EMMA , in all den Jahren eine der raren Stimmen im deutschsprachigen Raum, die kontinuierlich über die Ge- fahr des islamischen Fundamentalismus berichteten, be- zahlte 1994 dafür sogar mit der einzigen physischen At- tacke ihrer Geschichte: Maskierte Frauen stürmten die Redaktionsräume, zerstörten die Computer und hinter- ließen einen Haufen realen Mistes. Dazu Flugblätter, die den »Rassismus von EMMA « anklagten und sich auf ein im Juli 1993 veröff entlichtes Dossier über die steigende Macht der Islamisten »mitten in Deutschland« berie- fen. Das Ganze war feministisch signiert, aber trug, laut der erstaunten Polizei, »die Handschrift der PKK «. Ich staunte weniger, denn mir waren die Verwicklungen zwi- schen »Befreiungsbewegungen« wie der kurdischen PKK oder der palästinensischen Hamas einerseits und revolu- tionsschwärmerische deutsche Linke beider Geschlech- ter andererseits schon länger klar …
A recent report by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) registered 139 cases of violence against women in the northern region of Kurdistan in the second half of 2008 alone. It said 163 women were killed as a result of domestic violence in Kurdistan in 2009. Experts suggest the number is less than 5 percent of the real estimates.[22]
the Kurdish government in northern Iraq and Kurdish militia in Syria openly discriminate against Christians. This narrative of discrimination is nothing new, but a continuation of centuries of prejudice.
In 1261, historic Assyrian Christian communities in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq were forced from their homes by a mass migration of Kurds from the mountains of Turkey. In a powerful parallel with events that followed the rise of Islamic State in 2014, Christian families from towns such as Qaraqosh, Bartella and Karemlash fled to the ancient walled citadel of Erbil to seek safety. Many of those that did not escape were massacred, while the homes they had left were looted by the invading Kurds.
In the ensuing decades, Kurds repeatedly attacked Christian communities. When the Mongols conquered Iraq they enlisted the help of Kurds to capture Erbil. The city fell on 1 July 1310 and the Kurds set about slaughtering the Christians.
Kurds also played a central role in genocide of Armenians and Assyrians in Ottoman Turkey, which peaked in 1915. Sometimes acting on their own initiative, and sometimes employed by the Turkish government, Kurds slaughtered Armenian and Assyrian Christians who had been deported from their homes and forced to walk through the desert. Kurdish armed gangs acquired a reputation for targeting the ragged convoys of starved Christians.
American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, who campaigned against the genocide, recorded how Kurds would sweep down from the mountains and rob men, women and children, taking everything from them, including food and even their clothes. They would also “freely massacre, and the screams of women and old men would add to the general horror.” The Assyrian genocide, known as the Seyfo (sword), lasted 30 years, during which time up to 750,000 were killed, while an estimated 1.5 million Armenians perished between 1914 and 1923.
Kurdish militia in northern Syria have kidnapped young Christian men for use as conscripts in the Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units) militia’s ongoing war with Turkish forces in north western Syria, while Christian properties have been sprayed with graffiti to mark them for confiscation by the self-proclaimed administration of the YPG.
Christians in Iraqi Kurdistan also face discrimination and have even been the targets of violence in recent years. A Kurdish mob attacked Christian-owned businesses in Dohuk in December 2011. The violence took place after Friday prayers when young men were reportedly incited to attack the Christian community by Muslim clerics.
In June 2018, the Kurdish regional government began requiring shops and businesses in Ankawa, a predominantly-Christian neighbourhood of Erbil in Iraq, to pay an extra fee when they renew their business licences. The tax was also imposed in Semel, another Christian-majority town. Christian residents and businesses owners have also reported that they are charged an extra tax when selling properties and also face discrimination and harassment from KDP political police.
Kurdish militia in north-east Syria are spraying graffiti onto Christian properties to mark them for confiscation. A recently released video shows Arabic writing spray-painted onto the wall of the house of a Christian Armenian family in Qamishli. The inscription reads: “Seized by the Executive Committee of Qamishli” – the Committee is the self-proclaimed administration of the Kurdish YPG militia, who control the region.
Christian men from in Qamishli have already been abducted for use as conscripts in the Kurds fight against Turkish forces, part of what Christian community representatives have stated is a programme of intimidation.
“It has confiscated many more buildings like this … They are confiscating rather than protecting our homes in the Qamishli and Hassake areas and they are even occupying entire villages … They are treating us like second-class citizens … employing various tactics to frighten and subject our people with the aim of taking possession of our final remaining properties and lands, thereby transforming our ancestral homeland into an autonomous Kurdish region.” https://globalchristiannews.org/article/kurdish-militia-mark-christian-properties-in-syria-for-confiscation/
Kurdish militia in north-east Syria are kidnapping Christians to use as forced conscripts. “They are being conscripted with the intention to send them to the battle zones in or near Afrin [where Turkish forces are currently attacking the YPG], because these people consider themselves the new rulers of our region.” The Christian negotiator who helped secure the release of the majority of the group abducted on 19 January states the forced conscription of young people is part of a wider pattern of intimidation by Kurdish forces who “want us to abandon our homeland so that they can seize more of our properties and land.” https://globalchristiannews.org/article/kurdish-militia-kidnap-syrian-christians-as-conscripts/
This October 2017 article by award winning author Jonathan Cook focusses on the unspoken Israel-Kurdistan relationship. “There has been co-operation, much of it secret, between Israel and the Kurds for decades. Israeli media lapped up tributes from now-retired generals who trained the Kurds from the 1960s. Those connections have not been forgotten or ended. Independence rallies featured Israeli flags, and Kurds spoke of their ambition to become a “second Israel”.” https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-kurdish-independence-underpins-israels-plan-to-reshape-the-middle-east/5611934
Largely autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan is a Sharia-based society, per its own Constitution, (Articles 6 & 7): This Constitution confirms and respects the Islamic identity of the majority of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. It considers the principles of Islamic Sharia as one of the main sources of legislation… It is not allowed to enact a law inconsistent with the provisions of the fundamentals of Islam. (Articles 6 & 7)
*the current prevailing conditions for the tiny vestigial remnant population of mixed “Jews” of Kurdistan, forced to “practice” their faith surreptitiously, as reported by Rudaw: “They call us ‘Ben Jews’ or ‘Sons of Jews’ because we are mixed Jews, Kurds, or other ethnicities.” . . . They keep their Jewish identity hidden for fear of persecution. They meet for Shabbat – the holy day – at a different home every week. Religious celebrations like Hanukkah and Passover are often celebrated privately inside the home of someone within the community. The event on Friday was organized by many people from the community, but “they didn’t want to give their name or picture because of the dangerous situation.”
*Anti-Defamation League (ADL) 2014 polling data from Iraq on the prevalence of extreme Antisemitism, are entirely consistent with the reported self-protective behaviors of Kurdistan’s Jews seeking to avoid persecution from the overwhelmingly Kurdish Muslim population…. In an overwhelming majority of the countries/territories polled, the samples are fully nationally representative. The bottom line: 92% of Iraqis exhibit extreme anti-Semitism, the world’s second highest rate of this hatred after the Palestinian-controlled areas.
Mid-nineteenth century northern Iraqi “Kurdistan” [Jews as “property”, i.e., slaves of the Muslim Kurds]
The Jews scattered here and there [in Kurdistan], and forced to remain at the places assigned to them, are in the true sense of the word, surrounded by tribes of savages. One often finds five, ten, or even twenty Jewish families the property of one Kurd, by whom they are burdened with imposts, and subject to ill treatment. Heavy taxes are imposed upon them, which for the poorest, amount annually to 500 piastres. Finally, they are compelled at different periods of the year to perform serf-service, to cultivate their master’s field, without receiving or being entitled to demand the smallest compensation for their labor. This is really an awful state of affairs and with heart and soul do we sympathize with our distressed coreligionists and we felt deeply grieved that it was not in our power to help them. . . . The [Kurdish] master has absolute power of life and death over his [Jewish] slaves; at his will he can sell them to another master, either in whole families or individually. [p. 658, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism]
Late 19th/early 20th century Kurdish depredations against Jews rendering Kurdish areas of Turkey effectively Judenrein
According to the American Jewish Yearbook, almost eight thousand Jews emigrated from Turkey to the United States between 1899 and 1912. Alliance Israelite Universelle reports further indicate that Jews living in rural eastern Anatolia suffered severely throughout this period due primarily to Muslim Kurdish depredations (From p. 108, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism):
In Diyarbarkir, Urfa, Siverek, Mardin, and several other cities of this region, Kurds continuously attacked Jewish communities, forcing them to pay taxes and contributions in addition to those already exacted by the Turkish authorities. The slightest tendency to resist was immediately suppressed with blood. Jews were crushed with scorn and had to accept all sorts of humiliations. Thus, for instance, when rains were delayed in spring or late in autumn, Kurds went to Jewish graveyards, dug up newly buried corpses, cut off the heads and threw them in the river to appease Heaven’s wrath and bring on rain. In spite of the complaints of Jews to Turkish authorities, the perpetrators of such misdeeds remained, as was to be expected, undiscovered. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the insecurity of the Kurd[ish] country was so great that Jewish peddlers could no longer venture outside the cities. The communities of the vilayet [province] of Diyarbarkir fell into misery and diminished year after year. Thus, whilst in 1874 the town of Siverek situated on the Urfa road counted about fifty Jewish families, three decades later Joseph Niego, entrusted with a mission in Asia Minor by the Jewish Colonization Association, found only twenty-six household, totaling about 100 persons. Similarly, the 500 Jews who, according to Vital Cuinet, constituted the community of Mardin toward the end of the nineteenth century, were all gone by 1906. At that time, there remained in this town only one Jew, who had the task of guarding the synagogue.
In 2015, the Financial Times reported that Israel had imported as much as 77 percent of its oil supply from Kurdistan in recent months, bringing in some 19 million barrels between the beginning of May and August 11. During that period, more than a third of all northern Iraqi exports, shipped through Turkey’s Ceyhan port, went to Israel, with transactions amounting to almost $1 billion, the report said, citing “shipping data, trading sources, and satellite tanker tracking.”
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. Interestingly enough, history is repeating itself with their present-day relationship – the existence of which is only acknowledged in passing by either side for fear of retribution.
Perhaps no other group of people in modern times has been as romanticized in the Western conscience as the Kurds. Consistently portrayed as “freedom fighters” who are eternally struggling for a land denied to them, the Kurds have been frequently utilized throughout history by other countries and empires as an arrow and have never themselves been the bow.
In today’s case, the Kurds are being used by NATO and Israel to fulfill the modern-day colonialist aim of breaking up large states like Iraq into statelets to ensure geopolitical goals. When nations are divided into smaller statelets, they are easier to conquer by foreign entities. This is a signature move that powerful imperialist nations use for the purpose of colonizing smaller and less influential nations. The Kurds have been utilized as pawns in this “divide and conquer” strategy throughout history and continue to allow themselves to be used by colonial powers.
Interestingly, recent research has shown that genetic connections between Jews and Kurds are more pronounced than those between Jews and Arabs. https://www.meforum.org/3838/israel-kurds
Ultimately, their goal is not only to destabilize Iraq and Syria and divide them into statelets, but also to weaken Iran’s global presence – objectives that are being pursued with the help of the Kurds.
The people closest to the Jews from a genetic point of view may be the Kurds, according to the results of a recent study by Hebrew University.
The Kurds are allied with Syria’s fiercest enemy – Israel – whose planned Greater Israel project coincidentally aligns almost perfectly with the Kurds’ plans for “Kurdistan.” In the Oded Yinon plan, which is the plan for a “Greater Israel,” it states the imperative use of Kurds to help divide neighboring countries in order to aid in their plans for greater domination. Interestingly enough, Kurds brush this alliance off as being just another step in achieving their ultimate goal of creating an autonomous Kurdistan.
Every major Kurdish political group in the region has longstanding ties to Israel. It’s all linked to major ethnic violence against Arabs, Turkmens and Assyrians. From the PKK in Turkey to the PYD and YPG in Syria, PJAK in Iran to the most notorious of them all, the Barzani-Talabani mafia regime (KRG/Peshmerga) in northern Iraq. Thus it should come as no surprise that Erbil supplied Daesh (ISIS) with weaponry to weaken the Iraqi government in Baghdad. And when it becomes understood that Erbil is merely the front for Tel Aviv in Iraq, the scheme becomes clear.
But what doesn’t get reported is how the movement has carried out kidnappings and murder – not to mention its involvement in trafficking narcotics.
Pato Rincon, a U.S. military veteran, recently wrote about his experience training with the YPG in Syria. Although initially interested in their desire for autonomy, he soon got to know a different side of the group:
While they are a direct ideological descendant of the Soviet Union, their take on Marxism has a much more nationalistic bent than that of their internationalist forebears. At their training camp that I attended, they constantly spoke of their right to a free and autonomous homeland–which I could support. On the other hand, they ludicrously claimed that all surrounding cultures from Arab to Turk to Persian descended from Kurdish culture. One should find this odd, considering that the Kurds have never had such autonomy as that which they struggle for. All of this puffed-up nationalism masquerading as internationalism was easy to see through…not only was their idea of Marxism fatuous, their version of feminism was even worse.”
Accounts such as this will certainly not make it to mainstream media, as they do not fit the narrative that the Kurds and their sponsors promote.
The Kurds are ethnically cleansing Arabs from Raqqa en masse in order to pave the way for the city’s annexation to their unilaterally declared “Federation” after its forthcoming capture.
The Syrian government considers separatist Kurds to be just as dangerous as Daesh and other terrorist groups in the country. Their plans to destabilize the country are more dangerous than those of Daesh, especially since the West provides them with moral support, weapons, training, financial aid, armed vehicles and even air support.
A Kurdish diaspora of an estimated two million people is concentrated primarily in Europe, with over a million in Germany alone. These migratory wanderers never possessed their own country at any point in their history
The version of events that the Kurds present is in staunch contrast with the account that is supported by most historians. This has proven to be a point of contention between the Kurds and the citizens of other countries.
The Kurds claim to have been conquered and occupied throughout their history, for instance. Here is an example of their attempt to rewrite history to fit their narrative: “The Kurdish region has seen a long list of invaders and conquerors: Ancient Persians from the east, Alexander the Great from the west, Muslim Arabs in the 7th Century from the south, Seljuk Turks in the 11th Century from the east, the Mongols in the 13th Century from the east, medieval Persians from the east and the Ottoman Turks from the north in the 16th Century and most recently, the United States in its 2003 invasion of Iraq.”
Documents leaked by WikiLeaks in 2010 suggested that Israeli Mossad Chief Meir Dagan wanted to use Kurds and ethnic minorities to topple the Iranian government. The Israeli spy service was aiming to create a weak and divided Iran, similar to the situation in Iraq, where the Kurds have their own autonomous government, the spy chief told a U.S. official.
In fact, it can be cynically suggested, the large-scale population exodus taking place in Raqqa is actually a deliberate ethnic cleansing of the majority-Arab population of the city on a much larger scale than any of the similar crimes that the Kurds have been accused of before.
To get back to the urgent issue at hand – the ethnic cleansing of over half of Raqqa’s majority-Arab population – this is a “godsend” to the Kurds’ plans to “Balkanize” Syria through the expansion of their “federation”. It’s extremely doubtful to imagine that Arabs of any political disposition would rather live in a Kurdish-dominated statelet as second-class citizens than as equal ones within the Syrian Arab Republic, so the chances of the Kurds peacefully annexing Raqqa into their “federation” via a plebiscite are close to nil. However, if the Arabs were forced out of their homes due to egregious war crimes by the US such as indiscriminate bombing and the widespread use of chemical weapons, then it becomes much easier to “hack the vote” and create a public/international pretense of “legitimacy”.
The proportion of Arabs in the city would dramatically drop, which could comparatively increase the ratio of Kurdish inhabits which choose to stay. Moreover, many of the fleeing Arabs might be replaced by settler Kurds from the north, which could come to Raqqa to colonize it or simply do as emigrated Albanians frequently resort to in the Republic of Macedonia and arrive only long enough to vote before departing once again. Either way, the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Raqqa works in favor of the Kurds’ geopolitical designs for Syria, which in turn advance the joint American-“Israeli” Yinon Plan of dividing and ruling the Mideast along a modified “Identity Federalism” form of Ralph Peters’ 2006 “Blood Borders”. Most fleeing Arabs would naturally feel unsafe reentering to their home city and living as second-class apartheid citizens in a minority-dominated “federation”, so they’ll probably relocate elsewhere for their own safety and make the Kurdish colonization of Raqqa a fait accompli.
Apart from that, the “Kurdistan” and “Israel” models are identical and they also serve the same grand strategic goals of promoting unipolarity in the tri-continental pivot space of West Asia.
There’s no “delicate” way to say it – what’s happening in Raqqa right now is the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the city’s majority-Arab population through chemical weapons and indiscriminate bombing in order to create the on-the-ground conditions for “legitimizing” the expansion of the Kurds’ “federalized” statelet (the “second geopolitical ‘Israel’”). The Mainstream Media is holding back from openly announcing the obvious in a frail attempt to obscure its grand strategic plans until the day arrives when they’re undeniable, but also of course out of the self-interested pursuit to avoid being implicated in worsening the Immigrant Crisis.
Sadly, what this translates to in reality is that the Arab cleansing of Raqqa will probably go unnoticed in most of the global media, though it might emerge as a politicized subject after the campaign is completed. For now, however, it seems like both the Mainstream and Alternative Medias are content with only discussing the US’ chemical weapons use and indiscriminate bombing during this campaign, which is interesting to note because Western Mainstream Media usually never talks about such truths. Therefore, this in and of itself should be a glaring indication for all observers that the West is desperately trying to deflect from the ongoing ethnic cleansing that’s happening on the ground, though hopefully, Alt-Media will call them out on it sooner than later. https://www.globalvillagespace.com/the-kurds-are-ethnically-cleansing-arabs-from-raqqa-and-the-world-is-silent/
Every major Kurdish political group in our region has longstanding ties with the usurping Zionist entity, from the PKK in Turkey to the PYD/YPG in Syria, PJAK in Iran to the most notorious of them all, the Barzani-Talabani mafia regime (KRG/Peshmerga) in northern Iraq, and thus, shouldn’t be trusted even one scintilla. So there should be no gasps or confused looks on the faces of anyone now that the revelations have finally come to light: Erbil supplied ISIS with weaponry to weaken the Iraqi government in Baghdad. And when it becomes understood that Erbil is merely the front for ‘Tel Aviv’ in Iraq, the scheme becomes as clear as the ocean on an unpolluted coastline.
Instead of tangling with Daesh indeed, the Peshmerga has spent much of its time since the Takfiri group’s takeover of Mosul massacring and ethnically cleansing Sunni and Shi’a Arabs as well Shi’a Turkmen, the most recent attack being in oil-rich Kirkuk just last week. In fact, the only time that the Barzani-Talabani regime has EVER clashed with ISIS is when the Wahhabi gang got a lil’ bit too close to Erbil along with any other important “Kurdish” territory, or, when the American regime needed a hasbara-filled public relations “victory” like Sinjar, where the oppression of Yazidi men, women and children still rages on. Erbil, for the record, is known by many in Iraq as “Isra’eel al-Asghar (Little ‘Israel’)”, as it’s overrun with 100 some odd Mossad-linked Zionist firms in various sectors and ‘Israeli’ businessmen of all sorts looking to colonize Iraq. There’s even occupying Jewish terrorists training the Peshmerga to this day and providing personal security to the dictator Massoud Barzani himself. These Zionists have bought up agricultural lands along with energy fields and, also, let us not forget that ‘Israel’ is buying nearly $1 billion worth of “Kurdish” (read: stolen Iraqi) oil, the majority of the enemy entity’s petrol.
Again, in both Syria and Iraq, the name of the game for the Kurds is EXPANSIONISM.
Kurdish political groups are taking advantage of the Zionist-NATO-GCC-bred chaos to rack up the territorial gains and build their state, which, ultimately, is only a means to an end for the REAL goal of all this madness: ‘Greater Israel’. Since the usurping Jewish filth putrefying Palestine couldn’t establish this project with its own cowardly, colonizing army–thanks to Hizbullah killing it dead with the liberation of Lebanon on May 25th, 2000–‘Israel’ now seeks to achieve its aims by proxy. Verily, ISIS, as it slaughters and terrorizes every living, breathing thing in our region, is only one facet of the chess game the dirty ‘Israeli’ entity is playing. While Daesh spreads throughout the region in a fashion akin to its cancerous Zionist puppeteer, the Kurds expand their territory, speeding up the process of carving up the Zionists’ greatest enemies and ultimately weakening them for a future death-blow. And don’t look at me as the source, apart from the aforementioned Yinon paper and the 1996 neocon “Clean Break” plan, genocidal maniac Ayelet Shaked, the ‘Israeli’ Minister of ‘Justice’, recently spelled it out for the world in no uncertain terms: “We must openly call for the establishment of a Kurdish state between Iraq and Syria that separates Iran from Turkey, one which will be friendly towards ‘Israel’.” Can it smack you in the face any harder?
Getting down to brass tacks, if we’re being the epitome of serious, there isn’t even a such thing as a Kurdish homeland. It’s a mythos. Nothing more. Politically incorrect to say so? Offensive? Insensitive? Couldn’t care less. There is no “Kurdistan”. This is the reality and the suffering of too many Syrians and Iraqis of all different backgrounds is being swept under the rug to accommodate these bigoted, egotistical, chauvinistic Zionist tools. Kurds are originally from the mountains of Iran. Their language is an offshoot of Farsi. And because they don’t want to come out and admit these historical truths, they make up legends about the mythical land of “Rojava” in addition to other places and even have their own narratives about where they “REALLY” come from, i.e. they’re actually descendants of majestic jinn (true story, go read the book, “Children of the Jinn: In Search of the Kurds and Their Country”, by Margaret Kahn, a Zionist Jew no less).
The only reason why Kurdish political groups have the notions of a “homeland” is because the ever-satanic, perpetually-dividing, Rothschild-financed Brits gave them the idea in the first place during the early years of Sykes-Picot and this colonial British legacy is carried on today by ‘Israel’. The Zionists have been in bed with the criminal Barzani family since the 1950s and their relationship only gets closer by the day. This toxicity is the root cause of so much pain and destruction in our region. Much can be said about the incompetence and corruption of the Iraqi army, but the unequivocal truth is, Mosul and much of the Nineveh Governorate as a whole fell because of the duplicitous game being played by the Kurdish regime in the name of the Zionist entity’s schemes. Thank God Almighty for the Syrian Arab Army, the Hizbullah-trained NDF and the Assyrian militias in Syria’s Al-Hasakah. For if it wasn’t for these heroes, a Mosul-like scenario would have played out in this important province, especially considering the devilry of the PYD/YPG.
I wonder what would happen if the Assyrians wanted independence, and their ancestral homelands? Or even their present homeland, which Wikipedia describes as ‘part of today’s northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. Which sounds almost identical to the Kurdish homeland. **http://mouqawamahmusic.net/kurdish-regime-gave-weapons-to-isis-cause-the-kurdish-regime-works-for-israel/
*Now, a KRG official has said that it might not be a Kurdish interest to defeat ISIS. Hiwa Afandi, a managing director in the KRG Department of Information Technology, tweeted, “Strategically, it’s a huge mistake to eliminate ISIS before we are done with Hashd militiamen. They represent a much bigger danger to Iraqis.” https://www.newsweek.com/why-have-kurds-supplied-isis-weapons-452673
*Since the Kurdish population are not a majority in the areas PYD are trying to annex, the past few years have revealed that PYD/YPG are not beyond carrying out ethnic cleansing of non-Kurdish minorities in an attempt to achieve a demographic shift. The main threat to Kurdish ethnocentric territorial claims over the area are the other large minorities, the Arabs and the Assyrian Christians. Salih Muslim, the leader of PYD, openly declared his intention to conduct an ethnic cleansing campaign against Syrian Arabs who live in what he now calls Rojava. “One day those Arabs who have been brought to the Kurdish areas will have to be expelled,” said Muslim in an interview with Serek TV. Over two years since that interview he has fulfilled his word, as YPG begun burning Arab villages around Al Hasakah Province hoping to create a demographic shift. It is estimated that ten thousands Arab villagers have been ethnically cleansed from Al Hasake province so far. The villages around Tal Abayad have suffered the most as Kurdish expansionists seek to connect the discontiguous population centres of Al Hasakah and Al Raqqa. “The YPG burnt our village and looted our houses,” said Mohammed Salih al-Katee, who left Tel Thiab Sharki, near the city of Ras al-Ayn, in December.
*YPG have also begun a campaign of intimidation, murder and property confiscation against the Assyrian Christian minority. The YPG and PYD made it a formal policy to loot and confiscate the property of those who had escaped their villages after an ISIS attack, in the hope of repopulating Assyrian villages with Kurds. The Assyrians residents of the Khabur area in Al Hasaka province formed a militia called the Khabour Guard in the hope of defending their villages against ISIS attacks. The Khabur Guard council leaders protested the practice of looting by Kurdish YPG militia members who looted Assyrian villages that were evacuated after ISIS attacked them. Subsequently, the YPG assassinated the leader of the Khabur Guard David Jindo and attempted to Assassinate Elyas Nasser. At first the YPG blamed the assassination on ISIS but Elyas Nasser, who survived, was able to exposethe YPG’s involvement from his hospital bed. Since the assassination YPG has forced the Khabour Guard to disarm and to accept YPG ‘protection.’ Subsequently most Assyrian residents of the Khabour who had fled to Syrian Army controlled areas of Qamishli City could not return to their villages.
*The Assyrian Christian community in Qamishli has also been harassed by YPG Kurdish militia. YPG attacked an Assyrian checkpoint killing one fighter of the Assyrian militia Sootoro and wounding three others. The checkpoint was set up after three Assyrian restaurants were bombed on December 20, 2016 in an attack that killed 14 Assyrian civilians. Assyrians suspected that YPG was behind these bombings in an attempt to assassinate Assyrian leaders and prevent any future claims of control over Qamishli.
*It would be foolish to ignore the signs that more widely spread ethnic cleansing campaigns may occur if Kurdish expansionists are supported, especially since other ethnic groups are not on board with their federalism plans. It has only been 90 years since the Assyrian genocide which was conducted by Turks and Kurds. This history should not be allowed to be repeated. Assyrians have enjoyed safety and stability in the Syrian state since this time. Forcing the Assyrians to accept federalism is not going to ensure their safety. Establishment of a federal Kurdish state in Iraq has not protected Assyrian villages from attacks by Kurdish armed groups either. The campaign of ethnic cleansing against both Assyrians and Arabs in Al Hasakah has already begun and may now only escalate.
*In addition, the Kurdish factions are not simply oppressed people demanding equality; they are a mix of fanatical Muslim fundamentalists and radical communist “revolutionaries,” all of which have been ready to commit atrocities and commit genocide in order to reshape the areas they have conquered.
Kurdish People’s Protection Units [YPG] reportedly burned at least five Arab-majority villages in the rural heart of Al-Hasakah province earlier this week after winning control of them from the Islamic State [IS] just weeks before.
The burnings are the latest of what activists in Al-Hasakah call a series of targeted attacks by the YPG against Arab villages.
Some of the villages were “totally destroyed and wiped off the face of the map,” says Siraj al-Din al-Hasakawi, 28, a Hasakah-based citizen journalist.
Al-Hasakawi, who also works with several pro-opposition news organizations, is part of a team of Arab activists documenting alleged human rights abuses by the YPG in Al-Hasakah.
The YPG, and by extension the PYD, “are not just hostile to the Arabs, but are enemies of the people and the revolution in its entirety,” al-Hasakawi tells Syria Direct’s Ammar Hamou.
The media hasn’t been shy in reporting on the subject, and what has been published on social media sites is the reality, not a figment of the imagination. The policy of expelling [residents from] Arab villages shows the characteristics of a plan for changing the demographic map and the distribution of the Arab residents who represent an overwhelming majority in the province.
The burning of villages is not a new phenomenon, nor is it an isolated one as some members of the YPG leadership have claimed. At one point, [Arab] villages partially bordering [the YPG-controlled city of] Qamishli were subjected to a [YPG] attack in which 15 villages were burned, some of them totally destroyed and wiped off the face of the map and turned into a burning heap.
For example, the regime is supported by the YPG, which is attacking the village of Tel Hamees [and the surrounding villages] with support from the international coalition and its air cover.
The villages have been burned under the watch and with the cover of the international coalition, which means that the coalition is a participant in the forcible expulsion and burnings in Tel Hamees, although there are those among them who deny it. However, the recorded witness statements and the video clips don’t lie.
Today, with the aid of the US-led international coalition [strikes], they have been able to expel the Arabs that constitute the overwhelming majority of the population. Thus, they are carrying out a demographic change of the region in order to pave the way for a political enterprise, its goal being the partitioning of Syria into weak micro-states.
10,000 Arabs driven out by Kurdish ethnic cleansing in Syria
Thousands of civilians have fled their homes in northern Syria as Kurdish forces carry out what appears to be a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Sunni Arabs.
Assyrian Federations Accuse YPG Kurds of Assassinating Assyrian Military Leader A joint statement issued by the Assyrian Federation of Germany and the Assyrian Federation of Sweden claims the assassination of an Assyrian military commander in Syria was carried out by members of the People’s Defense Units (YPG), a Kurdish military group in eastern Syria.
On April 22nd commander David Gindo and Elias Naser were shot (AINA 2015-04-23). David Gindo was killed immediately. Elias Naser was critically wounded and left for dead, but he survived. He is unable to speak because one bullet hit his throat.
According to testimony from Mr. Naser, written while in hospital a few days after the attack, the assassins were members of the YPG. He specified the pseudonyms of three of them. http://www.aina.org/news/20150522205619.htm
The PKK may embrace beautiful utopian goals of democratic confederalism but it is, at its heart, an organization dedicated to establishing Kurdish self-rule—and, as it turns out, not only on traditionally Kurdish territory, but on Arab territory, as well, making the parallel with Labour Zionism all the stronger. In both Syria and Iraq, Kurdish fighters have used the campaign against ISIS as an opportunity to extend Kurdistan into traditionally Arab territories in which Kurds have never been in the majority.
The only people pleased with this plan were the PKK, the Israelis and the Americans.
Having pledged support for Kurdish rule of northern Syria in return for the PKK becoming the tip of the US spear, the United States is “providing “small arms, ammunition and machine guns, and possibly some nonlethal assistance, such as light trucks, to the Kurdish forces.” [25]
Ethnic Cleansing
“Large numbers of Arab residents populate the regions Kurds designate as their own.” [28] The PKK has taken “over a large swath of territory across northern Syria—including predominantly Arab cities and towns.” [29] Raqqa, and surrounding parts of the Euphrates Valley on which the PKK has set its sights, are mainly populated by Arabs, observes The Independent’s veteran foreign correspondent Patrick Cockburn—and the Arabs are opposed to Kurdish occupation. [30]
Kurdish forces are not only “retaking” Christian and Muslim Arab towns in Syria, but are doing the same in the Nineveh province of Iraq—areas “which were never Kurdish in the first place. Kurds now regard Qamishleh, and Hassakeh province in Syria as part of ‘Kurdistan’, although they represent a minority in many of these areas.” [31]
The PKK now controls 20,000 square miles of Syrian territory [32], or roughly 17 percent of the country, while Kurds represent less than eight percent of the population.
In their efforts to create a Kurdish region inside Syria, the PKK “has been accused of abuses by Arab civilians across northern Syria, including arbitrary arrests and displacing Arab populations in the name of rolling back Islamic State.” [33] The PKK “has expelled Arabs and ethnic Turkmen from large parts of northern Syria,” reports The Wall Street Journal. [34] The Journal additionally notes that human rights “groups have accused [Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish fighters] of preventing Arabs from returning to liberated areas.” [35]
The PKK has struck a bargain with the United States to achieve its goal of establishing a Kurdish national state, but at the expense of Syria’s efforts to safeguard its independence from a decades-long US effort to deny it. The partition of Syria along ethno-sectarian lines, desired by the PKK, Washington and Tel Aviv alike, serves both US and Israeli goals of weakening a focus of opposition to the Zionist project and US domination of West Asia.
The Kurdish population of Al Hasakah has also been heavily inflitrated by illegal Kurdish immigration from Turkey. Kurdish immigration to Syria began in the 1920’s and occurred in several waves after multiple failed Kurdish uprisings against Turkey. It continued throughout the century
Since the Kurdish population are not a majority in the areas PYD are trying to annex, the past few years have revealed that PYD/YPG are not beyond carrying out ethnic cleansing of non-Kurdish minorities in an attempt to achieve a demographic shift. The main threat to Kurdish ethnocentric territorial claims over the area are the other large minorities, the Arabs and the Assyrian Christians.
Salih Muslim, the leader of PYD, openly declared his intention to conduct an ethnic cleansing campaign against Syrian Arabs who live in what he now calls Rojava. “One day those Arabs who have been brought to the Kurdish areas will have to be expelled,” said Muslim in an interview with Serek TV. Over two years since that interview he has fulfilled his word, as YPG begun burning Arab villages around Al Hasakah Province hoping to create a demographic shift. It is estimated that ten thousands Arab villagers have been ethnically cleansed from Al Hasake province so far. The villages around Tal Abayad have suffered the most as Kurdish expansionists seek to connect the discontiguous population centres of Al Hasakah and Al Raqqa. “The YPG burnt our village and looted our houses,” said Mohammed Salih al-Katee, who left Tel Thiab Sharki, near the city of Ras al-Ayn, in December.
YPG have also begun a campaign of intimidation, murder and property confiscation against the Assyrian Christian minority. The YPG and PYD made it a formal policy to loot and confiscate the property of those who had escaped their villages after an ISIS attack, in the hope of repopulating Assyrian villages with Kurds. The Assyrians residents of the Khabur area in Al Hasaka province formed a militia called the Khabour Guard in the hope of defending their villages against ISIS attacks. The Khabur Guard council leaders protested the practice of looting by Kurdish YPG militia members who looted Assyrian villages that were evacuated after ISIS attacked them. Subsequently, the YPG assassinated the leader of the Khabur Guard David Jindo and attempted to Assassinate Elyas Nasser. At first the YPG blamed the assassination on ISIS but Elyas Nasser, who survived, was able to expose the YPG’s involvement from his hospital bed. Since the assassination YPG has forced the Khabour Guard to disarm and to accept YPG ‘protection.’ Subsequently most Assyrian residents of the Khabour who had fled to Syrian Army controlled areas of Qamishli City could not return to their villages.
The Assyrian Christian community in Qamishli has also been harassed by YPG Kurdish militia. YPG attacked an Assyrian checkpoint killing one fighter of the Assyrian militia Sootoro and wounding three others. The checkpoint was set up after three Assyrian restaurants were bombed on December 20, 2016 in an attack that killed 14 Assyrian civilians. Assyrians suspected that YPG was behind these bombings in an attempt to assassinate Assyrian leaders and prevent any future claims of control over Qamishli.
It would be foolish to ignore the signs that more widely spread ethnic cleansing campaigns may occur if Kurdish expansionists are supported, especially since other ethnic groups are not on board with their federalism plans. It has only been 90 years since the Assyrian genocide which was conducted by Turks and Kurds. This history should not be allowed to be repeated. Assyrians have enjoyed safety and stability in the Syrian state since this time. Forcing the Assyrians to accept federalism is not going to ensure their safety. Establishment of a federal Kurdish state in Iraq has not protected Assyrian villages from attacks by Kurdish armed groups either. The campaign of ethnic cleansing against both Assyrians and Arabs in Al Hasakah has already begun and may now only escalate.
Israel wants to establish a Kurdistan, as a Sunni-Iranian rival to Shi’ite Iran. They hope such a Sunni state will block Iran’s access to Syria and will also prevent Lebanese resistance against Israeli invasion. This was all outlined in Israel’s Yinon Plan published in 1982. Israel is an extension of US influence and hegemony in the region, the Israeli lobby holds much sway over US politics. Strengthening Israel in the region will strengthen US influence over the region, once again shrinking Russian influence and pushing the nuclear power into a corner. Journalists who show a sense of confusion about the reason the West is supportive of Kurdish expansionism should consider this point.
Finally, a designated ‘Kurdish area’ in Syria is deeply rooted in ethnocentric chauvinism. A US state strictly designated for Hispanic, White or Black ethnicity would be outrageous to suggest and would be considered racist. But the use of ethnicity as a means to divide and conquer is the oldest and most cynical form of imperialism. Syria must remain for all Syrians, not just for one minority. Voices who oppose this should be discouraged. The Syrian Constitution should continue to resist all ethnocentric religious-based parties. If there is a change to the Syrian constitution, it should be the removal of the word Arab from Syrian Arab Republic. In spite of the fact that the vast majority Syrians speak the Arabic language, the majority of Syrian are historically not ethnically Arab. All sections of Syrian society should be treated equally under the Syrian flag. https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-a-kurdish-enclave-in-syria-is-a-very-bad-idea/5519109
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, in which the Peshmerga are the security forces for, has undertaken a campaign of Kurdification in which Assyrian identity has been attacked religiously, linguistically and at a cultural level.
In June 2013, it was reported by The Assyrian Universal Alliance that in Rabatki in Northern Iraq, an ethnic Assyrian village that has never had a Kurdish population, was attacked by seven car loads of Kurdish men armed with guns. They attacked the village and were told that if anyone attempted to produce a crop, their farms and houses would be burned to the ground.
However, as recently as less than two weeks, six Assyrian organisations issued a joint statement on human right violations by the YPG in North-East Syria. It states that its main cause of concern is the illegal seizure of properties, forced enlistment into the YPG, and threats, pressure and targeted killings of Assyrians by the YPG. The YPG are the military wing of the Partiya Yekitiya Demokrat (PYD).
Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty International, Lama Fakih, states: “By deliberately demolishing civilian homes, in some cases razing and burning entire villages, displacing their inhabitants with no justifiable military grounds, the Autonomous Administration is abusing its authority and brazenly flouting international humanitarian law, in attacks that amount to war crimes.” https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/questioning-kurdish-secularism/
Just as in the 1910’s and 1920’s where Kurdish tribesmen helped Ottoman forces drive out the Armenian and Assyrian indigenous populations where they were the majority, a gross demographic change is slowly occurring in northeastern Syria and across the border in Iraq’s Nineveh province.
Qamishli is a testament to this demographic change when one considers the city was established in 1926 by Assyrian survivors of the genocide, yet less then 100 years later, it is now a Kurdish majority. Why is this the case? Settlement projects across Turkey, Iraq and Syria that predate Israeli settlements in the West Bank has seen Armenian and Assyrian historical and cultural areas turned into bastions of the now Kurdish majority.
But with the YPG having women pose in photos next to revolutionary flags, this will once again be swept under the carpet by Western media, Western left wing trendies and Kurdish activists. It will mostly be as if nothing happened at all. I
The Hybrid War drama surrounding the Kurds occupies considerably less media attention than Daesh, but it’s no less dangerous to the stability of the Mideast. In fact, while Daesh has been on a years-long killing spree trying to construct an “Islamic State” in the Mideast, the militant Kurdish organizations mentioned in this article have taken to doing something similar and to a much lesser degree in advance of their shared objective of creating a transnational “Kurdistan” political entity. This goal has lately manifested itself through the intended formation of a stateless (con)federation of Kurdish communities between Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, as per the “post-state” and “Neo-Marxist” ideology of relevant groups in the first three aforementioned states.
As for the Iraqi Kurds, although they’re not “Neo-Marxists”, they are in support of either “federalization” or outright separatism, and would naturally develop their own independent relations with their other Kurdish political counterparts if they succeed in their map-changing schemes. Even though linguistic and historical differences would likely prevent the creation of a unified Kurdish ‘superstate’, the tangible effect of the aforementioned could quickly lead both to the dissolution of the multiethnic states that this demographic is a part of and the de-facto rise of a “second geopolitical ‘Israel’” in part of this space, or in other words, a unipolar-supported polity carved out of the stolen territory of other countries. This eventuality would naturally destroy the incipient Tripartite of Great Powers and also symbolize the successful completion of ‘Israel’s’ 1982 Yinon Plan of manufactured state fragmentation all along its Muslim periphery, basically ensuring that Tel Aviv becomes the undisputed power in the Mideast.
Much of what the Kurds claim as their own unique culture is actually borrowed from older cultures, such as the Assyrians, Armenians and Suryoye. In fact, much if not all of the land in Eastern Turkey that the Kurds claim as their own once belonged to the Armenians. It is hardly surprising, then, that the Kurds assisted in the Turkish genocide of Assyrians [1] and the 1915 genocide of Armenians [2].
Also known as “Shato du Seyfo,” or the “Year of the Sword, ” this genocide targeted Christians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, mainly in 1915 [3]. The size of the Assyrian population was reduced by as much as 75 percent as a result.
On the Nineveh plains of northern Iraq, the Kurds dwell in cities such as “Dohuk” (formerly known by the Assyrian name of Nohadra). But these cities are “theirs” only in that they have established a relatively recent presence there.
Employing the criteria of cultural identity and thousands of years of historical authenticity, these lands are, and have been, uniquely Assyrian. The Kurds were essentially “given” these lands in the early 1970s as a means of drawing their eyes away from the oil-rich lands in and around the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. To this end, there were large migrations of Kurds into Dohuk which displaced, often forcibly, Assyrians who had far greater legal and historical claims to these lands.
“Despite the oppression the Kurds have suffered at the hands of the Turks, they have not learned to be tolerant. In the Kurdish autonomous of North Iraq, The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) are acting in the same way as the Turkish government has for 90 years against Kurds and Assyrians. Reports of systematic abuses against Assyrians within the Kurdish autonomy in Iraq are constantly increasing in number. There is organized harassment, sanctioned by the Kurdish authorities. The aim is obviously the same as that of the Turks, to assimilate or expel the Assyrian indigenous people who have lived in these parts of the country for more than 7,000 years.” Augin Haninke wrote in her article The Kurds: Victims and Oppressors with Assyrian [4]
As explained in the video above, Kurdish security forces in Syria tortured and murdered Assyrian military commander David Jindo after a false invitation under the pretense of cooperation. This was a move reminiscent of Kurdish leader Simko Shikak’s 1918 assassination of Assyrian Patriarch Mar Shimun XXI Benyamin, which took place when he invited the patriarch into his home.
In 2011, imams in Dohuk encouraged Sunni Kurds to destroy Christian churches and businesses. In response, shops were attacked and clubs were besieged by mobs of people numbering in the hundreds. Hotels and restaurants were attacked with small arms fire [6].
In recent years, Kurds have continued acting disingenuously towards Christian minorities, including Assyrians, and even Yazidis. Their abuses have gone far beyond historical revisionism – an example of which can be seen in the picture below. This was also seen when they took refuge in northern Syria in the early 19th century and proceeded to drive Arabs and Armenians out of numerous towns.
In July 2014, as Daesh began its incursion into Iraqi territory, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) began its systematic disarmament of Assyrians and several other ethnic groups so that it could use their weapons in its own struggle.
Notices were circulated threatening severe punishment for noncompliance. Assurances were given that the Peshmerga would provide some degree of protection.
But as Daesh advanced, the Peshmerga took the weapons and fled, following the same example as the Iraqi Army.
This left the Assyrians and Yazidis with no means to resist or defend themselves against Daesh. Reports even surfaced of these same Peshmerga gunning down Yazidis who tried to prevent them from fleeing with all the weapons.
Haydar Shesho, a Yazidi commander who managed to procure weapons from the Iraqi government, was then arrested by KDP authorities for organizing an “illegal” militia.
This scene was repeated elsewhere throughout the country, as 150,000 Assyrians were forced to flee the Nineveh plains, their ancestral land.
These actions can only be seen as a deliberate ploy by the Kurdish leadership to allow foreign forces to violently cleanse these areas of all non-Kurdish residents and then, with the help of their U.S. allies, retake and “liberate their lands.”
On April 13, 2016, Kurdish security forces blocked hundreds of Assyrians from participating in a protest outside of the Kurdistan Regional Government Parliament building. The protest was planned in response to the ongoing confiscation of Assyrian land by Kurds in northern Iraq.
Many testimonies have surfaced, such as a statement given to the UK Parliament by Yazidi ex-captive Salwa Khalaf Rasho, in which it is said that the Peshmerga, eager to flee first ahead of Yazidi civilians, has refused requests to stay and protect Yazidis or at least leave them their weapons. They had even reassured the Yazidis that they should return to their homes, where they would be defended.
In light of these horrors, it should easily be understood why the Kurds would have a vested interest in claiming Arab, Assyrian or Armenian history as their own. Failing in that endeavor, they often resort to destroying any relevant history altogether. In this aspect, they operate in a similar manner to Daesh.
Every time the Kurds failed in an attack against Turkey, they would migrate to Syria and try to claim Syrian land as their own. For instance, they tried to claim the Syrian city of Ayn al Arab, naming it “Kobani.” The origin of the name is the word “company,” a reference to a German railway company that built the Konya-Baghdad railway. The Kurds also claimed Al Qamishli, another Syrian city, as their illegal capital and renamed it Qamishlo [8].
Most of the have fled to Germany, where their numbers are about 1.2 million, a little less than the number of Kurds living in Syria. However, they do not seem concerned about seeking autonomy there. They only seek it in the Middle Eastern countries that have provided them with refuge all of these years – these are the countries they want to stab in the back instead of thanking them for their hospitality.
Amnesty International’s many refutable allegations against the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army cannot be taken at face value in the absence of other corroborating reports [9]. In some cases, however, they do report truthfully, such as when they released a report in 2015 accusing the YPG, the militia of Syria’s Kurdish population, of a range of human rights abuses [10].
“These abuses include forced displacement, demolition of homes, and the seizure and destruction of property,” the group wrote. “In some cases, entire villages have been demolished, apparently in retaliation for the perceived support of their Arab or Turkmen residents for the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS) or other non-state armed groups.” Amnesty International has also documented the use of child soldiers, according to Lama Fakih, a senior crisis advisor for the group.
The Kurds claim that their “Kurdistan” is “multicultural and multireligious,” which is disingenuous when you consider that those additional cultures consist of people now dwelling amongst a Kurdish majority in lands the Kurds took by force. These people will be faced with the prospect of casting meaningless votes on Kurdish independence since, even if they all voted “no,” they would nonetheless be outvoted by the Kurdish “yes” majority and as a result would still find themselves subject to a Kurdish government and agenda.
According to Rûdaw, in an article written in 2014, “Last year Ahmed Turk, a Kurdish politician in Turkey, declared that the Kurds have their share of ‘guilt in the genocide, too,’ and apologized to the Armenians. ‘Our fathers and grandfathers were used against Assyrians and Yazidis, as well as against Armenians. They persecuted these people; their hands are stained with blood. We as the descendants apologize,’ Turk said.” [14].
The Kurds have a centuries-long history of persecuting minority groups, having committed genocide against them with alarming frequency. Historical accounts of acts of genocide by the Kurds from 1261 through 1999 are documented in Genocides Against the Assyrian Nation.
In A.D. 1261, in what was referred to as “the coming of the Kurds,” thousands of Assyrians fled the Nineveh plains villages of Bartillah, Bakhdida (Qaraqosh), Badna, Basihra and Karmlis, moving toward the citadel of Arbil to escape a substantial Kurdish emigration. King Salih Isma’il had ordered a great number of Kurds to move from the mountains of Turkey to the Nineveh plains. Assyrian villages on the plains were looted and the thousands of Assyrians who were not able to escape to Arbil were butchered by the Kurdish newcomers. A monastery for nuns in Bakhdida was invaded and its inhabitants brutally massacred. A New York Times article from 1915 addressing the mass slaughter of Christians at the hands of Turks and Kurds.
Kurdish tribes in Turkey, Syria and Iran conducted regular raids and even paramilitary assaults against their Christian neighbors during World War I. The Kurds, acting in accordance with a long-standing tradition of a perceived Kurdish right to pillage Christian villages, were responsible for many atrocities that were committed against Assyrian Christians. A Kurdish chieftain assassinated the patriarch of the Church of the Aast at a negotiation dinner in 1918, the aftermath of which led to the further decimation of the Christian population.
The Armenian genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacres and subjection of army conscripts to forced labor, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert [15]. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape and massacre.
Other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups, such as the Assyrians and the Ottoman Greeks, were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman government in the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide, and their treatment is considered by some historians to be part of the same genocidal policy that targeted the Armenians. Most Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a direct result of the genocide.
In the eastern provinces, the Armenians were subject to the whims of their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors, who would regularly overtax them, subject them to brigandage and kidnapping, force them to convert to Islam, and otherwise exploit them without interference from central or local authorities.
Egged on by their Ottoman rulers, Kurdish tribal chieftains raped, murdered and pillaged their way through the southeastern provinces where for centuries they had co-existed, if uneasily, with the Armenians and other non-Muslims. Henry Morgenthau [16], who served as U.S. Ambassador in Constantinople at the height of the bloodshed, described the Kurds’ complicity in his chilling 1918 memoir Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story:
“The Kurds would sweep down from their mountain homes. Rushing up to the young girls, they would lift their veils and carry the pretty ones off to the hills. They would steal such children as pleased their fancy and mercilessly rob all the rest of the throng…While they were committing these depredations, the Kurds would freely massacre, and the screams of women and old men would add to the general horror.” [17].
Finnish investigative journalist Bruno Jantti described his experience working in Iraqi Kurdistan while investigating Daesh:
“When working in Iraqi Kurdistan, I was struck by the prevalence of regressive attitudes, including racism and sexism. I returned recently from Iraqi Kurdistan where I spent a couple of weeks investigating the Islamic State (IS) group. Working mostly in the vicinity of Sulaymaniyah and Dohuk, I could not help but notice a great many societal and cultural characteristics that somewhat surprised me.
In another city, a police chief was astonished and disappointed that my colleagues and myself were applying for a permit to work in a camp inhabiting Syrian refugees. The police chief stated: ‘But these are Syrian refugees!’ There was no shortage of contempt in his voice.
I had been fully aware that Kurdish nationalism flirts with highly questionable portrayals of Arabs, Persians and Turkish people. In Iraqi Kurdistan, I was surprised at how prevalent some of those attitudes seemed to be.” [23]
an image that Stephen Gowans recently critiqued in “The Myth of the Kurdish YPG’s Moral Excellence.” [25].
What they actually seek to create is an illegal autonomous state carved out of existing sovereign countries. The freedom they seek is to be brought about by means of slaughtering natives in the countries that they want to Balkanize and divide on sectarian lines [26]. They have set about vacating areas of indigenous people, utilizing fear and forceful tactics that are supported by their sponsors but that are in violation of globally accepted human rights. To agree with their cause is to agree with genocidal actions that, in essence, tear people away from their homes and lands while fitting conveniently into the imperial views of Western nations.
Up until recently, Kurds with separatist ambitions were seen in a positive light. But their hidden agenda has now been exposed and their true intentions revealed.
Regardless, here are a few salient points one should bear in mind about the Kurds which the hand-wringers conveniently ignore in their hagiographies: — Kurdish predatory mass killings of Christians and Yazidis are well-characterized and went on for centuries. Grinding persecution continues to this day, as can be gleaned from detailed reports by both Assyrian and Yazidi organizations (here; here; here)
— Kurdish “region(s)” were ethnically cleansed of Jews by the late 19th/early 20th centuries in a series a pogroms, compounded by constant grinding persecution including enslavement of Jewish families handed over between generations of Kurds as “family property” (p. 658; p. 108)
— The Kurds of Turkey, brutally oppressed (here) by Ataturk’s ugly ethno-racist Turkish supremacist state (here), since the 1920s, ongoing, evolved their own brutal (here) Marxist terror organization, the PKK, to combat this oppression. Those Marxist PKK elements are the fighting backbone of the Syrian Kurds whom the U.S. is now claimed to be “abandoning”
— Kurds of Iraqi “Kurdistan” have enshrined the Sharia (“This Constitution confirms and respects the Islamic identity of the majority of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. It considers the principles of Islamic Sharia as one of the main sources of legislation… It is not allowed to enact a law inconsistent with the provisions of the fundamentals of Islam,” Articles 6 & 7) and even apply it to Kurdish conscientious objectors to Islam who escape their Kurdish Muslim paradise and flee to the West. (here; here)
— 50% of Kurdistan’s women undergo FGM, sanctioned by the Sharia
Johny Messo is head of the World Council of Arameans. In 2014 Messo issued this statement when Israel’s Minister of Interior, H.E. Gideon Sa‘ar, signed a document that recognizes “Aramean” as a distinct national identity in Israel’s population registry:
We greatly commend Israel for being the first state in the world to recognize our people in keeping with international law. This fantastic news has had a major impact on the global Aramean population. It encourages us to continue our legal struggle for recognition by our home countries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon”
Messo, was quoted from this story published today (10/10/19) from about the depredations and duplicity of the Kurdish Marxist brigades operating within Northern Syria:
“The PYD/YPG is threatening Syriacs and still forcibly detaining some children to join them,” Johny Messo, head of the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs), told Anadolu Agency on Thursday. Telling how the terrorist PYD/YPG fought other terrorist groups only to pursue its own territorial aims, he explained: “The aim of the PYD/YPG in its struggle against Daesh was to seize their territories and integrate them as part of the autonomous Kurdish region envisaged by them.” The U.S. had enlisted the PYD/YPG to fight Daesh, while Turkey objected that using one terror group to fight another makes no sense. Messo said the PYD/YPG and Daesh are both terror groups, differing only in aims, and sometimes even working together. “For example, the BBC showed that the PYD/YPG signed an agreement with Daesh. And, according to our own sources, the PYD/YPG took former Daesh members with them,” he added. Messo said it is the PYD/YPG — the Syrian branch of the [MARXIST] terrorist PKK….
Kurds, on the other hand, invaded Ras al-Ayn, 90 percent of whose population is Arab. Ras al-Ayn is an ancient Assyrian town named Rish Ayno. but the YPG-led Kurds call it “Sere Kaniye” today. So even when Kurds did not establish a legally-recognized government in Syria, they started Kurdifying the names of the towns in the region. This shows how much they disrespect and degrade the ancient heritage of northern Syria.
Free of the Middle East’s Antisemitic baggage, clear headed about Turkey, and experientially knowledgeable about the fanatical Marxist Kurdish militias of the Syria-Turkey border areas as well (here; here; here; here; here; here), Johny Messo and his indigenous Christian organization are ideally suited to weigh in on the Trump Administration decision to withdraw troops from the (70+-year ongoing) Syrian morass.
3) The PKK and the PYD/YPG Kurds, who control the SDF, are two sides of the same coin. The communist ideology and violent nature of these nationalist organizations discredit democratic and liberal values. These ‘heroes’ have oppressed vulnerable Arameans, taken their innocent lives, Kurdified their lands and still use a tiny Christian group as their mouthpiece to represent Kurdish interests. The resentment against the YPG among the locals is prevalent, yet underreported. In due time, their authoritarian governance would likely lead to an ISIS 2.0 among the local Arabs, who outnumber the Kurds, mainly among Arab nationalists and among conservative Arab and Kurdish Muslims.
“the Kurds, the vast majority of whom are orthodox Sunni muslims”
The theme of Islam is not very prominent or popular when it comes to writings about theKurds. Political analyses of Kurdish nationalism tend, almost as a matter of definition, todownplay religious aspects, which the Kurds by and large have in common with PoliticalIslam among the Kn ethnic factors like language that mark off the Kurds.1
http://home.hum.uva.nl/oz/leezenberg/PoliIslamKurds.pdf POLITICAL ISLAM AMONG THE KURDS Michiel Leezenberg University of Amsterdam Paper originally prepared for the International Conference ‘Kurdistan: The UnwantedState’, March 29-31, 2001, Jagiellonian University/Polish-Kurdish Society, Cracow,Poland
Nightly cries for help, caused by the rampaging of Kurdish thieves, made the Christian population’s vulnerability plain to the researcher as well.
Oh yes, they had heard. They had heard about what happened to the Christian village of Salah. They had heard how the village’s Muslim village sheriff Hasso, at the urging of the great city of Midyat’s governor, had called on the Kurdish clans, incited them against the village’s Christian population, and along with soldiers wiped out the entire Christian population of the village. They had also heard that Midyat’s Christian population had begun to acquire weapons and make preparations to defend against the enemy. They had heard, they knew, they were hoping…
“I have, along with Asmar Sewalla, kept our eyes open and listened around a bit,” Yusuf continued, “and Kurds from the village of Derhab have begun to gather in the village of Estrako. We’ve heard gunfire and screams. God help our brothers and sisters in Estrako. Something has happened, they’re planning something, I’m sure.”
The Kurdish men from the surrounding villages around Zaz had now surrounded the village. They waited more men before they would strike. The Christians had taken refuge in the Church of Mor Dimet and the two mansions in the village. Osmane Sille and the other Kurdish beys (chiefs) each had leadership over their men. Osmane Sille and his men committed themselves to storm the church while Latif Bey, son of Chimo and Hitto of the Haydari family, would capture the mansions. Osmane Sille, who held counsel with the other beys, was furious that they had not organized themselves quickly enough.
In the village of Estrako there lived twenty Christian families at this time, while the remaining part of the village consisted mainly of Kurds, numbering over two hundred families. The Kurds in the village had, under the leadership of Latif and Osmane Sille, gathered on July 3rd, the feast day of the apostle Mor Thomas, a holiday for Christians in Tur Abdin. They gathered all the poor, terrified Christians around the village square. They had been taken there by barbaric violence. The battered and helpless poor creatures were then subjected to an indescribable and merciless slaughter. The slaughter was going on the whole time during the Kurdish women’s cries of joy. Those who just a while ago were their neighbors and friends. It was rumored that there were only about a dozen or so youths who managed to survive.
By wiping out the Christians, Osmane Sille could take over their estates and arable land. That was why he called the other Kurdish beys to him, all of which were his friends and all of which thirsted for the blood and estates of the “infidels”.
And the Kurdish men began to pour down from all directions shouting “Allah u Akbar, Allah u Akbar!” They came from the mountains, plains and slopes and had soon filled the entire village.
It was not long before the young, elderly and women from the Kurdish villages around Zaz followed their men’s footsteps. They came by the hundreds with their carts, donkeys, mules and horses. Now that their armed men were inside the village and the Christians in their fortresses, they could roam freely in the village and loot the houses. They entered house after house and took everything they came across: pans, lamps, oils, beds, pots, chickens, cows, goats, sheep, cabins and everything else. The crosses, bibles and other books of saints they came across in the houses were gathered in a separate pile that they formed within sight of the church.
Sara had been crying all night, her eyes were swollen and you could never believe that this woman could shape a smile on her now so melancholy face. She mourned her husband, like everyone else in the church mourned their husbands, fathers and relatives who had all fell victim to the Kurds’ slyness. Did they live, were they dead or injured?
For several days, they had been promised safe conduct from the village by the Kurdish leader Osmane Sille if they surrendered. He had sworn an oath on the Qur’an, the Prophet, his children and his marriages that he did not intend to hurt them, if only they left. Of course, it was their estates he wanted to get hold of.
“Leave the village and you will get to live!” he said again and again.
The Suryoye did not think much of these promises, the battles in the evenings and nights had already claimed its victims on both sides. Blood had flowed and blood feud was more the rule than the exception. But did they have any choice? The scorching summer heat was unbearable and the women and children who were in the mansions had also become a burden. Many of the men made their way to the shadowy places and lay there, seemingly lifeless.
Necessity forced the Suryoye out of the mansions where they were quickly surrounded by Muslims. They were taken to the waterholes of the village to let them drink water first. In accommodating them they wanted to show that they were serious about their promises and thus avoid chaos, while at the same time hoping that this trick would attract out the others from the church as well. Then began the march out of the village. When they had come to a place outside the village called Pergume, hell began to break loose. At a given signal from Osmane Sille, armed men began to emerge from all sides. The Christian Suryoye were rounded up, surrounded by the armed men, and the slaughter began.
Soon they lay there, the dead, side by side and on one another, in their own blood. An old woman who tried to get up collapsed on the ground, pale and emaciated. Some of the more beautiful women were gathered together and guarded by a few chosen men. Two men escaped death, Hanna Meryam and Yusuf Asmar. Hanna Meryam escaped and managed to miraculously get to the church in Zaz where he informed the Suryoye of the events, and Yusuf Asmar fled to the village of Hah’s mansion. The number of murdered Suryoye was reported to be 366 people during this dark day. Later it turned out, after a couple of days when the Muslim villagers went there between the corpses, that Hazme and her son Isa had also survived. They took them to the village and in that way they survived. Strangely enough, they had not been killed.
The condition of the Suryoye became increasingly difficult and unbearable because of the lack of water and the scorching summer sun. The Church of Mor Dimet was suddenly stormed by the Kurds who managed to get into the courtyard and immediately began to, with sparkling teeth, annihilate the Suryoye completely. A man who had taken a nap at the entrance to the courtyard was surprised by the attack and woke up to the Kurd Musek’s gleaming dagger at his throat. With an appealing look he asked his former neighbor and “godfather” Musek to spare his life, only to receive the answer:
Just like everywhere in Tur Abdin, severe disturbances arose in Midyat as well in conjunction with the Kurdish tribes’ aspirations for independence during the 1830s and in the late 1800s. The city was sacked several times and set on fire, and some priests met a violent death. After a short period of calm, World War I came with extensive destruction. About a third of the population was killed.
To investigate the Kurds’ report and its truthfulness, the Ottoman authorities in Midyat sent a major with large, heavily armed troops, artillery with cannons and an observer to the village of Zaz.
The Ottoman forces arrived in the village of Zaz, set up their artillery with cannons and started shooting at the church. But despite many shootings, no counterfire came from the church. Thus the major understood that everything that the Kurds had said was a lie. He came to the church door and asked for permission to enter the church. The Suryoye opened the door for him without resistance, and when he came in, he got their permission to search everywhere in the church. He was met by a horrible sight. He saw the poor people’s suffering, the hunger and thirst appeared in everyone’s eyes, as well as sickness and death. When he was finished with his examination, he turned to the Suryoye and said:
“Everything you were accused and blamed for by the Kurds is a lie. You don’t need to be anxious and afraid, from now on, you are under my protection. Submit yourselves to my honor and my conscience and I’ll take you to safety.”
When the Ottoman soldiers had come to the rescue of the Suryoye and they came out of their fortresses, many Kurds had gathered outside. Many Suryoye did not yet know what fate they would meet. The concern was great.
The surviving Zaz residents lived in misery around the Tur Abdin region. Of the entire village’s Christian population of just over two hundred families, about a hundred people had survived the genocide. Many had died by the Kurd’s dagger, some by the many hardships such as fever and other painful circumstances.
Seyfo 1915 — Sold for a hen Authored by Behcet Barsom and produced by SOUF—The Syriac Orthodox Youth Association of the Archdiocese of Sweden and Scandinavia (www.souf.nu) https://medium.com/@SOUF/sold-for-a-hen-dc2e0e4d29ff
Over the last decade, the KRG has steadily worked to undermine the influence and political authority of Assyrians and other minorities that have remained independent of KRG patronage, and has endeavored to flood the Nineveh region with Kurdish citizens and security forces. The dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which rules the portion of the Kurdistan Region adjacent to the Nineveh Plain, has pursued and implemented a number of systematic strategies (that will be described in the later sections of this report) with the aim of dividing minority groups, weakening their solidarity, and quashing their political will in order to make possible the KDP’s annexation of the Nineveh Plain. A new report, The Christians: Perceptions of Recon- ciliation and Conflict published by the Middle East Research Institute in September 2017 highlights the issue and its resulting impact: “Another branch of Christian dissatisfaction is in relation to KRG’s polices in the Nineveh Plains in general. Particular participants believed that the major Kurdish political parties politicized and divided the Christian community after 2003. They pressured existing Christian political parties to fall under their control, created new Kurdish-affiliated political parties, and alienated those who rejected Kurdish policies in the region. Moreover, the fact that the Peshmerga forces and the Kurdish Asayesh forces controlled security in Nineveh Plain while its administration was managed by the Central Government of Iraq (CGI) also contributed to deepening divisions as both actors pursued conflicting agendas regarding the future of the area.” 5 According to Human Rights Watch, “KRG authorities have relied on intimidation, threats, and arbitrary arrests and detentions, more than actual violence, in their efforts to secure support of minority communities for their agenda regarding the disputed territories.” 6 It is this harmful approach—which jeopardizes the future of minorities—that this report will address. ERASING ASSYRIANS How the KRG Abuses Human Rights, Undermines Democracy, and Conquers Minority Homeland by Reine Hanna and Matthew Barber Assyrian Confederation of Europe September 25, 2017 http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/4ec518_18285c91d7924250aa1c52b0b4c7da9f.pdf
80 verletzte Polizeibeamte und 13 beschädigte Fahrzeuge Schwere Ausschreitungen beim 20. Kurdenfestival in Mannheim 8. September 2012 Mannheim/Rhein-Neckar, 08. September 2012. (red/pol) Das 20. Kurdische Kulturfestival in Mannheim mit 40.000 Teilnehmern steht unter dem Schatten der Gewalt. 80 Polizeibeamte wurden von einem wütenden Mob verletzt – 13 Fahrzeuge beschädigt. Es gab zwei Wellen der Gewalt und über Stunden eine Art Belagerungszustand. Auf dem Maimarktgelände skandierten rund 1.000 aggressive Kurden PKK und Parolen, vor dem Gelände sicherten rund 700 Polizisten das Gebiet. Gegen 15:20 Uhr kam es zur ersten Eskalation, kurz darauf folgte ein zweiter Angriff – erst gegen 19 Uhr begann sich die Situation zu entschärfen… https://rheinneckarblog.de/08/schwere-ausschreitungen-beim-20-kurdenfestival-in-mannheim/15818.html
Nie vergesse ich, als mein Maoisten-Mann einen kurdischen Studenten angeschleppt hatte, der, Anfang der 1970er, in unserer Bude in Berlin mit Gitarre hockte u. kurdische Lieder sang, den Refrain in deutsch, mit einem bösen Lächeln im Gesicht: „Dabei schärfte er sein Beil, dabei schärfte er sein Beil.“ Ich fand es zurecht „kriegerisch u. blutrünstig“, wofür er mich auslachte u. genußvoll den Refrain wiederholte. KURDEN SIND GENAUSO UNFRIEDLICH, WIE ALLE ANDEREN MOSLEMS! http://www.pi-news.net/2019/10/tuerken-gegen-kurden-eskalation-nicht-ausgeschlossen/
„18-Jähriger stößt 17-Jährigen aus Lehrte ins Gleisbett Ein 17-jähriger ist am Freitagnachmittag von einem 18-Jährigen am Ahltener Bahnhof ins Gleisbett gestoßen worden. Der Tat war ein Streit vorausgegangen, weil der mutmaßliche Täter mit der Beziehung seiner Schwester zu dem Opfer nicht einverstanden war. Großer Polizeieinsatz am Bahnhof in Ahlten am Freitagnachmittag: Ein 17-Jähriger wurde von einem 18-Jährigen ins Gleisbett gestoßen und dabei verletzt. Nach Angaben der Polizei war die nicht akzeptierte Liebesbeziehung des Opfers mit der Schwester des 18-jährigen die Ursache für die Attacke. Bei dem Opfer handelt es sich um einen 17-jährigen Inder, der in Lehrte lebt. Der 18-Jährige mutmaßliche Täter lebt in Ahlten und ist kurdischer Abstammung. 15 junge Männer lauerten dem Opfer auf Laut Polizei wollten sich die beiden jungen Männer am Freitag gegen 15.45 Uhr zur Aussprache am Bahnhof Ahlten auf dem S-Bahnsteig treffen. Der 17-Jährige erschien in Begleitung seines Zwillingsbruders. Der 18-Jährige aus Ahlten brachte 15 Begleiter mit, die in Fahrzeugen versteckt auf die beiden 17-Jährigen warteten. Als die Zwillingsbrüder am Bahnhof auftauchten, wurden sie zusammengeschlagen – von wie vielen Personen ist derzeit laut Polizei unklar. Der 17-jährige, der mit der Schwester des 18-jährigen Hauptbeschuldigten liiert sein soll, wurde anschließend von dem 18-Jährigen ins Gleisbett gestoßen. https://www.haz.de/Umland/Lehrte/Lehrte-18-Jaehriger-stoesst-17-Jaehrigen-ins-Gleisbett
The Syrians do not share this love. They view the Kurd fighters as brutal ethnic cleansing US mercenaries.. ‘One Israel is more than enough’, say the locals who are mighty pleased with the forthcoming defeat of the “New Israel”, the Kurdish entity of ‘Rojava’, or ‘Syrian Kurdistan’. … the Kurdish YPG was a Syrian subsidiary of a veteran Kurdish terror organization in Turkey that killed tens of thousands of Turks over forty years of activity. The Turks weren’t amused when fighters and weapons began to flow from Syria to the terrorists in Turkey… Not only the Kurds entered into a close alliance with the United States and Israel, but they also carried out violent ethnic cleansing of the local Arab population, trying to create a “Syrian Kurdistan”… The Kurds try to preserve what they can. Their supporters speak of impending “ethnic cleansing” – although until now the Kurds were the ones who carried out ethnic cleansing.
Israel sides with the Kurds for they aren’t Arabs. The Kurdish entities and movements enjoyed Israeli support, received Israeli weapons and instructors, as they were supposed to create a ‘New Israel’ on the regained ground. The creation of Syrian Kurdistan, and before that – Iraqi Kurdistan, and if you were lucky – also Kurdistan in Anatolia and Iran – was always a Zionist plan. Pro-Israeli forces in Europe and America play for the Kurds, replaying their old cliché. “Why Arabs can have 22 states, and Jews/Kurds can’t?” – they ask. They demand the creation of Kurdistan under the Israeli-American protectorate, having cut it from Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. The implementation of such a plan is fraught with ethnic cleansing and can raise a wave of refugees in the tens of millions of people, which, of course, would be ok with Israel: it does not accept refugees. As opposed to other forces, Israel would be satisfied by ruining the region. Defeat of Kurd clients and success of Erdogan, this sworn enemy of the Jewish state, is a huge blow for Israel. Kurds are the Albanians of Anatolia. A recently-unified ethnicity, in the past only reputed for banditry and being bashi-bazouks, most infamously in the Armenian-Assyrian genocides. Then they go kvetch that they’re discriminated against, which is what they fully deserve indeed the massacres of 1915 were perpetrated by Kurds, and the Kurds inherited houses and fields of Armenians. Diyarbakir was an Armenian town, now it is a Kurdish city. Israelis consider Kurds, including Kurdish Jews, exceedingly dumb. ‘Ana Kurdi’, “I am a Kurd” is a sort of explanation of a stupid mistake one made. Turks were organizers: Kurds were opportunistic mass-murderers, thieves, looters, abductors of Christian children (after murdering their parents…..). Kurds never had the brains nor the organizational skills to organize the Genocides. They still don’t have the brains nor the organizational skills to have their own country, despite being around 30-35 million strong in the region. https://www.unz.com/ishamir/cautious-optimism-on-turks-and-kurds/
The cozy relationship between the Zionist state and the various Kurdish groups centered at the intersection of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria goes back as far as the 1960s, as Jerusalem has consistently used them to undermine its enemies. It is not by chance that their respective interests overlap to a near tee, between the founding of a Kurdish protectorate and the Zionist plan for a ‘Greater Israel’ in the Middle East which includes a balkanization of Syria. Mossad has openly provided the Kurds with training and they have learned much in the ways of the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from the Jewish state in order to carve out a Syrian Kurdistan.
The ties between the YPG and the PKK are undeniable, as both groups follow jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan’s teachings which merge Kurdish nationalism with the theories of ‘democratic confederalism’ from the influential Jewish-American anarchist philosopher, Murray Bookchin. While the PKK may have been initially founded as a ‘Marxist-Leninist’ organization in the early 70s, a widespread misconception is that it still follows that aim when its ideology long-ago shifted to that of a self-professed and contradictory ‘libertarian socialism’ theorized by Bookchin who was actually a zealous anti-communist. Not coincidentally, the Western anarchist icon was also an avowed Zionist who often defended Israel’s war crimes and genocide of Palestinians while demonizing its Arab state opponents as the aggressors, including Syria. Scratch an anarchist and a neo-conservative will bleed, every time. https://www.unz.com/article/how-the-pro-war-left-fell-for-the-kurds-in-syria/
The
myth that Kurds are the most democratic and moral group in the Middle
East
In
western media, journalists often write glowing articles about the
Kurdish struggle for an independent Kurdistan. The media claims that
the Kurds are the most moral force in Syria, Iraq and Turkey. But,
in the words of Syrian Girl, “as usual the media lies”.1
The
word Kurd simply means Iranian Nomad, they come from a northwestern
Iranian region called Kordestan.2
The name “Kurd” originates from Middle Persian and means “tent
dweller, nomad”. Kurdish tribes were living in nomadic and pastoral
societies, in their tents, divided into tribes and subtribes, and
were “less disposed to adopt civilisation than the Persians or
Turks”.3
There has never been a Kurdistan or Kurdish civilization in history.4
The
Kurds later moved westwards to Iraq, Turkey and Syria, displacing the
indigenous population, in particular Christian Assyrians and
Armenians. Throughout Kurdish history after the Muslim conquests,
there was a tendency for Kurdish tribes to move westwards as vassals
of greater Muslim powers— to Assyria and Armenia, to in modern
times, migration into
western Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
The area of Turkey that the PKK Kurds claim as their ancestral home
used to be Armenia before the Armenian genocide.5
The areas of Syria and Iraq that the Kurds claim used to be Ancient
Assyria, and the land of Arabs, Turkmens, Yazidi and Shabak people.
One
of the most important Kurdish folk heroes is Saladin. Remember what
happened when Saladin’s forces defeated the Christian opponents at
Hattin in 1187. Saladin ordered the mass execution of them. He
“ordered that they should be beheaded, choosing to have them dead
rather than in prison. With him was a whole band of scholars and
Sufis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics; each begged to
be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back
his sleeve.” “Saladin, his face joyful, was sitting on his dais;
the unbelievers showed black despair.”
The
displacement of the indigenous Armenian and Assyrian population did
not begin with the Assyrian and Armenian genocide in the 20th
Century. Between 1055 and 1536, many Assyrian cities and villages
“were raided and attacked by Kurds who killed, looted and
enslaved the indigenous population.” During these times Kurds
were moving into Assyrian regions.6
According to Assyrian historian Eden Naby, the relations between
Assyrians and Kurds have been marked by a long and “bitter
history”, since Kurdish tribal chiefs in Iraq, southeastern
Turkey, northeastern Syria, and northwest Iran regularly attacked and
plundered Christian tribes. Particularly bad for the Armenian and
Assyrian Christian population were the massacres in the 1840s by
Kurdish emir Badr Khan, the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s by
Kurdish Hamidies regiments, the Armenian and the Assyrian genocide
(beginning in 1915) and the Simele massacre (1933) by Kurdish general
Bakr Sidqi. Many of the massacres during the Armenian and Assyrian
genocide were committed by Kurds, the Ottomans instigated many of the
massacres by promising the Kurds the land of the displaced and
murdered Christians. Eden Naby writes that during World War I Kurds
were “responsible for most of the atrocities committed against
the Assyrians in particular, due to proximity and a long tradition of
perceived Kurdish rights to pillage Assyrian Christians and carry
away women and goods”, and that “Kurdish expansion happened
at the expense of Assyrians”.7
The
Assyrian and Armenian genocide was so shocking
that Raphael Lemkin used the cases of the Assyrians, and the
Christian Armenians to argue for a new legal category to be called
crimes of barbarity, primarily “acts of extermination directed
against the ethnic, religious or social collectivities whatever the
motive (political, religious, etc.).” Lemkin coined a new word
for this atrocious behavior – genocide. The modern concept of
genocide has its roots in the Armenian and Assyrian genocide. Hitler
asked in 1939, “Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation
of the Armenians?”
The
displacement and persecution of Assyrians and other minorities by
Kurds has not stopped since the massacres of the early 20th
century. Kurds are still attacking Christians in northern Syria and
Iraq. Human Rights Watch reported that Christians have been
victimized by Kurdish authorities’ heavy handed tactics, “including
arbitrary arrests and detentions, and intimidation, directed at
anyone resistant to Kurdish expansionist plans”. Because the
Kurds don’t have a demographic majority required to impose an
ethnocentric Kurdistan, they have been conducting ethnic cleansing
campaigns, trying to wipe out rival ethnic groups. They are also
trying to impose a Kurdish identity on non-Kurdish groups. Critics
and opponents of the ongoing Kurdification process are regularly
harrassed, arrested, abducted, tortured, receive death threats, or
are assassinated (as is regularly reported by human rights
organisations). AINA reported that land disputes between Assyrians
and Kurds have a long history, and that Kurds have used every
opportunity to “seize their villages and lands through massacre,
systematic killings and intimidation”. The “Assyrian Human
Rights Report” by AINA states among other things that “as
far as the Assyrian community in concerned, the most important role
remained the adjudication of expropriation of Assyrian lands at the
hands of the Kurds in northern Iraq.” 8
Kurds
in Europe
If
one believes the mainstream media, one would think that Kurds are the
model Muslim migrants, that they are proof that Muslims are
integrating well in Western society. But as usual, the media lies.
There is a blatant cover-up of Muslim and Kurdish crime in the media.
The media only rarely mentions the nationality of criminals, but even
if does mention the nationality, it will usually hide the Kurdish
ethnicity, and will for example conflate Kurds with Iraqis or
Iranians. Kurdish crime is massively under-reported in the media, it
is practically
made invisible.
Many
German cities have Kurdish ghettos, where only Kurdish is spoken.
Violent Kurdish gangs dominate schoolyards. A juvenile law attorney
said that 80 percent of all cases are related to Kurdish crime. In
the city of Celle, where only 3.2 percent of the residents are Kurds,
Kurds bought 223 houses, many of the buyers were welfare recipients,
it is suspected that drug money was laundered.9
The Kurdish PKK has also been involved in drug smuggling and
trafficking
which has provided substantial revenue for the PKK. The biggest drug
cartel was led by Kurdish drug trafficker Hüseyin
Baybaşin.
The U.K. National
Crime
Squad
estimated that 90% of the heroin in the United
Kingdom
(25–35 tonnes annually in the late 1990s) was under their control
until 2002, when it had a bloody falling-out with its partners in the
PKK. Huseyin was described as “Europe’s Pablo
Escobar”.
Kurds are not just prolific in the heroin trade, they are also active
in the crystal meth trade.10
Even
in the United States, Kurdish crime gangs have made news. The Kurdish
Pride Gang or KPG, a street gang that formed in 2000 in Nashville,
was involved with drug dealing, home burglaries, rapes, assault and
attempted murder.11
Similar Kurdish street gangs are found in many European cities. In
Germany, well-organized Kurdish heroin dealers pay a share of their
profits to the PKK. In Hamburg a Kurdish cultural association was
involved in the Heroin trade.12
A Kurdish crime gang stole the second larget gold coin in the
world with a worth of 3.75 million Euro from the Bode Museum in
Berlin and ten million Euro from a bank.13
Kurds
are well known for their involvement in left-extreme groups and in
German Antifa groups. In 2016 Kurds physically attacked Michael
Mannheimer and other German patriots who took part in a PEGIDA
demonstration.14
Kurds like Mely
Kiyak have
viciously attacked German nationalist Thilo Sarrazin in the media.15
Cem
Özdemir and other leftist politicians have financed election
propaganda for the HDP in Turkey using funds from German taxpayers.
Özdemir and other politicans even make publicity (in Kurdish and
Turkish) for the HDP using Twitter or through print media.1617
The
„Interventionistische Linke“ (IL), a far left German
organization, also seeks donations for the procurement of arms in
Rojava. The PKK and other Kurdish militant groups receive ideological
and even financial support from German far left groups.18
Sevim Dagdelen, a leftist politician, waved the PKK flag in the
German Bundestag.
The
best-known Kurds in Germany by far are gangster rappers like Kurdo,
with lyrics that are primitive even in the context of this genre, and
whose songs have telling titles like “Near Eastern Bandits”,
“Rapterrorist”, “Violence & Crowbar” or “Criminals from
the Desert”.
The
media also likes to portray the Kurds as liberal and moderate
Muslims. Nearly all Kurds, especially from Iraq, Iran and Syria, are
Sunni Muslims, and all their folk heroes are Muslims.
A survey in Iraq concluded that “98%
of Kurds in Iraq identified themselves as Sunnis and 2%
identified as Shias”.19
About 94 percent of the population in Iraqi Kurdistan is Muslim20
The remaining six percent are mostly non-Kurdish Christians or
Yazidis. But are they really moderate Muslims? There is a strong
Kurdish element in radical Islamism in both Germany and Turkey.
Kurdish
Islamist groups are very active in Germany, where Turkish and Kurdish
Islamists have also co-operated in Germany as in the case of the
Sauerland terror cell. The Kurdish Hizbullah has “left an
imprint on Turkish Kurds in Germany.” Many Islamists in Germany
are ethnic Kurds (Iraqi and Turkish Kurds). Before 2006, the German
Islamist scene was dominated by Iraqi Kurds and Palestinians, but
since 2006 Kurdish and Turkish Islamists from Turkey are dominant.21
Many Iraqi Kurds in Europe financially support Kurdish-Islamist
groups like Ansar al Islam. Militant
Islamism in Turkey first gained ground among Kurds before its appeal
grew among ethnic Turks, the two most important radical Islamist
organizsations have been an outgrowth of Kurdish Islamism rather than
Turkish Islamism. The Turkish or Kurdish Hizbullah is a primarily
Kurdish group has its roots in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of
Turkey and among Kurds who migrated to the cities in Western Turkey.
The members of the IBDA-C were also predominantely Kurds, most
members if not all are ethnic Kurds like its founder, as in the
Hizbullah. The IBDA-C stressed its Kurdish roots, and is fighting
Turkish secularism, and is also anti-Christian. The Hizbullah
reestablished in 2003 in southeastern Turkey and “today its
ideology might be more widespread thean ever among Kurds there”.
The influence of these groups confirms “the continuing Kurdish
domination of Turkish Islamism”.22
Notable Kurdish Islamists include Mullah
Krekar, an Iraqi Kurdish
jihadist
who came to Norway
as a refugee
from Iraqi
Kurdistan.
He was the original leader of the Islamist armed group Ansar
al-Islam,
which was set up and commenced operations in Northern
Iraq
while he had refugee status in Norway.
A
document stated the groups’ objectives, which was to expel
“Christians from Kurdistan and join the way of jihad…”.
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, an Iraqi Kurd born in Sudan, was a leader of
the Islamist terrorist network al-Qaeda. The reason that ISIS is so
powerful in Kurdish areas is because large numbers of Kurds joined
them. A very significant fraction of ISIS is Kurdish. Kurdish
youth in Germany also travel to the Middle East where they receive
para-military training in three-month long paramilitary camps. At the
end of the training, some become functionaries in Europe.23
The
myth of Kurdish women’s rights
In
the mainstream media there is also a never-ending flood of news
articles championing the “progressive”, “feminist” Kurdish
women peshmerga fighters. The readers are led to believe that Kurds
are moderate and just as liberal and “progressive” as the left in
Western society. (Of course, here the media does not hide the
ethnicity of Kurds as it does when it comes to Kurdish crime). But in
reality, female genital mutilation, honor killing, polygamy etc is
widespread in Kurdistan and in the Kurdish diaspora.
One
of the most barbaric crimes, the practice of female genital
mutiliation (FGM), is rampant in Iraqi Kurdistan. Together with Egypt
and Yemen it is one of three regions in the Middle East with high
rates of FGM. Nowhere else outside Africa is FGM as widely practiced
as in Iraqi Kurdistan.24
FGM
is also practiced among Kurds outside of Iraqi Kurdistan, in Iran,
Turkey and the West. FGM and other practices like honor killing are
much less practiced, if at all, by most other ethnic groups in the
region such as Assyrians or Persians.
Honor
killing is a widespread practice across all Kurdish regions in Iraq,
Turkey, Syria and Iran. Domestic
violence, forced marriage and honor killings are particularly
widespread in Iraqi Kurdistan and other Kurdish regions and the
situation in Kurdish regions has been called a gendercide. “both
the KDP and PUK stated that women’s oppression, including ‘honor
killings’, are part of Kurdish ‘tribal and Islamic culture’”.
Many
honor killings are also reported as suicides by self immolation.
Naturally, the practice of honor killing is also practiced by the Kurdish diaspora in the West. You can take the Kurds out of the Middle east, but you cannot take the Middle east out of the Kurds. Some of the most well known honor killings involved Kurds, including the honor killing of Heshu Yones, the first legally recognized honor killing in the UK, and of Hatun Sürücü in Germany. One of the most harrowing documentaries on honor killing, “Banaz a Love Story”, is about the honor killing of an Iraqi Kurdish girl in London. In an interview the director stated that in directing the movie, she tried her best to avoid that the movie could be charged with racism, that she took special care it would not paint a black picture of the Kurdish community. Whatever her intentions, by showing an accurate picture of Kurdish clan society in Europe it is hard not to to feel disgusted. The honor killing of Sara by her Iraqi Kurdish brother and cousin was the first publicized honor killing in Sweden. According to her mother, Sara’s brother believed that she “was a whore who slept with Swedish boys”, and that even though he also slept with Swedish girls that “was different, because he is a male, and he would not even think of sleeping with Iraqi girls, only with Swedish girls, with whores”. In 2016, a Kurd attached his wife with a rope at the rear of his car and drove through the city of Hammeln, Germany.2526This is a typically Kurdish Iraqi “tradition” that probably occurred in Germany for the first time.
In
the UK, the DailyMail reported on a Kurdish sex gang in the UK, in
articles titled “Drugged and gang-raped under a Kurdish flag”.
During one attack a 13-year victim was high on cocaine while a gang
of illegal Kurdish migrants took turns to have sex with her under a
Kurdish flag. On another occasion, the girl was taken to a party at a
flat where there was a group of seven men in a room with a Kurdish
flag on the wall. ‘She attempted to resist the first man. She was
given more Mcat then, one by one, they took their turn having sexual
intercourse with her.’ All the Kurdish men, who had abused five girls
as young as 13, had entered the UK illegally before claiming
asylum.2728
Kurdish Muslims in the U.K. were
identified
as perpetrators of grooming and sex rape gangs in Sheffield (2008),
Peterborough (2015), Newcastle (2017), Preston (2012) and other
places.2930313233
In
Berlin, a Kurd brutally killed Maria P., a pregnant 19-year old
woman, an act which the media described as the most brutal killing in
recent years. He killed her because he wouldn’t accept a child from
a Christian girl.3435
The Iraqi Kurd Ali B. raped and killed Susanna F., a 14-year old girl
from Mainz, and the “refugee” fled back to his home country Iraq,
which suddenly was “safe” again for him. Most media didn’t
report is that the “refugee” was Kurdish.
The
killing of a Cuban-German by two “refugees” in Chemnitz was
widely reported in the media, but the media never mentioned that the
killers were Kurdish nationalists36.
One of the killers was a Kurd from Iraq, the other from Syria. The
Kurd from Iraq shared photos online which indicated that he was
previously in the Peshmerga. Both had Kurdish nationalist tattoos and
were posing with PKK flags. The killing of 14-year old Susanna
Feldmann was also widely reported in the media, which never reported
that she was killed by an Iraqi Kurd37.
Violence
against women is deeply entrenched in Kurdish society. According to
Amir Hassanpour, “while it is not unique to the Kurdish
case,linguistic, discursive, and symbolic violence against women is
ubiquitous” in the Kurdish language, matched by various forms of
physical and emotional violence.38
Violence against women is also deeply entrenched in Kurdish political
organziations. In his book on Abdullah
Öcalan,
Selim Çürükkaya, a dissident from the PKK wrote that Öcalan was
raping girls, and that he was acting like a sex- and murder machine
among young (Kurdish) girls.39
Many
Assyrian girls are forced into prostitution by Kurdish criminal
organizations, and the families of these girls have also been
threatened. In northern Iraq, Assyrian girls are forced by Kurdish
criminal organizations to work in prostitution. If they refuse, they
are threatened with death. Many of them are vulnerable refugees. The
organizations have ties with Kurdish political leaders. Some are sent
to EU countries to work there. Kurdish politicians in Iraqi Kurdistan
have been involved in the trafficking and prostitution of women.
There is a strong military and political co-operation between Kurds and Zionists. Many nationalist Kurds are strongly pro-Israel, also because they are aware of the help they receive from Zionist influence through the media and the refugee industry. The strong relations and co-operation between Muslim Kurds and Zionists is very exceptional in the Middle East. Kurds have benefited tremendously from the training they received from Israel. The Kurds have great teachers for the last few decades, the Israelis. When one wonders why a nomadic, tribalist people has suddenly become very successful and visible in far left politics… According to a former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry, Israel’s help and cooperation with Kurds was part of a strategy that sought alliances with other non-Arab nations in the region. In 1980, Menachem Begin, the prime minister at the time, officially acknowledged Israel’s clandestine relations with the Kurds. He confirmed that Israel had sent to the Kurds not only humanitarian aid but also military advisers and weapons. Even today, the state-owned Israeli communications company Bezek transmits broadcasts on behalf of the Kurdish Democratic Party in northern Iraq every evening. Kurds have close ties with Israel since the 1960s from which they received support in their activities against the former Ba’athist regime until 1975. Allegations that Israeli agents have been operating in Iraq’s Kurdish areas have been circulating. A BBC News report of September 2006 provided evidence that Kurdish Peshmerga received military training from Israelis. Such close co-operation with Jews is viewed with suspicion by other Muslims.40 Eliezer Tzafrir, a former senior figure in Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, said Israel kept military advisers at the headquarters of Iraqi Kurdish rebel chief Mula Mustafa Barazani from 1965 to 1975, training the insurgents and supplying them with light arms, artillery and anti-aircraft guns. He said the United States also took part in the campaign. In return, Israel received “a window onto an enemy Arab country,” with access to intelligence the rebels gathered on Baghdad.4142
But from a Kurdish and Israeli view, it makes sense. One can find much similarity between the Kurds and Israelis in methods of controlling and seizing land.43 The well known Syrian freedom activist ‘Syrian girl’ says: “The majority of Kurds living in Syria arrived after 1920 as refugees from Turkey. Refugees who were allowed in in the country are now trying to take a piece of it. That is how Israel was created. No wonder Israel is in full support of creating a Kurdistan (a second Israel). It must also help that the borders of the proposed Kurdish state perfectly line up with greater Israel.44 The Israeli want to create a Kurdistan in order to divide the countries and create perpetual war.45 The Kurds are the closest racial group to Jewish people.46“ Both Kurds and Zionists have a strong belief in the unique suffering of their people. A Kurdish woman says about the stress on the uniqueness of suffering among Iraqi Kurds: “It made me hate anyone who is not Kurdish….other Kurdish women we talked to continued to stress the particular suffering of Iraqi Kurds in relation to other non-kurdish iraqis…” 47 Also like many Zionists, the Kurds are known for their widespread involvement in Marxist extreme-left politics, especially in the countries they are colonizing (like Syria or Germany). In many ways, the Kurds combine the worst traits of the Jews and the Muslims, without keeping the positive traits (the high intelligence of the Jews).
But
Kurdish politics is also in many ways very different in Iraqi
Kurdistan and in the countries they are colonizing (be it Germany or
Syria). In Iraqi Kurdistan, non-Kurdish refugees and immigrants face
economic and other discrimination, but in Europe they take advantage
of their refugee status.
Conclusion
One
can speak of a Kurdification of Europe, which means the rapidly
increasing Kurdish colonization of European cities through the
refugee invasion and high Kurdish birthrates, their public displays
of power in the public square through their weekly demonstrations or
the nightly crime committed by Kurdish youth, the billions payed to
the Kurds in social benefits in Europe and in military and other aid
to their homelands. It is part of the larger picture of the
Islamization of Europe, but it is a significant part. There are
certain characteristics that differentiate the Kurdification of
Europe from the Turkification and Arabization of Europe. The
combination of Communist, Islamist and ethnocentric nationalism so
typical of Kurds, and the Kurdish alliance with Jewish and with
far-left groups is unique among Muslim groups. Some problems
associated with Muslim groups, such as Islamic terrorism, honor
killing and female genital mutilation, are particularly pronounced
among the Kurds. But in the mainstream media one sees a completely
different picture. There the Kurds enjoy the image as model Muslim
refugees in Europe – more so than any other Muslim minority. Kurds
are aware of this, and Kurdish leaders encourage it, deception is
part of Kurdish evolutionary strategy. The media hides the brutal way
in which Kurds behave in the Middle East – and in Europe. The media
hides how they ethnically cleanse Christians (and other minorities)
in the Middle East – and how they kill even their own daughters in
Europe.
Due
to the current conflict between Kurds and Turks in Turkey, and due to
the Syrian and Iraqi civil war, ever more Kurdish refugees migrate to
Europe, and more Western financial and military aid is spent for
Kurdish causes in Syria, Turkey and Iraq. These conflicts are in the
best interest of the Kurds in Europe, as long as they continue, Kurds
are not going to be deported, no matter how criminal they are. Many
Kurds directly profit from the destabilization in Turkey and in Syria
and Iraq. The refugee industry costs the German state 30 billion Euro
per year, a large part is for Kurdish refugees from Iraq, Syria,
Iran and Turkey. These Kurdish “refugees” have safe zones in
Iraqi Kurdistan and elsewhere in the Middle East, where they often
even own houses. But it seems that for many Kurds, it is more
profitable to migrate to Europe as a “refugee”. Kurds are also
the directly responsible for the presence of a lot of non-Kurdish
Christian refugees from Syria and Iraq, especially Assyrians.
Kurds
have a centuries long experience of migrating to Christian lands,
conquering Christian lands, and displacing Christians from their
land. In these past decades and centuries they have committed
innumerable massacres against the native Christian population in what
they today call North-, West-, South- and East Kurdistan. It is a
history full of massacres, full of treacheries. The Kurds arrived as
refugees in Syrian only a century ago (or less), today they call it
“West-Kurdistan” and are violently claiming their separate state
in the oil rich North of Syria. And now the same Kurds are migrating
to and colonizing cities and regions in Europe, or what they may soon
call West-West Kurdistan. Kurds have followed a template in Syria
which they successfully applied already earlier in Iraq and Turkey.
Germans and other Europeans would do well do study this template, as
they are now applying it in the Kurdification of Europe.
Of
course, the mass migration of other groups, such as Turks, Arabs or
North Africans, poses very similar problems – and in some aspects
they may even be worse. Turkish immigrants, in particular, are form
criminal organizations. But there are many aspects that are unique to
the Kurdish migrants, such as their extreme ethnocentrism combined
with orthodox Islamism, and their association with far left and
Communist movements – and their strong pro-Israel stance, also very
unusual among Muslim groups. And none of these groups benefits as
much as the Kurds from the media – a media that portrays them as
model refugees and model Muslim migrants, contrary to the facts.
Presently
the Kurds in Europe are preoccupied with fighting Turks rather than
Europeans. But it is not difficult to see how quickly this situation
could change. Kurds, Turks and Arabs have always co-operated in the
past in their attacks against Christians (and Europeans), they have
always unified under Islam against non-Muslims, from Saladdin during
the time of the Crusades, to Badr Khan, to the Hamidians and to Bakr
Sidqi. And an unified Turkish-Kurdish-Arab Muslim force in Europe
could be as great a danger in Europe as it was in these times.
6Aboona,
H (2008). Assyrians and Ottomans: intercommunal relations on the
periphery of the Ottoman Empire. Cambria Press. . ISBN
978-1-60497-583-3.
7“From
Lingua Franca to Endangered Language, The Legal Aspects of the
Preservation of Aramaic in Iraq” by Eden
Naby, In: On the Margins of Nations:
Endangered Languages and Linguistic Rights, Foundation for
Endangered Languages. Eds: Joan A. Argenter, R. McKenna Brown
Most
readers of this article will likely be aware of the problems created
by Muslims in the West. Out of the all the Muslim migrant groups, the
Kurds are a particularly interesting case. In many ways, the problems
they pose or no better or worse than those of other Muslim groups.
But there are also marked differences. For instance, cultural
peculiarities like honor
killing, female genital mutilation, involvement in Communist and
Antifa groups are typically seen among Kurds. Even
though Kurds are among the largest migrant groups in many European
countries, because of pro-Muslim bias in the media and because they
are often conflated with Turks, Syrians or Iraqis, they have an
almost invisible presence in the media (at least when it comes to
crime). Since the European refugee crisis, Muslim populations,
especially Kurdish Muslims, have increased drastically in Europe.
They came as “refugees”. They came from Turkey, from Iraq. They continued to pour in the country over the decades; their birthrates were always very high. Only a few decades ago, there were no Kurds there, now they are over a million (no official numbers exist). They don’t assimilate, rather they are are forcing their culture on the indigenous Christian population, violently displacing non-Kurdish groups from “their” land, of “greater Kurdistan”. They are Muslims, many are Islamists, many are also Communist. And it is with violence that they are enforcing the Kurdification of the once Christian land.
This is not science-fiction, but a description of the Kurds in Syria. The colonization of Northern Syria by Kurds is called Kurdification, but is it much different from what is happening in Germany and in Europe? And only decades or few centuries ago, Kurds were responsible for the genocide of the Christians in Armenia (now called “North Kurdistan”), or in Assyria (now called “East-Kurdistan”).
The
year 2015 saw a massive invasion of refugees into Central Europe from
the Middle East. Most of these refugees were Muslims and were not
refugees at all. The only real refugees coming from this region were
a minority of Christian refugees, who have been victimized by Kurdish
and Arab Muslims. The refugee crisis also marked the preliminary
climax in the Kurdification of Europe – the colonization of Europe
by Kurds. Kurds
are the largest or second largest non-European minority in Germany
and other European countries, and certainly the fastest growing one.
Kurds are often portrayed by the mainstream media as the model Muslim
migrants, as the model refugees. Due to the media, the average
European has come to believe that Kurds are particularly tolerant and
liberal citizens, who uphold progressive values like democracy,
socialism and women’s rights. Many believe that they and other
Muslims can easily be integrated into Western society. The media has
in many ways helped enable the refugee crisis – and the
Kurdification of Europe. The many large Kurdish demsonstrations in
European cities reinforce the media’s view that the Kurds are
“real” refugees. In
Europe, and particularly in countries like Germany, the Kurds are the
favorite Muslim migrants not just of the radical left and the Antifa,
but also of the mainstream media and political establishment.
The
Kurdification of Northern Syria and other regions is often discussed
and debated, especially by their victims and by human rights
organizations. But there are almost as many Kurds in European
countries like Germany than there are in Syria,1
so would it not be appropriate also to discuss the Kurdification of
Europe? Most Kurds in Europe come from four countries (Turkey, Iraq,
Syria and Iran), smaller numbers also come from other Middle Eastern
and Central Asian countries such as Georgia. But demographic
statistics only count the nationality, not the ethnicity, of the
migrants, therefore there are no official numbers on the number of
Kurds in Europe. It seems however certain that a very substantial
part of the Turkish, Iraqi, Syrian and Iranian migrant population in
Europe is Kurdish. In the case of Germany, unofficial estimates for
the total number of Kurds are in the order of 1.2 million Kurds, with
over 100,000 in Berlin, but these estimates are probably on the low
side, and are already outdated due to the refugee crisis.23
Turkish nationals (which include ethnic Kurds) are the largest
non-European minority group in Germany (about 3 million). It is
impossible to ascertain if ethnic Turks or Kurds are the largest
non-European minority in Germany. The next largest non-European
minority are the Arabs (about 1 million). In Germany, Arabs include
people from Morocco to Syria and Iraq, many of whom are also of
Kurdish ethnicity. Turks and Arabs pose many of the same problems as
the Kurdish migrants, they also tend to be particularly often
involved in crime for instance, but there are many aspects that are
unique to the Kurds.
Kurds are vastly over-represented among “refugees” from Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Thus, Kurds make up about 90 percent of all Turkish refugees in Germany.45 In the United Kingdom, about 65-70% of people originating from Iraq are Kurds and 70% of those from Turkey are Kurds.6 Most of these Kurdish migrants have come to the United Kingdom as refugees. Kurds also form a majority in the ‘jungle camps’ around Calais and Dunkirk, in some of these camps up to 90 percent of the “refugees” are Iraqi Kurds, who seek entry to the UK.7 And of course, one of the most well known refugees to Europe was Aylan Kurdi, the Kurd who was washed up on the shores of Greece. Kurds have of course several safe havens in the Middle East, like Iraqi Kurdistan, therefore it is very doubtful if any of the Kurdish refugees in Europe are “real” refugees. Muslim Kurds are not only almost never “real” refugees, they are often the direct cause that there are Christian Assyrian refugees in the West. As the film “Killing Europe” depicts, Kurdish “refugees” claim that they cannot return to Iraq, but in fact thousands of Kurds who live as “refugees” in the West go on holiday in Iraqi Kurdistan (where they own houses or businesses).
In
the absence of official statistics, one has to also consider other
facts to estimate the size of the Kurdish population. In almost every
large city in Germany and other Western European countries Kurdish
demonstrations occur on a regular basis. Many of these demonstrations
regularly draw tens of thousands, sometimes even more, demonstrators.
They are by far the largest demonstrations of any ethnic group in
Germany (far exceeding the numbers in demonstrations by German
nationalists such as PEGIDA) and they happen very frequently,
especially when there is yet another conflict in the Middle East. In
Germany and elsewhere, these demonstrations are often co-organised by
left-wing politicians (such as members of German parliament of the
party “Die Linke”) and the Antifa, and advertised on radical left
websites like Indymedia. Kurdish flags and Antifa flags are displayed
side by side. Despite heavy police presence, paid by the tax payer,
they often escalate in violence, such as during the 2012 Kurdish
“festival” in Mannheim with over 40,000 Kurds, when eighty police
officers were wounded.8910
In cities like Cologne, Kurds regulary hold mass rallys in the
Südstadion or in the inner city, and are allowed to pitch their
propaganda tents for weeks in central places like Neumarkt und
Heumarkt. The Kurdification is very visible in Antifa centers across
Germany, where instead of Che flags, nowadays one sees Rojava flags.
Kurdish
mass immigration has accelerated massively since the European migrant
crisis beginning in 2015. Many of the “refugees” from Syria, Iraq
and Turkey are Kurds, which is not surprising. Kurds have a decades
long experience of coming to the West as refugees, and Kurds in
Europe and in the Middle East have perfected the “refugee”
migration process. They propagate real or more often invented stories
of persecution which are an important factor in the high rate in
which Kurdish refugees are accepted in Europe. They are well
informed, through Kurdish organizations and social media, which
countries are most likely to accept them. For instance, the German
Federal Office for Migration and Refugees publishes job ads
explicitly seeking applicants who are Kurdish speakers. When the
European refugee crisis began in 2015, the Kurdish “refugee”
trail from Iraq to Western Europe was already well oiled.
The Kurdish population has increased exponentially in the past years due to the refugee crisis. But the extremely high birth rates of the Kurds will significantly increase their numbers in the near future. Kurds have one of the highest birth rates of any group in Iraq and the Middle East.11In Turkey, government statistics show that Kurdish women in Turkey give birth to about four children, more than double the rate for the rest of the Turkish population. In some Kurdish dominated provinces women give birth to 7.1 children on average. Even though many Kurds have migrated to cities in Western Turkey or Western Europe, cities in Kurdish south-west Turkey are still growing at a faster rate than others.12 The high birth rates of the Kurds partially explains why they have in the past decades and centuries migrated westwards and displaced other peoples from their homelands, and why such large numbers migrate as (fake) “refugees” to the West to repeat the same process. It is likely that Kurds in Europe will retain their high birth rates. Kurds are prideful of their high birth rates; which can also be seen in Kurdish social media groups such as in Facebook. In these Facebook groups, they advise other Kurds to have ten, fifteen or more children (paid for by the tax payer), so that there will be a “PKK army” in Germany. Incidentally, Facebook groups for Kurds in Germany have more members than groups of any other ethnic minority.
11On
the Margins of Nations: Endangered Languages and Linguistic Rights.
Foundation for Endangered Languages. Conference, Joan A. Argenter,
R. McKenna Brown – 2004
Kurdish-Christian Armenian relations were bitter at the turn of the 19th century and land conflicts were a major problem. Many Christians and Europeans regarded the Kurds as barbarians and a major threat, the French consul at Erzurum describing them as a blood-thirsty savage population which is used to plundering and a nomadic life. Conflicts between the Ottomans and the ShiiteSafavids and Assyrians encouraged the Ottomans into settling their allies, the nomadic SunniKurds, in what is today Northern Iraq and South-eastern Turkey.[24] Starting from then, Kurdish tribal chiefs established semi-independent emirates. The new arrival of Muslim Kurds went along with persecutions of Assyrians. The Kurdish Emirs sought to consolidate their power by attacking Assyrian communities which were already well established there. Scholars estimate that tens of thousands of Assyrian in the Hakkari region were massacred in 1843 when Badr Khan the Kurdish emir of Bohtan invaded their region.[25] The Kurds launched brutal assaults againt Christians under the command of Badr Khan, who murdered thousands of Assyrians in the region of Tur Abdin and Hakkari. Many thousands more being sold into slavery. Christian areas were subjected to the migration of Kurdish tribes. The Kurds murdered thousands of women and men, slicing off the ears of the dead and sending them to Badr Khan, and young women were sold as slaves.[8] The Kurds also forcibly took possession of churches and convents, and they constantly abducted virgins, brides and women, forcing them to turn Muslim.[9] After a later massacre in 1846 the Ottomans were forced by the western powers into intervening in the region, and the ensuing conflict destroyed the Kurdish emirates and temporarily reasserted Ottoman power in the area. In 1843 Nestorians in the Tauris region refused to pay Kurds the jizya, and “by way of reprisal 4350 Nestroians were slaughtered, about 400 women and children were reduced to slavery and all their houses and churches destroyed”.[13] Historians have noted that in “Kurdistan Jews, Nestorians and Armenians were subject to tallage and corvees at whim of authorities, and this period witnessed massacres of Christians in Kurdistan in the mid-19th century”.[14] Historians have noted that “Bedirhan Bey the Ruler “called the Kurdish Muslims to fight a sacred war against Christian Syriac, Nestorian, Chaldean and Armenian people and ordered to massacre and annihilate them”. Kurdish writers have recounted that “the Kurdish troops attacked the Assyrians and started slaughters. Consequently, Assyrians were killed, their villages were destroyed and set into fire… For the second time, in 1846, the Assyrians residing at the Thuma region have been massacred….” British writer William Eagleton said that “in 1843 and 1846, Bedirhan started a massacre and booting campaign against the Christian Assyrians (Nestorians) he was anxious about whose getting stronger and independent through becoming able to rule themselves. It was intolerable for Bedirhan to see the Assyrians living on his own territories getting stronger. Thus he killed ten thousand Assyrians. Even though Bedirhan was a feudal tribal leader, he was expressing the aspirations of Kurdish nationalism.”
To
prevent pro-Assyrian
measures,
in 1890-91, Sultan Abdul Hamid gave semi-official status to the
Kurdish
tribes
who were already actively mistreating the Armenians in the provinces.
Made up of mostly
of Kurds,
and armed by the state, they came to be called the Hamidiye
Alaylari
(“Hamidian Regiments”).[18]
The Kurdish Hamidiye brigands were given free rein to attack
Armenians.[19]
The
Hamidiye
received assurances from the Ottoman Sultan that they could kill
Assyrians and Armenians with impunity. Clashes
ensued and unrest occurred. Abdul Hamid II did not hesitate to put
down these revolts with harsh methods while using the local Muslim
Kurds
against the Armenians.[21]
As a result of such violence, 300,000 Armenians were killed between
1894 and 1897 in
what became known as the Hamidian
massacres.
Unarmed Christian women and children were raped, tortured and
murdered.[119]
A French vice consul declared that the Ottoman Empire was “gradually
annihilating the Christian element” by “giving the Kurdish
chieftains carte
blanche
to do whatever they please, to enrich themselves at the Christians’
expense and to satisfy their men’s whims.”[39]
The troops looted the remains of Armenian
settlements
and these were later stolen and occupied by Muslim Kurds.
Hamidye units were involved in the large scale massacres and violence
against Armenians in the period 1894-97
and 1915, and they were also “implicated in mass murder,
deportation and looting” during the First World War.[39]
In
1894, Paul Cambon described the creation of Kurdish Hamidies
regiments as „the official organisation for pillage at the expense
of Armenian Christians“. Assyrians
were eradicated from Tur Abdin, Mardin, Diyarbakir and Hakkari in
Turkey and Urmia in Iran, the
Syriac city of Mardin was captured by Ottoman
troops
and given over to Kurds who expelled its original population.[18]
There
was also a policy during the Hamidian era to use Kurdish tribes as
irregulars (Hamidiye units) against the Armenians.[16]
Hamidiye units were infamous for their attacks and massacres against
Christians, and the initiative for the massacres came not only from
the central governement, but also from local chieftains and troops.
As
bad as the preceding centuries were for the native Assyrians and
Armenians, the kurdification of the region really went into overdrive
in the 20th
century, culuminating
in the Assyrian and Armenian genocide and the Simele massacres.
Kurdish
tribes have in Turkey, Syria and Iran have conducted regular raids
against their Christian neighbors and even paramilitary assaults
during World War I,[36]
and they “took possession of [their] land”.[7][8]
Since
the 16th century after Sultan Selim I brought the Kurds and settled
them in Assyrian lands, the Ottoman Empire began using Kurdish tribes
to kill Christian Assyrians and Armenians systematically. In the
beginning of World War I the Kurdish tribes, which formed a Kurdish
cavalry force in the Ottoman army known as the “”Hamidian
Cavalry”” headed to the Assyrian plain villages in the east
of what is today known as Turkey as well as the Assyrian villages in
Tur Abdin and Hakkari and killed thousands of Assyrians. The Assyrian
Patriarch Mar Binyamin Shimon (who was later assassinated by a Kurd)
declared that the Assyrians joined the war on Russia’s side in
self-defence and for liberation.[21]
From
the mid 19th century, “the Kurds carried out numerous massacres
of Nestorians, culminating in 1915-1918 with the murder of about half
of all the Nestorians and their patriarch Mar Shimun XIX – a genocide
proportionally similar to the massacre of the Armenians.”[5]
The important Rabban Hormizd Monastery and the Mar Mattai monastery
in Iraq and
important libraries were
plundered and
destroyed countless
times by the Kurds.[6]
Professor
Martin
van Bruinessen
writes
that
relations between Christians and Kurdish were often bitter and during
World War I, “Christians of Tur Abdin (in Turkey) for instance have
been subjected to brutal treatment by Kurdish tribes, who took their
land and even their daughters”.[15]
In
1915 Kurds massacred more than 27,000 Assyrians in Urmia region alone
and destroyed more than 100 villages Assyrian villages in March 1915
alone.[20]
“The
skulls of small children were smashed with rocks, the bodies of girls
and women who resisted rape were chopped into pieces live, men were
mostly beheaded, and the clergy skinned or burnt alive” by
the Kurdish Hamidiye units.[40]
In the Assyrian village of Haftvan almost 1000 people were beheaded
and 5000 Assyrian women were taken to Kurdish harems.[9]
In
1918, during the Persian
Campaign,
about half of the Assyrians of Persia died of Ottoman
and Kurdish massacres and related outbreaks of starvation and
disease. About 80 percent of Assyrian clergy and spiritual leaders
had perished, threatening the nation’s ability to survive as a
unit.[16]
In 1918, the
Kurdish chieftain Simko
Agha Shekaki, regarded as a national hero among Kurds, killed the
Assyrian Mar Benjamin Shimun, the Patriarch of the Church of the
East[6]
at the negotiation dinner, and the aftermath led to further
decimation of the Christian population.[36]
In September 1914 more than 30 Armenian and Assyrian villages were
burnt by Kurdish mobs in the Urmia region.[16]
Churches and monasteries were destroyed or converted into Mosques,
livestock and possessions were stolen by Kurds, who then occupied the
emptied Assyrian towns, villages and farmsteads.[18]
In
Seert
the
Kurds “assembled all the children of from six to fifteen years
and carried them off to the headquarters of the police. There they
led the poor little things to the top of a mountain known as Ras-el
Hadjar
and cut their throats one by one, throwing their bodies into an
abyss.[21]
The
Assyrian city of Urmia was “completely wiped out, the
inhabitants massacred,” with 200 surrounding villages ravaged,
200,000 of Assyrian dead, and hundreds of thousands more Assyrians
starving to death. Two hundred Assyrians were burned to death inside
a church, and the Russians had discovered more than 700 bodies of
massacre victims in a
village outside
Urmia, ‘‘mostly naked and mutilated,’’ some with gunshot
wounds, others decapitated, and still others carved to pieces.
Thousands
of girls as young as seven had been raped or forcibly converted to
Islam; Christian villages had been destroyed, and three-fourths of
these Christian villages were burned to the ground.[38]
Kurds
were sifting the ashes of burned Christians victims to find gold
and other valuables.
Massacres
were often carried out upon the initiatives of local Kurdish
politicians and Kurdish tribes.
Both
Kurdish and Turkish nationalists deny the fact that Assyrians were
the original inhabitants of south-eastern Turkey and northern
Iraq.[21]
The Assyrian population was so small in the aftermath of the genocide
that the region called Assyria in ancient times came to be known as
“Kurdistan”.[21]
The Kurds and Turks cynically resisted Assyrian and Armenian efforts
to attain statehood after World War II.[21]
While the Kurdish population doubled from two million in 1970 to four
million in 2002, the Christian population decreased.[21]
The
demographics
of this area underwent a huge shift in the early part of the 20th
century.
Kurds
conquered these regions by displacing the native, mostly Christian
population. The most well-known examples are the Assyrian genocide
(1914-20) and the Armenian genocide (1914-23). But there were many
more such massacres. The number of Assyrian victims during the past
few centuries is in the hundreds of thousands or more. Muslim Kurds
fought the Assyrians not just because they were Christians, but also
because they feared that European powers would defend the Assyrians
against Kurdish aggression and Kurdish land grabbing. Kurds
persecuteed Armenian and Assyrian populations particularly in the
period between 1914 and 1923 during which the Assyrian and Armenian
genocide took place. Many of these massacres were planned and
masterminded by the Ottoman Empire under the Young Turks regime. They
were the brains behind the planning of these massacres, which were
ultimately carried out largely by Kurds, by Kurdish generals,
chieftains, militia, clans, tribes, and mobs.
The
remaining Assyrians living in northern Iraq today are those whose
ancient ancestry lies in the north originally, an area roughly
corresponding with Ancient Assyria. Many of these, however,
have been displaced by Kurds since the genocides of World War I. This
process has continued throughout the twentieth century: as Kurds have
expanded in population, Assyrians have come under attack as in 1933
(Simele
Massacre), and as a result have fled from Iraq. (Stafford,
Tragedy of the Assyrians, 1935)
Assyrians
have suffered persecution during the early 20th century, mainly at
the hands of Kurdish tribes who persecuted them as individual tribes
(Shakkak), and as Muslim allies of the Committee on Union and
Progress working through the Ottoman armies during World War I, and
later as Kurds who took part in the 1933 Simele massacre of
Assyrians.[18]
Shortly before the August 11 Simmele massacre in 1933, Kurds began a
campaign of looting against Assyrian settlements. The Assyrians fled
to Simele, where they were also persecuted.
Kurdish
General Bakr
Sidqi, after engaging in several unsuccessful clashes with armed
Assyrian tribesmen, on 11 August 1933, Sidqi permitted his men to
attack and kill about 3,000 unarmed Assyrian civilian villagers,
including women, children and the elderly, at the Assyrian villages
of Sumail (Simele)
district, and later at Suryia.
Religious leaders were prime targets; eight Assyrian priests were
killed during the massacre, including one beheaded and another burned
alive. “Girls were raped and made to march naked before the army
commanders. Children were run over by military cars. Pregnant women
were bayonetted. Children were flung in the air and pierced on to the
points of bayonets. Holy books were used for the burning of the
massacred.”
An
estimated two-thirds of the Assyrian population was massacred, many
fled from their Iraqi homeland to Syria. More than 60 Assyrian
villages were looted or burned down and most of them were later
inhabited by Kurds.[35]
Today, most of these villages are inhabited by Kurds. The campaign
resulted in one third of the Assyrian population of Iraq fleeing to
Syria (where today they face the dangers of Kurdification in Northern
Syria).[44]
Only a few of the Christians of the Nineveh Plain remain after after
the repeated attacks by Arab and Kurdish fighters. Historically
Christian cities like Erbil, Zakho, Dohuk, Kirkuk, and Mosul have
been Kurdified and Islamized. Suryanis emigrated from Syria after the
Amuda massacre of August 1937. The massacre was carried out by
Kurdish general Saeed Agha and emptied the city of its Suryani
population. Malikiya, Darbasiya and Amuda have since become
completely Kurdish. Also the historically Christian city of Nusaybin
has become Kurdish. Christians fled to Qamishly which became a
Christian city until the immigration of Kurds beginning in 1926.[18]
Having
scapegoated the Assyrians as dangerous national traitors, this
massacre of unarmed civilians became a symbol of national pride, and
enhanced Sidqi’s prestige. The hugely popular Assyrian massacre, an
indication of the latent anti-Christian
atmosphere among the Muslim Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen population,
also set the stage for the increased prominence of Bakr Sidqi. In
October 1936, Bakr Sidqi staged the first military coup in the modern
Arab world.
According to Malik Mufti, he systematically promoted Kurds and
Turkomans for positions in the army until they were 90 percent of the
high ranking officers, which generated resentment.[5]While
today Armenians “concentrate their resentment against the
Turks”, in reality “Kurds and Arabs had participated in the
genocide and the enslavement and conversion of Armenian women and
children”.[12]
Lemkins’
work on defining genocide as a crime dates to 1933, and it was
prompted by the [[Simele massacre]] in Iraq.<ref>William Korey,
“Raphael Lemkin: ‘The Unofficial Man’,” ”Midstream”,
June–July 1989, p. 45–48</ref> It
is “at the hand of the Kurds that they suffered most of the loss
of life which Raphael Lemkin was to assess as genocide”. (The
Man Who Invented Genocide: The Public Career and Consequences of
Raphael Lemkin, James Martin, Institute for Historical Review, 1984) The
Simele massacre inspired Raphael
Lemkin
to create the concept of genocide.[70]
In 1933, Lemkin made a presentation to the Legal Council of the
League
of Nations
conference on international criminal law in Madrid,
for which he prepared an essay on the Crime of Barbarity as a crime
against international law. The concept of the “crime of
barbarity” evolved into the idea of genocide, and was based on
the Simele massacre and the Armenian
Genocide,
later to include the Jewish
Holocaust.[5]The
Simmele Massacre is also commemorated yearly with the official
Assyrian Martyrs Day on August 7.
The
American Mesopotamian Organization (AMO) demanded an official apology
from Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani for the murder of Assyrians
by Kurds in the past, claiming that thousands of Assyrian Christians
were killed in the region in the last century. The organization also
made the news when it criticized a message from Barzani on the
occasion of the Assyrian Martyrs Remembrance Day on the 80th birthday
of the Semile massacre. The Semile massacre was conducted by a
Kurdish general, Bakr Sidqi. But the message made the Assyrians
victims of the Simmele massacre martyrs in the “”Kurdistan
liberation movement, it was claimed.[49][50]
Reverend John Eshoo described one of these massacres by the Kurds: “These Assyrians were assembled into one caravansary, and shot to death by guns and revolvers. Blood literally flowed in little streams, and the entire open space within the caravansary became a pool of crimson liquid. The place was too small to hold all the living victims waiting for execution. They were brought in groups, and each new group was compelled to stand over the heap of the still bleeding bodies and shot to death. The fearful place became literally a human slaughter house, receiving its speechless victims, in groups of ten and twenty at a time, for execution…. These helpless Assyrians marched like lambs to their slaughter, and they opened not their mouth, save by sayings “Lord, into thy hands we commit our spirits. […] The executioners began by cutting first the fingers of their victims, join by joint, till the two hands were entirely amputated. Then they were stretched on the ground, after the manner of the animals that are slain in the Fast, but these with their faces turned upward, and their heads resting upon the stones or blocks of wood Then their throats were half cut, so as to prolong their torture of dying, and while struggling in the agony of death, the victims were kicked and clubbed by heavy poles the murderers carried Many of them, while still laboring under the pain of death, were thrown into ditches and buried before their souls had expired…. Some of the younger and good looking women, together with a few little girls of attractive appearance, pleaded to be killed. Against their will were forced into Islam’s harems. Others were subjected to such fiendish insults that I cannot possibly describe. Death, however, came to their rescue and saved them from the vile passions of the demons. The death toll of Assyrians totaled 2,770 men, women and children.”
Amnesty
International reported
on
instances of forced displacement by
the Syrian-Kurdish
YPG that constitute
war crimes.
Since
the Simele massacre in 1933, the displacement and persecution of
Christians by Kurds (and other Muslims) has never stopped. The
remaining Assyrians, Armenians, and other minorities of Northern Iraq
and Syria are threatened by Kurdification processes, seeking either
to impose a Kurdish identity on them or to push them forcibly out of
their homeland. According to U.S. Army Lt. Col. Sargis Sangari “the
region in northern Syria that the Kurds want to declare their own
includes all Christian Assyrian villages in the country”.
Assyrians
have complained about the confiscation and occupation of Assyrian
lands, and “that the Kurds invent new and impossible laws when
the legitimate owners ask for their lands”. In
the
area of “ancient Assyria, Kurdish expansion has come at the
expense of the Assyrian population”. Due to both Arab and
Kurdish intimidation policies, especially on the part of the Kurdish
Democratic Party, the Aramaic speaking Christian population has been
much reduced. Assyrians in
northern Iraq
state
“that the KRG confiscated their property without
compensation and that it has begun building settlements on their
land.”
Assyrian
community leaders are threatened by Kurdish authorities and mobs.
They are forced or threatened to agree for the inclusion of their
areas into the territory of the Kurdish Regional Government or other
Kurdish administrated zones and vote in the interest of Kurds.
Protection units of the Assyrians have been waylayed by the KRG. In
Syria, the PYD has also shot demonstrators, arrested political
opponents, and shut down media outlets. In Syria and Iraq, minorities
have been forcefully displaced and their villages and houses occupied
or razed and
destroyed.
The
KDP was accused of not investigating killings of non-Kurdish
civilians by the Peshmerga.
Tensions
between Kurds and the minorities sometimes erupt in massacres and
riots, such as the Kirkuk massacre (1959) or the Kirkuk riots of
2003. Between
2003 and 2006, Kurds have oppressed Turkmen in Tal A’far, with 1,350
deads and thousands of houses damaged or demolished and 4,685
families displaced. Observers
have called the
KRG’s actions in
Northern Iraq
a “land grab” and
said that
Kurdish forces are using the fog of war to seize land that rightfully
belongs to victims of genocide.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02/16/kurds-move-to-keep-yazidi-christian-refugees-from-their-homes-is-hurting-anti-isis-alliance.html
U.S. Sen. John McCain complained about “reports of land
confiscation and statements you have made regarding Kurdish
territorial claims to the Nineveh Plains region”. Foreign
reconstruction assistance for ChaldoAssyrian communities was being
controlled by the KRG without input from that community’s
legitimate leaders. Chaldo-Assyrian Christians have also said
that KRG officials deny Christians key social benefits, including
employment and housing. KRG officials were also reported to have used
public works projects to divert water and other vital resources from
Chaldo-Assyrian to Kurdish communities…leading to mass exodus,
which was later followed by the seizure and conversion of abandoned
Chaldo-Assyrian property by the local Kurdish population. Other
groups
also report similar abuses by Kurdish officials, suggesting a pattern
of pervasive discrimination, harassment and marginalization.
http://www.aina.org/releases/20110617190740.htmhttp://www.aina.org/reports/uscirf2007.pdf
Assyrian Christians also alleged that the Kurdish Democratic
Party-dominated judiciary routinely discriminates against
non-Muslims.” Assriyans
have accused Kurdish
forces and officials of engaging in systematic abuses and
discrimination against them to further Kurdish territorial claims.
These accusations include reports of Kurdish officials interfering
with minorities‘ voting rights; encroaching on, seizing, and
refusing to return minority land; conditioning the provision of
services and assistance to minority communities on support for
Kurdish expansion; forcing minorities to identify themselves as
Kurds; and impeding the formation of local minority police forces. An
Assyrian
activist from the Assyrian Patriotic Movement said
that the entire Assyrian Triangle (between Greater Zab and the River
Tigris) has been occupied by Kurdish intruders.[6][10]
Some Assyrians in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq also complained that
construction plans are “aimed at affecting a demographic change
that divides Assyrian blocs” The Assyrian International News
Agency stated
that
the KDP Peshmerga have annexed Assyrian, Yazidi, and Shabak villages
in Northern Iraq and they are now under Kurdish control. AINA also
added that in Iraqi Kurdistan, Assyrian politicians of some towns
have been replaced with Kurdish ones.[17]
In
a report “‘We Had Nowhere Else to Go’: Forced Displacement and
Demolition in Northern Syria,” Amnesty International documented
allegations of forced evictions of Arabs and Turkmens and the
destruction of their homes. The report also documented cases of
“deliberate displacement of thousands of civilians and the
razing of entire villages in areas under the control of the PYD.[40]
The report said that “in some cases, entire villages have been
demolished”, and that villagers were “ordered to leave at
gunpoint, their livestock shot at”. Amnesty reported
that
“they told us we had to leave or they would tell the US coalition
that we were terrorists and their planes would hit us and our
families. Threats by the YPG of calling in US airstrikes against
villagers were reported. Amnesty International concluded that “these
instances of forced displacement constitute war crimes.”
[56][57][58][59]
Arabs and Turkmen stated
that YPG militias have stolen their homes and livestock, burned their
personal documents and claimed the land as theirs, and that Turkmen
“are losing lands where they have been living for centuries.”[60]
During the Syrian Civil War, the People’s
Protection Units
(YPG), the largest of Rojava’s self-defence militias under the
umbrella of the Syrian
Democratic
Forces,
were accused of crimes against Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen communities.
The allegations include kidnappings of suspected persons,[77]
torture,[77][78]
ethnic cleansing,[81][82]
and expulsion.[77]
In an October 2015 report, Amnesty
International
alleged cases of forced displacement, demolition of homes, and the
seizure and destruction of property.[83][84]
According to Amnesty International, some displaced people said that
the YPG has targeted their villages on the false
pretext of supporting ISIS. In October 2015, Amnesty
International
reported that the YPG had driven civilians from northern Syria and
destroyed their homes in retaliation for perceived links to ISIL. The
majority of the destroyed homes belonged to Arabs.[92]
Turkish “Daily Sabah” claimed that Amnesty International
has said that Kurdish PYD conducted ethnic cleansing against Turkmens
and Arabs after seizing Tal Abyad.[93]
In
April 2015 David Jendo was killed, he was leader of the Assyrian
Khabour guards, by
YPG members. Qamilshi has been designated as the Kurdish capital in
Syria, but Assyrians believe the town was founded by their
ancestors.[39]
“Hundreds
of thousands” Christians are leaving the country(Iraq) entirely
which
is directly connected to the problems of “illegal land seizures”
by
Kurds.[42][42]
There have been reports that Kurdish security forces have also
committed abuses against Christians in northern Iraq during the Iraq
war
2003. These included threats and intimidation to detentions and
torture.[43][44]
In 1992, Assyrians who supported Iraqi dictator Saddam published a
communiqué, which warned against the continuous process of
Kurdification in northern Iraq which said:“The Kurdish leadership,
and in a well-planned program, had begun to settle Kurds and in large
numbers around Assyrian regions like Sarsank, Barwari Bala and
others. They claimed that Kurdish housing project was naturally to
change the demographic, economic, and civic structure of the
Christian regions in only few short years; a process that forced the
Christian to emigrate as the vacant homes were overtaken by “the
Kurds”.”[45]
Human
Rights Watch
reported that Christians
have been victimized by Kurdish authorities’ heavy handed tactics,
“including arbitrary arrests and detentions, and intimidation,
directed at anyone resistant to Kurdish expansionist plans”. To
incorporate Nineveh other Christian lands into Kurdish territory, it
was claimed Kurds have offered minorities inducements while at the
same time “wielding repression in order to keep them in tow”.
It was stated
by
Assyrian groups that the systematic and widespread attacks on
Christians that took place in 2008 in and near Mosul were committed
with KRG responsibility “with the aim of undermining confidence
in the central government’s security forces” and at the same
time strengthening confidence in the KRG. During the killings of
Christians in Mosul, the Kurdish-dominated security forces seemed
unable to stop the attacks. HRW also stated that “KRG
authorities have relied on intimidation, threats, and arbitrary
arrests and detentions, more than actual violence, in their efforts
to secure support of minority communities for their agenda regarding
the disputed territories”. A Chaldo-Assyrian leader described
the Kurdish campaign to Human Rights Watch as “the overarching,
omnipresent reach of a highly effective and authoritarian regime that
has much of the population under control through fear. During
important elections, threats against minority community politicians
and voters were reported.[7]
Kurdish security forces were criticized for human rights abuses
against minorities, abuses “ranged from threats and intimidation
to detention in undisclosed locations without due process.”
HRW
reported that to consolidate their (Kurdish) grip on Nineveh area and
to facilitate its incorporation into the Kurdistan Region, Kurdish
authorities in Nineveh have embarked on a two-pronged strategy: they
have offered minorities of Nineveh inducements while simultaneously
wielding repression in order to keep them in tow. The goal of these
tactics have been believed to be to push Shabak and Yazidi
communities to identify as ethnic Kurds, and for Christians to abide
by the Kurdish government’s plan of securing a Kurdish victory in
any referendum concerning the future of the disputed territories.
According to Youash Michael, Peshmerga forces controlled the security
in the Nineveh Plain in 2008, allowing the KDP to deny the minorities
of the Nineveh Plain a chance to express their will electorally. The
“Kurds” had seized their lands and the Kurdistan Regional
Government would not implement any decisions requiring the return of
land to “original Assyrian inhabitants”.[42]
The
UNHCR reported that there have been acts of violence
committed against political opponents and minorities in areas under
the control of Kurdish forces. Minority leaders have claimed that in
some cases Kurdish political parties and forces have “subjected
them to violence, forced assimilation, discrimination, political
marginalization, arbitrary arrests and detention.” UNHRC reports
that Kurdish parties and forces are “considered responsible for
arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention and torture of political
opponents and members of ethnic/religious minorities”. UNHCR
also stated that Christians have complained about attempts by Kurds
to assimilate them and about “the use of force, discrimination
and electoral fraud by the Kurdish parties and militias”. One
incident was on October 2006 when KRG forces broke into the building
of a Christian media organization and detained the staff. UNHCR also
reported that Christian parties have claimed “harassment and
forced assimilation by Kurdish militias in Kirkuk and areas with the
aim of incorporating these areas into the Region of Kurdistan”,
and stated that “Christians have repeatedly accused the Kurdish
parties and their military forces of “acts of violence and
discrimination, arbitrary arrests and detention
on sectarian basis, political marginalization (including through
electoral manipulations), monopolizing of government offices, and
changing the demographics with the ultimate goal of incorporating
Kirkuk and other mixed areas into the Region of Kurdistan”. The
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) noted that the
Kurdish parties use a form of “soft ethnic cleansing”.[35]
Christians have according to UNHCR also repeatedly complained about
ongoing Kurdification. The US State Department reported that “Kurdish
authorities abused and discriminated against minorities in the North,
including Turcomen, Arabs, Christians, and Shabak”. UNHCR also
stated that Kurdish parties “denied services to some villages,
arrested minorities without due process and took them to undisclosed
locations for detention, ”[36][note
1]Assyrians
activists state
they have suffered from
Kurdification in Iraqi Kurdistan. Assyrian activist have claimed that
the number of Christians live in Iraqi Kurdistan have been reduced
due to the destruction of villages or kurdification policies.[67]
Christians and Assyrian Christians used to constitute a much higher
proportion of the population of northern Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan
than they do today. Their numbers were seriously reduced due to
massacres, flight and other reasons. Relations between the remaining
Christians and the Kurds were often been less than cordial.[68]
According to Assyrian expert Michael Youash, in some cases Christians
became refugees because Kurds seized their land and the KRG would not
provide any help in returning the land to them.[69]
An
Amnesty International report concluded that “Peshmerga forces of
the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) were
preventing residents of Arab villages and Arab residents of mixed
Arab-Kurdish towns from returning to their homes, and in some cases
have destroyed or permitted the destruction of their homes and
property – seemingly as a way to prevent their return in the
future.”In many cases, Arab houses were “looted,
intentionally burned down, bulldozed or blown up after the fighting
had ended and Peshmerga forces were in control of the areas.”
and the report noted that these were not isolated incidents, but
examples of a wider pattern. Amnesty also noted that “the forced
displacement of Arab residents and the extensive, unlawful
destruction of civilian homes and property violate international
humanitarian law and should be investigated as war crimes”.
Amnesty International noted that the village of Tabaj Hamid for
example had been razed to the ground. In Jumeili 95 percent of all
walls and low lying structures have been destroyed. Amnesty
International researchers were apprehended by Peshmerga, who escorted
them out of the area and prevented them from taking
photographs.[77][78][79][80]
Amnesty said that “The deliberate demolition of civilian homes
is unlawful under international humanitarian law, and Amnesty
considered that these instances of forced displacement constitute war
crimes.[81]
Amnesty International also urged the KRG authorities to promptly and
independently investigate all deaths that occurred during protests
against the KDP (such as on october 2015), and to disclose the
findings.[82]Amnesty
criticized that peshmerga forces from the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) and Kurdish militias in northern Iraq have
bulldozed, blown up and burned down thousands of homes in an apparent
effort to uproot Arab communities. The report, Banished
and Dispossessed: Forced Displacement and Deliberate Destruction in
Northern Iraq,
is based on field investigation in Iraq. It said that “tens of
thousands of Arab civilians who were forced to flee their homes
because of fighting are now struggling to survive in makeshift camps
in desperate conditions. Many have lost their livelihoods and all
their possessions and with their homes destroyed, they have nothing
to return to. By barring the displaced from returning to their
villages and destroying their homes KRG forces are further
exacerbating their suffering.” The report revealed evidence of
forced displacement and large-scale destruction of homes in villages
and towns by the peshmerga.[83][84][85][86][87]
Human Rights Watch reporteed that Kurds have denied Arabs the right
to return to their homes, while Kurds had free movment and could even
move into the homes that belonged to Arabs.[88]
In a 2016 report “‘Where are we supposed to go?’:
Destruction and forced displacement in Kirkuk”, Amnesty
Internation stated that Kurdish authorities have demolished and
bulldozed people’s homes and forcibly displaced hundreds of Arab
residents.[89]
In 2005 the KDP opened fire on protestors at a demonstration by the
Democratic Shabak Coalition, killing two Assyrians and leaving
several other Assyrians and Shabak wounded.[90]
Assyrian groups have also accused Kurds for election rigging in
northern Iraq and for preventing Assyrian representation in
politics.[91]
AINA
reported that land disputes between Assyrians and Kurds have a long
history, and that Kurds have used every opportunity to “seize
their villages and lands through massacre, systematic killings and
intimidation”. They state
that this happened during the Kurdish revolt of the 1960s, the Simel
massacre of 1933, the First World War and at other times. AINA also
reported that textbooks used in Kurdish controlled areas are “replete
with Kurdish flags and nationalist poems glorifying Kurdistan”,
and that only the Kurdish village names are used. AINA also noted
that “hundreds of Kurdish families from Iran settled in the
Assyrian town of Sarsing”.[52]
Francis Yusuf Shabo was an Assyrian Christian politician who dealt
with complaints by Assyrian Christians regarding villages from which
they had been forcibly evicted during the Arabization and
subsequently resettled by Arabs and Kurds.[53][54]
He was shot dead in Duhok in 1993. Lazar Mikho Hanna (known as Abu
Nasir) was another Assyrian Christian politician who was shot dead in
1993 in Duhok. Amnesty International has reported that these killings
were attributed to special forces within the KDP, PUK and IMIK.[53]
In 1997 two Assryian politicans, Samir Moshi Murad and Peris Mirza
Salyu, were killed near Arbil, by Kurdish students allegedly members
of the the PUK.[55]
In 1999 KDP members were accused of the rape and murder of 21-year
old Assyrian woman Helena Sawa.[56]
In 2004 an “KDP militia attacked St. John the Baptist Syriac
Catholic church in Bakhdida, and residents were severely beaten,
finally taken away”.[57]
In 2008, KRG authorities arrested Assyrian blogger Johnny Khoshaba
al-Raykani based on critical articles he had written. Also reported
is the arbitrary arrest and detainment of Hazim Nuh, a member of the
ADM, Hammurabi Human Rights Organisation, and Tell-Kayf District
Council, in 2009.[58]
A series of killings of Christians in Mosul was reported in 2008,
with HRW and Washingtion Times writing about reports from Assyrian
groups that Kurds may be behind the attacks. Kurdish authorities have
denied their involvement.[59]
In 2011, radical imams in Zakho, Dohuk Province encouraged Sunni
Muslim Kurds to riot and destroy Christian shops selling alcohol and
churches and houses. 30 shops were burned; and many other Christian
buildings destroyed [60]
The New York Times reported that after Christians had to flee,
Christian towns are now being seized and occupied by Kurdish forces.
Kurdish peshmerga are using the fight against ISIL to expand their
territory into Christian lands in the Nineveh Plain. Christian
militias must now ask the Kurds for permission to travel in these
regions.[61]
There were murders and imprisonment of many Assyrians over land
disputes in northern Iraq, the rape of Assyrian girls and the
assassination of two prominent Assyrians: Francis Shabo and Franso
Hariri.[62]
Kurds in Zakho in northern Iraq rioted over four days, set dozens of
liquor stores alight, attacked an Assyrian church and homes and
destroyed property including four hotels, a health club and an
Assyrian social club in Dohuk. The KRG has increased Kurdish
expansionism at the expense of Assyrian interests. The KRG has
systematically intimidated Assyrian politicians and has sought to
flood the territory with Kurds and Kurdish security forces with the
hope that an increase in the Kurdish populace and a weakening of
political will among divided minority groups will allow them to annex
the plains.[63]
As was reported from the wikileaks cables, continuing Kurdish
intimidation continues to be a problem for Iraqi Christians.
Assyrians have reported that there is an increasingly bellicose KRG
policy as the result of the Kurds, desire not to lose what was gained
in terms of self-rule after the first Gulf War. As a result, there is
an ongoing trend toward authoritarianism in the KRG, and the Kurds
are a highly tribalized society, prone to in-fighting and more
Islamic extremism than was currently apparent. Radicals
notwithstanding, there is greater tolerance for the Christian faith
among Iraqi Arabs than among Iraqi Kurds.[64]
In
2014, Assyrians claimed that the KDP was systematically disarming,
and then abandoning Assyrian and other minorities in preparation for
an ISIS assault. The KRG distributed notices to Assyrians in norhern
Iraq demanding full disarmament in 2014. Assyrians were disarmed and
reassured that the Kurdish Peshmerga would protect them against ISIS.
But when ISIS attacked, the Peshmerga suddenly retreated. A similar
event unfolded when Kurdish Peshmerga retreated when ISIS advanced in
the Sinjar region and Shingal in 2014.[65]
Peshmerga general and spokesman for the Peshmerga Ministry Holgard
Hekmat said in an interview with SpiegelOnline: “Our soldiers just
ran away. It’s a shame and apparently a reason which is why they
invent such allegations ”.[66]
It is estimated that 150,000 Assyrian Christians were violently
driven from their ancestral homes in the Nineveh
Plains.[60]
A KRG official was quoted in a Reuters article inn 2014 as saying
“ISIL gave us in two weeks what Maliki couldn’t give us in eight
years”.[60]
The
“Assyrian Human Rights Report” states among other things
that “as far as the Assyrian community in concerned, the most
important role remained the adjudication of expropriation of Assyrian
lands at the hands of the Kurds in northern Iraq.” Kurds
subsequently resettled villages illegally from where they had evicted
Assyrians, and have not allowed Assyrians to resettle their
lands.Kurds
subsequently resettled villages illegally from where they had evicted
Assyrians, and have not allowed Assyrians to resettle their lands.
The report also states that “recent attacks against Assyrian
civilians by Kurds in northern Iraq and by others elsewhere in the
country have recently increased, and most of the villages have been
subsequently reclaimed by Kurds. It also notes that “following
the establishment of the a safe Haven further land grabs by Kurds
directly or indirectly supported by local Kurdish authorities have
led to the expropriation of lands from 52 additional villages in
northern Iraq”.[73]
Assyiran leader Francis Shabo who was working on this issue was later
assassinatedAssyrian girls were kidnapped, raped and forcefully
married to Kurds. Such incidents include Wassan Michael, an Assyrian
girl from Simele who was kidnapped in 1996 and forced to marry one of
the Kurdish kidnappers.
In Syria
and Iraq, Kuridification describes the conquest and colonization of
areas originally belonging to Assyrians, Armenians, Shabaks and other
peoples and forced assimilation into Kurdish identity.
During
ISIS rule, Kurdish forces who claimed to proetct the minorities have
in fact disarmed them, forced them to leave their villages and when
ISIS attacked, the Kurdish forces left, leaving them unprotected and
disarmed.
Kurds
have been painted by the fake media as the only force fighting
against IS. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many Kurds
fought for IS, many more fought for other Islamist organizations, and
when they only fought insofar against IS as it meant defending their
occupied land. In the past, Kurds Arabs and Turks cooperated against
Christians, now that the Christians are gone, Kurdish tribalism and
hyperethnocentrism sometimes lead to intra-Muslim conflicts.
There
have
been
reports “about killings of Assyrians by agents of Kurdish
political parties”. The Kurds rely largely on “intimidation,
threats, restriction of access to services, random arrests and
extrajudicial detentions, to persuade their political opponents and
ordinary members of these communities to support the KRG’s plan to
expand into the disputed territories”. [note
2][note
3]
There
are also regular riots targeting
Christians and Assyrian businesses and
allegations that some of these riots are planned by the Kurdish
authorities. There
are also regular attacks
on Assyrians and
Assyrian self-defence units,
bombings
and
other forms of violence by
Kurds
or by the KRG/YPG.
In
2009, during the Iraq war, HRW stated that “KRG authorities have
relied on intimidation, threats, and arbitrary arrests and
detentions, more than actual violence, in their efforts to secure
support of minority communities for their agenda regarding the
disputed territories. A Chaldo-Assyrian leader described the Kurdish
campaign to Human Rights Watch as “the overarching, omnipresent
reach of a highly effective and authoritarian regime that has much of
the population under control through fear.[48]
An
Assyrian woman Helena Aloun Sawa, was
killed
and raped in
1999.
She was a housekeeper for a KDP politician, and Assyrians have stated
that the case “resembles a well-established pattern” of
complicity by Kurdish authorities in attacks against Assyrian
Christians in northern Iraq”.[70]
That
many of these figures were killed in spite of their attempts to
engage with, or even work under, Kurds only enhances the deeply
embedded popular perception among Assyrians of an inexorable Kurdish
tendency towards treachery.
http://www.aina.org/news/20151221023437.htm
Deception is an art and the Kurds have perfected it. They presented
themselves to the world through that democratic and civilized image,
however, they never stopped oppressing, killing, assassinating,
kidnapping, raping, and terrorizing the Assyrians in north of Iraq.
http://www.atour.com/education/20030919a.html
Assyrian
Christians also said that the “KDP-dominated judiciary routinely
discriminated against non-Muslims and legal judgments in their favor
were not enforced”. The Kurdish political parties “encouragd
and supported resettlement of Kurds in Kirkuk outside the framework
of the IPCC”. However Arabs remained “in antagonistic and
extremely poor conditions, facing pressure from Kurdish authorities
to leave the province”. Michael Youash also reported that in
2007 there were “numerous reports of Kurdish authorities
discriminating against minorities in the North….Authorities denied
services to some villages, arrested minorities without due process
and pressured minority schools to teach in the Kurdish language”.[69]
Additionally, several reports have been written about those
Christians who do not get “political” representation and
therefore do not succeed in expanding their schools, and are shut out
from all but the most basic funding.[67]In a 2006
poll that was conducted in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Dahuk 79% of Kurds
were against allowing Arabs to come to Iraqi Kurdistan and 63% were
against their settlement in the Region.[47]
Kurdish
authorities given the task of delivering ballot boxes to Assyrian
districts in Iraqi Kurdistan failed to do so, while Assyrian election
workers were fired on and killed during
the 2005 elections. http://www.aina.org/releases/20110617190740.htm
In 2015 elections, many of the mostly Christian residents in the
Ninewah Plain were unable to vote, “polling places did not open,
ballot boxes were not delivered, and incidents of voter fraud and
intimidation occurred”. Kurdish militia refused to “allow
ballot boxes to pass to predominantly Christian villages”. The
KRG also reportedly “pressured NGOs into hiring only Kurds and
dismissing non-Kurds on security grounds”. The US State
department report said that “Kurdish authorities abused and
discriminated against minorities in the North, including Turcomen,
Arabs, Christians, and Shabak”, and that Kurdish authorities
“denied services to some villages, arrested minorities without
due process and took them to undisclosed locations for detention, and
pressured minority schools to teach in the Kurdish language”.
The Aramean politician Johny Messo also criticized that Syria’s
minorities “were not allowed to participate as an independent
voice in the Geneva peace talks”. He said that “there are
thousands of Aramean Christians living in northern Syria, and the PYD
is trying to intimidate and threaten them”.[41]
Assyrians lack many democratic rights compared to Kurds, with all
important decisions being taken by Kurdish politicians of the
PYD.[33]Security
officers and authorities who work for Barzani tribe and his political
party, the KDP, have frequently abused some local Christians and IDPs
for not being “enough” loyal to them. Some have also
complained that adults have to join the KDP party in KDP-majority
areas of Iraqi Kurdistan in order to be granted employment and that
KDP representatives are allowed to settle in Assyrian villages.[39]
In 2005, the Department of State’s 2005 Human Rights Country Report
for Iraq stated in the January elections, there have been reports
that many of the mostly non-Muslim residents on the Nineveh Plain
were unable to vote and incidents of voter fraud and intimidation
occurred during the Iraq
war
2003. It was reported that Kurdish security forces also “prevented”
ballot boxes to pass to some Christian villages fearing that they
will support the central Iraqi government.[42]
Some cases of illegal land and property seizures of Assyrian
Christian lands by KDP members were also claimed.[42]There
have also been accusations that Kurds were rigging votes in Kirkurk
in 2005.[37]
Christians and Shabak people asserted that in the 2005 elections,
“non-resident Kurds entered the polling centre and over 200 had
voted by the time MNF intervened and stopped the illegal voting”.[38]
The UNHCR also stated that Christians run “the risk of
arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention” by Kurdish forces.
The Washington Post reported on extra-judicial detentions already in
2005, writing about a “concerted and widespread initiative” by
the Kurdish parties to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an
increasingly provocative manner”, and that arbitrary arrests and
abductions by Kurdish militia had “greatly exacerbated tensions
along purely ethnic lines.” UNAMI HRO said in 2007 that “(T)hey
[religious minorities]
face increasing threats, intimidations and
detentions, often in KRG facilities run by Kurdish intelligence and
security forces.” [41]
The Washington Post estimated that there were 600 or more
extrajudicial transfers. It was reported that detainees claimed
“arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions and use of torture
and unlawful confiscation of property.”[42]
Abuses by Kurdish forces ranged from “threats and intimidation
to detention in undisclosed locations without due process”;[43]
The Kurdish parties’ plans to incorporate “disputed areas”
like Kirkuk into Kurdistan are met with resistance by Christian, Arab
and Turkmen groups. UNHCR noted that Christians and Arabs in Mosul
and Kirkuk and surrounding areas are “under de facto control of
the KRG” and “have become victims of threats, harassment
and arbitrary detention.” UNHCR also said that Christian and
Arab Internally displaced people are discriminated against, and those
expressing their opposition to the Kurdish parties, by for example
taking part in demonstrations risk “arbitrary arrest and
detention”. The UNHCR also reports that the KDP and PUK “have
repeatedly been accused of nepotism, corruption and lack of internal
democracy.” Arbitrary detentions by Kurdish authorities of
suspected political opponents have also been noted. Minorites have
complained about “forcible assimilation into Kurdish society and
a trend towards increasing discrimination of the non- Kurdish
population”, and efforts to dominate and “kurdify”
traditionally mixed areas like that of Kirkuk. Christian
Assyrians have stated that in Kurdistan and KRG regions, they are
victims of religious intolerance and discrimination in employment.
According
to UNHCR, journalists have “repeatedly claimed that press
freedom is restricted and that criticism of the ruling parties can
lead to physical harassment, seizure of cameras and notebooks and
arrest”.[44]
In one incident, Kamal Sayid Qadir, was given a 30 years sentence
after writing critically about the KDP.
The sentence was reduced after international pressure.[45][46]
In
2008 the Assyrian Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of the Chaldean
Catholic Church in Mosul was assasinated. Rahho was a defender of
Assyrian self-administration. The
man accused of killing the Christian politician Francis Yousif Shabo
in 1993 is “allowed to walk around freely” in Kurdistan.
The impunity for those who attacked or killed Assyrians in the
Kurdistan region has
been
criticized.[34]
Assyrian Christian David Jindo was one of many murdered Christian
politicians. Other prominent Assyrian leaders who were killed by
Kurdish nationalists include Patriarch Mar Shimun, Franso Hariri,
Margaret George (one of the first female Peshmerga) and Francis
Shabo. Many of these figures were killed “in spite of their
attempts to engage with, or work under, Kurds”.[35][35][36]Amnesty
reported that Francis Yusuf Shabo, an Assyrian Christian and
politician, who was also responsible for dealing with complaints by
Assyrian Christians about disputed villages was shot dead on 31 May
1993 in Duhok and no one was yet brought to justice. Lazar Mikho
Hanna (known as Abu Nasir), an Assyrian Christian and politician was
shot dead on 14 June 1993 in Duhok. Amnesty criticized the impunity
given to the Kurdish political parties armed and special forces due
to which assailants have not been brought to justice, and the “active
undermining of the judiciary and the lack of respect for its
independence by the political parties”. Amnesty also reported
that Kurdish forces “arrested people arbitrarily” and in
some cases tortured detainees, killed civilians. and that assailants
were not brought to justice.[34]
The
Assyrians are also discriminated in the field of work in the Iraqi
Kurdistan region. Christian Assyrians often can only work jobs as
sales people in liquor shops or beauticans in beauty salons and are
therefore targets for Muslim extremists. Many Assyrian shops were
burned in 2011. Assyrians
are also not allowed in professions such as the following: policemen,
soldiers, officers, journalists for major newspapers and TV stations,
judges and senior positions within educational institutions.
Assyrians
claim that Kurds are working to Kurdify the local Christian
population in northern Iraq. Christians have reported that that they
were forced to identify themselves as Kurds in order to access
education or healthcare services. Yazidis and Shabaks “are not
recognised as separate ethnicities and Assyrians that originate from
northern Iraq are encouraged more and more to identify as Kurdistani
or Kurdish Christians”.
Assyrians
have criticized the kurdification of the school curricula, i.e. the
attempts to kurdify the educational curriculum. Kurdish
nationalists have
enforced revisionist curricula in schools with a Kurdish-nationalist
bias, it has been noted that
they “alter
historical and geographical facts” because due to the very
obscure history of the Kurds, “Kurds have been forced to look
for what they wanted in others’ nations sources”<ref>Aboona,
H (2008). Assyrians and Ottomans: intercommunal relations on the
periphery of the Ottoman Empire. Cambria Press. . ISBN
978-1-60497-583-3. </ref>. Ancient Assyirian objects and
buildings have been labeled by Kurdish authorities as Kurdish. Also
many names of places and towns have been changed to Kurdish names.
Observers have also reported that Kurdish forces often used to
practice their shooting on important Assyrian cultural heritage
sites.[6]
The
Kurdistan Regional Government attempts
to rewrite the history of the region to give it a Kurdish flavor and
diminish its historic and far older Assyrian heritage. Minority
schools are
pressured to teach in the Kurdish language”[36][note
1]
Assyrians
have also said that Kurds have modified and falsified school
textbooks (kurdification). Assyrian groups have stated that in school
textbooks the Kurds alter historical and geographical facts, for
example Assyrian Christian places are given new Kurdish names and
historical or Biblical figures are claimed to be Kurdish.[48]
Assyrians
have criticized that while Kurds are very well funded, the Assyrian
Christians receive almost no funding for their schools (and
funds for Assyrian schools are diverted).
Party membership in Kurdish parties is necessary to obtain
“employment and educational opportunities” in Iraqi
Kurdistan. The Kurdish parties also control “the pursuit of
formal education and the granting of academic positions”. There
have been also claims by Assyrian organizations that Kurdistan
Regional Government have hindered international aid for local
Christian Assyrians and tried to prevent Aramaic schools.[39]
Assyrian
students complain that they are treated and rated in a different way
than Kurdish students. Kurds in the West also often present “fake
and bogus awards like MAs, PhDs and professorial titles”. This
is a problem not just in the West, but also in Iraqi Kurdistan where
Loyal political party members with fake university titles hold “high
official ranks from ministries to university chancellors, deans of
colleges, general managers, administrators, supervisors and school
headmasters”.
In
the KRG-area the local Assyrian history is seen as Kurdish history.
City names are changed to Kurdish names. Assyrian heritage is ruined
and Assyrian history is not recognised in school books, museums and
during memorial days.[51]
It
was claimed that Kurds have “raised impediments to acquisition
of international aid for development, attempted to prevent the
establishment of Aramaic language schools and prevented the
establishment of Christian Assyrian schools”, and the issues
were also criticized by the US State Department.
Deception
is an art and the Kurds have perfected it.1
Kurds are infamous for their treachery, Assyrians have stated that
many Assyrian were killed by Kurds in spite of their attempts to work
under Kurds.
Christians
and Arabs are not made welcome in Iraqi Kurdistan (much like the
Palestianians, they are discriminated against economically, legally
and socially.) While in Europe, they take (and abuse) every advantage
of the generosity of the Christians.
Western
media calls cities in Syria and Northern Iraq Kurdish cities, cities
that were only decades (or centuries) ago Assyrian cities, who were
displaced by Kurdish attacks.
Bedouin
Arab villages have been burned to the gorund and assyrian Christian
homes have been confiscated by the YPG. Just have a look at Iraqi
Kurdistan where Assyrian Christians are being pushed off their land.2
News 