The Road To Iran Runs Through Kurdistan – And Starts In Syria
By: Sherkoh Abbas and Robert B. Sklaroff, For The Bulletin
The major remaining obstacle to Iraq’s achieving political and military surcease is Iranian-backed Muqtada al-Sadr, and the major obstacle to Israeli-Arab peacemaking is Syrian-backed terrorism. The Iranian octopus funds unrest throughout the Middle East, and Syrian tentacles have strangled Democracy from Lebanon to Gaza to Iraq’s al-Anbar Province to the Sudan.
But Syria’s hegemony is also inward-directed, targeting its largest ethnic minority, the Kurds. Lacking representation in this Ba’athist regime, Kurdistan of Syria (its capital is Qamishlo) needs international support to replicate Iraq’s success in meshing tripartite ethnicity (Shiite, Sunni, Kurd), itself mirroring the inherent strength of America’s “melting pot” legacy.
Thus, the next move in this geopolitical chess game must focus on optimizing legitimate Kurdish interests in Syria – not withstanding the Turkish-PKK conflict – for it promises incremental isolation of Iran’s mullahs.
Kurdish unrest stems from a 1962 census, which stripped Kurds of their citizenship rights. Even if Kurds proved Syrian-residence dating from Ottoman Empire or the French mandate, or if they had served in the military, they still lost their nationality. Since then, even if they met requirements for regaining citizenship, they were unable to acquire recognition. As a result, Arabs were resettled on confiscated land in the northeast region – rich in natural resources – to buffer Syrian and Turkish Kurds.
This “Arabization policy” has resulted in rendering its 300,000 Kurds “stateless foreigners” and subject to oppression. Syria’s Constitution affords no protection for Kurds – or, indeed, for any other minorities. They have been rendered “non-citizens” and thereby deprived of basic rights to obtain basic social services.
They cannot own property, vote, be publicly employed, travel freely within the country, obtain passports or even practice certain professions (such as medicine or teaching). Couples are deemed “single” and, thus, cannot share a hotel room or register their children. These 100,000 children of unrecognized marriages are denied access to education, food subsidies and health care and, thus, are forced to work, aspiring to menial careers of cotton-picking, cigarette-selling and shoe-shining.
Some Kurds have attempted to be smuggled abroad, after which time they have sought refugee status. Their plight prompted supportive actions from international organizations such as the European Union and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
As recently as this past summer, the Human Rights Committee – the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its State parties – again called upon Syria to “protect and promote the rights of non-citizen Kurds.”
It is ironic, also, that the 40 million Kurds are non-Arab, predominantly Sunni Muslims. Despite being co-religionists, they have become inveigled in Syria’s support of the Islamic v. Judeo-Christian clash of civilizations.
Iraq provides a model for how to resolve the tug-of-war between nationalism and regionalism.
The Iraqi Constitution allows for its 18 provinces to elect to congeal their resources to join into cooperative territories. It might even be possible to apply the Kurdish Peshmerga model when authorizing local militias to police their own neighborhoods, to relate with indigenous populations with which they harbor cultural linkages.
This would be akin to America’s state-level national guards that coexist under the auspices of the national military. It would not undermine the Iraqi army’s efforts to protect borders and to defeat out-of-control private militias (e.g., the Mahdi Army).
All the while, quasi-autonomous Kurdistan serves as a homeland to which Kurds living abroad emigrate and pay visits, just as Israel interrelates with (and enriches) Jews living in the Diaspora. Similarly, other countries could be encouraged (gently or more forcibly) to allow their peoples to mesh a countrywide sense of patriotism with a local sense of pride.
Because the nations comprising the Middle East were arbitrarily created after World War I, unrest among definable sub-groups constantly threatens their stability. America must help them to evolve from dictatorship to democracy, from autocracy to freedom, from militarism to free-market economies, from suppression of human rights to the creation of city-states that can flourish in this new millennium. This modernization effort must include legitimizing nationalistic urges, for resolving such chronic conflict would enhance creation of a durable peace in this volatile region. One excellent example of a democratic and free-market region is the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq.
As the United States envisions a diminution of involvement in Iraq, engendered has been a country that respects women’s rights and human rights. Just as Iraq recognizes the right of self-determination for definable nationalities, America will do well to empower whole populations elsewhere that nurture traditions that transcend artificial boundaries.
Syria serves as a useful target for the ongoing struggle to liberate peoples such as the Kurds, for their freedom will necessarily undermine despots who aspire to impose Shariah law locally and internationally. Sultanates and Islamic republics that accommodate minorities are just fine; worldwide caliphates under Dhimmi are not.
Finally, free world leaders need to answer the following question: Why there are 22 Arab states, but not a single Kurdish state?
Sherkoh Abbas is president of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria. He may be contacted at sherkoh@gmail.com. Dr. Sklaroff is a hematologist, oncologist and internist. He may be contacted at rsklaroff@comcast.net.
It must take a huge load of hypocrisy for countries like Syria and Iran to shed crocodile tears over Palestinians when they: (a) suppress and make dhimmis out of their own minorities such as the Kurds and (b) they refuse to give their Palestinian brothers citizenship in their own countries.
Every time the Arab block or the UN mentions right-of-return, we must remind them of the right-of return for the 850,000 Jews booted out of Islamic Fascist countries. When “intellectuals” talk endlessly about occupation we must remind them that their own minorities have no human rights and are virtual slaves of their own corrupt, violent and greedy dictators.
Where is the international outcry regarding the oppression of Kurds in the apartheid state of Syria?
The Kurds are truly in bad shape – they are another people without a home. Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq….hopefully the Iraqi Kurds will lead the eventual formation of Kurdistan. It makes demographic and cultural sense, but the respective nation states will need to evolve for another 50-100 years before they let pieces carved out of the maps they’ve gotten used to.
Unfortunately there are many countries like Turkey that oppress their minorities systematically.
Melvin: The Kurds are truly in bad shape – they are another people without a home. Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq….hopefully the Iraqi Kurds will lead the eventual formation of Kurdistan. It makes demographic and cultural sense, but the respective nation states will need to evolve for another 50-100 years before they let pieces carved out of the maps they’ve gotten used to.
Unfortunately there are many countries like Turkey that oppress their minorities systematically.
Melvin how astute you are, a bleeding heart for Kurds and an apologist for the Palis. You are a rare specimen, Lets see now what about the Basques? Why not PR? what about Quebec? One third of Iran are not parsi but Azerbi’s and other minorities? What about Tibet? what about (shit) half or more artificially created countries in the world? I think it fair to say that most minorities in Most countries do not have equal rights with majorities except countries like Syria and here a small minority quasi Shia tribe run the country. I guarantee you one thing If the Kurds had their own country they would behave no differently to minorities within their borders as all others have treated them. Nations or ethic peoples get independence through conquest and reconquest and if they are able to defend themselves from those who wish to take it from them they will continue if not they will become vassals to others more powerful or disappear. There is no such thing as divine right of any ethnic group to political and national independence. The last man standing is always the winner.
The Jewish Kingdom of Adiabene in Ancient Kurdistan
In ancient times, the royal house of Adiabene and some of the common people of Adiabene converted to Judaism. The capital city of Adiabene was Arbela (known today by Arabs as Irbil and by Kurds as Hawler). King Izates became closely attached to his new faith, and sent his sons to study Hebrew and Jewish customs in Jerusalem. His successor to the throne was his brother Monobazos II, who also adopted Judaism. In her 2001 study, Oppenheim references the kingdom of Adiabene, but suggests that while Adiabene’s conversion to Judaism “resulted in the assimilation of non-Jews into the community… This recorded conversion does not appear to have had a considerable effect on the Y chromosome pool of the Kurdish Jews.” (Oppenheim 2001, page 1103). Some of the Jewish Adiabenians may have eventually converted to Christianity.
Conclusions
Research has just begun into the ancient ties between Kurds and Jews. It would be interesting to see if the various Jewish groups have as strong a family tie to Kurds in the maternal lineages as they do in the paternal lineages. Preliminary studies indicate that Jewish populations in eastern Europe and Yemen have maternal origins that contain much more non-Israelite ancestry than their paternal origins. Despite this admixture with other groups, the Jewish Judean people ultimately began their existence in an area within or nearby Kurdistan, prior to migrating southwest to Israel. This exciting research showing that Kurds and Jews may have shared common fathers several millennia ago should, hopefully, encourage both Kurds and Jews to explore each others’ cultures and to maintain the friendship that Kurds and Jews enjoyed in northern Iraq in recent times (as chronicled in Michael Rubin’s recent article “The Other Iraq”). As Rubin indicates, the Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani once visited Israel and met with Israeli government officials. Rubin refers to the Iraqi Kurds’ “special affinity for Israel” and writes that “In the safe haven of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Jews and Israel are remembered fondly, if increasingly vaguely.” Let us hope that this relationship can be renewed and strengthened.