Turkey, Kurds and a World of Silence
March 30th, 2008They say that silence can be deafening. This week the atrocities continued against the Kurds in Turkey and despite the footage to prove it, hardly anyone flinched. The international community remained largely silent, the media didn’t bother doing anything with the pictures or videos, and the headlines continued reporting everything else happening in this world from California to Tibet…
Earlier in the week, I had reported about the Turkish forces’ brutality against Kurds who were trying to celebrate the old New year or Newroz holiday. Kurds took to the streets to celebrate the holiday and Turkish officials seized the opportunity to flex their ideological as well as their military muscle as one writer at the Jamestown Foundation put it. (And with all so little being reported, I recommend reading the entire article.)
Unconfirmed numbers were killed, hundreds were injured and hundreds more imprisoned. But like so many other familiar events for Kurds in Turkey, the media, the institutions, the world continues looking the other way. The brutality is most certainly nothing new but justice simply lacks a voice in this part of the world.
I’ll leave you with a video that can be seen at the following link. I must warn some that it may be heartbreaking to say the least…
Newroz Tragedy 2008 – Click here for Video
Video shows Turkish police breaking
this 15-year old Kurdish boy’s arm
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This video is really well made and should hit close to home for everyone. I have no idea why the Kurdish issue has been denied and ignored for decades. I really think it’s in the hands of non-Kurds too to make a difference. I wish more people would donate to make our Kurdish Human rights website a possibility so we can put these issues on the agenda for both politicians and journalists. Unfortunately it’s hard to fundraise for these things when many people are clearly either unaware or just simply don’t care enough for the Kurds.
Thanks a lot for posting this, and reminding us what’s important. I believe silence is just as bad as taking part in the crime, because it hints a matter of approval. I wish to see more people as outspoken and active, especially if these crimes are taking place within their borders.
I am quite speechless, and also disturbed at how many people are allowing Kurds to be continuously abused like this. I am not sure what else to say, except that I am very sorry on adding to the silence by feeling both helpless and sometimes ignorant on what is going on. Here in the Gulf, only Palestine dominates our papers and news reports. We are made to believe that no other issue is as important. Many minorities keep suffering at the expense of our ignorance. I believe an apology is in order, hopefully followed by a lot of action. I’ll do my best to spread the word to my friends and family. Thanks for making it easier for me to do that by compiling these issues in your posts. You and Niroj are really doing a great job.
It is sad to see those atrocities going on even in the 21st century.
Kurds have lived in their lands long before the Turks, Syrians, Iraqis came.
They have lived in peace and joy.
I do not understand why some one would do such a thing. After all aren’t we all human? Don’t we bleed, breath, drink, and eat the same way?
Don’t we show feelings and cry for something??
This racism must stop soon or it will be worse.
Why do we have even history? Why do we teach our children about history if they are going to do the same mistakes over and over. We thought our children about the Jew Holocaust and yet there are many more Holocaust today to see, but what do we do as we did back then close our eyes and hope it goes away fast.
PEOPLE BY CLOSING YOUR EYES THE PROBLEM WONT SOLVE!!!!!!!!!
You are as muches involved in those crimes as those who were active in it.
SPEAK OUT FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T….THIS IS THE ONLY WAY HUMAN BEING CAN LIVE SIDE BY SIDE.
Thank you all for those generous words of support. It is indeed disturbing and heartbreaking to see what the Turkish state has made of its own people, not to mention the decades of torture and despotism the Kurds have suffered in Turkey and continue to do so while the rest of the world turns a blind eye. It is extremely important and necessary that these violations of human rights be documented and condemned by all, especially Kurdish neighbors in the Middle East.
In case you didn’t know, we are currently working with MidEast Youth to renovate KurdishRights.org, which we intend on creating a multi-national platform where Turks, Arabs, and Iranians join their Kurdish brethren in reporting these human rights abuses and helping to eliminate them. to learn more about this project, read about it here. Please also make a contribution to this cause using the widget on the right hand side.
Thanks Murad. The Kurds need all the support they can get from individuals like yourself since the media controlled by political and business interests has refused over and over again.
The Kurdish question has been easier for people to ignore than to address especially considering that there are no government/states that care to actively address the question internationally. In the case of Turkey, there is a combination of things they maintain that give them the unspoken support to continue their atrocities against the Kurds, including “strategic” alliances, and NATO, and their strong business relationships, more specifically in arms/weapons, with the West. As a matter of fact, sadly, the longer the Kurdish question exists in Turkey and the more blood spills, the more money there is to be made in Europe and the U.S. So why solve it?
Indeed, it’s up to non-Kurds and it’s extremely important that activists and other individuals, groups, and organizations try their best to shed light on the Kurdish question as frequent and often as possible. This is something that has existed for decades, with a history that extends back centuries and carries the blood of countless people.. like the Kurdish protesters in Turkey said this past week before they were attacked by Turkish police, “Edi Bes e”… Enough is enough…
How beautiful you’re all talking about poor kurds.. Many of those .. came to Turkey as refugees, the country helped them and now they’r asking to give their (!) lands back.. those people are slowly slowly invading all this beautiful country.. Comming to Istanbul, doing nothing, just comminting crimes, caring nothing. With my own eyes I’ve seen 10 year old kurdish kid kicking the car and breaking it’s ligh, just.. For nothing.. Went to the police, they told me ” We can’t do anything, many times we just took them to their parents, but they just don’t care”.. Kurdish children are used to throw stones as protest sign.. They’re just taking it as game, maybe.. Later they get injured or get in trouble and their parents are just shouting out loud what happened, but they’re not telling they’ve sent those kids an hour ago to the streets themselves.
I am not Turkish, I am a foreigner living in Turkey, didn’t have any opinion agains them. Just from what I have seen with my own eyes, I just try to keep myself away from them as much as possible. But they keep invading..
Dear Lina
I am sorry but you have been misinformed. Kurds did not immigrate to Istanbul or have committed violence as the Turks have done. 3.000 villages were destroyed a million Kurds were homeless, they were forced to move to the west so that the Turkish government can have a closer eye on them. If they would have the chance to go back they would love to do that. You are a very ignorant person that does not know anything, but buy into one side of the story.
You are calling Kurds violent, then what do you call the Turkish army who killed a 12 year old child and beaten one to comma??? do you praise them the Turks are doing as well?
Look I am not mad at you in anyway, because you simply don’t know it. You have to be there and live through it to understand what is really going on.
otherwise everything you say is empty words.
<<ps; the kurds have not betrayed anyone, Kurdistan has been Kurdish land long before the Turks came from Mongolia. Kurds have been betrayed during WWI, please research and read some independent studies, then you might reconsider your stand
Lina you might want to read this for some facts about Kurds.
I agree with Haci.