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Kurdologist: Adding Kirkuk to Kurdistan
will lead to war
29.5.2010
By Wladimir van Wilgenburg |
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May
29, 2010
AMSTERDAM, — Martin
van Bruinessen is Professor of Islamic Studies at
Utrecht University and the International Institute
for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM),
both in the Netherlands. He spoke about Kirkuk*,
Turkmen, Turkey and Kurdish ambitions for the Dutch
Kurdish student organization KSVN on Friday 21
March. The expert on Kurds say its better for the
people of Kirkuk that the province becomes a
separate region.
Martin van Bruinessen studied the Kurdish issue for
more than 40 years and has written several books
about Kurdistan. He masters both Kurdish, Persian
and Turkish and contribute to the book ‘Kurdistan:
In the Shadow of History’. The anthropologist
expected that Kirkuk would explode, after reports
issued by the International Crisis Group warning for
a civil war, but so far there has been no major
conflict. In his speech he emphasized the
ambivalence of ethnic identities and that this can
change. “A Kurd can become Turkish, and a Kurd can
become Turkish.” |
Martin van Bruinessen is
Professor of Islamic Studies at Utrecht University
and the International Institute for the Study of
Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), both in the
Netherlands |
The
experts also outlined the ethnic claims of both the
Turkmen, Kurds, Assyrians and other groups on the
territories of Iraq. Van Bruinessen who started to
studying the Kurds in the 1970s, says the Kurds
started to claim Kirkuk as their capital not a long
time ago. He says the Kurds first discussed if the
city of Sulaimaniyah or Erbil should become the
capital of Kurdistan, later on Kirkuk in the 1970s
became a part of the Kurdish demands, as a capital
of Kurdistan in Iraq.
Article 140 No Good Idea
Although the Kurdish leadership wants the
implementation of article 140 of the Iraqi
constitution, that will decide if the province will
belong to the Kurdistan region or part of Iraq, Van
Bruinessen says this is not a good idea, since it
could lead a to a civil war and ethnic cleansing.
“If you say this place is Arabic or Kurdish, than
you make a conflict inevitable.” The expert says
that the Kurds could win a war with the Iraqi army,
since their army is much stronger, but he thinks the
people living in Kirkuk would be victim of such a
conflict, and not the Kurds living in the Kurdistan
region. “You would have a lot of losers.” Therefore
he says Kirkuk should get a separate status. “Adding
Kirkuk to Kurdistan is not a good idea, due to the
mixed population.”
Changing Turkish
Perceptions
Van Bruinessen also discussed the Kurdish opening of
the AKP-government in Turkey, growing relations
between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey and the position
of the Turkish army on Kurds. “The Turkish army had
its military units and intelligence units everywhere
in (Iraq) Kurdistan to prevent to Kurds to get
independence and used the Turkmen as a card to
prevent Kurdish ambitions for autonomy.” But the
expert notes that the Turkish position is gradually
changing due to the economic interests of Turkey in
Iraqi Kurdistan.
Most products are imported from Turkey in Iraqi
Kurdistan and even the Turkish army is changing.
Although the Turkish army supported the founding of
Kurdistan TV of the Barzani family and operated a
Kurdish radio station in Diyarbakir in Turkey when
Kurdish was still forbidden,www.ekurd.netit
continue to see the Kurdish issue as a ‘terror
problem’. But now the Turkish army sees it also
needs a political issue. “I think most people in the
army are not prepared to give the Kurds serious
national rights, but I do see changes.”
The expert says there were also secret talks between
the PKK and the Turkish government, but a part of
the state, the army and the PKK doesn’t want to
solve the Kurdish issue in Turkey. Still he is
hopeful. “I think the goodwill of the Kurdish
leaders in Northern Iraq and the Turkish government
gives more hope for a future.” He says the new
developments could lead to a solution, not an ideal
one, but more hope. Van Bruinessen said that in the
past he has never expected so much changes in
Turkey. “I’ve never been so optimistic.”
AKP Wants to Solve Kurdish
Issue
The Dutch social scientists therefore thinks the AKP
wants to solve the Kurdish issue and give a amnesty
to the PKK, but the Turkish population isn’t ready
for that yet. “The Turks have a increasing
nationalist and anti-Kurdish sentiment, you cannot
change this in one day, you need time.” Therefore
Van Bruinessen thinks the government sometimes takes
some steps back and then some steps forward, like
the marches of the old Ottoman soldiers.
He expects that the AKP eventually could give the
Kurds more cultural rights and decentralize Turkey
more. “I’m moderately positive about the
developments, but in the recent months we have seen
many steps back and massive arrests against persons
that are close to the PKK, who have never used
weapons.” He thinks the Iraqi Kurds can play a good
role in solving the issue as mediators between the
Turkish Kurds and the state, as well-positioned
trading partners of Turkey.
*
Kirkuk city is historically a Kurdish city and it
lies just south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region, the population is a
mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs, Christians and Turkmen, lies 250 km northeast of
Baghdad. Kurds have a strong cultural and emotional
attachment to Kirkuk,www.ekurd.net
which they call "the Kurdish
Jerusalem." Kurds see it as the rightful and
perfect capital of an autonomous Kurdistan state.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas through having back its
Kurdish inhabitants and repatriating the Arabs
relocated in the city during the former regime’s
time to their original provinces in central and
southern Iraq.
The article also calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up
their homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the
city and the region's oil industry.
The last ethnic-breakdown census in Iraq was
conducted in 1957, well before Saddam began his
program to move Arabs to Kirkuk. That count showed
178,000 Kurds, 48,000 Turkomen, 43,000 Arabs and
10,000 Assyrian-Chaldean Christians living in the
city.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, rudaw
net
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