What do you think about the Letter to President Barack Obama?
Mr. Barack Obama, President United States of America The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500 July 13, 2010 Honorable President Obama: Change for the better was the motto of your campaign and you proved that it is possible with perseverance and dedication. Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the WWI, and the re-division of Kurdistan among Iran, Turkey and two newly established states, Iraq and Syria, the people of Kurdistan have been struggling for their national identity and dreaming for a change in the Middle East, where they could have the same linguistic, cultural, and national rights as other ethnic groups. They have persevered and dedicated their lives to fulfill this dream. However, the controlling states have been using all the means available to them to prevent the people of Kurdistan from achieving their dream. In response to state terror, and as a result of the imposed internal wars, displacements, bombings, assassinations, imprisonments, and tortures, the Kurdish resistance was born. The Kurdish people have defended their land and sought a peaceful political dialogue with the central governments to arrive at a peaceful solution. In return, the governments in Ankara, Tehran, Damascus, and Baghdad have labeled them as bandits, terrorists and foreign agents. They even convinced Washington at times to use such labels against them unjustly. These governments have used the same tactics that the British Empire used against the American Colonies or against the members of Indian National Congress. The Apartheid government of South Africa used the same methods against the members of the African National Congress. Fortunately those labels did not stop the Americans, nor the Indians, or the South Africans from fighting for their just goal, and finally the world accepted the fact that they deserve freedom. Unfortunately, due to the division of Kurdistan, the Kurds have not been able to unite in a Kurdish National Congress in their homeland and together fight for their rights. Fortunately, the Kurdish citizens in the North America have taken some steps in that direction. In 1988 in the aftermath of the genocide in Iraqi Kurdistan, a group of intellectuals created the Kurdish National Congress of North America (KNCNA). For the past 22 years KNCNA has done everything in its capacity to promote a peaceful and just solution to the Kurdish conflict in the Middle East. However, it still has not been able to fulfill its dream because of the lack of genuine support by the free world. We appeal to you, as a powerful leader of the free world, to side with the Kurds and help them to achieve their national rights. We understand that it is a difficult task to solve the Kurdish issue in all parts of Kurdistan, but it has to start somewhere, as they say, the journey of thousand miles starts with a single step. At present the Kurds of Iraq enjoy a stronger, more equal position with the Arabs than ever before. As a man of peace, we hope that you support the Kurds in their peaceful struggle for freedom and democracy. The Iranian and the Syrian governments are unreliable, still in denial about the most basic Kurdish human rights, and have not shown any sign of resolving the Kurdish issue. However, some Turkish authorities have shown such signs, and we ask you to encourage them to resolve the Kurdish issue and make peace between the two peoples and return harmony to Anatolia. Further, we ask you to make the recognition of the Kurdish cultural rights/identity in Anatolia and the amendment of the Turkish Constitution a moratorium to the Turkish membership in the European Union. We at KNCNA are committed to work for promoting justice, democracy, and equality for all. We are willing to approach the Kurdish people and leaders in Anatolia to continue using the same method that the American Founding Fathers, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King used for justice. Like Cesar Chavez, you said, "yes, we can". We too are assuring you that "yes, we can". Finally, we hope that you continue to encourage the Turkish authorities to accept the reality in which they live, which is, that Anatolia is a multi-ethnic society. Thus, they cannot talk about democracy while denying the national rights of those who carry a different national badge. We hope you encourage the Turkish authorities to use peaceful methods and come to a negotiating conference in Washington, DC, to solve the Kurdish conflict in Anatolia. Such an undertaking is consistent with American moral principles, with promoting human rights, and with change that was your motto. Sincerely, Kamal Artin, President Kurdish National Congress of North America
Other - Africa & Middle East - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Kurds are an integral part of Iran and will always be. They fought alongside Persians against Iraq. They are part of the Iranian nation and will never want to leave Iran. Only traitors will ever post that letter. Kurdish independence will never happen. Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey will never allow it. Over the dead bodies of all tehse countries will Kurds ever set up an independent country.
2 :
I think Obama doesn't give a damn about stupid Turdistan. Hope that idea dies soon. Killing children, causing wars in already war torn areas, supporting foreigners in overthrowing governments, destabilizing entire regions. Obama has more important things to due such as saving his own country instead of your pipe dream.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Why Turkey Constitution provides a single nationality designation as "Turks" and does not Recognize "KURDS"
Why Turkey Constitution provides a single nationality designation as "Turks" and does not Recognize "KURDS"?
According to the World Factbook, in 2010 approximately 25 percent of Turkey's population consists of Kurdish ethnic minority. Turkey's Constitution provides a single nationality designation for all Turks and thus does not recognize Kurdish ethnic group as national, racial, or ethnic minorities. Therefore a true census has been historically unavailable. Citizens of Kurdish origin have constituted a large ethnic and linguistic group in Turkey. Millions of the country's citizens identified themselves as Kurds and spoke Kurdish. Kurds who publicly or politically asserted their Kurdish identity or publicly espoused using Kurdish in the public domain risked public censure, harassment, or prosecution. However, Kurds who were long-term residents in industrialized cities in the west were in many cases assimilated into the political, economic, and social life of the nation, and much intermarriage has occurred over many generations. The Kurds have been the minority group with the greatest impact on Turkish national politics.In Turkey, the Kurdish national movement dates back to at least 1925, when Atatürk ruthlessly suppressed a revolt against the new Turkish republic motivated by the regime's renunciation of Muslim religious practices. Uprisings in the 1930s and 1940s prompted by opposition to the modernizing and centralizing reforms of the Turkish government in Ankara also were also put down by the Turkish army. The majority of Kurds, however, continued to participate in Turkish political parties and to assimilate into Turkish society. Since the 1930s, Kurds have resisted government efforts to assimilate them forcibly, including an official ban on speaking or writing Kurdish. Since 1984 Kurdish resistance to Turkification encompassed both a peaceful political struggle to obtain basic civil rights for Kurds within Turkey and a violent armed struggle to obtain a separate Kurdish state. The leaders of the nonviolent struggle have worked within the political system for the recognition of Kurdish cultural rights, including the right to speak Kurdish in public and to read, write, and publish in Kurdish. Prior to 1991, these Kurds operated within the national political parties, in particular the SHP, the party most sympathetic to their goal of full equality for all citizens of Turkey. President Özal's 1991 call for a more liberal policy toward Kurds and for the repeal of the ban on speaking Kurdish raised the hopes of Kurdish politicians. Following the parliamentary elections of October 1991, several Kurdish deputies, including Hatip Dicle, Feridun Yazar, and Leyla Zayna, formed the HEP, a party with the explicit goal of campaigning within the National Assembly for laws guaranteeing equal rights for the Kurds. The government's main strategy for assimilating the Kurds had been language suppression. Yet, despite official attempts over several decades to spread Turkish among them, most Kurds have retained their native language. In Turkey two major Kurdish dialects are spoken: Kermanji, which is used by the majority of Kurds, as well as by some of the Kurds in Iran and Iraq; and Zaza, spoken mainly in a triangular region in southeastern Turkey between Diyarbakir, Ezurum, and Sivas, as well as in parts of Iran. Literate Kurds in Turkey have used Kermanji as the written form of Kurdish since the 17th century. However, almost all literary development of the language since 1924 has occurred outside Turkey. In 1932 Kurds in exile developed a Latin script for Kermanji, and this alphabet continued to be used in the mid-1990s. Prior to the 1980 military coup, government authorities considered Kurdish one of the unnamed languages banned by law. Use of Kurdish was strictly prohibited in all government institutions, including the courts and schools. Nevertheless, during the 1960s and again in the mid-1970s, Kurdish intellectuals attempted to start Kurdish-language journals and newspapers. None of these publications survived for more than a few issues because state prosecutors inevitably found legal pretexts for closing them down. Between 1980 and 1983, the military government passed several laws expressly banning the use of Kurdish and the possession of written or audio materials in Kurdish.
Politics - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
In Our Constitution we are ALL Americans.
2 :
The refusal of the Kurds to integrate into the remainder of Turkish society serves to spit the country, instead of working to unify it.
According to the World Factbook, in 2010 approximately 25 percent of Turkey's population consists of Kurdish ethnic minority. Turkey's Constitution provides a single nationality designation for all Turks and thus does not recognize Kurdish ethnic group as national, racial, or ethnic minorities. Therefore a true census has been historically unavailable. Citizens of Kurdish origin have constituted a large ethnic and linguistic group in Turkey. Millions of the country's citizens identified themselves as Kurds and spoke Kurdish. Kurds who publicly or politically asserted their Kurdish identity or publicly espoused using Kurdish in the public domain risked public censure, harassment, or prosecution. However, Kurds who were long-term residents in industrialized cities in the west were in many cases assimilated into the political, economic, and social life of the nation, and much intermarriage has occurred over many generations. The Kurds have been the minority group with the greatest impact on Turkish national politics.In Turkey, the Kurdish national movement dates back to at least 1925, when Atatürk ruthlessly suppressed a revolt against the new Turkish republic motivated by the regime's renunciation of Muslim religious practices. Uprisings in the 1930s and 1940s prompted by opposition to the modernizing and centralizing reforms of the Turkish government in Ankara also were also put down by the Turkish army. The majority of Kurds, however, continued to participate in Turkish political parties and to assimilate into Turkish society. Since the 1930s, Kurds have resisted government efforts to assimilate them forcibly, including an official ban on speaking or writing Kurdish. Since 1984 Kurdish resistance to Turkification encompassed both a peaceful political struggle to obtain basic civil rights for Kurds within Turkey and a violent armed struggle to obtain a separate Kurdish state. The leaders of the nonviolent struggle have worked within the political system for the recognition of Kurdish cultural rights, including the right to speak Kurdish in public and to read, write, and publish in Kurdish. Prior to 1991, these Kurds operated within the national political parties, in particular the SHP, the party most sympathetic to their goal of full equality for all citizens of Turkey. President Özal's 1991 call for a more liberal policy toward Kurds and for the repeal of the ban on speaking Kurdish raised the hopes of Kurdish politicians. Following the parliamentary elections of October 1991, several Kurdish deputies, including Hatip Dicle, Feridun Yazar, and Leyla Zayna, formed the HEP, a party with the explicit goal of campaigning within the National Assembly for laws guaranteeing equal rights for the Kurds. The government's main strategy for assimilating the Kurds had been language suppression. Yet, despite official attempts over several decades to spread Turkish among them, most Kurds have retained their native language. In Turkey two major Kurdish dialects are spoken: Kermanji, which is used by the majority of Kurds, as well as by some of the Kurds in Iran and Iraq; and Zaza, spoken mainly in a triangular region in southeastern Turkey between Diyarbakir, Ezurum, and Sivas, as well as in parts of Iran. Literate Kurds in Turkey have used Kermanji as the written form of Kurdish since the 17th century. However, almost all literary development of the language since 1924 has occurred outside Turkey. In 1932 Kurds in exile developed a Latin script for Kermanji, and this alphabet continued to be used in the mid-1990s. Prior to the 1980 military coup, government authorities considered Kurdish one of the unnamed languages banned by law. Use of Kurdish was strictly prohibited in all government institutions, including the courts and schools. Nevertheless, during the 1960s and again in the mid-1970s, Kurdish intellectuals attempted to start Kurdish-language journals and newspapers. None of these publications survived for more than a few issues because state prosecutors inevitably found legal pretexts for closing them down. Between 1980 and 1983, the military government passed several laws expressly banning the use of Kurdish and the possession of written or audio materials in Kurdish.
Politics - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
In Our Constitution we are ALL Americans.
2 :
The refusal of the Kurds to integrate into the remainder of Turkish society serves to spit the country, instead of working to unify it.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Why Turkey Constitution provides a single nationality designation as "Turks" and does not Recognize "KURDS"
Why Turkey Constitution provides a single nationality designation as "Turks" and does not Recognize "KURDS"?
According to the World Factbook, in 2010 approximately 25 percent of Turkey's population consists of Kurdish ethnic minority. Turkey's Constitution provides a single nationality designation for all Turks and thus does not recognize Kurdish ethnic group as national, racial, or ethnic minorities. Therefore a true census has been historically unavailable. Citizens of Kurdish origin have constituted a large ethnic and linguistic group in Turkey. Millions of the country's citizens identified themselves as Kurds and spoke Kurdish. Kurds who publicly or politically asserted their Kurdish identity or publicly espoused using Kurdish in the public domain risked public censure, harassment, or prosecution. However, Kurds who were long-term residents in industrialized cities in the west were in many cases assimilated into the political, economic, and social life of the nation, and much intermarriage has occurred over many generations. The Kurds have been the minority group with the greatest impact on Turkish national politics.In Turkey, the Kurdish national movement dates back to at least 1925, when Atatürk ruthlessly suppressed a revolt against the new Turkish republic motivated by the regime's renunciation of Muslim religious practices. Uprisings in the 1930s and 1940s prompted by opposition to the modernizing and centralizing reforms of the Turkish government in Ankara also were also put down by the Turkish army. The majority of Kurds, however, continued to participate in Turkish political parties and to assimilate into Turkish society. Since the 1930s, Kurds have resisted government efforts to assimilate them forcibly, including an official ban on speaking or writing Kurdish. Since 1984 Kurdish resistance to Turkification encompassed both a peaceful political struggle to obtain basic civil rights for Kurds within Turkey and a violent armed struggle to obtain a separate Kurdish state. The leaders of the nonviolent struggle have worked within the political system for the recognition of Kurdish cultural rights, including the right to speak Kurdish in public and to read, write, and publish in Kurdish. Prior to 1991, these Kurds operated within the national political parties, in particular the SHP, the party most sympathetic to their goal of full equality for all citizens of Turkey. President Özal's 1991 call for a more liberal policy toward Kurds and for the repeal of the ban on speaking Kurdish raised the hopes of Kurdish politicians. Following the parliamentary elections of October 1991, several Kurdish deputies, including Hatip Dicle, Feridun Yazar, and Leyla Zayna, formed the HEP, a party with the explicit goal of campaigning within the National Assembly for laws guaranteeing equal rights for the Kurds. The government's main strategy for assimilating the Kurds had been language suppression. Yet, despite official attempts over several decades to spread Turkish among them, most Kurds have retained their native language. In Turkey two major Kurdish dialects are spoken: Kermanji, which is used by the majority of Kurds, as well as by some of the Kurds in Iran and Iraq; and Zaza, spoken mainly in a triangular region in southeastern Turkey between Diyarbakir, Ezurum, and Sivas, as well as in parts of Iran. Literate Kurds in Turkey have used Kermanji as the written form of Kurdish since the 17th century. However, almost all literary development of the language since 1924 has occurred outside Turkey. In 1932 Kurds in exile developed a Latin script for Kermanji, and this alphabet continued to be used in the mid-1990s. Prior to the 1980 military coup, government authorities considered Kurdish one of the unnamed languages banned by law. Use of Kurdish was strictly prohibited in all government institutions, including the courts and schools. Nevertheless, during the 1960s and again in the mid-1970s, Kurdish intellectuals attempted to start Kurdish-language journals and newspapers. None of these publications survived for more than a few issues because state prosecutors inevitably found legal pretexts for closing them down. Between 1980 and 1983, the military government passed several laws expressly banning the use of Kurdish and the possession of written or audio materials in Kurdish.
Government - 1 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Kurd is not a name of a nation. Kurd (which means wolf in Turkish) is a name arbitrarily given to the people who speak around 400 primitive, patched up languages which are not sufficient to establish communication beyond a village or a town (at most) and who have no social, cultural and historical bonds with each other. It's important to note that in none of those languages (which are claimed to be linked with each other) spoken by these people there's neither a word like ''Kurd'' nor any word derived from the word of ''Kurd'' (nor any common name those people who speak these''languages'' give themselves in their own languages). With these patched up languages (which are made up with the intention of establishing communication between the locals whose mother tongues are different due to social necessities in history) you can't talk about politics, you can't write about history, you can't make university education. It's physically impossible to make these 400 primitive patched up languages, which are wrongly lumped together under the name of Kurdish, education language (any such attempt would mean the assimilation of the rest of the 399 languages which deserve to exist just like the language which is tried to be imposed upon those people who all speak different languages. PKK is a Marxist terrorist organization who makes an armed struggle in order to make a communist revolution in Turkey by invoking whatever resources available including instigating ethnic racism by introducing it as a legitimate struggle of getting rights for a nation which literally doesn't exist. Minority racism doesn't promote peace. It only serves the interests of the imperialist nations who still live with the dreams of 19th century colonialism even in the 21st century. These terrorists fight for the interests of neo-colonialist nations as they're paid by them.
According to the World Factbook, in 2010 approximately 25 percent of Turkey's population consists of Kurdish ethnic minority. Turkey's Constitution provides a single nationality designation for all Turks and thus does not recognize Kurdish ethnic group as national, racial, or ethnic minorities. Therefore a true census has been historically unavailable. Citizens of Kurdish origin have constituted a large ethnic and linguistic group in Turkey. Millions of the country's citizens identified themselves as Kurds and spoke Kurdish. Kurds who publicly or politically asserted their Kurdish identity or publicly espoused using Kurdish in the public domain risked public censure, harassment, or prosecution. However, Kurds who were long-term residents in industrialized cities in the west were in many cases assimilated into the political, economic, and social life of the nation, and much intermarriage has occurred over many generations. The Kurds have been the minority group with the greatest impact on Turkish national politics.In Turkey, the Kurdish national movement dates back to at least 1925, when Atatürk ruthlessly suppressed a revolt against the new Turkish republic motivated by the regime's renunciation of Muslim religious practices. Uprisings in the 1930s and 1940s prompted by opposition to the modernizing and centralizing reforms of the Turkish government in Ankara also were also put down by the Turkish army. The majority of Kurds, however, continued to participate in Turkish political parties and to assimilate into Turkish society. Since the 1930s, Kurds have resisted government efforts to assimilate them forcibly, including an official ban on speaking or writing Kurdish. Since 1984 Kurdish resistance to Turkification encompassed both a peaceful political struggle to obtain basic civil rights for Kurds within Turkey and a violent armed struggle to obtain a separate Kurdish state. The leaders of the nonviolent struggle have worked within the political system for the recognition of Kurdish cultural rights, including the right to speak Kurdish in public and to read, write, and publish in Kurdish. Prior to 1991, these Kurds operated within the national political parties, in particular the SHP, the party most sympathetic to their goal of full equality for all citizens of Turkey. President Özal's 1991 call for a more liberal policy toward Kurds and for the repeal of the ban on speaking Kurdish raised the hopes of Kurdish politicians. Following the parliamentary elections of October 1991, several Kurdish deputies, including Hatip Dicle, Feridun Yazar, and Leyla Zayna, formed the HEP, a party with the explicit goal of campaigning within the National Assembly for laws guaranteeing equal rights for the Kurds. The government's main strategy for assimilating the Kurds had been language suppression. Yet, despite official attempts over several decades to spread Turkish among them, most Kurds have retained their native language. In Turkey two major Kurdish dialects are spoken: Kermanji, which is used by the majority of Kurds, as well as by some of the Kurds in Iran and Iraq; and Zaza, spoken mainly in a triangular region in southeastern Turkey between Diyarbakir, Ezurum, and Sivas, as well as in parts of Iran. Literate Kurds in Turkey have used Kermanji as the written form of Kurdish since the 17th century. However, almost all literary development of the language since 1924 has occurred outside Turkey. In 1932 Kurds in exile developed a Latin script for Kermanji, and this alphabet continued to be used in the mid-1990s. Prior to the 1980 military coup, government authorities considered Kurdish one of the unnamed languages banned by law. Use of Kurdish was strictly prohibited in all government institutions, including the courts and schools. Nevertheless, during the 1960s and again in the mid-1970s, Kurdish intellectuals attempted to start Kurdish-language journals and newspapers. None of these publications survived for more than a few issues because state prosecutors inevitably found legal pretexts for closing them down. Between 1980 and 1983, the military government passed several laws expressly banning the use of Kurdish and the possession of written or audio materials in Kurdish.
Government - 1 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Kurd is not a name of a nation. Kurd (which means wolf in Turkish) is a name arbitrarily given to the people who speak around 400 primitive, patched up languages which are not sufficient to establish communication beyond a village or a town (at most) and who have no social, cultural and historical bonds with each other. It's important to note that in none of those languages (which are claimed to be linked with each other) spoken by these people there's neither a word like ''Kurd'' nor any word derived from the word of ''Kurd'' (nor any common name those people who speak these''languages'' give themselves in their own languages). With these patched up languages (which are made up with the intention of establishing communication between the locals whose mother tongues are different due to social necessities in history) you can't talk about politics, you can't write about history, you can't make university education. It's physically impossible to make these 400 primitive patched up languages, which are wrongly lumped together under the name of Kurdish, education language (any such attempt would mean the assimilation of the rest of the 399 languages which deserve to exist just like the language which is tried to be imposed upon those people who all speak different languages. PKK is a Marxist terrorist organization who makes an armed struggle in order to make a communist revolution in Turkey by invoking whatever resources available including instigating ethnic racism by introducing it as a legitimate struggle of getting rights for a nation which literally doesn't exist. Minority racism doesn't promote peace. It only serves the interests of the imperialist nations who still live with the dreams of 19th century colonialism even in the 21st century. These terrorists fight for the interests of neo-colonialist nations as they're paid by them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)