I wil post this without comment except to express my opinion that the USA and its allies would be extremely smart to carve out a greater Kurdistan from the territory of Iraq, Syria, Iran and probably Turkey as well. Not only would a greater Kurdistan be our friend for generations, it would be an object lesson for states around the world. Treat your minorities well or loose them to independant states.
Syrian security forces on Friday killed thirty people during violent clashes which originated in a soccer game and later spread to demonstrations throughout the Kurdish regions in the country, according to reports by family members of witnesses of the incidents, that reached Haaretz on Saturday. The protests continued on Saturday, with tens of thousands of people demonstrating in the northern city of Qamishli. Security forces on the scene were firing live rounds at the crowd.
According to the reports, the clahes began on Friday during a soccer match in Qamishli, located near the Turkish border in a province populated mainly by Kurds. The local Jihad team, which has mostly Arab and Kurd players, was playing the Fituwya group from the city of Dar el-Zur, near the Syrian border with Iraq, when Fitouya fans began calling out "long live Saddam Hussein." The Jihad team responded with "long live Barazani" shouts, pertaining to one of the Kurdish leaders in Iraq. Clashes ensued between the two camps inside the stadium, which contained some 5,000 people at the time, and three children were trampled to death in the uproar. Large police forces that were called to the scene were unable to quell the large crowd, and reinforcements that later arrived opened fire, killing around 30 people and inuring dozens.
Following the incident, violent demonstrations spread on Friday to other cities in Syria’s Kurdish regions. During the protests, signs and slogans slamming Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime as well as the ruling Baath Party were displayed. A demand was also raised for an international investigation into human rights violations during he incident. Syrian loyalist forces, accompanied by tanks, were sent to the region, and a curfew was imposed in some areas. Efforts were also being made to calm the situation. Syrian opposition groups, especially Kurdish ones operating outside the country, were attempting to raise public awareness to the incident, and were planning to hold demonstrations in various European cities. Friday’s incident represents the most violent wave of protests in Syria in recent memory, and this in the backdrop of current U.S. threats to take sanctions against Damascus for its support of terror organizations, and especially due to American suspicions that Syria was not doing all it could to prevent Saddam loyalists from entering Iraq through its border.
Last night we were making fun of the team names (Jihad and Fatwah), without any detail. Berxwedan took issue with us in the comments, assuming we knew the details of the riots. I still think we're justified in making fun of the names, though American teams often have fairly violent names. They'd probably be better off with names like "Dar el-Zur United," given Islam's propensity for violence.
That being said, I'm coming more and more to the conclusion that the Kurds need their own country, run by the KDP and PUK. Barzani and Talabani seem to have caught onto the idea of a two party system, probably for reasons that wouldn't be as pretty if we had the resources to examine them closely. PKK should go out of business; Marxism's an idea whose time has gone. The Kurdish Islamic parties should also go out of business for the same reasons, the difference being that Islamism's time went 600 years ago, rather than 20. Only secular libertarian states bring productivity and long-term stability to their inhabitants. With prosperous and stable societies, the inhabitants can worry about religion on their own time. |
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