Kurds See Moment of Nationhood ahead, While
Enjoying Autonomy
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
ERBIL, (Southern Kurdistan) The sign at the
arrival lounge proclaims "Welcome to Hawler International Airport." To most
Iraqis, the name of this city is Erbil, the capital of Iraq's self-governing
Kurdish region.
But in the Kurdish language, the city is Hawler, and the use of that name is but
one example of the Kurds carving an identity for themselves distinct from the
rest of Iraq.
The issue of Kurdish separateness has come into sharper focus in recent weeks
since Turkey massed troops along the Iraqi border to stop attacks by Kurdish
guerrillas operating from bases in Kurdish-controlled areas of Iraq.
Turkish officials have threatened to send their army across the border if the
U.S. and Iraqis do not move against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party,
or PKK, who have killed at least two dozen Turkish soldiers or village guards
since May 24.
To the Turks, the stepped-up guerrilla attacks appear to vindicate Turkey's
longtime fears that a Kurdish-ruled territory in Iraq would only serve to
inspire Kurdish guerrillas fighting the Turkish government.
The new tension also comes amid a debate in Iraq's parliament about defining the
borders of the Kurdish area, its share of national wealth and the powers of its
local government.
Iraqi Kurds in the north have enjoyed self-rule since the end of the Gulf War in
1991, when the U.S. and Britain established a sanctuary for Kurds after their
rose up against Saddam Hussein after his army was driven from Kuwait.
Kurdish politicians won legal recognition for their self-ruled state in the 2005
Iraqi constitution.
The Americans endorsed Kurdish aspirations to prevent the Kurds from declaring
independence, a move that could have led to the breakup of Iraq and armed
intervention by Turkey and Iran, which have their own restive Kurdish
populations.
Meanwhile, although Kurdistan remains part of Iraq, it has all the trappings of
a land unto itself.
At the airport, foreigners receive visas allowing them to visit the three
provinces of Kurdistan — but not the rest of Iraq. Iraqi Arabs must receive a
special security permit to live in Kurdistan.
Iraq's red, white and black national flag is rarely seen in the Kurdish
territories.
Instead, government buildings fly the Kurdish flag — red, white and green with a
yellow sunburst. It was the banner of Kurdish fiefdoms in Turkey in the 1920s
and of a short-lived ministate that the Kurds proclaimed in Iran during World
War II.
Along the main road from the airport into town, neon signs in the shape of the
Kurdish flag flash from lamp posts.
Although Arabic is the principal language of Iraq, students in Kurdistan study
English as a second language. Many Kurds are calling for using the Latin rather
than Arabic alphabet for their language, which is related to Farsi.
This growing sense of national identity has followed a long struggle for Kurdish
self-rule that began after World War I, when Britain took control of Iraq after
the collapse of the Ottoman empire.
To many Kurds, the self-ruled area of Iraq is "southern Kurdistan," while the
rest remains in Turkey, Iran and Syria.
That is the source of concern for those three countries, which fear Kurds in
their territory may agitate for similar rights or try to unite with the Iraqi
Kurds.
"Now that Kurds in southern Kurdistan have their own parliament, government and
president, and the Iraqi constitution recognizes the Kurds as a nation,
alongside the Arabs, Kurds aspire to undo the past injustice forced upon them,"
wrote Azad Aslan, political editor of the Irbil-based Kurdish Globe.
For the time being, most Iraqi Kurds seem content to maintain their
self-governing area within a federal Iraq rather than declare full independence.
Iraq's president, a deputy prime minister, the foreign minister and the army
chief of the army's staff are all Kurds. That's a significant share of power for
a minority that numbers 15 to 20 percent of the population.
But it is a small price to pay for keeping the Kurds at least nominally within a
united Iraq.
"Their larger ambition is to establish a greater Kurdistan, but for the time
being they see federalism as best option," said Ragaei Fayed, an Egyptian expert
on Kurdish affairs.
A recent survey by the Irbil-based Point Organization for Opinion Poll and
Strategic Studies found that 85.3 percent of those who were surveyed believe
Kurds have a right to their own independent country.
But 48.8 percent also thought the time was not right to declare independence.
"The people feel like they want to secede but Kurdish politicians don't," said
Farid Asasard, head of the Kurdistan Center for Strategic Studies. "If the Kurds
secede and end up with a Kurdish state, it will face major economic
difficulties, and politicians know that."
