Free Kurdistan?
Should Kurdistan be an independent state? Why? Shouldn't be? Why? Somewhere between? Why?
POTENTIAL FLAME-WAR ALERT: Please try to discuss the topic in a rational, mature manner.
Some facts that may come handy in the debate.
Map of Kurdish inhabitated areas:
Kurds (کورد)
Saladin • Ahmad Xani • Jalal Talabani • Feleknas Uca
Total population19 to 37 million
Regions with significant populations
Southwest Asia
Turkey11.4 to 14.4 million[1][2][3]
Iran4.8 to 6.6 million[4]
Iraq4 to 6 million[5]
Syria0.6 to 2 million[6]
Asia/Caucasus
Afghanistan200,000[7]
Azerbaijan150,000[7]
Israel100,000[8]
Lebanon80,000[7]
Modern period
In the 16th century, the Kurdish-inhabited areas were split between Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire after prolonged wars. The first important division of Kurdistan occurred in the aftermath of the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. This division was formalized in the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639.[20] Before World War I, most Kurds lived within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire in the province of Kurdistan. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies agreed and planned to create several countries within its former boundaries. Originally Kurdistan, along with Armenia, was to be one of them, according to the never-ratified Treaty of Sčvres. However, the reconquest of these areas by Kemal Atatürk and other pressing issues caused the Allies to accept the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne, accepting the border of the modern Republic of Turkey and leaving the Kurds without a self-ruled region. Other Kurdish areas were assigned to the new British and French mandated states of Iraq and Syria under both treaties.
The Kurdish delegation made a proposal at the San Francisco Peace Conference in 1945, showing the geographical extent of Kurdistan as claimed by the Kurds. This proposal encompasses an area extending from the Mediterranean shores near Adana to the shores of the Persian Gulf near Bushehr, and it includes the Lur inhabited areas of southern Zagros.[21][22]
Since World War I, Kurdistan has been divided between several states, in each of which Kurds are minorities. At the end of the First Gulf War, the Allies established a safe haven in northern Iraq. Amid the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from three northern provinces, Iraqi Kurdistan emerged as an autonomous entity inside Iraq, with its own local government and parliament in 1992.
Conflict and controversy
Main article: Kurds in Turkey
The incorporation into Turkey of the Kurdish-inhabited regions of eastern Anatolia was opposed by many Kurds, and has resulted in a long-running separatist conflict in which thousands of lives have been lost. The region saw several major Kurdish rebellions including; the Koēkiri Rebellion of 1920, the Sheikh Said Rebellion in 1924, the Republic of Ararat in 1927, and the Dersim Rebellion in 1937. These were forcefully put down by the Turkish authorities and the region was declared a closed military area from which foreigners were banned between 1925 and 1965.
The city of Batman, eastern Turkey
In 1983, the Kurdish provinces were placed under martial law in response to the activities of the militant separarist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).[32] An extremely violent guerrilla war took place through the rest of the 1980s and into the 1990s, in which much of the countryside was evacuated, thousands of Kurdish-populated villages were destroyed and numerous extrajudicial summary executions were carried out by both sides.[33] More than 37,000 people were killed in the violence and hundreds of thousands more were forced to leave their homes.[34] The situation in the region has since eased following the capture of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999 and the introduction of a greater degree of official tolerance for Kurdish cultural activities, encouraged by the European Union. However, some political violence is still ongoing and the Turkish-Iraqi border region remains tense.[35]
Iran
There are around 6.5 million Kurds in Iran. Discrimination against mainly Sunni Kurds in Shi’a Iran is occasionally more complex than elsewhere because of the added religious dimension, and the fact that Kurds have often been more actively involved in resistance against the regime than other groups. State motives for repression of Kurds are, therefore, often based on ‘security’ as much as other factors.
With the world’s scrutiny of Iran focussed on the nuclear issue, these security forces have stepped up attempts to ensure the ‘integrity of the republic’ by policing in an ever-harsher manner exemplified by the torturing to death in 2006 of a 17 year old Kurdish civilian in Sanadaj police station. Incidences of executions, extrajudicial killings and ‘disappearances’ have increased while human rights defenders and NGOs have been subject to ongoing harassment.
Iraq
There are around 5.5 million Kurds in Iraq. The fall from power of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003 has presented a new opportunity for the Kurds of Iraq to tackle the discrimination they have faced in the past, although Saddam’s recent flawed trial and subsequent execution mean he will never face justice for the 182,000 Kurds killed in Anfal in 1988. True justice for the victims of Anfal requires proper care and redress for the thousands of families who continue to suffer the psychological, social, economic and political effects of the genocidal campaign.
Politically, the two main Kurdish parties have united to form a single Kurdistan Regional Government – a significant step towards stability and progress. However, continuing insurgency and violence continue to threaten this success, with particularly fierce disputes over the future status of Kirkuk prompting threats of military intervention from Turkey. Ultimately, such tension diverts attention and resources into security and away from human rights and civil issues.Syria
Human rights abuses against Syria’s million-strong Kurdish population are serious and ongoing. The refusal of the State to reinstate citizenship to 360,000 Kurds who were stripped of it in 1962 is among the most pressing problems.
The continuing state of emergency, now in place for 41 years, has also allowed the government to enforce a harsh security regime. Detention without trial, torture, and curbs on freedom of expression are particularly serious, with signatories of documents calling for greater rights arrested and imprisoned. Campaigners for better relations with Lebanon are also persecuted, as are human rights and NGO workers.
Turkey
Turkey continues to systematically abuse the human rights of its 15 million-strong Kurdish population. Violence and discrimination are regularly used against Kurds despite hopes that the EU accession process might encourage Turkey to improve their situation.
Major abuses by Turkey include torture and the employment of armed forces against civilians. The state generally refuses to account for fatalities and injuries it causes – this trend has been highlighted by the recent overturning of jail sentences for military officers implicated in the bombing of a Kurdish bookshop.
Freedom of expression has been particularly targeted, with many prosecutions brought against those expressing peaceful opinions. Language rights are also restricted, with technical requirements in the curriculum being introduced to make the task of teaching in Kurdish more difficult in the private schools where it is allowed.
More worrying are the conditions set out in new anti-terror legislation such as the wide definition of ‘terrorist’, the permission given to officers to use weapons ‘without hesitation’ and the decision to allow suspects to be held ‘incommunicado’ for 24 hours. These regulations give the Turkish state wide scope to arrest, prosecute or shoot ‘undesirables’ and remain within the law. Although the legislation does not meet international human rights standards, the EU has failed to condemn it.
In fact, Turkey’s progress on human rights issues has become largely overshadowed in the EU accession process by European domestic concerns such as the ratification of the proposed constitution and efforts to prevent Cyprus derailing the process. Combined with the desire of many EU officials to stress the potential benefits of Turkish membership to a sceptical public, this lack of focus seriously diminishes the value of the EU accession process to human rights in Turkey.
Efforts to improve this situation include attempts to increase the representation of the Kurds within the EU accession process, notably through the EU-Turkey Civic Commission of which the KHRP is a founder member. Through conferences held at the European Parliament the EUTCC aims to produce recommendations which, if adopted, would help promote the peaceful, democratic future of all citizens of Turkey within the EU.The Caucasus
There are an estimated 75,000 Kurds (1.8% of population) in the Republic of Armenia. Whilst the capital, Yerevan, has been considered a centre for Kurdish culture and the arts, conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan has seen the expulsion of Muslim Kurds and abuses against the small indigenous Kurdish population caught up in the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
There are an estimated 200,000 Kurds (2.8% of population) in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's treatment of its Kurdish population is largely affected by its conflict over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
There are estimated 40,000 Kurds (0.9% of population) in the Republic of Georgia.
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Originally Posted by snuggans
