2019: Kurds Should Be Confident

By Arian Mufid:

Many of us Kurds were not sorry to leave the old year behind. In 2018 the nation awoke to the punishment and sanctions imposed by the Iraqi and Turkish military juntas as a result of the 2017 referendum. Kurdish politicians from the KDP and PUK have stumbled in 2018 and the people of the south of Kurdistan have in consequence suffered increased economic hardship. The western world and the neighbouring countries have once more betrayed the hopes and aspirations of six million Kurds asking for an independent Kurdish state. Furthermore, local treason has worsened our position inside Iraq in the ‘green zone’ of the south of Kurdistan. And, meanwhile, the Turkish invasions of the south, west and north of Kurdistan have continuously sought to butcher the zeal of the Kurdish nation.

The Turkish military junta once again revealed their true colours, those of the Ottoman empire, but only after three months of air attacks, village-by-village and street-by-street fighting, and the massacre of thousands of civilians were they able to enter the city of Afrin. The Turkish military junta also invaded the south of Kurdistan, spreading their terror almost thirty miles inside our territory.

In 2017 this nation once again became victim of American power games when they allowed the Iraqi army to forcibly enter the region of the south of Kurdistan. In 2018 the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) bounced back from the disaster of the referendum and managed to open its airports and ‘normalise’ relations with Turkey. The Kurds know Turkey is not a friend of this nation, but it is a neighbour although not by choice. The KRG organised the Kurdistan Parliament elections and as usual the two established parties were the main winners. Once more the KRG decided to remain part of Iraq and reluctantly the KDP and PUK headed to the capital of Iraq.

In 2018 the west continued to back the most brutal forces in the Middle East. Jamal Khashoggi was savagely murdered in the Saudi embassy in Turkey by the hands of that key American ally Saudi Arabia. The world in 2018 was ruled by the truly commercially-minded Trump who even weakened the unity of the European community by advocating the process of Brexit.

If 2018 will be remembered as a year of high disasters and low morals, 2019 ought to be one of hope and great expectation for the Kurds, with the Turkish state weakening through economic crisis, the Iraqi state crumbling and the Iranian regime on the brink of collapse at the hands of its own people. The immediate challenge for this nation is strong government and leadership in the south of Kurdistan. The immediate challenge for the west of Kurdistan, following the American withdrawal, is whether the Turkish military will end up digging their own graves in Syria by invading Rojava. Kurds, like every true nation, possess a political and military muscle and they can exercise it; we have a great future and we have had a great past (most recently displayed in our critical global role in the fight against Daesh). History has proven that unless there will be an independent Kurdish state in the Middle East, there will be no peace in the Mesopotamian territories.

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