I am seeing a lot of social media hype about the Turkish Sport-Shooter Yusuf Dicek who recently went viral because of his participation in the Olympic sport-shooting games without any specialised gear. International media reports about him as some sort of Hero, cool guy and role model But this >Hero< was part of the Turkish armed forces during the peak of massacres and ethnic-displacement against Kurdish civilians by the Turkish military. Yusuf himself was deployed to the Kurdish region of Mardin (Merdin) as a corporal of the Turkish armed forces. 1995-1999 is part of the 3rd phase of the counter insurgency operations by the Turkish military against the PK K and its military wing the HPG - during this phase the Turkish armed forces were mainly focused on destroying any support base for the HPG. The Turkish military enforced this by depopulating Kurdish villages in rural areas and by executing Kurdish civilians. The US NGO >Humanitarian Law Project< assessed that over 2400 Kurdish villages were destroyed at least 18000 Kurds have been executed by the Turkish military. These estimates are in the lower end of estimates - most estimates assess that over 4000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed and depopulated by the Turkish military. The Olympic social media star >Yusuf Dikce< has been deployed to the Kurdish Mardin region serving as a corporal - his rank and area of deployment provide us with certainty of his participation in these operations by the Turkish armed forces. It is likely due to his eager participation in these operations that he has been given the opportunity to further enlist into the >Jandarma< military school and graduated with the rank of Sergeant. It’s not surprising yet still shocking that so many media channels have jumped on the hype-bandwagon without doing any research into who that person is and what occupation he
