http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41382494
Ballots not bullets. Let's hope it spreads
The Kurds deserve their own state for the amount they have suffered under successive dictators and for the fight back against ISIS.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41382494
Ballots not bullets. Let's hope it spreads
The Kurds deserve their own state for the amount they have suffered under successive dictators and for the fight back against ISIS.
If anyone deserves independence, it's the Kurds. But I'm not very optimistic about this being a peaceful process.
Hope is the denial of reality
Stronger case than for Catalonia, but note the strong opposition from all sides including the US.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Verbal opposition is the least of their problems. There's a real chance of an invasion by Iran, Turkey, or Shiite militias.
Hope is the denial of reality
Oh and West Papua.
Petition not sedition.
https://newint.org/blog/2017/09/27/u...-papua-freedom
Hope is the denial of reality
How's that Kurdish bid for independence going?
Hope is the denial of reality
Maybe people should stop encouraging suicide missions.
Hope is the denial of reality
Starting like the independent referendum was a power-play by one Kurdish faction. The other sold it out on the cheap.
Hope is the denial of reality
If the people (which people?) want something, it must be a good idea! That very idea is anathema to liberalism, which you seem to have completely abandoned around the time of Brexit.
Hope is the denial of reality
Guys the definition of liberalism has changed. Words do that you know.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
I don't know if christian and other minorities in Kurdish majority areas are all that convinced about the Kurds being better rulers than the old batch.
Congratulations America
May i point out the Kurdish role in the extermination of the Ottoman Armenians ?
Congratulations America
I was not immediately aware of that. A quick examination indicates participation was a mixed bag and that Kurds have been acknowledging and apologizing for the genocide. However, forgive me if I'm wrong but were the other locals who are currently in power less involved in that? Because I'm pretty sure they participated as well.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
A) No one knows how fair the referendum was.
B) The Kurds tried to secede with land that clearly does not have a Kurdish majority, but does have a lot of oil.
C) The Kurds have committed ethnic cleansing on parts of the territory under their control to ensure a Kurdish majority (as did the people before them). That includes not allowing Yazidis back to their homes.
D) Most of the minorities under Kurdish control do not want to be a part of an independent Kurdistan.
E) This whole process was pushed by one Kurdish faction as a way to monopolize power in Kurdistan. They thought the nationalist pressure would force the other Kurdish faction to give in. The gambit failed.
F) The process was a joke from the beginning given that Kurdistan is landlocked and its independence is opposed by every single Kurdish neighbor. At some point, practical concerns trump moral ones.
Hope is the denial of reality
There are christian and arab minorities in the area that typically is claimed as 'Kurdistan', of course they were never in power during the Ottoman empire, I am not current on their participation in the Armenian extermination, but I doubt it was substantive. Formal apologies are all nice and well, but I doubt it matters very much if you're still the subject of harrassment by your Kurdish neighbours for no other reason than that you are Armenian (returned), Arab or christian.
Formal apologies also didn't get anybody his ancestral home or lands back.
The obscene truth is that minorities in the Middle East more than anything lost protection as dictators lost power.
Congratulations America
The answer to that question depends entirely on definitions. The Turks acknowledge the deportations and murders, yet refuse to attribute those to government policies. When he was still a PM the present President has expressed 'pain' about the events in 1915, yet never formally apologized.
Congratulations America
I'm not talking about the minorities, I'm talking about the people who were in power in the area before it became an effectively autonomous region and those who are in power in that area now. Both of which are groups who, AFAIK, did participate. So I'm not seeing how a move toward a more official Kurdistan changes anything on that front for the minorities from how it's been in the last 40-50 years.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
Yeah the Middle East is beyond fucked. I feel like people deserve a chance for Democracy but the culture there is too savage and barbaric for it. The best they can hope for is a semi-enlightened despot who slowly educates the populace and moves away from the religion that's even worse than Scientology.
I'm sure there are exceptions and pockets of civility but the major countries like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan etc suck. The UAE for example isn't a Democracy in any sense of the word and it seems to be one of the least bad countries of the lot.