Putting All Your Kurds on the Table

As the United Nations General Assembly voted to accord Palestine with official U.N. “observer status,” a precursor to full membership, as the media centered on the explosive situation in Egypt where Mohamed Mursi faced serious challenges to his sweeping edicts and the timing on the proposed referendum on a controversial constitution and as the world reflected on the Syrian al-Assad regime’s loading deadly Sarin gas into usable bombs, the actions in other nearby regions seemed to slide under the radar. But was the Arab Spring about to have a new seasonal follow-up… a Kurdish Winter or Spring, a genuine possibility if the Assad regime actually falls?

There are about 30 million Kurds worldwide, with a strong concentration in the shared border regions of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. They speak their own language and have a deep and abiding sense of social unity that dates back to medieval times, then an amalgamation of affiliated and neighboring tribes that evolved into a single culture. “Today, the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslim, belonging to the Shafi school. Mystical practices and participation in Sufi orders are also widespread among Kurds. There is also a minority of Kurds who are Shia Muslims, primarily living in the Ilam and Kermanshah provinces of Iran, Central and south eastern Iraq (Fayli Kurds), and who are Alevi, who mostly live in Turkey.” Wikipedia. But strangely, they first identify themselves as Kurds and only then in accordance with their faith. It is this strong cultural identity that does and will continue to threaten the territorial integrity of the countries that currently host this Kurdish population.

Turkish Kurds have often been railed for independence, sometimes to the point of armed conflict, while Iraqi Kurds have created their own autonomous state in the north within the new Iraq almost completely ignoring the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. These Iraqi Kurds have their own military, police and a pretty efficient economy with lots of growth. In Syria, Kurdish militias have joined in the effort to topple the al-Assad regime, but they have a bigger vision for their own state, probably melding with their neighboring Kurdish regions.

“The Kurdish militias in northern Syria had hoped to stay out of the civil war raging in Syria. They were focused on preparing to secure an autonomous enclave for themselves within Syria should the rebels succeed in toppling the government. But slowly, inexorably, they have been dragged into the fighting and now have one goal in mind, their autonomy, which also means the Balkanization of the state… ‘We want to have a Kurdish nation,’ said Divly Fadal Ali, 18, who fled the fighting and was recently staying in a local community center here for Kurdish refugees. ‘We want our own schools, our own hospitals. We want the government to admit our existence. We want recognition of our Kurdish identity.’

“These skirmishes between Kurds and Arabs take on a darker meaning for Syria as the rebels appear each day to gain momentum and the government appears less and less able to restore control. The rebels have taken over military bases, laid siege to Damascus and forced the airport to close… Like the sectarian battles in Iraq after the American invasion, the recent violence between Arabs and Kurds in Syria indicates the further unraveling of a society whose mix of sects, identities and traditions were held together by the yoke of a dictator.” New York Times, December 6^th.

Indeed, as Turkey takes a very strong stand against the incumbent Syrian regime, there is an equal amount of trepidation in Ankara that the fall of Assad could easily loose enough Kurds with independence as their goal, fomenting a movement that would extend well into Turkey.  This could lead to a full-on civil war in Turkey’s Kurdish region as local Kurds dream of uniting with their bordering Iraqi, Syrian and perhaps Iranian brethren.

“Analysts fear this combustible environment could presage a bloody ethnic and sectarian conflict that will resonate far beyond Syria’s borders, especially if it involves the Kurds. There is concern that Iraq’s Kurds, who are already training Syrian Kurds to fight, may jump into the Syria fight to protect their ethnic brethren. That could also pull in Turkey, which fears that an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria would become a haven for Kurdish militants to carry out cross-border attacks in the Kurdish areas in southeastern Turkey.” NY Times.

Artificial borders determined by conflicts and Western conspiracies long ago have done little to persuade local Kurds that they should be happy as residents in nations with mixes of various religious and cultural groupings. The notion of a new Kurdistan is alive and well, perhaps creating re-emerging sentiments for a new union that we have not seen for a very long time.

I’m Peter Dekom, and just when you thought the Middle East couldn’t possibly get any more complicated…..