This text was written originally for a youth magazine published in London.
The history and existence of Kurds
and Kurdistan goes back thousands of years and has existed in different forms
and under different names, but the Kurdish ‘problem’ can be traced back to 1639
when Kurdistan (The land of the Kurds) was divided between the Ottoman and
Safavid-Persian Empires. Although there were no nation-state structures at that
time, Kurds lived quite independently under autonomous chieftainships and gave
taxes and occasionally soldiers to the central power they lived under. However
this divide created the first fracture and separation in Kurdish culture and
identity. The similarities between Persians and Kurds (they are deemed cousins
since their joint existence in the Medean Empire) softened the blow culturally
but the separation was still felt strongly on a religious and political level.
The seeds of the tensions between Alevi/Shia and Şafi/Sunni Kurds can be found
here; as the Safavid Empire was predominantly Şia/Alevi whereas the Ottoman Empire Şafi/Sunni, they both used the Kurdish populations
living under their rule against one another. As we will see often through
Kurdish history, Kurdistan has been the site
of historic battles and Kurds have been the victims or sacrifice in struggles
between hegemonic powers and the classic policy of divide and rule has been
implemented many times.
There were many Kurdish rebellions
during the last 100 years of the Ottoman Empire, but these mostly remained
local up until and including the Koçgiri (1920), Şeyh Said (1925) and Dersim
(1938) rebellions which were just before and in the first years of the Turkish
Republic (formation 1923). These rebellions all had a Kurdish character and
some called for Kurdish national independence, but they were quickly and
mercilessly defeated before they could gain momentum and mass support. It is
not a coincidence that they occurred following the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne,
which formed the basis for the formation of the Turkish state and excluded all
the other peoples’ living within the borders of Turkey Kurdistan ’ had been used many times in Parliament by
Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) himself. The Treaty of Lausanne also separated Kurdistan once more and this time into four pieces. As
with 1639, the Kurds and Kurdistan , almost 300
years later became the biggest losers and sacrifice in a war fought between the
rulers of the world. Kurdish existence, especially in Turkey and Syria
In later years The Kurdish Republic
of Mahabad (1946) declared autonomy in the Iranian region but it was short
lived as the Soviet Union withdrew its support within a year of its formation
and its leader Qazi Muhammad was executed in 1947 by Iran Iraq and Iran Iraq
The modern Kurdish National
Movement’s seeds were sewn from the 1950s onwards as many Kurds became
introduced to socialist and national liberation movements. This momentum gained
pace after 1968 as the need for separate Turkish and Kurdish organisations
became clear; the Turkish left saw the Kurdish question as a secondary matter
to the wider revolution in Turkey, but Kurds began questioning this ideological
and practical stance because the needs of Kurds were not being met. When the
first generation of Turkish revolutionaries were massacred by the Turkish
state, many Kurds who had been organised in Turkish left movements broke away.
Abdullah Ocalan and his friends, who had been influenced by the likes of Deniz
Gezmiş and Mahir Çayan, also began organising at this juncture. Their thesis
was that Kurdistan was a colony being
exploited by the Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian states and also other
foreign powers who were in turn exploiting these other states. After several
years of working and organising as a small group these cadres founded the PKK
(Kurdistan Worker’s Party) in 1978 and began an armed resistance first against
Kurdish feudal lords and then the Turkish state in 1984. In between these two
dates was the important resistance shown by many leading PKK figures in Diyarbakir prison; the likes of Mazlum Doğan, Kemal Pir,
Mehmet Hayri Durmuş and others either immolated themselves or were martyred in
hunger strikes and became symbols of resistance against the September 12th
1980 coup and also for the resurrection of Kurds and Kurdistan .
Over the years and especially
towards the end of the 80s the PKK began gaining mass support from the Kurds in
North Kurdistan (Turkey ), South
West Kurdistan (Syria ) and Europe . Thousands of young Kurds, men and women, began
joining the guerrilla forces; Kurds aligned with the PKK began organising in
workers’ unions, forming their own political parties, cultural centres and
publishing newspapers; in short the Kurdistan Freedom Movement began
infiltrating all spheres of life and became a mass peoples’ movement. To
counter this the Turkish state tried many different tactics, from 17,000
extra-judicial killings to burning 4,000 villages and staging massive military
operations against the PKK; which ended in the death of over 40,000 people on
both sides.
There were two attempts at peace in the 1990s;
first with Turkish President Turgut Özal and then with Prime Minister Necmettin
Erbakan. Both were cut short in mysterious circumstances and the fighting
intensified and continued until 1999 when PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was
kidnapped in an international conspiracy carried out by the CIA and Mossad and
handed over to Turkey Turkey Kurdistan in which there is a bottom-up organisation of
society based around democratic socialist ideals, gender equality and ecology.
In the past few years a dialogue had
begun between Öcalan, the PKK and the AKP government/Turkish state for a
political peaceful solution to the Kurdish question, but it has turned out that
this was nothing more than delay tactics. During that time over 8000
pro-Kurdish and Kurdish MPs, mayors, lawyers, intellectuals, academics,
journalists and children have been imprisoned as part of the KCK (Union of
Communities in Kurdistan ) case. Furthermore Öcalan,
who is the most important figure for negotiations, and has been in solitary
confinement for 13 years, has not been seen by his lawyers for 8 months.
As I write this over 1,000 people in
Turkish prisons, in Kurdistan and Europe are on indefinite hunger-strike and
are calling for the freedom of Öcalan and a political status for Kurdistan . In essence they are trying to open the
blockaded path for a political and peaceful solution to the Kurdish question
before the snow melts and fighting resumes between the PKK and Turkish state
forces, which will lead to more bloodshed and enmity on both sides. But also
they want to make that sure that the Kurds are not the victim and sacrifice
once again at a time when the balance of the region is changing.
April 2012
Memed Boran
April 2012
Memed Boran
