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US: Nashville Kurds protest Turks' strikes
at rebels
27.10.2007
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Rally presses U.S. to protect borders of Iraqi
Kurdistan
October
27, 2007
The term "global village" has become a cliché.
But Friday afternoon, just outside the federal
courthouse in Nashville, global events met with the
real-world concerns of Middle Tennessee residents.
About 100 Nashville-area Kurds, members of a 50
million-person ethnic group spread mostly across
five countries bordering northern Iraq and the
largest population in the world without a distinct
nation-state, gathered to protest Turkish incursions
across the border with Kurdistan autonomous region
(Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq).
The Turkish parliament recently approved such raids,
while the U.S. government has chosen not to become
directly involved in the burgeoning conflict.
"As a Kurdish community in Nashville, we feel that
it is a moral obligation of the United States to
protect the borders of Iraq, and our duty to speak
for the rights of Kurdish people and our desire for
peace" said Isa Chalky, a Nashville resident since
1991 who fled Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' after Saddam
Hussein ordered attacks there to suppress a Kurdish
insurrection.
News of the Nashville protest and others scheduled
this month in European and American cities spread
with the help of e-mail and a pair of
Kurdish-language television stations based in
northern Iraq but delivered via satellite to
Nashville, Chalky said.
Turk warplanes strike
On Friday, Turkey's state-run news agency reported
that Turkey launched airstrikes on suspected Kurdish
rebel positions inside northern Iraq. The Turkish
government has threatened a large-scale offensive
into Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi authorities don't stop
attacks launched by Kurdish rebels known as the PKK.
The PKK, an acronym for the Kurdish-language name of
an organization whose name translates as Kurdish
Workers Party, has been declared a terrorist
organization by the United States and Turkish
governments. www.ekurd.net
For several months, the group has launched a number
of attacks inside Turkey and near its border with
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
Today, Kurdistan region, the northern section of
Iraq, is run by a semiautonomous Kurdish government
and arguably has been the most stable and prosperous
section of Iraq since the U.S. liberation began.
It is also home to one of the largest oil reserves
in Iraq, said Thomas Schwartz, a Vanderbilt
University professor who specializes in the history
of U.S. foreign relations.
Dating to the early 1900s, Kurds at multiple
pointshave called for the unification of
Kurd-dominated lands that are now a part of Iraq,
Iran, Syria, Turkey and the former Soviet Union,
said Schwartz.
Kurds feel betrayed
He added that, as an ethnic group, Kurds feel they
have been betrayed by powers promising to help them
secure an independent homeland. |
“Peace Yes, War No,” shouts Rojeen Merani as she
joins a group of about 100 Nashville Kurds
protesting on Friday the gathering of Turkish troops
along the Iraqi Kurdistan region border. Earlier
this month, the Turkish parliament gave its approval
to send troops across the Iraqi Kurdistan border to
strike Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels who have been
raiding Turkey.
Gareeb Haji, left, and Kareem Faraj wave Kurdistan
flags as they join Kurds in Nashville on Friday in
protesting Turkish attacks on Turkey's Kurdish
rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan region
Sisters Pirjin, left, and Barin Tayip join a group
of Kurds in front of the federal courthouse in
Nashville on Friday in protesting the gathering of
Turkish troops on the Iraqi Kurdistan border and
airstrikes against Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels in
Iraqi Kurdistan.
All Photos from: The
Tennessean |
But what's happening along the border of Iraq and
Turkey is not of concern only to those in the
regions, refugees and relatively recent immigrants
such as Chalky.
"The Turkish government rejected a peace accord,"
said protester Halmat Qazi, a Kurdish-American born
in Chicago and raised in Nashville by parents who
fled northern Iraq in the 1970s.
"Now they want to go across the border and invade
the most organized and stable area dominated by
Kurds.
"How can anyone believe that what they want is
peace?"
Tennessean com
Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved self-rule in
part of the country. Today's teenagers are the first
generation to grow up under Kurdish rule. In the new
Iraqi Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan
region. Kurdistan region has all the trappings of an
independent state -- its own constitution, its own
parliament, its own flag, its own army, its own
border, its own border patrol, its own national
anthem, its own education system, its own
International airports, even its own stamp inked
into the passports of visitors.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a
Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to
invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the
establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq'. Turkey fears
this could fan separatism among its own large
Kurdish population in southeast Turkey. Turkey is
home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
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