KURDISH... are honor humanity: With the biggest outrage, I condemn the attack on the Kurdish people by ISIS, especially now the attack on Kurds in KOBANI, west kurdistan. I give my wholehearted support to Kobani Resistance. At the same time, I also do strongly criticize nations, groups and organizations which tolerate ISIS’s barbarism, inhumanity, keeping to be silent. Whether to support the resistance of Kobani or not, whether to raise a cry of protest against fanatic Islamists, ISIS or to silence….it means primarily whether to defend humanitarianism and international justice or not. However the core of this issue should be thought whether to recognize Kurd’s national demands, all kind of national rights, of course including national right to self-determination, or not. These national rights have been enjoyed by other nations since long time ago. Ones denying Kurd’s existence and national rights are not only Islamic extremists but also related states in middle-east, furthermore even left-leaning individuals and groups all over the world. Someone say humanitarian aid is Okay but independent Kurdistan is No, because it leads to breakdown of order in middle-east (despite the “Order” have been already broken). In other words, our/your attitude to Kobani Resistance is a kind of litmus paper’s test for Kurdish issue. Blue or red? I have learned Kurdish issue mostly from many works by a respectable scholar Dr. Ismail Besikci in viewpoints of socio-economy and history since having acknowledged him in the late 1980s. Of course I have been getting many infos, knowledge from Kurdish journalists and European academicians. So now I dare to define the idea of denying Kurds found in Turkish, Arabic, Persian nationalism as “Ideological Malformation”. But what more serious is that this malformed ideology has been accepted without doubt by international leftist movements and liberal individuals, of course including Japanese leftists and liberals. In my country Japan, most of leftists, liberals and scholars and middle-east researchers have raised their voices to Israeli–Palestinian conflict at every opportunity, however, they consistently turn their blind eyes to crisis in Kobani, Shengal ……, needless to say, never refer to Roboski genocide in Northern Kurdistan, Anfal campaign, halabja genocide in Southern Kurdistan…..so many mass murder &destruction in Kurdistan. Until now there have been not even one small meeting or protest rally as to Kobani being held by Japanese but Kurds living in Japan. It’s obviously a double standard. I know that European governments and its peoples involved in Middle-east politics historically have much more interests in Kurdish issue, compared to our country, well. Nevertheless, for me it doesn’t seem many revolutionary organizations and liberal groups in the world accept Kurdish national self-determination right as a natural right, although they accept Palestinian’s, Arab’s, Turk’s, and Persian’s ones …etc. Recently one Japanese middle-east scholar (former professor of one famous private university) planned to send a university student to Syria as an ISIS fighter. He has no hesitation in having deep relation with ISIS and stating his support to it. Another scholar a little bit before said “Al-Nusra Front is only body which can govern Syria humanely under rule of law, Sharia. …they know well what we shouldn’t do from what we should do”. Then he supported Al-Nusra assaulting Kurdish people, now he supports ISIS. They shows overt hostility, antipathy to Kurdish liberation movements, referring to usual word “middle-east Order”. Both must be strange Islam fundamentalists, but problem is that they are getting sympathy from a great deal of Japanese middle-east scholars, left-leaning activists. The reason is so clear. Above two scholars are showing their political stance as anti-America anti-Europe, that’s to say, anti-imperialism. Turks, Arabs and Persians have been oppressed for oil by west imperialism historically. Probably there is an influence by discourse of Edward Said or its distortion. When I reach this point, I think again as one researcher of Kurdish study. Why haven’t Kurds gained international attention until now? Why haven’t they received even moral support, been denied for long time? Then I remember the following remarks by Maxime Rodinson, a French thinker/ Orientalist. His remarks, which I found out in a book related to Kurdish issue more than 25 years ago, have stuck my heart since then. I quote a bit long paragraph. ----- Why then do we find such reticence amongst those who in the past have ardently defended cause which were in no way more justified [*than Kurdish cause] ? Why is it that, in this case, many people are prepared to accept assurances that the national rights of the Kurd are in fact fully safeguarded, when in any other case such assurances would be viewed with universal suspicion?....... ------The answer is simple. The Kurds have the misfortune to be demanding independence and autonomy from (amongst others) two nations which have in the recent past demanded equivalent rights for themselves, a demand in which these nations were naturally supported by international left-wing opinion. It was not long time ago that a nationalist Turkey was defended itself against the efforts of the Western imperialist powers, and at the time the evolution of its internal policy had not yet made it unpopular with the left. In Iraq (and, to some extent, in Syria) the Kurds’ demands came at a time when the Arab people as a whole could be cast as one of imperialism’s main targets, and as the leader of resistance against it. In other words, the Kurds emerge as a people oppressed by the oppressed. The oppressor and the oppressed, the ruler and the ruled. We can see multilayer structure of oppression or ruling in Kurdistan and related countries. The present status of Kurdistan has been “overdetermined” by plural contradictions among non-homogeneous imperialism, Turkish nationalism, Arab nationalism and Persian nationalism. In this process, malformed ideology refusing even existence of a distinct nation, Kurds, has born in 1920s~30s and still alive in Middle-east world, especially in Turkey. Ideology always leads people to simple conclusion or illogical conspiracy theory in general. In fact this malformed ideology now encourages ugly racism against Kurds and other ethnic, religious minorities, or international conspiracy theory against Muslim world. To support Kobani resistance. To raise a voice of solidarity with Kurdish people and freedom fighter in Kobani, Kurdistan. It will be a surgical operation for long disease, ideological malformation. It must be done with not only humanism but also viewpoints of a people oppressed by the oppressed, rethinking of the status of Kurds. Kiyoshi Nakagawa
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 10:14:47 +0000
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