Kurds are holding anti-Islamic State demonstrations worldwide. Some are violent.  In Hamburg, Germany 40 ISIS supporters attacked several hundred Kurdish demonstrators.  Four people were treated for knife wounds.

Kurds stormed the EU Parliament building in Brussels, London’s Heathrow Airport Terminal Two is occupied by Kurdish demonstrators; however, no flights are delayed. Several hundred Kurds entered the parliament building at The Hague.

14 people died in clashes with police throughout Turkey, which is seeing the worst of the demonstrations.  Its large Kurdish population is furious at the betrayal which has the Turkish military parked across the border from the Kurdish canton of Kobani, Syria refusing to help prevent the slaughter that will take place when ISIS takes the town. Kobani has been under siege for three weeks.  The Turkish tanks are just what the Kurdish fighters need but they’re not helping.  Nor have the coalition air strikes been much help until the last 24 hours. They seemed to somehow miss targets or found their targets evacuated.  Suspicions are high that ISIS got advance warning.

The angriest demonstrations are happening in Diyarbakir, Turkey, which is under a 24-hour curfew. Eight people were killed and many more wounded when police used tear gas and water canons to disperse demonstrators who burned cars and damaged businesses.

Almost one year ago Diyarbakir was the site of a love fest between Turkish President Erdogan (then Prime Minister) and Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani.  The Kurdish leader traveled to the far eastern Turkish city, by car from Erbil, Iraq to publically encourage the Turkish Kurds to bury the hatchet with Erdogan and help him move from Prime Minister to President in elections.  The violence of the demonstrations of the past 72 hours are directly related to how used the Kurds feel over that love fest.

Erdogan went on to win the Presidency.  Many feel he succeeded on the backs of the Kurds – the very people he is now watching be slaughtered just across the border.  A border the Kurds do not recognize.  Their traditional territories stretch across the borders of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.  A Kurdish demonstrator in Houston, Texas, said yesterday (October 8, 2014) at a rally at City Hall that they all have family on all sides of the borders, “We don’t recognize their borders.”

Many of the Kurds rallying in Houston are in constant contact with family and friends throughout the Kurdish areas of the Middle East.  Several spoke of aid being given by the Turkish military to the ISIS fighters.  One gentleman said Islamic State jihadists are crossing into Turkey for treatment for wounds and being allowed back across to fight again.  Kurds are prevented by tear gas and Turkish tanks from crossing over the Syrian border to fight against ISIS.

Houston, Texas 10.8.2014

Houston, Texas 10.8.2014

Houston, Texas 10.8.2014

Houston, Texas 10.8.2014

Meanwhile in Istanbul tensions are extremely high.  The Taksim Square demonstrations of the summer of 2013 were more a “happening” of the 1960’s compared to the atmosphere there now.  Tinderbox is the best description.  The Kurds feel betrayed on many levels not the least of which is the sense of being used as a political pawn by Erdogan. 

In March of 2013 it was revealed that Erdogan was in peace negotiations with the jailed leader of the guerilla group PKK, the Kurdistan Worker’s Party.  The PKK had been fighting the Turkish government for 30 years.  Erdogan was willing to give the oppressed Kurds more freedom.  Erdogan wanted to be President.

Erdogan made a great show of leading the healing of the nation.  The mantra was peace had to be made Kurd to Kurd, Kurd to Turk, one individual to another, one family to another, one clan to another, one city to another -- peace had to be made on a one to one basis all across Turkey.  Artists, educators, politicians, business leaders, shop owners almost everybody bought in.  A new era of possibility promising prosperity seemed to sweep the nation.  Road building was finally happening in the Kurdish territories, which looked like time had stopped in the 1950’s.  Villagers dreamed of moving out of the urban ghettos back to their lands.  Visions of large sheep farms, hydroelectric dams and mineral mining danced in Kurdish and Turkish heads.

In August Erdogan was elected President.  Now, just two months later all he promised the Kurds and Turks seems a sham.  However, it must be recognized many Turks are happy Erdogan is keeping his military on the Turkish side of the border regardless of their opinion about the Kurds.  When Turkey takes on the Islamic State, as it indubitably will, it must win. Perhaps, Erdogan’s military isn’t up to the fight, yet. He is certainly attempting to wring every conceivable concession from the entire world before he begins that fight. If, however, he thinks he can wring out concessions and then negotiate with ISIS – not just the Kurds will suffer, all of Turkey and surely all the world will suffer from his hubris.