Kurds, whose legitimate grievance about no friends but the mountains has become universally known, lost a prominent and loyal friend on March 28 in Los Angeles. Ralph Fertig, a lifelong champion of progressive causes and an advocate for Kurdish human rights passed away, aged 89.
Representatives of the Kurdish community in Los Angeles attended his memorial on April 7 at Leo Bacek Temple where prominent academicians and civil rights activists and all those whose lives had been touched by this extraordinary man celebrated his life. He was praised for his enduring legacy as an advocate of social justice and freedom, a remarkable civil rights lawyer, a unique university professor, and a loving father and grandfather.
Profoundly affected by the brutalities Jews in Germany had been subjected to, he remained loyal to his childhood vow to fight injustice and persecution through the defense of human and civil rights, litigation, mobilization, and education. As a child of immigrant parents, he turned his childhood pledge into an enduring and inspirational commitment to a daring and indefatigable fight for social justice.
His humanitarian sensibilities were further forged by his vast and varied interdisciplinary education. He held a PhD in sociology and a JD in law. He was among the first to provide us with a unique opportunity to bring Kurdish human rights into international relations with respect to Turkey.
As an academician, what he taught was inseparable from what he believed and practiced. He taught courses in social justice at the University of Southern California, earning him the 2004 James Adam's award for outstanding teaching. The City of Los Angeles also recognized his contributions to the welfare of the city, inducting him into the Hall of Fame in 2004.
He wrote on a variety of topics and in different genres including a best-selling historical novel "When the Jews Tore Down the Ghetto Walls" and a "Peace Corps' Community Development Handbook” and “Men and Work: An Anthology and Commentary on the Nature of Work.”
For Kurds, he became the conscience of the diaspora. His insistence on the inclusion of universal human rights in the vision of Kurdish activists turned a local concern into a universal obligation.
Among those he defended were a number of diasporic Kurds who had been accused of sympathizing with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Ralph dedicated an important part of his life throughout the 80's, 90's and early 2000's to this cause, turning it into a great and purposeful advocacy force against Turkish vested interest and deeply rooted ideology of institutions like the US Supreme Court.
As Kurds, we have learned a great deal from him. More than anything else he wanted those of us who fought for freedom to learn that every struggle has to be documented. We had to educate others and ourselves on the question of Kurds.
He brought the US government face to face with its policies and the consequences of its support for the repressive Turkish state. He was the lead plaintiff in the 2010 Supreme Court case Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project, regarding prohibition of the provision of material support to foreign terror organizations. With his Humanitarian Law Project, Ralph wanted to provide non-violent support for the PKK, teaching the guerrillas about peaceful conflict resolution. The Supreme Court upheld the ban. Ralph’s argument was to promote political and human rights literacy in his quest for the resolution of the Kurdish question.
During a time when the Turkish government was beyond reproach, despite its savagery and flagrant violations of human rights, Ralph taught us not to be faint-hearted in raising the issue of Kurdish human rights in Turkey. He argued that Kurds could use the international mechanisms and the UN Charter to protect and promote their rights.
The message he was hoping we Kurds would get from him was simple and clear. In a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders' Movement he said, “I don't want to dwell on the nostalgia of 50 years ago – that's the past… What's important now is what we do with that information and pass on our legacy. We changed the world; you can too."
In 2001 he joined prominent signatories like as Harold Pinter, Arthur Millerand, and Noam Chomsky in writing a letter condemning the British Terrorism of Act of 2000, which labeled the PKK a terrorist organization. On that question, he famously said in interview with New York Times in 2010: "Violence? Terrorism?... Totally repudiate it. My mission would be to work with them [PKK] on peaceful resolutions of their conflicts, to try to convince them to use nonviolent means of protest on the model of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King..."
"Fear is manipulated, and the tools of the penal system are applied to inhibit people from speaking out," he said.
We Kurds feel his loss after three lucky decades of association with him. We feel indebted to his courageous and generous friendship. We will never forget his defense of our cause in the diaspora. We will cherish his resounding vision and values evident in his interview with the Los Angeles Times after his appeal to the Supreme Court was categorically rejected: “I would continue to speak for the rights of the Kurds. And if I'm arrested, it would not be the first time.”
Dr. Amir Sharifi is director of the Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.