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US: Kani Xulam could face deportation
9.2.2006
By Don M. Burrows
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The people behind the persecution
Kurdish film fest features ‘Good Kurds, Bad Kurds’
and the man behind much of it
Kani Xulam could face deportation to a hostile
country next month. In the meantime, he’s doing all
he can to educate others about his Kurdish people.
Once labeled a “rebel leader” by the Turkish
government, Xulam will appear at a charity film
event that will show two independent documentaries
about the plight of the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey.
One of the films features Xulam prominently.
For Xulam and others, the struggle for attention to
the Kurds situation is tied to the U.S. Thus, he
repeatedly appears in Kevin McKiernan’s 2001 “Good
Kurds, Bad Kurds,” which depicts the United States’
two-faced stance toward Iraqi Kurds and those
fighting against Turkey for independence.
Xulam has been caught up personally in this
geopolitical drama. Singled out by Turkey as a
dangerous leader thanks to his lobbying in
Washington, D.C., he was arrested and tried for
putting a false name on his immigration papers and
threatened with deportation.
When a court ordered that he be given political
asylum, the U.S. government appealed the decision,
something it rarely does. Xulam says he now faces a
court hearing March 14 after his case was remanded,
and the judge will decide how to interpret events
that have occurred in Turkey since his asylum was
recommended in 1996.
“The point I make is, Turkey is as dangerous as it
was before, and the Kurds don’t have any more
rights,” he said, adding that the European Union’s
efforts to ensure rights protections have been less
than effective. “The situation has improved a little
bit, but not much.”
The 25 million Kurds worldwide constitute the
largest ethnic group without a homeland, according
to McKiernan, and Xulam and others still hope for
the independent Kurdistan promised after World War
I.
“Whether the Bush administration intended it or not,
it has introduced an element of rights into the
Middle East,” Xulam said. “I think in the long run
we have hope for an independent Kurdistan.”
McKiernan’s documentary led him to Kurdish struggles
in Turkey and Iraq, after which he said no media
outlet would take his story. Back home in Santa
Barbara, Calif., McKiernan happened upon a family of
Kurdish immigrants. Among them was Xulam, who along
with his siblings was then running a Maytag repair
shop before his foray into politics.
McKiernan’s film takes us from guerilla hideouts of
Kurdish insurgents to Washington, D.C., where Xulam
lines up congressmen to oppose U.S. arms sales to
Turkey, arms that allegedly have been used against
Kurdish villages.
The film focuses on the armed insurgence of the PKK,
the Kurdish workers’ party, under the direction of
Abdullah “Apo” (Uncle) Ocalan, considered a
terrorist by the Turks and a liberation leader by
many Kurds.
“Kurdish identity was buried in a grave,” the leader
says in one interview. “And we dug it up and ripped
the top off the casket.”
Ocalan was later captured by Turkey and his ordered
execution stayed because of pressure from the
European Union, which Turkey hopes to join.
McKiernan’s film closes in 2001, leaving the major
events that followed unexplored. Xulam said the
United States involvement in Iraq has changed the
dynamic of the Kurds in many ways.
“I personally think that the U.S. presence in Iraq —
if there’s a beneficiary to that foreign policy —
has helped the Kurds,” he said.
In part, this was aided by Turkey’s own refusal in
2003 to allow U.S. forces to invade Iraq through its
territory. Xulam said this exposed a rift between an
alliance he and others think has contributed to
America’s blind eye toward Kurdish suffering there.
In addition, Kurds in Iraq are now being granted
privileges and rights also sought in Turkey, he
said.
“That is causing a lot of consternation in Turkey,”
he said. “They know that if they succeed, the Kurds
in Turkey will ask for the same.”
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