ME:

Hello Professor Chomsky I'm just going to dive right in, because I know you're time is precious and I don't want to waste any second of it with flattery words. Recently I have noticed that at some occasions you have mentioned that the atrocities of Turkey against the Kurds in south-eastern Turkey outnumbered the atrocities of the Serbs against Bosnian Muslim, according to some account. I think you have mentioned that according to some estimations, around 30,000 Kurds were killed in South-Eastern Turkey, however I was unable to find out what your estimation of the death toll of Srebrenica is. I would be very appreciative if you could tell me what your estimate of the death tolls of Srebrenica are. Also I would appreciate it if you could tell where you have gathered these information from, or what references you have used . Lastly, let me just add that I am not by any means doubting your conclusions,I just wanted to get my historical narrative straight. Thank you for your patience and time. Regards,

Noam:

The official death toll for Srebrenica is about 8000. Some have contested it, arguing that it is inflated. For Turkey in the 90’s the death toll is variously estimated in the tens of thousands. According to the highly respected Kurdish lawyer and former mayor of Diyarbakir, a fair estimate is 50,000. Others estimate 40,000 or so. 3500 towns and villages were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands – or according to Kurdish sources, several million – were driven from their homes, not permitted to return unless they signed false statements saying that the PKK, not the army, destroyed their towns. The last is direct testimony from refugees.