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Kurds,
numbering more than 28 million, are perhaps the most scattered
nation that doesn’t have a state, despite its large
population. The reasons for its being one of the most deprived
and persecuted nations involve several factors that also
describe the mindset of Kurds.
Kurds
are basically Sunni Muslims, with only a fraction of them
Shiites or others. More than 40% of Kurds live in Turkey, where
they make up 20% of the population, forming the second biggest
ethnic group in the country. In Iraq, 20% of the population is
Kurdish, occupying mainly northern Iraq. And in Iran, Iranian
census estimates put the percentage of Kurds at around 15%, but
observers put the figure higher. What the Kurds have in common
with the majority ethnic groups in these three countries is
Islam.
Unison
With Other Nations
Islam
was brought to the Kurds by Arabs in the seventh century of the
Christian era. The ultimate binding force, Islam, made both the
two nations conquer the Byzantine Empire and crush the Crusaders
under the banner of Salah Ad-Din (Saladin), who was an ethnic
Kurd. Soon after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, nationalism and
the urge for a nation-state forced the Kurds to play into the
hands of imperial powers, who promised them a homeland in the
Treaty of Sevres in 1920.
Western
Hands on Kurdish Neck
Though
this promise never materialized, the Kurds became the tools for
conflict and instability into the hands of the ever-selfish
Western powers, who eyed the vast oil reserves in Kurdistan.
Whenever
there were pro-Western governments in Ankara, Baghdad or Tehran,
imperialists suggested to their allies to suppress and usurp the
rights of the Kurdish minority, by force also if needed. Kemal
Pasha’s Turkey put down Kurdish revolts for autonomy in 1924
and 1945, brutally suppressing civilians with the help of
Western weapons and aid. The Kemalist army banned the use of the
Kurdish language and vowed to erase every sign of Kurdish
nationalism.
Kurdistan:
A Dream
Some
of the Kurds think independence is the only solution to
their ills. |
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Years
of persecution forced the Kurdish nation in Turkey to wage an
armed independence movement in 1984. The Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) took up arms, thanks to the full-fledge support of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). By 1990, the PKK had captured
some strategic points in southern Turkey and northern Iraq. It
is noteworthy that with the open support of Baghdad, the Turkish
Kurds enjoyed and intensified the battle. The reason for
Baghdad’s support was that the Iraqi Kurdish parties didn’t
support the PKK due to differences with its leadership. Iraqi
Kurds were already split into two — KDP of Masud Barzani and
PUK of Jalal Talbani — and Iraq wanted to tame them by aiding
the PKK.
The
Iraq-Iran War and the Kurdish Card
Iran
never wanted a strong Sunni Muslim community in the
predominantly Shiite Iran. Tehran aided the Iraqi Kurds and
sought to destroy their understanding with Baghdad on the issue
of autonomy. Fighting was fanned by the pro-Western Shah’s
regime, which was also trying to settle a border dispute with
Iraq and exerted pressure on Baghdad by aiding Iraqi Kurds. The
aid was soon withdrawn when leaders of both countries settled
their dispute. Iraqi Kurds soon put down their arms and agreed
to live under Iraq’s constitutional framework. But soon after
the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), Iraqi Kurds were playing into the
hands of Khomeni’s Iranian army, and the Iraqis were busy
finding gaps between the Iraqi Kurdish leadership.
Iraq
successfully quelled the Kurdish rebellion, allegedly using
American poison gas on the Iranian army and their Kurdish
supporters in Halabja near the Iranian border. Washington’s
role in the incident remains the most questionable, providing
the gas and exerting pressure on Iraqi army to use it against
their enemy to test its lethality.
The
Gulf War and Iraqi Kurds
The
Gulf War brought the Baghdad-Washington honeymoon to an end, and
the US fanned the Kurdish rebellion in northern Iraq, delivering
arms and sending CIA agents in the area to help their new
clients establish a de-facto state. Iraqi Kurds managed to
escape from Baghdad’s clutches and exercise “self-rule.”
In 1992, they had their first elections and assembly, and a new
leader was chosen. However, the government remained handicapped
due to the differences between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). On the KDP’s
request, in 1996 Saddam sent 30,000 troops, which overran the
PUK’s strongholds of Arbil and Sulaimaniyah, interestingly
under the US-UK monitored no-fly zone. The KDP also helped
Turkey to eliminate PKK bases in northern Iraq and put down the
Kurdish separatist movement in southeastern Turkey.
Kurds
at the Crossroads
In
1990, during our journey from Kuwait to Karachi after the Iraqi
invasion of Kuwait, we spent five days in northern Iraq and
southeastern Turkey, the Kurdish stronghold. Though I was only 9
at that time, I knew the divisions between Arabs, Turks and
Kurds and my father briefed me about the conflict. When a Kurd
in the Turkish town of Tutvan was asked about Saddam Hussein, he
replied angrily, “I'd like to kill him with a dagger in his
throat. He is the man responsible for the destruction of our
nation.” But when my father asked him which group of Kurds he
belonged to or supported, he had no clear answer to supply. He
also admitted the nation didn't know who their allies were and
who their foes were.
The
situation is the same after 13 years. The Kurds abandoned their
separatist movement in Turkey soon after the capture of PKK
supremo Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured in Nairobi by Turkish
and CIA agents in a joint operation. The rest of Ocalan’s fire
was extinguished by Ankara’s unnatural partners – the KDP.
Even
in Iraq, where they enjoyed freedom to some extent, Kurds were
never united; at least their leadership is divided as ever.
Barzani and Talabani never honored their promises, resulting in
bloody clashes and the deaths of more than 25,000 Kurds. The
same animosity gave birth to Ansar-al-Islam, an Islamic movement
inspired by the Taliban Islamic movement in Afghanistan. The
Ansar-al-Islam, accused by the West of being allies of al-Qaeda,
had captured areas in Kurdistan and established peace and
security
US/UK
War in Iraq and Kurdistan
Remaining
divided as ever with no clear objectives set, the Kurds are a
nation in distress. They have no visible goals and no unified
leadership. Some of the Kurds think independence is the only
solution to their ills; some of them demand a greater Kurdistan,
comprising Kurdish areas of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. The
rest of them think their restlessness, useless struggles, and
playing into enemy’s hands — be it Iran, Iraq, Turkey or the
West — are to blame for their misery.
During
the US/UK war against Iraq, Kurds have been puppets with no
weight, like juniper trees to be cut down for firewood.
Washington’s covert support of Ankara’s plans to overrun
northern Turkey to avert any kind of Kurdish statehood has
forced the scattered Kurds to think about their existence and
future. Badly frustrated after suffering humiliations, defeats,
defections and persecution, the Kurds are awaiting a man who can
unite them, show them their destiny, and set them on the path to
prosperity. A man standing on the grave of Salah Ad-Din in
Damascus prays with tears in his eyes. When approached and asked
about his supplication, the elderly man says, “I’m asking
Allah to bring a Salah Ad-Din to this age, as it was truly he
who brought glory to both Kurds and Islam. I don’t believe in
reincarnation but I ask Allah to help us by sending Salah Ad-Din
II, a leader of his caliber.”
Khawaja
M. Moinuddin is a news editor in Dharb-i-Mumin, a
Pakistani weekly newspaper that covers Islamic issues in
Pakistan and around the world.
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