“Through all 3 of my Iraq tours I supported them, trained them and served as an adviser,” former Army Major Fred Wellman tweeted last week about his experience with the Kurds. “… These kids would be in their 20’s. I wonder if they’re already dead.”
Today, the Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in the world, divided among modern-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. When Trump announced that he was removing U.S. forces from Syria, it gave the Turkish government the perfect opportunity to implement their goals of removing Kurds from the Syria-Turkey border and changing their local demography. Turkey’s attacks have already caused the displacement of over 100,000 Kurds.
Turkey is on the path towards total ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, and the international community must stop them before it’s too late. The United States’ removal of troops played a role in helping Turkey complete their goal of displacing the kurds, and because of this, the U.S. should provide asylum for Kurdish refugees in Syria and military aid to those fighting Turkey. Other European Union (EU) nations should also be encouraged to take the Kurds in and impose sanctions on Turkey to show their disapproval. Lastly, the creation of a Kurdish state must be addressed because their entire identity is being threatened.
Who Are the Kurds?
The Kurds are part of a predominantly Muslim ethnic group and are indigenous to the Mesopotamian region in present day southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and southwestern Armenia. There are nearly thirty million Kurds living across this region, but nearly half are situated in Turkey.
Source: Aljazeera
The Kurdish Claim to Land and the End of It
After World War I, in the Treaty of Sèvres, the Kurds were promised their own autonomous state by Western powers as they were redrawing borders. However, In 1916, Great Britain, France, and Russia created the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement and signed the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. This new treaty gave the entire Anatolian region to Turkey, including the Kurdistan homeland inside the region, and there was no provision in the new treaty for a referendum for Kurdish independence.
Although this treaty has been forgotten by the West, it laid the foundations for Turkey’s paranoia some scholars call the “Sèvres Syndrome,” the idea that outside forces conspire to weaken and divide Turkey. The Kurdish state envisioned in this treaty would have been under British control, and many Kurds didn’t approve of this. They preferred being under Turkish rule instead of risking Christian colonization, so they accepted the identity the other nations provided.
Iraq is the only place in the world where the Kurds retain some autonomy. Although the Kurds were promised autonomy in Iraq in 1970, it wasn’t until after the Gulf War in 1990-1991 that they gained some of the independence they desired for so long. The anti-Saddam coalition established a no-fly zone in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and the Kurds created the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which provided the Kurds with some of the autonomy they desired for so long.
Turkey’s Oppression of the Kurds
The Kurds have attempted to gain basic rights since the beginning of the Turkish Republic. This movement involved simple requests such as the ability to give Kurdish names to their children and to be taught in school in their own language. The southeastern part of Turkey, where a majority of the Kurds live, was constantly denied economic aid. As a response, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a guerrilla group, formed in the 1970’s. The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU, and the U.S.
The battle between the PKK and the Turkish military has resulted in many civilian casualties. Nearly 4,000 villages were burned by the Turkish army as a response to PKK attacks. Many ordinary Kurds were forced to leave their homes and immigrate to larger cities where their identity deteriorated even more. Kurdish civilians have been hurt the most by the conflict between this guerrilla group and the Turkish government, and both parties should recognize their role in these atrocities.
In the present day, Turkey is invading Northern Syria to create a buffer state between the country and the Syrian Kurds. Turkey is attempting to remove all Kurdish influence from its country, even if that means invading another country to do so. The current attacks on Syrian Kurds is a continuation of a long history of human rights violations that have occurred as a result of the “Sèvres Syndrome,” and something must be done to stop Turkey before they turn to outright genocide.
Peace Talks Between the PKK and Turkey
Turkey will never permit the coexistence of their non-Kurdish population with the Kurds unless some agreement is made between the Turkish Government and the PKK. Turkey is unwilling to negotiate unless the PKK disarms entirely; however, this is unlikely to occur since the Kurds have been persecuted by the Turkish government for so long. The Kurds could possibly disarm partially or set up a demilitarized zone, but Turkey would need to provide some protections for the Kurds before the negotiations start if they want the Kurds to decrease the amount of arms they have amassed.
U.S. Travel Ban
If there is a significant administration change in the presidential office in 2020, one of the first things that should be created by the new administration is an executive order to reverse the travel ban from 2017. The Trump administration’s removal of troops from Syria is what encouraged Turkey to go into Syria to fight the Kurds, and thus the U.S. should take responsibility for the situation and aid the Kurds whenever necessary. Depending on how long the Turkish invasion of Syria lasts, the U.S. should be open towards accepting Kurdish refugees as a sign of compassion towards the Kurds to show that the U.S. is still their ally.
International Pressure
While the U.S. abandoned the Kurds when they were needed the most, other EU nations still have the opportunity to step in and aid this population. One way this could be done is through sanctions. President Trump imposed tariffs on Turkish steel and sanctions on top Turkish officials in order to pressure Ankara to stop the offensive in Syria. Some of Turkey’s largest trading partners are Germany and the UK. If more European countries impose financial burdens on Turkey, this could send a message to Turkey that their human rights violations against the Kurds have consequences.
The EU should also be providing military support and training to ensure that there is no forcible removal of the Kurds. EU nations are the ones that will be the most impacted if there is another refugee crisis, and even if an appeal to human rights standards is not enough to spur these nations to action, they should at least be motivated to help the Kurds in order to limit their migration.
If this forced movement were to occur, the EU should accept as many Kurdish refugees as they are capable of. With an alt-right moving rising in the EU, the member countries should show that they are not willing to let senseless hatred stop them from doing what’s right.
The Creation of a Kurdish State
The idea of the creation of a Kurdish State is unlikely to be implemented because of its difficult and controversial nature, but it should not be entirely ruled out from the discussion. This scenario is what the Kurds were originally promised after World War I, and it is an outcome that they deserve based on their constant persecution over the last century. Without a state, they have no protection for their unique culture and practices. Because they are such a large minority, but spread across different countries, none of the individual groups are powerful enough to advocate for their rights on their own. With their own state, they would be able to do this without disturbing other countries who do not approve of their presence, such as Turkey. If Turkey wants to decrease the frequency of PKK attacks and remove the Kurdistan influence from its country, then the creation of a separate state would ultimately be of benefit to them.
The U.S. owes the Kurds for all of their help in combating ISIS. The Kurds helped the U.S. with their counterterrorism agenda, but now when they need help, they stand alone. The U.S. is trying to preserve relations with Turkey, but they have no mutual interests or enemies anymore. If anything, Turkey stands against U.S. policy through their purchase of a missile system from Russia, encroachment into Syria, imprisonment of U.S. embassy workers, and their suppression of journalists, academics, and other civil society organizations. Instead of trying to appease a country’s government whose actions go against what the U.S. supposedly stands for, the U.S. should focus on improving relationships with other longstanding allies, such as the Kurds. After what the Kurds have done to help the U.S. reduce one of their greatest threats to national security, the U.S. owes them some security in return.
There are many complexities that go into the creation of a state, but that doesn’t mean the idea should be entirely ignored. When the United Nations divided Yugoslavia into three separate states in the 1990’s, states like Macedonia had a peaceful transition despite protests from a larger and more powerful nation, Greece. While it has been automatically assumed that creating a Kurdish state would result in extreme chaos in the Middle East, this isn’t necessarily true. If it could be done in the past, it could be done again.
Conclusion
Over 40,000 Turkish Kurds have lost their lives in the fight for Kurdish rights. At what point will the international community do something? The situation should not need to devolve into genocide for action to finally be taken. It is clear that Turkey is trying to suppress Kurdish culture and ostracize them from Turkish society, and it is only a matter of time until they try to get rid of them for good. The fact that there are no consequences for these human rights violations only shows that it is apparently permissible for other countries to do the same, and this situation sets a dangerous precedent that the international community will turn a blind eye to these types of atrocities.
Featured Image Source: (REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo)