Kurdish Lessons for Macedonia

Below is a link to a Washington Post op-ed piece regarding how the US should repair its relations with Turkey which have become hostile since the Iraq war. Nothing too radical about this analysis with the exception that the discrimination faced by Turkish Kurds is not mentioned. All Macedonians will recognize the quote below as being similar to the Greek fears about their "Slav minority".

My suggestion is that Bush go to the largest city of Turkish Kurdistan and pray at the cemetery of the Kurds that were killed by Turkish troops during the last fifteen years and beg for forgiveness for the US role in helping Turkey cultural genocide against Its Kurdish minority.

Building a New Era in U.S.-Turkey Relations:

"Ankara wants the United States to honor President Bush's principle of "you are either with us or against us" and destroy the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) -- which Washington designates a terrorist organization -- prevent Kurdish control of Kirkuk and the oil rich region surrounding that city, and ultimately check the emergence of an independent Kurdistan. The Turks fear that a Kurdish state in northern Iraq would stoke nationalist sentiment among Turkey's own large Kurdish minority."

Steven A. Cook is Douglas Dillon Fellow and Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is Adjunct Senior Fellow for Alliance Relations at the Council on Foreign Relations.