Kurdistan: The World’s Forgotten Nation
“No friends but the mountains”
In order to understand the plight of the Kurdish people, we must first understand the distinction between a nation and a state. A nation is a cultural concept, defined as a collection of people bound together by shared values, traditions, language, religion, history and sometimes race, often occupying the same geographical area. A state, on the other hand, is a political entity with a political association having supreme jurisdiction over a defined territory. This territory often encompasses at least one nation. Ultimately, a nation is a psycho-political entity with membership determined by one’s sense of belonging and other subjective factors, while belonging to a state is determined objectivity by citizenship.
The main reason why the two are often confused with one another is because in today’s world, the two often go hand in hand. When the First World War ended in 1918, the empires of the losing powers; Germany, Austro-Hungary and the Ottomans were broken up into smaller nation-states and Mandates (zones of colonial control). While this gave nations such as Poland state status, and symbolised a step in the right direction for others such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, it did not do the same for Kurdistan. The nation of Kurdistan was left divided between Turkey, Iran, and the new Mandates of Iraq and Syria controlled by the British and French respectively.
In the time between the end of the First World War and today there have been many breakthroughs for the nation state; the end of colonialism, the breakup of Yugoslavia and the fall of the Soviet Union being the major ones. Throughout this time however, any attempts by the Kurds to set up their own state have been ruthlessly put down. Fighting four states simultaneously with little international support has meant that the nation of approximately 30 million people (1) has struggled for independence in vain.
The Fight Against ISIS
In 2013 the Kurdish people captured the headlines with their fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Iraqi army had been shattered and fled south, the Syrians were embroiled in a civil war and on the back foot and now the Kurds stood alone on the frontlines, fighting for their lives.
In Syria, the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) – a coalition of Kurdish militias – defended Kurdish enclaves in the north of the country from the rampaging ISIS forces. In September 2014, ISIS launched an assault on one of these enclaves around the Kurdish town of Kobane, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee across the nearby Turkish border. Despite the proximity of the fighting, Turkey refused to attack ISIS positions or allow the Turkish Kurds to cross to aid in the defence of Kobane. Eventually with the support of coalition airstrikes the Kurds were able to drive ISIS back and took control over a large portion of northern Syria, including the ISIS capital of Raqqa in 2017.
In Iraq, the government of the autonomous Kurdish Region sent its army (the Peshmerga) into areas abandoned by the Iraqi army. After almost 4 years of fighting, joint Iraqi and Kurdish attacks (supported by coalition airstrikes) drove ISIS out of Iraq’s third largest city of Mosul.
In the wake of the defeat of ISIS, the US had stationed troops in Kurdish territory to discourage any attacks by Turkey against the Kurds, whom they have long persecuted as secessionist rebels. However, in 2019 the US pulled its forces back from the border and sure enough, the larger and better armed Turkish army began to drive the Kurdish forces back. In response, the Kurds were forced to reach an agreement with the Syrian army to deploy along the northern border and protect against further Turkish aggression. The Syrian government has vowed to take back all of Syria, from both Turkish and Kurdish forces alike.
“The [US] statement was a surprise and we can say that it is a stab in the back for the SDF” (2)
Kino Gabriel, the official spokesperson of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
Looking to the Future
Today, Kurds remain the largest ethnic group in the world without a state (3). While they remain in control of large swaths of territory throughout Syria and Iraq, a slow handover process has begun. The Kurdish region in Iraq will remain autonomous however, and it is difficult to see a future in which the Syrian government is not forced to make similar concessions. Despite these positives, there remains the real and every present danger of genocide against the Kurds by Turkish forces, similar to the Turkish genocide against the Armenians in 1914–1923.
Turkey’s authoritarian President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has increasingly been clamping down on dissidents and increasing his power domestically since the failed coup against him in 2016. Combined with recent attacks by the Turkish military since the withdrawal of coalition troops, Kurds have every right to be worried about their future.
There are few nations in the world which have yet to be given the chance to obtain statehood. Kurdistan and its people gave so much in the fight against ISIS, only to be forgotten about and discarded by the West once ISIS were defeated. It was the Kurds that saved an Iraq and Syria teetering on the brink of collapse, only to be repaid by having their lands taken back off of them once the job was done. Looking to the future, it is the responsibility of the West to stand up and fight for the Kurdish nation, just as they fought for everyone in the Middle East. International leaders must pledge to defend the Kurdish people from persecution, in order to prevent a possible genocide in the near future. It is time to put real pressure on Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran to open a promising dialogue for greater Kurdish autonomy and one day, maybe even a free and independent Kurdistan.
(1) BBC News (2019) Who are the Kurds?
(2) BBC News (2019) Turkey-Syria border: Kurds bitter as US troops withdraw
(3) Kennedy (2012) Kurds Remain on the Sideline of Syria’s Uprising. The New York Times.
