Washington Kurdish Institute
June 29, 2020
Iran now coordinating with Turkey to establish new zone of Turkish occupation in Iraqi Kurdistan
The decision to deprive the Kurdish people of the right to self-determination gave way to a century of violent persecution at the hands of four newly-established states which occupied parts of Kurdistan, the Kurds’ ancestral homeland – Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Since their founding, these four states have committed ethnic cleansing and genocide in response to any expression of national aspiration or even basic identity. While each of these states has committed countless large-scale crimes against humanity in targeting the Kurds, historically the regimes ruling Turkey and Iran have been the most aggressive and heavy handed in their persecution of the Kurdish people. The first modern Kurdish state, the Republic of Kurdistan (commonly known as the Mahabad Republic) was established in 1946 within Iran’s borders and was violently eliminated within a year by the forces of the Shah of Iran, who had its president, Qazi Mohammed, hung. Decades later, in 1975, the Shah of Iran signed the Algiers Agreement with Saddam Hussein, then Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of Iraq, allowing the Iraqi regime to crush an ongoing Kurdish rebellion. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah, proclaiming the establishment of a so-called Islamic republic in Iran and declaring a “holy war” against the Kurds because the Kurds abstained from a referendum endorsing Khomeini’s establishment of an Islamic republic. In October 2017, the Iranian regime executed a plan to attack the Kurds of Iraq using their armed proxies in country after an independence referendum. As a result, the Kurdish authorities in Iraq lost large swaths of territory and the Kurdish people suffered casualties and displacement at the hands of Iranian-backed armed proxy forces.
The plight of the Kurds under Turkish occupation has been similar, though perhaps worse. Soon upon the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, its nationalist leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk embraced uncompromising policies of denial and brutality in addressing the existence of the large Kurdish population within the state’s new borders, seeking to impose a single identity, a Turkish identity, on all citizens regardless of ethnic origin. He crushed a rebellion led by Kurdish leader Sheikh Said in 1925, killing thousands, and later perpetrated the Dersim Massacre in 1937-38, killing and displacing thousands more. Since its foundation, the Turkish state has denied the Kurdish identity and viewed any expression of Kurdishness anywhere in the world as a threat. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded in 1978 in response to this ongoing denial and brutality, and launched an armed struggle for Kurdish rights in 1984. The PKK, formed in response to the Turkish state’s uncompromising policies of subjugation, is now used as a pretense by the Turkish state to attack Kurds throughout Turkey, the Middle East, and beyond. The Turkish state’s scorched earth campaign against the Kurds has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. It has included the wholesale burning of thousands of villages as well as the destruction of cemeteries and cultural and historical sites. All attempts to form legal political movements to represent the Kurdish people have been met with strong opposition by the Turkish state, with aspiring politicians assassinated, imprisoned, or exiled, and political parties closed one after another.
During the recent independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not hesitate to stand with Iran and take harsh steps against the people of the region to punish them for expressing their national aspirations by issuing repeated threats and imposing a harsh economic embargo against a region already in dire crisis. Yet again, Erdogan targeted the Kurds of Iraq. Erdogan, like other Turkish leaders before him, has never restricted his hostility to Kurds living within Turkey’s borders. In addition to seeking to destabilize Iraqi Kurdistan, he has treated the self-ruling Kurdish region of Syria as a hostile entity – consistently prioritizing a war of choice against the Kurds of Syria over taking any steps to address the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), al-Qaida, and other jihadist terrorist groups in Syria that represent a threat to global security. Indeed, Erdogan has aided many of these jihadist groups and worked in coordination with them to massacre and displace the Kurds in Syria along with indigenous Christian populations (Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arameans, Armenians) and other groups. In October 2019, a large-scale Turkish military invasion of Kurdish majority areas along the Syrian border with Turkey killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands.
The Turkish military has attacked Iraqi Kurdistan countless times since the 1990s under the guise of fighting the PKK, though countless civilian casualties throughout the region that have resulted from these attacks tell another story entirely. These airstrikes have forced many civilian villagers from their homes over the years, most recently in the period since May 2019 when the Turkish military launched yet another invasion of the region during a maneuver called Operation Claw, during which the Turkish military increased their illegal presence in Iraqi Kurdistan. In June 2020, the Turkish defense ministry announced the initiation of a new campaign of military aggression against Iraqi Kurdistan in the form of air and ground operations named Operation Claw-Eagle and Operation Claw-Tiger. On the first day of this most recent military invasion, Erdogan’s regime bombarded an UN-recognized refugee camp in Makhmour that hosts Kurds displaced from their homes in Turkey, the Yazidi town of Sinjar that is still recovering from the ISIS genocide, and several other locations in the region. Drone attacks against civilians continue in the region, and the world community has largely been silent in response to this ongoing aggression.
Notably, Operations Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger are being executed by the Turkish military in close coordination with the armed forces of Iran, as both regimes are now working hand in hand to attack Kurdish opposition figures and terrorize the people of Iraqi Kurdistan.
A dangerous time for the Kurds of Iraq
The Kurdistan Region of Iraq faces threats on many levels. Within the region itself there are internal political disputes, and more broadly within Iraq there are ongoing disagreements between the Iraqi Kurdish government and the Iraqi central government in Baghdad which exacerbate the ongoing economic crisis. Due to Baghdad withholding the Kurdistan Region’s budget allocation and other issues, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is billions of dollars in debt and has little leverage for negotiation with Baghdad or the governments of neighboring states.
Some Iraqi Islamist and nationalist groups have praised the most recent Turkish incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan because it is an attack on the only recognized Kurdish region in the world. Iran sees the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as pro-American, and thus actively seeks to increase their influence and disrupt the relative peace that has been enjoyed in the region. Additionally, the Kurds provoked the ire of Iran by rejecting all calls to expel US forces from Iraq and for hosting international forces in the region. Iran has made no secret of its desire to eliminate Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan, and is now working openly with Turkey to attack the region and hunt down and murder dissidents based there, showing little regard for any civilian casualties incurred during their illegal military operations in the region. Turkey has made common cause with Iran and has helped Iran dodge US economic sanctions for years. Killing Kurds has always brought the leaders of these states together, regardless of which regime is in control.
Since the removal of the dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iran has been the most influential neighboring state in Iraq. While Iraq’s Shi’ite majority now rules the country, Iran has never been interested in promoting a stable and prosperous Iraq. On the contrary, Iran has always pursued policies aimed at destabilizing the country while empowering their own proxies.
Turkey views the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and any situation that allows Kurds any say over their own affairs as a threat, having often stated that the establishment of the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq is regrettable and something similar should not be allowed to happen in Syria. Erdogan has pursued the anti-Kurdish policies of his predecessors, and also embraces a neo-Ottoman policy aimed at increasing Turkey’s influence and presence by military force throughout the region, including any and all parts of Kurdistan, other regions in Syria, and even Libya.
Time to stand against Turkish military aggression
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the US administration’s negligence of the foreign policy in the region has only encouraged Turkey to attack anywhere and anytime without any concerns. Iraq’s skies have been under de facto US control since 2003 and the US has always limited military incursions by Turkey and Iran into the region, but this approach seems to have changed under the current US administration. Turkey and Iran are taking advantage of the hands off approach from the US and aiming to create a new reality in the country by terrorizing and destabilizing the only part of the country that has been safe and stable since 2003.. If Turkey is successful in occupying larger parts of the Iraqi Kurdistan, neither the Iraqi government nor the US or any other Western state is likely to be able to change that new reality. For example, during the Kurdish civil war in the 1990s, Turkey built a military base inside the Bamarni district of the Dohuk province, which is located about an hour and a half drive from the Turkey/Iraq border. Since then, Turkey has been expanding its presence in Iraqi Kurdistan year by year, unilaterally establishing new military outposts while using airpower as it wishes against the people of the region. The Turkish state will continue to flagrantly violate international law and agreements and intensify its military aggression against the Kurds in every way possible, including close coordination with the Iranian regime and continued sponsorship of jihadist terrorist groups. Policies of appeasement from all concerned parties, including the KRG, the Iraqi central government, the US, the European Union, and the Arab world will encourage the Turkish state’s brutality and occupation strategy, further destabilize the Middle East, and have grave ramifications for international security.
Another cowardly attack by @RTErdogan targeting civilians in Kuna Masi #Slemani. The #Turkish state is indiscriminately attacking #Kurds at any given opportunity while facing no real condemnation for their crimes. #TurkeyIsBombingKurds #Kurdistan video via @thejilswani pic.twitter.com/cfPM7ZcL8o
— Dr. Mahmoud Othman – د. مەحمود عوسمان (@Drmahmoudothman) June 26, 2020