Kurdistan forces are liberating Western Kurdistan

[brendar]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012 ... syria.html

[RawandKurdistani]

Turkish troops fired across the Syrian border on Tuesday, killing a member of a Kurdish militia and wounding two others in the first such fatal shooting at the Turkish frontier, a watchdog reported.

"The three Kurds, members of a Kurdish militia hostile to the Damascus regime but also wary of the rebellion, were patrolling the border in [Syria's] Hasaka province when they were hit by Turkish army fire from the other side," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"This was the first fatal shooting at the Turkish border," he added.

The incident occurred in in the Derbassiyeh region of the northwest province of Hasaka, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The monitoring group said that the Kurds were members of the YPG, or "units for the protection of the people," a militia close to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Ankara has accused the group of being a front for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which the United States has warned should be denied a safe haven in the region.

Members of Syria's more than two million Kurdish minority have largely stayed out of the conflict roiling the country but many participated in anti-regime protests that erupted in March last year.

They have also distanced themselves from the rebel Free Syrian Army, which is fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces, fuelling suspicions among some of collusion with the regime.

Ankara has accused its former ally Damascus of granting swathes of territory in northern Syria, including on the border, to the PYD as a buffer zone.

Despite distrust between the traditional Kurdish parties in Syria, they signed an agreement in July to unify their ranks.

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDe ... ?ID=442161

Turks are indeed sick sub-humans!

[brendar]

Abdullah Ocalan: Syrian Kurds Deserve Democracy, Nobody Should Interfere in Their Affairs



ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -- The brother of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that his health is in good condition but he is being kept in a narrow cell and has grown a long beard.

Speaking to Rudaw, Mehmet Ocalan rejected reports by the Turkish media that his brother had refused to meet lawyers and family members.

Mehmet visited the PKK leader on Sept. 21. The last time Ocalan met with his lawyers was in July 2011, and he has not been also allowed visits from his family members for almost a year.

Rudaw conducted an interview with Mehmet Ocalan over the phone.

Rudaw: No one has been allowed to visit Ocalan for a year. How did the Turkish government allow you to meet with him?

Mehmet Ocalan: It was not the first visit for us. It was the second time in 14 months that we visited Ocalan, but this time around he was upset that we visited. He told us, “What you did is not right. You should not have visited me because they have not allowed my lawyers to visit for 14 months and you should have not visited either.”

Rudaw: When did you visit him?

Mehmet Ocalan: Pardon me, I cannot tell you when. But the Turkish government has not allowed his lawyers to visit him. They only let me meet the leader (Abdullah Ocalan) twice.

Rudaw: It has been said that Ocalan was poisoned and that he is not in good health.

Mehmet Ocalan: No, his health is not bad, but he has grown a long beard and his beard, mustache and hair were all mixed together. His hair and mustache have grown grey. His cell is very small and one cannot live there even for one month. Unfortunately, his place is very bad.

Rudaw: How much time did you spend with him?

Mehmet Ocalan: At first, they told us that we could stay longer but that didn’t last long. After 30 or 40 minutes, they said the time was up.

Rudaw: What did he think of the current clashes between the PKK and the Turkish military?

Mehmet Ocalan: Leader Ocalan said to let the war end and that no guerilla or Turkish soldier should be killed. He said the problems need to be resolved and nobody should try to cheat the other side. Leader Ocalan believes that if the Kurdish issue ends, then bloodshed will end too. He said that if Turkey continues fighting, it will face a very grim future. But if Turkey wants to, it can resolve the Kurdish issue through democratic means.

Rudaw: What did he think of the situation in Syria and Western (Syrian) Kurdistan?

Mehmet Ocalan: President Ocalan said that if Turkey adapts to the project that is being implemented in Western Kurdistan, then it will not have any problems in the future. But if Turkey does not adapt to the Kurdish people in Western Kurdistan, then it will be making a mistake and run into problems.

Rudaw: How did he talk about the future of Western Kurdistan?

Mehmet Ocalan: He said that the Kurds in Western Kurdistan deserve democracy and nobody should interfere in their affairs. He said, “We do not want Syria to be divided,” and that Turkey should not fear that.

Rudaw: Did he have any demands of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP)?

Mehmet Ocalan: He asked the BDP to organize large-scale activities, not small ones. For instance, if they stage demonstrations, they should be large ones and not limited. But the activities must be restrained and in line with democratic methods.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/interview/5274.html

[RawandKurdistani]

Abdullah Ocalan: Syrian Kurds Deserve Democracy, Nobody Should Interfere in Their Affairs



ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -- The brother of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that his health is in good condition but he is being kept in a narrow cell and has grown a long beard.

Speaking to Rudaw, Mehmet Ocalan rejected reports by the Turkish media that his brother had refused to meet lawyers and family members.

Mehmet visited the PKK leader on Sept. 21. The last time Ocalan met with his lawyers was in July 2011, and he has not been also allowed visits from his family members for almost a year.

Rudaw conducted an interview with Mehmet Ocalan over the phone.

Rudaw: No one has been allowed to visit Ocalan for a year. How did the Turkish government allow you to meet with him?

Mehmet Ocalan: It was not the first visit for us. It was the second time in 14 months that we visited Ocalan, but this time around he was upset that we visited. He told us, “What you did is not right. You should not have visited me because they have not allowed my lawyers to visit for 14 months and you should have not visited either.”

Rudaw: When did you visit him?

Mehmet Ocalan: Pardon me, I cannot tell you when. But the Turkish government has not allowed his lawyers to visit him. They only let me meet the leader (Abdullah Ocalan) twice.

Rudaw: It has been said that Ocalan was poisoned and that he is not in good health.

Mehmet Ocalan: No, his health is not bad, but he has grown a long beard and his beard, mustache and hair were all mixed together. His hair and mustache have grown grey. His cell is very small and one cannot live there even for one month. Unfortunately, his place is very bad.

Rudaw: How much time did you spend with him?

Mehmet Ocalan: At first, they told us that we could stay longer but that didn’t last long. After 30 or 40 minutes, they said the time was up.

Rudaw: What did he think of the current clashes between the PKK and the Turkish military?

Mehmet Ocalan: Leader Ocalan said to let the war end and that no guerilla or Turkish soldier should be killed. He said the problems need to be resolved and nobody should try to cheat the other side. Leader Ocalan believes that if the Kurdish issue ends, then bloodshed will end too. He said that if Turkey continues fighting, it will face a very grim future. But if Turkey wants to, it can resolve the Kurdish issue through democratic means.

Rudaw: What did he think of the situation in Syria and Western (Syrian) Kurdistan?

Mehmet Ocalan: President Ocalan said that if Turkey adapts to the project that is being implemented in Western Kurdistan, then it will not have any problems in the future. But if Turkey does not adapt to the Kurdish people in Western Kurdistan, then it will be making a mistake and run into problems.

Rudaw: How did he talk about the future of Western Kurdistan?

Mehmet Ocalan: He said that the Kurds in Western Kurdistan deserve democracy and nobody should interfere in their affairs. He said, “We do not want Syria to be divided,” and that Turkey should not fear that.

Rudaw: Did he have any demands of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP)?

Mehmet Ocalan: He asked the BDP to organize large-scale activities, not small ones. For instance, if they stage demonstrations, they should be large ones and not limited. But the activities must be restrained and in line with democratic methods.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/interview/5274.html

Now that is what i want to hear

[Qonyeyi]

When you take things out like context like Cewlik does, you can easily make Ocalan a villain to the Kurdish cause. But let it be clear to everyone that his intentions are good as shown above in the full version ( well not exactly full version, but almost )

[Cewlik]

When you take things out like context like Cewlik does, you can easily make Ocalan a villain to the Kurdish cause. But let it be clear to everyone that his intentions are good as shown above in the full version ( well not exactly full version, but almost )

Wow you are right, now we should forget Kurdistan and fight only for him only because he say that.

You say that it is out of context what I say, but you with your apoisim are the best example for what I say.

[Qonyeyi]

When you take things out like context like Cewlik does, you can easily make Ocalan a villain to the Kurdish cause. But let it be clear to everyone that his intentions are good as shown above in the full version ( well not exactly full version, but almost )

Wow you are right, now we should forget Kurdistan and fight only for him only because he say that.

You say that it is out of context what I say, but you with your apoisim are the best example for what I say.

Your only intention with taking things out of context is to spread hatred on Apo and Apocis. You should be ashamed. You are not only lying to us, but you are also lying to yourself.

[Cewlik]

Your only intention with taking things out of context is to spread hatred on Apo and Apocis. You should be ashamed. You are not only lying to us, but you are also lying to yourself.

Calm down Apoci, I have the right to criticize Apocis.

[alan131210]

Turkish troops fired across the Syrian border on Tuesday, killing a member of a Kurdish militia and wounding two others in the first such fatal shooting at the Turkish frontier, a watchdog reported.

"The three Kurds, members of a Kurdish militia hostile to the Damascus regime but also wary of the rebellion, were patrolling the border in [Syria's] Hasaka province when they were hit by Turkish army fire from the other side," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"This was the first fatal shooting at the Turkish border," he added.

The incident occurred in in the Derbassiyeh region of the northwest province of Hasaka, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The monitoring group said that the Kurds were members of the YPG, or "units for the protection of the people," a militia close to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Ankara has accused the group of being a front for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which the United States has warned should be denied a safe haven in the region.

Members of Syria's more than two million Kurdish minority have largely stayed out of the conflict roiling the country but many participated in anti-regime protests that erupted in March last year.

They have also distanced themselves from the rebel Free Syrian Army, which is fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces, fuelling suspicions among some of collusion with the regime.

Ankara has accused its former ally Damascus of granting swathes of territory in northern Syria, including on the border, to the PYD as a buffer zone.

Despite distrust between the traditional Kurdish parties in Syria, they signed an agreement in July to unify their ranks.

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDe ... ?ID=442161

Turks are indeed sick sub-humans!

they want war from WK front as well ? they shall get it soon.

[RawandKurdistani]

Turkish troops fired across the Syrian border on Tuesday, killing a member of a Kurdish militia and wounding two others in the first such fatal shooting at the Turkish frontier, a watchdog reported.

"The three Kurds, members of a Kurdish militia hostile to the Damascus regime but also wary of the rebellion, were patrolling the border in [Syria's] Hasaka province when they were hit by Turkish army fire from the other side," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"This was the first fatal shooting at the Turkish border," he added.

The incident occurred in in the Derbassiyeh region of the northwest province of Hasaka, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The monitoring group said that the Kurds were members of the YPG, or "units for the protection of the people," a militia close to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Ankara has accused the group of being a front for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which the United States has warned should be denied a safe haven in the region.

Members of Syria's more than two million Kurdish minority have largely stayed out of the conflict roiling the country but many participated in anti-regime protests that erupted in March last year.

They have also distanced themselves from the rebel Free Syrian Army, which is fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces, fuelling suspicions among some of collusion with the regime.

Ankara has accused its former ally Damascus of granting swathes of territory in northern Syria, including on the border, to the PYD as a buffer zone.

Despite distrust between the traditional Kurdish parties in Syria, they signed an agreement in July to unify their ranks.

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDe ... ?ID=442161

Turks are indeed sick sub-humans!

they want war from WK front as well ? they shall get it soon.

They shall be destroyed, that's what they are gonna get

[brendar]

DERIK, Syria—A teacher's request sends a dozen young arms skyward, with high-pitched pleas to showcase new skills. One by one, the excited pupils walk to the front of their dusty classroom to recite or write in Kurdish—a language outlawed from public life in Syria.

While civil war has shut many schools across the country, here in the Kurdish-dominated northeast, education is expanding into new territory—just one way in which the Assad regime's focus on fighting rebels in the biggest cities has allowed the emergence of autonomous Kurdish enclaves.

"Until now the regime closed Kurdish eyes and mouths. Now we are shouting to them that we will have our rights and they won't be taken away," said Ciwan Derik, a 50-year-old teacher.

A profound shift in political power is taking place in this remote corner of Syria, reshaping the country in ways that will be very difficult to reverse, and sending shock waves through the region.

Kurdish political parties backed by paramilitary groups have taken control of much of the 250-mile-wide swath of northern Syria, from Iraq in the east to Turkey in the West, that is the heartland of the country's oil industry.



Syrian forces are still keeping watch in the area, and their military bases remain. But many troops have left as President Bashar al-Assad concentrates his military on battling opposition fighters in the largest cities, Aleppo and Damascus. The few troops remaining are keeping a low profile.

Syria's long-oppressed Kurds have wasted no time filling the vacuum.

Before the uprising began, members of Syria's Kurdish population of about two million people were denied full citizenship rights, forcibly displaced and arbitrarily detained.

Now, red, green and yellow-banded Kurdish flags can be seen above municipal buildings. Kurds are policing their own towns and cities. Kurdish political parties control the distribution of food, water and fuel, and have set up their own makeshift courts. Kurdish paramilitary forces are training in camps in northeastern Syria and across the border in northern Iraq.



Teaching Kurdish, which was illegal for four decades under the Assad regime and could bring in imprisonment and torture, is now a growth industry.

In the province around Derik, known in Arabic as al-Hassaka, Kurdish classes are now offered five times a week, while the number of students has swelled from a handful in November to more than 600 in the city and surrounding villages.



Syrian Kurds' aspirations for self-rule have potentially seismic consequences for Syria's neighbors, which have long suppressed nationalist sentiments among their own sizable Kurdish populations.

More than 30 million Kurds live across an area that includes parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran as well as Syria. Kurds speak multiple dialects and are represented by a plethora of often opposing political parties and organizations. Yet they have also managed to maintain a separate identity, if partly due to the lines Arabs, Turks and Iranians have drawn to separate themselves from Kurdish communities.

The emergent political power in this Kurdish region of Syria is the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, founded in 2003 by Kurdish nationalists. The PYD is the senior partner in a delicate alliance with a longtime rival, the Kurdish National Council, following a deal brokered in July by Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government.

The Syrian Kurdish alliance has since asked Iraqi Kurdish officials to let them use two paramilitary training camps in northern Iraq.



Meanwhile, Turkish officials have repeatedly said they were alarmed by the PYD's close ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. Ankara has accused Mr. Assad of arming the PYD and has threatened military intervention to stem any threat to Turkey.

Kurdish leaders in Syria deny any nationalist intentions. But there is growing talk of independence, and Syrian state buildings now house signs of emerging Kurdish power.

At the village of Gerbala on the border with Iraq, a government military post is now guarded by scores of Kurdish militiamen loyal to the PYD, and armed with Kalashnikovs and a 47-calibre machine gun mounted on a pickup.

Beyond the checkpoints, the Kurdish villages that dot the yellowed-grass hills are using newfound freedom to raise crops on land their forefathers worked decades ago before President Assad's father and predecessor insisted their farmland could only be cultivated by the military.

Previously restricted to building mud brick houses, villagers are also building concrete homes for friends and family who have fled fighting elsewhere in Syria.

Iman Hamadi, a 36-year-old Kurdish housewife from the besieged majority Sunni town of Zabadani near the Lebanese border, said she paid 100,000 Syrian pounds ($1,490) to be smuggled to the Kurdish region with her husband and nine children. "We came here because people were dying from the shelling and we have family here and it is safer," she said, as three builders laid blocks for two new houses in the searing sun.

Optimism may be in greater supply here than other parts of Syria, but the economic cost of war has still taken its toll. Spending and the value of the Syrian pound have collapsed, while employment has dried up. Thousands of young men have fled to refugee camps in Iraq to seek shelter and to look for jobs.

Abdullah Dumu, 38, said demand at his hardware store in Derik has fallen more than 70% while costs have surged.

But he sees a silver lining. "We used to be reliant on the rest of the country for everything and now we're learning something different; that is good practice for the future," he said.

In Derik, known as al-Malikiyah in Arabic, a town of around 80,000 some 20 miles from the Iraqi border, a former state courthouse and a military training school have been converted into a Kurdish center by the PYD. Party officials each morning offer arbitration on disputes over money, marriage and other matters.

The goal is to make Kurdish autonomy a permanent political reality. "We are trying to expand our influence very slowly, that is the strategy," said PYD leader Salih Muslim Mohammed, 64. "Now we have our influence in the Kurdish areas and we will try to keep them quiet, until the regime changes. If we need to fight to defend ourselves, we can."

At the entrance to town, Kurdish volunteers armed with Kalashnikovs manned a checkpoint. "After the state left, there was chaos and we set up this checkpoint. Everyone here is ready to defend ourselves if we need to," said Ekrem Kefi, a 48-year-old plasterer from Derik who works a 12-hour shift at the checkpoint every three days.

The power Kurdish groups have amassed here remains diffuse and precarious. In Kurdish-controlled towns, the apparatus of the Syrian state operates in tandem with the new administration. Damascus still collects taxes and pays the wages of most state employees. Christian mayors and bureaucrats loyal to President Assad still ply their trade, while the portraits of Syria's president remain on the walls of some state buildings.

Asked who was running government services in Derik, Jwan Tatar, a 25-year-old state-employed engineer, said simply: "It is 50-50."

On the Turkish border, in Qamishli, the regional capital, Kurds make up the majority of the 200,000 residents, but they control only portions of the city, a patchwork of Kurds, Christians and Arabs. Mr. Assad's forces are present in large numbers. Government checkpoints ring the city, and men from the feared state intelligence agency, the mukhabarat, walk the streets.

The visibility of the regime and the largely bloodless manner in which the PYD emerged to lead the Kurds' push for autonomy have sparked accusations. Turkish officials said Mr. Assad allowed Syrian Kurds greater sway in a plot to empower the PKK rebels in Turkey, as retaliation against Ankara for letting the rebel Free Syrian Army operate on its southern border.

The PYD rejects that claim, stressing that its members were persecuted by the regime for four decades, with many imprisoned or still missing. The party says it is closely affiliated with the PKK but denies that PKK fighters have been called to Syria to bolster its forces. Kurdish groups and residents said the PYD is strengthening its capacity by actively recruiting and collecting donations from residents.

Nevertheless, once-banned PKK propaganda has proliferated across the region. Images of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, jailed in Turkey jail since 1999, are plastered across municipal buildings controlled by Kurdish politicians. Locals wear pins with the face of the leader, who is referred to here by the more affectionate abbreviation, "Apo."

The expanding militarization of militia groups also marks a source of tension between Kurdish parties and could likely be viewed as a provocation by Syria's neighbors.

"Of course, our defense forces are getting stronger. They are now in the thousands. We are collecting money from the Kurds to fund them," said Sophi Ali Alias, a construction company owner and member of a PYD-affiliated group called Tevdem, now working as a public official in Derik.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087 ... 05730.html

[Bahoz]

hevalen heja,

just to share with you what I think! coming days/months are going to be hard and bloody for Kurds in west! neither the regime or opposition or surrounding countries are going to recognize Kurdish rights in West. the Kurds are stepping big jumps toward obtaining full control of their land in West although of big barriers and problems. Please don't look at small stuff that we hear here and there! no body said the road is clear! our enemies are everywhere and among us!

We are getting stronger in West, I thought it would be dream to see the school that forced me to learn arabic oneday when i was kid is now 100% teaching in Kurdish language! and I see now my nieces and nephews are learning in Kurdish!

I feel we are going to pass that humps and bumps in the journey! we might pay big price but no body said freedom is for free.

[brendar]

hevalen heja,

just to share with you what I think! coming days/months are going to be hard and bloody for Kurds in west! neither the regime or opposition or surrounding countries are going to recognize Kurdish rights in West. the Kurds are stepping big jumps toward obtaining full control of their land in West although of big barriers and problems. Please don't look at small stuff that we hear here and there! no body said the road is clear! our enemies are everywhere and among us!

We are getting stronger in West, I thought it would be dream to see the school that forced me to learn arabic oneday when i was kid is now 100% teaching in Kurdish language! and I see now my nieces and nephews are learning in Kurdish!

I feel we are going to pass that humps and bumps in the journey! we might pay big price but no body said freedom is for free.

You are right. Kak bahoz what city are you from in West Kurdistan?

[brendar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_WJHKQ-oU&feature=youtube_gdata&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1   

This tv belongs to Syrian Opposition.

http://www.orient-news.net/

[brendar]

http://welati.net/nuce.php?ziman=ar&id= ... e=2&kijan=