Why Being So Unresponsive About the Prevented Kurdish Returnees to Kirkuk?

By: Baqi Barzani

October 12, 2005

Admitting defeat to the demands of Baathists executors is becoming an undying habit among our leaders. The fruitful talks with the Sunnis and Shiite leaders closed by a bilateral agreement to acknowledge the Kurdish people and recognize Kurdish language as an official language are great achievements by our leaders and deserve a word of gratitude!

Forget about all the inexpressible pain and hardship inflicted upon our people– hundreds of thousands of Kurdish casualties, incalculable number of sufferers for a cause, unbelievable human life and economic losses, decades of lingering isolations, vagrancies and agonies, worthless dedications, sacrifices and loyalties !

This is the farthest point of demerit, incapacity and attack against the dignity of the martyrs of Kurdistan who genuinely lost their dear lives for the sake of one day like today. The nationalist Arabs and Baathist would never give up their chauvinist course of actions and always try to destroy us if they could. Despite all these facts, our leaders have still remained indifferent, uncaring and unsystematic about the prevention of displaced Kurdish families from returning to Kirkuk by Arab authorities. Since we have already been the victims of authoritarianism and repression, we strongly believe in political pluralism and understand the concept of democratic principles. We have been already stabbed in the back so many times that trusting and compromising with the fundamental Arabs is only a show of treason.

Good leaders know that times and circumstances change and that they have a narrow window of opportunity in which to be efficient. They have to act in the interest of their people. They are held liable for every misstep they commit. When the window is open, they have to do everything in their power to achieve their wishes of their people

Regretfully, our leaders have turned their back to digest the facts. Sadly, though, when governments, politicians, and bureaucrats make lapses and reject to revise them, there is little the victims can do to rectify things. Since the bully pulpit and the media propaganda machine are instrumental in government cover-ups and deception, the final truth emerges slowly, and only after much suffering. The arrogance of some politicians, regulators, and diplomats actually causes them to become even more aggressive and more determined to prove themselves right, to prove their power is not o be messed with by never admitting a mistake. Truly, power corrupts!