Happy Holidays from the Kurdish section of the blogosphere!
The Kurdistan Bloggers Union writes about security cameras being installed in the Southeast of Turkey to monitor the Kurdish population [1] there. There is also an interesting post (and comment dialouge) about hyphenated-ethnicity [2] and a posted book review of a new book by Stephen Kinzer on Turkey's Kurds. [3]
Hiwa from Hiwa Hopes [4] writes about an alarming islamic trend developing in Iraq [5], and the relief at the sentencing of the Dutch business Van Anraat for helping in the Halapja gassing in 1988 [6]. He also offers a christmas wish [7] for his readers.
Also offering christmas wishes [8] is Miriam from Pearls of Iraq. She also issues a challenge to the main stream media to report about the reconstruction efforts in Iraq [9].
From Holland to Kurdistan has more detailed information on the sentencing of Dutch businessman Van Anraat [10] (this has been a much talked about topic Iraqi Kurdistan [11] and Roj Bash! [12] has posts about it as well). Vladimir also discusses rumors of a Kurd, Sunni and Shia plan to divide Kirkuk [13] in Northern Iraq/Southern Kurdistan.
Rasti has an excellent post about American involvement in the Middle East and how the US should use its current advantage to press the Kurdish issue with the republic of Turkey [14]. He also critized Turkey for its role in the attempted shut-down of Kurdish television station Roj TV based in Holland. For more information on that and measures being taken please visit Save Roj TV! [15].
Last on our list for today is Welcome to East Kurdistan which has been posted profusely about human rights violations in Iran, including the hanging of a young Kurdish activist [16], the condoning of human traffiking of Iranian/Kurdish women by clerics [17] and the sentencing of one man to have his fingers amputated. [18]
The coverage given here on Global Voices is limited mainly to the Kurdish blogs in English, if you are interested in any of the Kurdish blogs in other languages (like Dutch or German for instance) or if you are interested in seeing the new comers to the Kurdish blogosphere, I recommend checking the blog Kurdistan Blog Count. [19]
See you next year!