Why are the Kurds Denied Self-Determination ?

Kurdistan is about to conduct a referendum for independence on the 25th of September 2017. The Kurds who have aspired for a national home and got one for less than a year: the Republic of Mahabad between January 22 to December 15, 1946, are willing to try again. However, the world seems up in arms, conjuring every pretense and political trick to either delay, abort or annul the effects of such referendum.

Many justifications have been put forward but none are morally solid or practically convincing. The countries that host Kurds, apart from  Iraq, are Turkey, Iran and Syria. The logic goes that if the Kurds in Iraq declare an independent State, all other Kurdish minorities would follow. But that is simply untrue. To have a nation, one needs to have a well-defined territory, a majority vote by an aspiring population, sufficient resources to build and maintain a State apparatus, an army, a flag, a currency, a government, and the recognition of the U.N., among many other fundamentals. Only Kurdistan (Iraq) has such attributes. The region has been run semi-autonomously since 2003, date of the second Gulf war, has a Regional Government in Arbil that has almost nothing to do with the Central Government of Baghdad, a well-trained fighting militia (the Peshmerga), a police force capable of maintaining law and order, an airport, a flag, a production of 550,000 oil per day (as much as Oman), vast gas reserves and a pipeline that links its energy sources to the world via the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Where is the problem?

The US should not care if the Kurds of Iraq secede from Baghdad. The US’ mission is to pacify Iraq, annihilate ISIS, and bring about law and order so it can finally cut its ties and pack back home. The Kurds of Iraq have required little from the US Treasury compared to the Central Government of Baghdad. The Kurds caused no harm to the US troops, and have bravely fought on the side of the US army since the First Gulf War. Why then is the US putting pressure on the Kurds to delay or dilute the upcoming referendum? Isn’t the US all for self-determination, liberty and democracy? Isn’t the Jeffersonian republic built on people’s unbending will and unalienable right to freedom? Some hundred years ago, it is told that the Kurdish rebel leader Sheikh Mahmoud Barzanji carried in his pocket a treasured document. It was a copy of Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points from his 1918 speech on the Aims of War and Peace Terms. Like many minorities of the Middle East after World War I, the Kurds were truly inspired by the American’s policy of self-determination. And yet it was the US who would contribute in denying the Kurds the same right at every opportunity.

One fails to properly understand the motives of all these players against Kurdish aspirations. Not that Kurdistan will disappear from the map and relocate in Europe or the Far East. Not that Kurdistan will magically eliminate its physical borders with Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran and make do without its neighbors, or without vital trade routes linking it to cities and markets with whom it interacted since times immemorial. Not that the Kurds of Iraq with or without a referendum will forgo their language, flag, government, Peshmerga forces, oil and gas resources and their legitimate fears and anxieties of powerful armies/regimes surrounding them.

The world should take heed that these are the same Kurds who were abandoned in 1972, by the Shah of Iran and the US after being used and exploited against Saddam and his Soviet masters. These are the same Kurds who encouraged by the US, rose up against Saddam towards the end of the First Gulf War. Saddam sent in the army and slaughtered thousands of villagers. More than 1.5 million Kurds fled through the mountains to Turkey. American troops and arms never materialized. In 2003, these same Kurds fought side-by-side with US troops against the butcher of Baghdad and in 2014, they successfully repelled ISIS at the critical junction of this war on ...

Kurdistan is about to conduct a referendum for independence on the 25th of September 2017. The Kurds who have aspired for a national home and got one for less than a year: the Republic of Mahabad between January 22 to December 15, 1946, are willing to try again. However, the world seems up in arms, conjuring every pretense and political trick to either delay, abort or annul the effects of such referendum.

Many justifications have been put forward but none are morally solid or practically convincing. The countries that host Kurds, apart from  Iraq, are Turkey, Iran and Syria. The logic goes that if the Kurds in Iraq declare an independent State, all other Kurdish minorities would follow. But that is simply untrue. To have a nation, one needs to have a well-defined territory, a majority vote by an aspiring population, sufficient resources to build and maintain a State apparatus, an army, a flag, a currency, a government, and the recognition of the U.N., among many other fundamentals. Only Kurdistan (Iraq) has such attributes. The region has been run semi-autonomously since 2003, date of the second Gulf war, has a Regional Government in Arbil that has almost nothing to do with the Central Government of Baghdad, a well-trained fighting militia (the Peshmerga), a police force capable of maintaining law and order, an airport, a flag, a production of 550,000 oil per day (as much as Oman), vast gas reserves and a pipeline that links its energy sources to the world via the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Where is the problem?

The US should not care if the Kurds of Iraq secede from Baghdad. The US’ mission is to pacify Iraq, annihilate ISIS, and bring about law and order so it can finally cut its ties and pack back home. The Kurds of Iraq have required little from the US Treasury compared to the Central Government of Baghdad. The Kurds caused no harm to the US troops, and have bravely fought on the side of the US army since the First Gulf War. Why then is the US putting pressure on the Kurds to delay or dilute the upcoming referendum? Isn’t the US all for self-determination, liberty and democracy? Isn’t the Jeffersonian republic built on people’s unbending will and unalienable right to freedom? Some hundred years ago, it is told that the Kurdish rebel leader Sheikh Mahmoud Barzanji carried in his pocket a treasured document. It was a copy of Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points from his 1918 speech on the Aims of War and Peace Terms. Like many minorities of the Middle East after World War I, the Kurds were truly inspired by the American’s policy of self-determination. And yet it was the US who would contribute in denying the Kurds the same right at every opportunity.

One fails to properly understand the motives of all these players against Kurdish aspirations. Not that Kurdistan will disappear from the map and relocate in Europe or the Far East. Not that Kurdistan will magically eliminate its physical borders with Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran and make do without its neighbors, or without vital trade routes linking it to cities and markets with whom it interacted since times immemorial. Not that the Kurds of Iraq with or without a referendum will forgo their language, flag, government, Peshmerga forces, oil and gas resources and their legitimate fears and anxieties of powerful armies/regimes surrounding them.

The world should take heed that these are the same Kurds who were abandoned in 1972, by the Shah of Iran and the US after being used and exploited against Saddam and his Soviet masters. These are the same Kurds who encouraged by the US, rose up against Saddam towards the end of the First Gulf War. Saddam sent in the army and slaughtered thousands of villagers. More than 1.5 million Kurds fled through the mountains to Turkey. American troops and arms never materialized. In 2003, these same Kurds fought side-by-side with US troops against the butcher of Baghdad and in 2014, they successfully repelled ISIS at the critical junction of this war on terror, whilst being armed and supported by US Special Forces.

Are the Kurds the Foreign Legion of America, of the West or of others? Are the Kurds the Janissaries of the modern Sultan of Turkey who would rather use them in terms of human and natural resources but deny them their independence? Are the Kurds only good to fight, battle, and die for the world to advance its own interests but not theirs? If a people is good enough to die, and die bravely as the Kurds did and do, then it has earned its right to a full life and full independence.

Reflecting on a commentators’ recent jibe in a cynical London newspaper about the upcoming Kurdish referendum saying  it was more of a dream than a reality, one cannot but recall the words of this lover of freedom and liberty namely, Thomas Jefferson who said: “I like the dreams of the future more than the history of the past”.