Supporting Kurdish independence

[Kurdistani4ever]

A punk, a coward, and a major douchesack for thinking that Iran is just going to give you a huge piece of their country.

Dear Ima You don't seem to be getting the point: Persians form less than half of the total popuation, meaning more than 50% want's to seperate.
You get that? keep following me Ima, even though your low IQ is resisting: And when the Iran gets attacked, the persians will become powerless. You get that right?
And what will happen when the persians get powerless?... That's right, they can't fight back. And when they can't fight back, then 55% of the population will forcefully split from the sh*thole.

Hopefully you got that extemely simply written comment.

I am neither a fan of Turkey nor Iran, but I do find demographics interesting. Iflating the number of Kurds across the board and minimizing the number of others in your so-called Kurdistan is not going to change reality or convince people who are less inclined to blindly accept your reasoning for Kurdish independence and the territories it should entail. You have a right to express almost anything you want. but you do not have a right to your own facts. Accordingly, I have a right to point out that you're a coward and a punk.

When I point out the above, please note that that is my opinion of you, not of your family nor the Kurdish people.

The hell are you on to? Kurds in the iranian occupied part are around 8 million. There's also azeris with a population over 20 million! And then there's arabs, turkmens, qashqai's, balochis, pashtuns and whatever else. I'm not making stuff up, these are facts.

And if i'm a coward, then so are 99.99999999% people on the internet

 

[Meathead]

Dear Ima You don't seem to be getting the point: Persians form less than half of the total popuation, meaning more than 50% want's to seperate.
You get that? keep following me Ima, even though your low IQ is resisting: And when the Iran gets attacked, the persians will become powerless. You get that right?
And what will happen when the persians get powerless?... That's right, they can't fight back. And when they can't fight back, then 55% of the population will forcefully split from the sh*thole.

Hopefully you got that extemely simply written comment.

I am neither a fan of Turkey nor Iran, but I do find demographics interesting. Iflating the number of Kurds across the board and minimizing the number of others in your so-called Kurdistan is not going to change reality or convince people who are less inclined to blindly accept your reasoning for Kurdish independence and the territories it should entail. You have a right to express almost anything you want. but you do not have a right to your own facts. Accordingly, I have a right to point out that you're a coward and a punk.

When I point out the above, please note that that is my opinion of you, not of your family nor the Kurdish people.

The hell are you on to? Kurds in the iranian occupied part are around 8 million. There's also azeris with a population over 20 million! And then there's arabs, turkmens, qashqai's, balochis, pashtuns and whatever else. I'm not making stuff up, these are facts.

And if i'm a coward, then so are 99.99999999% people on the internet

No, 99# of those on the internet don't champion violence someplace thousands of kilometers away. As for your facts:

Ethnic groups

Persian 61%, Azeri 16%, Kurd 10%, Lur 6%, Baloch 2%, Arab 2%, Turkmen and Turkic tribes 2%, other 1%

Iran Demographics Profile 2012

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

I am neither a fan of Turkey nor Iran, but I do find demographics interesting. Iflating the number of Kurds across the board and minimizing the number of others in your so-called Kurdistan is not going to change reality or convince people who are less inclined to blindly accept your reasoning for Kurdish independence and the territories it should entail. You have a right to express almost anything you want. but you do not have a right to your own facts. Accordingly, I have a right to point out that you're a coward and a punk.

When I point out the above, please note that that is my opinion of you, not of your family nor the Kurdish people.

The hell are you on to? Kurds in the iranian occupied part are around 8 million. There's also azeris with a population over 20 million! And then there's arabs, turkmens, qashqai's, balochis, pashtuns and whatever else. I'm not making stuff up, these are facts.

And if i'm a coward, then so are 99.99999999% people on the internet

No, 99# of those on the internet don't champion violence someplace thousands of kilometers away. As for your facts:

Ethnic groups

Persian 61%, Azeri 16%, Kurd 10%, Lur 6%, Baloch 2%, Arab 2%, Turkmen and Turkic tribes 2%, other 1%

Iran Demographics Profile 2012

A completly random site

Now stick to the topix troll.

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

 

[Meathead]

The hell are you on to? Kurds in the iranian occupied part are around 8 million. There's also azeris with a population over 20 million! And then there's arabs, turkmens, qashqai's, balochis, pashtuns and whatever else. I'm not making stuff up, these are facts.

And if i'm a coward, then so are 99.99999999% people on the internet

No, 99# of those on the internet don't champion violence someplace thousands of kilometers away. As for your facts:

Ethnic groups

Persian 61%, Azeri 16%, Kurd 10%, Lur 6%, Baloch 2%, Arab 2%, Turkmen and Turkic tribes 2%, other 1%

Iran Demographics Profile 2012

A completly random site

Now stick to the topix troll.

Everybody's got it in for your argument. So, post something from another random and impartial site that backs you up when you say that less than half of Iran is Persian. While you're at it, show me where I said I didn't support Kurdish independence. But then you're a coward and a punk, so you're not going to do so. I guess it's a lot easier to throw around troll than backing up anything you say, especially considering what it is say.

Troll, my ass. I believe Ima is a troll, and I believe you are both a punk and a coward.

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

The history of a struggle for national identity

By Gena Mangiaratti


Kurdistan is a country. Kurdistan is a virtual state. Kurdistan is a bad country. Kurdistan is an illegal country.

It all depends on whom you ask.

What is Kurdistan?

When Sirwan Dabagh, a Kurd born in southern Kurdistan, tells people where he is from, he does not always mention the word “Kurdistan.”

“I usually say I’m from southern Kurdistan, which of course, politically correct, would be northern Iraq,” Dabagh said. “However, if the person asking doesn’t seem open-minded and generally educated, I prefer not to get in a conflict and, therefore, tell them that I’m a Kurd from Iraq.”

No one can define exactly where Kurdistan is, for it cannot be found on a map. It is a region made up of southeastern Turkey, northern Syria and Iraq, and western Iran, where people of Kurdish origin have resided since the time of hunters and gatherers. After the Ottoman Empire collapsed in World War I, the borders of these four countries were established and a treaty to grant Kurds their own state was rejected by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of Turkey. The British government, who at the time had control over Iraq, was also not in favor of a free state.

Today, the Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state of their own. Since the land where the Kurds live was parceled out, the governments of the four countries have been working toward assimilating citizens of Kurdish origin.

The Kurds are a people with their own language and a culture distinct from the countries they inhabit.

“Kurdish families are close-knit,” said Kani Xulam, director of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN). “Lack of political coherence has forced the Kurds to rely on themselves.”

Xulam described Kurdish thinking as more emotional than cerebral, and mentioned that it may be no coincidence that the film Braveheart is very popular with the Kurds.

The religion of the Kurds cannot specifically be named without clumping everyone together. Some areas of Kurdistan are mostly secular. Other Kurds are Muslim, while many practice Ezidism or Zoroastrianism. Dabagh mentioned that many Kurds of the Jewish faith have left Kurdistan and are now located in Israel.

The Kurdish language belongs to the Indo-European language family—the same family English belongs to. It is in a different family from Turkish and from the Arabic languages of Iraq and Syria.

Xulam, who is from the part of Turkey that makes up northern Kurdistan, explained that the Kurdish language differs from Turkish in not only alphabet, but in sentence structure and diction, comparable to the way English differs from Japanese in how its speakers express themselves.

The parceling of Kurdistan among different countries has caused the Kurdish language to develop several different dialects. Some argue that this means the Kurds do not share a uniform language, and that this impedes their struggle to be recognized as an independent state.

Dabagh refutes this argument, putting the Kurdish situation in context:

“Imagine you live in Ithaca and your sister in Albany. Suddenly someone decides to draw a line, where you end up in one country and your sister in another. There are borders between you and you are claimed to be, let’s say American, and your sister is now Canadian. Imagine you both actually speak Greek but it’s not recognized. You must speak English and your sister must speak French. This is what happened to the Kurdish people, and therefore their dialects many times are claimed to not be the same language.”

Victims of Hate

It was not until March 16, 1988 that international attention was drawn to the long-repressed Kurds. It was on this date that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made a genocidal attack, launching poison gas on the dominantly Kurdish city of Halabja, killing at least 5,000 people and injuring more than 10,000.

What is now the country of Iraq was created by Winston Churchill in 1921. It consisted of three provinces carved from the Ottoman Empire: Baghdad, which contained both Shiite and Sunni Muslims, Basra, which was predominantly Shiite, and the Kurdish province of Mosul, which Britain wanted to hold on to for its oil reserves. Britain controlled Iraq through the Sunni minority, hoping the three groups could live together.

When Saddam Hussein came to power, the Sunni government persecuted both Shiites and Kurds.

According to the Embassy of Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan is a federally recognized region of Iraq, and is officially governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Dabagh said that in comparison to Syria and Iran, the government of Iraqi Kurdistan is relatively democratic, but that in comparison with other governments outside of the Middle East, it is not very democratic at all.

“But I do know democracy takes time,” Dabagh said. “The Western countries didn’t become democratic in one day.”

Dabagh has lived most of his life in Sweden. His family fled the political oppression of Iraq in 1989, when he was four. The democratic ways of Sweden have made it a favorable destination for Kurds. Today, Dabagh is the creator of Free Kurdistan, a cause arguing for an independent Kurdistan. In Sweden, Dabagh works with friends on a petition, making face-to-face contact to spread awareness for their cause.

Culturally Repressed in Turkey

In Turkey, no region is recognized as “Kurdistan.” According to the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., all people within the borders of Turkey are considered to be of Turkish citizenship.

“Everybody enjoys the same rights and privileges,” said Hüseyin Ergani, counselor of the Turkish Embassy. “We do not have statistics or divisions based on ethnicity, religion or culture. Any Turkish citizen can live anywhere he wants.”

According to a segment on ABC News: Foreign Correspondent, aired in November 2004, Kemal Ataturk perceived an independent Kurdish state to be a threat to Turkish unity, and preferred that the Kurds be assimilated. In 1988, Human Rights Watch reported that the Kurdish ethnicity was not recognized in the Turkish census figures, and the Kurds were referred to as “mountain Turks.”

Xulam’s passport lists his nationality as Turkish, which he said is untrue.

In a publication dated 1993, Human Rights Watch reported that Turkish authorities had stopped using the term “mountain Turks,” and began referring to Kurds by name in Turkish publications. The 1982 ban on speaking the Kurdish language in the streets was repealed. However, Kurdish still could not be spoken “in court, in official settings, or at public meetings,” the publication reads.

In Turkey, publicly using the letters Q, X and W which exist in the Kurdish alphabet but not in the Turkish alphabet, is prohibited by law. This ban consequentially prohibits Kurdish families from giving their children Kurdish names.

Xulam, who was required to learn Turkish over Kurdish in school, said that Turkish was perceived to be the language of progress.

“In a way, they are under the illusion that they are actually helping us by assimilating us,” Xulam said. “They don’t view it as a crime, that they are committing cultural genocide.”

Xulam gives two reasons for why he believes the Kurds continue to be subjugated.

The first reason has to do with the resources. Two resources of Kurdistan in high demand are oil and water.

“These two things are the Achilles’ heel of the Kurds,” Xulam said. “Because of them we have been unable to free ourselves, and our struggle still goes on.”

The second reason has to do with racism.

“The way I would describe it is our adversaries feel entitled,” Xulam said. “[Like] the whites in the South: they were ‘entitled’ to selling blacks in the market before 1860s, and before 1960s, they felt like the blacks shouldn’t be in the same bus that was traveling from one state to another. They had to be in another bus… In our case it’s not as like that—it’s more cultural.”

Xulam acknowledged that since Turkey has applied for membership to the European Union in 1987, the government has taken steps to improve its human rights record. However, the issue has not been resolved.

“They are too little, too late, and so the question hasn’t been resolved, because there’s no desire to take Kurds… as their equals,” Xulam said. “And so long as there’s a lopsided relationship, the problem will go on, and Turkey will not have peace, and the conflict will endure.”

This Land is My Land

The PKK, an abbreviation for Partia Karkaren Kurdistan, which in English translates to Kurdistan Workers’ Party, was formed in 1978. Its goal is an independent Kurdish state. According to the Web site for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PKK began to wage an armed struggle in 1984.

The PKK, Embassy Counselor Ergani said, does not represent any part of Turkish society. In Turkey and in the United States, the PKK is referred to as a terrorist organization. According to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PKK has caused the deaths of over 30,000 Turkish citizens since 1984.

From 1980 to 1984, Kurdish activists as well as Turkish politicians and academics were arrested and tortured in the Diyarbak?r Prison. According to the Turkish gazette, Today’s Zaman, Diyarbak?r Prison was named one of the ten most notorious prisons in the world.

Selahattin Demirtas, head of the Kurdish political party the Democratic Society Party (DTP), told Today’s Zaman in August 2009 that the Diyarbak?r Prison is one of the reasons for the PKK’s existence. Demirtas suggested it should be turned into a human rights museum.

In December 2009, the DTP was shut down after being accused of supporting the PKK.

Dabagh questions the validity of calling the PKK a terrorist group.

“PKK may have used violence, but on the other hand, when the Kurdish people of Turkey do not have basic human rights, what should they do? Is it not self defense?… Wasn’t the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 adopted after many years of war?”

Amnesty International refers to the PKK as an “armed opposition group” in its articles. Xulam said that he submits to this definition. Turkey never allowed the Kurds to demand their rights in a non-violent manner, he said, which made armed resistance inevitable.

“The violence [the PKK] has waged against Turkey is no different than the violence that Turkey has waged against the Kurds,” Xulam said. “There’s two violent groups, if you will: The Turkish military and the PKK. One is condoned, unfortunately by international community, and the other one has been categorized as a terrorist organization.”

Still Silenced

The Iraqi elections on March 7 may bring improvement to the Kurdish situation in Iraq. Ayad Allawi was elected to be the next Prime Minister of Iraq, a change that many Kurds believe will bring them greater support from the rest of the nation. According to the Associated Press, many Kurds felt “increasingly alienated” by the previous Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, because of disagreements over several issues, oil contracts being one of them.

Dabagh said he believes Allawi’s governance will be better for Iraq, and therefore for the Kurds.

But the repression still goes on.

On March 21 of this year in Syria, police opened fire and killed at least one Kurd celebrating Newroz, the Kurdish new year.

The group refused to replace their Kurdish flags with Syrian ones. The crowd was first sprayed with water from a fire truck, leading them to retaliate by throwing rocks. The police then opened fire.

The battle continues.

Xulam described the struggle that faces the Kurds.

“If you speak Kurdish, then you are disdained. If you sing Kurdish songs, you could go to jail, or you could get hurt. If you make a demand for cultural acceptance, then you could lose your job. And if you fight for it, then you’re branded as a terrorist.”

____________________________________

Gena Mangiaratti is a freshman journalism major and the supreme ruler of Genastan. E-mail her at [email protected].

 

[ima]

Dear Ima You don't seem to be getting the point: Persians form less than half of the total popuation, meaning more than 50% want's to seperate.
You get that? keep following me Ima, even though your low IQ is resisting: And when the Iran gets attacked, the persians will become powerless. You get that right?
And what will happen when the persians get powerless?... That's right, they can't fight back. And when they can't fight back, then 55% of the population will forcefully split from the sh*thole.

Hopefully you got that extemely simply written comment.

I am neither a fan of Turkey nor Iran, but I do find demographics interesting. Iflating the number of Kurds across the board and minimizing the number of others in your so-called Kurdistan is not going to change reality or convince people who are less inclined to blindly accept your reasoning for Kurdish independence and the territories it should entail. You have a right to express almost anything you want. but you do not have a right to your own facts. Accordingly, I have a right to point out that you're a coward and a punk.

When I point out the above, please note that that is my opinion of you, not of your family nor the Kurdish people.

The hell are you on to? Kurds in the iranian occupied part are around 8 million. There's also azeris with a population over 20 million! And then there's arabs, turkmens, qashqai's, balochis, pashtuns and whatever else. I'm not making stuff up, these are facts.

And if i'm a coward, then so are 99.99999999% people on the internet

If Iran nukes Israel and then the US or Israel retaliate with nukes, they're going to wipe out just as many kurds, and after everything is nuked, who knows what would happen? Surely it would involve a civil war, but as who would win is impossible at this point to know. You're adding too many maybes together.

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

Peshmerga are now in control of all south Kurdistan's disputed areas (Including Kirkuk) And they have put up massive defense forces to face and destroy the iraqi army. Follow the news here:

Peshmerga forces at stand off with the iraqi army dijla command

 

[High_Gravity]

The Peshmerga would kick the Icrappi Armies ass.

 

[ima]

Peshmerga are now in control of all south Kurdistan's disputed areas (Including Kirkuk) And they have put up massive defense forces to face and destroy the iraqi army. Follow the news here:

Peshmerga forces at stand off with the iraqi army dijla command

So why aren't you there helping? Too much of a weenie?

 

[ekrem]

Peshmerga are now in control of all south Kurdistan's disputed areas (Including Kirkuk) And they have put up massive defense forces to face and destroy the iraqi army. Follow the news here:

Peshmerga forces at stand off with the iraqi army dijla command

So why aren't you there helping? Too much of a weenie?

There already have been dead.
"Peshmerga" are no challenge, that doesn't mean Maliki currently has the ability to "occupy" them.
When shit hits the fan Maliki's Shittes have endless supply line in Iran.

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

Peshmerga are now in control of all south Kurdistan's disputed areas (Including Kirkuk) And they have put up massive defense forces to face and destroy the iraqi army. Follow the news here:

Peshmerga forces at stand off with the iraqi army dijla command

So why aren't you there helping? Too much of a weenie?

There already have been dead.
"Peshmerga" are no challenge, that doesn't mean Maliki currently has the ability to "occupy" them.
When shit hits the fan Maliki's Shittes have endless supply line in Iran.

Ekrem is back, and with more bullsh*t than ever well... not really, but still worth a laugh!
People should realise that Peshmerga is threat, when Dijla leaders flee back to Bagdad, when they see them Peshmerga stand proud to protect south Kurdistan's soil, While the iraqi army is a bunch of poor iraqis fighting for a few dollars, they have no fighting spirit what so ever. And good job on supporting Iran (The worlds largest terrorist state) I'm sure they will be much help to Maliki, while getting bombed by the US and Israel
So get over it Ekrem. Soon south Kurdistan will declare independence, and that will increase the nationalism of kurds in the north. Scary thought is'nt it? 23 million kurds standing up for their humane rights, and turks can do nothing more but crying.

And while talking about crying: It's so funny that turks are crying for 3 million palestinians, while 40 million kurds with no rights should remain in their current occupation states.
Is'nt it arabs that's got like 22 countries already? How many country's does kurds have? Just think about that for a moment, and realise your ignorant way of thinking.

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

By Alan rawand & Hewraz Karim

November 22, 2012

ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— A high ranking officer from Peshmerga armed forces told (Malpress) website that the Iraqi government is unaware of the rocket launchers Peshmerga have in its possessions.

The officer referred to the type of the rockers and said, "the rockets (TOW RF), (TOW 2A) (Hyper velocity Anti-Tank Missiles HATM) and (A6), are more than enough to shatter Maliki's tanks into bits and pieces".

These small rockets are affective and quite strong, and they are placed on the top of faster moving vehicles so it can move from one spot to another quite quickly, currently only the US, Israel and South Korean armies have them in their possessions, Malpress reported.

Another military expert in Peshmerga said that "the Iraqi army do not have these missiles but Peshmerga forces have 29 of the launchers with 1000s of rockets, this weapon is the production of (Raytheon) US weapon manufacture, it can destroy its target in the 5kms range in just 2 seconds".

The commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces warned Tuesday that his troops might attack Iraqi government soldiers at "any minute" after the central government sent tanks and armoured vehicles toward the disputed city of Kirkuk.

A local official source revealed Wednesday, bringing a "substantial" military force of Peshmerga to the Kurdish district of Khanaqin in anticipation of the entry of any forces belonging to Dijla operations to the district.

Tuz Khurmatu, last Friday witnessed fierce clashes between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Iraqi Tigris (Dijla) Operations Command TOC troops, during which Two people were killed and 10 others wounded.

The clashes erupted in Tuz Khurmatu district in Salahuddin province when Iraqi soldiers attempted to search a house belonging to a Kurdish official Goran Najam, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK, officials said. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is the current leader of the PUK, Reuters reported.

Barzani ordered its Peshmerga security forces on high alert, a statement issued on Saturday said, attributing the move to clashes with central government forces. An Iraqi general however said that the clashes in question came during an arrest attempt and did not involve the Peshmerga.

Also Massoud Barzani said Saturday the region was fully prepared to defend itself, after a skirmish between Iraqi forces and Kurdish troops along their disputed internal border.

While Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki stressed that "the movement of the Iraqi army must be free on every inch of the land of Iraq, and provinces or territory have no right to object", describing the movement of the Peshmerga in the disputed areas as "legal and a constitutional violation."

Translation by Alan rawand & Additional reporting by Hewraz Karim - Ekurd.net

Copyright © 2012 Ekurd.net. All rights reserved

 

[ima]

I doubt the CheeseKurds can beat the iraqis even, and you're a fucking pussy for not helping.

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

PNA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Israel on Monday as a "terrorist state" in carrying out its bombardment of Gaza, underlining hostility for Ankara's former ally since relations between them collapsed in 2010.

His comments came after nearly a week of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. An Israeli missile killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians including four children in Gaza on Sunday.

"Those who associate Islam with terrorism close their eyes in the face of mass killing of Muslims, turn their heads from the massacre of children in Gaza," Erdogan told a conference of the Eurasian Islamic Council in İstanbul.

"For this reason, I say that Israel is a terrorist state, and its acts are terrorist acts," he said.

Ties between Israel and Turkey, once Israel's only Muslim ally, crumbled after Israeli marines stormed an aid ship in 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip. Nine Turks were killed in clashes with activists on board.

Ankara expelled Israel's ambassador and froze military cooperation after a U.N. report into the incident released in September last year largely exonerated the Jewish state.

Earlier this month Turkey opened the trial in absentia of four former Israeli military commanders over the 2010 raid.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is to travel to Gaza on Tuesday with a group of foreign ministers from the Arab League.

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

Turkey's such a peace loving country

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

By OFRA BENGIO

The big question mark is if Kurds will be able to enhance their national cause for self-determination.

With the tectonic changes taking place in the heart of the Middle East little attention is given to developments in the periphery, one of the most important of which is the quiet revolution taking place in Greater Kurdistan, namely among the Kurds of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria.
The best illustration of the new Kurdish dynamism was the congress held on February 19, 2012, in Irbil, Iraq, to commemorate the 66th anniversary of Kurdistan Republic, better known as the Mahabad Republic. This short-lived Republic was established in northwest Iran on January, 22, 1946, with Soviet support but it crumbled 11 months later on December 10, 1946, and its president, Qazi Muhammad, was hanged on March 30, 1947.

Kurdistan Republic was unique because it was the first time in Kurdish history that the Kurds had established a republic of their own; because it was an attempt to change the territorial map of the region at the end of World War II; and because there was a certain level of cooperation and unity of purpose between the Kurds of Iran and Iraq.

Thus, Qazi Muhammad, the president of the republic and the Iranian Kurds, provided the territorial and political basis for the republic, while Mulla Mustafa Barzani and the 10,000 people (3,000 of whom were fighters) who came with him from Iraq provided the military backbone.

The commemoration of the event this February in Irbil reflected the changes that have been taking place in the past decade, especially in Iraq and Turkey. The event which brought together Kurdish representatives from the four parts of Kurdistan under the watchful eyes of the governments of these states was unimaginable only five years ago.

Among the many Kurdish personalities participating in the commemoration were Mas’ud Barzani (son of Mulla Mustafa), president of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, Selahattin Demirta, co-chair of the Kurdish Peace and Democracy party (BDP) in Turkey, ‘Abd al-Hakim Bashar, head of Kurdistan Democratic Party in Syria and Hussein Yazdanpana of Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) in Iran. There were also many Kurdish representatives from the diaspora who have been active in disseminating the idea of Kurdish nationalism in the world at large.

The speakers sought to send a few assertive messages to the world and especially to their governments. Barzani stressed that the Kurds, like any other nation, had the natural right of self-determination, that the governments were required to acknowledge this right but were not in a position to accord it to the Kurds, that the Kurds were striving to act in unity even though they had been separated into four parts, and that they were bent on achieving their goal through peaceful and democratic means.

Most of the speakers highlighted the quick and sweeping changes taking place in the Middle East as a result of “the Arab spring” and the Kurds’ need to take advantage of this window of opportunity to achieve their own goals. Signaling a desire to resurrect the Mahabad experience, the speakers sought to impress upon the world the idea of continuity between 1946 and the present. A symbol of this continuity, it was emphasized, was the fact that after the collapse of the Republic, Qazi Muhammad handed over the Kurdish flag to Mulla Mustafa Barzani, stating that the flag was in “safe hands, and a day will come when the flag would be raised [again].”

Indeed, Mulla Mustafa continued the struggle until 1975, bequeathing later the flag to his two sons Idris and Mas’ud. It was further emphasized that even though The Mahabad republic was short-lived the Kurds have to look at it as a model to attain in present time.

Not only the speeches but the terminology, the symbols, and the general ambiance attested all to the changing dynamics in Kurdistan. Anyone who watched the ceremony, which was aired in its entirety time and again on Kurdistan TV, would have been impressed by the Kurdish nationalist atmosphere and the new-found sense of pride which surrounded it.

Thus for example the Kurdish anthem of Mahabad, “Ey Reqip,” which became also the current anthem of the KRG and all the other Kurds, was played many times during the ceremony. Similarly, only Kurdish flags were to be seen in the hall, reflecting the general situation in the KRG where Kurdish flags, but not Iraqi ones, are raised in buildings, being etched on mountain slopes and curiously enough also configuring as badges on the uniforms of the Kurdish men of arms, the Peshmerga.

NO LESS intriguing is the conception and terminology used while referring to Kurdistan. The Kurds present a map of Greater Kurdistan constituting one unit. Portraying it as such they refer to Kurdistan of Turkey as bakur, (north), that of Iraq, bashur (south), Iran roshalat (south east) and Syria rojava (west). Curiously enough, I am told that children were selling ornaments carrying this map of Greater Kurdistan in the streets of Irbil.

Another no less important development is the process of legitimizing the Kurdish language, which is one of the important pillars of Kurdish nationalism. Noticeably, all the speakers made a point of speaking in Kurdish even though in their countries it had been suppressed for long time.

Kurdish is now the official language in Kurdistan of Iraq. The Kurdish language, which was prohibited for many years there, is also being revived in Turkey. Furthermore, in early March 2012, a conference of Kurdish linguists was held in Diyarbakir in Turkey with the aim of unifying the language and its alphabet.

Politically speaking, the short-lived Kurdistan Republic in Iran gave way to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, which is 20 years old now. The distinctive status of the KRG is most conspicuous. Thus Kurdistan region has all the trappings of a state, with all its practical and symbolical characteristics, including constitution, parliament, government, president, army, flag and anthem.

The KRG has a vibrant economy, a capital, Irbil, and two airports which connect the landlocked region to the world. Moreover, the KRG has managed to turn itself into the epicenter of Pan-Kurdish activity. Kurds from all the other parts as well as from the diaspora frequent the region on a regular basis to exchange ideas, learn from the experience and take advice. Indeed, all the other three parts are looking at the KRG as a model to follow.

The cooperation and coordination between the Kurdish leaders in the KRG and others found expression among others in the many all-Kurdish conferences held in Irbil. An ambitious meeting of Kurdish leaders from all parts of Kurdistan is expected to be held in Irbil this year, with the aim of unifying Kurdish parties and discussing Kurdish questions in such revolutionary times.

All in all, at the turn of the 21st century the whole region is in turmoil and so are some of the states in which the Kurds reside. Accordingly, the Kurds are now at an important crossroads. The big question mark is if they will be able to use this window of opportunity to reverse the outcome of the 20th century and enhance their national cause for self-determination.

The writer is senior research associate at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University. She is the author of the forthcoming The Kurds of Iraq: Building a State within a Stateand editor of the monthly newsletter Tzomet Hamizrah Hatichon.

 

[Kurdistani4ever]

February 19, 2012

By Victor Sharpe



There are over twenty Arab states throughout the Middle East and North Africa, but the world demands, in a chorus of barely disguised animosity towards Israel, that yet another Arab state be created within the mere forty miles separating the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan.

Israel, a territory no larger than the tiny principality of Wales or the state of New Jersey, would be forced to share this sliver of land with a new and hostile Arab entity to be called Palestine, while seeing its present narrow waist reduced to a mere and suicidal nine miles in width -- what an earlier Israeli statesman, Abba Eban, described as the Auschwitz borders.

Remember, there has never existed in all of recorded history an independent sovereign nation called Palestine -- and certainly not an Arab one. The term "Palestine" has always been the name of a geographical territory, such as Siberia or Patagonia. It has never been a state.

But there is a people who, like the Jews, deserves a homeland and truly can trace their ancestry back thousands of years. They are the Kurds, and it is highly instructive to review their remarkable history in conjunction with that of the Jews. It is also necessary to review the historical injustice imposed upon them over the centuries by hostile neighbors and empires.

Let us go back to the captivity of the Ten Tribes of Israel, who were taken from their land by the Assyrians in 721-715 BC. Biblical Israel was depopulated, its Jewish inhabitants deported to an area in the region of ancient Media and Assyria -- a territory roughly corresponding to that of modern-day Kurdistan.

Assyria was, in turn, conquered by Babylonia and Media, which led to the eventual destruction of the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah in 586 BC. The remaining two Jewish tribes were sent to the same area as that of their brethren from the northern kingdom.

When the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, allowed the Jews to return to their ancestral lands, many Jews remained (and continued to live) with their neighbors in Babylon -- an area which, again, included modern-day Kurdistan.

The Babylonian Talmud refers in one section to the Jewish deportees from Judah receiving rabbinical permission to offer Judaism to the local population. The Kurdish royal house and a large segment of the general population in later years accepted the Jewish faith. Indeed, when the Jews rose up against Roman occupation in the 1st century AD, the Kurdish queen sent troops and provisions to support the embattled Jews.

By the beginning of the 2nd century AD, Judaism was firmly established in Kurdistan, and Kurdish Jews in Israel today speak an ancient form of Aramaic in their homes and synagogues. Kurdish and Jewish life became interwoven to such a remarkable degree that many Kurdish folk tales are connected with Jews'.

It is interesting to note that several tombs of biblical Jewish prophets are to be found in or near Kurdistan. For example, the prophet Nachum is in Alikush, while Jonah's tomb can be found in Nabi Yunis, which is ancient Nineveh. Daniel's tomb is in the oil-rich Kurdistan province of Kirkuk; Habbabuk is in Tuisirkan; and Queen Hadassah, or Esther, along with her uncle Mordechai, is in Hamadan.

After the failed revolt against Rome, many rabbis found refuge in what is now Kurdistan. The rabbis joined with their fellow scholars, and by the 3rd century AD, Jewish academies were flourishing. But the later Sassanid and Persian occupations of the region ushered in a time of persecution for the Jews and Kurds, which lasted until the Muslim Arab invasion in the 7th century. Indeed, the Jews and Kurds joined with the invading Arabs in the hope that their action would bring relief from the Sassanid depredations they had suffered.

Shortly after the Arab conquest, Jews from the autonomous Jewish state of Himyar in what is today's Saudi Arabia joined the Jews in the Kurdish regions. However, under the now-Muslim Arab occupation, matters worsened, and the Jews suffered as dhimmis in the Muslim-controlled territory. The Jews found themselves driven from their agricultural lands because of onerous taxation by their Muslim overlords. They thus left the land to become traders and craftsmen in the cities. Many of the Jewish peasants were converted to Islam by force or by dire circumstances and intermarried with their neighbors.

From out of this population arose a great historical figure. In 1138, a boy was born into a family of Kurdish warriors and adventurers. His name was Salah-al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub -- better known in the West as Saladin. He drove the Christian crusaders out of Jerusalem even though he was distrusted by the Muslim Arabs because he was a Kurd. Even then, the Arabs were aware of the close relationship that existed between the Kurdish people and the Jews.

Saladin employed justice and humane measures in both war and peace. This was in contrast to the methods employed by the Arabs. Indeed, it is believed that Saladin not only was just to the Christians, but he allowed the Jews to flourish in Jerusalem and is credited with finding the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple, which had been buried under tons of rubbish during the Christian Byzantine occupation. The great Jewish rabbi, philosopher, and doctor Maimonides was for a time Saladin's personal physician.

But let us return to the present day and to why the world clamors for a Palestinian Arab state but strangely turns its back upon Kurdish national independence and statehood. The universally accepted principle of self-determination seems not to apply to the Kurds.

In an article in the New York Sun on 6 July 2004 titled "The Kurdish Statehood Exception," Hillel Halkin exposed the discrimination and double standards employed against Kurdish aspirations of statehood. He wrote, "[T]he historic injustices done to them and their suffering over the years can be adequately redressed within the framework of a federal Iraq, in which they will have to make do -- subject to the consent of a central, Arab-dominated government in Baghdad -- with mere autonomy. Full Kurdish statehood is unthinkable. This, too, is considered to be self-evident."

The brutal fact in realpolitik, therefore, is that the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians have many friends in the oil-rich Arab world -- oil the world desperately needs for its economies. The Kurds, like the Jews, have few friends, and the Kurds have little or no influence in the international corridors of power.

Mr. Halkin pointed out that "the Kurds have a far better case for statehood than do the Palestinians. They have their own unique language and culture, which the Palestinian Arabs do not have. They have had a sense of themselves as a distinct people for many centuries, which the Palestinian Arabs have not had. They have been betrayed repeatedly in the past 100 years by the international community and its promises, while the Palestinian Arabs have been betrayed only by their fellow Arabs."

The old nostrum, therefore, that only when the Palestinian Arabs finally have a state will there be peace in the world is a mirage in the desert. Fellow writer Gerald Honigman also writes on the world's preoccupation with the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians while ignoring the plight of the Kurds, Berbers, and millions of other non-Arab peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. Honigman's book was part of the LSS exhibit at the prestigious ASMEA Conference of scholars last November (and is now in at least a dozen major universities so far) and has several chapters focusing on the Kurdish issue. It's no accident that its foreword was written mostly by the President of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria.

During the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, the Kurds were gassed and slaughtered in large numbers. They suffered ethnic cleansing by the Turks and continue to be oppressed by the present Turkish government, whose foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, had the gall to suggest, at a meeting of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, that Turkey supports the oppressed of the world. He ignored his own government's oppression of the Kurds and predictably named the anti-Semitic thugdom in Gaza "oppressed." On the basis of pure realpolitik, the legality and morality of the Kurds' cause is infinitely stronger than that of the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians.

On the other hand, after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Kurds displayed great political and economic wisdom. How different from the example of the Gazan Arabs who, when foolishly given full control over the Gaza Strip by Israel, chose not to build hospitals and schools, but instead bunkers and missile launchers. To this they have added the imposition of sharia law, with its attendant denigration of women and non-Muslims.

The Kurdish experiment, in at least the territory's current quasi-independence, has shown the world a decent society where all its inhabitants, men and women, enjoy far greater freedoms than can be found anywhere else in the Arab and Muslim world -- and certainly anywhere else in Iraq, which is fast descending into ethnic chaos now that the U.S. military has left.

Barack Obama, David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, and all the leaders of the free world should look to Kurdistan, with its huge oil reserves, as the new state that needs to be created in the Middle East. It is simple and natural justice, which is far too long overdue. A Palestinian Arab state, on the other hand, will immediately become a haven for anti-Western terrorism, a base for al-Qaeda and Hamas (the junior partner of the Muslim Brotherhood), and a non-democratic land carved out of the Jewish ancestral and biblical lands of Judea and Samaria upon which the stultifying shroud of sharia law will inevitably descend. In short, it will be established with one purpose: to destroy what is left of embattled Israel.

Finally, it is also natural justice for the Jewish State -- with its millennial association of shared history alongside the Kurdish people, who number over 30,000,000, scattered throughout northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, Syria and Turkey -- to fight in the world's forums for the speedy establishment of an independent and proud Kurdistan. An enduring alliance between Israel and Kurdistan would be a vindication of history, a recognition of the shared sufferings of both peoples, and bring closer the advent of a brighter future for both non-Arab nations.

Mahmoud Abbas, Holocaust denier and present president of the Palestinian Authority, has never, and will never, abrogate publicly in English or in Arabic the articles in Fatah's constitution, which call for the "obliteration of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence" -- or, in other words, the destruction of the Jewish State and the genocide of its citizens. So much for the man President Obama and the Europeans shower with money and praise.

It is the Kurds who unreservedly deserve a state. The invented Palestinian Arabs have forfeited that right by their relentless aggression, crimes, and genocidal intentions towards Israel and the Jews.

Victor Sharpe is a freelance writer and author of the trilogy Politicide: The attempted murder of the Jewish state.