The Visit

---

Nejeer Zebari holds a Kurdish flag during a demonstration in Washington

The Visit of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House This Week , the dispute over his country provoked the actions against Syria are the Kurds. And it inspired the Kurdish-American activists to their cause with renewed vigor, writes bloom, the journalist Deborah.

A country music loving, beer-drinking, gun-enthusiast with a southern accent, Nejeer Zebari is like any hot-blooded southern American male.

But since the US President Donald Trump abruptly pulled the US troops from the Syria-Turkey border, the 44-year-old Tennessean ' s focus 10.000 km (6.200 miles) away in Kurdistan.

"We never expected to happen That this, after a call," says Zebari, referring to trump's controversial. October telephone conversation with Mr Erdogan That paved the way for a Turkish military offensive against the US-backed Kurdish forces. "It was a complete fraud. "

Zebari drove from Nashville to a demonstration in Washington in protest against Mr Erdogan's visit to the White House , at the beginning of This Week . It was a cold day, and he was irritated.

"I'm sick of these protests," he says. Three weeks ago, right after they announced the White House to withdraw troops in the region against the Turkey's "long-planned operation" in Northern Syria, he had to drive his wife and three children in Nashville, in north protest in front of the White House .

"But then Turkey is going to attack us, and Trump is gonna Roll Out the Red Carpet for him?" he said angrily, driving in The Night .

After The Announcement of Erdogan's visit to the White House - after weeks of air attacks on Kurdish villages - Zebari was moved to act.

He is one of several Kurdish-American activists in the United States has stepped up to leadership positions, a stateside voice of the Kurdish plight.

Individually, in addition to support the Kurds in their own way - through clothing drives, Social Media campaigns, phone banks, meetings with Congress and beyond. Together, they hope to meet, the increasingly obvious Need for Kurdish support and influence in the United States .

What is the Turkey-Syria story? Although Zebari emigrated to the USA when he was a child, he had heard about the misery of the cold Winter in the refugee camps of friends who had seen it wane first-Hand Stories of people fighting for food and clothing, their hopes of ever being resettled. His Family fled the Second Iraqi-Kurdish war to a refugee camp in Iran, where he was born.

After US troops left the Turkey-Syria border, "we knew That the Turkey attack. We all knew it would be running refugees with nothing," Zebari said. "I felt like I had to Do Something . "

He began to his clothes, and was able to organize the support of a handful of local Kurdish Americans to help. With the Nashville housing the largest population of Kurds in the United States , Zebari soon found themselves flooded, the contributions come in locally. Then the boxes started flooding in from all over the country.

so far, they have collected More Than 650 boxes of relief goods, including baby food, winter clothes, toothbrushes, medical supplies and blankets to ship to a refugee camp near the Iraqi border, where the Syrian Kurds have, since the escape Turkish shelling. The consignment weighs about 18 tons.

Of these boxes, 247 came from Dallas, Texas, also houses a considerable number of Kurdish-Americans. This is where Saman Gardy, 37, co-founder of the Kurdish community of Dallas-Fort Worth in the immediate aftermath of the force could.

A U.S. Bradley armored personnel carriers on The Move In Syria near the Turkish border, He and four other Kurdish-American community members created a Facebook page for The Group That rose to 1,000 likes within The First week. From there, you shared a flyer about Zebari clothing drive and immediately began to collect donations of winter clothing and baby food.

"We have friends and family That are currently in these camps," said Gardy. "We are to stay In Touch with them constantly. "

Gardy says he and his fellow supporters are. in the middle of the creation of a non-profit, Fundraising for non-governmental organisations on the ground in the Kurdistan Region "When I saw these children getting killed, I saw me and my son and I thought, 'what if this is my son in this situation?' Especially knowing That I've been down That Road . "

Gardy's family fled Saddam Hussein 's brutality, after the Kurdish uprising of 1991, crossing the border in Turkey and living in a displacement camp for three years. 13 years old, Gardy came to the United States and joined a growing community of Kurdish refugees, the emigration, according to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"Many of us are first-generation [Americans]. We barely understand The System , how things work," he said. "But That was a wake-up call," he added, referring to trump's sudden shift in foreign policy. "We realized we needed to networking with other Kurds, and the connection with the different Kurdish communities. "

American Kurds are a relatively new phenomenon, the migration In Waves , starting in the 1970s, after The First Iraqi-Kurdish war. Today, some estimates of The Number of Kurds 40,000 people living in the United States .

of The Kurdish National Congress of North America , The Nation 's oldest and largest umbrella organisation, the Kurdish American, held its 30th annual conference in less than a month after Turkey began its invasion in the North-East of Syria. The Event was moderated in a small town outside of Ann Arbor , Michigan, and was visited only sparsely.

On The Other hand, Gardy and his crew of the Kurdish-American activists, hundreds of Kurdish-Americans will turn out to be looked at to demonstrate against the Trump foreign policy moves on the same day, The President was scheduled to hold a campaign rally across the street. "For the First Time , I saw to unite the Kurds and to be reminded of a voice," Gardy.

In Southern California , where tens of thousands of living American Kurds, Yara Ismael and her Best Friend with the planning of the protests started immediately after the White House announcement. They created leaflets and distributed them on Social Media , and days later, throngs of protesters took to The Streets to demonstrate in Los Angeles and San Diego.

"Stand with Kurds! Stand with the Kurds!" Ishmael shouted into a bull horn, draped in a Kurdish flag outside the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles . Already interested in a career in public service, Ishmael, seized the opportunity to represent the Kurdish voice, and so she booked to meet a flight to Washington, the legislature.

Yara Ismael is working on a news-column between the classes Over a couple of days, she met several foreign policy aids for the members of The House of Foreign services Affairs Committee, urged them to fight against Trump's betrayal of the Kurds. As a Kurdish-American, "I would like to know how you are going to prevent The Innocent killing of civilians in Kurdistan," She Said . Today, she says, she has several conversations with congressional staff.

"I feel like I was listening to," She Said , responding to the question of whether their efforts had been productive. "This is a complex situation and the employees, to learn more about it, so That I have to complete is definitely the feeling That I was where it was needed. "

This is where the 28-year-old Diliman Abdulkader comes. The Washington-based consultants in the United States came after His Family fled from The First Gulf War and spent seven years in a refugee camp In Syria .

After the troops had begun to leave Syria, Abdul Kader immediately began to execute a plan, he would be a long time in the making, The American friends in Kurdistan, an organization That "strengthen, protects and promotes The American -Kurdish relations, and supports the policies That the National Security and the prosperity of the Americans, the Kurds and our other allies," according to its mission statement.

"This is an important moment for the Kurds, not to allow another genocide," Abdul Kader said. "The Cycle of the Kurdish refugees must end. "

Nejeer Zebari concluded sifting through a new arrival of the boxed donations Abdul Kader to demonstrate hundreds of protesters at the White House , about the Erdogan visit. Wearing a black pea coat, he looked directly into the camera to record The First shipment for the new group's Twitter page. "We call on President Trump to reconsider his decision," he said on the video. "The Kurds have been our trusted and trustworthy allies on earth"

elsewhere in The Crowd , Nejeer Zebari held a large Kurdish flag over his left shoulder. After hearing Erdogan's imminent visit, had Zebari, wanted to bus from Nashville Kurdish community to protest against the White House , but the logistics became complicated.

Nevertheless, he felt compelled to make The Trip , opting to instead rent a 15-passenger van and drive to DC with several other Kurdish-American activists.

kurds, syria, united states, turkey offensive in syria, turkey

Source of news: bbc.com