“We Are Not the Same”
(Once and for all, Balkan people aren't related to Kurds)
Once and for all—
let me say it plain:
Balkan blood is not Kurdish blood,
Balkan people are related to Germans.
Your names are not our names.
Your roots do not stretch
into the same soil
where ours were buried,
fighting to survive.
You speak of ancient ties,
but I see none.
No shared silence,
no shared scars,
no stolen songs
or crushed tongues
bind us together.
We are not cousins in exile.
We are not brothers in pain.
You did not carry mountains
on your backs
or bury your language
in the mouths of mothers
who whispered it in fear.
When we were being erased,
you watched.
When we bled,
you kept walking.
When we cried,
you laughed across borders
that never knew our names.
So do not reach for our history.
Do not steal our sorrow
to decorate your own.
You are not us.
And we are not yours.
I am Kurdish—
from fire, from famine,
from resistance with no rest.
And you—
you are Balkan,
and that is enough.
But we are not the same.
Not in memory.
Not in blood.
Not in anything
that matters.