KURD DI NAVBERA MERAQA LI AZADIYÊ Û CÎHANEKE NEHEQ DE
When the American forces entered Iraq last year I was confronted by some one in Sydney who asked: What will the Kurds do when the Americans leave Iraq? He was blaming the Kurds for supporting the Americans and was of the opinion they would be forsaken by the USA again only to be punished for what they did.
The Americans are not popular in the Middle East, except for Israel of course. It needed a lot of courage and determination for the Kurds to openly declare their support for the USA in its war against Saddam Hussein’s regime. This decision has resulted in many within the Arab and Islamic circles becoming even more antagonistic towards the Kurds. As a result not only lives were lost in Iraqi Kurdistan during and after the war, in battle and as a result of terrorist acts, but Kurds in some places outside Iraq were insulted and threatened by mobs opposed to America.
The Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) supported the Americans for the following reasons:
a) they wanted the end of an oppressive regime and hoped a democratic federal Iraq will follow;
b) they knew they couldn’t stop the American forces and wanted to be on the side of the victors, especially because the American leadership was openly supporting a free Iraq with a democratic federal system;
c) they were a part of the Iraqi opposition that supported the demands of the Kurds and the invasion of Iraq by allied forces.
The latest wave of hatred against the Kurdish people as a result of the events that took place in Iraq and Southern Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan) during and after the war have led to many Kurds losing faith in the possibility of the Arab people ever supporting their rights. While the majority of the Kurds in Southern Kurdistan, indeed in all parts of Kurdistan, are by now of the opinion that Kurds and Arabs can no longer live under one roof, both the KDP and the PUK insist that a united Iraq with a federal system is possible and that in today’s reality of international politics the Kurds should be satisfied with such a system that will guarantee them self-rule. While many Kurds initially did not agree they supported federalism and were hoping this will become a fair compromise.
Unfortunately there are some indications that the Kurds may once again be dropped by their “friends” and I will not be surprised if yet another tragedy falls upon the Kurdish people. Now that Washington is seeking an easy way out of Iraq I am remembering the words of the person who confronted me in Sydney last year. Many people from various parts of the world, including some Kurds, argued that “America can’t be trusted” and that the Kurds have made a big mistake by allying themselves with the Americans. My argument has always been that America, like every other state, has the right to defend its interests. I also argued that despite America’s selfishness and what some consider as bullying the USA was still fairer and certainly less harmful than some evil regimes and dictators who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. In my view it was the Kurds who had to learn how to deal with the American authorities. It is sad to admit, however, that the American foreign policy is so naïve at times that I sincerely feel sorry for that great nation.
Having observed some of the statements made lately by American officials regarding Iraq and the Kurdish demands for a federal democratic system it seems to me they have already forgotten what they and President George W Bush pledged. It certainly was not easy for the Kurds to support the USA at a time when not only the Arab nations and Islamic nations, including America’s “friend” Turkey, and many European states were directly or indirectly opposing Washington’s policies regarding Iraq. Now the leadership of this powerful nation, in order to satisfy Ankara and the Arab states, and for various other reasons is showing signs indicating the Kurds may once again be betrayed.
It is not easy to find adequate words to portray the tragedy of more than 35 million Kurds who are damned by being placed amid four states that do not respect freedom and real democracy. It is tragic for the Kurds who aspire freedom and progress to live in states where evil is practised by some groups in the name of Islam and where words such as federalism, self-rule, free elections and fair go for all almost have no meaning. But it is even more tragic to see the governments of the USA, UK, European Union, Russia and China not interested in helping the Kurdish people. Some of them hide their hypocrisy behind “our support for human rights” that has hardly got the Kurds any where. In the reality of today’s unfair world not only tens of millions of people living on the land of their ancestors are deprived of statehood while nations numbering thousands are members of the UN, but these millions of Kurds can not even find support from the UN and the governments of the so called “free world” to rule themselves within a federal state. No doubt all states have the right to think of their interests, their exports and their defence strategies but to become so hypocritical and so disregarding to the aspiration and the rights of a group that has been struggling for freedom for the last one hundred years is beyond forgiveness. One wonders whether Mr Bush ever revisits the speeches he read regarding Iraq. One wonders whether American officials who said “No, their won’t be a betrayal this time” ever remember what they said. One wonders whether “the expert” Henry Kissinger ever feels ashamed of what he caused the Kurds in 1975 when he mentions their name nowadays, a person who reportedly said to an American who sympathized with the then betrayed Kurds something like “politics and charity do not mix.” But this time the Kurds are not asking for charity. They have paid, and may still pay dearly, for their support for the USA. The twin suicide bombings in the Kurdish city of Hewlêr (Erbil) on the first of February that resulted in more than 110 dead and more than 200 wounded is only one example. Does the fact that Turkey, some Arab countries and Iran can import more weapons and goods give the green light for the Kurds to be damned forever? What about words such as “freedom, humanity, respect for self-determination?” Do all these words that are written in the constitution of the UN and uttered by the leaders of the “free world” become semantically empty when it comes to the rights of the Kurdish nation; or shouldn’t one even call 35 million human beings living in one geographical spot a nation?
The reality of the situation is that the Kurds are damned by being placed where they are. The fact they are Muslims makes it even worse for them because on one hand not a single Muslim nation has supported their aspiration for freedom and on the other hand if they were Christians, for instance, the West may have found a way to save them. While Islamist fundamental groups seem to have included the Kurds in the list of those whose bloodshed “guarantees a free ticket to paradise” many western leaders pay more attention to fundamentalists than to Kurds because sadly terrorism has frightened the hell out of them and the Kurds have never taken their fight out of their own country, nor have Kurdish organisations used international terrorism as a tactic.
Despite the will of the KDP and the PUK to pursue federalism in the united Iraq, unfortunately the relations between the Arabs and the Kurds seem like a marriage that has proved unworkable, a marriage with one partner wanting to remain dominant, brutal, reactionary and against change while the other, the weaker one, is forsaken by the rest of the world. The Kurds, not just in Iraq but also in Turkey, Iran and Syria, want equality but their partners only believe in domination and suppression. The Kurds want to advance but their partners prefer centralized authoritarian regimes. The Kurds live in a part of the world where naïve desperate young people are sent to self-destruction by the ugliest way possible to take with them the lives of innocent people and this in the name of the Almighty, who is supposed to be the God of us all, and the promise to enter his kingdom. The Kurds live within states such as that of Turkey that is often described by some American statesmen as “democratic” yet the minister for foreign affairs of that country openly says, “We will oppose autonomy for the Kurds even if it were in Argentine.” This “democratic” state has not only deprived the Kurdish citizens in Turkey from their national and cultural rights since its establishment in 1926 but is openly threatening to attack Iraqi Kurdistan if federalism is adopted for Iraq. Syria and Iran, as well as some other Arab states, also openly oppose such a system due to the Kurdish factor. Such is the bad luck of the Kurdish people and such is the degree of unfairness in this world of ours even at this stage of human history!
So where can the Kurds go from here? Let us concentrate on the Kurds in southern Kurdistan, sorry: in Northern Iraq. On one hand the KDP and the PUK are still insisting a federal democratic Iraq is possible. The majority of the people do not believe it any longer. They sight the dual bombings in Hewlêr (Erbil) and the lack of genuine sympathy in the Arab world as the stamp that proves the death of such a dream. They are now openly saying Kurds and Arabs can not live together in Iraq. They believe the “marriage” that should have never taken place has proved disastrous for them and it is time for divorce. They want an independent Kurdish state and are beginning to put pressure on their governing parties to openly pursue such a demand. They argue that the members of the Iraqi opposition who was so powerless during the rule of Saddam Hussein and whose leaders were for years harboured by the Kurds have now forgotten their promises. Many leaders and groups within the Arab Shiites want a religious state, or at least a state based on Islamic rules, while Arab nationalists want a chauvinistic government under their thumb. On the other hands, some Arab elements from abroad are utilizing Islam for their nationalistic objectives by using suicide bombers to prevent the birth of a federal democratic Iraq and to avenge themselves against America and its support for Israel at the same time. These Kurds believe the west will not let the surrounding countries butcher the Kurds. A minority of Kurdish intellectuals are skeptic. They don’t believe the west will do for the Kurds what they did for the Bosnian Muslims in Europe or the Christian East Timorese in Asia. As for KDP and PUK their leaders haven’t forgotten the bitter suffering at the hands of the successive Iraqi regimes and the clouds of death during Saddam’s era. They have had thirteen years of relative peace and progress in most of the Kurdish regions. They know proclaiming an independent Kurdish state does not only mean ultimately fighting the Iraqi Arabs again but there is also the threat of being attacked by the armies of Turkey, Iran and possibly some other Arab countries. They do not want to gamble what has been gained in regard to democracy, rebuilding and other advances in the Kurdish regions under their control since 1991. They are doing all they can to prove themselves as friend to Turkey, Iran, Syria and the Arab world and are at the same time trying to prove themselves more loyal to Iraq than the Arabs and other Iraqis. They know the other side is not that interested in their friendship or “brotherhood” but hope the future may change the dark picture. In addition to this mess we have the hidden animosity between these two organizations. While they are to be congratulated for having learned to talk and cooperate instead of fighting they still have not proved they can be reckoned with as a united force. There are still two Kurdish governments, one in Sulaimani (PUK) and one in Hewlêr (KDP).
Furthermore, while they gained a lot of skills in the last thirteen years they remain naïve in many aspects in regard to diplomatic communication and dealing with governments. They mostly employ party loyalists rather than capable people with expertise in their fields. No one has expected they would once again depend on verbal promises (by US officials and representatives of Iraqi opposition) instead of insisting on having written documents in the hand. The events in the last few weeks in Iraq and America’s change of strategy indicate they have no written documents in the hand signed by Americans. Should the Kurds be dropped and the promises made to them forgotten the phrase “America has betrayed the Kurds again” will be revived to be uttered by Kurds and every anti American person. And who would blame them if the American authorities yet again offer the Kurds as sacrifice to their mightier “friends” and own selfish interests. I still have a glimpse of hope, even against reason, for if something like this happens again not just the Kurds but any other nation will be damned if they trust US governments with words such as “they hate America because we love freedom” and other such phrases.
Recently Mr Paul Bremer, the American Administrator in Iraq, had talks with Mr Masoud Barzani, the leader of the KDP, and Mr Jalal Talabani, the Leader of the PUK on the subject of federalism. Lately some encouraging statements regarding Iraq were made by him. Let us hope Mr Bremer has gained enough experience that will enable him to make correct and fair decisions in this extremely complicated place where intervention by foreign Arabists and Islamists has added to the complicity of the situation and let us hope the American administration in Washington will remain loyal to the pledges and promises they made regarding the new Iraq. Other wise all the people who were brutally killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule or died as a result of Iraq’s invasion, including members of the allied forces and other non Iraqis, would have lost their lives for nothing. Let us hope Saddam’s brutal autocratic regime is not replaced by a fanatical autocratic religious or national regime. A federal democratic Iraq may indeed become an example for many spots in the Middle East. Didn’t Mr George W Bush once say something like this or am I wrong?
The American people, the British people, the people of Europe and all nations that value humanity and freedom are reminded that the Kurdish people are once again confronted with the possibility of yet encountering another tragedy in their tragic history. Let us hope it can be prevented this time. The Kurds were not, and will not become, mercenaries for the Americans. They supported the Americans because they firmly believed the evil of the former regime would otherwise have continued for a very long time. But they also hoped the promising words given to them by the American and British leaders were sincere.
The Kurdish people can not guarantee any government, whether American or other wise, that they will import more weapons and goods than the governments that consider them not worthy of equal rights but they number more than 35 million and belong to a nation that has existed thousands of years before the states that suppress them were known. In Iraq they number about five million. They deserve to be free in a civilized democratic federal Iraq. If this is not possible should they once again be governed by a dictatorship of one form or another from Baghdad? I will leave the question to be answered by any decent Western leader or politician. I say “Western” for according to many Kurds there is no hope left for them to expect anything fair from the states of the Middle East and the Islamic world. What a sad conclusion, I agree!
Finally, I would like to note here that many years ago I argued in one of my articles that the states dividing Kurdistan were wrong in denying their Kurdish citizens their legitimate rights, that such policies instead of ending the “problem” as the rulers of these states hoped will indeed gradually lead to the Kurds losing faith and thus becoming more militant in their demands. I also argued that refusing the Kurds equal rights will sooner or later lead not only to more bloodshed but to the struggle for an independent Kurdish state. Therefore, whether it is in Iraq, Iran, Turkey or Syria it is to the benefit of these countries and their peoples for the Kurds to be treated as equals and to be given the right to self-rule within federal united states, for other wise the fight for an independent Kurdish state or even a united Kurdistan in the future will be justified.
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* Kurdish Australian writer / journalist
