VersionsAfter such Knowledge, What Forgiveness ? [English, New York, 1997]
Bunca bilgiden sonra ne bağışlaması? [Türkçe, İstanbul, 1998]
كوردستان دوای ئهو ههموو زانیارییه لێبووردنی چی؟ یان کلۆلی نهتهوهیهک [Kurdî, Istanbul, 2001]
I curdi / Viaggio in un paese che non c'è [Italiano, Roma, 1998]
با این رسوائی، چه بخشایشی؟ : تحلیل مسائل سیاسی کردستان [فارسی, تهران, 2000]
After such Knowleoge. What Forgiveness ?
My encounters with Kurdistan
This highly readable book, filled with colorful detail and personal anecdote, concerns the Kurds, the least known of the major peoples of the Middle East. Mr. Randal has spent more than a decade moving among them and inquiring into their affairs, and he gives us a valuable firsthand account of the battle they have waged against all of those (including fellow Kurds) who have tried to rule them. indomitable warriors, the Kurdish tribesmen have always lost at the peace conference whatever they win on the battlefield, but they never give up. Mr. Randal has a fascinating tale to tell, and nobody has told it better than be does here.
David FROMKIN
Contents
1/ "Have You Notified Your Next of Kin ?" /3
2/ After such Knowledge, What Forgiveness ? /12
3/ Suckered / 31
4/ Died and Gone to Heaven /58
5/ Alchemy : Gold Coins into Horseshoes /110
6/ Kissinger : Missionary Wor Among a Hill Tribe /145
7/ The Blind Beggar : Ecumenical Arbaeen /183
8/ Ali Chemical /203
9/ Turkey's Social Earthquake /251
10/ Dog's Breakfast /292
Notes /321
Bibliography /343
Index /347
Jonathan C. Randal has been celebrated for more than a quarter century for his trenchant reporting on war and civil disturbance in the Thrid World. Years ago, noting that Kurds - the largest ethnic group in the world without their own country - were involved in every major story he covered in Iran, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq, he decided to "throw a spotlight on a forgotten corner of the Middle east, as the old saying goes, take a nineteenth century kind of walking tour through a country that doesn't exist - three months in, three months out. A holyday fantasy, I should have known better."
Several wars, poison-gas attacks, and mass migrations later, here is his firsthand report on Kurdistan - a shocking, tragic account of diplomacy and politics in the Middle East, and a gripping adventure story about being a war reporter in the 1990s.
Throughout the Kurds' history, world powers have promised to help them achieve autonomy, and each time the Kurds have been betrayed. But they are also of betrayal : Randal,recording their talent for vehement internecine warfare and their gift for friendship, takes us behind the headlines to the inner story of power politics in the Middle East, and it is not a pretty one. His sympathetic knowledge of Kurdish history and his unparalelled access to Kurdish leaders and to diplomats, ministers, intelligence agents, warriors, and journalists make him the only writer able to get that story for us and discover the truth.
For Geneviève and Julie
and for Fred Cuny and other Absent Friends,
many of them Kurds
After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities ...
Think
Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.
T. S. ELIOT, "Gerontion"
After such Knowleoge.WHAT Forgiveness ?
My encounters with Kurdistan
copyright © 1997 by Jonathan C. Randal
All rights reserved
Published simultaneously in Canada by Ha rperCollinsCanadaLtd
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 1997
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Randal, Jonathan C., 19,33
After such knowledge, what forgiveness? :
my encounters with Kurdistan
Jonathan C. Randal. — 1st ed. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-374-10200-7 (alk. paper)
1. Kurds—Politics and government.
2. Middle East—Ethnic relations.
3. Randal, Jonathan C., 1933– . I. Title. DS59.K8643 1997
956'.00491597—dc21 96-48612 CIP
