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Dr. Mohammed M.A. Ahmed | Exclusive to Ekurd.net

It is a pity and disgrace to see Erdogan and his supporters continue vilify and slander the Kurdish nation in order to justify their long-standing occupation of Kurdistan. Turkey’s anti-Kurd policy is the continuation of the Ottoman Empire and Mustafa Kemal’s fascist ideology. In the absence of their own government, the Kurds have been deprived of their civil liberty, and human, political and economic rights under all sorts of slanderous accusations of separatism, terrorism, activism, and terrorism. Turkish occupiers of Kurdistan continue plundering its physical resources and Kurdish cultural heritage while projecting the Kurds as villains.

The Kurdish nation is deprived of the tools available to their ruler in defending their legitimate rights to liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. The West is responsible for the current predicament of the Kurds by implementing the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement in pursuit of their short-term gains. It’s, therefore, their responsibility to rectify their glaring mistake they made to deprive the Kurds of their legitimate rights to a statehood. It is incumbent upon the West to help the Kurds, through the United Nations Security Council to establish an internationally recognized political entity on their own ancestral land, protecting them from the every day threats of extermination by Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

In his hate-mongering campaign against Syrian Kurds, Erdogan unabashedly told reporters that he preferred ISIS to the Kurds as neighbors. He and members of his government were engaged in a falsehood campaign against the Kurds and inciting and inciting violence against them, not only in Syria, but also in Turkey and Iraq. It is unbelievable to see the international community stand by while Turkey’s military occupy Syrian Kurdistan, killing and displacing people with impunity.

Without a state of their own, the Kurds have been left at the mercy of a brutal colonial power in the Middle East. They are desperately calling on the International community for protection from Turkey’s military aggression not only in Syria but also in Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurdish residents living in the periphery of the Qandil Mountain in Iraqi Kurdistan “Have been left destitute after Turkish bombing in September 2019, with the displaced receiving little help from local authorities.”[1] Abdulla Hassan of Zewka village complaint that in the face of the cold winter season, “we don’t have anywhere to go.” [2]

Since it came into being following WW1, Turkey has relentlessly tried to subjugate and forcibly assimilate its Kurdish population. They deprived them of nurturing their own cultural heritage and language, and forbidden them to give their children Kurdish names. Turkey has even changed Kurdish names of towns and villages in northern Kurdistan. The state of Turkey killed hundreds of Kurds and bulldozed their homes in parts of Diyarbakir, merely for protesting government’s brutality and discriminatory practices.

The emergence of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 1974 was in response to Turkish repression and its anti-Kurd policy. President Erdogan and his Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar recently threatened to crush the skulls of the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), former close U.S. allies, unless they withdrew from Kurdish villages and towns to the depth of 30 kilometers from it’s southern border. This implied that they should leave their families behind at the mercy of Turkish occupation forces and their rag-tag Syrian Arab jihadist proxies. Instead of reaching out to the Kurds for a peaceful coexistence, Turkey is using its Turkman proxies to spread hate against the Kurds, especially in Iraqi Kurdistan, southern Kurdistan.

Turkey’s so-called democratic system has been turned into a tool for identifying and cutting down Kurdish activists and politicians. Where are Ahmed Turk, Selahattin Demirtas, Leyla Zana, Abdullah Ocalan and hundreds of other Kurdish politicians and leaders? They are all in prison for speaking up their mind and for trying to find peaceful and democratic means to address the predicament of the Kurds in Turkey.

Erdogan continues drawing redlines for the Kurds not only in western Kurdistan in Syria, but also in Turkey and Iraq. Contrary to current events in the region, he continues describing Kurds as terrorists. Even if the YPG, PKK, HDP disappear tomorrow, Erdogan will invent a new excuse to continue his anti-Kurd repression, primarily for refusing to become Turks.

Mr. Erdogan, just look at your undemocratic mindset. You arbitrarily replaced numerous Kurdish Mayors, who won local elections fairly, by so-called ‘trustees’. You just do not have enough courage to accept the Kurdish reality and learn to live with them in a civilized, democratic and peaceful manner.

Even your Turkish political opponent the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, “criticized the (Turkish) government move to replacing four mayors from Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) with state officials.” [3] He added, “One of the first rules of justice is democracy, respecting the will of the nation.” It is about time that you listen to the opposition and stop bullying and trashing others and telling them that it is my way or the highway. Mr. President, you are scared of democracy, which promotes a fair political competition.

The Kurds are appealing to the international community to rescue them from Turkey’s continuous threats and destruction. It is time for Erdogan and other Turkish nationalists to accept the Kurdish reality, which cannot be wished away. They should stop their propaganda machine from soiling the reputation of the peaceful Kurdish nation by accusing them of being a bunch of terrorists. The Kurdish issue is apolitical and not military in nature, requiring a peaceful solution through the United Nations –

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