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Hamas,
Fatah, & The Missing Kurdish Dual Track |
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Hamas, Fatah, & The Missing Kurdish Dual
Track
31.12.2007
By Gerald A. Honigman, eKurd.net Contributing Writer
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December
31, 2007
-Gerald A. Honigman, (ekurd.net), --- A deal was
obviously made to keep the Turks from launching a
full scale invasion of the Kurdish north in Iraq.
The Kurdish region being the only real long-term
success story America can point to in its Iraq
adventure, the alternative would indeed be a
nightmare.
Let me state right from the start that I have always
held that the Kurds, themselves, had to get a handle
on their own militants. And I have always supported
good ties with the Turks. But while the latter and
others call the PKK terrorists, I only reluctantly
concur. I’ll soon get to the reason…
We’ve known for quite some time that Ankara was
planning something big to deal with its own
home-grown and largely self-inflicted Kurdish
headache. Air raids and limited cross-border
incursions into the Iraqi Kurdish region hunting
Turkish Kurds have thus recently occurred. The
casualty toll has been disputed, but there is no
doubt that civilians are bearing the brunt of the
suffering.www.ekurd.net
The region is
mountainous and it’s winter. To pour even more salt
on the wound, reports state that sophisticated
Israeli drones are being used along with Israeli
operators to assist in this operation. Not a
pleasant thought.. |
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive
doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and
conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has
lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly
debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been
published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. |
Here’s the problem…
There is a hypocrisy which stinks to High Heaven
when one looks at how the plight of 35 million truly
stateless Kurds has been handled on the world stage
in contrast to how the quest for the creation of
Arab state # 22 has been dealt with…America among
the worst offenders.
With the break up of the Ottoman Turkish Empire
after World War I, the Kurds--native to the region
for thousands of years (Guti, Kardu, Kassites,
Hurrians, Medes, etc.)--were promised independence
in the Mandate of Mesopotamia. They were sacrificed,
however, on the altar of British petroleum politics
and Arab nationalism after the Brits received a
favorable decision on the Mosul Question from the
League of Nations in 1925. Arab Iraq emerged instead
with the oil-rich Kurdish region encompassing Mosul
and Kirkuk attached to it.
Its navy having recently switched from coal to oil,
the British Empire decided it was against its best
interests to allow the separation of Kurdish lands
from what their oil-rich Arab friends claimed to be
purely Arab patrimony. A similar problem was brewing
in the Mandate of Palestine; indeed, Arabs would
later claim that they would view the birth of
Kurdistan as another Israel. So the Brits
backtracked and attempted to shaft the Jews and
succeeded in shafting the Kurds.
Sandwiched between two regional powerhouses,
Ataturk's Turkey and Reza Shah Pahlavi's Iran, the
only real option left was independence in at least
part of Mesopotamia. Denied this, frustrations
caused by suppression, massacres, subjugation, and
such led to periodic, explosive Kurdish revolts.
Among other things, Kurds found themselves renamed
“Mountain Turks” and their very language and
cultural identity were outlawed in Turkey and
Iraq--with similar goings on in Syria and elsewhere.
Since about one fifth of Turkey’s seventy million
people are Kurds (the same proportion of Arabs to
Jews in an Israel that fits thirty-eight times into
Turkey), the birth of the militant PKK was
inevitable.
Besides the Jews, if ever a people needed the
protection of their own nation state simply for
their own survival, certainly it was/is the Kurds.
Regardless, while Secretary of State Rice was
delivering her words of wisdom regarding the
necessity of creating a 22nd state for Arabs in the
region (second--not first--Arab one within the
original 1920 borders of Mandatory
Palestine...Jordan created in 1922 on the lions'
share) at the U.S. Institute of Peace on August 19,
2004, she totally shot down questions relating to
Kurdish anxieties and aspirations in Iraq.
Here's some of what she had to say about those
additional Arab aspirations, however:
The President believes that the Palestinian people
deserve not merely their own state, but a just and
democratic state that serves their interests….
Despite the bloodshed, barbarism, and turmoil in the
Arab areas of Iraq; despite hundreds of thousands of
Kurds having been killed by Iraqi and Syrian Arabs
over the decades (not to mention the Turks and
Iranians); despite Kurds having been marked as
traitors because of their close ties to America;
despite the fact that the most stable and democratic
areas in Iraq are in the Kurdish areas...indeed,
despite all of this and more, Condi brushed off a
question regarding a Kurdish referendum on
independence (which showed that at least 80% of the
Kurds wanted this) with the following disdain:
...It's the role of leadership to convince people
that they really ought to stay in the same body.
A sickening disgrace.
So, in an era in which other peoples were gaining
national rights, Kurds were once again told by
America that they were unworthy of such aspirations.
Without going back numerous decades to the repeated
use and abuse of the Kurds by the State Department,
CIA, etc., one thus only needs to look at recent
State Department pronouncements along with
recommendations from the Baker-Hamilton Commission
on Iraq to see such blatant double standards.
You see, what’s missing from all of this is the dual
track approach…
While deliberately targeting innocents is never
good, in fighting terror one still needs to address
legitimate aspirations and grievances.
To this day, most Arabs polled still want to see
Israel destroyed…regardless of its size. How dare
dhimmi kilab yahud-- Jew dog--“sons of apes and
pigs” claim part of the purely Arab patrimony!
Yet Israel has agreed to the creation of
“Palestine”--Arab state # 22--while knowing that it
really makes no never mind, in the long term,
whether Abbas’s alleged Arafatian Fatah good cops or
the Islamic Jihad/Hamas bad cops run the show. Both
of their charters still call for Israel’s
destruction. The former are simply willing to
temporarily play the Arabs’ well-known post-’67
destruction in phases game to milk the Western cow
for all that its worth…and billions of dollars are
indeed pouring in.
Yet while America collaborates with Turks to kill
Kurdish militants, it refrains from placing demands
upon Ankara to allow Kurds in Turkey more cultural
and political freedom.
How different, indeed, the American approach with
Israel and the Arabs…
While “permitting” Israeli limited action (expecting
Jews to pinpoint the exact perpetrators of terror
launched daily from Gaza, for example), the State
Department is shoving a rejectionist Arab state down
Israel’s throat. The two young Israelis recently
murdered while on a hike were victims of Israel
loosening up on security measures demanded by Dr.
Rice.
Keep in mind that Arabs who side with Hamas serve in
Israel’s Parliament, Arabic is the nation’s second
national language, attend Israeli universities
(where they call for Israel's destruction), etc. and
so forth…and this despite the fact that many Israeli
Arabs are indeed a potential fifth column. So things
ain't "perfect" here either.
Six million Israeli Jews, surrounded by 200 million
Arabs (not to mention non-Arab Iran and such), have
much more to fear regarding “instability” and such
than Turks do. Yet Ankara, along with powerful
American Arabists ( like James Baker & Co.) tied to
Arab petrobucks, are allowed to condemn scores of
millions of Kurds to perpetual statelessness...or
deny them even meaningful autonomy.www.ekurd.net
Hence the Turks’ fears
and threats regarding Iraqi Kurds finally gaining
control over their own oil.
Why is it okay for Arabs and Iranians to control
“their” oil, but not so for Kurds?
And please don’t respond that Kirkuk is composed of
mixed nationalities (largely due to Saddam’s forced
Arabization of the area). Iran’s major oil fields
are in Khuzestan…but it’s been known as Arabistan
for centuries…Guess why?
Kurds lived in the area of the Mosul and Kirkuk oil
fields for millennia before a Turk or Arab even knew
it existed. As for the presence of some Turkmen as
well, recall that, besides Turkey, there are a half
dozen other Asiatic Turkic states as well.
Arabs… 22, Turks…around 7, Jews…1, Kurds…0--none,
zilch, nada.
Recall that Turks have been great supporters of the
Arabs’ quest for their additional state. They have
severely taken Israel to task for going after Hamas--the
organization which openly aims to destroy it--after
Jews were deliberately blown up in restaurants,
buses, teen night clubs, and the like.
Unlike the Arab good cops and bad cops vis-à-vis
Israel, the PKK does not seek the destruction of
Turkey--just some meaningful justice for Turkey’s
Kurds. Ditto for PEJAK in Iran.
To deal with the PKK effectively, you have to lessen
its support and raison d’etre among some fifteen
million Turkish Kurds…the dual track an Israel
constantly maligned has always ironically pursued.
Fair and just offers and partitions were repeatedly
offered to--and rejected--by the Arabs themselves.
No solution other than another final solution
regarding Israel was or is acceptable...to this day.
Israel’s “moderate” Annapolis partners still insist
that after Israel returns to its pre-’67, 9-mile
wide armistice line existence, that it consent to
being swamped by millions of jihadist alleged
refugees (most of whom were newcomers themselves
into the Mandate). And while seeking to add state #
22 to the Arab League, they still refuse to
recognize Israel as a Jewish (a la Swedish, English,
Irish, Polish, etc.) state.
Israel should not shame itself further with such
collaboration with Ankara against the Kurds. While
it’s nice to have a regional neighbor one has
reasonable relations with, the same rules need to
apply for both parties in this relationship.
As the Turks demand yet more political rights for
Arabs, Jews should not shy away from making similar
demands for Kurds.
Justice cannot expect that Kurds concur with the
elimination of the PKK while basic rights for their
own people are still largely ignored...the missing
component in the necessary dual track.
As for the American State Department…it’s a virtual
lost cause regarding this issue.
It will take a future American President, with the
insight of a Woodrow Wilson--whose famous post-World
War One 14 Points addressed the plight of stateless
Kurds--and the strength of a Ronald Reagan, to take
charge of American foreign policy once again,
pushing aside age-old, Arabist-dominated Foggy
Bottom policies which have created the tragic
situation we have today.
eKurd.net,
Copyright by Gerald A. Honigman. You may reach the
author via email at: honigman6 (at) msn.com .
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has
done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern
Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab
propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured
on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has
publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles
and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. Visit his
website at
http://www.geraldahonigman.com/
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