For those who still do not know, Kurdistan, the land
of the Kurds, is a geographical extension of at least 400,000 km2 along
mountain ranges that underpin the natural boundaries between the states of
Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. It has an estimated population of about forty
million people. There is not certainty about this number because countries that
govern this fragmented territory have made every effort to prevent reliable
censuses. Their ancestors date back to prehistoric times. Shanidar cave and the
archaeological site of Jarmo in Iraq, Gobelki Tepe in Turkey, etc, are some of
its most famous evidence. Moreover, studies conducted by prestigious
geneticists qualify Kurds’ ancestors as one of the three oldest indigenous
peoples of the Middle East along with Assyrians and Jews.
Artificially divided following other interests than
their own, Kurds lost the train of history with the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923.
Since then we speak of Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey instead of a
single Kurdistan. Its strategic location, its deposits of oil under its soil, its
rich mining resources, the water gathers in the mountains and crosses its
fertile slopes and valleys and its agricultural wealth, made Kurdistan the object of desire of the victorious powers of the
First World War and the state governments of the emerging countries after them.
The traditional tribal structure and the weak urban infrastructure of the Kurds
as well as the strong rivalry among the most notable personalities have facilitated
internal dissension which has stopped any united state possibility.
Rebellion after rebellion, war after war, Kurds have
shown that they are a people who love their history, their culture - despite
speaking four different dialects and having different religious beliefs - and,
above all, freedom. Subjected to a brutal genocide by Turkish and Iraqi
governments and forced relocation by them and Iran, their fate was known, or
rather, recognized after the bombing of Halabja in 1988 and the Anfal campaign
of extermination conducted by Saddam Hussein. The uprising of early 1991 after
the Gulf War left them in the north and the Shiites in the south, at the mercy
of Saddam's revenge. The application of an air exclusion area allowed them to
continue living on their land but deprived of food, medicine and all kinds of
supplies as an added reprisal by the Baath regime.
In parallel, successive Turkish governments maintained
the policy of prohibiting the use of the Kurdish language, teaching and
tradition to twenty million people living in its territory while punishing
entire villages under the guise of purging PKK guerrillas.
In Syria, the Baath regime of Hafiz al-Assad, simply
denied its existence, depriving them even of identification documents.
The invasion of Iraq in 2003, allowed the Kurds of
Iraq, or rather South Kurdistan, put in place a regional government, making the
three provinces of Erbil, Duhok and Suleimania a haven of peace in the chaotic
Iraq. Despite corruption and agreed bipartisanship, the KRG has developed a
frenetic activity reconstruction. Its recovery is exemplary in such a difficult
surrounding.
Their Kurdish brothers in Syria have not had the same
luck. They are now suffering a new episode of cruelty. The Syrian Civil War has
allowed the entry of numerous Islamist terrorist groups: Al Qaeda, Isis, Jabhat
to Nursa, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, forcing Kurds to organize
and turn once again to arms to defend themselves. In Rojava - Kurdish west - the
name given to Kurdistan in Syria, the YPG, People's Protection Units have
managed to control the Kurdish areas of the country, namely, Afrin, Kobani and
Jazira, ensuring the safety of its citizens, both Kurds and other ethnic
groups. But its situation, like all non-Islamist resistance has proven to be
very precarious. Unable to get serious and strong international support to
first destroy the terrorists and then depose Bashar al-Assad - although some
would argue that the Kurds are collaborating with the regime - its moral,
sometimes falters as in the last weeks.
A Kurd Rojava told me a sometime ago, about the desperation
and helplessness in solitude to be found on the one hand, from the fragmented
opposition to the regime and, secondly, from the International Community. Up in
arms, Kurds constantly monitored the border with Turkey due to the entering of
many Islamist terrorists, apparently with the tacit consent of the government
of Ankara. Turkey, under no circumstances, is willing to accept an autonomous
Kurdish zone, much less independent, and has willing risked preference with criminal
ISIS before the Kurds until now.
Apart from these factors, there is a healthy and
necessary ideological division among Kurds as in any plural society. There are
two parties or factions that bring together most of the Kurds in Syria, the DUP
the Democratic Union Party, more belligerent than the second largest group, the
Kurdish National Council or KNC trend. Besides there is a strong connection between
the PDU and the PKK or Kurdistan Workers Party from Turkey and the KNC with the
KDP or Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq. As if this ideological division was
not enough, each party supports a different faction of the Syrian resistance.
The first has joined the National Coordination Body while the second has joined
in August 2013 the Syrian National Coalition.
The international community took no interest in the
situation in Syria until a major humanitarian crisis happened. The slow
reaction will push the country into a more complex and intractable theatre of
war than the one that took place in Lebanon. The Turkish blockade of the
Kurdish military aid and volunteers will only increase the loss of lives. And the
sole bombardment by the International coalition, though helpful, will not halt
the advance of ISIS. The Kurds, once more have been left to their own, a
mistake that not only will have dramatic consequences for them but the future
of the whole region.
