Biji Kurdistan
Sometimes, as a left wing activist, you run into issues that are simply no-brainers. The Kurdistan issue is one of those. There is a long and complicated history to one of the oldest stateless nations on earth, but that isn’t what you need me to tell you about right now. What you need me to tell you is that a NATO ally of the UK and USA is about to attempt to crush an oppressed people, again, to crush the heroic Peshmerga who have fought against all comers. from Syria, from Iran, from Turkey and from Iraq, in conflict after conflict since before you I or any of our readers were born. The Kurds have no state, they deserve to have one, and there is a large queue of oppressor nations determined to stop them. That’s what you need to focus on.
It is the duty of those of us who have a regard for truth and a belief in human liberation (sadly these days I can’t honestly use the shorthand “the left” to describe those of us who believe that) to stand up for those people. They are the great forgotten of the world’s political causes. There are more of them immediately displaced than there were Palestinians in 1948. Countless thousands of them died in the slaughter run by the Turkish army in the 1990s. They stood and fought, and died in droves. against the Baathists in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was our “bulwark against fundamentalist Iran.” We owe them something.
I hold no brief for the established Kurdish parties, and I have a great personal affection for Turkey. However if the AK government in Istanbul caves in to the ultranationalist fools who seem to have taken control of the historically Kemalist army, then I say bring it on. Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani (son of the Kurdish King Arthur, Mullah Mustafa Barzani) has already threatened to call for an uprising across the south east of Turkey. The result of such a call would destroy the Turkish state. As simple as that. The firestorm would be something unlike that nation has ever experienced, even during the most explosive days of the PKK insurgency of the 1990s. And it will be deserved.
Biji Kurdistan.
Shiraz Socialist 
Simon B said,
October 22, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Good post Volty.
I think that to those whose politics aren’t defined by opposing the great satan, this is much clearer cut than the US/UK invasion of Iraq.
This is a clear imperialist/oppressed people dispute.
The left should be far clearer about supporting Kurdish self-determination across the existing states of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
dksu said,
October 22, 2007 at 7:16 pm
I agree, the Kurds have been at the end of a ruthless oppression for a long, long time, and deserve a state.
However, I think what some on the left find a little unnerving (myself included) is that the U.S. is working so closely with the Kurdish-Iraqi politicians. Not that this is in ANY way an argument against Kurdish autonomy!
What’s the popularity of the PKK like amongst Iraqi and Turkish Kurds? I think they’re a bit of a quasi-Maoist type group, aren’t they? It will be interesting to see what happens in Kurdish Iraq between the different Kurdish political groups if the PKK establishes itself as a force there…
bastard.logic said,
October 23, 2007 at 2:42 am
Monday Blogwhoring
by matttbastard
Love endures forever, like a candy apple grey cockroach waiting for the end of a nuclear winter.
(Bow down to the Queen Cunt of Fuck Mountain, brethren.)
Baghdad Burning: Bloggers Without Borders… (h/t Michael van der Galiën)
Sh…
Igor Belanov said,
October 23, 2007 at 10:59 am
Yes, but the Kurds already have a de facto state in Northern Iraq. I would have thought that in the present geopolitical situation it was best for them not to antagonise their rather powerful neighbour by attacking it’s territory. (And I know ‘in theory’ it’s part of ‘Kurdistan’)
voltaires_priest said,
October 23, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Well, no, not “in theory”. The vast majority of people actually living in that region are Kurdish. I just can’t imagine people being so mealy mouthed about the Palestinians (whom we the “left” support re-occupying areas where they don’t currently live, because of the historical injustice that did them out of it, remember?).
Igor Belanov said,
October 24, 2007 at 7:23 am
I don’t support the automatic right of each ‘nation’ to it’s own state, so I’m not making a special case for any group.
I do think the Kurds have some strong grievances, but I don’t think it’s wise to give carte blanche to nationalist adventurers who might well provoke more conflict in that region. This could only be bad for the Kurdish people in the short term.
voltaires_priest said,
October 24, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Uh-huh. Bet you agree with the same rights for (say) the Palestinians, and you don’t castigate them for bringing trouble on themselves by resisting Israel though, right?
mert said,
August 28, 2009 at 11:54 pm
This is an unlegal society,and this society only works for themselves TURKEY is the biggest country and national and in history turks were living with other nations very calmly for example; Fatih Sultan Mehmet (who was the fall down constantinapol,founder of İstanbul) didn’t hurt orthodox people who was living in there.And he had always support their regional independences (he didn’t close hagia sophia cathedral).And now how can You say about independence,all ethnical group who living in turkey has got an rights like an turkish and if you still talikng about your rights your are probably don’t calmly..
Henrik said,
October 25, 2010 at 1:03 am
I’m a supporter of the Jews and Kurds struggle for independence in the middle east.
Like a kurd so accuratly wrote:
“We cannot expect from arabs, turks or iranians to have freedom or equal rights, so we will instead govern and defend our selves.”
This is also exactly my reason for supporting a jewish state(Israel), and supporting the Maronites of Lebanon.