Kurdish Issue

At the end of last semester, a friend and I started watching documentary called Iraq in Fragments. I didnt get the chance to finish it but when I went to his room the next day I saw little post its he scribbled down to help him understand the different religious/ethnic groups in the tumultuous country. I couldn't help but find his efforts to better understand on the differences between Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds a little cute. When I asked him how the doc ended, he said it was pretty interesting. He added that the Kurds seem to be the most reasonable out of the Iraqi factions.
"Kurds are tight" - He said

and unthinkingly I responded..

"Fuck the Kurds.. Wait. No. Fuck the PKK."

Wiki insert: The Kurdistan Workers' Party, commonly known as PKK, is a Kurdish militant organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights for the Kurds in Turkey. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the United States. Turkey labeled the organization as an ethnic secessionist organization that uses terrorism and the threat of force against both civilian and military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal. The PKK leader said on an interview that the only reason they have been put on the 'Terrorist organization' list is due to political pressure from Turkey, who he accuses of falsifying accounts and unfairly demonizing the organization.

My conversation with my comrade had me thinking of everything I know or have seen about Kurds in Turkey. I'm fromt the Western coast and they live in the East so I haven't had much personal interaction.

I kept thinking.. What do I know?

- I remember watching a documentary on the music of Turkey called Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul. A Kurdish woman sang a beautiful song in a language I didnt understand. But she and others explain how they 10 years back, they werent allowed to sing in Kurdish. French, Italian, and English songs were fine but the language of people who actually belong to the land was forbidden. A man explained that in 1990 the law against speaking in Kurdish was removed but expressed his disappointment in the governments reasoning for the laws dismissal. He says that Turkish government only did so to please the European Union and increase their chances of accesion into the western club.

I kept thinking...

When I returned home after the semester, over some post-breakfast tea I asked my mother about the PKK. I asked if they really had faced hardships, whether people were openly discrimitive, why they were terrorists, etc..

Honey, they live in a very difficult area. Eastern Turkey is dry, cold, and poor. Its not just the Kurds that are suffering, it is all those people in the poor villages in the east. Then the PKK comes to these Kurds living in mountains and recruits young boys. They say, youre a Kurd. Youre one of us. You and I are fighting the same against these Turks. Your pain is mine, and mine is yours. We are brothers. But my mother explains that is all the people living in the east that face harship.

My dear, she says, Turkey isnt America. Turkey is not a rich country and cant just open schools and hospitals like America can. Thats what those people need but find themselves going far distances to seek. And since they are uneducated, they are easily brainwashed by the PKK.

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Then my grandmother and the rest of our family.

My aunt become very rich after her father died, he left her a lot of land and farms.
My rich cousin fell in love with a Kurdish girl that worked oon one of the farms. He wanted to marry her and my family didnt approve. He eloped :)

My grandmother's sister went nuts. She called grandma in hysterics. I thought someone died. No, I thought EVERYONE died. My grandmother was calming her by predicting divorce in a year..

As I was laughing about the ridiculousness of my family over the phone with my mother, shes like its actually really sad. Its even dangerous. She explained that
A. They are going to struggle, its hard not having your family approving of marriage.
B. What if her family doesnt approve either? And she has uncles and brothers? They could kill him.

Sad young lovers..