By: Sami Osman
Jan 2001

Another century elapsed and no signs or rumours about the Kurdish state can be seen on the
horizon. This only reflects two possibilities either the Kurdish did not act enough to achieve
their objectives (the state of Kurdistan) or that the blame should be put to the political
philosophy they have adopted. In regard to the latter, the possibilities are more obvious
than the former. The Kurdish people have done more than what is required to have their own
state. History has proven that the Kurdish people are heroic and ready to sacrifice if time
called, and the last two decades of the last century were full of evidence to prove that.
Therefore doubt about the ability of the Kurdish people should be lifted and attention be
given to the political philosophy and style they have espoused for their struggle.

Political philosophy is the platform of any struggle, during peace and war, and should be
given serious attention upon adoption. During peace, people are more concerned to know
what is the nature of their state and its policies and what is doing to secure their future. As a
result, the government is warned about dire political behaviour otherwise they will bear the
consequences. While during war, the nature of the political philosophy may differ as there is
only one clear object and that is the termination or the defeat of the enemy. In such
circumstances the mass are well armed by fundamental political ideologies, which suit the
situation. This can be Nationalism, Communism or Anarchism.

Close examination of the Kurdish struggle produces different image such as multiple
political ideologies with only one thing in mind and that is the Kurdish state. What kind of
Kurdish state Socialist Kurdistan, monarchist, capitalist, federal, republic or Islamic
fundamentalist state? Taken into consideration the size of the population and the nature of its
current status. These multiple ideologies are harmful rather than beneficial and if continued
as it is, the first part of the article is confirmed.

Kurdistan, as known to many people, formally has been divided between four major states
with different political structure. But if monitored closely one can see that there is another
part of Kurdistan is growing somewhere else away from Kurdistan. They are called Kurdish
migrants and if collected they may be equal to a size of a nation like the Vatican or Kuwait.
Due to the disintegration of Kurdish state geographically and philosophically our enemies
seem to be clearly unknown. Are they external or internal?  Therefore the nature of the
struggle should be defined first then adopted.

External war requires certain effort and differs from internal wars. One should not forget that
our internal conflict is a clear result of political disarray. While some factions are adopting
tribal monarchism without any known political platform, they also reject any reformation,
which may affect their status quo and consequently loosing their mandate and its economical
benefits.

Others are adopting certain political ideologies, such as communism, without full
implementation of its agenda or to accept the reality about its poor status around the globe.
Kurdish people, like other people of different parts of the world, has strived to adopt socialist
ideologies which thought to be the right platform to solve the Kurdish dilemma and the
establishment of the Kurdish state, ignoring its economic, social and class structure.
Furthermore its geographical location for economic development is far from encouraging for
future international investments. The status of organisational disarray of the socialist group
in Kurdistan, and worldwide is more than enough to prove that it’s unsuitable to alleviate the
Kurdish dilemma. Some may argue this and say that communism is not dead, but if it’s alive
why is it not functioning? It’s worth mentioning that numerous communist institutions in a
small geographical location do not represent democracy of freedom.

Socialist groups are not the only group, which flourished during a century of political
instability in Kurdistan. Religious factions also turned opportunistic and took advantage of
the circumstances and caused addiction of pointless struggle to maintain an old order
ignoring that the Kurdish needs more than just religious faith. Their struggle caused
enormous damage to the Kurdish cause as its objectives are clear and not in the interest of
the Kurdish people. Only those who lost hope of any bright future join these groups as it
provides false hope. Although their presence may cause to maintain moral and social order
but the Kurdish are in need of urgent political reform more than anything else.

Talking of political institutions, Kurdish people have established far more institutions and
organizations than what they need. The current circumstances reflect everything but
democracy and harmony as every institution aims to achieve its political objectives ignoring
the mass and its long-term objectives. Although multi party system is favoured by many
states worldwide but for the Kurdish means something else. Means each party aims to
monopolise the situation for its interest. Some parties have introduced the latest
telecommunication, which is good to some extent to keep the growing number of Kurdish
migrants in touch with their families.  But where in the world happened that the receiver
must pay as well as the caller?   Those countries, which supply these devices, have passed
many stages of political and economical triumphs.

This is not to assume that Kurdish is ignorant and does not deserve the latest technologies.
But what I try to say is that there are other things, which should have been prioritised such
internal communication and political reform to eliminate tensions and intensions to terminate
their opponents by orders from their
enemies.

Last century the world has experienced many political and social reforms. Many states were
created, others disappeared and many still fought for like Kurdistan and Palestine. What
makes the Kurdish experience unique is that there is no major changes in relation to political
reform and long-term agendas. Major political institutions still enjoying the status they
established four decades ago, either by terrorising their opponents or through the assistance
they receive from their enemies in the north, east or west.

Even the current changes in the political atmosphere such as the adoption western style
elections made the Kurdish development unique from the world. The result of the election
must satisfy at least one party, if you like it or not, otherwise it will be considered invalid.

Unless the Kurdish abandon their current political agenda and clarify their objectives and
implement reforms in all fronts the Kurdish state will remain an imagination and the Kurdish
population outside that mystery state willgrow larger until it gets to a stage where it would
be impossible to count them as part of the Kurdish society.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com