Turkey-Kurdish Conflict: Every Regional Power Has Betrayed the Kurds So
Turkish Bombing Is No Surprise
Published on
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
by
The Independent
Turkey-Kurdish Conflict: Every Regional Power Has Betrayed the Kurds So
Turkish Bombing Is No Surprise
You would have thought that, by now, the Kurds might have learnt their
lesson
by
Robert Fisk
Unrest in Tunceli, after a demonstration by Kurdish protesters over the
visit of a Turkish far-right nationalist leader to the city.
The Kurds were born to be betrayed. Almost every would-be Middle East
statelet was promised freedom after the First World War, and the Kurds even
sent a delegation to Versailles to ask for a nation and safe borders.
But under the Treaty of Sèvres, in 1920, they got a little nation in what
had been Turkey. Then along came the Turkish nationalist Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk who took back the land that the Kurdish nation might have gained. So
the victors of the Great War met in Lausanne in 1922-23 and abandoned the
Kurds (as well as the Armenians), who were now split between the new Turkish
state, French Syria and Iran and British Iraq. That has been their tragedy
ever since and almost every regional power participated in it. The most
brutal were the Turks and the Iraqi Arabs, the most cynical the British and
the Americans. No wonder the Turks have gone back to bombing the Kurds.
When they rebelled against Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the early 1970s, the
Americans supported them, along with the Shah of Iran. Then the US Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger engineered an agreement between Iran and Iraq: the
Shah would receive a territorial claim and, in return, abandon the Kurds.
The Americans closed off their arms supplies. Saddam slaughtered perhaps
182,000 of them. Foreign policy, remarked Mr Kissinger, should not be
confused with missionary work.
You would have thought the Kurds might have learnt their lesson. But at the
start of the first Gulf war to liberate Kuwait, they were urged by the
Americans or rather, a covert CIA radio station operating from Saudi
Arabia to rise against Saddam. And they did. The Americans let them die in
their thousands again, only shamed weeks later into creating a safe zone
in northern Iraq after tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians trekked under
fire in a biblical exodus to the safety of Turkey. Americas safe zone
eventually proved illusory.
Even when the US planned to invade Saddams Iraq through Kurdistan in 2003,
the Kurds found that the Turks planned to send 40,000 troops with them. The
Turks wanted to stop the Kurds grabbing the Iraqi cities of Mosul and
Kirkuk; Ankara feared that a self-governing Kurdish pseudo-state would creep
across the border to Turkey.
And when the Iraqi Kurds fought Isis last year the Americans deciding
again that the Kurds had their uses Turkey watched impotently as Kurdistan
became the vanguard of the Wests battle. Kobani was a mini Stalingrad, and
its defence by Kurds of Marxist orientation made Turkeys humiliation more
painful. The pro-PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) fighters along the northern
strip of Syria and Iraq were seen as heroes.
This could not be permitted. Thus when Isis struck Turkish Kurds seeking
help for the reconstruction of Kobani with a devastating suicide bombing in
Suruc followed by PKK claiming responsibility for the murder of two
Turkish policemen Turkey decided to strike at the PKK under cover of an
anti-Isis bombardment. The Americans were to be kept sweet by the reopening
of Incirlik air base in Turkish Kurdistan and the world would forget
that Islamist fighters have received free passage across the Turkish-Syrian
border.
With its latest air campaign, the Turks are following Pakistans path to
total corruption, when it became an arms and guerrilla conduit to
Afghanistan with American encouragement in the 1980s. The Pakistanis
variously supported the mujahedin, the Taliban and other Islamist groups.
As for the Kurds have they come across the words of Arthur Harris, the
RAF squadron leader who helped crush the 1920 Iraqi uprising? The Arab and
Kurd now know, he said, what real bombing means in casualties and damage.
Within 45 minutes a full-size village can be practically wiped out and a
third of its inhabitants killed or injured. The Turks clearly feel the
same.
© 2014 The Independent
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper. He
is the author of many books on the region, including The Great War for
Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East.
Turkey-Kurdish Conflict: Every Regional Power Has Betrayed the Kurds So
Turkish Bombing Is No Surprise
Published on
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
by
The Independent
Turkey-Kurdish Conflict: Every Regional Power Has Betrayed the Kurds So
Turkish Bombing Is No Surprise
You would have thought that, by now, the Kurds might have learnt their
lesson
by
Robert Fisk
2 Comments
Unrest in Tunceli, after a demonstration by Kurdish protesters over
the visit of a Turkish far-right nationalist leader to the city.
The Kurds were born to be betrayed. Almost every would-be Middle
East statelet was promised freedom after the First World War, and the Kurds
even sent a delegation to Versailles to ask for a nation and safe borders.
But under the Treaty of Sèvres, in 1920, they got a little nation in
what had been Turkey. Then along came the Turkish nationalist Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk who took back the land that the Kurdish nation might have gained. So
the victors of the Great War met in Lausanne in 1922-23 and abandoned the
Kurds (as well as the Armenians), who were now split between the new Turkish
state, French Syria and Iran and British Iraq. That has been their tragedy
ever since and almost every regional power participated in it. The most
brutal were the Turks and the Iraqi Arabs, the most cynical the British and
the Americans. No wonder the Turks have gone back to bombing the Kurds.
When they rebelled against Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the early
1970s, the Americans supported them, along with the Shah of Iran. Then the
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger engineered an agreement between Iran
and Iraq: the Shah would receive a territorial claim and, in return, abandon
the Kurds. The Americans closed off their arms supplies. Saddam slaughtered
perhaps 182,000 of them. Foreign policy, remarked Mr Kissinger, should
not be confused with missionary work.
You would have thought the Kurds might have learnt their lesson. But
at the start of the first Gulf war to liberate Kuwait, they were urged by
the Americans or rather, a covert CIA radio station operating from Saudi
Arabia to rise against Saddam. And they did. The Americans let them die in
their thousands again, only shamed weeks later into creating a safe zone
in northern Iraq after tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians trekked under
fire in a biblical exodus to the safety of Turkey. Americas safe zone
eventually proved illusory.
Even when the US planned to invade Saddams Iraq through Kurdistan in 2003,
the Kurds found that the Turks planned to send 40,000 troops with them. The
Turks wanted to stop the Kurds grabbing the Iraqi cities of Mosul and
Kirkuk; Ankara feared that a self-governing Kurdish pseudo-state would creep
across the border to Turkey.
And when the Iraqi Kurds fought Isis last year the Americans deciding
again that the Kurds had their uses Turkey watched impotently as Kurdistan
became the vanguard of the Wests battle. Kobani was a mini Stalingrad, and
its defence by Kurds of Marxist orientation made Turkeys humiliation more
painful. The pro-PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) fighters along the northern
strip of Syria and Iraq were seen as heroes.
This could not be permitted. Thus when Isis struck Turkish Kurds seeking
help for the reconstruction of Kobani with a devastating suicide bombing in
Suruc followed by PKK claiming responsibility for the murder of two
Turkish policemen Turkey decided to strike at the PKK under cover of an
anti-Isis bombardment. The Americans were to be kept sweet by the reopening
of Incirlik air base in Turkish Kurdistan and the world would forget
that Islamist fighters have received free passage across the Turkish-Syrian
border.
With its latest air campaign, the Turks are following Pakistans path to
total corruption, when it became an arms and guerrilla conduit to
Afghanistan with American encouragement in the 1980s. The Pakistanis
variously supported the mujahedin, the Taliban and other Islamist groups.
As for the Kurds have they come across the words of Arthur Harris, the RAF
squadron leader who helped crush the 1920 Iraqi uprising? The Arab and Kurd
now know, he said, what real bombing means in casualties and damage.
Within 45 minutes a full-size village can be practically wiped out and a
third of its inhabitants killed or injured. The Turks clearly feel the
same.
© 2014 The Independent
/author/robert-fisk
/author/robert-fisk /author/robert-fisk
Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper. He
is the author of many books on the region, including The Great War for
Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East.
