In the course of the fall and the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, most of its subject peoples were able to set up their own states, but not the Kurds. With the Treaty of Sevrés, which was signed on August 20, 1920, the Kurds were promised a homeland. But the Allies, led by Great Britain and France, knew that the implementation of the Treaty would require difficult military enforcement. They were not prepared to make this commitment. The Treaty of Sevrés was a historical opportunity but the Kurdish leaders were unable to benefit of it.
The Treaty of Lausanne, signed on July 24, 1923, was the international accord, with which the Republic of Turkey was established. The word ‘Kurd’ was not even mentioned in it. Kurds were not regarded as a minority group. References to minorities were limited to non-Muslims. This was the second division of Kurdistan.
Also Iraq was established after World War I. Under a mandate from the League of Nations, the administration of Iraq was entrusted to Britain, but it adopted a policy of devolving responsibilities to an Iraqi government in 1921.
From 1918 to 1925, the Kurds lost an opportunity for statehood. They found themselves to be an unrecognised minority in Turkey and in Iraq. The Kurdish question became a frozen conflict. All the problems were left without solution, waiting for the right moment for the conflict to appear again. Now, this seems to happen. On the one hand, the Kurds move towards nationalism from proto-national level. Due to electronic mass media, satellite TV and the Internet – and especially social media like Facebook – they get information about each other and about global developments, which was totally out of their reach at the beginning of the last century. The Kurdish culture in Iraq is the most traditional and the most tribal. The Iranian Kurds are the best educated Kurds. The Kurds who live in Turkey are the most modern and the most aware in political terms, but many of them are partly assimilated into the Turkish culture. For example, many have lost their Kurdish mother tongue.
The young generation of Kurds continues the nation-building process from the point at which their grandfathers froze the issue after the days of Lausanne. On the other hand, new historic opportunities are emerging because all parts of Kurdistan are controlled by countries that are moving towards radical changes.
Since the end of the 19th century, the problem of the Kurds has been their inability to cooperate with each other. Kurdish politics is local politics. The Kurds have been rebelling against their oppressors for decades, but their uprisings have been local.
In 1991 three Kurdish provinces in South Kurdistan got autonomy after the First Gulf War in the uprising Raperin. But three Kurdish provinces - Mosul, Kirkuk and Diyala - were left outside the autonomous region. This was again a historical opportunity what the Kurdish leaders could not use. Twenty years have passed without much improvement despite United Nations decided referendum which is known as Article 140 according its status in the Iraqi constitution. If the referendum is not arranged this will be the third division of Kurdistan.
In the 1920s, Kurdish leaders could not make use of the historic opportunities, which were available during the collapse process of the Ottoman Empire. It seems that the next opportunity for the Kurds might come up soon. Dramatic changes may take place in the Middle East in the near future, taking into account the situations in Turkey, in Iraq, in Iran and in Syria. Especially the future of Iraq after the removal of the American troops is unclear.
Parag Khanna, former election advisor of Barack Obama and current director of the Global Governance Initiative, predicted 2008 that Kurds would get independent state in 2016 and 20 000 American troops would be stationed in Kurdistan by that time. He describes this vision in his book "The Second World : Empires and Influence in the New Global Order". Khanna argues that Kurdish oil and gas especially could play a desicive role in supporting the independence. Europe wants to decrease its dependency on Russian gas. Kurdish gas reserves of three to six trillion cubic meters is the source to replace the Russian gas. There is plan to build the Nabucco pipeline from Turkey to Austria to transport the Kurdish gas to Europe.
All big Kurdish parties in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey concentrate on the situation of their own geographical area. They do not have a common national agenda.
Kurdish leaders carry a big responsibility. Can they make cooperation? Can they use the historic opportunity, which seem to be available only once in a century? Only time will tell. I am sorry to say that at the moment the situation does not look good at least here in Sulaymania: Kurds struggle with each others the same way as they have done centuries instead of learning the modern skills of negotiation. This would benefit all Kurds in defending themselves against the neighbouring states. The plan to build the Nabucco pipeline or any other outside effort does not solve the Kurdish question if the Kurds can not cooperate with each others. Instead I have heard rumors that now they obtain more guns.
One thing is clear: problems, uprisings and struggles continue until a solution is found to the Kurdish question. In North Ireland, the struggle between the Irish and the British has already continued for seven hundred years. Let us hope that the Kurdish question will not remain unsolved for so long. It is a permanent source of instability in the whole Middle East until a political solution is found.
Kurdistan is going through a transition period. It is post-dictatorship and post-genocide society. It has experienced rapid and violent change from rural way of living to urban settlements. In the 1980s people did not move voluntarily to towns. They were deported by Saddam’s soldiers. Since that many problems have followed each others.
KRG has difficult work to rebuild Kurdistan from ruins caused by Saddam’s dictatorship, several wars, international embargo and increasing tension with the Baghdad government. Problems are not yet over, one of biggest problems is the situation in the disputed areas.
In other countries universities are centers for research and education. Teachers follow the latest development in their field and distribute the information to their students. When students graduate they bring fresh information to their working places.
During the Ba’athist times universities in Iraq were opposite to this model. They educated staff for the government’s needs and followed Saddam’s rules. The little research what existed here was strictly under Saddam’s control.
Despite almost twenty years of autonomy KRG has not been able to create new research policy to replace the old model. All agree about the problems of the universities. There are reasons for them. International embargo isolated Iraqi universities and prevented the staff from getting fresh ideas. Another problem is huge brain drain. Many intellectuals escaped from Iraq during three decades and now their skills benefit Europe instead of their own country.
It is difficult to establish research policy from point zero but it is the only way to find long term solutions to the present problems. I give two examples: the situation of the youth and disagreements about the disputed areas.
Kurdish teenagers grow up in difficult conditions: their parents had experienced destruction of the villages. Their childhood was unsecure because of the civil war between the Kurdish parties. Present problems and lack of motivation for studies are reflections of this history.
KRG has difficult work to rebuild Kurdistan from ruins caused by Saddam’s dictatorship, several wars, international embargo and increasing tension with the Baghdad government. Problems are not yet over, one of biggest problems is the situation in the disputed areas.
In other countries universities are centers for research and education. Teachers follow the latest development in their field and distribute the information to their students. When students graduate they bring fresh information to their working places.
During the Ba’athist times universities in Iraq were opposite to this model. They educated staff for the government’s needs and followed Saddam’s rules. The little research what existed here was strictly under Saddam’s control.
Despite almost twenty years of autonomy KRG has not been able to create new research policy to replace the old model. All agree about the problems of the universities. There are reasons for them. International embargo isolated Iraqi universities and prevented the staff from getting fresh ideas. Another problem is huge brain drain. Many intellectuals escaped from Iraq during three decades and now their skills benefit Europe instead of their own country.
It is difficult to establish research policy from point zero but it is the only way to find long term solutions to the present problems. I give two examples: the situation of the youth and disagreements about the disputed areas.
Kurdish teenagers grow up in difficult conditions: their parents had experienced destruction of the villages. Their childhood was unsecure because of the civil war between the Kurdish parties. Present problems and lack of motivation for studies are reflections of this history.
The Kurdish culture in Iraq is the most traditional and the most tribal.
The Iranian Kurds are the best educated.
The Kurds of Turkey are the most modern and the most aware in political terms, but many of them are partly assimilated into the Turkish culture. For example, many have lost their Kurdish mother tongue.
Kurdish leaders carry a big responsibility. Can they make cooperation? Can they use the historic opportunity, which seem to be available only once in a century? Only time will tell. I am sorry to say that at the moment the situation does not look good at least here in Sulaymania: Kurds struggle with each others the same way as they have done centuries instead of learning the modern skills of negotiation. This would benefit all Kurds in defending themselves against the neighbouring states. The plan to build the Nabucco pipeline or any other outside effort does not solve the Kurdish question if the Kurds can not cooperate with each others. Instead I have heard rumors that now they obtain more guns.
The Iranian Kurds are the best educated.
The Kurds of Turkey are the most modern and the most aware in political terms, but many of them are partly assimilated into the Turkish culture. For example, many have lost their Kurdish mother tongue.
Kurdish leaders carry a big responsibility. Can they make cooperation? Can they use the historic opportunity, which seem to be available only once in a century? Only time will tell. I am sorry to say that at the moment the situation does not look good at least here in Sulaymania: Kurds struggle with each others the same way as they have done centuries instead of learning the modern skills of negotiation. This would benefit all Kurds in defending themselves against the neighbouring states. The plan to build the Nabucco pipeline or any other outside effort does not solve the Kurdish question if the Kurds can not cooperate with each others. Instead I have heard rumors that now they obtain more guns.
what next?
When searching for a solution the first thing is to understand the problem in details.
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