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Belgian Kurd becomes Federal Secretary, Turkish hissy fit
[ARA] The Phlegmish nationalist MP Zuhal Demir, a Kurd born in Belgium, was sworn in as the new Secretary of State (Junior Minister) of Belgium.She took over the job of her colleague Elke Sleurs and became the new Secretary of State for Equal Rights, Disabled Persons, Scientific Policy, Urban Policy and fighting Poverty. "We congratulate Zuhal Demir on her appointment as Secretary of State," Falah Mustafa, the head of foreign affairs of the Kurdistan Region said on Saturday. Demir, 36, was born in the Limburg city of Genk. Her parents immigrated to Genk from the Kurdish town of Dersim in ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... From January 2013 to the end of 2015, Zuhal Demir was District Mayor in the central district of Antwerp. She left the post to return to her hometown of Genk. The Turkish media responded negatively to the appointment, calling it a scandal, accusing her of attending a meeting of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Belgium. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... Demir says she is a pacifist and has no sympathy for the PKK. "Just because you have Kurdish roots, it doesn’t mean you are supporting the PKK. On the contrary, violence can never be a solution," she said. Ask Kaiser Bill. Ask Harold Godwinson. Ask Napoleon Bonapart. Ask any Gepid. Earlier a picture was shown of Demir attending a meeting with a PKK flag and a portrait of the imprisoned PKK-leader Abdullah Ocalan. "I have never attended a PKK-meeting, but a meeting of a cultural Kudish association in Antwerpen. For years, I plead for a peaceful solution for the Kurds in Turkey. I am sick and tired of these suspicions," she said. Earlier the Turkish media posted a picture claiming that Demir was a female fighter of the PKK, but she denies this. "I am not the woman on the picture of the Kurdish fighters. They did this on purpose to frame me," she said, threatening to take legal action. Posted by: Fred 2017-02-26 |
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