Kurdish-Iranian Director Sends Letter to PM on Kobane

Kurdish-Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi sent out a letter to PM Ahmet Davutoğlu, urging the Turkish government to help ISIS attacks stop in Kobane. Ghobadi is the director of “No One Knows About Persian Cats”, “Turtles Can Fly” and “A Time For Drunken Horses”. 

Emphasizing that helping out Kobane would also mean helping the humanity, he wrote: “At least open your borders for the fervent Kurds who are ready to go to Kobane.”  

“Tomorrow might be very late"

Bahman Ghobadi’s letter read as follows:

To Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Prime Minister of Turkey,

Just a few steps from the borders of your country, one of the worst disasters of this decade is taking place at the same time that you have accepted your position as prime minister in Turkey. There is no doubt that your political future will be tied with this tragedy. 

Certainly, this tragedy has an influence in Turkey’s - and your - political destiny, which led you to announce just a few days ago that the Turkish government will never let Kobane fall into the hands of ISIS. 

Yes, it is about Kobane and its oppressed Kurds, and at the time that I am writing this letter to you, hundreds of Kurdish men and women are taking their pride into their own hands and defending Kobane metre by metre. 

Sir, Mr. Davutoğlu,

In the meantime, with its inhumane actions, ISIS commits atrocities, they turn Kobane into a heap of dirt and take many lives. These people need military equipment to defend their land. Your army is only a few steps away from the city, fully armed, and merely watching. Do not forget that the consequences of Kobane being taken by ISIS are greater than you can measure. And certainly, the effects will be on the area including Turkey. What are your forces waiting for? Waiting for a total massacre of Kobane’s men and all of the women to be taken as slaves? In the end will they shoot a few bullets and say that they tried their best? Your political future is being formed in this moment, and will be interpreted with this in mind. Remember that your delay in helping Kobane’s Kurds will have terrible and irreversible results. In this case, you are responsible not only to the world but also to the Kurds of Turkey and the Turkish people who love humanity and are at peace with Kurds beyond concepts of borders in your country. And you should reply to those people. I am sure that this spirit of defending the roots of the same tribes also exists in you and the Turkish people, that is why I believe that you feel the value of this ethical and humane togetherness. Do not forget that the Kurds might not have a united land geographically, and they might be far from each other, but they have one soul and each part of this soul is left in one place. Kobane’s Kurds are human, and they are your neighbors, their future is not separate from yours and others. Helping Kobane is helping humanity, and helping yourself. Because, in the not-so-distant future, an independent country which belongs to Kurds will rise from these wants, pains, fire and ashes. That day, they will remember the people who suffered, those who helped, those who bandaged their wounds, those who did not help them, and those who just pretended to help. Now, for all of us, it is time to act upon what we have said before. Later may be too late. If you have even a little bit of sadness in your heart for innocent Kurds’ suffering, at least open your borders for the fervent Kurds who are ready to go to Kobane to fight, even with their bare hands, to show the world for the thousandth time that they will go to defend their lands. 

Sir, Mr. Davutoğlu,

Tomorrow might be very late for Kobane, for you, and the world,

Bahman Ghobadi (BK/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.