Statement Concerning The Attack In Bad Freienwalde "I can't really hold Turkey responsible; we all know about Turkey, the whole world knows about Turkey. One Kurdish proverb states: 'Expect the worst from your enemy so that you won't be disappointed.' But the German authorities, who claim to be defenders of human rights, these people I blame. They are just as guilty of murdering Mesut as the Turkish soldiers themselves are. What have we done to them? Why do they do such things to us? The Germans also murdered my son. They must be held responsible. I call on the public to see to it that my son's death is punished. Please, tell the people there to stop them from sending weapons here, because we are being tortured and killed by these weapons." - statement from the mother of Mesut Dunder, who was killed on 23.9.92 by a German tank, to the German public On 27.10.94, we destroyed the barracks of the Verteidigungskriegskommando 852 in Bad Freienwalde in Markisch Oberland with an incendiary device. Germany Is A Partner In The Genocidal War In Kurdistan: Militarily, Economically, And Politically! "Turkey, because of its strategic position on NATO's southeastern flank, used to be the cornerstone of our security. Today, because of the developments in the southern regions of the former Soviet Union as well as in other countries in the Near and Middle East, Turkey is even more important. A democratic and stable Turkey can play an important role in this region's relationship to Europe. (...) Our military aid is the continuation of agreements made by previous German governments and is of particular importance for the Atlantic Alliance." - Helmut Kohl during the parliamentary debate on 2.4.94, where a central issue was the lifting of the limited arms embargo against Turkey The above statement clearly spells out Germany's role in the war in Kurdistan. Turkey is the power charged with keeping regional stability, after having won for itself the reputation at the international level of being the only power in the area which can be trusted. Following a NATO meeting Brussels in January 1994, at a trilateral foreign ministers conference in Ankara between Germany, Great Britain, and Turkey, Foreign Minister Kinkel proclaimed Turkey's "strategic importance" in Europe's new security structure because of its proximity to Asia (taz, 21.1.94). In other words, what had previously been a bulwark against Bolshevik expansionism would now buffer the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Near East, while at the same time preventing Russia from exerting excess pressure on the new republics in the Caucasus and Asia. Turkey's final role has to do with the so-called "Turk states" (Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, Cirgesia, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan) which are granted to be "natural" spheres of influence for Turkey on account of the fact that they are all "brother states with common historical and cultural ties". The first step towards realizing the hegemony of this region was the agreement signed with these Turk republics in Istanbul on 19.10.94 which foresees "increasing political and cultural relations". It is this geopolitical status which Turkey enjoys which is costing Kurds their lives every day. This function which Turkey exercises in the region is the reason why genocide can be carried out with impunity with the approval and support of Western states. Higher interests must take priority. Germany is the most significant pillar of support which Ankara enjoys. Turkey's 3,000-man anti-terror unit, the "Black Beetles", known for its killer mentality, is trained by the Germany's own anti-terrorist elite, the GSG-9. Each year, Turkish "students" are educated at the Bundeswehr's officers academy and at various police training facilities. Turkey is the largest customer of the world's second largest arms exporter, Germany. Arms exports from Germany to Turkey totalled 6.3 billion DM from 1964-94. The "NATO defence aid" which Turkey receives, enough to equip an entire army, is virtually free. And this doesn't include the cheap credits for arms purchases and other "regular" deals which Turkey enters into. The "NATO defence aid" which Turkey was granted in a 1964 NATO decision will finally expire at the end of 1994. In addition to the deal for 68 million DM of arms from 1992-94, a report from the Foreign Ministry has noted that Turkey recently received an additional 1.5 billion DM in other materials from Bonn. This included the free delivery of former NVA army weapons from the former East Germany. The total amount of arms gifts given to Turkey since 1989 makes the real dimension of this transaction clear. Here are just a few examples: 30 fighter jets, 170 Leopard-1 battle tanks, 300 BTR-60PB (East German) armoured tanks, 537 M-113 armoured tanks, 1,000 air-to-air rockets, 5,000 tank shells, RPG-7s (East German) with 200,000 grenades, more than 300,000 Kalaschnikov machine pistols (East German), and 175,000 gas masks. In addition to military aid to Turkey, the German government would also like to conclude a comprehensive private business deal: In a Finance Ministry report to Parliament, it was announced that talks were underway between the Turkish Defence Ministry and various German corporations. These talks concerned the "delivery of 115 trailers for transporting tanks" and 10 multi-use helicopters. Bonn is hoping to secure a deal worth 120.7 million DM. Negotiations with the Turkish Defence Ministry concern deliveries worth a total of 1.8 billion DM (ND, 21.9.94). Just because the NATO program will expire in 1995 doesn't mean that the arms shipments will cease. On the contrary, "private" deals between German multi-national arms corporations like Siemens, the Daimler-Benz firms AEG, Dornier, MBB, MTU, and others, deals which are easier to hide from the public, will continue. Dornier delivered Stinger air defence systems, DASA sold Phantom fighter jets. The Leopard-1 tanks were specially fitted for Turkey by the Kraus-Maffai corporation. German grenades fired from Leopard-1 tanks were discovered after the destruction of the Kurdish city of Sirnak in mid-August 1992. The Kurd Mesut Dunder was dragged to death in Lice behind a German BTR-60 tank. The ca. 40,000 "village guards", lackeys in the service of the Turkish "security forces", are usually armed with G3 guns made by the firm Heckler & Koch. The 300,000 Kalaschnikov machine pistols found their way into the hands of the secret police and the "special teams" operating in Kurdistan, men who are paid per kill. The Foreign Ministry lied for a long time about the deployment of German weapons against the Kurdish civilian population. Later, when the facts could no longer be denied, the government simply stated that no agreements had been violated. Evidence of the arms deployment led to a brief arms embargo this spring. But that was just a sham. According a NATO decision arrived at in Rome in 1991, the security of a member state could also be affected by terrorism and sabotage, thereby making the domestic deployment of NATO weaponry permissible. According to this NATO doctrine: "The security of the Alliance must be viewed in a global context. The security interests of the Alliance can be affected by other risks...such as the disruption of necessary resources by means of terrorism or sabotage." That's how the Turkish government can justify its military actions in Turkish Kurdistan. The deployment of German weapons are just part of a "fight against terrorists", in full accordance with NATO guidelines. According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Hans Schumacher, the German government has "full understanding" for this argument. During his visit to Turkey in July 1993, the Bundeswehr's General Inspector Klaus Naumann, after meetings with Turkish Chief of Staff Dogan Gures and Defence Minister Nevzat Ayaz, stated that the use of German weapons in Kurdistan was "fully legitimate given the present conditions". It is the massive amount of German arms shipments to Turkey which has made it possible for the Turkish army to massacre the Kurdish people. In the past two years, 1,500 Kurdish villages have been destroyed and 4 million Kurds have become refugees. In August 1994, it also become known that Kurdish refugees were being detained in concentration camps where they were tortured and sometimes murdered. Without the political, economic, and military support of Germany, Turkey would not be able to carry out its genocide against the Kurds. Without exaggerating, it is fair to say that Germany is just as important for Turkey today as the USA used to be for Vietnam and Central America. In September, a new wave of destruction was launched by the Turkish military. In the last four weeks alone, 30 villages in the Dersim region were depopulated and destroyed. The forests in the Dersim region have been continually bombarded from the air and set on fire since August. According to the newspaper 'Ozgur Ulke', this method of burning forests and villages has been dubbed "Operation Rome" by the Turkish military in reference to Emperor Nero's destruction of Rome. As soldiers involved in the operation have told to the newspaper, this destruction is just the first phase of a plan designed to eliminate another 150 villages and settlements in the Dersim region. Germany is the long-arm of Turkey's counter-insurgency in Western Europe! Or, in the words of Klaus Kinkel, "We cannot abandon our friends in a difficult situation!" The smear campaigns against Kurds living here has reached a new level of intensity. For years, Kurds have been criminalized here, subject to persecution, arrest, and deportation. Through trials against alleged PKK members under Article 129a in the Dusseldorf PKK Trial in 1986 and the banning of the PKK and 42 other Kurdish organizations in 1993, Germany has opened up a second front against the Kurdish liberation movement in Europe. Germany is the major power in the European Union and has taken a leading role in defeating Kurdish organizations (following Germany, other EU states like France have also banned Kurdish organizations). Germany, on its own territory as well, has become an essential partner of the Turkish military and the political system dependent on it. In September 1993, during a state visit by Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller to Bonn, definite plans were made to ban the PKK in Germany. The armed actions by the PKK in Germany just a few weeks later were just an excuse for the ban, not its actual reason. Germany thereby took up Turkey's call to "fight against terrorism". Following the PKK ban, "Thank you, Helmut!" was the main headline in the Turkish press. On 19.07.94, Turkish Chief of Staff Dogan Gures, main coordinator of the war against the Kurds, was received with full military honors and spent four days with Bundeswehr General Inspector Klaus Naumann. According to ministerial reports, several high-level meetings took place and Gures visited several military facilities in Germany. At the end of July 1994, Gures told the Turkish daily 'Hurriyet' that the "necessary contacts" with European states had been made in order to stop the PKK. According to him, German Defence Minister Volker Ruhe said he was "confident" that criminals from the ranks of the PKK would be deported to Turkey. Since the banning of the PKK and all Kurdish cultural organizations associated with it, all Kurdish gatherings and demonstrations are banned, even protests against actions by the Turkish "security forces" in Kurdistan are massively criminalized, and demonstrations which are held are brutally attacked by the police. State sponsored hate campaigns in the media have created the necessary pogrom mentality against the Kurds. The climax of this was the murder of Halim Dener, who was shot by a cop for hanging posters in Hannover. Kurds living in Germany have practically no right to freedom of expression or freedom of assembly. This virtual state of emergency against one social group is also a warning to other oppositional forces in Germany which could experience the same in the future. Kurds who have been arrested during protests and demonstrations, some of whom are now on hungerstrike, are threatened with rejected asylum claims and possible deportation. "It is unacceptable that violent foreigners abuse our hospitality and make Germany a battlefield for their civil war", stated one German politician after the Autobahn blockades. The deportation of Kurds to Turkey, especially if the individual was involved in the Kurdish liberation struggle, can mean torture and death. We chose a Bundeswehr facility as a target for our action because it is representative of Germany's active support for the Turkish "security forces", and it is representative of Germany's foreign and domestic policies with respect to the Kurdish liberation struggle. Especially now, when there is a debate going on concerning the possible deployment of Bundeswehr troops abroad as part of UN or other missions, the German military needs to be the focus of more attention. During the Gulf War, German soldiers were actually stationed in North Kurdistan in late-1990. Future deployments as part of NATO missions in Kurdistan cannot be ruled out. German foreign policy has created the necessary instruments for direct military engagement and these will be utilized. This development must be resisted. Immediately stop all military, economic, and political cooperation with Turkey! Boycott Turkish tourism! Repeal the ban against Kurdish parties and associations! A right to stay for all refugees! Solidarity with the Kurdish political prisoners in German prisons who have been on hungerstrike since 10.8.94! Support the Kurdish liberation struggle! Das K.O.M.I.T.E.E. (Translated by Arm The Spirit)