Why was there a delay in the emergence of the Kurdish national movement?
Well, I think one century of armed struggle led to Kurds becoming far more politically organized. So, there was a lot of death and suffering and imprisonment and torture and so on, but it meant that Kurds were able to form secular multi-ethnic political parties out of their guerrilla movements. And that’s no small achievement for the Middle East. It meant that Iraqi Kurds were in a good place to ask for what they wanted after the US got rid of Saddam Hussein. They were far more organized than the other Iraqis. So they were able to push for a constitution that was federal that would legitimize the Kurdistan region of Iraq. And for that region to have its own security force, that was huge while everyone else had no political experience because they’d been under dictatorship.
Similarly, in Turkey, the armed struggle of the 1980s reaffirmed the Kurdish identity after decades of being nullified. You weren’t even allowed to say the word Kurd or speak Kurdish. And this led to political parties being formed in the early nineties, which were of course promptly banned, and so Kurds would have to enter parliament as independents, but that precursor and the cultural openings from 2010 led to the incredible election victory in June, 2015, where HDP received 13% of the vote and 80 seats in parliament. But of course, and then you’ve got the Syrian Kurds that on the back of the successes of Iraqi Kurds and what was happening in Turkey, they were able to take advantage of the Syrian Civil War, and the battle for Kobani really cemented their status.
You know, they got a U S-led coalition backing. And from,before and after that, they were establishing their own security force, their own administrations, which ended up spanning one-third of Syrian territory by 2018. But in the end, the only Kurds that were left out of this incredible political progress were Iranian Kurds. And that’s because, back in 1979, after the revolution, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, demanded the Kurds have autonomy in a federal Iran and the theocracy just wasn’t willing to buy that. And the Kurds rebelled, and they got slaughtered in a Holy war and ever since, Kurds, that belong to any political, cultural or, environmental organization can be put on death row or in prison for many years, even for teaching the Kurdish language in Iran. So they have missed out. Whereas the other Kurds in all the other three countries have been able to manage municipal councils or regional administrations. They’ve had incredible success at the sub state level that that got too much for the regimes and we might get onto that, but because of that, that success has since been challenged considerably,
Do you think that the KRG oil model is what Kurds should aim for to get International recognition?
Well, it has worked up to a point for the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The Kurdistan Region of Iraq relies on that export of oil to Turkey for its sustenance. When Baghdad can stop all revenue distribution to Kurdistan between 2014 and 2018, and now, it becomes even more critical, that oil to Turkey, but it also puts the Kurdistan Regional Government in a very hard place because it relies so much on that oil to Turkey, that when Turkey starts bombing Kurdistan of Iraq and establishing military bases and causing Iraqi civilians to die, causing livestock and farms to burn, causing villages to be evacuated. The Kurdistan Regional Government has had to be very diplomatic in its position. And I believe it’s asked the US for some help in this matter of Turkey’s airstrikes and drones and helicopters and military basis.
And that’s the problem is being reliant so much on one country when that country does not have a good relationship with its own Kurds, let alone other Kurds, I mean, Erdogan, was calling Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani terrorists right up until 2009, 2010, when they came to an oil agreement and Turkey also had just as hard a line as Iraq and Iran after the referendum on independence. So putting all one’s eggs in one basket is dangerous at any time. Regarding Syria, unfortunately, I think Erdogan is going down a path of no return with Kurds and it’s extremely dangerous for Kurds. Certainly try the oil angle because Turkey obviously wants money, Turkey’s economy is in a meltdown and the Lira is decreasing, and less and less foreign investment in Turkey is happening. But, I think more that more to the point, I think this attempt of the PYD,the Syrian Kurdish parties that make up the Syrian Democratic Council, as well as the Syrian Democratic Forces, trying to come to some sort of understanding with the KNC, you know, Barzani linked Roj Peshmerga and the politicians of the KNC.
I think that’s hugely important, a really critical thing for there to be an understanding, but not to repeat the same problems that are in Iraqi Kurdistan, where there’s a divided Peshmerga. t would be good to learn from Iraqi Kurdistan to build something on a more solid base in Syrian Kurdistan, where its a united security force and so on,somehow, but it would be wonderful for all the parties to accept political pluralism and to form a mixed political platform in Rojava, but respecting what people have sacrificed to get where they are today. And the rationale with the Roebuck and the other Americans trying to forge this agreement, this reconciliation, is that Turkey will accept the Rojava autonomous administration if the KNC is in there. The words coming out of Turkey, are not congruent with that understanding.
They are now saying the KNC are terrorists. I mean, Erdogan is on a path of calling everyone a terrorist that doesn’t agree with him. And so I think we are in a very, very difficult situation now where Kurds have got to a point where they’ve got these administrations in three countries, but they’re up against regimes that don’t want them to succeed. Whether it’s Iraq boycotting Kurdistan with oil, with their revenue allocation, whether it’s Turkey fighting military offensives and propaganda wars in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey itself, and Bashar Al Assad is promising to go to war with the Kurds in Syria if they don’t capitulate to his dictatorship and pre-2011 status quo. Kurds are, as much as they’ve succeeded so far in 30 years, they’re at a very tenuous time now. They’re going to have to be really careful, really strategic.
I do hope that, at this time, Kurds of different political persuasions can come together. I don’t believe in uniting, in that I think it’s dangerous when one organization represents 40 million or more people. I think the different parties are a richness of political culture, that they should embrace just like they embrace different ethnicities, different religions and so on. I think these different political parties need to coordinate on specific goals and matters of mutual self-interest, but it’s so hard when you’re up against very ruthless regimes. I mean, Turkey has never abided by having Kurds. Turkey does have a fear of Kurds.