8 November 2001 Edition
Kurds in Dublin
Remzi Kartal, an executive member of the Kurdistan National Congress and Latif Serhildan visited the Coiste na nIarchimí offices in Dublin last week to talk with republican ex-prisoners about their ongoing struggle for recognition of the national rights of Kurdistan which, including its Diaspora, numbers over 40 million people. There are over 5 million in Iraq, 19 million in Iran and 1.5 million in Syria.
A quarter of the Kurdish nation lives within the Turkish state, where anyone who raises the very question of national rights for the Kurdish people faces the death sentence. The suppression of civil and human rights in Turkey is proverbial, at the hands of brutal police working in conjunction with the notorious death squads. Turkey is the second largest recipient of US military aid, and its military force is the second largest in NATO, second only to the US itself. The delegation confirmed that use of the NATO US military bases in Turkey is central to the conduct of the "War for Democracy", and the bombing of some of the poorest people in the world in Afghanistan in the past few weeks.
The KNC, and the affiliated political party, HADEP, supports the ongoing hunger strike by left wing Turkish prisoners and their supporters. The 10,000 PKK political prisoners in Turkey are involved in protests, though they have not joined the death fast.
The struggle of the Kurdish nation for freedom has been long and repression most brutal. There have been 28 armed uprisings since 1867 and the days of Attaturk. The Kurdish nation was first colonised by the Ottoman Empire in 1639. Emerging from the first World War, through the Balfour Declaration, the Kurdish nation and lands, rich in minerals, oil and water was divided by England, France, Italy and Turkey. Kurdistan, originally known as Sumeria in ancient history, has been the object of predatory Western imperialism, which has carved up of their nation in the interests of greed and determination to control the global sources of oil.
The suffering of the Kurdish people living in Turkey itself has been intense. Whole villages have been razed to the ground, woth populations forced to move into shanty towns in the bigger cities, where they must survive without employment or means of support. The Kurds are denied a political voice within the Turkish state, whose interests are defined by is key role in NATO.
Following the arrest of Ocalan, leader of the PKK, by the CIA and the Israeli secret police, Mossadeq, in Somalia, the PKK has been on ceasefire and involved in a process of negotiation. The EU has made it a condition of Turkey becoming a full member of the EU that human rights legislation must be introduced and enforced. However, the delegation pointed out that there has as yet been no real change in Turkey with respect to recognition of the rights of the Kurdish people.
"There will be no stability in the Middle East until the questions of the Palestinian people and of the Kurdish people are resolved," they said.
A quarter of the Kurdish nation lives within the Turkish state, where anyone who raises the very question of national rights for the Kurdish people faces the death sentence. The suppression of civil and human rights in Turkey is proverbial, at the hands of brutal police working in conjunction with the notorious death squads. Turkey is the second largest recipient of US military aid, and its military force is the second largest in NATO, second only to the US itself. The delegation confirmed that use of the NATO US military bases in Turkey is central to the conduct of the "War for Democracy", and the bombing of some of the poorest people in the world in Afghanistan in the past few weeks.
The KNC, and the affiliated political party, HADEP, supports the ongoing hunger strike by left wing Turkish prisoners and their supporters. The 10,000 PKK political prisoners in Turkey are involved in protests, though they have not joined the death fast.
The struggle of the Kurdish nation for freedom has been long and repression most brutal. There have been 28 armed uprisings since 1867 and the days of Attaturk. The Kurdish nation was first colonised by the Ottoman Empire in 1639. Emerging from the first World War, through the Balfour Declaration, the Kurdish nation and lands, rich in minerals, oil and water was divided by England, France, Italy and Turkey. Kurdistan, originally known as Sumeria in ancient history, has been the object of predatory Western imperialism, which has carved up of their nation in the interests of greed and determination to control the global sources of oil.
The suffering of the Kurdish people living in Turkey itself has been intense. Whole villages have been razed to the ground, woth populations forced to move into shanty towns in the bigger cities, where they must survive without employment or means of support. The Kurds are denied a political voice within the Turkish state, whose interests are defined by is key role in NATO.
Following the arrest of Ocalan, leader of the PKK, by the CIA and the Israeli secret police, Mossadeq, in Somalia, the PKK has been on ceasefire and involved in a process of negotiation. The EU has made it a condition of Turkey becoming a full member of the EU that human rights legislation must be introduced and enforced. However, the delegation pointed out that there has as yet been no real change in Turkey with respect to recognition of the rights of the Kurdish people.
"There will be no stability in the Middle East until the questions of the Palestinian people and of the Kurdish people are resolved," they said.