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From Iraqi Kurdistan to Syria: Kurdish
youth call for change
3.11.2011
By Maria Fantappie - Beirut, Niqash
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November 3, 2011
Kurdish politicians in Syria are using unrest there
to extract concessions from the Syrian regime. And
Iraqi Kurdistan is benefitting from this too. But
younger Kurds in Iraq and Syria don’t necessarily
agree and are calling for change.
On Friday Oct. 7 several men entered the house of
Mish'al Tammo, a Syrian-Kurdish opponent of the
current Syrian regime. Although the exact
circumstances of what happened next are unknown, it
is clear the men
shot Tammo, the
leader of Kurdish Future Movement, one of an
estimated 12 to 15 Kurdish political parties
operating in Syria (numbers are estimated because
the ruling Baath party is supposed to be the only
party in Syria and the only parties that acknowledge
the Baath party are allowed to exist legally, albeit
in a very restricted manner).
Tammo was one of the only Kurdish leaders to be
openly
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A Kurd opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad,
with Kurdistan flag in his hands, shouts slogans
during a demonstration against the Syrian regime,
during a sit-in in front of the Syrian embassy, in
Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Photo: AP |
opposed to the regime,
which is led by President Bashar al-Assad. He had
recently been released from prison, after spending
more than two years in jail. Death threats had been
made and an attempt had been made on his life a
month previously.
In an
interview with
Kurdwatch, which monitors human rights abuses of
Kurds in Syria, in September after the attempt on
his life, Tammo told the organisation that: “We have
received information that attempts will be made on
the lives of well-known figures. When we made our
stance on the regime and our stance on Kurdish
participation in the Syrian revolution clear, we
knew that such a thing could happen. The regime
issues the order. But, of course, acquaintances will
carry out the order.”
In the conversation with Kurdwatch, Tammo mentioned
other cases of attacks on anti-regime activists
where members of another Kurdish political party,
the Democratic Union Party (PYD), apparently took
part, and indicated that he felt that his fellow
Kurds might be responsible, Kurdwatch explained.
Which is why this assassination is more than just
another example of the thousands of violent
incidents occurring in Syria as protests against the
current regime there go on. It also indicates an
escalation in the struggle between various Kurdish
Syrian political parties that wish to dominate
ethnic politics there and become the flag bearers of
the Kurdish cause in Syria.
The struggle reaches beyond Syria’s borders. It
involves all of Kurdistan. The Kurdish people are
one of the largest stateless minorities in the world
– the majority of Kurdish people live in Turkey,
Iran, Iraq and Syria and if they did have a state it
would straddle the borders of all of those
countries.
And the main players in the Syrian Kurdish drama are
also the main players in Iraq and Turkey: the
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of Iraq and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Iraq (PUK),www.ekurd.net
both of which share power in the semi-autonomous
state of Iraqi Kurdistan. In Turkey, the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist
organisation by some countries, has an impact on
Syria.
The Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party (PDKS) and
the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) report
directly to the leaders of their Iraqi counterparts,
Massoud Barzani of the KDP and Jalal Talabani of the
PUK. And as the economic ties between Iraqi
Kurdistan and Syria have flourished, the Iraqis have
been pushing their Syrian peers to follow the road
laid by the Syrian leadership in Damascus. When
thousands of Syrian Kurds took to the streets of
Qamishli, a north eastern Syrian city close to both
Iraqi and Turkish borders, in 2004, neither the PDKS
nor the KDPS encouraged the protestors.
When demonstrations against the Syrian regime began
in late February of this year and spread throughout
eastern Syria, neither party backed the protestors
then either. They only went as far as denouncing the
brutality of the Syrian crackdown.
It seems as though the government of Iraqi Kurdistan
is trying to become more influential on the Syrian
Kurdish scene through their Syrian counterparts, who
are getting involved in negotiations with both the
Syrian regime and the Syrian opposition. Both Syrian
Kurdish parties, the PDKS and the KDPS, took part in
the opposition’s conference but at the same time
they have also made deals with the regime, coming
away with as many concessions as possible in the
process.
Since early March, the Syrian regime has granted
several concessions the Kurdish have long been
asking for: in April the Syrian regime said that
over 50,000 Kurds who had previously been denied
nationality would be allowed to claim Syrian
nationality as well as access to state subsidies and
employment.
The Syrian state’s passage of Decree 43 in March
makes it easier to own land in the border areas,
like Hasaka, where many Kurdish live. Previously the
transfer of land ownership between, for example,
family members, required authorisation from
Damascus. If more concessions like this are
forthcoming, Iraq’s Kurds may well push Syria’s
Kurds to negotiate further. Should the Syrian regime
survive the current protests and should the KDPS and
the PDKS have more power, this would mean ongoing
political influence for Iraqi Kurdistan inside
Syria.
But in the middle of these political games, there is
also a third voice – and it is one that is getting
louder. A younger generation of Kurds in Syria are
becoming united in their call for “Azadi” – which
means “freedom” in Kurdish – and they are speaking
out both against the existing Syrian regime and
against the Kurdish political parties’ stance.
These younger Kurds in Syria value their ethnic
identity but they also show strong solidarity with
those Syrians taking to the streets in Arab-majority
cities like Homs and Hama. And as they do so, the
new generation of Kurds is demonstrating that,
unlike their elders, they have the ability to
conciliate demands for Kurdish rights and demands
for democratic and human rights.
In the meantime the rift between the Kurdish youth
and the established Kurdish political parties, both
in Syria and Iraq, continue to widen. What they are
fighting for in reality is generational turnover in
politics.
The words of slain Syrian Kurdish opponent of the
Syrian regime, Mish'al Tammo reflect the
determination with which this third party of
interest is proceeding. Tammo’s funeral turned into
the largest demonstration in Qamishli since
February, with people chanting “Azadí”. And as Tammo
told Kurdwatch the month before he was killed: “We
decided that we will win our freedom. Either we will
win our freedom alive or we will die honourably. We
will never stray from this course.”
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