The Kurds are no saints. Turkey will soon be Israel's next-door neighbor

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Sep 19, 2014 at 02:31

Hello, Leon:

Some notes on the Assyrian genocide (not Armenian):

• Deaths: 275,000–400,000
• Perpetrators: Sultan Abdulhamid II, Young Turk government, Kurdish tribes
• Many Assyrians were subjected to Kurdish brigandage and even outright massacre and forced conversion to Islam, as was the case of the Assyrians of Hakkari during the massacres of Badr Khan in the 1840s and the Massacres of Diyarbakır during the 1895–96 Hamidian Massacres.
• On March 3, 1918, the Ottoman army led by Kurdish soldiers assassinated one of the most important Assyrian leaders at the time. This resulted in the retaliation of the Assyrians. Malik Yosip Khoshaba of the Bit Tiyari tribe led a successful attack against the Ottomans. Assyrian forces in the region also attacked the Kurdish fortress of Simko Shikak, the leader who had assassinated Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin, they successfully stormed it, defeating the Kurds, however Simko escaped and fled. Assyrians were involved in a number of clashes in Turkey with Ottoman forces, including Kurds and Circassians loyal to the empire. When armed and in sufficient numbers they were able to defend themselves successfully. However, they were often cut off in small pockets, vastly outnumbered and surrounded, and unarmed villagers made easy targets for Ottoman and Kurdish forces.

-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_genocide

If we must bring up the subject of genocide, let's not forget the Assyrians (Christians, also called "Aramaens" in Israel) -- who once made up a majority in a large part of Turkish Kurdistan, but have now been largely wiped out.

I have no sympathy for Kurdish aspirations for independence. They have never been a country; their greatest leader, Salah ad-Din, did not rule a "Kurdish" state, but rather an "Islamic" one in which Kurds were but a minority.

So much for my "sympathies". On a strictly pragmatic basis, however, I can see value in an independent Kurdish state next to Iran, friendly to Israel.

Concerning Mr. Biden's proposal, I would imagine that Pres. GW Bush ignored it because a fragmented Iraq did not serve American interest. Then, as now, an independent Kurdistan can only exist as a fleeting buffer state between advancing Turks and Persians. The fact that this independence is a serious consideration today, is evidence of the collapse of effective govenment in the Fertile Crescent. Soon, very soon, Turkey and Israel will be next-door neighbors, buffer states or no.

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