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søndag 15. mars 2009
mandag 5. januar 2009
Kurdistan Digest
Turkey to Launch 24-Hour, Kurdish-Language TV Channel
Voice of America
By Dorian Jones in Istanbul
December 31, 2008
On New Year's Day, a new 24-hour-a-day channel will be launched that will target Turkey's estimated 15 million Kurds. The new broadcast is seen as groundbreaking considering the strict controls on the use of the Kurdish language in Turkey. Analysts see the new channel as one of the first democratic moves from the government toward a solution to the Kurdish problem.
Kurdish TV station to act as a social bridge in Turkey
Zaman, Opinion
By Mutlu Civiroglu
January 1, 2009
The long-awaited Kurdish TV station of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) finally started test broadcasting on Dec. 25, 2008, with the motto, "We live under the same sky."
Turkey's Kurdish TV channel opens to mixed reviews
Reuters
January 2, 2009
DIYARBAKIR - Turkey has launched its first 24-hour Kurdish-language TV station in what the government called a democratic new era for minority Kurds.
Erdogan seeks to mobilize Arab states for Gaza truce
Zaman
Press Release and Affidavit
January 1, 2009
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday departed for a regional tour aimed at urging Arab states to in unison push Israel to stop its attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have killed Palestinian civilians, while the foreign ministers of Arab League member countries held an emergency meeting in Cairo to take a common position on Israeli raids on Gaza.
Green Zone, Heart of U.S. Occupation, Reverts to Iraqi Control
New York Times
By Campbell Robertson and Stephen Farrell
January 1, 2009
BAGHDAD — For nearly six years, the Green Zone has become such an enduring shorthand for a willfully sequestered occupation of Iraq that it is easy to forget it is an actual place.
Iraq offers up giant oilfields to foreign firms
Reuters
By Ahmed Rasheed
December 31, 2008
BAGHDAD - Iraq on Wednesday opened up some of its most prized oil and gas fields to international firms that have been excluded for decades, part of new deals that could more than double its output within a few years.
UN extends immunity for Iraq's energy revenues
Reuters
By Patrick Worsnip
December 22, 2008
UNITED NATIONS - Iraq's energy revenues will be immune from financial claims through 2009 under a resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council on Monday.
Iraq signs $80M in oil export surveys to boost output and mitigate disaster
UPI
By Ben Lando
December 23, 2008
BAGHDAD -- Iraq has signed contracts worth an estimated $80 million to repair fragile oil export infrastructure in the south and ready it for expansion.
The Woman the Mullahs Fear
New York Times, Editorial
January 2, 2009
Men hold all of the meaningful levers of political power in Iran, but it is a woman they fear. If not, why is the mullah-led government trying to shut down the operations of Shirin Ebadi?
Akbar Ganji in conversation with Charles Taylor
The Immanent Frame
Interview with Akbar Ganji by Charles Taylor
December 23, 2008
Akbar Ganji is Iran’s preeminent political dissident. A heroic figure to the democratic movement in Iran, he has been likened to Gandhi and Mandela. The London-based human rights organization, Article 19, has described Ganji as the “Iranian Vaclav Havel.” He has been the recipient of over a dozen human rights, press freedom and pro-democracy awards.
Voice of America
By Dorian Jones in Istanbul
December 31, 2008
On New Year's Day, a new 24-hour-a-day channel will be launched that will target Turkey's estimated 15 million Kurds. The new broadcast is seen as groundbreaking considering the strict controls on the use of the Kurdish language in Turkey. Analysts see the new channel as one of the first democratic moves from the government toward a solution to the Kurdish problem.
Kurdish TV station to act as a social bridge in Turkey
Zaman, Opinion
By Mutlu Civiroglu
January 1, 2009
The long-awaited Kurdish TV station of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) finally started test broadcasting on Dec. 25, 2008, with the motto, "We live under the same sky."
Turkey's Kurdish TV channel opens to mixed reviews
Reuters
January 2, 2009
DIYARBAKIR - Turkey has launched its first 24-hour Kurdish-language TV station in what the government called a democratic new era for minority Kurds.
Erdogan seeks to mobilize Arab states for Gaza truce
Zaman
Press Release and Affidavit
January 1, 2009
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday departed for a regional tour aimed at urging Arab states to in unison push Israel to stop its attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have killed Palestinian civilians, while the foreign ministers of Arab League member countries held an emergency meeting in Cairo to take a common position on Israeli raids on Gaza.
Green Zone, Heart of U.S. Occupation, Reverts to Iraqi Control
New York Times
By Campbell Robertson and Stephen Farrell
January 1, 2009
BAGHDAD — For nearly six years, the Green Zone has become such an enduring shorthand for a willfully sequestered occupation of Iraq that it is easy to forget it is an actual place.
Iraq offers up giant oilfields to foreign firms
Reuters
By Ahmed Rasheed
December 31, 2008
BAGHDAD - Iraq on Wednesday opened up some of its most prized oil and gas fields to international firms that have been excluded for decades, part of new deals that could more than double its output within a few years.
UN extends immunity for Iraq's energy revenues
Reuters
By Patrick Worsnip
December 22, 2008
UNITED NATIONS - Iraq's energy revenues will be immune from financial claims through 2009 under a resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council on Monday.
Iraq signs $80M in oil export surveys to boost output and mitigate disaster
UPI
By Ben Lando
December 23, 2008
BAGHDAD -- Iraq has signed contracts worth an estimated $80 million to repair fragile oil export infrastructure in the south and ready it for expansion.
The Woman the Mullahs Fear
New York Times, Editorial
January 2, 2009
Men hold all of the meaningful levers of political power in Iran, but it is a woman they fear. If not, why is the mullah-led government trying to shut down the operations of Shirin Ebadi?
Akbar Ganji in conversation with Charles Taylor
The Immanent Frame
Interview with Akbar Ganji by Charles Taylor
December 23, 2008
Akbar Ganji is Iran’s preeminent political dissident. A heroic figure to the democratic movement in Iran, he has been likened to Gandhi and Mandela. The London-based human rights organization, Article 19, has described Ganji as the “Iranian Vaclav Havel.” He has been the recipient of over a dozen human rights, press freedom and pro-democracy awards.
søndag 21. desember 2008
Raise Breast Cancer Awareness in Kurdistan
Aya ezanîn la sallî 2010 da, 1.5 milyon kas la cîhanda pêyan raegeyênirê ke şêrpencey memikîyan heye?
Herweha dezanî, "şêrpencey memik bote nexosîyekî billaw le naw afretanî Kurdistan da?"
"Eger gringîyekî ewto nedirê be hoşîyar kirdinewey afretan bo şêrpencey memik û zanîyarî pêdan sebaret ba çonêtî agadarbûn le nişane seretayekanî şêrpencey memik, herêmî Kurdistan berizbuneweyekî zor le jimarey tûşbun be şêrpencey memik bexoyewe debînêt". - Wezîrî tendirûsti Dr. Zryan Osman Yones
Le Kurdistan, şêrpencey memik be şêweyeki tirsinaktir teşene deka lenaw afratanda û le temenekî genctirîşda le çaw afretani cihan.
Le Kurdistan, be hoy dreng pêzanînî hebûnî şêrpencey memik le afretanda, em nexoşîye tûşbuwan le mawey 6 mang bo sallêk da gyanîan ledest deden, be pêçewaney willatanî tirewe ke tûşbuwanî ke nexoşekanî şêrpencey memik ç end sallekî zor paş nîşane kirdini nexoşîyeki dejîn.
Be şêweyeki giştî le cîhanda şêrpencey memik hokarî yekemî qurbanîdanî afretane le temenî 40 bo 55 sall. Bellam le Kurdistan afretanî genctirîş tuşî debin.
Wezîrî tendirûsti aşkiray dekat ke kemî zanyarî tendirûsti, kemî deramet, kemî kerestey pêwîst, û kemî lêkollînewe hokarin bo zîyad bûnî şêrpencey memik le Kurdistan da.
"Xo pîşknîn harî karî pizîşk dekat ka şerpenceke zutir bidozrêtewe. Zo dozînewey şerpence karêkî rastew xo dekate ser çareser kirdnî nexoşîyeke". - Profisor Tony Milleri
Be pey wezîrî tendirûsti, Hewler blindtrîn rêjey şerpencey memikî heye le nawçeke. Le nexoşxaney afretan 3 diktorî neştergerî, 3 diktorî zanistî nexoşêkan rojî 3 car le hefteyekda nexoşi şerpenceyan bo denêrêt le layan diktorekani nawçeke.
Dway zanînî eme kêşe gewreye, natwanî taze piştgwêy xey. Destî yarmetî bo ew afiretane drêj ken.
Herweha dezanî, "şêrpencey memik bote nexosîyekî billaw le naw afretanî Kurdistan da?"
"Eger gringîyekî ewto nedirê be hoşîyar kirdinewey afretan bo şêrpencey memik û zanîyarî pêdan sebaret ba çonêtî agadarbûn le nişane seretayekanî şêrpencey memik, herêmî Kurdistan berizbuneweyekî zor le jimarey tûşbun be şêrpencey memik bexoyewe debînêt". - Wezîrî tendirûsti Dr. Zryan Osman Yones
Le Kurdistan, şêrpencey memik be şêweyeki tirsinaktir teşene deka lenaw afratanda û le temenekî genctirîşda le çaw afretani cihan.
Le Kurdistan, be hoy dreng pêzanînî hebûnî şêrpencey memik le afretanda, em nexoşîye tûşbuwan le mawey 6 mang bo sallêk da gyanîan ledest deden, be pêçewaney willatanî tirewe ke tûşbuwanî ke nexoşekanî şêrpencey memik ç end sallekî zor paş nîşane kirdini nexoşîyeki dejîn.
Be şêweyeki giştî le cîhanda şêrpencey memik hokarî yekemî qurbanîdanî afretane le temenî 40 bo 55 sall. Bellam le Kurdistan afretanî genctirîş tuşî debin.
Wezîrî tendirûsti aşkiray dekat ke kemî zanyarî tendirûsti, kemî deramet, kemî kerestey pêwîst, û kemî lêkollînewe hokarin bo zîyad bûnî şêrpencey memik le Kurdistan da.
"Xo pîşknîn harî karî pizîşk dekat ka şerpenceke zutir bidozrêtewe. Zo dozînewey şerpence karêkî rastew xo dekate ser çareser kirdnî nexoşîyeke". - Profisor Tony Milleri
Be pey wezîrî tendirûsti, Hewler blindtrîn rêjey şerpencey memikî heye le nawçeke. Le nexoşxaney afretan 3 diktorî neştergerî, 3 diktorî zanistî nexoşêkan rojî 3 car le hefteyekda nexoşi şerpenceyan bo denêrêt le layan diktorekani nawçeke.
Dway zanînî eme kêşe gewreye, natwanî taze piştgwêy xey. Destî yarmetî bo ew afiretane drêj ken.
søndag 2. november 2008
The Dark Cloud Over Turkey by Yasar Kemal
One of the greatest tragedies in Turkey's history is happening now. Apart from a couple of hesitant voices, no one is standing up and demanding to know what the Turkish goverment is doing, what this destruction means. No one is saying: `After all your signatures and promises you are riding towards doomsday, leaving the earth scorched in your wake. What will come of all this?'
Turkish governments have resolved to drain the pool to catch the fish; to declare all-out war.
We have already seen how it can be done. The world is also aware of it. Only the people of Turkey have been kept in ignorance; newspapers have been forbidden to write about the drainage. Or maybe there was no need for censorship: maybe our press, with its sense of patriotism and strong nationalist sentiment, chose not to write about it assuming the world would neither hear nor see what was happening. The water was being drained in so horrendous a fashion that the smoke ascended to high heaven. But for our press, deceiving the world and our people - or, rather, believing they had succeeded in doing so - was the greatest act of patriotism, of nationalism. They were not aware that they had perpetrated a crime against humanity. Their eyes bloodshot, their mouths foaming, they were shouting with one voice: `We will not give one stone, one handful of soil.' Cries of `Oh God' rose upon the air. Dear loyal patriotic friends, no one wants a single stone, nor a handful of soil from us. Our Kurdish citizens want their language, their language and culture are being slaughtered.
Our Kurdish brothers are now at war to win their rights. Those Turkish brothers with whom we have always been together in sorrow and in joy. During the War of Independence we fought shoulder to shoulder. We established this state together. Should a man cut out the tongue of his brother?
Oh friend, is there anything in those declarations you signed - the UN Bill of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Helsinki Final Act - to say that if I give my people human rights they will demand their `independence'? Did you lay down such a condition? In those declarations you signed did it not say that every nation, every ethnic community should determine its own destiny?
The water has begun to dry up. The house of nearly 2,000 villages have been burned. Many animals as well as people have been burned inside them. The world press has written about this, as well as our so nationalistic newspapers. Our ostriches still bury their heads in the sand. The country is awash with blood and how can our illustrious media remove its head from the sand? They burnt people too in many house...
The draining of the waters has cost Turkey and humanity much. And looks like continuing to do so. Already over 1,700 people have been the victims of murder by persons unknown. Intellectuals in the west have begun to debate whether a new genocide is taking place; the possibility of a Human Rights Court for Turkey's politicians and an economic boycott against Turkey is being discussed. Choose between these delightful alternatives!
The most horrific aspect is the inhumanity of outright war for the sake of a few fish. They have burnt almost all the forests of eastern Anatolia because guerrillas hide out in them. Turkey's forests have been burning for years. Not much that could be called forest is left and we are burning the remainder to catch fish. Turkey is disappearing in flames along with its forests, anonymous act of genocide, and 2,5 million people exiled from their homes, their villages burnt, in desperate poverty, hungry and naked, forced to take to the road, and no one raises a finger.
Turkey's administrators have got so carried away that intellectual crimes have been regarded as among most serious; people have rotted away in prisons, been killed and exiled for such crimes. Today over 200 people are serving sentences for crimes of thought in our prisons. Hundreds more are on trial. Among these intellectual criminals are university lecturers, journalists, writers and union leaders. Conditions in the prisons are so fearsome that a country, a world, could sink into earth in shame.
As if a racist, oppresive regime were not enough, there have been three military coups in 70 years. Each coup has made the Turkish people a little more debased, brought them a little lower. They have rotted from the root, with their culture, their humanity, their language. There is no reason at all for this inhuman, purposeless war in Anatolia. I repeat, the Kurds want nothing but human rights. They want to use their language, to have their identity restored, and develop their culture to the same extent as the Turkish people. You will ask if the Turkish people have these rights themselves. If things themselves. If things continue as they are, it will not be long before we encouter waves of resistance from the Turkish people. These 70 years have crushed all the people of Anatolia like a steamroller; not a blade of grass has grown in its path. For the moment, all we can ask is that all the Anatolian people be granted full human rights.
These things I speak of have a single cause: to appropriate the liberty of the Anatolian people. This government has done everything it can to exploit the Anatolians, humiliate them and leave them hungry. There is nothing they have not suffered for the last 70 years. If they have managed to survive such a wind for so long, that is because the soil of Anatolia is so rich in culture.
This world is a graveyard of wrecked languages and cultures. What cultures whose names and reputations we have never even heard of come and gone in this world? As a cultural mosaic, the cultures of Anatolia have been a source of modern cultures. If they had not tried to prohibit and destroy other languages and other cultures than those of the Turkish people, Anatolia would still make major contributions to world culture. And we would not remain as we are; a country half famished, its creative power draining away.
The sole reason for this war is that cancer of humanity, racism. If this were not so, would it be possible for right- wing, racist magazines and newspapers to declare that `The Turkish race is superior to every other'? The brother of this statement is `Happy is he who calls himself a Turk'. I first went to eastern Anatolia in 1951, and saw that on the mountain sides everywhere they had written in enormous letters visible from a distance of three, five and ten kilometres, `Happy is he who calls himself a Turk'. They had embellished the slopes of Mount Ararat, too. The entire mountain had become happy to be Turkish. And worse even, they made the children declare: `I am a Turk, I am honest, I am hard-working', every morning.
And much more is happening in Turkey! Having exiled 2,5 million people, now they have put an embargo on food in eastern Anatolia. No one who does not get a certificate from the police station can buy food, because the villagers give food to the guerrillas. The crops, nut and fruit trees of villagers who prefer exile to taking up arms to protect their village from guerrilla attack are burned along with the forests. Their animals are slaughtered. Why are the villages being burned and razed? So that they may not harbour guerrillas and be a source of food for them. From what we hear in Istanbul, the guerrillas receive their needs from the village watchmen. A few days ago the newspapers reported that guerrillas had stolen 700 sheep belonging to the village watchmen, the bastion of the state. There are 50,000 paid watchmen in eastern Anatolia; it is the slave of these people. They are the state in eastern Anatolia, they are everything. They can kill, destroy and burn. They recognise no rule of humanity and no law.
What else is happening in Turkey? The village elders of Ovacik who said that soldiers had burnt their village were found dead in the burned forests nearby a few days later. The government minister [for human rights] Azimet K”yloglu who had claimed that soldiers were burning villages went back on his words a few days later: `How can anyone say that the army is burning villages? It is the PKK.' And our `free newspapers' reported this.
What else is happening in Turkey? I swear that the newspapers wrote this too. I was dumbfounded. Listen, in a district of Van they woke up one morning and found the town covered with red crosses. How could the newspaers resist such a piece of news? The SS had done the same.
And there are no shepherds left in the mountains. They have killed the adult shepherds, and now they send children on the assumption that they won't touch them. But a few days later they gather up the dead bodies of these tiny shepherds from the mountains.
What else is happening in Turkey? God damn them, one is ashamed of being human. I will write this too. One morning a journalist friend of mine rang. We had worked together as journalists for years. `Do you know what is going on? he asked. `What?' I replied. `The police have taken away everone who works for ™zgr Gndem newspaper.' I immediately went to the newspaper offices and saw that the police cordoned the building. I asked to go in but the police wouldn't let me. There was no one left to produce the newspaper. They had taken all 120 employees in custody. They has even taken the poor tea boy. If it had been summer they would probably have been ordered to arrest the flies at the newspaper.
That is enough. I cannot bring myself to talk longer about the historic achievement of the Turkish Republic. To battle against oppression in Turkey today is a challenge not everyone can take up. There is a risk of going hungry. It is a strong tradition in the Turkish Republic to make a mockery of its opponents. And, and, and, it is only at the risk of your life that you oppose the state today. The cost of opposing the Turkish-Kurdish War is heavy. What can we do but keep silent?
The coup of 12 september 1980 not only forced intellectuals to keep their heads down, not only threw hundreds of people into prison and tortured them. The entire country cowered in fear, was made degenerate and driven further from humanity. It made informers of ordinary citizens, created bloody wolf-mouthed confessors, and totally destroyed human morality. A country where universal morality has become atrophied is a patient in a coma.
The Constitution which the leader of the coup Evren Pasha passed in the shadow of his weapons and bayonets was ratified by 90 per cent of the population in a referendum. For exactly 12 years Turkey has been governed according to this Constitution. Yes, Turkey has a parliament. Its parlementarians are like kittens, even when they catch them by the neck at the door of parliament and take them to prison. There is even a Constitutional Court. A Constitutional Court that, according to the Military Constitution, decides whether a law shall be enforced or not.
Some people here are scared stiff of the military lauching a new coup. What difference does it make? A new coup would not lead to the abolition and repeal of the Evren Constitution.
There will be no coup. There is no need for a coup. Some of my friends, my old journalist colleagues, friends whom I love and who don't want anything to happen to me are anxious. Some say I am taking sides.
What is more natural than for me to take sides? As long as I can remember I have been on the side of the peoples of Turkey. As long as I can remember I have been on the side of the oppressed, those treated unjustly, the exploited, the suffering and the poor.
I am on the side of the Turkish, the language in which I write. I feel the obligation to do what I can, and what I can't, to enrich and beautify Turkish. My greatest cause of anger against Kenan Pasa is his closure of the Turkish Language Institute.
Of course I take sides. For me the world is a garden of culture where thousand flowers grow. Throughout history all cultures have fed one another, been grafted onto one another, and in the process our world has been enriched. The disappearance of a culture is the loss of a colour, a different light, a different source. I am as much on the side of every flower in this thousand flower garden as I am on the side of my own culture. Anatolia has always been a mosaic of flowers, filling the world with flowers and light. I want it to be the same today.
If the people of a country choose to live like human beings, choose happiness and beauty, their way lies first through universal human rights and then through universal, unlimited freedom of thought. The people of countries that have opposed this will enter the twenty first century without honour.
Saving the honour and bread of our country, and the cultural wealth of its soil is in our hands. Either true democracy or...nothing!
Turkish governments have resolved to drain the pool to catch the fish; to declare all-out war.
We have already seen how it can be done. The world is also aware of it. Only the people of Turkey have been kept in ignorance; newspapers have been forbidden to write about the drainage. Or maybe there was no need for censorship: maybe our press, with its sense of patriotism and strong nationalist sentiment, chose not to write about it assuming the world would neither hear nor see what was happening. The water was being drained in so horrendous a fashion that the smoke ascended to high heaven. But for our press, deceiving the world and our people - or, rather, believing they had succeeded in doing so - was the greatest act of patriotism, of nationalism. They were not aware that they had perpetrated a crime against humanity. Their eyes bloodshot, their mouths foaming, they were shouting with one voice: `We will not give one stone, one handful of soil.' Cries of `Oh God' rose upon the air. Dear loyal patriotic friends, no one wants a single stone, nor a handful of soil from us. Our Kurdish citizens want their language, their language and culture are being slaughtered.
Our Kurdish brothers are now at war to win their rights. Those Turkish brothers with whom we have always been together in sorrow and in joy. During the War of Independence we fought shoulder to shoulder. We established this state together. Should a man cut out the tongue of his brother?
Oh friend, is there anything in those declarations you signed - the UN Bill of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Helsinki Final Act - to say that if I give my people human rights they will demand their `independence'? Did you lay down such a condition? In those declarations you signed did it not say that every nation, every ethnic community should determine its own destiny?
The water has begun to dry up. The house of nearly 2,000 villages have been burned. Many animals as well as people have been burned inside them. The world press has written about this, as well as our so nationalistic newspapers. Our ostriches still bury their heads in the sand. The country is awash with blood and how can our illustrious media remove its head from the sand? They burnt people too in many house...
The draining of the waters has cost Turkey and humanity much. And looks like continuing to do so. Already over 1,700 people have been the victims of murder by persons unknown. Intellectuals in the west have begun to debate whether a new genocide is taking place; the possibility of a Human Rights Court for Turkey's politicians and an economic boycott against Turkey is being discussed. Choose between these delightful alternatives!
The most horrific aspect is the inhumanity of outright war for the sake of a few fish. They have burnt almost all the forests of eastern Anatolia because guerrillas hide out in them. Turkey's forests have been burning for years. Not much that could be called forest is left and we are burning the remainder to catch fish. Turkey is disappearing in flames along with its forests, anonymous act of genocide, and 2,5 million people exiled from their homes, their villages burnt, in desperate poverty, hungry and naked, forced to take to the road, and no one raises a finger.
Turkey's administrators have got so carried away that intellectual crimes have been regarded as among most serious; people have rotted away in prisons, been killed and exiled for such crimes. Today over 200 people are serving sentences for crimes of thought in our prisons. Hundreds more are on trial. Among these intellectual criminals are university lecturers, journalists, writers and union leaders. Conditions in the prisons are so fearsome that a country, a world, could sink into earth in shame.
As if a racist, oppresive regime were not enough, there have been three military coups in 70 years. Each coup has made the Turkish people a little more debased, brought them a little lower. They have rotted from the root, with their culture, their humanity, their language. There is no reason at all for this inhuman, purposeless war in Anatolia. I repeat, the Kurds want nothing but human rights. They want to use their language, to have their identity restored, and develop their culture to the same extent as the Turkish people. You will ask if the Turkish people have these rights themselves. If things themselves. If things continue as they are, it will not be long before we encouter waves of resistance from the Turkish people. These 70 years have crushed all the people of Anatolia like a steamroller; not a blade of grass has grown in its path. For the moment, all we can ask is that all the Anatolian people be granted full human rights.
These things I speak of have a single cause: to appropriate the liberty of the Anatolian people. This government has done everything it can to exploit the Anatolians, humiliate them and leave them hungry. There is nothing they have not suffered for the last 70 years. If they have managed to survive such a wind for so long, that is because the soil of Anatolia is so rich in culture.
This world is a graveyard of wrecked languages and cultures. What cultures whose names and reputations we have never even heard of come and gone in this world? As a cultural mosaic, the cultures of Anatolia have been a source of modern cultures. If they had not tried to prohibit and destroy other languages and other cultures than those of the Turkish people, Anatolia would still make major contributions to world culture. And we would not remain as we are; a country half famished, its creative power draining away.
The sole reason for this war is that cancer of humanity, racism. If this were not so, would it be possible for right- wing, racist magazines and newspapers to declare that `The Turkish race is superior to every other'? The brother of this statement is `Happy is he who calls himself a Turk'. I first went to eastern Anatolia in 1951, and saw that on the mountain sides everywhere they had written in enormous letters visible from a distance of three, five and ten kilometres, `Happy is he who calls himself a Turk'. They had embellished the slopes of Mount Ararat, too. The entire mountain had become happy to be Turkish. And worse even, they made the children declare: `I am a Turk, I am honest, I am hard-working', every morning.
And much more is happening in Turkey! Having exiled 2,5 million people, now they have put an embargo on food in eastern Anatolia. No one who does not get a certificate from the police station can buy food, because the villagers give food to the guerrillas. The crops, nut and fruit trees of villagers who prefer exile to taking up arms to protect their village from guerrilla attack are burned along with the forests. Their animals are slaughtered. Why are the villages being burned and razed? So that they may not harbour guerrillas and be a source of food for them. From what we hear in Istanbul, the guerrillas receive their needs from the village watchmen. A few days ago the newspapers reported that guerrillas had stolen 700 sheep belonging to the village watchmen, the bastion of the state. There are 50,000 paid watchmen in eastern Anatolia; it is the slave of these people. They are the state in eastern Anatolia, they are everything. They can kill, destroy and burn. They recognise no rule of humanity and no law.
What else is happening in Turkey? The village elders of Ovacik who said that soldiers had burnt their village were found dead in the burned forests nearby a few days later. The government minister [for human rights] Azimet K”yloglu who had claimed that soldiers were burning villages went back on his words a few days later: `How can anyone say that the army is burning villages? It is the PKK.' And our `free newspapers' reported this.
What else is happening in Turkey? I swear that the newspapers wrote this too. I was dumbfounded. Listen, in a district of Van they woke up one morning and found the town covered with red crosses. How could the newspaers resist such a piece of news? The SS had done the same.
And there are no shepherds left in the mountains. They have killed the adult shepherds, and now they send children on the assumption that they won't touch them. But a few days later they gather up the dead bodies of these tiny shepherds from the mountains.
What else is happening in Turkey? God damn them, one is ashamed of being human. I will write this too. One morning a journalist friend of mine rang. We had worked together as journalists for years. `Do you know what is going on? he asked. `What?' I replied. `The police have taken away everone who works for ™zgr Gndem newspaper.' I immediately went to the newspaper offices and saw that the police cordoned the building. I asked to go in but the police wouldn't let me. There was no one left to produce the newspaper. They had taken all 120 employees in custody. They has even taken the poor tea boy. If it had been summer they would probably have been ordered to arrest the flies at the newspaper.
That is enough. I cannot bring myself to talk longer about the historic achievement of the Turkish Republic. To battle against oppression in Turkey today is a challenge not everyone can take up. There is a risk of going hungry. It is a strong tradition in the Turkish Republic to make a mockery of its opponents. And, and, and, it is only at the risk of your life that you oppose the state today. The cost of opposing the Turkish-Kurdish War is heavy. What can we do but keep silent?
The coup of 12 september 1980 not only forced intellectuals to keep their heads down, not only threw hundreds of people into prison and tortured them. The entire country cowered in fear, was made degenerate and driven further from humanity. It made informers of ordinary citizens, created bloody wolf-mouthed confessors, and totally destroyed human morality. A country where universal morality has become atrophied is a patient in a coma.
The Constitution which the leader of the coup Evren Pasha passed in the shadow of his weapons and bayonets was ratified by 90 per cent of the population in a referendum. For exactly 12 years Turkey has been governed according to this Constitution. Yes, Turkey has a parliament. Its parlementarians are like kittens, even when they catch them by the neck at the door of parliament and take them to prison. There is even a Constitutional Court. A Constitutional Court that, according to the Military Constitution, decides whether a law shall be enforced or not.
Some people here are scared stiff of the military lauching a new coup. What difference does it make? A new coup would not lead to the abolition and repeal of the Evren Constitution.
There will be no coup. There is no need for a coup. Some of my friends, my old journalist colleagues, friends whom I love and who don't want anything to happen to me are anxious. Some say I am taking sides.
What is more natural than for me to take sides? As long as I can remember I have been on the side of the peoples of Turkey. As long as I can remember I have been on the side of the oppressed, those treated unjustly, the exploited, the suffering and the poor.
I am on the side of the Turkish, the language in which I write. I feel the obligation to do what I can, and what I can't, to enrich and beautify Turkish. My greatest cause of anger against Kenan Pasa is his closure of the Turkish Language Institute.
Of course I take sides. For me the world is a garden of culture where thousand flowers grow. Throughout history all cultures have fed one another, been grafted onto one another, and in the process our world has been enriched. The disappearance of a culture is the loss of a colour, a different light, a different source. I am as much on the side of every flower in this thousand flower garden as I am on the side of my own culture. Anatolia has always been a mosaic of flowers, filling the world with flowers and light. I want it to be the same today.
If the people of a country choose to live like human beings, choose happiness and beauty, their way lies first through universal human rights and then through universal, unlimited freedom of thought. The people of countries that have opposed this will enter the twenty first century without honour.
Saving the honour and bread of our country, and the cultural wealth of its soil is in our hands. Either true democracy or...nothing!
søndag 24. august 2008
Srudi Qazi Muhammed
Bo gali kurdi hajar
boi ba dari rishadar (x2)
Kurdistan ba nawa to
darkawt la ham diyar (x2)
Ta wenai toman habet namerin
Aferin Qazi Muhammed, afarin
Aferin ai Peshawai kurd, aferin
Bo xebati xelki kurd
gyani xotet krd ba prd (x2)
Nawi to la meju da
nawi kurdi zindu krd (x2)
Ta wenai toman habet namerin
Aferin Qazi Muhammed, afarin
Aferin ai Peshawai kurd, aferin
boi ba dari rishadar (x2)
Kurdistan ba nawa to
darkawt la ham diyar (x2)
Ta wenai toman habet namerin
Aferin Qazi Muhammed, afarin
Aferin ai Peshawai kurd, aferin
Bo xebati xelki kurd
gyani xotet krd ba prd (x2)
Nawi to la meju da
nawi kurdi zindu krd (x2)
Ta wenai toman habet namerin
Aferin Qazi Muhammed, afarin
Aferin ai Peshawai kurd, aferin
onsdag 18. juni 2008
tirsdag 17. juni 2008
What a week! I've been loving every moment of it :)
Da er frøken Karimi tilbake ved tastaturet, denne gangen for oppdatere alt som har skjedd siden sist. I skrivende stund slapper jeg av etter en morsom dag på jobben, idag fikk jeg være på barneavdelingen, noe jeg virkelig likte :)
Forrige uke var jeg i Finland med 49 andre ungdommer fra Norge, Sverige, Danmark, Island og Finland. Det var utrolig spennende! Jeg representerte Lawan (KDUF - Kurdisk Demokratisk Ungdomsforbund) og deltok på en konferanse i Helsinki der vi lærte om prosjektledelse. Selv om det var veldig få deltagere som kjente hverandre fra før av ble det en veldig morsom tur. Vi var 19 ungdommer fra Norge, og etter 4 dager på Hanasaari/Hanaholmen kan jeg godt si at vi ble en veldig sammensveiset gjeng :) Deltagerne representerte ulike organisasjoner og foreninger for etniske minoriteter fra 5 land, og under oppholdet utviklet vi prosjektideer på tvers av nordens grenser. Jeg reiste tidlig fredag morgen og møtte de andre på Gardermoen, det var litt av en tur, for selv om vi nettopp hadde blitt kjent med hverandre tok det ikke lang tid før vi alle var venner. Fredagen var vi for det meste på hotellet, etter middag og velkomsttaler gikk vi rett på de første foredragene og vi hadde mange morsomme leker for å bryte isen og komme nærmere hverandre. Av en eller annen grunn ble det slik at vi aldri la oss før fire, så fredag kveld hadde vi lange diskusjoner der alle var veldig engasjerte. På lørdag fortsatte vi med foredrag og workshop, og de varte hele dagen. Allikevel, presset vi inn en liten tur til byen også :) En liten gjeng av oss dro ned til Helsinki by, for å se hva Finalnd hadde å by på. Det var lett å finne frem, og vi så utrolig mye morsomt. Blant det vi likte best var - Black Superman - han balanserte på en line og var veldig hyggelig mot oss. Han ga oss til og med visittkortet sitt, og vi ba han stikke innom Norge engang også. Black Superman er også kjent som Black Santa.
På søndag kveld tok vi helt av :p Vi Hamda, Samad, Mani og jeg bestemte oss for å lage karaoke, selv om den var litt hjemmelagd, ble det en stor slager hos resten og de fleste deltok. Først var det bare vi 4, og vi brølte oss gjennom en god del låter, etterhvert begynte de andre å komme inn og de kastet seg inn i sangene. Det ble masse latter og helt sikkert noen tårer også, for det var ikke pene toner vi sang for å si det sånn. Men det var så gøy, vi levde oss inn i det, og tok litt vel av :p
Det eneste negative med Helsinkituren var kun det at det bare varte i 4 dager, vi var alle enige om at vi ville være der lenger. Vel, en annen ting var at maten på Hanasaari ikke alltid falt i smak hos oss heller. Av og til kunne de ha kjempegod mat, og av og til var det helt håpløst, for det meste var det helt håpløst, og vi slet litt med å finne noe annet å erstatte det med og, fordi hotellet lå ti minutter unna byen (med bil) og vi måtte ta bussen inn til selve Helsinki hver gang.
Alt i alt var det en unik opplevelse, og jeg er veldig glad for at jeg ble med på turen. Ikke bare fikk vi en utrolig bra mulighet til å møte andre undommer, men vi fikk også grundig opplæring fra blant annet LNU, Miljonkulturel ungdom og andre organisasjoner til å utvikle prosjekter og hvordan vi kunne søke støtte. Dette er også den eneste ferien jeg har i år, ettersom jeg jobber nesten hver eneste dag denne sommeren. Både denne uken og neste uke jobber jeg HVER dag på H&M, både på strømmen og på triaden. Det kommer til å bli litt av en slitsom uke :) Jeg kom hjem fra Finland igår, og det eneste jeg fikk tid til var å ta en matbit før jeg måtte rett tilbake på jobb! Snakk om tempo! Men jeg liker det bedre enn min forrige jobb - det er uten tvil - så jeg klager ikke :D
Forrige uke var jeg i Finland med 49 andre ungdommer fra Norge, Sverige, Danmark, Island og Finland. Det var utrolig spennende! Jeg representerte Lawan (KDUF - Kurdisk Demokratisk Ungdomsforbund) og deltok på en konferanse i Helsinki der vi lærte om prosjektledelse. Selv om det var veldig få deltagere som kjente hverandre fra før av ble det en veldig morsom tur. Vi var 19 ungdommer fra Norge, og etter 4 dager på Hanasaari/Hanaholmen kan jeg godt si at vi ble en veldig sammensveiset gjeng :) Deltagerne representerte ulike organisasjoner og foreninger for etniske minoriteter fra 5 land, og under oppholdet utviklet vi prosjektideer på tvers av nordens grenser. Jeg reiste tidlig fredag morgen og møtte de andre på Gardermoen, det var litt av en tur, for selv om vi nettopp hadde blitt kjent med hverandre tok det ikke lang tid før vi alle var venner. Fredagen var vi for det meste på hotellet, etter middag og velkomsttaler gikk vi rett på de første foredragene og vi hadde mange morsomme leker for å bryte isen og komme nærmere hverandre. Av en eller annen grunn ble det slik at vi aldri la oss før fire, så fredag kveld hadde vi lange diskusjoner der alle var veldig engasjerte. På lørdag fortsatte vi med foredrag og workshop, og de varte hele dagen. Allikevel, presset vi inn en liten tur til byen også :) En liten gjeng av oss dro ned til Helsinki by, for å se hva Finalnd hadde å by på. Det var lett å finne frem, og vi så utrolig mye morsomt. Blant det vi likte best var - Black Superman - han balanserte på en line og var veldig hyggelig mot oss. Han ga oss til og med visittkortet sitt, og vi ba han stikke innom Norge engang også. Black Superman er også kjent som Black Santa.
På søndag kveld tok vi helt av :p Vi Hamda, Samad, Mani og jeg bestemte oss for å lage karaoke, selv om den var litt hjemmelagd, ble det en stor slager hos resten og de fleste deltok. Først var det bare vi 4, og vi brølte oss gjennom en god del låter, etterhvert begynte de andre å komme inn og de kastet seg inn i sangene. Det ble masse latter og helt sikkert noen tårer også, for det var ikke pene toner vi sang for å si det sånn. Men det var så gøy, vi levde oss inn i det, og tok litt vel av :p
Det eneste negative med Helsinkituren var kun det at det bare varte i 4 dager, vi var alle enige om at vi ville være der lenger. Vel, en annen ting var at maten på Hanasaari ikke alltid falt i smak hos oss heller. Av og til kunne de ha kjempegod mat, og av og til var det helt håpløst, for det meste var det helt håpløst, og vi slet litt med å finne noe annet å erstatte det med og, fordi hotellet lå ti minutter unna byen (med bil) og vi måtte ta bussen inn til selve Helsinki hver gang.
Alt i alt var det en unik opplevelse, og jeg er veldig glad for at jeg ble med på turen. Ikke bare fikk vi en utrolig bra mulighet til å møte andre undommer, men vi fikk også grundig opplæring fra blant annet LNU, Miljonkulturel ungdom og andre organisasjoner til å utvikle prosjekter og hvordan vi kunne søke støtte. Dette er også den eneste ferien jeg har i år, ettersom jeg jobber nesten hver eneste dag denne sommeren. Både denne uken og neste uke jobber jeg HVER dag på H&M, både på strømmen og på triaden. Det kommer til å bli litt av en slitsom uke :) Jeg kom hjem fra Finland igår, og det eneste jeg fikk tid til var å ta en matbit før jeg måtte rett tilbake på jobb! Snakk om tempo! Men jeg liker det bedre enn min forrige jobb - det er uten tvil - så jeg klager ikke :D
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