The European Superstate And The "Te

kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu
Sat Jun 10 00:22:45 BST 1995


Reply-To: kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu
From: Arm The Spirit <ats at etext.org>
Subject: The European Superstate And The "Terrorist" Myth

The European Superstate & The "Terrorist" Myth: Criminalising the Kurds

"Why is the Kurdish community, in common with many other refugee
communities throughout Europe... being criminalised.. stereotypes are being
created and used as the justification for policing measures, immigration
measures which violate fundamental human rights, which undermine Western
Europe's claim to be democratic... Racism in Europe today is not based so
much on colour as it used to be but rather on poverty and wealth... So it's
nothing to do with terrorism and it is nothing to do with keeping Europe
safe..." (Lawyer Francis Webber. Campaign Against Racism & Fascism.
18/2/95)

Extensive links being built up around Europe through an emerging Europol
and computer databases are being used to exclude asylum seekers and to
deport others who may be deemed a "threat to internal security". Webber
(ibid) goes on to express grave concern that a "Fortress Europe is being
developed by completely unaccountable meetings of ministers:
inter-governmental agreements that do not go through the European
Parliament or the European Court of Justice..." Kani Yilmaz and the
diaspora Kurds are being used to test out a new network of repression
across Europe.

In 1991 Germany, as a first step towards the creation of a European
Federal State had proposed the establishment of a Europol incorporated into
the Maastricht Treaty as a kind of pan-European FBI with powers to act
across and within EU member states, though Britain preferred a more
decentralised structure.

A programme to criminalise Kurds and Turks in Europe who express opposition
to the Turkish regime is now being coordinated by British and German police
and military intelligence, together with their Turkish counterparts,
including the Turkish secret intelligence agency MIT. There is a long
history of collusion with these foreign intelligence agencies. The
programme includes mobilisation of sections of the media and the
establishment of special police units to survey and attack the Kurdish
communities who overwhelmingly support the PKK-led struggle for national
rights.

In Autumn 1993 when Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller visited Germany,
she said she aimed to destroy the so-called Kurdish separatist movement
within the year and asked for the help of Western European governments.
Help was not slow in coming. Shortly afterwards the PKK and allegedly
related organisations were outlawed in Germany and France. Police raids
across both countries in December arrested hundreds of Kurds, seized
documents, money and froze bank accounts. In one German state 600 officers
raided homes in 19 cities. In French police raided offices of Kurdish
solidarity groups describing them as terrorists, and arrested a number of
Kurdish activists. In Austria people who went on a demonstration against
Mrs.Ciller were arrested. In Switzerland and The Netherlands there were
immediate expulsions of people suspected of being Kurdish activists.

The British government has demonstrated by its action against Kani Yilmaz
that it intends to play a major role in this campaign. His arrest is a
serious blow to the democratic rights of all people in Britain and it also
reveals the sinister workings of a new and unaccountable European police
force which is coordinating its actions across Europe in support of
Turkey's dirty war against the Kurds.

This programme of criminalising Kurdish communities was devised by the
TREVI group, set up in 1976, TREVI was an acronym for Terrorism Radicalism
Extremism and VIolence: and consisted of European Home Office Ministers,
senior police and intelligence officers. It was unaccountable to any
European body or parliament. The programme is implemented through the
European Liaison Section of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch at
Scotland Yard, which coordinates information distribution between the
European Union police and intelligence organisations and seeks to function
as a central component of a European police force for combating 'terrorism'.

TREVI' s replacement, the new K4 Committee, is ostensibly accountable to
the Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, but what remain secret
and unaccountable are the 1979 Police Working Group on Terrorism, the 1986
TREVI Secure Fax Network, now extended to an E-Mail Network, and the
ELSMPSB itself. All the information the future Europol holds will be
available to internal security services. On current practice, selected
foreign agencies will also access to this. Until Europol is
fully-functional, the European drugs unit, has been extended to cover car
crime, nuclear crime and immigration and the group assigned to liaise with
it- the National Criminal Intelligence Service- is yet one more
unaccountable body.

"...when I see that people are fighting here against this government... or
many other parts of Europe then I say that they are doing their duty to
liberate me from the kind of oppressIon that I fought In my country... "
(Mike Rahinan. Nat Union of Refugee Organisations, ARA. 18/2/94)

11. DEFEND THE KURDS- DEFEND HUMAN & CIVIL RIGHTS IN BRITAIN & EUROPE.
TEL:## 44-171 586 5892

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Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist collective based
in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of
material, including political prisoners, national liberation
struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight
against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings,
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called Arm The Spirit. For more information, contact:

Arm The Spirit
P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A
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