KurdistanObserver.com
By
Sherkoh Abbas and Robert B. Sklaroff
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, April 18, 2008
The major remaining
obstacle to Iraq's achieving political and military surcease is Iranian-backed
Muqtada al-Sadr, and the major obstacle to Israeli-Arab peacemaking is
Syrian-backed terrorism. The Iranian octopus funds unrest throughout the
Middle East, and Syrian tentacles have strangled Democracy from Lebanon to
Gaza to Iraq's al-Anbar Province to the Sudan.
But Syria's hegemony is also inward-directed,
targeting its largest ethnic minority, the Kurds. Lacking representation in
this Ba'athist regime, Kurdistan of Syria (it's capital is Qamishlo) needs
international support to replicate Iraq's success in meshing tripartite
ethnicity (Shi'ite, Sunni, Kurd), itself mirroring the inherent strength of
America's "melting pot" legacy.
Thus, the next move in this geopolitical chess
game must focus upon optimizing legitimate Kurdish interests in Syria-not
withstanding the Turkish-PKK conflict-for it promises incremental isolation of
Iran's mullahs. (NATO forces in Afghanistan must combat al-Qaeda's Pakistani
sanctuaries on Iran's eastern border is vital, but tangential to the focus of
this piece.)
The Bulletin has published two essays
addressing Syria's status as the lynchpin of Middle East strife by one of the
authors of this piece (Dr. Sklaroff). One discussed how President al-Assad's
inner-circle had been implicated by the UN in the assassination of Lebanon's
former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, and continued to be complicit in an
accumulating list of deaths of and injuries to Lebanese legislators and
journalists (6/12/2006). The other lamented actions that legitimized al-Assad's
anti-Americanism (2/21/2007). Both proposed taking urgent actions against this
renegade regime, updated herein.
Happy New Year?
On their New Year (Newroz), March 12, 2004, a
full-scale Kurdish uprising began in Syria, clamoring for limited autonomy.
President Bashar Assad's "ethnic cleansing" repression yielded 85 killed,
hundreds injured, and five thousand arrested. Since then, detainees have been
tortured.
On March 20, 2008, this spring festival
celebration was marred by clashes between security forces and Kurds; three Kurds
were killed and dozens were wounded. Syria, having deployed 10,000 security
forces, intelligence services, police, armed Ba'ath loyalist, military forces
(five different terror groups) to all cities in the northern Kurdish-dominated
region, accuses the Kurds-20% of its population-of treason and alliances with
Americans and Israelis.
According to Refugees International, this
unrest stems from a 1962 census, which stripped Kurds of their citizenship
rights. Even if Kurds proved Syrian-residence dating from Ottoman Empire or the
French mandate, or if they had served in the military, they still lost their
nationality. Since then, even if they met requirements for (re)gaining
citizenship (five-year residency, Arabic-speaking, non-criminal,
legally-competent, physically-fit, etc.), they were unable to acquire
recognition. As a result, Arabs were resettled on confiscated land in the
northeast region-rich in natural resources-to buffer Syrian and Turkish Kurds.
The Invisible
People
This "Arabization policy" has resulted in
rendering its 300,000 Kurds "stateless foreigners" (ajanib in Arabic)
and subject to oppression. Syria's Constitution affords no protection for
Kurds-or, indeed, for any other minorities-and they have been rendered
"non-citizens" and thereby deprived of basic rights to obtain basic social
services.
They cannot own property, vote, be publicly
employed, travel freely within the country, obtain passports, or even practice
certain professions (such as medicine or teaching). Couples are deemed "single"
and, thus, cannot share a hotel room or register their children. These 100,000
children of unrecognized marriages (maktoumeen) are denied access to
education, food subsidies and healthcare and, thus, are forced to
work...aspiring to menial careers of cotton-picking, cigarette-selling and
shoe-shining.
Some Kurds have attempted to be smuggled
abroad, after which time they have sought refugee status. Their
plight-particularly after the March, 2004 uprising-prompted supportive actions
from international organizations such as the European Union and the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees; they cited unresolved violations of Article 3 of the
Syrian Nationality Act.
As a result, al-Assad asserted new legislation
was being drafted to resolve the arbitrariness of the 1962 census...but none has
emerged. Instead, in late 2007, he distributed identification cards to 20,000
Druze in the Golan Heights (who had not accepted Israeli citizenship) to show
that they "belong to the Syrian motherland."
Clearly, political priorities had again trumped justice.
As recently as this past summer, the Human
Rights Committee-the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its State
parties-again called upon Syria to "protect and promote the rights of
non-citizen Kurds."
Yet, Syria claims Kurds, emboldened by the
success of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, engage in insurrection with
help from foreigners. Kurds' counter-claim is that they merely seek democracy,
implementation of a form of federalism that will afford them justified rights.
It is ironic, also, that the 40 million Kurds
are non-Arab, predominantly-Sunni Muslims, inhabiting a mountainous region
spanning northwest Iran, northeast Iraq, east Turkey, northeast Syria, and a
small community in Armenia. Despite being co-religionists, they have become
inveigled in Syria's support of the (Islamic radicals vs. Judeo-Christian) Clash
of Civilizations.
Maturing Iraqi Flexibility
Iraq provides a model for how to resolve the
tug-of-war between nationalism and regionalism.
The Iraqi Constitution allows for its eighteen
provinces to elect to congeal their resources to join into cooperative
territories. It might even be possible to apply the Kurdish Peshmerga
model (dating from the 1920's) when authorizing local (Sunni/Shi'ite) militias
to police their own neighborhoods, to relate with indigenous populations with
which they harbor cultural linkages.
This would be akin to America's state-level
National Guards that coexist under the auspices of the national military
(controlled by a representative central government). It would not undermine the
Iraqi army's efforts to protect borders (as has increasingly been achieved along
its Syrian frontier) and to defeat out-of-control private brigades (e.g.,
the Mahdi Army).
All the while, quasi-autonomous Kurdistan
serves as a homeland to which Kurds living abroad emigrate and pay visits, just
as Israel interrelates with (and enriches) Jews living in the Diaspora.
Similarly, other countries could be encouraged (gently or more forcibly) to
allow their peoples to mesh a countrywide sense of patriotism with a local sense
of pride.
America's Role
Because the nations comprising the Middle East
were arbitrarily created after World War I-following defeat of the Ottoman
Empire-unrest among definable sub-groups constantly threatens their stability.
America must help them to evolve from dictatorship to democracy, from autocracy
to freedom, from militarism to free-market economies, from suppression of human
rights to the creation of city-states that can flourish in this new millennium.
This modernization effort must include legitimizing nationalistic urges, for
resolving such chronic conflict would enhance creation of a durable peace in
this volatile region. One excellent example of a democratic and free-market
region is the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq.
While staying-the-course of achieving
geopolitical goals that have animated the Bush Doctrine (formulated after 9-11
to fight Islamo-Fascism), America can help them to tack towards belated
recognition of the need to grant subpopulations a degree of autonomy and
self-actualization, affording them the ability to vent pent-up frustrations and
to honor legitimate aspirations.
As the United States envisions a diminution of
involvement within Iraq, engendered has been a country that respects women's
rights and human rights. Just as Iraq recognizes the right of
self-determination for definable nationalities, America will do well to empower
whole populations elsewhere that nurture traditions that transcend artificial
boundaries.
Syria serves as a useful target for the ongoing
struggle to liberate peoples such as the Kurds, for their freedom will
necessarily undermine despots who aspire to impose Sharia Law locally and
internationally. Sultanates and Islamic Republics that accommodate minorities
are just fine; worldwide caliphates under Dhimmi are not.
Finally, Free World leaders need to answer the
following question: Why there are 22 Arab states, but not a single Kurdish
state?
