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THE KURDS: EVERYTHING YOU DIDN’T KNOW
Plight of Assyrians
Bayan Rahman sets the tone for the interview by claiming the three wise men who visited Jesus were from Kurdistan. Eyes bulging already, let’s pretend this wasn’t said and continue.
She claims Kurdistan was divided between four countries after the First World War, when in reality, it was the Ottoman Empire that was divided into different states under mandate from European powers. What she is referring to is an idealized Kurdish homeland which would be the largest country in the Middle East, all at the expense of every other nation of people who live heterogeneously within those lands, many of which suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks and Kurds and were expelled, their lands forcibly seized or lying in ruin.
Speaking of the genocide: the total Assyrian population was reduced by as much as 75%, and with no recognition, no compensation, and no appreciation of this, we are simply expected to accept this great crime and bow to an emerging Kurdish state built on the blood and resources of our murdered ancestors, as well as the ancestors of Armenians and Greeks who suffered the same trauma.
“The people of Kurdistan were divided up” says Bayan Rahman, whilst conveniently omitting the fact that the people of Assyria were slaughtered by the “people of Kurdistan” on many occasions, whilst they were both being divided up. These are historical facts, omitting them when talking of modern history and how Kurds have come to the precarious situation they find themselves in amongst the faltering Sykes-Picot states is nothing short of historical revisionism.
She goes on: “in Iraq, they put the Sunnis and Shias together, and wanted the Kurds as the third element to balance the other two”
Again, this is complete historical revisionism. It was the mixed Iraqi Levies who were put together, trained and deployed by Britain to keep order. These levies soon became almost exclusively Assyrian, since for some reason, Britain seemed more inclined to manipulate Assyrians into being this balancing force Bayan Rahman has cited. It was these Assyrian Levies that alienated the other groups in the new state of Iraq.
The first military act Iraq conducted after winning independence in 1932, under the leadership of the Kurdish General Bakr Sidqi in the Iraqi Army, was a massacre of Assyrians in Simele and surrounding areas, where Kurds, Arabs and others united under one common cause: to inflict more violence against Christian Assyrians and plunder their towns and villages, murder the men, and rape and murder the women and children. Many of these Assyrians were still recovering from the Ottoman Genocide that happened less than twenty years prior.
Territory
This next bit is crucial:
Dave Rubin asks “what will become Kurdistan—or what you hope will become Kurdistan—will encompass more areas, is that correct? And Bayan Rahman replies, “The KRG now controls all of the Kurdish territory, officially we administer only part of it, but after we pushed ISIS out after they attacked us, we now have control of all of Kurdistani areas in Iraq.”
She is starting with an idealist premise of what constitutes ‘Kurdistan’—an idea so loosely defined that many Kurds I speak to all have a different vision of it accompanied by a different map.
Of course, what Bayan Rahman defines as ‘Kurdistan’ is totally in line with what the KDP define as Kurdistan, namely, areas which they do not currently control, but want to because of geography, resources etc. What is her criteria for “Kurdish territory”—? The common definition that persists today is simply “where Kurds live”, but this definition doesn’t even fit with areas like the Nineveh Plains, where Kurds have almost no presence yet still claim.
She starts from the position that these lands are Kurdish and that the KRG is reclaiming them from ISIS. This is conquest masquerading as liberation.
These lands never belonged to the Kurds, not in modern nor ancient history. These lands belonged to Assyrians, who have remained a constant in them for thousands of years. Nothing about the Nineveh Plains is Kurdish, nothing about Nohadra (or Dohuk) or the lands immediately surrounding it is historically Kurdish: its full administration was offered to the KRG as a bargaining chip to shift their hungry gaze away from Kirkuk, which is much richer in oil. Huge influxes of Kurds moved into and settled in Dohuk and surrounding areas in very recent times which now seemingly made it “Kurdish”.—(I write this knowing of Assyrians who still have deeds to their lands in Dohuk but were forced out).
Employing a fluid notion of what constitutes ‘Kurdistan’, i.e. merely a place where even a small number of Kurds are today, this actually works. However, if one was to respect history, exhibiting even some awareness of the crimes of the past, honouring deeds to land, or any kind justice at all, it plainly doesn’t.
Search for Nohadra (Dohuk) on Google, and you would think the place didn’t exist before the soft partitioning in 1991 which asserted the no-fly zone, and created a space from which long-suppressed Kurdish nationalism could flourish. In reality, Dohuk was seized upon in the 90’s by the Barzani family as a key smuggling route into Turkey for Saddam’s discreet dealings away from the UN sponsored Oil for Food sanctions. Both Barzani and Saddam cooperated in this illicit commerce and mutually benefited to the tune of millions of dollars.
You can observe two things at work here: firstly, what Dave Rubin and Bayan Rahman telepathically agree to call “complex” with reference to Kurdish politics is simply “cynical”, and it has proved so time and time again in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. Second, what the Kurds have adopted in Iraq is a policy of “we will take what we can get.” Assyrian and Yezidi lands were easily conquered: we have no backers, no support, and no media attention; incipit aforementioned “liberation”.
Bayan Rahman: “Kurdistan is multicultural and multi-religious. In Iraqi Kurdistan, we have Christians, they are Assyrian, and we have Chaldeans, Yezidis, Shabaks, Kakais and Arabs as well. Maybe some of those communities may think that well we would rather be under Iraqi authority, but I’m confident that the vast majority of people who vote in the referendum would rather have self-determination than be under the authority of Baghdad.”
At this point, it’s really becoming painful to listen to. No, you don’t “have” Assyrians, or anyone else. What the KRG considers “having” they have taken by force to further their interests (namely, the desire to be seen by the West as progressive, pluralist and tolerant, undoubtedly to attract investments, businesses).
Besides the bizarre and sickly possessive language, she is actually saying that the communities who now find themselves living under newly planted Kurdish flags have to suddenly decide and vote for Kurdish independence—and this implication went unchallenged.
It would be like me waking up tomorrow and finding the borders of Scotland expanded to include London and being compelled, most likely with threats of violence or impoverishment by well-funded, well-armed Scots, to vote positively for Scottish independence with absolutely no thought as to who I am, my history or my own aspirations.
As I understand it, even if every Assyrian voted “no”, they will be outvoted by “yes”—and since the Assyrians all live in newly conquered Kurdish territory, their “no” won’t matter, Assyrian areas won’t suddenly go back to Iraqi administration (much less their own administration), they will just comprise the losing vote in a successful “yes” campaign.
The referendum won’t simply apply to parts of Iraqi Kurdistan for strategic, cynical reasons, but the whole of it. Peshmerga Commanders have already been quoted saying they will not “give back” these territories because “they are Kurdish”.
“Who wants to live under a dictatorship?” Bayan Rahman asks with reference to Saddam and other despots “For us Kurds, Iraq has failed us repeatedly. I can’t think of one good thing we seen out of being part of Iraq.”
Let’s cut the nonsense again: despite the massacres, hardships and suffering the Kurds have endured in Iraq, Iraq has given the Kurdish people more than any other country in the world.
Within the incubator of Iraq, Kurds have formed first their ever recognized government in history. Established under the no-fly zone in 1992 under the protection of numerous International governments and their armed forces, and with aid to the tune of billions of dollars since, the Kurdish Regional Government has grown into something ubiquitous and monolithic which has 19 ministries, employs representatives in all major countries, hosts foreign embassies, has a direct relationship with all of the biggest global organisations, millions of dollars dedicated to international scholarships, trade deals independent of Baghdad etc.
The myth that the ‘poor KRG’ is this downtrodden, underdog is truly divorced from reality. Since its inception, it has enjoyed steadfast international support at every turn: economically, politically, and militarily.
What an insult to Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iran, who have enjoyed absolutely none of these privileges.
What an insult to Assyrians and other minorities, who have been crushed under the full, extended weight of unchecked and celebrated Kurdish nationalism in their own lands with no recourse to law, domestically or internationally.
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FULL ARTICLE : https://1001iraqithoughts.com/2016/0...the-assyrians/
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