A Mosque in Cuba is Praying For Kurdish Freedom

By Kani Xulam:

“I had a friend who was a clown,” cracked comedian Steve Wright, and when he died, “all his friends went to the funeral in one car!”

That thought came to mind while watching the dizzyingly clownish shenanigans of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose staggering buffoonery may ultimately spawn Kurdish freedom.

It’s a risky prediction, but when Kurdistan rightfully takes its place in the atlases of the world or under the sun, much credit—albeit unintended—may well go to Mr. Erdogan.

 Yes, the Turkish president is underwriting the birth of Kurdistan—not by his weird talents and flawed virtues, but with his tawdry trifles and comedic gibberish, which are speedily mushrooming amid his merciless grab for dictatorial power.

In the middle of this month, he regaled the world by ridiculously claiming—with breathtaking egotism—that Cristopher Columbus didn’t discover the New World—Muslims did!

Not only that—Muslims arrived 314 years before Columbus, in 1178!

Even more mind-blowing, Mr. Erdogan said that Johnny-Come-Lately Columbus spotted a mosque on a hill in Cuba—which the Turkish leader offers to resurrect in that Communist sinkhole, with permission, of course.

The world laughs at Erdogan’s antics, wondering what chunk of history he may next absurdly snatch for Turkish or Muslim heroism or ingenuity—as he seems unable to distinguish neither fact from fiction nor Turks from Muslims.

But there’s nothing funny about his striking silence since the hateful assault by 20 or so Turkish thugs on three off-duty American sailors in Turkey.

The day after Veterans Day, a group called the “Youth Union of Turkey” (TGB) terrorized these unsuspecting Americans at Eminonu, in downtown Istanbul.

The chief thug condemned the Americans as “murderers and killers” and demanded they “get out of our lands.”

Another one filmed the exchange for “posterity” and uploaded it to the YouTube a few hours later.

Perhaps a bit of digression is in order here: Someone needs to whisper into the ears of these ruffians and their president that they should thank their lucky stars for having America on their side when Joseph Stalin demanded control over the Turkish straits as well as parts of eastern Turkey in 1947.

The Soviets were barred by the Truman Doctrine, which funneled millions of dollars in American economic and military aid to Turkey—including an American aircraft carrier, complete with sailors like the ones the gangsters assaulted—saving Turkey’s ass from a scorching Soviet stewpot!

Unfortunately, this was seven years before Mr. Erdogan graced Turkey with his birth, but he can look it up.

Going back to the scene of despicable altercation, the Turkish hooligans hurled red paint on the seamen and shoved hoods over their heads—as if trying to kidnap them—while chanting, “Yankees go home!”

It was surreal—Turkish-style Hollywood—except the Americans didn’t know of the plot in advance!

The hapless sailors managed to break away from the menacing brutes and raced back to their ship, the USS Ross, with only mangled glasses and minor bruises.

The world, in vain, waited for the Turkish president to denounce the blatant attack or express his regrets over the belligerent act.

Oh, the American Embassy in Ankara huffed, a colonel at Pentagon puffed, and a low ranking Turkish official in Ankara grumbled, only in passing, incidentally, but nothing more.

The disconnect between the two nations was palpable.

As the Turks might have put it, “Gorunen koy kilavuz istemez,” meaning: “If you see the village, you don’t need a guide.”

Were the goons who attacked the American sailors prosecuted?

Hardly! Adem Meral, the prosecutor, citing the freedom of speech and assembly rights of the protestors (Law 2911), released them on their own recognizance.

The Turkish parliamentarian, Suheyl Batum, was present at the Court House as well, and declared them as heroes and denounced their battered victims, as “bandits.”

Strutting like a pint-size peacock, this one-time “professor” of international law, with an emphasis on “human rights” no less, praised them, “For saying what had to be said and doing what had to be done.”

Someone else riveted by the hooliganism tweeted: “Islamic State salutes Turkish brothers from @genclikbirligi for their attack on kafir Americans in Wilayet Istanbul!!”

Is this now the new standard for heroism: seven hoodlums, on average, ganging up on an unsuspecting passerby giving the Islamic State militants a chance to tweet and high-five each other?

While I plead total ignorance to the merits of such a standard, I am a lot more hopeful about Mr. Erdogan’s warped brain cells.

He may be the duly elected president of the Turks, but he lacks the capacity and the empathy to rule them.

As to the Kurds, we are going to fall away from his grip like Sir Isaac Newton’s proverbial apple did from the apple tree.

It goes without saying that I would have preferred our combined talents and virtues distanced us from the Turks the way Albanians distanced themselves from the Ottoman Empire, for example, but I don’t see us aiming for the same.

Since we have delegated freedom to the future generations, to our children’s chagrin I might add, I am okay with Mr. Erdogan’s “ownership” to a forthcoming claim, by historians that is, that he played a decisive role in the liberation of the Kurds.

As Shakespeare said in Twelfth Night: “Those that are fools, let them use their talents.”

So keep going, Brother Erdogan!

Your errant tongue is, as things stand, our most powerful advocate for an independent Kurdistan.

Kani Xulam is Director of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) in Washington DC, and a commentator on Kurdish affairs.

6 Responses to A Mosque in Cuba is Praying For Kurdish Freedom
  1. Amy L Beam
    November 27, 2014 | 07:16

    President Erdogan was also recently quoted as saying women could not be equal with men. But I wasn’t there. Maybe it’s hearsay.

  2. Robledal Pedregoso
    November 30, 2014 | 02:53

    It is sad that the great civilization that rescued classical science, literature, and philosophy for all mankind has become infected with the gangrenes of the Muslim Brotherhood, Wahhabism , extremist Shiites, and Takfiri Assassin Gangs. If Muslims do not amputate these deviant heresies from their midst it will be done for them by the external dark forces who as we know have already planned the use of tactical nuclear weapons to do this. The clock is ticking! Lastly, if instead of nerdy US Navy tecnicians the Turkish thugs had faced US Marines I let your imagination construct the outcome!

  3. Mansoor
    November 30, 2014 | 17:27

    Russia will support Kurds right to independence if Obamas Admin does not. There are numerous countries out there but we love to see USA obtain full credit for it because it has offered ultimate sacrifices in Kurdistan.

  4. kuvan Bamarny
    December 1, 2014 | 09:11

    As much as I do not like to say this ,but I have to be honest and say that the claim of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, regarding the discovery of the new world, north and south America is ,because Christopher Columbus did not intend to go towards American ,but rather was to go around the Moslem territories which were under the control of the Ottomans and Safavid impires.

    The road was blocked towards India.So he was trying to go around the the two Moslem empires and reach India,but he ended discovering and landing in a new continent which is now called the superpower of the world America.

    So he is right Moslems become the reason that the new world have been discovered.If the two muslems impires had let him go through thier teretories to India ,he would not have ended discovering the new part of the world.

  5. Expelled
    December 4, 2014 | 06:34

    We should be grateful for a president like Tayyip Bey who draws the world’s attention to Turkey, its dark, unconfessed, history and its perilous slide into who-knows-what.

  6. rick t
    December 5, 2014 | 17:11

    In the beginning, the ancestor/relatives of every existing nation/tribe, from Mohawk to Maya to Mapuche, (some 220+ with distinct languages) throughout Our Indigenous Americas, discovered, (after conquering the Ice Age), a pristine, uninhabited continent, including islands, ie (Cuba {Taino}) and then proceeded to evolve for 15,000 years before some folks with a more advanced science laid claim to everything. This is all being corrected by those who comprehend that the power of science is in the wrong hands. End of worthless discussion.

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