Kurdish Freedom Fighters take 3 German Tourists on Private 'Guided Tour' of Mount Ararat!
Situated on Mount Ararat this 'boatlike' structure is what many people believe is the fossilised remains of Noah's Ark. Thousands of pilgrims visit this site every year. The length and width match exactly the measurements from the Bible. I wonder did the 3 German tourists get a chance to see this amazing structure on their private 'guided tour' of Mount Ararat by the Kurdish Freedom Fighters of the HPG.
Below, is an interview with one of the German Tourists, who describes being in Bears caves and Lava caves. There is an incredible phenomenon in many caves around Ararat in that they can give of an icy wind through them keeping them cool in the summer months. Many Kurdish people who sell bottles of beverage to tourists keep their drinks cool in the some of these small caves. They put a door on them and use them as fridges. The German tourists have had a free guided tour of Ararat and I hope many more tourists come to Kurdistan. Boycott Turkey but come to Kurdistan. In Dogubayazit, there is so much to see and experience. Ishak Pasha palace, (which is the picture at the top of this blog), Ehmede Xani, the father of Kurdish nationalism lies in the mosque close to Ishak Pasha Palace. The best time to come to Dogubayazit is at Newroz so you can join in the Kurdish New Year celebrations.
Here is the interview. Sounds like an amazing adventure!
Mr Hainzlmeier, how are you?
I feel very good.
You were in the hands of the PKK almost two weeks. Can you describe this time?
It was tough, no doubt. In particular, the "walking-tours" -- if you want to call it -- in the night. We changed our location almost daily, always at night. During the day, we slept and ate.
Did you have a rough idea where you were?
We had often clear starry nights. Ararat we always had in sight. Even the Polar Star I always saw. We moved towards the east and came to a bear's cave. We were there three nights.
How big was the group?
It varied between four and nine PKK members. Up to 15 people alternated being with us. It seemed as if every four kidnappers belonged together.The constant change of location sounds like aimless wandering.The hijackers knew very well where they wanted to go.
Everywhere they had a kind of base; lava caves, for example. Before the border with Iran, they knew well that the Turkish army there had cut off the routes. That is why we then cut back again in the direction of Ararat.
They had to stay in the area of the mountain. The military kept out of that region --thank God, in our view.
Why?
We saw a direct clash of the kidnappers and the Turkish army as the biggest danger. That would be disastrous.
Otherwise you had no fear?
I never feared for my life. We had to trust the PKK statement that they viewed us as guests. We heard Deutsche Welle [German Radio] just about every day. We were kept informed.
Mr Hainzlmeier, how are you?
I feel very good.
You were in the hands of the PKK almost two weeks. Can you describe this time?
It was tough, no doubt. In particular, the "walking-tours" -- if you want to call it -- in the night. We changed our location almost daily, always at night. During the day, we slept and ate.
Did you have a rough idea where you were?
We had often clear starry nights. Ararat we always had in sight. Even the Polar Star I always saw. We moved towards the east and came to a bear's cave. We were there three nights.
How big was the group?
It varied between four and nine PKK members. Up to 15 people alternated being with us. It seemed as if every four kidnappers belonged together.The constant change of location sounds like aimless wandering.The hijackers knew very well where they wanted to go.
Everywhere they had a kind of base; lava caves, for example. Before the border with Iran, they knew well that the Turkish army there had cut off the routes. That is why we then cut back again in the direction of Ararat.
They had to stay in the area of the mountain. The military kept out of that region --thank God, in our view.
Why?
We saw a direct clash of the kidnappers and the Turkish army as the biggest danger. That would be disastrous.
Otherwise you had no fear?
I never feared for my life. We had to trust the PKK statement that they viewed us as guests. We heard Deutsche Welle [German Radio] just about every day. We were kept informed.
Still, 13 days in captivity must have been gruelling.
We learned that on Monday a week ago a transfer - always the hijackers spoke of an "event" - failed.
They wanted to deliver us to neutral mediators, so it could be objectively determined if were not pleased with the PKK. Almost one week later, it worked.
How will you spend the next few days? I want especially one thing: peace.
Interview by Martin RutrechtArticle 22 July 2008
Stern.de
Thanks to Gordon Taylor of The Pasha and the Gypsy, for translation.
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11 comments:
No matter how 'romantically' this is painted, kidnapping should not happen in our time. It is a terrorist act. The root cause maybe Turkish state terrorism. But two wrongs (two terrorist acts) do not make a right.
Kidnapping, bombing and killing innocents are awful propaganda for Kurds- wonderful for Turkish government, only nourishing Turkey's already successful campaign that Kurds, especially PKK are Terrorists.
What have decades of fighting gained for Kurds? 37,000 killed most of them Kurds, about 4000 ancient Kurdish villages destroyed, millions of Kurds as refugees,... And Kurds have gained negligible human and cultural rights.
Enough! Let Kurd now try decades of peaceful Dalai Lama- and Nelson Mandela-like peaceful means.
Plus Kurds have amazing music, dance and increasingly interesting films to show the world.
From hence forward, Kurds are much better off using all their energies and funds on creative ways through peaceful means - strikes, peaceful demonstrations, - and especially through the arts, music and film to make their worthy case known to the world.
And instead of wasting lives and funds on fighting, use the courts in Turkey and in Europe (since T wishes to enter EU) to seek justice.
Think and Act outside of the box!
Imagine free Kurdistan, not thru more blood shed and irreversible devastation of Kurdish villages, but thru peaceful means, thru creative ways, thru music, thru films, thru sharing Kurdish culture with the world...thru satellite TV, thru Turkish and Eruo court systems.
No more violence! No more kidnapping! No more terrorism! No more war!
Light & Peace
Please forgive me but I think it is you that are the romantic and idealist. I have campaigned for over 15 years in solidarity with the Kurdish Struggle for freedom.
And I can tell you that I have been involved in all aspects of your above tactics and, yes, maybe there is a little more coincienceness in regards to the Kurds but politically most countries are in alliance with Turkey in the denial of the basic issues.
It has ONLY been the armed struggle of the Kurdish Freedom Movement that has raised the Kurdish issue onto the agenda.
It is frankly, laughable, to suggest that it has been somehow by Kurdish art or film that the Kurdish issue in Turkey is on the EU political agenda.
I also shows your ignorance of the history of the Kurdish experience in Turkey, one detailed in Ahmet Kahraman's vitally important book, Uprising, Suppression, Retribution. The Kurdish Struggle in Turkey in the Twentieth Century.
ISBN:978-1-903656-74-7
Turkey had a stated policy of total and complete cultural, linguistic and political genocide of the Kurds in Turkey. It would of succeeded had not the Kurdish uprising under Abdullah Ocalan been started. This has halted this attempted genocide in its tracks.
I think you need to learn more about the conditions in which the Kurds in Turkey have had to conduct their struggle, before you can suggest that somehow by promoting Kurdish art or cinema the Kurds will attain rights that have been denied them even after 70 years of bitter struggle and sacrifice.
Don't forget that Nelson Mandela led the African National Congress, which also had an armed wing called Umkuntho We Sizwe who carried out a guerilla war against the racist white supremacists of the Aparthied regime.
The only example that does stand up to your non violent plea is the Dalai Lama and I'm afraid to say that the situation in Tibet is so gloomy that that is not a good example to promote of the effectiveness of non violent methods.
Yours respectfully,
Hevallo
Its not to say that those activities should not continue......of course they should.
But I think that it is only honourable and essential to recognise that it has been the self sacrifice of tens of thousands of Kurdish people, who have been the ones who took an active part in the Kurdish Freedom Struggle, that have made it possible for anyone to make films or documentries about the Kurdish struggle in Turkey.
All the artists, singers, painters, poets and writers, could not have done it had the Freedom Fighters in the cities and in the mountains not paved the way for the 'Kurdish renaissance'!
Sehid Namerin!
The Kurdish movement can, and should, resist its oppressors with arms if necessary. But attacking civilians is wrong, and kidnapping foreign tourists is both wrong and stupid.
Rebwar the Kurdish Freedom Movement is against attacks on civilians and the German tourists were hardly 'kidnapped'!
If the German tourists were not kidnapped then I must ask you what actually did happen to them. Or perhaps you do not understand what kidnapping means. I support the Kurdish struggle against oppression (including armed struggle when necessary), but I do not support terrorism and crimes against civilians. It is too bad to see a well intentioned and smart fellow like yourself make ridiculous statements and claim that these unlucky Germans were "not kidnapped" when that is simply false.
Rebwar, there have been 'kidnappings' in the past that involve highly organised professional gangs that organise everything to the last detail. The 'snatch', the 'victim', the 'ransom' etc etc.........
I think it should be clear to you too that this action was a piece of political opportunism on the part of the Kurdish Freedom Movement. And when put into the context of dramatic kidnappings of ransoms, sieges and drama this one really does not match up.
Noone was killed nor even harmed....in fact it seems, tongue in cheek, from the interview above that they had quite an adventure.
Rebwar, I know more than most that this dirty war is ugly.....more so for the Kurdish side. (have you seen the recent pictures of mutilated Kurdish guerilla fighters?)And that the Kurds have suffered more than anyone in this attempted genocide.
I really do not go in for the hand washing that a lot of Kurds, and I have to say here, a lot of Kurds from the South, do when it comes to the military tactics of the HPG.
I see them in the meetings I've been to with so called important MP's and people of influence in 'human rights' circles or the circles of artists and writers, washing their hands of the 'Kurds from the North'. Looking down on them like they are ignorant and foolish.
Well it is those Kurds who have halted the attempted genocide of the Kurds in NW Kurdistan, that is the reality.
If you support the Kurdish Freedom Struggle then at least try to understand the conditions in which they have to fight.
A political action to draw attention to the Kurdish issue,(which it did, massively in Germany resulting in a poll that opposed Germany's treatment of the Kurds.) is surely preferable to any civilian casualties in a bombing campaign for example.
Rebwar, the world is against the Kurdish Freedom Struggle in Turkey.
The three civilians were held against their will in a hostile area by men and women with guns. That is kidnapping, and it is wrong, regardless of how you want to explain it away.
It was an opportunity to make a legitimate movement, the armed resistance of northern Kurdistan, look like a bunch of bandits and terrorists. How stupid.
I am sorry that you have to know the realities of war. I also know them quite well. I am not sure what you mean by "hand washing" - maybe this is an English expression I don't understand and you can write it in Kurdish (or Turkish) if you want so I can understand what you mean.
I have been in the mountains with the gerillas and so I know first hand what life is like there, and I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of hostile fire. How about you? I don't think you need to teach me about the conditions in the mountains, as I know them firsthand. I know about the mountain terrain, I know about moving through the mountains at night, drinking the mountain spring water and eating whatever cold bread is or isn't available on any given day, falling asleep with gunfire in the background, etc. And I still don't think that these conditions give anyone the right to kidnap civilians.
Kidnapping and releasing three civilians unharmed is better than terrorist bombing but so what? Both are bad and both are wrong.
I am not seeking to 'teach' you anything, these are your words not mine.
The 'conditions' that I was referring to where not sleeping under the moon at night with gunfire in the distance but the psychological warfare that the Kurdish Freedom Movement has to address.
The psychological aspect of the war is most difficult to confront.
Most western news agencies accept, unquestioningly, what the Turkish regime 'announce' and the Kurdish Freedom Movement remains 'criminalised' in the eyes of many.
What I've actually been impressed with, is the broad scope of different methods being used by HPG over the last six months from targetting economic targets to grabbing the headlines with the German tourists to engaging the Turkish military in situations where they have used effective methods to both strike a military victory and send a strong political message.
The latest attack on the BTC pipeline is an incredibly effective way of grabbing the political initiative as well as focusing minds on the desired outcome, a political and peaceful settlement of the Kurdish Question.
These are the conditions to which I refer.
I trust that the PKK know better than anyone what conditions they face and how best to approach the way ahead.
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