Iraq’s collective punishment of the Kurds and the shocking silence of the Arab Intelligentsia

In the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia actor Peter O’Toole,out of desperation, shouts at Omar
Sharif, “Sharif Ali, So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people,
a silly people – greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.”

Today I am tempted to shout at current Arab leaders saying, “So long as you fail to accept a way for
a peaceful transfer of power, so long as you adhere to double-standards, so long as you marginalise
your women, you will remain super powers’ proxies slaughtering each other at their behest and
bringing shame to your glorious heritage.”

In September 2017, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and the disputed territories
held a non-binding ‘referendum’ on whether to remain a part of Iraq or form an independent state.

Because the outcome was not binding on anyone it was, in fact, no more than a ‘glorified’ opinion
poll. Many world leaders especially those of Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq opposed the ‘referendum’
and some suggested postponement to some time after the complete defeat of ISIS/ISIL also called
Daesh. Perhaps the most hurtful pronouncement came from one of Turkey’s Deputy Prime Ministers
Bekir Bozdag, himself a Kurd, telling the leaders of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq not just to
postpone the ‘referendum’, but to cancel it and give up any notion of independence altogether in
favour of Iraq’s territorial integrity.

Why the Kurds who have been living on their contiguous ancestral homeland since time
immemorial with a distinct language, culture, heritage and identity should remain second class
citizens and be ruled by despotic foreign leaders with little or no respect for basic human rights and
fundamental liberties either he did not say or the media did not deem worth reporting.

Mr Bozdag’s pronouncement on and attitude to Kurds’ self-rule is anything but surprising to the
Kurds who know the Kurdish proverb, “If the borer is not from within the tree, the tree will never
come down.” This is another way of saying that more empires have been destroyed by internal
strife than external conquests.

Some 93 per cent of the people in Kurdistan Region and disputed territories voted for independence.

This is hardly surprising or put another way, it is surprising in that 99 per cent did not vote for
independence. What Kurd, in his or her right mind, would want to be ruled by Arab leaders in
Baghdad whose values and world outlook are off kilter with the contemporary world as well as
traditional and historical Kurdish values and outlook?

Since the ‘referendum’, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi has been doing all he can to
collectively punish residents of KRI and disputed territories. It has just been reported that he has
extended the ban on international flights to and from the two principal Kurdish cities, Erbil and
Sulaymaniya, by another three months. This is hardly the best way or even any way to win friends
and influence people. Another form of collective punishment is the cut by Iraqi parliament in the
portion of the budget constitutionally allocated to the Kurdistan Region from 17 per cent to 12.7 per
cent. This is despite a significant increase in the population of Kurdistan Region thanks to refugees
and IDP’s. The net outcome is that the Kurds must wait for medicines and other essentials to arrive
by land and when they do arrive they won’t have enough money to buy them. Those requiring
urgent medical attention by specialists and surgical operations and need to go to Baghdad, Ankara,
Tehran or any European or American city cannot fly out of Kurdistan. And Mr Al-Abadi expects
them to be proud Iraqis and send their sons to die in defense of Iraq!

Well, that’s Mr Al-Abadi! What does the Arab intelligentsia have to say about all this? Are they
shouting from the rooftops condemning the collective punishment allotted to the citizens of Iraq in
Kurdistan Region and disputed territories for nothing more than expressing their views on
independence? Are they calling on everyone to respect the freely expressed will of these citizens to
be independent? If they are, they obviously must be doing so at times and places when and where
no one can see or hear them. Granted that in many Arab countries expressing support for the right of
the Kurds to self-determination will promptly incur the wrath of the state. Will they incur the same
wrath if they speak against the collective punishment? That, too, will probably vary significantly
from one Arab country to another.

However, I can confidently say that no harm will come to the likes of Ms Hannan Ashrawi and Mr
Saeb Erekat, (who were parties to the Oslo peace talks with Israel decades ago) for expressing
support for the Kurdish self-rule or against the collective punishment that Prime Minister Al-Abadi
dishes out. It’s one of those quirks of life that, according to Reporters Without Borders’ index of
press freedom, the Palestinians under occupation enjoy greater freedom than the citizens of many
‘free and independent’ Arab states as well as non-Arab states such as Turkey and Iran with
predominantly Muslim populations – Here are some index numbers, the lower the number the freer
the people: Palestine 135, Turkey 155, Egypt 161, Iran 165 and for more comparison Norway 1,
Germany 16!

As a Kurd I am tempted to appeal to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying
something like, “Please, please come and occupy all four parts of Kurdistan, so that the Kurds may
enjoy some freedom of expression!”

Ms Ashrawi and Mr Erekat are quick to condemn Israel for any measure that they say amounts to
collective punishment of the Palestinians. Surely, if collective punishment is bad for the Palestinians
it must also be bad for the Kurds. If the collective punishment of the Palestinians deserves world
condemnation and actions to end it, surely that of the Kurds cannot be less deserving! Yet, as far as I
am aware, these individuals have chosen to remain silent on the collective punishent of the Kurds.

I see no evidence that collective punishment has in any way diminished the Palestinian people’s
resistance to Israeli occupation. So, it is not easy to understand why Prime Minister Al-Abadi is
behaving as if he believes that inflicting pain, suffering and deprivation, not to mention shame and
humiliation, on the Kurds will somehow extinguish the fire in their belly for freedom and equality
and thereby make them more loyal to Arab rulers in Baghdad. It makes no sense to me at all.

And what about the rest of the Arab intelligentsia and the Arab diaspora in Western countries where
they enjoy freedom of expression without any fear of persecution? Evidently they too have nothing
to say and choose to remain indifferent to the plight of the Kurdish citizens of Iraq. They must be
aware that very recently the Scottish people had a referendum and the majority decided it was better
to remain in the United Kingdom. No one took any punitive measures against them. Not all that
long ago, the Czechs and Slovaks decided to go their separate ways, but remain good friends and
neighbours. Long before that the French speaking Canadians went to the polls and decided against
separation from the English speaking Canadians.

Could all this indifference by the Arab intelligentsia be due to the fear that an independent
Kurdistan will become a second Israel? That’s a subject for another article, another commentary.
Could the Arab intelligentsia possibly be unaware of the Koran’s surah al-hujurat (49:13) which
reads “We created you all from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes so
that you may know one another.”?

It may be edifying to recall that both Israel and the contraption called Iraq, among other nation
states in the Middle East, were created essentially by the British and the French. The Arabs and
many other Muslims who cannot tolerate Israel take the Iraqi territorial integrity as a given from all
three holy books of Jews, Christians and Muslims! Of course, it’s an open secret that the expression
“Iraq’s territorial integrity” is just a code meaning no independence for the Kurds who must remain
subservient to Arabs, Persians and Turks.

Prophet Muhammad and the Kurds:

One important thing that distinguishes humans from animals is that since the dawn of history people
have tried to explain what they sense, observe and experience. In all known civilisations gods have
come handy in formulating convincing and enduring explanations. And some explanations have
been quite fanciful. For example, at some stage some people believed that gentle breezes, winds and
storms were due to the breathing of a sleeping giant in different frames of mind or levels of
comfort. When he was comfortable, humans would feel a pleasant gentle breeze as he breathed in
and out. And when he was uncomfortable his breathing was heavier giving rise to hot and cold
winds and if annoyed or aggravated all sorts of destructive storms would be unleashed as the
natural outcome of his rapid and angry breathing.

Despite all the bans and restrictions on their language, the Kurds continue to pass on their
knowledge, wisdom and experiences via anecdotes, fables and parables. The question about why the
Kurds have remained stateless and dispossessed is still often explained by the pious via a parable
and by some as a joke to be ridiculed. The version I hear most often is as follows:

One day Prophet Muhammad was receiving visitors from far and wide lands. A Kurd joined a queue
of sycophantic visitors who were quite loudly bestowing lavish praise on the Prophet. When the
Kurd entered the tent, the prophet was distracted by his cat and was looking down. So, in the Kurds’
characteristic egalitarian and respectful manner he said, “Uncle Mo” dispensing with the usual
superlatives such as God’s beloved or sage who sees things others cannot or exalted Prophet. When
Muhammad raised his head to look at the source of the voice, he was startled and momentarily
gripped by fear when he saw a tall, slim, mighty warrior with quite differen features and who had
already demonstrated a distinctive manner of speaking. The Kurd continued, “Uncle Mo, we have
heard that you have declared yourself to be a prophet. Is it true?” Somewhat unneerved,
Muhammad asked, “What tribe, what nation are you from?”. The visitor replied, “I am a Kurd from
Kurdistan.” [Some accounts are much more specific naming a tribe in the Dersim region of Turkey
which Turkish authorities have renamed Tunceli]. Then, Muhammad brings his hands together with
palms upward and looks up towards the sky as is typical when Muslim pray and says “ Dear Lord,
do not allow the Kurds to unite! If they ever unite they will dominate the world.”

To their credit, wittingly or unwittingly the Kurds have lived by the commandment of not coveting
their neighbour’s possessions. Unlike the hordes of Arabs from Mecca and Madina and Turkic tribes
from Central Asia who moved in all directions to take what rightfully belonged to other people, the
Kurds have remained content to live on their ancestral homeland, Kurdistan or the land of the
Kurds. If the Kurds ever unite and dominate the world, hopefully it will be through knowledge,
scientific discoveries and literary creations and not by weapons.
Eziz Bawermend, Vice President, Kurdish Lobby Australia