For the Kurds Let's Hope 2015 Isn't Another 1975

By Paul Iddon

Among many anniversaries of history 2015 marks the fortieth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Iraq-Kurdish War. Which ended tragically for the Kurds. Augmented by the fact they were thrown under the bus by the powers who had covertly supported them in their fight.

That war saw the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, facilitate covert Israeli and American support to those Kurds. He had his own rivalries with the Baathist regime in Baghdad and accordingly saw giving support to the Kurds as a good way to keep the Baathists embroiled in Iraqi Kurdistan. The support was primarily to Mustafa Barzani's Peshmerga.

The U.S. administration of President Gerald Ford gave its approval to the covert CIA support of the rebellion since then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was convinced by the Shah's argument that this fight constituted part of the broader fight against Communism. The Shah had concocted a view which, in essence, argued that the Iraqi Baath were on the verge of unifying with the Iraqi Communist Party and taking over the wider region on behalf of the Soviet Union. Something which the British and the State Department firmly believed to be a wholly unfounded contention.

The Israelis sympathized with those Kurds and also wanted to support any covert effort they could which would keep the Baghdad focused on internal conflict so it wouldn't in turn begin to threaten them.

Barzani's fighters were pitted against a much stronger force. However using guerrilla tactics and taking cover in the mountains they called home they hoped to bog down and weaken their adversary. Something they tried to do before the rug was tragically pulled from underneath them. Baghdad reached out to Tehran and offered the Shah a compromise over their contested border territories provided he would halt his support of the Barzani-led rebellion. The Shah agreed. They both signed the Algiers Accord in March 1975. Barzani, once again, moved to Iran and many of his fighters surrendered or were killed in the mountains by the Iraqi Army. The uprising had been crushed.

Over the course of the last year we have seen the U.S. support different Kurds. The Kurds of Syria in their fight against the Islamic State (ISIS, Daesh) terrorist group. Turkey has hitherto refused to participate in the Americans air campaign against ISIS in neither Iraq and Syria, especially in the latter given the fact that the U.S. hasn't targeted the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey had even prevented the Americans from using Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, which is near Turkey's frontier with Syria.

The only ground force fighting ISIS the Americans have been giving air support to in Syria has been the Syrian Kurdish YPG (“Peoples Protection Units”) militia. During the siege of the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani, which began late last year, the U.S. gave air support to besieged YPG fighters and even dropped them crates of small arms to help them hold the line against that group. One YPG official told the Wall Street Journal recently that regarding American coordination with his group, “There's no need to pretend anymore. We're working together, and it's working.”

Recent attacks and escalations of clashes between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish authorities in Turkey coupled with recent ISIS attacks has led Turkey to undertake a dramatic 180 degree turn. It has launched its first air strikes against ISIS and told the U.S. it can now use Incirlik for operations (which will dramatically decrease the flying time for some U.S. jets to the battlefield) for its anti-ISIS air campaign. However Turkey is also targeting the PKK in Northern Iraq and it's clear that Ankara makes no distinction between the PKK and the YPG (whose ranks are made up by members of the 'Democratic Union Party', PYD).

Would they really be willing to tolerate continued U.S. coordination of the YPG being undertaken from their territory?

The YPG aren't perfect. But they have proven to be a valuable force on the ground in the fight against ISIS. After all there is no one else the U.S. has in force to coordinate with on the ground against ISIS and they are adamantly opposed to working with Assad.

Now that Ankara has promised to work with them against ISIS however that could all change. Are we seeing a repeat of 1975? Will a more powerful regional ally of the United States compel it to discontinue its support of beleaguered Kurds who struggling to confront a grave tyranny?

One certainly hopes not.

‘Paul Iddon is a freelance journalist and political writer who writes on Middle Eastern affairs, politics, developments and history.’

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.