ASSIMILATION AND SERVITUDE

"The pressure that has been brought to bear upon the native people, since the cessation of armed conflict, in the attempt to force conformity of custom and habit has caused a reaction more destructive than war."
~ Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux.

It's confirmed. The attack against students at Salahaddin University was an operation approved at the highest levels of the KRG. From Nêçîrvan Barzanî:

"We are not going to allow this land to be used against Turkey. Therefore, we stopped the protest held in Erbil [Hewlêr] for the anniversary of Ocalan's capture."

There is nothing here that indicates the students were rioting or otherwise acting in a threatening manner. The only violence came from the regime, something that has been standard operating procedure for protest in South Kurdistan since at least the time of Şîrvan Qaderî's murder by the mullah regime to the east.


More from Nêçîrvan, who responds to the journalist's question about what kind of message the KRG is sending to PKK by allowing the Abant Platform conference to be held in Hewlêr on 15 and 16 February:

"This conference doesn't have anything to do with PKK. Here we are talking about how to solve the problems peacefully. As long as the issue is peace, we accept everything. Besides, we do not care as much about PKK as you think."

If you google Abant Platform, you'll hit a link that directs you to--tah-dah!--Fethullah Gülen's website. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Or maybe not, considering that Hewlêr is also home to one of Fethullah Gülen's colleges. For more on the Fethullahçı invasion of South Kurdistan, check this from a year ago.

Nêçîrvan is also asked if he called any Kurdish artists to "ask" them to appear on TRT 6. Here's what he said:

"Yes. I called Rojîn and told her how important that step was and I encouraged her. I also called some other artists. For instance, Ciwan Haco. I encouraged him as well."

Ciwan Haco did not comply.

It doesn't matter if all the Barzanîs and all the Talabanîs lined up on their knees before Erdoğan, Gül, Gülen, or Başbuğ to play the role of servants to the Ankara regime. They will never accept Kurds as Kurds until a very serious scenario plays out in Turkey. No amount of Turkish propaganda in Kurdish will change that either.

However, as long as the Fethullahçı run the show in South Kurdistan, assimilation will be the fate of Kurds there--at least among the Southern Kurdish elites. Clearly this option is already well underway.

NOTE: There's a new link under the blog roll in the right margin. Welcome Serhat Daran, a member of the Swedish crowd. He writes in Swedish, but English users can visit Google's language tools to get a decent translation. Serkeftin!

DEMOCRATIC EXPRESSION IN SOUTH KURDISTAN

"Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present."
~ Henry Steel Commager.

More on protests against Öcalan's capture, from Özgür Gündem:

"Peşmerge raided us for several minutes"

Selahattin University students said peşmerge raided them for several minutes and beat them to death when the students wanted to protest the tenth anniversary of the capture of the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, by Turkey in the KRG's capital city Hewlêr on 13 February.

Among the Selahattin University students, Esmer Ahmet said they wanted to conduct a democratic protest for the condemnation of the tenth anniversary of the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, by Turkey. However, peşmerge forces tried to stop them. During their intervention, Ahmet said peşmerge cursed the students horribly, "They hit us with the butt of their weapons. Then the sound of gun shots came from all around. They raided us for ten minutes. Because of blows by weapon butts, several of our friends were wounded on various parts of their bodies and I was wounded on my hand" said Ahmet.

A student named Nalin Tunç also said, "February is a black month for any honorable Kurd" and that is why they came together to protest the tenth anniversary of Öcalan's capture and were stopped by the peşmerge. She said "We told them that our protest was not against them but it was to condemn the international conspiracy forces by a democratic protest". But then peşmerge intervened and Tunç was wounded on her head by a blow from a weapon butt. "During the intervention, we were exposed to horrible cursing. They started beating us as if they were beating their enemies, with weapon butts, kicking, stoning, whatever they could find. They told us 'What are you guys doing here? Go to the mountains!" said Tunç.

Refused treatment by hospital for having attended the protest

Xezal İke also mentioned that they were attacked by the security forces, by whom they were hoping to be protected. "Almost fifteen women were wounded from blows by weapon butts to their waists, heads, and chests. They didn't stop at this point but also they raided us for more than ten minutes. All of us went on the floor," said İke. Pointing out the refusal of five hospitals [to treat] the student named Hüsne, who was wounded during the peşmerge intervention, because she attended the protest, İke said, "The hospitals said "We are not going to start treatment unless you get a permission paper from peşmerge forces.' The doctor, rather than treating her, started questioning her like a police."

Mesut Ali said that the peşmerge wanted to take the flyers and Öcalan posters that the students had in their hands and the attack was due to that. "The thing I hated most was that they were hitting women and they wanted to take away Öcalan's posters from us."

"They beat to death"

Mentioning that the peşmerge attacked them as if they were the enemies of the peşmerge, Bedretin Ok said, "However, they are also Kurds. I think this is a game of the enemy and a continuation of the conspiracy. They were particularly going after the person who was carrying the leadership's poster in the march. They were shooting, not hitting us with nightsticks. There is a remarkable thing as well here, [that] they especially attacked the women and hit them more." Because of the blows he received on his body, Ok passed out and he said, "They beat me to death."

So much for democratic expression. But at least we can say that security forces in South Kurdistan are becoming more and more like security forces in North Kurdistan.

THE KURDISH BAZAAR

"The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her."
~ Marcelene Cox.

We stayed overnight in South Kurdistan on a shopping trip to stock up on necessities. In this case, necessities consisted of tea and fabric for the traditional women's dress of North Kurdistan, the kras û fîstan. Bakûrî Kurds will go to the South for shopping because it's generally cheaper there.

I confess: I'm not a shopper. I become very impatient after about fifteen minutes of looking at clothes or shoes . . . or fabric. In the West, I have to know what I want, know where it is in the store, find it, pay for it, and leave. After a certain period of time, a panic reaction sets in and I feel compelled to leave. My eyes begin to anxiously search for the nearest exit while my heart rate increases and my palms become sweaty. The reaction doesn't end until I'm on the road for home.

I did not inherit the female gene for shopping, the same one that generally instills women with a stamina unknown to triathletes or marathon runners.

On the other hand, I love going to the bazaars in Kurdistan simply because there is a lot to see and they are usually colorful. I could wander through the alleyways of a bazaar for hours, looking at the people and the colors and listening to the sounds.

Below are some photos from the Hewlêr and Duhok bazaars:

The Hewlêr Citadel in South Kurdistan's capital city. Behind the camera view is the Hewlêr bazaar.

Here's a butcher, preparing an order for a customer.

These were the biggest radishes I'd ever seen. I don't know how they tasted, but they were certainly big. Personally, I'm a radish fan as long as the radishes are succulent.

Here's a scene from one of the alleyways in the bazaar.

Sacks of henna.

Here are some spices and you can see my favorite seasoning in the foreground--the red pepper flakes. There was quite a bit of, ahem, discussion with the shopkeeper over the price of something that someone was buying, so I had plenty of time to linger around here, inspecting everything. The spice shops always have amazing aromas.

Speaking of amazing aromas, here's a pickle shop. These places smell somewhat like curry and it can be off-putting for some people, but I love pickles, and the curry smell makes them all the more interesting! They have much more in these places than simply pickled cucumbers. There are all kinds of pickled vegetables here, as well as olives. My favorite are the pickled beets.

Here's the Duhok bazaar. It looks pretty clean and organized here, but in the food sections it can be just as seemingly chaotic as the Hewlêr bazaar.

This is a general store kind of place. Notice the big bag on the right with the ear of corn printed on it? That was a bag of popcorn.

One of my favorites! These kinds of shops sell nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. They always have the most interesting and tasty treats.

These were the most fabulous grapes I'd ever seen. Absolutely amazing!

Here's where I found the grapes. Everything was so colorful and neatly piled up that I had to take a picture.

HEWLÊR BOMBING, DEEP STATE, AND INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

"We have decided to run in the elections with independent candidates."
~ Ahmet Turk, DTP Chairman.

The last time that there was a bombing in Hewlêr was May 4, 2005 which killed 60 people. That was the last time until today, from the AP and carried by the hevals at KurdishInfo:

A suicide truck bomb ripped through the Interior Ministry in the relatively peaceful Kurdish city of Irbil on Wednesday morning, killing at least 19 people and wounding 80, officials said. Kurdish officials blamed al-Qaida linked insurgents for the devastating attack.

[ . . . ]

Zariyan Othman, the Kurdish health minister, said 19 people were killed and 80 were wounded, including five who were in serious condition. Hamza Ahmed, a spokesman for the Irbil governor's office, said the dead and wounded included police and civilians.

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman blamed the attack on Ansar al-Sunnah, a Sunni Arab insurgent group, and Ansar al-Islam, a mostly Kurdish militant group with ties to al-Qaida in Iraq. Ansar al-Islam has been blamed for a number of attacks, including attempts to assassinate Kurdish officials.

Othman said authorities learned that insurgents were planning a large attack a week ago when police arrested a militant cell in the town of Sulaimaniyah.

"During questioning they confessed that were getting training lessons in a neighboring country and that was Iran," he said.

The AP gets the date wrong on the last suicide bombing in Hewlêr, citing the deadly attack of February 1, 2004 as the most recent. So, we shall see what comes of this. Since Turkey and Iran have conducted recent operations together against PKK, it's possible that they are coordinating suicide bombings together.

There have been more commentary on the murder of Doa Khalil Aswad, one from The Muslim Woman and another from Dr. Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany at Iraqi Kurdistan. The Muslim Woman has the following observation:

While the Kurdish authorities introduced legal reforms to address ‘honour killings’ they have, however, failed to investigate and prosecute those responsible for such crimes.

The Kurdistan government, who originally did nothing in reaction to this event, have now stated – after their dirty little secrets were exposed to the world via the internet – that these men will be punished. Hmm… we’ll see!

Indeed, we'll see. Of course, there will probably be a load of legal wrangling since the murder was committed outside of the KRG's area of authority. Still, The Muslim Woman's observation is consistent with many of the things Kurdish women's rights activists like Houzan Mahmoud have stated. You can check out more of what Houzan has to say at her blog, Houzan Mahmoud.

Kurdish MEP Feleknas Uca is sponsoring a petition on the poisoning of Ocalan, calling for an independent medical team to go to Imrali and conduct a proper examination of the island prison's only inmate. For more on that, head over to DozaMe.

For an update on Sibel Edmonds' case, check Lukery at Wot Is It Good 4. He's running the same post at DKOS and Democratic Underground and you can catch a read of what others are saying about the situation. It can be pretty interesting, but I haven't noticed any pro-TC trolls today, but then again they might be out protesting for the Paşas.

Lukery also picked up on another take on America's Deep State from an op/ed piece at the WaPo on former CIA chief George Tenet's latest apologia pro poor-little-me. In other words, Tenet's new book/whitewash of his involvement with 9/11. Lukery read it all so I didn't have to (and neither do you), and in doing so, he pulled out a very interesting observation:

I'm more fascinated, though, with the collateral damage of his claim: Even in a country like the United States, even with a country that is so seemingly transparent, Tenet is saying that there is great ambiguity associated with what the "state" is, who speaks for it, what the agenda is, what the truth is, even from the highest government officials, who may or may not be speaking from a position of truth or facts or based upon access to, or knowledge of, the ultimate decision-maker.

[]

Without a shred of irony, George Tenet would have us believe that the "they" are someone else, that the decision was -- and is -- the doing of secret, informal, unauthorized, incompetent officials and infiltrators. Not some otherwise innocent entity called the government."

Exactly.

The Middle East Times, out of Egypt, is reporting that DTP is going to run independent candidates in the Turkish election and speculates that Leyla Zana will be one of the candidates.

Maybe this answers something that Ilnur Cevik was crying about the other day, when he whined about knowing DTP's intentions. According to him, if DTP runs independent candidates, they could possibly win between 20 to 30 seats in the TBMM.

What's more interesting is the rest of Ilnur's opinion, especially if one keeps in mind that Ilnur is the representative of the Turkish ruling elites. He calls for KDP/PUK support for AKP because AKP is just so very Kurd-friendly and, besides, Turkey's future is on the line and Ankara would like it's clients to lend a hand in Turkey's future. Of course, Ilnur means KDP/PUK, not those 20 million Kurds of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. Those millions live in the huge void that is Turkey's own internal colony and they have no hand in Turkey's future or Turkey's stability . . . according to Ilnur, anyway. He may have a point on that since Kurds have no political rights within the TC, unless Kurds prove themselves momentarily useful by voting for Turkish parties like AKP.

The question is this: Will KDP/PUK stab DTP in the back by continuing to support the Ankara regime as Ilnur Cevik calls for? After all, KDP/PUK has enjoyed warm ties with Ankara for quite a while. Now that Ankara's business interests own most of South Kurdistan and Gulen's Islamist schools are springing up in South Kurdistan like mushrooms on manure, we'll be sure to note just exactly where KDP/PUK's loyalties ultimately lie.

Yep, there will be some heavy karma going down this year. For good or for bad remains to be seen.


Update: According to Zaman, Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Doğan, and Selim Sadak are definitely running for the Turkish parliament. Osman Baydemir and other DTP mayors will not run. For more, see Zaman. Similar news is available from Ozgur Gundem, with the added info that PKK's ceasefire is suspected to end on May 18. However, Ozgur Gundem specifies that Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Doğan, and Selim Sadak will make a final determination to run at a party council to be held at a later date. The same council will determine which other independent candidates will run.

Undoubtedly time is getting short on this, so we should expect an announcement sooner rather than later. Ditto for an announcement of the end of the ceasefire.

UPPING THE ANTE

“Control your own destiny or someone else will.”
~ Jack Welch.

UPDATE ON US RAID IN HEWLÊR:


NPR has an audio report on the incident from Hewlêr. According to pêşmerge, there was a stand off between them and a three-HUMVEE convoy of American forces outside the Hewlêr airport, which lasted about an hour. The pêşmerge surrounded the Americans and aimed their weapons at them, holding them in place because they were in Kurdish territory without authorization.


Bijî pêşmerge!

Very interesting, so please give the report a listen. Sounds like the KRG is really pissed off.

Since the news topic of the day seems to be Iran, let's continue with the same thing by first focusing on the situation in Iranian-occupied Kurdistan, from HULIQ:

Despite its wealth of oil and natural-gas reserves, Iran has faced a gas crunch as people turn up the heat this winter.

Partial or total energy cutoffs were reported in 11 provinces, with residents of colder western provinces worst affected, and exports to Turkey were suspended for five days.

The National Iranian Gas Company issued a statement on January 2 warning of shortages and asking Iranians -- including Tehran residents -- to moderate their consumption or face cuts.

There are energy shortages in 11 provinces, with partial or total cuts that include Kurdistan in western Iran, the northwestern Zanjan Province, and the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan.

[ . . . ]

In Saqqez, in Kurdistan Province [Iranian-occupied Kurdistan], residents gathered outside the district governor's office on January 4 to protest eight days without sufficient gas supplies.

From there, some 200 protesters went to the city council, then to the town's central square, by which time they numbered about 1,000, according to advarnews.com. Protesters demanded that the government resolve such fundamental problems instead of attending to its high-profile nuclear program.

Fakhredin Heidari, the parliamentary representative for Saqqez and Baneh, wrote to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on January 3 to complain about the situation.

Heidari reminded Ahmadinejad that on his last visit to Saqqez, the president responded to public outcry by promising that shortages would not happen again "this year." The lawmaker recounted the death of a family of five due to a faulty heater that they were forced to use because of a lack of gas.

Heidari asked whether Ahmadinejad would respond similarly if it were his family and that of the oil minister who had to spend the night in the cold.

He also accused gas authorities of "giving away" natural gas to states who side with Iran's opponents in the nuclear standoff, leaving none for Iranians.

Heidari struck a note that the president himself has played in many of his speeches since taking office 1 1/2 years ago -- that of social justice. The lawmaker questioned the justice of a situation in which "the negligence of some officials" leaves Saddez residents "shivering in the cold" or burning to death in their homes.

Lawmaker Amin Shabani, from Sanandaj in Kurdistan Province [Iranian-occupied Kurdistan], argued on January 5 that Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh should be questioned in parliament if the gas shortages continue -- particularly in the country's colder western provinces. He said many western areas had experienced weeks of gas shortages or cutoffs.

Shabani said that such areas are living "entirely the opposite" of Ahmadinejad's reported campaign pledge to bring "oil to the people's tables" and oil wealth into Iranian homes. He said gas exports should be cut until domestic needs are met. He invited Vaziri-Hamaneh to visit Kurdistan "one day" and -- in his words -- "feel the cold...and properly answer how helpless people are to live" in near-freezing temperatures without gas, gasoline, or oil.

The crisis appears to have eased for now. Shabani said recently that there are currently sufficient supplies for the city of Sanandaj, and intermittent but less severe cuts in Saqqez and Baneh, according to ILNA on January 8.

But Shabani also warned ominously of a "100-percent possibility that with another cold wave, people in cold regions will face a fuel crisis."

So, there you have it. Energy resources necessary for survival in the fierce winter of Kurdistan are the first to be cut off as Iran suffers a fuel shortage, along with other regions filled with restive minorities. No doubt the fuel shortages are causing problems in those South Kurdistani towns bordering Iranian-occupied Kurdistan, since many of them purchase winter fuel from Rojhelat.

There are a couple of other articles describing the politics behind Iran's fuel shortage and these politics contribute to the sufferings of the Kurds and other minorities. The first is from the LATimes:

Iran's oil industry has raked in record amounts of cash during three years of high oil prices. But a new U.S. campaign to dry up financing for oil and natural gas development poses a threat to the republic's ability to continue exporting oil over the next two decades, many analysts say.

The campaign comes at a moment of unique vulnerability for Iran's oil industry, which also faces challenges from rising domestic energy consumption, international isolation, a populist spending spree by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and trouble closing contracts with foreign oil companies — a recipe for potential disaster in a nation with one of the world's largest reservoirs of oil.

[ . . . ]

If Iran were to suddenly stop exporting its 2.6 million barrels of oil a day, such as in the event of a military strike, world oil prices probably would skyrocket. But a gradual decline might be offset by other OPEC members, analysts say, particularly as Iraq increases its oil production and Saudi Arabia carries out plans for significant increases in its production capacity.

The US has had sanctions against Iran since 1979 and the seizure of the US Embassy in Teheran when the Islamic regime came into power. Now, however, it is applying more pressure to financial institutions, and not only to those based in the US but to international institutions as well. At the moment, the tactic seems to be working:

"Banks are constantly doing risk assessments about what kind of business they want to be involved in," Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a telephone interview.

"There's a lot out there suggesting that there's an element of coercion involved. But I think that for a lot of these executives, the main thing driving them is they really don't want to be involved in facilitating terrorism or proliferation or any other crime."

More than two decades of U.S. sanctions have had little effect on Iran's oil industry — U.S.-based companies have been replaced, largely by Europeans. But this new attack on financing has rapidly started to dry up potential loans on dozens of projects, according to oil industry insiders in Tehran and the West.

Any "element of coercion involved" is coming from the US, and if the American definition of terrorism as described in the US Code were consistently applied, not only would worldwide financial institutions have to cut off business with Iran, but with the US, too.

What are the possibilities that the current US tactic will backfire?

The LATimes article glosses over the possibility that China will involve itself with the further development of Iranian oil production facilities, saying "U.S. officials already have warned that they will seek to hold China accountable under Washington's unilateral sanctions laws if it proceeds with a $16-billion project to develop Iran's North Pars gas field." But China may not bow so easily to US pressure as banks do. For more on that, there's a detailed discussion at Political Affairs.net:

Iran facing a increasingly hostile US and Europeans has turned to Russia and China for investment and technical know-how for its oil and gas industries. China has the needed financial muscle and enough thirst for energy to disregard American pressures. China is already investing heavily in Iranian oil fields, securing for itself a portion of the oil and gas reserves. China with 1.3 billion people and fast growing economy is already the second largest oil consumer in the world. If China’s economic growth continues, it is estimated that by 2020 China’s energy needs will increase by 150 percent.

“China's expectation of growing future dependence on oil imports has brought it to acquire interests in exploration and production in places like Kazakhstan, Russia, Venezuela, Sudan, West Africa, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Canada. But despite its efforts to diversify its sources, China has become increasingly dependent on Middle East oil. Today, 58% of China's oil imports come from the region. By 2015, the share of Middle East oil will stand on 70%. Though historically China has had no long-standing strategic interests in the Middle East, its relationship with the region from where most of its oil comes is becoming increasingly important.”[8]

Last year China signed oil and gas contracts worth over $100 billion with Iran. China is heavily involved in developing the huge Yadavaran oil field. “If completed, the deal will allow China to buy 150,000 barrels of Iranian crude a day at market rates for 25 years as well as 250 million tons of liquefied natural gas. Under an initial agreement signed by the Sinopec Group in October 2004, China could pay Iran as much as $100 billion for the stake and the purchases of oil and gas over 25 years.” [9] Interestingly Royal Dutch Shell Plc works as technical consultant for Sinopec on Yadavaran field.

On 25 December 2006, National Offshore Oil Corp of China announced the signing of a $16 billion memorendom of understanding to develop Iran’s North Pars gas field and build liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in Iran. The project is expected to take 8 years to complete.

The article goes on to describe Russia's interest in Iran's energy resources along with its desire to set up an OPEC-style organization which would include a number of Central Asian republics, Ukraine, and Belarus. Iran was granted observer status with the SCO in 2005 and has since applied for full membership.

Let's review, from yesterday's post:

The US does not want democracy in Iran, either. It wants regime change. Regime change does not equal democracy. Regime change does not stabilize the region, but it does stabilize US hegemony.

From the Political Affairs.net article:

The current US strategy is to starve the Iranian oil and gas industries of new investments, thereby reducing the Iranian government’s revenues which are hoped will in turn reduce Iran’s ability to maintain not only its armed forces, but also the government’s social obligations to its people (subsidies, salaries, etc.). It is hoped that this combined with international isolation and (with the help of Saudi Arabia) a reduction in oil prices (OPEC crude basket price: $51.25 per barrel on 8/1/07) will not only cripple the Iranian economy, but also (possibly) lead to a regime change. All attacks on the economy was being presented under the guise of stopping Iran from developing WMDs, and in particular Nuclear weapons.

It's a very high-stakes game of poker the US is playing with Iran. What if Iran were to Washington's bluff? What if Iran "were to suddenly stop exporting its 2.6 million barrels of oil a day," but not as a result of a military strike but because it chose to remove its oil from the world market and sell only to SCO countries, namely China? What if it granted more development contracts to China, guaranteeing a certain percentage of oil to be sold to China over the next 25 years, as in the Yadavaran development project? What would happen to Europe with such a scenario?

This would be a sort of counterbalance between regional hegemonies, given that Western oil companies are busily trying to finalize their 30-year, 75%-profit deal in Iraq, as Britain's The Independent reported last weekend.

Is that what the new "surge" in Iraq is all about? If not, why are US senators "grilling" Condoleeza Rice over the lack of progress with Iraq's oil law?

Iraq's government is hammering out an oil law to regulate foreign investment. But it has been held up by disagreements over how revenues will be divided between provinces and the central government, and over who will have authority to sign contracts with foreign companies.

Sununu said he had been briefed on the oil law recently by members of the White House National Security Council, and had received a top-secret briefing from individuals he did not identify.

[ . . . ]

The contract issue is vital to Iraq's future as a solution favoring the regions would devolve power over its most valuable resource to the majority Shi'ites and the Kurds whose regions are home to the country's most coveted oil fields.

[ . . . ]

Ethnic Kurds whose region includes the country's northern oil fields including the giant Kirkuk field have signed some contracts with foreign oil companies, spurring confusion over who has the authority to ink contracts.

Rice said the oil law would not give the Kurds such authority.

"Even though the Kurds might have been expected ... to insist that they will simply control all the resources themselves, that's not what the oil law does," Rice said.

Are the Başûrî going to be left out in the cold like the Rojhelatî? We'll all know the answer to that when the oil law is made public. In the meantime, there's Iran, China, and Russia . . . and "A 16-year cycle of treachery" at the hands of the US.

How many more cycles of treachery must come and go before the Başûri leadership learns to build alliances with its brother and sister Kurds still under occupation, before all other alliances?

DISHONOR

Now they say that pêşmerge are not going Baghdad. More "clarification" is available at Iraq the Model. Apparently the current claim is that majority Kurd Iraqi Army units will be going to Baghdad, which still means that Kurds are being sent to die for Arabs.

That flag is not flying.

I have a better idea: Americans love Arabs, so they should be the ones to go die for them. Additionally, the American oil imperialists have taken over from their cousins, the British oil imperialists in the continuing struggle to hold together a monstrosity called Iraq, that was created specifically to ensure Western control of Iraqi oil.

That's the reason that the US refuses to recognize the Arabization of Kerkuk, too.

It seems that overnight the Americans raided the Iranian consulate in Hewlêr, indicating the level of distrust and total disregard the US has of the Başûrî Kurds. More from the Washington Post.

Why aren't the Americans going after Turkish JITEM for all the trouble they have been stirring up in Kerkuk?

This military raid reminds me of the time a couple of years ago that the US bombed Salahaddin University behind the backs of Kurdish authorities for absolutely no reason.

In South Kurdistan, the entire population keeps an eye on all suspicious people and activity, and reports everything to authorities immediately--Kurdish authorities, naturally. This community effort is the secret to security success in South Kurdistan, so it's a very suspicious thing that the Americans do not trust a population that actively works with each other to ensure their own security.

Furthermore, the implication of the US raid is that Kurds have a hand in the insurgency.

Shame, shame. This disgusting insult against the honor of a people who have insured that no Americans have died in South Kurdistan since the beginning of the war, cannot be tolerated.

US out of South Kurdistan . . . NOW.