An Address to the United States on Kurdish Statehood

By Rauf Naqishbendi:

In his discourse with the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, the visiting foreign minister of the Kurdistan region, Mustafa Bakir, stated, “We don’t want to stay within an Iraq that has failed. Baghdad does not accept us. Baghdad does not want us as partners. Baghdad does not want to share the power and wealth, and it’s not enough for us.”

His argument was that the Iraqi government has rejected them, and therefore, they have no choice but to exist apart from Iraq.  He could have approached it better.  His approach should have been:

“Mr. Secretary of State, I have come with an imperative message from my people and their leadership. We have been for millenniums deprived of our God-given rights as a nation, thirty five million Kurds left without national recognition. Thus, we are considered non-existent for we are not internationally recognized as a nation with a political entity representing us, and we have no place on a world map. The story of our subordination and subjugation to the nations of beasts has created a deplorable and unendurable situation that we have had to suffer through.

“Today is our historical day.  Our people and their leadership have determined that the shackles and fetters of occupation have to end, with the dawn of a new epoch so that we can regain our national dignity and be able to self-govern in a way that the affairs of our life as a nation will be decided by us rather than Baghdad.

“Mr. Secretary, I take pride in my heritage of being a gentle and loving nation. We have never terrorized any groups or nations. Some contrary examples are our neighboring nations, the Turks, Arabs, and Persians and how they manifest themselves. It was Arab terrorists who committed the most violent episode against America in the 9-11 terror acts.  A Turkish man shot Pope John Paul. Turks have a long history of committing genocide against Christians, Armenians, Assyrians, and Kurds.  The Iranian regime has been a state-sponsored terrorist entity, terrorizing the entire Middle East region. Arabs are blowing themselves up kamikaze style in populated public places.  We the Kurds, regardless of all the atrocities committed against us, have never resorted to terrorism. Several Kurdish men and women protested against the Turks not by attaching explosives to their bodies to blow up themselves in a crowded civilian area, but by setting themselves on fire in public to burn as a candle protesting injustices.

“After the Gulf War, when the Kurds took over their territories, Saddam’s army was left in limbo in Kurdistan. The Kurds could have massacred them all, should they have sought revenge, yet we were magnanimous to that same occupying army which had committed genocide against our people.  We disarmed them and helped them to leave Kurdistan, and our leadership has instructed the Kurdish population to help these solders on their way to the south.

“Mr. Secretary, we the Kurds have been instrumental in minimizing American casualties during the Iraq war. Not even one American solder has been gunned down in this vast land of ours, and our peshmargas fought alongside American troops. If we had not helped to quench bloody chaos in the south, American casualties and financial expenditures would have been unmeasurably augmented.

“The United States of America, since its rise to the world superpower after World War II, has played as the United Snake of America toward Kurds by its longstanding denial of the Kurdish national right, despite the fact that we never harmed a single American. It has been more than half a century, with American monetary and military aid generously flowing to Turkey with no humanitarian strings attached to it, while knowing a good part of that lavished aid was utilized on suppressing Kurdish basic human rights.

“In 1975 it was Henry Kissinger who brought the Shah of Iran and Saddam together at the expense of extinguishing the Kurdish revolution, costing countless lives. And it was that same U.S. that provided Saddam Hussain with the building blocks of his chemical and biological agents which were used in Saddam’s genocide campaign upon Kurds. In 1947, the first democratic republic in the Middle East, the Republic of Mahabad, was crushed by the Shah of Iran, who was employed, sponsored, and established by the United States.

“Mr. Secretary of State, now we are steadfast upon declaring our statehood. I am here imploring for the Obama administration’s support, insisting that Iraq as one country is not a solution because of the deplorable conditions that have been plaguing the Iraqi people.  The time is right for Kurds to have a true country carrying their name. I submit to you that there will be harmony in our separation from Iraq and persistent animosity in our unity, for once we are independent, we and Iraq will treat one another as countries, rather than a master and slave relationship. Without a shred of doubt, the new Kurdistan government on which we are about to embark will be beneficial to Iraq and the entire region, a peaceful loving nation causing no harm to anyone and helping to foster peace and tranquility in the region.

“Last but not least, we are adamant about our statehood with or without America’s approval. Once we declare our statehood, after a while the U.S. will have no choice but recognize us. But the sooner, the better, and the time is now, not later. Let a free Kurdistan be the Obama administration’s legacy so that generations beyond the living generation will look back and thank America for her friendship with Kurds.”

Rauf Naqishbendi has been a contributing columnist for: Kurdistan Tribune, Kurdishmedia.com(2003 – 2011),www.ikjnews.com,  ekurd.net, and has written Op/Ed pages for the Los Angeles Times.

Books by Naqishbendi:

(1)   His memoirs entitled “The Garden Of The Poets”. It reads as a novel depicting his experience and the subsequent 1988 bombing of his hometown, Halabja with chemical and biological weapons by Saddam Hussein.  It is the story of his people’s suffering, and a sneak preview of their culture and history: http://www.americastarbooks.net/garden-of-the-poets-the_moreinfo.html

(2)   My Articles: This is a collection of columns published from 2002-2013 through several web media sites. It addresses Kurdish issues,  American politics and democracy, humanities, religion, terrorism, and Middle East chaos: http://www.americastarbooks.net/my-articles_moreinfo.html

Rauf Naqishbendi is a software engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Comments are welcome at rxa12@yahoo.com