We have recently watched as the brave Kurdish Peshmerga fought ISIS to a draw in and around Kobani, Syria. Kobani is on the Syrian border with Turkey. Turkey sent troops to the border but refused to help the Kurds in Kobani. In fact they turned their guns inward and were there only to protect Turkey from any advances by ISIS into Turkey.
THE PLIGHT OF THE KURDS
By John Karas
We watched and listened while the Obama Administration refused to help the Peshmerga by sending arms and ammunition to the Kurds. The US only sent relief supplies into Kobani, some of which wound up in ISIS hands. In the last 100 years (the ending of WW1) the West has continued to turn their backs on the Kurdish and Armenian people.
The Kurds show up in history around the 4th century. By the 9th century they were defeated by the Arabs and forced to convert to Islam. They are primarily Sunni Muslims. After the Ottoman Empire defeated the Arabs, the Kurds fell into the Ottoman Empire. The word Kurds means Nomads.
At the end of WW1 the Ottoman Empire, along with the Central Powers, was defeated by the Allies. Towards the end of the war a young Turkish military officer rallied Ottoman Turkey to push the Greeks and British out of Turkey. By now the British had no more will or manpower to continue fighting an extension of WW1 and modern Turkey was the result. The Conference of San Remo held between April 19 and 26 and the Treaty of Sevres signed by the Allies on August 10, 1920 did, among other things, provide for an autonomous Kurdistan. Despite the fact that Turkey was a newly minted country they forced the Allies into replacing the above two treaties with the Treaty of Lausanne signed in 1923 and with it a Kurdistan disappeared. It seems that with all the nation building that was going on in Paris in 1919 the Kurds had no spokesman and, among the three prominent leaders at the time, British prime minister David Lloyd George, French premier Georges Clemenceau, and American President Woodrow Wilson, no sponsor. No one put forth or championed a “Kurdistan”.
The Kurds represent 25% of the Turkish population – a sizable minority. For a reference, the African-American population in America is 13%. Also making things difficult for the Turks, this minority is primarily concentrated in one location, Southeastern Turkey. While the Kurds never really assimilated into Turkey, things really heated up in the latter part of the 20th century. From about 1984 to 1999 a group pushing for Kurdish autonomy, the PKK (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistani) or Kurdish Workers Party ravaged Turkey with acts of terror. However as one former terrorist once explained “one man’s terrorist is an other man’s patriot”. The Kurds achieved some concessions out of this terrorism but no autonomy.
So we jump forward to today and the siege of Kobani. Today there are up to 30 million Kurds living in the Middle East primarily in Turkey (25% of the Turkish population), Iraq (17% of Iraq’s population), Iran (10% of Iran’s population), and Syria (9% of their population). The Kurds are industrious, which is more than you can say about most of the rest of the Middle East. The Peshmerga represents a forceful military, they have organizational skills, and they live on lands that have oil. They are also friends of the US and, believe it or not, they have relations with Israel. A Kurdistan would give the Middle East two US leaning democracies in an area where we have few friends. Once established we would not need to contribute much to the new Kurdistan in the way of Foreign Aid as they will be able to pretty much stand up for themselves.
Inside Iran, the Kurds are the leading organized opposition group. From behind Iraqi borders, Iranian Kurds previously sent military excursions into Iran.
But there are significant barriers and many extenuating circumstances preventing a Kurdistan from ever coming into existence. By far the biggest roadblock is Turkey. An independent Kurdistan might embolden Turkey’s Kurdish population to demand autonomy within Turkey or even to try and wrestle land from Turkey into a newly created Kurdistan. While Turkey remains strong however, Iraq and Syria do not. Remember these are countries whose boundaries did not exist until Britain and France drew them and put into place rulers who they thought would keep everyone happy. So we only have about a 100 years of existence here. Unless Iraq’s new administration can keep everyone happy, Iraq could break into three countries with Kurdistan comprising what is now the Northern third of Iraq. But ironically the Kurds of Iraq seem to be happy with an autonomous region within a confederation of Iraq. Would this be because they would not fear losing any oil territory? And who knows what will happen in Syria.
The Obama administration’s terrible Middle Eastern foreign policy would be substantially strengthened and the Middle East would have a strong secular presence with a Kurdistan. Turkey would have to re-evaluate their Kurdish policy and Iran would have to be weary of a Kurdish opposition on its border. Let’s hope that the Western powers will finally sponsor a Kurdish homeland and this Nation can have a Country.
