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Only Kurds who have their own anthem, flag
and language do not have a state
17.5.2007
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May
17, 2007
What are the chances of independence for a
people who have their own anthem, flag and language,
but is not in the interest of great powers?
Kurds enjoy a very high degree of autonomy in
today’s Iraq. In their area there are no clashes or
attacks. They have their own legislative authority,
their president and a stable economy. After the Gulf
War in 1991 a flight ban was introduced north of the
36th parallel, which protected them from Saddam’s
air raids. Although they have autonomy within Iraq,
they dream of their own state.
Some analysts such as Peter Galbraith, who analyses
the Kurd issue in detail in his book “King of Iraq”,
believe they have a right to a state.
Kurds have all the conditions for independence and
it is only a matter of time when they will realise
it. It is impossible to keep peoples within one
country if they do not want to. We saw this on the
example of the former Yugoslavia, he says.
Kurds make up for 20 percent of the Iraqi population
and are located in the country’s north (Kurdistan
Region). Most of the Kurd population lives in
Turkey, but they are also present in Syria, Iraq and
Armenia. With the diaspora in Europe, it is
estimated that there are 27 to 35 million Kurds in
the world.
Turks and Kurds are alike
The Kurdish minority in Turkey have shown
aspirations for separation, they founded their own
party the Labour Party of Kurdistan, which Turkey
forbade. There was, thus, fear that at the beginning
of the liberation in Iraq¸ Turkey would use the
opportunity to take military action in the north of
Iraq where Kurdish rebels sought refuge. This did
not happen and Galbraith believes that Turkey is
becoming used to the idea of an independent
Kurdistan.
Almost everyone in Turkey acknowledges the existence
of an independent Kurdistan and that Ankara cannot
do much about it. Iraqi regions in which Kurds live
(Kurdistan region) are naturally oriented towards
the West, meaning towards Turkey. If fact, Turkey
and Kurdistan have a lot in common. They are
secular, pro-western, they want democracy and the
population is not Arab. Although some people in
Turkey still view an Iraqi Kurdistan a threat,
others see it as a buffer zone towards the Islamic
fundamentalism.
On the other hand, Soner Captaj, an analyst at the
Washington institute for Middle East politics,
believes it is not so simple. Kurds support rebels
from the Labour Party of Kurdistan, which is the
main problem in the relations between the two
countries.
If the problem of the Labour Party of Kurdistan were
to disappear, then normalisation could see the light
of day because Turkey and Iraqi Kurds think
similarly about many other problems, Captaj
believes.
America has let them down
Kurds are pro-American, but it seems that American
interest is one of the chief obstacles to the
founding of independence of the Kurdish nation. When
Kurds in 1991 started a rebellion after Desert Storm
and occupied the town of Kirkuk, Americans did not
help them and Saddam Hussein brutally quashed the
rebellion.
Later the United States introduced a flight ban zone
and enabled refuge for Kurds on the border of Iraq,
Iran and Turkey.
But, until then thousands of Kurds died in the
upsurge. They also lost two large towns, Mosul and
Kirkuk. In these towns they were historically a
majority, but were systematically displaced during
Saddam’s reign.
In the area of Kirkuk there is some 40 percent of
Iraqi oil and if Kurds are to get this town back,
for which they are fighting, it would only
strengthen their position and independence. The
Kurds call this town “the heart of Kurdistan”.
Source: javno 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" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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"
**
Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
about 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be
held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
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