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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
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Kurdish Community

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (12:00): I move:

That this house—

(a) supports the Kurdish people who have contributed positively to South Australia's multicultural community;

(b) notes that 16 March 2015 marks the 27th anniversary of the genocidal chemical attack by the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, on Halabja in the Kurdish region of Iraq;

(c) acknowledges the Kurdish people's culturally inclusive, secular and democratic values; and

(d) recognises the Kurdish actions against ISIS and religious extremism in their homeland.

I rise today to support what is a relatively unknown story of a strong and thriving community in South Australia, the Kurds. For those who are not familiar, Kurdistan is a region that encompasses parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Following World War I, the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres made provision for the Kurds in this region to be granted their own national state; however, this has never eventuated because of the Treaty of Lausanne which established modern Turkish boundaries. It is understood that there are approximately 20 to 30 million Kurds in this region today.

According to the latest ABS 2011 census data, there are 728 people in South Australia recording themselves as having at least one Kurdish ancestor. We should recognise and acknowledge the complexity of the background of our Kurdish South Australians. They are a very strong community. The Kurdish story is one of struggle, resilience, bravery, equality of gender, courage, cultural persecution and gross acts of genocide.

From 1974 to 1991 more than 4,000 villages were destroyed. Mass killings by the Iraqi Baathists were brutal and took place between 1983 and 1991, culminating in the horrible al-Anfal campaign which included an attack using chemical weapons on Halabja, killing 5,000 people. Many of the people who find their way to our nation today and our state have been affected by this conflict. More recently, only a few months ago, the Kurds suffered further genocide in Shingal with the UN stating that 7,000 Kurdish Yazidi were thought to be killed by ISIS and also in the onslaught of ISIS on Kobani.

Despite the catastrophic and inhumane acts directed toward the Kurdish people, they have achieved a self-governing region where they can develop their rich culture and human capital. Development in the Kurdistan region in Iraq has been extraordinary since liberation, spurred by a highly secure environment and a proven track record of investment. New construction has sprouted, along with improved electricity supply, new universities and opportunities for a better life for all, and this is regardless of gender or religion.

The Kurdistan region today is far different from when it started functioning autonomously in 1991. Today the Kurdish people have built a government where none had existed before. They are now in their seventh cabinet, and it is a multiparty democratic system to be praised in this region. It now encompasses ministries and departments that are all concerned with every sector of society and the economy. With this achievement, the Kurdish people are now striving to ensure that it is the right size—not too large, not too small—and to ensure that they have the right people in the right positions with their Vision 2020 document.

The Kurdish community in South Australia have overcome significant disruption in their livelihoods and have taken extraordinary steps to normalise their commitment to building a peaceful life here in Australia but also a peaceful and inclusive region in Iraq. This is testament to the resilience of the Kurdish people, many of whom have made South Australia their home.

On 16 March 2015, let us never forget the innocent lives that were tragically lost as a result of the barbaric attack on the Kurdish people. The Kurdish peshmerga forces are on the front line battling ISIS and are bravely continuing to advance and recapture territory held by Islamic State in the northern part of Iraq known as Mount Sinjar. They are truly heroic men and women doing this for us and their nation. It is important that we note that the Kurdish forces involve men and women fighting on the front line against ISIS.

Reports from journalists write that Peshmerga forces have been able to regain control over the majority of areas that have been under ISIS control. A sense of unity between local Kurdish people and those living internationally has increased. Through every disaster the Kurds have united in the region and within the diaspora around the world to strengthen their cause.

I put on the record two particular female Kurdish leaders who have inspired me and serve as a centre of hope with community members. To date the most decorated and internationally recognised female Kurdish leader is Leyla Zana. Mrs Zana was the first Kurdish woman to be elected to the Turkish parliament in 1991, and has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. Closer to home the Kurdish community here is strong, with recognition in South Australia of the state finalist of the Young Australian of the Year 2014, Ms Tara Fatehi, who is in the gallery today. I welcome Tara and also the community members who are with her in the youth group.

Tara Fatehi fled her homeland at the age of three. She is a young PhD student studying medicine and also gives back to the community by volunteering her time with the Kurdish community. Among many achievements, Tara founded the Adelaide Kurdish Youth Society with her friends, with the aim of helping her community to promote its rich heritage and culture, and to forge strong ties in their new land, Australia.

She co-founded the Kurdistan Health Project, and is the Australian ambassador for youth-led charities such as the WHAM Project and Vision Libraries, which aim to create the largest English library in South Kurdistan and Iraq. Tara, and other members of the local Kurdish community: I look forward to celebrating Newroz with you on Friday night. On 21 May we will gather, with many other Kurdish community members, to celebrate new year or Newroz. Every year a fire is lit on Newroz Eve to mark the coming of the new year. The fire night is a symbolic event that symbolises the coming of the new year, the coming of spring in Kurdistan, an age of growth and regeneration, and also the revolution and struggle of the Kurdish people and their resilience.

This chamber is a symbol of our rich democratic history and of democracy that lives and thrives in South Australia. It is an appropriate venue for us to recognise the struggle of the Kurdish people today. I support this motion and acknowledge the Kurdish community, who value democracy, actively fight for it to grow and enrich our world, and contribute a rich tapestry of multiculturalism in our state.

Mr PISONI (Unley) (12:07): I stand also to support the motion. I congratulate the member for Taylor on bringing the motion to the parliament. It is so important in remembering that South Australia has become a very culturally rich, economically successful state because of the fact that we have opened our doors to people from all over the world who are either economic refugees or are escaping tyranny, persecution and chaos in their own lands. We have been a very successful model of encouraging people to share what they have when they come to South Australia and to participate in our community.

I know that the Kurdish community is no different. I congratulate them on the contribution they have also made to South Australia, a lot different, of course, from what it was like many years ago for those coming to Australia from non-English speaking parts of the world, or parts of the world where people looked a little bit different. I know that immediately after the war those coming from southern Europe looked that little bit different, did not speak English, and it was very difficult for them to participate in the community, the Italian and Greek communities in particular.

There is no doubt that they broke down many barriers, because it did not take long before the very Anglo community that was South Australia immediately after the war realised the contribution that the new migrants were making. Every new wave of migrants who have come to South Australia, regardless of their reasons for leaving their homelands, have come to start new and successful lives and to contribute to the South Australian community, and we welcome and encourage that and we are very pleased to see that happen.

This motion not only congratulates the Kurdish community for its contribution to multicultural South Australia but also notes that 16 March 2015 marks the 27th anniversary of the genocidal chemical attack by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Halabja in the Kurdish region of Iraq. I remember seeing that on the television screen and I just could not believe that one human being could do what Saddam Hussein was doing through his army to another group. It was also known as the Halabja massacre. It was, of course, a genocide committed against the Kurds by Saddam Hussein's regime, a genocidal attack perpetrated on the Kurdish people on 16 March 1988, in the closing days of the Iraq-Iran war in southern Kurdistan.

The attack killed as many as 5,000 and injured 7,000 to 10,000 mainly civilians. It tragically remains the largest chemical weapon attack directed against a civilian population. Iraqi jets indiscriminately bombed civilian neighbourhoods with mustard gas and nerve agents and, when the Iraqi military re-took the town, they callously examined their handiwork in protective suits to gauge its effectiveness. I think we all remember seeing the footage in the media.

The attack was one incident in a campaign over many years by Hussein's regime to repress the Kurdish population using conventional and chemical weapons. Of course, we know that it is not just the Hussein regime that committed atrocities on the Kurdish population; the Kurdish people have been fighting with the Turks and the Iranians for many, many years. The Halabja chemical attack was one of the largest and most recent of attacks. We now see the Kurds fighting ISIS. The Kurds find themselves at this time once again battling oppression and repression in the form of the ISIS terrorist organisation—which currently infests large parts of Iraq and Syria—whose brutal and mindless violence is currently a blight on the region, which many Kurds are actively and bravely resisting.

This motion acknowledges and recognises the Kurdish actions against ISIS and religious extremism in their homeland. There has been a lot of media attention on about 20 or so Australians who have joined ISIS to assist them with their murderous campaign through the Middle East, but of course one Australian lost their life fighting ISIS with the Kurds, and we remember that person here today as well.

The opposition supports this motion and congratulates the member for Taylor and the Kurdish community. I think it is important that communities do remember the significant atrocities that have happened so that we can make sure they are not repeated. It also helps us to have an understanding of the history of those communities. In Australia we are very isolated. We live a very sheltered life here, but many Australians who have come from other countries were not born in those circumstances. It is important that we learn from people's experiences, as well as their community's and their ancestors' experiences, so that we can identify signs and prevent those situations from happening again. If we do not learn from history, then it is a wasted opportunity. I congratulate the Kurdish community in South Australia. I recognise the massacres that happened on 16 March 1988 and support the motion.

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (12:14): I also rise to support this very good motion of the member for Taylor. I am very pleased to get up and support it. I guess particularly what came to mind was paragraph (b) of the member for Taylor's motion, regarding the chemical attack. I think anyone who was cognisant of what was going on over there at the time was appalled by what happened, with the pictures that came across in the media and on TV at the time.

It was an appalling atrocity perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's people, his troops, against the Kurd people, and it certainly heightened my awareness of what was going on over there. It seems to me that the turmoil and ongoing ferocity against each other in the Middle East have gone on all my life and well before that. I really do not know where it will end; however, it really struck a chord with me and I remember it extremely well.

As has been stated in here, the Kurdish people are particularly strong, resilient people. They are, as the member for Taylor said, spread through several countries. It is a failing of the human race, I think, that from time to time groups of people seemingly have no land they can call their own—Kurdistan, for example, and bits and pieces of the Kurdish community are spread throughout all those countries. I am delighted by the Kurdish population who reside in South Australia and the input they have into the state.

On a personal basis, I have been dealing with a Kurdish family inside the last 12 months over a matter, which I will not go into here because I do not want to and it is not appropriate. I have found them to be a very humble people, very much family orientated and very kind, generous and friendly. Indeed, I have asked them to come into the house for a meal at some stage, which they may or may not do. I am pleased, as I said, that the member for Taylor put this motion up to the house, and there is absolutely no question that we will be supporting it.

They are culturally different, as are many culturally different groups that have come into Australia. My own background and that of others in here—Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish—are all different cultures, but we all meld into becoming one Australia. There is no question in my mind that the Kurdish people who have come to Australia, and South Australia particularly, have melded into the Australian way of life and provide a considerable amount of input, which will increase over the years, into the way this state and nation develops.

I have also watched recently where the Kurdish people have stood up against ISIS and all that it stands for, and I think that is significant. It has received a considerable amount of media attention, and they are actually winning, which I think is even better because I find ISIS and everything it stands for abhorrent. It is a blight on their way of life and it is a blight on religious freedom and tolerance, whatever your religion may be. The sooner ISIS is taken out of business the better; whether or not it will happen or not in my lifetime I am not quite sure. I do not want to go on, but I am pleased that the member for Taylor has put this motion up, and I have great pleasure in supporting it.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (12:19): I rise to support the motion put by the member for Taylor. I will go through it point by point:

(a) supports the Kurdish people who have contributed positively to South Australia's multicultural community;

I say that with all my heart because I arrived here as a ten-pound Pom as a tiny little kid, and I was very lucky. I was not speaking English at the time (I was not speaking much at all at the time), my wife arrived as a young Dutch girl not speaking any English, and we were part of the invisible migrants, and we blended in to what was then white Australia. I grew up at Salisbury with a lot of Italians and Greeks, and I was exposed to their cultures, their families, their extended families and their fabulous food.

As we have developed in South Australia, we have embraced people from all over the world, and the Kurdish people are just one of those—and haven't they made such a difference to South Australia, haven't they benefited South Australia. When we go to citizenship ceremonies and we go through the oaths, the allegiances and the affirmations, the important part for me is to remind all the new citizens that they do not have to forget where they have come from.

It is that part of becoming an Australian citizen—recognising and remembering your past, your culture and your connections—that makes South Australia what it is. Whether it be the Scottish Caledonian Society or the Kurdish groups, they are to be valued by South Australia and they are to be valued by this nation because they make Australia what it is and they certainly make South Australia a much better place. I congratulate the Kurdish groups in South Australia on contributing in a positive way to South Australia. The second paragraph of the motion states:

(b) notes that 16 March 2015 marks the 27th anniversary of the genocidal chemical attack by the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, on Halabja in the Kurdish region of Iraq;

I was in Jordan in the early nineties after the first war and spent a number of weeks over there dealing with the Iraqis, trying to strike some deals with trade. It was very difficult and it was very dangerous; in fact, when we were about to travel to Baghdad, hours before we were due to leave we were warned not to go there—and this was after being told by Australian officials where safe houses were and given other indications on how we should travel—because of some of the goings-on and because some of the people we were going to see had actually been arrested by Saddam Hussein. The reality and the brutality of that regime came right to my face then and was brought right to the fore.

You can only imagine what it must have been like as a person living in that region to live through the attacks and the atrocities, particularly for the Kurdish people who have struggled for many years to establish a homeland after the artificial separation of those regions by, once again, white Europeans. The Kurdish people have really shown their resilience, resistance and courage to have continued on to this day, as stated in paragraph (d) of the member's motion, that is, their continued fight against ISIS. They have fought against the Iraqis and Saddam Hussein's regime, they have fought to establish their own homelands, and they are continuing that fight.

When we see in the media coming out of there the grit and determination of the soldiers to protect their communities and to drive out the people of ISIS so that they can achieve at least some hope of a decent future—something we accept in South Australia as being just a part of everyday life—we see how far removed that is from what we have here. We need to give our support both in this place and, if we can, through aid organisations (I have nothing to do with foreign affairs or the military) to do what we can to make sure that the Kurdish soldiers who are fighting are given our support to do not only what needs to be done but what should be done.

The role of the Kurdish people in becoming part of South Australia, part of this nation, and part of each and every community we are involved in, is something we should all be proud of. This is the sort of motion that comes to this house quite regularly on a Thursday morning and is spoken to by both sides in a bipartisan manner—and so it should be.

This is why I am very proud to be a part of the South Australian parliament, to be privileged enough to be a representative of the electorate of Morphett and to stand here and do the right thing; that is, to support every South Australian, particularly when you understand where they have come from, what they have been through and what they are trying to achieve. I strongly support this motion, and I urge other members of this place to support it.

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (12:25): Given the significance of the anniversaries that the community are experiencing this week and the active struggle they are undertaking to protect their culture and their democratic rights in their regions, I think it is wonderful to have the support of both sides of the house in passing this motion today. I commend it to the house, and I thank the members of the community who made the effort to come in today and to see democracy in action. Welcome, and more power to you and your community.

Motion carried.

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