SlyHunter
Apr 15, 2004, 09:32 PM
Nobody seems to like the "Kurds"
Ever since mob violence erupted between Arabs and Kurds at a soccer game in the northern Kurdish region of Syria some weeks back, the Syrian government has been ruthlessly punishing the Kurdish people. The government's security services have arrested scores of Kurds and killed nearly 100 of them.
Beyond the recent crackdown, though, Syria will not extend basic citizen privileges, such as the right to vote and attend public schools, to the approximately 2 million Kurds that the nation is home to.
http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/04/27/World/Syrias.Persecution.Policies.Need.Our.Attention-661498.shtml
In 1982, the Syrian government carried out mass murder against it's own citizens, killing over 20,000 people in the Syrian city of Hama. Since 1976, Syria has occupied its neighbor to the west, Lebanon, viciously suppressing any sparks of freedom. Recently, Syria carried out a new massacre, murdering almost 100 Kurds and arresting thousands, in over a week of fighting.
According to Kurdish sources, the arrests and suppression are continuing. "Syrian authorities have not stopped their nighttime raids, arrests, and oppression of safe Kurds in their homes, continuing the policy of persecution against the Kurdish people," said Abdel Baki Youssef, leader of the Kurdish Yekiti Party.
Amnesty International - the human rights monitor - in a recent statement, urged Syria to launch an independent judicial inquiry into the clashes and called on Syrian authorities to end repressive measures against its Kurdish minority. The Amnesty statement called on authorities to release hundreds of Syrian Kurds it said were still detained.
Israel too should speak out loudly about these Syrian atrocities, and support the Kurdish minority against Syrian Arab violence.
The Kurds in Syria, Iran and in Turkey are severely repressed. In Turkey, even their identity as Kurds is still denied; they are called Mountain Turks. In Syria, they are denied most civil and political rights. About 2 million Kurds live in Syria. But the seething anger that exploded in Qamishli is generated most, by the fact that almost 200,000 Kurds are denied citizenship outright. They cannot vote, own property, go to state schools or get government jobs. Kurds in Iran live under similar repressive conditions. With the rise of an autonomous region in a post-Saddam federated Iraq, the question of Kurdish rights in other parts of the region looms large.
As the discussion of "democratization" of the Middle East continues, an important point that must be made time and time again, is the importance in building structures that liberate the minorities of the region from oppression.
Non-Arab and Non-Muslim minorities live throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Contrary to the propaganda that the region is Arab/Muslim, these minorities are remnants of the indigenous peoples, before the great Arab imperialist wars of the 7th century, and "Islamicization process" that followed. Non-Arab Muslims like the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran; the Berbers - known as Amazighes - in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, have all resisted "Arabization" for over 1,000 years. Non-Muslims like the Assyrian Christians in Iraq - who argue that they are not Arabs - the Copts in Egypt, Christian Lebanese - many who claim not to be Arab but Phoenician - the Christians in Sudan, and other Christians throughout the region, have been persecuted minorities, since the rise of Islam. Others like the Druze and Jews have also been persecuted by Arab/Muslim regimes throughout history. And we can now see, from the recent Sunni terror attacks on Shiites in Iraq - and Bin La
den's recent statements that Shiites are heretics - that even some Muslims - Shiites and other non-Sunnis - are persecuted minorities in parts of the Middle East.
Only Israel, the Jewish State, has fully liberated itself - in the political sense - from this Arab/Muslim oppression, although it still suffers from physical violence against her people. Israel should take the lead - in it's foreign policy - to support "democratization" and "regime change" throughout the region. Israel shouldn't wait until countries of the region "reform," but should pro-actively support the legitimate aspirations of the oppressed minorities of North Africa and the Middle East, and build alliances with them.
Kurds were brutally suppressed by Saddam's Baathist regime in Iraq through his "Arabization" program, expelling Kurds from their traditional areas and replacing them with Arab settlers. It's no secret that close relations existed between Israel and the Kurds throughout most of the sixties and into the seventies, until the collapse of the Kurdish revolt in Iraq, in 1975. Reflective of this, and that Moledet Party founder and former leader Rechavam Ze'evi was involved in Israeli-Kurdish relations, the 1996 Moledet Party Platform, Chapter 9: Foreign Policy, paragraph 17, states "Israel will act against the oppression of peoples like the Kurds..." Ze'evi - as a military officer - had been to Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani had even been to Israel. With this in mind, Israel should actively revive the former policy of support for the Kurdish people.
story is too long.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12953
Problem is we can't save the world :(
Ever since mob violence erupted between Arabs and Kurds at a soccer game in the northern Kurdish region of Syria some weeks back, the Syrian government has been ruthlessly punishing the Kurdish people. The government's security services have arrested scores of Kurds and killed nearly 100 of them.
Beyond the recent crackdown, though, Syria will not extend basic citizen privileges, such as the right to vote and attend public schools, to the approximately 2 million Kurds that the nation is home to.
http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/04/27/World/Syrias.Persecution.Policies.Need.Our.Attention-661498.shtml
In 1982, the Syrian government carried out mass murder against it's own citizens, killing over 20,000 people in the Syrian city of Hama. Since 1976, Syria has occupied its neighbor to the west, Lebanon, viciously suppressing any sparks of freedom. Recently, Syria carried out a new massacre, murdering almost 100 Kurds and arresting thousands, in over a week of fighting.
According to Kurdish sources, the arrests and suppression are continuing. "Syrian authorities have not stopped their nighttime raids, arrests, and oppression of safe Kurds in their homes, continuing the policy of persecution against the Kurdish people," said Abdel Baki Youssef, leader of the Kurdish Yekiti Party.
Amnesty International - the human rights monitor - in a recent statement, urged Syria to launch an independent judicial inquiry into the clashes and called on Syrian authorities to end repressive measures against its Kurdish minority. The Amnesty statement called on authorities to release hundreds of Syrian Kurds it said were still detained.
Israel too should speak out loudly about these Syrian atrocities, and support the Kurdish minority against Syrian Arab violence.
The Kurds in Syria, Iran and in Turkey are severely repressed. In Turkey, even their identity as Kurds is still denied; they are called Mountain Turks. In Syria, they are denied most civil and political rights. About 2 million Kurds live in Syria. But the seething anger that exploded in Qamishli is generated most, by the fact that almost 200,000 Kurds are denied citizenship outright. They cannot vote, own property, go to state schools or get government jobs. Kurds in Iran live under similar repressive conditions. With the rise of an autonomous region in a post-Saddam federated Iraq, the question of Kurdish rights in other parts of the region looms large.
As the discussion of "democratization" of the Middle East continues, an important point that must be made time and time again, is the importance in building structures that liberate the minorities of the region from oppression.
Non-Arab and Non-Muslim minorities live throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Contrary to the propaganda that the region is Arab/Muslim, these minorities are remnants of the indigenous peoples, before the great Arab imperialist wars of the 7th century, and "Islamicization process" that followed. Non-Arab Muslims like the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran; the Berbers - known as Amazighes - in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, have all resisted "Arabization" for over 1,000 years. Non-Muslims like the Assyrian Christians in Iraq - who argue that they are not Arabs - the Copts in Egypt, Christian Lebanese - many who claim not to be Arab but Phoenician - the Christians in Sudan, and other Christians throughout the region, have been persecuted minorities, since the rise of Islam. Others like the Druze and Jews have also been persecuted by Arab/Muslim regimes throughout history. And we can now see, from the recent Sunni terror attacks on Shiites in Iraq - and Bin La
den's recent statements that Shiites are heretics - that even some Muslims - Shiites and other non-Sunnis - are persecuted minorities in parts of the Middle East.
Only Israel, the Jewish State, has fully liberated itself - in the political sense - from this Arab/Muslim oppression, although it still suffers from physical violence against her people. Israel should take the lead - in it's foreign policy - to support "democratization" and "regime change" throughout the region. Israel shouldn't wait until countries of the region "reform," but should pro-actively support the legitimate aspirations of the oppressed minorities of North Africa and the Middle East, and build alliances with them.
Kurds were brutally suppressed by Saddam's Baathist regime in Iraq through his "Arabization" program, expelling Kurds from their traditional areas and replacing them with Arab settlers. It's no secret that close relations existed between Israel and the Kurds throughout most of the sixties and into the seventies, until the collapse of the Kurdish revolt in Iraq, in 1975. Reflective of this, and that Moledet Party founder and former leader Rechavam Ze'evi was involved in Israeli-Kurdish relations, the 1996 Moledet Party Platform, Chapter 9: Foreign Policy, paragraph 17, states "Israel will act against the oppression of peoples like the Kurds..." Ze'evi - as a military officer - had been to Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani had even been to Israel. With this in mind, Israel should actively revive the former policy of support for the Kurdish people.
story is too long.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12953
Problem is we can't save the world :(
