As the enthusiasm for the right to self-determination grows and gains more momentum every day approaching September 25, permeating global news, regional and global forces and foes are becoming hysterically alarmed as they witness women, men, and children wrapped in color dresses and Kurdish flags dance in anticipation of the realization of an old Kurdish dream
Yet such a jubilee of even a partial fulfillment of the dream in the north of Iraq is a ghastly political nightmare for Kurdish neighbors and major powers including the United States whose self-serving and imperial interests are reflected in their defense of anti-democratic policies, re-echoing dystopian discourse and tyrannical states of Iraq, Turkey, and Iran in opposing the Kurdish right to self-determination in the name of territorial integrity.
Once it became clear that the referendum is no longer a symbolic gesture, cautionary tales of the belligerent neighbors turned into apocalyptic threats of economic collapse, embargo, military attacks, invasions, war, and outright violence against KRG. Ironically, the UN General Secretary, Mr. Antonio Guterres — as the face and the voice of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Charter —instead of recognizing the Kurdish inalienable right to self-determination has joined the anti- referendum bandwagon to put political pressure on KRG to delay and thwart the referendum.
Those who know it is too late to deny the right, are attempting to rob the referendum of its content or dismiss it as untimely or it should only be limited to four provinces and exclude Kurdish cities such as Kirkuk or other “disputed” areas. Provocations and instigations of all kinds are in the making. Even the Western media with its claim to neutrality has mostly joined anti-referendum bandwagon. It is often troubling to see how reputable networks such as BBC in interviewing Kurdish political leaders (see Stephen Sackur’s interview with Qubad Talabani on Hardtalk) rather than using an interview frame to shed light on the critical issues for exchange of ideas, its veteran anchor the referendum in referendum” and engaged in interrogating and indicting Talabani, the deputy prime minister, attempting to dismiss, deny, and discredit all Kurdish politicians as “incompetent”, “incapable”, “divided” and “corrupt”, accusing them of making a volatile situation combustible.
The Western media forget that this is the voice of postcolonial authority, adamantly resisting any change in the status quo or any attempt at re-shaping a map that they have helped create, a political landscape complicit in the plight and genocidal campaigns to which that Kurds in Iraq had been subjected.
Kurds have proven that they do not seek nor have implemented a hegemonic nationalism like their oppressive neighbors at the cost of other minorities. They believe in and have created a largely secular, pluralistic civil society, a society that has become the exemplar of a world of cultural, political, and religious diversity; it is this world that Kurds have supported against ISIS and the persecutions of the theocratic central government that is chauvinistic, sectarian misogynist, and despotic. The Kurdish democracy despite its unforgiving problems of political parties has opened up new spaces for the democratization process both in Kurdistan and throughout the region.
The West, if it is loyal to its neo-liberal policies and is against egregious violations of human rights, should lend its support to the Kurdish popular vote in this referendum and the subsequent transformations that it can bring about. What is crucial is that the democratic process is deepened and broadened through the referendum; unfortunately, the West inescapably is still caught in the web of a postcolonial vision of history and continues to echo its colonial power and ideology over Kurdish people and their historic will. This post-colonial pragmatism is bent on keeping the old landscape intact, a landscape that has used every conceivable means to deny, dismiss, destroy and drown Kurds and their history.
Kurds have been contesting this colonial political landscape and the old and tired narratives of colonialism and despotic regimes with their blood for at least one hundred years. If in the past Kurdish nationalist leaders thought they could seek and gain Kurdish liberation and independence from Western powers, now they know such powers have never been hospitable to Kurdish aspirations and if they have offered any assistance any time, it has been in their own imperial interest. The referendum relies on the collective will of the Kurdish people.
Those who say ‘Yes’ are also sensitive to the direction that KRG has taken in many areas including freedom of press, corruption, lack of accountability, a dual and often self-serving political system, economic dependency, vulnerabilities, and the general status of women. The question is not nor should it be to say ‘Yes,’ but how to use the referendum as a test to broaden and extend democracy and political choices to ensure social and economic justice for all sectors of the Kurdish society. Participation in the referendum is an inalienable democratic right; it is the public display of the Kurdish will; the referendum is the voice of the century old Kurdish liberation movement to exercise the long denied right to self-determination against borders that have crossed them.
When on September 25 the overwhelming majority of Kurds endorse the declaration of independence and the collective voice emerges victorious, the world will have no choice to accept the new political landscape, which has already been created since 2003. The International Council for Human Rights states explicitly asserts the fact that ‘a democratic deficit is ultimately a deficit in self-determination’. Kurds have engaged in revolutions, popular movements, non-violent struggle and dissent to exercise their right to self-determination and now through a referendum, they will re-assert their individual and collective will. The referendum arises from a denied historical right and results in democratic test that will reshape the political landscape in the Middle East. For this reason, the referendum is irreversible.
The Kurdish struggle for independence has always been dual in purpose: the right to self-determination and the need for radical transformation of political and economic order advantageous to the majority of people. Despite and because of our divisions and differences, we should converge on the very right to self-determination and allow political discourse and struggle to deepen and broaden the democratic process, both of which are congruent with the Kurdish aspirations for building a better and brighter future. For this reason we say yes to the referendum.
Dr. Amir Sharifi is President of the Kurdish American Education Society-Los Angeles. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
