The
Statement of Kani Xulam at the New York Newroz Celebration
Forest
Hills, New York
March
16, 2002
We are gathered here tonight to
celebrate Newroz that happens to fall on a day of shame and infamy not just in
our history, but for humanity. This morning, 14 years ago, our brothers
and sisters, mothers and fathers, cousins and uncles, and nephews and nieces
were attacked with chemical and biological weapons in the city of
Halapja. About 5.000 of us died on the spot. I ask that we honor
our dead, those of Halapja as well as martyred Kurdish freedom fighters, by
observing a minute of silence.
May their souls rest in peace even
though their sojourn on earth ended in an untimely, inexplicable, and
excruciating way.
Our losses in Halapja continue to
remain just ours, even though the crime was against civilization and humanity.
Only recently, those who speak for America and the West have rediscovered
our dead and only now are they accusing Saddam Hussein for gassing, are you
ready for this, "his own people".
We resent the use of our dead as
evidence for another war that seeks to topple the butcher of Baghdad but
disregards our pain and longings. Our right to prosecute the criminal in
Baghdad remains sacrosanct and no Kurd will ever forget or forgive those who
shed the Kurdish blood like water.
We have news for these new
miscreants of the world who are oblivious to the teachings of history.
2614 years ago, their kinds also dominated the Middle East and ruled from a
capitol called Nineveh. One man, whose blood runs deep in your veins,
toppled that tyranny to the joy of millions of people throughout the Middle
East. The immortal Kurd was Kawa. His gift of freedom to us and to
the rest of humanity was Newroz. Newroz Pirozbe! Happy Newroz!
Before I go any further, I would
like to recognize at this time, the members of our community who have gone
above and beyond the call of duty to organize this annual gathering. They
have worked tirelessly without complaints or the expectations of praise.
I want them to stand up as I call their names. Seyit Riza, Memo,
Berzan, Meliha, Attilla, Cafer, Semsi and Aziz. Please join me in giving
them a hearty round of applause.
We also have our out of state
guests, Xemgin Birhat, Ayhan and Bangin who join us from Germany, and Sehruz
Ahmedi and Sinan who do the same from Canada. The first group has crossed
an ocean and the second a continent to honor us tonight. We are grateful
to you for honoring us with your presence. We look forward to hearing
your patriotic songs. Please join me in giving our guests a round of
applause as well.
It is a difficult time in our
nation's history. The dark clouds of oppression have long blocked the
blue and clear skies of freedom over our Kurdistan. Generations of Kurds
have grown up fighting the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians,
Arabs, Christians, Mongols, the Ottoman and Kemalist Turks for freedom and a
place of our own under the sun. God is our witness -- we have
feared only him, and no one else. Immortal souls such as Kawa, Rustem,
Saladin, Seyh Said, Seyit Riza, Qazi Muhammed, Mullah Mustapha Barzani, Mazlum
Dogan, Zekiye Alkan, Ronahi and Berivan have guided us with their examples of
selfless lives.
A blind poet by the name of Homer
wrote some 2800 years ago that when a people loses its freedom, male members of
that unfortunate population lose half of their manhood. What Homer saw
missing Kawa restored to us with his fight against King Dehak. But the
precious gift of freedom did not last for long. Modern tyrants such as
Turkey's Ataturks, Iraq's Husseins, Iran's Ayatollahs and Syria's Asads have
turned the Middle East into a black hole for our kind and a fearful place for
their peoples. But one thing has withstood the test of time: freedom was
our gift to the peoples of the Middle East, and it is almost certain that it
will be our present to the region again.
Our Middle East will only enjoy
peace when it tackles the quintessential issue of not just our times but also
of the last three hundred years, the principle of self-determination for
subject peoples. In it lies the sacred will of the Kurdish nation to be
free of others as well as the Middle East's only chance to catch up with the
world. You and I are quite familiar with the Herculean efforts of our
adversaries to block our journey into our manhood. Nothing stopped us
before to respond to freedom's call; nothing will block us again to put an end
to the debilitating legacies of Ataturk, Saddam, Ayatollahs and Asad to restore
Middle East to its former glory.
Many brave Kurds have shed their
precious blood for the sacred call in our own times. In the memory of
some still living Qazi Muhammed went to his gallows with the confidence of a
sleep-walker, for a dream called Kurdistan. The square of carcira in the
city of Mahabad where he wore the noose and bid his final farewell to a nation
defeated but ever defiant will remain in our memory till the end of the
time. That same spirit guided a contemporary of ours, Mazlum Dogan, who
ignited a resistance with a lighter that consumed his flesh but gave rise to
our dearest dream called Kurdistan.
The poets from Homer to our own age
have always had the last word. I have had a life long fascination with
these immortals, some, our own, such as Melaye Ciziri, Eli Heriri, Feqiye
Teyra, Ehmede Xani, Cigerxwin and recently Shahîn B. Soreklî.
They have a way of gauging the depths of our feelings that put us scribblers to
shame. I would like to end my remarks by reading you a few lines of
Sorekli about the celebration we call Newroz:
"Newroz is the symbol of
struggle and resistance
for a nation deprived of freedom
and peace.
Newroz is the desire to create a
New Day
in a country by force divided, in
darkness for years.
Newroz is a page of world history
forged and locked behind iron
gates;
a book written by sacred blood
with pages scattered over every
corner of a land
where pure white snow begins to
melt in March
and the yellow bright sun of
Zaroastra in spring
turns the land of the Medes into a
green carpet.
Newroz is the fury of those
massacred in Ararat,
the cries of those in Dêrsim
burned in closed caves,
the sighs of mourning mothers and
wives
whose husbands and sons were hanged
in Mahabad,
the agony of the five thousand
gassed in Halabcha,
the pain of two million refugees
fleeing chemicals.
Newroz is the aspiration of young
men and women
who every day die so others may
live free.
Newroz is the return of the sun,
the defeat of the darkness,
the hope for a better tomorrow
in Kurdistan."
Newroz Pirozbe.