Monday, June 17, 2013

Well Good News From Syria: Western Kurdistan Might Have Been Born: Saladin the Great (a Kurd) Smiles Happily from Paradise

Well, to balance the bad news coming out of Syria it seems that the Kurds have formed a new semi-autonomous nation.

Over the past year, some Kurds began openly calling for an officially autonomous region in Syria similar to that of northern Iraq.

Vehicles sporting license plates reading "Rojava Kurdistan," or "western Kurdistan," have become more common. Kurdish red, green and white flags with a sun in the middle — the same flag flown in Iraqi Kurdistan — fly over homes and public offices. A local police force known "Asayish," whose members include women, have taken over security in the areas abandoned last year by Assad's forces.

Kurds now study their own language and cultural heritage in schools. Under Assad, Kurds have not been allowed to openly teach their language or celebrate their New Year, or Nowruz, and Kurdish activists were routinely jailed.

Maybe they will form up with Iraqi Kurdistan and part of southern Turkey and become a new nation. Kurds seem pretty bad-assed from what I read about Saladin and seem pretty secular and open when it comes to Christians and such. They could be a perfect ally with the West and be a bulwark against Muslim fundamentalism.

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