In helping Turkey target Kurdish guerrillas in Northern Iraq, is America betraying the very people that helped them take down Saddam when Turkey refused to do so? According to this statement by the Kurdistan Democratic Alliance published in Norther Iraq’s Kurdish Media, ‘The U.S.-E.U. alliance with Turkey goes against human dignity, democracy, human Rights and social justice. Yet, both the U.S. and E.U. consider themselves as defenders of these ideals.’
“The Kurds who have been displaced, wounded or killed are the very people who opened the Northern Front for the United States during the war against Saddam Hussein – doing so just when the Turkish Parliament refused to allow America the use of its territory.”
December 26, 2007
Iraqi Kurdistan – Iraq – Original Article (English)Turkish hostilities against the Kurdish nation have reached a very serious stage. Over the past few weeks, Turkish warplanes have bombed the territory of southern Kurdistan, which according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, has resulted in the displacement of at least 18,000 people, along with deaths and injuries to many civilians. Thanks to the moral and logistical support of the United States, the Turkish attacks have been quite effective. The Kurds who have been displaced, wounded or killed are the very people who opened the Northern Front for the United States during the war against Saddam Hussein – and this just when the Turkish Parliament refused to allow America the use of its territory. That same parliament has given a mandate to the Turkish military to invade southern Kurdistan on the pretext of pursuing a terrorist organization.
The United States and European Union may regard the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK ] as a “terrorist organization,” but Kurds regard Turkey and its allies as “Terrorist States.” For it is “State Terror” that is the most devastating to civilians and the environment.
The PKK is not the cause of the problem; it is the symptom of a lack of democracy, civil society, rule of law and the severe oppression of the Kurdish nation by the Turkish state. The suppression of Kurds in Turkey may constitute genocide. If not fully a genocide, what Turkey has committed against the Kurds can safely be called cultural genocide.
Nonetheless, the PKK is an important element of the Kurdish cause in the north. In the absence of democratic elections for northern Kurds to elect representatives to a regional government and parliament of their own, the PKK today is the most effective organization for asserting the Kurdish identity, which remains banned in Turkey despite the E.U. claims of Turkish domestic changes. Whether we like it or not, millions of Kurds in the north regard the PKK as their representatives. This reality must be accepted by Turkey, the U.S. and the E.U.
If Turkey, the U.S. and the E.U. are sincere about wanting to solve the “Turkish problem” and satisfy the “Kurdish quest,” they must have the courage to pursue granting the Kurdish nation the legal status and right to self determination it deserves. This is the same right that any European nation, such as the Scots, Wales, Basks and other have had. It’s nothing new and is in accord with the U.N. charter.
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