Horrific footage the government holds
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Central Committee member (who is also running for Diyarbakır’s deputy position) Galip Ensarioğlu revealed a true, psychopathic incident. We have learned that the government has creepy videos revealing Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) horror.
The incident took place Diyarbakır’s Silvan last week. A policeman from Diyarbakır’s Çermik town was killed by terrorists with a rocket launcher. Later, they poured gasoline on the body and burned it, over and over again. While Galip Ensarioğlu said the incident of the body dragged at Şırnak was unpardonable, he brought up this counter incident as a reply to those who abused those images.
He went on: “Our fellow townsman from Çermik turned into a handful of ashes. He had died; he died with a rocket, they were filming him. We have the footage but we cannot publish them. They poured gasoline repeatedly and burned it, over and over. I mean, who is going to give humanitarian lessons to whom? We reject all kinds of it and condemn it…”
He is right; I agree with him. Everybody has a right to talk about, to react and to condemn the tying of a terrorist’s lifeless body to a police vehicle in Şırnak and dragging it. However, it is the PKK and its supporters who have no right to open their mouths, not even to utter one word. But again, I do not think those horrible images Ensarioğlu has mentioned should be publicized.
You may interpret this as the shadowing of truth but I believe these images should never, ever be published. There are many reasons for this but the most important is that fighting terror is not a race of who is more barbarian. There is no need to prove what a cruel and bloodthirsty, murderous gang the PKK is. The state, while it is using its legitimate weapon against the terrorists, cannot get out of control or be involved in a race of mercilessness; it has to maintain its presence of mind.
The police and the gendarmerie, while defeating the terror threat, cannot lose control and succumb to their rage. Despite all the adverse conditions, they have to control their rage. Any counter acts, attacks of rage, tantrums and revenge instincts would inflict the biggest harm to the fight against terror. It is because they would shadow the justness of the fight. They would cause public indignation and give a card to the terrorists to abuse.
Because state officials cannot reciprocate the terror organization with the same methods. The state acts as a state. This is the real difficulty of the struggle.
It is because just as you cannot torture and mistreat living criminals, you cannot torment their dead bodies either. Law, morals and conscience order this…
Besides, there is a suspicion of a bad intention in the Şırnak incident. It could have the intention of generating election material for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). For this reason, those who were involved in the dragging of the body should be investigated from all angles and layers.
The terror organization would benefit from the mistake of the police, transform those images into a propaganda material and use them abundantly. But the state cannot be the carrier of the horror and atrocity the terror organization spreads.
The images of the PKK behaving like beasts should not be circulated for whatever reason. It may drive viewers to grudge and hate and cause the raising of a dangerous tension.
The correct answer to primitiveness and feloniousness is for the state to never divert from clean and legitimate methods. Those who did wrong should be cracked down upon.
Disturbing the composure of the police and the gendarmerie and tempering with the psychology of the society can get the fight against terror off the rails. It is like playing with fire near a powder barrel ready to explode. And isn’t that exactly what the terror organization wants?