The Kurdish people living along the border of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey are subjected to torture, humiliation and massacres for a long time. It is an irony to note that both leaders of Iraq and Turkey -- Shiite and Sunni respectably-- warned Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, President of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Iraq with headquarter at Erbil, to desist from holding referendum to secure an independent state for the Kurdish people who are widely known as the largest oppressed ethnic group on earth. Around thirty million Kurds are living in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
During the reign of President Saddam Hussein, Kurdish people were subjected to harassment and massacres too. Saddam Hussein's military killed around 50,000 Kurds in 1980s. Iraqi Kurdish, however, succeeded to establish regional autonomy in 1992 in Northern Iraq after the United States enforced a no-fly zone across the North with the concurrence of the Security council of the United Nations following the Gulf war in 1991.
On the other hand, Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan who took arms to start bloody armed conflict with Turkey 30 years back declared in April, 2013 to end war and called on the Kurdistan workers party, known as PKK, to lay down their arms and withdraw to their bases in Iraq and accept autonomy in Turkey. That was in fact massive victory for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey who had begun negotiations with Abdullah Ocalan in Jail.
Since 1984, nearly 40,000 people lost their lives in the conflict. Half of them were Kurdish freedom fighters while hundreds of thousands of villagers were displaced. The Kurdish people in Turkey was assured of autonomy. President of Turkey Erdogan has been claiming to have provided greater degree of official tolerance for Kurdish cultural activities encouraged by European Union but no autonomy was granted by Turkey. That appears to be an act of betrayal by Prime Minister Erdogan who has become totalitarian President of Turkey by now.
Turkish constitution is designed to deny the Kurds any rights or basis for political participation. That has been reflected in July 2017 when two Kurdish Parliamentarians in Turkish Parliament lost their membership on the charge of their alleged association with Kurdish Workers' party (PKK) which Turkey considers a 'terrorist organisation'.
Self-determination of the kurdish people has been enunciated in international law, including in the charter of the United Nations, apart from Atlantic Charter of 1941.Self-determination also included in two Covenants on civil and Political Rights and the Interantional Covenant on Economic and Social Rights of 1966.
President of Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq Masoud Barzani declared on September 26 that Kurdish people unanimously voted for independent state for Kurdish state on September 25. That is a significant development for the Kurdish people around Iraq, Iran Syria and Turkey.
International opinion is divided on the issue of referendum. The Trump administration of the United States has sided with the administration of Iraq headed by Prime Minister Al-Abadi and Turkish President Erdogan, but US's closest ally Israel extended support for holding referendum in Northern Iraq for an independent state in the region. Iraqi Prime Minister is of the opinion that secession could escalate the region's stability and he is determined to use force to intervene because secession is the violation of Iraqi Constitution. Guarded comments, however, came from the State Department of the United States on September 26 which, interalia, said, "we believe this step would increase instability and hardships for Kurdistan region's people while secession bid would greatly complicate the Kurdish Region's ties with Central Iraqi government as well as the country's neighbours but historic relationship with the people of Kurdistan would remain unchanged despite the move." Iran's Speaker of Parliament is of the opinion that this plebiscite had been held before Daesh terrorist campaign had yet to be fully taken care of in the Arab country.
The semi-autonomous Kurdish region, which is located 200 miles north of Iraq, is largely peaceful, prosperous and democratic in nature. Having discovered its own oil reserves, the government of Masoud Barzani is increasingly under pressure for splitting with its violent southern neighbours'. Fuad Hussein, chief of staff of Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, is reported to have said recently, "We are talking about a culture of life while they are busy with a culture of death." Kurdistan is already a de facto state dealing with foreign countries. several Consulate-General and Consulate of foreign countries are located at Erbil. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Ukraine propose to open Consulate.
Kurdistan region has its own Parliament and maintains its own security forces known as Peshmerga. Peshmerga forces, in fact, succeeded to drive out ISIS fighters from Kirkuk and took control of a big oil field there as well. Over the last few years, Peshmerga in cooperation with US forces succeeded to drive out ISIS fighters from many places in Syria while Turkish President Erdogan had been conducting terrorism against Kurdish fighters in Syrian border who were fighting against ISIS in collaboration with the US.US military commander warned on August 29 this year that US would not provide air support to Turkish forces pushing southward because Turkey pulled trigger on Kurdish fighters with whom United State has been collaborating to fight against ISIS in Syria. From April this year, US forces are engaged in patrolling Turkish border after Turkish strikes on Kurdish fighter known as The People's Protection Unit and the Peshmerga. It is an irony that Turkish President is shedding crocodile tears for the Rohingyas of Myanmar while he is pursuing a hard core policy against another ethnic minority in his own country. It is high time international community came forward to acknowledge the independent state for the Kurds.
The writer is a retired diplomat from Bangladesh and former President of mNova chapter of Toastmaster
International club of America. [email protected]
