|
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) - The Iraqi
draft constitution gives virtual independence to the
country`s Kurds -- and the jitters to neighboring
governments with Kurdish minorities. Former U.S.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said recently you
need a microscope to detect where the status
obtained by the Kurds differs from full sovereignty.
Inevitably, observers say, the compromise deal
worked out by Iraq`s Shiite Arab majority and the
Kurds will raise expectations in Turkey, Iran and
Syria.
The constitution creates a federal system that Kani
Xulam, who heads the Washington-based
American-Kurdish Information center, calls "a
marriage of convenience," and "a nominal
relationship" between the Shiite and Kurdish
communities. On Thursday, talks to persuade the
Sunni Arab minority to sign off on the agreement
thus opening the way for approval by the Iraqi
National Assembly seemed stalled. If the process
toward a federal republic collapses by the end of
this week, the Kurds will have least to regret -- at
least privately -- because it will bring them closer
to their most widely desired goal of total
independence.
The Kurds have de facto control of their cohesive,
secular, terrorist-free enclave of northern Iraq,
protected by the only effective standing military
force made up of Iraqis, and about 40 percent of the
country`s oil reserves. Should the fragmentation of
Iraq that analysts warn may be the end result come
about, Xulam says, the Kurdish territory "will fall
like a ripe fruit from the tree."
The Kurds make up around 20 percent of the Iraqi
population, or 5.2 million people. Under Saddam
Hussein, what is often called Iraqi Kurdistan was
largely autonomous, with U.S. and British combat
planes protecting it from regime attempts to seize
control. In return for significant help to U.S.
troops in the Iraq war, the Bush administration
promised the Kurds they would not lose their
pseudo-independence in any post-Saddam democratic
system.
In reality, in the constitutional drafting talks,
the Kurds had to fight hard to ward off Shiite
pressure to impose an Iranian-type Islamic
theocracy, with its implied oppression of women,
once it came into force, and its lack of attention
to minorities.
Meanwhile, developments in Iraqi Kurdistan are
having an impact on other Kurdish minorities -- on
the 2 million Kurds in Syria whose minority rights
are more or less ignored, and more so on the 14
million -- or around half of the Kurdish total
population -- in Turkey, and on the 4.6 million
Kurds in Iran.
Tension has continued in Iran since Iranian security
agents allegedly killed a Kurdish activist in
Mahabad, in northwestern Iran. His death sparked
protests in Mahabad and elsewhere and clashed with
police; and street skirmishes were still being
reported on July 19. There were further clashes when
Iranian Kurds took to the streets to mark the
election of Masud Barzani as president of the
Kurdistan regional government in Iraq. More
celebrations led to more arrests following the
election of Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, as Iraq`s president.
Although Iranian Kurds are certainly envious of
Kurdish political success across the border,
analysts say there is little indication of
separatist sentiment in Iran, at least not yet. But
analysts say that may emerge if the ruling
ayatollahs fail to pay attention to Kurdish demands
for greater attention from Tehran, citing inadequate
political representation and inattention to their
culture. A low turnout in ethnically Kurdish areas
in the recent Iranian election -- around 20 percent
compared to the national average of 60 percent --
was seen as a reflection of Kurdish discontent.
Separatism is at the heart of a resurgence after a
long lull of attacks in Turkey against army patrols
and a series of at least four bomb attacks on
tourist resorts in the past two months. A hitherto
unknown group calling itself the Kurdish Liberation
Hawks claimed responsibility for at least one
attack, and experts have labeled it and other groups
as offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers` Party, or PKK.
But last week the separatist, originally Marxist,
insurgent organization that has been waging war in
Turkey, Iraq, and Iran since 1973 announced a
month-long unilateral cease-fire.
The PKK announcement raised the prospect of an end
to an insurgency that is said to have claimed 35,000
lives in the past 20 years. It followed a promise by
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of "more
democracy, more civil rights, more prosperity," and
an admission that "Turkey should face its past," a
reference to the harsh tactics employed against
Kurdish militants by the Turkish military in the
1980s and 1990s.
For Erdogan, the internal violence needs to stop
soon if his country has any hope of polishing its
human rights image and fulfilling its aspiration of
becoming a member of the European Union. The same EU
pressure is useful insurance for Iraqi Kurds that
Ankara will not be tempted to intervene militarily
in Iraq, should the dream of an independent
Kurdistan start taking shape by default.
United Press International
Top |
® 