The Case for the Kurds

The autonomous region known as “Kurdistan” is a vast region within the Middle East that can be found in parts of Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. The people living within the Kurdistan region, referred to as “Kurds”, make up around 30 million people living right in the middle of the Middle East. The Kurd's have been subject to constant displacement, terror, and ethnic cleansing, most recently by Saddam Hussein’s Anfal campaigns, which were the Kurdish equivalent of the Holocaust. 

The Kurds have been in a continuous and bloody war with Turkey for 40 years, they have had to fight and sustain Iraq’s anti-Kurdish gas attacks and persecutions causing “tens of thousands of Kurds to die of suffocation and burning”, have had their citizenship revoked by Syria, and their language and flag ultimately banned and censored by the Syrian government.

Despite all of the harm done to the Kurds, and the setbacks they have had placed on them, they have remained powerful, free, and democratic. 

Iraqi Kurdistan played a large part in the U.S. invasion of Iraq against Saddam Hussein. Trade between Turkey and Kurdistan has been rapidly increasing (by 20% in 2017 alone), a monumental step for helping ease tensions between the two powers. Their booming economy, due to the large oil reserve they are sitting on, is one of the only reasons that they are able to have any economic and diplomatic relations with their neighbors. They continue to be a military powerhouse in the Middle East, currently having the 49th largest standing army in the world (with over 100k soldiers), and they continue to help neighboring countries fight off ISIS forces all while defending their ever changing borders.

So why should we support this unorthodox Middle Eastern region? The main reasons I will be detailing will be in comparison to other countries close to Kurdistan. As Kurdistan is most certainly no neo-liberal paradise, they are the most moderate and tolerant group in the Middle East, and have the best chance of Westernization, as they are supported by the US and many European countries. They have continuously shown that they are willing and able to adopt Western ideals. They serve as the beacon of light in the war torn Middle East that can be perfected over time, and may be the only real hope for the Middle East.

Kurdistan Regional Autonomy

Kurdistan has been making impressive gains in obtaining recognized autonomy from their neighboring countries.

Turkey has seemingly been dropping hints that they must recognize a Kurdish state, as top Erdogan official Hüseyin Çelik stated: “... we have to accept that this state that is being formed is called Kurdistan and if Iraq is divided, then they will have our full support, they are our brothers.”

The Kurds also have a great chance of having Syria recognize greater autonomy for their region, as the foreign minister of Syria Walid Muallem stated: "[Syrian Kurds] want a form of autonomy within the framework of the borders of the state. This is negotiable and can be the subject of dialogue."

Their autonomy has technically been recognized by the Iraqi constitution, after the Kurds had united and seized territory in northern Iraq (though the Iraqi government continuously infringes on their autonomy and continues to fight them).

Regardless of the fact that most of Kurdistan's neighboring countries have yet to recognize Kurdistan, and the ones that have seem to do so halfheartedly, Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian, and Turkish Kurd's have been operating de facto autonomous regions as early as 1991 in Iraq.

Kurdish Human Rights

Like every country located in the Middle East, the Kurds have their problems with human rights, like their treatment of journalists and certain minority groups (though their treatment relative to their neighbors is very mild), but what region in the Middle East is as closely tied to the U.S. and has many more human rights protected than other Middle Eastern countries as the Kurds? Truthfully, there is none. Let's examine what the Kurds are doing right.

Religious Rights: Kurdish religious tolerance is among the best in their region, as British lawmaker Robert Halfon said: “Tell me which other country in the Middle East has a Jewish quarter and they are preserving it.” He also called Kurdistan a more “progressive” Muslim region when it comes to religious tolerance. The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) has also denied to take in Iraqi government teachers for the sake of maintaining religious neutrality in schools in a region that has a Muslim population of 94%! There is no other country in the region that has come this close to secularism in schools, or teaching children about all religions equally. The KRG is likely this tolerant towards other religions due to years of intolerance and suffering imposed upon their people.

Minority Rights: The KRG lawfully recognizes and allows the “political, civil, cultural, social and economic rights of persons belonging to national minorities and followers of all religions,” and that “Persons belonging to national and religious minorities shall enjoy full equality with the citizens of Kurdistan before the law.” What other Middle Eastern country's laws are so accepting and tolerant of minorities? Their laws also state “... discrimination shall be prohibited for any basis or cause such as race, religion, color, sex, national or social origin or any other status. Everyone shall be equal in the exercise of all rights and freedoms without restriction.” 

The greatest threat to the rights of minorities in Kurdistan is the constant nationalistic tide that flows throughout their region due to constant attacks, threats, and battles they are engaged in. Nationalism is a great way to unify a country and keep its morale high in war, but this comes with the side effects of threats to groups with less power. Even if minorities in Kurdistan are not being painted as the villains, or the source which would ban people together against, this feeling of nationalism nonetheless has resulted in the KRG occasionally oppressing and unfairly treating Kurdish minorities in an attempt to “kurdify” newly acquired regions and to help assimilate everyone into the region better.

Women's Rights: Women in Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan have been able to fight on the front lines with their male counterparts against ISIS militants in their own force called the Women’s Protection Unit. Women have also gained legal equality in the Syrian Kurdish province of Hasakah by a decree pushed for by the Democratic Union Party. This new decree grants women more labor rights including equal pay, the right to witness in court, full inheritance rights, and protection against honor killings.

While these practices still continue in other parts of Kurdistan due to the majority Muslim population, Kurdistan is looking like the first Middle Eastern country to truly start abandoning harsh sharia law standards. The same decree has finally given women real political rights in a place where women have been politically ignored and suppressed since the idea political power was first concieved. The Kurdish women within Iran have it the worst due to Iran’s extremely traditional code of law, but Kurdish policies and views towards women are superior to that of their neighbors.

Kurdish Democracy

Unlike certain groups of people who will seize any amount of power and abuse it whenever possible, the KRG and its citizens have always tried to seize power in the effort to spread democracy and peace. The Kurdish people would be one of the most likely groups to want peace and democracy, since they have been at war since their very existence, and they have been brutally oppressed by totalitarian regimes. To relate them to a Western country, the Kurds are like a Middle Eastern version of the United States, both in policy and in history.

Disregarding militaristic policies momentarily, Kurdish law and governance is relatively limited. A lot of political decisions are made at local levels where every citizen is able to voice their opinion. The Kurdish are also extremely opposed to dictatorships and authoritarian leaders, having experienced the affects of one not to long ago in Iraq. This is why they are so influential and prominent in Syria while they remain an ethnic minority. Their eagerness to end the Assad regime is burning ever so hot to this day, and have the same feelings times 10 for ISIS.

For years the Kurdish people have been calling for an independent Kurdish state, as seen by the overwhelming 98.8% of Iraqi Kurdish citizens saying that they wanted Kurdistan to be independent. Although this 2005 referendum was not official, it nonetheless had ~2 million respondents. This number has dropped to 93% of Kurds in 2017, but turnout in the official 2017 referendum was a whopping 73%! (Some sources have it as high as 78%) The percentage has dropped slightly, but the vast majority of Kurds democratically voted in favor of independence.

Even government officials of Kurdistan are excited about citizens coming out and voting for Kurdish independence. Kurdistan's Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani told the press, "The people of Kurdistan with all of its components who live here want to peacefully and democratically express their opinion about their future, and how it should look like."

The threat to Kurdish democracy comes not from within, but from their hostile neighbors such as Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Iraq fears not gaining unity within their borders and losing large amounts of oil rich fields within its borders if it recognizes an independent Kurdistan, and Turkey had threatened to close key oil lines running from Iraq to Turkey if a Kurdish referendum was held. These backwards and theocratic countries are what is holding back Kurdistan. Every step that the Kurds make towards democracy is met with aggressive resistance from nearby states.

The Kurd's are well aware of their neighbors power and influence over the region, but despite this, they are still willing to stand up and say no more. Kurdish president Barzani told the press that the Kurds “partnership” with Iraq was over. He said Iraq’s Kurds could no longer tolerate living in a “theocratic, sectarian state.” This tactic of isolation is great in a moral sense, but realistically it could be disastrous, which is why we must do more to support the Kurds.

Kurdistan's neighbors can block off airspace, trade routes, pipelines, borders, etc. This is being done in part to Syrian Kurds, and it is causing major internal and external problems. As the US sits idly by, Turkey has closed all movement to and from Syrian Kurdistan, and the KRG in Iraq sees the Syrian Kurds as political rivals, and have blocked supplies from reaching them.

Reconstruction material also cannot reach Syrian Kurds, though they need it desperately to sustain and keep fighting ISIS forces near Syria. As former diplomat and journalist Carne Ross puts it, "These challenges make the Kurds’ attempt to create a government of the people, by the people, in Rojava only more vital and valuable."

Conclusion

If the US continues to say that it wants to spread freedom and democracy all across the world due to its own success with it, then it must do more for the Kurdish region. The Kurds have made a real name for themselves only because of political discourse in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, but as these countries start to heal and become unified again, this could threaten the existence of a truly free and democratic society in the Middle East. This is vital for current US foreign policies in the Middle East, but the US is currently doing little to help these deprived people.

Our current allies over in the war torn desert have only the incentive of wealth and greed to be partnered with the US. Kurdistan, however, has adopted Western policies and customs over a theocratic monarchy all without the West asking them too, and they have been a tremendous help to US soldiers and airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, since the Kurdish military is largely foot soldiers. I do not say this lightly: the US must become extremely close to the Kurds and back their operations in their region if we are to see any real progress in the Middle East. If we can take advantage of the chaos in Syria and Iraq and help the Kurdish claim more territory, we could finally see a chance for freedom and democracy to be integrated into Middle Eastern culture for the first time in forever.