For my regular readers, I apologize for my absence, I lost a much beloved Uncle to Cancer of the Esophagus and was away dealing with family matters. In reading through the Kurdish blogs this week, I found a posting From Holland to Kurdistan with a similar situation:

I feel sorry for my colleague and friend Sidar Bengin Epozdemir, who lost his uncle because of a dreadful disease. Last year I also lost my uncle because of cancer and another uncle of mine currently has a brain tumour and is slowly dying. When people die fast it’s horrible too, but when people die slowly, you can see it. You see their suffering, the tears in their eyes….. you see them melting away.. And the worst is, you never know when they walk out of your live.

I praise Sidar for writing an article so soon after his uncle’s death, when the pain is still immense. I hope Sidar’s article will inspire the Kurdish people.

Sidar's comments showed me a much more poignant side to death and loss…the regrets of a future never seen….

Last Sunday, I got to know, that my uncle Newzed Sagnic passed away after a long period of illness. It felt like a big blow. I didn’t know how to feel. Should I be glad, because my uncle had suffered so long, and was finally liberated? Or should I be sad, because he didn’t ever know a free Kurdistan? I couldn’t do more than analyse, through this writing.

My uncle was one of the countless examples of people who had experienced the state-oppression against the Kurds from the inside. He was tortured for years in Turkish prison cells for his identity, thoughts and effort for the Kurdish cause. For the last couple years, he lived in freedom, but the influences of the horrible actions were inevitable.

My uncle was also one of the countless people, who never lived in absolute freedom, like we as Kurds all can’t, in Kurdistan.

This is a moment of reflection for me. What is necessary in order to achieve our goals? – First and foremost, unification, a phrase that can’t be repeated too often. Putting people in corners, saying that they’re Kurds from Syria, PKK-men, Barzani-supporters or Iranian Kurds won’t bring us anywhere. We have to realise that we won’t achieve anything without each other.

This reminds me – and hence I am spreading the knowledge to you – that we need to remember the struggle of the Kurdish people to be in control of a homeland of their own. We need to support causes like Save RojTV as it playing a critical role in the continuence of Kurdish culture, language and media in the Diaspora; we need to think in different ways to find the support in the subtle as in Pearls of Iraq Purple Ribbon Campaign; we need to remember to keep the dialouge open.