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Kurdistan Holds the World: Help Them Choose
This is great opportunity for Kurds: a Great responsibility. USA wants huge war in MiddleEast: They use Kurds: let you die. Saddam did harm to Kurds with US help, Bush will do it again A peace agreement with Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran is possible for Kurds to have autonomy, respect, dignity. This will go up in smoke if you aid US, its Special Forces
Kurdistan Holds the WORLD: Help Them!
by Marriana Rivera
ahrundati_roy [at] hotmail.com ahrundati_roy [at] yahoo.com
See new Solutions Report: http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=927
The Kurds are key to war in Iraq and key to peace in region. This is great opportunity for Kurds: a Great responsibility. USA wants a huge war in MiddleEast: They use Kurds: let you die. Saddam did harm to Kurds with US help, Bush will do it again. Please remain neutral, save warriors for next phase. EU ready to fund a wider, deeper and sincere peace. A peace agreement with Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran is possible: Kurds autonomy, respect, dignity. This will go up in smoke if you aid the US and its Special Forces.
Urgent Plea to ALL
PROGRESSIVE KURDISH PEOPLE:
Don’t trust the USA . They are not a recognized world power for much longer. The Kurds are the key to the war in Iraq and they are the key to peace in the whole region. This is a great opportunity for Kurds and a Great responsibility too. The USA wants to start a huge war in the Middle and Near East: They will use the Kurds again and let you die. We know that Saddam had done terrible harm to many Kurds. He did this with US help and tolerance, Bush will do it again. Mr. Wolfowitz is not a friend of any Kurd or Iraqi, he is a Nazi. Please read his speeches about bombing Middle East for oil in the 1980’s. Please remain neutral, save your warriors for the next phase of battle. Europe is ready to fund a much wider, deeper and more sincere peace in your region.
A general peace agreement with Turkey, Syria, Iraq and (maybe) Iran is now possible for all Kurds to have autonomy and respect and dignity. But all of this will go up in smoke if you continue to aid the US and its Special Forces. Don’t trust anyone. Wait. Plan. Negotiate. Good Luck Kurdish people and may you always roam the mountains and defend your homelands.
Signed, March 24, 2003
- The Anti-Capitalist Popular Front and the Green Party of Cascadia and Ecotopia.
“In response to whether the U.N. resolution on Iraq of 2003 would lead to war, PUK leader Talabani said:
“We're not against an invasion, but I would be glad not to see a U.S. invasion of Iraq. It would be better to help Iraqis liberate their own country. If an invasion means 150,000 troops, occupying Baghdad and imposing a government, this should not be the intent of the United States. But if the United States helps the real opposition forces -- the peshmerga, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Free Officers and others -- with its Air Force and Special Forces, victory over Hussein will be easy. It won't need to send a large army.”
“This is the first time we have an overt relationship with the United States. Before, it was all covert relations and operations.... I'm confident the United States will not walk away this time [like it did] in 1991. They promised. But we are not the puppet of anyone. We are not struggling for the United States but for the Kurds. It'd be great to have the backing of the United States, but we will continue either way.”
http://www.krg.org/news/roundups/Nov02/Talabani-interview-LA-Times-Nov-2002.asp
A Confederated Kurdistan: The Key to Lasting Peace for Iraq, Turkey and Iran
Marriana Rivera (5900 words)
“It is because we Kurds have suffered that we respect the rights of others. Our culture, language and identity have been denied and suppressed. We are called a "martial race," or mere "tribes," chauvinism that our Turkish brothers have also endured. Perhaps that is why many Kurds like myself regard Turkey's secular democracy as a model.” Jalal Talabani, founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) which controls much of Eastern Kurdistan in Iraq. He has fought the Iraqi regime of Saddam more than any other Kurdish leader. And he has personal experience of the betrayal of the Kurds by the West.
http://www.puk.org/web/htm/news/nws/21mar03tkd.html
Ethnic Kurds occupy a mostly mountainous region in the Middle East that today lies within the boundaries of four countries: Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. It's believed there are about five million Kurds in Iraq, 12 million to 15 million in Turkey, six million in Iran and one million in Syria. A century of struggle for their own country has proven fruitless. Ignored by the world powers and the international community for 100 years and endlessly caught between powerful regional interests, Kurdish nationalists are now mostly reconciled to seeking some level of autonomy in a reformed, federation-style structure within each country. A resolution to the Kurdish Question in Turkey and Iraq would lead both countries into a better phase of development and a chance to build lasting peace and cooperation.
“To work, Iraqi federalism must be democratic and plural. We must hold elections quickly, to allow long-silenced Iraqis to speak. Of course, the true test of democracy is when people know that they can afford to lose elections. In a democracy, when you lose at the polls the worst that can happen is that you are a "has been." In too much of the Middle East, if elections are even held, lose them and you are a jailbird. Free Iraq is a haven of pluralism… In Suleimaniya, my hometown, we now have 132 media outlets.” J. Talabani.
Europe was negligent in the past in its treatment and defense of the Kurds and a strong and sincere move at this time to resolve the question of all Kurds would help make Europe fit as the new world leader to replace the disgraced USA. Europe has balked at admitting Turkey into the EU because of continuing human rights violations and restrictions on political expression. Indeed the Turkish military is a dangerous time bomb – like the corrupt militaries of much of Latin America. With European monetary commitments and a timetable for EU admission the masses and the business class in Turkey could appeal to the good soldiers and constitutional officers in the Turkish military to come clean, reform and help prosecute the corrupt officials whose time has passed. A comprehensive deal with the Kurds would smooth this transition and resolve longstanding problems throughout the region,
“Europe can and should turn to the legitimate grievances of the Kurds. They will not get their own Kurdistan because that would require carving up Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. But among that fearsome foursome, Europe can at least act on Turkey, its crucial NATO ally. The deal is obvious: you talk autonomy and cultural rights with the Kurds, and we talk about your ever closer union with the E.U. Alas, that requires more wisdom than the poisoned relationship between Brussels and Ankara can currently deliver.”
http://www.time.com/time/daily/special/ocalan/brokenwindow.html
Unfortunately, some issues, such as the city of Kirkuk, are misunderstood. Kirkuk is not about oil. The old, depleting oilfields around Kirkuk do not belong to the Kurds, they belong to all Iraqis, as do the giant undeveloped fields in Southern Iraq that will pay for reconstruction. Kirkuk matters to Kurds because it is a historically Kurdish city from which the Iraqi regime has ethnically cleansed tens of thousands of Kurds, along with Turkmens and Assyrians. The Kurdish regional governments assist these deportees from Kirkuk every day. Kirkuk is our Gorazde.
President Clinton wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress in which he described Kirkuk as a Kurdish city. But Kirkuk is, historically, a city of Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians and Arabs in the region of the Kurds. It should be ruled like Brussels. It should be a city of brotherhood, not what it is now, a city of hatred undergoing ethnic cleansing. Kurds have loudly protested the maltreatment of all Kirkukis, whether Kurds, Turkmens or Assyrians.
“If there is one criticism that I would make of our friends in Turkey, who have facilitated our experiment in democracy by allowing Western air cover, it is that they have been too silent about the abuse of Turkmens by Saddam.” J. Talabani
http://www.puk.org/
http://www.puk.org/web/htm/news/nws/21mar03hia.html
"It Will Be Difficult For Them To Take Iraq"
“Ocalan pointed out that games had been played over Turkey for 200 years
and over the Kurds for 25 years and made the following comments on these
games: "They were telling the Kurds to rebel and Mustafa Kemal to
execute. That's how they took Mosul-Kirkuk. A policy of out of the storm
and into the flood. Now, they want Iraq. They want to use us to take
Iraq. I took a stance against this; a very important step was taken; it
will be difficult for them to take Iraq. The PKK is just beginning to
understand. Kurdish and Turkish intellectuals are just becoming aware."
Ocalan underscored with insistence that he was not opposed to
Turkish-Greek friendship or Turkey-European Union relations, but pointed
out the need for Turkey to rescue itself from these types of relations
shaped by conspiracies. "Let Them Be Democratic" “
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/kurd-l/2001.07/msg00000.html
Since the imposition of the no-fly zones in 1991 and the U.N. oil-for-food program in 1997, the Kurds have created an area of self-rule in the north. The Kurds proved that they can administer our territory and provide an example of peace and stability in Iraq and a balance between Sunni and Shiite, secular and fundamentalist. The climate of democracy is seen in the progress of Kurdish women. There are two women ministers and four judges, many Kurdish women's organizations, and a battalion of women fighters in the PUK area.
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/puk.htm
Geography, politics and history have conspired to render 30 million Kurds the largest stateless people in the Middle East. In northern Iraq, local administrators, mainly Kurds, have performed all central government functions since the Government withdrew its military forces and civilian administrative personnel from the area after the 1991 uprising. A regional parliament and local government administrators were elected in 1992. This parliament last met in May 1995. Discussions among Kurdish and other northern Iraqi political groups continue on the reconvening of parliament, but fighting between the PUK and KDP prevented parliamentary activity.
In northern Iraq, fighting continued in 1997 between the two main Iraqi Kurdish groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). In addition, attacks on civilians by the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), resulted in many deaths, particularly among the Assyrian minority and villagers who supported the KDP. Turkish forces entered Iraq several times during the year to combat the PKK. These separate conflicts converged in November, when Turkish air and ground elements joined the KDP to force the PUK and the PKK to return to the established intra-Kurdish ceasefire line. Intra-Kurdish fighting resulted in the deaths of over 1200 fighters and an undisclosed number of civilians. A ceasefire established on 24 November 1997 ended the fighting for the remainder of the year, albeit with a few sporadic clashes.
The KDP estimated that 58,000 KDP supporters were expelled from Suleymaniyah and other PUK-controlled areas from 1996 to 1997; the PUK says that more than 49,000 of its supporters were expelled from Irbil and other KDP-controlled areas during this period. The United Nations has documented over 16,000 cases of persons who have disappeared in the Iraqi sector of Kurdistan. According to the Special Rapporteur, most of these cases occurred during the Anfal Campaign. He estimates that the total number of Kurds who disappeared during Anfal could reach the tens of thousands. Human Rights Watch estimates that the total at between 70,000 and 150,000, and Amnesty International (AI) at more than 100,000.
With the onslaught of the US invasion of Iraq, the Kurds have, so far, been unified and cooperating. But the US and others have double crossed the Kurds many times and if the US, Europe, the Turks and the UN do not address the Kurds or end the war or allow a unified Kurdish force to seize Mosul and Kirkuk soon, then chaos and infighting and regional instability could ensue with catastrophic results.
THE KURDISH QUESTION in 2003: OF HISTORY AND SOLUTIONS
Amid the ruins of Iraq in 2003, the Kurdish question has reappeared, more intensely than before. For years, this question has been of fundamental concern to the countries of the region, and it has led to extensive internal controversies and economic and social crises. Europe needs to assist Turkey and other regions of Kurdistan to reconcile and move quickly forward with an equitable and balanced structural solution.
Language, Religion, and History
The Kurds are, together with the Arabs, Persians, and Armenians, one of the most ancient peoples of the Near East. The country they inhabit is called Kurdistan. The Kurds have their own language, Kurdish. It is a member of the Indo-European family of languages; like Persian, Afghan, and Beluchi, it is one of the Iranian languages. Kurdish is unrelated to the Arabic or Turkish languages.
Literary works have been written in the Kurdish language since the tenth century A.D. Kurdish is a lively and rich language that has managed to survive despite all the oppression and bans to which it has been exposed. The most widely disseminated dialect is Kurmanci. It is spoken by about 90% of the Kurds in Turkey, in Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan in the northern areas near the Turkish border, and by the Syrian Kurds. This equals about 60% of all Kurds. The Sorani dialect is spoken by about 25% of the Kurds. This dialect is spoken in the middle and southern regions of Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan. Zazaki, Gorani and other dialects are also spoken.
About 75% of Kurds are Sunni Moslems and 15% are Alevite Moslems. The Alevites are in the majority in the northern and western areas of Turkish Kurdistan and in the Chorasan region of Iran. In Iran and Irak there exist Shiite Kurds (Feyli) and the Ehlihak ("the people of God"), who are related to the Alevites. In the region where the borders of Turkey, Iran, and Irak meet and in Armenia, there are Kurdish Yezidi communities. In earlier times, the Yezidi faith was a widely shared religious orientation. Its roots go back to Zoroastrianism.
Kurds have played a significant role in the history of the Near East since its early epochs. Greek, Roman, Arab, and Armenian sources mention the Kurds and they founded several important states during the Islamic epoch between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, such as Shaddâdiden and Ayyûbiden. Sultan Salahaddin (Salâh al-Dîn), the founder of the Ayyûbid state, which included Egypt, Syria, and Kurdistan. The Turks, whose roots are in Middle Asia, migrated to Anatolia via Iran after the eleventh century and founded the Selchuk and subsequently the Ottoman states. For a long time, Kurdistan was the theater of military clashes between the Ottoman and the Persian empires. During this period, the Kurdish princes sided first with one side, then the other, thus maintaining their autonomy. But in the year 1638, Kurdistan was officially divided between these two states in the Treaty of Kasri Shirin. From that time until the mid-nineteenth century, both states made armed attacks on the Kurdish princedoms in order to destroy them. The Kurds' struggle against these two great states took on a nationalistic character at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Kurdish princes such as Bedirkhan and Yazdânsher, as well as religious leaders such as Sheik Ubeydullah, fought for the unity and independence of Kurdistan, but they were defeated.
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was carved into new states. According to the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920), the state of Kurdistan was to be established in the region, but was never implemented. The Treaty of Lausanne (24 July 1923) divided up the Kurdistan part of the Ottoman Empire again. Part of it was included in the British and French Mandates, where Syria and Iraq later came into being. The largest part of Kurdistan remained within the state borders of the Republic of Turkey.
The Ottoman and the Persian Empires never questioned the existence of the Kurdish people at any time. The Republic of Turkey also initially defined its new borders as the "borders of the Misak-i Milli (National Pact), which include the areas settled by the Turkish and Kurdish majority". About 70 Kurdish Members of Parliament were present at the first session of the Great National Assembly in Ankara; they were officially designated as the "MPs of Kurdistan". The Turkish representative, Ismet Pasha, declared at Lausanne: "The Kurds and the Turks are the essential components of the Republic of Turkey. The Kurds are not a minority but a nation; the government in Ankara is the government of the Turks as well as of the Kurds."
After the Treaty of Lausanne, Ankara's policy changed. The new state was designed in accordance with Turkish interests. The Kurds' existence was denied. The Kurdish language, the practice of Kurdish culture, even the concepts of "Kurdish" and "Kurdistan" were forbidden. The Kemalist leadership paid not the slightest attention to the multi-cultural structure of Anatolia, which was in fact a mosaic of different ethnic groups. Article 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne, according to which the citizens of Turkey have the right to freely use their respective languages in all areas of life, was trampled upon, and the Kurdish language was forbidden in the educational system and the printed media. Speaking about the Kurds and criticizing the oppression of them was held to be a severe crime and was massively punished.
In 1925 the Kurds, led by Sheik Said, rose up against this policy. But this uprising was brutally suppressed; tens of thousands of Kurds were killed and driven into exile. There were more Kurdish uprisings in Ararat in 1930 and in Dersim in 1938. The Turkish state waged war in Kurdistan on a permanent basis. After 1938, there was a peaceful pause that lasted about 20 years. Eventually, the Kurds - who had no national rights and were being subjected to massive oppression, who were forced into poverty and ignorance, who saw all peaceful and legal avenues of political struggle closed off to them - once again began to arm themselves against the cruel oppression of the Turkish state. Since 1979, Turkey has ruled Kurdistan through military law, a State of Emergency, and a dirty war.
Similar developments unfolded in the other parts of Kurdistan. The Kurds living within the borders of Iraq, or southern Kurdistan, have also been resisting oppression since World War I. They staged uprisings that were led first by Sheik Mahmud Barzenci (1919-1923), then by Sheik Ahmed Barzani and his brother Mustafa Barzani (1933 and later). These uprisings also ended in defeat. But in Iraq, at no point was Kurdish identity denied. Moreover, because of the uprisings the Kurds were granted certain cultural rights. They were given schools, universities, radio broadcasts etc. In this part of Kurdistan, Kurdish culture is relatively well-developed.
The greatest Kurdish uprising in this part of Kurdistan began in 1961 under Mustafa Barzani and lasted until 1970. In 1970, the Kurds reached an agreement with the central government concerning an autonomous region. However, the government in Baghdad stalled the Kurds and ignored the conditions of the agreement. For this reason, the war broke out again in 1975. With several pauses, this struggle lasted until 1991.
The war against the Kurds has been expensive for Iraq. In order to halt Iran's support of the Kurds, the Saddam Hussein regime initially made territorial concessions to Iran. Then, to win back these areas, it started the destructive eight-year war against Iran which devastated Kurdistan. After the Iran-Iraq war ended, Iraq moved on to invade Kuwait.
Saddam Hussein suffered a massive defeat in his war against the US and Coalition forces. The Kurds were initially subjected to mass expulsion, but later a United Nations declaration created a security zone for them. The refugees returned to their homeland. In what is now known as "northern Iraq", i.e. southern Kurdistan, the Kurds created a parliament and a national government. But the Iraqi problem has still not been solved today. The years of UN embargo kept the Iraqi Kurds in an extremely difficult situation.
The state of Iran has practiced a policy of oppression against the Kurds similar to that of Turkey's Kemalist regime. After World War II, when Iran was occupied in the north by the Soviet Union and in the south by Great Britain, the Kurds were able to organized themselves. The Democratic Party of Kurdistan was founded and subsequently the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad was proclaimed. Soon the government in Tehran, with the political support of Great Britain and America, annihilated the Republic of Mahabad. When the Shah's regime ended in 1978, this part of Kurdistan could once again enjoy freedom. Soon followed the attacks of the new regime of the mullahs. The armed resistance to this regime that began in 1979 is still continuing today. Lately, the Iranians have begun to alter their policy toward the Kurds as nations in the region adjust to the changing geo-political realities of regime change and increased US intervention.
In summary, the Kurdish people have continually resisted the cruel oppression and colonialization of them in these three major parts of Kurdistan, both before and after World War I, up to the present day. They have struggled to keep alive their identity, claim their national rights, and freely determine their own destiny. During this struggle, the Kurds have lost hundreds of thousands of their people and have been the victims of mass expulsions. Tremendous suffering has been inflicted on them. This is in fact a case of genocide. Neither the League of Nations nor the United Nations have lived up to their responsibilities in the face of the Kurdish tragedy.
Geography and Population
The number of Kurds in the four parts of Kurdistan and within the borders of the four countries that have divided it up between themselves totals about 35 million. This makes the Kurds, after the Arabs, Turks, and Persians, the fourth-largest nation in the Near East.
Kurdistan, which has since time immemorial been inhabited by the Kurds, has a territory of 500,000 square km, which is as large as that of France. In other words, the Kurds are not a minority in their country; they are the majority. The Kurdish question is not the problem of a minority of the population of this or that country; it is the question of a divided country and a nation. Like all other nations, the Kurds too have the right to self-determination. The borders that divide Kurdistan are neither natural, economic, nor cultural borders. They are artificial borders that have been drawn against the will of the Kurdish people according to the interests of the forces that did the dividing and the balance of power. In many cases these borders have divided villages, towns, even families, and have had divisive and destructive effects on economic, social, and cultural life.
The largest part of Kurdistan, which in terms of both its population and its territory makes up about one-half of the total, lies in the north inside the state borders of Turkey. This part amounts to one-third of the total territory of Turkey, and includes more than twenty provinces in the "eastern and northeastern regions". Other parts, according to their size, are eastern Kurdistan (within the borders of Iran), southern Kurdistan (within the borders of Iraq), and Kurdish areas within the borders of Syria.
In all of these parts a large number of the inhabitants - between 80 and 90% - are Kurdish. A certain proportion of the Kurds have lived since earlier times, or because of the migrations and refugee movements of recent times, in other regions and in the large cities of these countries. If we count these as well, then about 18 to 20 million Kurds live within the borders of Turkey, 8 to 10 million in Iran, 5 million in Iraq, and 1.5 million in Syria. About one-third of the labor migrants who have left Turkey in the past 20 to 30 years and gone to Europe are Kurds. Combined with those who have fled to Europe in recent years for political and economic reasons, the number of Kurds living in European countries comes to about 1 million.
Natural Resources and Economic and Social Structure
With regard to its mineral resources, Kurdistan is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Most of the zone extending from the Zagros mountain range to the Mediterranean, which has been known as the "Fertile Crescent" since early times, falls within Kurdistan. Kurdistan is rich in agriculture. The plains between the mountain ranges, especially in the warm south, are well-suited to agriculture because of the composition of their soil and their favorable climatic conditions. The plateaus and mountain slopes have extremely fruitful meadowland. All types of grain, as well as high-quality fruit and vegetables, grow in the soil of Kurdistan. The Harran Plateau and the areas around Cezire and Mossul are grain reservoirs for the entire region. Differences in temperature and elevation between the north and the south have resulted in the fact that Kurdistan has always been an important country for animal husbandry. Furthermore, Kurdistan is a reservoir of meat, butter, cheese, wool, and animal hides for the Middle East.
With regard to deposits of petroleum and other minerals, Kurdistan is a wealthy country. A large part of Iraq's oil resources is in Kurdistan, in the regions around Kirkuk and Hanikin. A part of the important oil resources of Iran is also in Kurdistan, in the region around Kirmanshah. Turkey's oil resources are almost exclusively in Kurdistan (in the regions around Batman, Diyarbakir, and Adiyaman). Syria's oil resources are also mainly in Kurdistan, in the region around Cezire. Moreover, our land is rich in mineral resources such as iron, copper, chrome, coal, silver, gold, uranium, and phosphates.
Furthermore, there are rivers in Kurdistan that are at least as important, if not more important, than oil. The plateaus and mountains of Kurdistan, which are characterized by heavy rainfall and in winter a heavy coat of snow, are a water reservoir for the Near and Middle East. This is the source of the famous Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as well as numerous other smaller rivers. With their water, the Tigris and the Euphrates give life not only to the Mesopotamian plain and the southern part of Kurdistan but also to Iraq and Syria. These rivers, which flow down from heights of three to four thousand meters above sea level, are also very significant for the production of energy. Iraq and Syria have built numerous dams across these rivers and their tributaries. But the most important ones are a series of dams that were built by Turkey as part of the GAP project (Southeast Anatolia Project). The GAP project is still not complete, but it already supplies a significant proportion of Turkey's electrical-energy needs. When the project is finished, both the production of electricity and agricultural production, through the irrigation of this part of Kurdistan, will increase.
In antiquity and the Middle Ages, Kurdistan lay on the trade route between the Far East and Europe (the Silk and Spice Route). In recent history as well, this significance has continued. Interestingly enough, Kurdistan is today the most suitable region for the petroleum pipelines of Iraq and the Caucasus.
Kurdistan's extraordinary wealth and its strategic location are the most important reasons why the country is still divided and the people still subjected to so much suffering. For the abovementioned reasons, Kurdistan drew the attention of the Western colonizing states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The English, the French, and the Russians struggled for control over our country. Then, after World War I, they once again divided it up according to their own interests.
The Russians pulled out of the region after the October Revolution of 1917. The English and the French left the region as administrators after Syria and Iraq became independent. But their economic relations and their influence continue to exist in the region. Not only the Republic of Turkey and Iran but also the newly formed national states of Syria and Iraq have done all that was necessary to keep control over those parts of Kurdistan that were granted to them and to assimilate and exterminate the Kurds. They have brutally beaten down Kurdish uprisings. In this regard they have in most cases cooperated and reached agreements among themselves. They have plundered the riches of Kurdistan and prevented it from developing economically, socially, and culturally.
For these reasons, people live in poverty in a wealthy country. The colonial conditions, the constant insecurity, and the war have prevented Kurds from developing agriculture, trade, or industry. The capital that has been gained in Kurdistan has always flowed out of the country. The society has not been able to modernize, and the feudal social structures of the past have not been dissolved totally. The tribal social structure in the rural areas, the system of large-scale land ownership, the religious sects and the sheikdom associated with it have persisted. Even today, Kurdistan is ruled by a semi-feudal social system. There is no significant bourgeoisie or working class in the modern sense in its social system.
The dirty wars that are being waged by the colonial states in order to beat down the stubborn Kurdish partisan wars and popular rebellions - which have been going on since 1961 in southern Kurdistan (Iraq), since 1979 in eastern Kurdistan (Iran), and since 1984 in northern Kurdistan - have devastated our country. In view of this situation, in which everything is being brutally destroyed and people are fleeing en masse in fear for their lives, it would be senseless to expect any economic or social progress to take place.
Why Has the Kurdish Resistance Movement Been Unsuccessful to Date?
The twentieth century has witnessed the downfall of the worldwide system of colonialism and the foundation of new states in former colonies and dependent countries. Why have the Kurds, with their long history and a rich culture, not attained their freedom, even though they have continually waged resistance since the beginning of the nineteenth century and paid a high price for it?
There are internal and external reasons for this. The feudal fragmentation within Kurdish society is one such internal reason. The tribal social structure, divisions between religious movements and confessions, and the institutions of large-scale land ownership and the sheikdom have always been obstacles to the unification of national forces. The medieval value structure of this system has resulted in the fact that a national consciousness has arisen only in part. The true reasons that have prevented the Kurdish national movement from succeeding are external ones.
Initially the Kurds fought against two great empires, the Ottoman and the Persian Empires. The balance of power was not in favor of the Kurds, and they had no external support whatsoever. The Balkan countries, for example, attained their independence through the support of powerful Western states such as Russia, Austria, England, and France. It was the English and the French that separated Arabia from the Ottoman Empire. These were the same powers that, in cooperation with the government in Ankara, carved up Kurdistan once again. The Kurdish rebellions that followed World War I were opposed not only by Turkey and Iran but also by the French and the English, which had Syria and Iraq as part of their mandates. The English in particular used their own forces to put down the Kurdish national rebellion in Iraq.
After Syria and Iraq had gained their independence, the Kurdish national movement faced the alliance of these four states. One of the most detrimental effects of the division is that the territory of Kurdistan is surrounded by these four dividing states, i.e. by enemy forces. The Kurds have no connections with the outside world, either via land or sea. It is very difficult to set up contacts with the outside world. Even if friendly forces did exist which wanted to help the Kurds from the outside, there are no routes through which this support could reach Kurdistan directly. If the Kurdish national movement begins an armed rebellion in any of the parts of Kurdistan, it therefore requests a neighboring country to provide the necessary base areas or logistic support. But this neighboring country is still one of the four states that hold another part of Kurdistan in its control. None of them is interested in a Kurdish victory. These states merely play the Kurdish card against each other when they have problems with one another from time to time. Such relations are extremely problematic for the Kurdish national movement and occasionally bring Kurdish organizations into a situation where they are fighting against one another. Aside from this, the Kurdish national movement has never received any substantial international support. The basic reason for this is that large and small states that are not directly involved in this issue put their own interests in the foreground and do not want to take a position that is opposed to the four states of the region (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria).
What Is the Solution?
The Kurdish national movement has not been successful, for all of the reasons named above. On the other hand, the four states in question have not succeeded in their efforts to melt down the Kurds through assimilation or to eliminate them. On the contrary, Kurdish national consciousness has strengthened from year to year, overcome certain feudal obstacles, and acquired the character of a mass movement. The Kurdish national movement has organized itself and now includes all social classes and levels. Kurds in the various parts of Kurdistan have moved closer together. In all of these countries, Kurdish resistance has grown stronger; in the three largest parts of Kurdistan it has taken on the form of armed resistance, which it has simply been impossible to eradicate.
It has also cost the oppressive countries dearly to deny Kurdish identity, deprive Kurds of their rights, and implement a policy of oppression against them. The governments of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran are compelled to wage continual war. This war consumes their financial resources and costs them human lives. In this respect Iraq, which has to deal with a de facto partition, is the most interesting example. But the situation in Turkey is no more rosy than it is in Iraq.
For Turkey, the policy of oppression against the Kurds is the greatest obstacle to democracy and domestic peace. One of the main causes of the frequent military coups in Turkey is the Kurdish question. The dirty war that has been waged for 11 years against the Kurdish people is consuming resources. Turkey's direct expenditures for the war amount to between 8 and 10 billion US dollars annually. The economy of Kurdistan has been totally crippled; agriculture, trade, and animal husbandry have collapsed. A point has been reached at which the Kurdish question has precipitated a serious economic and political crisis in Turkey. Violence stretches over the entire social life of the country like a net. Chauvinistic nationalism and militarism are intensifying.
The government and official spokesman continue to blame the PKK - the so-called "handful of terrorists" - for the miserable situation. But the main responsibility of the present misery and all the suffering that has been inflicted on both peoples must be borne by the Turkish state itself. The point that has been reached today is the result of a wrong-headed policy that has been implemented for seventy years.
There is no doubt that the army or the police cannot solve this problem. A peaceful solution is possible through dialogue and the recognition of Kurdish rights, and this is in the interests of both peoples. Thus peace and democracy could move into the country, and Turkey as a whole and Kurdistan could enter into a better phase of development. The policy of Turkey that has been followed so intensely for the past seventy years, which has led the country ever deeper into an impasse Groups of businessmen and workers, intellectuals and the media are increasingly allying themselves with the point of view of a peaceful solution. The international situation is also forcing Turkey toward a change of course.
In recent years, the Kurdish question has developed from a regional problem into an international one. In this connection, the UN resolution to protect the Iraqi Kurds is extremely significant. Turkey, which wants to be accepted into the European Union, must adapt its political and cultural life to European standards, and put into practical effect the international treaties that it has signed.
The solution of the Kurdish question is moving closer. To make a peaceful solution as soon as possible, the peace initiatives at the national and international levels must be strengthened. The Socialist Party of Kurdistan advocates a peaceful and just solution. Despite all the oppression and provocations to which the Kurdish people have been subjected, we have opted from the very beginning for political and peaceful methods of struggle. The peaceful coexistence of Turks, Kurds and Iraqis is possible if Kurds are given autonomy in a federation. This solution is similar to those developed in Spain, Belgium, or Switzerland. In all parts of Kurdistan, the existence and rights of the Kurdish people must be respected. Federal solutions based on equal rights must be devised.
The question of the unity of the Kurdish nation is a question of the future. The Middle East region will experience great changes in the future, as other regions have done. The despotic, oppressive, and primitive regimes of today will go, relations between the peoples of the region will improve, and there will be a phase of rapprochement, as is happening now in Europe. The borders will lose their significance. Artificial borders, which today divide Kurdistan with barbed wire and land mines, will then also disappear.
NOTES on Kurdistan and the Struggle:
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=923
Above is good article on Kurd peace and Kirkuk
http://members.aol.com/KHilfsvere/Kurds.html#Kurds_Kurds
THE KURDISH QUESTION - ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT SITUATION
Kemal BURKAY
Jalal Talabani used skills learned during his obligatory Iraqi army duty to fight in and help lead the first Kurdish revolt in 1961. He subsequently became a top official in the Kurdish Democratic Party of Mustafa Barzani. After the collapse of the Kurdish revolt in 1975, precipitated by a U.S. policy shift, Talabani and other Kurdish intellectuals launched a more modern and less clan-based movement, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which then began its own armed resistance inside Iraq.
The split reflects a core problem for the Kurds, the world's largest ethnic group without a country. The rivalry between the two Kurdish parties has diverted attention from their long-term goal. Disputes over revenue-sharing and land led to two years of sporadic clashes. In 1996, Hussein's intervention helped the Kurdistan Democratic Party push the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan back to the Iranian border, leading Talabani to call Barzani a traitor.
Talabani now controls the eastern sector of "liberated" Kurdistan, Barzani the western area. Both have their own administrations and military forces. But they share a national assembly originally elected in 1992. It reconvened last month for the first time in six years, a symbolic move reflecting new attempts at unity mediated by the United States. Talabani's headquarters are in Sulaymaniyah.
In 1946 Mustafa Barzani founded the Partiya Demokrata Kurdistane (PDK) [or Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP)]. In 1959 this was renamed the Kurdistan Democratic Party to signify that it stood for equal rights of all peoples who fell within its geographic jurisdiction. The Iraqi branch of the party eventually adopted a blue and yellow banner. The yellow again represents the sun (light, life, etc.) and is considered the principal colour of the party. The blue represents the "farsightedness and loftiness" of the Party's ideals. Barzani's son Massoud now leads the party, and it represents the more traditional and tribal parts of Kurdish society in Iraq.
The PKK operates abroad (i.e. Europe) as the ENRK, formed in 1985.
This flag is much more commonly seen than the party banner, and has apparently achieved the status of flag of Anatolian Kurdistan (and almost certainly would be the national flag if the PKK achieved any sort of independence for the region). In the official party emblem, the green border takes the form of a laurel wreath open at the top, and a hawk perched on a rock is superimposed on the star along with two automatic rifles.
News Los Angeles Times Interview By Robin Wright (The Times' chief diplomatic correspondent and the author of four books on international affairs)November 24, 2002
Kurdish Eyes on Iraq's Future
http://www.krg.org/news/roundups/Nov02/Talabani-interview-LA-Times-Nov-2002.asp
SOURCES AND REFRENCES
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Ethnicity/Kurdish/Politics/
Loyal Kurd Faces Banishment. - http://www.ezboard.com
... Banishment. To All: Mr. Houshyar Abbas Mustafa is an Iraqi Kurd, a
member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). He presently ...
pub17.ezboard.com/ fhumanrightsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=11.topic
Google Directory - Society > Ethnicity > Kurdish > Politics
... Patriotic Union of Kurdistan - PUK - http://www.puk.org/ A political party
aiming to achieve self-determination for the Kurdish people in Iraq. ...
http://www.humanrights.de/~kurdweb/keo/ english/politics/party/PUK.html - 7k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from http://www.humanrights.de ]
U.N. report on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
Chapter V, section C focuses on "honor killings"
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/b72f2cfe9aa28e58802568ab003c572e
News Los Angeles Times Interview By Robin Wright (The Times' chief diplomatic correspondent and the author of four books on international affairs)November 24, 2002
Kurdish Eyes on Iraq's Future
http://www.krg.org/news/roundups/Nov02/Talabani-interview-LA-Times-Nov-2002.asp
One notorious honor killing in January was of an Iraqi Kurd woman living in Sweden who had campaigned against honor killings. After she had a relationship with a Swedish man her father shot and killed her. The father is now living in the Kurdish province of Dohuk, out of Patriotic Union control and thus legally untouchable for now.
But there are success stories, too. Faraj points at a recent issue of the Independent Women's Center's newspaper, which has a photo of a recent honor killing victim whose alleged killers were arrested. Because of the new law, she says, "this man is in jail now."
Joshua Kucera is a freelance journalist based in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
For more information:The Independent Women's Center newspaper, Rewan
(Kurdish and Arabic):http://www.kurdmedia.com/rewan/
Amnesty International Links to information about honor killings http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/amnesty/articles.html
by Marriana Rivera
ahrundati_roy [at] hotmail.com ahrundati_roy [at] yahoo.com
See new Solutions Report: http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=927
The Kurds are key to war in Iraq and key to peace in region. This is great opportunity for Kurds: a Great responsibility. USA wants a huge war in MiddleEast: They use Kurds: let you die. Saddam did harm to Kurds with US help, Bush will do it again. Please remain neutral, save warriors for next phase. EU ready to fund a wider, deeper and sincere peace. A peace agreement with Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran is possible: Kurds autonomy, respect, dignity. This will go up in smoke if you aid the US and its Special Forces.
Urgent Plea to ALL
PROGRESSIVE KURDISH PEOPLE:
Don’t trust the USA . They are not a recognized world power for much longer. The Kurds are the key to the war in Iraq and they are the key to peace in the whole region. This is a great opportunity for Kurds and a Great responsibility too. The USA wants to start a huge war in the Middle and Near East: They will use the Kurds again and let you die. We know that Saddam had done terrible harm to many Kurds. He did this with US help and tolerance, Bush will do it again. Mr. Wolfowitz is not a friend of any Kurd or Iraqi, he is a Nazi. Please read his speeches about bombing Middle East for oil in the 1980’s. Please remain neutral, save your warriors for the next phase of battle. Europe is ready to fund a much wider, deeper and more sincere peace in your region.
A general peace agreement with Turkey, Syria, Iraq and (maybe) Iran is now possible for all Kurds to have autonomy and respect and dignity. But all of this will go up in smoke if you continue to aid the US and its Special Forces. Don’t trust anyone. Wait. Plan. Negotiate. Good Luck Kurdish people and may you always roam the mountains and defend your homelands.
Signed, March 24, 2003
- The Anti-Capitalist Popular Front and the Green Party of Cascadia and Ecotopia.
“In response to whether the U.N. resolution on Iraq of 2003 would lead to war, PUK leader Talabani said:
“We're not against an invasion, but I would be glad not to see a U.S. invasion of Iraq. It would be better to help Iraqis liberate their own country. If an invasion means 150,000 troops, occupying Baghdad and imposing a government, this should not be the intent of the United States. But if the United States helps the real opposition forces -- the peshmerga, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Free Officers and others -- with its Air Force and Special Forces, victory over Hussein will be easy. It won't need to send a large army.”
“This is the first time we have an overt relationship with the United States. Before, it was all covert relations and operations.... I'm confident the United States will not walk away this time [like it did] in 1991. They promised. But we are not the puppet of anyone. We are not struggling for the United States but for the Kurds. It'd be great to have the backing of the United States, but we will continue either way.”
http://www.krg.org/news/roundups/Nov02/Talabani-interview-LA-Times-Nov-2002.asp
A Confederated Kurdistan: The Key to Lasting Peace for Iraq, Turkey and Iran
Marriana Rivera (5900 words)
“It is because we Kurds have suffered that we respect the rights of others. Our culture, language and identity have been denied and suppressed. We are called a "martial race," or mere "tribes," chauvinism that our Turkish brothers have also endured. Perhaps that is why many Kurds like myself regard Turkey's secular democracy as a model.” Jalal Talabani, founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) which controls much of Eastern Kurdistan in Iraq. He has fought the Iraqi regime of Saddam more than any other Kurdish leader. And he has personal experience of the betrayal of the Kurds by the West.
http://www.puk.org/web/htm/news/nws/21mar03tkd.html
Ethnic Kurds occupy a mostly mountainous region in the Middle East that today lies within the boundaries of four countries: Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. It's believed there are about five million Kurds in Iraq, 12 million to 15 million in Turkey, six million in Iran and one million in Syria. A century of struggle for their own country has proven fruitless. Ignored by the world powers and the international community for 100 years and endlessly caught between powerful regional interests, Kurdish nationalists are now mostly reconciled to seeking some level of autonomy in a reformed, federation-style structure within each country. A resolution to the Kurdish Question in Turkey and Iraq would lead both countries into a better phase of development and a chance to build lasting peace and cooperation.
“To work, Iraqi federalism must be democratic and plural. We must hold elections quickly, to allow long-silenced Iraqis to speak. Of course, the true test of democracy is when people know that they can afford to lose elections. In a democracy, when you lose at the polls the worst that can happen is that you are a "has been." In too much of the Middle East, if elections are even held, lose them and you are a jailbird. Free Iraq is a haven of pluralism… In Suleimaniya, my hometown, we now have 132 media outlets.” J. Talabani.
Europe was negligent in the past in its treatment and defense of the Kurds and a strong and sincere move at this time to resolve the question of all Kurds would help make Europe fit as the new world leader to replace the disgraced USA. Europe has balked at admitting Turkey into the EU because of continuing human rights violations and restrictions on political expression. Indeed the Turkish military is a dangerous time bomb – like the corrupt militaries of much of Latin America. With European monetary commitments and a timetable for EU admission the masses and the business class in Turkey could appeal to the good soldiers and constitutional officers in the Turkish military to come clean, reform and help prosecute the corrupt officials whose time has passed. A comprehensive deal with the Kurds would smooth this transition and resolve longstanding problems throughout the region,
“Europe can and should turn to the legitimate grievances of the Kurds. They will not get their own Kurdistan because that would require carving up Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. But among that fearsome foursome, Europe can at least act on Turkey, its crucial NATO ally. The deal is obvious: you talk autonomy and cultural rights with the Kurds, and we talk about your ever closer union with the E.U. Alas, that requires more wisdom than the poisoned relationship between Brussels and Ankara can currently deliver.”
http://www.time.com/time/daily/special/ocalan/brokenwindow.html
Unfortunately, some issues, such as the city of Kirkuk, are misunderstood. Kirkuk is not about oil. The old, depleting oilfields around Kirkuk do not belong to the Kurds, they belong to all Iraqis, as do the giant undeveloped fields in Southern Iraq that will pay for reconstruction. Kirkuk matters to Kurds because it is a historically Kurdish city from which the Iraqi regime has ethnically cleansed tens of thousands of Kurds, along with Turkmens and Assyrians. The Kurdish regional governments assist these deportees from Kirkuk every day. Kirkuk is our Gorazde.
President Clinton wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress in which he described Kirkuk as a Kurdish city. But Kirkuk is, historically, a city of Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians and Arabs in the region of the Kurds. It should be ruled like Brussels. It should be a city of brotherhood, not what it is now, a city of hatred undergoing ethnic cleansing. Kurds have loudly protested the maltreatment of all Kirkukis, whether Kurds, Turkmens or Assyrians.
“If there is one criticism that I would make of our friends in Turkey, who have facilitated our experiment in democracy by allowing Western air cover, it is that they have been too silent about the abuse of Turkmens by Saddam.” J. Talabani
http://www.puk.org/
http://www.puk.org/web/htm/news/nws/21mar03hia.html
"It Will Be Difficult For Them To Take Iraq"
“Ocalan pointed out that games had been played over Turkey for 200 years
and over the Kurds for 25 years and made the following comments on these
games: "They were telling the Kurds to rebel and Mustafa Kemal to
execute. That's how they took Mosul-Kirkuk. A policy of out of the storm
and into the flood. Now, they want Iraq. They want to use us to take
Iraq. I took a stance against this; a very important step was taken; it
will be difficult for them to take Iraq. The PKK is just beginning to
understand. Kurdish and Turkish intellectuals are just becoming aware."
Ocalan underscored with insistence that he was not opposed to
Turkish-Greek friendship or Turkey-European Union relations, but pointed
out the need for Turkey to rescue itself from these types of relations
shaped by conspiracies. "Let Them Be Democratic" “
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/kurd-l/2001.07/msg00000.html
Since the imposition of the no-fly zones in 1991 and the U.N. oil-for-food program in 1997, the Kurds have created an area of self-rule in the north. The Kurds proved that they can administer our territory and provide an example of peace and stability in Iraq and a balance between Sunni and Shiite, secular and fundamentalist. The climate of democracy is seen in the progress of Kurdish women. There are two women ministers and four judges, many Kurdish women's organizations, and a battalion of women fighters in the PUK area.
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/puk.htm
Geography, politics and history have conspired to render 30 million Kurds the largest stateless people in the Middle East. In northern Iraq, local administrators, mainly Kurds, have performed all central government functions since the Government withdrew its military forces and civilian administrative personnel from the area after the 1991 uprising. A regional parliament and local government administrators were elected in 1992. This parliament last met in May 1995. Discussions among Kurdish and other northern Iraqi political groups continue on the reconvening of parliament, but fighting between the PUK and KDP prevented parliamentary activity.
In northern Iraq, fighting continued in 1997 between the two main Iraqi Kurdish groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). In addition, attacks on civilians by the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), resulted in many deaths, particularly among the Assyrian minority and villagers who supported the KDP. Turkish forces entered Iraq several times during the year to combat the PKK. These separate conflicts converged in November, when Turkish air and ground elements joined the KDP to force the PUK and the PKK to return to the established intra-Kurdish ceasefire line. Intra-Kurdish fighting resulted in the deaths of over 1200 fighters and an undisclosed number of civilians. A ceasefire established on 24 November 1997 ended the fighting for the remainder of the year, albeit with a few sporadic clashes.
The KDP estimated that 58,000 KDP supporters were expelled from Suleymaniyah and other PUK-controlled areas from 1996 to 1997; the PUK says that more than 49,000 of its supporters were expelled from Irbil and other KDP-controlled areas during this period. The United Nations has documented over 16,000 cases of persons who have disappeared in the Iraqi sector of Kurdistan. According to the Special Rapporteur, most of these cases occurred during the Anfal Campaign. He estimates that the total number of Kurds who disappeared during Anfal could reach the tens of thousands. Human Rights Watch estimates that the total at between 70,000 and 150,000, and Amnesty International (AI) at more than 100,000.
With the onslaught of the US invasion of Iraq, the Kurds have, so far, been unified and cooperating. But the US and others have double crossed the Kurds many times and if the US, Europe, the Turks and the UN do not address the Kurds or end the war or allow a unified Kurdish force to seize Mosul and Kirkuk soon, then chaos and infighting and regional instability could ensue with catastrophic results.
THE KURDISH QUESTION in 2003: OF HISTORY AND SOLUTIONS
Amid the ruins of Iraq in 2003, the Kurdish question has reappeared, more intensely than before. For years, this question has been of fundamental concern to the countries of the region, and it has led to extensive internal controversies and economic and social crises. Europe needs to assist Turkey and other regions of Kurdistan to reconcile and move quickly forward with an equitable and balanced structural solution.
Language, Religion, and History
The Kurds are, together with the Arabs, Persians, and Armenians, one of the most ancient peoples of the Near East. The country they inhabit is called Kurdistan. The Kurds have their own language, Kurdish. It is a member of the Indo-European family of languages; like Persian, Afghan, and Beluchi, it is one of the Iranian languages. Kurdish is unrelated to the Arabic or Turkish languages.
Literary works have been written in the Kurdish language since the tenth century A.D. Kurdish is a lively and rich language that has managed to survive despite all the oppression and bans to which it has been exposed. The most widely disseminated dialect is Kurmanci. It is spoken by about 90% of the Kurds in Turkey, in Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan in the northern areas near the Turkish border, and by the Syrian Kurds. This equals about 60% of all Kurds. The Sorani dialect is spoken by about 25% of the Kurds. This dialect is spoken in the middle and southern regions of Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan. Zazaki, Gorani and other dialects are also spoken.
About 75% of Kurds are Sunni Moslems and 15% are Alevite Moslems. The Alevites are in the majority in the northern and western areas of Turkish Kurdistan and in the Chorasan region of Iran. In Iran and Irak there exist Shiite Kurds (Feyli) and the Ehlihak ("the people of God"), who are related to the Alevites. In the region where the borders of Turkey, Iran, and Irak meet and in Armenia, there are Kurdish Yezidi communities. In earlier times, the Yezidi faith was a widely shared religious orientation. Its roots go back to Zoroastrianism.
Kurds have played a significant role in the history of the Near East since its early epochs. Greek, Roman, Arab, and Armenian sources mention the Kurds and they founded several important states during the Islamic epoch between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, such as Shaddâdiden and Ayyûbiden. Sultan Salahaddin (Salâh al-Dîn), the founder of the Ayyûbid state, which included Egypt, Syria, and Kurdistan. The Turks, whose roots are in Middle Asia, migrated to Anatolia via Iran after the eleventh century and founded the Selchuk and subsequently the Ottoman states. For a long time, Kurdistan was the theater of military clashes between the Ottoman and the Persian empires. During this period, the Kurdish princes sided first with one side, then the other, thus maintaining their autonomy. But in the year 1638, Kurdistan was officially divided between these two states in the Treaty of Kasri Shirin. From that time until the mid-nineteenth century, both states made armed attacks on the Kurdish princedoms in order to destroy them. The Kurds' struggle against these two great states took on a nationalistic character at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Kurdish princes such as Bedirkhan and Yazdânsher, as well as religious leaders such as Sheik Ubeydullah, fought for the unity and independence of Kurdistan, but they were defeated.
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was carved into new states. According to the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920), the state of Kurdistan was to be established in the region, but was never implemented. The Treaty of Lausanne (24 July 1923) divided up the Kurdistan part of the Ottoman Empire again. Part of it was included in the British and French Mandates, where Syria and Iraq later came into being. The largest part of Kurdistan remained within the state borders of the Republic of Turkey.
The Ottoman and the Persian Empires never questioned the existence of the Kurdish people at any time. The Republic of Turkey also initially defined its new borders as the "borders of the Misak-i Milli (National Pact), which include the areas settled by the Turkish and Kurdish majority". About 70 Kurdish Members of Parliament were present at the first session of the Great National Assembly in Ankara; they were officially designated as the "MPs of Kurdistan". The Turkish representative, Ismet Pasha, declared at Lausanne: "The Kurds and the Turks are the essential components of the Republic of Turkey. The Kurds are not a minority but a nation; the government in Ankara is the government of the Turks as well as of the Kurds."
After the Treaty of Lausanne, Ankara's policy changed. The new state was designed in accordance with Turkish interests. The Kurds' existence was denied. The Kurdish language, the practice of Kurdish culture, even the concepts of "Kurdish" and "Kurdistan" were forbidden. The Kemalist leadership paid not the slightest attention to the multi-cultural structure of Anatolia, which was in fact a mosaic of different ethnic groups. Article 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne, according to which the citizens of Turkey have the right to freely use their respective languages in all areas of life, was trampled upon, and the Kurdish language was forbidden in the educational system and the printed media. Speaking about the Kurds and criticizing the oppression of them was held to be a severe crime and was massively punished.
In 1925 the Kurds, led by Sheik Said, rose up against this policy. But this uprising was brutally suppressed; tens of thousands of Kurds were killed and driven into exile. There were more Kurdish uprisings in Ararat in 1930 and in Dersim in 1938. The Turkish state waged war in Kurdistan on a permanent basis. After 1938, there was a peaceful pause that lasted about 20 years. Eventually, the Kurds - who had no national rights and were being subjected to massive oppression, who were forced into poverty and ignorance, who saw all peaceful and legal avenues of political struggle closed off to them - once again began to arm themselves against the cruel oppression of the Turkish state. Since 1979, Turkey has ruled Kurdistan through military law, a State of Emergency, and a dirty war.
Similar developments unfolded in the other parts of Kurdistan. The Kurds living within the borders of Iraq, or southern Kurdistan, have also been resisting oppression since World War I. They staged uprisings that were led first by Sheik Mahmud Barzenci (1919-1923), then by Sheik Ahmed Barzani and his brother Mustafa Barzani (1933 and later). These uprisings also ended in defeat. But in Iraq, at no point was Kurdish identity denied. Moreover, because of the uprisings the Kurds were granted certain cultural rights. They were given schools, universities, radio broadcasts etc. In this part of Kurdistan, Kurdish culture is relatively well-developed.
The greatest Kurdish uprising in this part of Kurdistan began in 1961 under Mustafa Barzani and lasted until 1970. In 1970, the Kurds reached an agreement with the central government concerning an autonomous region. However, the government in Baghdad stalled the Kurds and ignored the conditions of the agreement. For this reason, the war broke out again in 1975. With several pauses, this struggle lasted until 1991.
The war against the Kurds has been expensive for Iraq. In order to halt Iran's support of the Kurds, the Saddam Hussein regime initially made territorial concessions to Iran. Then, to win back these areas, it started the destructive eight-year war against Iran which devastated Kurdistan. After the Iran-Iraq war ended, Iraq moved on to invade Kuwait.
Saddam Hussein suffered a massive defeat in his war against the US and Coalition forces. The Kurds were initially subjected to mass expulsion, but later a United Nations declaration created a security zone for them. The refugees returned to their homeland. In what is now known as "northern Iraq", i.e. southern Kurdistan, the Kurds created a parliament and a national government. But the Iraqi problem has still not been solved today. The years of UN embargo kept the Iraqi Kurds in an extremely difficult situation.
The state of Iran has practiced a policy of oppression against the Kurds similar to that of Turkey's Kemalist regime. After World War II, when Iran was occupied in the north by the Soviet Union and in the south by Great Britain, the Kurds were able to organized themselves. The Democratic Party of Kurdistan was founded and subsequently the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad was proclaimed. Soon the government in Tehran, with the political support of Great Britain and America, annihilated the Republic of Mahabad. When the Shah's regime ended in 1978, this part of Kurdistan could once again enjoy freedom. Soon followed the attacks of the new regime of the mullahs. The armed resistance to this regime that began in 1979 is still continuing today. Lately, the Iranians have begun to alter their policy toward the Kurds as nations in the region adjust to the changing geo-political realities of regime change and increased US intervention.
In summary, the Kurdish people have continually resisted the cruel oppression and colonialization of them in these three major parts of Kurdistan, both before and after World War I, up to the present day. They have struggled to keep alive their identity, claim their national rights, and freely determine their own destiny. During this struggle, the Kurds have lost hundreds of thousands of their people and have been the victims of mass expulsions. Tremendous suffering has been inflicted on them. This is in fact a case of genocide. Neither the League of Nations nor the United Nations have lived up to their responsibilities in the face of the Kurdish tragedy.
Geography and Population
The number of Kurds in the four parts of Kurdistan and within the borders of the four countries that have divided it up between themselves totals about 35 million. This makes the Kurds, after the Arabs, Turks, and Persians, the fourth-largest nation in the Near East.
Kurdistan, which has since time immemorial been inhabited by the Kurds, has a territory of 500,000 square km, which is as large as that of France. In other words, the Kurds are not a minority in their country; they are the majority. The Kurdish question is not the problem of a minority of the population of this or that country; it is the question of a divided country and a nation. Like all other nations, the Kurds too have the right to self-determination. The borders that divide Kurdistan are neither natural, economic, nor cultural borders. They are artificial borders that have been drawn against the will of the Kurdish people according to the interests of the forces that did the dividing and the balance of power. In many cases these borders have divided villages, towns, even families, and have had divisive and destructive effects on economic, social, and cultural life.
The largest part of Kurdistan, which in terms of both its population and its territory makes up about one-half of the total, lies in the north inside the state borders of Turkey. This part amounts to one-third of the total territory of Turkey, and includes more than twenty provinces in the "eastern and northeastern regions". Other parts, according to their size, are eastern Kurdistan (within the borders of Iran), southern Kurdistan (within the borders of Iraq), and Kurdish areas within the borders of Syria.
In all of these parts a large number of the inhabitants - between 80 and 90% - are Kurdish. A certain proportion of the Kurds have lived since earlier times, or because of the migrations and refugee movements of recent times, in other regions and in the large cities of these countries. If we count these as well, then about 18 to 20 million Kurds live within the borders of Turkey, 8 to 10 million in Iran, 5 million in Iraq, and 1.5 million in Syria. About one-third of the labor migrants who have left Turkey in the past 20 to 30 years and gone to Europe are Kurds. Combined with those who have fled to Europe in recent years for political and economic reasons, the number of Kurds living in European countries comes to about 1 million.
Natural Resources and Economic and Social Structure
With regard to its mineral resources, Kurdistan is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Most of the zone extending from the Zagros mountain range to the Mediterranean, which has been known as the "Fertile Crescent" since early times, falls within Kurdistan. Kurdistan is rich in agriculture. The plains between the mountain ranges, especially in the warm south, are well-suited to agriculture because of the composition of their soil and their favorable climatic conditions. The plateaus and mountain slopes have extremely fruitful meadowland. All types of grain, as well as high-quality fruit and vegetables, grow in the soil of Kurdistan. The Harran Plateau and the areas around Cezire and Mossul are grain reservoirs for the entire region. Differences in temperature and elevation between the north and the south have resulted in the fact that Kurdistan has always been an important country for animal husbandry. Furthermore, Kurdistan is a reservoir of meat, butter, cheese, wool, and animal hides for the Middle East.
With regard to deposits of petroleum and other minerals, Kurdistan is a wealthy country. A large part of Iraq's oil resources is in Kurdistan, in the regions around Kirkuk and Hanikin. A part of the important oil resources of Iran is also in Kurdistan, in the region around Kirmanshah. Turkey's oil resources are almost exclusively in Kurdistan (in the regions around Batman, Diyarbakir, and Adiyaman). Syria's oil resources are also mainly in Kurdistan, in the region around Cezire. Moreover, our land is rich in mineral resources such as iron, copper, chrome, coal, silver, gold, uranium, and phosphates.
Furthermore, there are rivers in Kurdistan that are at least as important, if not more important, than oil. The plateaus and mountains of Kurdistan, which are characterized by heavy rainfall and in winter a heavy coat of snow, are a water reservoir for the Near and Middle East. This is the source of the famous Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as well as numerous other smaller rivers. With their water, the Tigris and the Euphrates give life not only to the Mesopotamian plain and the southern part of Kurdistan but also to Iraq and Syria. These rivers, which flow down from heights of three to four thousand meters above sea level, are also very significant for the production of energy. Iraq and Syria have built numerous dams across these rivers and their tributaries. But the most important ones are a series of dams that were built by Turkey as part of the GAP project (Southeast Anatolia Project). The GAP project is still not complete, but it already supplies a significant proportion of Turkey's electrical-energy needs. When the project is finished, both the production of electricity and agricultural production, through the irrigation of this part of Kurdistan, will increase.
In antiquity and the Middle Ages, Kurdistan lay on the trade route between the Far East and Europe (the Silk and Spice Route). In recent history as well, this significance has continued. Interestingly enough, Kurdistan is today the most suitable region for the petroleum pipelines of Iraq and the Caucasus.
Kurdistan's extraordinary wealth and its strategic location are the most important reasons why the country is still divided and the people still subjected to so much suffering. For the abovementioned reasons, Kurdistan drew the attention of the Western colonizing states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The English, the French, and the Russians struggled for control over our country. Then, after World War I, they once again divided it up according to their own interests.
The Russians pulled out of the region after the October Revolution of 1917. The English and the French left the region as administrators after Syria and Iraq became independent. But their economic relations and their influence continue to exist in the region. Not only the Republic of Turkey and Iran but also the newly formed national states of Syria and Iraq have done all that was necessary to keep control over those parts of Kurdistan that were granted to them and to assimilate and exterminate the Kurds. They have brutally beaten down Kurdish uprisings. In this regard they have in most cases cooperated and reached agreements among themselves. They have plundered the riches of Kurdistan and prevented it from developing economically, socially, and culturally.
For these reasons, people live in poverty in a wealthy country. The colonial conditions, the constant insecurity, and the war have prevented Kurds from developing agriculture, trade, or industry. The capital that has been gained in Kurdistan has always flowed out of the country. The society has not been able to modernize, and the feudal social structures of the past have not been dissolved totally. The tribal social structure in the rural areas, the system of large-scale land ownership, the religious sects and the sheikdom associated with it have persisted. Even today, Kurdistan is ruled by a semi-feudal social system. There is no significant bourgeoisie or working class in the modern sense in its social system.
The dirty wars that are being waged by the colonial states in order to beat down the stubborn Kurdish partisan wars and popular rebellions - which have been going on since 1961 in southern Kurdistan (Iraq), since 1979 in eastern Kurdistan (Iran), and since 1984 in northern Kurdistan - have devastated our country. In view of this situation, in which everything is being brutally destroyed and people are fleeing en masse in fear for their lives, it would be senseless to expect any economic or social progress to take place.
Why Has the Kurdish Resistance Movement Been Unsuccessful to Date?
The twentieth century has witnessed the downfall of the worldwide system of colonialism and the foundation of new states in former colonies and dependent countries. Why have the Kurds, with their long history and a rich culture, not attained their freedom, even though they have continually waged resistance since the beginning of the nineteenth century and paid a high price for it?
There are internal and external reasons for this. The feudal fragmentation within Kurdish society is one such internal reason. The tribal social structure, divisions between religious movements and confessions, and the institutions of large-scale land ownership and the sheikdom have always been obstacles to the unification of national forces. The medieval value structure of this system has resulted in the fact that a national consciousness has arisen only in part. The true reasons that have prevented the Kurdish national movement from succeeding are external ones.
Initially the Kurds fought against two great empires, the Ottoman and the Persian Empires. The balance of power was not in favor of the Kurds, and they had no external support whatsoever. The Balkan countries, for example, attained their independence through the support of powerful Western states such as Russia, Austria, England, and France. It was the English and the French that separated Arabia from the Ottoman Empire. These were the same powers that, in cooperation with the government in Ankara, carved up Kurdistan once again. The Kurdish rebellions that followed World War I were opposed not only by Turkey and Iran but also by the French and the English, which had Syria and Iraq as part of their mandates. The English in particular used their own forces to put down the Kurdish national rebellion in Iraq.
After Syria and Iraq had gained their independence, the Kurdish national movement faced the alliance of these four states. One of the most detrimental effects of the division is that the territory of Kurdistan is surrounded by these four dividing states, i.e. by enemy forces. The Kurds have no connections with the outside world, either via land or sea. It is very difficult to set up contacts with the outside world. Even if friendly forces did exist which wanted to help the Kurds from the outside, there are no routes through which this support could reach Kurdistan directly. If the Kurdish national movement begins an armed rebellion in any of the parts of Kurdistan, it therefore requests a neighboring country to provide the necessary base areas or logistic support. But this neighboring country is still one of the four states that hold another part of Kurdistan in its control. None of them is interested in a Kurdish victory. These states merely play the Kurdish card against each other when they have problems with one another from time to time. Such relations are extremely problematic for the Kurdish national movement and occasionally bring Kurdish organizations into a situation where they are fighting against one another. Aside from this, the Kurdish national movement has never received any substantial international support. The basic reason for this is that large and small states that are not directly involved in this issue put their own interests in the foreground and do not want to take a position that is opposed to the four states of the region (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria).
What Is the Solution?
The Kurdish national movement has not been successful, for all of the reasons named above. On the other hand, the four states in question have not succeeded in their efforts to melt down the Kurds through assimilation or to eliminate them. On the contrary, Kurdish national consciousness has strengthened from year to year, overcome certain feudal obstacles, and acquired the character of a mass movement. The Kurdish national movement has organized itself and now includes all social classes and levels. Kurds in the various parts of Kurdistan have moved closer together. In all of these countries, Kurdish resistance has grown stronger; in the three largest parts of Kurdistan it has taken on the form of armed resistance, which it has simply been impossible to eradicate.
It has also cost the oppressive countries dearly to deny Kurdish identity, deprive Kurds of their rights, and implement a policy of oppression against them. The governments of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran are compelled to wage continual war. This war consumes their financial resources and costs them human lives. In this respect Iraq, which has to deal with a de facto partition, is the most interesting example. But the situation in Turkey is no more rosy than it is in Iraq.
For Turkey, the policy of oppression against the Kurds is the greatest obstacle to democracy and domestic peace. One of the main causes of the frequent military coups in Turkey is the Kurdish question. The dirty war that has been waged for 11 years against the Kurdish people is consuming resources. Turkey's direct expenditures for the war amount to between 8 and 10 billion US dollars annually. The economy of Kurdistan has been totally crippled; agriculture, trade, and animal husbandry have collapsed. A point has been reached at which the Kurdish question has precipitated a serious economic and political crisis in Turkey. Violence stretches over the entire social life of the country like a net. Chauvinistic nationalism and militarism are intensifying.
The government and official spokesman continue to blame the PKK - the so-called "handful of terrorists" - for the miserable situation. But the main responsibility of the present misery and all the suffering that has been inflicted on both peoples must be borne by the Turkish state itself. The point that has been reached today is the result of a wrong-headed policy that has been implemented for seventy years.
There is no doubt that the army or the police cannot solve this problem. A peaceful solution is possible through dialogue and the recognition of Kurdish rights, and this is in the interests of both peoples. Thus peace and democracy could move into the country, and Turkey as a whole and Kurdistan could enter into a better phase of development. The policy of Turkey that has been followed so intensely for the past seventy years, which has led the country ever deeper into an impasse Groups of businessmen and workers, intellectuals and the media are increasingly allying themselves with the point of view of a peaceful solution. The international situation is also forcing Turkey toward a change of course.
In recent years, the Kurdish question has developed from a regional problem into an international one. In this connection, the UN resolution to protect the Iraqi Kurds is extremely significant. Turkey, which wants to be accepted into the European Union, must adapt its political and cultural life to European standards, and put into practical effect the international treaties that it has signed.
The solution of the Kurdish question is moving closer. To make a peaceful solution as soon as possible, the peace initiatives at the national and international levels must be strengthened. The Socialist Party of Kurdistan advocates a peaceful and just solution. Despite all the oppression and provocations to which the Kurdish people have been subjected, we have opted from the very beginning for political and peaceful methods of struggle. The peaceful coexistence of Turks, Kurds and Iraqis is possible if Kurds are given autonomy in a federation. This solution is similar to those developed in Spain, Belgium, or Switzerland. In all parts of Kurdistan, the existence and rights of the Kurdish people must be respected. Federal solutions based on equal rights must be devised.
The question of the unity of the Kurdish nation is a question of the future. The Middle East region will experience great changes in the future, as other regions have done. The despotic, oppressive, and primitive regimes of today will go, relations between the peoples of the region will improve, and there will be a phase of rapprochement, as is happening now in Europe. The borders will lose their significance. Artificial borders, which today divide Kurdistan with barbed wire and land mines, will then also disappear.
NOTES on Kurdistan and the Struggle:
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=923
Above is good article on Kurd peace and Kirkuk
http://members.aol.com/KHilfsvere/Kurds.html#Kurds_Kurds
THE KURDISH QUESTION - ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT SITUATION
Kemal BURKAY
Jalal Talabani used skills learned during his obligatory Iraqi army duty to fight in and help lead the first Kurdish revolt in 1961. He subsequently became a top official in the Kurdish Democratic Party of Mustafa Barzani. After the collapse of the Kurdish revolt in 1975, precipitated by a U.S. policy shift, Talabani and other Kurdish intellectuals launched a more modern and less clan-based movement, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which then began its own armed resistance inside Iraq.
The split reflects a core problem for the Kurds, the world's largest ethnic group without a country. The rivalry between the two Kurdish parties has diverted attention from their long-term goal. Disputes over revenue-sharing and land led to two years of sporadic clashes. In 1996, Hussein's intervention helped the Kurdistan Democratic Party push the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan back to the Iranian border, leading Talabani to call Barzani a traitor.
Talabani now controls the eastern sector of "liberated" Kurdistan, Barzani the western area. Both have their own administrations and military forces. But they share a national assembly originally elected in 1992. It reconvened last month for the first time in six years, a symbolic move reflecting new attempts at unity mediated by the United States. Talabani's headquarters are in Sulaymaniyah.
In 1946 Mustafa Barzani founded the Partiya Demokrata Kurdistane (PDK) [or Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP)]. In 1959 this was renamed the Kurdistan Democratic Party to signify that it stood for equal rights of all peoples who fell within its geographic jurisdiction. The Iraqi branch of the party eventually adopted a blue and yellow banner. The yellow again represents the sun (light, life, etc.) and is considered the principal colour of the party. The blue represents the "farsightedness and loftiness" of the Party's ideals. Barzani's son Massoud now leads the party, and it represents the more traditional and tribal parts of Kurdish society in Iraq.
The PKK operates abroad (i.e. Europe) as the ENRK, formed in 1985.
This flag is much more commonly seen than the party banner, and has apparently achieved the status of flag of Anatolian Kurdistan (and almost certainly would be the national flag if the PKK achieved any sort of independence for the region). In the official party emblem, the green border takes the form of a laurel wreath open at the top, and a hawk perched on a rock is superimposed on the star along with two automatic rifles.
News Los Angeles Times Interview By Robin Wright (The Times' chief diplomatic correspondent and the author of four books on international affairs)November 24, 2002
Kurdish Eyes on Iraq's Future
http://www.krg.org/news/roundups/Nov02/Talabani-interview-LA-Times-Nov-2002.asp
SOURCES AND REFRENCES
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Ethnicity/Kurdish/Politics/
Loyal Kurd Faces Banishment. - http://www.ezboard.com
... Banishment. To All: Mr. Houshyar Abbas Mustafa is an Iraqi Kurd, a
member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). He presently ...
pub17.ezboard.com/ fhumanrightsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=11.topic
Google Directory - Society > Ethnicity > Kurdish > Politics
... Patriotic Union of Kurdistan - PUK - http://www.puk.org/ A political party
aiming to achieve self-determination for the Kurdish people in Iraq. ...
http://www.humanrights.de/~kurdweb/keo/ english/politics/party/PUK.html - 7k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from http://www.humanrights.de ]
U.N. report on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
Chapter V, section C focuses on "honor killings"
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/b72f2cfe9aa28e58802568ab003c572e
News Los Angeles Times Interview By Robin Wright (The Times' chief diplomatic correspondent and the author of four books on international affairs)November 24, 2002
Kurdish Eyes on Iraq's Future
http://www.krg.org/news/roundups/Nov02/Talabani-interview-LA-Times-Nov-2002.asp
One notorious honor killing in January was of an Iraqi Kurd woman living in Sweden who had campaigned against honor killings. After she had a relationship with a Swedish man her father shot and killed her. The father is now living in the Kurdish province of Dohuk, out of Patriotic Union control and thus legally untouchable for now.
But there are success stories, too. Faraj points at a recent issue of the Independent Women's Center's newspaper, which has a photo of a recent honor killing victim whose alleged killers were arrested. Because of the new law, she says, "this man is in jail now."
Joshua Kucera is a freelance journalist based in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
For more information:The Independent Women's Center newspaper, Rewan
(Kurdish and Arabic):http://www.kurdmedia.com/rewan/
Amnesty International Links to information about honor killings http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/amnesty/articles.html
For more information:
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/...
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