a Twitter thread from @leetacanon
@TwitterVid_bot1.
In Iraq, where I lived for nearly a year in 2011, the push for Kurdish autonomy (“Eastern” Kurdistan), resulted in total forced demographic change of the region: villages that were nearly 100% Assyrian before the Iraq war became 100% Kurdish.
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Cengiz (@CengizYar)
"A Turkish invasion could devastate the region, reshape its demography, and force a new geopolitical realignment among Kurds that would set back their push for autonomy to the days before the Syrian civil war." @DGisSERIOUS & @MazMHussain https://theintercept.com/2019/10/08/syria-kurds-trump-turkey/ …
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2.
Assyrian towns were renamed to Kurdish names. The textbooks referred to “Kurdish King Sargon”. The Arbil citadel became the “ancient Kurdistan citadel.” Electricity and clean water flowed to where Kurds lived: in some cases literally going AROUND assyrian areas
3.
The Asayesh arrested Kurdish, Assyrian, Yezidi dissidents. They blocked protests. Assyrians weren’t hired for jobs without joining one of their political parties. We were reduced to being “Kurdish Christians” rather than Assyrians.
4.
I met with the Barzani and Talabani representatives in Washington who gave us the same line: “you’re not united. U til you’re united how can we give you what you want.” This is actually a typical response given to peoples to avoid actually allowing them their agency.
5.
A part of my extended family had a choice: “sell your land for a 10th of what it’s worth or we’ll just take it.” This was so later they could say “well Assyrians SOLD us the land” cover story.
6.
We would insist without US support their project would fall and we would fall with them. They hid behind the minorities while they built up an ethnostate all around us, on our land.
7.
They hired Assyrians to represent the KRG to the west to demonstrate their “partnership” with minorities. Saddam did the same things. This is what the Assyrian forces fighting with he YPG in Syria are: useful partners to show “solidarity”, but we learn lessons.
8.
In one interview I did on Dan Rather, A Kurdish activist told us they were ready to declare sovereignty. I said the moment you do that the turks will invade, Iraq and US will do nothing, and the Assyrians will suffer first.” His answer was “let them come”.
9.
Versions of this have played out in both Iraq, where they lost Kirkuk and Mosul and other disputed areas, and now in Syria. In both countries, the Kurdish authorities assassinated or arrested Assyrians who expressed the desire to control our own security.
10.
The PKK and the KRG do hate each other, but not over ideology. Over authority. The PKK failed in Turkey and so in the 70s they move their operations to northern Iraq, where they were kicked out by the KDP. They then moved to Syria where they declared Rojava, or western Kurdistan.
11.
All of this was majority Assyrian barely a century ago. This is ancient Mesopotamia, this is a Assyria, these are our indigenous lands. “Mosul” is the Ottoman name for Nineveh.
12.
There is so much more that’s happened over the last 40 years since the no-fly zone in Iraq, but all of it points to one thing: forced land theft, cultural cleansing, erasure of indigeneity and history. All to declare an ethnostate. This is what happened to Palestine.
13.
That land my family was forced to sell? Became the Arbil international airport.
Arbil, being renamed “Hawler.”
You can support a Kurdish ethnostate. But we won’t let you forget on whose land it’s being built.
14.
The Kurdistan regions government, for years, wanted to expand its territory to include the Nineveh planes. This is an area just outside of Mosul that butts up against the KRG border. It is overwhelmingly a Assyrian, followed by Yezidis and other minorities.
15.
We were finally able to get our own security forces there. For context, the YPG murder Assyrian David Jindo under the pretense of “having a meeting”, an Assyrian in Syria who refused to allow them to be the security. We wanted our own. How comradely, right?
16.
2 weeks before ISIS cane, the Peshmerga came and put up signs: “Disarm, or we will forcibly disarm you.” Here’s a picture and a video.
17.
They promised “the Kurds will protect you.” In the middle of the night, as ISIS came, the Peshmerga retreated. Assyrians fled. The pesh came, fought ISIS, and stayed. They’re still there. They removed the elected Assyrian mayor of al Qosh, the largest Assyrian town.
18.
And replaced him with another Assyrian. The catch is: she’s a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Loyal to the KRG. We had protests, they were ignored. Baghdad tried to intervene, but nothing. We’re not that important.
19.
She’s still there. And she comes to the US and says “The Kurds are wonderful for minorities!” This is what the Assyrian forces in Syria fighting with the YPG are for. Cover.
20.
“The PKK and the KDP are enemies and they’re different.” Yes. But the difference is only important to westerners who have bought into the romantic notions of a Kurdish ethnostate. To the indigenous people living on the ground, under their rule, it’s something very different.
21.
Assyrians will celebrate nearly 6,800 years of history next year. The ottoman genocide nearly made us extinct. The Baathists and Kurdish nationalists fought over control of our land. And today we’re left broken, forced to choose “which nationalist movement will protect us.”
22.
The answer is none. Genocide after massacre after forced displacement, enough is enough. Where is the solidarity for the indigenous nations that aren’t in our backyards?
23.
Imagine asking Palestinians or native Americans to choose any side but their own? Assyrians are no different. It’s ludicrous to assume Kurds are fighting for anyone but themselves. And why shouldn’t they? They have “no friends but the mountains.” And that’s true. 1000x betrayed.
24.
But supporting Kurdish autonomy doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to the reality - and ultimately the collateral devastation - that the indigenous people suffer for it. Native Americans who sided with whites during the American Revolution doesn’t mean they also won in the end.
25.
We join because we often have no choice. We join with the promise of equality. It never turns out that way in the end. In the end we’re just useful bodies for someone else’s nation building.
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