Asia Ramazan Antar, a fearless 19-year-old Kurdish woman fighter was killed in Syria fighting ISIS. Many brave Kurdish fighters, men and women, are being killed these days in the slaughter fields of Syria and Iraq, being the victims of Assad’s army, the Turkish army, ISIS, Russian airstrikes, but also Western, chiefly American, betrayal. So, why any mention of Asia? What makes her such a special person, whose death is widely reported? Is it because she won the nickname of “the Kurdish Angelina Jolie,” due to her physical resemblance to the Hollywood superstar? Well, what a question… can anyone think of any reason, other than that, for the posthumous fame of the young brave Kurdish youngster? The truth is, that there are many reasons why she and her fellow martyrs deserve much bigger publicity than what they get.

Some demographic and historic context is necessary here; the Kurds are the largest single ethnic group in the Middle East NOT to have their independence. Numbering over 30 million people, carved between the countries of Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, they have an obvious geopolitical problem. The Kurds say, that they “have no better friend than the mountains,” but this was relevant in the past, when the mountains provided a natural shelter to the persecuted ethnic and religious minorities of the Middle East. Not anymore in the 21st Century, and so during most of the previous century.

Read More: HuffPost

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