The Kurdish cause is first step towards the creation of an autonomous or independent Kurd
KURDISTAN certain rights for the Kurds of Turkey.
But, as in 1970 during the previous revolt led by Barzani, after the same kind of victories, the Kurdish people now finds itself disarmed in front of its butchers. The chief weakness of the Kurdish movement are the conciliatory outlook of its traditional leaderships.
These latter are rooted in tribal relations and have been unable to gain sufficient without the promised showdown between Saddam s dictatorship and imperialism taking place. However the war has sharply accentuated national and religious divisions in Iraq. As it turns out it is neither the United States nor Saddam nor their ish state. But what is really under discussion is the creation of permanent refugee camps on the border. There the Kurds would be dependent on outside aid for even their most basic requirements, in a situadeprived of their national identity. The comparison with the situation of the Palestinians in their refugee camps is only too obvious.
political support for the legitimacy of their struggle among the workers of the coun tries in which they find themselves. If this remains the case, and if no democratic alternative arises in the dominant nations, the Kurdish nation will find it impossible to create the conditions for its self-determination when confronted with the regular armies of the region.
But whatever the nature of its leadership, there is an urgent need various allles who are paying the price for the war; It Is the Kurds who have picked up the bill.
Furthermore the direct or indirect origins of this proposal, which has been wholeheartedly adopted by
Britain and, with some reservarespond to the danger of the extermination of the Kurds. The Kurds' right to existence must be protected through a broad-
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds have had to flee towards the Turkish and Iranian borders to escape extermination by Saddam's troops.
FUAT ORÇUN
A T the start of the uprising in
Iraqi Kurdistan on March 2 the Kurdish control. But as soon as he had crushed the Shi'ite rebellion in the south, Saddam turned his attention northwards and on March 25 government troops entered Kurdistan. By March 29 the region's main city, Kirkuk, was in their hands once more.
The United States is certainly in favour of the overthrow of Saddam, but not at the price of the destabilization of Iraq. Faced with the double uprising and the impossibility of bringing off a palace coup against the dictator, the imperialists have preferred the maintenance of order under
Those able to break out of the encirclement began to flee catastrophe, with hundreds of thousands of people forming a convoy a hundred kilometers long. Nearly a million Kurds are now fighting for their survival on the Turkish and Iranian borders. A whole number of scenarios about what to do are now being dreamed up by the very same people who carry the main responsibility for the war and therefore this dramatic situation.
The first proposal which is still being discussed on an international level is that of the creation of a "secure" or "buffer" enclave for the Kurds. At first glance the idea of a special zone for the Kurds, protected from Saddam's troops, may seem reasonable and might even seem like the tions, by the United States, are open to great suspicion. It can even be said that Saddam himself, by chasing the Kurds to the borders, has put this scheme on the agenda. In 1988, following the Halabja massacre, nearly 60,000 Kurds took refuge in Turkey, and half of them remain there, living in refugee camps. Saddam had no complaints about this. He got rid of some of his Kurdish problem and at the same time gave Turkey — which has been solidly pro-American throughout the war poisoned gift.
The second idea is that of the overthrow of Saddam. Insofar as order is restored, and the integrity of Iraq preserved, a plot or a "democratic" referendum could put an end to the much-hated dictator.
### Narrow nationalism
We do not have a crystal ball with which to predict postwar developments. However, what is perfectly clear is that without solutions to the region's chronic problems, the nightmare is set to continue. All those who saw in Saddam an anti-imperialist symbol of the unity of the Arab nation have fallen victim to their narrow nationalism. The present silence of those who yesterday demonstrated with pictures of Saddam is bitter in the extreme.
The traditional leaders of the Kurdish national movement have never gone into battle unless they believed that they had the green light from imperialism. The Turkish president Turgut Özal had already smelt the wind and invited Kurdish leaders to Ankara for talks on a future Kurdish state, which, if not independent, would be at least autonomous. He has even decreed based mobilization. There needs to be an international campaign for the Kurds to be allowed to return to their homes.
But without any delay, all internationally recognized rights must be granted to the Kurds and adequate material aid supplied. The allies of the Gulf war have a particular responsibility to its victims. Turkey must open its frontiers and recognize citizenship rights in accordance with international agreements until the Kurds are able to go back home.
However the urgent humanitarian needs should not lead us to forget the need for political solutions. There is a need for support to all forces working to overthrow Saddam and install a democratic regime - not in the interests of the imperialists, but in that of the region's peoples.
The Kurdish question has often been overshadowed. But it will be at the centre of the democratization of the region.
The Kurds have been conquered massacred. Their defeat will also be ours. Their leadership's policy of reliance on imperialism was wrong, but the cause itself is just and is ours. TURKEY USSR
Kurdish SYRIA areas
IRAQ IRAN
SAUDI
ARABIA
KUWAIT 3 April 29, 1991 • #205 International Viewpoint
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ours! THE GULF WAR has finished
Who are the war crowds of Kurds, in order to prevent them from reaching their compatriots' territories now under the Turkish jackboot. And they should surely thank the Turkish government for having finally passed a law allowing the Kurds to speak their own language to each other!
The hypocrisy is limitless. These people, whose latest enthusiasm is to throw
THOSE fine souls, the European Community governments, have proposed that Saddam Hussein be put on trial for
"crimes against humanity." This will no doubt be a great comfort for the millions of Kurds who are currently living through yet another nightmare. But at least the crusaders for peace, democracy and the rights of peoples, led by Bush,