The struggle to survive as a nation is a continuing theme for the Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the world without a state of their own. The Kurds are living in the mountainous border regions among Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. They are the second largest US ally, offering their land to US forces as a frontier in the 2003 war on the Iraqi regime. The Kurds have taken an active part in the Iraqi war from its beginning. They collaborated with the US despite all fears of more possible chemical attacks by Iraq – something the Kurds had already experienced in 1988. Now, instead of another US betrayal, the Kurds say they deserve full support of the US for an independent Kurdish state.
Turks’ “Kurd-phobia”
Denying an ancient nation like the Kurdish nation, with all assimilation and exodus, the eradication attempts by the Turkish regime reached its climax in the 1980s. During the 1980 military coup by Turkish leader and now ex-President Kenan Evren, who once denied the very existence of Kurds in Turkey, the Kurds were given the lowest status given to human beings in the history of mankind. His regime did not only restrict the use of the Kurdish language; it also described the Kurdish people, who had lived in the region for millennia prior to the arrival of the Turks, as "mountain Turks". He said the name “Kurd” came from the noise their boots made when walking in the snow {Kurt.—Kurt}.
Even in the current millennium, Turkey’s worst nightmare remains to be an independent Kurdistan. Ankara fears that such a move would bring together some 40-45 million Kurds, the majority of whom live within the borders of modern Turkey – in the country’s southeast boundaries.
Recently, to ease Turkey’s anxiety, President of Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani said, “Turkey should get used to the idea of an independent Kurdistan.” The independence and statehood for Kurds, who live in a region that straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, is a "legitimate and legal right."
The scenario of an independent Kurdish state will move a step closer by the end of this year, by which time Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution must be implemented. According to the new Iraqi Constitution, this Article is to reverse the policies of the “Arabization Campaign” conducted by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and 1990s which drove thousands of Kurds out of their homes and replaced them with Arabs. After the “normalization” of the city, a census is to follow, then the referendum during which the people of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk will decide whether they want to stay as part of the Iraqi federal government or to join Iraq's Kurdistan region. This will be a more painful time for Turkey.
US officials have been criticized by Turkish nationalists over the usage of the word “Kurdistan.” For instance, during his farewell speech in Erbil, former US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, said, “There has been too much pain and violence in many parts of Iraq, but thank God not in Kurdistan.” As usual, Ankara reacted to his remarks.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also pinched into the quarrel after the Turkish government took her to undertaking over the use of the word “Kurdistan.” Speaking before the Senate Appropriations Committee last February, Rice referred to the Kurdish rebels who were “operating on the border between Turkey and Kurdistan.” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Rice’s description of the region “wrong,” adding that Turkey would pass “necessary messages” to US authorities.
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