Who are “Kurds,” anyway? There are somewhere between 30 and 45 million people who identify themselves as “Kurds,” mostly focused in Turkey (18% of Turkey’s population is Kurdish), Iran (under 10%), Syria (9%) and Iraq (17%), who attempt to trace their lineage back to an ancient Middle Eastern peoples, but whether there is that a clear connection is in dispute. One true reality, however: “The region’s Kurds… have longed for a state of their own since at least the end of World War I, when they were partitioned among Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.” Los Angeles Times, September 24th.
“Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, and even use a calendar dating from 612 B.C., when the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was conquered by the Medes. The claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem: ‘We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow.’” Wikipedia.
They share three dialects of Kurdish, but they often cannot understand any version but their own, and their religious practices are all over the place. From varying versions of Islam or Christianity, there are also smaller sects reaching into Zoroastrianism, Alevism, Yazidism and Yarsan. But they call themselves Kurds, recognize cultural similarities and speak one of those three dialects in addition to the language(s) of the local host nation.
When the United States blasted into Iraq in 2003, deposing the Sunni minority (20%) dictator – Saddam Hussein, who ran roughshod over the country’s 60%+ Shiite majority and 18% Kurdish population in the northern-most region – Shiites began tormenting their former masters, Sunnis, as the Kurds circled their northern wagons and began operating their Kurdish enclave semi-independently, within Iraq, under the name “Kurdistan Regional Government.” Occasional struggles over viable oil fields around the city of Kirkuk have entangled the Kurds against the new Shiite ruling faction, but for the most part those Northern Kurds made a success of their Iraqi territory.
Those northern, semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurds have given renewed hopes to other regional Kurds in neighboring countries that perhaps, someday, all those regional Kurds, often sharing a common boundary with other regional Kurds, would be unified in a new (??) and completely separate nation… Kurdistan. As Americans recognized the fiercest fighters against ISIS were Kurdish volunteers, mostly from Turkey, we soon watched as Turkish forces, ostensibly attacking ISIS regulars, instead attacking those same Kurdish volunteers (the legendary Peshmerga), and labeling these Kurds as “terrorists.” While each nation with large Kurdish populations opposes the notion of allowing those Kurds the right to separate to form “Kurdistan,” Turkey has been the most violently opposed to its own Kurdish faction; it been an on-again-off-again violent struggle that has only grown worse as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has consolidated his autocratic hold on Turkey in recent years.
Wikipedia explains: “The Kurdish–Turkish conflict is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan). Although insurgents have carried out attacks in many regions of Turkey, the insurgency is mainly in southeastern Turkey. The PKK's presence in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, from which it has also launched attacks, has resulted in the Turkish military carrying out frequent ground incursions and air and artillery strikes in the region. The conflict has cost the economy of Turkey an estimated 300 to 450 billion dollars, mostly military costs. It has also affected tourism in Turkey.”
Undaunted, those northern Iraqi Kurds have now taken it upon themselves to hold a referendum on the issue of a true and official separate state. “Kurdish leaders say their region, which has suffered major losses in the fight against Islamic State, has earned the right to self-governance…
“For the jubilant, flag-waving throngs who filled rallies across Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish enclave in recent weeks, a vote on independence Monday [9/25] represents a chance to realize a dream cherished for generations.
“But every major player in the region opposes the referendum, placing the Kurds on a collision course with neighbors and allies, including the U.S., which warns that it could ignite conflict with the central government in Baghdad and unleash ethnic fighting in a part of the world still roiled by the battle against Islamic State.
“Kurdish forces played a pivotal role in the campaign to reclaim Mosul, the largest city to fall to the extremist group also known as ISIS and Daesh. But U.S. officials say the conflict over Monday’s referendum is undermining efforts to drive the militants from their remaining footholds in Iraq.
“U.S. diplomats and their Western allies are making last-ditch efforts to persuade the northern Kurdish region’s president, Massoud Barzani, to delay the plebiscite in favor of mediated negotiations with Baghdad. The United Nations also has appealed for dialogue, saying it will not be ‘engaged in any way or form’ in Monday’s [9/25] referendum.
“Diplomats are particularly concerned about the decision to hold voting in disputed areas that are controlled by Kurdish forces but claimed by Baghdad — notably the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The move has raised tensions that they say Islamic State and other extremists are seeking to exploit.
“Iraq’s prime minister, Haider Abadi, called the referendum a ‘dangerous escalation’ and said he was prepared to intervene militarily if violence breaks out. Iraq’s parliament declared the plebiscite unconstitutional and moved to dismiss the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk, who supports the referendum and says only the provincial council can remove him.
“Two of Iraq’s neighbors, Turkey and Iran, concerned that the referendum could inflame secessionist aspirations among their own Kurdish minorities, have said they are considering countermeasures. Turkey is carrying out military drills near northern Iraq, and Iran has threatened to close its border with the landlocked Kurdish enclave.” LA Times.
Iran, a nation where repression is a way of life, sent a loud and clear message to these Iraqi separatists: “Iran blocked flights to and from the neighboring Iraqi region of Kurdistan on Sunday [9/24] while holding military exercises on the border, the sharpest signals yet of its opposition to a Kurdish referendum on independence from Iraq planned for Monday [9/25].
“Tehran’s extraordinary move to close its airspace came at the request of the Iraqi central government, Iranian media reported, and represents the kind of economic pressure Kurdish leaders can expect as they push ahead with a vote against the wishes of Baghdad and prominent members of the international community.” Washington Post, September 24th. Should it declare independence, landlocked “Kurdistan” – entirely surrounded by hostile neighbors – could find itself isolated and economically crippled in its quest for statehood.
The plebiscite turnout was high, estimated at around 72% of the voting public, but there are non-Kurds in this area as well, many of whom were not happy at the electoral challenge; in Kirkuk, the local ethnic Arab and Turkmen communities called for a boycott of the vote. But mostly, it was Kurds, Kurds, Kurds!
And trust me, Kurds in Iran, Syria and Turkey are paying attention. We deeply destabilized the Middle East with our invasion of Iraq, imposing our view of “democracy” on Baghdad, and further rubbed salt in the wound in our military efforts in Afghanistan. This vote in northern Iraq is a direct and proximate result of our reconfiguring the regional power structure; it is just one more feature of the American-induced chaos in the region.
UN Secretary General António Guterres voiced his concern about the ‘potentially destabilizing effects’ of the vote. But as Kurds feel their oats, dream their dream of independence, the outbreak of new levels of regional violence seems inevitable… as if the Middle East weren’t destabilized enough. Did I mention the outcome of the vote: Preliminary estimates sat the Iraqi Kurds voted 90% for independence. “Kurds say it will give them a mandate to negotiate secession, but Iraq's PM denounced it as ‘unconstitutional.’… Neighbours Turkey and Iran, fearing separatist unrest in their own Kurdish minorities, threatened to close borders and impose sanctions on oil exports.” BBC.com, September 25th.
Many Iraqi legislators are calling for a complete government shake-up because the leadership failed to stop this referendum and contain Kurdish separatists. Another battle begins. About rights, territory… and oil. “Iraq’s prime minister, angered by a vote on independence by his nation’s Kurdish minority, has given the country’s Kurdish region until Friday [9/29] to surrender control of its two international airports or face a shutdown of international flights.” New York Times, September 26th. This going to get very ugly.
I’m Peter Dekom, and as one unholy mess unleashes in one part of the world – mostly recently the exchange of cold, hard threats with North Korea – the world is bracing for more violence in that other boiling cauldron of irreconcilable differences: the Middle East.
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