Racism and slander against Kurds on steemit

in #politics7 years ago (edited)


I was disgusted to find out that there are racist and slanderous posts about the Kurds on steemit. The worst part is that they are paying off pretty well.

There is this person @sarahabed, organizing and piecing together the most slanderous and biased articles with controversial events to feed upon and manipulate ignorant innocent souls. Unfortunately, I don't see many Kurds on steemit to dismantle her biased and anti-Kurdish propaganda. Therefore within this post, I will reveal her lies and misleading information.

Her latest article "Separatist Kurds: A History of Human Rights Abuses and Racism Against Arabs" :

First of all, for anyone that knows a bit of history and has a bit of common sense can spot a slander article from the title itself; accusing one of the most persecuted people of the middle east, who suffered from massacres, discrimination, assimilation and racism this last century of being racist. Portraying the oppressed as the oppressor is just amazing.

Then we have this image :

Which is actually contradictory with the title, when there is a Kurdish flag (representing Kurds) next to a Syrian opposition flag (representing Arabs). I hope being against Assad doesn't consitute in being racist (other slander articles would accuse Kurds of working with Assad).

We then move on to the introduction :

The West has effectively preyed on the Kurds’ internal divisions and has used some factions to fulfill an imperialist goal of dividing and weakening the Near and Middle East. The Kurdish people are diverse, and in recent years, aspects of their culture and customs have been discussed in mainstream media. But the behavior of some of their more corrupt factions must also be addressed.

The classic use of a conspiracy theory narrative to discredit the Kurdish struggle. If you knew a little about the Kurds, you would know that we are mostly lefties, socialists, libertarians, progressivists or anarchists. Hence, our desire for self-determination or independence in order to achieve freedom, rights and equality has nothing to do with imperialistic goals that the west might have in mind. On the contrary the west is the one who put us in the situation that we are in today. Refer yourself to the Sykes–Picot Agreement, treaty of Sèvres and finally treaty of Lausanne, former to which countries like actual Turkey, Syria or Irak never existed before. Even today, I don't know if you're aware but the west is openly against any Kurdish state. If their intentions were to divide the middle east and create a Kurdish homeland; why would they want to do it secretly ? Because they're afraid of people like you finding out ? or maybe they're afraid of the west being against a supposedly already western project ?

Separatist Kurdish factions have a vested interest in claiming Arab, Assyrian or Armenian history as their own. However at times when they have failed in that endeavor, they have resorted to destroying any relevant history pertaining to the areas they are trying to claim altogether. In this aspect, they operate in a similar manner to Daesh.

This is were we see that she is good at her job, she starts off with straight out false accusations with no proof whatsoever. Kurds have no history, art or culture, a few years back they didn't even exist, that's why they claim other peoples history and art, right ? As a Kurd I can only condemn any destruction or theft of any historic or ancient artifacts, Assyrian, Armenian or otherwise.

Every time the Kurds failed in an attack against Turkey, they would migrate to Syria and try to claim Syrian land as their own. For instance, they tried to claim the Syrian city of Ayn al Arab, naming it “Kobani/Kobane.” The origin of the name is the word “company,” a reference to a German railway company that built the Konya-Baghdad railway.

Fact is that the city of Kobane has a majority of Kurds living in it. Given this fact and considering the above logic, no Kurdish land is Kurdish, nor is any Syrian land Syrian or Turkish land Turkish. Anyway, the statement failed to mention the name "Ayn Al-Arab" was introduced officially by the Syrian government as part of a broader Arabization effort in the 1980s (same source wiki). Here, this is a good read on restoring names of arabized Kurdish towns from an unbiased source Syria's Kurds restore ancient names to arabized towns.

It’s worth mentioning that the Kurds are not even a majority in the land they claim as theirs in northeast Syria. For example, in the governorate of Al Hasakah, they amount to about 30 to 40 percent of the population. That number has decreased since the outbreak of the current Syrian conflict, as many Kurds have left for European countries.

It's also worth mentioning that in 1949, the French geographers Fevret and Gibert estimated that out of the 155,643 inhabitants of the region there were about 50000 Arabs, 60000 Kurds, a few thousands Jews and Yezidis, the rest being Christians of various denominations. @sarahabed's statement still remains false, here are two maps to illustrate, from two unbiased sources the washington institute and gulf2000.columbia :

So the Kurds do constitue a majority in Northeast Syria.

Most of the have fled to Germany, where their numbers are about 1.2 million, a little less than the number of Kurds living in Syria. However, they do not seem concerned about seeking autonomy there. They only seek it in the Middle Eastern countries that have provided them with refuge all of these years – these are the countries they want to stab in the back instead of thanking them for their hospitality.

This one is real funny, because 1,2 million is actually more than the total number of Kurds living in Germany. The actual number is about a million and the majority (80%) are from North Kurdistan (fled from Turkey and not from Syria), who settled in Germany long before the war in Syria. Furthermore, we should be thankful to these countries that have denied and banned our identity, culture and language for so many years ?... be grateful for their massacres, torture, assassinations, persecution, oppression, forced displacement and assimilation of our people ? Yeah, but no thanks.

Amnesty International’s many refutable allegations against the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army cannot be taken at face value in the absence of other corroborating reports. In some cases, however, they do report truthfully, such as when they released a report in 2015 accusing the YPG, the militia of Syria’s Kurdish population, of a range of human rights abuses.

Lama Fakih's report was nothing more than another failed attempt at a smear campaign against the kurds like the ones you're doing on your blog. The YPG refuted the allegations two days after :

Sipan Hemo, General Commander of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the PYD, said on Thursday that the allegations set out by Amnesty International in a report on Tuesday were "not what is happening on the ground" [....] "Now, let me be clear; we have liberated some 1500 Arab villages," said Hemo, in an interview with Kurdish journalist Mutlu Civiroglu. "Some of these villages became war zones between us and ISIS. Battles took days in some villages. I am not saying there has been no harm to those villages. But they are not more than four or five villages. We have 1500 Arab villages liberated and people in them live in peace now. If it was true, why are these 1500 villages still standing?" "Thirty percent of YPG is made up of Arabs," said Hemo. "If allegations in the report were true did these Arabs with us commit those atrocities too? If such things were true, would they fight alongside us in Jazira and Kobane? We believe such reports want to harm our image."

A petition was even lunched on change.org to remove her from amnesty international.

The reality is that if Kurdish forces had carried out such acts or atrocities, they could have never gained so much ground against daesh. At least 30% of the SDF forces are non Kurds, about 40% of Rojava is non Kurd (Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen, Armenians and other minorities), how could you even consider racism or ethnic cleansing in such a multi-cultural and multi-ethnical society ?

Don't take my word for it, just watch and listen to the reality on the ground :

Guerrilla Fighters of Kurdistan :

A rare look inside the Kurdish rebel movement: PKK, war on all fronts :

Kurds in fight against ISIS, Big Phil's War :

Some Kurds claim that their “Kurdistan” is “multicultural and multi-religious,” which is disingenuous when you consider that those additional cultures consist of people now dwelling amongst a Kurdish majority in lands the Kurds took by force. On September 25th, these minorities were faced with the prospect of casting meaningless votes for the KRG Referendum in Iraq since, even if they all voted “no,” they would nonetheless be outvoted by the Kurdish “yes” majority and as a result would still find themselves subject to a Kurdish government and agenda, if the Iraqi government recognized the referendum.

Your opinions do not constitue as facts. Supposing in your biased opinion that all minorities would vote against Kurdistan doesn't make it true. Even if they did all vote against, I'm not saying you don't have a point there but since when do you advocate minority rights ? I mean minorities in Kurdistan have the right to oppose a Kurdish state but Kurds as a larger minority don't have the right to oppose countries in which they are forcefully part of ? Logic.

I could continue to refute and dismiss any one of your lies backed with proof and common sense but I will conclude my post here :

It's a shame and actually pretty sad, you couldn't be further from the truth. In all my articles about the Kurds not once have I encouraged hate or racism against a any ethnicity or religion. We only advocate humanity. Why would we pretend to advocate humanity if we actually are racists or terrorists ? We only wish to live in dignity, mutual respect and coexist in peace with other ethnicities and religions.

You see at least 35 million, we are not happy being occupied by other countries as you wouldn't be. Why can't we compromise, agree and settle this matter once and for all instead of lunching smear campaigns, propaganda and war ? Why not rather choose to be two peaceful neighbors than two ennemies in the same house ?

You spoke about claiming land in which we are not a majority, how about we give back the land in which we are not a majority and you give us the land in which we are ? Let's also make a country for the Assyrians and Êzidîs (Yazidis) if they wish so. Deal ? I believe all minorities who don't already have a homeland, deserve the chance to achieve statehood, the right to learn and educate in their own mother tongue, the chance to govern themselves. If it could end the conflict and bloodshed I don't give a damn if there are a thousand states or one whole one, but make it equal and peaceful for all people, call it utopia.

For more on the Kurds, check out my other posts :

Who are the Kurds ?
What is it like to be a kurd ?
Rojava : a stateless democracy
Brave female Kurdish fighters
Kurdish Independence Referendum
Documentary of the Rojava Revolution : Roza - The Country of two rivers


Thanks for reading,
Kind regards,
@ronahi

Sort:  

@ronahi do you know what a gentleman would have done? He would have questioned me either on my posts, or tagged me and had a civil debate. What you chose to do, however, is create a smear campaign laced with insults, libel, slander, all in an attempt to garner emotional support for your cause by vilifying me. I find that to be a sign of weakness. You chose to do something in the shadows that I might have never seen had it not been by sheer coincidence that I looking at steemd.com.

A wolf in sheep's clothing would be a very accurate description of what and who you are dear ronahi.

Dear @sarahabed, please quote any insults within the article. Posting a criticism of your overwhelmingly insulting and heinous work on my people doesn't constitute as a civil debate ? I'd bet it does. So I created a smear campaign on a smear campaigner ? Seems legit from where I'm standing.
Again, I tagged you and your post as bright as day, luckily you're a good investigator.

Have a nice day or night.

If one reads between the lines on this attached Reuters article, its clear to see where 'ISIS' evaporated to in the SDF areas. The FSA/ISIS simply took on a new name under the SDF/YPG banner. The article even alludes to Arab fighters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-ypg/exclusive-kurdish-ypg-militia-expects-conflict-with-turkey-in-northern-syria-idUSKBN19Q2S0

Excerpt: The YPG is fighting under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes Arab fighters. In separate comments to the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper published on Wednesday, Hemo said the United States had established seven military bases in areas of northern Syria controlled by the YPG or SDF, including a major airbase near Kobani, a town at the border with Turkey.
Citing operational security, the coalition said it did not confirm or deny information about “specific capabilities, force numbers, locations or movement of forces in Iraq and Syria”.

The rest of the above article is mostly BS, easy to see as the US has backed the terrorists all along as proven by my many articles here at Steemit and at Clarity of Signal. Reuters is, of course, one of the lead propaganda disseminators for the US Deep State (read Zionists) and thus should always be looked at quite skeptically. This Kurdish state has long been in the works by the Zionists who control US foreign policy and the recent dropping of the independence referendum was actually all part of the plan in order to bring the larger western/Zionist controlled Kurdish state into existence.

For those that have been paying attention, the US was never fighting ISIS in Syria and has instead been using them as proxy army to destabilize and take over the country. Now they are trying to reshape the narrative around the Kurds who have sold themselves out regardless of what Ronahi states here at Steemit. The US was always planning on this plan as a backup to their FSA terrorists who have experienced defeat across Syria. The Kurdish 'leadership' in their desperation and desire for globalist compensation and a possible state of their own, simply are willing to align with Saudi Arabia's terrorists and the Zionists of Israel for self enrichment. They have never really fought ISIS either. Now 'ISIS' suddenly signs a deal with them and hands over the oil fields. Its sadly comical. What has really happened was that ISIS simply switched uniforms and accepted another new name change. Southfront has more on the oil handover from 'ISIS' to the Kurds.

For folks wanting to know what is really going on with the Kurdish ruse, I recommend checking out Syriana Analysis as he is always well on top of the Deep States/Zionist BS, as well as being well up on the actions of Turkey and the Saudi backed terrorists in Idlib.

Note that Syrian and Russian Armed Forces have recently cleared the last major city held by ISIS before the oil fields and that the ISIS fighters suddenly have disappeared? Where do folks think they slipped away to? Of course they went into the nearby Kurdish regions where the regrouping and renaming is taking place under the control of the US military advisors (read special forces) at those 7 new bases established by the Empire on Syrian territory. I put together a large post showing the weapons they left behind as the SAA advanced on al-Mayhideen. Keep in mind that the US Deep State never worries about the loss of weapons or them falling into the hands of ISIS/al-Qaeda, this is because they make massive amounts of money by ripping off the US taxpayers and getting the MIC to produce new weapons contracts that pay huge gains on the stock market for insiders. All part of the spiraling, bloated, unregulated MIC working hand in hand with the terrorists.

https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/breaking-news-oct-21-2017-new-photos-reveal-massive-nato-supplied-weapons-cache-captured-from-isis-by-saa-after-battle-for-deir

And Sarah, keep up the good work fighting for your country. You have my respect and from what I have seen on the Internet, the respect of a great deal of others. The difference between you and the peroson you are debating here is that you have a a good, pure heart and have been fighting for getting the truth out about all the western, Gulf State and Zionist deception in Syria, while have been fighting for getting the truth out about all the western, Gulf State and Zionist deception in Syria, while they are simply being deceptive. Peace to you.

Where is my tiny foil hat when I need it ?
This what happens when you are braindead embarked on a journey of disillusion.

We lost over 3000 fighters against daesh in Rojava alone. Over 5000 Yazidi women were kidnapped, raped and sold into slavery, their men massacred and buried in mass graves. Kurdish peshmerga fighters were tortured, beheaded or killed in different barbaric ways. We lost brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers in the fight against Daeshbags. We are religiously diverse, we have Muslims, Alevis, Chiites, Yazidis, Christians, Jews and atheists. Our values, principals and ideologies have absolutely nothing to do with those of daeshbags.

So how the fuck dare you say we are allied with fucking daesh ? Do you think this is fucking chess game ? with your bullshit brainwashed analysis. Tell me how would female YPJ fighters (feminists/communalist anarcho-libertarians) get along with daeshbag fighters, you moron ?
YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING.

We would be better off with imperialists zionist seeking to create a Kurdish state (which isn't the case anyway) than with braindead morons seeking to oppress and deny our identity and rights. So I will respectfully ask you to GO FUCK YOURSELF.

Loading...

Truth is a very rare commodity, especially on platforms like steemit where everybody posing as an expert will find a gullible audience.
I needed to read only one article by Sarah Abed to know that she twists the facts or leaves stuff out to fit her agenda, so I don´t need to read any more articles by her.
In comparison I find your article well balanced and sort of logical, though you of course also have your own agenda, like we all do.
A doctor from my hometown has done seven humanitarian missions with the Kurdish Red Crescent in Rojava so far. He wrote about the last one on the news site of a German TV channel and was also visited by a German film crew in Rojava. I have translated three of his reports from German to English to give the steemit community the opportunity to learn about Rojava from someone actually on the ground there.
You can find those translations on my blog. Azadi!
https://steemit.com/war/@likedeeler/a-german-doctor-in-syria-iii

From all the flood of posts on steemit, I'm happy to see you stumbled upon mine. I mean what are the chances ? You have done work related to Kurds, and an amazing job at that I must say reading your translation. It is true that we all have our own agendas and mine is no secret, however I try to keep mine as pure and honest as possible without endorsing hatred or fear.

I don't need to restore to misinformation as the truth is enough, it's out and it is logical. For exemple a doctor from your own hometown has done 7 humanitarian missions with the Kurds in Rojava. He has witness and experienced at first hand the harsh reality on the ground, have the Kurds mistreated, discriminated against or terrorized any minorities during his stay ? If they had would he have done seven missions with them, I believe not. Even after the attack on the medical station causing the death of 20 people the IS fighters were captured alive. Even in the face of evil I'm amazed and proud at how they keep their humanity intact. This is how I wish to influence the people, that they do their own research, witness and experience for themselves the realities on the ground.

Her biji!

I have to admit I found your post only because @bloom sent me a direct message to call my attention to it. Thanks bloom for taking the initiative, well done!

@ronahi and @likedeeler as far as I know, you are the only ones here who write posts about this topic and know something about it, so I though it was a good idea to bring you in contact. You are doing good work to refute the propaganda of users like @sarahabed by coming up with some actual information. And don't be discouraged that the propaganda posts of others are so heavily upvoted, that's usual for steemit, many whales here have no clue and/or don't read the articles they upvote. Even if your posts don't earn that much at the moment, it's important to have some material online to counter the rampant disinformation on this platform.

You thought well, it was a good idea to put us in contact. Till now I thought I was the only one (apart from the propaganda posts). Yeah I agree with you, I'm not worried about the upvotes it's more getting the word out there. Thank you for your encouragements and for everything that you are doing!

That mysterious behind the scenes good doer! :D Truly thank you @bloom

I am not as knowledgeable on this subject as I should be, but after reading your post I am much more knowledgeable than I was. ;) The best way to counter false information is exactly what your doing -shed light on the truth and call out the people spreading the lies... I actually learned from your post - and I will be doing my own studying into the Kurds... Thank you... Here's my full upvote (only .07)and a resteem - keep up the good work... Followed you and will check in now and again... :)

I'm glad I was able to share some knowledge :)
What matters is that you cared and took the time to read. Indeed, it's always best to dig, study and investigate for your own. Thank you @drdave, for the upvote but more importantly for the chance to reach out to others.

And if you have any questions by the way or want to watch some documentaries, I'd be glad to help.

I commented on her story about Israel supporting a de-stabilization program in Syria and asked her how that was any different than what Syria had done in Lebanon and is still trying to do to Israel.
Her answer was.....
Complete silence

I answered a number of your comments, and then you sent me a private message that I couldn't open until recently.. so.. you are okay with this senseless bashing that is taking place here? Really interesting.

You have no problem bashing Israel for supporting(or being the cause of) the de-stabilization of Syria, yet when Syria's DECADES LONG destabilization of Lebanon and Israel are brought up you go silent.
If you are talking about an attack on you personally that has nothing to do with me.
Maybe now you will answer me. Does the government of Syria bear any responsibility for the mess the country is in? After attacking and being in a state of war with Israel since that country's inception is it appropriate to play the victim now that you(Syria) are losing the decades long war You started?!?
When you criticize the clerical-fascism of the Islamists, I agree.....
but when you support the national-socialist(and arab supremacist ) Baath party of Syria I must disagree.
You talk of the plans of "Zionists" and their plans for world domination yet nary a word about the Arabist plans for world domination.
I don't see how this article differs from your articles except in which side of the argument you are on.

"I don't see how this article differs from your articles except in which side of the argument you are on."

So let me get this straight, you can't see how this post (which is clearly slander and libel), is different than my articles, and yet you feel entitled to get a response from me for your question? You must not realize how disrespectful you appear right now.

You must not realize how disrespectful you appear right now.
😂😂😂😂😂 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

When you slander and libel Kurds and Israeli's do you realize how disrespectful you appear?
Thank you for your silliness I'll be laughing all day about that one.

You really are pathetic.. and I didn't add those laughing faces you did.

and I'm still laughing, don't care what you think of me, and I laugh at you for insulting me instead of

answering the question

That's pathetic.

Also, clearly you do know what is going on here..

Curated for #informationwar (by @openparadigm)
Relevance: Does a good job critiquing @sarahabed information warrior for the Syrian government.

I do not work for the Syrian government, nor am I a mouth piece for them.. so your assumption is completely unwarranted.

That is my opinion of your content and bias, the Syrian government should pay you.
You do a great job.

Still no answer to my question?

Destabilization of Lebanon?..Does that make you angry because you see it as competition to Israeli designs? As far as playing the victim, I'm afraid the Jews have a sizeable majority share of that dynamic..going much further back than the establishment of the Jewish state. It's part of their identity..so much so that proverbs have been created over it lol. I'm merely positing here..but MAYBE...if Israel hadn't been born from ethnic cleansing and terrorism, they MIGHT possibly have received a less hostile response from their neighbors..just sayin..I'm just thinking out loud here you understand..But mostly what I really wanna hear is you outline the "Arabist plans for world domination" because that is some A-list comedy material there..

Whose angry? Not me. Just pointing out the hilariousness of criticizing Israel or "Zionists" for behaving the way the country being defended(Syria) has acted for DECADES.

I'll get back to you with more A-list comedy, you can wait, you've waited since August to use this shell account.

How do you feel about Pakistan?

You don't answer questions either?

I am not knowledgable enough on the issue to give an opinion but I apreciate your efforts to try to offer an unbiased point of view. People twisting the truth to fit their agenda is truely one of the biggest obstacle to achieving freedom peace and prosperity for all.
So many people calling themselves Christians or Muslims or Jews yet they have no love for the truth.
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
I sympathize with your frustration, I've felt similarly in the last few years when I saw the Ron Paul supporters of 2012 fall for the Orange clown in 2016. Now they defend everything single thing he does wrong with the mosted twisted logic you've ever seen, just like the left leaning did with Obama before.
I thought of these people as my allies, now I realise about more than half of them were just anti-establishment when the left is in office.

I appreciate your comment @ycz. Totally, sometimes twisting the truth is worst than a lie, it's gives people something to base their misconception on. I believe above all we shall be human, what is any religion worth if it doesn't promote humanity first ?
I understand what you mean, I also noticed this phenomenon... but for the podium of most twisted logic you should see Erdogan and his supporters.

Great post. You are a man with a hearth and a mind.

Thank you, I really appreciate it.

Did you know both sides of the story before you complimented this hateful steemit member? Or is hearing just one side enough for you to call this a "great post". I wonder how you would feel if people were making false allegations against you and others were believing it just because they were too lazy to look into what the other side of the story may be @doelist.

@ronahi, I have reached out to a steemit chat profile with the same username. As soon as you can I would like to start a correspondence with you about the subject matter at hand.

This post was resteemed by @resteembot!
Good Luck!

Your post was resteemed thanks to @drdave

Curious? Check out:


The @resteembot users are a small but growing community.
Check out the other resteemed posts in resteembot's feed.
Some of them are truly great.

Curated for #informationwar (by @openparadigm)
Relevance: Does a good job critiquing @sarahabed information warrior for the Syrian government.

This is beyond pathetic.

You don't like the logo?

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.28
TRX 0.12
JST 0.032
BTC 62568.36
ETH 3010.80
USDT 1.00
SBD 3.89