(To read the first part of this work, click here)
The intersection of the four countries of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, lies in Kurdistan. As Kurdistan is within these borders, all these must be considered, in any sensible work on the Kurdish national movements. Iran and the Mahabad Republic, in relation to the Kurds, were discussed in Part One. Here in Part Two, we will focus upon Iraq and Turkey, highlighting history relevant to the Kurdish national movement. Part Three will focus upon Syria.
In assessing the Kurdish struggles, it is impossible to avoid the details of what now makes up the entire Middle East battle-ground. This term – ‘battle-ground’ – is not hyperbole. For the Middle East now embroils both major imperialists (USA, Russia), and the hitherto client states. The latter are now capable of exerting their own agency to varying extents. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Gulf States, Turkey – while generally subservient to a dominant state (For most of these it is the USA, or in the case of Iran and Syria, it is a co-equal status with Russia) – also have their own separate interests that they pursue. Disentangling these knots is difficult. Hence any history of modern day Kurdish struggles – appears to drown in details of the “Middle East”.
We saw in Part One of this work, that the years up to 1946 were bitter for Kurds. But they were to be no less bitter, in the remainder of the 20th century. The prior era set the Ottoman, Russian Imperial and British Empires upon the Kurds. But after World War II, the full weight of the even more rapacious USA was laid on the Kurds. The Kurdish people died amidst a tragic and repetitive cycle of massacres such as Halabja, neglect, and betrayed promises. Even after the Kurds obtained a semblance of a ‘homeland’ – in the so-called Safe Havens, with USA aid – they were not secure. For the Kurdish national movements then became trapped in the Muslim sectarian, fundamentalist strife. Truly the Kurds were in the cockpit of the Middle East.
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