Turkey is "terrified" that Iraq will turn in to a Kurdish stronghold. Turkey, due to their proximity to Iraq, is a critical ally in the war.
You remember the Kurds. They're the people in northern Iraq who we supposedly protected from Saddam with the no-fly zones. Truth is, we routinely ignore Turkey attacking the Kurds. Why? Because Kurds want an "autonomous state." That is to say they want to rule themselves. In Turkey, the Kurdish language is outlawed. How's that for human rights?
Condoleeza Rice visited Turkey today to assure Turkish leaders that we have no intention of letting the region "destabilize." By this, the Bush administration is saying they will not allow the Kurds the right to self-rule and will take action to prevent it.
Doesn't democracy in action make you all warm and fuzzy?
What's ironic is if a Kurd detonated himself and killed Americans because we were actively fighting their right to rule themselves, Bush would claim that it happened because the Kurds hate democracy. Then the press would echo that "fact" to the American people.
And then you'd all think that was the case.
1 comment:
I told you I will quit reading your blog but sorry I could wait til now a that boring Sunday.
I am pretty suprized by your comment today. On the way to be a "specialist"(whatever does it mean) on that particular region (with the motivation of being sceptical and oppositionary witness of events-including state politics-) let me make a "factual" corretion:
1. Yes. The official language of Turkey is Turkish.
2. Yet in Southeastern Anatolia-highly Kurdish populated region-only people who speaks Turkish are state officials(i.e. army officers doctors-nurses and high-rank local civil authorities who are appointed by central government).
3. The rest of the population speak a range of languages-mostly Kurdish in addition to Arabic Armenian and Syriac. This is the de facto condition now...(I am not even mentioning the number of Kurdish women in their mid-20s and later ages who can speak only Kurdish! Also I am not mentioning the state politcs of assimilation of them.)
4. Prohibition to speak other languages-including Kurdish- was a state-policy which initiated in early 1920s and ended in 1960s and initiated in late 1980s and end in late 1990s.
5. You can buy a CD with Kurdish lyrics in Kurdish in any music store in Turkey:)
6. I do not know whether or not these pieces of information make a difference in your account of U.S. "natonal"(i.e. not anymore international)politics in Middle East.
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