Why was there a delay in the emergence of the Kurdish national movement?
“There was a Kurdish national national movement, but there were so many other forces and motivations around a hundred years ago. We have to remember that what we experience and see today is not what the Kurds were necessarily experiencing and seeing a hundred years ago.The Kurds mostly were in the Ottoman empire, so there were other motivations, some were religious, and concerned about the Western powers as Christian Powers. Some were motivated by concern about who would lead the Kurdish national movement. So I think it was a different era, meaning we should always remember that when we try to talk about events a hundred years ago, not to use our mindset of today.
The other is really the Kurds weren’t organized enough. And again, I’m not blaming anybody. That’s the circumstances of that time. They weren’t organized enough to be able to consistently lobby. They did lobby. They sent somebody to the Paris conference. They lobbied with the British and had some reasonable success, but you need consistent lobbying and you need to have a voice, both on a domestic platform and an international platform. And I think the Kurdish movement just hadn’t evolved enough for that to be achieved. So that would be my take on what was happening about a hundred years ago.
What would you say is the status of Kurdish nationalism in Iraq after one century of struggle and after the 2017 independence referendum?
I think, and also to this question and your previous question to Gina, what I can say is much has changed, but at the same time, little has changed over the past century. We are still divided across four countries, and even further afield, there are Kurds in other parts of the world as well.And we don’t have an independent state. So in that sense, little has changed, but, as Gina already mentioned in Iraqi Kurdistan, perhaps we have the most in terms of international recognition because the Iraqi constitution recognizes the Kurdistan regional government, the Kurdistan region, and so on, and that status doesn’t exist in the other parts of Kurdistan, also we are able to lobby, I think huge opportunities exist for the Kurds today. Wherever they are from, Basur, Rojava, Rojhelat, Bakur. One is the Kurdish diaspora, I’m so excited by what I see among the Kurdish diaspora.
And I count myself among the diaspora because I went to the UK when I was 11 years old. So I really grew up in Europe. I think the diaspora today has the internet, satellite television, and mobile phones. The diaspora today can connect across boundaries. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, you can connect with likeminded Kurds, and even the young generation, the new generation that has been born abroad, has a sense of patriotism. I think the internet and social media has opened new tools to the diaspora. And that’s very, very exciting. And that is something that nobody can shut down if you live in Sydney or Washington, DC, or London or Berlin, the reach of some of those authoritarian regimes, usually not always, usually can’t find you. So I think the diaspora is a very, very exciting development and will grow and grow in influence overseas.
And that does have an impact on Kurdish nationalism, back home and the way it progresses. I think the other thing that I can say about Iraqi Kurdistan and perhaps it applies to other areas of Kurdistan as well is lobbying. Today the KRG has 14 offices abroad. We are the diplomatic missions of the Kurdistan regional government. We can talk to the host government. In my case, I can talk to the United States, state department, department of defense and so on. And this enables us to tell our story ourselves. We are reaching out to these government institutions to tell the story of Iraq from our perspective, to share our view on regional developments, whether good or bad, and hear the Kurdish perspective. And then I would say, also, the Kurds in Iraq matter in Iraqi elections, we matter both in the number of seats that we get from the Iraqi parliament, but also in the formation of the governments, the selection of a prime minister, and the formation of a coalition to create a government
What does a perfect Joe Biden policy look like for Iraqi Kurdistan?
That’s a interesting question. You’re absolutely right that Vice President Biden knows Iraq and Kurdistan very well. He’s extremely knowledgeable about the history and the current situation. And as you say, has a good relationship with the president Masoud Barzani. And of course we appreciate that and should he win, we hope that that background, that history, that understanding will be helpful going forward. But I want to throw in a note of caution. Many of us have seen not just in the United States, but in Europe and elsewhere, before coming into power, politicians make statements, make pledges, not that Vice President Biden has made any pledges specifically in the recent past about Iraqi Kurdistan, but politicians will often make statements, and once they’re in power, they realize the complexity or they come under pressure or lobbying, and that idea chills and cools down and doesn’t have the fire under it that it had before.
So I don’t want to say anything that would indicate that we have specific expectations from a Biden presidency or a Biden administration. I think we’re in a good position with either candidate. Frankly, we have very good contacts with the Trump administration, very good access. They have a very high regard for the Peshmerga forces. They have supported us, the Peshmerga specifically, since the fight against ISIS and continue to do so. They talk about Kurdistan as partners. So we have good relations with the Trump administration and I would imagine and hope and expect that we would have good relations with the Biden administration. And I expect that many people who were in the Obama administration would perhaps have positions in a Biden administration, which again means that we’re familiar with each other. So I’m optimistic, but also I don’t have blind faith, when speaking about any administration.
And I would also say generally speaking, looking at Kurdish history, Kurdish relations with the United States over a longer period, we have had good and bad experiences with Republicans and Democrats. So we can’t say, in my opinion, that the Democrats are great and the Republicans are bad or vice versa. We have had good and bad issues with both. And they would probably say the same about us. So I think we just have to be very smart and work closely with whoever is in the White House, and appreciate the fact that the Kurdistan region in Iraq, and I would say the Kurds generally, have very strong bipartisan support in the US Congress.