Kurdish activist walking from DC to NY to protest Lausanne treaty

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish activist is walking from Washington DC to the United Nations headquarters in New York in an act of protest to mark the 100th anniversary of the Lausanne treaty that divided Kurdish lands.

Kani Xulam, director of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN), began his march in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday morning.

“I am leaving today, and my trip will last 24 days,” Xulam told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda. He plans to end his march on July 24, the anniversary of signing the treaty, in front of the UN headquarters in New York.

He hopes his march will raise awareness about the Kurdish issue and draw American support for the Kurdish people.

“A huge injustice and a huge mistake were committed against the Kurds a hundred years ago,” he said.

The Lausanne treaty was signed in 1923, in the aftermath of World War I, and divided the Kurdish homeland into the four countries that are modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The treaty dashed Kurdish hopes of creating their own homeland out of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. One hundred years later, Kurds are one of the largest stateless nations and have suffered systemic persecution and discrimination.

Several American and Palestinian human rights activists joined Xulam at the Lincoln Memorial to show their support. Xulam expects he will be accompanied by friends on his journey and hopes to be welcomed by Americans as he walks more than 400 kilometres.

“Many people have expressed their support for this activity, some of them will accompany me for two or three days and some for a week. My aim is to win the support of the American people for the Kurdish issue,” Xulam said.

The AKIN website describes Xulam as a commentator on the history and politics of Kurdistan while advocating for the right of Kurdish people to self-determination.