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Another Declaration of Independence?
30.10.2006
By Joseph Puder |
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October 30, 2006
For many years now, I have been asking myself and
especially political figures, why is it that 5.1
million stateless Palestinian Arabs deserve
statehood, while 29,360,000 stateless Kurds have
been denied the same privilege?
Cynically speaking, it appears as if the involvement
of Jews in the conflict with the Palestinian Arabs,
pervasive anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere and,
the influence of oil rich Arab states on behalf of
the Palestinian Arabs, has elevated the Palestinian
cause above that of the Kurds.
Amidst the turmoil and violence Iraq has experienced
since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and his
Baathist regime, Iraqi Kurdistan seems to be a
relative island of tranquility and progress.
Fighting between the Kurdish factions of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal
Talabani (currently the president of Iraq) and the
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) led by Masoud Barzani
came to an end in the 1990’s. In January 2006, the
two parties agreed to unify their separate
governments.
On May 7, 2006, the 111-member National Kurdistan
Council – the Kurdish Parliament – voted unanimously
in favor a unified government. Barzani was elected
as president of the region. Under the unification
agreement, both the president and the prime minister
will be from the KDP while their deputies and the
speaker of the parliament will be from the PUK.
It is in the areas under Kurdish control that
elements of a modern state can be observed: defined
borders, an elected parliament, a government, common
language and culture, a flag, a capital (Erbil), a
reasonably modern army with command and control,
diplomatic and consular representations by and in
Kurdistan, an international airport, a bustling
economy and above all, Iraqi Kurdistan has a strong
sense of identity.
Unlike most other parts of Iraq or the Arab Middle
East, Kurdistan is far more democratic, secular and
moderately Islamic. Women participate in national
life and civil society is vibrant. The Kurdish
parliament has recently outlawed polygamy - a
practice common throughout the Arab world.
The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) has also
adopted English as its second language, after
Kurdish, and relegated Arabic to third place. Since
1991 many of its youngsters have grown up speaking
only Kurdish and, increasingly less and less Kurds
speak Arabic.
British and French machinations prevented the
establishment of an independent Kurdish state
following WWI and the dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire. The Treaty of Sevres in 1920, considered the
creation of a Kurdish state however, France and
Britain divided Ottoman Kurdistan between Turkey,
Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It was formalized under the
Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
The neighboring states with large Kurdish
minorities, and Turkey in particular, oppose Kurdish
independence.
Turkey fears that its 15 million Kurds might want to
join an independent Iraqi Kurdistan. Syria’s 1.5
million Kurds located in Northeastern Syria adjacent
to Iraqi Kurdistan have been “ethnically cleansed”
by the Baathist regime of the Assads in Damascus.
Arabs have been sent by Damascus to the Hasakeh
Kurdish province after the discovery of oil,
displacing the native Kurds. Iran’s 6 million Kurds
are largely contiguous to Iraqi Kurdistan and
Tehran's mullahs are not comfortable with an
independent Kurdish state, they prefer a Shiite led
unitary
government in Baghdad they can control.
The Arab Sunni Saddamites are fiercely opposed to an
independent Kurdistan, federalized Iraq, or even an
autonomous Kurdish region, while the neighboring
Arab states (and the Arab League) fear the creation
of another non-Arab state in the region.
Considering the persecution and genocide Kurds
suffered under Saddam Hussein and the Baath party,
Iraqi Kurds have more than a legitimate claim to
independence. Saddam's gassing of the Kurdish
village of Halabja in 1988, murdering 5000 men,
women and children immediately, and 12,000 in the
next three days, makes Kurdish demands for
separation from Arab Iraq understandable.
The Bush Sr. administration encouraged the Kurds to
rebel against Saddam, and when they rose up the U.S.
abandoned them to Saddam's brutality, resulting in
the killing of thousands and the displacing of many
more thousands of Kurds. The U.S. is morally
obligated to support Kurdish choices, particularly
since the Kurds are America's best friend in Iraq.
The Kurdish Regional Government has presented its
demands to the Iraqi government, which include
adding the city Kirkuk (an oil producing city) to
its region and other areas with a Kurdish majority,
as a condition for its remaining part of Iraq. If,
however, a civil war between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq
should flare up, the Kurds have declared that they
might consider secession. Additionally, the Kurds
will bolt out of Iraq should it be dominated by an
Islamist government.
The largest obstacle to Kurdish independence is
Turkey’s threat to close its border and airspace to
Iraqi Kurdistan, thus preventing the flow of trade
and commerce. It is America's role (since the U.N.
will not do it) to pressure Turkey to allow
self-determination for the Kurds just as it has
pressured Israel to make concessions to the
Palestinians.
If America is honest in its belief in
self-determination for all people, than the Kurds,
much more than the Palestinians, deserve their
independence. An independent Kurdish State and a
similar independent Shia and Sunni states in Iraq,
might be America's best exit policy for an
artificial state (Iraq) created by British colonial
and commercial ambitions.
Frontpagemag com
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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