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US: Kurds in Nashville protest Iraq Study
Group proposals
19.12.2006
By CHRISTIAN BOTTORFF |
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December 19, 2006
Nashville, Tennessee
An estimated 100 Kurdish protesters gathered in
downtown Nashville on Monday to voice opposition to
the recently released Iraq Study Group report, which
calls for a unified Iraq and not an independent
Kurdish state.
"It would not bring any stability," said Isa Chalky,
who fled to Nashville from the Kurdish dominated
region in 1988 and is now part of a network called
the Tennessee Kurdish Community Council.
"It would create civil war and create more chaos and
more problems in the future."
The demonstrators stood on the sidewalk in front of
the federal courthouse on Broadway, waving Kurdish
and American flags, handing out pamphlets and
calling for the public to pressure congressional
leaders to reject the report's recommendations.
President Bush has taken the bipartisan Iraq Study
Group's report under advisement as he weighs options
for fighting the war in Iraq.
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Kurds gather at the federal courthouse downtown to
protest recommendations of the Iraq Study Group
Photo:Tennessean |
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During Monday's gathering, the local Kurds said they
also oppose the study group's suggestion that oil
fields in the heavily Kurdish region of northern
Iraq, and the city of Kirkuk, be controlled by the
central Iraqi government.
Kovan Murat, 21, who settled in Nashville after
fleeing Kurdistan, said he worries that his
relatives in the Middle East could get caught up in
a bloody civil war.
The study group's members should have consulted more
closely with Kurds in the region before drawing up
the recommendations, in light of the extensive
support the U.S. has received from Kurds in the war,
Murat said.
"Kurdistan has been a bridge for America to attack
Iraq," Murat said.
"But it's like this bridge is not given any praise.
"This is our way of expressing that this is a
wrongdoing."
tennessean com
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