Kurds, Kurdistan, and the Struggle for Self-Determination
Sadri Baloch
ABSTRACT
This paper revolves around the Kurdish quest for self-determination and their struggle to preserve their identity and homeland. Kurdistan is a region now divided among four major Middle Eastern countries: Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. Each of these countries has its own political significance and geostrategic situations. The Kurds, often referred to as the people of the mountains, have waged wars for their rights against various regimes, led by the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), which fights for Kurdish self-determination and basic human rights across the four countries. Women have played a significant role in these groups, challenging both the patriarchal mindset and the colonizers. Kurdistan holds significant geopolitical importance due to its strategic location and its fight for humanity. The Kurdish movement highlights broader issues in the Middle East, advocating for democracy and human rights. Kurdistan, with its diverse ethnicities, is not waging a war based solely on nationalistic grounds but is striving for democracy and humanity across the world and the Middle East.
Introduction
“The Kurds are the largest people in the world without a state of their own.” (Ghassemlou, 1993)Kurdistan is home to approximately 30 to 35 million people who have been forcibly displaced and divided across different regions. Throughout history, their language, culture, and identity have been systematically denied and suppressed. Despite these challenges, the Kurds have continuously stood up and waged wars against various regimes and alliances in their fight for recognition and autonomy. Their resilience and determination to preserve their heritage and seek self-determination highlight a longstanding struggle for justice and freedom. Kurdistan is a region of significant geopolitical, cultural, and economic importance.
Kurdistan is a culturally rich and strategically significant region in the Middle East, spanning parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It is home to approximately 30 to 35 million Kurds, who have a distinct language and cultural heritage. The region is known for its abundant natural resources, particularly oil and gas. Kurdistan's strategic location at the crossroads of key Middle Eastern countries makes it geopolitically important.
In this research paper, I aim to explore the ongoing Kurdish fight for self-determination, tracing the history of Kurdistan and examining the various movements across Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. This study will delve into the distinct ideologies driving these movements, providing a comprehensive understanding of the Kurdish struggle. By analyzing the historical context and the current political landscape, this paper seeks to shed light on the complexities and aspirations of the Kurdish people in their quest for autonomy and recognition. This article seeks to answer the following questions: Who are Kurds; When and Why Kurdistan get divided; What is the Treaty of Severe and how the Kurds got betrayed by it; Why the Baath regime supported PKK and what was the narrative of PKK and how far did it reach it; and What role women's played in PKK?
Historical Background and Ottoman Empire
The name of Kurdistan (land of Kurds) first appeared in Arabic historical writings in the twelfth century referring to the region where the eastern foothills of the Taurus Mountains meet the northern Zagros range. Estimates of the Kurds in the world vary considerably but the most realistic range from 30 to 35 million of the number about 19 million in turkey, 10 to 18 million in Iran, 5.6 million in Iraq, 3 million Syria, 0.5 in former Soviet Union and 1 million in Europe. The Kurds are the third largest ethnic group in the Middle East after Arabs and Turks.
Kurds have lived under the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922. When the empire fell after World War I, Treaty of Sevres proposed a Kurdish state, but it didn't happen. Instead, Kurdish lands were divided among Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria by Treaty of Lausanne. This division led to Kurdish communities being spread across different countries, each with its own policies towards Kurds. Since then, Kurds have struggled for greater rights and autonomy, facing conflicts and challenges in the process.(Knapp et al., 2016)
Northern Kurdistan and the Political Thoughts of Abdullah Ocalan
It is located in southeastern part of Turkey. The region is known for having a significant Kurdish population, with estimates of around 19 to 20 million Kurds, which is roughly 19% of Turkey's total population. There are also many Kurdish villages in the region which are almost 20 to 25. In southeastern Turkey, many Kurds speak the Kurdish language and have their own unique culture. They mainly follow Sunni Islam and live by traditional codes of honor and hospitality. Whether living in rural villages or cities, Kurds celebrate their heritage through festivals like Nowruz and enjoy music and dance. This blend of language, beliefs, and traditions makes up the rich Kurdish culture in Turkey.
Turkey has historically promoted national homogeneity by emphasizing a unified Turkish identity and language. Since the founding of the republic in 1923, the government has pursued assimilation policies aimed at integrating ethnic minorities, particularly Kurds, into the broader Turkish identity. These efforts include restrictions on minority languages and cultural expressions, driven by a desire for national unity and concerns about separatism. The emphasis on Turkish culture, history, and values as central to national identity reflects Turkey's goal of maintaining a cohesive and territorially intact nation-state. These restrictions have made many Kurds sensitive and concerned about their identity, sparking significant resistance to preserve their culture and rights. This resistance includes cultural revival movements, political activism, and, at times, armed conflict, reflecting a strong desire to maintain their distinct identity against enforced homogeneity.
Political Thoughts of Abdullah Ocalan
Before talking on Northern Kurdistan, we have to clearly understand Abdullah Ocalan and his ideas.
He issued the Declaration of Democratic confederalism where he advocates for kind of rule or administration which can be called a non-state political administration or democracy without a state it is open and flexible multicultural and anti-monopolistic is ruled by culture and democracy ecology and feminism are central pillars. (Öcalan 2017)
Decentralized self-governance in the modern world not only enhances economic development and social justice but also crucially preserves cultural identity and challenges the dominance of the nation-state paradigm. By allowing communities to govern themselves according to local values and traditions, this model fosters the preservation of cultural identity and heritage. It opposes the homogenizing effects often imposed by centralized nation-states, which can neglect or suppress diverse cultural expressions. Furthermore, decentralized governance empowers communities to resist hegemonic nationalism and promotes a more inclusive approach to governance that respects and celebrates cultural diversity. This approach not only strengthens local resilience but also contributes to a more harmonious global community.
Ocalan contends that the nation-state is a modernized form of capitalism, primarily focused on profit. He advocates for a "women's revolution" to dismantle the patriarchal society that has historically treated women as commodities for men's benefit. According to Ocalan, this exploitation marked the onset of human enslavement, gradually permeating and corrupting the entire social fabric.
To restore peace and harmony, he calls for reversing this oppressive process. Historically, women held significant roles in both the economy and religion, but the rise of capitalism marginalized them for the sake of profit. Women were confined to domestic roles and portrayed as symbols of honor, effectively excluding half the population from contributing to societal development. Ocalan believes that reclaiming women's rightful place in society is essential for true progress and equality and the enslavement of men's come after the Enslavement of women's.
Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK)
For more than 30 years the PKK has been struggling for the legitimate rights of the Kurdish people our struggle for liberation turned the Kurdish question into an international issue which effected the entire Middle East and brought a solution within reach.
Knapp et al. (2016) writes In 1978 Kurdish and Turkish revolutionaries among them Abdullah Ocalan and Sakina Canis founded the PKK in the Northern Kurdistan as Marxist Leninist Liberation Movement. In those years the revolutionary left in Turkey was relatively strong and a Socialist revolution seemed possible but much of the Turkish left was steeped in the neo-colonial chauvinism and anti-Kurdish racism propagated by Kemalist and the Turkish state so Kurdish revolutionary concluded movements like PKK was necessary.
On November 12 in 1980, the military seized power in Turkey for the third time .The coup, the most brutal in Turkish history, and carried out in consultation with the United States would traumatize Turkish society for years to come. Some 650000 people were soon arrested while thousands disappeared meanwhile Bath regime permitted PKK to settle in Syria knowing it could use the group against Turkey as Syria's traditional enemy.
In Cold War politics, Turkey was a NATO member while Syria was supported by Soviet Union. PKK set up its camps in Damascus in the Syrian occupied Lebanon where a group of four thousand fighters started training PKK ideology and meanwhile domestically the Ba’ath regime was repressing Kurds but PKK main goal was to liberate Northern Kurdistan and then later other parts in Syria and Iran until then the party has to be careful not to jeopardize it's safe heaven which was crucial for survival.
On August 15 1984 the PKK initiated a guerilla war against Turkish state in the Turkish occupied Northern Kurdistan thousands of young Kurds men’s and women’s left to join the PKK army in 1990 and 1991. But with the collapse of Soviet Union Real Socialism came to an end, liberation movements around the world disintegrated and it lead to critique of statism.
In early 1990 PKK began pondering other models in the Damascus, the PKK ran a party where ten thousand cadres were schooled and taught about war and struggle they used to leave everything behind and just to live for war and freedom of theirland and during these years the PKK made close relations with Kurdish civilians in Syria.
In 1993 the PKK created a women's army known as (YAJK), the Union of Free Union of Kurdistan with its own headquarters. Women who became guerrillas rejected women's traditional patriarchal role slipped into the new role of freedom fighters because they had much to gain and so little too loose. One of the YJAK goal was to overcome the traditional socialization of feudal society that was reproduced in the guerrilla army and in the mountains, YAJK developed principles of autonomous women's organizing dual leadership and the 40 percent participation of women's in all areas and the principal that now apply in all four parts of Kurdistan.
In the late 1990s, tensions between Turkey and Syria escalated significantly due to a combination of issues, including water rights and support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, had been operating from bases in Syria. In 1998, Turkey accused Syria of harboring PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and supporting the group's activities. The situation grew so tense that Turkey threatened military action against Syria. One of the leverage points for Turkey was its control over the flow of the Euphrates River, which is crucial for Syria's water supply.
The crisis was eventually defused through diplomatic means, leading to the Adana Agreement in October 1998. Under this agreement, Syria agreed to cease all support for the PKK, expel Ocalan, and close PKK camps. This significantly reduced the immediate threat of war and improved relations between the two countries, at least temporarily. The PKK might have reacted by escalating the guerrilla struggle and taking it into the Turkish cities, but the leadership, including Ocalan decided to have a nonviolent solution.
Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK, was captured on February 15, 1999, in Nairobi, Kenya, in an operation involving the CIA, Turkish intelligence (MIT), and reportedly Mossad. He was taken from the Greek consulate and brought to Turkey. His arrest led to widespread protests among Kurds, both in Turkey and abroad, who viewed him as a symbol of their struggle. The event sparked intense emotions, with one supporter even self-immolating in protest. In Istanbul, Ocalan was tried, convicted, and initially sentenced to death. He used the legal process to represent his peace initiative and to demand negotiations as a gesture of goodwill. He called the PKK to withdraw from northern Kurdistan into southern Kurdistan.
Turkey took military advantage of this retreat and murdered more than 500 guerrilla fighters. Ocalan was re-sentenced to military solitary confinement and imprisonment on the island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara as its solo inmate. During this time, he critically engaged Marxist theory and practiced and intensively studied the writing of the libertarian theorist Murray Bookchin and the history of Immanuel Wallerstein and Michael Foucault. He carried out an intensive study of the history of Middle East, of Neolithic society and ancient Sumer attic democracy and contemporary tribal organization. He studied works on Sumerian mythology, religion, philosophy, archaeology, physics, and much more. From all these sources he developed the model of democratic confederalism and democratic autonomy that the PKK will adopt as a paradigm shift and that would become foundational for the revolution in and Kurdistan.
West Kurdistan
Schmidinger (2019) writes that after Abdullah Ocalan was expelled from Syria, the Assad regime's repression of the PKK movement intensified to the extent that it severely hampered its operations. and the situation worsened when Saroki left Rojava. The regime's repression was so severe that many people in Rojava were arrested, forcing the movement to go underground. Despite these challenges, they managed to hold a few protests. Organizing was difficult, but they continued to carry out actions to honor their martyrs and held demonstrations for International Women's Day. However, these events saw a heavy security presence, with about 500 women participating and a thousand soldiers monitoring them. The Kurds remained underground from 2004 to 2011 and many incidents happens which tried to crush the Kurds from the roots like Arbanization, denying their citizenship. A Kurdish women stated that she was arrested because of her political work and taken to Alipore. There, she was imprisoned for a year and tortured repeatedly, but she kept working. Women in Arab culture were nearly slaves, so they had the most to gain from the revolution, but also the most to lose. And overturning the clan structures and various ethnic boundaries takes time.”
The Syrian Kurdistan consists of three major regions the easternmost is (Cizere) the middle island Kobane andSouthernmost Afrin in July 2012, during the Syrian civil war, Kurdish forces successfully liberated three predominantly Kurdish regions from the Ba'ath regime. In January 2014, these regions declared themselves as cantons and began establishing democratic autonomous administrations. Each canton is currently governed by a transitional government and some ethnically mixed areas have been also liberated from IS.
In March 2016, the federal system of Rojava in northern Syria was officially declared. This system aimed to promote decentralization and democratic governance, emphasizing local autonomy and cultural diversity within Kurdish-majority areas. The establishment of the federal system marked a significant step towards self-governance and democratic principles in the region, amidst ongoing challenges and conflicts within Syria that have their own factories and a very stable economy and provided people a very safe place for life until Turkey attacked.
In January 2018, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in Syria, claiming to target ISIS but primarily focusing on Kurdish forces, labeling the YPG and PKK as terrorist organizations. This military campaign was portrayed as a righteous cause, with prayers for soldiers' success in mosques across Turkey, framing the conflict in religious terms Criticism or questioning of the operation often resulted in accusations of "sympathizing with terrorism" or end up in prison. On March 18, 2018, Turkey captured Afrin with support from Germany and Russia. During this operation, YPG forces withdrew to minimize civilian casualties, while also holding the international community responsible for the welfare of displaced civilians. This even underscored the complex dynamics and humanitarian concerns surrounding Turkey's military actions in northern Kurdistan. In Rojava all the ethnic groups fought together beyond any religious differences.
South Kurdistan
Knapp (2016) writes that Iraqi Kurdistan, or the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), is an autonomous region in northern Iraq with its capital in Erbil. Gaining official autonomous status in 1991, it is governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and has its own parliament. The region is economically driven by significant oil reserves, supplemented by agriculture and foreign investment. Predominantly Kurdish, it also hosts diverse communities, including Turkmen, Assyrians, and Arabs. The Peshmerga forces maintain regional security, though tensions with the central Iraqi government persist, especially over oil revenues and territorial disputes. In 2017, an independence referendum saw overwhelming support but was not internationally recognized, leading to increased tensions. Iraqi Kurdistan is known for its relative stability compared to the rest of Iraq but faces ongoing economic and security challenges.
Iraqi Kurdistan maintains a complex relationship with the PKK and Turkey. While the PKK uses the mountainous regions of Iraqi Kurdistan, particularly the Qandil Mountains, as bases, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has a contentious relationship with the PKK due to differing political goals. The KRG has strong economic and political ties with Turkey, which pressures it to limit PKK activities within its territory. This results in occasional cooperation between the KRG and Turkey against the PKK, creating a delicate balance between regional stability, economic interests, and internal Kurdish dynamics.
The KRG enjoys in touting its independence from Baghdad, but in reality, it is dependent on Turkey and United States. Its system, fundamentally different from the Rojava, is basically one of the petrol nodes in which the two largest governing parties, the KDP and PUK, distribute the wealth generated by petroleum to their supporters. The governing KDP defines freedom as capitalist economic growth, idealized by independent petroleum sales, luxury hotels, and shopping centers, while actively supporting the borders down and thereby contributing to the oppression of the Kurds. 95% of the economy is based on the income from oil, most of which it sells to Turkey. It is posting a new federal project to transform oil-wealthy KRG into a new Dubai. In this particularly, the KDP has a strong interest in controlling the oil fields around Rimelan and is indirectly trying to effect Rojava it is a proxy state of the world powers.
EASTERN KURDISTAN.
Eastern Kurdistan, located in western Iran, encompasses parts of the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, West Azerbaijan, and Ilam. Predominantly inhabited by Kurds, this region has faced significant cultural and political repression from the Iranian government, which restricts Kurdish language use and cultural expressions. Economically underdeveloped compared to other parts of Iran, Eastern Kurdistan struggles with high poverty and unemployment despite being rich in natural resources. Kurdish political movements, such as PJAK, seek greater autonomy and rights, often facing severe crackdowns. Despite these challenges, Kurds in Eastern Kurdistan continue to preserve their cultural heritage and maintain transnational connections with Kurdish communities in neighboring countries.
In Iran, the PKK's role is primarily represented by its affiliate, PJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan). PJAK operates in the Kurdish regions of western Iran, advocating for Kurdish rights and greater autonomy. It engages in armed resistance against the Iranian government, aiming to address issues of cultural repression and political marginalization faced by Kurds in Iran. PJAK operates from the mountainous border areas between Iran and Iraq and receives support and training from the PKK. Its activities include guerrilla warfare, political advocacy, and efforts to raise awareness about Kurdish issues within Iran.
Challenges and Future Prospects
Kurdish identity faces formidable challenges rooted in political fragmentation, armed conflicts, and cultural suppression across multiple host countries. The lack of a unified state and historical marginalization hinder Kurdish political representation and autonomy aspirations. Persistent armed conflicts, such as the Kurdish-Turkish conflict and involvement in the Syrian Civil War, exacerbate displacement and threaten cultural heritage. State policies restricting Kurdish language and cultural expressions further undermine efforts for linguistic preservation and cultural continuity. Despite these challenges, there are promising prospects for Kurdish identity, including increasing international recognition and support for minority rights, advancements in education and media representation, and resilient community efforts to preserve cultural heritage and promote identity pride. Continued advocacy and diplomatic efforts are crucial for securing a sustainable future where Kurds can freely celebrate and safeguard their rich cultural heritage.
Conclusion
The Kurdish people are a distinct ethnic group, united by a deep sense of pride in their identity and a profound love for their heritage. Despite fighting on four fronts with different powers, their resilience and determination are unmatched, and their resistance feels like it’s a part of their very DNA, which helps them stand firm in front of oppression.
Öcalan’s theory, grounded in the realities of Kurdistan, focuses on making change from the ground up, without trying to reshape the entire Middle East. But the Kurdish struggle is not just a local issue; it’s one that resonates globally. If the Kurds succeed in their fight, it could lead to a world where people feel safe within their borders, where their beliefs are respected, and where the focus shifts to unity, innovation, and progress rather than religion, race, or patriarchal systems. By challenging patriarchal structures, the Kurds are teaching us all how to break free from old systems and become stronger in our own way. This is not just a fight for Kurdistan, it’s a fight for humanity, to create a world that’s not only better but also more humane.
REFERENCES
Schmidinger, T. (2019). The Battle for the Mountain of the Kurds.
Öcalan, A. (2017). The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan. Pluto Press (UK).
Knapp, M., Flach, A., & Ayboğa, E. (2016). Revolution in Rojava.
Ghassemlou, A. R. (1993). A People Without a Country
