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Kurds
have been living along the famous rivers of Tigris
and Euphrates, the centre of civilization. The most
significant time was the advent of the Kurdish
religion of Zoroastrianism. This adventure had
happened about the fifth or sixth century BC, and
the name of the prophet was Zoroaster which spread
all over Kurdistan.
In the past and until now Arabs and Turks attempted
to wipe out the Kurdish culture, by using armed
forces and to genocide the Kurds. For example Kurds
were occupied by Arabs in 7th and Turks by 11th
centuries and by the Safavid and Ottoman Empires.
These years, 1915-1918, 1925, 1930, and 1937-1938,
Kurds were genocide savagely by Turks, and
governments used poison gas, bombardment which ended
in a tragedy by slaughtering many hundred thousands
of Kurds in Turkey.
When the Turkish defeated in World War 1 and by the
support of US president Woodrow Wilson’s plead for
self determination for the other nationalities such
as Kurds and Armenians. Kurds at that time took
their claim to the Paris Peace conference in 1919,
for independence. Later on in 1920 the Treaty of
Sevres was formed, and the Turkish Empire was torn
into peaces and the treaty granted Kurds to create a
Kurdish State. But after a huge defeat the Turkish
weak Army was revived by Kemal Ataturk. The brutal
dictator put aside the treaty of Sevres and it was
replaced by a useless and betrayal Treaty of
Lausanne in 1923. In that Treaty the dictator
betrayed his homeland and all other nationalities
and excluded Kurdish people from their own rights,
and breached the previous Treaty of Sevres.
I believe the consequences of all the aggressive
actions against the Kurds, by breaching all the
treaties and protocols by all the regimes in the
past. Kurds tried harshly and bitterly to rescue
themselves from the rules of all the previous
fascist regimes. Because there was not an option
left for Kurds to act on, except to protect
themselves from the invaders by starting an armed
revolt in order to resist subjugation by other
nations.
I want to say that this aggressive behaviour by the
Ottoman Empire was extended beyond Kurds and then
the shattered Ottoman Army used Armenian revolution
as an excuse to assault on Armenians in the winter
in 1915, and started to undertake a huge deportation
over two million Armenians and shortly the
deportation degenerated into a genocide and Turks
started slaughtering refugees along the road.
Even the sick Empire used Kurds against Armenians
for the sake of their dirty purposes. At the result
of this genocide and the massacre more than 1
million Armenians got killed and their cities and
villages were ravaged. During the 4 years of battle
(1915-1918), more than 2.8 million men were
participated in the war and nearly 325,000 were
killed in the battle. In addition to that, more than
2 million people died in the war, including Turks
and Armenians. The Empire did not stop its own
assault against Armenians, but continued its battle
by attacking on the newly proclaimed Armenian
Republic with cooperation of Bolshevik government in
1921 and caused Armenian resistance to be defeated.
At the end of October 1922, the Allies invited the
nationalist and Ottoman governments to a conference
at Lausanne, Switzerland. But the former dictator
limited the representation of the nationalist
government just for Turkish. Ataturk denied the
rights of other nationalists and used Nazi ideas and
integrated into his infamous ideological of Kemalism.
He counted that all citizens in Turkey were Turks
and ruled the country by a rule in one party state.
It is obvious today for the world, especially in
Turkey, the attempt of the government is prolonged
in order to prohibit Kurds to practice their
culture, excluding Kurds to use their own language
in teaching and educating their children and also a
Kurdish flag prohibited. At the result of this
subjugation and oppression, Kurds were agitated and
Kurds revolted again in 1925, 1930 and later in
1937-1938 and the dictator made some cruel remark
into the page of his dark history.
However, finally PKK, was established in 1984 at the
result of oppression, in 1992 Turkish government
attacked on Kurds, destroyed thousands of villages
and killed about 20,000 people and created more than
2 million refugees. But this action and genocide
against Kurds, has been vigorously opposed by PKK.
In addition, in 1999, it captured the guerrilla’s
leader, Abdullah Ocalan. It is also, PKK,
unilaterally cease fired for a period of 5 years,
but Turkish forces during that time attacked PKK
intensively as usual. The Turkish government did not
wish to solve the Kurdish question and negotiate
directly with PKK about the ceasefire, and their
demands, even broke the international laws by
occupying south of Kurdistan.
Nearly 40 million Kurds were divided between many
countries, such as Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon and former Soviet Union and also there are
Jewish Kurds which live in Israel. Kurds are one of
the largest nations in the World without a state of
its own. This terrible, devastating and betrayal
division caused by Britain and France. For a long
time Kurds have been a victim of this division. As I
mentioned earlier the President Woodrow Wilson had
promised to Kurds autonomy into his 14 points but
never had been implemented. Also, the President
Gorge W. Bush promised in January 2005, when he has
sworn on his second term back in the office, to
deliver
a democracy into the darkest corner in the World. I
hope that in this century, the President George W.
Bush will not break his pledge like the President
Woodrow Wilson. As you know Kurds still are living
in darkness, especially in Turkey, Iran, Syria,
Lebanon and former Soviet Union.
In Turkey, when it comes to Kurdish problems, the
current government gets worried and tries to involve
other nations in order to wipe off the Kurdish
identity, against the human rights and to eliminate
Kurdish representative. I have proof to argue my
point. In Ankara, there was a meeting between
Turkey, Iraq and US officials on 11th January 2005,
in regard how to attack on the (PKK), as currently
known by a new name (KONGRA GEL) and Ankara wants US
to control this party.
These days Turkey tries very hard in order to become
a member in European Union, but if really Turkey
wants to join the EU, it must change and promote
itself, politically, culturally and it has to grant
social rights of Kurds and other nationalities that
have been living in Turkey for a long period of
time, even before Turks settled.
These rights should meet European standards. In
addition the Turkish government, should rebuild the
villages that were ravaged by Army, and release
political prisoners and grant amnesty and to
recognise the Kurdish language and culture.
I believe that Turkey must improve the Kurds’
situation and the reforms should be implemented
fully not partly. In addition the EU members should
think twice before accepting Turkey as a member.
European Union should not just think about the
economic gains and ignore the basic human rights of
20 million Kurds, Armenians and Assyria-Chaldeans in
Turkey. I believe the crimes have been committed
against all the nationalities in Turkey, especially
Kurds, it covers along period of time, starting from
1915 to the current day.
I believe, the International Criminal Tribunals,
should take those countries to court that are
responsible for committing crimes and acts of
genocide against humanity and peace such as Rwanda
and Turkey. Those people are responsible and should
be punished, heavily.
The Turkish government always blames PKK, held
responsible for the civil conflict in North of
Kurdistan (Southeast) Turkey, but I believe strongly
the main reason for
a prolonged conflict is the nationalist ideology of
the Turkish state is a reflection of these crimes. I
would like to prove this point further, which
reminds me something, when me and my wife were
political refugees in Turkey, it was in April 1989,
we went to Ankara the capital city of Turkey for an
interview with Australian Embassy.
We were companied by a policeman, and originally he
was from Ankara. He said to us, I would like to see
my uncle in Ankara, while I am here. We told him, it
is OK, go a head, and we visited his uncle. He was a
reasonable man and he was very kind to us. He was an
old man and very wise. He was about 80 years old and
had a long grey beard.
When we were sitting at his house, by coincident the
domestic news came on the TV and showed on the
screen one person that was killed. His nephew, the
policeman told his uncle that the PKK caused that
crime to happen and his uncle promptly responded him
and said to him, “I do not think so”, that is our
fault not theirs, because Kurds were not given any
rights by Kamal Ataturk, and he caused all those
crimes to happen. This proves that even the Turkish
people believe that, this political conflict caused
by Turkish authorities.
I would like to conclude this article and say the
current Turkish government in Turkey, should not
repeat the history of Kamalism, but instead the
government should revise its own policy and
strategies regrading human rights and to grant
Kurdish rights and to stop aggressive behaviour,
crimes and campaign against Kurds in North of
Kurdistan. In order to stop the conflict and
bloodshed among Turks and other nationalities. The
Turkish government should treat everybody equally
before the law and eliminate unemployment and
provide peace and promote democracy and share
a power among all the nationalities in Turkey.
Turkey needs to change its political climate by the
contemporary event towards democracy as good as
European standards.
Bibliography
Robert S. Genocide, 1995.
Helen Ch. The Ottoman Empire and the Turkish
Republic, 1995.
KurdishMedia, Ankara hosts three ways talks on
Kurdish militants in Iraq, 2005.
SOFIA, Kurdish rebel says Ankara still denies
rights, 2004, cited in KurdishMedia.
Kurd Net
© 2005
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