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Essays, Opinion, & Commentary |
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January 1, 2008 Hamas, Fatah, & The Missing Kurdish Dual Track by Gerald A. Honigman
Let me state right from the start that I have always held that the Kurds, themselves, had to get a handle on their own militants. And I have always supported good ties with the Turks. But while the latter and others call the PKK terrorists, I only reluctantly concur. I'll soon get to the reason… We've known for quite some time that Ankara was planning something big to deal with its own home-grown and largely self-inflicted Kurdish headache. Air raids and limited cross-border incursions into the Iraqi Kurdish region hunting Turkish Kurds have thus recently occurred. The casualty toll has been disputed, but there is no doubt that civilians are bearing the brunt of the suffering. The region is mountainous and it's winter. To pour even more salt on the wound, reports state that sophisticated Israeli drones are being used along with Israeli operators to assist in this operation. Not a pleasant thought. Here's the problem… There is a hypocrisy which stinks to High Heaven when one looks at how the plight of 35 million truly stateless Kurds has been handled on the world stage in contrast to how the quest for the creation of Arab state # 22 has been dealt with…America among the worst offenders. With the break up of the Ottoman Turkish Empire after World War I, the Kurds--native to the region for thousands of years (Guti, Kardu, Kassites, Hurrians, Medes, etc.)--were promised independence in the Mandate of Mesopotamia. They were sacrificed, however, on the altar of British petroleum politics and Arab nationalism after the Brits received a favorable decision on the Mosul Question from the League of Nations in 1925. Arab Iraq emerged instead with the oil-rich Kurdish region encompassing Mosul and Kirkuk attached to it. Its navy having recently switched from coal to oil, the British Empire decided it was against its best interests to allow the separation of Kurdish lands from what their oil-rich Arab friends claimed to be purely Arab patrimony. A similar problem was brewing in the Mandate of Palestine; indeed, Arabs would later claim that they would view the birth of Kurdistan as another Israel. So the Brits backtracked and attempted to shaft the Jews and succeeded in shafting the Kurds. Sandwiched between two regional powerhouses, Ataturk's Turkey and Reza Shah Pahlavi's Iran, the only real option left was independence in at least part of Mesopotamia. Denied this, frustrations caused by suppression, massacres, subjugation, and such led to periodic, explosive Kurdish revolts. Among other things, Kurds found themselves renamed "Mountain Turks" and their very language and cultural identity were outlawed in Turkey and Iraq--with similar goings on in Syria and elsewhere. Since about one fifth of Turkey's seventy million people are Kurds (the same proportion of Arabs to Jews in an Israel that fits thirty-eight times into Turkey), the birth of the militant PKK was inevitable. Besides the Jews, if ever a people needed the protection of their own nation state simply for their own survival, certainly it was/is the Kurds. Regardless, while Secretary of State Rice was delivering her words of wisdom regarding the necessity of creating a 22nd state for Arabs in the region (second--not first--Arab one within the original 1920 borders of Mandatory Palestine...Jordan created in 1922 on the lions' share) at the U.S. Institute of Peace on August 19, 2004, she totally shot down questions relating to Kurdish anxieties and aspirations in Iraq. Here's some of what she had to say about those additional Arab aspirations, however: The President believes that the Palestinian people deserve not merely their own state, but a just and democratic state that serves their interests…. Despite the bloodshed, barbarism, and turmoil in the Arab areas of Iraq; despite hundreds of thousands of Kurds having been killed by Iraqi and Syrian Arabs over the decades (not to mention the Turks and Iranians); despite Kurds having been marked as traitors because of their close ties to America; despite the fact that the most stable and democratic areas in Iraq are in the Kurdish areas...indeed, despite all of this and more, Condi brushed off a question regarding a Kurdish referendum on independence (which showed that at least 80% of the Kurds wanted this) with the following disdain: ...It's the role of leadership to convince people that they really ought to stay in the same body. A sickening disgrace. So, in an era in which other peoples were gaining national rights, Kurds were once again told by America that they were unworthy of such aspirations. Without going back numerous decades to the repeated use and abuse of the Kurds by the State Department, CIA, etc., one thus only needs to look at recent State Department pronouncements along with recommendations from the Baker-Hamilton Commission on Iraq to see such blatant double standards. You see, what's missing from all of this is the dual track approach… While deliberately targeting innocents is never good, in fighting terror one still needs to address legitimate aspirations and grievances. To this day, most Arabs polled still want to see Israel destroyed…regardless of its size. How dare dhimmi kilab yahud--Jew dog--"sons of apes and pigs" claim part of the purely Arab patrimony! Yet Israel has agreed to the creation of "Palestine"--Arab state # 22--while knowing that it really makes no never mind, in the long term, whether Abbas's alleged Arafatian Fatah good cops or the Islamic Jihad/Hamas bad cops run the show. Both of their charters still call for Israel's destruction. The former are simply willing to temporarily play the Arabs' well-known post-'67 destruction in phases game to milk the Western cow for all that its worth…and billions of dollars are indeed pouring in. Yet while America collaborates with Turks to kill Kurdish militants, it refrains from placing demands upon Ankara to allow Kurds in Turkey more cultural and political freedom. How different, indeed, the American approach with Israel and the Arabs… While "permitting" Israeli limited action (expecting Jews to pinpoint the exact perpetrators of terror launched daily from Gaza, for example), the State Department is shoving a rejectionist Arab state down Israel's throat. The two young Israelis recently murdered while on a hike were victims of Israel loosening up on security measures demanded by Dr. Rice. Keep in mind that Arabs who side with Hamas serve in Israel's Parliament, Arabic is the nation's second national language, attend Israeli universities (where they call for Israel's destruction), etc. and so forth…and this despite the fact that many Israeli Arabs are indeed a potential fifth column. So things ain't "perfect" here either. Six million Israeli Jews, surrounded by 200 million Arabs (not to mention non-Arab Iran and such), have much more to fear regarding "instability" and such than Turks do. Yet Ankara, along with powerful American Arabists ( like James Baker & Co.) tied to Arab petrobucks, are allowed to condemn scores of millions of Kurds to perpetual statelessness...or deny them even meaningful autonomy. Hence the Turks' fears and threats regarding Iraqi Kurds finally gaining control over their own oil. Why is it okay for Arabs and Iranians to control "their" oil, but not so for Kurds? And please don't respond that Kirkuk is composed of mixed nationalities (largely due to Saddam's forced Arabization of the area). Iran's major oil fields are in Khuzestan…but it's been known as Arabistan for centuries…Guess why? Kurds lived in the area of the Mosul and Kirkuk oil fields for millennia before a Turk or Arab even knew it existed. As for the presence of some Turkmen as well, recall that, besides Turkey, there are a half dozen other Asiatic Turkic states as well. Arabs… 22, Turks…around 7, Jews…1, Kurds…0--none, zilch, nada. Recall that Turks have been great supporters of the Arabs' quest for their additional state. They have severely taken Israel to task for going after Hamas--the organization which openly aims to destroy it--after Jews were deliberately blown up in restaurants, buses, teen night clubs, and the like. Unlike the Arab good cops and bad cops vis-à-vis Israel, the PKK does not seek the destruction of Turkey--just some meaningful justice for Turkey's Kurds. Ditto for PEJAK in Iran. To deal with the PKK effectively, you have to lessen its support and raison d'etre among some fifteen million Turkish Kurds…the dual track an Israel constantly maligned has always ironically pursued. Fair and just offers and partitions were repeatedly offered to--and rejected--by the Arabs themselves. No solution other than another final solution regarding Israel was or is acceptable...to this day. Israel's "moderate" Annapolis partners still insist that after Israel returns to its pre-'67, 9-mile wide armistice line existence, that it consent to being swamped by millions of jihadist alleged refugees (most of whom were newcomers themselves into the Mandate). And while seeking to add state # 22 to the Arab League, they still refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish (a la Swedish, English, Irish, Polish, etc.) state. Israel should not shame itself further with such collaboration with Ankara against the Kurds. While it's nice to have a regional neighbor one has reasonable relations with, the same rules need to apply for both parties in this relationship. As the Turks demand yet more political rights for Arabs, Jews should not shy away from making similar demands for Kurds. Justice cannot expect that Kurds concur with the elimination of the PKK while basic rights for their own people are still largely ignored...the missing component in the necessary dual track. As for the American State Department…it's a virtual lost cause regarding this issue. It will take a future American President, with the insight of a Woodrow Wilson--whose famous post-World War One 14 Points addressed the plight of stateless Kurds--and the strength of a Ronald Reagan, to take charge of American foreign policy once again, pushing aside age-old, Arabist-dominated Foggy Bottom policies which have created the tragic situation we have today. Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world. Visit his website at http://geraldahonigman.com/.
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A
deal was obviously made to keep the Turks from
launching a full scale invasion of the Kurdish
north in Iraq. The Kurdish region being the only
real long-term success story America can point to
in its Iraq adventure, the alternative would indeed
be a nightmare.
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