Kurdistance: A Medley
Welcome to this week's edition of Kurdistance, where we will roam the world over to see what the Kurds are discussing.
Diaspora News
Most of the Kurdish bloggers are Diaspora, but this week we are going to look at the areas in which they are talking about. Vladimir, who writes for From Holland to Kurdistan, talks about the latest Kurdish Hollywood news from the new film by Hiner Salem, the further success of the film “David and Layla” (described as the Kurdish version of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’), Kurdish director Zulli Aladag receiving the “Golden Camera” award, to the making of a new film called Peshmerga:
In other news, it’s confirmed that the movie about Mulla Mustafa Barzani will be named “Peshmerga”. The Kurdish director will be Ali Bedirxan, who resides in Egypt. And the Arabic and Kurdish media reported that it’s a joint venture between Hollywood and Egypt cinema.
Iraqi Kurdistan News
Iraqi Kurdistan writes about the involvement of the Turkish government in the affairs of Kirkuk:
The Turk does not hide their hatred and hostility to any thing concerning Kurds, even if those Kurds were not from Turkey but from Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turks are financially and logistically supporting the Turkmen Front, which is an organisation founded and funded by Turkish intelligence agencies among Iraqi Turkmen and encouraging them to make an unholy alliance with Sunni insurgents and remnants of Saddam in Kirkuk. There has been recently reports about even increasing involvement of Turkey in the internal affairs of Iraq by increasing financial support to its stooges in Kirkuk among overt threats of military intervention in Iraq if the people of Kirkuk decided to join Iraqi Kurdistan federal region.The Turks might be stupid enough to indulge in such a blunder which no doubtedly will draw Turkey into a conflict which could end up by destruction of Turkish economy and death of thousands of Turks in Iraq and which might cause disintegration of Turkey as one state, if the Kurds of Turkish part of Kurdistan decided to support their brethern in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Hiwa from Hiwa Hopes writes about the alarming increase of Iranian influence in Iraq:
Iranian influence is more than what I personally expected to be now, I thought the sandwich situation for them [US controlling both Afghanistan and Iraq] will be the worst scenario the Iranian Mollahs might have ever dreamt. But at a time when it is reported that the only world superpower is living its weakest level of superiority’ of course the situation is different for Tehran. Yes many of them are killed in the daily attacks in Baghdad and other places but the fact is that any nation who sheds blood will achieve more in a longer term. In deed shiism started with bloodshed!
Will the rise of Shiisim in Iraq be worse than the sectarian violence?
Hiwa also writes about the continued trials of Saddam supporters, trials which get little media attention, despite the horrors they reveal:
Did you hear, know, read or see anything about Saddam's aids’ trial on Anfal today? In which Chemical Ali made very very serious admissions?
I think the only channels which had headlines about it was the Kurdish TVs which mention it just like a repetative program from which the managers are bored to broadcast. However, today Ali said: “the 1975 which they [kurdish lawyer] call it a defeat, for us was a deal and Allah Bless the two countries who did it” and that he killed, beheaded and executed people without even questioning.
He also accepted that he ordered that Kurdish houses, orchards and even trees to be cut. When asked what was the policy you were implementing, he proudly said: “to end them, I volunteered to do it and I will do it again if I were to”
Iranian Kurdistan News
Kirmasan gives a wonderful explanation of the lack of public utilities that the Kurds of Eastern Kurdistan have and the problems that this situation creates:
Anyone familiar with Kurdistan will understand that the mountainous region is home to cold winters and heavy snow fall. As a result of these energy cuts, many people have suffered and sources inside Eastern Kurdistan have said that at least three children have died as a result of the cold. Sad but no surprise. Kurdish families suffered the same fate last year. However, the people of Kurdistan and Seqiz, in particular, were hopeful that this year they would have a more comfortable winter than last after Ahmadinejad visited the region and promised that shortages would not happen again.
There have been few large scale protests in Eastern Kurdistan against the IRI in the past six months. Recently however, the city of Seqiz rattled as protestors were met by hostile agents of the Islamic Republic. Protests began following the energy cuts, which resulted in no heat being provided to the people of Seqiz, as well as the neighboring towns and villages. After a series of unjust arrests, the city and region became more restless. The people began rioting and broke windows of any government-owned buildings and set the governor's house ablaze.
Kurdish Aspect writes about the increase of court cases being brought up against Kurdish authors in Iran, and the disappointment of the scarcity of support by Kurdish authorities for these authors:
Failure to act will only add to the suspicion that the Kurdish authorities may want to walk the same cheap and dirty line of the majority of Islamic governments who allow some free reign to Islamic terrorism to clear liberals, as long as these terrorist do not challenge the governmental authorities. This in effect will mean that our country will be doomed like all other benighted Islamic countries to decades of underdevelopment and human right abuses and extremism. It is not right that tens of our writers be killed or forced into silence or exile because of the primitive Islamic terrorism. Our liberals, because of the Islamic terrorism, are have no country of their own.
Turkish Kurdistan News
Mizgin from Rasti writes this week about recent Turkish government statements concerning Turkish involvement in Iraq, or rather Turkish involvement with the Kirkuk situation in Northern Iraq:
The Washington Times’ resident Kurdish “expert” has a column out today to let us know that Abdullah Gul is going to tell Condoleeza Rice just how bad the situation in Iraq has become . . . as if she didn't know. I mean, they all know; they just refuse to admit it publicly.
Poor Gul! He has to make the case that “Turkey is trying desperately not to be pulled into the war” in Iraq which, of course, is absurd. If Turkey doesn't want to be pulled into the war, don't be pulled into the war. That was Turkey's choice in 2003, when the US was desperately trying to pull Turkey into the war with billions of dollars in bribes, so Turkey can choose not to become involved in the war again.
It would probably help Turkey not to be involved if it would remove all of its MIT agents, JITEM agents, and mercenaries from South Kurdistan, but then it would not be able to easily manufacture an environment that could properly be used as an excuse to annex the Mosul Vilayet–and all of its lucrative oil–plus extend its magnificent human rights record to the Kurds of the South.
The Syrian ambassador to the US is quoted as agreeing that a break up of Iraq would be “catastrophic.” It should be noted that Syrians are keen Kurd-killers themselves, so getting the opinion of the Syrian ambassador is like getting another fox to help guard the hen house.
And also from Rasti, a comment on the “holey socks” of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on his recent trip to Turkey:
This is the guy who went ballistic when Turkey refused to join the Coalition of the Willing back in 2003. This is the guy who was throwing billions–yes, billions–of dollars down on the table as a bribe to the Turks so that they'd join the Coalition, but the guy is too cheap to buy new socks. Now the Turkish Sock Industrialists’ Association is going to send him twelve pairs of socks and–yes–that was the article from which TDN removed the picture of Wolfowitz and his socks.
Not only was this a Kodak moment, it was a bigtime point-and-giggle moment as well, and it just goes to show you that you can be a tightwad with no capability for foresight and be appointed to head the World Bank.
Geez . . . I don't even want to think about the condition of his underwear.
Syrian Kurdistan News
Alas, there is no news coming out of Syrian Kurdistan, this is partly due to the Kurds in that region have to fight for very different things. While other Kurdish groups talk of freedom and governance, the Syrian Kurds fight simply to live. If any of our readers know of some good sources for blogs or info/news on this subject, please leave me a comment.
2 comments
And this is how Rasti’s naive giggle at Paul Wolfowitz expense was shot down. I hate doing this but it has to be done. Wolfowitz is not without friends among the Kurds. We at least owe him a debt of gratitude for helping us overthrow Saddam.
Shexmus Amed
http://rastibini.blogspot.com/2007/02/charity-case-gifted-with-turkish-socks.html
sHx said…
So Paul Wolfowitz wears socks that have holes in them. I just found out, thank you, and I love Wolfowitz even more for it. It has truly endeared Wolfowitz even more in my eyes.
How? Well, just the way Hrant Dink’s shoes, with holes in the bottom, made us weep even harder for him. Surely, Dink too should have been able to purchase a new or second hand pair of shoes cheaply.
But that is not really the point. The point is these guys may well be thrifty or tightwad. But they may well be, and more likely to be, modest and humble consumers also, whose humility and modesty have been inadvertantly exposed. Dink’s while he was lying dead, and Wolfowitz’s while visiting a holy place.
I too have a pair of socks and a pair of shoes with holes in them even though I could afford new ones. Is this something I should be ashamed of? What if they happen to be my favorite socks and shoes, or my “lucky pairs”? Don’t you know that many people who have experienced poverty carry so much of their habits even if they become filthy rich?
This is really an idle post, Rasti.
You don’t really have to write unless you have anything of substance to say, you know.
From this blog, I expect you to worry about the PKK guerillas who have to climb up and down the stony, snowy mountains of Kurdistan with torn shoes, socks and gloves, Rasti, rather than giggle along with some Turkish industrialists over someone else’s Kodak moment.
10:15 PM
Mizgîn said…
Just for you,Shexmus, but only because I’m using it for something else:
Paul Wolfowitz: A man to keep a close eye on.
There is absolutely no comparison between Wolfowitz and Hrant Dink or PKK gerîlas.
In fact, Paul Wolfowitz more closely resembles a high-ranking member of the Third Reich than any member of the human race.
I hope I live long enough to see him die. Then I’ll have the chance to dance on his grave.
7:10 PM
Shexmus Amed said…
You are writing again just like a world activist on an ideological crusade, rather than a genuine Kurdish activist with a national cause to consider.
Just what has Paul Wolfowitz done to Kurds or to the Kurdish cause that you consider him like a man of the third reich? Is he someone who, a la Henry Kissinger, engineered Saddam’s tyranny over Kurds? Or could he by any chance be the intellectual force who eventually forced aside old Kissingerian policy establishment and built the willpower to take on and overthrow our people’s bloodiest enemy since the time of Dehaq?
Yes it was all for the American interests, but it also served Kurdish interests in Iraq too, and even the interests of the PKK and your beloved Dear Leader. Just why do you think the Turks hate Wolfowitz so much?
Think about the Kurdish national interests always, Rasti, always. Your mind must tick by that criterion alone. Let others hate Wolfowitz for whatever wrong they can find or invent in his work or character.
For me as a Kurd, for us as Kurds, the fact that he pushed the overthrow of Saddam and thus provided us with a glimmer of hope for a free and independent state is enough to show some gratitude towards him. He helped save our butts and perhaps even give us a chance to make the 21st Century, a century of re-birth for the Kurdish nation. Why would anyone calling herself a Kurd be so opposed to this change?
Let’s put Kurdish interests aside for now. I would have thought even a world activist on an ideological crusade would rather have a president who pulls on holey socks than one wearing a hundred dollar pair, while presiding over a bank that was supposed to help the poor. But who bloody cares? Hey, it is wolfowitz, the guy that everybody hates! Bash him!
Oh by the way, I checked the link you provided. So much has been made of Wolfowitz and East Timor. So what does Jose Ramos Horta says about PW’s presidency of the World Bank:
“Those who have suspicions and reservations should not have them because Wolfowitz is very humane and sensitive,” East Timor’s Nobel Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate, told Portuguese news agency Lusa.
“He if going to be an effective fighter for foreign debt forgiveness of less developed nations. I am very satisfied,” he added.
http://www.etan.org/et2005/april/01/06etwecm.htm
You see, Rasti? When you dance on PW’s grave, even the East Timorese won’t be there. You’ll only find enemies of Kurds around dancing with you, just as you giggle with them now over that “kodak moment”.
Youth and naivety are your only redeeming qualities at the moment. When you finally realise what “national interest” means and what Kurdish national interests are, perhaps then you’ll realise your error with regard to Paul Wolfowitz.
Don’t hate me then for telling you now, “I told you so”
Shexmus Amed
7:07 AM
http://rastibini.blogspot.com/2007/02/charity-case-gifted-with-turkish-socks.html
I believe Kurdish intellectuals are straying away from their major issues or forgetting their priorities.Last week I wrote abrief note addressed to Kurdish people first and their friends about the latest Turkish efforts in lobbying the American public on the issue of Kirkuk and the moral responsibilit of Kurds to respond to such unsubstantiated Turkish claims.Now I see that most of the Kurds are busy critisizing each other clearing the way for the Turkish lobby to convey all kinds of fabricated lies to the American public regarding Kirkuk case.This Turkish campaign started about two weeks ago with the visit of a Turkish delegation led by MP Turhan Comez who is touring U.S. cities and universitied to spread their poisonous lies. Their objective is to block the upcoming Kirkuk referendum scheduled for the end of 2007 and defend the Turkish position in regard to Kurdish gains in Iraqi Kurdistan.They have went as far as hiring some pens to assist them in their unholy endeavor.These efforts have extensified lately with the visit of Turkish Chief of Staff Buyuknit who is opposing outrightly the implementation of article 140 of the Iraqi constitution.Thee is no single day that Scott Sullivan does not write an article in (The Conservative voice) where attacks Kurds and Kurdistan and defend the Turkish republic that is denying 20 million Kurds their very basic human rights.
I thought just to remind Kurds of one of their priorities at a time like this. Kurds’ opponents have always counted on their differences and so far they have succeeded in keeping Kurds down.Today, one of Kurds’ priorities is to return their lands that was subjected to Arabization including Kirkuk.Therefore, this issue requires some effort from every Kurd to make the world aware of the historical background of the problem, and the real causes behind Turkey’s attempt to perpetuate Saddam’s policy of Arabization and the deprivation of Kurdistan of a part of her land that was ripped off forcefully when the whole world turned a blind eye. Perhaps it is time to right that wrong and bring to an end the ordeal of those Kurds who were evicted by force from their homes and are stll living in camps in Erbil and Sulaimania.