Support Kurdish People To Gain National Sovereignty!

By Rebwar Rashed:

On the 25th of September 2017 the people of Southern Kurdistan (Iraq) went out and casted their vote into a ballot box. The result was a 93 % yes for national independence.

Back in 2005 the Kurdish people in Iraq got an opportunity for the first time to hold a referendum on their future. The “Independence Referendum” held on 30 January 2005 was conducted by The Kurdistan Referendum Movement and practiced the voting process alongside the Iraqi parliamentary elections and the Iraqi Kurdistan elections. The “Independence Referendum” was an informal referendum albeit with very popular support where near 2 million people voted with a final result of “Yes to independence” by almost 99 %.

Coming back to the referendum conducted on 25th September 2017 asking Kurdish people of Southern Kurdistan the same question, whether they favored remaining as a part of Iraq or are in favor of an independent Kurdistan, was a very bad idea for several reasons. The most important ones were, and still are: the failure to build up constitutional and institutional democratic governance, a functioning self sufficient economy, and also the lack of good and constructive communication with the friends of Kurdish people, especially Western democracies and above all the United States of America. A reconciliation process is also badly needed among the Kurdish political parties in Bashur.

There are many more reasons, but nevertheless the demand for and sympathy for Kurdish rights to self determination have been attacked harshly.

Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria belong to a series of nation-state building failures at the level of a laughing matter. There has never been a nation of Turkey, Iraq, Iran or Syria. These countries have been functioning as the most racist, uncivilized and murderous states. Ancient people like Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians and Baluches, and non-Islamic religions have been exterminated and been almost wiped out in the Middle East. Kurdish people in these countries have been subjected to genocide. Prohibiting Kurdish language, culture, music, traditional and clothes, mass deportation, demographical changes, changing names of places and people, has been the most important pillar in building these sick and savage states of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

These failure states of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria whose leaders Erdogan, Rouhani, Al-Assad and Al-Ebadi shout, “One country, one flag, one language and one state” which is no more than an accentuation of catastrophic failures of nation building. We are talking of a century of murdering innocent people, confiscating Kurdish wealth, super-exploitation of Kurdish soil and systematically and deliberately harassing Kurdish people. Right now in this very moment, there are tens of thousands of Kurdish political prisoners, women and men, in Turkey and Iran.

Despite Mr. Ocelan´s readiness to solve the Kurdish issue by peaceful and democratic means on the Newroz eve, the Kurdish National year, 2013, Erdogan chose to organize ISIS and other terrorist and fascist radical Islamists, with the aim of destroying Kurdish aspirations and reviving the Othman Empire. Erdogan´s dream were getting bigger by each day culminating in “liberating” Jerusalem and day-dreaming of leading a prayer at the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Iran has been practicing clerical fascism for last 38 years. Iran is a country with professional skills, exactly like Turkey, in sectarian war, murdering hundreds of thousands of people, intervening in neighboring countries and militarizing the entire country, organizing and financing terrorism, trafficking, drugs, far outside its own territories.

Iraq and Syria, two war-torn countries, are not more than a battlefield for sectarian slaughter, human rights abuses and tribal disasters. These two countries are literally destroyed by religious fanaticism, tribal fighting and non-declared war on women.

These villain states of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, have been threatening and intimidating defenseless Kurdish people, drilling joint military exercises and using everything in their power to act against Southern Kurdistan, calling it all bad names, just because the people have exercised a self-right to practice a vote.

Why, one can wonder have Ankara, Tehran, Damascus and Baghdad been so shaken by a referendum which, very unfortunately, has been badly scheduled and poorly organized?

These capitals of failure states all know that a better organized referendum will with no doubt bring about 99 % of Yes votes. They know that Kurdish people in all these countries have been struggling for freedom and liberty, have died and will die for it. But one reason, and that can be a big one, is that they are reminded and proven as rogue states. Failures!

The Kurdish aspiration for freedom and sovereignty is not a narrow nationalistic cry, it is not a reaction to or a revenge for all the deliberate discrimination it has been subjected to. It’s rather a will of a nation to use the principle of sovereignty as a prerequisite for peace and for a regional neighborhood based on mutual interest and stability. Sovereignty is a must for implementation of national laws and regulations, for institutionalization of a state apparatus, for having real authority on internal matters. Sovereignty is the platform for reliable and preserved rights. It gives a democratic government firmly defined responsibility.

The Kurdistan´s national liberation movement has been characterized by pluralism, secularism, gender equality and a will to be a part of the civilized nations.

The Kurdish aspiration to use its right for self determination is a part of mankind’s efforts to put a stop to an unjust system, to humiliation, killings and the fear of extermination.

A people´s effort to gain sovereignty is no stranger than a woman´s effort to stop a rapist, to stop and prevent a rape or to put an end to honor killings.
An oppressed people´s effort to gain sovereignty is no stranger than a little soul´s call for help. Kurdish people have been subjected to every kind of suppression since the very day these states have been founded.

Therefore, the support Senator Chuck Schumer has shown on Wednesday the 29th September, to back an independent Kurdish state must be understood correctly. A Kurdish self-determination is an historically parallel political movement to the American Revolution and many other revolutions struggling against a suppression that is not and never will be justified.

We ask all Kurdish friends, the democratic opinion in the world, peace-loving people and all who struggle for friendship between nations and all who believe in respecting human rights to support the rights of Kurdish people in determining her own future. The people in Rojawa need to be supported right now.

A right of Kurdish self-determination should be seen as a political and democratic solution to the Kurdish question and thus to a more stable and peaceful region of the Middle East.

Rebwar Rashed is Co-Chairman of the Kurdistan National Congress – KNK

3 Responses to Support Kurdish People To Gain National Sovereignty!
  1. Abdul_qahar Mustafa Bamarny
    October 1, 2017 | 19:40

    USA and Europe countries have a bigger fish to fry than offering support for the independence of Kurdistan in Iraq. They (USA and Europe) will not offer a solid support for the independence of Kurdistan, nether will pressure or punish Iraqi government to come to an agreement with Kurds to let them have a peaceful independence .These countries are rather playing double games with both Kurds and Iraqi government, Turkey, Iran and other Arab countries so that their interests in the region are not hurt by those countries..
    The truth behind such doubles games and such a stance USA and Europe have taken towards the issue of independence of Kurdistan is because they don’t want their interests come in conflict with the interests of Iran, Arabs countries and Turkey in the Middle East.

    Basically, USA doesn’t want to lose allies and business partners like Saudi Arabia, Turkey for supporting the independence of Kurds .It also doesn’t want to further complicate its already strained relations with Iran. As a matter of fact USA can even use the issue of independence of Kurds as an opportunity to strike a secret deal with Iran by dropping support for Kurds in both Iraq and Syria and in return ask Iran to drop its support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and Al Mahdi army who are direct threat to the security and economic interests of USA and Israel in the middle East.

    It has become so common for USA and many other world powers to support groups or countries that are in confrontation with the countries that they are in conflict with. These powerful countries such as USA, Russia, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran usually take advantage of weak and poor groups and countries that are in need of economic support and protection. They offer them minimum support, but turn them against their opponents and enemeies.They secretly help them with money and arms and then push them against the countries that they are in conflict with. The idea behind supporting them is because they want to cause damage to their rivals and opponent or pressure them to give in to their demands .Their support could be short term or long term for those groups or countries as It all depends if they are making any progress in getting concessions out of the countries whom they are at odd with or not.

    USA gives support to Iranian opposition groups of Iran secretly and Iran in return supports groups like Hamas, and Hezbollah of Lebanon to hurt the interests of USA in the Middle East. Turkey also is playing this game by supporting ISIS and Turkmen of Iraq and Syria to hurt the interests of Kurds and Iran in the Middle East. Both Turkey and Iran have the history of turning and supporting one group of Kurds against the other.

    These powerful countries continue practicing this game up to this day. However, once their objectives are achieved, they usually drop their support for those groups or countries and at times sell them and surrender their leaders to the same countries, whom they had mobilized against, to be punished and executed.

    When it comes to USA, it plays all kind of games to protect their interests in the Middle East because it has a large market of buying and selling products in the Middle East. It also controls the trade routes in which oil and many other good pass through them. They buy oil from Saudi Arabia and in return they sell arms, machineries, cars airplane to Saudi Arabia and other golf countries .USA also have military bases in the Middle East to protect Israel.

    Most importantly, USA need help of its allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia Jordan, Egypt and all other gold countries to keep Russia out of market in the Middle East. So if USA takes the side of Kurds for independence it will certainly antagonize and provoke its allies especially Turkey and Iran which both countries have the power and influence to destabilize the region and put the interests of USA in danger in the Middle East.

    Kurds know that USA offer minimum support for Kurds just to make them trust USA as an ally. It wants Kurds to open business opportunities for American corporation in Kurdistan, and to continue committing Kurds to fight terrorism and defend USA interests in the middle east .However, when it comes to the rights of Kurds such as independence, USA mostly turns a blind eye to Kurds especially when they were prosecuted by Arabs, Turks and Iranian because USA doesn’t see Kurds as important as Turks, and Arabs to them.

    Both Turkey and Iran are strongly against an independent Kurdistan in any form. These two regimes rather want to have full control over wealth, natural resources of Kurds and use them as economic, political and military forces and sacrifice their lives for their own interests in the Middle East.

    There is no doubt that USA also doesn’t want to go against the interests of Turkey because Turkey can put the security of Israel in danger by supporting terrorist groups in the Middle East. However, USA can also use the support for independence of Kurds as card to pressure Turkey to stop making strategic alliance with Iran and Russia.

    USA have Kurds as a spare force to challenge the political power and unwanted influence of Iran and Turkey in countries like Iraq, Syria ,Lebanon and Palestine .USA also have Kurds as a pressure card in Bagdad and also for bargaining deals with Iran and Turkey or to hurt the interests of Iran and Turkey in case Iran and Turkey rebel against the interests of USA and Israel in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine ,Lebanon, Iraq , Syria ,Cyprus ,and Russia.

    Kurdistan independence will not come through unless a regime change and a true democracy comes to be in neighboring countries Like Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran, where a secular modern democratic states established based on the concept of rule of law and equal rights for all citizens, rather on the bases of greed for power, ethnicities or relgion.However,it is possible for Kurds to have a country if USA and Europe forget about its greedy interests in the middle east and fully support Kurds economically, militarily and protect an independent Kurdish country just like they do it for Israel.

    Under the circumstances, Kurdistan will not gain its independence at all because no matter how you deal with Iran and Turkey it is not working and they don’t agree to the independence of Kurdistan .So the only options left for Iraqi Kurds is that they should first ask Iraqi government to officially and practically recognize the rights of Kurds, including respect their geographical territory, and set them free to exercise federal authority over their regions and natural resources.

    The second options Kurds have is to take their case to international court of justice after holding referendum. If the international court of justice doesn’t rule in favor of Kurds than Kurds should accept the situation as it is and start focusing more on strengthening national unity, and the rule of law in Kurdistan.

    It is also very important that Kurdish government need to become a civil democratic region that is ran on the bases of democratic principles rather on the bases of families, dynasties and tribe rule .Kurdish government and political parties should be working on improvement of economic situations of Kurdistan by building up a strong economic infrastructure, overcoming corruption and improving the life of its citizen, instead of fighting each other for extra power and oil money. Once the economy is strong Kurds can secretly or publicly build up military capabilities to defend its rights in case they could not gain their through democratic and peaceful means. And this is exactly how an armed struggle or war finds its moral and legal legitimacy to use as the last option in order to protect your legitimate rights on the face of the planet.

  2. Rostami
    October 1, 2017 | 20:29

    Free and undefended kurdistan

  3. Houshang Younesi
    October 2, 2017 | 23:02

    Yes to independent Kurdistan

Leave a Reply

Wanting to leave an <em>phasis on your comment?

Trackback URL https://kurdistantribune.com/support-kurdish-people-to-gain-national-sovereignty/trackback/