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Bablykahn - Kurdish Folk Dance sacredcircles.com | Welcome - Kurdish | The Ipswich Hospital ipswichhospital.net |
Turkish Hezbollah (also Kurdish Hezbollah[2][3] from Kurdish: Hizbullahî Kurdî,[4] meaning "the faction of Allah") is a Kurdish[5][6][7] Sunni Islamist militant organization, unrelated to the Shia Islamic Lebanese Hezbollah.[8] Turkish Hezbollah arose in the 1980s believed to be in response to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)'s activities in southeastern Turkey, where many have proposed that the group seeks to establish an independent state.[9][10]
[edit] HistoryThe organization of Turkish/Kurdish Hezbollah started in 1979/1980 with meetings in the bookshop Vahdet in Diyarbakır. The shop was owned by Abdulvahap Ekinci. The meetings were attended by Fidan Güngör and Hüseyin Velioğlu. In 1981 Fidan Gündör founded the bookshop Menzil and Hüseyin Velioğlu founded the bookshop İlim in 1982. Until 1987 the groups gathered around these bookshops worked together.[11][12] Further groups within Kurdish Hezbollah were named as Tevhid, led by Nurettin Şirin and Mehmet Şahin and Yeryüzü, led by Burhan Kavuncu.[13] [edit] ActivitiesIn the early 1990s the organization became a direct threat to the already rising Kurdish separatist movement. The Kurdish Islamist group (of Sunni thought) began as an oppositional force against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), though later they have targeted both the PKK and people with low moral (people who drank alcohol, wore mini-shirts etc.).[14] Some of Hezbollah's major attacks allegedly include bombings of two synagogues in Istanbul on November 17, 2003, killing 23 and wounding over 300.[15] [edit] Conflict between Menzil and İlimIn 1987, when Hüseyin Velioğlu moved his bookshop to Batman, different opinions on leadership and armed actions resulted in the split of the two wings.[16] The so called İlim-wing, under the leadership of Hüseyin Velioğlu insisted to start the armed struggle immediately. The dispute resulted in bloody fighting among both factions.[17] Besides the town of Batman Hezbollah was strongest in Silvan district of Diyarbakır province. For a long time the village Yolaç was used as their base.[18] [edit] Official supportFormer Minister Fikri Sağlar said in an interview with the paper Siyah-Beyaz (Back-White) that the army not only used Hezbollah, but actually founded and sponsored the organization. He maintained that such a decision had been taken in 1985.[19] The then governor for the region under a state of emergency, Ünal Erkan told the daily Milliyet that it was not intended to dissove militant organizations as long as the PKK had not been distroyed.[20] The weekly "2000'e Doğru" of 16 February 1992 reported that eye witnesses and sympathizers of Hezbollah had informed them that members of the organization were educated in the headquarter of the rapid deployment force (çevik kuvvet) in Diyarbakır. Two days after the article was published its author, Halit Güngen was killed by unidentified murderers.[17] Namik Taranci, the Diyarbakir representative of the weekly journal Gerçek (Reality), was shot dead on November 20, 1992 on his way to work in Diyarbakır. Again, the previous edition of the magazine had examined relations between the state and Hizbullah. Hafiz Akdemir, reporter for Özgür Gündem (Free Agenda), was shot dead in a Diyarbakır street on June 8, 1992, after reporting that a man who had given refuge to assassins fleeing a Hezbollah-style double killing in Silvan was released after only six weeks in custody, without even appearing in court.[17] The 1993 report of Turkey's Parliamentary Investigation Commission referred to information that Hezbollah had a camp in the Batman region where they received political and military training and assistance from the security forces.[21] [edit] Human ResourcesCorry Görgü puts the number of militants as high as 20,000[10] a figure presented by the Center for Defense Information as well.[22] Information provided by the Intelligence Resource Program of the Federation of American Scientists based on the 2002 Patterns of Global Terrorism report suggests that the organisation possibly has a few hundred members and several thousand supporters.[5] Ufuk Hiçyılmaz stated that the group had about 1,000 armed members.[23] [edit] PersecutionAfter the kidnapping of several businessmen in Istanbul and the subsequent raid of a house in Beykoz quarter a nationwide hunt on Hezbollah supporters followed. During the operation in Beykoz on 17 January 2000 Hüseyin Velioğlu was killed and Edip Gümüş and Cemal Tutar were detained. Edip Gümüş, born 1958 in Batman was alleged to lead the military wing of Hezbollah and Cemal Tutar was said to be a member of the armed wing.[24] On 3 February 2000 the Ministry of Interior Affairs gave a briefing to journalists on the Hezbollah operations. The report of the Ministry stated: "Between 1992 and 1995, 400 PKK members and 200 Hezbollah adherents died during clashes between the PKK and Hezbollah. Fifty people were killed in 1993 because of problems within the organization. Currently, there are overall 696 radical Islamists in prison and 506 of them are Hezbollah members. Since 17 January 1,073 people, including 30 teachers and 21 imams (preachers) were detained in 44 cities."[24] In the time to follow many trials were conducted in Diyarbakır and other places against alleged members of Hezbollah. In several instances defendants raised torture allegations. Such allegations are documented in Urgent Actions (UA) of Amnesty International.[25] In the trial in which Edip Gümüş and Cemal Tutar were indicted the defendant Fahrettin Özdemir said on 10 July 2000 that he had been held in custody for 59 Tage and had been tortured. In the hearing of 11 September 2000 Cemal Tutar said that he had been held in police custody for 180 days.[24] [edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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