Russian Official: Militants Trained in Georgia

Civil Georgia reports:

Tbilisi: Georgia hosts “special camps” where militants are trained and then sent to join insurgents in North Caucasus, a senior Russian Interior Ministry official in charge of North Caucasus region has alleged.

“Georgia has become visibly active recently,” Nikolai Simakov, deputy head of Interior Ministry’s unit in North Caucasus federal district, said in an interview with Russian newspaper, Vremya Novostei, when asked about foreign aid to militants operating in the North Caucasus.

“We have information that special camps are set on the territory of this country [Georgia] for the training of fighters. Persons from the Caucasus republics, usually criminals as well as those who are at large in European states, are gathered there, trained and sent to us via neighboring countries,” he said in the newspaper interview, published on September 6.

“A clash took place recently when a group tried to cross into Russia from Azerbaijan; an Azerbaijani border guard died, one fighter was killed and two others detained. It was revealed during the interrogation, that they were recruited by extremist organizations and sent to Georgia for training with a goal to then operate on Russian territory,” Simakov said.

When last month the U.S. Department of State released an annual country report on terrorism, saying that “Russia’s claims of Georgian support for Chechen terrorists and the harboring of such individuals in the Pankisi gorge were unsubstantiated”, the Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the report’s Georgia section as biased.

"The report portrays Georgia as a truly exemplary fighter against terrorism. Herewith it ignores available information that Georgia is playing a double game in respect of terrorist underground in the North Caucasus," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on August 13.

Translation: Dagestan: How leaders of the underground were liquidated

Today I am testing a new option for which I would like you to give me some feedback: publishing articles in languages other than English, machine translated by Google Language Services.  I will try my best to polish up the translations *if I have the time* (which I mostly do not).  Machine translated texts are readable at best, so don't expect high quality stuff, but the substance might be very interesting.  For those of you who read Spanish, Russian, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch or Italian (my "input" languages) I will provide a link to the original texts.  With my RSS reader I check out over 300 information sources everyday and at least half of them are not in English.  While I cannot produce quality translations (lack of time), I can at least pass on the substance of any interesting articles I find.  Lastly, I might bold out the sections of the text which I find particularly interesting.

What do you think - is that a good idea?

As a first trial-balloon today, I would like to share with you a Russian article about events in the Caucasus and, in particular, the recent elimination of a number of top Chechen insurgency leaders.

The Saker

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Дагестан: Как ликвидировали лидеров бандподполья
Dagestan: How leaders of the underground were liquidated


A major success of security forces ended an operation carried out last Saturday in the Dagestan regional center Gunib. The Special Forces FSB eliminated Magomedali Vagabova whom intelligence agencies believe the attacks in the Moscow metro, committed in March of this year and claimed the lives of 40 people. Liquidation Vagabova apparently, was another indication that security forces have embarked on a targeted killing militants and their leaders. Only at the end of last week in the Khasavyurt area first special forces shot machine with four militants, and was later eliminated the local leader of the commando Rustam Munch. In turn, after the destruction Vagabova militants believed in revenge, carried out a succession of armed attacks in Makhachkala, killing three people.

The appearance of large numbers of security forces residents Gunib noticed about six o'clock in the morning. The Special Forces Dagestani branch of the FSB and the police (they cordoned off the area of operations) came in the six "Ural", three armored personnel carriers and six "UAZah. Special Forces in a few minutes blocked the area around the former school building in which the past 15 years in the four-bedroom apartments inhabited district employees of municipal agencies.

Security officials interested in flat, which, according to their data, should have been one of the militia leaders Magomedali Vagabov. Owner of the flat 26-year-old Saadula Magomedov, head of a security guard Gunibsky district Abdulhalima Machaeva lived there with his 20-year-old wife Raisat Sindikovoy. As told Kommersant source in law enforcement, Saadula Magomedov was a member of the esteemed in Gunib family (his mother works as director of a local museum), himself a young man was also in good standing. "Blood on it was not - told Kommersant strongman - but recently he came under the influence of" forest "and became their accomplice."

As it turned out, the leader gubdenskoy subversive and terrorist groups Magomedali Vagabov (among the rebels was known as Saifullo Gubdensky and was considered second in command in the current hierarchy of the forbidden "Caucasus Emirate") appeared in the too distant from Gubdena place, because there has got another wife. In Gunib he appeared before, but how much time they spend in it at this time, security officials did not report.

The operation began with the protracted negotiations. At first, his house had left three other residents of apartments, including his mother and sister Saaduly Magomedov. He himself refused to leave, although within an hour relatives and security officers tried to persuade the young man to surrender. His older brother, Magomedov said that his "guests who are interested in the Feds." When asked to produce at least a wife (played by young married last year) Saadula Magomedov said: "She did not want to go." Meanwhile Magomedali Vagabov decided to use the protracted negotiations and break out of encirclement. But then he got a bullet in his leg and was forced to return to the house. And an hour after the start of negotiations gunmen opened fire on a Special Forces assault rifles and under-barrel grenade launcher.

After a few volleys of responses in the house was on fire. By noon, the active part of the operation was completed. After firefighters extinguished the fire at the battle site was discovered five corpses - owners of the apartment, 34-year-old Magomedali Vagabova, 17-year-old Salahuddin Zakaryaeva (son of the leader of the gang Abdulgafura Zakaryaeva liquidated along with 11 other militants in March last year Karabudahkentskom area) and another man, who has not yet been identified.

By noon the slave prohibited in Russia, the Caucasus Emirate "sites confirmed the death Sayfullaha Gubdenskogo. According to them, in the house were blocked five "mujahedeen," including the "Amir of the Dagestan Front of the Caucasus Emirate and the cadi. According to the site, being in the house of Salahuddin Zakaryan presented as "spokesperson of the Cadi and the Caucasus Emirate Amir of the Dagestan Front", "contacted the agency. According to the extremists, before his death Vagabov said: "I hurt ... I'm going to paradise!"

The location of Vagabova was Karabudahkentsky area and woodlands of several neighboring areas of the country. In recent years he kept in fear of his native village Gubden: victims of militant attacks have become not only police but also local residents openly opposed to the Wahhabis. The most tragic was the fate of the family head of the village police department Abdulmalik Magomedov. The head of the family was killed in October 2008 in a firefight with militants from the group Vagabova. A year later, in November 2009, at the beginning of the holy month of Ramazan Magomedov family came to the cemetery to honor his memory. Right on the grave was found a powerful explosive device. The explosion caused the policeman's widow Helen and her daughter Triftonidi Gulbara died on the spot, the sister of Mr. Magomedov Umuhanum Hizrieva later died in hospital. In survived only son, Rasul, who brought women to the cemetery, but he waited for them outside the fence. A few hours later, during preparations for the funeral, the cemetery was discovered another bomb - in the 5-6 m from the first explosion. Charge neutralized. And on July 12 in Gubdene was killed son Abdulmalik Magomedov and Helena Triftonidi Commander of the Order of Courage Senior Lieutenant Rasul Magomedov - was gunned down near gubdenskim township police station, where he worked as a security officer.

Interestingly, after the recent sensational resignation Doku Umarov Vagabov supported him, made an appeal. "To date, the sole legitimate ruler of the Muslims of the Caucasus is and remains the Amir Abu Usman. Mujahideen of the Caucasus swear allegiance to him," - he said.

Russian security services believe Vagabova organized the March bombings in the Moscow subway. One of the two suicide bombers, according to security officials, was the wife of gunman - a teacher from the village Balakhany Untsukulsky district of Dagestan Maryam Sharipov.

Liquidation Vagabova is a great success of Russian special services, said a member of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, First Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council, Alexander Torshin. "Over time, the gunman would have grown to Shamil Basayev, no more and no less, - said Mr. Torshin .- Our special services, and this is a trend, eliminate the leaders before they have time to prepare a replacement." Yesterday at a meeting in Makhachkala, Dagestan president Magomedsalam Magomedov invited to submit for an award of law enforcement officers who distinguished themselves during a special operation to destroy Magomedali Vagabova. "From the republic's leadership, we decided to reward them financially," - the president added.

Liquidation Magomedali Vagabova was another successful operation to destroy the militias and their leaders. As already reported by Kommersant at the end of last week in the Khasavyurt area FSB eliminated four militants tried to shoot back. And then it became known that in the village Bammatyurt during a joint operation by the FSB and the Interior Ministry leader killed Khasavyurt subversive and terrorist group Rustam Munch.

However, once we became aware of the elimination Magomedali Vagabova in Makhachkala were a number of armed attacks against militants. First, criminals, riding on a white VAZ-2107, staged a massacre in the village of Separators of the city: the street Hurshilova they opened fire with automatic weapons a policeman, who was in his car VAZ-21114 (he died on the spot), and later at the cafe "Boomer" on street Fonvizin fired at a senior operative of the Criminal Investigation Branch of the Soviet police department Makhachkala (he was wounded in the forearm) and 52-year-old visitor (he died on the spot). After that, hiding from persecution, some garages, located at the house N 15 on the street Perov, they fired the captain of the local military unit, who died of his wounds. According to a source of Kommersant in the power structures of Dagestan, there could be a campaign of revenge subordinates Magomedali Vagabova. "According to our data, in Makhachkala, there are several groups who reported directly to him - said the source - it is possible that this was a reaction to the elimination of their leader."

March 8, 2005 in the Chechen village of Tolstoy-Yurt during a special operation FSB was killed President Aslan Maskhadov, Chechnya. According to one version, he ordered the guard to shoot himself after their bunker was discovered.


June 17, 2006 during clashes in Argun was killed Maskhadov's successor Abdul-Halim Saydulaev. According to the then prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, the militants gave someone from his entourage for 1500 rubles.


10 July 2006 on the outskirts of the village of Ekazhevo in Ingushetia as a result of the FSB special operation was blown up "Kamaz", which was the first vice-premier Chechnya, Brigadier General and terrorist Shamil Basayev.


April 4, 2007 during a special operation branch of the FSB and the MVD in the Vedeno region of Chechnya killed Suleiman Imurzaev (Khairulla), who commanded the congregation in the south-eastern Chechnya. He was considered one of the organizers of the assassination of Akhmad Kadyrov.


September 17, 2007 in Kizilyurt district of Dagestan eliminated local militia leader Rappani Khalilov. The house where he was hiding, razed to the ground armored vehicles and tanks.


January 17, 2009 in Dagestan branch of the FSB special forces and Interior Ministry eliminated religious and military authority Ichkerian Underground Hadieva Issa, who on behalf of Chechnya envoy Akhmed Zakayev to set up armed units in the Caucasus.


March 2, 2010 during a special operation of the FSB and Interior Ministry troops in the Ingush village of Ekazhevo militants killed ideologue Alexander Tikhomirov (Said Buryat). According to investigators, he produced a 30 bombers to carry out terrorist attacks on Russian territory.


March 18, 2010 in Vedeno district of the Chechen militiamen eliminated Arabic instructor Abu Khaled, in technical and psychological training of terrorists.


March 24, 2010 in Nalchik during a firefight with the FSB special forces killed the leader of bandpodpolya Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia Anzor Astemirov (crossroads). He was among the organizers of the attack on Nalchik in October 2005.

Russia, Azerbaijan/Armenia: All roads lead to the Caucasus

Georgia is eager for another war, but there are other fires there which refuse to die -- Russia’s battles with terrorism and separatists and Azerbaijan’s bleeding wound in ethnic Armenian Nagorno Karabakh, notes Eric Walberg

The Russian Federation republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Ingushetia have experienced a sharp increase in assassinations and terrorist bombings in the past few years which have reached into the heart of Russia itself, most spectacularly with the bombing of the Moscow-Leningrad express train in January that killed 26.

Last week police killed at least six suspected militants in Ingushetia. Dagestan has especially suffered in the past two years, notably with the assassination of its interior minister in last June and the police chief last month. The number of armed attacks more than doubled last year. In February, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev replaced Dagestan president Mukhu Aliyev with Magomedsalam Magomedov, whose father Magomedali led Dagestan from 1987-2006. Aliyev was genuinely popular, praised for his honesty and fight against corruption, but was seen as too soft on terror.

President Magomedov has vowed to put the violence-ridden region in order and pardon rebels who turn in weapons.”I have no illusion that it will be easy. Escalating terrorist activity in the North Caucasus, including in Dagestan, urges us to revise all our methods of fighting terror and extremism.” He vowed to attack unemployment, organised crime, clan rivalry and corruption.

Violence continues to plague Chechnya as well. Russian forces have fought two wars against separatists in Chechnya since 1994, leaving more than 100,000 dead and the region in ruins, inspiring terrorist attacks throughout the region. Five Russian soliders and as many rebels were killed there at the beginning of February. According to the Long War Journal, in February, Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) killed a key Al-Qaeda fighter based in Chechnya, Mokhmad Shabban, an Egyptian known as Saif Islam (Sword of Islam), the mastermind behind the 6 January suicide bombing that killed seven Russian policemen in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala. He was wanted for attacks against infrastructure and Russian soldiers throughout Chechnya and neighbouring republics.

Since the early 1990s, militants such as Shabban have operated from camps in Georgia's Pansiki Gorge, and used the region as a safe haven to launch attack inside Chechnya and the greater Caucasus. The FSB said Shabban “masterminded acts of sabotage to blast railway tracks, transmission lines, and gas and oil pipelines at instructions by Georgian secret services."

This is impossible to prove, but Georgia was the only state to recognise the Republic of Ichkeria when Chechens unilaterally declared independence in 1991 and his widow Alla has a talk show on First Caucasus TV, a station located in Georgia and beamed into Chechnya. Interestingly, from 2002-2007, more than 200 US Special Forces troops were training Georgian troops in Pansiki, though neither the Americans nor the Georigans were able to end the attacks on Russia.

Medvedev said last month that violence in the North Caucasus remains Russia’s biggest domestic problem, arguing that it will only end once the acute poverty in the region and the corruption and lawlessness within the security organs themselves is addressed. He has undertaken an ambitious reform of security organs and the police throughout Russia with this in mind.

Sceptics may point to the parallel between the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and Russian policy in the north Caucasus. Yes, there is a Russian geopolitical context, but the comparison is specious. These regions have been closely tied both economically and politically to Russia for two centuries, which Abkhazian President Sergei Bagpash shrewdly decided to celebrate last month in order to ensure Moscow’s support.

The patchwork quilt of nationalities of the Caucasus has survived under Russian sponsorship and now has the prospect of prospering if left in peace. Politicians like Bagpash make the best of the situation, as do sensible politicians throughout Russia's "near abroad". To alienate or try to subvert a powerful neighbour and potential friend as does Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is plain bad politics.

The other Caucasian conflict is the long running tragedy of Nagorno Karabakh, which unlike the other conflicts pits two supposed NATO hopefuls against each other. The war occurred from 1988-94, dating from the dying days of the Soviet Union, when Armenia invaded Azerbaijan, carving out a corridor through the country to seize the mountain region populated for over a millennium largely by ethnic Armenians. A ceasefire was finally achieved leaving Armenia in possession of the enclave and a corridor, together consisting of almost 20 per cent of Azerbaijani territory. As many as 40,000 died, and 230,000 Armenians and a million Azeris were displaced.

A Russian-brokered ceasefire has been followed by intermittent peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, France and Russia. But it is clear that Azerbaijan will not rest until its territory is returned. “If the Armenian occupier does not liberate our lands, the start of a great war in the south Caucasus is inevitable,” warned Azerbaijan Defence Minister Safar Abiyev in February. “Armenians must unconditionally withdraw from our lands. And only after that should cooperation and peace be established,” said Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev last week.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are spread across a ceasefire line in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, often facing each other at close range, with shootings reported as common. Last week an Armenian soldier was killed.

Russia, culturally closer to Armenia, is resented by Azerbaijan as biased, and indeed there has been no commitment by any of the peacemakers or Armenia to return the territory. But the playing field changed dramatically after Georgia’s defeat in its war against Russia in 2008, setting in motion unforseen regional realignments throughout the region.

First was rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia, which at first set off alarm bells in Baku, relying as it does internationally on the support of Turkey, which closed its borders with Armenia in 1993 in response to the Armenian occupation. Turkey established diplomatic relations with Armenia last year in keeping with the Justice and Development Party’s “zero problems with neighbours”, but says ratification by parliament and a full border opening will not happen until Armenia makes some concessions to Azerbaijan.

Moscow has also been pursuing a charm offensive with neighbours in recent years, and was successful in getting both Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents to sign the Moscow Declaration in November 2008, though the warring sides subsequently have managed only to agree on procedural matters.

Key to all further developments throughout the region is the role of the US and NATO. Until recently, it looked like NATO would succeed in expanding into Ukraine and Georgia. It is also eager to have Azerbaijan and Armenia join. Not surprisingly, these moves are seen as hostile by Russia. If the unlikely happens, this would mean the US has important influence in all the conflicts in the Caucasus. But would pushing Armenia and Azerbaijan, two warring nations, into the fold help resolve their intractable differences?

Though both have sent a few troops to Afghanistan, the very idea of warring nations joining the military bloc is nonsense, and noises about it can only be interpreted as attempts to curry favour with the world's superpower. Azerbaijan has much-covetted Caspian Sea oil and gas, but Armenia is Christian and Azerbaijan Muslim, and Armenia has a strong US domestic lobby which will not go quietly into the night. Any move by Washington to meddle in the dispute without close coordination with Moscow is fraught with danger for all concerned -- except, of course, the US.

As an ally to both countries, and with important historical and cultural traditions, Russia remains the main actor in the search for a solution. Including Turkey in negotiations can only improve the chances of finding a regional solution which is acceptable to both sides. Such a solution requires demilitarising the conflict, hardly something NATO is expert at. As both countries improve their economies, and as long as ongoing tensions do not erupt into military conflict, they can -- must -- move towards a realistic resolution that takes the concerns of both sides into consideration.

Since 1991 a new Silk Road has been opened to the West, stretching as it did a millennium ago from Italy to China and taking in at least seventeen new political entities. All roads, in this case, lead to the Caucasus, and US-NATO interest in this vital crossroads should surprise no one. US control there -- and in the Central Asian“stans” -- would mean containing Russia and Iran, the dream for American strategists since WWII.

The three major wars of the past decade -- Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) -- all lie on this Silk Road. The US and the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance had no business invading any of these countries and have no business in the region today. Rather it is Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, China, India, Turkey et al that must come together to promote their regional economic well being and security.

War breaking out in any one of the Caucasus disputes would be a tragedy for all concerned, for the West (at least in the long run) as much as for Russia or any of the participants. But the forces abetting war are not rational in any meaningful sense of the word. After all, it was perfectly "rational" in Robert Gates's mind to help finance and arm Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1979. The planners in the Pentagon or NATO HQs argue "rationally" today that their current surge in Afghanistan will bring peace to the region.

And if it fails, at least the chaos is far away. Such thinking could lead them to try to unleash chaos in any of the smoldering and intractable disputes in the Caucasus out of spite or a la General Jack Ripper in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 “Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”, a film which unfortunately has lost none of its bite in the past four decades.

Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/ You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com/

No friends but the mountains - The Saker interviews Zerkes from Kurdistan

It has been three years now since I interviewed Mizgin, a pro-PKK Kurdish blogger who very kindly introduced me to the topic of the struggle of the Kurds for self-determination and my interview with her was mostly about the 'inner' aspects of the Kurdish struggle. Today, I am publishing another interview with a Kurd - Zerkes - but this time the interview deals mostly with the "regional picture". The regions inhabited by Kurds include areas of Turkey, of course, but also Iraq, Iran and Syria and there are substantial pockets of Kurdish population in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan (while the Kurdish diaspora covers the entire planet). Kurds therefore often have a uniquely well-informed insight into what is happening in the Middle-East and Caucasus region. In addition, Turkey is clearly a major player and some of my questions for Zerkes dealt with what is happening inside this country about which so little information reaches me.

I am very grateful to Zerkes for taking the time to answer my questions. For more info on these and other topics, make sure to visit Zerkes' blog.

The Saker: how would you assess the socio-political climate in Turkey? How are the military and the Islamic parties balancing each other out and what do you see is the general "mood" of the "street" so to speak?

Zerkes: I will answer this question in two parts. First by focusing on the people on the street and then by focusing on the political dynamics.

First, it's for sure that Turkey is changing rapidly these days. For the first time since the beginning of the republic some people started questioning the military. These people would have never imagined the beloved military could be corrupt, its members involved in thousands of disappearances, kidnapping, prostitution, arm and drug trade, etc. This is extremely confusing for Turkish people who are willing to open their eyes, listen, and think. Kurdish people already knew all of these since they were the victim but nobody listened to them for so long which is why they ended up starting their armed struggle. When Kurds look deep into what's happening now, the whole operation feels like "giving the state a face lift" without honestly facing the problem and curing it. A number of retired colonels have started committing suicide recently and Kurds somehow don't believe these thugs all of a sudden developed some morals and started feeling guilty all together.

Not too long ago some of military's projects to pay for making movies and tv series with explicit company/person names leaked to the media. The societal manipulation tools that were only available to the military and the deep state (forming secret organizations, making of movies and series such as "Breath/Nefes", "Valley of the Wolves", etc.) are now available to the current government too. These projects are really bad imitations of "loyalty building projects" you can see in the USA. The people (some of whom are "reporters") who make these and/or direct these media projects are closely affiliated with the military or Turkish Secret Service (MIT). Some progressive Turkish writers have started writing about these projects.

If I were to try to put the mood for non-Kurds in one word, I would call it schizophrenia. Turkish people, for the first time are hearing some of the atrocities their security forces have committed against Kurds and other people but they have extreme difficulty with coming to terms so a lot of them are going back to extreme nationalism/racism and attack anything that challenges their belief. Such people are demonstrating hatred against anyone who is different (they recently attacked gypsies in a town and made the gypsies leave the town and their reasoning was because gypsies lived better). Lynching moves toward Kurds in western part of Turkey are on the rise. Kurds get attacked simply because they speak Kurdish or sing a Kurdish song. The police just watches and then arrests the people who get attacked while those who attack are praised by being sensitive and loyal citizens.

The word I would use for the Kurdish side is disappointment. The state and the government want to make sure everyone knows who the boss is. Turkish state and government repeat at every chance that their main goal is annihilation of the PKK, there cannot be education in mother language and things a like. The state and government's main goal seems to be to disarm Kurds, divide them, and then consume the natural resources and make sure that no Kurdish identity is left. You can see this mindset in some rhetoric used against assimilated Kurds already. Since Kurdish was banned for such a long time and people couldn't get educated in their own language some of them cannot speak Kurdish. The rhetoric used against them is that they have no right to ask for anything since they cannot even speak their own language.

The closure of main Kurdish political party DTP and arrests of Kurdish politicians (and those that also got banned from participating in politics) is nothing but response to local elections of 2009 in which Kurds won big time against the current government despite all the support the government received from the police, military, governors etc in Kurdistan. Heck, the government offices were acting like election bureaus of AK Party. If the goal of Turkish side was to end armed clashes and encourage Kurds to participate in political process, Turkey wouldn't have arrested all the Kurdish politicians, handcuff them, and escort them in a single line to the prison while serving its pictures to the press. These politicians have never ever took part in any armed resistance. They did speak for Kurdish rights though. In fact these have been the people who never backed down despite all the threats they received and had their friends or family members assassinated. There is actually something depressingly funny. When DTP was closed, among people who were banned from politics because they were DTP administrators was a shepherd who wasn't a politician. Gordon Taylor, a blogger has published about it. The question is if cows will get banned from voting!

Politically (the state and government), what you are seeing in Turkey now is balancing of the current government's strength with that of the military's. This is being supported (and engineered) by the USA and help comes through providing intelligence to the current government on the Ergenekon case and similar issues. This is not to say the current government and the military hate one another. They are actually in agreement. The biggest project they have is to suffocate the Kurdish question by removing any defense Kurds may have (currently the PKK/HPG) and then force them into submission.

We should ask then. Why should PKK cease to exist? Let's look at the big picture first. US and EU have a Greater Middle East Project (GMEP) and the planned oil and gas pipelines extending from South Kurdistan (North Iraq) all the way to Europe, running through Turkey necessitates Kurds not disrupting the oil and gas flow (there is flow of another merchandise but we will come to that later). This means solving the Kurdish question or pacifying it. The other face of the medallion is that the GMEP requires Turkey be a regional power, much stronger than Iran and with much influence. So, in a nutshell, US will be playing it's cards in the region through a Muslim country which is Sunni.

Can a country which is constantly losing blood and is distracted by its internal issues be a regional power? Hardly. So the Kurdish issue has to be "resolved" one way or another. From what I can see so far, Turkey doesn't want a solution that would result in say autonomy for Kurds or even mention of the words Kurd or Kurdistan in the constitution. Education in mother tongue is strongly opposed as well. To be able to dictate its terms on Kurds freely, Turkey is trying to annihilate the PKK by collaborating with US, EU, and other countries in the region. Everyone pretty much seems on board. PKK hasn't killed even an American chicken and yet it's being declared as common enemy by the USA.

The Saker: what do you make of the Turkey-Israel alliance? Is that something imposed by the USA, or do Turkey and Israel work directly together, and sometimes even against the USA as is strongly suggested by Sibel Edmonds?

Zerkes: Turkey and Israel go way back and they are allies. It wouldn't surprise me if Israel and Turkey formed alliances which would be against US interests because Israel and Turkey both need one another desperately. Israel needs Turkey because it's the only country in the region that Israel can rely on, train its military with, get water and crops from, etc. Turkey needs Israel because it constantly balances out Arabs and Iran. It's no secret that Israel is the biggest supporter of Kemalism which is the official ideology of the state and its military. Israel has very strong ties to Turkish military.

I have to make a statement on the current rifts between Israel and Turkey. My opinion is that these are carefully crafted shows to strengthen Turkey's position in the Middle East so it can safely reduce Iran's effect. Arab countries already started gravitating toward Turkey and forming alliances with Turkey. This is exactly what US and EU want. While these small crises seem to be harmful for Israel they only do minor short term harm to its reputation. In the long term, Israel actually wins because if the plans go well, in the long run, Iran's influence will be weaker and Arabic states will be under Turkey's hand and we all know Turkey in the NATO and will probably be a EU member or will be given a special status.

The Saker: what can you tell us about the role and objectives of Turkey towards the Caucasus in general and Russia, Chechnia and Georgia specifically. The Chechen insurgents used to see Turkey as a friendly "rear-base", what has happened since the (relative) defeat of the Chechen insurgency in the 2nd Chechen war?

Zerkes: I am not very knowledgeable on the Caucasus but from what I hear and read, I can tell you that most of the right wing criminals go to Azerbaijan or other Turkic states in the Caucasus to have more training and continue their activities such as drug and arms trading. Turkey is trying to have serious influence in the region especially through Gulen movement. Gulen movement was founded and is lead by an imam named Fethullah Gulen who currently lives in the USA.It's basically promoting Turkish-Islam synthesis. The movement is big all over the world, particularly strong in Turkey. The current government is basically composed of Gulen's followers. Who is Fethullah Gulen? I quote from Rasti:

Who is Gulen?
Fetullah Gulen is "a 67-year-old Turkish Sufi cleric, author and theoretician," according to a recent profile in the UK's Prospect magazine. Prospect ran a public poll last month to find the world's greatest living intellectual. Gulen 'won' the poll after his newspapers alerted readers to the poll's existence. Gulen is also the leader of the so-called 'Gulen Movement' which claims to have seven million followers worldwide. The Gulen Movement has extensive business interests, including "publishing activities (books, newspapers, and magazines), construction, healthcare, and education."

The full article can be read here

You can also read about Gulen movement, CIA, and turkish deep state ties here

There is actually a nice article titled "Uighur Nationalism, Turkey and the CIA" at Terrorism-illuminati.com summarizing Gulen movement, it's ties to CIA, and use of Gulen movement on Brzezinski’s Grand Chessboard, specifically Central Asia. The full article can be read here and I think it's a must read:

To wrap this question up, the Chechens are still well-organized and well-supported in Turkey. I haven't kept up with the details though.

The Saker: I hear a lot of rumors about the Turkish deep state being heavily involved in drug trafficking. How much of a factor in the Turkish deep state's decision-making process towards, say, Afghanistan or the Caucasus is the drug trade?

Zerkes: they are not rumors. It was just a few weeks ago that a drug ring composed of some high level police officers were arrested. A few days ago, it was another ring lead by a retired colonel. While most Turks like to blame PKK for the drug trade (without even thinking how in the earth PKK network could extend all the way to Afghanistan and be sustainable). It's a known fact that the Turkish army tanks, helicopters, and armored vehicles have been used to transport heroin within Turkey.

Recently, one of the Drug lords (a Kurdish person but one of the Kurds who is a model for what kind of Kurds the state has been wanting) Baybasin who is in prison in the Netherlands spoke from the prison to Taraf daily (a Turkish news paper) and revealed some of his ties with high level military personnel (generals) and high level politicians such as ex prime minister Suleyman Demirel and other people deeply involved in the deep state like Mehmet Agar (he is said to have conducted over thousands of operations against Kurdish civilians). Baybasin also revealed the fact that he received counter guerrilla training (Baybasin is referring to training by Ergenekon which is the Turkish Gladio) and talked how they were taking arms to Afghanistan and bringing Heroin in return. Baybasin also mentioned a few of the presents he gave to some high level generals which can be easily verified. One of them was a villa to a general's wife. Baybasin also mentioned something interesting that one of his ships, loaded with heroin, was sank after the drugs were emptied. That heroin was never accounted for (this is not the first time). My guess is that this attitude become a habit at the Turkish side and hence we have the Ergenekon operations today. Bosses never like it when you steal from them. So, if anything, I think the whole operation is to show what happens to those who steal from the bossmen.

Sibel Edmonds also has some great analysis on Turkish state's involvement in drug trade. There is also an article by Kendal Nezan published in Le Monde Diplomatique.

Finally, since US, EU, and Turkey love to blame PKK with drug trade, I do have to state that not one single member of the PKK has been actually tried and found guilty of drug trade. PKK has also offered review of its accounts. Head of KCK Murat Karayilan offered this to USA and EU when USA Dept of Treasury froze the PKK funds in the USA which doesn't exist and also assets of Murat Karayilan which he doesn't have. Karayilan stated that his daily expense is under a dollar. The PKK also constantly makes calls and publicizes names of those who are trying to sell drugs in Kurdistan. If anything, PKK is really becoming a problem for marketing heroin in Kurdistan. Now that US is allowing "farmers" in Afghanistan to start "farming" again, I suppose it would make the flow much easier if PKK didn't exist and there would be more customers too. Also, given the fact that the shady characters associated with the deep state are almost always are linked to the Caucasus, I suspect marketing there and making the Caucasus an alternate or a second route for drug trade is an option. I do believe that would be a safe option for them if they can really secure enough ground. After all Turkic republics will be friendlier to Turks. Having a second line is simple redundancy rule in supply chain management.

It has been well publicized that Heroin trade keeps banks and governments afloat. My guess is that the big boys are desperate for the heroin trade even more today especially given the the current global economic crisis. More drug trade and more oil are needed to keep gears turning but there is a problem. The Kurds and their armed resistance happens to be strategically positioned to disrupt flow of both of them at least on one front and Russia can disrupt it on the other front. We'll wait and see how Russia will play it's cards about this.

The Saker: which political forces do you see as the main allies of Turkey in the region, both as actual allies and as potential allies?

Zerkes: the one and true ally in the region for Turkey will be Israel. Iraq, Iran, and Syria are allies with Turkey against Kurds. Turkey will make Arabic countries allies if it can really pull off the regional leader role given by the US. That will mean savor grapes with Iran. Iran and Turkey are actually competing right now in South Kurdistan. I heard somewhere that Iran has banned/limited activities of Gulen movement in Iran (Russia banned them sometime ago). Turkey is also trying to cut deals with Ukraine to make sure no Kurdish organization supporting Kurdish cause can exist there (same thing it's going in US and EU). Turkey was using the votes of the Chechen population in Ukraine as a bargaining chip.

The Saker: which political forces or countries in the region do the Kurds see as a potential ally? What do the Kurdish political parties make of Russia, Armenia, Greece or Serbia all of which are historically in conflict with Turkey and its Western allies?

Zerkes: I am not really sure if Kurds see any of these countries as an ally. I personally don't. In Middle East the only way you can have true allies is that you are strong. Countries like Greece and Serbia will be allies with Turkey for the future pipelines so I don't think they will really be allies for Kurds. Iran may turn out to be an ally for Kurds in the long run but it will be a while before Kurds can trust any of the counties among which Kurdistan is divided. As for Russia, I am sure Kurds know that Russia would turn its back to them for the right price which happened before and more than once. The most recent one was because of the Blue Stream project where Russia made a deal with Turkey and US the agreement resulted in capture of Ocalan. Having said that, I do believe temporary alliances with Iran and Russia would be possible. This is because these two countries would be getting the short end the stick if the GMEP were to materialize. Given the situation with imperial plans on heroin and oil and gas flow, Russia and Iran should waste no time to ally with Kurds. Only then all three of them can win. The alternative is bigger losses for both Iran and Russia. This time, it's not Kurds who have much to lose. Russia and Iran becoming allies with Kurds makes long term strategical sense too since Kurdistan has abundance of water and he who holds water will be the power in the Middle East in the long run.

I have a feeling Armenia wants the GMEP to materialize and they want the border with Turkey open so they can have more trade. Armenians will need this more and more as Turkey increases its influence on countries neighboring Armenia.

While talking about allies in the region, I need to state a less known historical anecdote. Back in the 80ies, a few PKK guerrillas actually fought against IDF. I may be wrong about the exact figure but I think about 11 PKK guerrillas were killed by the IDF and several were captured alive. Israel had asked why the PKK guerrillas were in this fight and the guerrillas had said because what IDF was doing was wrong. The PKK was training alongside with Palestinians at the time. The real reason doesn't matter much since it was only a handful of them but that was enough for Israel. The point is that the Israeli military help for Turkey to fight against Kurds started back then and grew larger every year.

Kurds have realized long ago that they are alone in their struggle for their basic human rights and started relying on themselves. PKK did state many times that they are not in love with guns and they are ready to drop them if Kurds are given their cultural rights and guarantees for their basic rights in the constitution.

For now, the status quo still hasn't changed: no friends but the mountains.