BELIEVE OR NOT!
CHOMSKY' BOOK IS ACCUSED OF BEING INVOLVED IN "PROPAGANDA AGAINST THE INDIVISIBLE UNITY OF COUNTRY, NATION AND STATE OF TURKISH REPUBLIC"
On 2 November 2001, a lawsuit was brought against the book titled American Interventionism which is a compilation of various articles of Prof. Chomsky, with accusations of “propaganda against the indivisible unity of country, nation and State of Republic of Turkey.” The book was published on September 2001 by Aram Publishing House, which is an institution that supports the Kurdish liberation movement. The lawsuit will start on … Prof. Chomsky declared by a press statement his support to the publishing house.
The suit is brought in a critical phase of the Kurdish problem in Turkey for a number of reasons. Firstly, the present government – one of the members of the coalition is the racist and far right wing party MHP- has serious phobia in making the necessary reforms for the admittance of Turkey to the European Union. Kurds who attain certain basic rights and freedom in the framework of compliance with EU criteria are perceived as a major threat to national unity. Secondly, the PKK (Workers’ Party of Kurdistan), in accordance with the propositions made by its leader Mr. A. Öcalan, who has been detained in Turkey and sentenced to death, has undergone a strategic transformation. The movement has been developing a political program, which requests certain reforms to eliminate the conditions that necessitated the Kurds in Turkey to carry out an armed struggle. This program rejects the notion of nation-state, enables a multi-cultural and multi-national regime in Turkey, and in a broader perspective it will help liberation of people and formation of democratic regimes in Middle East region as a whole. The movement has relocated its guerrilla units to the Kurdish district in Northern Iraq to help ending the armed conflict in Turkey’s borders. PKK’s efforts have been designated by the Turkish State as an effort of the PKK “to politicise” and have been rejected. Thirdly, it seems that the Turkish State is trying to drag Kurdish masses in a state of absolute demoralisation by keeping the PKK leader Mr. A. Öcalan on death row.
The Chomsky suit, like many other lawsuits, is staged by the forces that do not want the Kurdish Problem to be discussed freely and to be solved democratically and humanely. In the absence of armed conflict, the establishment resorts to present reactionary legal regulations to oppress the Kurds that demand basic rights and freedom. The present Constitution and legal regulations are products of the government that took over after the coup d’état 0n 12 September 1980, and they were reinforced by Anti-Terror Act that was passed after the PKK started an armed struggle. The increase in the pressure applied to legal Kurdish institutions (police raids, detentions, and arrests) after 11 September terrorist attracts is worth noting.
Our plea from you is to assess the Kurdish problem in Turkey and the present state of the Kurdish liberation movement fairly and without bias. If you have any written thought on the subject, we would appreciate receiving a copy of your article, which will be publicised by press.
Please feel free to contact us if you require more detailed information about the Kurdish problem in Turkey. At the moment, we are preparing a short compilation of the chronological facts that took place after the capture of Mr. A. Öcalan.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Aram Publishing House

The text of Indictment

REPUBLIC OF TURKEY,
ISTANBUL NATIONAL SECURITY COURT,
CHIEF PROSECUTING ATTORNEY.
INDICTMENT
CLAIMANT:
Accused: Fatih Taþ, proprietor and editor of Aram Publishing Company
Offence: Propaganda against the indivisible unity of country, nation and State of Republic of Turkey
Date of Offence: September 2001
THE PREPARATORY DOCUMENTATION HAS BEEN EXAMINED
From the examination of the edition dated September 2001 of the book entitled AMERICAN INTERVENTIONISM published and distributed by Aram Publishing Company located in Istanbul, of which the accused Fatih Taþ is the proprietor and editor;
In the article titled “Forward” which starts in page 7 and ends in page 10, it is written that:
“The USA is obviously hypocritical when Turkey, Colombia and Indonesia are in dispute. After all, the human rights issue is put into or taken out of the agenda according to the interests of certain people of influence in the USA. When Chomsky is writing about the Kurdish Problem in Turkey, the reader is unwittingly feeling a demand from him to concentrate more on this particular subject and analyse it in a more detailed manner. For the moment, it is unclear how Chomsky is assessing the new phase the Kurdish liberation movement is getting into and how much time he spares for following the developments in this field [...] At the end of the day, the Kurdish liberation movement has become the primary focus of opposition since last ten years and those who want to exterminate it have just ended up undermining the very social order they nourish. In the process of Turkey’s admittance to the EU, the solution of the Kurdish Problem in the ‘minority rights’ framework is not realistic. As the Kurds become an unavoidable variable in the process of Turkey’s admittance to the EU, some rational (and peaceful) reorganisation that may also include the Middle East is unintentionally brought into the agenda. One can find interesting parallels between the suggestions formulated by the Kurdish liberation movement regarding the region in which we live and Chomsky’s revealing propositions. However, it would be proper to leave to the reader the judgement about this matter.”
In addition to this, in the essay titled “PEACE POSSIBILITIES IN MIDDLE EAST” on page 143, it is written that:
“Third is Turkey and the Kurds. That’s one of the most severe human rights atrocities of the 1990s, continuing in fact. And there are plenty of other issues.”
And in page 149,
“Turkey and the Kurds. The Kurds have been miserably oppressed throughout the whole history of the modern Turkish State but things changed in 1984. In 1984, the Turkish government launched a major war in the Southeast against the Kurdish population. And that continued. In fact it’s still continuing. (…) This had nothing to do with Cold War, transparently. It was because of the counterinsurgency war. (…)The end result was pretty awesome: tens of thousands of people killed, two to three million refugees, massive ethnic cleansing with some 3500 villages destroyed.”
If the quoted essays are assessed as a whole, it is easily seen that there is a propaganda issue being conducted against the indivisible unity of country, nation and State of the Republic of Turkey;
The prosecution claims and requests, in the name of public, the abovementioned to be tried in our court for the claim s/he is being accused of, according to Act No. 2845, Item 20, and CONVICTED according to Act No. 3713, Items 1-3 FINAL.
2 November 2001
Bekir Rayif ALDEMÝR 29885
Istanbul National Security Court
Prosecuting Attorney
Seal and Signature

Chomsky’s Press release:

Dear Editor,
I learned with astonishment of the charges brought against you for publishing material of mine that is drawn exclusively from the reports of the leading human rights Organizations (Human Rights Watch, and others), the most respected standard scholarship, and official US government documents, dealing with repression of the Kurds in Turkey and the US involvement in these actions. It should be unnecessary even to state that the charges are outrageous, a very severe attack on the most elementary human and civil rights. I trust that the state authorities will recognize this and withdraw these charges without delay, demonstrating their respect for democracy and fundamental human rights.

Noam Chomsky