Kurdistan Essay -- essays research papers fc

Kurdistan is a region that has existed in turmoil and is the â€Å"never was† country. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group of the Middle East, numbering between 20 and 25 million. Approximately 15 million live in the regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, an area they called Kurdistan, yet they do not have a country of their own. Formal attempts to establish such a state were crushed by the larger and more powerful countries in the region after both world wars. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I, the Kurds were promised their own independent nation under the Treaty of Sevres. In 1923 however, the treaty was broken allowing Turkey to maintain its status and not allowing the Kurdish people to have a nation to call their own. The end of the Gulf war, Iran-Iraq war, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of the cold war has reinvigorated a Kurdish Nationalist movement. The movement is a powder keg ready to explode. With the majority of Kurds living within its boundaries, no country faces this threat more than Turkey. Because of Turkey’s concept of unified, cohesive nationhood-in which the existence of minorities are not acknowledged- these tensions in Turkey are more difficult to handle than else where. In southeastern Turkey, extreme fighting and guerilla tactics are used by the Kurds in support of their political parties. The Turkish military is actively stationed in this area now. There are several political parties that represent the needs of the Kurdish people. They are the Kurdistan’s Workers Party (PKK) who represent the needs of Turkish Kurds and are the most violent terrorist like group, the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) who is active politically but not militarily, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) composed of Iraqi Kurds, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) who is also representing the Iraqi Kurds. The PKK was created in 1974 as a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group primarily composed of Turkish Kurds searching for an independence movement. Its first and only leader, Abdullah Ocalan, or Apo as he came to be called, was at that time a student of political science at Ankara University. From the late 1970s, Ocalan worked closely with both the then Soviet Union and with Syria, whose governments were attempting to generate a political breakdown in Turkey. In 1977, the PKK published a series of "com... ...for years. In 1980, Ocalan actually moved to Syria and used Syrian facilities as well as training grounds in the Bekaa Valley to drill terrorist groups for cross-border attacks against targets in Turkey. Greece, a NATO ally, backs the PKK and its affiliates by every means at its disposal. The PKK is a very malicious and radical group in their search for their independence. They believe that their human rights are being oppressed by The Turkish peoples and that they deserve what land is theirs, no matter the cost. The only forces that stand in their way are Turkey, the PUK, and the KDP. If these organizations fail to stop the PKK, a new nation will be formed in the name of Marxism. And other countries may soon follow, changing what we know as the Middle East. Bibliography http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/PKK/pkk5-3.html http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/pkk.htm http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/mfa-t-pkk-s.htm http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/tgp/kurds.htm http://www.turkey.org/apo-pkk/apo1.htm http://www.comebackalive.com/df/dplaces/kurdista/ The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in the 1990’s ; Robert Olsen, editor; The University Press of Kentucky, 1996

Humanism and the Meaning of Life Essay

In his piece â€Å"What is Humanism†, Fred Edwords explains humanism as a type of philosophy that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world, and often rejects the importance of belief in God. He describes the different categories of humanism that are common and the beliefs they hold. In Richard Taylor’s â€Å"The Meaning of Life†, thoughts are given on where meaning comes from in life if a meaning is even present. He explores the story of Sisyphus to illustrate how a life could be meaningless and then explores the idea that everyday life today is ultimately meaningless as well. The degree to which the article by Taylor fits the description of Humanism in the Edwords’ piece is to a pretty good degree. Many of the ideas about humanism that Edwords poses in his piece reflect in the way Taylor explored the meaning of life in his article. Edwords describes humanism with a list of points, the first being that a Humanist isn’t afraid to challenge and explore any area of thought. Generally, the meaning of life is a topic that has the tendency to frighten many people away due to the nature of inquiry required to even scratch the surface of any answer to the question. Therefore, Taylor fits that aspect of humanism since his goal in his work was to explain his ideas on the matter in a well thought out manner. Edwords’ second point is that humanism focuses on human means for comprehending reality with no claim to have any type of transcendent knowledge, and another one of his points is that humanism is a philosophy of imagination. These points are evident in Taylor’s article as he tries to make sense of life using rational imagination to approach each side of the topic. Another one of Edwords’ points is that humanism is more concerned with the here and now rather than life after death. Taylor’s main focus was touching on meaningless in life and finding contentment in whatever one finds themselves doing in life. There wasn’t much to say about life after death, so this point stands true in Taylor’s article. Edwords’ summary point in his list was that humanism is a philosophy for those in love with life. The way he described this point is very relatable to Taylor’s article in that Taylor didn’t want to settle with prefabricated answers, but instead dove into the open-endedness that comes with trying to reveal the meaning of life. Taylor fits into the category of Modern Humanism as described by Edwords. Edwords explained that this section of Humanism â€Å"rejects all supernaturalism and relies primarily upon reason and science, democracy and human compassion. † The points about humanism described in the first paragraph above were labelled as what the Modern Humanist philosophy is about in Edwords’ writing. So throughout Taylor’s article, he showed a good deal of the qualities Edwords described for a modern humanist. Taylor’s positon on the question of the meaning of life does seem like a Humanist-type position. Taylor explored a broad topic that could have an unlimited spectrum of different answers and wasn’t afraid to dive into the controversial issues associated with it. He was in pursuit of finding new knowledge and sharing it with his readers. He was also very realistic and looked at things from a logical standpoint. Taylor explains that our lives could have meaning if we have a keen and unappeasable desire to be doing just what we find ourselves doing (this is what he says of Sisyphus, which could also be applied to us). Our life wouldn’t be changed, but it would still have a meaning. He says it is irrational because the desire itself would be only the product of substance in our veins, and not any that reason could discover, but a meaning nevertheless. Taylor also looked into the difference between us and other living beings like insects in New Zealand caves, for instance. He explained that we are conscious of our activity. Our goals are things of which we are at least partly aware and can therefore in some sense appraise. Men have a history as other animals do not, such that each generation does not precisely resemble all those before. The meaning of life comes from the things to which we bend our backs day after day once we realize one by one our ephemeral plans are precisely the things in which our wills are deeply involved and precisely the things in which our interests lay. The day is sufficient to itself, and so is the life. A human being no sooner draws its first breath than he responds to the will that is in him to live. He no more asks whether it will be worthwhile or whether anything of significance will come of it. The point of his living is simply to be living, in the manner that it is his nature to be living. Edwords looks at writings from other humanists that explain, for example, that humanism teaches that â€Å"it is immoral to wait for God to act for us. † Humanists believe that the responsibility lies within a person to determine what kind of world they will live in. One must take it upon themselves to act upon what they deem correct and desirable. Edwords essentially said that life could have a type of meaning, and basically pointed towards the meaning of life being whatever you make of it. The meaning comes from your own actions and intents. You have the right to choose whatever path you see fit and act freely, to open new doors and accomplish great things. Edwords’ description is similar to what Taylor said about the meaning of life. Taylor explained that if you love what you are doing, you will feel like you were made to do that, therefore creating meaning in your life. Edwords explains it in a similar way that meaning in your life comes from your heart basically. Whatever you are passionate about becomes what your life is about, and that is essentially the meaning you will find in your life.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address - 1528 Words

Throughout the semester, the readers have been clashing with each other over which label best fits the author, but they have ignored the minute particulars. These readers are looking at the forest as a broad generalization, and they are missing out on what the forest really is†¦ a bunch of trees. All of these trees are diverse but similar: they are American authors, and the forest is American literature. One might think that this is a flimsy analogy, but it is the most apt and succinct way of explaining this issue. To truly understand any text, one must couch it within historical context; to be valid, an interpretation has to make sense within the historical context, and it has to agree with the minute particulars of the text. If either of these criterion are not met, then the interpretation will not be representative of the text whatsoever. It is imperative that one pay heed to the minute particulars and the text’s historical context: otherwise, the text will be vastly m isinterpreted and misrepresented in any discussion of the text. The students grossly mischaracterized Abraham Lincoln’s â€Å"Gettysburg Address â€Å"as a pro-abolitionist tract; they also seemed to think that President Lincoln was some divine martyr for anti-slavery sentiment, and that he was an exemplary person with regards to American identity. They could not be further from the truth. Historical context is paramount to understanding Lincoln’s â€Å"Gettysburg Address†. The text starts off with an appeal toShow MoreRelatedAbraham Lincolns Diction In The Gettysburg Address1054 Words   |  5 Pageswithin. The United States was in a Civil War. The President at the time, Abraham Lincoln, did all he could to lead the union to victory. 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