Can the Misfortune Kurds Get Independence?

In the snow-capped mountain areas of Northern Iraq these days, there is under amidst powder smoke with scorching sound of trench mortars.

Of course, the US invasion of Iraq has not been started, yet. However, the battle between the Kurd Rebels, who is controlling this area, and armed organization of the Al Qaida, which tries to make a new stronghold in this area, is getting more intense. And in an area little bit far from there in south west direction, the long battle line, where the Kurd Rebels and the regular Iraqi Army is facing each other, is in a momentary lull and under a count down of a full scale ground battle.

“For the last tens of years, these high and rugged mountains are our only friends. However, we are waiting for the strongest friend in the world (the US troops) now.”

The front line commander of the Kurd Rebels Halat Karim said to a New York Times reporter, who visited the mountain area last week, “We will fight to defeat Sadam Hussein and win our independence at the risk of our life.”

Will their dearest wish come true this time?

While the war clouds hang heavy, the demonstrations against the US invasion of Iraq are spreading all over the world; however, those Kurds are exactly opposite. They, who have a cruel memory of thousands, tens of thousands people`s being slaughtered by the Hussein Administration, consider this Iraqi situation as a good chance for their independence.

In fact, if the war breaks out, the Kurds seem to help the US troops and are put into the front line in the ground battle. America has already committed around 500 special agents since the end of last year and is help the army drill of the Kurd Rebels. The Kurd Rebels inside Iraq is around 75,000 right now. They have long experience of armed struggle, and they are trained with intrepid spirit of calling themselves ‘Pesh Merga’ (warriors standing in front of death).

The Kurds have lived in around the border area of Iran and the Soviet Union called ‘Kurdistan’ and in about 80,000km2 near the Tigris River since the prehistoric period; however, they are people of misfortune who have never achieved independence. They have hooked noses and white skin, they use their own language, and most of them are Muslims. And there are around 25 million people are living in different areas including 10 million in Turkey and 3.5 million in Iraq.

For the last hundreds of years, the world powers used the Kurds using a sweet promise of ‘independence’ whenever there was a struggle. For example, the Palebi Royal Family of Iran used the Kurds and had them to fight against Iraq during the border struggle with Iraq in the early 70`s; however, when they got a peace treaty with Iraq, they stopped supporting them and thousands of Kurds were killed by Iraq as a revenge. In 1988, Iraq attacked them using chemical weapons, so 5,000 were killed. They did armed struggle during the Gulf War in 1991 also; however, America left Hussein Administration alone and withdrew, so they had to resign much sacrifice.

Therefore, on the other side of the hope of independence that the Kurds are having, there is a worry that ‘they are abandoned after being used by a super power again.’

sechepa@donga.com