Alright, amusing as it is that a thread which started with a bunch of racist French MPs being attacked by a bunch of racist Turkish MPs descending into racism against Iranians, Armenians, Gypsies, Greeks and Albanians, it has involved some amount of chest-beating which affects the national group to whom this forum is dedicated (les Kurdes), so some important points to the rather large region thesunchild has just summarised:
-It seems according to you, everybody who is not a Kurd and lives in the "Middle East" (or even the Balkans, except... the Serbs!?) is quite inferior. Do you not suppose that nationalists of all these other groups hold a similar view? To whom do you suppose it is useful that everybody in our region is sure of their own superiority (linked to their similarity to "the West")? I'm of course not saying we should pretend that we're all brothers (naturally I'm for brotherhood and that, but the conflicts are still real for the time being), but I feel that all of us (Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Jews, Armenians) have made a religion out of our conflict with our neighbours while constantly looking to people who live thousands of kilometres away for, if not support, then guidance.
-Armenia's relationship to Iran being whatever that is, let's keep in mind that Armenia has a Kurdish minority still, and efforts have been made for obvious political reasons to play down their Kurdishness. So there's that. It's not just a foolish country with relations with Iran, but a country with a Kurdish minority, one that often gets ignored (by design) due to the religion of the Kurds in question. Incidentally, I believe there are still small numbers of Kurds in Azerbaijan too.
-Turks and Albanians cannot be compared. Albanians became useful to the Western powers at the fall of Jugoslavija, but Turkey is useful now for similar reasons to why it was useful during the Cold War: It is strategically located. This is the big conundrum regarding the Kurds (much more than the Armenians) for Western policy-makers: They like Turkey's current borders and want to keep Ankara happy for military and economic reasons related to its location, but on the other hand Kurds are increasingly becoming a consideration as Iraqi Kurdistan moves closer and closer to just becoming the Republic of Kurdistan, which will affect the Kurdish populations of all neighbouring countries.
And this is what we shoudl be talking about, not dead Armenians from 100 years ago, because this is exactly what politicians want us to be discussing. I was commenting to a friend last night: If the Turkish government really didn't like the way the French government was talking, they would simply ignore it, but they've spent days producing a huge media circus which distracts from their recent patching things up with the Zionists (more proof that he never cared about Palestinians, you'll notice he's dropped the subject), the still totally unanswered Kurdish question (which has deadly effects, but the only part they wish to discuss is that the PKK kills Turkish soldiers, which of course gets mixed up in the big "foreign enemies" fantasy), the relationship with TODAY'S Armenia, Azerbaijan, the jailed journalists, the jailed CHILDREN in the Southeast, the economy, etc. This is great for Kerdoğan (and if the CHP were in power they would use it the same way) because he gets to look like some sort of radical individual for yelling about Algerians (for whom he naturally does not actually care) when in reality he is just a business-minded asshole presiding over a militarist establishment.
So in summary, this is what Kurds should have to say about Armenians: They have a country and there are some Kurds.
This is what Kurds should have to say about Serbs: Nothing. Enemies? Friends? You share neither borders nor enemies (who honestly expects Serbs and Turks to fight a war any time soon? They get along better and better each year, both government and people!)
And this is what Kurds should have to say about Albanians:
Azamat wrote:Albanians [...] do not let Islam play a role in their patriotism, despite baseless accusations as such from their enemies. Kurdish 'patriots' who have gone astray (PIK) should take an example from them.