A CONVERSATION BETWEEN DILAR DIRIK AND NANCY AGABIAN
Between neo-Ottoman imperial aspirations and its active participation in NATO, the Turkish state imposes its occupation of parts of the region and expands its rule with the help of proxy forces. It is in particularly the case on both sides of the border between western and northern Kurdistan, and on Armenian lands in Anatolia, and in Artsakh, where Turkey backed Azeri ethnic cleansing in 2023. We asked Dilar Dirik and Nancy Agabian to open a dialogue centering Kurdish and Armenian resistance against this domination.
Dear Nancy,
Since February 2023, I have been unable to write and speak about my deepest feelings. Overnight, my hometown Antakya, which I have not been able to visit for years, was destroyed in an earthquake, and I thought I reached the limits of my ability to feel sadness. And then the genocide in Gaza began, and we can no longer unsee the torn body of 7-year-old Sidra Hassouna, hanging from that wall in Palestine.
When I saw footage of Israeli soldiers filming themselves while infiltrating the intimacy of the homes and lives of murdered and displaced Palestinians in Gaza, I could not help but remember all the recent videos of the war crimes filmed by Turkish special forces or Turkish-backed Islamist gangs across Kurdistan. And I remembered Azerbaijan’s Spoils Of War/Military Trophy theme park, displaying, for visiting parents with children, the helmets of dead Armenian soldiers from Artsakh.