Conflicts in West Asia: Kurds and their struggle with statelessness

There is an old Kurdish Proverb that Kurds have no friends but mountains. Kurds are one of the Middle East’s largest ethnic groups of between 25 and 35 million people but without a state.

Most of the Kurdish population sits in the geopolitical fault lines of regional powers like Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. Although Kurdish nationalism is a century-old phenomenon, compared to world attention on Palestine, the conflict-prone zone in the Middle East disallowed it to become a global concern. 

However, a number of developments brought the Kurdish question back to the table such as a) the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) as a regional and global threat, b) instability in Iraq, c) the Syrian civil war, d) political chaos in Turkey, e) Saudi-Iran rift, and f) the US rebalancing act shaping the shifting regional order.

In addition, the 2017 Kurdish independence referendum held by the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq and its consequences unveiled a new phase of the Kurdish question. Let’s understand who are Kurds, what are their demands and why the idea of a separate state doesn’t arouse major concern. 

Brief history of the Kurdish question

The term ‘Kurdistan’ was first used in the twelfth century as a geographical term by the Saljuqs (a Turkic clan). Kurds are mainly followers of Sunni Islam but they have a strong ethnic identity and therefore certain cultural identity supersedes the political project of religious nationalism. 

The official Kurdish population is now between 25-35 million. The Kurdish diaspora is globally scattered. Kurds are mainly present in four countries in the Middle East, i.e. Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.

Turkey has the largest Kurdish population (estimated at 43 per cent), followed by Iran (31 per cent), Iraq (18 per cent), Syria (6 per cent) and the former Soviet Union which includes Armenia and Azerbaijan (estimated to be 2 per cent). 

Main Kurdish areas in Middle East.

The particularity of Kurdish nationalism or Kurdish nationalist movement, which was a direct consequence the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, is that it is not the product of an independence war against the occupation, nor the issue of resistance to colonialism, but an immediate and direct challenge to the newly founded or constructed nation-states. Resultantly, in the absence of a nation-state, Kurds remain scattered across different locations.

The scattered population

Turkey

Following the First World War, the declaration of the Fourteen Points by the former President of the United States Woodrow Wilson accorded non-Turkish minorities the right to “autonomous development” (Point Number 12). 

Further as argued, the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) explicitly provided for “local autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish areas” (Article 62), and even promulgated the possibility that “the Kurdish peoples” might be granted “independence from Turkey” (Article 64). 

However, the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) recognised the modern Republic of Turkey without any special provisions for Turkish Kurds. Turkey since then didn’t accept any provision where Kurds can demand autonomy. 

The Preamble to the 1982 Turkish constitution explicitly declares: “That no protection shall be accorded to an activity contrary to Turkish national interests, Turkish existence and the principle of its indivisibility with its State and territory, historical and moral values of Turkishness…” 

Turkey does not allow any census based on ethnicity. However, unofficial records suggest the highest concentration of Kurds live in Turkey compared to even Iraq, which is home for the Kurdish majority in popular imagination. 

In Turkey, one out of every fifth is a Kurd. When the Kurdish question became a qualifying condition for the membership of the European Union (EU), the Turkish government on many occasions echoed the voice to resolve the matter. For Turkey, “the road to the EU goes through Diyarbakır”. Diyarbakır, the largest Kurdish populated area in Turkey, has been a flashpoint of conflict between ethnic Kurdish groups and Turkey.

Iran 

The Kurds constitute around 8 per cent (approximately 5.5 million) of Iran’s total population, and largely live in the mountains in the northwest of the country. The Iranian Kurds and their demand did not receive much attention compared to Iraq and Turkey largely due to the regional dynamics of this region. 

However, their struggle and persistent discrimination against their demands remained during the Shah period and even after the Iranian revolution of 1979 where they participated in Ayatollah Khomeini’s call for the revolution. 

The Shah period was humiliating for Iranian Kurds that encouraged them to participate in the revolution, but the post-revolution did not bring any hope and Kurds failed to get any attention from Tehran. 

After 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini viewed that demand for autonomy on the basis of ethnicity is contrary to Islamic doctrine. He later called for jihad (holy war) against the Kurdish people. The Iraqi Referendum did alert Tehran to iron out their differences with Turkey and Iraq and call for a shared response.   

Syria

Syrian Kurds are in the North-eastern part of Syria which Kurdish people call as Western Kurdistan. Comprising almost 10 per cent of Syria’s population. Before the 2011 Arab uprisings reached Syria, Kurds were mostly living in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo, and in three areas around Kobane, parts of Afrin, and the north-eastern city of Qamishli. 

Democratic Union Party (PYD) of Syria is an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê or PKK in Kurdish) in Turkey. The PYD is the largest Kurdish political group in Syria bordering Turkey.

This is followed by the Kurdish National Council (KNC), which is again an alliance of fifteen political parties and a closer associate of the Kurdish Regional Government in Baghdad under Massoud Barzani. The central aim of these groups is to push for autonomy.

Iraq

Iraqi Kurdistan has had a turbulent history since the formation of modern Iraq. The demand for separation by Iraqi Kurds has received international attention compared to their counterparts in Turkey, Syria and Iran. Iraqi Kurds constitute a greater proportion of population than any other state they inhabit. 

In historical understanding, Kurds in Iraq did enjoy more national rights than Kurds living in any neighbouring states, attributed to many factors. Iraqi Kurds never accepted the hypothetically created nation-state designed by the Mandate period (after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire) and continued their revolt despite being crushed on many occasions. 

The two important events in the Kurdish struggle were the formation of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1946 and the recognition of the Kurdish nationality in the post-1958 revolution when the Iraqi constitution recognised their demand. 

On March 11, 1970, a Peace Accord was signed between Iraqi Kurds and the rest of Iraq that allowed the Kurdish language to function as the official language in areas with a Kurdish majority; and many other frameworks of peace including their political participation. 

After the first Gulf War (1991), Kurdish political parties, i.e. Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) came together to share power till 1994. Both KDP and PUK supported the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and since then both these parties have been part of every coalition government under the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). KRG came in 2005 to administer the three provinces of Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaimaniya.

Kurds after the 2017 Referendum in Iraq

The referendum raised an alarm in Iraq’s neighbourhood in Turkey, Iran and Syria. Despite this, the referendum was not binding nor did it call for a break away from Iraq and other parts of Kurdistan bordering Turkey, Syria and Iran. The possibility of blockade and breakaway of borders have forced International Organisations such as the UN and countries like the US, Russia and others to join in over the issue. 

Although the issue has been settled for now, it remains a central question between regional players and Kurdish aspiration. One finds in most post-colonial states such conditions, where neither institution is well-built nor the actors enjoy collective legitimacy to perform. For the sovereign idea of state and its success requires both and thus even for Kurdish statehood aspiration cannot work just through referendum and support from the US. 

Post Read Question

Who are Kurds? Where are they mainly located?

What are the major demands of the Kurds?

The Kurdish question is overshadowed by the security concerns of regional and global powers. Comment. 

What is the relationship between the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey? Why is the PYD considered significant in the context of Kurdish politics in Syria?

(Dr. Premanand Mishra is a former Assistant Professor at Peace & Conflict Resolution department, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He visited Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2019.) 

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