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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; kurds</title>
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		<title>Islamist Turkey&#8217;s Betrayal</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/islamist-turkeys-betrayal/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=islamist-turkeys-betrayal</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2014 04:05:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bomb]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[islamic state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kobane]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=243322</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Helping ISIS by bombing kurds.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Kobane_3071699b.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-243324" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Kobane_3071699b-423x350.jpg" alt="Kobane_3071699b" width="346" height="286" /></a>The struggle for Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish town on the border with Turkey where the Kurdish forces alone are battling the barbaric hordes of the Islamic State, aka ISIS, is reminiscent of the Polish uprising in Warsaw against the Nazis in August, 1944. While the Polish Home Army fought courageously against the might of the superior armed Nazis, the Soviet Union’s Red Army stood by across the River Vistula, which divides Warsaw, watching the merciless slaughter of Polish civilians and the destruction of the city.</p>
<p>The Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, like the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin before him, showed no consideration for the lives of innocent Kurdish civilians already butchered by the sadists of the Islamic State mercenaries. For those still alive in Kobani, unless rescued by outside intervention or supplied with heavy arms and ammunition, will also die a gruesome death. Turkish tanks, in the meantime, are ensconced on the crest overlooking Kobani. They can help save the remaining Kurds should Erdogan give them the order to fire on the ISIS fighters. But, just as Stalin wanted the Nazis to decimate the Polish nationalist Home Army, Erdogan is wishing for ISIS to destroy the Syrian Kurds.</p>
<p>What is puzzling in all this is the role the U.S. is playing. In his September 10, 2014 speech, President Obama said that, “military advisors are needed to support Iraqi and <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/10/statement-president-isil-1"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Kurdish forces</span></a> with training, intelligence, and equipment.” Hitherto, there has been no supply of equipment or training of the Kurds. In fact, the Obama administrations blind support for a unitary Iraqi state led by Shiite ruled Baghdad government is in contradiction with the realities on the ground. The Shiite-led Iraqi army folded in the face of the jihadi ISIS guerrilla offensive, and in the process, abandoning U.S. supplied heavy weapons including tanks, armored cars, Humvees, etc. The Kurdish Peshmergas alone hold the line against ISIS, and they are not getting the promised arms because the U.S. has long insisted that all sales of U.S. weapons must go through Iraq&#8217;s central government, despite Kurdish complaints that Baghdad had deprived them of promised military equipment and financial support.</p>
<p>Washington has not overruled Baghdad on issuing direct shipments of arms to the Kurds.  The Iraqi government has demanded that all shipments to the Kurds arrive first in Baghdad. Iraqi officials have regularly blocked or delayed these shipments to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. Moreover, U.S. State Department regulations bar the KRG from purchasing U.S. made weapons without “<a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/resetting-the-u.s.-kurdish-baghdad-relationship"><span style="color: #0433ff;">end-user certificates</span></a>” issued by Baghdad. According to the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, “Baghdad is bent on wielding this authority to prevent the <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/resetting-the-u.s.-kurdish-baghdad-relationship"><span style="color: #0433ff;">KRG</span></a> from developing antitank and antiaircraft arsenals.”</p>
<p>The Kurds in both Iraq and Syria are the only effective fighting force, boots on the ground, capable of stopping the ISIS hordes. In Iraq, the Peshmergas, the Kurdistan Regional Government defense forces are facing ISIS while armed with antiquated Russian Kalashnikovs (AK-47) and machine guns mounted on open Toyota pick-up trucks. Britain, France and Germany pledged to supply arms, but the KRG, while welcoming such support, has yet to receive them.</p>
<p>In Syria, the Kurdish defenders of Kobani are encircled on three sides with their backs pressed against the Turkish border, and the only supply line is through Turkey. Erdogan and his government however, have branded the defending Kurds as terrorists. Erdogan has argued that the Kurds of Kobani are no better than ISIS. The <i>New York Times</i> (October 12, 2014) quoted Erdogan as saying, “The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/world/middleeast/kurdish-rebels-assail-turkish-inaction-on-isis-as-peril-to-peace-talks.html?mabReward=RI%3A14&amp;module=WelcomeBackModal&amp;contentCollection=Middle%20East&amp;region=FixedCenter&amp;action=click&amp;src=recg&amp;pgtype=article"><span style="color: #0433ff;">P.K.K</span></a>. and ISIS are the same for Turkey…It is wrong to view them differently. We need to deal with them jointly.”</p>
<p>The P.K.K. is indeed considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, yet the P.K.K. has been in peace negotiations with Ankara, demanding not the destruction of Turkey (unlike Hamas’ aim of destroying Israel) but merely cultural rights. The P.K.K demands include use of the Kurdish language in educational institutions, reduction in the threshold for elections to parliament from 10% to 5%, greater decentralization, and the removal of all discriminatory provisions against Kurds from the constitution and other laws.</p>
<p>It is highly hypocritical for Erdogan to compare the P.K.K. to the fanatical Islamist group ISIS, when he has been one of the chief supporters of the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas. And, if there is to be a fair comparison, it would be between ISIS and Hamas, both seeking to create an Islamic Caliphate, and the expulsion of non-Muslims from the region.</p>
<p>Kobani is being defended by the People’s Protection Units, or Y.P.G., an affiliate of the P.K.K. Erdogan’s concern is that the Syrian Kurds might try to establish an autonomous region on the border, which Turkey wants to prevent. Again, Erdogan’s transparent hypocrisy is clear to see. He actively supports Hamas and Palestinian independence but seeks to deny the same to the Kurds, the end result being that he will allow the Kurds of Kobani to perish while at the same time looking the other way while the ISIS jihadists use Turkey as a corridor for their recruited fighters to enter Syria and Iraq.</p>
<p>Erdogan’s Turkey is a member of NATO, yet in 2003 he refused Turkish airspace to U.S. and allied forces on the way to Iraq. <i>The New York Times</i> reported (October 7, 2014) Turkish President Erdogan said “Turkey would not get more deeply <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/world/middleeast/isis-syria-coalition-strikes.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">involved</span></a> in the conflict with the Islamic State.” Erdogan conditioned Turkey’s possible involvement in fighting ISIS on the U.S. giving greater support to the rebels trying to oust Bashar Assad, the Syrian President. Turkey has, moreover, denied that it has signed an agreement authorizing the U.S. and the coalition forces to use its airbases for operations against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic told <i>Reuters</i>: “<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/13/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-idUSKCN0I210L20141013"><span style="color: #0433ff;">There is not an agreement</span></a>; no decision has been taken with regard to using Incirlik air base.” He refuted U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s claim on <i>NBC News ‘Meet The Press’</i> show on October 12 (2014) that Turkey had agreed to allow the use of the Incirlik airbase against IS.</p>
<p>The U.S. should react to the Turkish treachery by removing its airbase from Incirlik, Turkey to Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government. The U.S. should immediately provide the KRG with heavy weapons, including tanks, artillery, anti-armor rockets, and Humvees. The equipment should be sent directly to Erbil bypassing Baghdad. The State Department must change its regulations, and allow the KRG to become a certified “end-user,” instead of being at the mercy of Iranian controlled Baghdad.</p>
<p><i>The Wall Street Journal</i> headline on October 15, 2014 reading “Turks Bomb Kurds, Not Islamic State” is most telling. It is in essence siding with the enemies of the U.S. and its NATO allies. Considering Turkey’s behavior as a NATO member, it is time to consider its leader – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for what he really is – an anti-western pro-Jihadist dictator. If anything, in Kobani, Erdogan has shown the world his treacherous nature by betraying the Kurds with whom he has been negotiating peace.</p>
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		<title>Unlike Libyan Jihadists and Mexican Drug Cartels, Obama Won&#8217;t &#8220;Break Law&#8221; to Provide Weapons to Kurds</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/unlike-libyan-jihadists-and-mexican-drug-cartels-obama-wont-break-law-to-provide-weapons-to-kurds/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=unlike-libyan-jihadists-and-mexican-drug-cartels-obama-wont-break-law-to-provide-weapons-to-kurds</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2014 21:22:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=238088</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama is all about following the law... ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/26caucus.obama_.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-238089" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/26caucus.obama_-450x295.jpg" alt="26caucus.obama" width="450" height="295" /></a></p>
<p>Obama is all about following the law&#8230; when it gives him an excuse to not do what he doesn&#8217;t want to do anyway. The rest of the time he does whatever he wants and claim it&#8217;s because Congress isn&#8217;t acting.</p>
<p>Smuggle weapons to Mexican drug cartels? He&#8217;s on it. Arm Libyan Jihadists? He got it done.</p>
<p>Arm the Kurds? Suddenly it&#8217;s against the law.</p>
<p>The law, much like Obama, seems to <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/07/will-u-s-troops-stand-by-while-isis-starves-thousands.html">have come back from a long vacation just </a>yesterday.</p>
<blockquote><p>“There might not be a legal way for us to sell arms to the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government],” Ollivant said. “The Kurds are finding out the hard way that there are huge structural barriers, totally independent of policy, being a sub-state unit.”</p>
<p>Though the Kurds have their own government and operate in a functionally autonomous region of northern Iraq, they still belong to the Iraqi state and are nominally accountable to the government in Baghdad. They have long advocated for full independence and the creation of their own sovereign state, but the U.S. has refused to back those efforts.</p>
<p>To get arms legally to the Kurds now, the U.S. military needs to send them through the central government in Baghdad.</p>
<p>“Foreign Military Sales and Foreign Military Financing must be coordinated with central government authorities,” said Cmdr. Smith, the Defense Department spokeswoman.</p></blockquote>
<p>Sure, sure.</p>
<p>Just like arms to Libyan Jihadists were coordinated through Gaddafi. And Obama has gotten behind providing weapons to Muslim Brotherhood Jihadists in Syria&#8230; without running it past Assad.</p>
<p>If Obama needs inspiration, he can just pretend that the Kurds are law school students and the guns are birth control and Al Qaeda is Hobby Lobby.</p>
<p>But apparently we are providing munitions to the Kurds, while still insisting that weapons have to go through Baghdad. Even while Obama keeps pressuring the government in Baghdad to make concessions to the Sunnis, he&#8217;s also pressuring the Kurds to make concessions to Baghdad.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not surprising that ISIS is winning.</p>
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		<title>A Vastly Changed Middle East</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/caroline-glick/a-vastly-changed-middle-east/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-vastly-changed-middle-east</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:44:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Caroline Glick]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[border]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Could the nation states of the region be on the verge of disintegration? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/obama_syria_rt_328.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-211402" alt="U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about Syria during a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister in Stockholm" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/obama_syria_rt_328-450x334.jpg" width="315" height="234" /></a></p>
<p><em>Originally published by the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/COLUMN-ONE-A-vastly-changed-Middle-East-332624">Jerusalem Post</a>.</em></p>
<p>A week and a half ago, Syria’s Kurds announced they are setting up an autonomous region in northeastern Syria.</p>
<p>The announcement came after the Kurds wrested control over a chain of towns from al-Qaida in the ever metastasizing Syrian civil war.</p>
<p>The Kurds’ announcement enraged their nominal Sunni allies – including the al-Qaida forces they have been combating – in the opposition to the Assad regime. It also rendered irrelevant US efforts to reach a peace deal between the Syrian regime and the rebel forces at a peace conference in Geneva.</p>
<p>But more important than what the Kurds’ action means for the viability of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, it shows just how radically the strategic landscape has changed and continues to change, not just in Syria but throughout the Arab world.</p>
<p>The revolutionary groundswell that has beset the Arab world for the past three years has brought dynamism and uncertainty to a region that has known mainly stasis and status quo for the past 500 years. For 400 years, the Middle East was ruled by the Ottoman Turks. Anticipating the breakup of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, the British and the French quickly carved up the Ottoman possessions, dividing them between themselves. What emerged from their actions were the national borders of the Arab states – and Israel – that have remained largely intact since 1922.</p>
<p>As Yoel Guzansky and Erez Striem from the Institute for National Security Studies wrote in a paper published this week, while the borders of Arab states remain largely unchanged, the old borders no longer reflect the reality on the ground.</p>
<p>“As a result of the regional upheavals, tribal, sectarian, and ethnic identities have become more pronounced than ever, which may well lead to a change in the borders drawn by the colonial powers a century ago that have since been preserved by Arab autocrats.”</p>
<p>Guzansky and Striem explained, “The iron-fisted Arab rulers were an artificial glue of sorts, holding together different, sometimes hostile sects in an attempt to form a single nation state.</p>
<p>Now, the de facto changes in the Middle East map could cause far-reaching geopolitical shifts affecting alliance formations and even the global energy market.”</p>
<p>The writers specifically discussed the breakdown of national governments and the consequent growing irrelevance of national borders in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.</p>
<p>And while it is true that the dissolution of central government authority is most acute in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, in every Arab state national authorities are under siege, stressed, or engaged in countering direct threats to their rule. Although central authorities retain control in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Bahrain, they all contend with unprecedented challenges. As a consequence, today it is impossible to take for granted that the regime’s interests in any Arab state will necessarily direct the actions of the residents of that state, or that a regime now in power will remain in power tomorrow.</p>
<p>Guzansky and Striem note that the current state of flux presents Israel with both challenges and opportunities. As they put it, “The disintegration of states represents at least a temporary deterioration in Israel’s strategic situation because it is attended by instability liable to trickle over into neighboring states…. But the changes also mean dissolution of the regular armies that posed a threat in the past and present opportunities for Israel to build relations with different minorities with the potential to seize the reins of government in the future.”</p>
<p>Take the Kurds for example. The empowerment of the Kurds in Syria – as in Iraq – presents a strategic opportunity for Israel. Israel has cultivated and maintained an alliance with the Kurds throughout the region for the past 45 years.</p>
<p>Although Kurdish politics are fraught with internal clashes and power struggles, on balance, the empowerment of the Kurds at the expense of the central governments in Damascus and Baghdad is a major gain for Israel.</p>
<p>And the Kurds are not the only group whose altered status since the onset of the revolutionary instability in the Arab world presents Israel with new opportunities. Among the disparate factions in the disintegrating Arab lands from North Africa to the Persian Gulf are dozens of groups that will be thrilled to receive Israeli assistance and, in return, be willing to cooperate with Israel on a whole range of issues.</p>
<p>To be sure, these new allies are not likely to share Israeli values. And many may be no more than the foreign affairs equivalent of a one-night stand. But Israel also is not obliged to commit itself to any party for the long haul. Transactional alliances are valuable because they are based on shared interests, and they last for as long as the actors perceive those interests as shared ones.</p>
<p>Over the past week, we have seen a similar transformation occurring on a regional and indeed global level, as the full significance of the Obama administration’s withdrawal of US power from the region becomes better understood.</p>
<p>When word got out two weeks ago about the US decision to accept and attempt to push through a deal with Iran that would strip the international sanctions regime of meaning in return for cosmetic Iranian concessions that will not significantly impact Iran’s completion of its nuclear weapons program, attempts were made by some Israeli and many American policy-makers to make light of the significance of President Barack Obama’s moves.</p>
<p>But on Sunday night, Channel 10 reported that far from an opportunistic bid to capitalize on a newfound moderation in Tehran, the draft agreement was the result of months-long secret negotiations between Obama’s consigliere Valerie Jarrett and Iranian negotiators.</p>
<p>According to the report, which was denied by the White House, Jarrett, Obama’s Iranian-born consigliere, conducted secret talks with Iranian negotiators for the past several months. The draft agreement that betrayed US allies throughout the Arab world, and shattered Israeli and French confidence in the US’s willingness to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, was presented to negotiators in Geneva as a fait accompli. Israel and Saudi Arabia, like other US regional allies were left in the dark about its contents. As we saw, it was only after the French and the British divulged the details of the deal to Israel and Saudi Arabia that the Israelis, Saudis and French formed an ad hoc alliance to scuttle the deal at the last moment.</p>
<p>The revelation of Jarrett’s long-standing secret talks with the Iranians showed that the Obama administration’s decision to cut a deal with the mullahs was a well-thought-out, long-term policy to use appeasement of the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism as a means to enable the US to withdraw from the Middle East. The fact that the deal in question would also pave the way for Iran to become a nuclear power, and so imperil American national security, was clearly less of a concern for Obama and his team than realizing their goal of withdrawing the US from the Middle East.</p>
<p>Just as ethnic, regional and religious factions wasted no time filling the vacuum created in the Arab world by the disintegration of central governments, so the states of the region and the larger global community wasted no time finding new allies to replace the United States.</p>
<p>Voicing this new understanding, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Wednesday that it is time for Israel to seek out new allies.</p>
<p>In his words, “The ties with the US are deteriorating.</p>
<p>They have problems in North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Egypt, China, and their own financial and immigration troubles. Thus I ask – what is our place in the international arena? Israel must seek more allies with common interests.”</p>
<p>In seeking to block Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Israel has no lack of allies. America’s withdrawal has caused a regional realignment in which Israel and France are replacing the US as the protectors of the Sunni Arab states of the Persian Gulf.</p>
<p>France has ample reason to act. Iran has attacked French targets repeatedly over the past 34 years. France built Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor while Saddam was at war with Iran.</p>
<p>France has 10 million Muslim citizens who attend mosques financed by Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>Moreover, France has strong commercial interests in the Persian Gulf. There is no doubt that France will be directly harmed if Iran becomes a nuclear power.</p>
<p>Although Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s meeting Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin did not bring about a realignment of Russian interests with the Franco- Sunni-Israeli anti-Iran consortium, the very fact that Netanyahu went to Moscow sent a clear message to the world community that in its dealings with outside powers, Israel no longer feels itself constrained by its alliance with the US.</p>
<p>And that was really the main purpose of the visit. Netanyahu didn’t care that Putin rejected his position on Iran. Israel didn’t need Russia to block Jarrett’s deal. Iran is no longer interested in even feigning interest in a nuclear deal. It was able to neutralize US power in the region, and cast the US’s regional allies into strategic disarray just by convincing Obama and Jarrett that a deal was in the offing. This is why Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again threatened to annihilate Israel this week. He doesn’t think he needs to sugar coat his intentions any longer.</p>
<p>It is not that the US has become a nonentity in the region overnight, and despite Obama’s ill-will toward Israel, under his leadership the US has not become a wholly negative actor. The successful Israeli-US test of the David’s Sling short-range ballistic missile interceptor on Wednesday was a clear indication of the prevailing importance of Israel’s ties with the US. So, too, the delivery this week of the first of four US fast missile boats to the Egyptian navy, which will improve Egypt’s ability to secure maritime traffic in the Suez Canal, showed that the US remains a key player in the region. Congress’s unwillingness to bow to Obama’s will and weaken sanctions on Iran similarly is a positive portent for a post-Obama American return to the region.</p>
<p>But when America returns, it will likely find a vastly changed regional landscape. Nations are disintegrating, only to reintegrate in new groupings.</p>
<p>Monolithic regimes are giving way to domestic fissures and generational changes. As for America’s allies, some will welcome its return.</p>
<p>Others will scowl and turn away. All will have managed to survive, and even thrive in the absence of a guiding hand from Washington, and all will consequently need America less.</p>
<p>This changed landscape will in turn require the US to do some long, hard thinking about where its interests lie, and to develop new strategies for advancing them.</p>
<p>So perhaps in the fullness of time, we may all end up better off for this break in US strategic rationality.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Kurds Declare Independence in Syria</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/kurds-declare-independence-in-syria/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kurds-declare-independence-in-syria</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Nov 2013 13:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian Civil War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Kurds view the civil war as an opportunity to gain autonomy]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Kurdish-inhabited_area_by_CIA_1992.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-210545" alt="Kurdish-inhabited_area_by_CIA_(1992)" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Kurdish-inhabited_area_by_CIA_1992.jpg" width="320" height="261" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2013/11/kurds-declare-autonomous-government-in.html">This is an interesting development</a>. Assad is in no shape to do anything about it right now and is hoping that the various Sunni Jihadist groups begin pressing down harder on the Kurds to give him some breathing room.</p>
<p>Considering that Turkey is terrified of Kurdish autonomy and is backing the Sunni forces, that is inevitable. But Iraq, Assad&#8217;s Shiite ally, also has a serious Kurdish autonomy problem. But then again it also has a serious Sunni Jihadist problem too.</p>
<p>If Assad makes a full comeback, no Kurdish autonomous state is likely to survive for long. It might be different with American backing, but that won&#8217;t come. Not under Obama.</p>
<blockquote><p>Following a series of military gains, Syrian Kurds in the northeast of the country announced on Tuesday the formation of a transitional autonomous government.</p>
<p>The latest declaration comes amid a general strengthening of Kurdish rights in neighboring Turkey, and increasing moves towards independence by Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.</p>
<p>Long oppressed under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father before him, Kurds view the civil war as an opportunity to gain the kind of autonomy enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighboring Iraq.</p>
<p>The announcement was made after talks in the mostly-Kurdish town of Qamishli, and comes after Kurdish leaders announced plans to create the temporary government in July.</p>
<p>Kurdish regions of northern Syria have been administered by local Kurdish councils since forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad withdrew in the middle of 2012.</p>
<p>The redeployment was seen as a tactical move by the regime, one which freed up forces to battle rebels elsewhere, and encouraged the Kurds to avoid allying with the opposition.</p></blockquote>
<p>A Kurdish state across parts of what used to be Iraq, Syria and Turkey is still probably a fantasy, but Kurds have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of American foreign policy; though unintentionally.</p>
<p>The Iraq War and the extended violence afterward, backed by Syria, gave Iraqi Kurds the breathing room to become a success. Now the Arab Spring has likewise made it possible for the Kurds to carve up a piece of Syria. And if Erdogan manages to tear apart Turkey, the Kurds might just be 3 for 3.</p>
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		<title>Understanding Turkish PM Erdogan&#8217;s Racist Crack</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/understanding-turkish-pm-erdogans-racist-crack/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=understanding-turkish-pm-erdogans-racist-crack</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jul 2013 14:18:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=196265</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Erdoğan declared, “Kılıçdaroğlu is striving every bit he can to raise himself from the level of a black person to the level of a white man.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0407_kerry-erdogan.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-185708" alt="0407_kerry-erdogan" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0407_kerry-erdogan-324x350.jpg" width="324" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the story&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>Every Tuesday, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses his Justice and Development Party (AKP) cohorts&#8230; Criticizing Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the center-left and secular Republican Peoples Party (CHP), Erdoğan declared, “Kılıçdaroğlu is striving every bit he can to raise himself from the level of a black person to the level of a white man.”</p></blockquote>
<p>And here&#8217;s the background&#8230;</p>
<p>Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is likely of Kurdish origin, though there are some questions about his ethnicity. Kurds are a repressed group in Turkey. They certainly are not black (though <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/turkeys-islamist-prime-minister-hopes-political-opponent-can-raise-himself-from-the-level-of-a-black-person-to-a-white-man/">as mentioned before</a>, Turkey has a large number of descendants of African slaves, the Afro-Turks), but that doesn&#8217;t necessarily matter.</p>
<p>Racism is relative. Afro-Turks, for example, are referred to as Arabs, which tells us that Turks see themselves as &#8220;white&#8221; and Arabs as &#8220;black&#8221;.</p>
<p>Erdogan isn&#8217;t just using black as an insult. He&#8217;s suggesting that Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is racially inferior because of his Kurdish origins to the &#8220;white&#8221; Turks.</p>
<p>The undertone is the ongoing bigotry against Kurds in Turkish society. A bigotry that has resulted in unheard of political and cultural persecution in a country that claims to want to join the EU.</p>
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		<title>The Kurds and the Future of Syria</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-puder/the-kurds-and-the-future-of-syria/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-kurds-and-the-future-of-syria</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jun 2013 04:05:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kurdistan National Assembly]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sherkoh Abbas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=194123</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama's failure to cultivate a democratic alternative to the Islamist-led Syrian rebels.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/kurds.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-194181" alt="kurds" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/kurds-450x225.jpg" width="315" height="158" /></a>The recent announcement by the Obama administration that it intends to provide arms and funds to the Syrian rebels, begs a number of key questions.  One such question is why the administration has not been cultivating a democratic and secular alternative to the radical Islamist led rebel camp that hijacked the Syrian revolution. In fact, there is an alternative to the radical Islamist rebels on one hand, and the repressive Assad dictatorship on the other, according to Sherkoh Abbas, President of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria (KNAS).</p>
<p>In an interview this reporter had with Sherkoh Abbas on Thursday, June 20, 2013, Abbas stated that it is vital for the U.S. administration to support a federalized Syria, “by establishing a Kurdish Federal region in the North, a Druze region in the Southwest, an Alawite region in western Syria, in addition to a Sunni region in the rest of Syria. If Syria does not become a federal state, two outcomes would emerge from the current ethnic cleansing we are witnessing.  Should the Assad regime prevail, it would restore its dictatorial character with the help of Iran, Hezbollah, Shiite-led Iraq, Russia, and China. On the other hand, should the Muslim Brotherhood led rebels win, supported by Turkey, the U.S., EU, and the Gulf Arab monarchies, they would initiate a bloodbath, cleansing particularly minority groups that either worked or appeared to be working with the Assad regime.”  Regardless of which side wins, according to Abbas, it will be to the disadvantage of the minority groups such as the Kurds, Christians, Druze and even the Alawites.</p>
<p>Abbas added that unless Syria becomes a federated state where ethnic and religious communities possess their own autonomous region, the stability, safety, and security in the entire Middle East region will be jeopardized.  Moreover, the instability currently in Syria will spill over to the neighboring states such as Jordan. In addition, the Islamist organizations will get stronger and pose an even greater threat.</p>
<p>Asked about the impact the U.S. intervention would have on the ongoing conflict in Syria, Abbas replied, “Obama’s efforts to aid the Syrian rebels will not help the situation because it is supporting one extremist camp now associated with the rebels (Arab nationalists and radical Islamists) that has been issuing threats to the minority groups in Syria. This will increase the support of Alawis, Christians, Shia, and Druze for the Assad regime.  The Kurds are on the sidelines and do not support either side, since neither one of the camps has shown goodwill toward the Kurds.” Abbas elaborated further that the U.S. supplied weapons will eventually end up in the hands of the radical Islamists who will use them against the neighboring states and U.S. allies (i.e. Israel, Jordan). According to Abbas, Obama needs to refrain from supporting political Islam and work with democratic groups to promote a federated Syria.</p>
<p>And what do the Kurds in their own region of Syria want? Sherkoh Abbas was emphatic about that.  They would like independence, if they could choose. Kurds have the moral right to assert their self-determination, just like all other people. Reality, however, dictates that at the moment, the best option possible is a status similar to that of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq.  Unfortunately, Abbas explained, the Kurdish region is under the control of the Assad regime through its Kurdish surrogates &#8211; the so-called Democratic Union Party (PYD). The PYD is used to “interface with people of the region instead of having direct control by the Assad regime in Damascus.” The regime has replaced its former Arab staff with some Kurds (PYD) in response to the suspected sympathies these Sunni Arabs (local/settlers) supposedly held for the rebels.  The Assad regime can trust the PYD Kurds more than the Sunni Arabs. Moreover, the PYD is used as an instrument to control the Kurds, and prevent them from declaring independence or full autonomy.</p>
<p>Can Syria remain a unitary state? No, says Abbas in an equally unequivocal voice.  He explained that both the Assad regime and the radical Islamist rebels have positioned themselves to carve out their particular stakes.  The Alawi-led Assad regime and their fellow Shiite sympathizers seek to maintain a unitary Syrian state, but are keenly aware that this is a dim prospect at best.  The regime has, therefore, cleansed the area of Western Syria to secure it as a fall back. The Sunni Islamist rebels are seething with revenge for the high murder toll committed by the Alawi-Shiite regime of Bashar Assad in the current civil war (upward of 95,000 killed) and his father Hafez, who committed the Hama massacre in 1982 of close to 30,000 individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Sunni Islamists are determined to expunge the Alawi-Shiite presence from Syria.</p>
<p>If the Assad regime wins, it will appear as a victory for Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, and a defeat for America and Western Europe.  In addition, Iran would become a regional power and would dictate terms to the greater Middle East region from Iraq to Tunisia. This could lead to the Arab Gulf states breaking their alliance with the U.S. and moving toward Russia and China to protect their interests.  The U.S. will lose its influence and prestige in the region and beyond.</p>
<p>Obama’s inability to stop Iran&#8217;s nuclear project through negotiations, and his unwillingness to use military means has prompted the U.S. President to seek a face-saving agreement with Iran. Obama wants the Iranian nuclear project to be under Russian control.  And Russia, reeling from its Cold War defeat and the end of the Soviet Union, is using Iran to bolster its position in the region while Iran seeks to become the regional hegemon.</p>
<p>The U.S. policy vis-à-vis Iran in the Syrian conflict should be to foster a new Syria, which means a federated Syria with equal power to minorities such as Kurds, Alawis, Christians, Druze, and, of course, Sunni Arabs.  The decentralization of Syria would also reduce, if not eliminate, Iran’s influence and its proxies in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.  A setback for Iran in the Syrian conflict would eventually translate into a suspended nuclear program, and the eventual demise of the mullahtocracy.</p>
<p>Abbas summed up the situation saying, “As the Sunni and Shiite (Alawi) camps are battling to eradicate each other, and the Kurds have become the linchpin for mediating a solution for Syria’s bloodletting.  Yet, the Obama administration has chosen to ignore the Kurds and instead, support the largely radical Islamist Sunni rebels.  This comes at the expense of a vast majority of Syrians from multi-ethnic and religious groups that make up today’s Syria. Obama’s choice is unfortunately a prescription for failure.  The alternative to the two bad choices, namely, the Assad regime and its Iranian sponsors on one hand and the Islamist rebels on the other, is a democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Syria, with the Kurds at the center of such a democratic alliance.”</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>Free Syrian Army Now Fighting the Kurds</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/free-syrian-army-now-fighting-the-kurds/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=free-syrian-army-now-fighting-the-kurds</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Nov 2012 16:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian Civil War]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The Kurds however may be a potential gamechanger. In North Africa, the Tuareg rebels were easily beaten by their former Islamist allies leading to the current disastrous situation in Mali. But the Kurds have generally been tougher and have a long experience of being fighters. The question is how will the PKK do against the Jihadists?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/free-syrian-army-now-fighting-the-kurds/pkk-kurdistan-workers-party20oct05/" rel="attachment wp-att-166550"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-166550" title="PKK-Kurdistan-Workers-Party20oct05" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/PKK-Kurdistan-Workers-Party20oct05.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="257" /></a></p>
<p>If you believe the media, then Syria is in the throes of an &#8220;uprising&#8221; by freedom fighters against a dictator. If you believe reality, then Syria is in the middle of a civil war between Sunni Islamist rebels and a neo-Shiite government, with Turkey and Qatar backing the Islamists and Iran backing the regime.</p>
<p>The Sunni Islamists aka the Brave Syrian People aka the Terrorists Obama is Backing are either allied with or actually linked to Al Qaeda. They are murdering Christians and now the Free Syrian Army, which we&#8217;re supposed to be supporting, has picked a fight with the Kurds.</p>
<p>The Kurds are a sizable stateless minority in the region and they have been aiming for a homeland. The Free Syrian Army is heavily backed by Turkey which routinely massacres and persecutes the Kurds, so it&#8217;s not exactly surprising that the two groups are clashing. But it is another reminder that the Syrian rebels are not fighting for freedom or equality, but religious and ethnic supremacism.</p>
<p>Assad has managed to fight the rebels to a near stalemate, but the Sunnis have more recruits and money to throw into the battle because they can draw on the resources of a global Sunni majority.</p>
<p>The<a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2012/11/turkey-syria-and-kurds"> Kurds however may be a potential gamechanger</a>. In North Africa, the Tuareg rebels were easily beaten by their former Islamist allies leading to the current disastrous situation in Mali. But the Kurds have generally been tougher and have a long experience of being fighters. The question is how will the PKK do against the Jihadists?</p>
<blockquote><p>Syria’s best armed and most powerful Kurdish group, the Syrian Democratic Union Party (known by its Kurdish initials, PYD), which controls the Kurdish districts of Ras al-Ayn, says it feared retaliation from the Assad forces if it was seen to connive at their expulsion, so it asked the Syrian rebels, who are said to have been Salafists, to leave. When they refused, the ensuing battle left at least five Kurds and 18 rebels dead. Thousands of angry Kurds are said to be heading for Ras al-Ayn to offer support to their kinsfolk.</p>
<p>Turkey remains hostile to both Kurdish parties, which say that it helped plan the Syrian rebels’ attack on the PYD in Ras al-Ayn. Barzan Iso, an independent Kurdish Syrian journalist, says the Syrian rebels used Turkey as a base from which to bash the PYD on November 8th. “The operation wasn’t about kicking out Assad’s forces,” he says. “It was to dislodge the PYD.” A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman disagreed: “There is now a pattern of Free Syrian Army forces liberating towns [in Syria], doing the job, and the Kurds then trying to move in and take over.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The twist in the story is that Assad has been turning over territory to the Kurds because the Syrian military is overextended and he would rather deal with Kurdish rebels later, while hoping that the Salafists and the Kurds begin fighting each other.</p>
<p>It looks like he may be getting his wish. The question is what will this mean for Iraq, where Kurdish plans for an independent state have put them at daggers with the Shiite national government, but loosely allied them with the Sunnis?</p>
<p>It may not be too much of a problem because factions in the Middle East routinely former complex byzantine alliances leading to betrayals.</p>
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		<title>U.S. Double Standard Towards The Kurds</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Nov 2012 04:15:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[double standards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinian state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Palestinian statehood: thumbs up; Kurdish independent state: thumbs down.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-puder/u-s-double-standard-towards-the-kurds/kurds/" rel="attachment wp-att-165823"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-165823" title="kurds" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/kurds.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="203" /></a>The London based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on October 29, 2012 that the Obama administration has rejected the notion of an independent Kurdish state. An article by Shirzad Shikhani in the paper headlined: “Kurdish Autonomous Region No-Go – US notes that &#8216;A Kurdish leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, revealed that the US administration has informed Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani that the US and Turkey will not support any efforts, on his part, to announce an independent Kurdish state&#8217;.”  This raises the curious question as to why the Obama administration supports Palestinian statehood but finds a Kurdish independent state objectionable.</p>
<p>The Obama administration’s reasoning according to Shikhani is that Washington supports “dialogue with Baghdad, and recommended that he (Barzani) &#8211; along with Iraqi political leaders – seek to overcome this crisis and normalize relations between the Iraqi and Kurdish political forces in order to protect the democratic experience in Iraq.” Iraq however is not a Jeffersonian democracy nor could it ever be one, given that Iraq is an inorganic concoction created by the colonial powers post WWI.  Iraq ceased to be a “democracy” of any kind as soon as the U.S. troops departed in 2011. Its Prime Minister, Nuri Al-Maliki, has increasingly assumed the authoritarian nature of other Arab leaders, to the deep dismay of true democrats.</p>
<p>The New York Times in a September 5, 2012 report on Nuri Al-Maliki noted that, “In 2011, as American involvement in his country came to an end, he was viewed as the country’s emerging sectarian strongman, <a title="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/world/middleeast/arrests-in-iraq-raise-concerns-about-maliki.html?hp=&amp;pagewanted=print" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/world/middleeast/arrests-in-iraq-raise-concerns-about-maliki.html?hp=&amp;pagewanted=print" target="_blank">whose aggressive actions have raised concerns both at home and in the West, </a>where officials have long been uneasy with the prime minister’s <a title="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/nuri_kamal_al-maliki/index.html" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/nuri_kamal_al-maliki/index.html" target="_blank">authoritarian</a> tendencies.”</p>
<p>Modern Iraq has always been ruled by authoritarian leaders.  Its first ruler was the Hashemite King Feisal originally from the Hejaz in Saudi Arabia -a Sunni Muslim ruling over a majority of Arab Shiites-Muslims and Kurds.  Then, in 1958, Col. Abd al-Karim Qasim seized power in coup that deposed the monarchy and murdered the royal family.  The pro-Communist Qasim was deposed and killed in a Ba’athist engineered coup in 1963, that brought Qasim’s coup partner, Col. Abdul Salam Arif (Arab Sunni-Muslim) to power. When he died in a plane crash (most likely sabotage) his brother Abdul Rahman Arif became president in 1966.  Another coup in 1968 brought Gen. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr<strong> </strong>to power. Al-Bakr stepped down (most likely forced to do so) from the presidency in 1979, and Saddam Hussein, al-Bakr’s cousin assumed full dictatorial power in Iraq.  All of these strongmen including Saddam were Arab Sunni-Muslim. Al-Maliki is the first Arab-Shiite to rule Iraq.</p>
<p>The post WW I Treaty of <a title="http://www.fransamaltingvongeusau.com/documents/dl1/h1/1.1.18.pdf" href="http://www.fransamaltingvongeusau.com/documents/dl1/h1/1.1.18.pdf" target="_blank">Se’vres</a><strong>,</strong> (Aug. 10, 1920), between the victorious Allies and the defeated Ottoman Turkey, provided for an autonomous Kurdistan (and an independent Armenia).  The treaty was rejected however by the new Turkish nationalist regime of Kemal Ataturk, and was replaced by the <a title="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/332502/Treaty-of-Lausanne" href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/332502/Treaty-of-Lausanne" target="_blank">Treaty of Lausanne</a> in 1923. The Kurds then declared independence in 1927 and established the Republic of Ararat, only to be crushed by the Turks three years later.  Turkey now as then is opposed to any manifestation of Kurdish independence in Iraq or Syria, but champion’s Palestinian independence.  This hypocrisy is regrettably endorsed by the U.S.</p>
<p>Britain, post WW I, received a League of Nations Mandate for the administration of Iraq and Palestine, and to consolidate oil resources, stripped the Kurdish area of northern Iraq from Turkey and combined it with the Iraqi oil rich Gulf region in the south.  The Sunni tribal areas lay between these two areas.  But while London sought to confer self-determination on Arab-Palestinians under the 1937 Peel Commission (which the Arab rejected) they have never provided the same opportunity for the Kurds.  Mullah Mustafa Barzani (Massoud Barzani father) became the Kurdish figurehead who sought separatism, autonomy and ultimately independence for the Kurds. In 1946, along Qazi Muhammad, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, declared the Independent Republic of Mahabad in northwestern Iran.  It lasted a mere six months and was crushed by overwhelming number of Iranian troops.</p>
<p>Barzani returned to his native Iraq in 1958 following the overthrow of the monarchy.  Barzani’s call for Kurdish autonomy brought him into conflict with Qasim and the Arif brothers. A peace deal between the Baghdad government led by Saddam Hussein and the Kurdish Peshmerga under Barzani was signed in 1970.  It recognized Kurdish self-rule in Northern Iraq, and the Kurdish language.  But as the Al-Bakr-Saddam Hussein regime “Arabized,” hostilities in the oil-rich Kirkuk area (a majority Kurdish area) resumed.</p>
<p>The Iran-Iraq War that began in 1980 afforded the Kurds in Iraq an opportunity to push back the Iraqi forces in Northern Iraq. In 1983, Saddam ordered his troops into the area around Massoud Barzani’s home (now leader of the KDP following his father’s death in 1979) and mercilessly killed 8000 Kurds. As the war with Iran was waning, Saddam initiated the “Anfal Campaign” against the Kurds in northern Iraq.  Saddam’s cousin-Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” used poison gas to kill <a title="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-176257/Bloody-history-Iraqs-Kurds.html" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-176257/Bloody-history-Iraqs-Kurds.html" target="_blank">5000</a> civilians and injure 10,000 in the town of Halabja.</p>
<p>In 1991, soon after the Gulf War, President George H. Bush encouraged the Kurds to launch an uprising against Saddam but when Iraqi planes bombed Kurdish villages the U.S. did nothing.  As a result, a million Iraqi Kurds became refugees. These events prompted the Kurdish Democratic Party, led by Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani, to end their civil war and unite.</p>
<p>Considering that Americans are welcomed and safe in Iraqi Kurdistan, and that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) led by Massoud Barzani is the only stable entity in Iraq, where prosperity and democracy are emerging, the question that begs asking is why the Obama administration is not eager to welcome an independent Kurdistan.  Joe Biden as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was quoted by Reuters on May 1, 2006 as saying: “Iraq should be divided into three largely <a title="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12897.htm" href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12897.htm" target="_blank">autonomous</a> regions &#8211; Kurd, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab &#8211; with a weaker central government in Baghdad.” Biden, in a NY Times Op-Ed warned against actions by the (George W.) Bush administration, saying: “the Bush administration&#8217;s effort to establish a strong central government in Baghdad had been a <a title="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/opinion/01biden.html?pagewanted=all" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/opinion/01biden.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">failure</a> doomed by ethnic rivalry that had spawned widespread sectarian violence.”  As Vice President and part of the Biden/Obama administration, Biden is complicit in doing exactly what he railed against.</p>
<p>The hypocrisy and double standards of the Obama administration regarding Kurdish independence can be best understood when one reads Obama’s Cairo speech of June 2009 in which he said, “For more than sixty years they (the Palestinians) have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.”</p>
<p>The Kurds have endured great suffering, indignity, and humiliation over the last 100 years.  The suffering of the Arab Palestinians referenced by Obama has been largely self-inflicted.  Time and again they have rejected offers of peace and compromises.  The 1937 Peel Commission and the 1947 UN Partition Plan offered the Arab Palestinians an opportunity to establish their own state alongside a tiny Jewish State. They chose war and the possibility of destroying Israel instead.  The Kurds unlike the Arab-Palestinians have not engaged in terror, suicide bombing, and aircraft hijacking, and acts of terror by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been condemned by most Kurds.  And while there are 22 Arab states who share the same sense of collective nationhood including religion, culture, and language, there is not a single Kurdish state in spite of the fact that the Kurdish nation is 40 million strong, with its own culture and Indo-European language (Kurmanji and Sorani).</p>
<p>It is time the U.S. and the West support an independent Kurdish state comprised of the contiguous areas of Kurdish dominance in northern Iraq and northeastern Syria.  Such support would be an act of true justice and fairness for a forgotten nation - the Kurds.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>The Obama-Erdogan Alliance</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-puder/the-obama-erdogan-alliance/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-obama-erdogan-alliance</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-puder/the-obama-erdogan-alliance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Aug 2012 04:27:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erdogan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=139531</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How the president is working to further the interests of Turkish Islamists. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/23561_gallery.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-139555" title="23561_gallery" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/23561_gallery.gif" alt="" width="375" height="244" /></a>Hurriyet Daily News, a major Turkish newspaper, reported on July 31, 2012 that a &#8220;<a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/no-us-nod-on-kurdish-rule.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=26718&amp;NewsCatID=359">senior</a> US official visiting Turkey says <a title="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/no-us-nod-on-kurdish-rule.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=26718&amp;NewsCatID=359" href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/no-us-nod-on-kurdish-rule.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=26718&amp;NewsCatID=359" target="_blank">Washington</a> does not anticipate an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria and they favor the protection of Syria’s territorial integrity.&#8221; The official, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon on a visit to <a title="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Istanbul" href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Istanbul" target="_blank">Istanbul</a>, stated that they (the U.S.) did not anticipate an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria’s future, adding that they favored the protection of Syria’s territorial integrity and explained it to <a title="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Turkey" href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Turkey" target="_blank">Turkey</a> in a clear way. Gordon added, “Syria has a huge priority for both of us (U.S. and Turkey). We are coordinating very well on the question of Syria. I think we have very similar interests.”</p>
<p>That same day, Reuters reported on a telephone conversation President Obama initiated with his friend and designated sub-contractor in dealing with the Syrian crisis, Turkish Prime Minister (PM) Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the <a title="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/31/us-syria-crisis-turkey-usa-idUSBRE86U08Y20120731" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/31/us-syria-crisis-turkey-usa-idUSBRE86U08Y20120731" target="_blank">talks</a>, they discussed co-ordination of efforts to accelerate the process of political transition in Syria, including Bashar al-Assad leaving the administration, and the meeting of the Syrian people&#8217;s legitimate demands.</p>
<p>Obama and his administration have consistently supported the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army, in which elements of the Muslim Brotherhood have a dominant voice.  That support sits well with Erdogan’s Justice and Development party (AKP), which has inspired the Islamist parties that rose to leadership in Tunisia and Egypt. For Erdogan and Turkey, the idea of an autonomous Kurdish region within a federal Syria is an anathema, and he is seeking to divide the Kurds of Syria, and scuttle the efforts to create an autonomous Kurdish region.  The Erdogan regime fears that such a move by Syrian Kurds would stimulate a call for similar autonomy by close to 20 million Turkish Kurds.</p>
<p>The unification of the various Kurdish factions in Syria in mid-July under the auspices of KRG President Masoud Barzani, forming the Supreme Kurdish Council, and now in control of large swaths of the border areas with Turkey, is challenging the Obama administration and Erdogan’s Islamist Turkey to reconsider the Kurds as a serious element in the future of Syria.  Until recently it seemed that one had to consider only the Alawi-led Assad regime and the largely Sunni-Arab opposition as the main contenders in the power struggle for control of a unitary Syria. The actions  recently taken by the Kurds (three million strong in Syria), who have not yet thrown their support to either side in the conflict, opens up new possibilities for a third way for Syria, a federated Syria, in which minority rights for  Kurds, Alawis, Christians and Druze would be guaranteed.</p>
<p>That said, it must be emphasized that the creation of the Supreme Kurdish Council is Masoud Barzani’s way to appease both Obama and Erdogan who seek to implement the Sunni-Arab agenda (supported by Qatar and Saudi Arabia) and Turkey’s interests, and at the same time control the Syrian Kurds, and prevent the formation of a federal Syria or an autonomous Kurdish region.  According to Sherkoh Abbas, President of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, the Kurds of Syria resent the interference of both the neighboring governments and the Kurds from the region (Turkey, Iraq, and Iran),  Abbas added, “We reject any agreement that is short of federalism.”</p>
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		<title>Wave of Attacks Hasten Fracture of Iraq</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/rick-moran/wave-of-attacks-hasten-fracture-of-iraq/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=wave-of-attacks-hasten-fracture-of-iraq</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:45:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rick Moran]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arab league]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sectarian violence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sunni]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=126409</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Violence ahead of key summit indicates slow spiral back into the abyss of sectarian violence. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/iraq-bombings-2012-02-23.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-126419" title="iraq-bombings-2012-02-23" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/iraq-bombings-2012-02-23.gif" alt="" width="375" height="248" /></a>A series of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/20/world/meast/iraq-violence/">coordinated bomb attacks</a> that hit more than a dozen Iraqi cities left more than 50 dead and 200 injured on Tuesday. The nature of the attacks <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/9155741/Scores-dead-after-multiple-al-Qaeda-Iraq-bombings.html">pointed to al-Qaeda</a> (AQ) as the perpetrator of the deadly bombings, but no one as yet has claimed responsibility.</p>
<p>The bombings occurred on the ninth anniversary of the American invasion &#8212; an anniversary also marked by the Shiite firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr and his followers as more than a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/19/us-iraq-sadr-idUSBRE82I0D320120319">million of them </a>poured into the streets of Basra in a massive show of force.</p>
<p>The attacks also appeared to be linked to preparations for an <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Arab-League-Summit-Provides-Test-for-Beleaguered-Baghdad-143515136.html">Arab League summit</a> to be held in Baghdad on March 29 and it is thought by some experts that al-Qaeda was trying to embarrass the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in advance of the meeting. Maliki&#8217;s government has invested a nearly $500 million in security and hospitality arrangements and sees the summit as crucial to the future of Iraq.</p>
<p>The chaos sown by the attacks appeared to be designed to further inflame sectarian tensions and hasten the fracture of the Iraqi government. That process seemed to be well underway as the leader of the Kurdish bloc, Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57401103/iraqi-kurd-leader-denounces-baghdad-power-grab/">accused Baghdad </a>of &#8220;ideological terrorism&#8221; and stopped just short of declaring independence for the three northern provinces where Kurds have set up an autonomous, self-governing enclave.</p>
<p>The bombings targeted cities and provinces across the length and breadth of Iraq. Many of the bombings bore the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/20/world/meast/iraq-violence/">unmistakable earmarks </a>of al-Qaeda. In Karbala, where loss of life was the greatest, a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/20/world/meast/iraq-violence/">car bomb exploded</a> at a checkpoint for Shiite pilgrims entering the holy city. When police and emergency services showed up to treat the injured from the first blast, another car bomb exploded that caused even more casualties. All told, authorities say that 13 people were killed and another 48 were wounded.</p>
<p>There was also a twin bomb attack in the northern <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/20/world/meast/iraq-violence/">city of Kirkuk</a> near police headquarters that killed 9 and injured more than 40. Another single car bomb targeted the provincial government building killing 4 more.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/20/world/meast/iraq-violence/">The roll call </a>of cities and provinces that suffered the attacks would be familiar to many Americans who remember the sectarian strife during the civil war. In Fallujah, a pregnant woman was killed and her 6-year-old child wounded by bombs terrorists planted around a house belonging to a police officer. In Saddam&#8217;s hometown of Tikrit, a car bombing outside of a school wounded 4 teachers. In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in front of the Foreign Ministry building, and in the Monsour district, three policemen were killed by gunmen as they stood guard outside of a Christian church. The governor of Anbar province narrowly escaped when a car bomb went off as his motorcade passed. A bodyguard was killed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/9155741/Scores-dead-after-multiple-al-Qaeda-Iraq-bombings.html"><em>The Telegraph </em></a>reports that diplomats have noticed a pattern of serious attacks every 5 or 6 weeks, indicating that AQ does not have sufficient manpower or resources to sustain daily attacks.</p>
<p>&#8220;We strongly condemn the attacks on innocent civilians in Iraq,&#8221; said White House spokesman Jay Carney, adding that violence in the country was at historic lows and that the Iraqis were up to maintaining security.</p>
<p>That may be so. But the timing of the attacks have not been lost on the Iraqi government, nor the international community. Prime Minister Maliki is determined that the Arab League summit <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Arab-League-Summit-Provides-Test-for-Beleaguered-Baghdad-143515136.html">will go off as planned </a>and without incident. To that end, Iraq will deploy a medium-sized army of police, army, and special forces in Bagdhad for the summit. More than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Arab_League_summit">26,000 security personnel </a>will man barricades and checkpoints, and patrol the streets. The airport will be closed beginning March 26 and remain shuttered until after the summit is over. <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/20/2704492/bombings-in-iraq-kill-50-heighten.html">A curfew </a>is likely to be announced for the duration of the meeting.</p>
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		<title>A New Sect of Honor Killing Enthusiasts</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/stephenbrown/a-new-sect-of-honor-killing-enthusiasts/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-new-sect-of-honor-killing-enthusiasts</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/stephenbrown/a-new-sect-of-honor-killing-enthusiasts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:25:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stephen Brown]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arzu O.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[germany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honor Murder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yazidis]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=119500</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The gift of multiculturalism keeps on giving. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/germany-five-siblings-honor-kill-woman-16.1.2012.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-119528" title="germany-five-siblings-honor-kill-woman-16.1.2012" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/germany-five-siblings-honor-kill-woman-16.1.2012.gif" alt="" width="375" height="244" /></a></p>
<p>It is by now a familiar scenario for German police. The lifeless body of a teenaged Middle Eastern girl, missing since November. Discovered in a hidden spot with signs of a violent death. A suspected honor murder at the hand’s of the family, some of whose members were already in custody.</p>
<p>But this time the script is slightly different.</p>
<p>While most honor murders in Germany originate within the country’s four million strong Muslim community, the latest victim, Arzu O. from Remminghausen (German law does not allow for the release of the last name), 18, whose corpse was found last week, belonged to a little known Middle Eastern religious sect called Yazidism. And it is this sect’s adherents who are becoming better known recently for their part in the nightmarish phenomenon of honor killings in Germany. Already in 2003, the German news magazine, <em>Der Spiegel</em>, wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>More and more often, police must protect young women from the Yasidi faith community from their own relatives &#8211; and help them flee.</p></blockquote>
<p>The Yazidis are Kurds who inhabit primarily northern Iraq but are also found in Syria and Turkey. Many Yazidis have immigrated to Germany where they form the second largest Yazidi community in the world, numbering an estimated 30,000 to 80,000, outside their home countries. Over the centuries, their religious beliefs have often <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi">put them at odds</a> with their Muslim neighbours, who have at times cruelly discriminated against them, forcing them to convert on pain of death or sometimes just outright massacring them. Since Yazidis are not ‘People of the Book’ in the Koran, like the Jews and Christians, they were afforded no protection in Islamic lands.</p>
<p>Yazidi religious beliefs, like those of other religions, are complex. The Yazidis <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi">believe</a> in one God, who created the world and left it under the care of seven angels. They don’t believe in the devil, since that would limit God’s power. Nevertheless, they have often mistakenly been called devil worshipers. Yazidism is described as being “syncretic,” influenced by Sufism and Iran’s pre-Islamic religion, Zoroastrianism. One also cannot convert to Yazidism; one is born into it.</p>
<p>But the problem Yazidism poses for young Yazidi women (and a few men) living in a modern Western state like Germany where freedom of choice and development of the individual are regarded as virtues is that they are not allowed to marry outside their religion. They are also not supposed to marry outside the three castes that make up their culture and usually wind up taking a cousin as a spouse. And like their Muslim neighbors, women are expected to be virgins when they marry.</p>
<p>“When a girl tries to marry outside the community, that is perceived not only as a dirtying of the family honor, but a break with the religion and the community,” wrote one German reporter.</p>
<p>Another reason Yazidis probably do not want their daughters to marry outside their religion is money. According to one report, the bride price for a Yazidi girl can cost a prospective groom and his family up to $ 80,000, “although the highest Yazidi spiritual leader…wants to limit the bride money to $5,000.” A woman marrying a non-Yazidi would probably add nothing to the family’s coffers.</p>
<p>Police believe Arzu’s breaking of these age-old religious restrictions is probably behind their gruesome discovery last week. Arzu, a high school student, had developed a forbidden love last summer with a 23-year-old apprentice baker, a non-Yazidi, at a bakery where she worked weekends. Her mother and older sister had also once worked there. But for wanting to determine her own life path, which includes selecting her own boyfriends like most normal teenagers do, this vibrant, young woman had to pay with her life.</p>
<p>Although the family, which originally came from Turkey, was described as “a shining example” of successful integration, they still acted out their archaic religious and cultural customs behind closed doors. Last August, Arzu’s family members tried to put a halt to her blossoming romance by giving her a beating, which got police attention. The assault only resulted, though, in Arzu’s fleeing the home for a women’s shelter, which alone is often reason enough for an honor killing. Once away from family control and observation, even for one night, it is suspected the girl may have lost her virginity.</p>
<p>“Every woman who flees the home is the object of an honor murder,” noted one German social worker. The Federal Crime Office (Germany’s FBI) registered 48 such homicides between 1996 and 2006 with a further 22 people surviving attempted honor killings.</p>
<p>Other reasons for honor killings, besides a loss of virginity, range from the female victim living too Western (re: independent) a lifestyle, to wanting a divorce, to fleeing either an abusive or an upcoming forced marriage. Conversion to another religion is sometimes punished by death as well as marrying or having a boyfriend outside one’s religion, race or ethnic group. Only with the blood sacrifice of a fellow human being do the murderers believe their family honor can be cleansed and restored.</p>
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		<title>The Pathology of Double Standards</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/bruce-thornton/the-pathology-of-double-standards/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-pathology-of-double-standards</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:17:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bruce Thornton]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cyprus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Greece]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kurds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Statehood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turkey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=109644</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the international community lacks any moral legitimacy.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/PFB-banner5.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-109656" title="PFB-banner5" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/PFB-banner5.gif" alt="" width="375" height="249" /></a></p>
<p>The surreal moral idiocy that characterizes hatred of Israel is illustrated daily by states whose actions are shrugged away by the international media. Consider the recent Turkish invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish militants who killed 24 soldiers at military posts near the border. Turkish special forces crossed the border, and the air force bombed targets in Iraq. Some speculate a ground invasion in force is in the works. Since the U.S. supplies much of the military hardware used in the attack, along with intelligence gathered by drones, unsurprisingly the White House “strongly condemn[ed]” the “outrageous terrorist attack against Turkey,” and promised to “continue our strong cooperation” to help Turkey defeat the Kurdish militant separatists.</p>
<p>Apologists for Turkey would argue that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a terrorist organization, as designated by both the E.U. and the U.S., one that since the beginning of its armed struggle in 1984 has killed 12,000 Turks. Thus Turkey is within its rights under international law to cross into another sovereign nation in order to punish and deter further attacks. Leaving aside the accuracy of deeming Kurdish separatists to be terrorists, the behavior of the Turks raises a more interesting question: why isn’t this same consideration given to Turkey afforded to Israel?</p>
<p>Comparison with Israel’s struggle against Arab terrorism reveals the extent of the malignant double standards applied to Israel. In fact, the Kurdish people have a much stronger case for independence than do the Arabs called Palestinians. The 30 million Kurds in the Middle East have a documented 2400-year presence in their homeland, a region that now includes parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. They also have a distinct language and customs. The only thing they lack to be a formal nation is their own country, a consequence of the way the British carved up the Ottoman Empire after World War I, a process that served England’s imperial interests rather than the historically justified claims of peoples to national self-determination.</p>
<p>The less than 2 million Palestinians in the so-called West Bank, on the other hand, are ethnically, linguistically, and culturally similar to the Arabs of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. There is no historical record of a distinct Palestinian people, nor was Palestine ever an Arab “homeland.” This is why in 1948 and 1967, Arab armies attacked Israel <em>not</em> to establish an independent Palestinian state, but to destroy Israel and divide its territory among the victors. Arabs ended up in Palestine by the same process that brought them to North Africa, Egypt, and Iraq––as the descendants of conquerors, occupiers, colonists, and immigrants. Palestinian “national aspirations” insofar as they are sincere are a result of military failure, institutionalized victimization, and betrayal by their fellow Arabs, who have found in the displaced Palestinian “refugees” a useful public relations weapon for marginalizing Israel and questioning her legitimacy.</p>
<p>Given the weaker foundations for Palestinian statehood, not to mention the ghoulish carnage wreaked worldwide by decades of Palestinian terrorism, one would think that when it comes to international support for “national aspirations,” the Kurds would near the top of the list while the Palestinians wouldn’t even qualify. Yet global support for the Palestinians, and its attendant hatred of Israel, dwarfs any sympathy for the national aspirations of the Kurds. The West has sent billions in aid to the Palestinians, has anxiously brokered summits, conferences, and other negotiations in an attempt to solve the crisis; the U.N. has demonized, ostracized, and criticized Israel, and her own allies have demanded more and more suicidal concessions. Meanwhile the PKK is condemned as a villainous terrorist organization, and the legitimate complaints of the Kurds––including the suppression of their culture and language, the serial violation of their human rights, the destruction by some estimates of 8,000 Kurdish villages, the deaths of over 30,000 Kurds, and the creation of 3-4 million refugees––are ignored by the same international media and institutions that vilify Israel’s legitimate attempts to defend her citizens.</p>
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