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Kurds and Injustice of History
By:
Dr. Nazhad Hawramany
Nov 18, 2007
Once again the unsolved political question of Kurdish
identity is igniting a political turmoil and risk of a military conflict. The
Kurdish issue belongs to the handful of crisis in the Middle East which besides
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, has deep roots in modern history of the
region.
At least the Palestinians and Israelis have agreed on a road map, that at the
end will lead to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state besides state
of Israel. A similar prospect for Kurdistan is still resisted fiercely by
countries which occupy parts of Kurdistan ( Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria) and
instead conjoint efforts are pursued to resist any legitimate Kurdish demands
for right of elf-determination.
The complexity of Kurdish issue is related to the fact that it's not a conflict
between two parties ( like Palestinians and Israelis for example), but rather a
multilateral problem involving several countries and Kurds, not only Iraq,
Turkey, Iran and Syria are hostile to any idea of an independent Kurdistan, but
also the Arab countries in general which sees that as carving away a piece of
(Arab) land as it was the case for Israel and many Arabs don't hesitate to call
such plans as trying to create a (second ) Israel in the area. There is also an
international apathy towards this issue.
The population of Kurds are estimated to be between 30-40 millions living in
Turkey( northern part of Kurdistan, Iran( ea stern part of Kurdistan), Iraq
(southern part of Kurdistan), and Syria (western part of Kurdistan), as well as
scattered minorities in other countries like Lebanon, Georgia, Armenia,
Azerbaijan and a large immigrant community in Western Europe, USA , Australia
and Canada.
The division of Kurdistan followed the new world order after the defeat and
collapse of the Ottoman Empire after WW1, where the victorious powers of Great
Britain and France secretly agreed in advance during the war to divide the huge
anticipated territorial gains of Ottoman Empire among themselves and draw the
borders along arbitrary lines, creating semi-independent states like Jordan
Hashemite Kingdom as well as protectorates like Palestine, Lebanon Syria.
The southern part of Kurdistan ( North Iraq) according to the secret
Sykes-Picot treaty ( which was made public by Bolsheviks after 1917 communist
revolution in Russia), was initially thought to come under French mandate, but
as the Brits became aware of the smell of huge oil reserves in the region, there
they managed to annex it to the newly etablished state of Iraq which were made
of the two provinces of Baghdad and Basra till then.
The Kurdish aspirations for an autonomous or independent Kurdistan were quite
obvious even then, The Kurds under the leadership of Sheikh Mahmoud, who
proclaimed himself the King of Kurdistan, started an armed rebellion against the
British rule which spread like wild fire to all parts of southern Kurdistan, the
British colonial power didn't hesitate to use extensive aerial bomardments and
ground troops to squash the uprising.
After the violent suppresion of Kurdish uprising of Sheikh mahmud in Iraqi
Kurdistan, the Kurds in North Kurdistan ( Southeast Turkey now) under the
leadership of Sheikh Saeed Piran, started a revolt in 1925&nb sp;on the newly
established Turkish state under Ataturk, after he broke his promises for Kurds,
who participated widely in the so-called war of independence, and started
instead a campaign of assimilation of Kurds into Turkish culture and identity.
Turkey under Ataturk managed in 1923 to reverse the Sèvres treaty of 1919 which
promised the establishment of an autonomous independent Kurdistan and was
replace by Lausanne treaty which removed all articles concerning Kurds from the
treaty and the Kurds were not considered a minority in Turkey because they were
Moslems and so they were deprived of any Identity and were subjected to the
harsh and chauvinistic Turkish Kemalism.
These changes provoked the uprising of Sheikh Saeed Piran in 1925 as I mentioned
earlier, the newly secular and fiercely nationalistic Turkey labeled the
uprising as a religious reactionary movement but the Kurdish nature of the
uprising was clear like the br ight sun.
the revolution was defeated and its leaders were hanged, but the insurgencies
continued in in smaller scales in different mountainous areas of North
Kurdistan till the thirties of 20th century.
In 1945 the Kurdish leaders Kazi Mohammad and Mustafa Barzani established the
independent Kurdistan (MAHABAD) republic in East Kurdistan ( Northwest of Iran),
when the area was occupied by Soviet forces, this was the first time were the
Kurds were close to any independent Kurdistan, the republic lived for only 11
months, after the Soviets withdrew from North Iran and left the young weak
republic to the mercy of the Shah of Iran army.
Kazi Mohammad and his comrades were hanged publicly in Mahabad, but the
legendary Mustafa barzani managed with some of his fighters to retreat along
the Zagros mountains into the Soviet Union where he acquired political Asylum.
M. Barzani remained in the Soviet Union until the overthrow of the monarchy in
Iraq in July 1958, one year later he was welcomed back into Iraq by the
revolution's leader then, General Abdulkareem Kassim, and was received like a
hero.
The Arab revolutionary government of Baghdad, continued the assimilation
policies of Kurds in Iraq and refused any concessions on Kurdish political and
national rights, this provoked the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq and its
leader Mulla Mustafa Barzani to declare armed rebellion against the central
government on the 11th of September 1961.
The fighting between Kurdish resistance fighters ( The Peshmergas: Those who
face death) and army troops of different Iraqi governments continued on and off
until March1970 were an agreement was signed between Iraqi government and
Kurdish leadership, in which a treaty was signed where autonomy will be granted
to Iraqi Kurdistan region after an interim period of 4 years. certainly this wa
s a huge achievement for Kurds and the first acknowledgment of Kurdish identity
by any of the countries which occupied parts of Kurdistan.
Behind the screens the Iraqi government and its strong man , the vice-president
Saddam Hussein, were planning to assassinate the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani
and started a campaign of Arabization of oil-rich areas of Kurdistan like
Kirkuk, Khanaquin, Makhmour.
The Iraqi intelligence organization sent 11 religious men packed was explosives
as a delegation to meet Barzani, a huge explosion rocked the meeting venue and
only a miracle saved the life of Barzani.
As the government backed down on its promises for Kurds, armed conflict broke
out again and a fierce campaign by Iraqi army started on Kurdistan, but the army
were facing huge losses in equipment and soldiers and Kurds managed to control
liberated parts of Kurdistan.
The Iraqi army was on the brink of defeat, and this prompted Saddam Hussein to
sign the treaty of Algiers with Shah of Iran ( With the blessing of American
Secretary of State then Henry Kissinger), in which he made huge territorial
concessions to Iran including the vital waterway of Shatt-Al-Arab, in exchange
the Shah of Iran withdrew the support for Kurdish fighters and closed the
borders. The Kurdish revolution collapsed and thousands of Kurdish fighters who
gave themselves up following an alleged amnesty by Iraqi government were either
killed and buried in mass graves or were deported to the south of Iraq in remote
desert concentration camps.
Many other thousands preferred to take refuge in Iran and from there many of
fled to Europe. The following Iran-Iraq war 1980-1988, the invasion of Kuwait
1991, the Uprising in Kurdistan and south of Iraq 1991 and the overthrow of
Saddam Hussein regime in 2003 invasion of Iraq are some of the recent chapters
in the history of Kurdish struggle in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In North Kurdistan an organization, Workers Party of Kurdistan ( or PKK the
initials of party in Kurdish) was established and waged an armed insurgency in
1984 calling for an independent Kurdish homeland in North Kurdistan (Southeast
Turkey today), its leader was Abdulla Ojalan, this fighting continued until a
concerted American-Israeli- Turkish-Greek effort managed to force him out of
Syria where he was based and apprehended him in Kenya in 1999, he was tried in
Turkey and sentenced to execution, but his sentence was later commuted to life
in prison. The struggle between PKK and Turkish army cost 30000 lives ( mostly
Kurds), but the rebellion continued after the capture of Ojalan and many of PKK
fighters withdrew into the mountains of North Kurdistan and remote mountains of
South Kurdistan ( Iraqi Kurdistan). Turkey is threatening since September 2007
after an authorization from its Parliament with a military incursion into south
Kurdistan to end the presence of PKK there. This has caused a political crisis
between Turkey and Iraq and could escalate into a wide scale war between Turks
and Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Also in East Kurdistan the situation is explosive, the Islamic republic of Iran
continued its efforts to suppress any Kurdish political movement, its secret
agents managed to assassinate the Iranian Kurdish leaders , Qassemlu and
Charafkandi in Vienna and Berlin in 1989 and 1991. There is a recent surge of
armed activities against Iranian army and revolutionary guards in Iranian part
of Kurdistan and Iranian artillery has been shelling the mountains and villages
on the borders between Iraq and Iran in Kurdistan region.
The western part of Kurdistan ( Northeast of Syria), where Kurds are deprived
even of citizenship, has seen two violent popular uprisings in last few years
against the nationalist Arab Baath regime of Syria and there is a growing
Kurdish political opposition in Syria.
The Iraqi Kurdistan region has been enjoying a federal status and has seen an
economic and reconstruction boom since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003,
the son of the legendary leader Mulla Mustafa Barzani is the president of
Kurdistan Federal Region and his grandson Nechirvan Barzani is its prime
minister. Iraqi president now is the veteran Kurdish politician and the leader
of one of the two main parties (PUK). The Kurds in Iraq want to avoid a military
conflict in Iraqi Kurdistan and seek a peaceful dialogue with Turkey to defuse
the current PKK crisis. Within Iraq the issue of Kirkuk referendum is still
looming, the Kurds are looking for a legal and peaceful solution for this issue
but there is a fierce resistance from Arab nationalists towards annexing this
oil-rich city with a Kurdish majority which was subjected to ethnic cleansing of
Kurds( in a campaign called Arabization), but also has an ethnic mix of Arabs,
Turkmen and Assyro-Chaldians to the federal region of Kurdistan. The date of
this referendum according to the constitution is December 2007, but there are
speculations that it could be postponed for another 6 months.
The Kurdish history has still many other chapters to write!
