Merry Christmas? Kurdish "terrorists", villagers, sheep "neutralised"

Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings... Kutlu Bayramlar, Kurban Bayramı, Selam, Selam...

[Updated on the 27th of December 2007.]

On the 25th of December 2007, the Chair of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces (Türk Silahlı Küvvetleri Genelmurkay Başkanlığı) said that, '[a]ynı gün sabahın erken saatlerinde teröristlerle ilk temas sağlanmış; çıkan çatışmada ikisi kadın olmak üzere beş terörist etkisiz hale getirilmiştir', which I believe translates something like, "[i]n the early hours of the same day, first contact was made with the terrorists; in the resulting skirmish, five terrorists, two of them women, were killed"(1)(2).

On the 26th of December, TAF/TSK stated that,

Türk Silahlı Kuvvetlerinin Irak'ın kuzeyinde uzun süreden beri izlediği büyük bir terörist grubun, Zap bölgesinde bulunan 8 adet mağara ve barınaklarda kışı geçirmeye hazırlandığı tespit edilmiştir.

Türk Hava Kuvvetlerine bağlı savaş uçaklarımız, 26 Aralık 2007 günü sabah saatlerinden itibaren, söz konusu terörist gruba ait hedefleri etkili bir nokta operasyonu ile vurmuşlardır.

Türk Silahlı Kuvvetlerinin Irak'ın kuzeyinde teröre karşı yürüttüğü mücadeleye paralel olarak, yurt içi operasyonlar da aynı yoğunluk ve kararlılıkla devam etmektedir. Bu kapsamda, 25 Aralık 2007 günü Şırnak/Küpeli Dağı'nda icra edilen operasyonda, ikisi kadın 5 terörist silahları ile birlikte(3) etkisiz hale getirilmiş ve teröristlere ait bol miktarda mühimmat ve yaşam malzemesi ele geçirilmiştir.

Operasyonlarda elde edilen başarılar; mevsim koşulları, görüş durumu ve arazi yapısının, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetlerinin teröre karşı verdiği mücadeleye engel oluşturmadığının en açık göstergesidir.

My weak translation would be something like:

The Turkish Armed Forces' long-term close observation in Iraq's north found a large terrorist group's preparations to spend the winter in 8 caves and shelters in the Zap area.

From the morning hours of the day of the 26th of December 2007, our war planes, attached to the Turkish Armed Forces, struck targets related to the terrorist group with a pinpoint operation.

Parallel to the Turkish Armed Forces' anti-terror pursuit in Iraq's north, internal operations continued with the same intensity and determination. Within this scope, on the day of the 25th of December 2007 in the operation being executed in the mountains of Şırnak/Küpeli, 5 armed terrorists, two of them women, were neutralised and munitions and living supplies belonging to the terrorists were seized.

Successes are being achieved in the operations; the conditions of the season, condition of vision and the lay of the land not constituting obstacles to the Turkish Armed Forces' response to terror are the clearest indications [of the operations' successes].

TAF/TSK also stated that,

"Teslim ol" çağrısına ateşle karşılık veren teröristlerle çıkan çatışmada, 2'si sağ olmak üzere, silahlarıyla birlikte 8 terörist etkisiz hale getirilmiştir.

Böylece, dünkü 5 teröristle birlikte, Küpeli Dağı bölgesinde son iki günde etkisiz hale getirilen terörist sayısı 13'e yükselmiştir.

My weak translation of that would be:

Calls of [for] "surrender" answered with gunfire, in the resulting skirmish with terrorists, 8 armed terrorists were neutralised, 2 of them [taken] alive.

Thus, together with yesterday's 5 terrorists, the number of terrorists neutralised in the last two days in the area of Küpeli Mountain rose to 13.

These reports are unpleasant and Orwellian and, in the light of other reports, questionable. Discussing attacks on the 16th of December, Gordon Taylor (found via Mizgin) observed that:

the Turkish Air Force launched fifty jets.... twelve villages were damaged, and five PKK Kurdish guerrillas were killed along with two civilians.... The civilian casualties, by the way, have been confirmed by the UNHCR.... About 1800 villagers have been displaced. And there were other casualties. Agence France-Presse added: "According to the HCR, more than 200 head of animals also perished in the raid."...

[T]he F-16s killed only 7 people, but they blasted more than 200 animals.... [D]espite Christmas legend, no shepherd in the Middle East would be caught dead "keeping watch over his flocks by night" in the middle of December. It's just too cold. Those 200 animals were not outside: they were underground, and probably in the peasants' houses....

Taylor convincing argued that the targets of Turkish Armed Forces' bombings were overwhelmingly civilian and the victims of their attacks disproportionately civilian.

1. "Killed" was parsed from "neutralised", or, more literally, "rendered inoperative" or "put in an ineffective condition", but its meaning is made clear in other sources, including the last one cited here, where the few who were not "neutralised" were taken alive.
2. Another more reliable proof of this point of my translation can be found in Turkkan's translation of an account of other events where he translates, 'Genelkurmay Başkanlığı'nın haftalık terörle mücadele raporuna göre... 2 terörist ölü, 6 terörist sağ olmak üzere toplam 8 terörist etkisiz hale getirildi' as, '[a]ccording to the general staff... 2 terrorists were killed and six terrorists were captured alived [sic]', with the total of eight "neutralised", either dead or alive; it can mean either, but they say alive when they mean it.
3. If "5 terörist silahları ile birlikte etkisiz hale getirilmiş" means not "five armed terrorists were neutralised", but "five terrorists, together with their arms, were neutralised", it becomes even more Orwellian, dehumanising the Turkish Armed Forces' targets further, reducing them to things "put beyond use".