Anatolian news agency publishes disinformation for international press, relating to detention of Kurds in Syria

We have reported the arrest and detention of many Kurds in Syria since the shootings at the Newroz celebrations in al-Raqqa, Syria on 20 March 2010. Approximately 100 people have been detained recently and this brings the total number of supporters of the political organisation PYD who have been detained to over 400.

News of the number of arrests reaching 400 was released by Quds Press – International News Agency, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on 26 June 2010.

This information was not picked up by news agencies until today when a distorted version of events was reported by the Turkish Anatolian news agency in an article that claimed that 400 Kurdish PKK members had been arrested, and others killed during street clashes: http://www.aa.com.tr/en/syria-detains-400-people-in-operations-against-terrorist-pkk.html

Newaf Khalil, journalist and expert in politics of Kurds in Syria, was interviewed on 1 July 2010 on BBC Arabic TV.  He told the BBC that many arrests have taken place in Syria of people who are supporters and members of the Kurdish political party, the PYD, not PKK.

Anatolian News Agency had reported the deaths of eleven terrorists in street clashes in Syrian cities last week, however Newaf Khalil said that this is disinformation as there have been no such killings, and that in his opinion this distorted news has been released today in Turkey for a number of reasons:

• The news from the Anatolian agency will act as a distraction from the secret talks reportedly held between Israeli Trade Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, and Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, in Brussels on Wednesday http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10471551.stm .
• There has been a recent escalation in conflict between the Turkish authorities and PKK inside Turkey, and the government is under pressure to be seen to take effective action against PKK. This news report encourages people in Turkey to believe that their government is powerful with regard to taking action against the PKK, even going as far as persuading Syria to enter into a campaign against supporters of PKK.
• This disinformation also invites human rights organisations to view Kurdish detainees as being members of a ‘terrorist’ group, in the expectation that the prisoners will then not attract their attention.

International news agencies are invited to look beyond the smoke screen that has been thrown up by this Turkish news agency, to see that there is a political programme aimed at ethnically cleansing Kurds from their ancient homelands, and that there is collusion in this persecution between the governments of Turkey and Syria, in co-operation with Iran.

Human rights organisations and activists should take credit for their reports that have exposed some of the abuses of Kurds in Syria, and they are invited to continue to promote the rights of Kurds in Syria, Turkey and Iran in particular.

The democratic governments of USA and the EU, including UK are requested to take an effective stance against the abuse of Kurds, in any of their dealings with Syria.