Kurdistan Observer

The foul phrase "his own people" was coined in the summer and fall of 1991 following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait when suddenly the conscience of the West woke up to the fact that, indeed, Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait wasn’t his first act of cruelty and inhumanity, for he had gassed "his own people" before, too! To the casual observer, the popularity of this phrase in the mass media and among politicians might be attributed to pure ignorance. True, the enemies of the Kurds, the occupiers of Kurdistan, have historically imposed a blackout on anything and everything Kurdish because of their paranoia about the outside world’s knowing anything about them. So the world has remained largely ignorant about the Kurds, their culture, their history, and their struggle for freedom.

But the Kurds see a sinister motive behind the use of "his own people" in reference to them, for by now the world is no longer that ignorant about who the Kurds are, especially after the extensive television coverage of the biggest mass exodus in history following the Gulf War in the spring of 1991 when over a million and a half of them took to the Kurdish mountains in freezing temperatures fleeing from Saddam’s helicopter gun-ships and vengeful army resulting in the death of thousands of innocent people, especially the most vulnerable ---small children and the elderly. Thus, even if the average person may still be somewhat ignorant of the Kurds and their plight, politicians and the media are not – or should not be. The Kurds feel very hurt and insulted by this phrase because they don’t feel they have ever been "his [Saddam’s] own people" or ever will be. They see this phrase as a metaphor for the West’s historic and continuous neglect and misjudgment of them, their identity, and their plight. They see the Western media and politicians using them as a means to an end without caring a bit about them or their suffering under a multi-state occupation.

The Kurds feel outraged by this phrase because the West didn’t lift a finger when Saddam gassed 5000 of them in Halabja in March 1988 and buried a quarter of a million of them alive in the deserts of Southern Iraq in the Anfal genocide of the late eighties, and they believe that the reason it is raising the issue now is not because of its sympathy for the Kurds and their tragedy but because it fits nicely in its propaganda war against Saddam the tyrant. And even more insulting to the Kurds is that even in death, as in life, the West is depriving them of their proper name and their identity by calling them "his own people," instead of "Kurds." The phrase is an offence not only to the memory of the 5000 people who were gassed in Halabja, but also to those who survived the attack but are suffering today from various incurable illnesses as a result of the chemical attack.. Needless to say, it is also an offence to the entire Kurdish people. By using this alien phrase every time it suits them, Western politicians and media are adding insult to injury, for they keep reminding us that they don’t have the vaguest idea of who we really are and that we don’t really count except in so far as our tragedy helps make the case against Saddam.

Even today, American and British officials, who say they want a regime change in Iraq --- to the delight of the Kurds --- still call on the Kurds to be "good Iraqi citizens," instead of "good Kurdish citizens" of a free and independent Kurdistan. Even though the US and Britain are for a regime change in Iraq, they are not for freedom for the Kurds. Indeed, they keep calling for the "unity" of Iraq and its so-called "territorial integrity," thereby legitimizing the continuation of the occupation of Kurdistan. Even the most naïve person in politics would tell you that the unity of Iraq means oppression for the Kurds, regardless of what political system may exist there, for it is this "unity" that has been behind the tragedy of the Kurds from the very beginning of the creation of the patchwork called "Iraq" eighty years ago.

If the West is using the Halabja tragedy as one of the reasons for a regime change in Iraq, which it certainly should, then let the victims of that tragedy be recognized for who they were, not as a bunch of faceless, nameless abstractions falsely called "his own people."

And on the West’s indifference to the Halabja tragedy when it happened, and perhaps even now, given the West’s unsympathetic position on the issue of self-determination for the Kurds, it should be mentioned that had it not been for the Iranian press, the story of Halabja on that terrible day might have died with the victims themselves. Iran sent in a news crew and got the story out for its own propaganda purposes against Iraq, of course, and not in sympathy for the victims or the Kurdish people or their cause --- just as the West is doing today.

But to be fair, some Western countries did at least issue mild, jellyfish-type, nondescript, obligatory condemnations of the gassing of the people of Halabja at the time it happened, but the Arab and Islamic countries --- "our brothers" --- did not even acknowledge the tragedy and the crime, let alone condemn it. There was not a single acknowledgement or condemnation from our "historic brothers," for to them not only were we "his own people," but we also deserved what happened to us because we were a bunch of ungrateful, rebellious separatists who dared to dream of tampering with the sacred borders of an "Arab country" that was part of their "indivisible" empire!

If the West wants to undo, even though belatedly, the crime it committed against the Kurds eighty years ago by dividing up their country among thieves obedient to its policies --- remember it was Britain and France, the victorious Allies of the First World War, that drew up the current map of the Middle East and sealed the fate of the Kurds --- and if it wants to prove us wrong about its callousness and prove to us that it is not merely paying lip service to Kurdish human rights, then let it seize on the tragedy of Halabja and other repeated acts of genocide against the Kurds and support the establishment of an independent Kurdistan, instead of holding up as sacrosanct the so-called "territorial integrity" of the very state that committed the tragedy of Halabja and the even bigger Anfal genocide.

How many more Halabjas and Anfals do the Kurds have to endure in order for the conscience of the West to stir into action? (We have long given up on the rest of the world, of course.) How long will the leaders of the leading Western democracies remain fearful of democracy for the Kurds and their aspirations to be free from occupation? How long will they keep upholding the myth of "territorial integrity," which was the very reason behind the genocide of the Kurdish people? Hasn’t the time come for a fair and honest reassessment of a failed and truly inhuman policy that the West has pursued for a hundred years towards the Kurds for no good reason? We have no doubt that such a reassessment would enable this long-suffering people to finally be free from occupation and join the community of free nations after a century of neglect and oppression by the imperialist-neighbor-occupiers with the sometimes-tacit and oftentimes-overt support of the West. The Kurds need Western moral, political, and material support to shake off the heavy yoke of oppression, and there is no logical reason why they shouldn’t get it because the West can count on the Kurds to build a democratic, Western-style state friendly to the West. As a small first step, let us banish "his own people" from the language and from our thoughts forever and get our real name back!