Israel Matzav

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

Turkey has been jumping around like a spoiled child for the last three months demanding apologies, reparations, sanctions and who knows what else in response to the deaths of nine of its citizens who attacked IDF soldiers who were trying to board the Mavi Marmara with non-lethal weapons.

The Turks have far worse than the Mavi Marmara in their own closets, and I'm not just talking about the Armenian genocide. It's time for some of those skeletons - some of them actually quite recent - to be reawakened. It seems that the 'western' Turks have long escaped international scrutiny for the fact that they conduct wars in ways that ought to be familiar to Iraqis, Iranians and Cambodians. The Turks are no better than the rest of them.

I received today from a contact in Kurdistan an eight-page pdf that he referred to as a dossier. Much of the material is available online. Although many might dismiss this material as propaganda issued by the PKK, the charges at least bear looking into. Here are some of them.

Turkey is an subscriber to many of the international agreements that are now in place. But unfortunately when the Kurds is the issue then Turkey changes her rules and ´forgets´ these international treaty obligations. But it is not only the Kurds who are suffering from these atrocities. The destiny of 1,612 prisoners of war from Cyprus, that was invaded by Turkey in 1974, is still unknown.

That's a state behaving toward 1,612 people in the same way that Hamas has behaved toward Gilad Shalit.

For two months now the war has escalated. The Turkish army is again conducting the same atrocites as before. During the last 20 days bodies of guerrillas have been captured during the war in suburbs of Siirt, Hakkari and Gumushane. The bodies of killed guerrillas have been tortured. Many of these bodies have eyes, noses, hands, fingers, heads cut off and some of them have been totally destroyed. The corpses are unable to be recognized.

Turkey has signed the 1949 War Treaty of Geneva. According to this agreement: ´´ It is forbidden to torture the bodies of those killed during the war. The killed ones should be treated with respect and their tombs should be approached with respect as expected.´´But the Turkish army is still conducting war crimes.

The photos are part of the dossier I received. They are not part of the website. They are very difficult to look at. They are dated in June 2010(21 and 30), although that might be the date that they were saved and not the date that they were taken. I'm not sure I want to post them.

In order to leave no hiding place for the guerrillas, forests are being burned in Kurdistan. Right now the forests around Sirnak, Hakkari, Siirt, Dersim, Bingol, Mardin and Bitlis are being burned by the Turkish army. The inhabitants around these regions are being prevented from extinguishing the fire. Right now thousands of acres of fields are turned into ashes. The Geneva Convention has a lot of rules covering the safety of the environment and the banning the destroying of forests;´´Damaging war methods that are continuing for a long time in a very large forest area are forbidden. Annihilation of forests and environment is not allowed to be used as a weapon.´´ What the Turkish army is doing here is also another war crime.

The dossier includes many examples of forest fires set by the Turkish army which are then allowed to burn and not fought by the government. Forest fires in the Kurdish area of Turkey are not fought by the government. The local population has no firefighting equipment to speak of. Imagine trying to fight a forest fire without helicopters!

The world ignores these events. Compare that with the reaction here in Israel when Israel destroys a few trees (by chopping them down - not by burning entire forests) to keep terrorists from hiding in them. Can you say "double standard"?

Nearly three years ago, I did a lengthy post in which I questioned why the United States and Israel were supporting Turkey in its battle with the PKK. I believe that Israel has learned its lesson (at least I hope it has). I doubt that the United States has.

For too long, Turkey has been given a free pass in anything having to do with human rights. Starting with the Armenian genocide which was swept under the rug because it conflicted with the image of a westernized Turkey in which we all wanted to believe, and continuing with Turkey's occupation of Cyprus and its ongoing battle with the Kurds, Turkey's unlawful and immoral behavior has been ignored in the vain belief that it would serve as a bridge between the West and the Muslim world.

Turkey has now chosen to abandon that bridging role, and has placed itself in the camp of Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbullah. It's high time for the West to bring Turkey's chickens home to roost. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:21 PM