The American Enterprise Association held a discussion on Iranian society under the current Ahmadinejad presidency, focusing on its impact on civil liberties and political efficacy.

Tom Parker, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, said that the human rights situation in Iran “is not good,” and is “typical of many authoritarian regimes” where minorities are routinely discriminated against and denied basic rights. Targeted groups for whose safety the organization is “greatly worried” include Sunnis, Suffis, women, homosexual men, bloggers, and ethnic minorities like Kurds and Arabs. (more…)

Congress members Anna G. Eshoo and Frank Wolf held a briefing today on the “Plight of Iraq’s Christians and Other Religious Minorities.” The guest speakers were the vice president of Resettlement of the International Rescue Committee, Bob Carey, the Middle East program officer of Mercy Corp, Emily Gish, the executive director of Chaldean Federation of America (CASCA), Joseph Kassab, and the senior fellow of Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, Nina Shea.

Nina Shea started the briefing by resenting her experiences and the research that she has conducted in the Middle East. She talked about the injustices, discrimination and the atrocities carried out by various Muslim extremists in Iraq. Forty churches have been bombed, twelve priests killed, Archbishops murdered, Christian churches have and are being decapitated. Recently, ten days ago, a priest was killed in Baghdad. Mandeans, a Christian minority are being murdered; only few have remained. These cases are not being investigated or followed by the police or any other international organizations.
As a result of this, two-thirds of the Iraqi Christians have fled the country and found refuge in Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. The remaining one-third lives in the North near the Kurdistan borders. (more…)

Astonishingly, it has been 20 years since the attacks on Halabja, carried by the former dictator, Saddam Hussein.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Leadership Council of Human Rights jointly organized a commemorational ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the atrocities carried out by the former Iraqi dictatorship at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s dining hall.

The hall was filled with the soft sound of sez (traditional Middle Eastern musical instrument) echoing in the background, pictures of mothers holding their dying kids, bruised babies dead by the river; father’s crying on the side of their dying kids’ beds and the list goes on.
Kathryn Cameron Porter, founder and president of Leadership Council of Human Rights, and Qubad Talibani, son of the Iraqi President and representative of the KRG in the United States, both talked about the importance of remembering such a horrific day. Talibani mentioned that March is a bitter sweet month for the Kurds. It was in the same month that the world experienced the fall of the Hussein regime, that regime that killed thousands of innocent people.

Some 5000 Kurds were massacred at a small town, called Halabja, at the northern region of Iraq. The former dictator attacked the town with gas bombs, planning on eliminating the Kurds from “his” own territory. The country was in war against Iran then and the idea of killing innocent people would have been considered justifiable; yet another “we were in war” excuse. Most of the survivors fled to Iran and found shelter there.

Mohammed Aziz, a 43-year-old survivor explained the horrific activities of that cold Thursday in March. He was with his family eating lunch when six planes started bombarding Halabja. Their first reaction was to run to the basement, as did all the other families. This lasted couple of minutes; however they remained sheltered at the basement for another few hours. Thinking that the planes had gone, everyone started fleeing from their basements and running towards the borders, that is when the deadliest attacks happened. The planes were back, but this time filled with poisonous chemicals. People were losing their eye sights, were having chest pains and were acting hysterically. This was the start of the range of “slow deaths.”

Halabja is only one of the numerous massacres of the twentieth century. The Armenians, Ukrainians, the Holocaust, Kurds, Rwandans and now the people of Darfur have all experienced the non-humane acts of their fellow neighbors. When will the cycle of genocide end? History repeats itself no matter what the circumstances are; Darfur is a great proof of the latter.

Problems facing the Kurds in Turkey have gradually accelerated. The US position in this perspective is getting complicated. Kurdish cooperation in Iraq is vastly important for the US as well as Turkey’s support in the region. However, the ongoing rivalry between Turks and Kurds is becoming a major issue for US foreign policy.
The Woodrow Wilson center (WWC) held a discussion today on ‘Recent Development in the Politics of the Kurdish Question in Turkey.” the presenters were Henri Barkey, the chair of the Department of International Relations and a professor at the Lehigh University, Gokhan Centinsaya, fellow at the WWC, Aliza Marcus, author of “Blood and Belief: the PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence” and lastly, Nicole Watts, assistant professor at the Department of Political Science at San Francisco State University.
Gokhan Centinsaya started off presenting the audience the history of the rivalry. He mentioned the Treaty of Lausanne in 1920 and the Baghdad Pact.
Aliza Marcus talked about the foundation of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). She mentioned that the organization is still the dominant political organization amongst Turkish Kurds. According to Aliza Marcus, the PKK has the support of the majority of the Kurds in Turkey, because the Turkish government was not and still is not treating them like true citizens.
Nicole Watts continued the discussion by talking about the importance of a moderate alternative for the PKK to work for the people without any terrorist acts. This moderate alternative should emphasize firstly, the linguistic and cultural rights of the people and secondly, distance itself from the PKK and act independently. DTP, Democratic Society Party, is an example of a moderate alternative, however party’s leadership has proven itself to be weak.
The presentation from the speakers came to its end by a concluding remark from Henri Barkey. He mentioned the recent clash backs in northern Iraq and defined it as a political move from Turkey’s side rather than military.