Yet , since the Turkish candidature has not been cancelled , and although the EU seems not to know how to go on and is deprived of a constitution, it may however be recommended to the representatives of the Kurdish people in Turkey, to ignore these Turkish difficulties and to present , perhaps by mandated lawyers, their linguistic and political demands – such as the official recognition of the Kurdish people , of the name of Kurdistan, a status for autonomy, perhaps a federalist status - to the European Commission, or to a EU’s summit , as Kurdish demands within Turkey. It was said above there are in the world many examples of Multinational Democracies. I have the unpleasant feeling that the far largest part of Kurdistan – in Turkey - , has become the weakest part , the sole in which the Kurdish language is menaced with death, not only because of Turkish oppression , but also because of the attitude of the Kurds themselves, who prefer to speak Turkish than Kurdish , by personal interest or fear . This feeling is shared by the other Kurds, in Syria, Iraq, and Iran . If I should have any advice to the Kurds and their representatves in Turkey , it would be this : be courageous ! , speak Kurdish and teach it to your children! let the EU and the world know your wish, your will , that you want to live in a truly democratic, and binational Turkey, representing its two main nationalities, the Turks and the Kurds , and respecting the rights of its different minorities . It should also be known, and demanded by the Kurds in Turkey , that their Kurmanji language can be saved from death only if it is made an official language , be it together with Turkish , in a geographical space called Kurdistan , a name that existed under the Ottomans. This name , Kurdistan , should be reintroduced in a democratic Turkey, as the homeland of its Kurds and the space where Kurmanji could be maintained and prosper.
Something more should be said : if one day Turkey becomes supposedly member at the EU, its Kurds would become, as « Turkish citizens » , « Europeans » too , while the other half of the same people , the Kurds in Syria, Iraq , and Iran, will continue to be non-European, just Kurds beyond Europe . I don’t believe this would be in the interest of the Kurds and Kurdistan, while a partnership between EU and Turkey, between EU and Kurdistan, is something possible, and probably in the interest of all concerned parties . V. Giscard d’Estaing says Turkey is not European , geographically speaking . I would add it is not European on the cultural field either, although some layer of its political establishment presents itself as European , in opposition to the culture of the large mass of the Turkish people.
14) A request to the Authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan
By way of conclusion, Sorani enjoys a dominant position in Iraqi Kurdistan, including Badinan, thanks to a political decision taken by the Kurdistan National Assembly. The Kurmanji speakers resent this situation as oppressive and do not accept it. They demand that Kurmanji be the main official and education language in Badinan. This democratic demand is also justified by the fact that Kurmanji is menaced with extinction in Turkey, it is banned in Syria and not used for official education where it is spoken in Iran.
The official responsible authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan are requested to reconsider the issue, to give satisfaction to the democratic demand of the Kurmanji speakers in Badinan in the light of the strategic interest of all the Kurdish nation. I submit, with confidence, the proposal mentioned above, to their consideration.
15) The Kurds and regional threats
The Saad-Abad logic , despite globalisation, is not totally dead . The Kurdish people live within non democratic states , Turkey, Iran and Syria, and an utterly chaotic Iraq . Even the Iraqi Kurds , seen by the other Kurds as enjoying the best position , are not completely sure of the future . Will the KRG recover the other Kurdish areas in Iraq , such as Kirkuk ? Nobody knows . Have they the right to extract the oil fields discovered within the KRG territory, to their own profit ? The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said recently they don’t have this right , they should share their oil with the other Iraqis. Will Turkey violate once more the KRG territory , at the pursuit of PKK ? Nobody knows, it is not to be excluded.
The US President Bush lost his Republican Party’s majority at the Congress, in the mid-term general elections , before the Democratic Party . The war in Iraq , with its savage blood shedding , especially between its Sunni and Shii Arabs , has become unpopular in the United States . The US « Iraq Study Group Report », a group co-chaired by James A. Baker and L.H. Hamilton , representing respectively the Republican and the Democratic parties , recommends co-operation between the United States, Iran, Turkey, and Syria , to bring an end to this war . Both Mesoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani protested against this report. President Bush tried to quiet them by a phone call , but the US President cannot go for a third mandate at the White House. What could be the consequences , for the Kurds in Iraq and all the Kurdish people, of such a co-operation ? Would the Kurds be , once more, betrayed by those who are supposed to be their friends ?
It is difficult to foresee future . What one may say , without being mistaken, a Kurdish-Kurdish solidarity, and perseverance , in all circumstances , are required for salvation.
Ismet Sherif Wanli
Lausanne , mid-March 2007 .
