The Kurdish Safe Haven in Iraq

The Kurdish Safe Haven in Iraq

Dindar Farzenda Zubier

Spîrêz

This study examines the circumstances and events that led to the unprecedented creation of an international Safe Haven in Northern Iraq; the events that culminated in the refugee crisis of March 1991, when 2 million Kurds fled from their homes and communities to the mountains of Northern Iraq. Turkey and Iran. It explores the history, culture and ethnic identity of these people and how their story and political status today relates to the history of the Iraqi state. The study analyses the geopolitical and historical content of the debates surrounding the ongoing search for Kurdish identity, presents suggestions for the creation of a Kurdish state and critically analyses the international community’s responsibility to the peoples of northern Iraq, following the end of the 2ⁿd Gulf War in 1991.
The study takes a look from the wider perspective of world politics to understand what is happening in Kurdistan, and explores how international political agreements have shaped the fate of the Kurds throughout history up to the present day, noting the influence of governments, global corporations and organizations far removed from Kurdistan. The study reflects on the various Kurdish movements and leaderships that have come into being and who hold claims to the governing of the region.
Further, it examines the extent to which the 2ⁿd Gulf War in particular acted as a catalyst for the creation of a Safe Haven in Kurdistan and reviews the recent growth in international interest in human rights and increased media calls for humanitarian aid for the Kurds; calls that have since been repeated elsewhere in the world, Bosnia and Kosovo for example.
It also shows, with original fieldwork, examples of what the Kurdish people have actually claimed to want for themselves and it proposes a possible future model for international interventions, answering the questions: what jurisdiction exists for intervention and what form of intervention should take place in cases like Iraqi Kurdistan?

Contents

Abstract / 9
Acknowledgment / 11
List of Abbreviations / 13
Outline Chronology of Events / 15

Chapter 1. Introduction / 19
Aims and Objectives of this Thesis / 27
Methodology / 31

Chapter 2. Introducing the Kurds / 43
An Identity Crisis / 43
Homelessness / 44
A Bit of History / 49
Acknowledging History / 55
Acknowledging Diversity / 59

Chapter 3. Where Did the Problem Start? / 63
A Disputed Region / 63
How Iraq came to be / 68
How Oil has affected the Issue of Kurdish Autonomy / 74
Iran and Iraq war / 80
The Gulf War and resulting refugee crisis / 84;

Chapter 4. Who would lead a self-determining Kurdish state / 97
Why listen to the Kurds / 97
Barzani and the establishing of a new state / 98
Introducing the different parties / 101
The Kurdish Resistance / 104
Claims to power / 110

Chapter 5. International Treaties and Obligations / 119
Self interested policies / 119
The League of Nations and the UN Charter / 120
The Geneva Conventions and Resolution 688 / 126
The 11th of March 1970 Agreement / 130
Human Rights violations / 133
The use of biological and chemical weapons / 145
Kurds as indigenous people / 148
Iraq as a state party and deportation of Kurds / 151
The Kurds and their race (Iraq) / 153
Iraqi government refusal / 155
International reaction / 156

Chapter 6. Behind the Scenes of International Politics / 159
Western war mythology / 159
Problems in the UN / 172
Sanctions / 176
What have Sanctions to do with long-term dependency? / 188
Are we really discussing Human Rights? / 194
The Contradictions of US Human Rights policies / 196

Chapter 7. Safe Haven / 203
What does Safe Haven mean? / 203
Economic and political forces in the Safe Haven / 208
International Aid within Kurdistan / 223
Resources within Kurdistan / 227
Ethnicity within the Safe Haven / 235
The Safe Haven - A Military Predicament / 237
The Bosnia Mess / 249
The Kosovo Mess / 255
A War with no Casualties / 263
Short-term politics / 267
The International Criminal Tribunal and taking responsibility / 270
The Dominant Powers and the Safe Haven / 275
Turkey and the Safe Haven / 290
Iran and the Safe Haven / 298

Chapter 8. What could happen? / 305
Looking to the Future - International Relations Theories / 305
Realism / 316
Globalisation / 323
Empiricism / 325
Orientalism / 326
The Meaning of Self Determination / 328
Removing Saddam Hussein from power / 331
Parallel aims - Self-determination for the Palestinians / 333
Federalism - For and Against / 336
Ostopolitik - How the Germans did it / 342
Trusteeship - or signing your life away? / 349
Saddam’s Suggestion / 352

Chapter 9. Possibilities for the future / 357
Indecent Proposals / 357
Rules of Engagement / 369
International Reaction / 375
What do the Kurds want to happen? / 382

Chapter 10. Conclusions / 387
Bibliography / 409
Books & Articles / 409
Reports / 422
Newspapers / 429
Interviews / 434

Appendix 1: List of questions from fieldwork conducted on Iraqi / 437

Appendix 2: Published works by Piris Zebari / 439
An identity crisis / 442
Iraq and the Kurdish dilemma - An Identity Crisis / 445
Homelessness / 446

Appendix 3: Results of the Municipal Elections Conducted in Iraqi
Kurdistan on 26 May 2001 / 449

Appendix 4: KDP proposed constitution of the Iraqi
Kurdistan Region / 459
Appendix 5: UNSCR - 986 United Nations Resolution & Report: The KRG View / 479

Appendix 6 - UNSCR 688 / 485

Appendix 7: Political Statement of the Iraqi Opposition Conference (Iraqi Opposition Conference 14-16 December 2002) / 487

Appendix 8: Maps of Iraqi Kurdistan region  / 493

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to acknowledge the advice and encouragement given to me by my supervisors, Professor John Flood and Professor Penny Green, Department of Postgraduate Legal Studies, School of Law, University of Westminster, London, in the preparation of this thesis, since February 1999. The following work is entirely my own. I alone am responsible for any errors in the content.

Chapter 1.
Introduction

Kurdish people live in the republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, in Syria and also in Khurasan in eastern Iran, and in cities like Istanbul, Ankara, Tabriz, Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus; the majority still live in the mountains and plateau regions where the states of Turkey, Iraq and Iran meet. The heart of these mountains is formed by the Zagros range running in ridges northwest to southeast either side of Iran's border with its western neighbours. Kurdistan remains an important region for agriculture and stockbreeding. The Saljuqs first used the term Kurdistan in the 12th century as a geographical term. The geographical extent of this definition almost certainly grew during succeeding centuries as Kurds moved outwards: to the north beyond the Arxes river, to the west as far as Sivas, Erzerum and Marash and on to the Mesopotamian plain around Kirkuk; and to the east beyond the city of Kirmanshah. The majority of such Kurds were tribal¹ moving among and beyond what non-Kurdish peasant settlements already existed. (Thomas 2000: 1-2)²

Kurdistan has recently become more significant because of its oil and water resources, largely since the 2ⁿd World War. With the increased demand for energy and more extensive irrigation, water is rapidly becoming more important than oil. Iraq has already exploited the waters that flow off the western slopes of the Zagros down the Lesser Zab and Diala rivers, with the Dukan and Derbandikhan dams respectively; and before the Kurdish uprising of 1991 it had begun work on a dam at Bakhma, high up the Greater Zab in the heart of Bahdinan. The Kurds, as a nation artificially divided between several states in the Middle East. However for more than 26 million people with 3000 years of history living in an yea of more than 500,000 square kilometres the term minority may seem inappropriate.3 The Kurds who established one of the oldest civilised communities in the world 612 B.C., long before the appearance of the Turks or the Arabs as a nation in the region, are still being denied the right to use their own language and to have an identity of their own. (White 2000: 2-3)4 The Kurds are the fourth most numerous people in the Middle East and make up probably the largest nation in the World without national sovereignty. Whatever the criteria or measures used to define it the Kurdish people is entitled to its national identity. They are still struggling to protect their national inheritance, which they have preserved for centuries. In fact struggle is second nature for the people of Kurdistan. It began with the harshness of nature and continued with the ruthlessness of invaders, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Romans, the Arabs, the Mongols and the Turks. (Khoshnaf 1999: 2)5

The homeland of the Kurdish people, Kurdistan, is divided in five different independent states. The vast majority of the Kurdish people still live in the rural areas of this large mountainous region concentrated mainly in Turkey, Iran and Iraq with a smaller number in Syria and former Soviet Union. The governments of Turkey, Iran and Iraq, who have had recurrent disputes in their relationships on a variety issues, seem to have always agreed on a single issue, cooperation against the Kurds and Kurdish identity. (Talabani 1971: 7-8)6 Again given the strategic location of Kurdistan, the continuing conflicts and the vital issue of national resources (oil, water and unexploited minerals) the Kurdish case retains a high priority for the neighbouring regimes. Time after time when the disagreements between them reach a certain level, Kurdistan becomes the battleground for their rivalries. History is constantly being repeated and the Kurds, without a country, have no allies and few prospects for the future. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, in which nationalism as an ideology has led to the recognition of national identity, the Kurdish nationalists have led strong claims for national identity. But they have been far less fortunate than other national communities in the region. Thus it is …

1 Here it is important to stress the extremely factionalized nature of Kurdish tribal politics. British officers in Iraqi Kurdistan consistently complained of endemic rivalries between powerful chiefs, none of whom would accept the over lordship of any single leader.

2 Andrew Thomas, “Kurds and Kurdistan” article on the Kurdish people, published by Kurdish media information centre, http://ccwf.cc. utexas.edu (15 January 2000)

3 At the end of WW1 and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the 1920 Treaty of Sevres anticipated an independent Kurdish state. But France and Britain divided Ottoman Kurdistan between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. This division was formalized by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Sec history of Iraqi Kurdistan, published by Kurdistan regional government representation in the United Kingdom, http.7Avww. kurdistan. ws

4 Paul White “Who are the Kurds” article on the Kurds in world politics, published by the Kurdish education centre, Washington D. C, United States, (15 January 2000) http://www. co asci, ed. ac. uk/~siamakr/Kiirdish/KURDlCA/2000/A U G/zed. htnil

5 Dr. Mahmoud Khoshnaf “Kurds and Kurdistan” article on the origin of the Kurds, Kurdish Academic Network 27 October 1999 htrp.7/www.kurdishacademic.btintemet. co.uk/Kurdistaii/Kurdistan.htm

6 On origins of the Kurds, see Talabani J, (Kurdistan and the Kurdish National Movement), Beirut 1971 at pp: 7-8; Edmonds, C J, Kurds, Turks and Arabs, Oxford 1957; Zakhi Beg, M, A, Mulakhas Tarik al-Kurd WA Kurdistan “A short history of the Kurds and Kurdistan” Cairo 1939. See also Al - Feel, M R, al -Aktad ft Nadhar al-Ilm (Kurds from a scientific Viewpoint), Baghdad 1965, who argues somewhat improbably that the Kurds are of Arab origin. See also Kutschera, C, Le Movement National Kurds, Paris 1979

Dindar Farzenda Zubier

The Kurdish Safe Haven in Iraq

Spîrêz

Spîrêz Press & Publisher
The Kurdish Safe Haven in Iraq
The Problem of Non-State Status
By Dr. Dindar Farzenda Zubier

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- S.N. of issue: (114)
- Title: The Kurdish Safe Haven in Iraq
- Author: Dr. Dindar Farzenda Zubier
- Designer: Nazdar Jzeri
- Cover: Bayar Jameel
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The Kurdish Safe Haven in Iraq

This study submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of the University of Westminster for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy

September 2004