|
The President of the United States: Please stop arming Turkey,
which is waging a war on freedom… |
|
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page |
|
The President of the United States: Please
stop arming Turkey, which is waging a war on
freedom…
6.1.2012
By Kani Xulam Washington, DC
— ekurd.net |
|
|
|
Kani Xulam, an ethnic Kurd living in America,
founder of the American Kurdish Information Network
(AKIN) Kani is a native of Kurdistan. He has studied
international relations at the University of Toronto
and holds a BA in history from the University of
California, Santa Barbara.
See Related Links
January
6, 2012
WASHINGTON, DC, — The President of
the United States: Please stop arming Turkey, which
is waging a war on freedom…
Please consider signing this
petition:
Created By Kani Xulam Washington, DC
January 5, 2012
The Honorable Barack H. Obama, 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
On the night of December 28, 2011, 39 Kurds, all
citizens of Turkey, came under an aerial attack by
two Turkish F-16 fighter planes on the mountains of
Kurdistan at an arbitrary borderline separating
Turkey from Iraq. When the residents of a nearby
village, Roboski, rushed to the scene of calamity,
they discovered the dead bodies of 35 of their loved
ones. Of these, 19 were in their teens; 27 bore the
same last name. The President of Turkey, Abdullah
Gul, expressed his “regrets.” The Kurdish families
are asking for more: an apology as well as a
thorough investigation of what really happened on
that forsaken night. No one is counting on either.
As Kurds and friends of Kurds, we are writing to you
to draw your attention to a statement of Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which
implicates your government in the death of these
innocent Kurds. “Our unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs),”
he said, “mistook the villagers for the terrorists
[of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).]” We see two
problems with his statement. The UAVs that he is
talking about were leased to his air force by the
United States. The “terrorists” that he is referring
to are the armed, uniformed, and militarily
organized Kurds who have been battling the tyranny
of successive Turkish governments since 1984.
Mr. President, you are fond of repeating a quote
that is often attributed to Dr. King, “The arc of
the moral universe is long, but it bends toward
justice.” The same sentiment animated citizen
Abraham Lincoln when he said, “When the white man
governs himself,” it is called self government; but
when he “governs another man, [he was referring to
the black man] that is more than self-government –
that is despotism.” Jonathan Alter, your biographer,www.ekurd.net
says you revere the memory of America’s 16th
president and view the Lincoln Bedroom in the White
House as a shrine.
To us, the Kurdish struggle for liberty is no
different than the black struggle for emancipation
in the United States. You may not know this, but we
Kurds looked forward to your presidency as a black
man. After your election to the highest office in
the land, some Kurdish farmers sacrificed 44 sheep
in your honor (as the 44th president of the United
States). The recent history of the White House
notwithstanding, these Kurdish villagers wanted to
believe that you stood for freedom. Do you?
If you do, you can’t stay indifferent to the
merciless assault and insult on freedom by the thugs
of the Turkish government. We believe a
reorientation of your policy is needed to
distinguish your potential friends who are shedding
their blood for freedom from your potential foes who
are bent on extirpating it from the sight of the
Kurds. This, we submit to you, is not just our call,
but also history’s invocation to gather on its side,
which was Lincoln’s side, which was King’s side and
today, it has become the Kurdish side.
We remain sincerely yours,
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-president-of-the-united-states-please-stop-arming-turkey-which-is-waging-a-war-on-freedom
Kani is a native of Kurdistan. He has studied
international relations at the University of Toronto
and holds a BA in history from the University of
California, Santa Barbara. He was recently awarded
an MA by the International Service Program at
American University. At the University of Toronto,
he represented Kurdistan at the Model United
Nations. In 1993, at the urging of Kurdish community
leaders in America, he left his family business in
California to establish the American Kurdish
Information Network in the nation’s capital. He is
the founder of the American Kurdish Information
Network (AKIN)
Copyright © 2012 ekurd.net
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page
|
|
|
®
