Interview With Kani Xulam, AKIN

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.etext.org>

Amy Goodman Interview With Kani Xulam, Director Of The American
Kurdish Information Network (AKIN)

Pacifica Radio, "Democracy Now"
October 6, 1997

[edited for grammar and space]

AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of Turkish soldiers continued their
intervention in northern Iraq this weekend as part of a massive
two-week military assault on Kurdish rebel forces. The Turkish
army claims that 415 rebels have been killed and says only 6
soldiers have died. For the last 13 years Kurdish rebels have
been fighting for an autonomous homeland in southeastern Turkey,
in a war that has cost some 28,000 lives. Apart from repeated
invasions of northern Iraq, the Turkish government has in recent
years evacuated and shut down 2,500 villages to cut off potential
guerrilla support. Meanwhile, internationally renowned Kurdish
activists have been given harsh prison sentences inside Turkey.
One such case is that of Leyla Zana, a journalist and
parliamentarian who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
by the European Parliament. She is currently in the fourth year
of a 15-year prison sentence in Turkey.

We're joined right now by Kani Xulam. He's the director of the
American Kurdish Information Network, a group that aims to foster
Kurdish-American friendship and understanding. He's based in
Washington DC. Welcome to "Democracy Now".

KANI XULAM: Thank-you. I'm happy to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: Kani, can you tell us first, what is happening in
the U.S. Congress around Leyla Zana, the only Kurdish woman
elected to the Turkish Parliament, and who actually spoke before
Congress?

KANI XULAM: Since May 6, 1997, a "Dear Colleague" letter has been
circulating in the House [of Representatives] every Tuesday, and
to date 136 members of Congress have agreed to sign it. The
letter will be sent to President Clinton on October 30, 1997 and
we hope to have more signatures by then. To get the numbers [of
signatures] higher, a group of Kurds and their American friends
in Washington will be launching a fast on October 20, the day
that Leyla Zana was elected to Parliament in Turkey. It has been
six years [since her election]. The Kurdish people elected her to
the Parliament; the government of Turkey took away that mandate
from her. So we want to undertake the fast to honor the Kurdish
people's will and to honor her election to the Parliament.

AMY GOODMAN: Is it true that the reason that she got the 15-year
sentence is that the State Security Court of Turkey cited her
testimony before [the U.S.] Congress as an act of treason?

KANI XULAM: Yes, it is. The indictment reads, a speech here, a
speech there; an appearance here, an appearance there. On May 17,
1993 she appeared before the Helsinki Commission in the United
States Congress. The lawmakers in this country invited her to
come and testify about the situation, the ongoing conflict that
you referred to earlier. At that time, when she testified, she
was talking about the destruction of 300 villages. Earlier you
pointed out that 2,500 villages had been destroyed. She called on
the lawmakers to intervene; she called on the U.S. government to
intervene, to be a voice of peace and to change the debate on the
Kurdish question from war to peace, from violence to
non-violence. Unfortunately, her plea fell on deaf ears and the
conflict has gotten worse. Death is a common occurrence in
Kurdistan and she is now serving the fourth year of a 15-year
sentence.

AMY GOODMAN: You, yourself, Kani Xulam, are Kurdish. What is your
story? How did you end up in the United States?

KANI XULAM: I left the oppression that is ongoing in Kurdistan in
1980. Its roots go back to 1924 when the Turkish Republic was
founded by the then-leader of Turkey, [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk.
He, unfortunately, adopted an ideology from Europe, the concept
of the nation-state, and implemented it as such that it turned
[Turkey] into a racist state, a chauvinistic state, where the
Kurdish language was banned overnight. The names of Kurdish towns
were changed. All Kurdish names became illegal.

I left for Canada. I stayed there for a while and then I came
here. In the late 80s and early 90s the news would come in and it
was ugly. My own village was destroyed. The loved ones that I
knew would disappear. We diaspora Kurds in America got together
and decided that I should be here in Washington. It was 1993. As
you pointed out in your opening statement, we're hoping to change
the policy on the Kurdish question from war to peace. We're also
trying to foster Kurdish-American friendship and understanding.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain how it is that over the last two
weeks the Turkish military has resumed the bombardment of
northern Iraq? Now, hasn't the UN declared this a "no-fly" zone
and if Iraq ever goes up into this area and bombs they're
seriously internationally denounced? How is it that the Turkish
military can go in and bomb this area?

KANI XULAM: Very good point. Last year on August 31 when Saddam
[Hussein] moved a couple thousand of his troops to intervene,
U.S. missiles were fired. It became the CNN, Washington Post, New
York Times news. Whereas now, and last May, Turkish troops moved
in, bombed the place, and nothing was done. Literally, green
lights were given to the Turks. It's a double standard. Because
Turkey is a U.S. ally and a NATO member, and "a friend", Turkey
gets away with murder. It does everything with impunity. If
Saddam, as you said, goes in there, then the UN mechanism is
implemented and he is chased out. We believe neither Saddam nor
Turks should be there. The Kurds should be allowed to go on with
their lives, if possible, free.

AMY GOODMAN: Where did the Turkish military get the planes used
to bomb northern Iraqi Kurdistan?

KANI XULAM: You know, there is a book that just came out by John
Tirman called "The Spoils of War". I haven't had a chance to read
the whole book, but I looked through a couple of chapters. Most
of the weapons that Turkey uses against the Kurds in this war
come from the U.S., [for example] F-16 fighter planes, Scorsky
helicopters. John Tirman talks about the Connecticut helicopter
factories that are literally supplying Turkey with the "deadly
birds" that have decimated the Kurdish lands. The destruction
that goes on, the free fire zones...entire regions in northern
Kurdistan (in southeast Turkey) have been turned into free fire
zones. They literally go in and shot at anything that moves. It's
an environmental disaster as well as a humanitarian disaster.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking with Kani Xulam, the director of the
American Kurdish Information Network, which is based in
Washington DC. This, in light of what's been happening in
Kurdistan over the last two weeks, the thousands of Turkish
soldiers who are continuing their intervention into northern
Iraq, and also in light of the 136 U.S. Congress members who have
signed a petition calling for the unconditional release of Leyla
Zana, the only Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament,
where her protest began as a housewife, then as a journalist, and
later as a parliamentarian, and then she was put in jail as a
result of testifying before the U.S. Congress...Now, we had a
chance over the past few days to talk to Leyla Zana's husband,
Mehdi Zana. Can you tell us a little about him before we play the
tape of his plea for his country?

KANI XULAM: Mehdi Zana is a very well known figure in Kurdish
politics. He was the mayor of Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish
city in southeast Turkey, northern Kurdistan. In 1980, a military
coup took over the civilian authority in Turkey. He was arrested
immediately and put in jail, the Diyarbakir military prison. That
prison has a very somber, a very sad place in the history of the
Kurdish struggle for civil rights, for political rights. Mehdi
chronicled some of those tortures in his book called "Journal of
Barbarity". It's now translated into English as "Prison Number
Five". So he was very well known. He was arrested and given [the
sentence of] life in prison, and later because of the pressure by
Amnesty [International], because of the pressure by the Western
mayors...he was released. Today, he is living in exile. Just two
or three months ago the government of Turkey handed him another
sentence of one year in prison for writing poetry, basically for
violating the so-called "freedom of expression" laws in Turkey.
Now he's living in exile in Sweden. He cannot go back and see his
wife.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we recorded a statement that was translated
into English that Mehdi Zana had written a few years ago and we
asked him to read it himself...but we really wanted to play it in
his own words, since our philosophy at "Democracy Now" is for
people to speak for themselves...

[Note: Amy Goodman spoke over the statement in places, but to
conserve space and to facilitate reading of this passage, the
following is a direct transcription of Mehdi Zana's statement.]

MEHDI ZANA: My name is Mehdi Zana. I am 57 years old. For the
last 35 years, I have fought for the Kurdish rights in Turkey.
Never a violent person, I have spent 16 years of my life in
Turkish prisons because of opinions and pacifist struggle for my
people. I am one of the few miraculous survivors of the sinister
Diyarbakir prison, where so many of my companions died under
torture. My eyewitness account of the unspeakably brutal and
sadistic torture proceedings is included in the publication
"Journal of Barbarity" currently being translated from Turkish to
French. I owe my survival to the mobilization of public opinion
in the West, to NGOs and to the Western mayor colleagues who
never left me alone in my darkest hours.

I say "colleagues" because I was the mayor of Diyarbakir, the
politico-cultural capitol of Turkish Kurdistan. The population of
the city, which amounted to 400,000 inhabitants in 1977, had
elected me mayor by direct universal suffrage. The military coup
of September 12, 1980 dissolved my municipal council. I was
subsequently jailed, to be released years later in 1991. Since
then, I have been jailed again, twice, and have also been barred
from politics for the rest of my life.

I am an independent Kurdish activist. I have a Kurdish message
for you. The Kurds are in danger. They are being slaughtered.
Many are evicted from their homes. Kurdish women are insulted and
raped by Turkish soldiers. Kurdish intellectuals are
assassinated. It is a tale of sorrow and anguish. One that is in
search of the advocates of humanity for the Kurds. Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: ...and that is Mehdi Zana speaking to us this
weekend. He is in exile after being imprisoned in Turkey. If he
were to return he is threatened with a jail sentence, although he
has been in jail many times in Turkey...Mehdi Zana, a Kurdish
activist, poet, and writer. His wife is Leyla Zana who is
currently serving a 15-year prison sentence in Turkey. And our
guest has been Kani Xulam, the director of the American Kurdish
Information Network. I want to thank you for making the
connection for us to get this statement from Mehdi Zana. Let me
ask, if people are interested in the Kurdish cause, where can
they call? How can they get information?

KANI XULAM: We have a website as well. It is at
http://www.kurdistan.org. We have an office in Washington and an
office in Los Angeles. [We are] the American Kurdish Information
Network. The acronym is AKIN. If they call Washington for
information our number is (202) 483-6444...

AMY GOODMAN: ...(202) 483-6444. And one final question: If you
had an independent Kurdistan, where would it be geographically?

KANI XULAM: It would be in the heart of the Middle East. The
rivers Tigris and Euphrates would go through it and it would
cross them as well. It would be as large as the states of
California and New York together. It would be a viable state if
it were ever allowed to get on its feet.

AMY GOODMAN: Kani Xulam, of the American Kurdish Information
Network, thank you very much for being with us.

----
American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN)
2623 Connecticut Avenue NW #1
Washington, DC 20008-1522

Tel: (202) 483-6444
Fax: (202) 483-6476
E-mail: akin at kurdish.org
Home Page: http://www.kurdistan.org
----

The American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) provides a public
service to foster Kurdish-American understanding and friendship