Skip to content or view screen version

Why do the Europeans support the Palestinians but not the Kurds.

Barry | 17.05.2002 04:32

Read below

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

Hide the following 8 comments

Ah so you do want your own state!

17.05.2002 09:14

I thought you did!

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".

.


Another Cause

17.05.2002 09:33

We havn not forgotten the Kurds, who asked for a homeland long before Israel was granted Palestine and infinite funds to build on it, but there is a rumour than Iran gassed the Kurds with nerve gas supplied by the USA, and blamed on Iraq, to justify Desert Storm. Nothing is what it seems.

The Saint


International law

17.05.2002 11:10

Apart from the fact that I'm sure I've seen several articles on here dealing with repression of Kurds in Turkey.....and the U.S. sale of arms to Turkey (No.1 importer of U.S. weaponry aren't they?) inspite of Turkey's human rights abuses.

"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

The Kurds have no doubt been seriously shafted by our governments, in our name, but this is just another Mossad rant about "why support Palestinians and not Kurds". The absence of mass pro-Kurd demos in no way lessens the crimes of Israel, which also include being a strategic partner and major arms supplier to Turkey, as it was to South Africa at the height of apartheid, and to unsavoury regimes too numerous to mention.


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

hi. i'm one of the maintainers of this site. just thought to mention a practical thing to highlight kurdish issues on imc-uk: did you know that middle column stories on imc-uk can be proposed by anyone? middle columns stay longer on the imc-uk site than articles on the right hand column - and at the moment there's about 25 new articles a day so the right column really moves fast.

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
mail e-mail: andi@syndicate.org.uk
- Homepage: http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-uk-features/


Auntie Beeb

18.05.2002 09:01

Auntie Beeb you say, Israel supports repression of Kurds. First, Israel didn't even have relations with Turkey before 1992. What Turkey is doing now visa ve the Kurds, has nothing to do with Israel. 90 percent of Turkey's weapons comes from the U.S. Then you mentioned Israel giving weapons to Turkey. Israel gives very few weapons to Turkey. Why dont you mention how the Arabs were supporting Saddam Hussein 100 percent, even after he gassed the Kurds in 1988. 2nd, you mentioned Chomsky supporting the Kurds in Turkey. See this is the problem. Chomsky is only supporting the Kurds in Turkey, because he's anti western and goes after Turkey, because he see's them as an ally of the U.S Why doesn't Chomsky visit the Kurds in Iraq. Why doesn't he show support for the Kurds there. Thats the problem. He doesn't do that, because he see's Iraq as a friend, because there anti U.S. I'll put it another way. If Turkey killed 1000 Kurds and Iraq killed 1000 Kurds on the same day. Chomsky would protest the Turkish killing of Kurds, but wouldn't say a word about the Iraqi killing of Kurds.

Dan


Israel shoots Kurdish protestors

18.05.2002 10:02

Following reports (1999) that Israeli security services helped capture Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, Kurdish protestors tried to take over the Israeli consulate in Berlin. Israeli security guards shot three protestors. This hints at the degree of co-operation between Israel/Turkey. Massive upgrades to jets, a recent deal on upgrading hundreds of tanks, joint exercises, intelligence sharing, use of Turkish airspace for flight training etc, etc are all on the record. But Dan is right, Israel doesn't give arms to Turkey - it SELLS THEM.

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

Auntie Beeb, If Saddam Hussein right now gassed and massacred 10,000 Kurds. Would there be there be one demonstration in Europe for the Kurds.

Joe