Ozgur Politika Editorial

Can you think of another people whose whole culture has been shaped by pain, sorrow, and torment, and whose tragic history is etched in its faces? If only this people could tell its bitter story, accumulated over the ages and generations, if only the world could hear, if only all could hear…

Did they not say “its name is forbidden, its tongue is banned”? Were they not pleased that “it got what it deserved”. Did they not condemn it, saying “it is buried, entombed in concrete, never to rise again”. Of course there have been countless instances in history of savagery, but very often just a single instance has shocked the world and made it take notice.

Everyone should rake through history, sometimes each step of the adventure of humanity, take note of all examples of savagery and barbarism. We should then turn to Kurdistan and investigate the history of the Kurds. But when doing this, we must not forget to take along a projector, for the lights have been turned off in Kurdistan and everywhere is pitch dark, an entirely different world, an entirely different life. This has been explained and interpreted on countless occasions, so that the deaf and the blind would understand. Parties to the conflict have a responsibility to listen, to see exactly what is going on.

In Kurdistan, which was the cradle of civilization, people have been forced to eat excrement. Dead bodies have been raped and then shot to ribbons. Human beings have been chopped to bits, sometimes while still alive. Their brains have been spilled out while soldiers posed by them. We have done our best to denounce this to the world, but the savagery has continued.

This monster will not be satiated. Now it has severed Kurdish heads from their bodies and poses, grasping them by their hair, greatly pleased by its “triumph”. We ask all who call themselves human: where, in the closing years of the twentieth century, has such a thing occurred? Where are the defenders of human rights, where the advocates of democracy, where the champions of freedom?

In the west, animals are stunned before slaughter so they feel no pain. Admirable! But when it comes to Kurds, everything changes! Why do democratic laws not function, why are freedoms forgotten, rights usurped? Who will have the courage to answer these questions? This must be done and done immediately, because humans are being treated in ways considered unacceptable for animals.

We call on everyone who claims to be human. This return to barbarism must be stopped immediately, because we have no time to wait. Does humanity no longer care? Let us not forget that this savagery is insatiable, ruthless, and quite capable to destroying humanity. Therefore humanity cannot stand idly by, but must act, do its utmost to consign this savagery to the trash can of history.

So we say: May our heads not be severed from our bodies and held aloft by dirty hands!

Ozgur Politika – January 13, 1996