__________

Will the Kurds get their way?  Probably not.

__________

The issue:

Monday last, the 6th, the Turkish parliament approved the deployment of 10,000 troops into Iraq, over the strong objection of the Iraqi Governing Council, which allegedly governs Iraq.  Although it's widely presumed that Turkish troops will bypass Iraqi Kurdistan and deploy in Sunni-dominated central Iraq, that presumption is not shared by the Turkish government.

According to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul assured the other Cabinet ministers that Turkey will act jointly with the United States to clear out from Northern Iraq members of the insurgent PKK, who have sought for many years to create a Kurdish state in southern Turkey. (The leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan does not condone the PKK's activities.) That could stir up trouble. Even if Turkish troops aren't permitted to chase down the PKK, how are the Turkish troops supposed to get to central Iraq without traveling through Iraqi Kurdistan?

So ten thousand Turkish troops on their way to Iraq.

As I commented to my email group -  the two friends in different parts of Canada, two in Atlanta, three in Paris, five in various places in New York, and a friend in Boston.

I don't like the sound of this.  I rememeber the Turks really took care of the Armenians.  Many governments, including the French, as Ric [Paris] might remember, officially designated it genocide.  Ah, but that was many, many years ago.  Trying to wipe out a whole people just isn't done any longer.

 

Anyway, those Armenians who survived, well, many of those who survived, ended up out here in California, in the central valley, in and around Fresno.  And there's a large Armenian community here in Los Angeles.  California now has more Armenians than does the now ten-year-old modern Armenia.  So if things go as they seem to be going, perhaps Fresno should brace for a new ethnic group.

 

Armenians out here?  Phillip [Atlanta] and others of us know Zildjian cymbals, and everyone knows Cher, and the actresses Adrienne Barbeau and Arlene Francis, "The Chipmunks" creator Ross Bagasarian, and the late William Saroyan... and Andre Agassi, author Peter Balakian, actor Mike Connors ("Mannix"), actor/writer Eric Bogosian, comedian Andrea Martin ("SCTV"), Carnegie Foundation President Vartan Gregorian, MGM Chairman and CEO Alex Yemenidjian, NCAA basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.  Heck, we even had an Armenian-American governor out here in California, George Deukmejian (1983-1991), who is now a partner with Sidley and Austin downtown.

 

We could use some Kurds out here now, those who live through this.

I may have been bitter but Nico in Montreal added this:

Every great demographic in the America comes from a tragedy elsewhere, be it black, Jewish, or pilgrim.  Those with education, money and/or luck make it in.  They got what it takes.

 

But to promote tragedy elsewhere 'because we (the State Department) denied there'd be a problem', or to promote 'quality' immigration?  Maybe toying with the idea of sending in Turkish wolves to quell unrest in Kurdish sheep herds is a meant to get a jerk from the UN, provoke them into doing something, anything.

 

If Turks were let in, it would qualify as a crime against humanity?

 

schadenfreude (shädn-froid) n.  Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

 

[German  : Schaden, damage (from Middle High German schade, from Old High German scado) + Freude, joy (from Middle High German vreude, from Old High German frewida, from fr, happy).]