Ok, so maybe the title of today's post is a little bit of a misnomer, but our commentators today all mention NGO projects…and I'll give you some extra links to other Kurdish NGO projects as well. Pearls of Iraq officially starts her purple ribbon campaign for the people of Iraq (and this includes the Kurds). Check her website for supporting graphics if you are interested.

Today starts the official campaign of the Iraq Purple and Yellow Ribbon Campaign. The Ribbons symbolize support for the Iraqi people to be tied with a yellow ribbon for the troops: American, international and the Iraqi military who are making a positive difference. The purple finger of freedom combined with the yellow is a great way to show the Iraqi people our support.

Pearls of Iraq also gives us a wonderful evaluation of the Kurdish NGO Kurdistan Save the Children:

I visited with Kurdistan Save the Children whose work expands Kurdistan and includes Baghdad. They are strong in education, youth centers and cultural centers, which they call Kaziwa which means ‘dawn’ in Kurdish. I visited one center in Sulaimaniya and was so pleased at the hard work four young men have accomplished over the years. They have developed a large youth center with many activities including sports, art, computer training, English classes, music rooms, computer rooms, internet café (the young people pay tiny fee which teaches them respect of equipment) exercise workout room (for both girls and boys, scheduled appropriately), a media and film department, cafeteria, and a huge center hall with a circle upper balcony, perfect for drum circles. He was very open to different activities including the drum circles that I suggested. Music and art in addition to other activities is strongly encouraged. The manager of this center is a young man with his 3 associates and they have the drive and good hearts to help the children in the city.

Save Roj TV reminds us that the new Impact Report from the Kurdish Human Rights Watch is now available for download. KHRP produces some wonderful stuff, I highly recommend them.

Rasti writes about the Turkey section of the new Amnesty International report:

In general, AI seems to be in agreement that things are really going to hell in Turkey. After the events of the first half of this year, I predict AI's 2007 report is going to be a lot more intense. Give that report a read so that you can make your own comparison of how bad things have gotten.

For other links to worthy Kurdish NGO's see the following:

American Kurdish Information Network

Institute Kurde de Paris

KOMAK

Washington Kurdish Institute

And if you still hunger for more, there is a pretty long list at my other website Kurdistan Blog Count.

Till next week….

Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) has published their 2005 Kurdish Human Rights Impact Report, it is available for download. 

They do great work, and the Director is a friend of mine, support them if you can. 

And yes, there was the Tina Turner song “What’s love got to do with it?” floating in my head in the background when I wrote that title. While the world watched the vote creating an independent Montenegro, the Kurds were watching the same events with mixed feelings.

Hiwa from Hiwa Hopes writes with hope for the new country but in shame as the Kurds have not been able to do the same for themselves:

Montenegro, the lovely coast with 700000 polulation which is less than the population of Slemani is now independent from Serbia, they together were about 10 Million only! Well you could argue its not quantity but quality which makes up a nation and I will definitely agree with you! Its our fault, its our mistake, its our problem, its our duty, its our need, its our fate, its our laziness, its our cowardness, its our love of mony, love of posts, love of the illusion created by the brits to be called Iraq, its our fear of losing palaces in Slemani, Qala chwalan and Sari Rash, our people are followers like cows the first one to be ME and ancestors. I feel disgraced and ashamed of myself!

From Holland to Kurdistan, spoke a little more hopefully about the subject:

This case is very important for would-be states like the Kurds. It shows the ambivalent position of the international community towards the formation of new stations. In 2005 the Kurds voted with 98.8% for independence in South-Kurdistan (Iraqi). The results of this vote were presented to the UN. But they didn’t recognize the importance of this referendum organized by the Kurdish Referendum Movement. One Kurd said angrily:” I support them too [Montenegro]. To hell with the UN, why doesn’t the right of self-determination apply to our 40 million Kurds in our nation?” The results of this referendum vote weren’t used by the Kurdish parties, who prefer to stay in Iraq. The Kurdish parties say that a Kurdish dream for independence is unrealistic. The current president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani repeatedly called an independent Kurdistan a dream. “No Kurdish officials in Iraq are working for an independent Kurdistan. We are only trying to do something that is possible and reachable,” he said before.

Rasti weighs in on the issue of the recent shootings of Turkish judges by Islamist militants, a subject discussed in last week’s Turkey is Typing…

Both Rasti and Hiwa comment on this video of Turkish violence against the Kurds–the video is graphic and shows several Turkish men beating up a lone Kurdish man in broad daylight. Mizgin from Rasti states the following:

Let’s not be naive here and fall for the lies. Turkish, Syrian and Iranian “democrats” are dead set against extending “democracy” to the Kurdish people. Even Iraq has continued to insist on its “Arab character,” thus, once again, disenfranchising the 4 to 5 million Kurds who are trapped within its borders. All of these “democrats” wax eloquent on the subject of “democracy” and “equality” and “brotherhood” within their respective regimes, but mention the K-word and the fantasies they attempt to pass off to ignorant Westerners vanish like smoke on a windy day. Wrap your brain around all of that and then come and tell me who the terrorists are.

In other news, Pearls of Iraq has posted new photos of Kurdistan here and here. And Save RojTV mentioned me! Thanks guys!

So I got a bit spacy and forgot to re-post my Global Voices article here before I published it, please follow this link to read "Kurdistance: Finding Rebirth in Grief".

Ok, so I changed the theme again back to the original one.  I realized that the other themes did not list who posted an article…and while there are at this time only two authors (me- that is Delal but the post name is kurdistanblogcount and our dear friend Hiwa) I felt that it was still important to give the current credit where it is due.