By Dr Kemal Kirkuki
Last week, 39 Kurdish political groups gathered in Erbil under the auspices of Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani for preliminary talks about a National Conference. This gathering rekindled Kurdish hopes of achieving all of their national ambitions, and could go down as an historical day.
Throughout decades of struggle in the region, the Kurds have always been eager to maintain the peaceful nature of their fight. And the main goal of this National Conference is to tell the world that the Kurds -- who have their own culture, language and land -- want to live in peace with their neighbors.
The Kurds aim to tell through this conference that, as a people who have gone through persecution and genocide, they have the same right as every other nation to decide their own future, based on democratic principles and coexistence.
For many years a giant media machine has been in motion to distort the Kurdish image and convey false messages about our struggle and sacrifices. But with his conference, we want to correct all misconceptions and let everyone know that we want to live in our lands with full respect for other ethnic and religious groups who happen to live within our borders.
The idea of a National Conference was first initiated years ago by President Barzani, who also heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Abdullah Ocalan, head of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the late Idris Barzani, and Jalal Talabani, secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Iraq’s president.
But political turmoil and different regional and international factors always posed a barrier to making this goal a reality. What is happening now is the revival of the ideas of those four leaders.
Now that the entire region is going through rapid changes and people have become more aware of their political, national and social rights, particularly with respect to self-determination, the Kurdish cause has also felt a push forward.
The Kurdish question cannot be separated from what is happening in the Middle East. Though the people in the greater region have finally had a chance to express their grievances, it has at times coincided with the use of violence.
However, we emphasize our democratic and peaceful approach to our rights and ambitions.
This conference is a peaceful step and a modern tool for our people to openly and legally discuss their right to self-determination the way it suits them. The Kurds are among those people of the Middle East who demand their democratic rights, and the international community should take this fact into consideration.
By speaking to the international community about their rights, the Kurds do not mean to invite international inference in their cause, or to play off one side against another. The Kurds only want their cause to be placed among other serious questions in the Middle East that need debate and resolution.
For example, the world community is contemplating the fight of the Syrian people for freedom and their other rights. Among their options is to supply Syrians with arms in order to help them succeed in their fight. So, we want the world to give the Kurdish question in that country the same level of thought.
The agenda of the conference can be summarized in a few major points as follows:
1- To establish a framework of cooperation between all Kurdish parties regardless of their political ideology and to exchange views and experiences in a peaceful and democratic manner in the autonomous Kurdistan Region.
2- To reach an agreement that would criminalize and prohibit fighting and killing between Kurdish parties, and spare the Kurdish people from any civil war.
3- To identify and separate the voice of the Kurdish people from all the noise and demands of various other groups in the Middle East.
4- To work together to internationalize the case of genocide, massacres and gas attacks and ethnic cleansing campaigns perpetrated against our people.
5- To define and introduce the struggle and ambitions of the Kurdish people in all four parts of Kurdistan to the international community.
6- To put the Kurdish question among that of other nations in the region.
7- To draw a common democratic and peaceful manifesto through which political groups from other parts of Kurdistan would work to fulfill their aims.
8- To bring together all Kurdish groups and create an atmosphere where they could learn from the experience of the Kurdistan Region.
9- To acknowledge the significant role and participation of Kurdish women in political and economic life.
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To bring the youth into social, political and cultural life in all four parts of Kurdistan.
11- To support and revitalize civil society organizations who could play an essential role in the democratization of society.
12- To give the international community and the nations of the region a true picture of the Kurdish people and their place in the world.
13- To shed light on the different stages of the Kurdish struggle throughout the years and honor their leaders.
14- To enhance the work of Kurdish intellectuals and literary people and use them as a channel to link our nation with the rest of the world.
15- To separate the fourth estate from narrow political tendencies to the level of working for the promotion of democracy and understanding.
* Kemal Kirkuki is the former speaker of Kurdistan Region parliament.
