Autonomous Kurdistan
Autonomous Kurdistan exists in name and in fact in Iraq where state infrastructure for a national identity has long been established. What eludes the Kurds, however, is the declaration of statehood through the auspices of the United Nations, in a territory that is traditionally theirs, but which territorial lines expressing the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria intersect.
Kurdish-inhabited areas
Homeland aspirations of the Kurds have long been looked on as a territorial assault by the countries in which the Kurds live. They represent the world's largest stateless ethnic group. The militant wings of Kurdish independence are viewed by the countries in which they exist as terrorist groups and have been recognized internationally as well as employing violence in their bid to achieve independence.
People of an Indo-European origin, Kurds are not Arab. Among them, though, are people of Arab, Armenian, Assyrian, Azeri, Jewish, Ossetian, Persian and Turkic origin. Most Kurds are practising Muslims, but other religions are also recognized; Yazidis, Christians and Jews among a few others.
They have been discriminated against in those countries where they live, forbidden from speaking their language, from teaching their history.
In Turkey in particular, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is outlawed as a terror group; bloody clashes between the Turkish military and the PKK continue. In the 1980s and 90s, Kurdish villages in Turkey were destroyed and tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.
With the current revolution in Syria and Turkey's denunciation of the Alawite regime's bloody crackdown on its Sunni-majority population in revolt, Turkey worries that the regime will interfere with its own Kurdish problem, fomenting further unrest and violence within Turkey.
Syrian Kurds have taken advantage of the conflict in Syria to consolidate their position in the northeast of the country. They have pledged allegiance to neither the regime nor the rebels, wanting only to be left alone, and to gain a firmer foothold on the geography they intend as Western Kurdistan.
If the regime prevails, there would be no intention to grant separation to the Kurds. To the Syrian rebels the furthest intention is to lose any part of their geography.
One of the reasons, and a primary one is that the Kurdish-ruled zone was once called Syria's breadbasket. Not only is it a highly fertile area, but it also hosts most of the country's oil reserves. Reason for the regime and the rebels to cling fiercely to its ownership. Ample reason for the Kurds to want to incorporate it into a future Kurdish state carved out of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
Autonomous Kurdistan in Iraq also is situated on oil-rich reserves. At this juncture the Kurds in Syria would be satisfied to be declared autonomous within the state of Syria. They have managed to expel the last vestiges of the regime's security forces and have a functioning Kurdish government infrastructure initiated with expectations of autonomy being granted in the future.
"The Kurds are with neither the regime nor the Free Army. The Kurds are a third point in the revolution", explained a Democratic Union Party leader aligned with the PKK. "The Kurds want self government, but in the context of the Syrian nation. Any new government will have to accept self-rule in Kurdish areas of self-government, but with a democratic Syria."
Sounds like wishful thinking, which it is. Sounds like a reasonable expectation which it also represents. Sounds like there will be trouble ahead when the Turkish Kurds, as they most certainly will, continue to agitate for the very same type of autonomous consideration from the Republic of Turkey
Labels: Conflict, Iran, Iraq, Kurds, Revolution, Syria, Turkey
posted by Pieface @ Monday, February 25, 2013
<< Home