Hillary Clinton Should Espouse the Security of Turkey, a NATO Member, Not the PKK Terrorists

Turkey has been an important member of NATO, the world’s most powerful and influential international military alliance, since 1952. The purpose behind the foundation of NATO was to provide military assistance for member countries and to protect them against external threats.

NATO’s Article 5, which says that “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all” was first invoked in the wake of September 11, 2001. A total of 2,974 people lost their lives in the September 11^th attacks on the Pentagon in Washington and on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. In the wake of those attacks, the U.S. administration called on NATO to wage a common offensive against terror. In as little as one month, NATO initiated a major offensive against terror. That offensive was later expanded to include the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan by NATO forces.

Do not the articles of the NATO Treaty concerning the threat of terror apply to all member countries in the same way?

Turkey, a NATO country, has for many years now been subjected to attacks by the PKK, a Marxist-Leninist terror organization. These terrorist activities have appeared in several reports prepared by the Counterterrorism Bureau of U.S. Department of State. One of those reports was written during Bill Clinton’s presidency, in 1995: The report states that “The terrorist group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) continues to train in the Al Biqa’ (Bekaa Valley)” of Syria and that “Syria continues to provide safe haven and support” to the PKK and that “The PKK in 1995 conducted with limited success a violent campaign against Turkish spots.”[1]

The PKK has been attacking our military police stations and martyring our troops since 1984. Gendarmes, guards and police officers responsible for ensuring security in Southeast Anatolia are still being subjected to thousands of armed attacks. The PKK has to date cost the lives of 40,000 of our citizens in more than 80,000 terrorist attacks. According to the 2013 report prepared by the Human Rights Inquiry Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, 7,918 public officials have been martyred in the last 30 years. According to Ministry of Defense figures for 2012, the numbers of martyred are 4,892 for soldiers, 550 for police officers and 1,500 for rangers. The number of wounded veterans during this time is more than 20,000.[2]

As a result of such atrocities, the PKK has been declared a terrorist organization by international bodies such as NATO, the U.N. and the EU. The U.S. government has placed the PKK on its own list of “foreign terror organizations.” Indeed, the U.S. Department of State has many times declared that it regards the PKK as a terrorist organization no matter what name it may appear under. One of the former spokesmen of U.S. Department of State, Mr. Adam Ereli said in a statement from 2003,”Through its recent actions, the Kurdistan Workers Party/Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (PKK/KADEK) appears to be making an effort to evade responsibility for its terrorist acts by changing its name. The PKK/KADEK, under any alias, is a terrorist organization, and no name change or press release can alter that fact. A recent clash between PKK/KADEK forces and the Iraqi Border Police and U.S. forces, as well as the group’s recent attacks in Turkey, demonstrate its terrorist nature.

The Coalition in Iraq will treat the PKK/KADEK or the Kurdistan People’s Congress as terrorists; its leaders are subject to arrest. President Bush has committed to prevent the use of Iraq as a terrorist haven, and we will meet that commitment.”[3] In the same way, in 2005, former spokesman of the U.S. Department of State Mr. Richard Bouche said, “We are very aware of the Turkish concerns about the presence of the PKK, which we and they both see as a terrorist organization in northern Iraq.”[4] A similar statement was made in 2008 by another former spokesman of the U.S. Department of State, Mr. Robert Wood; “The United States considers the PKK a common enemy of Turkey, the United States, and Iraq. We reiterate our longstanding call for the PKK to lay down its arms and cease its violence once and for all. We stand in solidarity with Turkey in our commitment to defeat these terrorists.” [5]

During her time as the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton also issued statements condemning the PKK as a terrorist organization on a visit to Istanbul in July 2001. The date of that visit coincided with an attack in which the PKK martyred 13 of our troops. Mrs. Clinton said, “We stand with Turkey in its fight against the PKK,” noting that the PKK is designated as a foreign terrorist group by the United States. [6]

During another visit, in August 2012, Mrs. Clinton emphasized the determination of the U.S. on the subject of the PKK and said, “We share Turkey’s determination that Syria must not become a haven for PKK terrorists,”[7] in response to Tayyip Erdoğan’s statement saying that “The PKK and the PYD are same or equivalent organizations. If the PKK uses PYD territory as a base and attacks us, we will regard that as a casus belli.”

Mrs. Clinton also said, “Turkey and the US are working hard on fighting against PKK” on the same trip. [8]In another speech on 2009 she said, “”We discussed with Turkey our common enemy – the PKK terrorist organization,” she said. [9] A terror report published during Mrs Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State described the PKK as the deadliest terror organization in Europe. [10] However, Mrs Clinton’s statements in recent days, diametrically opposed to everything she has ever said to date, have left everyone stunned. Speaking at a meeting at Georgetown University, Mrs Clinton praised female terrorists of the PKK. Speaking of female terrorists in Kobane, who previously martyred thousands of Turkish troops and are still ready to commit murder, Mrs. Clinton said, “…the US should do more to support Kurdish women fighters in their struggle against ISIS. There are Kurdish women fighting on the frontlines in Syria against ISIS, and we should do all we can to support these women who are truly on the frontline”.

The PKK and its Syrian wing, the PYD, are killers who have martyred thousands of troops from Turkey, a NATO member state. It was a grave error on Mrs. Clinton’s part to describe the PKK as heroes when Turkey is waiting for NATO support in its fight against the PKK. Mrs. Clinton is far too well informed and experienced to be influenced by the one-sided propaganda appearing in some of the Western media; certainly, she is well aware of the fact that illusion that is tried to be given by statements like “The PKK has embarked on a peace process and has abandoned violence,” do not reflect the truth. As a matter of fact, the PKK very recently martyred three of our troops and one police officer and in street protests carried out our 50 citizens have lost their lives.

First and foremost, the fact that members of the PKK are fighting another terror organization that resorts to terror and violence is no valid reason to praise these murderers. PKK terrorists, be they men or women, commit murder in acts of terror. Consequently, it is wrong to classify terrorists according to their gender. Therefore, Mrs. Clinton’s efforts to present the terrorists who seek to attack Turkish troops as heroes are entirely unacceptable, just as it would be unacceptable for Americans to call women who attacked and killed their own troops, heroes. It is therefore unacceptable for female members of the PKK, a group that seeks to murder Turkish troops, to be praised in that way.

Many Americans have been killed by communist female terrorists in the past. The German Red Army Fraction (better known as the Baader-Meinhoff gang) attacked several American targets, particularly military headquarters in Frankfurt, in the 1970s. Ulrike Meinhoff, one of the founders of this terrorist group, was a woman who described herself as a so-called ‘freedom fighter.’

Fusako Shigenobu, the leader of the now-defunct Japanese Red Army terrorist group, was one of the most wanted female terrorists in the world. This woman gave the orders for the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Rome and Jakarta and also the bombing of an American club in Naples. She was also responsible for the horrific slaughter at Tel Aviv’s Lod Airport and the bombing of the Istanbul Airport.

Assata Shakur, of the Black Panthers , is another female terrorist on the FBI’s Most Wanted terrorists list as of 2013.

Many suicide attacks in the Caucasus and Russia have been carried out by female terrorists known as ‘black widows.’

In conclusion, the female PKK militants that Mrs. Clinton praises today are terrorists, no different than Meinhoff or Shigenobu. These communist terrorists will feel not a moment’s hesitation to attack U.S. targets if necessary.

The fact that this gang of murderers has not committed crimes in America is no reason to ignore the fact it is a terrorist organization. As the former spokesman of the U.S. Department of State Mr. Adam Ereli stated, nobody must be taken in by the PKK changing its name in different countries from time to time. The fact that the organization is still engaged in Stalinist terror and assassinations should be enough for all international platforms.