Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Election results in Halabja
I was quite furious till today, about the results in Halabja, so I went back to the news article and at the heat of looking out for the results I had thought that Halabjaeeans had voted the PUK and KDP list and not what I expected they would vote which was the 4 party list.
It turns out that the PUK and KDP list had only won by a tiny majority that is out of 9 voting stations 4311 for them and 4308 votes for the 4 party list. That is not bad at all given the fact that they had voted Mirawdeli for the presidency and Barzani had still grabbed a close number of votes to that of Mirawdelis.
So I do take back what I had said on the election day that I would not be as I have been remembering the 16th of March next year as I now realise that indeed the Halabjaeeans had voted according to my expectations and the PUK and KDP list must have made up some votes to be closer to them. I would understand why they could have avoided the change list as religion still plays a great role in the public matters within Halabja.
so that is a note for me!
It turns out that the PUK and KDP list had only won by a tiny majority that is out of 9 voting stations 4311 for them and 4308 votes for the 4 party list. That is not bad at all given the fact that they had voted Mirawdeli for the presidency and Barzani had still grabbed a close number of votes to that of Mirawdelis.
So I do take back what I had said on the election day that I would not be as I have been remembering the 16th of March next year as I now realise that indeed the Halabjaeeans had voted according to my expectations and the PUK and KDP list must have made up some votes to be closer to them. I would understand why they could have avoided the change list as religion still plays a great role in the public matters within Halabja.
so that is a note for me!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
KRG will be different!
I could not come here and write about the historic 2009, July elections in the KRG as I am doing my dissertation and all I can do is work and study! But I just wanted to drop some lines here about sevral things that I have noted, noticed and sometimes amazed about!
- There is real change amongst the Kurds accepting differences
- New Islamic and religious movements accepting the reality of the Kurdish people
- New people are allowed to speak for themselves and to be really independent
- The fact that people still beleive in democracy and would want more differences than just a couple of choices
- The KRG itself has indeed bothered to deal witht the competing political powers and was in full blast doing itse propaganda
- The lists do mean the STOP and had meant the START of the election propaganda, as I just checked sevral websites and they are either completely down or adds are cleared hours ahead of the deadline!
- There is real hope that even if the aristocratic, old peshmargas and whatever other labels they might have; PUK and PDK has to adapt to the will of the KRG people
- The Kurds in Iraq are as lively and energetic as we were when we rose against Saddam's ever scary governement and threw him out of the Kurdish land forever in 1992
- The most lively, reform-demanding, politically diverse and the motor of innovation in Kurdistan including the other three or four parts of Kurdistan remain to be Slemany, the city which can take in anything! It used to be called Paris, due to its ever great desire for fashion, I would love to call it London not for its fashion but for its great political diversity!
- And most importantly politics is the art of lies, whether blatantly or tactfully!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Viva Hawlati, Awene and Livin
Whilst everyone is locked on those brave ladies in the Capital of Iran, there are brave; as they have always been, journalists within KRG who still defy PUK and KDP rules. Today awene reports[in Kurdish] that they three of them [Awene, Hawlati and Livin] are boycotting Barzani's meeting with media in the KRG as a sign of rejecting the current copycat constitution which has been pushed into the KRG by the illegitimate KRG parliament.
Remember their time has been over more than a week now and they have no even party legitimacy to move on and act as parliamentarians or parlement as elections are due on the 25th of July.
For sevral good reasons, Iraqi Kurds to care about media and what happens to them even if they are tiny symbolic events which could be discarded by most of other nations around us or internationaly as it was THE media which brought cases such as Halabja and the Kurdish uprising into the international stage without any interference by anyone who were biased towards the Kurdish question, cause or rights. Nonetheless every nation cares about media and it is the media which makes people have opinions sometimes unwittingley.
It is a very brave act on behalf of those three institutions which I consider them to be the heart of Kurdish Independent Media, it comes at a time when the so called Four Parties [Islamic Union, Socialist Party, Zahmatkeshan and Islamic Group(KomalT)] are reported to have been convinced to stay silent and raise their hands to the routine, childish and Baathist way of asking the parliament for approval of laws. This is despite previously labelling the copycat constitution to be against the Islamic principles on behalf of Islamic Union and the Islamic Group.
It just shows how imprtant CHANGE is!
Remember their time has been over more than a week now and they have no even party legitimacy to move on and act as parliamentarians or parlement as elections are due on the 25th of July.
For sevral good reasons, Iraqi Kurds to care about media and what happens to them even if they are tiny symbolic events which could be discarded by most of other nations around us or internationaly as it was THE media which brought cases such as Halabja and the Kurdish uprising into the international stage without any interference by anyone who were biased towards the Kurdish question, cause or rights. Nonetheless every nation cares about media and it is the media which makes people have opinions sometimes unwittingley.
It is a very brave act on behalf of those three institutions which I consider them to be the heart of Kurdish Independent Media, it comes at a time when the so called Four Parties [Islamic Union, Socialist Party, Zahmatkeshan and Islamic Group(KomalT)] are reported to have been convinced to stay silent and raise their hands to the routine, childish and Baathist way of asking the parliament for approval of laws. This is despite previously labelling the copycat constitution to be against the Islamic principles on behalf of Islamic Union and the Islamic Group.
It just shows how imprtant CHANGE is!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Kurdish politicians unable to assess situations
It is still a pitty that many Kurdish intellectuals, politicians and academics including probably history teachers etc consider the 1991 uprising to be the source of the change in Iraqi Kurdistan and what lead to have the current KRG governement in place.
What we fail to recognise is that yes it was the uprising which united the Kurds in saying NO in Iraq but it was not the uprising which brought in the KRG, it almost lead to the death of tens if not hundreds of thousands of us in Iraq just as the previous Baathis regime quelled the Shiites in the south.
Indeed what changed the situation and turned it over its head was the mass-exodus of us leaving our cities, towns and homes when we realised that Saddam's army was back! It was then that the OPC and the international community decided to draw an actual line of 36 lattitute for the army to stop at! What I can remember and what is obvious when mainly the PUK and KDP politicians start speaking is that they did not know or even had a clue what was happening at the time, in fact there were still families hanging around their refugee camp tents in Iran when Barzani and Talabani were whisked to Baghdad to meet the dictator whilst there was still fresh blood under army tanks and armours around Slemany, Chamchamal and other places.
I just wanted to say a word to myself really, may be I am assessing the situation worst of all but I just want to come back to this post one day and realise what mistake-probably I have made. What is happening in Iran at the moment is by some journalists opinions parallel to what was happening in 1979, again the Kurds are marginalising themselves [some would say the army would kill them if they protest in Sina or Kermanshah] but the fact is, they HAVE TO join the reformists if they want any change in Iran to start with. I heard even someone saying "well if we do anything we will be labelled as terrorists". Even the 13 people who are dead due to yesterday's clashes are called terrorists so that is a rubbish excuse.
What I believe is happening is that the Eastern Kurdistani people are proving to me that they are happey where they are and how they live. They do not think they need to be educated in their mother language, and indeed they are quite happy with Mr AhmadiNajad calling anybody a mouse who might be disturbing his beautiful cat dreams!
I have always said what happens to someone is only their fault even if it is a car crash and someone comes from behind you [the fact is you WERE NOT aware of the back mirror and did not see it coming] That is why bless them, our Kurdish people in Iran and sat quietly and the Kurdish parties including PEJAK cannot assess the sitaution and do not know what to make of it, just like the car crash they did not see it coming anyways!
What we fail to recognise is that yes it was the uprising which united the Kurds in saying NO in Iraq but it was not the uprising which brought in the KRG, it almost lead to the death of tens if not hundreds of thousands of us in Iraq just as the previous Baathis regime quelled the Shiites in the south.
Indeed what changed the situation and turned it over its head was the mass-exodus of us leaving our cities, towns and homes when we realised that Saddam's army was back! It was then that the OPC and the international community decided to draw an actual line of 36 lattitute for the army to stop at! What I can remember and what is obvious when mainly the PUK and KDP politicians start speaking is that they did not know or even had a clue what was happening at the time, in fact there were still families hanging around their refugee camp tents in Iran when Barzani and Talabani were whisked to Baghdad to meet the dictator whilst there was still fresh blood under army tanks and armours around Slemany, Chamchamal and other places.
I just wanted to say a word to myself really, may be I am assessing the situation worst of all but I just want to come back to this post one day and realise what mistake-probably I have made. What is happening in Iran at the moment is by some journalists opinions parallel to what was happening in 1979, again the Kurds are marginalising themselves [some would say the army would kill them if they protest in Sina or Kermanshah] but the fact is, they HAVE TO join the reformists if they want any change in Iran to start with. I heard even someone saying "well if we do anything we will be labelled as terrorists". Even the 13 people who are dead due to yesterday's clashes are called terrorists so that is a rubbish excuse.
What I believe is happening is that the Eastern Kurdistani people are proving to me that they are happey where they are and how they live. They do not think they need to be educated in their mother language, and indeed they are quite happy with Mr AhmadiNajad calling anybody a mouse who might be disturbing his beautiful cat dreams!
I have always said what happens to someone is only their fault even if it is a car crash and someone comes from behind you [the fact is you WERE NOT aware of the back mirror and did not see it coming] That is why bless them, our Kurdish people in Iran and sat quietly and the Kurdish parties including PEJAK cannot assess the sitaution and do not know what to make of it, just like the car crash they did not see it coming anyways!
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
A good Kurd is a brave Kurd - not dead!
It has been a couple of days of thinking for me regarding the rise of racism here and there, the fact that the EU elections went to the right and in the UK both UKIP and the BNP have managed to show up for the first time meant alot of thining for me.
I did suffer more than a year in stoke on trent on their hands and I have lived enough racism to know what exactly it might do to people who are vulnerable or in my case get offended easily. Let alone if it goes to the extent of harming, inuring and in today's topic killing them.
I have written on my of my posts about the racism in Turkey, within the Turkish governemnt, law and day to day life whether in Istanbul, in Trabzon or down in Antalya. Today's headline from Zaman is about an ex-University Rector's case, whose barrister speaking for Ergenekon defendants and trying to defend their moto of "a good Kurd is a dead Kurd". The racist thug barrister says "is it a crime to wish for the death of the Kurds?".
My one line reply to him is, "YOU SHOULD BE KILLED FOR SUCH A WISH"
Racism is a fire and people who play with it will not be able to keep away from it and sooner or later they will catch the fire and become ashes even if they have an army as big as the Nazi army of Adolph's. The rise of it means the destruction of every single achievement since the destruction of the worst example of it. It is a shame that in a country like the United Kingdom people still believe that "black people should not be allowed into the BNP" and a thug like Nick Griffin gets elected as a Euro MP!
May God kill (not us) those who have a sinew of racism in their heart!
I did suffer more than a year in stoke on trent on their hands and I have lived enough racism to know what exactly it might do to people who are vulnerable or in my case get offended easily. Let alone if it goes to the extent of harming, inuring and in today's topic killing them.
I have written on my of my posts about the racism in Turkey, within the Turkish governemnt, law and day to day life whether in Istanbul, in Trabzon or down in Antalya. Today's headline from Zaman is about an ex-University Rector's case, whose barrister speaking for Ergenekon defendants and trying to defend their moto of "a good Kurd is a dead Kurd". The racist thug barrister says "is it a crime to wish for the death of the Kurds?".
My one line reply to him is, "YOU SHOULD BE KILLED FOR SUCH A WISH"
Racism is a fire and people who play with it will not be able to keep away from it and sooner or later they will catch the fire and become ashes even if they have an army as big as the Nazi army of Adolph's. The rise of it means the destruction of every single achievement since the destruction of the worst example of it. It is a shame that in a country like the United Kingdom people still believe that "black people should not be allowed into the BNP" and a thug like Nick Griffin gets elected as a Euro MP!
May God kill (not us) those who have a sinew of racism in their heart!
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