Letter: A historic betrayal of the Kurds: why Barzani threw in his lot with Saddam

Sir: Now that Turkey has intervened in the Iraqi situation, the failure of press and politicians to comment on that country's aggression against its own Kurds becomes even more astonishing.

Rivalling Saddam Hussein in brutality, the Turkish authorities have been responsible over recent years for some 15,000 to 20,000 Kurdish deaths, the razing of over 2,000 villages and the expulsion from Turkish Kurdistan of between 2 and 3 million people. The Kurdish language is prohibited, democratically elected MPs are imprisoned, political parties are banned, newspapers are shut down or bombed out of existence and journalists are murdered, imprisoned, tortured and "disappear".

Europe rewards the Turkish government by accepting the country into customs union and then fails to enforce the conditions of entry. The US provides a plentiful arms supply. Western hypocrisy stinks to high heaven, and the terrible travail of the Turkish Kurds continues. Meanwhile the media, like the priest and the Levite, claiming to be the people's conscience, pass by on the other side.

CYNOG DAFIS MP

(Ceredigion and Pembroke North, Plaid Cymru)