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Kurdish Uprising inspired by Tunisia
unlikely to succeed
29.1.2011
By Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar |
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January 29, 2011
There isn’t a single Arab leader that is not shaken
up by current waves of democracy running through
Middle East. Many have called it the ‘Domino effect’
after Tunisia’s successful ousting of a 23-year-old
dictatorship. Egypt, following Tunisian eagerness
for change and freedom is in a long struggle to
radically change it’s governmental face. On the
other hand we have seen Yemen’s largest protest to
date of more than 30,000 citizens calling for the
government to step down on Thursday. Alongside this,
calls for reform have been made in other countries
infamous for human rights violations in the Arab
world such as Syria and Jordan.
Nawshirwan Mustafa – head of the opposition party in
Kurdistan has initiated a desire for an uprising
against the current Kurdish government in federal
Kurdistan. What is of great concern is the delicate
situation of Iraq and Kurdish minorities. An
uprising could potentially destabilise the region
which has been called an ‘haven’ in Iraq. Kurds
enjoy a great level of security, cohesion and most
importantly an increasing economic success unlike
their neighbouring Iraqi Arabs.
Any uprising in Kurdistan is unlikely to succeed,
mainly because there are no collective desires for
reform, contrary to what we have witnessed in
Tunisia and Egypt. There are genuine supporters of
the current Government in Kurdistan which
consequently renders any uprising weak because it
would initiate a backlash from government supporters
and opposition, as well as ‘riot police’.
Lets look at Tunisia, 50% of the population was
unemployed and the countries economy was contingent
upon tourism. In a country with high rates of
unemployment and a large percentage of the
population being under the age of 25, there wasn’t
much to loose by protesting. Especially since a
large percentage of the population had only seen one
president – Ben Ali. In fact, Tunisians burning
themselves and protesting were an illustration of
desperation and absolute resilience to the
ex-government.
Arab leaders didn’t believe Tunisians could do much
when the protests began. It wasn’t even properly
covered by major news agencies. Tunisians worked
together,www.ekurd.networking
both abroad and inside to bring the worlds attention
to their struggle. Twitter, Facebook and Mobile
phones were used to give coverage for the protests
as they unfolded. They were relentless, and defied
the government. And most importantly they did not
compromise. It was the Tunisian people’s strength
and ability to fight a corrupt government.
Soon after Tunisia’s ousting of Ben Ali, Egyptians
were inspired. Tunisians enabled them to overcome
the ‘fear factor’ against governmental regimes. For
decades Arabs were thought to be passive and
submissive but Tunisia and Egypt have proved the
world wrong. With a growing poverty rate of 20% in
Egypt, the uprising was quickly popularised and
resistance gained momentum despite a complete
Internet lockdown by a scared, and weakened
government.
When we look at Kurdistan we have to keep in mind
that Kurds do not have excellent international
relations, and secondly Kurds are not used to using
social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook
and Youtube. Many have argued that Twitter &
facebook have played a crucial part in current
uprisings because of the flexibility it gives to
socialising and communicating with large numbers of
people simultaneously.
It is crucial for both the opposition and Kurdish
citizens to pressurise the government into reforming
certain parts of Kurdistan as opposed to initiating
an uprising that could potentially be detrimental to
the successful links built with outsider investors.
Many areas need reform, in particular retirement
plans, and the ways new businesses are conducted but
calling for uprisings and revolution is not
necessary because the Tunisia situation was
remarkably different from the situation in
Kurdistan. In addition, the most reasonable approach
towards reform is through lobbying and pressuring
the government that has been shaken up like many
other states due to contemporary resilience among
Middle Easterners.
Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar (born in 1989, Kurdistan)
is a British-Kurdish writer, and law student at
Kingston University law school. She has travelled
eastern countries throughout her youth, and has
written several articles about gender, Islam and
Kurdistan. She is currently the editor of
KurdishRights.org, and the founder of MCS -- a
student-based community support group for those
diagnosed with cancer from an ethnic background. You
may visit her website at ruwaydamustafah.com
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