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The US failed policy towards the Kurds
15.12.2011
By Dr. Aland Mizell
— ekurd.net
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December 15, 2011
With the ongoing uprising in the Middle East, the
United States needs to devise a new approach to its
foreign policy in the region. The US has lost its
credibility there, yet America needs to influence
the new merging political order in the area. The US
Administration has decided that Turkey will be
America’s primary bridge to the Middle East, that
Turkey’s rising Islamic power will be the leader
that can help to restore the negative image of
America in the Middle East, and that Turkey can
engage Iran, Syria, as well as Israel and Palestine,
both engaged in their own conflict.
But Americans fail to understand that the reason
Turkey is popular in the Arab world is because
Turkey did not allow America to use its bases during
the second Iraq War and has taken a stand against
Israel regarding the Palestinian issue. If Erdogan’s
administration would have allowed the US to use an
air base in Turkey to attack Iraq, Erdogan would not
be very popular today in the Middle East and in the
Muslim world. America should realize that countries
do not buy friendships, and they should not betray
their loyal friends either. No matter how hard
America tries to be friends with Muslim people in
the region, they will not trust America. Instead,
they will accept American money but still hate
America and never consider it a trustworthy ally.
The Kurdish Region is a potential base for US power
in the region. The US has two allies in that area to
really rely on; one is Israel, and the other one is
the Kurds. The Justice and Development Party’s (AKP)
Islamic policymakers should be a big concern. The
Kurds could cause problems for the US government
when it is dealing with the neighboring countries.
It is vitally important for Washington to know that
the stability of Iraq and the Middle East depends in
part on the Kurds. In addition, the US owes the
Kurdish people. When the US’s longest ally in that
part of the world turned its back and did not
support its former partner at a critical time, the
Kurds did despite many past betrayals resulting from
American policy. The US government sees the Kurdish
government as a friend but not as significant as the
Turkish government, so it is important for the
Kurdish government to improve relations with other
countries.
The Arab Spring’s occurring next to Turkey and
America’s imminent withdrawal from Iraq have already
made Turkey hasten its hand to make some policy
changes about how to fill the power vacuum in Iraq
after the American military has left. Turkey sees
this as an opportunity and will seize it by helping
the US transfer Predator unmanned aerial vehicles to
Turkey, so that Turkey can continue to monitor PKK
activities. America’s concern after they leave is
that Iran and Syria could mingle in Iraq’s domestic
policy and so, before they leave the region, they
want to have a regime change in both countries.
Syria will be first, and next is Iran. Because Iran
is not happy with Turkey’s stand against Syria and
what it perceives to be a pro-America posture, if
Iran’s and Syria’s current regimes continue, their
existence will have a very bad impact on Turkey’s
domestic politics. Also, Syria will use the PKK card
against Turkey, and Iran could do the same.
The US is not concerned about human rights for the
Kurdish minority in Turkey but rather it is
concerned more about its national interests and the
balance of power in the region. That is why the
international community has never treated Kurdish
issues seriously or as main concerns, but rather
they used the Kurdish question as a card in their
foreign policy. They did not treat the Kurdish
question as important in the Palestinian issue
mainly because Arab and Muslim countries stand for
Palestinians and lobby the West for the creation of
a Palestinian state. The US and the international
public have so far been oblivious to operations
against the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK),www.ekurd.net
operations carried out in Turkey by the Turkish
government and ordered by Gulenists’ leader. Under
the guise of fighting terrorism, the Turkish
government is using the police, the Judiciary, and
media to penalize all civic activism that supports
rights demanded by the Kurdish citizens in Turkey.
The KCK operations in particular have been deployed
to go after legitimate activists whom Ankara has
besmeared by saying they are the urban offshoot of
the PKK.
The repression of the Kurdish democratically-elected
party, the Peace and Democratic Party (BDP), also
spreads fear amongst activists to silence public
dissent and normalize the arbitrary arrest of
citizens. Yet America is silent about the jailing of
thousands of Kurdish politicians, intellectuals,
writers, and media. One could ask, “Will it be
possible to create a democratic and peaceful
solution using the same old political culture and
adhering to the failed polices of the past?”
America is well aware of Turkey’s rising Islamic
power in the world and especially in the Middle
East. As a result of that, the American government
is careful in pressuring Turkey on the Kurdish
problem. Whether in Turkey, Iraq, or Syria,
Washington believes the problems of the Kurds must
be solved by negotiation between those countries,
not by a US imposed solution. Peace will not happen
under the conditions of public fear, paranoia,
distortion, and discrimination caused by the current
policy. It is interesting to see that even in the
recent past such a policy from Turkey, Iran, and
Syria has been based on oppression, injustice, and
cruel treatment.
Turkey is pivotal to the US’s and the EU’s interests
in the region including protecting and transferring
energy markets, balancing Russian influence in
Central Asia, securing the Caucus’s stability, and
also acting as the role model of a moderate Islamic
alternative. Turkey has reoriented its policy toward
Kurdistan and is improving its relations with the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The US
government should secure the disputed area under the
Kurdish authority or Kurdistan and also should help
the KRG to obtain advanced defensive force weapons.
Further, it is wrong for the US government to treat
Kurds from Turkey who live in the US or in Europe as
if they were associated with the PKK, just because
they are not supportive of the Gulenists and Gulen’s
ideology. It was the US government, in fact, that
categorized the PKK as a terrorist organization.
Years ago Turkish and US relations could have been
described as a disaster. But today Turkish and
American relations are very good. What caused the
180-degree change in relations? US President Obama
announced that the US troops would come home at the
end of the year as scheduled. Vice President Biden
visited Turkey, met President Gul and Prime Minister
Erdogan, and talked about ways of cooperating
against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
and the uprisings in the Middle East in specifically
Syria and Iran.
The United States’ foreign policy cannot ignore the
Kurdish issue as it applies to the Middle East. The
Kurdish people are an integral part of the Middle
East, with the Kurds living in Turkey, Iraq, Syria,
and Iran. Seemingly the ill-fated Kurds fall prey to
various nation states’ exploiting them for those
countries’ own national interests, political
rivalries, natural resources and strategic
ambitions. Mostly contiguous countries offer a
political carrot of support for the Kurds’
long-standing aspiration of having an autonomous
homeland. Contributing their military fierceness,
manpower, geographical bases and arms, the
peshmergas (those who fight to the death) side with
the regime that offers the most hope for an alliance
to accomplish their ends of maintaining their
identity, if not a nation. Iraq, Iran, Syria,
Russia, Turkey, and the United States have used the
Kurdish card to defend, attack, secure resources,
reciprocate, and manipulate allies and foes alike.
Most recently Turkey has used the Kurds as a gesture
to show an improved human rights record for
accession into the European Union.
The Kurds, however, remain an accomplice in their
plight in their parochial tribalism, hypocritical
use of a shared religion, corrupt leaders, and
shifting allegiances. Without clear national goals
and a leadership that inspires solidarity, the Kurds
continue to be subjected to the ploys of states.
Yet, globalization and a Diaspora have called world
attention to the cruelty and injustices they have
suffered, but they themselves must rise to reject
the victimization and raise up leaders with
integrity and vision. With the help of transnational
agencies, non-governmental organizations, and
scholars capturing their tragic past, the external
forces may yet help to ameliorate their suffering.
Then the internal and external players will cease to
use the Kurdish card against the Kurds in their
foreign policies.
Turkey’s policy of “zero problem with neighbors” is
a double game. On the whole, America, Turkey, Syria
and Europe play the same game. The Erdogan
administration is friendly towards its neighboring
regimes, yet behind its back it supports enemies of
these regimes. Turkey knows that the main obstacle
for Turkey’s continuing to become a superpower in
the region is the PKK, and that Syria and Iran
supported the PKK to influence Turkey’s domestic
politics. However, even though today the world
focuses its attention on Iran, in the future Turkey
will be the region’s biggest player and it will
challenge American interests in the region. America
will then have a relation with Iran even though they
are foes today. Iran’s regime will change because
Turkey does not want Iran to have nuclear power nor
does it want Iran to be a superpower and
particularly not to include Saudi Arabia in its
nexus. Because Iran adheres to the Shia religion,
and most Muslims are Sunni, these Muslims treat Shia
as non-Muslims and therefore do not consider
Iranians as brothers.
It is true that the Kurdish issue has always been a
factor for America and its allies, but never has it
moved to the top of the agenda of Western powers
because of the absence of Kurdish lobbyists in the
West. The Kurdish question will be important in the
near future and the West will continue to use the
Kurdish card in its foreign policy. It is up to the
Kurdish leaders to let Western powers use or not use
the card. For a long time the classic American
foreign policy was based on the notion that there
can be no stability unless the nations are balanced
against each other. However, neither the US nor the
EU has any real plans for the Kurds as a nation
because Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria are important
for the West, and so the US will completely ignore
the Kurdish question. Probably the US will somehow
support the KRG as a way to maintain the balance and
to keep the Kurds from causing a problem, so that
Iraq does not fall apart. The EU and the US always
address issues based on individual countries and
their commonly defined policy. The US sees the
Kurdish region in Iraq as a sort of friend and ally
like that region sees Turkey. Given its interest in
Middle Eastern security and stability as well as
democratic rule and human rights, America should
keep its promise to the Kurds. The Kurds supported
the US during both Iraqi wars when other countries
like Turkey did not. In my view, as of now, the US
does not support the independence of the Kurds in
Iraq because it fears it may lead other countries
such as Turkey, Iran, and the Arab countries, all of
whom are against Kurdish independence, to sour their
relations with the US, because these nations believe
that such a move would cause other Kurds to demand
independence. The Kurdish question does not hold
much importance for the national security of the US
or for the democratic process in the Middle East;
that is why America and the EU put the PKK on their
terrorist list and give all kinds of logistical
support to combat the PKK anywhere it appears.
Historically, the US policy toward the Kurds in Iraq
has been inconsistent and it has used the Kurds as a
tool for its national interest. The question is
that, if Iraq fails to unify, what kind of policy
should the US follow toward the Kurds? Or if Turkey
becomes a superpower in the region, what kind of
policy will the US devise? As of now, the Islamic
administration does not have good relations with
Israel, and the Prime Minister of Turkey accused
Israel of engaging in “state terrorism.” Most
assuredly there are people in the US who still have
great support for the Kurds because of the Kurds’
difficult past.
America should find a way to help Turkey to solve
the Kurdish problems, and the peace negotiations
must include the PKK, or peace will not happen.
America in Afghanistan wanted the Taliban to be part
of Afghanistan political system. America should
pressure Turkey to stop its campaign of distortion
against the BDP party and it should treat the BDP as
democratically elected by the Kurdish people and
should respect the will of the majority.
Dr. Aland Mizell is with the University of
Mindanao School of Social Science, President of the
MCI and a regular contributor to the Kurdish Media.
You may reach the author via email at:
aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
Copyright © 2011 ekurd.net
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