The Court’s blood money for Kurds’ human rights

By Dr. M. Koohzad:

Air attack, 1994; Pic BIA

Air attack, 1994; Pic BIA

A short report of only 274 words out of Strasbourg, France, on November 12, 2013, must have sounded good to the ears of 38 Kurdish plaintiffs who lost loved ones to a Turkish Air Force raid on two Kurdish villages of Kuskonar and Kocagili in 1994. As reported by Agence France-Presse, the European Court on Human Rights awarded them exactly $3.1 million for 33 killed Kurds. Apparently, the Court came up with a figure of little less than $94,000.00 per head. This is a very large amount of money for the poor villagers. Unfortunately, these deprived Kurds have to wait three more months to receive any money because Ankara might dispute the Court’s decision.

The European Court on Human Rights did not provide any reason as to why it came up with a total $3.1 million for the brutal murdering of 33 innocent human beings, non-combatant Kurds. Form the Court’s site one can see that $3.1 million has been awarded to other cases. It seems some of the judges are fascinated by this number and are unable to get over their fixation on this odd figure. But, if this was not an arbitrary figure, the Court should have clearly indicated how this amount was determined. Also, one may ask how culturally biased these judges are? Was the Turkish judge involved in this case? What kind of basic knowledge do the European judges have about the Kurds in Turkey? And, how was Ankara, allegedly, able to convince the Court that the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, might have been responsible for the air raid?

Many of these judges think Turkey is located in Europe and has a democratic civil society. The only noise they hear comes from Ankara, which has occupied Northern Kurdistan – Bakur in its original Kurdish name – with the Western colonial powers’ blessings. It was Ataturk who unleashed Turkish state terrorism. Ankara has committed many crimes against the Kurds including forced mass assimilation, forced mass deportation, and genocide. PM Tansu Ciller, an American darling, the most corrupt and bloody female politician in the world was able to deceive Americans and Europeans to put the PKK on a terrorist list. PM Erdogan always puts the ‘PKK’ between the two words of ‘Outlawed’ and ‘Terrorists.’ Only after Saddam Hussein, Turkish state terrorism has killed the second largest number of Kurds in the world.

The judges insulted their own intelligence by asking Ankara to present the Court with “the flight log of the planes used in the bombing as part of a broader probe into the deadly attacks in order to identify and punish those responsible … and prevent further impunity.” The Court did not say how a dollar-value for the life of a human being was calculated? Since the European Court on Human Rights puts a $3.1 million value on the lives of 33 Kurds, would the blood money be the same if the victims were French, Russians, Arabs, or Chinese? What if actually Ankara was telling the truth and the PKK killed 33 Turks? Should the PKK have paid only $3.1 million to the Turks?

The judges of the European Court on Human Rights listened to what the Turkish representative presented, that it was not the Turkish Air Force, the second most powerful air force in the Middle East, after the Israeli one, which killed the Kurds. Rapidly and rudely, Ankara blamed the bombardment on the PKK. It sounded as if in 1994 the PKK was a country with an air force equipped with American made fighter jets. More importantly, using its air force with American-trained pilots and technology, the PKK was able to kill 33 of their own Kurdish brothers!

The European Court on Human Rights has to first condemn Turkish state terrorism and then demand Ankara respects the basic human rights of the Kurds.

Source:

Agence France-Presse “European court condemns Turkey for bombing Kurds in 1994.”

globalpost.com, November 12, 2013 11:16. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/ afp/131112/european-court-condemns-turkey-bombing-kurds-1994.

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