Interview with Kurdish hostage, Huseyin Baybasin

9 Mart 2019

<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="http://www.hbaybas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ex-Turkish-PM-Tansu-Ciller-president-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-2018-Sabah-com-tr.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4866" width="328" height="262"/><figcaption> Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) shake hands with Ex-Turkish PM (from 1993 to 1996) Tansu Çiller, 2018. Photo credit: Sabah.com.tr </figcaption></figure></div>



Turkey’s
president Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) shake hands with Ex-Turkish PM (from
1993 to 1996) Tansu Çiller, 2018. Photo credit: Sabah.com.trS



Sheri Laizer speaks with Kurdish hostage, <a href="https://ekurd.net/innocent-kurdish-netherlands-2017-05-17">Hüseyin Baybaşin</a>, about Kurdish independence and preventing terror policies of domination and genocide. 



“If you tell Erdoğan to clean up the leftovers of ISIS, it is just like telling Hitler to clean up the leftovers of the Nazis…”





Q. Do
you think the PYD is at all responsible for provoking the Turkish
invasions of Kurdish areas of Syria through flaunting Öcalan’s message
and erecting giant images of him in areas where they took control from
ISIS?



A. I don’t
believe the PYD can be held accountable for provoking the Turkish state
in any way as Turkey has no need of ‘provocation’ and uses such things
as an excuse to attack and crush the Kurdish people’s ambitions; Turkey
openly imposes genocide on the Kurds since the Treaty of Lausanne.



Most of us
will be questioning why the PYD and the YPG forces are using Abdullah
Öcalan’s portrait and name. I believe they can use these things in order
to coordinate Kurdish people for Kurdistan’s independence. They can
also protect and show their respect for him. We all know the PYD has
protected other minorities from ISIS in the areas they took over from
these barbaric militants. The PYD organised a civilised administration
for Turkmens, Christians and Arabs in the areas that came under their
control. However, now is the time for change because we are very clear
that Syria, Iran, Iraq and particularly Turkey are not going to
recognise Kurdish people’s desire for self determination and this is
what the people of Kurdistan need most. The countries that have occupied
Kurdistan will act in the same way that they have been doing since 1923
to promote a fascist ideology combined with Islam. In such a manner
they are causing harm and destruction at the same time to their own
people, including Muslims.



We the Kurds
must co-operate with the USA, Israel and other civilised nation states
and focus on unity and independence. This is what the Kurdish forces in
Rojava and all other Kurdish forces must do. This has to be the new
strategic policy that the Kurdish nation needs to pursue to bring about
the beginning of change.



Q. You
speak about unity as if it were straight forward. Yet, even now the
KDP, PUK and other players are divided over Kirkuk and the disputed
territories in Iraq and manipulated against one another through their
disparate relations with Ankara, Baghdad, Tehran and Damascus – as well
as with America, Europe and Russia and the Gulf States.



A. Kurds were
more unified prior to controls under the Ottoman Empire and can be so
again. Many rotten elements are still robbing Kirkuk inside the
traditional Kurdish parties just as in the central governments they have
made deals with. It is not Kirkuk that is causing the divisions but the
policies of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and the forces pulling Syria apart.



We Kurds have
to stand together and find new ways to go forward as clearly the past
century shows us that ‘divide and rule’ has always harmed the Kurds and
continues to do so. Fresh vision is needed for the future and for Kurds
to be ever on the run from the central governments exploiting and
killing them. Without a nation of their own there can be no protection.
New ’Anfal’ <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote1sym">1</a> style policies will be tried, just as Erdoğan is doing.



Huseyin Baybasin, Rotterdam prison, the Netherlands 2017. Photo: hbaybas.com



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="http://www.hbaybas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Huseyin-Baybasin-Rotterdam-prison-2017-hbaybas-com.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4868" width="349" height="279"/><figcaption> Huseyin Baybasin, Rotterdam prison, the Netherlands 2017. Photo: hbaybas.com </figcaption></figure></div>



The referendum
for the independence of Kurdistan that went ahead on 25 September 2017
resulted in a 97.3% vote in favour. At once the forces bent upon the
annihilation of Kurdistan and their Western business partners began
barking and howling, followed by the swift imposition of punitive
measures. The forces that be demanded that the affirmative results be
annulled as if the voice of Kurds should never be heard.



These harsh
measures contrasted in the extreme with Britain’s Brexit referendum, in
which poll not only were voters badly informed about what they were
actually voting on, only some 51.9% voted in favour <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote2sym">2</a>. No one of substance was able to scream ‘annul’ and impose instant punishments.



For the past
one hundred years since the Treaty of Lausanne, Kurds have been
slaughtered and forced to flee in all directions as refugees because
they lack the status of statehood to protect them and Ambassadors to
represent them – not just as a small enclave land locked in northern
Iraq but in all the territory that has been Kurdish for thousands of
years.



Erdoğan is
not only ridiculous, he is ignoring history and deploying racist
propaganda ahead of the provincial vote, telling Kurds: “If
you love it so much, then get out of Turkey. Go to Northern Iraq.
Kurdistan is there. There is no place for you in this country. We have
our people and God on our back…” <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Kurds will never accept this attitude. It is not Erdoğan’s country – nor anyone’s god zone. He shows even more the Islamist fascist dictator he has become.



Q. Has the Trump administration
really given Erdoğan a free hand to annihilate those Kurds they relied
on as allies and who more than anyone served to defeat ISIS?



A. Erdoğan is
not qualified as a world leader. Just close your eyes and ears and then
think to yourself, who is Erdoğan? You will then realise that Erdoğan’s
policy can only bring destruction to the whole world.



In practical
terms, the best option will be for the US to remain in power for the
sake of the security and safety of the free world, as also for the
protection of civilisation and order. China is mainly self-interested
and focused on business and their policy reflects this. Russia’s Putin
is acting no differently than Erdoğan: they get on so well that they are
coordinating over Syria, but in my view, the way they are acting is
akin to Russian roulette.



We know who
Erdoğan is and his ideology is very clear. For Putin, whatever is going
on in his head he is cooperating with Erdogan and this poses a question
for me. Erdoğan is only using Putin in the interests of his own
ideology. The civilised world and their leaders should stop playing
these games and should focus on the safety and security of the civilised
world because Erdoğan’s ideology and Putin’s actions are clearly not a
game.



If
you tell Erdoğan to clean up the left overs of ISIS it is just like
telling Hitler to clean up the left overs of the Nazis. You cannot be
thinking normally and not see this as a world leader. 



I recently saw
an interview with French political philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy, who
recently published a book called The Empire and the Five Kings (Turkey,
Iran, Russia, China and Sunni Islamism that he designates as a threat
to civilisation as American withdraws). I was very pleased to see that
at least one prominent political thinker has seen this the threat it is.
He also calls for the independence of Kurdistan as a solution to the
existing problems of the Middle East. His film ‘peshmerga’ was screened
in. One review observed: “Despite his admiration for
Persian and Arab civilization and Russia’s great literature, the author
condemns the five empires for their attraction to Nazism, anti-Semitism,
fascism, and totalitarianism…” 



ISIS was
removed from direct power by the Kurds with the help of the US-led
coalition. The PYD created a generally workable solution in the area for
everyone. This kind of management never happened in any other country
in the region except Israel. Those who are critical of the PYD’s policy
should come up with a better alternative. Christians, Arabs and Turkmen
were not generally unhappy with the system put in place by the PYD. If
some Kurds are not happy with it because of their relations with Turkey
or the KDP, that is understandable but I believe the PYD must create a
basis for discussion and find a way to work through their differences.
We have to face facts on the ground and deal with them.



Q.
Have Erdoğan ’s goals changed since Syria became drawn into the Arab
Spring revolution from March 2011 onwards presenting ISIS Erdoğan with
an opportunity for a Sunni caliphate? 



A. I don’t
think Erdoğan has changed his strategy – I think he is part of the wider
Muslim Brotherhood and that the revolution was really no Arab ‘Spring’
at all. In Erdoğan’s head the driving vision is that of Islamicisation
and there is no real difference when it comes down to it between
Erdoğan, ISIS, Al Nusra and others like them. <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote4sym">4</a>



I could not
see this right at the beginning as Erdoğan claimed to have changed but
at that time we could not see what he was going to do. I had even spoken
with some of his people about potential changes to the Kurdish policy,
but, in fact, from 2008 onwards, Erdoğan showed his true colours and
that he had just been playing a game all along. He is an Islamist
fundamentalist – that is what he is. Unfortunately, he is the leader of a
country which is a member of NATO.



Q. Do you think Erdoğan is genuinely pious and a true ‘believer’?



A. I think
Erdoğan aims to make the whole world Muslim and he believes he will go
to heaven. Once he got a hold on power he became an ‘Islamist Hitler’ –
power changes this kind of person. Anyone who believes religion will
change the world has to have a very weak character and is in need of
psychiatric help. How can he be a believer and order the murder of
others because they are not the followers of his sickening ideology.



Q. What do you think is likely
to happen when Erdoğan goes, as one day he must? Is the damage done to
secularism in Turkey irreparable?



A. The damage
can be repaired if the USA, UN, EU, and NATO allies coordinate better
and set the line for Turkey not to act solely in its own interests but
for the greater global interest. Israel is a good example of a member
state being coerced to obey the rule of law and being sanctioned when it
doesn’t.



If the International Community pay attention and take proper measures
the damage can be repaired but if they behave as irresponsibly as in
the past – like Russia has done – then the destruction will be greater
than it is now. <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote5sym">5</a>



Q. What is in it for former Prime Minister, Tansu Çiller, said to be one of Erdoğan ’s advisers?



A. The Turkish
leaders, past and present, all have the same mind set and believe in
Pan -Turkish power, Turkish strength and Islam. They don’t know the
difference.



I knew Çiller and her husband Özer very well. She was working closely with Fethullah Gülen
when she was in office as Prime Minister. She was meeting him in her
office and this was broadcast on Turkish State Television. She was
reading verses from the Koran and saying Islam should be the basis of
power. She even met Qaddafi when Libya was under sanctions and she had
to drive from Tunisia to Libya to meet him and she said he was a great
leader and she was trying to gain people’s sympathy. The Turkish leaders
have all been immoral like this and have double standards.<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Çiller
was charged with corruption but instead of justice being done politics
were set above the law and she got to keep her ill gotten wealth, just
the same as Demirel did. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="http://ekurd.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Tansu-Ciller-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-Abdullah-Gul-1996-hurriyet-com-tr.jpg" alt="Tansu Ciller with Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Abdullah Gul 1996" class="wp-image-78458"/></figure>



Tansu Ciller (C) with Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Abdullah Gul (L), 1996. Photo: hurriyet.com.tr



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="http://www.hbaybas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Tansu-Ciller-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-Abdullah-Gul-1996-hurriyet-com-tr.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4869" width="365" height="292"/><figcaption> Tansu Ciller (C) with Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Abdullah Gul (L), 1996. Photo: hurriyet.com.tr </figcaption></figure></div>



A
case was brought by a German court against Tansu Çiller for her
involvement in drug trafficking. I gave interviews at the time on MED
TV, ZDF, Turkish mainstream media and Evrensel, that effectively ran stories on it. Çiller’s government was after every influential Kurdish opponent.



Tansu Çiller’s husband, Özer Çiller,
was working inside the Dutch Consulate in Istanbul to find a way to
silence me by fabricating evidence to be used in a court in Holland,
which was completely illegal. This is what they succeeded in doing. The
proof of this can be seen in my case file and on the website of the BS
Foundation.



When on a trip to Belgium in 1997, Tansu Çiller
held a meeting with a man named Metin to cooperate with her men to
assassinate me. They offered him money and a place in their party, DYP,
and also quashing a case against him. He refused so they tried other
means and I am still held hostage in Holland because of their intrigues.



Proof about
this matter was given to the Dutch parliament, prosecutor’s office, the
court, the police and they are still keeping silent and not doing
anything about it. They didn’t even show any reaction. Nor did the ECHR –
they serve the politicians for their own interests and not the rule of
law. <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote7sym">7</a>



Q. What about the role of the so-called “Free Syrian Army” acting as a Turkish military unit in Syria?



A. The main
policy thrust of Turkey and its leaders has been to use Ottoman ideology
so as to gain fundamentalist Islamist support for an Islamic Turkey to
become a world power under the Islamic flag.



With this objective in their sights they created the Free Syrian Army and directly aided and empowered the rise of ISIS.



Erdoğan has
been trying to manipulate the USA. He has also been trying to blackmail
the EU over refugee issues, which he is partly responsible for creating
in the first place. Erdoğan was the one who organised the Syrian refugee
people to move them from the east of Turkey to the Aegean coast to go
on to Greece. Then he threatened the EU that he would send more
refugees. Erdoğan himself announced it to the public.



Europe next
gave him six billion euros and with that money he reorganised terror
groups, Liwa al-Tawhid, Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam linked with the
former al-Nusra Front, ISIS and others. He has organised them under the
Free Syrian Army. Some fighters changed allegiance from al-Nusra to
ISIS. They have been recycled back through Turkey. <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote8sym">8</a>



Look at the UN report and at what former US Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS,
Brett McGurk, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour concerning ISIS in
mid-January this year. He said, the Turkish border with Syria that is
not under Kurdish control is controlled by Syrian Al Qaeda.



We know that their new name is the Free Syrian Army that is operating in Turkish military uniform, a member of NATO.<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote9sym">9</a>
Some others among them are dressed in ISIS uniform. Look at the
picture. Only the Turkish Army was said to be there, but the pictures
show otherwise – the so-called FSA and ISIS.



If the EU and
the civilised world want to play the game, then destruction will be
brought about through the EU’s carelessness. ISIS has sold Yazidi
Kurdish girls as sex slaves, raped them, impregnated them, and
brainwashed teenagers in Western countries to join them and participate
in suicide bombings and massacres, and the destruction of cities, towns,
villages, as well as world heritage sites, churches, mosques and
ancient monuments. They kill those that follow other religions and
murder other Muslims for being less rigid. So, how can such people be
‘rehabilitated’ and repatriated, or allowed back into civilised society
when they firmly and blindly believe that their actions are sanctioned
under Sharia law?



Erdoğan wants
to create a ‘security corridor’ in Kurdish territory and annihilate the
Kurds. As all means justify the ends, just one example has been
deploying ISIS fighters and sending them into Afrin under the guise of
AFAD, pretending to deliver aid to refugees in the camps<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote10sym">10</a> while re-populating the area with Islamic extremists.



“I cannot understand and do
not believe that it is acceptable to any civilised person, that the
whole world is talking about how to deal with these killer-criminals
rather than talking about how to be helpful to their victims and dealing
with the destruction they have been responsible for.”



It is
disturbing for me to follow the news in Western Europe focusing on what
to do with some 800 ISIS militants imprisoned by the Kurdish forces as
if those 800 people are the sole problem. That is a crazy view. They are
already in prison but where are the tens of thousands of others? How
are you going to deal with the basis of this madness which is Islamic
extremism? This is the core of the problem. So wake up and get real,
people!



BBC Persian
correspondent, Jiyar Gol, said in a recent interview with the BBC World
Service that he had been observing such conduct on the part of the
Turkish government and its military in Syria over the past two years.
The town of Manbij was strategically important to Erdogan’s
Islamicisation drive as it is not Kurdish. Here he could concentrate and
organise Islamic extremist militants, circulate them through the
Kurdish-held areas to bring terror and force the Kurdish people to flee,
altering Kurdish demographics <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote11sym">11</a>
– a policy pursued within Turkey in the 1990s in the destruction and
forced migration of Kurds from more than 3000 villages, aimed at
destroying support for the PKK. In Syria, altering the demographics is
aimed at destroying support for the YPG.



Erdoğan has been abusing NATO to implement this Islamicisation policy. <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote12sym">12</a>



All this
information has been available to the USA, UN, NATO and EU forces. Now
the three tyrants – Erdogan, Putin and Rouhani, – seem to be being given
a free hand to map out the future for Syrian territory according to
their respective interests. The Telegraph newspaper asked how this can
possibly work.



A great
concentration of jihadist groups is still present in Idlib, including
the renamed former Nusra Front. Erdogan’s policy is to see the defeated
ISIS and other jihadist fighters gather there unharmed to continue their
work.



A recent
meeting was hosted on 14 February 2019 by Putin in Sochi in Russia’s
Black Sea region. Putin was reported to have told Erdogan he
had “no right to create a “safe zone” inside Syria unless it sought and
received the consent of President Bashar al-Assad, signaling tensions
as a three-way summit on the Syrian conflict began…” <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote13sym">13</a>



Putin knows
more than anyone how Erdoğan has organised and financed ISIS and sent
them across the Turkish border into Syria and Iraq. Erdoğan also bought
their petrol to finance them. This is no secret. But the civilised world
is not doing anything about it.



Let me read
out a piece from an article for you: On 16 September 2016, journalist,
Nafeez Ahmed, “published an exclusive investigation into Turkish
state-sponsorship of jihadist groups in Syria, including the Islamic
State (ISIS): ‘Whistle-blower exposes how NATO’s leading ally is arming and funding ISIS <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote14sym">14</a>.’…The
story is based largely on interviews with a top Turkish police
whistle-blower, Ahmet Yayla — former Chief of Counterterrorism in the
Turkish National Police — but includes analysis of other public record
sources and documents…



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="http://ekurd.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Halis-Bayancuk-emir-ISIS-Turkey-son-Haci-Bayancuk-2015-hurriyet-com-tr.jpg" alt="Halis Bayancuk (right), the emir of ISIS in Turkey and son of Haci Bayancuk, a founding member of the Turkish Hezbollah" class="wp-image-77791"/></figure>



The
author noted that Halis Bayancuk (right), the emir of ISIS in Turkey
and son of Haci Bayancuk, a founding member of the Turkish Hizbullah
(Hezbollah) is pictured here during an arrest by Turkish police. He is
not handcuffed. Ahmet Yayla explains that under Erdogan, ISIS operatives
have such free reign they are never handcuffed by Turkish police if
they are arrested, 2015. Photo: hurriyet.com.tr <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote15sym">15</a>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="http://www.hbaybas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Halis-Bayancuk-emir-ISIS-Turkey-son-Haci-Bayancuk-2015-hurriyet-com-tr.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4870" width="331" height="264"/><figcaption> The author noted that Halis Bayancuk (right), the emir of ISIS in Turkey and son of Haci Bayancuk, a founding member of the Turkish Hizbullah (Hezbollah) is pictured here during an arrest by Turkish police. He is not handcuffed. Ahmet Yayla explains that under Erdogan, ISIS operatives have such free reign they are never handcuffed by Turkish police if they are arrested, 2015. Photo: hurriyet.com.tr <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote15sym">15</a> </figcaption></figure></div>



Nafeez Ahmed
also explained how there is a “direct line of descent between TH
(Turkish Hezbollah), al-Qaeda and ISIS…Halis Bayancuk, whose nom de
guerre is Abu Hanzala, is the emir of ISIS in Turkey. Previously,
Turkey’s state-run national public broadcaster, TRT, <a href="http://www.trtworld.com/turkey/212-arrested-turkeys-nationwide-anti-terror-operations-5235" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">identified</a> Bayancuk
as the head of al-Qaeda’s Turkey branch. But Bayancuk is also the son
of Haci Bayancuk, one of the founding members of TH”.



Nafeez
Ahmet emphasized that: “If Yayla’s claims are correct, then the current
head of Turkey’s powerful MIT under Erdogan is a member of the al-Qaeda
affiliated Turkish Hizbullah, responsible for countless murders …in the
1990s.”



Nafeez
Ahmet also observed – as we have been doing – that “NATO, it seems, has
no interest in investigating the systematic sponsorship of ISIS from
within the very heart of the alliance.”<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote16sym">16</a> He received formal threats thereafter. <a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote17sym">17</a>



Even when
Erdoğan passes on, other war criminals like him will still be there.
This policy has to be stopped. The extremists that justify mass murder
and the execution of Christians, Yazidis, non-Sunni Muslims and other
targets continue to recruit fresh blood. A survey carried out in Turkey
in 2015 indicated that 21% of the Turkish population did not consider
ISIS to be a terrorist organisation and 8.9% believed the group is
actually a country or state.<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Probably, that number is even higher now.



Q. And in the short term? What solutions exist to protect Kurdish people?



A. Many would
not agree with captured PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan’s, ideology but no
alternatives were provided by the EU or anyone else, so now he is held
prisoner and has no freedom to say anything nor even to talk with his
lawyers or family. Turkey is claiming he is saying things when we don’t
know if what they circulate is true or not.



Öcalan’s
family cannot visit him properly in accordance with EU rules to which
Turkey is signatory. They do not accord Öcalan the rights to which he is
entitled, so because he doesn’t have free access to the outside world
we don’t know his real circumstances and it is not ethical to criticise
him when we know that he is in a very difficult situation. Kurdish
people should do everything possible to help him, but Kurdish people
also need to reorganise themselves.



The Kurds need
to unify and align with the US, the EU, and with Israel to see that the
United States of Kurdistan be established. These players also have to
help to bring about a solution for the Palestinian problem.



In Iraqi
Kurdistan, the KDP and PUK should finally unify their respective
peshmerga forces and stop being used as pawns by Turkey and Iran. Both
countries should be compelled to get out of Kurdish land. Lacking a
state of their own, the Kurds have been left without protection for the
past century. Unless they have a state, this persecution will continue.



Cooperation
with neighbours is important but these countries need to change their
rule of law and not rely on Islamic law dating from the 7th century –
that doesn’t fit with today’s needs. No human being can tell me it is OK
to bury human beings in the ground up to their necks and kill them with
stones; to behead journalists, teachers, doctors and other
professionals and burn people alive. This is mentally indefensible and
is a deep sickness. It is what Sharia law is all about.



UN member
states must insist that the countries and groups behind this barbarity
respect basic human rights. Well, Sharia law is violating basic human
rights. That is sufficient cause to forbid it. No nation state should be
allowed to operate according to Sharia law any more than according to
the Old testament or the Torah. Nation states are not being ruled
according to the Bible and should not be ruled according to the Koran
either. No country should be ruled by Sharia law – not Iran, and not
Turkey – but Erdoğan is putting his fingers up to everyone saying,
“Rabia is our guiding power and Islam is the rule of law.”



What is the
difference between Erdoğan, Bin Laden and Al-Baghdadi and the countries
ruled by Sharia law? What is ‘moderate Islam’?



Don’t fool
yourself – it does not exist! Anyone says ‘they are moderate’ – really,
there is no ‘moderate’ Islam. You believe in the Koran or you don’t, but
Sharia law should not be allowed to rule any country or to be imposed
upon any other country.



Civilised nations have made use of civil law and should be open and flexible to change, but religion is fixed.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1mIcOveERBjM7Crh7GSeu25B66gizKqpb&ll=38.04926066451494%2C41.329646640625015&z=6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="http://ekurd.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Kurdish-populated-areas-Greater-Kurdistan-Google-maps-2019.png" alt="Kurdish populated areas of Greater Kurdistan" class="wp-image-78460"/></a></figure>



<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1mIcOveERBjM7Crh7GSeu25B66gizKqpb&ll=38.04926066451494%2C41.329646640625015&z=6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click on map to enlarge</a>. Kurdish populated areas of Greater Kurdistan, 2019. Photo: Google Maps



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="http://www.hbaybas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Kurdish-populated-areas-Greater-Kurdistan-Google-maps-2019.png" alt="" class="wp-image-4871" width="303" height="242"/><figcaption> Kurdish populated areas of Greater Kurdistan, 2019. Photo: Google Maps </figcaption></figure></div>



The United States of Kurdistan (USK) must be realised<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote19sym">19</a> to stop all these excuses and help to prevent the further expansion of the Islamicisation policy.



People must
have the right to worship and follow their own religion but Sharia law
should not be allowed to control the state. People adhering to any
belief can have the right to worship accordingly and be protected but
not to use their religion so as to impose their religion on others.



The USA has
enjoyed a successful partnership with Kurdish forces in Syria. This good
relationship must continue. A year ago, the US military warned the
Kurdish forces against pursuing relations with Russia and Assad’s regime
saying that they could not work with them if they were also seeking
relations with them. I fully agree with this view. However, then the USA
must agree with the Kurds for full allied partnership and not leave
them vulnerable. When Turks, or others attack the Kurds, the USA must
support and protect the Kurds. Then the Kurds would not be in need of
getting together with Russia, with the Assad regime or with anyone else.
Let us be reasonable and realistic.



The Kurdish forces were the
only group present that did not run away from the mediaeval
slaughterers flying the banners of ISIS but checked their advance with
their own blood. The PYD and its fighting battalions, the YPG and
women’s group, the YPJ that were supported until now by the US and the
Coalition, single-handedly stopped ISIS from sustaining their grip on
Syria – a fact Erdoğan detests. Potentially abandoned by an
inconsistent, US leader, these Kurds are still facing ISIS fighters that
are being recycled in Turkish military uniform.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="http://ekurd.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Erdogan-Islamic-State-Turkey-photo-twitter-Gargame34330169.jpg" alt="Turkey's Erdogan supports Islamic State" class="wp-image-77793"/></figure>



ISIS fighters deployed by the Turkish State under Erdogan’s policy of Islamicisation. Photo: Reuters/<a href="https://twitter.com/Dr_HawzhinAzeez/status/1082210020899483653/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter</a>/@Gargame34330169



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="http://www.hbaybas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Erdogan-Islamic-State-Turkey-photo-twitter-Gargame34330169.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4872" width="306" height="245"/><figcaption> ISIS fighters deployed by the Turkish State under Erdogan’s policy of Islamicisation. Photo: Reuters/<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/Dr_HawzhinAzeez/status/1082210020899483653/photo/1" target="_blank">Twitter</a>/@Gargame34330169 </figcaption></figure></div>



Thousands of
ISIS (and other jihadist) militants remain at large – they have not been
imprisoned and many were just trucked into Idlib; they have not been
prosecuted and are free to continue their radicalisation drive in
parallel to Erdogan’s Islamicisation objectives. A large majority of
these criminals are directly responsible for the merciless execution of
innocent civilians and the rape and brutalisation of women and girls
sold like potatoes in the market and shared about among ISIS commanders.
What of the fate of the hordes of unfortunate children born from this
terrible union?



Q.
Women and girls have little if any protection under Sharia law and the
countries which adhere to it. Even in Turkey, women’s rights are eroding
at a great pace since Erdoğan came to power. Since regime change in
Iraq, women have lost fundamental rights and freedoms that they enjoyed
under the secular Ba’ath regime; in Iran, everyone knows their fate
under ISIS conditions have been extreme. How can Kurdish women be
emancipated and protected?



A. After 630
AD with the occupation of Kurdistan by Caliph Omer and the forceful
imposition of Islam on the Kurds, this brought division and a
destructive culture amongst Kurds in all parts of Kurdistan, and in
particular, women’s lives became much worse than ever before. Before
Islamicisation, there was no difference between men and women’s
lifestyle in Kurdistan. In fact, many of the Kurdish tribes were led by
women.



To be able to
reinforce Kurdish culture in the daily life of the Kurdish nation women
must be empowered as a first step. So Islam must not have any role in
governing Kurdistan or anywhere else in the world. The role of women in
civilised society is very important and when women are in power they can
do better than the situation that we are in now. It is very important
that the Kurds do everything possible, as they are doing in some parts
now, to reorganise their way of life based on Kurdish culture and not
Islamicisation. So women have to be empowered and this in turn will
bring about a better lifestyle for all of the Kurds.



Q. But how to prevent Erdoğan from continuing as he is now?



A. NATO, the
EU, and the various European institutions in which Turkey enjoys
membership must hold Erdoğan accountable for helping Jihadist groups
carry out these crimes, including sanctioned underly q and Palmyra in
Syriass.rrible union?e to be processed. Protests ensued across the
country.cldued nd are conthose from ISIS now dressed in Turkish uniform.



Why should
Turkey be permitted to continue to retain one foot in NATO while the
other supports Islamic terrorism? Numerous photographs provide proof of
Turkish fighters from ISIS<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote20sym">20</a> that have gone on to impose the Turkish language on their captives<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote21sym">21</a>
and of fighters that have changed sides going from al-Nusra to ISIS and
still being recycled through the Turkish army. Turkish has been used as
a primary recruitment language, including to recruit Turkish women
jihadists.<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Many have been captured in Iraq and Syria.



Afrin was
peaceful: Erdoğan had no justification to invade, installing jihadist
forces with the army, unleashing terror on the Kurdish population there –
it was one of the most stable areas of Syria – an historic Kurdish
enclave in a sea of Arabs. But this is not an ethnic conflict – Kurds
and Arabs have been working together in the Democratic Syrian Forces and
are continuing to do so with Coalition support, sorting out the problem
of jihadist women and their children, including the orphans brought
into Al Hol camp. Now they have the task of detaining and providing
sustenance to the IS remnants fleeing from Al-Baghouz in Deir ez-Zor
governorate close to the frontier of Syria and Iraq. The Coalition
forces must fulfil their obligations.



The Kurds
ought to be protected by the Coalition and ISIS or others like them and
their supporters like Erdogan must be tried in court to pay for the
crimes they have committed.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="http://ekurd.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/International-Criminal-Court-The-Hague-Netherlands-2016-Wikimedia.jpg" alt="International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands" class="wp-image-78446"/></figure>



International Criminal Court , The Hague, Netherlands, 2016. Photo: Wikimedia Commons



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="http://www.hbaybas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/International-Criminal-Court-The-Hague-Netherlands-2016-Wikimedia.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4873" width="322" height="257"/><figcaption> International Criminal Court , The Hague, Netherlands, 2016. Photo: Wikimedia Commons </figcaption></figure></div>



For his
leading role in war crimes, Erdoğan should be made to stand trial in the
International Criminal Court in The Hague. Others have stood trial
there for far less serious crimes than him.



Putin is using
Erdoğan to destroy NATO. Well, what are you going to replace it with
when you’ve destroyed the existing force established to protect
stability in the world?



Are you going
to reorganise sick militants from al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Nusra or whatever
their name is and rename them the “Free Syrian Army” or something else
to replace NATO’s position? Is that the plan? Maybe it sounds funny, but
surely this is the way it is going…



<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote1anc">1</a> Under
the Iraqi Ba’ath regime through the late 1980s, Kurdish rebellion was
intended to be crushed through genocidal policies of annihilation, known
as the Anfal campaign. 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote2anc">2</a> https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-polls/british-opinion-still-deeply-divided-by-brexit-poll-idUSKCN1LK2U4 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote3anc">3</a> http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/b0749981-a13c-47dc-b6c4-27bd4c355a06 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote4anc">4</a> https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/rise-paramilitary-groups-turkey 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote5anc">5</a> See more at https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/7539-turkey-nato-1192018 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote6anc">6</a> See more at http://www.dusun-think.net/dosya/kutuphane/dun-bugun-yarin-eng-web.pdf 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote7anc">7</a> See more at https://ekurd.net/turkish-killing-list-kurds-2017-07-27 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote8anc">8</a> See ISIS former commander interview with the Independent 7.02.2018 “Turkey
is recruiting and retraining Isis fighters to lead its invasion of the
Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, according to an ex-Isis
source. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/turkey-isis-afrin-syria-kurds-free-syrian-army-jihadi-video-fighters-recruits-a8199166.html 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote9anc">9</a> https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/01/21/intv-amanpour-brett-mcgurk-syria.cnn 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote10anc">10</a> https://www.sabah.com.tr/webtv/turkiye/tsk-afrine-yapilan-yardimlarin-videosunu-paylasti 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote11anc">11</a> https://twitter.com/jiyargol/status/973875079309332480 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote12anc">12</a> Turkey’s
support to Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, also shows
the duplicity of Erdogan’s regime. The US has pressured Turkey to cease
its support for al-Nusra, and US officials have been clear that its
“rebranding to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and more recently to Hayat Tahrir
al-Sham (HTS) has not changed the perception of the group in Washington.
JPost https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Erdogan-Trumps-fixer-against-ISIS-in-Syria-Are-you-laughing-575661 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote13anc">13</a> https://citizentv.co.ke/news/russia-turkey-cant-syrian-safe-zone-without-assads-consent-231523/ 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote14anc">14</a> https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/former-turkish-counter-terror-chief-exposes-governments-support-for-isis-d12238698f52 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote15anc">15</a> Ibid 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote16anc">16</a> ibid. 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote17anc">17</a> https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/ive-been-threatened-for-exposing-turkish-state-terror-ties-c802e67ca8be 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote18anc">18</a> https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/almost-10-of-turks-say-isis-not-terror-organisation-survey-1.2494033 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote19anc">19</a> http://www.uskgov.com/ 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote20anc">20</a> https://friendsofsyria.wordpress.com/2018/03/17/literally-hundreds-of-ex-isis-fighters-now-serve-with-turkey-led-forces-in-afrin-picture-evidence/ 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote21anc">21</a> https://www.publications.atlanticcouncil.org/islamic-state-networks-in-turkey/
ISIS’s rise in Turkey closely followed on the group’s successes in
Syria and Iraq. However, the group’s cross-border infrastructure, which
is used to ferry recruits and supplies to the caliphate from Turkey, is
built on decades-old al-Qaeda and like-minded jihadist networks based in
numerous Turkish cities, and was previously used as a secondary route
for jihadists to join the Iraq jihad during the US occupation between
2003 and 2011. From the outset of the conflict in Syria, Turkish
citizens travelled back and forth, oftentimes joining with
Turkish-speaking sub-groups in larger, anti-regime opposition groups,
the two most prominent of which are Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat
Fateh al-Sham (Syria’s rebranded al-Qaeda affiliate, previously named
Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front) and the Salafi Ahrar al-Sham. With
the rise of ISIS in 2013, Turks began to travel to the caliphate, where
they joined with Turkish-speaking units, complete with Turkish imams and
military trainers. The available open-source evidence points to a
slight difference in Turkish ISIS and al-Qaeda members. In the case of
the latter, the fighters tend to be older, whereas Turkish ISIS members
are younger.<a href="https://www.publications.atlanticcouncil.org/islamic-state-networks-in-turkey/#_ftn3">[3]</a> However,
there are exceptions, underscoring the need for more data to draw
definitive conclusions about “typical” Turkish ISIS members… 
<a href="https://ekurd.net/interview-kurdish-hostage-baybasin-2019-03-08#sdfootnote22anc">22</a> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327425827_An_Analysis_of_ISIS_Propaganda_and_Recruitment_Activities_Targeting_the_Turkish-Speaking_Population



<a href="https://ekurd.net/author/sheri-laizer">Sheri Laizer</a>, a Middle East and North African expert specialist and well known commentator on the Kurdish issue. She is a senior contributing writer for Ekurd.net. More about Sheri Laizer see below.



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