The new US administration practices an old policy toward the Kurds

When President Obama announced his new vision for diplomacy and identified himself a “Citizen of the world,” oppressed people from around the world welcomed the opportunity presented by the first US President who was perceived to have a deeper understanding of human suffering and the cruel policies of oppression still practiced in some parts of the world including Kurdistan under Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

Under the heel of the nations of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey Kurds account for more than forty million people. The misery experienced by Kurds could not have happened without the callous policies of the Western powers. Since the Western powers divided Kurdistan after the WWI, they have contributed to policies that have kept our people in dire living conditions. Therefore, the West has a moral duty to help us to find a means to live in peace and coexistence with the nations that occupy our land.

It is ironic then that just when the EU has reviewed its policy vis-à-vis the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (Iranian opposition based in Iraq) and decided to remove it from its terrorist list, that the new US administration has decided to add the PJAK, a Kurdish Party, whose struggle has been directed against the Iranian regime, to America's terrorist list. This administration, like its predecessors, is willing to turn America’s most loyal friends in the Middle East into scapegoats in order to mollify the Iranian theocratic regime. Since its inception, the Iranian mono-theocratic regime has acted in word and deed against every international norm. It has been sponsoring terrorism in the Middle East, encouraging the destruction of Israel, and thwarting every America’s interest in the region.

It is astonishing to see such a policy from an administration that has been proclaiming to the world its new desire to create a more peaceful world. One could ask, will it be possible to create a new world peace on an old political culture and adhering to the failed policies of the past?

We believe this policy is a continuation of the failed policies of the previous administrations and won’t be productive. America’s new approach with the rest of the world including the Kurds should be premised on democratic principles and mutual respect.

The new administration needs a broader new vision for the world peace where no citizens of the world are discriminated against. Hence, we encourage America’s new administration not to use as scapegoats the Kurdish parties such as PJAK whose main goals have been to achieve peace for the people of Kurdistan-Iran.

If Iran and other nations are supported by the US in their attempt to eliminate PJAK and other Kurdish parties, it would be naive to think that the inherently just Kurdish cause will disappear. We as a people deserve the right of self determination. Therefore, we ask the US administration to refrain from demonizing the human rights struggle of Kurdish parties. It is time for the US to stop its cynical and hypocritical policy of using the Kurds in one arena when it suits their goals and then abandoning them in another for US geopolitical gains.

Contact: Luqman Barwari

When President Obama announced his new vision for diplomacy and identified himself a “Citizen of the world,” oppressed people from around the world welcomed the opportunity presented by the first US President who was perceived to have a deeper understanding of human suffering and the cruel policies of oppression still practiced in some parts of the world including Kurdistan under Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

We are the undersigned organizations, urge you to take immediate action to help save the lives of Kurdish Prisoners on hunger strike in Iran and to ask the Iranian authorities to comply with the hunger strikers demands for humane and decent treatment, in accordance with internationally recognized standards of human rights and international law.

Amendments to a law punishing insults to Turkish identity which the Turkish parliament adopted on 30 April are "cosmetic and insufficient," Reporters Without Borders said today. Dozens of writers and journalists have been convicted under the law, article 301 of the criminal code, since its introduction in 2005.

As four more rockets thumped into buildings in the Baghdad Green Zone on Tuesday, it became devastatingly clear that promises made by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his trip to Iraq in early March were worthless. According to reports, two of the rockets landed in Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's compound but mercifully there were no deaths or serious injuries.

The fact that PKK is a movement of a nation which emerged deep inside the Kurdish elite is not a matter of denial, however it is clear for many people who familiar with the Kurdish issue that PKK appeared and developed as a result of historical necessity in the certain period of the time and its aim and goal has been also well-defined for these whom blind-folded their eyes in the reality of Kurdish people for many years.