The city of Arbil from a fortress on a hill (© 2002 Christopher Allbritton)
From: Karzan Aziz
To: Christopher Allbritton
Date: Mon Mar 10, 2003 01:23:24 PM EST
Subject: Greetings from Kurdistan
Dear Christopher:
How are you dear friend? How are doing? I was thinking about you. I hope this e-mail finds you in a good health. thank you very much for your e-mail. How things are going in NY? I hope your country all the best.
I'm so sorry that I could not reply [to] you soon, but I'm v. busy these days, but any way i tried to reply you the internet line was not working properly.
dear friend, concerning your questions... regarding Turkey, we feel that we're betrayed by them. i think you know about the <a href="http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000263.php">demonstration against the Turks</a>, people have got very worried here because of Turkey. As far as i'm concerned i do believe that turkey will face problems if invaded Kurdistan, as i have met so many people they all repeat the same thing "as we have been fighting against Saddam from many decades, we are ready to fight Turkey some more other decades." i don't feel betrayed by America because you know the coming stage will decide whether we will be betrayed or not. though we, unfortunately, as kurds are used [to] wars but this time is entirely different from ever since -- people are scared here and they are afraid of chemical or biological war.
if you are asking about me i'm just fine, thank you very much, and you asked me whether i have met any journalists or not!!!!! yes i have and i'm working as a translator with some scandinavian journalists and i'm going to be getting a translation-job with a German TV. And if you wanted to ask me any thing, any information, please just feel free to e-mail me. O.K.??
With The Best Of Wishes
YOURS MOST FAITHFULLY
KARZAN TAHERKarzan's a smart guy and he has a lot of connections, and I believe him when he says the Kurds are willing to fight the Turks should they invade. Whether they win or not is a completely different question, but Karzan's report meshes with talks I've had with opposition members who say they will fight to protect what they've built in the north.
An interesting note, however. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, based in Suleimaniya in the south near the Iranian border, has agreed in principle to a federal Iraqi government with the regions based on geography instead of ethnicity. The Kurdistan Democratic Party, however, continues to hold out for federally protected ethnic divisions. (You can read the original proposed constitutions given to me by KDP Deputy Prime Minister Sami Abdulrahman here and here. The first is the federal constitution and the second is for the Kurdish entity within a federal Iraq.) The PUK's support for geographic divisions is a neat diplomatic sleight-of-hand, since the northern three governances are predominantly Kurdish anyway with a population of between 4 million and 5 million. The KDP's continued support for an ethnic-based constitution isn't surprising. The KDP authored the constitutions, it's older and more conservative than the Marxist-inspired PUK and has its roots in Kurdish ethnicity. The activities of its founder, Mustafa Barzani, went a long way toward changing Kurds' loyalties from the family and clan to the idea of a Kurdish nation as a whole. To back down on ethnicity as the defining nature of the Kurdish entity in the north would be to repudiate everything Mustafa Barzani stood for. And the current president of the KDP, Masoud Barzani, Mustafa's son, isn't about to do that.
In other news, French President Jacques Chirac made it plain that a French veto is forthcoming at tomorrow's (?) vote/smackdown at the Security Council. This is not a big surprise, since France has been saying it wouldn't "allow" a new resolution authorizing war, implicitly or explicitly, for a while now, but it is an attempt to avoid being the lone veto if the United States manages to round up nine votes on the council. France's public voicing of its intentions is to buck up Russia, which has also said it opposes any resolution that might be interpreted as authorizing war, but common wisdom is that Russia would abstain rather than veto a resolution. With France definitely in the "non" column, Russia will have more cover to say, "nyet."
[UPDATE: Stratfor is reporting that Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said today that his country will abstain on the vote. "We will do what is best for our country," Jamali said after a session of Parliament. "It is not best for my country to support war against Iraq."]
This means, obviously, the resolution is kaput, and the United States has no reason to wait until March 17. The world could be facing war as early as this week, although it's likely the United States will wait a few days to give inspectors and other foreign nationals time to flee Iraq and to attempt some semblance of tactical surprise. The dark nights over Baghdad grow short and the heat of April is stalking closer. The U.S. war machine won't wait much longer, nor, from a tactical standpoint, should it. Why give the Iraqis more time to position their forces or stage a preemptive strike of their own on American troops? That's the danger of ignoring the U.N. Not only does it free the hands of the U.S. military, but it removes any reason for the Iraqis to hold their fire, too. Saddam no doubt feels that war is coming regardless of what the Security Council decides, so it might be better to strike first and inflict as much damage as possible. Of course, he would then unite the Security Council behind against him, but if he plans on turning Baghdad into Stalingrad on the Tigris, what does he have left to lose?
The first rules of war. Don’t fight if you can’t win. Always leave your enemy the possibility of escape until the very last minute.
Your readers, if interested in the Kurds, may find this site interesting. It is very well made and tells their story quite poignantly and artfully.
http://www.akakurdistan.com
CBK
CBK— Thanks for that link. Cool site!
independent analysises over this site opens new horizons for readers, specially kurdes, to visualize the real situation that incercle them.
You obviously like smearing Turkey. How about some hard facts about your precious band of Kurdish looters:
Luke Harding in Kirkuk
Friday April 11, 2003
The Guardian
[…]
After accepting the waves and cheers of Kirkuk’s residents the peshmerga embarked on a massive, prolonged looting spree. Over at the Baba Gurgur oil field the looting took on prodigious proportions. There was a traffic jam of peshmerga looters. Three peshmerga drove off in a fork-lift truck. Another group of Kurdish fighters set off with the entire contents of a villa, including several air-conditioning units and a bicycle. I asked one of them why he was stealing.
伊拉克人民生活
伊拉克人民生活
Hello,
The only people who speak on the behave of Kurd are the Jewish. There is not one fucken muslem, arab, iranian or turk who really want free Kurdistan. These fucken Muslems & their desciples never know & refuse to learn the mean of democracy. Democratic & free Kurdistan is against fucken Islam.
Long Live Kurdistan,
Long Live Israel, God damn the fucken muslems
Hello,
The only people who speak on the behave of Kurd are the Jewish. There is not one fucken muslem, arab, iranian or turk who really want free Kurdistan. These fucken Muslems & their desciples never know & refuse to learn the mean of democracy. Democratic & free Kurdistan is against fucken Islam.
Long Live Kurdistan,
Long Live Israel, God damn the fucken muslems
Tony, I am a Jew who loves Israel. Much of my family lives there. I must say that hatred of any people can easily be twisted and be applied to another group. I do not wish to see any group hurt or demeaned. Islam is very similar to Judaism, even if it weren’t such prejudiced behavior is ridiculous. Israel must learn to cooperate with it’s Arab neighbors. Hopefully a Pan-Semitic movement will some day sweep the region, uniting Kurds, Arabs and Jews into a peaceful and prosperous Semitic Union. With assistance from its neighbors, Israel will finally be able to break free from the obligations set upon it by its dependence on the American Right. This exchange could go the other way as well, bringing democracy and technology to the remote regions of the Middle East, allowing all Semites to hold their heads high free from neo-Imperialism once and for all.
salaam/shalom/what is the Kurdish word for peace?
re: last coment:
oh! lets co operate with arabs and muslims, while they them selves have no thought of doing the same, for decades muslems have gone unchecked in places like africa and have waged war with christians and those who do not believe, most nations of africa are now islam in the north, long before this islam did the same in asia and now most of asia is islam, curently islam is migrating to all western nations and there knocking on our door now, in the past five or more years laws have changed in australia to more and more accomidate islam, some schools arn’t alowd to have christmass celebrations or easter so not to ofend muslems, resturants change there menu’s and don’t sell pork products so not to ofend. they have been peacfuly invading the west for decades, it wont be to long before the students and minority groups that have been fighting for the rights of muslems, realize what they have done and it will be too late, the enemy is all around us, im not afraid to say that islam is an enamy to the world, you are only fooling your self if you think even for a second that they can live with us in peace.
What if the situation was reversed in Israel, that the palastinians had all the technology and Israel were the poor ones, do you realy think that the palastinials would be like the Jews now! there would be genicide and they would not stop there, don’t forget they think USA and the entire west is of the devil, flying jets into the trade center and the pentigon, bombing ships and how many soldiers and sivilians have died, mabe this is there way of saying thanks, we just want to be friends and own your land.
look back in history at the crusades, they blame the christians but the truth is that there would have been no crusades if the muslems had not taken over a large part of europe.
islam is asosiated with death and conquest throughout history and they aren’t changing, they are just going along with a long tradition.
A child brought up without disapline will lack disapline, A child that has had disapline has respect and disapline. Ex: Japan wanted to take over the world was severely disaplined and now is prosperus and need i say any more about them, look at Germany, etc. islam needs a big defeat a major slap where it hurts most, not a shaking of the hand or a talking too.
in conclusion: the world would be a much better place without islam.
Great blog, enjoyed browsing through the site
good job chris.go on charge them up and send them upon us.well it’s not a really good behaviour but it can be helpful for your journalistic career ain’t I right?go on start a war the people in countries(of course not yours mid-eastern countries) you just visited and report from fallen “kurdistan”named piece of land.go on chris then you will talk with kurds who suffered because of Turkish war and how barbarian we Turks are.maybe their and our blood spilled on your brand new italian suit(and of course those funny sunglasses)can get you at the top of new york times then.good job chris…hell of a job yours is.(since you are sent mid-east by the prince of darkness)