Kurdish people living in
the United States face challenges such as learning
English and venturing out of their close-knit
communities, organizers at the 17th annual Kurdish
National Congress of North America said yesterday.
''They remain in their own circle,'' said Kirmanj
Gundi, 44, an economics professor at Tennessee State
University and chapter coordinator of the conference
that attracted about 200 participants at the
Millennium Maxwell House Hotel. ''The youth have
problems learning how to survive in America. The
Kurds want to make sure they keep their family
together.'' |
From left, panelists
Asad Khailany, Shafiq Qazzaz, Hikmat Fikrat, Jeff
Klein and Fouad Darweesh discuss the topic of
''Federalism to Kurdish Independence'' during a
meeting of the Kurdish National Congress of North
America, which was held at the Millennium Maxwell
House Hotel. Nashville has the largest Kurdish
population in the United States.
JOHN PARTIPILO / tennessean
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The organization was drawn to Nashville because of
the city's status as having the largest U.S.
population of Kurdish immigrants, which numbers
between 6,000 and 8,000. The meeting comes about two
months after several thousand Iraqi Kurds came to
Nashville to vote in Iraq's national election.
The nonprofit organization represents all Kurds
living in the United States and Canada.
According to the group's literature, its objective
is to unite Kurds for common goals, to promote the
idea of a United Free Kurdistan and to strengthen
the voice of all Kurds living in the United States.
There are about 40 million Kurdish people scattered
throughout the world.
They are recognized as being the largest ethnic
population without an officially recognized country.
They say their homeland of Kurdistan does not exist
on any map but is divided among the Middle East
nations of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and republics
of the former Soviet Union. Participants at the
congress, which started Friday and continued last
night, said this does not dampen their sense of
community nor their longing for a place to call
their own.
''Our struggle is national and reaching out to
people in all levels so that we can be one voice —
one united front,'' said Mehdi Zana, former mayor of
Diyarbakir in Turkey. ''The challenge is a strong
Kurdistan. To keep it on its feet and make it
move.''
Meanwhile, participants agreed with the idea of
prudence for future political actions and hope for a
new day in which diplomacy and cooperation are
considered before war.
''It is a new face of the Kurdish people. We all
come together to achieve our goals,'' Kamaran
Abdullah, 26, a participant from Smyrna, said. ''We
believe in tolerance, to love each other. You can't
do anything with war.''
''We are calling on interaction, on the democratic
process. We want the right of self-determination,''
said Saman Shali, Kurdish National Congress of North
America president.
''It is important for Americans to know about the
mass graves, the denial of our right to speak in our
own language, all kinds of torture — people need to
know,'' Shali said.
Kurds have been subjected to ''ethnic cleansing''
campaigns that include a chemical gas bombing of
small Iraqi villages in March 1988, in which more
than 5,000 Kurdish civilians died.
The Kurds hate fundamentalism and are thankful for
the help and support they have received from the
American government, conference participant Laura
Khailany, 56, of Michigan, said.
''We want to convey our condolences to the families
of the men and women in the military that have been
killed,'' Shali added. ''We, the Kurds, solidly
denounce terrorism in all of its forms.''
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