30 some years ago, around when the PKK was founded, I, at 6 years old, was waiting 3-4 hours in bread lines, flour lines, margarine lines, etc. along with the rest of Turkey's population, everyday.

One loaf of bread per person, per day.

My family had it better then most, having a roof over our heads, a new shoe every 3 years, and we didn't even have to beg. I even had my own Angora street-cat, a piece of chocolate when I was 7, saw a Black&White TV at 8, and heard an Elvis record when I was 9 (Blue Suede Shoes). That was big deal for me and life sure was wonderful.

Wonderful, except for everything else that is. At the time, the PKK was largely responsible for most of the violence in Turkey (as they are now) which was partly the cause of most of the economic strife (as it is now). They went by a few other names names back then. Their "ideology" graffiti was plastered everywhere in every neighborhood in big red drippy letters. It was etched in the wooden rows of my 5th grade class. Students of my high school even took the Governor of Ankara hostage for 3-4 days, you know, to "fight for freedom" and stuff. My school had the highest death rate for teachers in Ankara. It was where my mother was a teacher.

For some reason, I did not, and still do not hate the Kurds for their "ideology" which has sent me down this path of life of deprivation, and suffering, death, poverty, and hopelessness in Turkey. Heck, I might even still be living in my own country if my parents' lives hadn't been threatened by the "freedom fighters".

Although, I was forced to live far away from where I was born, for reasons pertaining to life-and-death, I am apparently incapable of understanding the "Kurdish reality".

I do however understand, that I was cheated, robbed, and forced out of my own childhood, my freedoms, my education, my rights, and ultimately out of my own country - which is my birthright.

To make a long story short, will The Washington Post write a sympathetic story about me? Or does one have to become a "freedom fighter" to get that sort of attention around here?