Washington Kurdish Institute
Amb. Faik Nerweyi December 3, 2019
National Reconciliation Starts from Within Ourselves
Kurdish identity may now be fairly strong. Still, our understanding of who we are and where we come from has been largely defined by others, the rulers of our areas in the Middle-East. We need to work hard —and work together— to build our common future and to go forward as a culturally and politically united force. For this purpose we need to understand our common history.
Kurds have always existed in close connection with their surrounding environment. As the descendants of Lulubies, Mitanis, Guties and Medes, Kurds have managed to survive as a cultural entity regardless of their strong neighbours, often even joining forces with them. ’The Immortals’, the Javidan, the formidable striking force of Iranian Empire, was composed of all the seven noble families of the Arian tribes, including the Kurds. Their ancient way of structuring the army based on family and tribal ties has remained unchanged until modern days. The leadership of the empire changed by time, but they retained common loyalties. The Iranian Empires were not made of only Persians. Kurds, Tajiks, Scythians and Baloch together with others, always formed an inseparable part of the society and culture of Iran.
Historical data shows how closely Kurds have always belonged to a rich socio-cultural system, shared with other ethnic groups in the Middle East and how they have played a part in both peace and war, in all the destruction and rebirth of this region’s peoples and cultures. They are the indigenous people of Zagroz highlands. Kurds have a common social memory which has been instrumental in blocking efforts of assimilation. It is the right of the Kurdish children to know this. For that, Kurds need to realize with whom they are historically connected and what heritage do they share with them.
To learn from history
Lately, I discussed the Kurdish identity and its formation with a friend of mine, and his recollection stayed vivid in my mind. He analyzed the question in the following manner: “When we were small we used to gather around my grandmother, a tall, slim, well respected woman. Grandmother told us stories and anecdotes to entertain and educate us. We learned from her what an honorable man is, and how our environment works. She had memorized an amazing amount of information, starting from our forefathers’ adventures and reaching to listing the early signs of changing seasons and what was required during each time of the year. She knew all the herbs and roots suitable for consumption or not. She taught all these things to us through her countless stories and nursery rhymes, which she had in turn heard probably from her own grandmother. This is how people learn about their culture and history as members of a family, a tribe and a nation.” Indeed, throughout history families have conveyed worldview through their everyday life. Storytelling was a popular pastime and a common tool of instruction, as well as a means of constructing worldview. Information was forwarded in the form of charming verses and stories, and as songs about love, life and sometimes of war. The old folks recognized friends, they learned from their past experience who to trust.
The body of the Kurdish culture was clearer then. Now people are bombarded by the nonsensical soap operas sold to Kurdish TV-stations by Turks, Arabs, Persians and even Koreans. Before the formal schools came to be established, oral tradition was a key element in the everyday survival of Kurds. The Kurdish value system was built in these narratives.
Education for conformity
The first public schools in Iraq contained few, if any of the cultural values that our old stories embodied. They followed the example of the British education system of those days. The curriculum was spiced up by the central government and Arabic education was given a great emphasis, also in Kurdish areas. When I started my school in late1950s, like all my contemporaries, we stayed wondering, year after year, why we are learning in so much detail how to pick, prepare and pack dates! Dates!? Why are we learning so much about dates that do not even grow in Kurdistan? Why were we not learning about acorns, figs, grapes, apples, pears, or all the important herbs that grow in our land?
We were taught history, but the lessons did not tell us anything about the Kurds and Kurdistan and nothing substantial about other people’s either. The tremendous contributions that Kurdistan had made to the history were sidelined. Just to mention one example: the great, ancient Macedonians thwarted the mighty Kouros III’s army on these very Kurdish plains, only a few kilometers away from Erbil! The Kurds must have had something to do with it, too! We were left in dark about it, as well as many other events that had relevance to others but the Arabs.
At school Kurdish children were given fabulous accounts of “the great Arab conquests” and Arab culture. This same modus operandi is visible in North-Africa all the way to the east, as far as Kurdistan. Islam is excellently used as a tool to force non-Arab peoples into conformity. Tacitly and sometimes quite openly, Arab preachers claimed that only Arabs go to heaven, since God speaks exclusively Arabic! Turks also followed the same idea, claiming there was a linguistically exclusive Paradise for Turkish speaking believers. Who can tell now what language takes you to heaven?
Children of genies?!
Ever since Kurdistan was attached to Iraq, Baghdad strongly forwarded the idea, that the geographical area of now Iraq belongs solely to the Arabs. Some of their incredulous propaganda went as far as to assert that Kurds are the offspring of the genies! So, the Kurds were depicted as malevolent and a constant danger to the Muslim Arabs in Iraq. Poverty, ignorance and state terror complimented the calamity.
Today, history is taught in an outdated fashion in the schools of Iraqi Kurdistan. With a few exceptions, history is still presented in unconnected, scattered instances, missing a larger context. This way students are not getting the needed information to form a narrative. To improve the situation, we need to educate, not only the students, but also their teachers. As many before me have suggested, we need to continuously improve the institutes and faculties of pedagogy, so that the future educators are taught the modern principles of teaching. We can learn from other nations, where a teacher has to really master their field of specialization while he or she is also given a strong background in pedagogy.
Forced marriages do not prosper
Living in Iraq has never been free of problems, even for ethnic Arabs. To begin with, various ethnic groups are forced into a failed, artificially created entity, where all are basically expected to turn into Arabs. What then? Should no other national or cultural identity be accepted in a modern state? What would follow if this kind of Pan-Arabism combined with Islam is forced upon all the ethnic and religious groups under the Iraqi rule: Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Yezidis, Armenians, Chaldians, Kurds, Assyrians, Turcomans etc.?
Now, finally, Kurds have an autonomous government and a proper chance to study their own history and language. Knowing history is the key! For the sake of preserving and building a Kurdish identity, it is of great significance to be aware of how the national schools compose the Kurdish historical narrative. Do the students get a clear picture of themselves in relation to life itself? Kurdish education system must fight the apparent alienation of their youth, teaching them national pride by emphasizing fairness, compassion, mutual respect, interdependence, common values and their common fate, i.e. the values which the whole culture is made of.
Although the many Kurdish TV-stations and other mass media are indeed carrying their weight in this campaign, more needs to be done. Youth needs to get better acquainted with their own culture, their own traditional music and literature, their own art, their national flora and fauna. They need to learn about other peoples too, their achievements, languages and culture. Each society is unique, and all Kurds need to be aware of their particular uniqueness compared to the rest of the international community.
Information as such is not enough
Where and how are Kurdish children going to form their world views today? The modern “tsunami of information” needs a well-educated person to be able to analyze it. As so many other nations, also the Kurds are given tons of information via both social and mass media. Lots of it may not be relevant information, instead it can indeed be, as Trump “in his unmatched wisdom” would put it, fake news. Furthermore, most of the channels our people get their information through have no connection whatsoever to Kurdish lives or culture.
Finally, Kurds need to get ready to take their place among other nations on the world map. Kurds cannot go on blaming others of stabbing them in the back. Kurds could, indeed, be a nation on their own right, standing tall and head held high, capable of defending themselves like all other nations. For this end, they all need to start seriously working together, over party lines, developing a common worldview by putting the facts together. This could be done only through more informative communication and more enlightened education system that really concentrates on strengthening our value system in order to finally get to a state of national reconciliation.
Disclaimer: The views, opinions, and positions expressed by authors and contributors do not necessary reflect those of the WKI.