The Kurdistan Observer
Aug 2000
Editorial

Four years ago, we embarked on a journey on cyberspace by launching this web site that we
call the Kurdistan Observer to publish daily news on the Kurds and Kurdistan, and to reflect
on the Kurdish political scene. Remarkably, this initiative came at a time that marked the
beginning of the internet information explosion encompassing all aspects of life, from
science, art, and entertainment to business, religion, and politics.

The almost total absence of a fair, independent, and free Kurdish press both inside Kurdistan
and abroad convinced us that there was the need to provide a vehicle for timely, free, and
comprehensive information on the Kurdish nation in their divided homeland. With limited
available resources, we thus launched the Kurdistan Observer, focusing primarily on the
gathering and reporting of current news pertaining to Kurdistan and providing a forum for
the presentation of views of readers and scholars in a section entitled Opinions.

Over the last four years, we have worked tirelessly to provide you with current information
and news from exhaustive and, on many an occasion, opposing sources and parties. We have
made a great effort to present diverse viewpoints from internal Kurdish sources without
taking sides. Our objective has been to provide information from a multitude of sources,
believing that more information is far better and more useful than less. In many cases, we
have published news from the news media controlled by the countries oppressing the Kurdish
people. We see no harm in that since information is valuable and truth usually surfaces
between what is noted and what is not. In principle, people are rational and cannot be
swayed by propaganda for long.

Overwhelmingly, your reaction to the Kurdistan Observer has been positive and
encouraging. Many of you have enriched the Kurdistan Observer with authoritative
viewpoints and analyses that have been featured in the Opinions section. We thank you and
encourage your continued participation. We thank all our readers and encourage you to
write to us.

At times, we have received letters and comments from readers critical of certain news or
views published in the Kurdistan Observer. Many of these criticisms have been valid, of
good intent, and enlightening. However, occasional readers have been harsh in their criticism
and have accused us, at minimum, of displaying political bias or of discharging contractually
the work of one group or another. We have been even accused of active participation and
association in opposing parties and groups on both sides of an issue, which we believe
provides testimony to our impartiality. Furthermore, we would like to assure our readers that
we have not have been offered nor have we accepted any payments from any political party
or group. The maintenance and daily updates of the Kurdistan Observer, while time
consuming and taxing given our limited resources, have been carried out completely on a
pro bono basis and are not generating any revenues whatsoever.

Once again we thank all our readers and contributors whose numbers have been on a steady
rise. We thank your positive feedback and negative feedback, your encouragement and
criticism. It is our belief that since its inception, the Kurdistan Observer has become a
premier site for the distribution of fair and independent news and views on Kurdistan. With
our heartfelt humility, we hope that through this vehicle that is the Kurdistan Observer
we are contributing in small measure to the greater purpose of Kurdistan.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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