LOS ANGELES — A group of Kurdish demonstrators gathered in front of the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles on Tuesday imploring the United States to assist the Kurdish people with humanitarian relief and military support in order to establish their independence and to help them thwart the impending genocide and violence being wrought upon them by the Islamic State in Iraq.
Dozens of Kurds held up flags and signs calling for an end to ISIS, while showing glimmers of an optimism which has yet to be realized by way of the formation of an independent Kurdistan.
Chants of “Down, down ISIS! Long live Kurdistan!” filled the atmosphere on the browning lawns of the federal building. Similar rallies were also held elsewhere win Southern California, including San Diego.
San Salih, an American Kurd who is originally from Iraq, expressed hisfrustrations to Breitbart News as he noted that the Kurdish people “are [one of] the largestethnic minority [groups]in the world without a country; 15 million plus:”
Wereally want ISIS out of Iraq. They were in Syria and now they’re inIraq. We need them out. We are the closest allies to the United States.We would like Kurdistan to be independent so we can freely go back andtravel and become an ally to the United States and elsewhere in thatregion; a region of instability and uncertainty.
Soraya Fallah, an Iranian-Kurdishhuman rights activist and researcher, who has been living in America since 2000, was also present at the demonstration. She spoke to Breitbart News humbly and briefly of her life, noting that she was arrested several times inIran and underwent tremendous physical and emotional torture for her activism; going so far as suffering the miscarriage of her first child while behind bars.
“For a long time, [the] Kurdish [people] have beenpersecuted in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. I had to run, I had toescape the country,” Soraya said. She first fled to Russia, then went to Denmark, before arriving in the United States.
A documentary called For Kurdistan provides a brief glimpse into Soraya’s life as an activist.
Both San and Soraya noted the importance of aid from both Israel and the United States,which have proven for years to be allies to the Kurdish people. They also emphasized that Israel was the first nation to put itr weight and support behind the Kurds should they declare independence in the aftermath of the horrors being brought forth by the brutality of the Islamic State militia.
San drew upon Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu’s recent remarks supporting Kurdish independence. “The Israeli government and Israeli forces have always been in supportof the Kurds. We have a lot of Kurdish people still in Israel…They have key positions, military positions and so forth.Things are very good there,” San said, his eyes shielded from the sun with opaque black sunglasses.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry took on quitethe opposite stance during a visit to the Kurdish region of northeasternIraq, where he urged the Kurds not to break away.
Speaking with Breitbart News Network on Wednesday,Michael Rubin, a foreign policy scholar at the American EnterpriseInstitute, described Kerry’s role with regard to Iran during theKurdish issue as “being willfully naive. John Kerry is AyatollahKhamenei’s wet dream; a useful idiot with whom Iran can have its way,” he said.
Soraya said of the United Nations: “In this moment, I believe they delay [too] much. I think they are not acting very well. This is the time that [the] Kurds need the United Nations…we really need humanitarian help.”
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