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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:26
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quote:
Originally posted by GePap
The US wants Iraq to remain a counterweight to Iran. If the Kurds get a state, not only does it weaken Iraq, but it makes the Shi'a an overwhelming majority in what is left, and in theory if not practice, make it a more friendly state to Iran: and the Saudis and other Gulf monarchs, all of whom have Shia minorities, also fear such an outcome. So, states that have reaons to quelsh an independent Kurdistan?
Iran, Turkey, Syria, SA, Kuwait, Baharian, Qatar.
States that want an independent Kurdistan?
Maybe Greece... probably not even.
Also Azazel, isn't Turkey Israel's only local friend? |
Out of those on the 'quelsh' list, the only two states I'd care about is Turkey and Kuwait. Kuwait isn't going to complain very loudly, and Turkey...well, they just proved how fitting their name really is.
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Agathon
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Leafs 4TW!! - CPA
Dec 2002
time: 00:26
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regarding the Kurds, this was a bizarre story:
quote:
The big match unites a country of two halves
Luke Harding, in Irbil, sees a top Baghdad soccer team take on Kurdish rivals
Saturday March 1, 2003
The Guardian
It is well known in Iraq that the country's most devoted football fan is none other than Uday Hussein, President Saddam's eldest son. Unfortunately for Iraq's hapless sportsmen, Uday is also known for torturing players who fail to perform on the pitch.
So it was hardly surprising that when a football team from Baghdad made a rare trip yesterday to opposition-controlled northern Iraq they expressed their complete support for Uday's beleaguered father.
"We love President Saddam very much. We will stay with him to the end," Baghdad's 20-year-old goalkeeper, Saif Aldin Zammer, explained before yesterday's match with the Kurdish side Irbil.
"If there is war we will go and join the fidayeen Saddam [the Iraqi president's volunteer militia]," Mista Qalan, a defender, said in the away team dressing room. "We will fight to the death."
Saif's team is Al-Nafid, the Oil team. Their opponents yesterday, Irbil, are the best Kurdish side in Iraq's national league.
The country may be divided into two distinct chunks, but Kurdish and Iraqi sides play each other most weekends.
To reach Irbil, the Baghdad players had to travel across a reinforced Iraqi frontline, past freshly dug army trenches filled with oil, and up into the mountains of Kurdistan.
Were the players worried about an impending war?
"We will defend ourselves against any attack by America," Saif said. "We are not afraid. All the players in the squad are ready to fight. We know how to use Kalashnikovs."
Before running out on to the pitch, Al-Nafid's players broke into several chants for the television cameras, including "1234, we don't want a war" and "We give our blood, our blood for you Saddam".
Outside, several thousand Kurdish home fans had gathered in the afternoon sunshine, apparently unperturbed by the threat of conflict. One waved a Leeds United scarf, held upside down. Others expressed their admiration for David Beckham, and said they supported Manchester United.
As the game kicked off, the Kurdish crowd appeared to have forgotten its traditional enemy: Saddam Hussein. Instead, they broke into a long chant of "**** the Turks", a protest against an American-backed plan that would see thousands of Turkish troops pour into Kurdish Iraq.
Most ordinary Kurds now regard the Turks as more of a threat than the Iraqi army. After a few minutes of play it was clear that Irbil, ninth in the Iraqi league, were the slicker side.
Their star player, Ahmed Judea, turned out to be not Kurdish at all, but a Baghdad Arab bought from another club four months ago for a transfer fee of 1400 dinar (£120).
Shortly before half-time, he scored the only goal of the match, an elegant header. He had bagged two goals the previous week against Kirkuk, the government-controlled oil city a short drive west from Irbil into Saddam-controlled territory.
America's fourth infantry brigade is expected to liberate Kirkuk in a few weeks' time if the war goes to plan.
Football remains hugely popular in Iraq, and is one of the few pastimes that appears to unite the country's ethnic and religious factions.
Iraq is even a member of Fifa, but only just.
In the mid-1990s several members of Iraq's national squad alleged that Uday Hussein ordered them to be tortured after they lost a crucial World Cup qualifying match 1-0. The players claimed that they were locked in cells beneath the Baghdad headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic Committee (the director is Uday Hussein) for five days and beaten on the soles of their feet.
Fifa investigated the allegations but concluded that Iraq could carry on playing football.
Yesterday Saif Aldin Zamman, the Baghdad goalkeeper, was sanguine in defeat. "We have good relations with the Kurds," he said. "We are not fighting them any more." |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Stor...,905389,00.html
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Ozz
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Canada
Mar 2002
time: 05:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Sandman
This is very good news. I'm impressed that Turkey has refused to be bribed, at least for the moment. |
Turkey is just following the same policies that kept them
out of WW2. (Churchill tried to bribe them in)
Talk, Talk, Talk, but no commitment.
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Lincoln
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Tony and George are going to war regardless. The new state will be called Geonyland.
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Lincoln
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This isn't really me...
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Rufus T. Firefly
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is one way of saying it, though I prefer "mensch"
Sep 2000
time: 07:26
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Turkey is, nominally, democracy. Sure, laugh if you want to, but they hold elections and everything. And no matter how many votes they have in Parliament, AK party has a tenuous hold on power, because everyone else who has power in the country -- the military, big business, the media, the civil service -- hate them for being crypto-Islamic upstarts.
In other words, the only people who like AK party are ordinary Turks. And among ordinary Turks, opposition to the war is running at about 90%. AK party's betwen a rock and a hard place, and they know it; supporting th US abroad may well mean losing their power base at home.
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Apolyton Time is 00:26. |
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02-03-2003 02:28
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