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Analysis: Kurds raise flag, fears of war
6.9.2006
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WASHINGTON, DC,
United States , -- Verbal sparring between those who
believe Iraq is in a state of civil war and the Bush
administration, who insists it is not, may find the
argument increasingly in favor of those who believe
the country is affected by civil divisions, and may
be slipping towards greater chaos.
Iraqi Kurds living in the semi-autonomous northern
part of the country lowered Iraqi flags this past
weekend, replacing them with Kurdish banners over
official government buildings in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Their actions sent immediate shock waves to Baghdad,
where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki derided the
move by the Kurds, calling it 'illegal.'
And when Baghdad complained, the Kurds threatened to
secede.
This move by the Kurds has also sent up red flags in
neighboring Turkey, where Ankara eyes any move
towards Kurdish independence with much trepidation,
less it encourages its own Kurdish population to
emulate their Iraqi brothers.
Addressing the region's parliament, Massoud Barzani,
president of the Kurdistan region, said Iraq's flag
was a symbol of his own people's past oppression. He
asked the regional parliament to adopt the new flag.
Barzani told his parliament: 'If at any moment we,
the Kurdish people and parliament, consider that it
is in our interests to declare independence, we will
do so and we will fear no-one.'
Baghdad reacted with a statement from the prime
minister's office, saying that 'the Iraqi flag is
the only flag that should be raised over any square
inch of Iraq, until parliament makes a decision as
laid down in the constitution.'
The statement avoided any direct mention of the
Kurdish flag.
Are the Kurds taking the first step towards
independence? The Kurds, who are scattered between
Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, have long dreamed of
an independent country. And more than once they were
promised support in that dream by Western powers in
exchange for their support. The Kurds repeatedly
showed loyalty only to be repeatedly let down.
The first attempt in modern times by the Kurds to
establish a homeland occurred at the end of World
War I, when President Woodrow Wilson supported the
notion of Kurdish self-determination. And despite
the fact that the idea of an independent Kurdistan
was mentioned in the 1920 Treaty, an independent
Kurdistan was omitted from being pencilled in post
WWI maps.
The new Turkey of Mustapha Kemal (Ataturk) rejected
the treaty in 1923, denying the Kurds their state.
This was the genesis of the Turkish-Kurdish
conflict, a conflict which continues to this day. In
fact, in recent days Kurdish separatists are
believed to have been responsible for a number of
terrorist attacks in Turkish tourist resorts.
In 1924, shortly after Ataturk rejected the idea of
a Kurdish state, Turkey banned the Kurdish culture
and prohibited the use of the Kurdish language. In
Iraq, sporadic fighting between Kurds and the
central government occurred from 1964 to 1975. That
was when the Kurdish leader at the time, Mustafa
Barzani, turned to the United States for help.
Appealing to then U.S. Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger, Barzani asked for assistance, telling
Kissinger: 'Our movement and people are being
destroyed in an unbelievable way.' Relying on an
agreement reached with the shah of Iran, the United
States, once again, abandoned the Kurds to their
fate.
Persecution of Kurds continued in Turkey, in Iran
and most notably in Iraq, particularly under the
regime of Saddam Hussein. One of the most horrendous
acts against the Kurds was committed in the town of
Halabja, in 1988, when mustard gas was used against
the civilian population. More than 5,000 people,
including women and children, died in the attack.
The 1990-1991 Gulf War changed the fate of Iraq's
Kurds. In the aftermath of Iraq's invasion of
Kuwait, the no-fly zone established by the United
States to protect its pilots offered Iraqi Kurds an
almost divine protection. In the years after the
first Gulf War, Iraqi Kurdistan began to enjoy
unprecedented autonomy as Baghdad pulled its
administration out of the region, leaving the two
main Kurdish political parties to establish a local
government.
The Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq has
prospered further since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Kurdish leaders are closely watching Washington's
attempts at pacifying Iraq and establishing a
working democracy. Should Washington's efforts fail,
the Kurds are prepared to breakaway from Iraq and
live happily off revenues from the oil in the Kirkuk
region.
That, however, is a point of contention with Baghdad
and particularly with Iraq's Sunnis, who stand to
lose more than Iraq's other major politico-religious
group, the Shiites. The Kurds in the north and the
Shiites in the south sit on top of large oil
reserves. This leaves the Sunnis, who have ruled
Iraq in the past, in the middle of the country with
little or no oil revenues. And this is something
they will fight for.
More likely than not, so too will Turkey be prepared
to fight to prevent the Kurdish dream from becoming
a reality.
UPI
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