BEWARE OF THE KURDS

For recent article "The Kurds Way" by Melik Kaylan please see:

http://merryabla64.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/the-kurds-way-by-melik-kaylan/

In March 2003 Melik Kaylan wrote:

BEWARE OF THE KURDS

By MELIK KAYLAN
MARCH 19, 2003

Some miles over the border into the Saddam-controlled part of Northern Iraq, a local contact told me that Saddam Hussein has placed tanks and explosives in narrow streets to maximize collateral damage. He has also forcibly billeted troops and loyalist cadres in civilian homes in readiness for street fighting -- and to prevent the populace from fleeing. Saddam has done this in neighborhoods mostly populated by the Turkmen and Assyrian Christian minorities, whom he has repressed and decimated. His troops, though, are unlikely to survive their hosts' ire once the shooting starts.
* * *
Back across the border in the Kurdish zone I returned to Irbil, the stronghold of Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) chief. (Barzani sports a silent-movie moustache above a chubby figure and has a way with native headwrapping that rivals Yasser Arafat.) I have been living here in the guise of a businessman. Not being registered as a journalist means I don't need a KDP minder "for my protection." In the age-old fashion, such minders have a distinct influence on what foreign journalists see and think. In this case, journalists have not noted the nefarious activities of the Kurdish authorities in charge of the northern "no-fly" zone. Perhaps the media think that it's all too inside-baseball for readers back home. That is a mistake. Within days, the Kurds could be in charge of the oil towns of Kirkuk and Mosul, and their habits of government will matter very much.

Here's a likely scenario: As the Turks agonize over their role in the imminent conflict, the Kurds are gearing up to go ahead without them. There are signs that the U.S. intends to use the Kurdish militias as a "Northern Alliance" to open a second front against Saddam. A number of such irregulars were recently caught inside Saddam territory in preparation for a Kurdish uprising around the oil towns. Saddam's northern 5th Army Corps is starving and demoralized, so it's likely to offer little resistance. (Top defectors try to come across daily, but no one wants them.) In short, the Kurds could succeed quickly.

If so, they would integrate into their northern zone a population of Turkmens and Assyrians that would almost match their own -- and for a while, perhaps for a long while, they would rule over them. Their treatment of those minorities to date in their own preponderantly Kurdish zone suggests it won't work, especially once the balance of numbers change. Result: a potential civil war and a major headache for the U.S.

Consider the Turkmens, whose total Iraqi population is not much less than the Kurds. I witnessed a "spontaneous" stone-throwing riot against their party headquarters by a Kurdish mob in Irbil, which the KDP offered to dispel by occupying the premises. The Turkmens refused, as the KDP have a passion for invading and looting their offices. Some nights later, KDP commandos occupied the high-points around Turkmen office buildings and pointed Kalashnikovs at the guards.

Turkmen officials are detained without charge, their homes looted anonymously. At times they are forbidden to hang their calendars or listen to their radio station in public. Fixated on the Kurds as the definitive minority of the region, the wider media notes nothing of the Turkmens' plight. Yet, they have perhaps suffered more than any other group in the region.

Saddam used them as cannon fodder in the Iran-Iraq war. Many were taken prisoner by the Iranians. Others escaped to Irbil, leaving behind relatives at Saddam's mercy. Saddam in turn has tortured and killed those unfortunates for having "foreign" connections. Now the Irbil exiles are stuck with Barzani -- dubbed "Mini Saddam" -- who also treats them as spies for the Turks.

Barzani's rival-cum-uneasy confederate, who rules the other official Kurdish zone as strongman of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), is a mite more civilized, though insidious. He refused minority-language TV channels, for example, on grounds that he couldn't protect them adequately. The Turkmens, for their part, dream of repatriation to Kirkuk and Mosul and for safer conditions in the interim, perhaps from their ethnic cousins the Turks. That help has not arrived for decades and may not yet, due to Ankara's indecision. And the outcome may be a nightmare for Turkey and Turkmens alike -- a Kurds' entity flush with oil money but with no checks on power in their region. The Kurds have moved to accomplish this by excluding Turkmen and Assyrian participation in Iraqi opposition conferences and by stoking fear of the Turks through state-ordered marches against the Turkish army's "evil designs" on Kurdish terrain. I say state-ordered because I have read the documents. (One would think that it's plain for all to see that, but for their American allies, the Turks want to dodge the whole matter, even at the cost of sacrificing the Turkmens.)

It's ironic that Barzani should incite such ardor for the "sacred Kurdish soil" which he occupied with Saddam's armor in 1996. Soon after, he rounded up Turkmen and Assyrian leaders and handed them over to Saddam's spies. None returned.

Behind the rhetoric, Barzani's new-found pan-Kurdish nationalism is pragmatic. Any change in the status quo brought on by Turkish or American forces breaks his monopoly on trade and smuggling revenues and threatens his financial hold over the mercurial Kurdish tribes. Until the trade in oil with Iraq stopped a few days ago -- after Turkey closed the border -- Barzani made nearly a billion dollars a month on transit "taxes." His family takes a cut from all trade in tobacco, textiles, tea, alcohol and medicines. None of this bodes well for his future governance in a wider Kurdish area. It is an open secret here that he has allowed Iraqi intelligence to operate under cover, and that Saddam's family and friends have regularly visited here -- after all, Barzani and Saddam's son, Qusay, co-own the local firm that traded in U.N.-sanctioned oil. Word has it that Barzani helped pay for Iraq's 5th Army around the northern oil towns in case he needed them again to prop up his regime. No wonder he opposes foreign armies on his soil.
* * *
Of late there's been a feast of finger-wagging among Western mea-culpa circles to the tune of "I tell you, in the end, we will betray the Kurds again." Barzani himself mentions it in speeches. It's certainly true that any tribal groups the West begins by romanticizing, it ends by spurning.

Their otherness first attracts, then repels. Witness T.E. Lawrence and the tribal Arabs, the mythologizing of the Afghan Pathans, and now the Kurds. Ultimately the truth sinks in and the West realizes that the natives were never ready for primetime. The Kurds are certainly in for a letdown if their brave new autonomous zone comes under proper scrutiny. The idyllic statelet-in-waiting we keep reading about is a venue for well-oiled warlordism. Telephone calls are monitored. Armed checkpoints pepper the roads. Property is easily confiscated. Loyalties are bought and sold by the tribeful. Rights don't exist except when forcibly backed by fellow tribesmen.

Often that is not enough: Just days ago Barzani purged the entire Hoshnave tribe southwest of Irbil, who, after a daylong firefight, left with their wounded to the PUK region in a convoy of 100 vehicles.

In the weeks I've been here, I've learned the last thing local leaders want, or intend to employ, is democracy and the rule of law. Western allies, and Turkey, would do well to anticipate the consequences.

Mr. Kaylan, a New York-based writer, is completing a history of Istanbul. He is currently in northern Iraq.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB104803694263927600.html#printMode

Yezidis voted against Kurdish dominance in North Iraq

GMT 2-13-2009 1:33:37Assyrian International News Agency

North Iraq (AINA) -- The Yezidi Movement for Reform and Progress, an independent entity in Iraq, won the one quota seat reserved in the Nineveh province for the Yezidi minority. The win has infuriated Kurdish leaders who were taken by surprise by the strong Yezidi opposition to Kurdish dominance.

Kurdish political groups have invested heavily over the past years in the Kurdification of the Yezidis (AINA 12-1-2008) by different methods as well as presenting them to the outside world as Kurds, amounting to an attempt to eradicate an ancient indigenous community with roots in ancient Mesopotamian civilization.

The surprising win of the independent Yezidi Movement for Reform and Progress in Nineveh province is seen as a rebuke of Kurdish aggression.

Commenting for AINA, Qanat Hammo, one of the founders of the Yezidi Movement for Reform and Progress, said "Despite all the oppression and coercion of the Kurds our people were able to fight back using the ballot box. We want them to leave us alone, we are not Kurds and they need to respect this fact." Yezidis are erroneously described as Kurds for political reasons, an identity to which they object. They make up the majority in the Sinjar area west of Mosul and in the Shekhan district in the Nineveh Plain.

Observers maintain the independent Yezidis won the seat because the Kurds were taken off guard.

"The Kurds thought they had the Yezidis in their pockets, so they put all their efforts on the Assyrians instead," said Qanat Hammo, "going to great length to make sure the Assyrian seat would be won by the Kurdish backed Ishtar slate, but they were really taken by surprise."
The Kurdish backed Ishtar slate won the Assyrian quota seat in the Nineveh province amidst many allegations of illegal campaign methods (AINA 2-12-2009, 2-10-2009).available as: html

Yezidi Minority Accuses Kurdish Party of Violations Ahead of Elections

GMT 1-27-2009 0:24:30
Assyrian International News Agency


Sinjar, Iraq (AINA) --- The leader of the Yezidi Movement for Progress and Reform, Amin Farhan, accused last Thursday the Kurdish Democratic Party, led by Massoud Barazani, of election violations in the mainly Yezidi area in northern Iraq, reported Voices of Iraq. The KDP party is accused of using Iraqi army soldiers of Kurdish origin to carry out election campaign work, such as putting up posters in Yezidi towns and villages and giving special protection to KDP officials who hold rallies.

"The Yezidi Movement for Progress and Reform has filed a complaint with the Iraqi Election Commission office in Mosul, providing proof in the form of video tapes of the acts of the soldiers", said Amin Farhan, who is the only independent Yezidi member of parliament in Iraq.

In the 2005 Iraqi elections, Kurdish militias attached to the KDP party rigged elections in minority areas, preventing tens of thousands of Assyrians and Yezidies from casting their votes.

The U.S. Department of State's 2005 Human Rights Country Report for Iraq states:
"In the January elections, many of the mostly non-Muslim residents on the Nineveh Plain were unable to vote. Some polling places did not open, ballot boxes were not delivered, and incidents of voter fraud and intimidation occurred. These problems resulted from administrative breakdowns on voting day and the refusal of Kurdish security forces to allow ballot boxes to pass to predominantly Christian villages."

This item is available as: html

Pro-Kurdish Block Accused of Buying Assyrian Votes in Upcoming Iraqi Election

GMT 1-27-2009 1:38:20
Assyrian International News Agency

North Iraq (AINA) -- A member of Iraq's parliament, Mr Ablahad Afram, accused on Sunday the pro-Kurdish Ishtar list of buying Assyrian votes in the upcoming provincial elections, reported Baghdad Times. Afram accused the Ishtar list, which is competing with two other lists for the only Assyrian seat in the Nineveh province, of using aid as a means to force people to vote for them.

"The groups behind the Ishtar list warn people that if they attend political rallies of other parties or if they vote for other parties they will lose the food aid which the Ishtar list groups are providing," said Ablahad Afram. "The aid sent to the Assyrians by Western churches and humanitarian organizations is used by some as if it was their own aid."

The Iraqi MP said he has detailed proof of the misuse of aid in the election campaign intends on filing an official complaint with the Iraqi Election Committee.

This item is available as: html

Kurds have forced 13,000 Arab Families from Diyala Province: Iraqi MPs

Arab members of parliament have upped their criticism of Kurdish militia practices in provinces bordering their semi-independent enclave.

Latest accusations include the forcing of 13,000 Arab families to flee the restive Province of Diyala of which Baaquba is the capital.

Kurdish militias are present in larges numbers in the provinces of Diyala, Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, and Tameem of which Kirkuk is the capital.

These three provinces are now among the most restive in the country. Many in Iraq now openly blame the Kurds for the rise in the tide of violence in them.

"Kurdish Peshmerga (militias) are supposed to preserve security in these areas but they have forced 13,000 Arab families to flee Diyala," said Mohammed al-Dayni, an Arab parliamentary deputy.

He said Kurdish militias were in control of government buildings in the three provinces and were determined to bring about "demographic changes" in them.

He said conditions were precarious in the three provinces particularly in Nineveh where thousands of Christian families have fled the provincial capital Mosul.

Most Arab deputies in the parliament oppose Kurdish practices and Dayni said "a broad coalition" is gathering momentum in the parliament to force Kurdish militias to leave the three provinces.

Kurds are adamant to add the oil-rich Kirkuk to their areas and have sent their militias into the city of Mosul and large swathes of Diyala.

Kurdish politician and Deputy Fouad Maasoum denied the accusations.

He said the Kurds were part of the ruling coalition "and it is not logical for us to carry out actions that will be embarrassing for us and distance the Iraqi people from us."

By Mustafa Amara
www.azzaman.com

Kurdish involvement in attacks on Assyrians in Mosul

Kurdish Involvement Suspected in Attacks on Assyrians in Mosul

GMT 10-17-2008 5:8:5

Assyrian International News Agency

Mosul, Iraq (AINA) -- The continuing attacks on Assyrians in Mosul have been followed by a string of accusations from different sources claiming Kurdish involvement in the events that has forced 15000 Assyrians to flee the city of Mosul. Iraqi MP Osama Al Najifi, a native of the Mosul area, was the first high ranking official to point to Kurdish involvement in the attacks (AINA 10-12-2008). More recently a spokesman from Iraq's interior ministry said there is no evidence of Al Qaeda involvement (AINA 10-16-2008), and a high ranking Assyrian leader, Mr Yonadam Kanna, also a member of parliament, confirmed to reporters the assailants were wearing army uniforms. Adding to the suspicion, five known Sunni insurgent groups, including Al Qaeda, issued statements denouncing the attacks and denying involvement in them.

Several observers have noted the attacks, which started two weeks ago, have occurred in the eastern side of the city, which is controlled of Kurdish forces. Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) living in the western part have not been harmed, but on Tuesday a bomb went off in front of a church in the western, Arab dominated part of the city -- only after accusations of Kurdish involvement started being made.

Condemnations of the violence were issued by Kurdish leaders only after growing accusations in Iraq against the Kurds. The extensive measures taken by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in ordering its ministries and departments to provide aid to the affected Assyrian families, according to a KRG press release, could reflect a growing Kurdish desperation to divert attention from the mounting accusations it is facing. The KRG has not bothered to help Assyrians during previous periods of attacks against them.

Some media reports have described the recent attacks as retaliation by Islamic groups because of Assyrian demonstrations against the removal of their quota seats in the provincial councils (AINA 10-6-2008). Assyrians have, however, protested and taken to the streets several times since the war started and some 50,000 Assyrians take to the streets each year on April 1st, celebrating the Assyrian New Year, without any retaliation by terrorist groups.

Suspicions of Kurdish involvement are also strengthened by the unspoken aim of the Kurdish leadership of annexing large parts of the Nineveh province into their semi-autonomous region. The two main Kurdish parties, the KDP and PUK, hold 32 of 41 seats in the Nineveh Provincial Council and dominate its executive council. Police and army units in Mosul are comprised mostly of ethnic Kurds, and the Kurdish intelligence service the Asayesh, has been confirmed to operate in the Mosul area. Kurdish political and military control in the Nineveh province and its capital Mosul are considerable.

The Assyrians, who together with other non Muslim minorities dominate the Nineveh Plain area east of Mosul, have found themselves stuck in the midst of a power struggle between Arabs and Kurds. Attempts to provide adequate security for the minorities in the Nineveh Plain have been obstructed by the Kurdish majority in the Nineveh Province Council. The Kurds have stopped the implementation of a government order from June 2006 calling for the establishment of a local (Assyrian) police force for the Nineveh Plain (AINA 5-1-2008).

The Kurdish leadership has announced it aims to annex the Nineveh Plain into its semi-autonomous region. The obstruction of the local police force is believed to be a result of this. While hindering a legitimate police force from providing much needed security for the minorities in the Nineveh Plain, the Kurdish political parties are ushering in armed groups, under the disguise of "Christian defense committees," into the Nineveh Plain. The goal is to maintain Kurdish control in the area and coerce the inhabitants into voting for annexation to the KRG in future referendums.

Iraqi "president" shaking hands with Israeli defense minister Barak at Socialist International Congress

KURDISH "president of Iraq" SHAKING HANDS WITH IRAQ's ZIONIST ENEMY

Talabani, Abbas and Barak (Photo: AP)

July 1, 2008

Iraq's Kurdish "president" Jalal Talabani shaking hands with Zionist Barak "Israeli defense minister" at Socialist International Congress in Athens in the presence of Palestinian "president" Abbas.

Kurdish press reports:

"During this conference SI Secretary General Luis Ayala, in his speech appreciated the remarkable role of Mam Jalal the Secretary General of the PUK in achieving peace, freedom and democracy."

Peace???

Over 1.200.000 Iraqis have been killed since the US-UK invasion/occupation in 2003 - there is no Peace and no Security in Iraq!!!

Freedom???

IRAQ IS O C C U P I E D !!!

Democracy???

Iraq is 'led' by US-UK imposed 'puppets', the two elections were rigged and Iraq is one of the world's most corrupt country.

In the north of Iraq the Kurdish parties have imposed their hegemony by force, Kurds are occupying the TURKMENS' cities and lands, the ASSYRIANS' plains of Ninewah and regions belonging to the ARABS - against the will of the original TURKMEN, KELDO-ASSYRIAN and ARAB inhabitants.

SHAME ON SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL'S Secretary for making such statements!!!