It is a policy used by dictators over the centuries: settling outsiders in areas where one ethnic group has a clear majority. The Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did it, and so did his neighbour Hafez al-Assad in Syria. And now the Turkish president Erdogan has decided to use the tool. And all employed it against their Kurdish minorities. During his rule, Saddam offered Arabs from the south of Iraq all kinds of incentives to move to the disputed oil city of Kirkuk that the Kurds consider as their Jerusalem. The prospect of a good job, with a good salary and a house attracted many, while at the same time Kurds were evicted from the city. Assad also was able to send thousands from his Arab population to the Kurdish region, like Saddam did next door, in order to further marginalize the Kurds through Arabization. These dictators did not invent this, as it is an old a tool from the divide and rule box, and used before, for instance, by the Assyrians who would resettle thousands from countries they conquered elsewhere in the kingdom. The policy is meant to make sure people are too busy surviving and looking after their own to rise up against the ruler. And after resettling them in the lands dominated by an ethnic minority that group will no longer be able to mobilize a majority as the demographics get changed. That is exactly what Turkish president Erdogan will want to achieve, by offering Syrian refugees residency in the Kurdish region of his country. He has wrapped this in a nice and shiny paper, telling the world that the refugees will be able to restart their lives again, improving their situation greatly compared to the one in the camps. His idea should be attractive to the European countries too, as resettling them inside Turkey would mean that less Syrians will be heading for a new life in Europe. At the same time, he is trying to solve another problem: he will try to clip the wings of Kurdish parties who work towards autonomy for the Kurdish population in Turkey, by adding big numbers of non-Kurds to their land. After destroying part of their towns and villages in a military battle, he is now on the verge of dumping a big group of displaced people on their doorstep, who will need care and assistance to start their lives again. They could be a burden for the original population, as they will compete for jobs, and experience has shown that they will agree on lower wages, thus bringing the wage for others down as well. But Erdogan also knows that the Kurds cannot refuse, as they themselves know the challenges of being refugees in strange countries, and amongst the refugees are also Kurdish brothers from Syria. So by keeping the Kurds busy, he thinks the urge to have their own state will die down. Yet he should look at history. Even though Saddam punished his Kurds by destroying their villages and thus burdening their towns with thousands they still rose against him as soon as they had the chance. The uprising ‘raparin’ of 1991 eventually led to a no-fly zone which lead to autonomy and to the present situation of an autonomous region inside Iraq. And the Syrian Kurds that Assad tried to deprive of their language and their sense of unity, used the opportunity of the civil war to arrange things so they now have a form of self-rule that could in the near future lead to more. And yet, Erdogan thinks that by adding challenge to challenge, he will get the Kurds under his rule in Turkey to their knees? How can he be so ignorant of the past? The only thing that will happen, is that the Kurds will become even more determined to get their rights, and that the movement against the Turkish government will get even more support. They will not abide, so most probably it will only prolong the war with Erdogan’s army, with more destruction and bloodshed. And that is the situation that Erdogan wants to impose on the Syrians that should be resettled according to his plan? So again, they will be victim of a war raging over their heads. The problem with dictators is that they won’t let themselves be influenced easily. Protests from western leaders against the way Erdogan is dealing with those he has declared to be behind the recent coup attempt, did not stop him. Nor will he listen to appeals against this idea of resettling Syrians in Kurdish areas, involving two vulnerable groups. The only way his plan can be stopped, is when it is botched. For that to happen, Europe has to take the Syrians off his hands which gives the West just another reason to finally end the civil war in Syria. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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