By: Ibrahim Xeliki

Jan 8, 2006

Recent fatal cases of bird flue in Kurdistan, Kurdish land occupied by Turkish government, is a strong reminder that Turkey should leave Kurdistan and let democratic institutions to emerge. Eighty years of occupation brought nothing but disaster for Kurds. Kurdish people are denied their simple human rights. To echo “Said-i Kurdi”, Kurds are afflicted with three major illnesses: 1) ignorance, 2) poverty, and 3) disunity. To me, it is not surprising at all to see that a family lost three of their children to bird flue.

Ignorance:

While the whole world is in 21th century, Turks left Kurds in 18th century of Ottoman Empire. To date, Kurds are denied their language, culture and freedom of expression. As consequence, majority of people are uneducated. Furthermore, there are no native institutions to educate people. Lectures in mosques are given in Turkish, a language that people don’t understand. Kurdish broadcasting is strictly forbidden. It is not odd that a person will eat a sick chicken. It reminded me of my childhood. About 20 years ago, there was a pandemic that was killing all chickens in the region. We were killing and eating chickens like it was a kind of Thanksgiving Day.

What did Turkish oppressor did in these 80 years to educate Kurds? They embellished their mountains with racist Ataturk’s gems such as “Happy is he who says I am a Turk", “Turkish Republic will stand forever”, “Turkey belongs to Turks", "A Turk is worth the world" and so on. To add insult to the injury, they systematically killed their leaders, spiritual mentor and educators. Number of people that were disappeared is in hundred thousands. The more they assimilated Kurds, the worse they became ignorant. A story is told in my village that a Kurd who was forced to do military service for many years came back and told his family, “I forgot Kurdish and haven’t learned Turkish.” Perhaps, today all Kurds are like that soldier. They forgot their ways of life and there was nothing to learn from Turks since Turks themselves are locked in the shadow of Ottoman Empire of 18th century.

Poverty:

Recently, Turkey is cooking every book under the sun to be a member of European Union (EU). Turkish newspapers are full with headlines on lower unemployment rate and inflation. According to a recent Turkish statistics, unemployment rate was around %9. Nonetheless, a person who visits Kurdish region will quickly notice that %90 of 25 millions Kurds are unemployed. This fact alone shows that everything which Turkish government says is false, fake and corrupt.

Turkish government froze the economic development of the region to the level of 18th century. The only accomplishments of the Turkish states are a few boarding schools to assimilate, a few dams to exploit natural resources and many military installations to oppress. As a result of this brutal system, Kurds are extremely poor. Income per family of 6-8 people is around 500 dollars a year. Again it is not surprising to see that people are eating the meat of a sick chicken because the meat is not a regular item on the dinner table. People can only afford to eat meat once or twice in a year. As such, these poor people will even eat rotten chickens. Perhaps, they will feast on their bones as well. It is not difficult to guess that malnutrition is widespread. You can read from their faces.

The ecological disaster is another dimension of this poverty. Brutal Turkish military systematically burnt all forests in the region to pursue Kurdish guerillas. The outcome of this policy not only destroyed the ecology but also created the greater poverty. Kurds were deprived of their source of food and their precious resource of wood for fire. The consequence is that Turks not only left Kurds to starve, they also left them in cold.

Disunity:

The heavy oppression and assimilation in the region stifled all attempts to create democratic institutions. In order to deny the very existing of Kurds, Turkey constantly tried to erase all traces of Kurdish culture. With this mentality, the rogue Turkish state won’t allow two people to talk to each other on the street let alone have them to unite in a form of organization. In another word, Turkey tried hard to make Kurds bad and disunited people in every aspect to in order control them.

It is time for the nations of the world to build a democratic united Kurdish state and protect the right of 30-40 million Kurdish people so that they have their hospitals, factories, and a society that is in harmony with ecosystem and with the rest of world.