KurdistanObserver.com

Avoid undemocratic Turkey!
 
By: Kamal Artin
March 1, 2006, California
 
I wasn’t surprised to hear that the Turkish government does not allow people with Kurdistan as the birthplace on their passport to enter Anatolia. Although the country seems semi-democratic for the standards of the Islamic world, Turkish nationalism has made it very difficult to call the system of government there anything but fascistic, especially toward the Kurds.

The hatred of Kurds and Kurdistan is so deep in the mind of some Turkish leaders that a prominent one of them mentioned about a year ago that he would oppose creation of a Kurdish state even in Argentina. If fact because of such an attitude, I had deliberately avoided traveling to Turkey, despite a desire to visit the geographically beautiful and culturally rich Anatolia.

With all due respect to many good friends of Turkish origin, who do not justify the attitude of Turkish government, I had recommended to friends and colleagues to boycott traveling to Turkey until it becomes a true democracy, where all citizens are equal and have a sense of identity and belonging. It is somewhat understandable for politically correct Non-Kurds to accept or ignore the Turkish arrogance and discriminatory attitude. However, it is difficult to understand the behavior of those who identify themselves as Kurds and live in democratic countries yet are willing to travel to Turkey.

As long as the Turkish government persists with its fascistic attitude and does not recognize that Kurdistan is the real birth place of millions of people, it should be the national duty of every Kurd to avoid traveling to Turkey. It is important to know, that the creation of a Kurdish state or few Kurdish states is just a matter of time. Once the majority of Kurds themselves recognize this inevitable happening, the world will gradually recognize it too; at that point, all the passports issued in Kurdistan would indicate the true birth place and identity of people who were born there.
 
Dr. Artin is a member of Kurdish American Education Society and Kurdish National Congress of North America; however, his views are not necessarily reflective of all members’ views.