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Kurdish aspirations undercut by infighting
1.3.2008
By Ivan Watson
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March 1, 2008
Turkey on Friday announced the withdrawal of
thousands of its troops from neighboring Iraq, where
they had been battling Kurdish separatist rebels for
more then a week. The Kurds are frequently described
as the world's largest ethnic group without a
country of their own. Ivan Watson reflects on the
Kurds' long and bloody quest for statehood.
A year or two ago, while sharing a dinner of lemon
barbeque chicken under a full moon in the Iraqi
Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, I watched a fistfight
almost break out between an Iraqi Kurdish journalist
and an Arab interpreter from Baghdad. |
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It started when the Kurd
mentioned that he noted down "Kurdish" for his
nationality while filling out a hotel registration
form. The Arab laughed in his face and said, "But
there's no such thing as a Kurdish nation."
Anger flashed in the eyes of the Kurd. "Do you know
why I like Israelis?" he asked. "Because they're so
good at killing Arabs."
The Arab had insulted a Kurd from the town of
Halabja whose family fled the chemical bombardment
of that town by Saddam Hussein's army on March 16,
1988. About 5,000 Kurds were killed that day.
The fact is, no matter how many bombs, chemical
weapons or ethnic slurs have been hurled at the
Kurds over the years, no regime has succeeded in
crushing the dream of an independent Kurdistan.
The Kurds first became victims of geopolitics nearly
100 years ago, when Britain, France and the United
States reneged on a promise of statehood for the
Kurds, while carving up the Middle East after World
War I.
Today, more then 20 million Kurds live divided
between Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Each of those
countries has used repressed and forced assimilation
to pacify their rebellious Kurdish minorities.
Kurdish nationalists are tenacious. But they have
also been plagued by self-destructive infighting.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (also known as P.K.K.),
which clashed with Turkish soldiers in the mountains
of northern Iraq this week, has been battling the
Turkish state since 1984. The group also has a
history of trying to destroy rival Kurdish groups.
"The PKK is the one and only strongest organization
within Kurdistan,www.ekurd.net
not only Turkish
Kurdistan, but over all the parts of Kurdistan," a
PKK spokesman named Roj Velat claimed on the phone
with me on Wednesday.
It's no surprise then that the Iraqi Kurds did not
rush to help the P.K.K. when the Turks mounted their
cross-border military offensive last month.
The Iraqi Kurds have much to lose. Since the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein, semi-autonomous Iraqi
Kurdistan has become the closest thing the Kurds
have ever had to an independent state.
The region is landlocked and surrounded by enemies.
But Iraqi Kurdistan has spawned a cultural
renaissance of sorts, attracting university
students, film directors and authors from the
Kurdish diaspora.
Unfortunately, the leadership in Iraqi Kurdistan
increasingly resembles so many of the Middle East's
other authoritarian regimes. Kurdish security forces
jail and harass critics,www.ekurd.net
government corruption is
rampant, and hordes of frustrated young Kurds
illegally emigrate to Europe each year, in search of
better jobs and a better life.
Among those who have left Iraqi Kurdistan is the
young Kurdish journalist who nearly punched the Arab
interpreter at dinner.
I still remember his bitter look of disappointment
one day, months before he left. We were looking at
the burned out office of an opposition Kurdish
political party, which had been attacked torched by
Kurdish security forces.
"My leaders are no different from Saddam," he said.
The patriotic Kurd is now studying at a university
in America, and dreams of one day returning to a
truly independent Kurdistan.
npr org
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