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Dr. Saman Shali speech at the 19th KNC
Annual Conference “From Struggles to State Hood” 10.4.2007 |
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April 10, 2007
“From Struggles to State Hood”.
KNC 19th Annual Conference, Irvine, California,
March 23-24th, 2007
Mr. Chairman
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
I am honored to welcome you on behalf of the Kurdish
National Congress of North America. I want to thank
and welcome each and every one of you, especially
those who have come from Kurdistan, Europe, and
Canada and from out of state.
The Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as the
war in Iraq entered its fifth year, "I would ask the
American people to be patient...We have invested a
lot. It is worth the sacrifice." And I agree with
her because the sacrifices by our men and women in
the military to free the Iraqis will be remembered
as a victory for human rights, freedom and
democracy. |
Dr Saman Shali, KNC – President. |
Since the liberation of Iraq four years ago, the
Kurdish leadership committed itself to preserve the
integrity of Iraq and to establish a democratic
government where the rights of all are respected
equally by law and according to the Iraqi
constitution. Since the liberation two successful
elections were held, and for the first time in the
history of Iraq, the Iraqi constitution was approved
by 80% of all Iraqis. These elections were monitored
by the United Nations and the United State.
The Iraqi constitution has been tested many times to
fulfill its objectives. Holding the first election
to form the Iraqi parliament and the Iraqi
government on time were performed according to the
newly adopted Iraqi constitutions. The people of
Kurdistan rights will be tested by the Iraqi
constitution for the first time on December 31st,
2007. The dead- line for the implementation of
article 140, to revise the process of forced
Arbaized area and to give for the first time the
right to the people in this area to choose their
destiny will be a victory for the Iraqi
constitution. The people of southern Kurdistan and
their leaderships will not compromise on the
implementation of Article 140 under any
circumstance. Failing to implement this article in
the constitution will result in a complete mistrust
by the people of Kurdistan and the central
government once again, and it may take the country
further away from stability and peace.
The United States has a moral obligation to use its
power to implement this article to help its only
true ally in Iraq and in the area to close this
chapter of cruelty against the people of Kurdistan
once and for all. The United States and the United
Nation did see that other parts of the Iraqi
constitution been implemented on time; therefore,
they have the same contractual obligation toward the
people of Kurdistan to implement article 140.
Yesterday, Mr. Barzani, President of the Kurdistan
Region, said; “Whatever is taken by force should be
returned peacefully and democratically.” This is the
mentality of the Kurdish leadership to solve this
central issue, while others threaten war as a way to
solve the outstanding issues.
Unless the US helps to bring stability within Iraq,
the neighboring countries, such as Iran, Syria,
Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey keep meddling in the
internal affairs of Iraq, which resulted in
continuous instability and this caused more than
3,200 of US soldiers’ lives and thousands of
innocent Iraqi lives. For example, Turkey is still
insisting on a delay in the referendum planned for
this year, this is a clear violation of Iraqi
sovereignty.
If the United States, the United Nations, and the
Iraqi government fail to implement article 140 on
time, then the Kurdish parliament must take a heroic
step to declare independence, because the
constitution of Iraq is violated the rights of the
people of Kurdistan and left them without any choice
but to declare independence. The newborn state and
strong ally of the United State and the West must be
recognized and protected by the United States and
the international community and must be accepted as
a new member of the United Nations.
Having said that, we should be aware of the
heartbreaking reality of what will happen if the
United States decides to leave Iraq like what
happened in Vietnam. Yesterday, the House of
Representatives passed a resolution to cut and run
in Iraq. We have been telling our leadership for the
last two years to have a solid plan to face such a
situation when it arises and what we should do to
face aggression from Turkey, Iran and Syria when
they have the first opportunity to do so? What will
our friends do in the United States and around the
world to protect the Kurdish people from another
genocide? What will we, Kurds in Diaspora, will do
in such a situation? These and other questions we
hope that this conference will address and give an
answer and hope to our nation for their right of
self-determination.
Iran keeps threatening peace and stability in the
world by pushing ahead its nuclear program,
threatening to eliminate Israel, interfering with
Iraq’s internal affairs and oppressing the
minorities in Iran to silence their voice,
especially the Kurdish minority. We call once again
on the UN to stop the Iranian government from
developing its nuclear program and prevent them from
implementing their hostile policy against the Kurds
and other minorities and grant them the right of
self-determination according to the UN charter.
The only way to bring peace to this part of the
world is by regime change and this can be done by
strengthening the national identity of the
minorities in Iran, which will weaken the central
government’s hold on power and that will result in
falling the regime. Then a federal government can be
formed under a new constitution where the rights for
self-determination for all the minorities will be
guaranteed.
Turkey is still pushing their policy of
discrimination against the Kurdish people, denying
them the right of self-determination. Although
attempts have been made in Turkey to improve their
image to join the European Union, these attempts are
far from granting the Kurds their basic human
rights. The Kurdish people are supporting Turkey's
admission to the European Union, because we truly
believe that the high standard of European Union in
respecting human rights and the rights of the
self-determination for all the nations in the Union
will grant the Kurds their rights, too, for
self-determination through a democratic and peaceful
process.
The Kurdish people in Turkey have been calling for
peaceful dialogue many times with the Turkish
government, but their calls have gone without any
positive response from the Turkish government. In
the last two weeks a spokesman for the PKK Mr.
Rustam Jawdat said, “We want to solve the problem
with Turkey peacefully. We have simple weapons. If
we have guarantees to recognize Kurdish national
identity, we would not need to carry weapons.”
Mr. Jawdat said the PKK is willing to work. We call
on the international community to step in and with
the Americans and Europeans to resolve the conflict
with Turkey peacefully. “America and the European
Union should know that we would not give up our
weapons as long as (the Turks) do not accept our
rights and do not recognize our national identity,”
Jawdat said. Today find a peaceful and just solution
for the Kurdish national rights in Northern
Kurdistan.
In Syria, the Ba’th party, which is running the
country, continues its policy of aggression against
the Syrian people especially against the Kurdish
people by denying them their rights and the
government’s determination to continue with the
policy of Arabization. The regime’s support of
international terrorism against the international
community has resulted in instability in the region.
Regime change must lead by Syrian people to insure
that a new democratic government will be formed
where the rights of all citizens will be respected
under a new constitution, especially where the
rights for self-determination will be given to all.
We called on the Kurdish parties in Western
Kurdistan to unite under one umbrella to face their
enemy with one voice.
In the last year KNC
achieved a huge milestone in serving our nation.
Here is some of these achievements and others to be
accomplished:
1. The Kurdish National Congress continues to
work to form a united front in Eastern Kurdistan by
bringing all the parties, which genuinely believe in
the front together. KNC did provide them with a
realistic mechanism to form the front based on
consensus; all the parties welcome the proposal and
we are looking forward to continue our efforts to
form the front.
2. The Halabja committee started its work and
they did present their work yesterday and it will
continue until justice is done in a court of law and
the victims are compensated for the crime of the
century committed against our people.
3. We formed a committee to support the
efforts of KRG, and other organizations to implement
Article 140 in the Iraqi constitution which gives
the people in the forced Arabized area the rights to
choose their destiny for the first time in their
history. We are planning to hold International
Conferences in Washington DC, and in Europe to
inform the US and the European Communities of the
importance of the implementation, and execution of
Article 140 for the future of Iraq and stability in
the Middle East. We plan to lobby in the United
Nation to make them oversee the implementation of
article 140 and to ensure that the Iraqi
constitution will be respected
4. We delivered two shipments of medical
supplies, which are worth $530,000.00, to the
Ministry of Health.
5. We started a project between University of
California in Irvine (UCI), with the Ministry of
Environment, Ministry of Higher Education, and the
Governor office in Irbil to test the Air quality in
Irbil. We’ll follow by testing other cities in
Kurdistan Region. The first 24 samples have been
sent to UCI for testing.
6. A Professor will arrive from Kurdistan in
April to the US for one month, to be trained in air
quality testing. We hope to establish an air quality
lab in Kurdistan to improve the environment.
7. Within the next 2-3 weeks, the third
shipment will arrive to Irbil. It contains
children’s books and blankets for newborn babies in
addition to some medical supplies. The total
shipment is worth $227,000.
8. The fourth shipment of medical supplies
has left the US for Kuwait, worth over $272,000. The
total of four shipments is worth over one million
dollars. These projects are done with cooperation
with our partner Global Operations & Development. On
your behalf I want to thank Global Operations &
Development for their continuous work in the
Kurdistan region to help our people.
9. We submitted the Strategic Alliances
project with our partner, Prevent Hate in
California, to the Prime Minister of Kurdistan
Regional Government, to bring delegations of high
government officials and businessmen to Southern
California for one week to build a bridge between
the Los Angles community, and the Kurdish community
in Southern Kurdistan. The Prime Minister welcomes
the idea, and we are currently studying ways to
implement this project.
10. We applied for a grant from the US
government with our two US NGO’s partners (Prevent
Hate & Center for Civic Leadership-Southern
California (Coro)), to apply projects in leadership
training, women, youth, education and human rights
in Southern Kurdistan.
11. On March 8th, we held a successful first
International Conference on Kurdish Women for Peace
and Equality in Southern Kurdistan. The Kurdistan
Regional Government through the Ministry of State
for Women affairs supported the conference and we
are grateful for their support and hospitality
during the women delegations’ visit to Southern
Kurdistan.
I take this opportunity to thank the conference
committee for arranging this conference, and the
hard work of the board of directors and KNC members
for last year’s achievements. Without teamwork, we
could not achieve what we have. I am looking forward
for another successful year ahead.
The only way we can achieve our rights is through
our unity. Unless the Kurds in all parts of
Kurdistan understand fully the importance of our
unity, our enemy will keep controlling the future of
our nation.
The Kurdish National Congress will continue its
commitment to serve our people and it will work
harder to lobby on behalf our nation until we
achieve our right of self-determination and a Free,
United Kurdistan.
Thank you.
Saman Shali
KNC – President -
www.kncna.org
March 24, 2007
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