of the Belgian territory (in all 30'510 sq.km), has become less populated and less prosperous than Flanders (44,3 % of the Belgian territory), probably because of the decay of the mining industries.
The Belgian federal system is rather a complex system of internal equilibrium . To be short , the Federal state , with a parliament called Chamber of Representatives coupled with a Senate, and an elected federal government , is the upper level covering three linguistic Communities , Flemish, French , and German , and three federate geographical Regions , Flanders , Wallonie , and Brussels-Capital (Bruxelles-Capitale) . The partition of competence between the federal state, on one hand, and Communities or Regions , on the other hand , is regulated – as in the European Union – according to the principle called that of subsidiarity , meaning what can be decided at a lower level (Communities, Regions , in Belgium ; member states in the EU ) should be decided at the lower level, not the upper level . Each of the linguistic Communities has its own elected Council. The federal state is member of the European Union and its capital , Brussels, is , with Strasbourg, the capital of the Union. The linguistic Community system , grouping individuals speaking the same language and having the same culture , was a concession made to the Flemish , and the geographic Region system a concession to the Walloons , because of economic reasons . There is no a German-speaking federate Region , these being included within la Wallonie , to the east of the city of Liège . The Belgian federal structures are said asymmetric , in this meaning that while the Flemish language Community and the Flemish Region , Flanders , were unified under one Flemish legal entity , with one Flemish parliament and one Flemish government , the French Community and the Walloon Region continue to be two different legal entities , each with a parliament and a government . On juridical ground that appears complex , but practically it is not so important. On the total of 10’5 million inhabitants for Belgium , in 2000 , the population of the Flemish Community is about 5,9 million people , the French , 3,7 million , the German, some 0,7 million, others , 0,2 million, the population of Brussels-Capital ( about one million ) being included.
The federate Region of Brussels-Capital , covering 0.5 % of the Belgian state territory, is like a tiny island within Flanders , hardly a few km far from Wallonie , but geographically isolated from it . The former Brabant province was divided into two , in 1993 , one left within the Wallonie , and the other becoming the Region of Brussels-Capital. The city is officially bilingual , French/Flemish , as it is shown in the name of its streets , written in both languages , but this does not mean its inhabitants speak and are educated indifferently in both languages . The French-speaking inhabitants of Brussels belong to the French Community , and the Flemish–speaking to the Flemish Community . There is no territorial segregation in Brussels between the two Communities , by streets or quarters for each , but each community has its own schools , mass media , etc . The problem lies in the fact that Brussels is constituted of a large majority of French-speaking, about 80 % of its inhabitants , who belong to the French Community , and 20 % belonging to the Flemish Community . Thanks to the powers recognised by the Belgian Constitution to the federate Regions and to Communities , the Flemish authorities have transformed the Region of Brussels-Capital into a kind of besieged citadel : the city cannot extend territorially, with its French-speaking majority, at the expense of the Flemish Region, itself being already a smaller area than Wallonie . The Capital-Region is at the limit of suffocation within its boundaries . It is surrounded by what one may call an iron curtail , the Flemish , who had suffered from the predominance of French , being obliged to defend and preserve their territory.
We are very far from Abdullah Ocalan’s idea about Belgium , that he possibly imagined a country where nationalities and languages are freely mixed together, in a kind of twisted magma. Each language, each nationality in federal Belgium has its own geographical area , beyond which it cannot extend. The Flemish would not much appreciate anybody . be he/she a foreign tourist , speaking French in Flanders , but they would welcome anybody speaking English . I know this by experience. But things are getting easier with time.
The Flemish have the secret ambition to acquire one day a majority within Brussels, to recover the Region of Brussels-Capital on the long run . That would mean the end of Belgium , and this could well be the aim of the most radical among the Flemish . Brussels is not only the federal capital , an island within geographical Flanders , but it was also made the capital of Flanders . In the federal administration at Brussels , civil servants must be bilingual, knowing both French and Flemish . Almost all the Flemish know French , but hardly any speaker of French would care about learning Flemish – once considered a “peasant language” . The result is that almost all of the federal civil servants, and naturally all of those working in the administration of Brussels being the Flemish capital, are Flemish . There are some centrifugal forces in Belgium dreaming about dividing the country into two states , or contesting something . Many Flemish think they are not obliged to pay taxes in favour of Wallonie, through the federal institutions, while some Walloon intellectuals dream about a Wallonie joining France . But I don’t think such dreams or ambitions can come true . The Belgian federal system is more and more accepted by the majority of citizens. The Belgian monarchy is playing a role to preserve the federal union between the two main nations of Belgium.
To some it up , the Belgian federal system , newly established after a very long, but civil , linguistic-national confrontation between the Flemish and the Walloons nationalities, is based on two pillars , on one hand the division of the state territory into federate geographical Regions , that is homelands , according to their predominant nationality , and , on the hand , the recognition of linguistic Communities grouping all the individuals who speak , or are attached to , one language and culture . This system would further a good solution to the national and language questions in Turkey . Turkey would become a federal state with two federate republics (Region) , northern Kurdistan and Turkish Turkey , and two main linguistic communities , one Turkish and the other Kurdish . The Kurds scattered across Turkish Turkey , living even en masse in Istanbul and some other areas, would belong to the Kurdish linguistic community and, as such, they should be empowered to have their own educational institutions in Kurdish, public and private, while Kurdish would become the first official language in Northern Kurdistan . Other linguistic communities could be recognised in such a federal state, to preserve the cultural rights of the scattered groups having no territorial basis (Arabs, Laz , Assyro-Chaldeans, Armenians , etc). Similarly, the non-Kurds living in Kurdistan would belong to their respective linguistic communities and enjoy rights accordingly .
Abdullah Ocalan is, in a way, suggesting to Turkey a “lame solution” to the Kurdish question, somehow based on one pillar , one leg , that is the sole concept of a Kurdish linguistic and cultural community, without a region called Kurdistan . He is in fact suggesting much less , nothing , since there is nothing , in his Democratic Civilisation , saying that such a Kurdish linguistic community must be an official institution , constitutionally compulsory for Turkey . This is not only the negation of Kurdistan , as the mother homeland of the Kurds , but the way straight open toward the extinction of the Kurdish language .
Switzerland :
Mr. Ocalan misunderstands the situation in Switzerland as well , for the same reasons and in the same way. I have been living the Swiss federalism from inside over more than one half of a century, to have come as a young man to study a the universities of Lausanne and Geneva, and to be a Swiss citizen from several decades. I achieved in the summer 2003 a small book in Arabic on the principles of federalism, explaining especially the Swiss case, among other cases, to help the Arabs and Kurds in Iraq , the two main nationalities in this state , building up a new, democratic, and federal post-Saddam Iraq .
Switzerland ( Schweiz in German, Suisse in French , Svizzera in Italian , 41'288'000 sq.km , 7,25 million inhabitants in January 2002) is geographically constituted of two complex of mountains. On one hand the great , massive , rugged, and higher Alps , shared between Switzerland , France, Austria, Germany, and Italy , culminated at its central and Swiss part at more than 4600 m . On the other hand , the Jura softer and much lower parallel ridges, culminating at 1600 to 1700 m , shared between Switzerland and France on the west . The two mountainous areas , covered with forest and pasture land , with isolated farms and villages , constitute , with the Swiss lakes , about 66 % of the Swiss territory , and are scarcely populated . The grand mass of population , with the urban centres, cultivated land and prosperous villages, is concentrated in the Plateau , Mittelland in German , between the Alps and the Jura , representing one third of the national territory. The Plateau stretches from Geneva and lake Léman , on the south-west , to lake Constance , on the north-east , with an average altitude between 500 m and 600 m .
Switzerland is often presented as the oldest democracy in Europe. There are four national languages in Switzerland , each having its own territorial area, which are , by order of numerical importance , German , French , Italian, and Romanch . Because of its central geographical position in western Europe, a higher standard of living, and higher wages, the natural beauty of the country, and because of an orderly, discreet, and courteous society , many foreigners have established in Switzerland . The Swiss population includes about 19 % of permanent residents of foreign origins, not equally distributed between the linguistic areas. Geneva, an international city , and Lausanne , number relatively more foreign residents, fortunate families, or permanent workers, than other places . If we count these elements , who may become Swiss , within the population of their respective linguistic area, and knowing that a language is said national in Switzerland because it is, in its own area , the language of daily life , of administration and commerce , and the first in matter of education and mass media , then we can have the following ratio for each of the national languages :
German is used (in 2002), in the understanding mentioned above, by about 69 % of the Swiss population, in the central, northern and eastern parts of the country ; French, by about 23 % of them , in the western and south-western part of the country , an area commonly called la Romandie . Italian is spoken by about 7,4 % of the population , in the canton of Ticino , to the south of the great Alpine ridge (area of Bellinzona, Lugano , Locarno and their Alpine hinterland) , close to Lombardia in Italy (area of Milano). The fourth national language , Romanch , an old Rheto-Roman idiom, a mixture of Latin and German , is used by less than 1 % of the population , inhabiting a few valleys in the Grison canton , in the southeast of the country , close to Austria and Italy , amidst the Alps. Because of immigration into larger Swiss cities, especially Zurich , the number of the Romanch speakers has been shrinking into perhaps some 60 or 70 thousand people . Romanch , which is, besides, divided into local dialects, was made national language in 1938, by the will of the other Swiss citizens , with the purpose to preserve it . The Swiss citizens, whether they speak German, French or Italian, do their best to safeguard Romanch , not to kill it. Three out of the four national languages are, beside, official languages , German, French and Italian , in this meaning that all Swiss federal bills and documents must be published in the three languages . But inscriptions on the Swiss federal paper-money figure in the four national languages.
The German spoken in Switzerland is not the Hochdeutsch , used in Germany as the standard national language, it is not understandable in Germany . The Bayerisch German, spoken as a provincial dialect in the large German Land of Bayern (area of Munich) , is understandable neither in the rest of Germany , nor in Switzerland . The French spoken in Switzerland is , nowadays, the same as France , Wallonie , and Brussels . The Italian spoken in Ticino is not the standard Italian , but the same as the provincial Lombard dialect of the area of Milano . Ticino was militarily conquered by the Swiss on the lord of Milano , in 1403 . But nobody among the Swiss , because of language , would call himself/herself a German, a French, or an Italian . The Swiss have good relationship , commercial and cultural , with the neighbouring states , but they are all Swiss . To be a Swiss is not to belong to a nation in the general acceptance of the word . It is rather to belong to a political entity willingly accepted, cherished , and ideally embellished by writers and artists across centuries, as in other countries . This ensemble was historically constituted of Alpine or Jurassic valleys, plateau, oligarchic cities and urban districts, speaking one or another of today’s national languages . These areas joined the Swiss historical nucleus one after another , all united by common interests , and remarkably respectful of their diversity and local identity . No wonder that the basic condition for obtaining the Swiss citizenship is to be admitted as such first by one of the local and lowest administrative unit , the popular commune , a county , be it a town or a small village , not by the federal state or a canton . This comes later, as an approval of the decision by the lower unit . Democracy in Switzerland is above all local, almost direct . People are first citizens of a county, then a canton, and then the Swiss Confederation , also called Confederatio Helvetica .
The Swiss nucleus was constituted on August 1 , 1291 , by a pact of ‘Perpetual Union’ , known as the Grütli Oath , between three independent forest Alpine valleys , Uri , Schwytz, and Unterwald , called Waldstätten (the Forest States), German-speaking in central Switzerland . That was a defensive pact against the Habsburg , who were originally a Swiss dynasty from Aargau (Argovie), before being elected emperors of the Holy German Roman Empire , then ruled over Austria , some Swiss valleys , and some time later on Hungary , Bohemia, Slovakia, Croatia , and Slovenia . The Confederation between the three Waldstätten, tiny , local states, poorly populated by free mountaineers , vanquished Emperor Leopold I von Habsburg at the battle of Morgarten , in 1315 . Then more Swiss areas, principalities , oligarchic cities were to join the Swiss Confederation, one after another . Beaten again by the Swiss at the battle of Sempach, in 1368, and again at Basel, in 1499 , the Habsburg recognised the independence of the Swiss Confederation. Yet because of the Habsburg ambitions , a kind of alliance between the Swiss and the kings of France, was concluded , or rather a tacit and soft French trusteeship was accepted by the Swiss . The professional mercenary units to defend the French kings were Swiss , la Garde suisse , who , numbering 6000 soldiers, defended to death King Louis XVI under the French Revolution. The Swiss Guard for the defence of the Roman Pope and the Vatican state is recruited in the Swiss catholic cantons, especially Luzern.
Napoleon had a special interest in Switzerland. In January 1798 , approached by Swiss intellectuals from Lausanne living in Paris, the French Directoire (revolutionary government), ordered French troops to liberate the Swiss city from occupation by Bern . Lausanne was made capital of the agricultural area centred on it , which was called by the French République lémanique for a while, future canton of Vaud . The French troops conquered Bern itself, capital of the Confederation . After consultation between Swiss delegates , at Paris, and the French Directoire, the name of Swiss Confederation was changed into République helvétique . That was followed by a revolt in central Switzerland , against the change, which was crushed by French troops . In June 1800 , Napoleon , not yet proclaimed Emperor , but already First Consul of France and a prominent general , crossed the Swiss Alps at the path of Saint-Gothard , and defeated the Austrian army at Marengo , in Italy . In 1801 , Austria resigned to recognise the independence of the Helvetic Republic . That was followed by a civil war in Switzerland , between partisans of the former order of Confederation and those of the new and unitary republic. In 1803 , after consultation with Swiss delegates , at Paris , Napoleon restored the Swiss unity by l’Acte de médiation , signed by himself . The ideas of the French Revolution spread over Europe, Switzerland included, thanks to Napoleon I. After his fall, the Helvetic Republic was to become again a Confederation in 1815 , and its neutrality internationally recognised, at the Vienna Congress.
The Swiss Confederation became a federation only in 1848 , according to a Constitution in which the cantons , formerly allied independent states , transferred part of their sovereignty to the federal state . The name of Confederatio Helvetica was however kept for historical reasons . Before 1848, decisions by the Confederation were taken unanimously by the cantons , but in the federal state , they are taken by a majority of citizens, on one hand, and a majority of cantons, on the other hand . There is , in Switzerland , a federal government , a federal bicameral parliament , constituted of a National Council , elected by the citizens , and a Council of States (somehow a senate) , where the cantons are represented, beside a Federal Court of Justice . Each canton has its own constitution , parliament, government , and a higher court of justice.
Today’s Switzerland is constituted of 23 cantons , or federate states , three of which (Unterwalden, Appenzell, and Basel) being divided into two half-cantons , for historical reasons. The last and 23rd canton, that of Jura, French-speaking , was separated from the canton of Bern only in 1978 , after a long political (and not linguistic) quarrel, and a referendum by the local people . With 23 cantons and 3 main national languages , each spoken in its own geographical area , it is evident that the cantons were not established on a linguistic basis , but differently, according to historical circumstances. This is the case of Switzerland itself . Geographically speaking , there is, however , a demarcation line between the three linguistic areas. Yet Switzerland is not constituted of three federate “national states”, one for each linguistic area. There are six contiguous cantons where French is spoken, of which four using only French as official language : Geneva, Vaud-Lausanne, Neuchâtel , and Jura , while in two other cantons , Fribourg, and Valais , French is the official language in the largest part of their area. There is one canton speaking Italian , Ticino , and 16 adjoining cantons in which German is the official language . The few cantons which are at horseback on the linguistic demarcation line , do not speak any peculiar mixture of French and German , but have areas for each language , a peaceful and tolerant geographical and linguistic neighbourhood . That is the distinctive mark of today’s Switzerland.
Three cantons are at horseback on the linguistic demarcation line : Fribourg , Valais , and still Bern , the second largest in the country. The largest part of the canton of Fribourg, and the capital-city itself, speak French , while in about one third of the canton , close to Bern on the East , German is spoken . There is no problem at all between the two linguistic areas of the canton . The university of Fribourg, belonging to the canton, has two parallel sections, one teaching in French and the other in German . Students are free to choose the language they prefer . Actually the professors’ body and most of the students know both languages , while the city inhabitants speak French in daily life .
In the western part of Valais , including the canton’s capital, Sion, French is used , while in the eastern part , called Upper Valais , German is spoken . Here too , there is no problem between the two linguistic communities to live side by side , each in its own area , and to run together the canton . There is no a ‘Community’ system as we have seen it in federal Belgium . German-speaking highlanders from Upper Valais can come and settle in Sion , as some do it ; their descendants would become French speakers , but this does not much matter in Switzerland . If we open the phone book of Lausanne , a city whose official and daily life language is French , and is the geographical centre of Romandie , we shall see that about 25 % of its inhabitants bear Germanic family names (if not Italian , Spanish, Portuguese, Arab, and others): their fathers had no doubt established there coming from Bern and other German-speaking places . To live in Lausanne , overlooking lake Léman (called Geneva lake in English) and having in sight the Alps of Savoie (Savoy), at the French coast of the lake, has been attractive over centuries for people from Bern and other linguistically Germanic places .
‘Their Excellency’ the Zähringen lords of Bern were warlike people in the Middle Age . Already prior to the Grütli Oath of 1291 , they extended their domination on French-speaking districts and counties in the Jura mountain range, between the Burgond duchy (Bourgogne) of France and what was to become Switzerland . Apparently German-speaking people from Bern established in some Jurassic counties , to the north of Neuchâtel, thus creating a small Germanic speaking island making a rupture within the French-speaking Jurassic area in Switzerland, which runs from Geneva to the south of Basel. In the referendum which led to the creation of the French-speaking canton of Jura , in 1978 , separated from Bern , with Delemont as capital, some Jurassic French-speaking counties preferred to stay within the canton of Bern , because of historical reasons . These counties have their own administration, municipalities , education and mass media in the French language . Their representatives at the parliament and in the government of canton of Bern , speak French, not German . They have no problem with the overwhelming Germanic majority of the canton . Their long political quarrel with their linguistic brethern who created the separate canton of Jura , was brought to an end , and replaced by co-operation.
The city of Bienne , a French name , called Biel in German , at the foothill of Jura , to the north of Neuchâtel , still belongs to the canton of Bern . It is perhaps a remnant of the old settlement by Germanic elements from Bern , a heritage of the medieval Zähringen. It has , nowadays , a mixed population, one French-speaking group and another German-speaking, two linguistic communities , but not exactly in the Belgian federal understanding of the term . There is no an urban topographic segregation between them, but each group has its own mass media and educational institutions , in its own language. They however run together their city . There is one municipal council , at which both languages are used, and understood by all . There is not only tolerance , but mutual acceptance and union , and this makes some difference with the Belgian Community institution.
The case of Bienne/Biel is a special one , it is different from the case of the French-speaking Jurassic counties to the north, between the district of Bienne and the German-speaking canton of Basel , which in the referendum of 1978 did not want to join the canton of Jura, but preferred to remain within the canton of Bern . These , as said above , continue to use only French as official language in their counties , within an overwhelmingly German-speaking canton, while Bienne , within the same canton, is a mixed city , with two linguistic communities.
The example of Bienne/Biel could be perhaps a model to be adopted by such a multicultural city as Istanbul. Could we imagine the 3,5 million Kurds or so of the Bosphorus metropolis having their own municipal , or private, educational institutions teaching officially in Kurdish , and being elected as Kurds using their own language at the city municipality ? Could we imagine Kurdish made the first official language in Turkish Kurdistan , and officially used by Kurdish MPs at the parliament of Turkey ?
There is of course democracy , mutual acceptance and tolerance in federal Switzerland , but Abdullah Ocalan completely misunderstands the Swiss example . To conclude , we have in Switzerland four national languages , three of which being the official languages of the state , each of the four languages having its own territorial area . Politically speaking , federal Switzerland is constituted of 23 cantons or federate states, twenty of which being unilingual , using either German or French as the official language , while in three other cantons we have a territorial juxtaposition of the two main languages, French being the official language in one part of the canton, and German in the other part. In Switzerland, beside the Swiss state flag , each canton, each town, each village , each county , has its own flag and emblem , without the least opposition between the national , cantonal , local , or village flags and emblems . In Ocalan’s Democratic Turkey , can there be , beside the state emblem, a national flag of Kurdistan ? Can there be a Kurdish football or rugby national team , as there are , in the United Kingdom, English, Scotch, Welsh and North-Irish national teams , competing between themselves or with teams representing other countries ? Can there be a Bank of Kurdistan , as each Swiss Canton has its own Cantonal Bank , beside the Swiss National (Federal) Bank ?
USSR and Russia :
At perhaps a hundred places in his book , Ocalan repeats severe and undue criticism against the “established socialism” , meaning the USSR , to have endowed the countless nationalities of the Union with political and territorial entities - Soviet Socialist Republics, Autonomous Regions, or National Districts, according to their size . In some cases the Communist Party of the USSR endowed with such entities nomadic populations having no written language and helped them to create a ‘national culture’ as to the form and language , said ‘internationalist’ on the ideological ground.
Globally speaking , that was one of the few positive achievements of the USSR . Ocalan’s criticism with this respect is obviously meant to the good understanding of the Turkish government. Turkey does not have to worry about the issue. He himself , the undisputed leader of the Kurdish people , not only does not care about endowing the 21 or 22-million Kurds in Turkey with a national political entity, a federate state or a regional autonomy, but he openly says the vanity of such an aim . Is it to win the favour of the Turkish government ? He says to be ‘open’ to discuss with Turkey , in the name of the Kurdish people, but contrary to their aspirations, about a “moderate and feasible solution” , based on what he calls a “scientific democracy” , and modern human rights of individuals . We know however that individual freedoms , as important as they could be , are inadequate to further a solution to the Kurdish national question in Turkey.
To come back to the Kurdish situation in the USSR , Kurdish was recognised as one of the 130 national languages of the Soviet Union . In 1923 , under Lenin and according to his will , a Kurdish Autonomous Region was created in Transcaucasia, in the area centred on the city of Lachin, 5'000 sq.km inhabited by a Kurdish majority. This area was one of the regions of Transcaucasia where a Kurdish dynasty , the Shaddadids , were ruling in full sovereignty in the Middle Age (10th –13th cent.). An autonomous region must be placed within the framework of a state . The Kurdish Autonomous Region of Lachin was disputed between the SSR of Armenia and Azerbaijan . After the death of Lenin, in 1924 , Stalin placed it within Azerbaijan . The Soviet Kurds called their autonomous region Kurdistana Sor , meaning “Red Kurdistan” in Kurdish . The regional government opened Kurdish schools and published a paper called Soviet Kurdistan . In 1929 , under Stalin, the government of Soviet Azerbaijan abolished the Kurdish regional autonomy and began a policy of forced assimilation against the Kurds , in the same way as Turkey was doing it at the same time . Besides, the Azeris used Islam as means of assimilation . In 1937 , and in 1944, when at this year Hitler’s German armies still represented a danger for Ukraine, Stalin deported thousands of hundreds people belonging to different nationalities , including Tatars of Crimea , Kurds of Transcaucasia , Chechens , and othes , into Central Asia – many Kurds into Siberia . One of them was a known Kurdish and communist writer, Ereb Shemo , who had published books for the glory of the “Soviet homeland”. After the death of Stalin in 1953 , many of the deportees returned home , but many others remained in their exile land . So have we , nowadays, scattered Kurdish communities , of villages or city dwellers, in eight former Soviet Republics , Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan , Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan , Kirghizia and Tajikstan , beside the Russian Federation (including Siberia) . Nobody can tell exactly how many they are , possibly about 600 thousand people altogether , perhaps more , without counting those who have been assimilated in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan . According to the Russian census of population of 1899 , the first carried out on the basis of mother tongue , the Kurds of Transcaucasia numbered 99'900 people (Turkmenistan , with an older Kurdish settlement already partially assimilated, being excluded) . According to this census, the Kurds in Transcaucasia were more numerous than the Kabardin, the Abkhaz, the Tates, the Circassians, etc. , coming just after the Ossetians . Since 1899, the population in the area has been multiplied by more than ten, perhaps fifteen , to the exception of those who were to suffer under Stalin .
The most important number of Kurds living today in what was the USSR, are those of the Russian Federation (estimated at nearly 300'000 people, for the most coming from other republics) , and those of Kazakhstan (reportedly some 100'000 people) . Their problem is to be scattered everywhere across a continent , not to have a land where they could enjoy self-government, keep their culture , and for many, to suffer unemployment .
The implosion process of the USSR , because of the glasnost (transparency) and perestroika (reform) policy of Gorbachev , presented a potential danger for the safety of these scattered Kurdish communities . The Soviet central power represented for them a kind of guarantee face to ascending, nationalist, peripheral, and centrifugal forces. In July 1990 a conference was held at the Marxist-Leninist Institute of Moscow , on “The Kurds of the Soviet Union : Past and Present” , attended by 600 or so Kurdish delegates from different Soviet republics , representatives of the Communist Party of the USSR and the Soviet government , as well as invited Kurdish guests from Kurdistan and Western Europe. I was one of these guests .
The final resolution of the conference was not submitted to discussion by the steering committee , probably for approval by the Politburo of the Communist Party of the USSR . The English text, as prepared by the steering committee after consultation , was sent to me by Russian Kurds at Moscow who had participated in the conference and were working as a liaison centre between the different Soviet Kurdish communities . It is an important resolution . Here are the most significant paragraphs . The resolution mentions “the flagrant perversion of the national policy under Stalin in the period of stagnation with reference to the Kurdish people, namely , the dissolution in 1929 of the autonomous region of Kurdistan , the forced assimilation of the Kurds, the deportations of 1937 and 1944 , the closing of Kurdish schools and publishing houses and the falsification of population figures.” It stressed the needs to develop publishing and broadcasting in Kurdish , to overcome the obstacles to the teaching of the Kurdish language and literature . It pointed to a de facto deterioration of the position of the Soviet Kurds , and to “the almost complete absence of cultural relations between Kurds in the USSR and those resident in other countries.” The steering committee therefore urged that Kurdish publications, using the Roman-based alphabet of non-Soviet Kurds , should be established in the USSR , to facilitate inter-Kurdish cultural communication.
“The conference steering committee also noted the growing interest of the Soviet Kurds in the Kurdish people abroad and their struggle for self-determination, and asked the USSR to bring the Kurdish question on the agenda of the United Nations.”
Concretely , in conclusion , “the resolution urged the setting up of a Kurdish Federal Association to include representatives from all the Soviet republics concerned , together with a Kurdish Cultural Centre in Moscow , to include a publishing house , as a prelude to the establishment of an Autonomous Kurdistan in a suitable area within the USSR.” (end of the resolution .)
The SSR of Azerbaijan proposed that an “Autonomous Kurdistan” be recreated on its territory but at another place ; the Kurds refused, being attached to their old territory of Lachin (this was reported to me during the conference) . After the disintegration of the USSR , under Gorbachev , and the independence of the formerly Soviet Republics in Central Asia and Transcaucasia , thanks to regional nationalism and regional interests, the previously autonomous region of “Red Kurdistan” was conquered , in 1992, by Armenia on Azerbaijan . The Kurds who were still there fled away to Russia and Azerbaijan.
In 2000 the Russian Federation granted its own Kurds the official status of Federal Cultural Autonomy , usually recognised to national groups representing nowhere a territorial majority . Beside the Kurds , this status was recognised to the Ukrainian community, the Germans of the Volga, the Jews, and some other nationalities . The original homeland of all the Kurds is Kurdistan , but not Russia or what the Russians call Transcaucasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) . The Russian Federation cannot do more for its Kurds than granting them such a status . But while the Germans of the Volga obtained money from the German Federal Republic to return back home (many did it , but they did not succeed integration in the German society), there is no an independent Kurdistan to be financially helpful for the Russian Kurds , or where these could be repatriated.
Tsarist Russia was the country where Kurdology was born as a new branch of science , by the middle of the 19th centuries, at the end of the Crimea war , in 1854 , with Saint-Petersburg becoming the international centre of Kurdish studies . Today’s Russian Federation is still willing to participate in Kurdish cultural undertakings. On 28 November 1994 , meeting at Moscow , I signed, as president of the Kurdish Science and Research Institute , seated at Berlin, together with Professor R. Rybakov , Director of the Oriental Institute of the Russian Academy of Science , a co-operation agreement in matter of Kurdish studies . Then we agreed to prepare together a Concise Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan (CEK) , that should be published in three , say four languages , North Kurmanji in Roman script , South-Kurmanji (Sorani) in Arab script, Russian, and English . Meeting again in Brussels , in 1996 , I had the honour to be designated as the General Editor of CEK , with Russian , Kurdish, and international participation . Professors from the Universities of Arbil (Salaheddin) and Sulaimaniya , in Iraqi Kurdistan, accepted to co-operate , as well as scholars from USA , Canada , and Europe . Unfortunately, when everything was ready to begin work for the production of CEK , the promise of furthering funds to finance the undertaking was not honoured , and the whole undertaking crumbled to earth . The funds had been promised by Kurds . I am still feeling uneasy towards our Russian and other partners.
The Federal Cultural Autonomy recognised to the Kurds in Russia has a centre at Moscow called Kurdsky Dom in Russian, Mala Kurdan in Kurdish (the Kurdish House) , with a publishing house . Kurdsky Dom functions as a communication centre between the Russian Kurds , those of former Soviet Republics, and the Kurds in Western Europe. Despite the goodwill of the Russian Federation , the problem of the Russian Kurds, and of all the former Soviet Kurds , remains the same since 1929 , when Soviet Azerbaijan abolished the Region of Autonomous Kurdistan. The problem was still aggravated by the Armenian occupation of the region, in 1992. It is not to have a geographical area where these scattered Kurds could govern themselves by themselves . The so-called “scientific democracy” preached by Abdullah Ocalan as a “solution” for the 21-million Kurds in Turkey , would perhaps lead to a similar situation as that of the Russian Kurds. He makes abstraction of the 13 million Kurds making a majority of 85 % in Turkish Kurdistan.
8) Ocalan, Kemalism and Kurdistan :
Abdullah Ocalan proves to be rather mild and comprehensive as to the role of Mustafa Kemal . In chapter 6 , subtitle “The Kurds at the time of capitalism” , he writes : “The war of national liberation (of Turkey) led by Mustafa Kemal was a progressive war and responded to the common will of the two peoples, the Turks and the Kurds” . That is globally true, but this requires some explanation.
The peace treaty of Sèvres with Ottoman Turkey, signed on 10 August 1920, provides for an autonomous Kurdistan within Turkey, and for an indpendent Kurdish state if the Kurds demand independence within one year from the coming into force of the treaty and that the Council of the League of Nations decides to grant them this independence (Art. 62 to 64 : Kurdistan). The same treaty provides for an independent state of Armenia , somewhere to the north of Ottoman Kurdistan, without saying where its border line was to be . This state of Armenia was , one may say, a “ghost state” , or , as it had been put by le Comte , Earl , Lobanoff , minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, ‘An Armenia without Armenians’ . The Kurdish notables and religious chiefs were however alarmed , already in 1918/1919 , by rumours saying that six Kurdish provinces (vilayets) – Erzurum, Kars, Bitlis, Erzinjan, Mush , and Van – were to be ceded to Armenia . Kars had been annexed by Russia at the Ottoman-Russian war of 1878 , and was kept in the hands of communist Armenians in 1919 . The Kurds, told about atrocities committed by Armenians against their brethern fleeing from Kars, were preparing the defence of their areas against any penetration by Armenian “infidels” .
When Mustafa Kemal Pasha held the first congress of the movement wich was still to become the Kemalist movement for the liberation of Turkey , that was at Erzurum , in Kurdistan , from 23 July to 6 August 1919 . He presented himself as the “saviour” of Kurdistan, the defender of the Eastern Vilayets , and the champion of Islam and the caliphate . Most of the delegates were Kurds . Mustafa Kemal used to kiss the hands of Kurdish religious chiefs present at the congress, to show how a good Muslim he was . He was elected president of the movement at Erzurum , because the Kurdish chiefs preferred to be the allies of the Turks to the risk of being placed under an Armenian sovereignty . The first military victory of the Kemalist movement was on the front of the Caucasus , and achieved by the Kurds . These were to participate in the war of liberation on the Anatolian fronts as well . This is recognised by the Turks.
The “ Amasya Protocol ” of the Kemalist movement , dated 22 October 1920 , which was a reaction against the Sèvres treaty, reads : “ In order to circumvent the propaganda of lies by the foreigners under the disguise of the Kurdish people’s independence, it has been decided that the Kurds should be supported in terms of ethnic and social rights in a way and place where it allow their free development ”.
Again, on 10 February 1922, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT, parliament) passed an “ Autonomous Kurdistan Act ” , in which one can read : “ As a requirement of civilisation and considering the object to guarantee the progress of the Turkish nation, GNAT starts to establish an administration pertinent to the customs of the Kurdish people.”
The Kurds were betrayed by Europe at the conference of Lausanne , in 1923 , and cheated by the new Kemalist Republic of Turkey , which was internationally consecrated by the treaty of Lausanne .
Article 11 of the Constitution of 1924 reads : “ Every Turk over the age of 30 is eligible as deputy ” . Article 12 : “ Those who are not literate in Turkish could not be elected as deputy ”. Article 88 : “ Everyone bound to the Turkish State through the bond of citizenship is a Turk ”. These articles will be resumed in the 1961 and 1982 Constitution.
Article 3-4 of the Constitution of 1961 reads : “ The Turkish state, with its territory and nation, is an indivisible entity. Its language is Turkish . This provision shall not be amended, nor shall their amendment be proposed ” . “ Everyone has the right to express and disseminate his thought (…). No language prohibited by law shall be used in the expression and dissemination of thought ”. Article 11 reads : “ Fundamental rights and freedoms may be restricted by law (…) ”.
These constitutional devices mean there is no Kurdistan, no Kurdish people, and the ban on the Kurdish language . The Kurds, the name of whose homeland , Kurdistan , became a taboo under the republic, are just “Turks”, whether they like it or not.
In chapter 6 , under subtitle “The Kurdish question in Turkey and the democratic solution” , Abdullah Ocalan writes : “The national basis of the Republic of Turkey as founded by Ataturk is not racist (….) When the Republic uses the slogan saying How Happy is whoever can say I am a Turk ! the aim is only to keep the morals of the Turks” . The fact is that such racist slogans are used only in Turkish Kurdistan , never in central or western Turkey . They are written in huge letters painted in white at the slopes of the Kurdish mountains , and are so gross that they are readable at 15 or 20 k.m distance . Another of these slogans painted at the Kurdish mountains, for the ‘pleasure’ of the Kurds , is this : “One Turk is worth the world” . This is the seal of Turkish colonialism and military occupation at the forehead of the Kurdish people.
