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EDITOR’S NOTE
The main objective of the Kurdistan Times is to promote peace and order in the Middle Eastern region. The Kurdish Nation lives among the Middle Eastern Nations. Any political development, either positive or negative, has a direct effect on the future prospects of the Kurdish people. We follow with keen interest the political events and trends in the Middle East. We undertake studies regarding the nature and cause of the ethnic conflict and present our findings of how to resolve the ethnic conflict by peaceful means through dialogue and negotiation. We endeavor to establish understanding and cooperation among the Middle Eastern people.
The Middle Eastern region has been tom by ethnic conflicts and strife, which have been intensifying as time goes by. As a matter of fact, ethnic conflict has become a world-wide movement which demands a permanent solution. World peace and order depend upon finding an acceptable solution to these ethnic conflicts.
Ethnic conflict results from the struggle of minorities to set themselves free from the domination of majority rulers who resort to the force of arms to keep them under their control. Consequently, ethnic conflict has resulted in uprisings, revolutions, and wars in different parts of the world, including Europe. At the present time there are 60 ethnic wars being waged throughout the world, resulting in casualties of more than 100 million people so far.
The world has changed indeed. There are general awakenings of people everywhere around the world, demanding their national rights and rejecting any form of subjugation. These uprisings and revolutions of minorities are called National Liberation Movements. The present era is called the Era of the Liberation of the Minorities, when large and small minorities are gaining their independence. There is a general breaking up of the multi-ethnic states into separate independent states. Western leaders have proclaimed an idea they call the new world order in which the wind of freedom is blowing around every corner of the globe. They have declared that under the new world order no nation has the right to control another.
The world trend is toward the application of the two important universal principles of the United Nations:
1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which declares:
(1) All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(2) Everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
(3) Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
In short, human rights for all.
2. The United Nations Declaration of the National Self-determination for all. Self-determination is now recognized as an international legal principle. It has been incorporated in the United Nations charter. It has become a positive international law. Article 1 (2) of the charter of the United Nations states the following:
“To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of people and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.”
Articles 55 and 56 specifically “demand respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of people...”
Resolution of the General Assembly No. 262 (XXV) declares: “Reaffirming that all the people have the right to self-determination and independence and that the subjection of the people to alien domination constitutes a serious impediment to the maintenance of international peace and security and the development of peaceful relations among nations;
“1. Declares the further continuation of colonialism in all its forms and manifestations a crime which constitutes a violation of the charter of the United Nations, Declaration on the Granting Independence to Colonial Countries and People and the principles of international law.
“2. Reaffirms the inherent right of colonial peoples to struggle by all necessary means at their disposal against colonial powers which suppress their aspiration for freedom and independence...”
Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly No. 1514 (XV) The concept of self-determination reached a turning point when Resolution 1514 (XV) was adapted during the fifteenth session of the General Assembly on December 14, 1960. This resolution was named the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and People. It proclaims that “all people have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
The Kurdish Nation, having a population of more than 30 million, living in a vast and rich homeland the size of France, is considered to be one of the largest ethnic groups without a state of their own. The Kurdish Nation is divided among the states of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Azerbaijan. It is a persecuted nation, a stateless nation in its own historical homeland. The division of Kurdistan into five parts dates back to the First World War, when the Allied powers changed their post-war policy and abandoned the idea of creating the two independent states of Kurdistan and Armenia.
On October 30, 1918, the Ottoman Turks surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers. The Ottoman army vanished and the British forces occupied Iraq and the Mosul Wilayet (Southern Kurdistan). At the Versailles Peace Conference held in Paris in 1919, the prevailing attitude among the delegates was to dismande the Ottoman Empire and coniine the rule of the Turks to western Anatolia alone, the only region of the vast domain of the Ottoman Turks which was inhabited by ethnic Turks.
The Allies signed the Sevres Peace Treaty with the defeated Ottoman Turks on August 20, 1920. According to the provision of this treaty, the right to independent states for the Kurds and the Armenians was declared. Articles 62, 63, and 64 granted autonomy for the Kurds and independence one year from the date of the signing of the treaty. The Sevres Peace Treaty was signed by the Turkish government of that time.
However, the British and French governments changed their post-war policy and abandoned the idea of dismantling Turkey, confining its rule to Anatolia. Instead, they favored the creation of two strong governments for Turkey and Iran to be headed by two strong men. The idea behind this plan was to establish peace and order in the two countries and to prevent the southward advance of the Bolsheviks. Consequently, the British and French authorities supported General Mustafa Kamal and Colonel Mohamed Ridha Khan to be the two strong leaders for Turkey and Iran.
In order to formalize their post-war objectives, the British and French governments manipulated the enactment of the Lausanne Treaty, signed with Turkey in 1923, to replace the Sevres Peace Treaty. In the new treaty, the Kurdish and Armenian causes were abandoned and no mention was made of the names of Kurds or Armenians. Their fates were put in the hands of the Turks.
The Lausanne Treaty of 1923 was a formal emergency agreement between the British and French, in which their respective interests were set down, while the Sevres Peace Treaty of 1920 was a legal world peace treaty. The Kurds and the Armenians still refuse to recognize the legality of the Lausanne Treaty. For them the Sevres Peace Treaty is still a living treaty which could come to effect when an opportunity presents itself again.
The Turkish army is carrying out genocide against the Kurds in Turkey. On the pretext of fighting terrorism (meaning the PKK) the Turkish troops have destroyed 2,000 Kurdish villages. Their inhabitants have become homeless and refugees. They kill innocent civilians on the spot, claiming that they are supporters of the PKK. Writers, intellectuals, human rights activists, and journalists are regularly killed or thrown in jail on the grounds that they support separatism. The Turkish army is getting out of control, terrorizing the Kurdish people in Turkey. On March 3, 1995, eight Kurdish members of the Turkish Parliament were arrested, six of them were sentenced to 15 years in prison, by order of the Turkish high command.
In Syria and Iraq the Kurdish-Arab ethnic conflicts have intensified since the Baaths came to power in Iraq on February 8, 1963, and in Syria on March 8, 1963.
In Syria the Baathist regime has put a plan into operation to uproot the Kurdish ethnic entity. Their plan is officially called “Arab Belt,” meaning the Kurds were transferred by the Syrian army fr6m their ancestral villages and Arabs were brought to settle in their places. President Hafidh Assad has stopped the plan, but the Kurdish lands are still occupied by Arabs.
In Iraq Saddam Hussein waged a genocidal war against the Kurds. By attacking rural Kurdistan with chemical bombs followed by the destruction campaigns of the Iraqi army, 4,000 Kurdish villages were razed to the ground. Their inhabitants were taken to the southern Iraqi desert and abandoned to die from hunger and thirst. In one particular place called Arar, located on the border of Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, 186,000 Kurds were massacred by Iraqi troops and buried under the sand.
In the cities the Iraqi security was carrying out an extermination campaign called Anfal. According to Kurdish sources some 250,000 were murdered by the notorious Iraqi security.
“The Iraqi secret police ... videotaped [some of) their killing. The video tapes seem to have been used to terrorize local populations and to show superiors in Baghdad the fine work being done in the field. In all, there appear to be some ten to twenty hours of captured secret police video tape. There are 14 tons of secret police documents which have been transported to the United States by the military and are being stored at the National Archives under the control of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”
“Given the rate of killing that occurred in just three years, it is plausible that the goal of the Saddam Hussein regime was physical elimination of the Iraqi Kurds. The character of the regime carrying out the murders supports the proposition, itself almost self-evident, that the Kurds were targeted because of their ethnicity. If so, then the Iraqi regime committed genocide.”
The Kurds have been in continual uprisings and revolts because of the general awakening of the Kurdish people and the tragic circumstances under which they live. Since 1919 the Kurdish people have conducted ten major revolutions, three revolts in Turkey, four in Iraq, and three in Iran. During the span of 76 years, the Kurds have averaged one revolt in every seven years. At present Kurdish revolts are going on in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. These Kurdish movements against the status quo reveal the vitality and the dynamism of the Kurdish people.
Kurdish unrest will continue as long as the Kurdish national question remains unresolved. It will be very difficult to maintain peace and order in the Middle Eastern region unless a solution is found for the Kurdish question. The Turkish army in the last ten years has been attempting in vain to solve the Kurdish question by military means. The Turks are defying the wise advice of her European allies and the United States that the Kurdish question cannot be solved by military means. It should be solved by democratic means through peaceful dialogue and negotiation. The Kurdish question in Turkey could be solved by granting self-rule to the fifteen to twenty million Kurds in Turkey. The leading article in this issue of the Kurdistan Times deals with the Turkish-Kurdish ethnic conflict in Turkey.
According to Articles 1,55, and 56 of the United Nations charter, which declare equal rights and national self-determination for all ethnic groups, the Kurdish Nation has the right to self-determination. The United Nations General Assembly has passed innumerable resolutions declaring self-determination for dependent peoples. Resolution 2625 (XXV) of October 1970 states:
“By virtue of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of people enshrined in the charter, all people have the right freely to determine, without external interference, their political status, and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development, and every state has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the provisions of the charter. ...
“To bring a speedy end to colonialism, and having due regard to the freely expressed will of the people concerned;
“... and bearing in mind that subjection of people to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a violation of the principle, as well as a denial of fundamental human rights, and is contrary to the charter of the United Nations.
The Kurdish people are demanding the right of self-determination which includes formation of an independent state of their own or a self-rule in a federal system.
Endnotes
1. Peter W. Galbraith, “Genocide and the Kurdish Documents Report,” Publication of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
2. Ibid. Peter Galbraith was a senior advisor to the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He now serves as the United States Ambassador to Croatia. H.E. Galbraith traveled to Kurdistan between April 16 and 27,1992. The purpose of his visit was to examine and retrieve captured Iraqi secret police documents.
Part I
The Kurdish Struggle in Turkey
Turkish Army Imprisons
Six Kurdish Parliamentarians
by Mustafa Al Karadaghi
On March 3, 1994, the Turkish Parliament, known as the Grand National Assembly (GANT), voted to deny parliamentary immunity to eight of its members who are ethnic Kurds. The names of the deputies are: Hatip Dicle, Leyla Zana, Ahmet Turk, Sirri Sakik, Orhan Dogan, Mahmut Alinak, Selim Sadak, and Hassan Mezarci.
The eight deputies protested their denial of parliamentary immunity as a violation of the Turkish Constitution. They barricaded themselves in the Parliament building to avoid arrest. The Turkish police were called and surrounded the Parliament building, guarding all exits. On March 5, 1994, all eight deputies surrendered and were arrested. They were imprisoned in the government’s detention center pending trial by the State Security Court.
“Following the arrest of the MP’s in a scene of chaos, two of the deputies appeared before a regular court. Charges were dismissed as to one of the deputies, Selim Sadak. Mezarci, the pro-Islamic politician, was released pending trial.”1
Violent Climate Inside the Assembly
On March 3, 1994, the condition inside the Turkish Parliament became noisy and chaotic. The reason for the uproar was that a number of deputies were discussing the taboo subjects in Turkey; namely, the Kurdish question in Turkey and the personal life of Attaturk, the deceased leader of Turkey. A number of Kurdish deputies raised the question of the ethnic ...
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