The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum

=> Kurds As Usurpers...

Posted by beezelbub (Guest) - Sunday, July 24 2005, 17:50:55 (CEST)
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...it would be more fruitful to define some of these terms we throw about, in order to save time and effort and gain some clarity so we can at least SEE what the hell we're arguing over.

..I haven't a dictionary handy, but I think a close enough approximation of the word "usurp" means to take over a government by force when you have no authority or legal claim to do so...to take power away from a legitimate government by extra-legal means, installing yourself in its place.

...if there are ten small cities existing independently of each other and you come from the dessert and round them all up in your empire, you haven't necessarily usurped them...not if they are allowed to maintain their own local chiefs and customs. Neither is it a usurpation if you create something completely different as a result.

The Romans didn't usurp the government of Judea...they subjugated it and made a client-state of it. The Arbas who conquered BetNahrain didn't usurp the government there...at least not the government of any indigenous BetNahrain because there was none...the Sassanians being the rulers...I suppose you could say they usurped the power of usurpers...if you absolutely have to use that term.

I think, however, that what the boys are saying is that the Kurds have no right to the land they occupy...if they are usurping anything it is the authority of the Iraqi government...not any "Assyrian" one.

If there was a legal and recognized "Assyrian" government which the Kurds took power away from, then you could use that term. But the Christians are a minority...plus which they have no exclusive hold on any sort of government. If the majority decides to push out a minority...that is many things but it is NOT a usurpation of power...it is merely exercising a time-honored principle everywhere in the world for the last 5000 years and more...that those who can, steal from those who cannot.

No one uses that term any longer. It was most apt in the ancient world when one strongman would replace an annointed king...such as Sargon the Second is said to have done. Europeans stole America away from the native population, yet no one calls that a usurpation...they did not come to America to take over tribal councils and wear feathers...they came to conquer and replace the existing order with their own. That's conquest and everybody has done it...even the Assyrians.

Kurds have every right...recognized by all of human history, to take land, if they can get away with it and hold onto it. Of course it's unfair...but so was it for the last 5000 years, including when the Assyrians did it.

In today's terms it means nothing...people have no concept of the term in modern usage and it doesn't describe what the Kurds are doing at all. To top it off our criticism of their tactics reveals once again our envy and mousiness as well as our penchant for TALLINGALOT...for we would LOVE to be able to do what they are doing...only, as usual, we are petitioning and begging and trying to get more of us killed in order to raise pity...while the Kurds are DOING.

You don't have to LIKE what they're doing to realize it's completely normal and legitimate, according to the basic principle of international law, which is still the law of the jungle...might makes right...you know? Let the rest of the world, which has been at this game far longer, give up the lands they've seized and then come talk to the Kurds...being the last ones to the table, why must they be the ONLY ones this sort of renunciation is expected of?

You may not LIKE reality, but it's a mark of a madman to build your own, in your own head, because you happen to prefer your version of how things OUGHT to be...there are hundreds of thousands of mental patients in institutions around the world who also can't accept the world outside.

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