A word from Mr. Kurd
A word from Mr. Kurd
Before I could begin my question to President Trump at Wednesday's press conference, he asked me where I was from. I told him he was a Kurd from Iraq; He said: "I like this question so far."
Naturally, I continued to ask about the Kurds, who have provided boots on the ground in the fight against the Islamic State. "We have defeated ISIS, essentially," Mr. Trump told me, "and we did it with a lot of help from the Kurds, and they are great fighters."
Then, Mr. Trump answered the question of Rahimi Rashidi of Kurdistan TV, whom he directed as "Mr. Kurd". Cue the indignation of social networks.
Neither Mr. Rashidi nor I were offended by the nickname. I tweeted: "I'm proud to be a Kurd, in fact, I take it as a compliment if you call me Mr. Kurd." I received hundreds of messages from Americans apologizing for Mr. Trump. Soon #MrKurd began to have a tendency in
This was great news for the Kurds. For a moment, the entire United States seemed to be talking about the Kurds, stateless people of 40 million people, who for a long time have been oppressed in the Middle East and ignored abroad. Our very existence was denied until about three decades ago. For almost a century, we wanted our governments to call us Kurds, not Arabs, Persians or "mountainous Turks." We were subjected to genocide and chemical gas simply because they were Kurds.
What may have offended many Kurds was the superficial characterization of Mr. Trump of our people, echoing that of politicians before him. He called the Kurds "great fighters." Most Western officials who praise the Kurds speak of our combat skills as if we are nothing more than mercenaries or security contractors.
The Kurds have been in the region for thousands of years. Kurdistan is the home of Erbil, one of the oldest inhabited places in the world. We have contributed to civilization. We are a tolerant and secular nation where multiple religious groups, including Christians and Yazidis, continue to live together in peace.
It is true that the Kurds have been the most effective partner in the United States in the fight against ISIS. And in 2003 we fought side by side with the USA. to overthrow Saddam Hussein. While thousands of Americans died in the rest of Iraq, no American soldier died in Kurdistan in the Iraq war.
Our biggest problem is that we do not have a state of our own. Our people are still oppressed and persecuted. But by asking for our political rights, nobody, not even the United States or Mr. Trump, seems to be on our side. Our historical land of Kurdistan is divided between four hostile countries, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Why the Arabs, the Turks, the Persians and other nations enjoy independence but not the Kurds?
So thank you, Mr. President, for calling us "Mr. Kurdo." No offense was taken. But, please, know that we are more than just "great fighters". We hope you begin to take real steps to guarantee the rights of our pro-American and peace-loving people in the Middle East. The first place to start is to prevent Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria from attacking us while you depend on our soldiers to fight against ISIS.
Mr. Gly is the head of the New York office of the Kurda Media Network Rudaw.
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