In this third of what started as a three-part series on LA Times coverage of interest to Armenians, I’ll address some Kurdish-topic patterns I’ve noticed over the past two-plus years.
Arguably, the Kurds have fared best among the peoples of Armenia’s neighbors. Certainly, they had more coverage (at least in terms of number of pieces) than anyone else, other than possibly Iran (I have not tracked the latter). But, those pieces overwhelmingly involved conflict. Whether it was Turkey attacking the PKK, the PKK responding, the ramifications of these in Iraq and southern Kurdistan, or the political growth pains of the federal structure in Iraq as it impacts the Kurds, coverage stemmed from blood or fierce politics. Even those stories not directly involving Iraq-Kurd and Turkey-PKK issues were conflictual, e.g. Kurdish protests or persecution in Turkey, Kurds denying responsibility for a bombing, and murders attributed to a “tribal vendetta” in Kurdish-inhabited parts of Turkey.
Plus, the one editorial regarding Turkish-PKK interactions favored Turkey. There is no coverage of Turkey’s abuses of the Kurds’ human rights, and no “picture” of daily life in Turkish-occupied Armenia and Kurdistan. There is the occasional piece about or reference to (in coverage not specifically about the Kurds) “the progress in northern Iraq”. Basically, the paper seems to be toeing the State Department’s line. No one would call the LA Times pro-Kurdish.
These establishment-based and “if it bleeds, it leads” biases do a disservice to readers. For Armenians, it is, I suppose, better than nothing that some trickle of information about our “cousins” intrudes upon our awareness to supplement what the Armenian media provides. But this pathetic coverage of the largest stateless nation on the planet leads to perpetual uninformed-ness of Kurdish reality among U.S. citizens (as I have no doubt other major newspapers are similarly deficient), in turn leading to less than optimal Kurdish policy in the State Department.
The “Kurdish Question,” like the Armenian, is key to peace in the Middle East. Palestine-Israel may be the hottest issue, but its resolution will not usher in the hoped-for peace in the area. If anything, with that gone, the opportunities for mischief through the abuse of the Kurds’ and Armenians’ fundamental rights and manipulation by some powers of their liberation movements will expand.
It behooves us, as we develop and implement a media strategy, to include the Kurdish perspective on our shared homeland.
Garen Yegparian
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Thank you for this perspective, Mr. Yegparian, and for calling the Kurds your “cousins”. The Kurdish Question is indeed a key to peace in the Middle East.
I’m a Kurd and from Iran and very delighted with this article of yours which dealt with concerns on Kurds’ plights living under their tyrannical regimes in meddle east.
Please from now on, go on telling the true story of Kurdish suffering there to your fellow Americans.
God bless you…
Hi Garen,
My name is Roj and I am a Kurd living in Kurdistan. I would like to thank you for your article for the LA coverege of the Kurds. And, I agree about you saying that they’re approach is the same as the state department’s line, and that is they can use evrything not only material things, but as well as the humanity and its values for their economic benefits.
Thank you Mr. Garen Yegparian for sharing the truth with us. We Kurds and Armenians have not always had good relations, but we have always had some kind of understanding between the two nations, probably because of a common enemy.
Remember Hrant! Freedom for occupied Armenia and Kurdistan!!!
we as Kurds should be all ways respecting Armenian in good way because there is Strong link between to nation,being neighbour thousand years got same brutal enemy even before tatar i should call it Turks come to genocides us we used to be so close to each other u wont know who is Kurds who is Armenian.but time dose change and we did change and our feed back will different day by day against brutal people in middle east i wish u freedom and wish to the end of Turkish bad ideology to occupide other nation
Garen: Thank you for your excellent article. It is high time Armenians/Kurds co-operate together. As was commented above, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
Let’s also include our Assyrian brothers.
Just in case some did not as yet enter and read the D.C. Conference thread here..it is good to enter and rad that as well.That is….. ¨the ARF attends the D.C. Conf¨.
Stepan there has an interesting Comment,to which i added and do here too. so as the Kurds here would get wind of.
I asked on said Thread if Dr.henry Astarjian was amongsst those photographed???
It is important that Kurds here get to know an armenian that has more or less first hand info regarding Kurds and has been in touch with their <parliament in exile in Brussels.
Reading some comments here by some kurds, i cant help asking:
Since when has devil turned into angel ?
Necati,
A day will come, where none Turkish population of fake Turkey will rise and will break the backbone of criminal genocidal unwanted invaders back, then you will end up with your raki and goat cheese, seeping an Armenian coffee!!