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After ISIS made spectacular gains of large swathes of Iraq, dozens of reports of ISIS’ savagery on local populations emerged. Both the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi army, in an act of cowardice, fled at a lightening pace, back to the KRG (Kurdish Regional Government) and Baghdad, respectively.
They left behind at the mercy of ISIS Yazidis and Assyrian Christians, with few weapons and limited ammunition.[1] Contrary to reports that the Peshmerga stood their ground to confront ISIS, it was only Western military intervention with intensive air strikes that allowed the Peshmerga to start a counter-offensive, and prevent ISIS from entering Arbil, the capital of the KRG.
While reports of ISIS’ cruelty seem to have shaken the world, there seemed be collective amnesia with regard to the fact that 9/11 perpetrators Al-Qaeda actually broke off from ISIS because of the latter’s heinous acts of violence. What is even more striking is that the world was led to believe that ISIS’ horrific crimes are alien to the SIIT (Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey) region and that the Kurds were knights-in-shining-armor. The same barbaric acts committed by ISIS are prevalent throughout the Kurdish region, including FGM (female genital mutilation), honor killings, child brides, “kurdification,” and centuries-long persecution of minorities.[2]
The euphoria of the Kurdish gains against ISIS has given Kurdish propaganda a huge boost, leading to blogs and websites claiming that Kurdistan is another “Israel of the Middle East.” The buzz word and argument for Kurdistan’s case has been “democracy.”[3] Meanwhile, there have been countless reports of journalists being murdered in the KRG by loyalists to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Their “crime” was merely being critical of the government.[4] The stark contrast between the culture of Israel and that of the Kurds indicates that Kurdistan actually resembles “Palestine.” Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, enters his 11th year as president, with no sign of a peaceful changing of the guard. This long-term presidency is dwarfed by Massoud Barzani’s 23rd year as president of the KRG.
It seems that the world has forgotten that the Assyrians are actually the indigenous people of the SIIT region, a people who were one of the first to embrace Christianity, speak their own language (Neo-Aramaic), and enjoy their own customs in the Nineveh plains before ISIS’ arrival. Unlike the Jews of Israel, who had the advantage of coastal access while repelling British colonialist attacks on one side and Arab Muslim attacks on the other, Assyrians have been landlocked ever since the Islamic armies burst from the Arabian desert into the lush valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris from 633 CE onwards. In 1915, the Assyrians along with the Armenians faced the onslaught of Turks and Kurds. While the Armenian genocide, and its perpetrators the Turks, have become well known, Kurds seem to have been taken out of this historical timeline. Almost a hundred years later, Massoud Barzani refuses to recognize the Assyrian genocide and goes a step further by revising history and claiming that the Assyrians in the Simele massacre (by Kurds) in 1933 “were Kurds.”[5]
The Assyrians are not the only ones to suffer from the Kurdish cause. The demographics of the northern city of Kirkuk, which was “Arabized” in the 1980s and 1990s, were then Kurdified post-Saddam after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Dozens of Kurdish families in the KRG were taken from their homes and slung into refugee camps in stadiums, most of whom were not allocated vacant houses after the ethnic cleansing of Arabs, Turkomen, and Assyrians. These victims were left in the camps in the harsh winter as well as the sweltering heat.[6]
If a Kurdish state is to be a reality, Middle East alliances will likely change, since the Kurds have often double-crossed their allies — whether Iran, Turkey, Israel, or pre-2003 Iraq. Only two types of states exist in the Middle East, client states and chief states, the Kurds being landlocked would fall under the category of the former, while the latter would be a choice between Iran or Turkey. Obviously, both of these choices are hostile to the state of Israel. This time the Jewish state will see the true face of Kurdistan, and they certainly won’t be left in awe.
Footnotes:
[1] http://yezidipost.com/2014/11/05/the-yazidis-religion-how-the-kurds-abandoned-the-yezidis-by-staffan-hasan/; http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/17/how-the-u-s-favored-kurds-abandoned-the-yazidis-when-isis-attacked.html; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2764819/100-000-Syrians-flee-Isis-onslaught-terrorist-group-targets-innocents-stolen-tanks-artillery-rocket-launchers.html; http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/06/11/iraq-mosul-isis_n_5483189.html.
[2] http://passblue.com/2014/05/06/in-kurdistan-and-beyond-honor-killings-remind-women-they-are-worthless/; http://www.stopfgmkurdistan.org/; http://srd.edu.jo/en/news/item/68-why-child-marriage-increasing-dramatically-in-kurdistan; http://www.aina.org/guesteds/20081201015903.htm; http://www.aina.org/news/20130613170234.htm; http://www.aina.org/news/20130903173149.htm; http://www.aina.org/news/20141115145804.htm.
[3] http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4975/kurdistan-israel; http://infidel753.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/the-kurds-deserve-our-support.html; english.al-akhbar.com/node/17834
[4] english.al-akhbar.com/node/17834; https://cpj.org/2014/08/kurdish-reporter-killed-in-iraqi-kurdistan.php; www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/world/middleeast/07erbil.html
[5] http://www.aina.org/guesteds/20130812031624.htm; http://www.aina.org/martyr.html
[6] http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/04/17/kurds-oust-arabs-from-homes-in-kirkuk/; http://m.csmonitor.com/2004/0109/p07s02-woiq.html/(page)/2
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