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Jawad Mella says Muammar Gaddafi is the
only world leader who truly supports the Kurds
16.6.2011
By Rozh Ahmad |
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The
president of KNC, Jawad Mella says Muammar Gaddafi
is the only world leader who truly supports the
Kurds, and claimed that the military campaign
against his regime represented a double-standard.
June
16, 2011
The Case
for Statehood
LONDON, � Dr. Jawad Mella is the president of
Western Kurdistan Government in exile and the
Kurdistan National Congress. He was a leading
political figure in the Kurdish Democratic Party of
Syria from 1964 to 1969, and later moved to Iraqi
Kurdistan where he became a leading member of now
defunct Kurdish Socialist Party.
Mella has lived in London as an exiled political
activist for 25 years. He is originally from the
Kurdistan region of Syria, which he calls �Western
Kurdistan,� and founded the Kurdistan National
Congress with other likeminded Kurdish figures in
Europe in 1985. The organization is officially
recognized by many in the international community
and has been backed by international leaders.
Mella believes that along with the uprisings in
North Africa, Kurds throughout the Middle East
should rise up to gain their independence.
�This movement should have started in 1990 when the
Soviet Union collapsed,� said Mella. �Maybe the
Arabs are 20 years late. It�s good for the Kurdish
people to start their protests and demonstrations
against the rulers of Kurdistan: Turkey, Syria, Iran
and Iraq.�
Mella rejects the relationship between the Kurdistan
region of Iraq and Baghdad and calls Iraq the
occupier of Kurdish land.
�It is possible for the Kurdish parties in Iraq to
ask the UN for a referendum because powerful
countries are now listening to them,� he said.
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Dr. Jawad Mella is the president of Western
Kurdistan [Syrian Kurdistan] Government in exile and
the Kurdistan National Congress.
President of Libya Muammar Gaddafi is receiving the
Kurdistan flag from KNC president Jawad Mella.
Photo: jawadmella.net |
�In addition, in an [unofficial referendum] in 2005
in Iraq, 98 percent of Kurds voted for separation
and independence.�
Mella maintains that Iraqi Kurdistan�s leaders are
caught up in politics rather than public advocacy.
�The problem is that Kurdish parties are not working
for the public�s interests,� he said. �They are
working for their own political parties' interests.
When the nation gave 51 percent of their votes to
the KDP [in the first Kurdish election in 1992] and
49 percent for the PUK, they had a meeting and
decided to divide the votes to 50 percent each. That
means they did not listen to the opinion of the
nation. They never have listened to the nation.�
Mella believes that the cause of the protests that
engulfed Sulaimaniyah last spring was the visible
and unfair distribution of wealth in Iraqi
Kurdistan. Thousands took to the streets daily,
demanding reform, an end to government corruption
and basic services.
�Maybe the demonstrations were not in hands of good
people, but the nation is in a very miserable
situation,� he said. �Kurdish leaders should quickly
solve this problem. It is very bad to see people who
have no bread to eat and others quickly becoming
millionaires. No one would accept such a situation.
Some people have food some don�t; some people have
shelter others don't."
Regarding the situation in Syria, Mella said he
distrusts the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and
dismissed his promises to reform and recognize
minority groups.
�[Assad] is 100 percent lying because the Baath
party�s manifesto states that people in Arab
countries are Arabs; if they are not Arabs then they
must become Arabs and if they do not wish to become
Arabs they should be removed. This is the real
identity of Ba'ath Party and those Kurds who support
them -- whether the Ba'ath Party of Iraq or Syria --
have not read the party's manifesto.�
Mella said any attempt to achieve Kurdish rights
within Syria will fail just as they have in the
past.
�In my opinion they should struggle for Kurdish
nationality not Arab nationality,� he said. �Kurds
should ask for their own independence. Syrian
Kurdistan, which we call "Western Kurdistan," is
twice the size of the West Bank in Palestine. There
are 3 million Kurds speaking Kurdish and have
maintained their culture until today. There are
another 3 million whose language is now Arabic
because they have been �Arabised.��
As protests began in Syria following the fall of the
Tunisian and Egyptian regimes, Assad lifted the
country�s emergency law, which had been imposed
since 1963, and promised to grant citizenship to
hundreds of thousands of Kurds. Some Kurdish
politicians welcomed Assad�s decision said it would
�strengthen Syrian unity�. But Mella believes the
decisions were efforts to divide the nation and help
the regime remain in power.
�The Syrian regime is one of the most ruthless
regimes and is an occupier it has divided the
Kurds,� said Mella. �I don't know what kind of unity
they are talking about. This government has divided
all the nations. They killed many Palestinians in
Lebanon and killed as many Lebanese is Syria. In the
city of Hama alone, 17,000 people are still missing
-- similar to those Kurds who went missing after the
Kurdish uprising in Qmishlo in 2004.�
Mella has been a close friend of Muammar Gaddafi and
even presented the Libyan leader with a Kurdish flag
during one of his many visits to Libya. Mella said
that Gaddafi is the only world leader who truly
supports the Kurds, and claimed that the military
campaign against his regime represented a
double-standard.
�I have been saying for a long time that he is not
the only Arab leader, but is the only leader in the
world who supports the Kurdish cause,� said Mella.
�He was and still is supporting the Kurdish cause.
Even in this terrible situation, [Gaddafi] said,
�They impose a no-fly zone on Libya because I have
killed some terrorists in eastern Libya, but they do
not impose no-fly zone on Turkey for killing the
Kurdish people for hundreds of years.��
Mella claimed that Gaddafi�s love for the Kurds is
genuine.
�When I gave him the Kurdistan flag as a gift, he
was sitting down,� said Mella. �But he stood up,
kissed the flag and then put it on his head. No Kurd
has ever done that, but Gaddafi did it.�
Mella�s organization is committed to an independent
state for the Kurds and he firmly believes that the
time is now.
�The Middle East in quite similar to Europe during
Hitler, when every state was trying to take away the
rights of the neighboring nation,� He said. �The
Middle East is now experiencing the same thing.
Every nation wants to undermine the rights of its
neighbors,www.ekurd.netand
the rights of Kurdish people have been undermined.
That is why they have to build borders. I do not
mean physical borders, but they should build their
own states so that our neighbors begin to understand
us. I am not against living among Iranian, Arab and
Turkish people. But I am against oppression imposed
on my nation. The Kurdish people must live with
dignity, respect and peace.�
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author or news agency, rudaw.net
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