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Kurdish self-determination 'by all means'
25.12.2007
By Claude Salhani
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December
25, 2007
Geography, history -- and geopolitics -- has not
been very kind to the Kurdish people. Geography has
spread Kurdistan across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria,
and Armenia. History has only allowed Kurdistan to
exist as an independent nation intermittently
throughout the ages.
As a minority in all the lands they ended up in, the
Kurds have suffered at the hands of local
authorities for refusing to give up their national
identity. Possessing a strong sense of nationalism,
they have resisted forceful attempts to assimilate
into the cultures of the countries they found
themselves living in as an accident of history, or
rather as a result of Western arrogance and shifting
geopolitical alliances.
The carving up of the spoils of the Ottoman Empire
by France and Great Britain, compliments of the
Sykes-Picot agreement and signed toward the close of
World War I, placed the Kurds in their respective
geographic positions: Roughly 15 million ended up in
Turkey where they comprise about 20 percent of the
population; in Iran they count over 4.5 million, or
7 percent of the population; and Iraq's Kurds make
up about 20 percent of the population,www.ekurd.net
or some 5.5 million
people. Those in Syria and Armenia are less
significant in numbers, respectively about 1 million
(9 percent) and a few thousands in Armenia.
In Iraq under Saddam Hussein, entire villages were
gassed, bombarded with heavy artillery and mortars,
and strafed from above by helicopter gunships. In
Iran, hundreds were executed by the Revolutionary
Guards.
"The history of Iraq has always been very easy to
create dictators," Dindar Zebari, chief coordinator
for the Kurdistan Regional Government at the United
Nations told the Middle East Times.
For the longest time Kurds had their language banned
and their customs outlawed. It is only recently that
the Kurds in Turkey, where the outlawed Kurdish
Worker's Party has been fighting a guerrilla war for
decades -- that Ankara has authorized Kurds to
establish their own radio and television networks.
And the Kurdish language is now allowed to be taught
in local schools.
Yet, Kurds today say they hold no grudges. At least
that is the official line from Iraq's Kurds.
Zebari told the Middle East Times last week that
Kurds need "to forget the past, but the same time
take lessons from what has been done."
Rejecting notions that the Kurds are looking to
reunite by seceding from Iraq and Turkey, in a first
step, Zebari told the Middle East Times that
"[Iraqi] Kurdistan is part of the Republic of Iraq."
"The KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] has joined
Iraq after 2003 on a voluntary basis. And together
with the rest of the country a referendum has been
held.www.ekurd.net
People of the region of
Kurdistan voted for three elections. What I'm trying
to say here, frankly, is that KRG is part of the
republic, part of the state, and any incursion in
this state is an incursion on the sovereignty of the
state of Iraq.
That last statement was aimed at Turkey, whose
troops in recent weeks have crossed into Iraqi
Kurdistan hot pursuit of PKK fighters who, according
to the Turkish government, infiltrate Turkish
territory from neighboring Iraq to carry out attacks
against Turkish troops and then retreat across the
border.
Zebari told the Middle East Times that "There are
commitments from the international community toward
Iraq; commitment by the multinational forces in
Iraq. The sky of Iraq and the security of Iraq are
in the hands of the multinational forces, which are
guided and directed by the Americans."
Any license to Turkish intervention will create
disagreement and dissatisfaction among public
opinion.
Kurdistan survived because of the help of the
Americans. But since World War I the Kurds have
placed their trust in the United States to support
their bid for nationhood, only to be sold short.
First by the Woodrow Wilson administration after
World War I, and more recently by the first
President Bush. Will history treat the Kurds any
better this time?
"[Iraqi] Kurdistan is the only long-term stable area
in the region," said Zebari. The KRG has been
working hard to make a success of American policy in
Iraq.
The United States underwent a great change of policy
after Sept. 11, 2001. "We believe that the Kurds of
Iraq have been a main ally of the United States of
America in the war against terror."
As for accusations from Ankara that Kurdish Workers
Party militants are finding refuge across the border
in Iraqi Kurdistan, where they find sympathy among
the locals, Zebari had this to say:
"The sympathy is not toward the PKK. The sympathy is
to the Kurdish aspirations and to the Kurdish
community wherever they are," said the Kurdish
leader who stressed that the Iraqi Kurdish community
supports a peaceful solution both for the Iraqi
Kurds and for the Kurds living in Turkey, and even
for the Kurds living in Iran.
But what exactly are the Kurdish aspirations? They
differ from one part to another part. The struggle
of the Iraqi Kurds has always been for autonomy, and
right now for federalism, and for Iraq to be a
stable and democratic state.
"The aspiration is self-determination, by all
means," Zebari told The Middle East Times. "The
constitution of Iraq which Iraqi Kurds have also
voted for by 90 percent, was a commitment to remain
in a federal Iraq. We have to create a model of
success," adding: "The success of the Kurdistan
region is a success that will reflect over all of
Iraq.
metimes com
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