Vi har mottatt følgende brev fa TJA, Den frie kvinnebevegelsen, om at flere av deres aktivister og deres talsperson Ayşe Gökkan har blitt arrestert. I oppkjøringa til 8. mars ser vi igjen hvor redd det tyrkiske regimet er for den kurdiske kvinnebevegelsen.

In Turkey the ruling fascist AKP-MHP coalition, acting in full cooperation with the broader forces of patriarchy has launched an intensive attack on the TJA and on women’s struggle in general. The most recent of these attacks was the arrest of Ayşe Gökkan, the spokesperson of the TJA. Also imprisoned earlier were Leyla Güven, Ayla Akat Ata, Zeynep Ölbeci, Meryem Adıbelli, Pervin Oduncu and Emine Ayna.  

TJA spokesperson Ayşe Gökkan was arrested pending trial on charges of “leading a terrorist organization” and “membership in a terrorist organization” on January 27. In fact, she was re-arrested in the same case after having been released after 8 months in prison. The court ruled for her immediate imprisonment claiming she constitutes a threat to public safety on grounds of: 5 secret witness statements, her work with Kurdish parties and statements about Kurdish national unity, her statements during Leyla Güven’s 200-days hunger strike, her statement demanding that Mr Öcalan’s family be allowed to visit him after news of a fire in the İmralı Island, participation in Newroz rally in 2020, her work to build a Kurdish alliance, her participation in press statements made by Rosa Women’s Association against violence against women, her notes on women related work and possession of various issues of the Jineology magazine.  In her testimony in court Ayşe said: “You are asking me why I participate in women’s struggle? When I went to primary school the teacher beat me on my nails with a baton because I spoke in Kurdish.  I have never forgotten that pain and I never will. I have been under torture for being a Kurd and for being a woman ever since my first day in school. I am fighting against this. I am resisting. No one can ever incriminate me for this. You also claim that we act under instructions from men. No men can dare give us instructions.”

Ayşe Gökkan has engaged in women’s work throughout her 35 years in political struggle. She was the mayor of Nusaybin in 2009-2014. No women were murdered in Nusaybin during her 5 years term. She was a member of the diplomacy commission of the KJA for many years until it was banned with a decree with power of law during the state of emergency in 2016. She is now the spokesperson of TJA. Her’s has been a life devoted to women’s organized struggle. In what we can aptly call judiciary harassment, she has been arrested 83 times. She appeared before court 600 times in 215 different cases.

Leyla Güven, TJA activist and Democratic Society Congress Co-Chair, has been sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison on charges of “membership in terrorist organization” and “propaganda”. Outstanding among the grounds of court’s judgement was the statement that she incited hatred and enmity in one sector of the population toward another in her speeches by her references to matriarchal society and her statements about building a woman-centric society. The court took the extraordinary step of ruling for her immediate imprisonment pending the appeal processes and hastily sent her to prison.

Our activists Ayla Akat Ata, Zeynep Ölbeci, Meryem Adıbelli, Pervin Oduncu and Emine Ayna were taken under police custody and subsequently arrested in relation to the Kobane case file concocted after 6 years. Along with 108 politicians, they are accused of leading and participating in the 6-8 October 2014 protests against the heavy IS attack on the city of Kobane. Their arrest is a continuation of the government’s policies which target democratic politics and put women on the target.

The AKP-MHP government is putting its fascist system of rule into practice on the basis of sexist ideology through a new concept of patriarchal attack. The government drawing on misogyny as the source of its political existence has launched a relentless attack on women’s forces of struggle in order to entirely liquidate women’s rights struggle and to abolish women’s rights. It is trying to destroy women’s will by means of attacks on women’s representation in the field of democratic politics; through its policies of liquidating the women-centric system by appropriating all our rightful and legal gains in the field of local governments; and, through the method of intensive operations and arrests targeting women’s movement. The government is incriminating the Istanbul Convention and trying to withdraw from it. This all results in a big increase in women murdered, attacks on way of life, rape and sexual abuse. This is a practice and strategy of special warfare. The society is being swept into a new process of colonialization and occupation by carrying into effect women’s slavehood. To put it in precise words, femicide is being carried out under state supervision and planning. 

The ruling coalition is giving us the message: “You either give up your struggle or go to prison”.  TJA is a women’s movement that wages a struggle to build a democratic society. TJA is a women’s movement where women who aim and struggle to replace patriarchy with a women-centric system are organized. That is why the ruling AKP-MHP coalition is afraid of women. We will continue to defy male state violence against women and to wage women’s liberation struggle. TJA cannot and will not be intimidated.

We hereby declare once more: It is not women’s struggle for freedom but those that murder women, harassers, rapists, abusers that should stand trial. Those who protect and whitewash them should stand trial. Our organized women’s struggle will prevail, not misogynist policies.

We call on feminist and women’s movements throughout the world to join hands with us in this struggle against the forces of patriarchy and fascism.

TJA (Free Women’s Movement)

Uttalelse.

10.februar angrep tyrkiske fly og helikoptertransport troppestyrker igjen den kurdiske regionen i Nord Irak, i grenseområdet nord for Erbil. Påskuddet var igjen å bekjempe PKK, som har forlegninger i fjellområdet Gare. Dette angrepet ser ut til å bli slått tilbake av kurdiske forsvarsstyrker, i likhet med det som skjedde med ett 8 måneders forsøk på å trenge inn i et nærliggende område fra sommeren 2020 av.

Det er forstemmende at NATO-allierte av Tyrkia, som da også inkluderer Norge, ikke imøtegår disse vedvarende invasjonsforsøkene i nabolandene med handlinger som stans i våpenleveranser og politiske sanksjoner. Tyrkia har jo også invadert både kurdiske og arabiske områder i nord Syria flere ganger de siste årene. De har også forflyttet soldater til jezidienes hjemområder i Shengal og prøver å ta over kontrollen her fra de lokale forsvarsstyrkene som  jezidiene bygde opp etter angrepet fra IS i 2014. Erdogans regime har tidligere uttalt at dette området, inkludert Mosul lengre sør egentlig er tyrkiske.

Det er beklagelig at Tyrkia utnytter uenigheter mellom KDP, det dominerende partiet i de kurdiske sjølstyremyndighetene i regionen, og PKK til å få aksept til å trenge seg inn i området.  Solidaritet med Kurdistan oppfordrer de kurdiske organisasjonene der til å stå sammen mot den tyrkiske invasjonen.

For norske myndigheter er det nå på høy tid å besvare denne og vedvarende tyrkiske aggresjonshandlinger med krav om tilbaketrekninger av alle tyrkiske styrker, og full stans i våpenhandel med Tyrkia inntil dette har skjedd.

I tillegg må Tyrkia imøtekomme de tyrkiske kurdernes invitasjon til å gjenoppta forsøkene på å komme fram til en politisk løsning på regimets kurderproblem, ved i første omgang å gi amnesti til og løslate deres politiske ledere Abdullah Öcalan og Selahattin Demirtas. Det er en avgjørende forutsetning for å reversere den utviklingen vi har sett i Tyrkia de siste årene med akselererende brudd på ytringsfrihet og andre menneskerettigheter.

Arbeidsutvalget i Solidaritet med Kurdistan

Oslo, 16.februar 2021

I en årrekke har kunstneren Gelawesh Waledkhani som er utdannet ved Kunstakademiet i Oslo, malt portrett av aktivister i den kurdiske bevegelsen i Rojava (Nord-Syria). Kunstverket «Rojava: The Women’s Revolution» som er stilt ut i Rosenkrantz’ gate i Oslo har vekket sterke reaksjoner hos det tyrkiske regimet. Verket er et stort portrett av kurdiske frihetsforkjemper sammen med sitatet «A society can never be free without Women’s liberation». Sitatet er signert Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan som tidligere var leder av PKK, har nå sittet fengslet i 22 år i tyrkisk fengsel

Den tyrkiske ambassaden her sendt ut brev til alle bystyrerepresentanter i Oslo der de krever kunstverket fjernet. Også Tyrkiske Foreningers Hovedorganisasjon, som er en støttespiller for Erdogan-regimet og blant annet har støttet Tyrkias invasjon i Nord-Syra, krever verket fjernet fordi de mener det fremmer terrorisme. PKK er ikke stemplet som en terrororganisasjon i Norge og både EU-domstolen og den belgiske appelldomstolen har slått fast det samme.

Dette speiler undertrykkingen kurderne utsettes for. I Tyrkia blir politikere, aktivister, journalister og lærere som våger utfordre Erdogans makt, fengslet under påskudd av at de er terrorister. Folk som kritiserer Erdogan lever farlig. Ser man litt nærmere så ser man at kritikken dreier seg om mer enn Öcalan. Det er også et angrep på kvinnekampen. Kvinner er en sterk kraft mot autoritære regimer og okkupasjon og regimet vet at kvinnene i YPJ sto i front i kampen mot IS. Regimet frykter forandringene som kommer med kvinnekampen.

At Erdogans regime og dets sympatisører i diasporaen forsøker å importere de samme metodene av stempling, undertrykking og løgn for å stilne kritiske stemmer i Norge er ikke overraskende. Så langt har myndighetene i Oslo og norske politikere blankt avvist slike forsøk – det bør de også fortsette med.

Uttalelse vedtatt på Solidaritet med Kurdistans landsmøte 14.02.2021

Erling Folkvord har skrivi et innlegg på Radikal Portal som tar for seg lovligheten til norsk våpeneksport til Tyrkia. Vil utenriksminister Søreide svare?

Søndag den 14.02.2021 avholdt Solidaritet med Kurdistan sitt årlige landsmøte. Til tross for at landsmøtet ble gjennomført digitalt ble møtet svært vellykket. Med delegater fra våre lokallag rundt omkring i landet diskuterte vi vårt arbeid i året som gikk, hva vi ønsker å fokusere på i året som kommer og valgte nye medlemmer til vårt landsstyre og arbeidsutvalg. Vi diskuterte også den nåværende situasjonen i Kurdistan, med særlig vekt på den pågående represjonen mot sivile aktivister i Rojhelat (de iranske delene av Kurdistan), aggresjon fra den tyrkiske staten mot kurdiske områder og de nylige forsøkene på å angripe ytringsfriheten til kurdiske aktivister og kunstnere i Norge. Landsmøtet ble også gjestet av en representant for den britiske fagforeningen UNITE som kunne fortelle oss den imponerende historien om hvordan det sterke kurdiske solidaritetsarbeidet i den britiske fagbevegelsen har blitt bygget opp og av en representant for Kurdistan nasjonale kongress (KNK) som kunne fortelle om utviklingen og veien videre i Rojava. Landsmøtet vedtok uttalelser om flere av disse temaene som vil bli publisert i de kommende dagene.

Det nye landsstyret og arbeidsutvalget i Solidaritet med Kurdistan består av:

Landsstyre:

Svein Olsen

Sverre Sævareid

Jan Bojer Vindheim

Aso Amediyan

Bjørn Venstad

Ingerid Martinsen Fareed

Lasse Riise

Turid Thomassen

Turid Kjernlie

Erling Folkvord

Bente C. Knagenhjelm

Johan Petter Andresen

Seher Aydar

Serias Nedimi

Jila Hassanpour

Karim Allahweysi (vara)

Jon-Arne Jørstad (vara)

Nedir Nemat (vara)

Arbeidsutvalg:

Stina Bergsten (medleder)

Truls Strand Offerdal (medleder)

Beth Hartmann

Pia Maria Roll

Sara Andersen

Arnljot Ask

Marie Sørhaug

Jette Vestergren (kasserer)

Over 700 Progressive har blitt arrestert de siste dagene melder flere medier. Se også ANF

Tyrkia angrep PKK stillinger i Gare i Nord Irak i forrige. Det ble gjennomført mange titalls bombeangrep og marinesoldater ble landa i området. 13 tyrkiske fanger som ble holdt i en av de mange tusen hulene, ble drept i denne forbindelsen. PKK sier at de ble drept av Tyrkias egne bomber. Tyrkia påstår at fangene ble drept av PKK. Hvorfor skulle PKK drepe fanger de har holdt i lang tid akkurat nå når Tyrkia fortsetter sin «Operasjon klo» som begynte i mai i fjor?

Forsøket på å besette Gare ser ut til å ha mislykkes totalt. Derfor må massearrestasjonene sees på som et forsøk fra det tyrkiske regimet på å dekke over og avlede oppmerksomheten fra nederlaget.

I dag var det et opprop i Klassekampen.

Stina Bergsten er med i en kort video.

Teksten til oppropet i Klassekampen er:

Frihet for Abdullah Öcalan

Abdullah Öcalan har nå sittet i tyrkisk fengsel i 22 år, de fleste årene i total isolasjon.

Tyrkias president Recep Tayyip Erdogan har valgt å føre en aggressiv væpnet kamp mot kurderne i Tyrkia, Syria og Irak. Hans formål er å styrke sin egen posisjon innenriks og å utvide Tyrkias innflytelse, i tråd med målsettinger om å gjenopprette deler av det opprinnelige Osmanske imperiet.

Lederen for det kurdiske folkets frihetskamp, Abdullah Öcalan, er nøkkelen til en løsning av det kurdiske spørsmålet og nøkkelen for framgang for en demokratiseringsprosess i Tyrkia. Norge og FN må ta initiativer som kan stoppe Erdogans aggresjon.

Det er lansert en kampanje for å involvere FN og de relevante FN-organene i kampen for Öcalans frihet. I denne sammenheng er det utarbeidet et åpent brev til FNs generalsekretær med bistand fra den kurdiske arbeidsgruppen for menneskerettigheter i Sør-Afrika (KHRAG) og bistand fra den sørafrikanske landsorganisasjonen COSATU.

Vi som skriver under oppfordrer den norske offentligheten til å vise sin støtte til det kurdiske folket, og oppfordrer den norske regjeringen og alle internasjonale organisasjoner, FN, Europakommisjonen, Europarådet, NATO og OSSE til å legge press på Tyrkia for å en ny fredsforhandlings-prosess med kurderne.

Hanan Benammar, kunstner;  Kai Johnsen, regissør;  Jan Erik Vold, forfatter,  Heming Olaussen, politiker SV;  Kariane Westrheim, professor; Siri Austeen, artist; Sigbjørn Skåden, forfatter, Marius Kolbenstvedt, scenekunstner; Erling Folkvord, politiker Rødt;  Mette Brantzeg, regissør;  Asbjørn Grønstad, professor; Kjersti Ericsson, professor; Axel Rudi, post-doktor; Galawezh Waledkhani, billedkunstner; Cathrine Linn Kristiansen, Kvinnefronten, Sara Baban, scenekunstner.

For ei uke siden invaderte Tyrkia Gare som ligger over 150 kilometer inne i Irak. Dette har skjedd i hemmelig samarbeid med Barzani-klanen som kontrollerer det meste i Nord-Irak. Gare er ikke langt fra Mosul og Erbil.

Invasjonsstyrken møtte massiv motstand fra PKKs gerilja og det meldes om at det er slått retrett. Men situasjonen er fortsatt uoversiktlig.

Nedenfor er en pressemelding fra Sammenslutningen av demokratiske samfunn i Kurdistan (KCK) som er en fellesorganisasjon for mange revolusjonære kurdiske organisasjoner

Tyrkiske myndigheter gir ikke opp å få fjernet veggmaleri til Gelawesh Waledkhani. Nå henvender de seg direkte til bystyrepolitikerne i Oslo i følge ABC-Nyheter. Bystyret skal behandle saken 17. februar 2021.

Tyrkia er et land med 80 millioner innbygger, og har Natos neststørste hær. Tyrkia ekspanderer militært inn i naboland og økonomisk over store deler av Midtøsten, Afrika og Vest-Asia. Det stadig mer diktatoriske styret i landet må demokratisk-innstilte mennesker ikke ta lett på.

Dear Secretary General of the UN,

Dear Antonio Guterres,

The Norway based solidarity organisation «Solidarity with Kurdistan» is joining the international campaign «Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan towards a just peace in Turkey» -and we are signing the letter which follows below in this e-mail.
We take the liberty to ask the Secretary General to take action in accordance with this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Truls Strand Offerdal and Stina Bergsten
Co-leaders of the Board
Solidarity with Kurdistan Norway

“Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan towards a just peace in Turkey”

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,  

The United Nations was established to maintain peace and security, and to develop friendly relations among nations. We believe that disregard for fundamental human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international treaties is a major source of ongoing armed conflicts, which require the involvement of the UN if they are ever to be solved. We commend your commitment to resolve violent conflicts through dialogue and negotiations and your support for peacebuilding in various countries marred by armed conflict. It is thus with great hope and expectations we approach you to help resolve one of the world’s longstanding conflicts with concomitant gross human rights violations.  

The Republic of Turkey, a UN member state, poses a fundamental threat to peace and stability in today’s world. Under the Presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has become a major threat to regional and global order, pursuing aggressive foreign policy with direct military intervention in various conflict zones, thereby breaching international legal norms and regulations. Turkey’s expansionist policy in Syria and Iraq, and interventions in Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Caucasus have caused or intensified bloody conflicts, adding to increasing violations of human rights, loss of life, displacement, and instability.  

Turkey has shown little regard   for the basic principle of sovereignty of UN member states and has openly and repeatedly violated the territorial integrity of its neighbors and other countries. In March 2018, Turkey occupied the Kurdish city of Afrin and surroundings areas   in North and East Syria. As the UN failed to condemn the Turkish invasion as an occupation and failed to take actions, Turkey has continued its occupation policy to date. In 2019, Turkey occupied the cities and surroundings areas of Ra’s al-Ayn (Serêkaniyê) Tal Abyad (Girê Sipî) in North and East Syria. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic published a 25-page report on 14 August 2020, presenting its findings resulting from investigations conducted between 11 January and 1 July 2020. The report documents how the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army may have committed war crimes of hostage-taking, cruel treatment, torture, and rape in Afrin and the surrounding area.  

The Turkish state’s domestic and foreign policy is characterized by misogyny, discrimination, and oppression, and the Turkish state and military have an established record of systematic and grave human rights violations against imperiled religious minorities including Yazidis, Christians, and Alawites, and against defenders of human rights and democratic opposition including those of Islamic faith. These are just a few examples how Turkey, a UN member state, is willfully ignoring its international obligations. In the last year alone, many international organizations, including the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the European Council, NATO, and the Arab League, as well as the UN Human Rights Council and international human rights organizations held special meetings or issued reports in which they rightly condemned Turkey’s democracy backsliding and human rights violations.  

We believe that the time has come to urge Turkey to comply with its obligations according to International Humanitarian law, and particularly to abide by UN treaties to which Turkey is a signatory. The Turkish government has declared martial law and thereby abrogated international law with respect to the Kurds in Turkey. The Turkish Armed Forces constantly and systematically attack Kurdish areas in north and east of Syria and in northern Iraq with impunity, risking the lives of civilians, and building and maintaining bases and outposts in these regions. This is a blatant violation against the principle of national sovereignty, which the UN seeks to uphold.  

Since its foundation, Turkey has implemented a harsh and uncompromising policy of official denial of the existence of the Kurdish people, their distinct identity and culture although it is the largest non-Turkish nation within Turkey’s modern borders. This campaign of denial and persecution has included extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, the destruction of thousands of villages, and other human rights violations. As a direct consequence of this policy, an armed conflict between the Turkish Armed Forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), broke out which has now lasted nearly four decades. This conflict has been variously characterized as a non-international armed conflict by many specialized organizations and international experts, including the highest court of Belgium. There have been several national and international initiatives to resolve this armed conflict in a peaceful manner, all of which have been welcomed and supported by the leader of the PKK Mr Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK in 1978 and has been imprisoned in isolation now for over 20 years. Mr Ocalan, accepted by millions of Kurds as the legitimate representative of the Kurdish people and the leader of their resistance against Turkish state oppression, played a central role in discussions of a peaceful solution from 2013 to 2015 with the Turkish government. He is indisputably the interlocutor of an honourable and effective peace. The freedom for the Kurdish people’s leader Mr Abdullah Ocalan is vital to the solution of the Kurdish question.  

For a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question and, more broadly, to protect human rights and ensure the implementation of humanitarian and international law, the United Nations must engage with Mr Ocalan and, as a first step, immediately address the isolation and inhumane prison conditions endured by Mr Ocalan and engage for his immediate release.  

Despite the uncompromising policies of the Turkish government and their aggressive actions against those who stand for dialogue and promote peace initiatives, the Kurdish people continue to demand a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Across the country, the Kurdish people are punished with martial law, and Kurdish People’s leader Mr Abdullah Ocalan, who has repeatedly shown his interest in working for peace and justice in Turkey, faces continued isolation and solitary confinement. Furthermore, the implementation of Abdullah Ocalan’s strategy of democratic, gender-equal society and the coexistence of the ethnic and religious societies by the Kurds had led to a new hope for peace.  

The Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe confirmed our assertions concerning Mr. Ocalan’s inhumane prison conditions in their August 2020 report, which included a discussion of the conditions of the Imrali Island F Type Closed High Security Prison where he has been held since 1999. Regarding the conditions at Imrali, a total ban on contacts with the outside world (including correspondence) was imposed on all prisoners held at Imrali Prison, which resulted in a type of incommunicado imprisonment. The CPT stated that “such a state of affairs is not acceptable and clearly contravenes various relevant international human rights instruments and standards”. Turkey’s Law on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures (LESSM), was found by the CPT to be fundamentally flawed and should be revised not only at Imrali Prison, but in the prison system as a whole. All requests by lawyers, and nearly all requests by family members, to visit Mr. Ocalan have been denied since October 2014. This represents a clear violation of basic human rights. We recall the report by UN Special Rapporteur Juan Méndez to the UN General Assembly in October 2011, where he stated that solitary confinement “can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment” and called on all countries to ban this practice except in very exceptional circumstances, where it should be used for as short a time as possible. The CPT once again called upon the Turkish authorities to carry out a complete overhaul of the detention regime applied to prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment in Turkish prisons, in the light of the precepts set out in paragraphs 82 to 84 of the report on the 2013 visit, as the current detention regime in Turkey are contrary to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules).  

Dear Mr Secretary-General,   For the sake of peace and stability in Turkey and the region, we are requesting that you activate the OHCHR Committee Against Torture to immediately investigate and address the prison conditions of Mr Abdullah Ocalan within the framework of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was signed and ratified by Turkey in 1998. We also ask you to use all of your authority as the UN Secretary-General to engage for the immediate release of the Kurdish People’s leader Mr Abdullah Ocalan. At this critical juncture, we strongly urge the UN General Assembly to launch an initiative to facilitate peace talks and call on Turkey to respect its obligations under international law.

Truls Strand Offerdal and Stina Bergsten

Co-leaders of the Board

Solidarity with Kurdistan

Norway