Call For Economic Boycott of the Turkish Products and Think Twice Before You Buy it.
Kurdishaspect.com - By Dana Berzinjy
The Turkish government has showed its aggression, and assaulted the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), by airplane fighters, and used ground forces brutally in current days. Whatever, the reason was behind the Turkish Government’s agenda, such an assault and barbaric invasion, was disapproved by the International Community (IC). The invasion was a breach of the International Law. Despite all the excuses by the Turkish barbaric Army, and the Turkish Government for their violations and attacks on the Kurdish villages on any grounds, it was a violation against the Kurdish Regional Government and the sovereignty of Iraq. So, that’s why, I believe the Kurdish people, Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and the International Community should boycott the Turkish products, in order to weaken politically the power of the Turkish Army, and to stop its attack on innocent civilians in Kurdistan. In addition to that, the Turkish Government should apologize on behalf of the previous Governments for the 1915 the Genocide that committed against Armenians and non Muslim Kurds (Yezidis) through the past centuries. The Yezidis resided on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, before the World War 1, more than 500,000 Yezidis were murdered brutally by the Turks. The Turkish historiographer Katib Tchelebi also stated that from 1915 to 1918 about 300,000 Yezidis were massacred during the Ottoman Empire, cited on this web site www.ekurd.net.
Historically Turkey is the land of the Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks. The Turks are invaders and occupied our homeland Kurdistan. There are more than 20 million Kurds that live in Turkey, despite our case the rights of the Kurds and the other nationalities are denied by Turkey for many centuries. The population of Kurds many times more than Kosovo, but the people of Kosovo declared their independence couple weeks ago. In addition to that, Exbaziya declared its independence from Georgia, and its population is about 250,000 people. The Kurdish population which is 160 times bigger than Exbaziya. If this is the case the people of Turkey need to react against the Turkish invasion. They should show their demonstrations often and refuse to buy things and close their shops, at least for one week. They need to stay at home after that, they should go on strike and start heavy demonstrations in the Kurdish cities, country towns and villages.
Kurdish soldiers in the Turkish Army need to support the uprising and refuse to kill their fellow Kurds and stay away from the war. All Kurds, Turkish, Greeks and Armenians know very well this war does not serve the people of Turkey, except it destroys their country and their relations with each other. The Turkish Army’s aggression against the Kurds does not serve anyone except the Turkish Generals to fill up their pockets and to put their hands in the bloods of the innocent Kurdish people, and the Turkish solders.
Turkish citizens need to put their differences aside and know how to respect each other and to learn how to live together. Turkey is not just fighting against the PKK fighters, but also has a hidden agenda against our homeland Kurdistan of Iraq (South of Kurdistan). Is not now a right time that the Iraqi Federal Government and the Kurdish Regional Government to cancel all the existence contracts with Turkey? When their contracts are expired, they should not be renewed again. This is the right time to take an action against our enemy and boycott the Turkish products, and instead have new contracts with other countries like Jordan, South Korea, China, Israel and other countries. Why do we have to always stick with the enemy even though some times they have exported their expired medicines, and foods to Kurdistan? The PKK and the Turkish Government conflicts should be worked out in Turkey not in the Iraqi Kurdistan, and their war is purely political and the Kurds in Turkey are fighting for their occupied homeland which is Kurdistan. Every day millions of Kurds are demonstrating against the Turkish occupation in Turkey. Turkey needs to solve its internal matters in Turkey, and shouldn’t export its problem to another country. The Kurdish and the Turkish people should know the dirty intentions of the Turkish Army, and need to take an action and resist the Turkish Government in order to save their sons to become ashes of the war, for the benefits of the Turkish Army Generals. In the light of the great article that was written by Dr Hoshiar Molod, I would like to expand about that topic, which is very vital for today’s political situation in Kurdistan. As we know Kurdistan has been surrounded by the hostile countries. They are not going to grant our rights in a peaceful way, because they are tyrants and oppressors.
Acar of the Erbil Business people's Association says: "Violence is affecting economic relations; this is to Turkey's detriment. There are people From Turkey and Iraq feeding from violence”. Acar told the Turkish government and the media to stop seeing Massoud Barzani, as an enemy. This is how Ahmet Acar, president of the Business people’s Association in Erbil; the Iraqi Kurdistan's capital sees the relations between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan region. He said that the attacks carried out by the Turkish Army are dropping the economic activity of Turkey. Acar said that people in Kurdistan were not affected by the attacks, and the places were left by the Turks were taken by the businessmen from countries like China, Japan, Australia and South Korea.
Acar said many Turkish companies work in the field of textile production and bread factories, according to the data from 2006, there were 15,000 employees and more than 200 companies from Turkey in Iraqi Kurdistan. Acar said that the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) did not put pressure on the Turkish companies, but they were labeled as "traitors" by Turkey.
According to data provided by the Erbil Chamber of Commerce, 23 Turkish factories left Kurdistan in the first 2 weeks of October. The Turkish Contractors' Union, those companies from Turkey earned five billion dollars in Iraq since 2003. Tahir Telllioglu, both deputy president of the Turkish Federation of Construction Contractors and president of the Ankara Construction Contractors' Association, said: "Contractors should leave Iraq immediately. As of today, whoever puts one stone onto another in Iraq is betraying their country." If this is the attitude of the Turks towards our nation, we need to think wisely and shop somewhere else that we are more comfortable with and boycott their products.
Economic Boycott
The Albert Einstein Institution defines an economic boycott as, "The withdrawal or withholding of economic cooperation in the form of buying, selling, or handling of goods or services, often accompanied by efforts to induce others to do likewise. It may be practiced on local, regional, national, or international levels."
In this way it means to refuse to continue a certain economic interaction, particularly the buying, selling, or handling of goods and services. Boycotting is a good method and effective way, and it is legal without a violent protest. These days are well known that a boycott method is the only way to boycott the countries which abuse human wrights. It is powerful method of change as well.
I agree with Dr Hoshiar Molod, and other authors in order to boycott all Turkish products, because the boycott is a great method and more successful than protests on the streets of Kurdistan and the world. The intentions of the Turkish attacks on Kurdistan were to weaken and undermine the Kurdish authority in Iraq. I want to say that unfortunately, the Iraqi Government did not act quickly, and it was a very slow reaction against the Turkish invasion. The Turkish Racist Government does not recognize the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and treats the Kurdish Government and the Kurds in a racist way. Sometimes they use bad language against the Kurds, and wish the government to fall a part. They think that Kurdistan is still part of the collapsed Turkish Ottoman Empire, and any time the Turkish Army Generals wanted, can occupy Kurdistan. If the Turkish Government looks at Kurdistan Regional Government in a hostile way, why do the Kurds have to have a commercial relation with Turkey?
A report from the Sbeiy website, confirmed that 40% of Kurdistan’s regional government budget for year 2007 had gone to the Turkish companies for contracts and buying of merchandise. We should end all business relations with Turkey, because of their aggression and assaults which the Turkish Army continuously bullies and harasses us by bombarding and killing our people, and destroying villages and our bridges. In the recent incursion, The Turkish brutal Army planted 3200 mines in Kurdistan in a shape of toys to kill our children. Despite billions of dollars that the Turks collect every year from Kurdistan, for having business in our region, the last Turkish attack on our sovereignty, through the bombardment by airplane fighters, they made huge damages, which were estimated more than 20 million US Dollars. So, that’s why it is very important for the Kurds to boycott the Turkish products in order to stop the Army’s aggression against our people. The Turkish threat is a dangerous game on us and we need to take this matter seriously, and we should react without delay against the past and the future offensive and invasion. I believe everyone should support the boycott of Turkish products against the Turkish invasion and abusing human rights in Turkey. The Turkish Government used a boycott against implementation of the human right laws by European countries. Turkey is also in 2000 boycotted against Belgian products, in order the Belgian Government should hand over some people to put to death in Turkey. It also the Turkish supermarkets in Turkey had boycotted in 2006 against the French products, due to the French parliament passed the Armenian genocide bill. If Turkey uses a boycott policy for its own benefit, so the other nationalities have a right to use it against the Turkish State of Terror.
Boycotts will work well
Sometimes the customers stay away from buying certain products from some of the companies, because they have very bad perceptions. Boycotts are more effective than any other methods such demonstration, lobbying and other campaigns. From my understanding the Kurdistan Regional Government has made many commercial agreements with the Turkish companies in Kurdistan. According to the Kurdistan Regional Government more than 400 Turkish companies are working in Kurdistan recently. So, they can sell their products and they will get our dollars. This process generates billions of dollars and promotes and makes the Turkish economy much stronger. So, the people in Turkey will have more power to purchase goods and services and they make more money from agricultural, fashion, music, and medicine industries. So, now the Turkish industries have found the market in Kurdistan in order to sell their products, and eventually our sectors will get weaker and weaker. Finally, they will control our market, and they will bombard us by their products, especially if their products are low-priced than the Iraqi or the Kurdish products, in this way our products will stay longer in the market and nobody will buy it. In the end we will lose our economy and we can not stand against the Turkish competitors. In order to avoid this, so our Iraqi and Kurdish Economists should think twice before this awful situation gets worse. If this is the case the Iraqi people in general and the Kurdish people in particular, will be totally just consumers not producers. So in the end, it will harm our economy financially, economically, and politically. If our market is controlled by the Turkish businessmen and their products, so, the Turkish authorities can put an economic sanction on Kurdistan by stopping sending their products to our people. If it reaches this point, it’s going to be too late until we will find a market, and we have to pay a heavy price for our mistakes. So, why we have to give our dollars to somebody else, if our farmers in Kurdistan are capable to do the same job. Who will get richer and richer our farmers in Kurdistan, or our Turkish Neighbor? At the result the Turkish Government will have more power economically to buy weapons, guns, artilleries, helicopter gunship’s from other countries like USA, then later on, they will use it against the Kurds. That means they will use and spend our money to destroy our homeland. The current situation in Kurdistan is a great example that the Turks destroyed our villages in Kurdistan over and over. They use our dollars to destroy our bridges, that built by our poor people, or money from charities that was given by western countries, and churches but not by mosques of the selfish Islamic or the Arab World.
We need to avoid buying or selling Turkish products, like Turkish bread, tomato paste, or at a restaurant like Kebabs, Dolma and so on. I live in Australia but it has been long which, I have refused to buy Turkish products, even if less than a dollar. I want to say, it is a shame for some of the Kurdish singers who go to Turkey to make clips or to record CDs. Why don’t they spend their money to make their CDs in Kurdistan?
I want to say, unfortunately, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) gives out contracts and deals with the Turkish businessmen, which is worth billions of dollars. That is our mistake, and today we have to pay a heavy price for that. It is also very sad to hear at the Iraqi level to tie Iraq, and the Turkish relations strongly on the bases of trade, and it’s unfortunate, that the Iraqi president urged Turkish investment on 9.3.2008, during his visit to Turkey. The Iraqi’s goal and the strategic visit were extended the Iraqi relationship with Turkey on different levels for instance, economic, trade, oil, political, culture, etc. That’s what the Iraqi president told the Turkish business leaders. He guaranteed that the businessmen will get different kinds of help, and facilities in Iraq. I believe this kind of business it will harm the Kurdish question without any guarantee from the Turkish side to stop its aggression against our nation in South and in North of Kurdistan. According to the article that cited in ekurd web site, the Turkish exports to Iraq amounted to 2.82 billion dollars in 2007, while Iraqi imports only came to 650 million, according to Turkish government statistics. Tuzmen expected that two way trades would total six billion dollars in 2008 and he said the aim is 20 billion by year 2010. Promoting business relations with Turkey, which make the Turkish Government stronger financially and their economy gets healthier. The Turkish companies hate the loss of sales and negative publicity; boycott campaigns bring an image problem that can damage their business for decades.
President Talabani’s official visit to Ankara on Friday 3rd of March 2008, which cited on www.ekurd.net’ web site, Pervin Buldan, Pro-Kurdish DTP deputy criticized Mr. Talabani while she was speaking to her party’s Igdir branch last Saturday in that event which organized to mark March 8, www.ekurd.net International Women’s Day, she made comments about the Iraqi leader, who was in Turkey. “Mr. Talabani, if you have the slightest bit of Kurdish pride, you wouldn’t cooperate with the state and government here in Turkey,” she said. According to the website during his visit, the President Talabani promised the Turkish leaders that he will take an action against the Turkish-Kurdish Workers Party. The combat against the PKK requisite closer co-ordination between Ankara, Washington and Baghdad, Talabani said on Saturday. I want to get back to my previous argument and direct a question to our lecturers and our economists at our universities, financial, and economic ministries in Kurdistan. Is this the way that you could manage the economic resources of Kurdistan? Would not have been better method to find jobs for the people of Kurdistan, and our young graduates from universities? All the organizations and their advisers, I have mentioned it previously should be held countable for a bad economic management in Kurdistan for a high inflation, a high rate of unemployment, high prices, expire dates of foods, medicine, and the Turkish monopoly market in Kurdistan. If we want to follow the method of the boycotts; absolutely it works very well, if the people behind it put lots of efforts in order to organize it. A boycott will generally be very successful if it has focused leadership. If everyone refuses to buy Turkish products, it does not matter where you live in Kurdistan, Australia, Germany, USA, England, and Turkey. Wherever you are if you refuse to buy their products the demand for their products will be reduced heavily, and finally, it will harm and hit the hostile Army indirectly. If you want to support the Kurdish issue in Kurdistan, you need to refuse to buy products which were made in Turkey. When a boycott is successful the hopes of the Turkish generals will be faded, and they will begin to pay attention to our demands and the boycotters. Indirectly, we will put economic and political pressures on people, and people of Turkey and the World will put a direct pressure and a heavy load at the Turkish Army dictators in Ankara.
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March 31, 2008
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