Rebel Keeps Kurds’ Guns Close at Hand in Peace Talks With Turkey By Tim Arango, New York Times 11 April 2013
ZARGALI, Iraq — In a safe house made of cinder blocks and surrounded by grazing goats and sheep, nestled high in the remote mountains of northern Iraq, a Kurdish fighter who has waged a guerrilla war against Turkey for nearly three decades remains defiant in the face of peace.
“Our forces believe they can achieve results through war,” said the fighter, Murat Karayilan, who commands the thousands of fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the P.K.K. (read more)
Adam Ferguson for The New York Times
Flags bore the image of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan at a rally in Diyarbakir on Thursday. (Sedat Suna/European Pressphoto Agency)
Jailed Leader of the Kurds Offers a Truce With Turkey By Sebnem Arsu, New York Times 21 March 2013
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — The jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Thursday called for a cease-fire and ordered all his fighters off Turkish soil, in a landmark moment for a newly energized effort to end three decades of armed conflict with the Turkish government.
Since its start late last year, the peace effort has transfixed a Turkish public traumatized by a long and bloody conflict that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives and fractured society along ethnic lines. While there have been previous periods of cease-fire between Turkey and Mr. Ocalan’s group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., never before has there been so much support at the highest levels of both the Turkish and Kurdish leadership.(read more)
Turkey Warns Syria It May Use ‘Greater Force’ By Anne Barnard, Christine Hauser and Alan Cowell, New York Times October 10, 2012
BEIRUT, Lebanon — With Syria’s civil strife coursing through major cities and unsettling neighboring countries, the Turkish military sounded a somber warning on Wednesday that it may respond more forcefully after days of shelling from Syria.
News reports on Wednesday spoke of intensified fighting close to the Turkish-Syrian border near the Syrian frontier settlement of Azamarin, with mortar and machine-gun fire clearly audible from the Turkish side.
As fighting near the 550-mile border has unfolded over the past week, several mortar bombs have landed on Turkish soil, prompting Turkish gunners to return fire. It has not been clear whether the Syrian mortar is deliberate or the result of inaccurate fire in clashes between government forces and rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. (read more)
Talk by John Marshall Evans "Honesty in Diplomacy"
John Marshall Evans was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 25, 2004 and was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia on August 11, 2004 where he served until May 24, 2006. A native of Williamsburg, Virginia, Evans earned a BA in Russian history at Yale University and pursued doctoral studies at Columbia University before joining the U.S. Foreign Service. In the first part of his career, he served in Tehran, Prague, and Moscow as well as serving at the Executive Secretariat and Office of the Secretary of State, the U.S. Mission to NATO, and as Deputy Director of the Soviet Desk. His role in coordinating the American response to the Armenian earthquake of 1988 earned him a medal and statement of appreciation from the Armenian government of that time. On his return to Washington in 1999, Evans assumed direction of the State Department's Office of Analysis for Russia and Eurasia, winning a Meritorious Honor Award and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director's Exceptional Performance Award.
Copyright TEDx 2011
A protester carried a sign Saturday in Istanbul that read "In the 80s, We Were small, but Now You Are Small," referring to the role of the military in several coups. (Johan Spanner for The New York Times)
Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Alliance to End Genocide P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 1-202-643-1405 E-mail:communications@genocidewatch.org
