It is not possible to solve it without the representatives of the Kurdish people."
PUK heartens USA and other powers
Ocalan said that PUK heartened USA and other powers not
to approach the Kurdish question constructively, adding that if the
Kurdish forces did not have a consistent and common policy, they would
experience contradictions. The Council member made a call to PUK and
KDP, saying, "Let's make an alliance in order not to permit them
to use the Kurdish people for their interests again." 
2. - The Daily Star - "Ankara makes best of EU snub":
Erdogan vows to continue reforms
ANKARA / 16 December 2002
Turkish leaders vowed Saturday that they would forge ahead with reforms necessary to enter the European Union, casting aside their disappointment after a landmark enlargement summit.
"Turkey in the next 10 years will continue to move forward with utmost determination so as to enter the EU stronger," Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the governing Justice and Development Party, told the official Anatolia news agency.
"The Turkish model is to seek out modernity within the protection of local values," Erdogan said at Ankara's airport after arriving from Copenhagen, where Turkey failed to win a firm date for the start of EU membership negotiations but received a conditional offer to start talks.
At the summit, the EU said: "Turkey is a candidate state destined to join the union" but declined to set a firm date for the start of membership negotiations, as Ankara had wanted.
Instead, the EU set December 2004 as the date at which it would review Turkey's progress in necessary political and human rights reforms and only then decide if and when to set a date for accession talks.
Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said Turkey would try to speed up the process. Gul said in a television interview that representatives from France, Italy and Britain told him that if Turkey continues its current pace of reforms, the December 2004 date could be moved up.
"Turkey will start membership discussions with the EU in 2004, that is certain," Gul said in an interview with CNN Turk.
Ankara had wanted to start membership negotiations late next year or in early 2004 so it could start talks before the new members, including the Greek Cypriot part of Cyprus, join the EU in May 2004.
Gul, whose new Islamist-rooted government had lobbied hard for talks to start next year, accused the EU earlier of "unacceptable discrimination."
But he later put a positive spin on the offer: "Turkey's route is definite, be it democracy reforms, be it human rights reforms or economic reforms. All of them are being done for the Turkish people. This is what matters and these reforms will continue."
The Turkish press on Saturday agreed.
"The road to Europe goes on," said the Yeni Safak newspaper, echoed by "Europe continues" in both Hurriyet and Radikal, while Sabah predicted that Turks would become "Europeans by 2010."
Turkey's president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, said that the
EU's decision was "not a surprise," but that he was still
"not happy" with it, spokesman Tacan Ildem said.
3. - USA Today – “Don't give up on Turkey”:
After the European Union decided against admitting Turkey as a member anytime soon, Turkish officials could barely hide their bitter disappointment this past
15 December 2002
After the European Union decided against admitting Turkey as a member anytime soon, Turkish officials could barely hide their bitter disappointment this past weekend. U.S. officials felt the same way. The EU's rebuff was not just a slap at Turkey, but also at the Bush administration, which had lobbied fiercely for an ally that will be critical if American forces go to war against Iraq.
The setback complicates Washington's careful diplomatic preparations to line up a strong alliance for a showdown with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Turkey borders Iraq, which is why the U.S. wants to use Turkish air bases and station troops in the country, the only Muslim nation in NATO. So far, Turkish officials have only said maybe because Turks overwhelmingly oppose a war with Iraq. The U.S. had hoped that securing EU membership would clinch the deal.
Still, the administration needs to keep up the pressure on the EU to set a firm date for talks with Turkey. Other top priorities include following through on an offer of $5 billion in U.S. aid and seeing that Turkey gets a $35 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help its distressed economy.
Getting Turkey on board is crucial for more than strategic reasons. The U.S. could put on display an Islamic democracy working with the West, a powerful antidote to Osama bin Laden's propaganda that the two cultures are incompatible.
Equally important: Turkey's support would be a welcome sign that the administration is pursuing the intense diplomacy needed to overcome opposition to war with Iraq. Though the new anti-Iraq alliance in the region lacks the outspoken and unwavering support of the coalition assembled for the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. has quietly secured agreements with key Muslim countries. For example, U.S. forces are carrying out military exercises in Qatar. Kuwait has agreed to serve as a major staging area. Saudi Arabia is expected to allow use of its facilities. Even Iran has hinted at cooperation.
Indeed, President Bush personally worked the phones to encourage the EU, which expanded its membership from 15 to 25 last week, to begin immediate talks on admitting Turkey. But Europe's economic and political club ruled out any negotiations before 2005 with what would be the EU's first Muslim member.
By sticking with its diplomatic courtship of Turkey, the
U.S. doesn't just improve the chances of gaining a vital wartime ally.
It can show a post-Saddam Iraq and other Muslim nations a strong democratic
model to follow.
4. - AP - "Turkey to move ahead on human rights, economic reforms":
ANKARA / by Selcan Hacaoglu
Turkey pledged Saturday to press ahead with human rights and economic reforms after the European Union moved a small step closer to giving the nation a desperately sought-after spot in the EU.
The EU leaders on Friday firmed up an offer to make Turkey the first Muslim nation to open membership talks, saying Ankara could enter the negotiations "without delay" after December 2004, if it meets criteria by that date.
Although the EU offer was short of what Turkey wanted - an early and definite date for membership talks - Turkish leaders say the decision will spur them on to take the painful reforms that are needed to transform the country and meet EU standards.
The wording of the EU's offer appeased Turkish anger, which erupted after the summit stopped short of Turkey's request for entry talks in 2003.
"Turkey has taken a very definite step in the road to the EU," Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said Saturday. "We will maintain economic and democratic reforms with great determination. As we make progress, I hope the negotiation date will come forward."
The United States strongly backs Turkey's membership bid.
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan was satisfied to see for the first time a firm timetable ahead of Turkey to become a full member.
"The roadmap has emerged in favor of Turkey," Erdogan said Saturday. "The EU-Turkey relations have become clearer and gotten on the right track. The decision has carried Turkey-EU relations into a totally new dimension."
Turkish newspapers hailed the decision as an historical milestone that opened Turkey's road for full membership.
"We're Europeans in 2010," said a front-page headline in the daily Sabah.
"The EU road has opened," announced Yeni Safak newspaper.
Several other newspapers, including the daily Hurriyet and Vakit, called on the government to maintain EU reforms without deviating from the target.
The administration, which controls the first majority government in 15 years, is in a better position than its predecessors to implement tough reforms to join the bloc.
Parliament has taken huge steps this year, abolishing the death penalty and granting the right to teach and broadcast in Kurdish to its 12 million Kurds.
The EU says Turkey must still grant greater rights to the Kurds and Turkey still has significant progress to make in fighting torture, which is reportedly common in Turkish prisons, stop abuse of power by police force and extrajudicial killings.
The government earlier this week failed to pass anti-torture legislation - an EU demand - ahead of the summit. Some legislators said the administration was waiting for Europe to act first.
Turkey is also required to expand freedom of expression and freedom to press, while improving its battered economy and cutting back chronic inflation to single digit for economic stability. Promoting birth control, expanding health care and education are other priorities.
The country is also pressed hard to agree to a United Nations plan to reunify the divided island of Cyprus, which has been split into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north since Turkey invaded in 1974 after an abortive coup by supporters of union with Greece.
There's also the messy issue of the military, which wields political influence over civilian leaders through a military dominated advisory body.
The Turkish military, regarding itself as the guarantor of secular regime, has led three coups and it forced a pro-Islamic government out of power in 1997. Now the EU says the government, founded by a party with Islamic roots, must impose greater civilian control over the generals.
The United States, which had asked EU leaders to set a negotiation date for its close ally, expressed satisfaction.
"Turkey's continued evolution toward Europe and its
eventual membership in the European Union demonstrates for the continent
and the entire world that Islam and democracy are fully compatible,"
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in a written statement
on Friday.
5. - The Guardian - "Turkish Cypriots turn on Denktash":
ATHENS / 16 December 2002 / by Helena Smith
The Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, came under unprecedented pressure at the weekend when thousands of his once loyal supporters took to the streets of Nicosia to urge him to sign a peace deal allowing their pariah state to merge with the Greek-controlled south and join the European Union in 2004.
Worn out by nearly three decades of international isolation and worsening poverty, about 8,000 demonstrators demanded that the veteran politician agree to UN proposals to re-unify the island.
The fiery demonstration, which included calls for Mr Denktash's resignation, came as Turkey's new government indicated that they were tired of his stubbornness.
Mr Denktash, who was in Ankara for medical tests, was snubbed by members of the ruling party, who failed to visit him in hospital.
Last night, the Turkish foreign minister, Yasar Yakis, told CNN: "There will probably be an agreement."
His assertion was interpreted by seasoned Cyprus observers as a coded message to the ailing leader who has resolutely resisted agreeing to a solution that would end the island's 27-year division.
Mr Denktash has been harshly criticised by sections of the Turkish media recently for his obduracy; some commentators have said his unyielding stance threatened Turkey's attempts to join the EU.
Polls yesterday showed that as many as two in three Turkish Cypriots vehemently disagreed with the negative posture Mr Denktash has maintained since UN-sponsored reunification talks began in earnest last January.
This weekend he said that the problem would "have to remain unresolved until Turkey joins the EU".
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has given both communities until February 28 to agree to the plan, a deadline now regarded as the last possible date for a solution to the island's partition before it accedes to the bloc.
Cyprus was among 10 candidate countries invited to join the EU at last week's summit in Copenhagen. After intense lobbying from Athens, the Greek Cypriots' application for membership was accepted unconditionally.
Last week, Turkish Cypriot opposition leaders warned that the situation in the north had become "dangerously explosive."
Instead of agreeing on a common front, they said, a power struggle had been triggered between pro-settlement Turkish Cypriots and those opposed to a solution.
"Turkish Cypriots are tired of having their lives dictated by the whims of Turkey" Mehmet Ali Talat, the leader of the Republican party said.
"They are tired of being overrun by settlers [imported
by Turkey] and living in a military state. I don't think it's an exaggeration
to say there will be an uprising in the streets if Cyprus enters the
EU [without a solution]."
6. - Reuters - "U.S. says no comment on report troops in Iraq":
DUBAI / 16 December 2002
The Pentagon says it has no information about an alleged movement of U.S. troops and equipment into northern Iraq from Turkey, reported by Turkey's NTV and the Arabic Al-Jazeera television channel.
A Pentagon spokesman in Washington said on Sunday: "I have nothing on that."
A Turkish military spokesman declined to comment on the NTV report and a U.S. embassy official in Ankara told Reuters: "I have heard nothing. (The NTV report) is not substantiated."
Al-Jazeera quoted Turkish military sources as saying 50 U.S. military trucks had started transporting equipment on Saturday from an air base in southern Turkey into three areas in northern Iraq controlled by Kurds. The report said the trucks had used the Habur border crossing.
"Jazeera learned that there are 500 U.S. special forces training around 2,000 Kurds and making logistical preparations for the arrival of thousands of U.S. troops in the event of an attack on Iraq," the Qatar-based television channel said.
The Turkish military rarely if ever provides information to foreign media.
The Turkish broadcaster NTV also aired a report on Sunday saying 50 U.S. military vehicles had crossed into Iraq through Habur and that the number of "American intelligence and military personnel in northern Iraq has reached 500".
NTV did not give a source for the story.
Washington would look to Turkey for the use of air bases
in any military operation against neighbouring Iraq over Baghdad's alleged
possession of weapons of mass destruction.
7. - Die Welt / Kurdish Media - "Turkey and Armenia: If Turkey wants to belong to the West, it must not deny the Genocide of 1915":
12 December 2002 / by Hannes Stein / Translated from German by Kurdish Media
The whole world (at least in Germany) is arguing whether Turkey will, or should, or must, become a member of the exclusive club of the European nations. Does the Republic of Turkey belong culturally to Europe or not? Doesn't Asia begin at the Bosporus? What does "culturally" really mean? And just what is "Europe" anyway?
I propose replacing the question "Does Turkey belong to Europe?" with another one: "Does Turkey belong to the West?" With "the West" is here meant no geographical location, and also no specific culture or concept of the state. The West is characterized more by the willingness to question itself, repeatedly and fundamentally. Only those countries which give full honor to those who have the courage to "dirty the nest" deserve to be called "Western".
Thus France is a Western country, because there one can speak freely and openly about the tortures during the Algerian war for independence. The USA is Western, because every decent schoolchild there knows about the massacres during the wars against the Indians, and about the crime of black slavery. Bertolt Brecht once wrote "Let others speak of their shames; I will speak of my own." (Not that he necessarily did so!) Even so, this statement waves invisibly as the motto on the flag of every Western state.
Certainly liberal democracy is based in the first order on parliamentary elections, the separation of powers, and freedom of assembly. But all these wonderful things are a mathematical function of the capability to shine light on the dark, horrible, embarrassing, and shameful things in one's own history.
This is particularly important for Turkey, which is hiding a mountain of corpses in the cellar of its history. In 1915, the Ottomans carried out the first modern genocide, in which perished a million and a half Armenian men, women, and children. This genocide is well documented. There are eyewitness accounts from the German writer Armin T. Wegener, from the American Ambassador Henry J. Morgenthau Senior, and from the Austrian military envoy Pomiankowski. There are numerous reports and telegrams that attest to the crime from the vantage point of those who carried it out.
Some time after the First World War, Turkey itself sought to punish those in the regime who had coldly planned and implemented the slaughter. But soon, however, this gave way to denial.
This is fundamentally absurd, since the Turkish Republic has no responsibility, from the legal standpoint, for what the preceding regime had done. Even so, the official discourse in Turkey insists to this date that the genocide of the Armenians never happened. The official version goes as follows: The Armenians, during the First World War, with Russian assistance staged a revolt which was suppressed. Massacre? Yes, there was a massacre - The Armenians carried one out on the Turks. And in this way, the victims are killed once again afterwards - through lies.
Does Turkey belong to the West? Does Turkey want to belong to the West? If so, then Turkey must stop behaving like a child in the belief that it can make itself invisible by covering its eyes. Turkey must finally look the facts in the bloody face. Let there be no misunderstandings: No one is seriously demanding that Turkey do any favors for the Armenians. There can be no demands for territory or substantial material compensation. But the descendants of those who survived the killing have the right to see that the deported, those driven out into the desert of Dayr az-Zor, the tortured, the beaten, the starved, and the drowned children, can finally rest in peace. This is above all else in the national interests of Turkey itself.
Regardless of whether one speaks in orthodox Freudian terms of a compulsion to relive things, or if one instead speaks in an archaic way of the curse of evil deeds: As long as Turkey denies the genocide, it will never find inner peace.
Certainly, that country has fought its way to an impressive degree of freedom: religion and state are separate; there is an elected parliament, and even a partially-free press. But since the genocide of the Armenians remains a taboo, the temptation is always there to resolve minority problems with the methods of those days. The Kurds, for instance, can tell a sad tale on this score. If liberal democracy is the fruit of striving to look one's own shames in the eye, then it will still be a while before harvest time in Turkey.
This is an article in a German newspaper. Germany has the worst genocide of history on its conscience. Yet even in the First World War, officers of the German Empire assisted their Turkish allies in driving Armenians into oblivion. Should this not be a reason for German foreign policy today to speak of its own shame? And particularly when it comes to talking with its Turkish counterparts?
The French National Assembly has officially condemned
the genocide of 1915. Is it not time that the German Bundestag follow
this example?
8. - Turkish Daily News - "Noam Chomsky - linguist, libertarian, human rights activist”:
Chomsky has an idea of freedom that has nothing to do with ideology
His work on linguistics resulted in his hypothesis that language was divisible into what people knew of their own language unconsciously and how they actually used it
He acquired greater fame by his stance on human rights, corporate business and more particularly the American government and its foreign policy. Devoting more of his time to these issues and writing and lecturing on them meant he spent less on linguistics
ISTANBUL / 16 December 2002 / Gul Demir
Professor Noam Chomsky. A man with a world-famous reputation that began with his work on the origin of language and continued with his nonacademic activities as someone who protested against war, big business practices and the like, in short against anything that resulted in harm to someone else.
Chomsky is at present in Turkey in order to receive the Turkish Publishers' Union's 2002 Peace Prize, to speak at the Istanbul International Book Fair, to participate in a seminar and to deliver a lecture on the Iraqi war and the world order in Diyarbakir.
This is his second trip to Turkey as he came here to be present at the trial of his publisher Fatih Tas who was accused of having published a book of essays written by Chomsky on American intervention. The latter came to Turkey for the trial held in February this year in order to support freedom of thought and solidarity. The result of the trial, that was attended by a number of people, was the acquittal of Fatih Tas who had been facing a possible one year in prison. When reporters tackled him after the trial, Chomsky said that he hoped that the decision was a new step for freedom and he wanted there to be a broadening of the boundaries placed on the freedom of thought.
Following this trial, journalist Abdurrahman Dilipak with such intellectuals as former member of parliament Mehmet Bekaroglu found themselves in the State Security Court (DGM) for having signed on as publishers of a book entitled, "Dusunceye Ozgurluk 2001" (Freedom for Thought 2001). Chomsky was among those who had signed. In a hearing held last September the DGM dismissed the case because it had not been pursued. Chomsky himself expressed surprise that the case against him had been dropped and said he found it unequal under the circumstances.
From where to where
Chomsky grew up on the east coast of the United States, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant family. He went to an experimental school that was influenced by the ideas of John Dewey, one of the most important educationalists and philosophers in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. Dewey believed in learning through activities rather than authoritarian methods, that education should prepare people for life in a democratic society. Dewey in turn was influenced by William James, another American philosopher and psychologist, who postulated the idea that the mind learned consciously and objectively in integrating with its environment.
Chomsky was exposed to these ideas while young and benefited from this. He was just 10 years old when he wrote an article for his school's newspaper on the Spanish civil war in which he pointed out that this movement was an example of the success of anarchistic actions that arose from the people. It showed that Chomsky had an idea of freedom, not circumscribed by ideology.
Later he studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a doctorate although he did most of his doctoral research at Harvard University. Chomsky's father was an expert in Semitic languages and was influential in his learning Arabic. But in the end or rather the beginning his first academic position after his doctorate was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Modern Languages and Linguistics Department. He is still at MIT.
His work on linguistics resulted in his hypothesis that language was divisible into what people knew of their own language unconsciously and how they actually used it. He postulated that everybody must be born with some kind of idea of language in his or her brain since the rate at which children learn how to speak was much more rapid than they could have acquired it merely by listening to older people around them. Moreover his ideas support the position that people already have some concepts in their brains when they are born. In short he had taken his intellectual mentors' ideas and carried them in a new direction.
Chomsky gained wide fame with his hypothesis during the late 1950s and 1960s. Today this has been shown to be not faulty but lacking because of the huge amount of knowledge and experimentation currently available. When formulating his ideas, this research had not yet been carried out.
However, his reputation at the time helped in his making a big splash when he came out against the Vietnam War. And he went on to acquire greater fame by his stance on human rights, corporate business and more particularly the American government and its foreign policy. Devoting more of his time to these issues and writing and lecturing on them meant he spent less on linguistics. He has written nearly 70 books and thousands of articles and has CDs and DVDs relating his ideas. More than his reputation for his linguistics thought, his reputation today rests on his views as a libertarian and human rights activist.
Chomsky in Turkey
The intellectual Chomsky has been trying to see and understand the reality of Turkey, which he knew through personal relations and what he read. When he first came to Istanbul in February this year, he said, "I have come here with representatives of the world's leading human rights organizations to follow the court hearing on a publisher who faces a scandalous charge. The charge against the publisher involves me also on a personal basis -- because the publisher has published the text of a speech that I gave on the United States' policy on the Middle East at an American university. In this speech I spoke of U.S.-Turkish relations and in particularly talked about the support the U.S. gives the Turkish administration that is applying pressure on the Kurds." His speech Saturday night at the meeting organized by the Public Sectors Unions' Confederation was directed against the U.S.'s interests in attacking Iraq and why Turkey should not get involved in it.
One of Chomsky's most important characteristics has been his basing all of his ideas and thoughts on concrete facts and events. The result is that he reads everything from the major press organs to the most marginal publications and puts them through his mental sieve. Friends of his from around the world send continually this careful researcher who takes a look at the American and world press every day newspaper clippings and books. With the help of assistants, he answers all the mail that comes to him, some 300 pieces a day on average.
Many of his books and articles have been translated into Turkish and looking at all of the other books and articles he has written, it becomes very difficult to summarize what this person says and means.
The one single important thing in Chomsky's life is struggling over moral consistency and injustice. How much the social sciences are used incisively and skewed in ways that defy nature, they have never changed the moral structure. One is open to criticize his approach that sees all economic development as the game of big companies, but at the same time one has to appreciate his uncompromising march to speak the truth, as he knows it.
The number of awards he's received is proof of this such as those from the American Psychological Association, the "Ben Franklin Medal" in the field of communications and many other awards from around the world ranging from such universities as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Georgetown to Buenos Aires, Cambridge, Toronto, Calcutta and Pisa. In addition he is a member of many professional organizations as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Science Academy.
Before Turkey
Just before coming to Turkey this time, Chomsky attended the anniversary celebration of the founding of the Kurdish Human Rights Project (KIHP) in London. The project was set up by lawyers, academicians, representatives of religious organizations, doctors and defenders of human rights. Its goal is to protect the rights of the people, and in particular the Kurds, who live in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and the former Soviet Union without regard for political orientation, sex, religion or race.
While at the KIHP meeting, Chomsky praised the organization as a very valuable source for understanding events, searching out roots and history pasts and engaging in constructive activities. He also stressed that the work they were carrying out would be much more important in the difficult days ahead.
Chomsky has been interested in Turkey and the Kurds from quite a long time. Following the 1980 military coup in Turkey, one finds Chomsky's signature in support of the campaigns in the U.S. and Europe to protest against Ankara. His views on the Kurdish problem experienced in Turkey and published in the book on American interventionism published by Aram Publications were critical and resulted in a court case against Fatih Tas, the publisher.
When Chomsky was answering questions at a meeting held in The Marmara Hotel when he was in Istanbul previously, he was asked about the U.S.'s role in solving the Kurdish problem. His reply was, "On this subject you know what they are experiencing better than I. My responsibility is to relate the contribution that the U.S. makes to large-scale chopping up.
"You ask about the Kurdish problem. I can only be interrogated about the responsibility of the role that the U.S. has played in this war. The U.S. has been involved in an extraordinary increase in the amount of weaponry it has been selling to Turkey since 1984. Turkey became the country to which the U.S. sold the most weapons in the second half of the 1990s. After 1999 Turkey gave up its place to Columbia because the U.S. was busy stamping its feet on that country's internal affairs."
Asked his views on the promotion of terrorism by the U.S. and other countries, Chomsky replied, "America's official policy on terrorism shows that the U.S. is a terrorist country. Other countries also, within the reality of the strongest state being the biggest terrorist state can't promote terrorism."
The 74-year-old intellectual who continually opposes the U.S. government's policies refers metaphorically to the fairy-tale story of the king who is convinced that he is being given the most beautiful clothes in the world, but they are transparent and show him in all his nudity. Chomsky tries to show what that nakedness is, especially where foreign policy is concerned.
Discussing the issue of globalization leads him to think that the intellectuals of the world are arguing within a clear set of tactics and shared ideas. In particular they are talking about the need for a new world even while talking about American foreign policy and they are talking about a world in which the interests of America are foremost -- something everyone knows.
Will the war with Iraq be beneficial or damaging? While all of such kinds of arguments are everywhere including Turkey, Chomsky points out that in America today criticism of such policies has begun to gain weight but when comparing the thoughts of the elites and other high-level people, people in general think quite differently. The threatened war against Iraq is an attempt to get control of the oil resources controlled by that country, in his opinion. America's use of bases in Turkey to attack Iraq is rather like the Trojan horse, he suggests, although opening Cassandra's box might have been a rather more appropriate in comparison. In other words, it can only result in further damage to Turkey.
But one can't know that, nor even be sure a war will break out. Virtually nobody in Turkey wants a war with Iraq. Put to one side Turkey's concerns about its neighbor, after all the oil fields will also be bombed, won't they? So why does everybody think that the U.S. is trying to bomb Iraq out of existence? Among Chomsky's prolific writings, statements, DVDs and other means of communication, perhaps he has answered this. He's said a lot, on a lot of problems. Throughout all of this, he has maintained that he is speaking about his thoughts and feelings.
If Chomsky has become something of an icon for "protestors,"
then one has to say that he has a position that is deserved.