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David Barsamian
David Barsamian is the award-winning founder and director of Alternative Radio, the independent weekly audio series based in Boulder, Colorado. He is the author of numerous books with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eqbal Ahmad, Tariq Ali, Arundhati Roy and Edward Said. His best-selling books with Chomsky have been translated into many languages. His latest books are How the World Works and What We Say Goes (both with Noam Chomsky) and Targeting Iran. David's interviews and articles appear in The Progressive, Z and other publications. He is winner of the Media Education Award, the ACLU's Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, and the Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. The Institute for Alternative Journalism named him one of its Top Ten Media Heroes.
Latest posts by David Barsamian (see all)
- Noam Chomsky Discusses Azeri Aggression on Artsakh - October 10, 2020
- Armenia: The Struggle for Justice (Part II) - September 6, 2017
- Armenia: The Struggle for Justice (Part I) - August 14, 2017
A brilliant example to” Truth nothing but the truth only the truth”
Honest and with integrity…..
silenced mainstream media can no longer close its eyes and ears to the change that has taken place in Turkey…
This just makes me want to cry for Turkey, and do a slow burn for the good ole USA.
Chomsky decries the lack of coverage in the 90’s by the NYT of widespread atrocities against the Kurds.
I may be wrong on dates, but I believe that Stephen Kinzer was the Istanbul Bureau Chief in those years. The man loves Turkey so much he has a home there. Despite the NYT policy to describe the AG as such instead of “what Armenians call the AG,” I suspect he prefers the latter formulation so as not to offend, although I think the policy was announced after he moved on.
There is a deeper process at work that goes beyond Kinzer. Western journalists and their editors seem enamored of Turkey, in the way one week tourists are. We hear so much about the moderate Islamic state.
I’m still waiting for the press to expose Ergun Kirlikovali’s racist writings, and what the Talat Pasa Societies and Gulen are up to.
I think the press failure to go after these stories is some combination of timorousness and cowardice, laziness, and wanting to show their Turkish friends – most of whom come from Kemalist elite families – that they understand Turkey.
“They’re (Kurds) landlocked. If they don’t have significant support from the outside, they can’t be sustained for long. And they’re not only landlocked but they’re surrounded by enemies, so Iran on one side, Turkey on the other, Arab Iraq as well”
Not true at all. Turks have mostly put aside their paranoia about an independent Northern Iraq. In fact, Turkey, not USA is their guarantee for safety and security. They may be land locked but their pipes reach the seas through Turkey. Turkish businesses have invested hugely there and Northern Iraq is mostly isolated from the central government. Independece for them is just a technicality at his point and may not even worth the headache for a long while. Iran would not dare to threaten them which would ilicit direct response from Turkey and USA.
Also worth noting that as we speak Northern Iraq hosts the deadly
PPK. It is from their lands that they launch massive terrorist attacks. They have control over this or not besides the point. Ironically Saddam had never allowed PKK this much freedom and space. Compare this with Taliban that hosted Alquaide. USA did not care, and rightly so, if Taliban had any control over the situation and responded with full invasion that took countless lives.
To jda: Indeed, 99% of those in the mainstream media who write about Turkey kiss up to that country. Whether intimidated, bought-off, or just plain stupid, they’re nothing but a bunch of bums.
Unfortunately our Arab brethren have a short memory. It was less than 100 years ago that many of them, muslim mostly, were killed trying to throw off the Ottoman yoke.
Turkey must come to reason and understand that it can not fight a simple truth that Kurds in Turkey need their rightful rights in a peaceful democratic framework. USA should know better that even for the mid-term strategic goals turning a blind eye on this issue is a mistake.
Turkey instead of spending money on this military machine which in several operation into Kurdistan of Iraq in the 90s didn’t succeed to solve the issue. i.e. the military solution is totally rediciulous. Through the 1970 Iraq,Iran, and Turkey never had the control enough over those triangle! So? Better spend on other policies than military solution.
Long term advantage of Turkey too is to be much opener towards Kurdistan of Iraq and they are slowly realizing that, however towards Kurds in Turkey they find it hard to accept that…but they seem to have sensed that too. So they’d better be accepting peace. PKK has done fatal mistakes in the past, nevertheless they are a voice claiming fighting for freedom. There are more peaceful trends among the Kurds in Turkey. USA should be caring about that, and Turkey too.
I fully understand it when US puts its economic and military interests before any human right concerns. But what I can’t understand is why these left-wing intellectuals keep pushing the Palestinian issue to the very front while completely ignoring the Kurdish issue! Here, Noam Chomsky, the “conscience of the American people”, skillfully veered the conversation towards supporting Turkey and lionizing Erdogan, like everyone else in the Arab world! The interviewer, David Barsamian, mentions in the beginning that there are more intellectuals detained in Turkey than in China, but Chomsky never elaborated on this subject afterwards.
Chomsky at least partially admits the truth that the semi-autonomy in Northern Iraq “exists by the tolerance of the great powers, primarily the U.S.”
The interviewer, David Barsamian, is not even sure in how many countries Kurds live: “The Kurds, who straddle three or four countries”
After the independence of Ukraine we are the largest ethnic group without a country of their own and now it’s time to talk more loudly about it! The growing apart between Turkey and US should be fully used for our benefit, instead of running after the tails of these self-righteous left-wing elites who only use this fact in irony!
Alan I take it you are Kurd. I am an ethnic Kurd myself, but my family has been severely Turkified. However much evil the US did in Iraq, at least our people are one big step closer to a country in Northern Iraq. And you’re right, Kurds should use the gradually growing rift between Turkey and USA to their advantage. I’m not sure the US or NATO would take too kindly of Turkey daring to bully an independent Kurdish nation. I feel your frustration. Better days are coming, I know it.
Hi RVDV, Yes, I’m Kurdish from Southern Kurdistan. I share your optimism. We need to be more realistic in choosing our allies and fetter ourselves less and less by ideology and religion. Till the day of complete independence we should also refrain from strong ideological commitments and work stubbornly towards our one and only goal: an independent Kurdistan that includes every single part of it!
Thanks for your input. Look for me in facebook.
Alan Saeed, Toronto
The problems of Kurds and Palestinians are not comparable. Not even close. Kurds are citizens of a democratic country with equal rights as everyone else. They can go to school (Kurdish education if they like), work anywhere, become the president or prime minister if they can. They can travel freely and carry on with their trade as they like. Palestinians on the other hand are prisoners with pretty much no rights and no hope. Their desperate state pushes them as far as becoming suicide bombers. The story of Kurds and Palestinians are very very different.