Syrian Kurds condemn insult by opposition

QAMISHLO, Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdistan24) – On Thursday, Syrian Kurdish journalists and activists organized a campaign, condemning the unfair words the senior officials in the opposition media uttered about Kurds.

Speaking to Kurdistan24 on Friday, a Syrian Kurdish journalist and the executive director of the Norway-based Media Rights Watch (MRW), Massoud Akko said, “I organized the campaign with a group of Kurdish journalists and activists in solidarity with the wave of anger that is sweeping the Kurdish areas in Syria and the diaspora.”

“This anger is due to the Syrian opposition’s disgraceful statements that insulted the Kurds, their culture and history and their forces in Syria and Iraq,” Akko said.

He explained that the anger erupted when the leading opposition media outlet Orient News, in a radio program aired on March 19, broadcasted two opposition figures' abusive words regarding Kurds. 

The campaigners said in a statement that one of the interviewees attacked the Kurds by saying that they have been "barbarians and mercenaries throughout history and they are a bunch of criminals and bandits."

“The [Syrian] Arab opposition personality Dr. Ata Kamel called for cleansing the northern Syria of Kurds and deporting them from Syria,” the statement said.

Akko pointed out that Asaad al-Zoubi, head of the Syrian opposition delegation to Geneva talks, insulted Kurds and Peshmerga in another program broadcasted on Orient News radio a few months ago.

“Al-Zoubi attacked the Syrian Kurds saying that they do not deserve to be treated as humans, and he also mocked Peshmerga saying that they could not defeat ten Da’esh militants in Iraq,” Akko said.

On its part, Orient TV issued a written apology to Syrian Kurds and deleted the program files from its website on Wednesday, but a Syrian Kurdish journalist and activist Mustafa Ebdi managed to republish them on social media in the last two days.

“It is not the first time the opposition figures and their media abuse the Kurds. The apology is meaningless because repeated abuse has become part of the systematic legacy against Kurds,” Akko said.

The statement condemned promoting hatred and called upon media to strive for peace instead.

“Orient TV has to play a positive role be being a voice for all Syrians, and must not be biased and racist. They should avoid hosting hateful voices that play a major role in fueling the Syrian conflict,” the statement concluded.

Reporting by Hisham Arafat

Editing by Ava Homa