The picture of Alan Kurdi, nicely dressed and lying dead on a Turkish beach, went around the world and suddenly a discussion of the war in Syria that has mostly been ignored was ignited. Alan's death became bigger news in Canada because of the Canadian connection to the Kurdi family and the fact we are in the middle of a federal election campaign where those on the left, including the media, are suffering the pangs of Harper Derangement Syndrome.
Alan drowned, along with his young brother and mother when the family set out from Turkey trying to reach the island of Kos in Greece, on their way to Germany. They didn't get too far. The only family member to survive was Alan's father, Abdullah.
The first misinformation to surface came from Fin Donnelly who was the MP for the British Columbia riding where Abdullah's sister and Alan's aunt, Tima, resides. Donnelly, who is running for re-election, said Tima has sponsored Abdullah and his family to come to Canada but the application had been rejected by the Canadian government. Those evil evil Conservatives.
It turned out to be an out and out lie. Tima had never sponsored Abdullah and his family but had sponsored another of her brothers. His application was rejected because it had been incomplete and the UN had not formally designated the brother to be a refugee.
Donnelly, not surprisingly, has never apologized for the misinformation. And the mainstream Canadian media, who once would have verified such information, simply ran with it. Alan's death was solely the fault of the heartless Harper, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and the governing Conservatives.
Tima at first blamed the entire world for her nephew's death and later herself because she had sent Abdullah money to pay smugglers to take the family to Greece.
Blame for Alan's death has so far been put on Canada, the whole world, Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations and of course Barack Hussein Obama. While there is certainly a lot of blame to go around for the present situation in the Middle East that does not mean any or all of these people and organizations are directly responsible for the death of the three-year-old.
Blame for Alan's death has so far been put on Canada, the whole world, Bashar al-Assad, U. N., Obama
There is only one person responsible for the death of Alan Kurdi--his father, Abdullah.
The Kurdi family had been living in Turkey for about three years. Although living in Turkey is not ideal, especially for Kurds, they were safe. They had a home and received money from their relative in Canada. They were not fleeing persecution; they were economic migrants. While wanting a better life in Western Europe and the hope of one day arriving in Canada is understandable, a real refugee, not to mention a real man, would have made a dangerous journey alone while leaving his family that included two small children behind and safe in Turkey. Bringing young children and their mother on such a perilous journey would have been understandable if the family was still in Syria and one step ahead of the head-choppers but that was not the case.
There are some reports Abdullah only wanted to go to Germany to have expensive dental work done. Whether this is true is totally irrelevant. No matter why he wanted to go to the West, he should never have paid a smuggler to take his family to Greece in an unstable boat.
Of course there are refugees who legitimately have fled Syria and Iraq. But, as with other countries, there are also those who are not genuine refugees and Abdullah falls into the latter category.
One of the requirements of being a refugee under the United Nations Convention is that the person be outside the country of his or her nationality and be unwilling or unable to avail themselves of the protection of that country. Since arriving in Turkey, Abdullah travelled back to Syria in early 2015 before returning to Turkey. And after the death of his family, the first thing Abdullah did, after giving media interviews of course, was to return to Syria to bury his family and remain there.
This is not the way a real legitimate refugee acts.
In pictures we have seen of the thousands of migrants who are entering into Western Europe and it is noticeable that a large percentage of them are relatively young males. ISIS has proudly proclaimed they are flooding the West with fighters and it would be foolish to doubt them. That would account for some of these young men but not all. Most, like the Kurdi family, are probably living in countries like Turkey where they were relatively safe and are making hazardous journeys alone rather than bringing along their young families.
There is no doubt Abdullah loved his family. A harried mother who leaves her baby to die in a sweltering car while she goes shopping loves her family too.
Abdullah Kurdi is responsible for the deaths of his family. Blaming anyone else is simply playing politics which, in Canada these days, is rampant.
The picture of Alan Kurdi, nicely dressed and lying dead on a Turkish beach, went around the world and suddenly a discussion of the war in Syria that has mostly been ignored was ignited. Alan's death became bigger news in Canada because of the Canadian connection to the Kurdi family and the fact we are in the middle of a federal election campaign where those on the left, including the media, are suffering the pangs of Harper Derangement Syndrome.
Alan drowned, along with his young brother and mother when the family set out from Turkey trying to reach the island of Kos in Greece, on their way to Germany. They didn't get too far. The only family member to survive was Alan's father, Abdullah.
