A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig."
~ Barack Obama.

From KNCNA:

Kurdish National Congress of North America
P.O. Box 90823, Nashville, TN 37209
www.kncna.org

President Barack Obama,
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

February 3, 2009


Honorable President Obama:

In your inauguration speech, you stated that America will have a better approach with the rest of the world in terms of cooperation, mutual understanding and respect. You also appeared to promise that you would review and correct America’s unsuccessful policies especially in regard to the Middle East.

A received wisdom of various US administrations is that Turkey plays a vital role in the Middle Eastern stability and promoting America’s agenda in the region. Indeed Turkey is poised to become a prominent nation not only for the region but also to play a larger role in Asia and Europe. But this can only happen if Turkey bases its stability on the premise of democracy and a guarantee of human rights for its citizens. It appears that this can only happen if, with the encouragement of the US, the Turks amend their constitution where every citizen of Turkey is guaranteed respect and equality before the law. Turkey cannot remain prosperous and use slogans of democracy as a lapel pin rather than adhering to democracy’s deepest principles -- principles that should be reflected in the conduct of the Turkish state.

It’s inconceivable for a nation to proclaim its democratic image while it callously engages in the oppression of more than 20 million Kurds. It appears that Turkish authorities think they can continue this policy since they have been supported by America’s “Good Kurds - Bad Kurds” policies for the last few decades. This policy of demonizing the Kurds is possible because the US has accepted a Faustian bargain in which they allow the suppression of a people in exchange for geopolitical gains – and this by a nation that calls itself the ‘beacon of democracy.’

Because Turkey finds inconvenient the desire of the ethnic Kurds to speak their language and sustain their culture, they have used the PKK as a pretext to suppress this ancient people. Even the ‘new’ Kurdish TV station that has been allowed in response to pressure from the EU only broadcast state-approved propaganda – it just happens to be in Kurdish – and do not reflect the true political claims of Kurds who are living under the Turkish flag. As long as Turkey can sense the compliance of the Western world, particularly of America, they will continue to press chauvinistic claims that Turkish society is monoethnic and deny basic human rights to all other non-Turks who live in Turkey. We call upon you Mr. President to end this exclusionary, divisive and cruel policy.

The Kurdish people, as one of the world’s largest ethnic groups, have always been a scapegoat of the Western colonial policies in the region. The division of Kurdistan could not have happened without callous Western policies. As a result, the Kurds found themselves in four merciless nation states in which each of the governments tried to force assimilation in their own national melting pots. When assimilation was not possible, suppression and genocide followed.

It is hard to conceive that the Kurds are treated in such a harsh way as a result of America’s compliance in their suppression where history can testify to their loyalty to the west and particularly to America. This is especially true in countries such as Turkey where America can influence democratic changes.

However, every time after superficial promises to the Kurds (beginning with Woodrow Wilson’s promise for the Kurds and Armenians to have their own homelands in the Treaty of Sevres) the West has turned its back on them. The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which bowed to Turkish nationalist policies supplanted the guarantees of the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, and consigned Kurds to the yoke of a proto nationalist Turkish state. America and the West were indifferent when the Turks called the Kurds “mountain Turks” and even the words “Kurd” and “Kurdistan” were abolished and the act of speaking Kurdish in public became an offense to Turkish honor, punishable by a prison sentence.

It’s ironic that America would support regimes or governments that oppress their citizens in the name of protecting its interests, not thinking of consequences that jeopardize America’s interest, image and ability to claim itself as an advocate of democracy in the long run. Therefore, we encourage you to end this morally bankrupt policy of “Good Kurds - Bad Kurds” and pressure the Turks to end their suppression against the Kurds, acknowledge and respect their cultural and democratic rights.


Sincerely yours,

Kirmanj Gundi
President

GOOD KURDS/BAD KURDS V.2

"The "Bad Kurds" are those who harbor freedom notions for their long-suffering people and show signs of doing something to realize Kurdish dreams of freedom and independence. In the front ranks of the Kurds who have refused to become stepínífetchits for the imperial elite is the heroic PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), a genuine national liberation movement which has been taking on Turkey and its sponsors on the Potomac in an all-out popular guerrilla war for over 16 years."
~ Huseyin al-Kurdi.

There's an interview with Michael Totten's sidekick at sidekick's site. Aside from the usual propaganda we've come to expect from Totten, there was something very interesting that I noticed from sidekick, who goes by the name of Patrick Lasswell. To set this up, check out the following:

Have you also been in other parts of Kurdistan then Iraqi-Kurdistan? And what do you think about it?

Iran and Syria are blocked to me. They are distinctly unkind to sailors in Iran, despite what the British hostages said with guns to their heads. Syria is also a problem because I have a military security clearance I'd like to keep intact and they might hand me over to Iran. Is it hubris to think of yourself as worth at least a truckload of Katyusha's? Eastern Turkey is arguably less attractive than Kirkuk in a variety of dimensions, and the time to go there hasn't been available in the trips I've taken. I have talked extensively with Iranian Kurds and found them to be charming.

The guy is American military. The guy hasn't been to Rojhelat or Rojava. The guy hasn't spent any time to speak of in Bakûr, so he doesn't have a clue about Bakûrî. He doesn't know the people; he doesn't know the situation--or at least as an American military type, pretends to not know about the situation--and he doesn't know the history. Yet, in spite of all this ignorance, he's an expert on PKK. Read on:

I do not consider the PKK a political party. I see it as a criminal conspiracy to extort funds from Kurds in Europe and anyone else who will pay for violence. Their influence in Iraqi Kurdistan is pernicious, but not dominant. I much prefer the social democrat Iranian Komala to the Turkish PKK. There is a reason that the dissident Iranian Komala is easy to reach, with a sign out front, from Suliamaniya and the PKK hides in some of the most rugged and inaccessible terrain in Central Asia. The PKK works to oppress and control decent people. The Iranian Komala works to liberate decent people.

Odd, isn't it, considering that PKK is not Turkish? Sure, there are Turks in PKK; there always have been. But it's a Kurdish organization, hence the name: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan. Oh, and PKK doesn't consider itself a party either, at least not in its official expression, which is Koma Komalên Kurdistan.

Odd, too, that Lasswell doesn't like the fact that PKK doesn't post huge signs on the roads to give directions to PKK's Qendîl location . . . even though hundreds of other journalists have easily found their way to that location. Remember when the ceasefire was called? There were oodles of foreign journalists at Qendîl for that. Everyone goes up and down Qendîl to talk to PKK, even the CIA, but Lasswell can't seem to find Qendîl nor does he seem to know anyone who does know the way to Qendîl.

It's also odd that this American military type is singing the praises of a Rojhelatî organization (he wrongly calls Komala "Iranian") from Iran, yet cannot dis Bakûrî or PKK enough. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that the US is still pissed off at Iran for taking over the US embassy in Teheran way back in 1979? I wonder if that's because the American Deep Staters who run the American government are still itching to nuke Iran? I wonder if that's because the American Deep Staters are so closely allied with the Turkish Deep Staters? I wonder if it's because Turkey is America's second ally in the region, second only after Israel (which is also deep into the deep shit of the Deep State).

I guess KOMALA has agreed to work for the Americans and PKK hasn't. What a shock.

But there's more:

There is no need to crater the runway at Erbil International Airport in order to control the PKK. If Turkey is serious about controlling the PKK, they'd be better off interdicting the Frankfurt airport, Dubai banks, or just shooting heroin dealers in Paris. The PKK is a persistent problem because they are exceptionally well funded through extortion and other criminal activities taking place in Europe. There are also indications that other Central Asian powers are providing the PKK with support as a distraction for Turkey.

Our smart American military boy really displays his ignorance here. If Turkey is serious about anything, especially its internal stability and wider, regional stability, as it always claims, then Turkey needs to sit down and go over the political solution that PKK has offered. And if it does, it will also sit down with DTP, while ending the persecution of this legal Kurdish political party. In addition, we'd all be interested to see the hard evidence of the other claims made here by the guy who's never talked to PKK or never spent any time among the Bakûrî--the very same people our American military boy has helped Turkey to genocide.

(As a reminder, it was years ago that Ocalan himself said that it was not necessary that he sit down personally and negotiate a peace with the TC. For him, it is enough that a peace be negotiated.)

But, of course, such hard evidence will never be forthcoming because it's all a Turkish pipedream. I mean, it has been over twenty years that Turkey and its American ally have been making these claims and they've never produced a shred of hard evidence for them. Just as Turkey has been making similar claims of RojTV, yet the Danish government has yet to receive any hard evidence of any Turkish claims.

Finally:

I have no love of the PKK. Their supporters sound just like Hezbollah stooges and they have lied about my friends. I suspect the PKK of all kinds of villainy and vice and know that they have used terror on a regular basis. I also understand why my Iraqi Kurdish friends are sympathetic to the oppressed Kurds of Turkey. What most of my Iraqi Kurdish friends don't know is the reason why their sympathies are not divided is that the PKK attacks rival and divergent groups with much greater vigor than they ever attack the Turkish state. The PKK has a monopoly on Kurdish insurrection in Turkey and they murderously suppress anyone who tries to compete with them. What kind of government do you think they will make if they are ever put in charge...or even allowed a seat at the table?

Now we come to the heart of the matter. Military boy is upset because he alleges that PKK has lied about his friends. He suspects everything evil of PKK for this reason and for the reason that he's well-versed in Deep State propaganda. You can forget that part about his understanding why his Başûrî friends "are sympathetic to the oppressed Kurds of Turkey," because this is your typical American who really doesn't give a damn about any kind of Kurd. He's looking out for the interests of his American bosses and Kurds are just pawns in their games.

By the way, if PKK is so ruthless, why has DTP been around for so long? After all, we all know DTP's had previous incarnations. If HPG can kill JITEM scum at will in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, wouldn't it be that much easier to pick off, oh, say 54 DTP mayors at will? But that hasn't happend, has it? The only threats to DTP is the Ankara regime and its allies. They're the only ones who've been charging, investigating, prosecuting, detaining, arresting, imprisoning, and threatening DTP.

And military boy's claim that PKK enforces Bakûrî unity is pure bullshit. Which gerîla was holding a gun to Leyla Zana's head during her Newroz speech? Which gerîlas were holding guns to the heads of 54 DTP mayors to enforce their support for RojTV or to call for an independent medical examination of Ocalan? Which gerîlas hold guns to the heads of ordinary Bakûrî, other Kurds, and other non-Kurds who do find their ways to Qendîl?

Our American military boy refuses to admit that it is, in fact, the Ankara regime that is ruthless in its brutality against the Bakûrî, and not PKK. What we have here is a rehash of McKiernan's "good" Kurd/"bad" Kurd dichotomy, a dichotomy which even extends into Kurdish society and manifests as intra-Kurdish racism.

But, stirring all this up, perpetuating the dichotomy, and conquest by division, well, that's how a propagandist works. Just like Michael Rubin.

For more on American designs on Iraq and South Kurdistan, check out a fabulous article on "The Prize of Iraqi Oil," from TomDispatch.com. After you've read that, you might be interested to read about the "Soft Bigotry of the NYTimes" and how anxious these lapdogs are to ram the oil law down the throats of Iraqis and Başûrî, thus effectively robbing them of their most valuable resource.

Who said it wasn't about the control of oil?

For a pretty good analysis of what's going on politically in the Turkish elections, check out Shiraz Socialist. There are a lot of little details in that post that I'm certain a lot of people have forgotten about or never knew, especially if they read only Western media.