Kurdish State – a real dream or ‘poetic’?

By Shwan Hassan:

I still remember the time when we all were gathering in the school yard and singing the Kurdish national anthems – they are still echoing in my ears and were feeding our soul to survive at those sad moments. As we were growing up, the dream of establishing a Kurdish state was also growing but unfortunately we have never seen it come true. A nation that had and still has full belief in its right to self determination has been disappointed by its leaders. Yes it’s true that we dream for our independence, but our dream is not ‘poetic’ as it has been mockingly described. This disappointing description is nothing more than a symptom of tragic weakness in the leadership of a misfortunate nation, nothing else.

The reasons for this lack of a Kurdish state have occupied the minds of every loyal Kurd. Why does a nation such as this still not have a sovereign state? Is it because of the nation or the leadership? Is it God’s determination for the Kurds or earthly oppression? Despite the fact that Kurdistan’s geopolitics and the international community are like two winds that have not shaken our flag yet, what upsets a Kurdish individual are the self-related factors. ‘Rights are not given; they are taken’. I can not keep blaming others and close my eyes to our own countless strategic faults.

From the beginning of Kurdish nationalism we can easily see that it has been a fragmented movement. Throughout this history you cannot find a united Kurdish coalition that has effectively developed a common sense of Kurdish nationality. Instead of struggling in a united front, our leaders caused civil war and national betrayal in a way that caused Kurdish society to become deformed. By the way, this cannot be counted as the people’s fault, except in that the Kurds are too obedient to their leaders. The Kurdish nationalist movement was from the start influenced and controlled by tribal and religious men and therefore it has been exploited by Islamic masters and deceived by foreign imperialists. At the same time, Kurdish nationalist movements and political parties have never raised the slogan of ‘Self-determination’ and therefore the struggle was not directed by a determined vision. Lack of such a vision is still reflected in Kurdish politics: that is something really odd for a stateless nation!

As for the people, they should not be excluded from criticism. I strongly believe in a Persian proverb which says: ‘ Oppressed and oppressor should both be blamed’. Kurdish people have always waited for their so-called leaders to make a determining step towards independence. It is true that the leading elite is expected to direct the public, but when they do not move in the nation’s interest they should be challenged. Why is the public so passive? First, it may be due to a lack of awareness that our people are following the same thinking that has caused previous generations to fall into ditches through their strategic mistakes. The second reason is the ideological conflicts that have ruined the people’s united march; these conflicts are still manifesting themselves. Kurds should have created various pressure groups just to push their leaders and used their voting cards to threaten any party that ignored the national cause. More to the point, there is a massive group of Kurdish refugees in the world’s most powerful countries but unfortunately they have not been able to create an effective lobby to influence the international community. It seems that they are victims of the same inherited ideological disease that has become the main obstacle to Kurdish national progress.