Dating back to the earliest days of Western Civilization in the pre-Hellenic Greek period, the Kurds have been a lost people numbering 32 million, four-times the population of Armenians, totaling worldwide about 8 million. Unlike Armenians, Kurds have no U.N.-recognized homeland, a far reaching diaspora spread over some 27 countries, most concentrated in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. With the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds providing its Peshmerga fighters to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], it’s time for the international community, especially the U.S. and Russia, to back an independent Kurdish state. Declaring autonomy March 17, the Syria Kurds AKA the YPG, seek recognition from Syria. Controlling some 400 kilometers along the Turkey-Syrian border from the Euphrates River to the Iraq frontier, the Kurds seek nothing short of an independent state.
Spilling blood to rid ISIS of major cities, towns and villages seized during the 2014 blitzkrieg, the U.S. and Russian-backed Kurds have every right to seek a Kurdish homeland in ISIS-controlled territory. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abidi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad opposes any attempt by Kurds in Iraq and Syria to partition sovereign land now controlled by ISIS. Kurdish official Idris Nassan said, “liberated areas” in Iraq and Syria should be part of Kurdish homeland, unofficially known as Kurdistan. “Any such announcement, has no legal value and will not have any legal, political, social or economic impact as long as it does not reflect the will of the Syrian people,” said Syria’s official SANA news agency, expressing Syria’s forceful opposition to re-drawing Syria’s borders. Turkey considers Kurds, especially the PKK, terrorists, objecting strongly to a Kurdish state.
Northern Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union [PYD] voted to declare a “federal democratic system” March 17, something rejected outright by Turkey and Syria. Celebrating the tradiona’ Nowroz New Years’ celebration, PYD fighter Abdul Rahaman Hamo celebrated the Kurdish autonomy declaration. “We’re celebrating the declaration of out federal system and Newroz,” said Hamo, seeking backing of Russian and the U.S. to make it a reality. Russian President Vladimir Putin backs Kurdish autonomy in territory once controlled by ISIS. After Turkey shot down a Russian SU-34 fighter jet Nov. 24, Putin’s been more open to a Kurdish buffer zone along the Syria-Turkish border. U.S. officials walk a tightrope backing Kurdish independence while supporting Turkey as a NATO ally. Despite using the Kurds to battle ISIS on the ground in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. can’t betray Turkey.
Turkey joined the Saudi-funded proxy war against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad calling for regime change in the latest round of Geneva peace talks. With Syria evicting ISIS from the ancient city of Palmyra March 27, al-Assad has bought himself more time in power. Syrian Kurdish Prime Minister Akram Hasso seeks a position in the new Kurdish federal system. “It is not a condition to wait for all areas of the region to be liberated before we announce or establish the federal system,” said Aldar Khalil, a member of the executive council of the Movement for Democratic Society. Kurd’s PYG fighters hope the U.S. will stand up to Turkey and Syria in the Geneva peace talks led by 69-year-old U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura. While the agenda set by Saudi Arabia and Turkey hopes to end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria, the Kurdish question looms in Geneva as the 800-pound gorilla.
Condemned by Turkey, Syria, the Arab League and the Saudi’s High Negotiation Committee, Kurdish autonomy isn’t something popular with anyone in the region. Putin hinted that an autonomous Kurdish area would help the region’s stability but stopped short of backing a Kurdish homeland. Fighting with the Iraqi military to liberate Northern Iraq and Syria from ISIS has giving the Kurds—and their cause of a federal system—more credibility. “All Syrians have rejected division [of Syria] and federalism can be discussed at the negotiations,” de Mistura told Al Jazeera TV. De Mistura can go only so far with Kurdish autonomy before he sabotages the fragile ceasefire and ongoing peace talks. Even president of the Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region Masoud Barzani said there must be consensus among Syrians regarding an independent federal system for the Kurds.
Syrian Kurdish Prime Minister Akram Hasso thinks the more success Kurds have beating back ISIS will pave the way to an independent Kurdish state. If Kurds had a federal system in place in Northern Iraq and Syria, ISIS wouldn’t have been able to hijack sovereign territory without a fight. “Because ISIL [ISIS] are being pushed back and it’s the goal of the international community to establish democracy in Syria, it’s their duty to support Kurdish “federalism,” said Hasso. Whatever eventually happens with al-Assad’s Damascus government, it’s doubtful Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would cede any autonomy or territory to the Kurds. If the U.S.-Russian relations were better, it’s possible the U.S. and Russia could prevail on Syria and Turkey to accept a Kurdish homeland. When ISIS is evicted from Iraq and Syria, Kurdish officials will have strong voice for independence.
