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By Alison Buckley
and Hamma Mirwaisi
Some time
in the early years of this century Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, sole
prisoner of the Turkish government on the Island of Imrali off Istanbul, was
working late into the evening on a composition for one of his now-famous
writings. The midnight hour passed and at about one o'clock he heard a rustle
outside the only window in his cell through which food and drink could be
passed. Impressed to bring him a cup of coffee, a prison official offered the
beverage through the outlet, at the same time indicating he wanted to speak to
Ocalan. The writer dropped his work and responded to the caller through the
grill.
'You are a real leader; it is obvious to us all here. You deserve some
privileges,' the officer declared.
It was
an "out of the blue' admission. Seizing the moment, Ocalan immediately replied.
'I'll drink half of this, only if you'll drink the other half,' he
proposed.
The
episode was significant of the comradeship that Ocolan hoped would one day
occur between himself and his Turkish brothers who shared the Kurds' land. So
far it is still a dream, waylaid for most of this year by the Turkish Prime
Minister's complacency regarding real progress on the post March 21 cease-fire
reforms the Kurds require before they will lay down arms for good in Turkey.
Following this disappointment it is easy to understand Ocalan's and other PCDK
officials' disgust and dismay at the alleged discovery of the burning of the
ballot papers of those who had voted for the Kurdish Democratic Solutions Party
in last Saturday's Kurdish Regional Government elections. All thirty-three PCDK
candidates, one-third of whom were women, standing for nearly one-third of the
Parliament's vacant seats, were informed they had registered too late for their
scrutineers to be allocated places in the vote-counting process. It was a
convenient move by their opponents, who had to do something to stave off the
anticipated tide of support for the PCDK. None of the party's candidates were
successful. The sure method of interference with the democratic process made
certain of it.
This
tragic result leaves the real and complete will of the Kurdish people unknown,
and a section of it politically thwarted. In the absence of his stricken boss
it also leaves the Gorran party's Nawshirwan Mustafa's tenuous control of the
Sulaymaniyah region of Kurdistan, exposed to the animosity of his probable election
co-conspirator Massoud Barzani. Mustafa's architecture of the PUK's policy was
downplayed in the face of Talabani's father-in-law, Abraham Ahmed's 1963
opposition to Barzani, which divided Kurds into Bahdini Kurds under the Barzani
family and Sorani Kurds under the Ahmed family of Sulaymaniyah.
In an
effort to diffuse the enmity between these two tribes, Ocalan's third PCDK
party entered the election to unite the Kurds, but alleged interference in the
vote-counting procedure has put paid to that hope. It has also shored up
divisions created by the Barzani family's closeness to Turkey and Israel and
Nawshirwan Mustafa's friendship with the Shi'a governments of Iran and Iraq.
But in
the post-bogus-election political climate, it is possible that the Barzani
family will seek an understanding with Nawshirwan Mustafa so that they can sign
what they call a strategic agreement for the Kurdish people's security.
In reality it would be an extension of the last few years' agreement between
the two families to control Kurdistan's oil wealth.
Consequently the US, Israel, and the European oil partners of the two main
Kurdish Autonomous Region's political parties are likely to apply firm pressure
to both to get along so that they "profitably' manage Kurdistan's oil wealth.
This time the main difference is the replacement of Jalal Talabani, who is
either dead or in a state of unconsciousness, by Nawshirwan Mustafa. The profit
goes to the same destinations -- the hands of these leaders and the companies,
individuals and even nation-states that they do deals with in order to
appropriate the wealth themselves or to those they regard as allies, friends,
and business partners; that is, many others than the true owners, the Kurdish
people.
However,
there may be other reasons why Ocalan's PCDK party failed to win the hearts and
minds of Kurds in the KRG area of Iraq. Bribery has also been rife in Kurdish
politics for generations. Barzani and Talabani have led the charge of the
Kurdish people's betrayal of each other and their nation for financial gain.
The PCDK must find a way to subvert this domination by giving Kurds something
else besides money to improve their lives. They need hope, leadership, and a
sacrificial example instead of outright, rampant greed and underdevelopment of
public infrastructure and services. In the long term the people will see the
benefits of these principles of government and the foolishness of swapping
short-term monetary gain for transparent democracy, long-term investment in the
development of the national wealth, and human rights.
On the
other hand if the animosity between the Barzani and Talabani parties gets out
of hand, yet another civil war could begin in the Middle East, while most
international eyes are on Syria and Iran. If this happens, oil prices will be
significantly affected.
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