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Take the PKK Off the Terrorism Lists & Support the Fredom Abdullah Ocalan

Reader comment on item: The Case for a Unified Kurdistan

Submitted by Ludvikus (United States), Jan 30, 2015 at 10:58

Dear Daniel Pipes,

Among the masters of Statecraft and International Relations are Bismark and Kissinger.

Think what they would recommend as the appropriate strategy to defeat Islamism, especially as revealed in this analytic article by Columnist Amberin Zaman and reported in ALMONITOR, The Pulse of the Middle East:

"Kurdish victory in Kobani defeat for Turkish policy"
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/01/turkey-kurds-kobani-defeat-turkish-policy.html#

Because Arafat was the head of the Palestinian self-determination movement (at best) he was rehabilitated by the world and given the Nobel peace prize, in spite of his extensive and innovative "modern" terrorism methods and techniques. It seems to me that however you wish to document that terror record of the Kurdish movement for self determination, it is no where near the atrocities committed under Arafat. Therefore, in light of Turkey's Islamist transformation under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, we and you should support the pardon of Abdullah Ocalan who is the "George Washington" or "Herzel" of the Kurdish people.

Accordingly, his Party, and National Liberation Organization, the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party (Konga-Gel) should be removed, in according with your interest in Strategic Policy that's best for the interests of the United States, off the Terror List of our State Department:

"Foreign Terrorist Organizations"

http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm

Whether or not a United Kurdistan should come into existence is something which should be left to the Kurdish people to decide. To do otherwise is to be condescending, just like saying that Islamism isn't really Islam (reminder: one of the few points I disagree with you, Dear Daniel Pipes).

However, the United States must be under an illusion that the islamization of Turkey may take an about face. Otherwise, American statesmen, think-tank analysist, and diplomats, should have depanded that we not put obsticals in the way of the Third Alternative in the Middle East: neither Shia Iran, nor Sunni Turkey, but the progressive, modern, truly peace-loving Muslim, the Kurds, these people, who may establish their own soverign state of Greater Kurdistan. But lets not make it harder for them by keeping the PKK on the Terror List. Furthermore, let us recognize that Abdullah Ocalan is their own Napoleon Bonaparte, and like him, is imprisoned on an island in the Sea of Marmara by Turkey

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21314776

If Arafat was pardoned, why is it unpalitible, dear Daniel Pipes, for you to support the Pardon of Ocalan? Recal that although Communist Cuba was effectively blocade by us, and still is, Kissinger saw the political strategic interests of the United States to become allies with the billion-populated Communist China, and that, I think you would agree, was a brilliant balance-of-power move against the former Soviet Union now embodied in the successor Russian Federation under "neo-Tsar" Putin. Don't you think that the neo-Ottoman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should be made to swallow these two "poison pills"? I know I'm stretching this last metaphor beyond its limits, so please forgive my poetic license. But Turkey's populist demagogue, in my view, is far more dislikible than Putin. I'd much prefer riding horseback shirtless in Siberia with Macho Putin over Puritanical and Self-Righteous Erdogan watching women dressed in black rags covering their faces while awaiting 72 Virgins in Paradise. Is this Islamaphobia? Well we should all fear Islam in this Clash of Civilization, as Samuel P. Huntington put it:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/48950/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations

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Daniel Pipes replies:

I agree that the same logic that made the PLO politically acceptable applies now to the PKK.

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Reader comments (30) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
1"Case for Delisting the PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization" - Lawfare [229 words]LudvikusMar 31, 2016 07:02228655
1Two Kurdistans? Two possible scenarios [743 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
ZahraMar 6, 2016 14:48228340
2Why did the CIA help Turkey capture the Kurdish "Napoleon," Abdullah Öcalan ? [249 words]LudvikusFeb 15, 2015 19:30221090
read that [89 words]thinkaboutAug 15, 2015 13:58221090
4Take the PKK Off the Terrorism Lists & Support the Fredom Abdullah Ocalan [546 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
LudvikusJan 30, 2015 10:58220777
I can see both sides [205 words]Peter HerzSep 24, 2014 20:10218206
3Thank Kurdistan For Taking The Iraqi Christians In [54 words]AnneMSep 19, 2014 10:07218036
number of christian refugees in kurdistan [100 words]servet cevikSep 24, 2014 06:38218036
1Our dear servert seems to agree with what the terrorist members of Da'ish did to the Yazidis and for this I say shame [223 words]dhimmi no moreSep 25, 2014 17:09218036
from my point of view [139 words]servet cevikSep 27, 2014 12:04218036
2We are all Yazidis and get used to it [334 words]dhimmi no moreSep 30, 2014 08:32218036
read with glasses on :-) [226 words]servet cevikOct 2, 2014 02:53218036
2We are all Yazidis and get used to it part two [40 words]dhimmi no moreOct 3, 2014 06:13218036
3Greater Kurdistan: a peaceful solution in a region that has never known peace? [438 words]Livingston MerchantSep 18, 2014 04:32218001
Kurdish vote [111 words]Nazim CairoSep 17, 2014 17:19217992
Greater Kurdistan. [111 words]Nazim CairoSep 17, 2014 17:04217991
1Referendum in Turkey is not possible without bloodshed [127 words]Kyriacos KyriakidesSep 17, 2014 15:47217987
An Ominous Distinction [25 words]Barry BlackSep 17, 2014 09:49217976
1Iran is multiethnic, not an empire [83 words]BamagujeSep 17, 2014 06:07217972
1Kurds [250 words]EmanuelSep 16, 2014 19:26217956
3the simple truth [5 words]DimosthenisSep 16, 2014 18:38217954
1Kurdistan and the West [64 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
dhimmi no moreSep 16, 2014 16:43217950
Crunch time for Turkish peace talk [225 words]Michael S.Sep 28, 2014 11:42217950
2The Kurds and Turkey [193 words]dhimmi no moreSep 30, 2014 12:15217950
Turkey plans to target, essentially, everyone in Syria -- and says as much [345 words]Michael S.Oct 2, 2014 07:35217950
4Threat of the Kurds. [32 words]EthanPSep 16, 2014 16:34217949
1women in kurdish region [258 words]servet cevikSep 19, 2014 07:08217949
We may have a point here, servet [61 words]Kepha HorSep 24, 2014 20:14217949
2Female Terrorist of PKK [402 words]Bertan AtalaySep 30, 2014 18:28217949
2Unify the Non-Muslim World, not the Muslim World [153 words]TL WinslowSep 16, 2014 16:31217947

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