Why do the Europeans support the Palestinians but not the Kurds.
Barry | 17.05.2002 04:32
I'v been on here for the last year. I rarely see anyone talk about the Kurds. Why is the UK Left silent on the plight of the Kurds. Iraq gassed and murdered 125,000 Kurds since 1987. In Syria, Kurds cant own any land. Syria has a law, where all land has to be owned by Arabs. Is this not racism. I'm stunned, that there are so few posts about the Kurds. I asked a Kurd organization, why does Europe have this obsession with the Palestinians, but no one cares about the Kurds. Akin, which is the largest Kurdish organization. http://www.kurdistan.org/ They told me, alot of these people who march for the Palestinians and writing all these Pro Palestinian articles, are infact anti western. They only go after Israel, because there an ally of the U.S. He pointed out, when Iraq gassed the Kurds and wiped out the entire Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988. There was silence in Europe. Akin said, here you have Europeans marching for Palestinians, who are commiting some of the worst atrocities you can imagine. Suicide attacks on Israeli civilians in buses, restaurants, grocery stores, agricultural open markets, discothèques, Bar Mitsvahs, etc. I fail to see, how killings of non-military and un-armed people, newly weds on a date, pregnant mother shopping groceries, old retired people sitting on benches, can make people want to march for the Palestinians. Yet we the Kurds are peaceful, we never target civilians. We just want our own state, but the Europeans are quiet on that. You notice, the Europeans talk every day of a Palestinian state, but are against a Kurdish state. So you tell me whose biased. Alot of the weapons Iraq used to massacre us, came from the Europeans. The poison gas Iraq used against us, came from Germany.
Barry
Comments
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Ah so you do want your own state!
17.05.2002 09:14
I had this argument with a European MEP called Andrew Duff, and he was condemning Kurdish "terrorists" such as Ocalan, and blatently siding with Turkey.
I said what about State Terror? And he said that it wasn't terror it was the action of the state (!). Such a gimp.
I wrote to him about it afterwards and his sectrary replied saying "Andrew Duff thanks you for your letter but he doesn't think Tony Blair is a war criminal; and the Kurds don't want their own state - they just want rsepect and autonomy within Turkey".
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Another Cause
17.05.2002 09:33
The Saint
International law
17.05.2002 11:10
"Europeans talk every day of a Palestinian state, but are against a Kurdish state."
I (an European) am not against a Kurdish state, I just don't know much about the situation, so perhaps you could post something more informative to fill this apparent gap in reporting.
I think the problem may be that Israel's actions in Palestine seem to clearly contravene international law, in that they are acting outside of their sovereign nation, but the UN charter prevents it from interfering with those who act within national borders? (not that it is a good excuse)
I don't think there was silence when Iraq gassed those people, human rights orgs spoke out and I seem to recall Maggie Thatcher defended Saddam's right to do as he wished in his own nation with his own weapons (bitch that she was).
But, I would agree that Israel is targeted as an ally of the U.S. (why not) and that we shouldn't look at some areas/situations to the exclusion of all else
Al
Israel supports repression of Kurds
17.05.2002 17:46
Actually many of the usual suspects on the left - Pilger, Monbiot, Chomsky etc. - have been condemning Turkish repression of the Kurds for years. In fact Chomsky was in Turkey last year as a defence witness for a publisher threatened with jail because he published a book severely critical of the treatment of the Kurds. Saddams murder of thousands of Kurds at Halabja in 1988 WAS condemned by the left, while the US/UK government continued extending export credits to Baghdad. He was our guy back then, as his atrocities peaked.
Auntie Beeb
practical point re: indymedia
18.05.2002 03:31
the way how the middle column team works is that there's about 60 people on an email list called imc-uk-features who implement whatever is proposed to them. YOU can propose to highlight the kurdish issue. the only thing needed is a mail to imc-uk-features@lists.indymedia.org - stating which article in imc-uk you want to highlight. people will wait for 24 hours if someone objects and if there's no objection someone will pull in your proposal into the middle column. the list is public: you can read all mails of that list if you browse to http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-uk-features/
obviously it makes sense to highlight an article which actually is a report, or news... everybody is indymedia, and if you attend a demo of kurdish people outside the home office, or your local high street for example then report it here! if you have a camera then take snaps and put them in here! if you have background info on what's happening in kurdistan put it here. then send a mail to uk-features about it. the more links the better!
that way you might trigger attention of the 'european left'. it's up to you. that's exactly what indymedia is about...
andi
e-mail: andi@syndicate.org.uk
Homepage: http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-uk-features/
Auntie Beeb
18.05.2002 09:01
Dan
Israel shoots Kurdish protestors
18.05.2002 10:02
For details on the above - http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_281000/281909.stm
Auntie Beeb
Joe
19.05.2002 17:56
Joe