Thanks to a heads up from a collegue over at Global Voices:

According to Paiz, Nederlands based Iranian, former Sanadaj deputy in Iranian Parliament, Mr.Adib, announced the creation of United Kurdish Front. Everybody can become a member and achieving justice and equality in all fileds, are among top priorities of this new party.

As most of you know, I write a weekly column covering Kurdish Bloggers for a website called Global Voices.  I will be interviewed tomorrow to discuss the year in Kurdish blogs on the BBC Radio show World Have Your Say, from 1845 to 1900 GMT.  If you have time, please tune in.

Travels in the Kurdish Blogosphere.

Happy Holidays from the Kurdish section of the blogosphere!

The Kurdistan Bloggers Union writes about security cameras being installed in the Southeast of Turkey to monitor the Kurdish population there. There is also an interesting post (and comment dialouge) about hyphenated-ethnicity and a posted book review of a new book by Stephen Kinzer on Turkey’s Kurds.

Hiwa from Hiwa Hopes writes about an alarming islamic trend developing in Iraq, and the relief at the sentencing of the Dutch business Van Anraat for helping in the Halapja gassing in 1988. He also offers a christmas wish for his readers.

Also offering christmas wishes is Miriam from Pearls of Iraq. She also issues a challenge to the main stream media to report about the reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

From Holland to Kurdistan has more detailed information on the sentencing of Dutch businessman Van Anraat (this has been a much talked about topic Iraqi Kurdistan and Roj Bash! has posts about it as well). Vladimir also discusses rumors of a Kurd, Sunni and Shia plan to divide Kirkuk in Northern Iraq/Southern Kurdistan.

Rasti has an excellent post about American involvement in the Middle East and how the US should use its current advantage to press the Kurdish issue with the republic of Turkey. He also critized Turkey for its role in the attempted shut-down of Kurdish television station Roj TV based in Holland. For more information on that and measures being taken please visit Save Roj TV!.

Last on our list for today is Welcome to East Kurdistan which has been posted profusely about human rights violations in Iran, including the hanging of a young Kurdish activist, the condoning of human traffiking of Iranian/Kurdish women by clerics and the sentencing of one man to have his fingers amputated.

The coverage given here on Global Voices is limited mainly to the Kurdish blogs in English, if you are interested in any of the Kurdish blogs in other languages (like Dutch or German for instance) or if you are interested in seeing the new comers to the Kurdish blogosphere, I recommend checking the blog Kurdistan Blog Count. See you next year!

Found another blog today called Kurds and Kurdistan, it was started today and is fairly pro-PKK.  I am going to add them (and the three others from yesterday) to our link as well as the aggregator (which is caught up by-the-way).

It all seems to be happening on MSN spaces, there were 3 Kurdish blogs started today.  I am going to watch them for more permanent activity before I add them officially to our link list, but if you would like to see them for yourself:

Somii - in Turkish

Kurdish Boy - in German

Kurd Style - In Dutch (I think, not completely sure yet, but if anyone knows for certain, please let me know.)

Sorry I have been absent the past few days, I have been feeling under the weather.

New find for today, a site called NorthIraq.com, it is very similar in terms of web address to some of the other Kurdish sites. This one doesn’t focus especially on the Kurds, but rather on all of the ethnic groups in the area. It takes a nice holistic approach, and while it has blog updates, it focuses primarily on news stories in the region.

I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the blog Save ROJ TV, they are doing some wonderful things trying to mobelize citizen action to prevent the shut down of their Holland based Kurdish television station.

Here is something new, a Kurdish Blog in Italian, la révolution au service du surréalisme

This was my first week of using a feed aggregator for watching the Kurdish blogs and I am not sure how I feel about it. Part of me really enjoyed checking every single blog each week, but it can be terribly time consuming. I set up the aggregator for the website Kurdistan Blog Count, and if you are interesting in linking to it yourself here is the public site. However the new feed has enabled me to organize today’s post thematically, in which we will be able not only to discuss the major topics but address the subject of Kurdish bloggers that have become prominent in the news.

First item up, the elections in Iraq: By and far the most regarded coverage of the Iraqi elections has been the blog The Iraqi Vote (unfortuately the permalinks were not functioning correctly on their site, however I strongly recommend that you review the comment dialouge and the posts if this topic is of interest to you.) From Holland to Kurdistan and Roj Bash have also had excellent election coverage, especially with respects to expat voting—I recommend reading the personal commentaries that Roj Bash has provided. Kurdo from Kurdo’s World writes about possible election fraud and his decision not to vote, he has some amazing links to photos from the election. Hiwa from Hiwa Hopes expresses his happiness at being able to vote and his hope for an independent Kurdistan. Lastly in this long list of esteemed bloggers, is Kurdish blogger Bilal Wahab who was able to meet with the President of the United States on election day (I am sure that many will recognise the photo.)!

Second item: There are several trials that are ongoing that the Kurdish blogosphere are buzzing about. The first is Dr. Kamal Sayd Qadir who is being held by the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraqi Kurdistan for crimes that include “disgracing the Kurdish government and it’s struggles”. This brings out issues of credibilty of the KRG asking neighboring states to grant free speech to their Kurds, but denying the right to its own Kurds. While this has been covered most notably by the blog the Is-Ought problem, other bloggers have weighed in this issue including Hiwa, Rasti and Roj Bash. A lot of comparisons between this trial and the upcoming trial of Turkish author Orhan Pamuk have been drawn.

Thirdly, just a reminder for people to check out the work being done by the blog Save Roj TV, which is campaining to retain the broadcasting rights of Kurdish television in Holland.

And finally, The Kurdistan Bloggers Union has written to remind Kurdish bloggers that they need to guard their own safety when they blog.

I have been relatively blessed in being born in America, I have grown up in a world where I can state my own opinion without fear of reprisal…in fact, until I left the country and saw how others lived, I didn’t even know that others could be persecuted for their thoughts and beliefs.

I now know better.

In my dealings with the issue of Kurdistan and the Kurdish blogger friends that I have been so fortuate to make, I have realized the extreme importance of the individual voice and ensuring that voice is protected.

I believe that there are many many other Kurdish voices just waiting to break out and say what they have been so desperately wanting to say to the world. I also believe that many of those voices remain silent because they are afraid that they will not be protected if they speak out. Rest assured, you are part of a larger community, a larger family, who wants to ensure your welfare. There are many guides out there that can help you learn how to blog anonymously and safely. The best guide out there by far is the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents from Reporters without Borders. There are many Anonymous Blogging Guide sites out there to use as a resourse, as well as the Committee to Protect Bloggers. These guides are also translated into multiple languages to aid you as well.

So remember my friends, you have a family here just waiting to take you into our arms. Let yourself be heard.

Yes, in my effort of being completely over the top in everything that I do (that and I can’t seem to get the links to resort themselves by update like it is supposed to) , I have created a blog aggregator for all of the blogs that we link to.  At the moment it is a work in progress, but currently all of the Kurdish Blogs in English are listed.