Even if the Kurds are natives of the region, if they live in a country where the official language is something other than Kurdish, they are bound legally to learn that language. They do not have special privileges that allow them to not integrate. This had been a problem for Turkish Kurds for a very long period. Ever since they have integrated with the mainstream population things have become a lot better for them.

How can they live under Turkish rule for a thousand years and still not know the language? They are stubborn in their belief that they are above all the other races. The Laz, Jews, Greeks and Armenians have learned Turkish. If they live in Turkey they must learn Turkish. If they live in Iraq or Syria, they must learn Arabic. If they live in Iran, they must learn Persian. Kurdish must be their second language. They have every right to speak their own language, but they must also know the language of the country they live in. Killing the teachers that are sent to their region to teach them the language, doesn’t make their cause very appealing to the rest of the population. Obviously they will not receive wide support from the general public.

Whether they like it or not, they do not currently have their own country. There is no such country. Even though they are not an ethnic group they are also not a nation as you are stating in your response. There may be an unofficial Kurdistan in Iraq at the moment but remember, the USA is a dying superpower. They may not always be around to protect the Kurds. And when the time comes, the people living in the region may not forget what the Kurds did to get their country. They may turn into another Israel but without a big brother to protect them. They are playing a very dangerous game. Killing or driving out the Arabs and Turkmens from Kerkuk will not be forgotten. The fact that the USA is providing them with the arms won’t be forgotten either.

Since the USA is very supportive of the Kurds getting their own homeland carved out from the countries in the region, why don’t they donate a number of their own states to the Native Indians? Surely that would be a great incentive for the countries in the Middle East to do the same for all the different minorities? In fact the Assyrians also deserve their own country.

By the way Martin Zehr, you still have not been able to provide me with an unbiased internet site. Kurdishaspect.com does not work for me. All I see in that site is Turkey bashing. You obviously are not interested in anything that is unbiased on this topic. And you are obviously a contributing writer.

There is something that you don’t seem to be aware of. What is written in this article may hold true for the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Iran but they do not necessarily do so for the Kurds in Turkey. Despite what you say about Turkey being the most repressive, how many Kurdish Prime Ministers have there been in any of these countries other than Turkey? The majority of Kurds in Turkey would not be happy to leave their current homes and jobs to move to a new area – there has been so much integration and assimilation in Turkey that it would be very difficult. You will find that Turkish Kurds will not fit in well with the other Kurds. The people making the noise is not the majority of Kurds, it is a very noisy minority. When Kurdish classes were set up to teach one of the three Kurdish languages, not even a thousand people signed up. You have a very long job ahead of you.

Kurdish political leadership is showing much more coherence and presence in their movement forward. You continue to abstract what is a very real process. Example, imperialists have no right to draw borders, but the Kurdish Autonomous Region represents an historic opportunity to the Kurdish nation to establish a base region, develop a functioning government and move forward step-by-step to independence. Compare this project with the Palestinian status. Regarding the Arabs in the region- friends don’t gas friends.

The Kurds are not an ethnic group, they are strictly speaking a nation- shared territoriality, common heritage and national identity. I am not prepared to present to the Kurdish people a better strategy than what they are already doing- seize the moment, take advantage of opportunities, consolidate victories to last in changing circumstances and expand as there is opportunity(that’s the part the Turks are worried about- ts).

As to Leyla’s request, the Kurds are either invisible or they are presented as a plague. As they say ” Only the mountains are their friends.” kurdishaspect.com works for me. But it is very pro-Kurdish., oh, and I am a contributing writer.

As for the reality of a Kurdish state that is for the Kurds and people inhabiting that region of the world to decide. Self-determination is fine in abstract, but it has to be considered far more deeply. E.g., it needs to be considered whether one ethnic group seizing claim to a specific region rich in resources is legitimate or fair while another neighbor right next door will be left without.

Of course all crimes against the Kurds, all deprivations of their rights are wrong. The Kurds should be able to decide in-group matters without interference of outsiders; e.g., language, culture, education, politics which respect other groups legitimately living in the region, etc. To the extent that the Kurds would collaborate with enemies of the Arabs (Israeli and the US regimes), while somewhat understandable, serves to further array their Arab neighbors against them.

As for the Angus Reid poll, the Palestinians have a legitimate right to resist occupation and oppression. I wonder why you argue so passionately for Kurdish rights and seem to militate against the same rights for Palestinians.

The other comments you make about fascists and Islamists have nothing to do with my article. Again, my article is not focused on the Kurds but rather the right imperialists have to draw borders of other nation states.

With apologies to the disrespect of failing to include your proper name in the text of my reply.

Politics in SW Asia is not about who supplies the weapons to whom. Everyone has their own motivation for supporting organizations and parties.

The fact that you do not support the concept of a state is different from the one that you do not support the reality of a Kurdish state.
Your statement: ” Of course, to the extent that self-determination is a legitimate and just right, then the Kurds should have this right as other peoples do.” It does not address the KRG already in existence of the role it now plays in behalf of the Kurdish people. This is not an abstract debate but lies rooted in daily activities on the ground.

Regarding who is still supporting Hamas:
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/15886
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/15746

Also remember that Arabs, Turks, Syrians and Persians are politically dominating Kurdish-occupied territory.

The “left” has abandoned the Kurdish people and nation and invite their own isolation from revolutionary groups in that region. There is no internationalism or solidarity with theocratic warlords, Baathist neo-fascists, Turkish militarists, Afghani talibans or Iranian Islamists. Since when do anarchists promote political Islamism as a democratic or anti-imperialist revolution?

I see no vaildation in your reply of your accusation regarding my factual inaccuracy.

Mr. Martin Zehr, I am not surprised that when you flip between two incorrect versions of my name that your statements would also be devoid of factual accuracy.

Martin Zehr: “Kurdistan IS Kurdistan.”

I don’t believe that I have disputed this.

Martin Zehr: “Many things have yet to unfold, but the Kurdish Autonomous Region is a fact. It is the legitimate government of the Kurdish peoples.”

And neither have I disputed or discussed this.

Martin Zehr: “It faces the threat of Turkish invasions while Kim Peterson [sic] makes no mention of the growth of Turkish Islamism and the attacks on southern Kurdistan by Turkish generals. What is so ‘left’ wing about that?”

I didn’t know that my article was focused on Kurdistan and threats to it.

Martin Zehr: “Kim P. talks about genocidal attacks on Palestinians, but makes no mention of Hamas’s fratricidal and suicidal attacks on the PLO , the PA and Fatah. What is so ‘left wing about that?”

Mr. Zehr, you might look at who is supporting Hamas — elected by the majority of Palestinian people — and who is supporting the PA and Fatah: the US and Israel. Why would a leftist side with Zionists and imperialists who are occupying Arab land, oppressing and killing Arab people? Go and read the Israeli media at Haaretz. It is no secret outside the US.

Martin Zehr: “Kim P. talks about Zionist accomplices but makes no mention of the reactionary uprising by Fatah Al-Islam’ s private army in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. What is so ‘left’ wing about that?”

And who armed Fatah Al-Islam and for what purpose? The US and Israel. Please go read at footnote 8.

Martin Zehr: “Kim Peters [sic] wants the Kurdish people to deny their identity as a nation and negate their international right to self-determination.”

Please indicate to me where I stated such a thing.

I am an anarchist, and as such, I don’t support a state. Pierre Joseph Proudhon expressed it well: “Nations are related to each other as individuals are: they are commoners and workers; it is an abuse of language to call them proprietors. The right of use and abuse belongs no more to nations than to me; and the time will come when a war waged for the purpose of checking a nation in its abuse of the soil will be regarded as a holy war.”

Given that your initial comments were so far off base Mr. Zehr, I will move on …

There is a gap that exists in the American “left” that comes out in the article by Kim Peterson. Today, Kurdistan IS Kurdistan. Many things have yet to unfold, but the Kurdish Autonomous Region is a fact. It is the legitimate government of the Kurdish peoples. It faces the threat of Turkish invasions while Kim Peterson makes no mention of the growth of Turkish Islamism and the attacks on southern Kurdistan by Turkish generals. What is so “left” wing about that? Kim P. talks about genocidal attacks on Palestinians, but makes no mention of Hamas’s fratricidal and suicidal attacks on the PLO , the PA and Fatah. What is so “left wing about that? Kim P. talks about Zionist accomplices but makes no mention of the reactionary uprising by Fatah Al-Islam’ s private army in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. What is so “left” wing about that? Kim Peters wants the Kurdish people to deny their identity as a nation and negate their international right to self-determination. What makes this so “left” wing? The position of Kim Peters is nothing but warmed over Syrian Baathism. What’s so “left” wing about that? It simply is intended to promote Syrian expansionism in the region, attack the Palestinian leadership, promote de-stablization of Lebanon for its own purposes and continue to deny Syrian Kurds any political rights in Syria or elsewhere in the region.

Kim Peters is unable to document in the article above the mass struggle against the Islamists in Afghanistan in which RAWA is actively engaged. Kim Peters is unable to refer to the long history of Abu Mazen in the struggle of the Palestinian people because of the current attacks by Hamas. Kim Peters is unable to make reference to the thirty year struggle of the Kurds in Turkey led by the PKK, and following it by the Kongra-Gel because Syria no longer tries to manipulate it for its own purposes as it once did. Kim Peters is unable to grasp the political significance of the Peoples’ Mujahadeen or the Workers-Communist Party of Iran because it no longer suits Syrians interests. Kim Peters wants to throw around the “Zionist-imperialist” label while negating the Syrian-Iranian bloc from the regional picture. Kim Peters omits the mention of the KRG or PUK or KDP or PJAK in the hopes that the readers are so devoid of a knowledge of the history as Kim appears to be. This coalition with Baathists and Islamists is like going to bed with snakes. They will eventually bite. Like Baathist Becker of ANSWER, Kim Peters tries to divide the region into a bloc made up of Saudi Arabia/Jordan, but seems to have left Egypt out of this particular piece. Kim wants recognition of the Kurdish right to self-determination, so long as it does not entail nationhood. Sorry Kim but the Kurdish people are not at all inclined to follow your Rightist agenda.

While we are on the subject of Kim Peters’s program and agenda, maybe I could get an answer in regards to the credentials that Kim might have regarding the political rights of Native Americans. Somehow people have gotten the idea that anyone who wants to can bring the Native Americans into foreign policy issues at the drop of a hat. What is “left” wing about that?

Martin Zehr is an American political writer whose article on the Kirkuk
Referendum has been printed by the Kurdish Regional Government,
http://www.moera-krg.org/articles/detail.asp?smap=01030000&lngnr=12&anr=1212
1&rnr=140 Another article was reprinted in its entirety by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) http://www.puk.org/web/htm/news/nws/news070514.html
His articles are posted on Kurdish media sites such as Kurdish Aspect
http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc041007MZ.html ,
http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc041107MZ.html , and
http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc051307MZ.html Replies to other ezines are at: http://www.alternet.org/audits/50215/ and Op-EdNews Posts can be found at:
http://gregg-jocoy.blogspot.com/2007/04/mato-ska-builds-libraries-at.html

Fact is, the arbitration was the nail in the coffin for the economy of St Pierre et Miquelon, and worst of all, it gave the islands a useless corridor supposedly to international waters, but that is fully enclosed in Canadian waters. As well, this zone covers no fishing zones of any interest.

But alas, the worst offense was perpetrated by the Canadian Authorities who used ECHELON to spy on the French delegation, as revealed in the Canadian Citizen.

Former CSE agent, Fred Stock, revealed in the Ottawa Citizen (May 22, 1999) that Canada had used the surveillance system known as ECHELON to spy on the French Government over the Saint-Pierre and Miquelon boundary dispute.

Excellent article. And your posts on the article about PEJ being shut down were great too.

Thought you’d like this quote from Asia Times:

“Ralph Peters, a former lieutenant-colonel responsible for “future warfare” at the Office of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and deputy chief of staff for intelligence before he retired, commented, “It’s really difficult to exactly delineate who our enemies are, but they number in millions. They’re Arab and Muslim … Our enemy is the majority of the people who live in what we think of as the large Arab nations, plus certain other groups. Our enemy is concentrated in Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria, plus the Palestinians are part of it.”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FL17Ak01.html