For Immediate Release

Contact: Kani Xulam

202.483.6444 or 202.270.9008

June 8, 2000

Kurdish American Group will Hold Silent Vigil

@ Gore Headquarters

Members of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) will join their brethren in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday, June 10, 2000 at noon for a Silent Vigil to draw the attention of Gore Staff to the plight of the Kurds in the Middle East.  Dressed in traditional clothing, their lead banner will read: "It is happening again".  They will hold pictures showing scenes of genocide from the Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish ruled Kurdish lands in the Middle East.

This event will take place on the eve of the premiere of the documentary film, "Good Kurds, Bad Kurds: No Friends But the Mountains" at the Nashville Independent Film Festival.  Scheduled to be shown on June 11, 2000, at 1:15 p.m. at Regal Green Hills 16, the film poses more questions than it answers.  The members of the Silent Vigil will deliver four tickets to the staff of the Gore Campaign to attend the film to see the reality of Kurdish life.

Saddam Hussein attacked the Kurds of Iraq with chemical weapons in 1988, but the Reagan-Bush administration ignored this atrocity against a civilian population and continued its relationship with the Butcher of Baghdad.  To his credit, Senator Gore issued a press release that condemned the premeditated attack on the Kurdish civilians.  However, upon taking office at the White House, Vice President Gore has remained silent about the need to set up a tribunal to prosecute those who committed these crimes against humanity.

The United States Government has supplied Turkey with weapons worth $ 10.5 billion since the beginning of the most recent Turkish campaign of cultural genocide against the Kurds in 1984.  Of this amount, Ankara has only paid $2.5 billion.  The Turkish government, in turn, has used these weapons to rain terror and destruction on the Kurds and subject them to a policy of forced assimilation and mass deportations.

"Our culture is different, not bad, " says Tara Welat of the American Kurdish Information Network.  "We are not opposed to Washington's relations with Turkey, but we are against Turkey's policy of eradicating the Kurdish culture.  We believe that Vice President Gore, if elected, should make it a policy of his administration to stop supplying Turkey with weapons with which it is committing genocide against the Kurds.  The Kurdish documentary brings this issue to light.  We hope our tickets to the Gore Staff will not go to waste."