Impromptu – “Kurdistan! Israel! USA!”

10 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Kurdistan, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Israeli, Kurdish-Israeli relationship, Kurdistan, Kurds, political, politics

(Posted 8/10/2014; Event: 8/9/2014)

Israel-Kurd Magazine, Issue No. 1 – 2009

There is some horrible news out of Kurdistan today. Ekurd.net reports that Mawloud Afand, editor of an Israel-Kurdish magazine called Israel Kurd “disappeared ten days ago in [the] Kurdistan region of Iraq.” Israeli news sources say he was kidnapped by Iranian intelligence in the city of Sulaimaniyah. Ekurd.net claims that Iran had told the Kurdish government to shut Israel Kurd down and it refused.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/06/25/iran-kidnaps-pro-israeli-kurd-iraq-mawloud-afand/ – 6/25/2012

Related: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/topic/israel-kurd-magazine/ – 7/16/2012.

ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’, — A number of Israeli political experts say Israel will be among the countries that would support Iraqi Kurdistan if it declared independence. They also suggest that Kurdistan not make the decision hastily and ensure the grounds are properly prepared first, Rudaw reported

http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/5/state6172.htm 5/1/2012.

Furthermore, with their initial sale last week of a tanker full of oil, to Israel no less, the Kurds have shown that they are willing not just to cleave themselves from Baghdad but to stand as a magnanimous force for stability in the region.

According to numerous reports by Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, the tanker SCF Altai transferred a cargo of Kurdish oil from another tanker United Emblem, which had been plying the Mediterranean for two weeks after loading at the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The SCF Altai then docked at the Israeli city of Ashkelon and off-loaded its crude.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2014/06/23/iraqs-kurds-sell-oil-to-israel-move-closer-to-independence/ – 6/23/2014.

In 1966, Iraqi defense minister Abd al-Aziz al-Uqayli blamed the Kurds of Iraq for seeking to establish “a second Israel” in the Middle East. He also claimed that “the West and the East are supporting the rebels to create [khalq] a new Israeli state in the north of the homeland as they had done in 1948 when they created Israel. It is as if history is repeating itself.”

http://www.meforum.org/3838/israel-kurds – Summer 2014.

What attracts me to a story like this one is the possibility of encouraging and securing ethnic self-determination for a true ethnic minority. In that regard, Kurds and Israelis may understand one another. The above scholarly piece by Ofra Bengio goes into detail on the history of the Kurdish-Israeli relationship, and that in turn informs just a little bit how it has turned out that members of the Kurdish community seeing an Israeli group in Lafayette Park (in front of the White House) would (naturally) join them in solidarity.

Update November 12, 2014

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/11/10/canadian-israeli-woman-fighting-with-kurds-against-isis-audio/ – 11/10/2014

# # #

Link

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/23/exclusive-iraqi-kurdish-leader-says-the-time-is-here-for-self-determination/

23 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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autonomy, Kurdish community, Kurdish State, Kurds, political, politics

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/23/exclusive-iraqi-kurdish-leader-says-the-time-is-here-for-self-determination/

Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani gave his strongest-ever indication on Monday that his region would seek formal independence from the rest of Iraq.

Link

http://www.dw.de/women-join-the-kurdish-fight-in-syria/a-17442218

20 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by commart in Uncategorized

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autonomy, ethnic, Kurdish community, Kurds, self-determination, Syria, women's rights

http://www.dw.de/women-join-the-kurdish-fight-in-syria/a-17442218

But now, for the first time, Syrian Kurds – above all the women – have the opportunity to shape their own lives. Women make up 35 percent of the 45,000 fighters. “Women used to be suppressed and exploited in our society, and regarded as inferior by the men,” Canda says. “Now we have the chance to be role models for Kurds and for other ethnicities – for instance, for Arab women.”

Kurdistan – Rojava

29 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics, Regions, Syria

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civil war, Kurdish defense, Kurdistan, Kurds, Syria, Syrian Kurdistan

We are fighting America’s war on terror right here on the ground,” says Kurdish fighter Dijwar Osman. “Our enemies are those al Qaeda fighters who want to destroy our 4,000-year-old Kurdish culture. These jihadists come from Belgium, Holland, Morocco, Libya, and other countries. Unfortunately, the U.S. and Turkey are on the side of al Qaeda, just like the U.S. was on al Qaeda’s side in Afghanistan during the ’80’s

Doornbos, Harrald D. and Jenan Moussa. “The Civil War Within Syria’s Civil War.” Foreign Policy, August 28, 2013.

This is the hard punch from the same article: “They have their own army and police here, names of towns have been changed from Arabic to Kurdish, and the Kurdish language is being taught in schools — something that was forbidden under the Assad regime.”

Call this lead still hot:

People’s Defense Units (YPG) and Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) guerrillas in Rojava are engaged in fighting al-Qaeda-linked armed groups since 15 July 2013. A remarkable part of the region has been cleared of the gang groups as a result of the resistance by Kurdish guerrillas as well as by local people supporting them in the villages, towns, districts and provinces of western Kurdistan.

Firatnews. “The Kurdish resistance in the villages of Rojava.” August 29, 2013.

An Islam tolerant of others may be tolerated, and for all outside its Ummah, as much seems a theme heavily argued.

However, the better nature of human nature may fit with nature: a still wild species would seem Homo sapiens sapiens in a still wild world where abundance and variety fill out to their edges every physical, political, and social niche. There are no tribes that would regard themselves as other than a “First People” but even the Jews — perhaps simply the Jews — recognize the chosen qualities in others and unless assaulted leave each to go their way.

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“Rojava Genocide”, posted to YouTube August 9, 2013.

* * *

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Peshmerga secretary-general Jabbar Yawar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Kurdish military delegation “informed the Iraqi side of the Peshmerga ministry’s complete readiness to send its forces to any spot in Iraq to confront terrorism, in the event of the federal Ministry of Defense requesting this.”

Asharq Al-Awsat. “Kurdish Peshmerga ready to confront terrorism across Iraq.” August 4, 2013.

After so many years of state-related parlay, the pressure placed on the Kurds by the forces of Islamic Jihad seems to have wrested Kurdish space from state control in Syria and encouraged Kurdish martial consolidation and political solidarity in line with self-government.

While Putin plays Syria for all it’s worth — I should think the Greek Orthodox Church and the Ayatollah’s enterprise have the deepest of natural disaffinities — and Cameron plus Obama work with Qatar plus the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, history (plus a little chaos theory by way of the Al Qaeda types) may have just brought the Kurdish community an opportunity to settle down to defending itself in its own space.

We shall see.

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Kurdish-inhabited area by CIA (1992). Secondary source: Wikimedia Commons.

Lest any get carried away with the above map, reference back to Wikipedia’s “Syrian Kurdistan” page may be helpful. From that page:

During the Syrian civil war, the Popular Protection Units (YPG) were created under the administration of the Kurdish Supreme Committee to control the Kurdish inhabited areas in Syria. On 19 July 2012, the YPG captured the city of Kobanê (Ayn al-Arab), and the next day captured Amûdê and Efrîn.^[6] The two main Kurdish groups, theKurdish National Council (KNC) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), afterwards formed a joint leadership council to run the captured cities.^[6] By 24 July, the Syrian Kurdish cities of Dêrika Hemko (Al-Malikiyah), Serê Kaniyê (Ra’s al-‘Ayn), Dirbêsî (Al-Darbasiyah) and Girkê Legê (Al-Ma’bada) had also come under the control of the Popular Protection Units. The only major Kurdish inhabited cities that remained under government control were Hasaka and Qamishli.^[7]^[8]