Kurdistan Bloggers Union

Glorious as ever, the gleeming lions of the islamic world have caught their biggest catch yet... a convert to islam and a naturalised iraqi citizen whose spent the last 30 years of her life as a teacher and aid worker in Iraq.

In another shameless act, the valiant swords of islam and freedom have caught, looted and executed 49 infidels who are guilty of the heinous crime of defending their own country

Continuing operation constant diarrhoea, the bold, yet strategically hidden behind cloth, heroes of unity have kidnapped a japanese infidel working as part of the hedonic machine known as reconstruction

Could muslims possibly be any less likeable now.

If anything is going to make muslims drop their faith faster than jihadi pants its these other muslims, i think its about time ppl starting moving that constantly pointed finger to the right direction. It's not the zionist entity and their many cunning plans, its not america, music video or these sattelite channels ( otherwise known as reasons to stop breathing.... hmm maybe i'll rant on that sometime) that are spoiling our high and mighty morals and moving us poor naive creatures further away from our religion

I don't even think there are cults out there who are this obsessed with death and the path that leads to it.

Everytime we see an act like this all we ever say is "these ppl can't be muslim etc.." and we stop and never do anything about it. These words don't mean anything anymore, we need to start examining why all these criminals and thugs just so happens to be muslim.

Reading islamic history you discover that at least in the islamic world, islam stopped being spiritual a long time ago and instead was transformed into this tool that has been used to control people everything down to things like how we should look like or who we should like and who we shouldn't. If islam stayed as a religion fullstop far far away from politics we would have been relieved of all these problems we now have.

Also another thing islam in theory is totally different from islam in practice, i mean our we preach and preach about how to love your brother if not in religion than in humanity, and all our acts prove otherwise. The first word that came from the Quran was read and hadiths that say "seeks knowledge everywhere ", and yet the islamic world has one of the world's highest illiteracy rate. All these verses about feeding the poor and taking care of orphans and again we have this sorry state of the poor. What about the verse that referring to justice o how there is no difference between arabs and non-arabs except through piety while we have become connoisseurs of extremely repressive and racist regimes. What about the joke of speaking the truth even if it means putting ure life on risk, while our clerics and mullahs are professionals of deceit.

The best way this was ever described was by these scholars who visited Europe around a century ago who said "The west has islam and no muslims while we have muslims but no Islam". Basically meaning that what we say are "principles of islam" like human rights, justice and equality are all available in the west while there are no muslims there (this was before the mass migration) while in our countries we are loaded with muslims but none of these principles.


There are many reasons why we are in such a sorry state, here are just a few of them:

- Anyone can become a cleric, unlike christianity or judaism where you have a process and you need to be ordained from an accredited authority. Even in more recent times (say upto 20-30 yrs ago) a respected islamic scholar would have at least studied at al- Azhar at some point in his education. Nowadays all you need is to throw on some rags or repeat a few sentences over and over again. Just look at Iraq now.. Zarqawi a serial rapist and thug now considered to be an islamic leader? or how about Muqty who used to be made fun off for his lack of knowledge about islam from his father and siblings
In what sense can people like that represent you and still have no one complain?

- The Quran is a book of 114 surahs (chapters),every single generation, sect and cleric has their own translation of the Quran. The same sentence is translated according to what they already believe in. For example, if you want to read the Quran to find violence you will find violence, if you want to look for justice you will find justice, you want peace and releif you will also find that.

- Islamists are professionals at double-speak, its all big words that mean nothing. Also their words and views change depending on who they are speaking to, for example you can find the same mullah defending his religion by saying no we're a religion of peace and tolerance and picking the respective Ayas from the Quran to prove that while he could go to a mosque and preach messages of hate and racism. The peaceful part of Islam is just lip service for others to make it look like everything is ok with islam, lately these kind of “islam is a religion of peace” has never been intended for muslim ears.

- Alot of muslims know very little about their own religion, to be honest the best discussions I ever had about religion were always with atheists.

One common argument for this is that only a small percentage are wahhabists but in a population of 1 bn any "small percentage" is a large number. To make it worse in most islamic countries they are the ones running the education and security, yes the two main pillars of any country in their hands. Also the muslims that seem to be in charge of mosqes and islamic educational centers abroad just happen to be salafists as well.

So you may wonder where are the rest of the muslims, well that’s split between the large numbers that leave their religion and other that stay and still practice
usually the latter, are just moderate muslims that basically do their stuff in private and are usually pretty distant from these fanatics. in fact when you go abroad one of the first things u are warned of by relatives go in the following order: keep ure religion to ureself and no need for problems, you wanna pray and fast do it in private, stay away from these "terrorist recruitment centers"/mosques. In my case I did a 180 and even attended one of their yearly conventions (it's not as bad as it sounds, the speakers were mostly quite decent and i did get an almost free trip out of it).
This distancing sounds ok and preventive but it has allowed religion to be hijacked by these wahhabists. And now i doubt any normal muslim wants to ne seen in their midst so there will hardly be any moderate voices among extremists.

Another thing in "islam theory" is that a person in charge of anything is responsible for what the people he's in charge of do. For example the leader of a community or a country will also carry the sin of someone who committed a crime or suffered in his country, because he was in charge and if he was doing his job right that wouldn't have happened. This is one thing I really hope is true, just wondering how long these punishments would be. Cos' you get punished even if you are indirectly responsible so imagine states whose doctrine centers around abuse. Even without torture and killing they have a lot to answer for, for example the refusal to spend any money or effort into research and equipment that could predict earthquakes and floods in advance while spending millions if not billions of dollars on weapons and the military.

Yes ppl who don't believe in religion anymore may laugh but for me it's some sort of relief knowing that there would be an afterlife and all of the above would face the justice they fled from in this life.

In Halloween of 1999, my best friend and I decided to dress up as "revolutionaries" for the holiday. This was shortly after my first trip to Turkey and I was touching the tip of the research iceberg that is the Kurdish question. My friend at the time was working on her senior thesis about the revolution in El Salvador and decided to be a FMLN member, I chose to be PKK. So we went to the local thrift store, bought some old army surplus clothing, and decorated them with patches and slogans that we came up with. On the abhorration that was my costume I intermixed slogans such as "Free Leyla Zana" and "Bless Ocalen!", I realize now that I have committed the Turkish falacy that all Kurdish rights groups were the same. The jacket with its conflicting messages of violence and peace still hangs in the back of my closet. I am not sure if I should burn it or just throw it out. In whatever form that piece of wretched cloth takes, it still reminds me that I will never learn enough about the Kurds.
However, the reason why I remember that outfit today is that it reminds me of the current status of the PKK/Kongra Gel today. It preaches peace but murders members who leave. One day they say to stop fighting, and then resume their war. There is this book in the library at the University I work at in which it details photographically the horrors that the PKK committed. Whenever I looked at the photos of the dead, in towns that I have been too, possibly even in destroyed villages that I excavated in, I used to think that the vivid blood must have been spilt by the jamdarmas, whose shoes could be seen in all of the photos. I couldn't believe that the PKK could hurt their own people like that. Now, look at them. They have become just as bad as their oppressors.
This message isn't entended to bring clarity, or hope, but rather serve as an example of the ambiguous sadness that plagues the Kurdish people that I hold so dear.
And I know that if I ever sent the jacket to Imrali prison, that the symbolism would be lost on Apo as well.

Thanx Anon for mentioning this link, I'm surprised it's from the guardian though, they're usually loaded with Anti-Kurdish Propaganda

On at least two occasions this summer, Turkish immigration officials prevented travellers who had recorded their place of birth as "Kurdistan" from entering the country. No compensation was paid for their flights or ruined holidays.

On a less pungent note,here's a really good link from Don of a speech regarding independence by Kamal Artin to the kurdish american education society.

I beg you to read this:

“I have received 8 letters from Kirkuk and Baghdad authorities for the removal of Kurdistan restaurant in this location. But I have carried the Kurdistan flag and was able to display it in many European countries, now I will fight to have the same right in my own country and city,” said Howar Salayee

I thought I was only joking here about terrorists using google to figure out what to do with their hostages.
So you can imagine my surprise when I read this story
Google 'saved' Australian hostage

and i thought my imagination was wild.

Hello all this is my first post on this great blog. I go by the name of Sami, to be honest with you it is not my real name. I chose this name out of respect for a Kurdish martyr who goes by the name Sami Abdul Rahman. Unfortunately Mr. Sami passed away, a tragic victim, of the horrible suicide bombings in Hawlar earlier this year. He is one of many Kurdish heroes who have fought for their rights and causes through out our oppressed history and sadly joined a long list of Kurdish martyrs who died to help future generation of Kurds attain their dreams.

I am from the southern part of Kurdistan from a city called Sulymaniah. Sadly I have been there once for a visit in 1989 and that’s the only time I ever saw my hometown. I was born in Baghdad but didn’t live long in Iraq. I speak Arabic and Sorani Kurdish fluently but wish to learn more of the other Kurdish dialects. Some of you may know that I have my own blog that goes by the name of Iraqi thoughts, not Kurdish thoughts. This has nothing to do with my lack of pride in being Kurdish. I am so proud of being Kurdish and dream of returning to my home town soon. I grew up with Iraqis of all kinds around me and as a lot of my family lives in Baghdad so Iraqis politics has to be important to me for these personal reasons. I have to care about the security in Iraq as my family’s well being is always at the back of my head. Also there are many great Kurdish blogs out there, all very interesting and inspiring. There are also many Iraqi blogs, but they are all made by Arabs. I think that to post on my blog my ideas for Kurds and their rights on Iraq thoughts will give the reader the impression all Iraqis think like me which is what I HOPE for. I posted about a Kurdish film, Marooned In Iraq which I am sure you have all seen on my blog yesterday and in that way I hope to make my readers who wouldn’t go to Kurdish blogs become more educated about our rights and issues.

I'll talk about our short terms goals which are to be part of a democratic process in Iraq where we are not forgotten and treated as second class citizens ever again. Some may be sceptical because of the comments some Arab politicians make regarding Kurds and this understandable. The process is a slow one but I am hopeful through co-operation and not conflict attaining our rights to self determination will be made easier. Sadly most Arabs have no idea about Kurdish culture and language etc, and I think that now is the time to show them who we really are. On a postiive note now when I go to Iraqi parties they play Kurdish music for the few Kurds that are there and you see all Iraqis doing the halparkay. Also there are many Iraqi Arabs who tell me how much they wish that the rest of Iraq follow Kurdistan and becomes like them. These are the silent voices, we sadly only hear about the beheaders and kidnappers. My friend calls me to ask me what this song on Sharqiyah is because he loves it and it turns out to be Sivan’s song. Sivan is one of the greatest Kurdish nationalist singers. When I was in England in the summer, the Olympics were on and some of you may know Iraq reached far, I went to watch it at a Kurdish coffee shop in London and the place was packed. There were as many Kurdish flags as Iraqi flags and everyone was rooting for Iraq despite the presence of one Kurdish player. These are just examples that NOT ALL Arabs hate Kurds which is a common misconception people have. A civilised society can not be based on hate and mistrust and my hope is to break that, I mean look at African Americans in the States, it has taken them years and they are still victims of racist crimes until today but the difference in the level and type of abuse now and back in the day is like night and day. I do believe that our situation will get better if we can make sure that Kurds stay in important positions within the Iraqi central government then fight against it. It is in our benfiit to hold these important cabinet posts.

Maybe a lot of you will think I am too much of an optimist, and I admit I am. I was brought to respect human rights and values and in university studied 3rd world conflict in countries from Angola to the Philippines. Due to the creation of so many states that compromise different nations, the world has seen a lot of ethnic conflict in this past century. I believe violence and ignorance will get us nowhere, the fact is we live beside Arabs and many Kurds are married to Arabs and we depend on them for business, so its better to have them as friends than enemies. I was with a famous Kurdish politician recently and he said before the elections you are going to see a lot of talk about independence and separation because we Kurds learnt our lesson. This way we will compromise with federalism to appease them and it is a step. As nice as it sounds independence now is not feasible. Sadly recent events in Iraq against Kurds have brought back the painful tragedies of the past campaigns such as the Anfal and more. I assure you that a lot of non Kurdish Iraqis with education and background knowledge will open up their minds but it will take time.I believe we need FIRSTLY to become internally strong before forcing our legitimate demands on others.

When I watch the national assembly proceedings, I see that the banner has writing in Arabic and Kurdish; I see that the man in charge is Dr. Fouad Ma’asoum. It hurts me when some Kurds call him a traitor; to me he is a man who is doing his best for the Kurdish cause. He didn’t have to leave London to put his life on the line everyday, but he did so that we no longer have to worry about lack of strength in the central government. We as Kurds are a huge voting block and other major parties will be looking for our support to battle against the other parties. This way we might see our block get elected and slowly witness better lives for all of us. I am sure people will and can argue against all I have said. I myself can argue my statements by giving examples of why its not working so far. I guess hope and a genuine love of peace, drives me to feel the way I do. Throughout my life I have met many close minded Iraqi Arabs who have said things like Kurds came from Russia or other such nonsense. With some explaining and evidence I have changed many minds and I know that I can not do it on my own. I may sound like the biggest optimist on the planet but it’s only because I hope for the best for my people.

To see Dr. Barham Salih and I know how much he loves Kurdistan out there in Baghdad doing his best, this inspires me to do the same. There has never been true education of the masses in Iraq because of lack of real democracy. The purpose of this post was to kind of give you an idea of what kind of person I am. I hope that Kurdistan Bloggers let me know honestly if they wish for me to post again in here. I thank you for this opportunity. My aim is to write so that people get to read the thoughts and ideas of a Kurd who knows the Iraqi Arabic culture well, and by that I don’t mean what you see on TV. We all as Kurdish people have the same dream, the only difference is the way we go about it. Biji Biji Kurdistan and let me know if I should stop blogging here and join the readers list again! Honesty is appreciated.

Read This.

All I can say is "Dammit!"

Please watch this clip first




I think the others would do a much better job discussing Leyla Zanas speech to the european parliament today, but here's just a brief note about her

The picture above is of her finally accepting the Sakharov prize (EU human rights prize) which she awarded 9 yrs ago.
So what's the big deal with her exactly?
She was a parliamentarian and a kurdish rights activist in turkey who has been jailed for 10 years. Her crime? Adding this sentence in kurdish after she was sworn into parliament "I shall struggle so that the Kurdish and Turkish peoples may live together in a democratic framework".

She couldn't be charged at the time due to political immunity but 3 yrs later once her immunity was taken away and her democratic party declared illegal she was arrested alongside Selim Sadak, Hatip Dicle and Orhan Dogan (members of her party) with charges of treason and were subject to the very best of turkish hospitality for 10 yrs (think on an abu ghraib scale)
During her jail-time she became a symbol of the kurdish struggle in turkey, especially highlighting the brutal oppression the Turkish government had on kurds (banning of kurdish names, language, songs or political parties that address it's issues).

Regardless of what she has suffered and what she may suffer (there are attempts to re-try her again) she still doesn't harbor any animosity towards the turkish government and still hopes for dialogue with them.

All this and, apart from a few really hardworking campaigns and individuals, the world's conscience has been mute to her case and there exists an almost complete media black hole regarding her situation.

For more info about herhere's a report from amnesty USA

I was waiting to post about the leyla zana award, but i heard this news on the car radio about the new mass grave found in iraq. In case you are not aware it's a grave in hatra thats solely inhabited by women (some even pregnant) and babies that have been shot dead and then bulldozed into a hole. This was one of the acts that were part of saddam's anfal campaign against the kurds. I wasn't speaking lightly when i said last time child-murder was an activity mukhabarat baathists sorely miss. Anyway on the radio the presenter said something like "this may show that saddam's regime killed indiscriminately " as opposed to ppl who think that saddam killed for a reason? I mean are there seriously ppl out there who thought saddam had a reason for any of the crimes he did?.
And this fake shock expressed by everyone like they really didn't know what saddam was doing during his rule, well get your rehearsed gasps ready many many more sites like that are going to be found.
Even with all this hate going on, alot of iraqis travel to kurdistan during weekends and relaxing there, in fact one prize on sharqiya tv includes a honeymoon in hawler. The best comment I've heard so far is look arabs come to kurdistan and dance while kurds goin to the arabic side get beheaded (in case you aren't aware another kurd, this time a translator was beheaded alongside a turk by ansar al sunna)

I think acts such as this should be used as a warning to see how far hate can go, all these ppl who start shouting abuse against a certain race or religion or teaching their children and students blind hate should know that they are just a few degrees off the ppl who've done crimes like that if not already supporters of it.

His visit was to discuss three issues: 1.Kirkuk (Kurdish locomotive towards independence) 2.PKK-KongraGel (if we know how to deal with them they are the future PDK&KDP) 3.Open air for Kurdistan Airlines (we need to shout Kurdistan among the clouds,too). so overall compared to 1996(i think!) when they went their to talk about the cease fire between Kurds, we are making good progress!....huh

Ok so hate in Iraq isn't new, we've had government after government taking racism to newer heights until we reach saddam which was the ultimate textbook ideal of what a proud arab leader should do to the non-arabs.

But all this time I couldn't find ordinary iraqi arabs with the hate I'm hearing now against kurds. For example their avoidance of any dialogue the kurds have tried opening with them since the end of the war, the suicide bombings during Eid, the beheadings of kurds, the calls by clerics in mosques praising the animals who did that act and calling for more bloodshed (because they feel saddam hasn't done enough against us). Strangely enough most of the time there are actually kurds sitting in the mosques while these calls for blood are shrieked out, makes u wonder what kind of clerics are in Iraq now who don't even know who frequents their mosques and who doesn't. Ok I know it's not only the kurds who are facing this hate and that there are other “flavors of the day” lets say. But this kurd-baiting is really getting out of hand all that’s left now is an email forward that starts with "did you know that 2000 something kurds didn’t show up for work in WTC on Sep 11"

My mother spent a large pat of her life growing up in baghdad she used to say that iraqis in general used to compliment someone being loyal by saying "could be a kurd". I personally have never ever seen hate from any Iraqi I've grown up with. Even the ones you just meet always have something nice to say like a reference to shaqlawa or something about salahaddin or peshmerga or how we've been relieved of this "arab glory" joke that they still have to endure. Iraqis who are indifferent to the kurds have never come up to me and spout stuff like "you ‘re stealing our land" "american lapdog" "zionist agent". Kurds I know who left Baghdad before the war didn't face any of this hate as well. There are also iraqi writers like Adnan Hussein and Jasim Al Mutir (better explained here in Karda's post) that are staunch supporters of kurds and their rights. So what has changed?

The generic explanation used every single time to explain the situation is "but they're occupied". Oh really well try being occupied forever or in more recent history how about being occupied for 80 years by 4 racist states competing for the "kill the most kurds" title.

If we stick to Iraq, Kurds in iraq have been through exactly what arabs have been through except more extreme from gassing to mass graves to being a test subject for every kind of torture saddam and his posse can think of. These were all direct acts of an arab dream or the arab glory saddam used to refer to, all this and we didn't get any kurdish terrorist blowing up arab hangouts. To add on top of that when kurds in iraq did get their freedom they had to go through a senseless civil war as well and but after that was over with they didn't become a death cult to the rest of the region and no ansar al islam are not included since their priorities are cleansing of the kurds.

Or how about moving down to the rest of Iraq look at what they suffered for 35 years... humiliation, torture and mass murder. If that isn't occupation then I don’t know what is, 95% of Iraq was occupied by the dirtiest filthiest 5 percent of its community under the Baath flag. Its morals and traditions are evident in what became of the country. Iraqis had to live in poverty while other foreigners were placed on top of them. Iraqis had to pay for the bullets that their relatives were executed with while saddam paid tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for other arabs, europeans and americans to praise him or dedicate poetry or songs to him. Iraq used to be a mainly midde class society (very few really rich and very few really poor) it became a society of extremes, extremely rich ppl and extremely poor ppl with few families left in the middle.

All this was happening with praise and jubilation from the entire arab community, who by the way are still mourning saddams passing and still believe he will come back one day, and the international community. Then how come we never saw any iraqis blow themselves up in saddam-supporting countries (which basically was the entire world at the time) and where were these voice of truth media when all this was happening.

It’s unbelievable that after all Iraq has gone through they would be willing to repeat the cycle again everything seems to lead to these obvious conclusions. Saddam spent a lot of money and effort on his mukhabarat (secret police), army and military. How many of these ppl have been caught after the war ? Very very few. So what do state sponsored rapists and murderers do when there's no vacancies to practice their trade? Go to the street of course.. they have nothing to lose. Take fallujah for example at least 35 percent of that city were part of Saddams mukhabarat, that’s only mukhabarat so imagine how much of them were republican guards, torturers and fedayeen saddam there were. This group hate the kurds from the beginning so that's nothing new. Also add to that, borders opened up... now who usually take advantage of a weak state... entree islamists who also have a first class degree in slaughtering and anything unholy. So what we do get is two main groups who are in iraq for different reasons but have a common goal... hate america and get iraq under their control. Take something like this association of muslim skanks, isn't anyone asking how there were "independent" clerics out there who weren't killed by Saddam? He murdered anyone who doubted his authority and had to make sure he had more names than God. These people are simply baasthists in a new uniform
All these acts that are happening in Iraq have their stamp all over it the use of charity funds for terrorist activity, beheading, torture ,people worship, videotaping their crimes, using civilian human shields, child murder (something baathists have sorely missed) and only cowardly fighting in hiding.
I am not saying that iraqis are innocent of these acts, unfortunately alot are involved and more are being brainwashed by this ideology as we speak. The only good thing about this chaos is that baathists came out in their true colors whether they are activists or writers or politicians. In the aftermath of the war they tried thinly veiling it but now it's out in the open. At least later (if we ever have a safe secure later) there would be no way they’d be able to defend themselves against those allegations.
Any Iraqis even remotely supporting these acts must know that they are dispensable nobody cares about them and these groups they support are not going to stop at one race. Today it's us tomorrow it's you.

The commercial for the Iraqi elections looked like a movie with too many holes in it, well at my house anyway. "why is the electricity on" , "why aren't their faces tired" , "where's the sound of explosions, " why aren't they speaking at the same time" to list a few of the comments.
Every where’s abuzz with ideas regarding the elections, should they shouldn't they. I personally feel the only reason we're even holding elections is just to please all the countries who love referring to us as a puppet this puppet that. Keeping in mind that these countries themselves are made up of artificial kings and presidents, made of up artificial borders based on artificial treaties who of course didn't mind iraq's previous puppet presidents starting from the first king of iraq who was imported from jordan whose family in turn was imported from saudia arabia.

I've heard all arguments for and against elections and I must say I'm against it. Don't get me wrong I am all for democracy but is there really a point for an election that is going to lead to a bloodbath at polling booths and centers from day one. How many iraqis will be willing to vote with that threat on their heads. Strangely enough the ones we are meant to feel sorry are the mullahs and clerics that are causing the chaos and sabotaging in the first place because wait for it.... they may be sidelined. See this is exactly what happens when you only use to democracy to appease criminals.

Even an elected government is not going to stop conspiracy theories running by our beloved neighbors about iraq. These ppl won't stop sending their terrorists/exports into iraq unless iraq gets a president that's preferably a butcher who would continue paying their salaries.
All in all it’s just a waste of money to please ppl who just wish death and destruction for iraq and iraqis. What could be a more reasonable step is it to start elections on a smaller scale. Take a small relatively secure area in iraq, ooh i dunno kurdistan maybe, and see how elections go over there. I'm pretty sure there are many many people there who would like things changed in parliament, and in another way it could show the rest of Iraq how good elections can be.

But of course that is never going to happen and the coalition would love to see more iraqis die instead of giving anything tangible democratic or useful to the kurds. This isn't just a rant let me explain. Last year it was considered unreasonable to train iraqi officers in kurdistan even though the resources are there, it was very cost effective for bulk training and the peshmerga know exactly how to deal with these terrorist types. Instead the coalition decided to only train 30,000 iraqi officers in jordan for $1 bn dollars. Or how about the no-no of using kurdish peshmerga and iraqi troops (this again last year) for peacekeeping in iraq and instead wanting to waste $7-8bn to send 'peace' troops from turkey, who thanx to their constant foot in mouth tactics refused.
Notice how iraq is used as some sort of excuse to pour more money into countries that are hardly worth anything. Also all this and iraq's internal budget at the time was only $124 million.
Or how about Nato, everytime they mention the fact that it would be more useful for them to operate in kurdistan instead of say jordan... all neighboring countries and sometimes even egypt rush into meetings to make sure that doesn't happen

And don't even get me started on the reconstruction work, things would have advanced a lot more faster and safer if things were run from kurdistan saving more money and more lives but they would rather concentrate on area that does exactly the opposite. Most kurds are depending on businesses run by kurds or branches of companies that have head offices in Baghdad to get anything done. Our telecom is homegrown they’re not completely privately owned though but maybe there will be potential to do so. So far these companies, sanatel and asiacell, are doing really well in brining in foreign inverstors into the country. The electricity in major kurdish cities has been running to its full power for a few months as well and that was mostly done by kurds.

If something like electricity could be sorted out (in iraq that’s a huuuuuge step) elections shouldn’t be that much of a problem. I’m not saying things are great up there but that’s exactly why elections are needed. It would be a great force of strengthening kurdish ties with each other( after all there still exists animosity from the civil war in the 90s) kurds ties with other minorities co-existing with them.. after all even kurdistan is ethnically diverse the other minorites should be represented well (and no not by these hate based organisation that keep popping up on alam and mustaqilla tv but by assyrians,chaldeans, turkmen and yezidis from kurdistan that do want good for it) and at least it could slow down those mafia like techniques both parties seem to imposing over there. And there definitely won't be any room for islamists and their ilk to have chance at it... actually thinking of it I've hardly ever heard anyone mention these jihadi group without the use of extremely colorful expletives. We do have alot of work to do but at least we are willing to move forward. I'm not saying the rest of Iraq isn't, the silent majority is paralyzed by fear… imagine what it's like to always worry about whether you would come back home every time u leave the house or worry about if your relatives are alright constantly... now add to that something as jihadi threatening as elections. Iraq is still run by islamist thugs only when they are removed would they ever be able to move forward.

Congrats to islamists for making sure that every single news item today had to include them and their monstrous signature. All the news stories today everywhere from the explosions at taba, to the explosion in paris to the daily murdering of iraqis to the gruesome beheading of mr. ken bigley was done by islamists. Yes the bravery of jihad at its best to make a 62 old civilian watch the beheading of his colleagues, be put in a cage for 2 weeks and then eventually murdered. Well at least he's at peace now and these ..i don’t even know what to call them now.. will never be able to reach him anymore. All these acts and its meant to be a Friday, a holy day, so imagine what it would be like when Ramadan starts. With the way things are going I guess God this year will have to change his routine and keep the gates of hell open this ramadan to welcome the overflow of queuing jihadis.

"Demanding self-determination is an act of treason and will be suppressed forcibly"

Well the Interim President of Iraq Ghazi al-Yawar says Iraq will stay in one piece and wanting it otherwise is "bad". Turkey has done the same thing to its Kurds for years, wanting your own homeland is bad therefore we are going to punish you, and know it looks like al-Yawar is taking a page from that book as well. Besides for "a considerable period of history Iraq has been a unified country", I'm sorry but fifty years is not a considerable amount of history to an area that has been inhabited since before 3000 bc! And to make this all the more annoying, this is the same man that our friend and Kurdish minister in the Interim goverment Nesreen Berwari married. Way to pick a hubby Nesreen.

And since I am in angry mode. Last Saturday I was at the store wearing my "Free Leyla Zana" t-shirt, which yes is out of date but I was wearing it anyway. Some random guy asked me why she was imprisoned, as soon as I said "she is a Kurdish activist" he said, "ahh, an insurgent." I tried to explain to him that she wasn't an insurgent but a peaceful activist and parlimentarian but he wouldn't listen. My fellow Americans, I know that you watch the nightly news and that you are trying to be informed, but please, please, please...don't start throwing the big words that news anchors use unless you really understand what exactly they mean. It annoys me that now in the US, Kurdish is so often associated with being an "insurgent" and thanks to Mr. al-Yawar for continueing that fine fine tradition.

UGH!

"If an American is speaking Kurdish so flawlessly, I told my friends, there must be something beautiful about our language and I asked my friends why we weren’t learning to speak it. What a pity that most of the Kurds from Turkey have internalized the negativities which the Turkish state has imposed upon them and have distanced themselves from their mother language and thus their Kurdishness"
"Unlike the popular saying, “Kurds have no friends but the mountains” I believe we Kurds have many great friends who have contributed to the Kurdish language and culture, like.."

Thanx to a contributor for letting us know that there were demonstrations outside kurdistan, these are smaller than the ones that happened earlier in the year probably because I don't think many ppl knew about it (well at least the ones I've spoken to).


more frankfurt photos available here



and london photos available here

Over the past few months all we ever see is smiling kidnappers showering their victims with kisses and gifts every time they are set free while the rest of the world is meant to think that they are kind decent human beings.
No of course it has nothing to do with the fact that these ppl will probably sell their own parents for a dollar and therefore logically will be drowning the hostages with kisses for the amount of money given to them. What are these gifts they give away anyway, im curious.. their version of the Quran? Jilbabs? Knock off choclates like ulker and ghandoori which are disappointing imitationsof the real thing?.

Alot of these hostages only seem too happy to go complimenting their kidnappers and how they showed great iraqi hospitality, excuse me maybe these guys know more about iraq than I do but the last time I went back I wasn't greeted by masked relatives who threw me in a car, drove me away and flung me in the corner of a room for days before greeting me. Maybe the etiquette of hospitality has changed since the last time i visited.

I could understand it if the vicitms were iraqi or had to live in Iraq, I mean not everyone there can afford protection so they'll have to choose their words wisely, but ppl who leave Iraq what’s their excuse.
They're going out of their way to praise how good these ppl were "they fed me really well, they took care of me, i had the best clothes, that was the finest set of venerial diseases i've ever picked up"

I'm not only referring to that interview by the 2 simonas they are just an exaggeration of what was already happening. For 2 caring aid workers who have done so much work for iraqi children that interview made them look like 2 extremely self-centered tits. Don't get me wrong I'm glad they are released and ok i wasn't expecting an interview with 2 weak whimpering women but i definitely wasn't expecting this. The things written there were completely insensitive to families of iraqis and foreigners who have been murdered by these "kind , caring" terrorists. I mean stuff like "The guerrilla war is justified, but I am against the kidnapping of civilians." Why because that’s what happened to you and only things that happen to you are important? So the senseless slaughter of 35 children a few days ago or beheading or the constant murder of iraqis in mosques, churches, shops and everywhere is ok because it doesn't affect you?

Though reading about how they learned about the pillars of islam through getting kidnapped made me think how come the association of muslim scholars didn't find a way to market that idea, they're the type of ppl who are willing to make money out of anything. You know sell it as some kind of "adventure and spirituality package", who needs to learn from books or visit ancient sites,just hang around one of their offices long enough and the journey to learn islam their way begins

The implications of stories like that are pretty bad. On one hand they give the terrorists more PR than they ever imagined, encouraging more acts like that to happen and on the other make it look like all Iraqis are prone to be kidnappers. Seriously look at the explanations some 'analysts' give its always along the lines of "they are just having a hard time so they kidnap", you know like its just a thing we do. While some ppl deal with stress by breaking things we choose to kidnap ppl. It's bad enough being the victims of the crime but also being told that all the criminals are iraqis (no evidence given for that) and that this is an inbuilt thing iraqis (whatever their origin of course ignoring the areas that don't have these crimes) come with
So maybe the next time I have a rough day i should start looking up the tourist hotspots and start sizing up the ppl there, shall i kidnap the american one in colorful getup with the pink bumbag, or how about the orange british guy whose sunburnt to a point where his joins cant meet, no wait maybe the bordering-on-albino blonde dutch guy who never gets his directions right... or how about taking a shorter route and kidnapping members from my own family there's enough nationalities there to spare

more photos available here (thanx piling for finding it)

To view the video (complete with presenter trying to finish the entire thing in one breath) go here and click on the news icon. The demonstrations are on 1:28 mins into the news.
Anyone know if anything similiar happened in Europe yesterday?

mini-update
my bad i thought no one reported it, jazeera's scrolltext has ,in its true to nature form, reported it as demonstration by kurds to kick arabs out of kirkuk... and u wonder how hate mongers.

I thought about just adding this in the comments section, but I changed my mind. Also I would have remarked on this earlier but I had my wisedom teeth taken out on Monday and I have been in a drug induced stupor.

First of all I need everyone to note that I do not agree with Turkish law, however, the revision of the penal code is a step in the right direction for the Turkish government.

Turkish law is a lesson in sematics, on the surface it appears to grant a lot of rights, but the their documents were made with "loopholes" in place. From a legal standpoint all of the villages destroyed in the southeast, all of the torture that has gone on, is COMPLETELY LEGAL according to their law code. The Emergency Rule law basically gives the military commander in charge absolute control, and releases them from liability afterwards. Did you know that also under Turkish law if you are a victim of torture you can seek compensation from the government (or if a relative was killed under torture)? Not many do because most are scared to even approach the subject. In order to get into the EU, Turkey can no longer use the Emergency Rule law, so they have fallen back on their Anti-Terror law. Which is evil. (Unfortuately I don't have the code in front of me, I will try to find it later when I get home and I will post it in the comments.) Article 8 basically says that if you even "think" badly against the state that you could face 15-20 years in prison. How does one defend themselves against their own thoughts?

In order for the EU to accept Turkey they also need to revise the Anti-Terror law and that is what they have done with this new revision. There is nothing new in the codes, because people have been tried and convicted on the same issues, just labeled under a different heading. However, these new codes have limits placed upon them. This is good. The situation is still awful, but at least now they are trying to make it a little more legit. What I find very interesting is the new restrictions on the media, it has always been something left unsaid, but now the government is making a very clear stance on freedom of the press. Also the unsettling addition is the outlining of the provisions that a citizens behavior while abroad can and will be taken in a court of law. So all of our activists friends in the diaspora can still be held accountable for some pretty hefty crimes in the eyes of the Turkish government.

Here is another thing that bothers me. Leyla Zana and friends are going to be re-tried later this year. Now that the penal code has changed, they can again charge her with the exact same unfair charges, but since they are new laws it is fair game. The trial will be the same as before, hopefully they will only convict her of time served.

So the penal code is good and bad. It is good because the massive loopholes are severely restricted, this leaves you with a little sense of where exactly you stand when you are counting up your crimes. It is bad because nothing has changed.