Globalaffairs

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By F. Rwnadizi

No doubt that there are many nations in the world, for one reason or another, do not have their own states, but the Kurds are the biggest amongst them. The Kurdish question, which has remarkably existed in the agenda of world politics since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, is yet to be resolved. Ever since then the Kurds have been divided among countries in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

The Kurds speak Indio-European language that is from the same language family of Persian, Pashto and Baluchi. In the pre-Islam history Kurds were Zoroastrians, Christians and some were Jewish, and some without religion. Nowadays, most of the Kurds are Sunni Moslems with some Shiites who are far less in number; but there also others who are Jezzidies, Christians, Jewish, Kakayees and some Zoroastrians who are believed to have clung to the native religion.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the defeat of Central Powers, in the “Program of World Peace” the Kurds, like other non-Turkish nations under the rule of the Empire, it was supposed to have independence.

Therefore, in the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, it was agreed between the Allies and the Turkish Government that Kurds should have their own “local autonomy”. However, soon after, in 1922, when Turkish Nationalist Government defeated Greece, Turkey emerged as a military power and changed the direction of the world politics once again. On the other hand, the Soviet Union, as a rising anti-West power, was one the way to become a threat to the West. And Turkey, having significant geopolitical position, being located close to the Soviet Union and having the black sea to the north, was a strategic terra for the West to observe the USSR navy movement and use Turkish land as a potential threat against the communist expansion. Turkey, therefore, regained its geopolitical importance.

Thereafter the whole situation for the Kurds changed to an unwilling direction especially when Mustaf Kemal, the Turkish Nationalist Leader, known as the father of Turks “Ata Turk” who was strongly against the rights of non-Turks, imposed different terms for the West.Accordingly, in the Treaty of Lausanne, in 1923, the Kurdish independence was ignored; thus, the Program for World Peace did not include Kurds. And ever since, the Kurds have been integrated to contemporary Turkey, Iraq and Syria and the Kurds in Iran remained under the Iranian dominance.

However it is also necessary to mention that the Kurds, not been unified and not strong enough, were not able to have a strong will and power which could lead them to independence. One may have exhaustive debate as to why the Kurds have never had their independent state; however, the question here is rather to which extent the contemporary world, with all its proclaiming about self-determination of nations and human rights, is different from the one in the past, we should take the Kurdish question as testing material.

“An era in which nations of the world can prosper, a world in where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle, a world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice, a world where the strong respect the rights of the weak”

Sixteen years elapsed since the world’s superpower leader George Bush the Senior spoke about his vision of a New World Order on 11 September 1990, yet the 12 million Kurds in Turkey, 8 million in Iran, 5 million in Iraq, 1 million and a half in Syria with the vast homeland of 200,000 square miles of territory, which is roughly equal to that of France or California and New York combined, do not have a state where they can enjoy their rights as one of the biggest “weak” nations on the earth. Moreover their basic human and civil rights are violated almost everyday, let alone the political and economic rights. For these reasons, and more, there are a couple million Kurds who migrated to Europe, America and Australia. The Kurds continue leaving their homeland to date.

In Iran the government does not allow the Kurds to have schools where they can study in their own language. They do not have to talk about their identity because in Iran every one is just Iranian; but not everyone has the same rights.

In Turkey Kurds are called “mountainous” or “southern Turks”; though there is a change because in the past years the Kurds were called “barbarous Turks” by some Turkish figures, among them some high ranked officials. If one visits Turkey today can clearly realize the difference between the “backward Kurdistan” and the westernized Istanbul, for instance driving from Dyarbakir, one of the famous and biggest cities of Kurdistan in Turkey that is known by the Kurds as the capital of Northern Kurdistan, till reaching the border with Iraq at the south, which is more than five hours driving, not even an inch of well paved road is seen. Moreover, Turkey seems trying to compete with Saddam; so far, Turkey has demolished more than 4000 Kurdish villages and displaced hundred thousands of the inhabitants.

In Syria, the Kurds are Arab; strange but true! The Kurds have either to consider themselves Arab or they will be labeled as foreigners and they, consequently, will be deprived from having identity card, passport, and right to own property.

Lack of sufficient healthcare, education, infrastructure, and employment in the Kurdish areas in these countries made the Kurds in lower level of living and education in comparison with other citizens. Above all imprisonment, killing, persecution and displacement have become a sort of daily routine practiced by the governments against this nation.

The Kurdistan region of Iraq, which does not embrace the entire Kurdish inhabited areas in Iraq but only about 70%, is rather calm nowadays and people enjoy a local autonomy after long years of tragic history under Saddam’s regime who scored number one in the world of totalitarianism by chemically bombarding his “own” people in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 killed more than 5000 people in seconds. The genocide of Kurds, named Anfal operations, by Baathist party of Saddam killed more than 182000 Kurds; some were buried alive. More than 4000 Kurdish villages were destroyed between 1987 and 1989. The situation of this part of Kurdistan is however still fragile and very much depends on the political changes in the region and the interests of the superpowers.

Ever since 1991 when Turkish troops are of 20 to 40 kilometers inside the Iraqi Kurdistan territory, and from time to time, in front of the eyes of the satellite world, the Turkish troops and airplanes bombard Iraqi Kurdistan villages and towns in the pretext of fighting the Kurdish opposition party of PKK. A couple of months ago, in a joint venture, the Iranian and Turkish artilleries shelled bordering villages of Kurdistan of Iraq which resulted in huge number of casualties, displacement and devastation.

Therefore, the Kurds do ask themselves and the world, if the Wilson’s Fourteen Points of new approach for international diplomacy for peace and Bush’s New World Order did not bring much hope for the Kurds, what other principles and speculations might be on the way by the International Community in future and for how long they should be in queue for self-determination!

This part of the world, therefore, has a long way ahead to have the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle and the strong respect the rights of the weak.

F. Rwnadizi
MA in International Relations, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford

References:
1. F.H.Khorshid (1983), Kurdish Language, Ishbeelia Press, Baghdad
2. G. Chaliand (1993), A People without a Country, Zed Book Ltd, London.
3. J. Baylis & S. Smith (2001), Globalization of World Politics, Oxford Press University, Oxford.
4. M.R. Izday (1992), The Kurds, A concise handbook, Crane Russak, Washington

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