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The Case for Kurdistan

Aug 7, 2017 Shlomo Ben-Ami

The Kurds – who occupy a mountainous region that includes portions of Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey – are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state to call their own. It is time to change that.

TEL AVIV – The Kurds – who occupy a mountainous region that includes portions of Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey – are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state to call their own. It is time to change that.

The Kurds have been making bids for statehood – and having them brutally suppressed – since the early twentieth century. But there is a strong case for the United States, in particular, to work toward securing a homeland for the Kurds – a case buttressed by Kurdish militias’ indispensable contribution to defeating the Islamic State.

To be sure, the establishment of a “greater Kurdistan” that includes all areas where the Kurds comprise a majority remains impossible. If internal Kurdish politics were not enough to prevent such an outcome, geostrategic constraints certainly would be.

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Jonathan Engel Sep 25, 2017

Seems that the Kurds, as a people, have a clear case, which convinced in the 1920s already. Presently they are Western allies, in a place where (sincere) allies are few and waning in the Arab Universe. The Author makes a straightforward and convincing argument for doing stuff in our own interests (for once), except when he just can't avoid the temptation to add the Palestinians into a discourse where they absolutely have no role: "The Palestinians, who have also spent far too long on the losing side of the Middle East’s strategic game, could enrich such an alliance further." Otherwise bravo... but it won't happen, since the only fellows brave enough to say "boo" (apart from the Kurds) will be the Israelis....
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j. von Hettlingen Aug 7, 2017

Shlomo Ben-Ami supports the Kurdish bid for statehood, while being aware of potential pitfalls. Ahead of a referendum on independence held by the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq this September, he urges the US to "throw its weight behind the pro-Western KRG and offer resolute support for the independence effort."
Between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling portions of Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a state to call their own. In the early 20th Century, many Kurds dreamt of a homeland - their "Kurdistan". After WW I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, European victors made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres. Yet their hopes were shattered in 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey. It made no provision for a Kurdish state and left the Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. Over the next decades, any effort by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed.
For the moment their dream of a “greater Kurdistan” is "impossible". Apart from "internal Kurdish politics" - infighting among Kurdish groups, "geostrategic constraints" are certainly another obstacle. Turkey has been accused of marginalising the Kurds - 15% to 20% of its total population in the country's southeast. There is deep-seated hostility between the Turkish state and the Kurds, who for generations have received harsh treatment at the hands of the Turkish authorities.
The Turks see the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey as a terrorist organisation and this complicated their relationship with Kurdish fighters in Syria, because Ankara sees them as a bigger threat than ISIS. The Kurdish YPG militia group in Syria is said to be the PKK's ally and Ankara calls it a terrorist organistation. Turkey prevents at all cost the Syrian Kurds from capitalising on their territorial gains to gain independence for fear of a "spillover effect" at home. In 2014 Ankara blocked Turkish Kurds from crossing into Syria to fight ISIS.
Strangely enough Erdogan's stance towards Iraqi Kurds is very different. As the Sunni Turkey fell out with the Shia-led government in Baghdad, the Kurds of northern Iraq have become a crucial ally. Energy is key to the relationship between Ankara and the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, and Turkey relies on the oil through a pipeline from Kirkuk to the southern Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The author proposes a "Balkanisation" of Iraq as he sees no hope for national unity. This should start with a Kurdish state, that has "a real chance of thriving: an independent Kurdistan could manage to combine natural-resource wealth with a tradition of stable and pragmatic governance, thereby creating a sustainable democracy. This would amount to a win for pro-Western forces in the Middle East."
What is positive about a Kurdish state in Iraq is that Turkey seems willing to accept it, although it denies its own Kurds the same ambition. Another support comes from Israel. In 2014 Benjamin Netanyahu voiced his support for the Kurdish aspiration for independence, taking a position that clashed with the US preference to keep the sectarian war-torn Iraq together. He maintained the creation of a Kurdish state would help form a broader alliance with moderate forces across the Middle East.
Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, seeing in this ethnic minority a buffer against shared Arab adversaries. The Kurds have seized on the sectarian chaos in Iraq to expand their autonomous northern territory to include Kirkuk, which sits on vast oil deposits that could make the independent state economically viable. The Kurds have long held aspirations for independence, but the international community, including Turkey as well as the US and other western countries, are opposed to the breakup of Iraq.
The author says the US should seize on the opportunity "to build a true Sunni alliance that includes an independent Kurdistan," which would be in "America's own interest." If Washington is "eager to contain the influence of the Russia-Iran-Hezbollah axis" in the Middle East, selling "more arms to Saudi Arabia or its Sunni proxies" won't help achieve the goal. Yet "respecting the yearning of disenfranchised and oppressed peoples – beginning with the Kurds – for freedom, democracy, and competent governance remains vital for a durable Western imprint on the region’s future." The problem is that Trump has an affinity for dictators and no sense of history. He is easily impressed by grandeur and prestige, that he may see the Kurds as losers, since they have been suppressed for decades.
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Odyssios Redux Aug 7, 2017

'US should recognize that “a unified, stable, democratic, and federal Iraq," , is a chimera. '

Should; won't.

And the Kurd's experience in Iraq, as a stalwart ally of the US, has been twice (at least) to be contemptibly and comprehensively betrayed. There are many good arguments for a 'Kurdistan', all of which are lost on any possible US administration. Nominal political party irrelevant. This after all is the country that can't even now get over the fact that it 'lost' Cuba to He who may not be Named - but had the temerity to survive. The US' inability to see what's at least a good working outcome all round, is epic. And fatal to many. And is the reason for its precipitate decline as an imperial power.

Not to flog a wounded horse, but might has in the US case, made stupid - because so invincibly wrong.
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MEHMET NAMLI Aug 7, 2017

The writer continues talks about Western influence and imprint while giving advice for Middle Eastern issues . Wasn't it the western using divide and conquer strategy for many years ? And now it is the same strategy. What middle east needs is to gather at a table by putting aside nationality and religion to create a EU style organisation. Why should a sunni or shia need to hate others more than they hate westerns if they need to hate someone ? Middle east needs true leadership with a vision for unity and freedom for all . Not more divisions that will trigger further conflicts and wars in the end. And yeap all this division is all good for Israel of course.

By the way the writer is also calling PKK ( A TERRORIST ORGANISATION ) as the main representative of Kurdish politics while there is a political party HDP in the Turksih parliament. I don't think this is an innocent mistake done by him.

Simply we don't need a more divide Middle east . We need a middle east where we all live in peace without weapons . Arabs, Turks, Kurds , Persian and Jewish among others are part of that middle east. Further more we don't need more borders on earth. Why can't we just talk about removing borders everywhere ? We need politicians with this vision . This is 21st century , let's don't repeat the mistakes of 20th one . We know it costed a lot for so many people.
- ferdinand van Dieten Sep 28, 2017
  
  @Mehmet Namli: yess, we need to restore the garden of Eden in the Middle East. God shouldn't have invented the original sin.
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