State Dept against family reunification, open borders . . . in Kurdistan

After the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the Treaty of Lausanne purposely split the Kurdish people placing them in four separate nation states: Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The treaty failed to mention any possibility for the Kurds to obtain an independent homeland; a policy still followed by the US State Department.

No family reunifications at this border

Left as one of the world’s largest stateless peoples, the Kurds face persecution as a minority ethnic group in each of those four nations, denied equal rights and restricted in their movement. ‌Kurdish activist Himdad Mustafa says that these restrictions, and the artificial border piercing the Kurdish homeland, have resulted in family separations.

A wall apart: Kurdish mom and daughter reunite through the fence at the border separating southern Kurdistan from the Turkish occupied northern Kurdistan.

Massacres

From time to time, the persecution of the Kurds has escalated into outright massacres. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) reported, for example, that Ayatollah Khomeini declared, “a holy war against the Kurds. . . . A military campaign to exert control over Kurdish regions results in hundreds of deaths, systematic arrests, and the banning of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI).” 

Iraq's treatment of the Kurds was no better, according to the CFR report.

Saddam carries out the al-Anfal (“the spoils”) campaign [in 1988], known as the Kurdish Genocide, which includes mass killings, the destruction of thousands of villages, and the use of chemical weapons against civilians. An estimated 50,000 to 180,000 Iraqi Kurds are killed and tens of thousands displaced. On March 16, as many as five thousand Kurds are killed in a sarin and mustard-gas attack on the town of Halabja.

In Syria, the limitations on Kurds' daily lives is overwhelming.

Syria Strips 120,000 Kurds of Citizenship

In a [1962] census of Syria’s Al-Hasakah Governorate, Kurds who cannot prove their residence in Syria prior to 1945 and those who fail to participate are stripped of their citizenship, rendering them stateless and unable to travel. These Kurds and their descendants are unable to vote, own property or businesses, or legally marry …

Tens of thousands of Kurds have been killed in Turkey as well, as described by the Los Angeles Times.

Four thousand villages have been destroyed since the 1990s, 35,000 Kurds and 5,000 Turks have died, 119,000 Kurds are incarcerated and more than 17,000 Kurds have disappeared.

Future hope

Today numbering over 36 million, with sufficient international support, the Kurds could easily create an independent homeland by carving out the adjoining parts of each of those four nations in which they are the majority. Kenyan presidential candidate Dan Ojowa tweeted his support for doing so with an accompanying map.

It's time the world accepts Kurds were wrongfully divided and the map be redrawn to accommodate Kurdistan Republic in the yellow area. UN should handle this. Give Kurds what rightfully belongs to them. 

Such international support, though, has not been forthcoming, particularly from the US.

US opposition

The State Department heavily pushes independent states for Marxist “National Liberation Movements,” even in the absence of civilian massacres, as covered by Frontline News in, “State Department pressing allies to concede to Marxist revolutionaries.” The State Department might therefore be expected to echo Ojowa's call for an independent Kurdistan. The Kurds themselves overwhelmingly desire independence, with 93% of Iraqi Kurds voting in favor of independence in a 2017 referendum.

In fact, however, the State Department condemned the Kurds for holding the referendum and “encouraged many other countries to join in a veritable chorus of condemnation,” according to an analysis by the Wilson Center.

Not surprisingly, Iraq and other countries with Kurdish minorities—Turkey, Syria, and Iran – have condemned the referendum, fearing it will encourage their Kurds to follow the example. The United States, whose interests are not directly affected by the fate of Kurdistan, has been equally vociferous in its condemnation, predicting it will create instability and undermine the fight against ISIS. . . . 

U.S. rejection has encouraged many other countries to join in a veritable chorus of condemnation, with only Israel . . . supporting the Kurds’ decision to hold the referendum . . . 

[B]y rejecting the referendum in an uncompromising and inflammatory manner, the United States is working against its own interests: it is not bringing the Kurdish issue closer to a solution, but is instead contributing to the strife that will certainly follow the demise of the ISIS caliphate . . . 

State Department's self-fulfilling prophecy 

The analysis went on to accuse the federal government of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of increased conflict.

And yet, it would be foolish to expect that the Kurds will give up a goal they have pursued for several generations, no matter the level of international condemnation. . . . The U.S. policy of rejecting the referendum as forcefully as it did is thus bad policy and bound to fail. Worse, the U.S. warning that the referendum will hamper the war against the ISIS caliphate and create conflict with neighboring countries and with non-Kurdish minorities internally is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy . . . 

Washington has warned that the referendum will hamper the fight against ISIS, but it has also ensured such an outcome. On the eve of the referendum, Washington did not discourage the Iraqi government, which is heavily dependent on U.S. airpower for all its operations, from launching the final assault on Hawija, one of the last ISIS strongholds adjacent to Kirkuk. The Kurdish pesh merga had announced it would be ready to join in the fight the day after the referendum, but it was deliberately left out when the assault started earlier, a decision that will weaken anti-ISIS forces. 

Missing another opportunity to decrease tensions, Washington pressured Erbil to renounce the referendum and enter into negotiations with Baghdad, but did not pressure Baghdad to do the same. And while declaring the referendum unconstitutional, it did not say anything about the implementation of the referendum on Kirkuk mandated by Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, undermining Washington’s concern for constitutionality.

Washington created a self-fulfilling prophecy with its warning that the referendum would increase tensions with Turkey, Iran, and Syria. Iran decided to terminate flights into Kurdistan, partially closed its border with Turkey, and threatened to also terminate flights into Turkey. Washington greeted each step with a kind of “we told you so” shrug rather than a warning about the need for restraint.

Ungrateful foreign policy

The lack of support for the Kurds is problematic on its own, but particularly when considered in the light of the assistance the Kurds provided to the US. 

[I]t is callous for Washington to oppose what Iraqi Kurds have demanded for generations, despite the crucial role the Kurds played in stopping ISIS’ advance in 2014 and the help they provided the United States in the battle against the caliphate . . .

Turning the nation's back on its allies can, of course, decrease the chances for future cooperation. An investigative piece by Arutz Sheva likewise found a betrayal by the US, as well as by Israel, with quotes in the name of Middle East scholar Dr. Eddy Cohen.

'The Kurds are calling us - but we're ignoring them.' N. Iraq Kurds disappointed with Trump, Israel abandoning their cry for help: 'We raised Israeli flag in Europe, now we're punished for it.' . . .

"The media doesn't talk about the massacre of our allies that's taking place, and it's in our interest to cleanse the area of terrorists and Shi'ite elements. When it comes to a hunger-striking terrorist, the media doesn't stop talking about it, but when Kurds are being slaughtered it barely makes the news . . ."

The Kurdish attitude toward Israel can be summed up in one word: disappointment."They are very disappointed with us; they tell me that they raised our flag in Europe and apparently because of that they are hated in Europe …

The State Department's lack of support even translates into a disadvantage on the battlefield, with US arms making it to the Kurds' enemies, but not to the Kurds.  

The Kurds have no weapons and the pro-Iranian militia has weapons left by the US in Iraq, including the Abrams tanks. 

Even economic independence denied

Its hopes for political independence dashed by the State Department, the pro-US Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), exercising limited control over the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, lacks the clout to independently sell the oil emanating from its own land. Forced to accept a decision in March, 2023 by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration that its oil sales contracts are unconstitutional and must be cancelled, and facing a budget cut from the Iraqi government, the KRG found itself unable to pay public sector salaries. 

To enable the payment of those salaries and other local government expenses, the KRG had no choice but to relinquish even economic independence and allow Iraq to control its natural resources, as reported by NRT News, Kurdistan’s first independent news channel.

[T]his development also effectively extinguished the KRG’s economic independence aspirations . . . Economic independence was seen as vital for eventual Kurdish independence. However, after the ill-fated 2017 independence referendum, KRG’s leverage further weakened, ending its de facto state-to-state relationship with Baghdad . . . Following the ICC International Court of Arbitration’s decision, the KRG was forced to cooperate with Baghdad to maintain oil sales . . .

it appears the KRG is moving towards a more federal arrangement, fostering closer relations between Baghdad and Erbil but also relinquishing control of natural resources and reversing independence plans.