Words matter. These are the best Kurdish Quotes from famous people such as David Petraeus, Ayelet Shaked, Adam Curtis, Jalal Talabani, Peter Bergen, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
As we used to say when I was privileged to be the commander there, Nineveh province has the most diverse human terrain in all of Iraq – Sunni Arab majority to be sure, but also Shia Arabs, numerous Kurdish communities, and they are broken out into several different political parties.
We must openly call for the establishment of a Kurdish state that separates Iran from Turkey, one which will be friendly towards Israel.
In the battle for Kobane on the Syrian border, everyone talks about the enemy – IS – and the frightening ideas that drive them. No one talks about the Kurdish defenders and what inspires them.
It wasn’t just Shia that would go to Tehran and see the commander of the Quds Force and others and the legitimate government leaders. It was also Kurdish leaders and Sunni Arabs who would even link up with Qassim Suleimani, the commander of the Quds Force – maybe not in Tehran but in Turkey or somewhere else.
The Kurdish people welcome the no-fly zone protection, contrary to the Iraqi regime that is against it.
The Turkish government will never tolerate the creation of a Kurdish state.
Turkey must find its place if, of course, it can heal its internal sores, and none is more malignant than the perennial Kurdish issue.
I first visited Kurdistan in 2003. I arrived in the town of Sulaimaniyah, courtesy of smugglers who drove me across the border from Iran. Sulaimaniyah was a small, charming provincial Kurdish town.
Whenever a Kurd wants to measure the depth of some foreign leader’s commitment to Kurdish autonomy, he listens for one particular word. That word is ‘federal.’ Anyone who will say he favors Kurdish federalism can be counted a friend of the Kurds.
Under Saddam Hussein, the nation of Iraq possessed and used chemical weapons against both their own Kurdish population and Iranian military forces.
Attempts by one ethnic group to exercise sovereignty over another are not fair. It doesn’t matter if that ethnicity is Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, Chaldean or whatever.
There is no Kurdish problem.
The Kurds will not be allowed to have an independent country because Turkey wouldn’t stand for it; they have their own Kurdish population.
Long-term, we must figure out a way that the Kurdish territory within Iraq operates with a certain amount of autonomy so that they feel comfortable and safe going back.
The Kurdish people are a partner for the Israeli people.
If one does not wish to take the word of journalists, human rights groups, and the United Nations that Iraq conducted a deliberate campaign to eradicate the Kurdish population, there’s always the word of the Iraqis themselves.
The Kurdish problem is not only the problem of one part of my nation: it is a problem of every one of us, including myself.
