Turkey, Kurds and a World of Silence

They say that silence can be deafening. This week the atrocities continued against the Kurds in Turkey and despite the footage to prove it, hardly anyone flinched. The international community remained largely silent, the media didn’t bother doing anything with the pictures or videos, and the headlines continued reporting everything else happening in this world from California to Tibet…

Earlier in the week, I had reported about the Turkish forces’ brutality against Kurds who were trying to celebrate the old New year or Newroz holiday. Kurds took to the streets to celebrate the holiday and Turkish officials seized the opportunity to flex their ideological as well as their military muscle as one writer at the Jamestown Foundation put it. (And with all so little being reported, I recommend reading the entire article.)

Unconfirmed numbers were killed, hundreds were injured and hundreds more imprisoned. But like so many other familiar events for Kurds in Turkey, the media, the institutions, the world continues looking the other way. The brutality is most certainly nothing new but justice simply lacks a voice in this part of the world.

I’ll leave you with a video that can be seen at the following link. I must warn some that it may be heartbreaking to say the least…

Newroz Tragedy 2008 - Click here for Video