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Kurdistan, the beloved country cannot even
cry
14.11.2007
By Ami Isseroff, Israel
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November 14, 2007
I was not going to write about Kurdistan and the
Kurds. That is because I am an Israeli and a
Zionist. One way in which the cause of Kurdish self
determination has been discredited in the Middle
East is by claiming that it is all a plot by evil
Zionists to dismember Arab states (since when are
Turkey and Iran Arab states? ), or a plot
by America to "punish" Turkish independence. If the
Americans do not bomb the PKK into oblivion, they
are "meddling" in the affairs of the Middle East and
not doing their proper duty it seems.
I wasn't going to write, but I could not resist. The
one-sided international lynch mob that has organized
itself to deny rights to the Kurds of Turkey, and to
help the Turkish government commit genocide, must be
proested by someone.
Self determination of every people can be viewed as
a "plot" to dismember some other country. The
American revolution was a plot to dismember the
British Empire, and the Indian struggle for freedom
was another such plot. Self-determination for Syria
and the Arabs was a British imperialist plot to
dismember the Ottoman Turkish empire, wasn't it?
The "terror" of the PKK has a cause: the suppression
of Kurdish language and culture in Turkey. Nobody is
pressuring the Turkish government to give the Kurds
what they want and what they deserve - real ethnic
autonomy within Turkey. Nobody is even ready to
admit that this is a right.
35 million Kurds have lived "since time immemorial"
in northern Iran and Iraq, and in Eastern Turkey and
Syria. Following World War I, they were promised
independence by US President Wilson, but the promise
was never implemented.
In Iraq, Kurds have won a measure of autonomy and
they say they are satisfied with the present
arrangement. If they are satisfied, then of course
there is no reason to change the arrangement. It is
not about dismembering Iraq at all as some make
believe.
But in Turkey, the Kurds are not even taught their
own language in public schools. Very reluctantly,
under European pressure, the Turks agreed to allow
some private schools that teach Kurdish. We can
imagine the outcry that would issue from all the
politically correct people if Israel did not provide
education in Arabic for its Arab citizens, and
offered such private schools as a 'concession.' Yet
as regards the Kurds, everyone agrees that they have
no rights. Gangsters who blow up mosques in Iraq are
termed "fighters," but Kurds who fight Turkish
soldiers are called "terrorists." The United States,
ostensibly the only real friend of the Kurds, is
reportedly supplying intelligence information to the
Turkish airforce to enable them to hit PKK
"terrorist" (or "insurgent" or "freedom fighter")
targets in Iraq. An occupying power has an
obligation to protect the population of an occupied
area, not to invite others to bomb it. www.ekurd.net
The Kurds are the stray fringes of the dirty little
secret of the Middle East and North Africa: Many of
the independent states created by the withdrawal of
Western colonialism, simply reinstated older Arab
and Muslim colonialism, stifling the legitimate
right to self determination of native peoples. Most
of you never heard of the Amazigh and the other
native peoples of North Africa, who probably
constitute the majority of the North African
population, and who are denied the right to develop
their own culture and language and relegated to the
pejorative status of "Berbers." Of course you know
what Berbers are, right? Everyone knows who Berbers
are. But they don't know that "Berber" is a word
that is not much better than n*gger. In Egypt,
Lebanon, Syria, Saudia Arabia, Iran, Tunisia,
Algeria, Morocco and elsewhere, there are national
and religious minorities that have been brutally
supressed. Not surprisingly, the word
"self-determination" makes "politically correct"
Middle East pundits very very nervous, except when
it is applied to the Arabs of Palestine, or the
Oozlebarts of Iraq.
According to the dogma of the politically correct,
suppression of national rights must lead to violence
and terror. The result of suppressing the national
rights and aspirations of all these people must
eventually produce bigger and better PKK terrorist
movements, as well as nationalist and separatist
movements throughout the Middle East and North
Africa. Even if you don't believe that, you must
surely see the justice of allowing each people self
determination. There is room in the community of
nations for a Jewish state and a Palestinian state,
a Czech state and an East Timor state, a Bangladesh
and a Pakistan. There was room enough for everyone.
Except that when the turn of the Kurds came, it
turned out that there is no room at the inn, and
they must be ignored and condemned.
Ami Isseroff
mideastweb org
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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