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Iraq's Kurdish Problem
11.5.2007
By Greg C. Reeson - Opinion/Commentary
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May
11, 2007
A professional acquaintance of mine, who is
affiliated with the Kurdistan National Assembly of
Syria, recently forwarded me an article about a
speech delivered at a conference of Kurdish leaders
from Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. The author of the
article, Dr. Jack Wheeler (who also gave the speech
at the conference in early April), provides some
insight into one of the most significant problems
faced by the United States in its quest to establish
a stable and democratic Iraq. The problem: what to
do about the Kurds.
The article begins with a telling paragraph: “A
muezzin is calling people to pray from a minaret
nearby as I am writing this. I am in Hewlar,
Iraq—more appropriately Iraqi Kurdistan, or even
more appropriately South Kurdistan. That’s what
Kurds in Iraq call their portion of Kurdistan. Kurds
in Turkey call theirs North Kurdistan. Kurds in
Syria call theirs West Kurdistan. And Kurds in Iran
call theirs East Kurdistan.”
The paragraph is significant because it captures in
just a few sentences the sentiments of the vast
majority of Kurds in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran:
they are an independent people whose homeland is
being denied to them by other states. The Kurds
want, above all else, an independent state that they
can call their own. And not just any state. They
want Kurdistan, with clearly defined borders that
reach into the territories now claimed by four other
nations.
Dr. Wheeler said in his speech: “…the Kurds…remain
the largest ethnic group in the world without their
own country. This must change.” In Iraq, the
situation is indeed changing, and the consequences
of that change could put at risk everything
President Bush and the U.S. military have been
striving to achieve for the past four years.
The Kurds in Iraq have steadily moved toward
independence, establishing a stable and secure
environment in northern Iraq, one that has been
touted as the model for the future of that war-torn
country and one that has been self-governed by the
Kurds since the Persian Gulf War of 1991. The Iraqi
Kurds’ repeated moves toward independence
(resistance to giving up oil rights, flying the
Kurdish flag instead of the Iraqi flag, insisting on
regional autonomy, deployment of an armed and
trained militia, etc.) have irritated the Iraqi
government in Baghdad and have increased tensions
with Iraq’s neighbors.
Turkey has vowed repeatedly, as has Iran, that there
will be no independent Kurdistan, for the creation
of such a country would cause what would probably be
violent unrest in the Kurdish regions of those
states as the minority Kurds sought to break away
from Ankara and Tehran to become part of the new
Kurdistan. And the Turks and Iranians, as well as
the Syrians, have a very real basis for their fears.
In his speech, Dr. Wheeler urged the Kurds to act:
“The peoples of Turkey, Syria, and Iran…must
understand they can only have a truly free country
when all their people are not oppressed by their
governments. It is the Kurds of Syria who can bring
freedom to Syria. It is the Kurds of Turkey who can
bring freedom to all the peoples of Turkey. And it
is the Kurds of Iran who can end the horrible
tyranny of the mullahs in Tehran and bring freedom
to Iran.”
And Dr. Wheeler does not hide the fact that with
Iraq currently in turmoil and Iraq’s Kurds
increasingly gaining autonomy, the next set of steps
should be taken in Iran: “Today there is the
opportunity for Kurds to join with other people,
such as the Azeris, the Ahwazi Arabs, the Baluchis,
and democratic Persians to rid Iran of Mullah
Fascism and bring freedom to Iran.” He goes on,
writing in his article, to say unambiguously that
“…the target has got to be Iran.”
This Kurdish nationalism presents a difficult
problem for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The
United States knows that continued independence
moves by the Kurds could inflame Iraqi Arabs, and
that there exists the distinct possibility of
military intervention by Turkey, Iran and Syria.
Turkey is a NATO ally and a crucial bridge between
the west and the Islamic Middle East. The strategic
interests of the United States dictate that the
maintenance of Turkey as a member of NATO and a
regional ally takes precedence over the
establishment of an independent Kurdistan.
Similarly, the strategic goal of a stable,
democratic Iraq is severely undermined by the
creation of a separate Kurdish nation that would
provoke Iran into fomenting even more regional
instability and violence. Syria, too, must be
considered, with the Assad regime’s ability to
undermine the Lebanese government and to incite
violence against Israel, as well as the already
demonstrated capacity to facilitate the funneling of
weapons and fighters into Iraq.
For the United States, the choice seems perfectly
clear. While the Kurds have demonstrated the ability
to establish a peaceful, secure region in a country
torn by violence and sectarian hatred, their dreams
of an independent Kurdistan must take a back seat to
the more important strategic goal of a stable and
non-threatening Middle East. The Kurds must be
convinced that the United States can be a far
greater ally if their nationalist ambitions give way
to the greater good of the region.
Restraining Kurdish ambitions for self-determination
while working toward a diplomatic solution to the
war in Iraq is an extremely difficult undertaking,
even with 150,000 U.S. troops on the ground. It is a
task that will likely prove impossible if our forces
are withdrawn before a political accommodation can
be reached. And while the Kurdish problem is but one
piece of the puzzle in establishing a peaceful and
secure Iraq, it is a piece that the United States
cannot afford to ignore.
Greg C. Reeson
americandaily com
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