Parallels between Turkey and SA ‘a fantasy’
I AM writing to you about the op-ed by Shannon Ebrahim titled “#InternationalWomensDay: Solidarity with Leyla Guven” published on IOL on March 8.
Beyond all the accusations directed at Turkey, I am compelled to express first and foremost my regret and disappointment that Abdullah Öcalan, who is personally responsible for the deaths of 40 thousand innocent civilians, including women and children, over the course of 30 years, was given the spotlight and praised on a day that should be about honouring the struggle of women.
It is simply an injustice to women that the top article on IOL about the International Women’s Day glosses over the truly commendable efforts of women who strive for equality, freedom and justice everywhere, and uses this day as a pretext to manipulate the public opinion to garner support for a terrorist.
It is my duty to remind you and your readers that PKK, of which Abdullah Öcalan was the leader, is designated as a terrorist organisation not only by Turkey, but also by the EU and many countries around the world.
I would also like to bring to your attention that the claim that Öcalan was abducted by Turkish intelligence in the Nairobi airport is simply false, since he was caught in the Embassy of Greece, a fellow Nato ally, in Nairobi, holding a Greek Cypriot administration diplomatic passport.
What is clearly more unfortunate is the comparison of Abdullah Öcalan to Nelson Mandela, which is not only misguided and unfair but also disrespectful to the people of South Africa, the land of genuine freedom fighters, and to Madiba’s legacy of peace and human rights.
The treatment of Kurds in Turkey was never based on racism or ethnicity. Kurds have never had to go through different doors marked “Turks/Kurds” and they have never experienced legal segregation.
Setting aside many commonalities between our countries, drawing parallels between South Africa and Turkey on this matter is merely a fantasy.
Such attempts to resurface archaic mistreatment scenarios should never overshadow real stories of emancipation of women in the face of hardship in Turkey, South Africa and beyond.
On this occasion, I would like to congratulate the International Women’s Day of all women around the globe, regardless of their origin, be it Kurdish, Arab, Palestinian, Rohingyan, Uyghur, African or other.
ELIF ÇOMOĞLU ÜLGEN
EBRAHIM, GROUP FOREIGN EDITOR, RESPONDS: It is a pattern in history that often when a government wants to curtail the rights of its opponents or a minority ethnic group fighting for equal rights, it labels them terrorists.
In South Africa, we know this all too well.
By depicting those fighting for their rights as terrorists, governments use draconian laws and methods to violate their human rights against international law.
It has always been convenient for Turkey to label the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation, as it then tries to justify its gross violations of human rights against members of the organisation, and it deems any form of Kurdish opposition as having affiliation with a terrorist group.
In a landmark ruling in September 2017, a Brussels court ruled that the PKK was not a terrorist organisation but a party in the civil war in Turkey, and said that the Turkish-Kurdish conflict should be viewed as an armed struggle.
This view has been confirmed by the Belgian High Court.
Unfortunately, the ambassador’s letter has tried to deflect attention away from the essential point of my Women’s Day column, which is about the hunger strike of Leyla Guven, which has now gone on for 124 days. There is no response in the ambassador’s letter to the fact that hundreds of other Kurdish political prisoners in Turkish jails have gone on hunger strike in solidarity, calling for an end to Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan’s solitary confinement, which has gone on for years, and the refusal of the Turkish authorities to allow him visits from his family or lawyers, and even letters or phone calls.
What about the point in the column that women have gone on hunger strikes in capitals all over the world to call for the immediate release of Ocalan, and the 50 Nobel Laureates who have now made the same call?
For the historical record, Ocalan was not abducted by Turkish intelligence agents in the Greek embassy in Kenya as the ambassador says, but he was intercepted by Turkish agents while being driven from the Greek ambassador’s residence to the Nairobi airport, from where he was due to take an onward flight to South Africa, where our president Nelson Mandela had offered him asylum.
Ocalan’s abduction was in complete violation of international law, as was his subsequent torture and continuing inhumane treatment.