Kurdish Traitors Destroy "Free" Kur

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.cic.net>
Subject: Kurdish Traitors Destroy "Free" Kurdistan

Kurdish Traitors Destroy "Free" Kurdistan

     On September 3, 1996, the imperialist armed forces of the
Unites States launched cruise missile attacks against targets in
southern (!) Iraq in response to an invasion by Saddam Hussein of
the so-called "safe haven" for Kurds in northern Iraq. U.S.
officials were quick to point out that "this has nothing to do
with the Kurds; this is between us and Saddam Hussein". And
indeed this was true, for America's involvement in northern Iraq
was never modivated by a concern for the plight of the Kurdish
people, rather the desire to protect American oil interests in
the region.
     In the days before the U.S. missile strike on Iraq, dozens
of Iraqi tanks and artillery, backed by Kurdish traitors from the
KDP militia group, captured the city of Erbil, formerly the
capital of "free Kurdistan" and the site of its federated
parliament. Even after the Americans "punished" Saddam for this
aggression, Iraqi-backed Kurds (known as "jash" in Kurdish,
meaning something like "little donkies") moved on to attack other
Kurdish towns, including the major intellectual center
Suleymania, effectively bringing all of northern Iraq (South
Kurdistan) under Saddam Hussein's control once again. Iraqi
agents and secret police, known for their brutal methods of
torture and terror, have once against swarmed into Kurdistan.
People who once felt a taste of freedom must now once again in
fear for their lives; tens of thousands have fled towards Iran
and Turkey where the situation for Kurds is no better.

The Status Of The Kurds

     In order to understand the recent events in South Kurdistan
and what impact they will have on the Kurdish national liberation
struggle in general, it is important to take a look at recent
events in Kurdish political history.
     The Kurds, the world's largest stateless nation, number some
35 million, divided in the aftermath of World War I and the fall
of the Ottoman Empire between the colonialist-established states
of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. In each of these regions, Kurds
have been to subjected to forced assimilation, intense
repression, and in the case of Turkey and Iraq, outright attempts
at genocide. Largely disregarded by the world's media, the full
tragedy of the Kurdish plight was brought home to many people by
the horrible images of Saddam Hussein's posion gas attack on the
city of Halabja on March 17, 1988, which killed some 5,000
Kurdish civlians. But this was not the first horrid attack by
Saddam Hussein upon the Kurds, no would it prove to be the last.
     The most brutal wave of repression against Iraqi Kurds was
carried out in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war. From 1987-89,
a special operation of genocide was bureaucratically engineered
by the Ba'ath Party against the Kurds of northern Iraq. Known as
the "Anfal" Campaign, towns and villages with populations of as
many as 70,000 people were sytematically destroyed by Saddam's
military by burning, bulldozing, and bombing. It is estimated
that at least 182,000 Kurds were murdered during the Anfal
Campaign by the Iraqi forces (Lazier, p.1). Mass graves
unearthered following the creation of the UN "safe haven" in 1991
revealed the true barbarity which was unleashed upon the Kurds by
the Iraqi government. It is against this background of genocide
that makes the recent collaboration by certain Kurdish traitors
with Saddam Hussein even more difficult to understand.

A "Safe" Haven For Kurds

     A Kurdish uprising in South Kurdistan in March 1991
succeeded in liberating nearly all parts of Iraqi-occupied
Kurdistan, including key oil rich urban centers such as Kirkuk.
But the Allied powers who had "defeated" Saddam Hussein stood by
and watched as the unscathed Republican Guard elite forces,
backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, overran the region once
again, killing thousands and forcing more than two million people
to flee for their lives. Feeling somewhat embarrassed by TV
images of such grave human tragedy and death, especially in the
wake of such a great "victory" in the Gulf War and particularly
because the Allies themselves had encouraged the Kurds and other
anti-Saddam forces to rise is revolt, the Western powers
established a no-fly zone over some of northern Iraq (excluding
those regions of Kurdistan where most oil is located) and
announced a UN-backed "safe haven" for the Kurdish people. Like
most UN "safe" regions in recent years, the plan soon turned into
a nightmare of suffering for the Kurds.
     Despite the defeat of their revolt against Saddam, the Kurds
of northern Iraq decided to make use of their Allied-backed
enclave to establish the first "free" Kurdistan of recent
history. Elections were held in 1992 for a federated Kurdish
parliament based in Erbil, but Kurdish joy soon turned sour as
factional fighting devoured the region. The 1992 elections were
declared a 50/50 tie between the two major parties at that time,
the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK).
     The KDP was the major player in Kurdish politics in Iraq
ever since the Second World War, and under its leader Mulla
Mustafa Barzani, the Kurds revolted against Iraq from 1970-75.
Unwisely expecting backing and support from the CIA, the Kurds
were eventually defeated. Mustafa Barzani made peace with Saddam
Hussein and died a broken man. This surrender to Saddam angered
many Kurds who wished to fight on, and in June 1975, Jalal
Talabani split from the KDP along with several left-wing Kurdish
groups to form the PUK. In 1978, present jash chief Massoud
Barzani, Mustafa's son, assumed control of the KDP.
     The general differences between the PUK and the KDP reflect
certain schisms within Kurdish society itself. While the KDP is
fiercely conservative and loyal to old feudal traditions, the PUK
represents many bourgeois urban elements. Media and KDP claims
that the PUK are "pro-Iranian" are over simplified. Indeed, both
the PUK and the KDP have both at some point in time embraced
Saddam Hussein, the United States, and even Turkey's genocidal
military leaders. Both parties are driven by narrow-minded
desires for power and neither party seeks Kurdish independence.
     The Kurds of northern Iraq were hit hard by the economic
after-effects of the Gulf War. Their "safe" haven proved to be
rather unsafe, as the Turkish military launched several major
raids into the region, including a full-scale invasion in March
1995. Iran also shelled the region on several occasions. And
Iraq, while putting off overt military action until this August,
repeatedly sent intelligence agents into Kurdistan to carry out
bombings and acts of sabotage which greatly damaged the region's
already weak infrastructre. The attacks were made worse by a
double-embargo: there was an embargo placed on Iraq by the UN,
and the Iraqi government placed its own internal embargo on
Kurdistan. Poverty was rampant throughtout the Kurdish enclave,
and the only source of income for many people was smuggling or
the control of tariffs from shipments to and from Turkey. The
desire to control these economic channels prompted the KDP and
the PUK to go to war in 1994. By this time, the Kurdish federated
parliament had all but been forgotten. Tribal war now replaced
nation building.

The Rise Of The PKK In South Kurdistan

     Absent from most media and policy discussions on the recent
developments in northern Iraq is what role the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) will now play in the region. Although mainly based in
Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, the leftist PKK has established
itself as the third major player in South Kurdistan over the past
few years and it more than any other party will gain tremendously
from recent events.
     The Kurdistan Workers Party, established by leader Abdullah
Ocalan in 1978, launched its armed struggle camapign against the
Turkish government on August 15, 1984. Since then, it has
achieved remarkable military success against Turkey's
heavily-armed U.S.-backed military, the largest in NATO, although
the PKK's campaign has remained largely focused on rural and
mountainous regions and has not yet spread to urban centers.
Turkey's response to the PKK threat has been to unleash a massive
military response directly largely at civilians. More than 3,000
Kurdish villages have been destroyed in Turkey since 1991, and
death squad murders, imprisonment, and torture are commonplace.
     The PKK, like most Kurdish parties, took advantage of the
power vacuum in northern Iraq after the Gulf War and established
dozens of camps and training facilities in the region. Repeated
Turkish attempts to dislodge PKK forces in South Kurdistan have
all failed, even the March 1995 invasion of northern Iraq by the
Turkish army left hundreds of Turkish soldiers dead and failed to
end the PKK's presence in the region. For the past few years, the
PKK has been organizing and doing political work among the
civilian population of South Kurdistan, much to the dislike of
both the KDP and the PUK. Because of its socialist ideology, the
PKK, for example, advocates the full equality of men and women.
Unlike the reactionary KDP and the PUK, women guerillas swell the
ranks of the PKK's guerrilla army, the People's Liberation Army
of Kurdistan (ARGK). The PKK, unlike the KDP and PUK, seeks to
work towards the liberation of all of Kurdistan, and not only
from foreign and colonialist occupation, but also from the
oppression of traditional Kurdish feudalism and tribalism.
     PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan recently criticized Jalal
Talabani's PUK for cooperating with fundamentalist Iran, a
country which is no friend to the Kurds, and then appealing in
vain to the imperialist West. But the PKK's biggest enemy in
recent times has been the traitorous KDP. Despite PKK efforts to
create a Kurdistan National Congress (building on its own efforts
of the Kurdistan Parliament in Exile which was founded in Europe
in 1995) together with the PUK and KDP, these attempts at
national unity have been consistenly derailed by the short-term
interests of these more reactionary Kurdish elements. The KDP's
collaboration with Saddam in ousting the rival PUK from South
Kurdistan has all but destroyed the prospects of any pan-Kurdish
National Congress being formed by the PUK, KDP, and PKK any time
soon.
     Another reason for this is Western opposition to any role by
the PKK in Kurdish affairs. The recent PUK/KDP war has not only
been a shame on the Kurdish nation and the Kurdish people's
aspirations for unity and independence, it also represented a
major failure for imperialist foreign policy. The U.S. State
Department has organized several PUK/KDP summits in an effort to
organize a front to stop the rise of the PKK. The CIA pumped
millions of dollars to prop up the KDP administration in South
Kurdistan, both to hold Saddam in check as well as to work
against the PKK. On both counts, the U.S. now looks foolish. The
KDP fought side-by-side with Saddam's troops in ousting the PUK,
and with the PUK now largely gone from the area and the KDP
exposed as the traitors they are, the PKK is now set to become
the major Kurdish force in South Kurdistan.
     KDP treason is nothing new in Kurdistan, and the PKK,
despite its good-willed attempts at national unity, is well aware
of this. The KDP will take money from anyone, even from Turkey,
whose genocidal camapign aganist Turkish Kurds rivals that of
Saddam's in terms of its barbarity. The KDP has repeatedly made
deals with the Turkish government and worked together with the
Turkish military against the PKK on several occasions. On August
15, 1995, the PKK's armed wing the ARGK launched a "second August
15th offensive" against the KDP in South Kurdistan following a
deal by U.S. and Turkish officials and the KDP which was arranged
in Dublin, Ireland designed to root out PKK support in the
region. Following weeks of fighting, during which the KDP
suffered heavy losses and the PKK firmly established itself as
the third major force in South Kurdistan, a truce in the interest
of national unity was announced in December. At the time of this
PKK offensive, many Kurds and their supporters condemned the PKK,
saying they were guilty of the same in-fighting tendencies as the
KDP and the PUK. The PKK claimed the move was necessary to halt
the KDP's collaboration with Turkey. Now the world has been shown
that Abdullah Ocalan was correct in his analysis at the time, for
not only have the KDP allied themselves with Turkey, but now they
are openly pro-Saddam as well.

Hopes For A Liberated Kurdistan?

     Much damage has been done to the cause of Kurdish
independence over the last few weeks. The bourgeois PUK allied
itself with Iran, then begged for help from the U.S. and the West
when things went sour. The KDP openly supported Saddam Hussein,
whose Anfal operations against the Kurds were "every bit as
thorough and efficient in their stages of execution as had been
the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews" (Lazier, p.2). The two
parties, now openly at war, have ruined the only chance ever
given to the Kurds by the outside world. By acting on the basis
of self-interest and greed, they wrecked "free" Kurdistan and
their in-fighting has lost the Kurds much of the sympathy and
support they enjoyed after the Gulf War.
     In the long run, however, these developments may prove
beneficial to the Kurdish cause, for several reasons. First of
all, "free" Kurdistan was never really free, nor did the Allied
powers ever wish it to be. It was weak and starving, just as the
West had planned. The U.S. in particular utilized the safe haven
concept to keep Iraq weak, yet they never would allow the region
to become economically or politically feasible. A fledgling
Kurdish state in norther Iraq would be seen as a threat to
Turkey, home to 50% of the Kurdish nation. Therefore, the same
U.S. planes which patrolled the skies over Kurdistan to keep
Saddam out fed intelligence data to help Turkey come in and bomb.
     Most Kurds now realize that America's Operation Provide
Comfort brought them no confort at all. The U.S. looked aside
when Turkish forces bombed the region, and when Saddam himself
finally attacked, the U.S. responed against southern Iraq, doing
nothing whatsoever to halt the Iraqi advance into Kurdistan. The
PUK begged America for help, but none was forthcoming. If Kurds,
be they in Kurdistan or abroad, had any delusions before about
genuine U.S. concern for their plight, these illusions have now
been shattered.
     The only Kurdish party which has consistently relied on its
own resources and refused to become a tool for foreign
intelligence agencies is the PKK. The PUK, by seeking open
support from Iran and then making feeble appeals to the
imperialist West, is now weak and without credibility. The KDP,
by allying themselves with the Butcher of Baghdad, are now seen
by all to be traitors to the Kurdish nation. It is now up to the
PKK to seize upon this opportunity and work towards the genuine
liberation of Kurdistan.
     Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in military and
financial aid from the United States and Europe, Turkey has not
been able to crush the PKK's revolution in Turkish-occupied
Kurdistan. If the PKK's appeal and success should now spread and
blossom in northern Iraq, the Kurdish national liberation
movement will receive a tremendous boost. With PKK strength
already established in the Kurdish regions of Iran, the party
seems set to become a truly pan-Kurdish representative movement.
If so, the Western powers will be faced with a Middle Eastern
policy dilemma like they have never before encountered.

Arm The Spirit - Autumn 1996

* For a good account of the fueding between the KDP and the PUK,
see Sheri Lazier's book "Martrys, Traitors and Patriots:
Kurdistan after the Gulf War" published by Zed Books.

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