What Happens When Your Oppressors Are Next-Door Neighbors?

A Story Out Of Kurdistan

Part One

By: Kani Xulam

June 9, 2006

[A slightly altered version of this statement was also delivered at the World Affairs Council of Maine in Portland on May 24, 2006]

In 1886, Leo Tolstoy published a book titled Twenty-Three Tales. One of them was about, "The Three Hermits". It is a story of grace and humility, rarities in an increasingly violent and arrogant world that has come to characterize our times. It is a long tale, but I have shortened it for the purposes of this lecture. I offer it as a teaser, an appetizer if you are into food, to prepare you for the main course, which is Kurdish. But I need to warn you in advance that the Kurdish fare will be heavy, and some of you may even leave this hall thinking, boy, I wish he had also told us, it was going to be raw and bloody. I guess all I am trying to say is that, don't blame me for the repast; consider me in the light of the charming English expression, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." That is what I have tried to do with our neighbors who have now become our oppressors. It is a heartbreaking tale in need of masterful storytellers like Tolstoy, Steinbeck, Dickens, and Sophocles. But tonight you are stuck with me, a tormented soul, with a dull pen and an accented tongue, whose love for truth has forced him to become a reluctant storyteller of his people, the Kurds. full text

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