Akbar Jan Marwat
Since the US troops have been withdrawn from the Syrian war theater, about 180,000 Kurds have been displaced and more than 200 have been killed. The Kurdish soldiers, who had fought the Islamic State forces, had secretly hoped to secure a Kurdistan State in the area to be vacated from the Islamic State in northeastern Syria. The apparent betrayal of the Kurds by the US withdrawal is yet another letdown in the long string of unfulfilled promises with the Kurdish People for a separate homeland over the years.
Today Kurds at about 30 to 40 million are one of the largest ethnic groups with a common historical background who identify with a regional homeland but are without a nation state of their own. Kurds today populate Turkey 15m; Iran 8m; Iraq 5m, and Syria about 3m. The relationship of Kurds with these nations, who are predominantly Arab is very strained. Full-fledged secession movements by Kurds in these states have been taking place periodically.
The most realistic opportunity for the Kurds to have their own state came when the allies defeated Germany and the Ottoman Empire, of which the Kurds were subjects, at the end of WW1. After the victory come the time for the allies, to distribute the geographical spoils of war. These spoils were in the main Germany and the Ottoman Empire.
A number of conferences to redraw the maps of the conquered territories took place at various venues in Europe. The main purpose of these deliberations was to dole out spoils to them including far-flung German imperial or Colonial domains. The main purpose of the victors was to punish Germany and replace the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. Their job also required filling in the vacuum left by the demise of the sprawling Ottoman Empire, which covered areas from Bulgaria to Yemen. The Victorious allies had decided in principle, that the guiding rule in redrawing the maps, in most cases, would be ethno-nationalism. The allies assumed that nation states should be composed of, as much as possible, single ethnic and linguistic populations.
Now we arrive at the most important question of our inquiry: as to why a separate nation state of the Kurds— a homogenous population group was not created. The victorious allies toyed with various permutations for the big central zone of defeated Ottoman Empire. Should there be one big, Greater Arabia or Arab federations as some British officials had promised their allies who had revolted against the Ottomans? Alternatively should there be small states for Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, Kurds and Armenians? US President Wilson favored national self-determination and was explicit in his call for creating an Independent Kurdistan. It was taken for granted that Kurds were a separate ethnic-linguistic nation and that Kurdistan could certainly be a separate State for them. Pre-WW1 atlases could also ascertain this fact.
The actual creation of the Kurdistan State, however, fell to the British. At first the British were favorably pre-disposed towards the creation of the Kurdistan State. But latter British imperial self-interest over-ruled this thinking. The main reason for this change of heart was the Sykes-Picot agreement between the French and the British, as to whom would get what after the war.
The French wanted the dominance of northern Levant, which included Lebanon and Syria. To match the French area of domination, the British chose a big geographical bloc in the region by inventing a large state soon to be called Iraq. According to Sykes-Picot’s pact the dividing line cut straight through Kurdish areas, demarcating the French sphere of Influence from the British sphere of Influence. This partition was one of the reasons why the British could not carve out a new large Kurdistan, which the British could dominate like Iraq. Other reasons included as stated by a British Colonial Official and a writer Gertrude Bell was British desire to have Kurdish population retained in new Iraq as a counter balance to its large shite population, which was perceived as seditious. The British also knew about large oilfields under the Kurdish Capital of Mosul, which they wanted to securely keep in Iraq.
The Allies made one last half-hearted attempt to create at least a small Kurdistan in Eastern Anatolia or Asia Minor in the 1920’s. But the Turks strongly objected to Anatolia being chopped up for the sake of Kurds. The plucky Kurds have not, however, given up their struggle for an independent State in spite of being betrayed endlessly by a number of nations. In the wake of American conquest of Iraq, the Kurds again came close to having a state of their own, till the conquest of Iraq by the forces of Islamic state. No doubt there is a saying in Kurdish language that; ‘’The Kurds have no friends except for the mountains’’.
—The writer is a freelance columnist, based in Islamabad.
