During Barzani's visit to Cizre, the presence of the flag of the Kurdistan Federated Region on the shoulders of the bodyguards he brought with the approval of the national authorities caused an uproar. Was that coat of arms the cause of the uproar or was it a public manifestation of hidden hostility?
It was undoubtedly the manifestation of hidden feelings of enmity, which I will now explain one by one, with historical documents. Briefly, without boring you. An important institution asked me for a report on this subject, I prepared it, gave it to them, and wanted to share the summary with you.
Although you will not find a single sentence about the Kurds in the Turkish Political History, which was dictated by big professors by the junta and the dirty and shameful parts were removed, unfortunately, there are no Kurds in the written Turkish Political History, even though the fateful union of Turks and Kurds dates back to before the Crusades.
The imperial powers that divided the Kurds into four parts in the Middle East a hundred years ago caused the Kurds to be subjected to many massacres in the Middle East.
It is a pity that the Kurds, who have lived through so many dramas in these four parts, who have been martyred on the same fronts with the Turks for a thousand years, who have given and received daughters, whose fates are united like the back of a glove, do not have a single emphasis on the Kurds in the narrative of Turkish political history.
There are many reasons for this, such as assimilation, but I will not go into that for now, let me just say that this history based on official ideology is a history far from reality, impartiality, conscience and sense of justice.
The history of the Kurdish people is actually a history of rebellion...
I will not repeat what everyone already knows, but I will underline important points about the Kurds written by US and British scholars and historians that have never been mentioned before.
According to American historians and intelligence reports, the Kurds...
“The Kurds are one of the oldest peoples living in the Near East. Known as Guti and Kurtle, they date back several thousand years.
Early Greek historians and geographers, including Strabo and Zenophon.
They spoke of the Kurdish people and at times described them as a community living within the borders of “Kurdistan”.
The same word “Kurd” has been used by Arab writers since the ninth century.
Despite their long history, the Kurds fought with the Iranians against the Arab conquests in the 9th century, and with the Iranians against the Arab advance.
The Kurdish homeland corresponds to the current national borders. It encompasses inaccessible mountainous regions stretching northeast of Iraq, northwest of Iran, southeast of Turkey and south of Azerbaijan.
On the other hand, Kurdish communities living separately can be found beyond these borders.
In northern Iraq, Kurds and Assyrians fought against the British because of the British support for the Arabs.”
Let me open a parenthesis here, especially some Ataturkists, some nationalists and extreme Turkish nationalists, historians and politicians claiming that the British support the Kurds in their books, articles, social media posts and all their meetings are completely lies and the result of motivated feelings of hostility.
The British never helped the Kurds in rebellions such as the Sheikh Sait rebellion during the Republican period, nor during the Ottoman period.
The slanders of some Atatürkists that Sheikh Said and Said Nursi were British agents and received support from the British have never been documented. Their feelings of enmity are the strongest lie they resort to in order to reinforce the legitimacy of their lies and to humiliate those they see as enemies.
So far they have not proved a single document that the British helped the Kurds.”
The report said the Barzanis
“The Barzanis are not a tribe but a confederation of villages...”
The following findings about Barzani and his family in the CIA report on the Kurds are noteworthy.
“The Barzanis are not a tribe. At the beginning of the 19th century, they are a confederation of villages that came together as a result of a religious movement.
In Iran in the 1920s and in Iraq in 1931, rebellions were organized under the leadership of Sheikh Mahmoud.’
Kurds Divided in Unity...
Intelligence reports indicate that even during the most violent periods of the uprisings, Kurdish unity was never “absolute”.
Among the Kurds, some stray mercenaries fought on the side of the government during the war, while other tribes switched sides from time to time.
Other families made their fortunes by remaining neutral.
There were seven coups in Iraq between 1937 and 1941.
In 1920, he wrote a telegram to Davud Efendi, the son of Haydarizade Sheikhulislam İbrahim Efendi, who had come to Diyarbakır from Kirkuk, saying “Do not leave under the protection of the British”.
Russia's Kurdish Card in the CIA Report...
“The USSR has been interested in mobilizing the Kurds since the end of the Second World War.
In 1945, it was the driving force behind the People's Republic of Azerbaijan as well as the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in Iran.
A similar “Kurdish Republic” was once established in Iraq but died in its infancy.
The Kurds' constant resistance to assimilation among the surrounding peoples and their persistence in this resistance is an indication of how morally tolerant they are.
Kurdish is an Indo-European language and ranks eighth in the world.”
Opening a parenthesis here again, the Turkish parliament and Turkish courts have so far used the most degrading and humiliating expressions about the Kurdish language, calling it “unknown language, unknown dialect, unknown x language”.
This is an example of 100 years of reckless assimilation.
The CIA report also emphasizes the following:
“Kurds don't trust civilian courts.
“Kurds generally distrust civilian courts, and they are often right to do so.
Kurds have always been subjected to the rule of foreign governments.
In the 17th century, the Persian and Ottoman governments absorbed the whole of “Kurdistan” between themselves.
The center of the Kurdish uprisings...
It focuses on three main personalities. Sheikh Mahmoud from Sulaymaniyah and two brothers in the Barzani clan, Sheikh Ahmad and Mullah Mustafa Barzani.
Sheikh Mahmoud had gained a significant degree of independence in the First World War.
Until the 1926 Treaty of Ankara settled the border dispute between Turkey and British-controlled Iraq over Mosul. Sheikh Mahmoud then led a series of uprisings against government forces.”
Again, the Ataturkists distort this issue and attribute the Sheikh Sait rebellion and the support of the British to this event, which, as we have seen, is not the case at all.
Moreover, the following statement of the British embassy clearly reveals their lies. The man says;
“If we had supported the Kurds, Mustafa Kemal would not have been able to establish the Turkish Republic...”
The report summarizes the attitude of the Turks as follows:
“The Turks are extremely sensitive to any demonstration of nationalism by the Kurds on their borders.
Although Kurds have recently been labeled as “Mountain Turks”, they are still seen by Turks as a serious potential threat to internal stability and the indivisible integrity of the state.
Despite the Turks' dislike of the Baathist regime and the Baathists' alliance with the Soviet Union, the Turkish government sees militant Kurdish nationalism as a threat.
Mullah Mustafa Barzani was the leader of the Kurdish rebellion of 1943 and military commander of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, which was established in Iran in 1946.
In power since July 7, 1968, the Iraqi Baath Party is part of the Pan-Arab ideological movement that was founded in Syria a quarter of a century ago.
Although the Kurds are the fourth most populous people in the Middle East (after Arabs, Turks and Iranians), for a number of reasons they have not achieved territorial independence.
The tribal structure, differences in religion and dialect, and obstacles at the national level have prevented Kurds from developing a real sense of unity. As a result, Kurdish nationalist groups have chosen to act independently of each other.
Competing factions within Turkey, Iran and Iraq have always joined forces to frustrate Kurdish demands for separatism or autonomy.
The British promised the Kurds autonomy in 1922, but did not fulfill it.
The first sign of Kurdish political nationalism was the rebellion led by Ubeydullah of Şemdinli from Şemzinan in the 1880s.
The rebellion aimed to unite the Kurdish peoples under the Turkish and Persian empires into a single state. But the rebellion failed when both empires cooperated to eliminate this threat.”
Secret Report CIA September 1992
“Disagreements between the Kurds and the Iraqi Kurds' dependence on Turkey will prevent the establishment of sustained cross-border cooperation between the two countries.
Ankara, Baghdad and Tehran will resort to harsh military methods to stop Kurdish rebellions. Yet they will not succeed in suppressing Kurdish nationalist sentiments.
However, if Operation Enduring Peace / Hammer Force were to end, Saddam would surely have brought the Kurds to their knees.
If a serious pro-Kurdish independence movement develops - which is unlikely - the West may be forced to change its long-standing policy and facilitate the peaceful emergence of a new ethnic state.
On the one hand, it will try to protect its strategic interests in the existing states.”
Divisive Forces among the Kurds...
The report also emphasizes the following:
“In addition to differences in language and ideology, historical experience must also be mentioned as an obstacle to the fulfillment of Kurdish demands.
Kurdish tribes and groups have traditionally always been in competition with each other.
There have not been many periods of stable cooperation with each other.
This trend is best exemplified by the combative relationship between the Iraqi Kurdish leaders Masoud Barzani (KDP) and Jalal Talabani (PUK) and between them and PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
The Fragility of a Kurdish State...
An autonomous Kurdish state in northern Iraq could form the nucleus of a Kurdish state, possibly encompassing the territory of Turkey, Iran and Syria.
But such a structure will not survive, it will be ephemeral.
Because a Kurdish state, surrounded by a vast mountainous area and, most importantly, landlocked, would be dependent on its neighbors for access to trade routes, trading partners and secure borders; and without more sophisticated weaponry and international guarantees of its borders, it would be very difficult to defend and survive.”
May 29, 1969...
Intelligence Document (Report)
Talabani and a group of his supporters attempted to ambush Barzani and his supporters. The attempt failed and some 60 Talabani supporters were killed. Both Talabani and Barzani escaped unharmed.
June 7, 1972 DOCUMENT 31
National Security Council
Message from Shah to Kurds!
“The main arguments that we should support the Kurds...
To allow or encourage the continued existence of the Kurds in Iraq in order to use them as a source of instability, thus preventing Soviet efforts to support a national unity government in Iraq in order to further strengthen their own position.
The Iranians, Jordanians and Israelis have at times supported the Kurds as a way of keeping Iraqi forces at home.
Therefore, the security of the Kurds is our concern.
In addition, there is the possibility of continued Iraqi involvement in Gulf affairs, and creating internal instability through the Kurds would help to weaken this involvement.
In the context of the Moscow summit talks, we need to consider the implications of supporting the Kurds.
Since the Soviets had recently made an attempt to persuade the Kurds to join the Ba'ath Party in the national unity government in Baghdad, support for the Kurds would be perceived as a direct anti-Soviet move.
After 15 years of exile in the Soviet Union, Mullah Mustafa Barzani returned in 1958, steadily increased his power, defeated his rivals, broke the arrogance of the Iraqi army on the battlefield, played a role in overthrowing the governments in Baghdad and occasionally negotiated with them.
The cries of the unrecognized nation echoed in the Kurdish mountains...” the report says.
Perhaps it is time for everyone to show a fair, conscientious and moral approach to solve the Kurdish issue, not to strangle it.
Neither the Turks nor the Kurds will gain anything with feelings of enmity...