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These past few days offered your humble columnist a few too many reminders of how the international system, in all its hypocrisy, continues to fail groups like the Kurds. While most Western progressives, comfortable and secure for all their lives, continue to talk derisively about the Kurds’ nationalist ambitions, the lack of even a single Kurdish state in the world continues to curse this nation.
If a single Kurdish state existed, even in Alaska, there would have been an ally for the Kurds in Iraq following their September 25 referendum on independence. Now no one but the Kurds is questioning Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi as he punishes them with embargos, airport closures and unilateral fiats – such as his refusal to pay the Iraqi Kurds their 17 percent share of the Iraqi budget [he claims the Kurdistan region accounts for only 12.6 of Iraq’s population, but lacks any census to prove it].
If a single Kurdish state existed, even in Alaska, there would have been an ally for the Kurds in Iraq following their September 25 referendum on independence. Now no one but the Kurds is questioning Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi as he punishes them with embargos, airport closures and unilateral fiats – such as his refusal to pay the Iraqi Kurds their 17 percent share of the Iraqi budget [he claims the Kurdistan region accounts for only 12.6 of Iraq’s population, but lacks any census to prove it].
If a single Kurdish state existed, there would be at least one voice in the United Nations to properly and honestly condemn Turkey’s current invasion of Afrin. There would be at least one voice in other inter-state forums to ask why Kurds, who form less than 10 percent of Iran’s population, are so overrepresented amongst Iran’s political prisoners and within its execution rolls.
As things stand, international voices in support of the Kurds remain too few and far between. Listening to BBC radio on the hour, every hour, one would be hard pressed to know that Turkey is invading Afrin in Syrian Kurdistan, destroying 2,000-year-old archeological sites and killing civilians. Reuters and other media outlets, meanwhile, dutifully repeat Turkish propaganda about “eliminating Kurdish and Islamic State terrorists in Afrin.” It is thanks to the Kurds of the People’s Protection Units (the YPG and the women’s YPJ) that there is no Islamic State or other Jihadi presence in Afrin — apart from Turkey’s Syrian Arab mercenaries, of course.
Leaders in Ankara continually repeat their lie that “Over the last year alone, more than 700 attacks have been launched from the Afrin area under PYD/YPG control against Turkish cities.” No credible sources point to any significant attacks from Afrin into Turkey until the Turks invaded on January 20th, yet the leadership of Western states continues to humour Turkey with statements about “Turkey’s right to defend itself.”
Such a right might apply to cross border operations on the Iraqi border following PKK attacks in Turkey, but the fact remains that the people of Afrin – including their current political leadership – have done Turkey no harm. They had not even so much as threatened Turkey. PYD links to the PKK in this instance giving Turkey no more casus belli than the United States would have to attack Turkey for its links to Hamas and Syrian jihadis. Unfortunately, the people with the most power in the international system to stress this crucial point choose to turn a blind eye and issue diplomatic platitudes.
This week’s video of Turkey’s Syrian jihadi mercenaries ridiculing and groping the body of a mutilated Kurdish female fighter sparked no outrage outside Kurdish communities. If the perpetrators of this atrocity, or previous ones [this columnist has seen similar videos involving Turkish soldiers and corpses of PKK fighters], had been American, European or Israeli, the streets from Rabat to Kuala Lumpur would be teeming with protestors.
Apparently the Kurds, however, are only Muslims when they are asked to contribute to some cause or other; when they displease Turkish, Iraqi, Syrian or Iranian state elites, then they are infidels upon whom one can declare jihad — language that has been coming out of Turkey this week, but was also used by Saddam and others.
The hypocrisy towards the Kurds even extends deep into academia. As an academic who works on the Middle East, I am a member of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). As I prepared a paper proposal for MESA’s annual conference, the on-line system required me to select the paper’s geographic area of relevance. When ‘Kurdistan’ failed to appear as one of the options, I sent the association a simple e-mail: “Dear MESA, When submitting a paper abstract, we have to select options for things like "paper geographic area." You have options of all the states, plus options like ‘Sahara,’ ‘Palestine,’ ‘West Bank,’ ‘Gaza’ and ‘Anatolia.’ You do not have the options of ‘Kurdistan’ or ‘Western Sahara.’ May I ask why?”
This was actually the second time in several years I had sent the directors of MESA this question. This time, however, I shared my thoughts on the issue with my academic friends who also work on Kurdish issues — only to discover that many of them have also asked MESA about this in the past. None of us have ever received a reply. Perhaps the Arabists, Turkologists and Persian studies professors of MESA are too busy with their usual pursuits, such as rejecting most of our proposals for roundtables or panels on Kurdish issues or discussing a possible boycott of Israeli academics.
I have lost count of how many academics involved in Kurdish studies expressed frustration to me regarding such issues. It is particularly galling that the hypocrisy and double standards come from a crowd so full of supposed concern for “imperialism,” “colonialism,” “human rights,” “repression,” “subaltern identities,” and all kinds of ostensibly progressive causes.
As things stand, international voices in support of the Kurds remain too few and far between. Listening to BBC radio on the hour, every hour, one would be hard pressed to know that Turkey is invading Afrin in Syrian Kurdistan, destroying 2,000-year-old archeological sites and killing civilians. Reuters and other media outlets, meanwhile, dutifully repeat Turkish propaganda about “eliminating Kurdish and Islamic State terrorists in Afrin.” It is thanks to the Kurds of the People’s Protection Units (the YPG and the women’s YPJ) that there is no Islamic State or other Jihadi presence in Afrin — apart from Turkey’s Syrian Arab mercenaries, of course.
Leaders in Ankara continually repeat their lie that “Over the last year alone, more than 700 attacks have been launched from the Afrin area under PYD/YPG control against Turkish cities.” No credible sources point to any significant attacks from Afrin into Turkey until the Turks invaded on January 20th, yet the leadership of Western states continues to humour Turkey with statements about “Turkey’s right to defend itself.”
Such a right might apply to cross border operations on the Iraqi border following PKK attacks in Turkey, but the fact remains that the people of Afrin – including their current political leadership – have done Turkey no harm. They had not even so much as threatened Turkey. PYD links to the PKK in this instance giving Turkey no more casus belli than the United States would have to attack Turkey for its links to Hamas and Syrian jihadis. Unfortunately, the people with the most power in the international system to stress this crucial point choose to turn a blind eye and issue diplomatic platitudes.
This week’s video of Turkey’s Syrian jihadi mercenaries ridiculing and groping the body of a mutilated Kurdish female fighter sparked no outrage outside Kurdish communities. If the perpetrators of this atrocity, or previous ones [this columnist has seen similar videos involving Turkish soldiers and corpses of PKK fighters], had been American, European or Israeli, the streets from Rabat to Kuala Lumpur would be teeming with protestors.
Apparently the Kurds, however, are only Muslims when they are asked to contribute to some cause or other; when they displease Turkish, Iraqi, Syrian or Iranian state elites, then they are infidels upon whom one can declare jihad — language that has been coming out of Turkey this week, but was also used by Saddam and others.
The hypocrisy towards the Kurds even extends deep into academia. As an academic who works on the Middle East, I am a member of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). As I prepared a paper proposal for MESA’s annual conference, the on-line system required me to select the paper’s geographic area of relevance. When ‘Kurdistan’ failed to appear as one of the options, I sent the association a simple e-mail: “Dear MESA, When submitting a paper abstract, we have to select options for things like "paper geographic area." You have options of all the states, plus options like ‘Sahara,’ ‘Palestine,’ ‘West Bank,’ ‘Gaza’ and ‘Anatolia.’ You do not have the options of ‘Kurdistan’ or ‘Western Sahara.’ May I ask why?”
This was actually the second time in several years I had sent the directors of MESA this question. This time, however, I shared my thoughts on the issue with my academic friends who also work on Kurdish issues — only to discover that many of them have also asked MESA about this in the past. None of us have ever received a reply. Perhaps the Arabists, Turkologists and Persian studies professors of MESA are too busy with their usual pursuits, such as rejecting most of our proposals for roundtables or panels on Kurdish issues or discussing a possible boycott of Israeli academics.
I have lost count of how many academics involved in Kurdish studies expressed frustration to me regarding such issues. It is particularly galling that the hypocrisy and double standards come from a crowd so full of supposed concern for “imperialism,” “colonialism,” “human rights,” “repression,” “subaltern identities,” and all kinds of ostensibly progressive causes.
How these people can appear willfully blind to Turkish, Persian and Arab imperialism, colonialism and human rights abuses in Kurdistan defies comprehension. They remain so blind to it that they cannot even see fit to recognize a geographic region called “Kurdistan.” In this they are in good company with the diplomats and politicians who ignore or play down Turkey’s current campaign both at home and in Afrin.
David Romano has been a Rudaw columnist since 2010. He holds the Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous publications on the Kurds and the Middle East.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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