Many Turkish intellectuals or journalists have a strong and clever analysis of their own country and its problems. Fine paper of Dogu Ergil about what he calls a "lumpen nationalism" facing the Kurdish Question in Turkey. Here is the bright conclusion :
" In defense of Turkishness, meaning the official definition of citizenship in Turkey, other ethnic or cultural identities have become the "other". The insistence of incorporating Kurdishness into Turkishness, rather than uniting them in the general framework of citizenship, has created two conflicting nationalisms. Rather than creating a citizens' synergy, Turkish nationalism and Kurdish nationalism have been sharpened against each other like two blades. Turkish nationalism has become even more narrowly focused in recent years as an antithesis of Kurdish nationalism; this has come about in defense of the unity of the country and the "nation" that is defined as Turkish. Such nationalism is indubitably xenophobic and authoritarian. How, then, can it be the political vehicle to make Turkey become a global or even a regional actor?
Kurdish rebellion made Turkish nationalism even more ethnocentric. Additionally, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and intentions of regime change in Iran and Syria contaminated Turkish nationalism with anti-Americanism as they evoke fears of possible scenarios for Turkey.
There are enough conspiracy theorists among the statist guard and nationalists to amplify fear and suspicion of the "imperialists". When one of my graduate (doctoral) students mentioned "EU imperialism" as if it were a matter of fact during a presentation she gave in class, I was awestruck. She was even more confused when I asked her for concrete proof of this so-called imperialism. It was too obvious for her to find supporting evidence. What have we done wrong? Where did we go wrong in rearing such a paranoiac generation? Is foreign policy really a conspiracy of imperialist scheming? Or have we denied ourselves the knowledge and instruments of understanding to see ourselves as members of a greater contemporary world, a world we have come to fear so much? I am honestly confused."
What do u do if ure village was razed when u were a child, had ure family deported and be sent to a torture prison all before u turned 15
1) Join the holy resistance and kill kill kill 2) Join the university circuit with your sob story and then explain why u need to kill kill kill 3) Leave the country, get a BA in film and start a dance group
I've mentioned the dance group shano before, well the guy behind it is Karzan Sherabayani. It stories like this that make u think wow we really are different, i mean now all a bathist (or any other racist turd) needs is to get an electricity or pay cut and out come those beheading knives oh yes and guess who gets all the world sympathy and charity.
Anyway Karzan did a newsnight show a few weeks back about the elections in kirkuk (where he's from) and this is his first time back in 25 years I didn't see it and I'm not sure if they showed it on the bbc world service anyway but the video is available here (need quicktime) with a summary of the entire thing.
The story starts with him visiting the graves of hos mother (who has recently died) and that of his brothers and father. He also visits the ruins of the village that was razed to the ground by iraqi forces back in 1963 (and subsequently led to his fmaily being deported)
He even visits the kurdish refugees who live in the kirkuk stadium. These are the kurds that have been force dout of their home more or less 20 yrs ago by the arabziation process A process which by the way no one is willing to reverse, of course as it is every humans right to kick another out of his home and defend that right
And by the way these people are fed up of reporters doing there interviewing them as pity cause and not giving anything to support them Can u imagine theres not one stable charity for them. But take the case of non-iraqi arabs who have become homeless after the war there's even university talks about that.
Now if those people weren't kurds and just happened to be fallujans who simply just wanted to allow foreign fighters in their home leading to iraq in chaos everyone would be shedding loads of tears and ink on news stories about them
And in case ure thinking, i couldn't even give a damn about them if i tried, they were saddam people who lived off at the expense of decent iraqis. The educated iraqis were forced out of iraq or kept beneath and tortured by these people who flourished, this is after all where most of saddams filthy secret police came from anyway. the only one i do respect are the ones who were forced out of their homes by the foreign fighters who took their place and the 7000 who went to vote in the elections
Anyway back to the article, another important moment in this interview is when Karzan is searching for a proper gravestone for his mother and the stonesmason ends up being the man who gave him in to saddams secret police 25 yrs ago.
Someone needs to tell this guy to set up a site well at least for Shano, the dancing really is great for people who did it as a part-time thing. Anyone else know of any other kurdish dance groups I'd love to link them up.
While I'm at the topic of kirkuk I noticed this link Swara used (if u dont mind me borrowing). NyTimes article In the Balance by Nir Rosen. I've also used the puk link since NYtimes articles usually get archived after a week
I thought it was a good article, especialy the bits with kurdish general kak Rostum: "Kirkuk is part of Kurdistan. When we win, we'll make Kirkuk the safest and richest city in the Middle East" Aah if onlly they'd let you, and not get sidelined by everyone else's political interest.
Nir also interview the Gray Wolves, a group so bad that the KKK could even think "Damn thats racist".
'We belong to the Turkish Gray Wolves because we believe that anything taken by force can only be taken back by force' one of the men told me. 'It is their rights that the Turkmens want back', I was told, though their politics came to a sudden stop when they were asked to explain what those rights were. 'The Turks have lived here for 4,000 years,' another of the men said, in a historical addition of about 3,000 years
Wondering where those people were when saddam was persecuting turkmens oh wait on his paylist of course, like all other newly found "we apparently care about our country" groups And these people were allowed to live in kirkuk during his time when we weren't even allowed to go though this city to reach kurdistan (even though my mom was born there)
Anyway jeremy brown on michael totten's blog thinks it was a bad article because Nir simplifies it to the fact that kurds are just there for the oil. I kinda thought that too in the beggining but I ignored it cos' thing is i usually filter those bits out and article was pretty good otherwise, and c'mon u dont expect these newsppapers or any MSM sources to like kurds anyway and they never did, did they.
I mean even the documentaries that do talk about refugees in kirkuk for example, look at the way its presented. They could show u bunch of people living in some make-shift home and the voiceover wold say something like "they will fight to take control of kirkuk from everyone else". Instead of saying why are these people still living like this or why haven't they been helped by anyone Or they refer to the halbja and anfal as alleged incidents even though there are tons of videos and documents proving it happened, while they have no qualms about taking unverified stories from shady sources about kurds that directly put them in danger. Remember the israel story. No proof at all yet look at how it was splashed across the newspapers ended up false no apology, compare that with the story about the mass grave filled with infants and even unborne babies
But then again these people oversimplify everything don't they, I mean for example if they wanna show an unlikeable country in a good light, say a middle eastern or muslim country what is the best used template they ALWAYS use. Simple show a scene or a clip where there's an athan (prayer call) and another clip whre girls are in mini skirts (because that MUST mean that they are weaternized) or some misty club scene So they're assuming the ppl watching (or reading) would think "Gee i thought this was an islamic fundamentallist state but then that mini-skirt came up and now i think its a democracy"
Even though most middle eastern countries you would find people who dress like that, even places like saudi the people who would want to would dress like that under the abaya. And yes ppl in the ME do go clubbing or the to the beach or any place veryone else in the world go to. If we're going to speak in that mentality iran used to be hot pants central in the 70s yet u never find anyone speaking kindly of them
So whats big deal, why do they despise showing people in other places exactly like them, i think probably cos' it takes away their joy of talking down to them. They're exactly like you, they just happen to live under repressive government don't take it out on them just stop complimenting how "modern thinking" their governments are for a change.
unwilling to push medya's post down but this was really touchy to me!
Heard of Amnesty International? I had, but didnt know that the founder was British..and he started it after he heard that two students were imprisoned after in a Porteguese cafe raising their glasses "to Liberty". The founder was Peter Benenson, and he passed away on Friday aged 83. shots from his life.... "Born on 31 July 1921, Peter Benenson is the grandson of the Russian-Jewish banker Grigori Benenson and son of the notable Flora Solomon who raised him alone after the death of her husband, British Army colonel John Solomon. He was tutored privately by WH Auden, then went to Eton and Oxford where he studied history." "To mark AI's 40th anniversary, Peter Benenson said: "Forty years on, Amnesty International has secured many victories. Its files are full of letters from former prisoners of conscience or torture victims thanking the organisation for making a difference. Torture is now banned by international agreement. Every year more countries reject the death penalty. The world will soon have an International Criminal Court that will be able to ensure that those accused of the worst crimes in the world will face justice. The Court's very existence will deter some crimes." read more about this MAN!
look at his face he was just 11 years old , can you see him ? his name is ugur kaymaz . but he is dead. he was killed by 4 Racist Turkish Police. yes ladies and gentleman , in Turkey , the country that USA calls it "The Model of democracy" , 4 Big Men, with gun and and batum, killed this small Kurd boy , these Racist Turks say "we thought he is terrorist" Congratulation to Mr.Bush . When USA calls P.K.K freedom fighters "terrorist" just for being a Left party , then these Turks dare to call a boy terrorist just for beging Kurd .
some days ago a Turk Blogger asked himself and others , why Kurds hate us ? and the Kurdistan Bloggers answered him , Kurdo , KBU and Simko and others.
I commented on the turk blogger , and I wrote for him "please read our answer , here is the link , to see why we hate your government "
but this Turk blogger deleted my comment containing the link , I re-wrote my comment , again and again and the Turk blogger, deleted it again and again ... and I saw this on his commment page :
If you write bad words and lies about me and my nation, i will delete it. If you write again and again, it isn't a big problem, i will delete it... This is my weblog, not a place for your foolish propaganda...
oh my god ! I just posted a link to reply to your question "why Kurds hate Turks..." ofcourse it is your blog, but you asked a question and we replied you , you questioned us ! you wanted to show that we are some Racist peopel , the word propaganda is suitable for your post not ours , we wont delete your comment if you answer to our "Propagenda" but you do ! you looser .
These Turks used to delete every thing that they don't like .it isn't a big problem forthem ,they mark them a bad word , like Terrorist and in this case "foolish propaganda" and then delete them .
as they deleted "Uguer Kaymaz" the 11 years old Kurdish boy on the earth. If Uger Kaymaz wasn't in Turkey , and was killed in Palestine , in any other place of the world, the Medias would paid attention to him . many Kurds have done protest in Turkey , against this crime against humanity ...but no media covers it ... I am sick of these Medias. when a poor israeli slaps a real terrorist everybody shouts at him and condemns it ..but nobody even mention killing a Kurd boy .
unfortuantely because they have the USA's FULL support they dare to continue being racist and being evil . but no matter, we will continue fighting for the sake of our peshmergas , for the sake of "Uguer Kaymaz".
for the sake of even people as close as Kurdo not to mis-understand my "Turks" term, I declare this term to be "The Turkish Goverment and those who hate Kurds for no reason apart from being racists"
now, I was just reading a warning on www.haberturk.com , it says: "the analysis we made one week before the Iraq is being reminded once again" well I guessed it was about a Kurdish issure with no hesitation so I clicked on it and it says in brief:
Turkey at the moment is heading towards a catastrophe in the hands of a bunch of Islamists, leftists and fashion people! ...continues
Tomorrow, if the Kurds and Americans would be back to back, they can kick us out of Northerniraq. Then we will lose Kirkuk, Mosul and brother Turkomen living there for ever....continues!
This news comes after sevral critics about how the Turks (i mean them mentioned above only) have been handling their relations in Iraq and in Kurdistan (Northern iraq), and aslo how intellectuals have been advising the gov to change its whole policies in Iraq. there is now rumours and about to become true, that The Turkoman front which have not only been deceiving its owns supporters but their state supporters "Turkey" about their numbers and influence throughout Iraq and Kurdistan. Their mistake whther it was by islamists or the others mentioned in the analysis is so big that I dont think they will be able to correct it even if they get into EU. the other update is, almost everyday their media comes up with some quote from Barzani or some other Kurdish leader, and today they are sending their FIRST official delegate to the Mountain Turks "Kurds", who have tought them the best lesson, or as a greek reporter had written about entering Kirkuk and Mosul by peshmargas at the time of the war "a bitter pill for the Turks". After all these and with the current powerful Kurdish bloc in the Iraq's new goverment, they are daydreaming of convincing Iraq's new president "Talabani" to re-use his old comment about Kirkuk to be a Brussels like place, which still is in our favour as we are demanding democracy (the real one!) where we will be able to decide where exactly Kirkuk lies. Even if Talabani goes for abit softer approach than Barzani's it is still a very good indication that Kurdish leaders proved it to the international community that we mean FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY and have tought the Turks a lesson of politics (remember i still know very little about this word)!
I hope in his meeting with the delegate, as described on one of the online sites which I dont remember, this time Talabani repeats the characteristic mentioned "he sometimes goes exactly in the opposite direction you might guess" and tell them: "It is time to talk like neighbours, Kurds-Turks, and remember Kurds in northern Kurdistan are listenign to my words and Kirkuk is Kurdistan's Quds(Jerusalam)"
let me leave it here and wait for reports from the meeting!
It seems that the Chairman of the DEHAP in Diyarbekir, Celalettin Birtane, would like to invite for the Newroz the singers S,ivan Perwer, Aram Tîgran, Irahim Tatlises and Sezen Aksu.
It would be nice to see S,ivan in Diyarbakir. Kurds would be happy there, and for this singer, the scene of Diyarbakir, surrounded by the safety guards of the DEHAP and Turkish police, would be undoubtedly protected against any attacks from PKK commandos, as it happens systematically in Europe. It would be a pure result of PKK line and its brilliant defence of Kurdish democracy and culture, to make Turkey the surest place for a so "bijî Kurdistan" singer like S,ivan...
I think someone needs to pass this note to all these pretentious governments and their mouthpieces I can find no other explanation as to why these countries are still attempting to totally humiliate themselves over and over again.
I mean take the case of the jailed iranian bloggers you'd think a country that's so damn busy as showing itself macho like these headlines:
Speaking of nuclear arms up there, they keep claiming its their God-given right to own nuclear weapons "to protect their people", how about spending that much needed money on something useful like a basic earthquake warning system or how about making stable buildings that don't collapse so easily especially for a country that's known to be an earthquake hotspot, the stupidity is beyond ridiculous now
In a similar level, yesterday on Iraqia TV they showed confessions of those islamists who show up so bravely screaming and shouting God's name shamelessly while killing their innocent victims
apparently they're the first ppl to break down when caught. Funny how you never find one of them even vaguely defending their "holy cause" once they're caught
MOSUL, Iraq, Feb. 4 - In one scene, the videotape shows three kidnappers with guns and a knife, preparing to behead a helpless man who is gagged and kneeling at their feet.
In the next, it is one of the kidnappers who is in detention, his eyes wide with fear, his lips trembling, as he speaks to his interrogators. apparently it's loosely based on "America's most wanted"
"We are going to show you some men who have the blood of innocent people on their hands," the official said. "We are going to show you their confessions, say their names and those of their leaders, and we expect you to help us find them."
And now for the really annoying bit , as usual Iraq-related situations won't be complete without some "i have just discovered morals" tit bleating on about human rights
Some people said they found the practice of showing the insurgents on television troubling.
Sarah lea Watson of Human Rights Watch said such tactics raised the issue of whether the people were tortured or otherwise coerced into making the statements.
Ooh sorry troubling? can somebody please tell these "people" and their kind, that you guys weren't there when iraq needed you most please save us your pretentious newly found morals and leave us in Peace. These supposed "victims" they're defending even killed a guy cos' of an american water bottle found in his car. Funny how that story and the kidnapping of an Iraqi tv presenter and her son from Mosul (the day after these confessions were shown) failed to be mentioned anywhere. What is that not "troubling" enough?... what a joke
There was this clip I was hoping the someone will mention, the part where a number of criminals admit their leader was a .... (Wait for it) a recent convert to islam. The best bit was this interrogator asking him "This man hasn't even been circumcised yet" (kind of like the basic step to becoming a muslim male) "and u ppl went all the way to make him your leader?".
What a sad state muslims have led islam to. You can just dress a pig (no wait make it even a lamppost) in some rags and you would get a huge cult screaming on about how divine it is.
If everyone stopped defending these bearded monkeys and stopped showering them un-needed attention we wouldn't have these problems. Since the media is so obsessed with "islamic groups" why not go for some organization like Free Muslims Against terrorism So far everything I've read from this group is reasonable (another plus factor is that their website seems to be banned in a few middleeastern countries)
this is an answer to this Turk's post on his blog .
that says
On Fikirbaz's blog I checked the comments on one of the topics. In the comments, it was written "I hate you Turks". From the site of the person, it seems that he is one of the Iranian Kurds. It seems a bit strange because the person says on his blog "Woe to all who like to hate". A while ago on an Iraqi Kurdish blog I saw a starting topic of "Turks are our main enemy", in this writing I read "I don't know why they hate us so much"...
Dear Mr ... as I have said on my own blog , I hate all who "like" to hate . this is different with "all who hate".
Dear Mr , I always like peace and love between nations , and I believe nobody should be hated for its nationality but ... Turks has done their best to motivate and encourage me to hate them... and I did my best to not hate Turks...But I cant control myself.
- You country didn't let 20 millions (or even more) Kurds in Turkey to speak their native language. - You kept on saying "Kurds are Wild Turk and Kurdish is a part of Turkish language" - You kept on killing Kurds and Torturing them , Raping to their girls . - Your country cant bear to see the Kurdistan name and tries to delete every Kurdistan word in the World. - and and and ...
unfortunately all these wasn't just by your government, and I could feel that Turks are really happy with that . and even some Turk people wanted the government to be more cruel, like the Gray Wolves. I read a part of this article that has omething about the gray wolves ,
I can never never forget the scenes that I saw , many Turkish soldier were heating a Kurdish Girl in the head , and she was killed in the Street ... Her head exploded by the hard beating of the Turks... she was just a Kurd Freedom Lover Kurd...
and this isn't the only case... Just for the sake of example , Turkish Police recently killed a 12 years old boy , if the Turks aren't racist , why should they kill a small boy ?
I remember a Kurd that said he had a restaurant in Paris , named Kurdistan . he said "I got messages from the Turks if I don't change the name of my restaurant they will kill me"
I remeber the most famous singer of the turkey , ibrahim tatlis who is a Kurd, never been allowed to sing in Kurdish and when he went to have a concert in kurdish out of turkey , in Germany , the Turks bombed his concert and killed many Kurds there.. it wsn't the Turkish Government ...
the Turkey and the Turks cant even bear to see the Kurdistan ***NAME *** they keep on warning the Media Channels to dont use the Iraqi Kurdistan , they must use northern iraq !!
again just for the sake of the example , the Microsoft company had published an encolpydia (a kind of dictornary) program , in that program they had definition for the Kurdistan name .... then the Turkey government arrested ---"Kidnaped" the Microsoft employee in the Turkey and put him in the prison , and the Turkey told the Microsoft, you will see your employee again , after you deleted Kurdistan in that program... and the microsoft had to delete kurdistan name in it's program .
The thing that makes me more angrey is , Turkey is the US- alley and you know the US-Alley's get the full support of the World's Media ... you can always see when a palestininan get hurts in the Medias... but you never never never hear what Turkey do with the Kurds . recently a Kurd guy was killed by police in the 15th Feb 's protest ,, I checked it almost no media covered it .
Unfortuantely because USA didn't have a better choice they choose Turkey as their alley in Middle East . this makes me EXPLODE in hatred.... all of the World's Power against poor Kurds., thats so unfair...
Today Turkey claims the Kirkuk because it has some percent of the Turkmens.... mind that Turks and Turkmen are different. and Turkey claim Kirkuk and Warn Kurds to attack them if they get kirkuk , and everybody and every historic document shows Kirkuk as a part of Kurdistan (even your own Othmani Maps !!!)
the question is "why Turkey don't let Kurds to claim the same thing , there are 25 millions Kurds in Turkey we can claim it as Kurdistan ! " but there is just some thousands Turkmens in Kirkuk and you claim it Turkey .
I have chated with many Turks ,almost all of the them are racist against Kurds, some of them say , each Turk must behead 4 Kurds .
if i wanted to write the Evilness of the Turkey , it would taken be a book ... but you just should know , we Kurds are mad at Turks and we have right to be mad at them.
I myself personaly hate Turks believe if I hate Turks , some people like you, will question themselves "why this Kurd hates me , what have I done to him ...What should I do ..."
the important question that you must ask yourself is "WHAT SHOULD I DO , THAT KURDS DON"T HATE TURKS..." I will stop hating you , when you told your government to stop being evil . my hatred is diffrent with Racist Gray Wolves' hatred. the Gray Wolf Turks LIKE to hate for the sake of Turkish Nationalism. I , HAVE TO , hate for the sake of Justice , for the sake of humanity.
sorry to push out Hiwa's appeal.... But the conference of yesterday, in the Kurdish Institute of Paris, by a former French ambassador, Bernard Dorin, was quite interesting and I have transcribed a large part (I am not a dictaphone, so I shortened long passages, without changing the meaning of course...). For people who know the Kurdish Question very well, it won't bring new elements. But it was a clear and all encompassing talk, and it could be a good first step if you'd like to understand the Kurdish problem. There were too beautiful memories of a man who loves really Kurds, not like poor victims, but for their energy and their courage, and that is not so common in our time of victim's praising....
We have to notice the presence, for the first time, in the Kurdish Institute, of the Iraqi ambassador, who sat down next to Saywan Barzani, the representative of the Kurdish Regional Gobernment, and then the representative of Kurds, and the permanent delegate of Iraq with UNESCO : things change...
Conference
"I have firstly to tell you that, as an unconditional friend of the Kurds, I have 3 homelands (as Joséphine Baker said that she had 2 loves, her country and Paris). I have 3 homelands : France, Quebec and Kurdistan.
I would like to also mention in preamble the recent elections in Iraq, elections which for the first time were entirely free in this country. This considerable event has already had repercussions before even its unfolding, for it had led the two authorities sharing the area to be combined for this election, and then Kurds are number 2. When the Israelo-Palestinian conflict is finished - and it finishes early or late - the Kurdish Question will be the major problem to be solved of the Middle East. Knowing the Kurdish wisdom and moderation, I hope that the Kurdish problem could be solved in the four countries (Iran, Irak, Syria, Turkey), in the best and the rightest way. For language is identity, and each family has the right to hope that his children could speak their own language, without being massacred or deported.
I want to write a teaching booklet for all the French-speaking people. Because of lack of time, it is a succession of questions and answers. Questions are asked by a journalist, (we had agreed on them together) and I answer. I think that these questions sweep the whole of the Kurdish Question in the 4 countries. The last part concerns the possible future of Kurds.
I would like to also speak about the photograph which is on the book. I am very fond of it. I took it in 1968, in Kurdistan. I can tell you now that this little boy thereafter was made prisoner and killed, probably tortured. But I chose it, for because he breathes joy in life, hope, and he symbolizes the Kurdish people : A little warrior, for Kurds are a warlike people, neither by will nor because they like it, but by necessity. Historians think that they were, little by little, reduced to occupy the mountains in a defensive way. I remember the proverb that prince Bedir Khan quoted: "the mountain is the citadel of my heart."
In Turkey, Kurds are between 14 and 18 million, perhaps 16. They are 2 million in Syria. Before Saddam Hussein they were 5 million in Irak, perhaps 4 million now. In Iran, 8 million, so it makes 30 million. And what is interesting in this distribution, it is the geographical unity of their settlement, which covers the highest mountains of the area.
Formerly, the Kurdish people were completely included in the Ottoman Empire. But after battles against Persians, the latter obtained the border of the Zagros mounts. So until 1918, Kurds were only divided in 2 parts, and it was a less uncomfortable situation than nowadays. French and Brittons made this division into 4 parts. After 1923, Turkey losed the totality of its Arab areas plus the vilayet of Mosul, which they always claim, more or less openly . These borders, which were done under the French and English mandates, perdure today.
The history of Kurdish populations was then, very different, according to the countries where they lived, without a real coordination each other. Each parts had faced different events. For example, the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, of 1946 did not have repercussions out of Iranian Kurdistan, if we exclude the participation of the Kurdish General Mustafa Barzani.
The Kurds' wisdom leads them today to claim their rights within this official state framework, the only one which is realistic today. And they have a very good card to play in Iraq, in several conditions :
- All the area initially populated by Kurds should be given back to people who were expelled (Kirkuk, then) ;
- The 2° condition is that a great autonomy should be granted not only to the Kurds, but with all the components of Iraq, within the framework of a federal State or - better still! - in a confederal State, which would reinforce the Iraqi State instead of weakening it.
Now I am ready to answer to your questions.
(The following questions were asked in the public).
Q. : You talked about Palestinians. But it is difficult to imagine that the Kurdish Question could be resolved, because of the 4 zones which divide us, contrary to the Palestinians who are not divided. Do you think that a reunification of all the Kurds might be possible one day ?
A. : The Kurds, at least, do not fight against Israel, which is an ally of the greatest power! Moreover, Kurds are clever, and even if, like the Poles in the 19° century, they could wish their reunification, they do not claim it. In the current circumstances, in the explosive context of the Middle East, with the traditional hostility of the chancelleries to any change of border, it would not be realistic... Of course, these changes occur sometimes, in spite of the opposition of the chancelleries, as in ex-Yugoslavia, or into ex-Czechoslovakian, where separation was done peacefully, or in the ex-USSR... But in general the chancelleries prefer the statu-quo. Personally, I am often against it, the statu-quo is more dangerous when it goes against necessary evolutions. However, later, who knows ? In one century, in one half-century, things can change.
Q. : Among these "States which do not like to change the borders", there are those which precisely created them. Then can't they either reorganize borders ? Of course, the total reunification is very difficult.
A. : I am not agree with you when you say that the Great Powers create borders which they can themselves move. The creation of borders of States implies a reality which crystallizes and fixes them. The same states traced in Africa borders which had nonsense, by ignorance of the positions where the people were. It is the same thing in the Middle East with Cilicia, Syria, Turkey, etc). The division in the treaty of Sevres envisaged a Kurdish State and a Armenian State. But the victory of the General Ismet Inönü, who pushed back the French of Cilicia, changed everything. In the Sykes-Picot agreements, the Syrian mandate was cut down by the vilayet of Mosul, which in first should belonged to the French. The English required that it return at the new Iraqi State, pretexting that without the oil-bearing richness of Kirkuk, Iraqi state would not be viable. However, Syria, had the same need! And in this negotiation the French had been, euh... I would not say the word.
Q. : How the famous Syrian Bec-de-Canard (the "Duck nozzle" of Jazirah, between Iraqi and Turkish border) had been traced ?
A. : Following the negotiation on the vilayet of Mosul. General de Gaulle made a thesis, when he was a colonel, on the Syrian Bec-de-Canard, he mentionned in particular Yezidis.
Q. : Was the oil question already important in this cutting? Had people already located oil in Iraq?
A. : Absolutely. The Kurdish oil-bearing fields had been located in first. Later, other were discovered in the south, and now we find them everywhere. Iraq is a sponge with oil. Kurdish oil tends to become exhausted moreover, because it was discovered in first.
Q. :I would like to talk about the photograph. At the first look, I find it a little sad, giving a negative vision of Kurdistan with this child who has a kalachnikov in his hand.
A. : I had been struck at this time, by the totality of the mobilization among population. Children as old men, everyone fought for his people. I have on this subject a moving anecdote : I was with the Kurdish partisans in the area of Rawanduz in 1968. We were in the mountain and I walked with difficulty with the peshmergas. With their shoes of mountain dwellers, they walk as easily in the mountains as in the plain, whereas with my European shoes, my feet were bleeding ! A night, we arrived in a village, and came inside houses. I was in an extraordinarily poor house, without any piece of furniture, neither carpet, nor chests, nothing of what we usually find in Kurdish houses. In this house there was only an old man, and there were only dry sheets on the ground. We sat down on poor cushions. At the wall, there was only one photograph, a beautiful photograph, a portrait of a man with a white pointed beard : it was his father, killed by the RAF. I said : "It is strange, your father is like my grandfather, who had the same white pointed beard." He explained that it was the only precious thing for him, because it was also the memory of his youth, his huntings in mountain with his father, etc. He had had a beautiful wife, who was dead. His children were scattered, he was poor like Job and he said like Job: "God gave me everything, he took me everything, hamdullah." And he had a great smile: " When I see this photograph, I am happy."
I was so tired, I slept on a mattress of sheets. At dawn, as usual, peshmergas came to wake me and we went out. Then he came with the photograph and gave it to me. "But it is the only thing keeping you alive !" "You see, I am old, my hands are shaking, I cannot carry a rifle, but I can still do something for my country. If you take the photograph, you will speak about us to foreign countries."
Concerning the photograph of my book : This boy has a merry, determined, optimistic face. He shows that his people is not subjected, they don't lower head. Because the main Kurdish quality is courage.
Q. : How did begin your affection for Kurds ?
A.: I did not intend to speak about it, but since that will remain between us... * laughter *.
I did not know anything about Kurds. I had only seen in Paris Match I believe, a photograph of Mollah Mustafa Barzani descending a hill on his horse qith partisans. I found that he looked nice and proud. But that was all, until in 1963, when I was the assistant in the Quai d'Orsay (French Foreign Office). Each morning, I had to read 200, 300 telegrams, to sort 10 or 12 among them, and explaining their content to the General Secretary.
One day, a telegram arrives from London, saying that according to the Franco-British concerted policy, Great Britain requires our agreement to send 50 hunters bombers with their loading of napalm in Iraq. I run toward the Secretary and said : "France cannot do that, the loading of napalm means the genocide of populations. It is only for civilian people (I had seen it in Algeria). We must answer "No". I faced a great anger : "How could you interfere ? You are only a simple conseiller d'ambassade ! " Then I answered : "I am a catholic, and you are a calvinist. And we,catholics, think, wrongly or rightly, that among calvinists, morality is higher. I talk to the calvinist in you. We could not kill the Kurdish population." He became more and more angry : "We shall say "yes" and you will sign it personnaly !" "I will never do a such thing." "In that case, it is not necessary that ou come back tomorrow." "I go immediately." And I come back to the Quai d'Orsay only after 8 years. Because of Kurds, I was expelled, so I could continue to help them ...
Q. : Don't you think that the membership of Turkey in EU could be a chance, by obliging it to pay attention to its Kurdish problem ?
A. This entry has positive and negative points. As far as I am concerned, I have 3 major objections, if we put aside the problem of Cyprus.
- With the adhesion of Turkey Europe would be in direct contact with Syria, Iraq, Iran and Georgia.
- But the main reason is a human one : As long as humans right are violated in Turkey, as long as a prison like the Diyarbakir's one exists as told the former mayor (Mehdi Zana), as long as there are no fundamental freedoms in this country, as long as this problem is not resolved, I am against it.
- For the Kurds of Turkey, this adhesion would be a great advantage : The end of martial law, of repression, of assassinations... But the border of Europe would cut the Kurdish people definitively in 2 part, one half in Europe, and the other out of Europe. Could we wish it ? Isn't it worth to wait than things change in Turkey?
Q. : About the internal borders in Iraq: Is it desirable to modify the borders of the current Kurdish governorship?
A. : The 4° governorship, the Kirkuk's one, gave the majority to the Kurds, but that implies only the city and the north. I think that it is necessary to make referendums of self-determination, but only if displaced people come back in their home. Because if alien people vote, that would be nonsense. The great question of course is oil Kirkuk. I would say that people should be restored in their rights and their former situation. The rightest map is in a Soviet atlas of people in the world, with a linguistic map, showing exactly where are the Kurds and where are the Turkmenes. Then we will be able to make referendums to determine the border of an autonomous Kurdish state in Iraq.
Q. : What do you think of the elections , as they are presented, with this denominational division : Shiites, sunnites... and Kurds?
A. : The Kurdish population did not vote according to a religion but a nationality. Moreover, both great Arab groups in Iraq are divided, the Shiites being in a majority. But the insecurity in the Sunni areas sunnites was important, and many people could not or did not want to vote. But this situation, I hope, is provisional."
now, google is one of the first major IT companies to accept Kurdish language, not like the coward microsoft guys who apologised for using words like Kurdistan and Kurds just because of the Turkish pressure, they will have to re-use it anywas as it is going to be the official language of Iraq. now..i signed up to help in translating google,gmail and google toolbar, there i fount a group KURDITGROUP which had this post in it: Please, Help Kurdistan Save Children Maureen McLuckie Administrator Kurdistan Children's Fund www.ksc-kcf.org (0044 - 020) 8688 3547 I was introduced to a delegation of six men who are Kurdish but whose religion is Yezidis. Yezidis belong to the pr-Islamic period. It is one of the ancient monotheistic religions, and their tradition has been passed down by word of mouth. In the pre-Islamic period the Kurds followed various religions. Kurds were Yezidis, Zoroastrians, and Judaism, Christianity also were very popular among the Kurds. But when the Kurds were converted to Islam in the year 637 the Yezidis never converted Today there are some 350,000 living in the Shingar area about 120 km from Mosul in Northern Iraq. At the moment they come under the Iraqi area and not the Kurdish area. In 1975 the Baathist party under Saddam Hussein destroyed 159 villages and the population of the villages were herded into 12 compounds where they still live today. They have never had water inside these compounds and they still have to buy the water from the tankers that regular come by. 95% of the population are unemployed. In the other villages that were left in tact the names of the villages were changed from Kurdish to Arabic, after the fall of the regime in 2003 the Yezidis wanted to change the names of their villages back to Kurdish they have denied permission to do so by the Mosul Government. A few days ago all the Moslem children in the schools were giving school bags containing pens, pencils etc, the Kurdish children were told that they would have to get them from the Kurdish Government. The young girls have been told they have to wear the Hijab, which is the long black dress and the covering of the head and shoulders. These 6 men had come to Sulaimaniya to seek help. I was told that the Mosul administration was practicing discrimination against the Yezidis not only because they are Yezidis but because they are also Kurds. The only employment in the area is the cement factory which apparently is the biggest factory of its kind the in Middle East, out of 460 employees there are only 49 Kurds and the director has decided that no other Kurds are to be employed. I was really furious when they told me this, the Kurds are a very proud race and these men are very well educated so it must be really very embarrassing for them to have to come and ask someone like me for help. So much for the new Iraq wanting democracy. KSC is going to put a plans together for a school and I will then try and get some funding for them, I'm not quite sure who from but I shall try. The Kurdish Administration has told me they will provide the furniture and schools books if I can raise the money for the school to be built but if anyone else can raise some money than it will be greatly appreciated. Maureen McLuckie Administrator Kurdistan Children's Fund www.ksc-kcf.org (0044 - 020) 8688 3547
On 2005 February 15, almost one year later then, the Safety Court of State had condemned fifteen Kurds to prison sentences, of 2 or 3 years, for "attacks against authorities" (Refusing to be killed like sheeps by State militias is considered as an attack by Syria), for "belonging to a secret organisation aiming to to make annex a part of Syria by a foreign country" (shortly, Syrian Kurds are suspected of wishing to be a part of Kurdistan state, and indeed, life is so nice in Syria, that we don't understand why they would like to change), for "denominational dissensions " (I don't know why, for Serhildan was only a national revolt, not a religious one) and "incentives with sedition".
Other Kurds must appear today before the military tribunal of Damas. (source AFP).
bbc guys cannot differentiate betweek Kurds and ..
this might be a simple blunder but it just gave me a feeling especially after reading this that they do mix us (and they are right in a sense) with either Arabs, Turks or Iranians! They are talking about RAF guys taking Arabic lessons but they have put up a Kurdish man with a banner by a Kurdish communist party! can i just once again shout out (i know i have to do this till i die) that WE ARE KURDS!
i hope my friends will write about the confirmation of the election results but let me just say that they will stay as they are: 48% Shias 26% Kurds i think as it was expected it is easy to gues how the gov is going to be formed!
My small potpourri part deux Dilnareen made me think about old times and dancing:). I started to post in the comments section, but decided to post on the blog instead because it's too long for comments.
Yes I knew of Rafik Hariri, but had lost track of what happened with him. When I heard the news I got a lump in my throat. I can not stand to see another beautiful place torn apart again. Beirut was rebuilt with so much care, and by the hands of the people and I always feel triumphant when I hear that story. Mr. Hariri was part of that too and I can't see why anyone would do this to him. My heart goes out to his family. I think he has seven children. He can go to his rest knowing that he served his country well.
When I was younger there was a restaurant that had middle eastern musicians there and the owner was from Beirut. He showed me so many pictures, and was so proud of his homeland and all of the art and music for the Lebanon. All of the families from Lebanon and from Israel and the Jews of Arab backgrounds and even several Armenian families and Greek families came to the restaurant, and we danced together. We even danced the hora together. We all clapped with one another. We threw money on one another and no talk of bad relations. Those were beautiful days. I wrote a bit about Mr. Hariri too, cause he deserved to be honored by many yes?
Yes, Dilnareen is right, any excuse for dancing is fine with me!
I danced on election day outside on my porch, and my neighbors did not know what to think. I did not care! I played some Kurdish music that I could not even figure out, and I did not care! I danced and laughed and wished that I were not alone in my celebration. Who could have known though? The early morning hours all they said on the box was that there were no voters coming, and then there were bombs, and my heart sank. But when I saw the blue fingers and the dances and horns blaring I was so relieved. I have not been so happy for a long time. Everyone should be so proud of themselves, cause I know I am so proud for all of the brave ones that did it, in spite of the fear of death!
Whatever happens, just dance and sing because there is no greater cure for anything.
or something like that, since just writing about the elections has lost its novelty value won't dedicate a whole post to it.
Elections Ok so first 26.7%, that is a nice number. And delal's right it wasnt that much of a surprise I ean most were expecting something around 20-25% , although up and until then alot of ppl wanted to put it down as low as 10%. Anyway this means the kurds will have a big role in the decision making, this guy (from before the war) thinks we're bad bargainers , so alot depends on these neogtiations. But seriously these kurds on tv just cant wait to dance can they. Registration DANCE, vote DANCE, election result DANCE DANCE DANCE. And whats even more weird is that most of us see this as some kind of vindication or justice for everything thats happened before, yeah just dancing.
And how come there hasn't been any outcry yet of ""fake elections", "forced democracy" or even the generic "israel made pit stops in iraq for a little election forging" All we got was a little humor from the good old association of muslim butchers. Though u know what they're right maybe we should take those type of ppl into consideration. Every 1st of April we can get some guy to show up on tv and say their little speech (the ones that go on about unity pride and other nonexistant qualities) then BAM boot comes out screen.
Naz from pamayee (kurdish for pink) Suzan from kurdish lilly who seems to like Manga cartoons Darbaz Woah_kurd from pupuley kurdistan (kurdistan butterlies or that scary kids show)
Rafik Hariri
i have no idea why this assassination shocked me, i mean it has nothing to do with me. Maybe cos it was sudden and has it been a while since symbolic figures were killed outside Iraq. And look at the degree of hate they used 350 kgs worth of explosives there But whatever ppl may say about him he definitely did bring his country forward, he funded education poor students and did open up the market after the war. Plus he owned one of the few channels that were actually watchable (future tv) ok just the one show.(Seera oo Infat7et). Whats even more shocking was that he was a muslim, it has been a long time since a muslim leader didn't serve for life and actually helped his people instead of hiding behind his religion.
And what's the press's obsession with "igniting civil wars" in countries in the middle east that just may have a future, Lebanon has had one hell of a civil war and they come a long way since it ended, I doubt anyone there wants to go back to those days.
Well, it has been asked that someone write about the elections in Iraq, and I have been waiting for my Kurdish brethern to respond and all has been quiet.
As regular readers know, I am not Kurdish, but in a way I have been granted honorary status--something that I cherish, but sometimes I am not as confident in commenting on things as I think that I should be.
Perhaps the silence on the election issue on KBU has been due to a lack of surprise on the election results. I think that all of the Kurds who live in N. Iraq/Southern Kurdistan know that not only are they capable of leading themselves but that given the democratic right to vote that they could show the world that they do indeed have power and influence. This seems to be a time to not only wait for the final confirmation on Talabani's ultimate position within the new government but also to bask in the glow of a giant "I told you so".
The implications of the power available to the Kurds in Northern Iraq are being felt in Turkey, and I believe that Kurdish politics there are about to get very very interesting. So definitely watch the news on that one, and I am sure to have some comments later on it. But for the moment I am going to give you all a link to a Kurdish friend of mine (from Northern Kurdistan/Southeast Turkey) with his own view on the recent elections. Take it away Kani.
I had written in the short post before that there is some change in the Turkish media views against us, as they are about to realise that what they easily call Northerniraq is on the edge of being one of the richest federal states in the world, if not the richest! and they are no longer opponent of the Mountain Turks(Turkish racist definition for Kurds) but they are opposing a federal state fully supported by neighbour Iraq, and US on the top!
YARD. DOÇ. DR. SEDAT LAÇİNER, one of the writers on zaman.com.tr explains how the Turkish gov must wipe out his policy towards Iraq and write a new one from scratch! I think he has fair points, this time I do agree with his points even those who are anti-Kurdish as he is telling what i believe the most sensible points.
the most important hing for me was when he discusses how Turkey trys to insist that Iraq is NOT Arabic nad Kurdish but multicultural while insisting that Turkey is Turkish fully, and he comes to the conclusion that what he calls it the terrorist groups are making use of this point and try to tell Turkey that what about us?
The other thing he says is: since the 1st Gulf War they have been supporting the Turkomans through gov people and making lavish spenditure while they have made the least effect and those guys should depend on the local resources not from Turkey!and then he also says, this doesnt mean Turkey should leave the Turcommans but should play totally diffrerent from this policy!...so they are about to realise that Turcoman front is not even wanted by the Turcoman front, whehn he says: the Turcomans themselves must ask for what they think is right for them! The other very interesting point he says is: "Turkey never had a clear policy against the Kurds there, while being against any kind of autonomy, federalism or any independence it has been the most effective factor for them to survive and strengthen economically and politically!"...thanks once again, all they know is just announce their grudge and hatred against us! then the man who is (ULUSLARARASI STRATEJİK ARAŞTIRMALAR KURUMU BAŞKANI ) international strategic investigations foundation chairman, says: "it is clear that Turkey is not doing business with Turkey given the 12k Turkish lorries providing US with cheap transport and also Incirlik base, while it made a big mistake by not helping US in the invasion it is trying to solve its problems (i.e PKK and Kirkuk similar) in front of the camers and in media" ...of course he as all of them never forget to mention the money that the Kurdish parties where making and still are making from Zakho-Khabur border! are we doing real progress? I am not yet sure!
Now we as Kurds are known for some rough, rigid sometimes even extreme so called proverbs, one of them says:
the one who trys to through heavy stones is harmless!
now, I WOULD imagine a stupid move by the Turkish army to south Kurdistan but I would never imagine that they would be looking for even a strategy to do it! The article in zaman.com.tr which is a headline refering to what is probably written as a side comment or a very far forecast for such an act by the Turks in the wall street journal (as i dont know how exactly is been discussed), the site says: "wall street journal says the Turkish force found in northerniraq facilitates Kirkuk intervention" is a huge bite which the Turks will never ever will be allowed to use their teeth for, unless they try to bite it using something else!
The dream of attacking Kirkuk or any move into it has been there since the reagion was mapped by the super-powers, I dont know what zaman.com.tr finds different from 2003, 1998-6-5-2-1, 1975, back to 1920?
Has Condi told them something that no one else but the Turkish gov heard it?
Are we all been betrayed by the 150K US and UK troops that they are commanded by the EU desperates? Did they come to the reagion to save the TL(Turkish Lira) from the hands of cheap tourists? or is there something completely different that I am not aware of at all?
i have to add this: i just read an article again on zaman.com.tr, the heading says "where do the Kurds make a mistake?" i thought we do have big flaws in our operating systems (given me a computer student) but the mistake was:
"leaving Kirkuk for the Kurds and Kurdistan to be independent at the moment is utopia. The Kurdish leaders by doing mistakes in calculations and for no reason should not become Turkish enemies and should not tighten manoeuvring areas"...I didnt know there is some change!
Normally I am not a pessimistic person, but wow, when I read this , I kind of have to be. While I think that it is a wonderful idea to cleanse Turkish textbooks of their nationalist tendencies that border on promoting hatred, it will never happen. First of all, and I can definitely comment on this as I work on a college campus, it takes years for a new textbook to be written, and the majority of the time it is just changing one or two words of the old edition, and calling that a revision. While this project was very ambitious and has taken 3 years to complete their study, nothing will come of it. And I think that if a similar study were to be held in the United States, the same basic outcome would be found. Yes, textbooks need to be changed…but that could take forever…but what can and should be changed is how teachers teach. It is the duty of the teacher to go beyond the textbook, to teach the students to be critical of the world around them, and this can be done without violating any of the “rules of nationalist thought and identity” that teachers, especially Turkish ones, need to follow.
So screw the textbooks, let’s work on the teachers and see so REAL change happening.
I have been absent for KBU for a while, I missed everyone, and I hope to be able to regularly comment again.
Here in the sunny (but COLD) land of Utah, the Iraqi elections were quite the local news catcher as there was a group of students on campus who raised money to help local Iraqi families travel to California to vote. Now the votes are being tallied and the preliminary expat numbers show the Kurdish political parties in high favor. I would like to thank the Kurdish Diaspora for making that happen, you may not be able to come home, but you have shown with you vote that your home is always in your hearts and minds.
The continued election violence does disturb me however. I want so much for this new experiment to work, but it only can if the area become stable enough to that the US will and can leave.
The other item that disturbs me is the rhetoric coming out of Celal Talabani. The time to campaign was BEFORE the elections, not after. All I ask is for him to just be a little patient to see how the election comes out before he begins to make demands that he does not have the authority (yet) to ask for. I firmly believe that if the Kurds want to be taken seriously, then they need to act a little more diplomatic. You may not agree with the game, but in order to win you must play by their rules.
So I am going to close now that I know that I have angered some of you. Till next time…
Here are what I thought were interesting stories this week. Mainly cos I'm fed up with having stories about the poor resistance (who just so happen to be murdering thugs and criminals) rubbed in my face mercilessly.
Remember Amar Mohammed, the down syndrome kid who was used as a human bomb on election voters, well his family have been interviewed and they explain how the criminals lured him.
His mother is unable to forgive herself for mistaking the intentions of the strangers whose promises of help for her desperately poor family ultimately led her 19-year-old son to his fate as a weapon in the war against America.
...
The family spent the last 12 years of Saddam Hussein's rule on the run because Fatima's 50-year-old husband, Ahmed, was an army deserter. They fled to Baghdad from the southern city of Basra, but without local residency papers he was unable to find work.
...
Accustomed to living on charity, they were not entirely surprised when, 10 days before the election, two men got out of a car that pulled into their alley to announce that they were from the local Sunni mosque and they wanted to help Amar.
...
"Sunnis had helped us before so I didn't think it strange. It felt good that these men cared for us and they were so affectionate to Amar."
....
She recounts painfully how a neighbour told her Amar was definitely the bomb carrier because he had recognised the teenager's decapitated head where it lay on open ground
...
"We went to the Sunni mosque but the Imam was crying too. He said he did not know these men."
The other story is about Mithal Alusi, I wasn't exactly sure what to think about him before but he had this interview 6/7 months back about his public trip to Israel. He came across as someone who said things as they are, you know for example he said that he didn't want Iraq to be like those hypocritical middle eastern countries who all have ties with Israel then encourage attacks against it. He was also very vocal against terrorists and dirty ex-baathists
Anyway yesterday he was the target of yet another assassination attempt. He survived but both his sons (in their 20s) were killed
He was interviewed by Radio Free Iraq and here are bits of the transcript of the interview
They claim that Islam is a message of killing, while Islam is a message of peace. They claim that the principles [of Islam] encourage killing, while the only principles that encourage killing are the principles of the Ba'ath [Party] and of the heathens from Al-Qaeda groupings.
...
We will be building Iraq. We will be building Iraq despite all that has happened. May God help us.
...
If they have a slogan, a goal, a language, and an activity, it is killing. They [Ba'athists] were killing us for more than three decades. They want to kill us and enslave us, over and over again
in Kurdish Cheshty Mijeewr is a dish which you add every thing you can find in the kitech:
While turkish gov is trying to make its last screams, in Kirkuk the Kurdistani list wins 218K of the total 325k votes till now, the turkey supprted Turcoman list has won only 25K votes(alot isnt it?), despite 200K kurds who were not able to vote in the Mosul council elections the Kurdistanli list has won 65.4% of the votes till now, but there is rumours that they will keep the current governor in his place! despite all the critics from Kurdistan, our lists are doing very well!
South Kurdistan is more beautiful with a wave of snow, people are enjoying it! the two lakes have a chance of saving more water although there is great effort to solve the electricity problem buy the Kurdish authorities.
The Kurdistan short film festival (II) was opened today and around 51 short films are viewed and evalutaed, the Golden Flag Reward will be given to the winners in different features.
The new Iraqi army is armed by the very old weaponery (the US is right to be afraid of a coup by literally anybody! or just the Shias?) , this is one of the most interesting things for me, as soon as we saw the new goverment and there were talks about re-arming an Iraqi army I have always feard a coup (if you ask me why, i just don know, it might be due to previous history i really dont know!), while I think it should be the Iraqis to decide what type of weapons they buy and use, at the same time as a Kurd I think this is good!
Nechirvan Barzani (PM of KRG) kindly apologised for some photos which were taken at the time of the cultural fest for our leader Qazi Muhammed and his first Kurdistan Republic as they were taken the moment when the picture fo the flag Qazi used for the republic was raisen by Mr Barzani was upside down, althgough it was corrected moments later but still some Kurdish news channels failed to broadcast the right poses! (he says, it is one of the most holy things for our nation and we will never let it be upside down!)....shame on you reporters!!
and finally KBU is doing good, we need more support and links from dear readers! I welcome any emails, stories important links you suggest!
Rice reassures Turkey on Iraq um do turkey own iraq?
shouldn't she be better off "re-assuring" iraqis on iraq.
I don't get it why aren't these ppl learning from their mistakes, isn't this extreme pleasing of corrupt governments and leaders what led us to this mess in the first place.
How is iraq ever gonna work if they keep trying half-ass attempts at everything to do with it
Why is everything Iraq-related ring to "we want this but not really" ?
-We want terrorism out of iraq but we will keep supporting the countries that create and export this product
-We want nuclear weapons out of the middle east but almost very country there is at some stage of developing it sometimes with their support
-We want iraq to be for iraqis yet all the decisions and opportunities related to iraq come from amman, ankara and cairo
-We are against repression of people yet we will keep assuring and comforting countries that do the same thing multiplied
I'm not saying this to please the all too popular "I am anti-american therefore I must be unique" crowd but if things keep going on like this we're gonna be stuck in the same loop forever.
... might be in Kurdistan more than in Northern-Iraq...
The Kurds and the Christians from S,êxan, a qeza of a wilayet of Mosul, have wished to be integrated in the Kurdish region. Representatives of three religions (Yezidis, Christians, Muslims) and secular representaives want to create an sub-prefecture (qeymaqam) that will be independant from Mosul. The sub-prefect, Dr. Basel Coqî has thus stated that they don't want to belong to the West-northern wilayet of Mosul anymore, and be a part of the federal Kurdish Region.
The reasons of that grumbling ? Well, during the elections, for example, people of S,êxan waited all the day for the material of votes, ballots, etc., without result. A regrettable « forgetfullness » of Mosul ? More over, pressure and threatenings increase against Christians and Kurds in this region and the city. These "minorities" claim to face a strong aggressivity from their "Arab sunni brothers". Students in Mosul, - Kurdish or Christians - rather to go to Kurdish universities, inErbil, for example. More and more, Christian population flee to Kurdistan, at a such point that the Kurdish Reginal Governement stated that it is a "priority" to welcome and shelter these fugitives.
Well, Christians, Kurds (Muslims or Yezidis) in Mosul seem to be fed up of "Arabian/muslim brotherhood". And it is probable that S,abaks and Turkmens are not more comfortable... For that reason, clamors from Ankara, warning Kurds' seizure of Kirkuk, against other minorities' interests, sounds a bit funny, for as notices Kirkuk-Kurdistan, if things go on like that, Kurdish region will grow more and more, without Kurds need to move a finger, only because of population's wish to live freely and in safety, with their own language or religion, under Kurdistanis' rule.
And finally, the Question of Kirkuk will be resolved by itself, when most of its inhabitants ask to be a part of Kurdistanis' land.
Yesterday, I was at a press projection of Bahman Ghobadi's last movie. Since his first full-lenght film, A Time for Drunken Horses, how this cineast has made progress ! For his first movie was not bad at all, but with quite a melodrama aspect, showing so kind and so nice tearful children, that they lack a bit of psychological depht and shades, like Children of Heaven of Majid Majidi. But with Marroned in Iraq, Bahman Ghobadi raised himself to a very very good Kurdish cineast's level. As I wrote as this time, if his first movie could have showed the life of any Iranian children, if we take apart the specific question of borders and black trade. But the secund movie, melting tragedy and comedy, was very funny with subtles representations of Kurdish peasant's society and pathetic scenes, shooting with a brutal and straight objectivity, like a documentary (mass-graves, diseases of chemical arms). And these mixed laughs and tears, opposite to our Western cinema who separates tragedy and comedy. Here, at the contrary, we have in a same time the whole gamut of feelings, following one another or superimposing themselves. I remember what told Louis-Ferdinand Céline about the superiority of Shakespeare'es theater, comparing with our French classics : "- Do you think that Shakespeare is greater than our classics, Racine, for example ? - Yes, I do, yes... For there is fun in it, isn't there ? and the others haven't it... He has got laughter, and that is huge... And when you have got both tragedy and laughter, you have won, haven't you ? ... But the others, well !... are a bit dull.. [...] Here, we pass from clownish things to tragic one's but with trueness inside, all the same... It is more complete... it holds on better... It's holds on and lasts... There's fun."
Well, this ability to be never entirely sad nor entirely happy, in any case never during a long time, is deeply and typically Kurdish, and that makes so attractive their stories, real or fictions.
Kek Satellite
Moreover, we met again characters which we have already met in Marooned in Iraq, playing by the same actors. And like in Pagnol's movie, it put us immediately in a familiar position with these people that we know and did not forget, which only go through quick scenes : the teacher, the doctor, and this hilarious vision of old sheikhs in a village, sitting around TV, a stick in their hand, waiting for the news, but to which everybody must hide the "forbidden channels" aka sexy Westerner programs...
Bahman Ghobadi loves the people he films, and then loves his actors, because among which most of them are non-professionnal, and so play their own life. His eyes on Kurds is full of tenderness, we laugh of their failings without anger. Hilarious is one of the first scenes, when at the top of a hill, covered with aerials, hundreds of villagers try to adjust their TV reception, in a cacophonia of instructions shouting by the rest of families, staying in the valley, front of the sets.
Bahman Ghobadi is also awfully skillfull to film Kurdish children as they are, glorifying them but without a false idealistic vision. The gang of quarrelsome kids reminds the boisterous adults in Marooned in Iraq. Little S,êrko seems to be Tigibus' brother in The War of the Buttons, trying to understand and to learn each English words telling by his leader, Kek Satellite...."
... but if The War of the Buttons was indeed a childish war, here weapons are real, and the mines collecting by kids against UN money (with a subtle irony it is said that American mines are the most valuable, as so prestigious as their country, when people wait for war with impatience) - these mines mutilate : the number of children lacking of one or two limbs is incredible. No matter, the armless Hingaw is working with his mouth, others hobble and gallop with their crutches, full of energy in spite of their infirmity... Does not it write that Turtles can fly ? "You send to me only handless kids" protests a adult, asking a team of young bomb disposal experts to Kek Satellite. "Precisely, these are not afraid by mines !" answers the boy. Thus, wounded bodies are exhibited and film without insistance but with a realistic and naturalist vision. In A Time for Drunken Horses, the ill and infirm child was the knot of drama. Here, it is only a part of the background, for the point of the tragedy is elsewhere, in unseeing wounds, silent moans, and Ghobadi seems to prove that for a child, a mutilated soul is the worst, the incurable wound .
Young Agrin's tragedy, abused by Iraqi soldiers and rejecting her baby, at the contray of her elder brother, Hingaw, who loves the child, is slightly exposed with a great depht, a restrained subtleness of feelings. No judgement, no subjectivity is given by camera. We look at the story of three children, with the three points of view, without partiality, getting down until the level of a 2 years baby's eyes, while the present is cut by flashes of war memories, from the past and the future, more terrible and more violent than TV broadcast.
When Americans arrive, everything break up, the camp of refugees is dismantled, everybody come back to towns, running after a new dream, a peace built on dollars, "pere-pere" or "money-money" as an hymn for the new era. Only stay on the side of the road, turning away from liberating soldiers and tanks, the most injured, the most matured children, who have grown too much by trying to protect the weakest, and those who decided to not grow anymore.
The first year anniversary of february the first. You remember the one where some true islamic terrorists killed over 100 infidel kurds while they were celebrating the islamic holiday of Eid... no contradictions whatsoever. I tried looking for some coverage of it today but as expected found none. The kurdish parties each noted their own deaths seperately. The KDP's Xebat newspaper displayed a poster with the faces of all their victims while the PUK's kurdistaninewe showed the wreckage from that day
The purple mark of freedom has slowly turned into black dots across my finger looking like a mix between skin disease and sodomised jeeqna (pigeon feci)
But back on topic i am still so amazed at how well the elections went in iraq. You know what the coolest bit was... that 2 years have been spent trying to show how iraq was a no hoper and how iraqis were a bunch of gun-tooting ak-47 fondling, saddam appeasing bunch that are not fit to handle the strange world of democracy, yet they managed to throw all those lies back at them by simply showing up to vote In kurdistan it seems like everyone voted, including my grandmother who has trouble walking, luckily the election workers there helped her a great deal
In fact even kurds who opposed the idea of elections, because they saw these new leaders as a diluted version of saddam, voted. Their idea was something like "they make us do all the work but we're always the first to get kicked out". Long history of betrayal there but they were referring to the most recent incident where the governing council (the one before allawi’s government), most of whom took refuge in kurdsitan during saddams era, were rushing to remove the federal clause from Iraq’s transitional law.
But kurds made it a party nonetheless, honestly they only showed up to the theme of Daf and Zourna. I't good to know that the dancing became a universal theme across iraq, even in baqouba and baghdad. Notice again how actions speak louder than words, ppl dancing and jumping about sure threw away all these rumours of iraqis being forced to vote for various reasons
But what was even more amazing was the story of the roughly 7000 fallujans who voted, imagine living in a jihadi hellhole and actually voting. Another surprise was the high turnout in mosul, if you remember it was deemed to be the next fallujah
What would the turnout have been if there were no insurgents or terrorists, but then again without these degenerates and their mouthpieces we would have had a much much better iraq by this point.
Those 44 ppl who died giving their vote should be treated as true martyrs, i really believe something should have been made in their honour and i can't believe there are ppl out there who are so bitter about a prosperous iraq that even ticking boxes seemed like a threat to them. Just Sad
Well the iraqi ppl have played their part now its time for the leaders to keep up their end of the deal. I really hope that we don't get robbed of the joy of these elections the same way the fall of baghdad and saddams capture did. I noticed that 2 things need to happen so that things stay that way.
-The vote count must be fair and untampered with (especially those in most ME countries)
-And more importantly if the first part is true then no sore losers
Why is the second bit important? Mainly cos' you will be giving room for more chaos
If one bitter group claimed that the elections were fraudulent, we would end up where we started. The media (most of which seem to be in mourning now) will have a heyday and don’t even get me started on those terrorists and their supporters
Remember this is Iraq no one cares whether your information is correct or not, all you need to do is scream it loud enough.
And you know that talk of civil war that everyone seems to be salivating for, well this is the perfect opportunity to disappoint them. Usually civil wars are started by power hungry simians who just won’t let go (remember a certain milosevic) but they are somehow rewritten as being caused by different groups who've suddenly discovered they don't like each other.
The people are different and they are going to stay that way, if we get a government that accepts that and learns to respect its needs then these problems would end in no time.
The former Turkish minister for Culture, Namik Kemal Zeybek, is a big name in history, indeed.I hope strongly that there are a lot of guys like him, because when they enter in EU, they could entertain us, other member countries which have not so funny politicians...
In a conference entitled “The New World Order and Turkey", Namik Kemal Zeybek stated that "Mumhammad the Prophet was Turk". Sure that it will help to make Turks more popular in Middle-East, especially in Iraq where they want badly to intervene ... But don't worry he explains us all his theories, because ignorant people don't seem to realize that "the most important nation during the last eight thousand years were Turks and Turks taught civilization to humanity".
And then the Raelian sect is very annoyed because everybody know that it is extraterritorial people who civilized us, pss... !
For, as continues that big name of Ancient History, "the roots of Turkish nation extend back from Sumerians" (firt Mesopotamian culture, which everybody would like to claim as their own Grand-Ma' but unfortunately its language belongs to an unknown linguistic group and is not Turanian, then). Zeybek concludes : “Our Prophet Muhammad had roots from Sumerians, too. Consequently, Prophet Muhammad was a Turk also.”
QED.
Personnaly, I find this guy is a bit half-hearted in his nationalism, because if he would be really zealous, he could have show us that Lucy and Tumai were Turks also ... But that lazy man stopped halfway up.
But well, let's continue " The history of the world began with Turks. Ottomans ruled the world during 600 years" (All the world ? Strange that Chinese people never noticed it) "and everybody in many great countries respect Ottomans." Names ! Names !?! For one of the most backward-looking positions against the adhesion of Turkey in UE is precisely the memory of the Great Turk assaulting Vienna and oppressing Central Europe, etc. As for countries in the Middle-East, Ottomans remind them the big massacres at the end of the 19° and the beginning of the 20° century. In fact, only a few number of nations and religious minorities in that region were not victims of the last Ottomans. I even believe that a "Black Legend" hides the reality of this empire who was not so bad from the 16° to the 18° century. But well, Young Turks let so such memories that a Kurdish friend told me his grandmother believes that the language spoken in hell is Turkish... Very admired state, then...
Then, the eminent former minister for Culture explains to European and American people, who are unawared of their prestigious genealogy : "The roots of citizens living in Western countries nowadays are Turks also".
For those who read Turkish all the speech is here :
By the way, if Turkey enters in EU one day, and if one of these rare birds becomes minister for Universities and education, there will have a bunch of troubles to harmonize teaching programs between Europeans students ...
And now, you can imagine how much it's still hard to claim that you are a Kurd, not a Turk, a Kurd ! if you live in Great Civilizers of Humanity's Land.
