Zazaîstan - Kurdistan - Luristan

[Diri]

Zazas and Zazaistan

The Alevis or Zazas are a minority (70.000) according to Le Monde) living in the territories that were the old Turkoman emirate of Danishmend. Their name mean "Ali partisan" and they emigrated from Babylon in the VIIth century and were later converted to Shiism. The Zazas are divided into 28 tribes, each of them being ruled by a dominant clan.

Jaume Ollé, 10 October 1998

The status of Zazas is explained in a paper by Martin van Bruinessen, from the Turkish and Kurdish Studies Department, Utrecht University (The Netherlands), as follows:

"Meanwhile in Europe Zaza-speaking Kurds - some of them Sunnis, other Alevis - were bringing about a minor revival of Zaza literature, in the margin of the remarkable resurgence of Kurmanci literary activities. A minority among them began perceiving the Zaza as a distinct ethnic group that had to liberate itself from cultural domination by Kurds as well as the Turkish state. This Zaza 'nationalism' still is largely a matter of exile politics, and it may still appear as a marginal phenomenon, but gradually it is also influencing the debate among Dersimis inside Turkey."
[...]
"This debate on the development of, or ban on, written Zaza made a strong impact in the small circle of Zaza intellectuals in exile, causing a parting of the minds among them. In the late 1980s, the first Zaza journal was published, and it was emphatically non-Kurdish. It carried articles in Zaza, Turkish and English but not in Kurdish, it spoke of the Zazas as a separate people, whose identity had too long been denied not only by the Turkish state but by the Kurds as well, and it coined the new name of Zazaistan for the ancient homeland of these Zazas, indicating its rejection of the term Kurdistan as a geographical name. The journal at first had only a very small circle of readers, but the many angry Kurdish reactions suggested that the journal did have a point after all, and gradually growing numbers of Zazas were won over to its views. There appears not to be an organized Zaza nationalist movement yet, but the publishing activities go on increasing, with two new journals appearing in Europe and recently a series of booklets in Turkey, all of them proclaiming the Zazas to be different from the Kurds."

Original footnotes: "Ayre and its successor Piya were published monthly in Sweden from 1987 on. Presently the most important Zaza journals are Desmala Sure and Ware (both published in Germany)."

Caker and Ivan Sache, 10 May 1999

[img]http://www.fotw.net/images/t/tr}zaza.gif[/img]

AND THIS IS ZAZAISTAN:

http://www.zazaki.net/

They claim Dersîm as their capital...

[Diri]

MIGHT I ADD THAT WHEN I SAW THIS SITE...
I HAD TO SEE IF LURESTAN HAD IT'S OWN FREEDOM MOVEMENT TOO! Lol!

[Diri]

You two persons who voted against Zazaistan indpendence - WHY???

It isn't enough just to vote... Id much more like to hear your arguments AGAINST the matter...

In my oppinion WE- Kurds must support ANY people who want and DESERVE independence...



We must walk together with our fellow "oppressed people"... we shuld not become another Turkey... Iraq, Iran nor a Syria...

[Vladimir]

why? Can't you see this is propaganda to get more division? On a other Zazaki site you can see a lot of Turkish flags? What's this crap?

[Diri]

If they want to - AND we KNOW that alot of zaza don't call themselves Kurds...

[kardox]

no way man... what would be the next.. soranistan ?? bahdinistan ?? ezdistan ??
as long we are all kurds we should have one goal and that is KURDISTAN.



best wishes

[Vladimir]

Tjezus these big pictures are IRRITATING

[Mosul]

diri you are right when you say we should support everyone that deserves freedom, but you are wrong when you say palestinias dont. They like many oppressed peoples share the same struggle as kurds. I dont know why you dont see this. 22 arab countrys? thats not there offical homeland, thats not were they were raised and born, how can you say they have 22 countrys? be serious now. kurds,chechens,keshmeri'sand palestinians all deserve there own homeland!

[Emmunah]

The questions I ask (because really, you know some people are going to have to live WITH some other people rather than forming a country) are the following:

1. Are you being persecuted or are you just refusing to get along with anyone?
2. What do you want to create, another tyranny, another oppressive nation? Another intolerant nation? Another king, ruler for life, steals all the people's money and cries he is broke kind of place? Because unless there is something good going to come out of it, then why support it?
3. How are you going to have a viable nation? What economic possibility is there that the people are going to be able to make the land they have sustain them and improve the world, as well as the lives of their citizens.
4. Does this group of people, have:
a. A separate culture
b) A separate Language
c) A separate musical tradition, or some unique characteristics.
d) A separate dress, handicrafts and historical narrative?
e) Does this land actually belong to them in any real historical sense? What I mean is, what explains their attachment to this land?

Everyone is entitled to support whomever they choose. I just think that all people should be given human rights to participate in government, vote, practice their religion, publish what they want, marry who they want, read what they want, and not have to have their stuff stolen, imprisoned and tortured because of political dissent, you get the idea right? So, if some group of people that stands for oppression want power and a country, I would never support them. I would look at them each by the above criteria.

[kardox]

what would be the next?? one Bahdinistan, sornistan, bbnistan, mokryan, ezedistan?? Hell no, must have one end only one goale and it must be Kurdistan.

best wishes

[kassem]

w

[Diri]

Obviosly - Zaza people have lived in their respective region for a long time - They have met THESE critierias:

1) Their "dialect" of Kurdish (if you wanna call it that) is so different from other dialects and is therefore hard to understand by non-Zaza speakers. Ergo they meet the linguistic criteria.

2) They have a religion in common which is something the rest of Kurdistan can not compete with... So they meet the crieteria for religion too...

3) The DO have their own ways of dressing and handycraft as MOST (ALL) areas in Kurdistan. So they meet this criteria too...

4) Their music is somewhat (if only a tad) different in style to other regions of Kurdistan - but then again - you need to look very long to find two places with the same musical traditions... So they meet this criteria too...

5) They (some of them) have the wish and yearning for an independent Zazaistan... so they CAN be called a "nation" of their own...

6) They will most probably meet prejudice in a free Kurdistan... AND we KNOW that they ARE meeting prejudice and prosecution in "Turkey"...

7) Their culture may differ to some extent from other Kurds... as they are probably less conservative in general - this probably because of their religion and the fact that Alevis/Zazas are somewhat more assimilated than other Kurds... (I bet that there WOULD have been 10 million Zazas today if so many hadn't been assimilated earlier this century)

They would not become "tyrants" - I am only guessing...but they just don't seem to go by the moto: kill and let kill.. seem rather friendly to me...


Any other criterias you would like them to meet?

BUT I agree with my brother Kassem - If their majority wishes for a free Zazaistan then let it be so... This must of course happen through democratic refferendum...

[Emmunah]

I don't really know all the details Diri, so it would take more to see about it. I only put up that list of mine because people ask me "who do you support in Nepal" and I say no one, and they say "The king is horrible" and I say "yes, but the replacement is even worse". On the other hand, I do support Taiwan and Tibet, and even the Basques if they would quite bombing people (but at least they call in the bomb so everything is evacuated...so (laugh) they are well mannered "terrorists"....very strange I guess. I just had to come up with some way of deciding these things, because I could not support another cambodian type genocide, even if the Kind is a bad guy. I support Kurdistan because, as we all know, that's my blood over there...so I had to come up with a method of evaluation.

In this case, I'm not sure the claim of not Kurd is very strong. They sure seem like Kurds to me. Good local autonomy should solve that problem. I think they don't want to be oppressed, but maybe they would not feel that way inside Kurdistan?

I read a really good article about Kurdish music recently, and it was by a musicologist. He said Kurdish music is VERY different from other groups. I can't remember why, nor am I a music expert, but there is something very unique about it. I know it is true because it has a certain traditional beat, that I always feel compelled to drum and dance to it.

[hajeer]

Kurdistan is the homeland of those who consider themselves kurds. If a person doesn't consider himself kurdish, he is not kurdish no matter who his ancestors are. We should also know that our common enemies always try to bring division to our communities in order to prevent the creation of Kurdistan. But I tell you that one day we will have a country where all people from all religions and dialects and ethnicities will be happy to be a part of it.