Page 340 - America's Failure to Perceive the PKK

were also being targeted by the deep state apparatus although they
were risking their lives for the country and for God's sake. Some of
the many Kurdish citizens who were taken from their homes without
due process were never heard of again, while others underwent hor-
rendous interrogations for days on end. This was a time when broth-
er shot brother, when countless unsolved killings took place and
when Turkey suffered billions of dollars'-worth of material losses.

Illegal organizations set up by deep state services by making illic-

it use of state powers, engaged in constant oppression and mistreat-
ment of the people of the region. These gangs that wormed their way
into the body of the state literally behaved like the state itself, but they
used the authority of that state for their own interests and engaged in
all kinds of illegal activities in the region. So much so that, according
to village guards of the time, it was these individuals and organiza-
tions that inflicted the worst damage on the fight against terror. 131 In
one sense it was the activities of these organizations that made it
impossible to put an end to terror.

There was no state presence in the Southeast of Turkey at that

time. The innocent Kurdish people were caught between a rock and a
hard place. There was no institution to which they could complain of
the mistreatment and injustices they suffered. Those seeking redress
were faced with threats and maltreatment. Public offices had become
places of bribery and corruption under the auspices of the deep state
apparatus. 132 Yet people had nowhere to complain even about that.
The freedom of the media was tightly circumscribed under pressure
from the deep state apparatus in question, as a result of which the
murders, unsolved killings, illegitimate detentions, persecution and

other problems in the region all remained hidden.
Deep state organizations then began raiding villages in the

region under various pretexts. Inhabitants of villages would be gath-
ered in the main square, threatened, and often taken away for no rea-
son. The same villages would also be raided by PKK militants at

338 America's Failure to Perceive the PKK