Kurdish issues and Michael Rubin’s Turkishness

Kurdishaspect.com - by Ardalan Hardi

The problem with most writers that write about Kurds and Turks is that they start with asking the wrong question about the Kurdish issues in Turkey. They almost always tie the Kurdish issues with existence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The question always is whether PKK is a terrorist organization or not? The question should be why organizations like PKK come to flourish? In reality the problem is not PKK, but the oppression of the Kurdish nationality within the Turkish State that forces organizations like PKK to be born. Like Simone de Beauvoir said “all oppression creates a state of war.”

If Kurds are given the same rights in Turkey as their brothers enjoy in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, there will be no need for PKK and other groups like them to exist.

It is unfortunate that some one like Dr. Michael Rubin, who has a PhD from Yale University and is educated in the U.S., known for the foundation of rights of liberty, to think the way he does.

Instead of teaching what Dr. Rubin has learned in his education about true democracy in guiding a country like Turkey to peacefully co-existence by encouraging Turkey to respect the rights of all nationalities and acknowledging the core of the problem in addressing a real democratic reform that is non-existent in Turkey, Mr. Rubin suggests military intervention by Turkey across the border to Kurdistan. This obviously will further complicate the Kurdish issue in Turkey and destroy the only part of Iraq that lives in peace.

It would seem that the Turkish glasses through which Mr. Rubin sees the world have blinded his vision. His distorted views do not stop there: he is also against federalism based on ethnic and sectarian division and believes that the creation of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) increases terrorism in the region. Again, his Turkishness has not only blinded him, but also affected his thinking process. Simple logic tell us that those cultural and national rights that are stricken from a nation, are the core to breeding the utmost radicalism – not the other way around.

The basic sociological experiment tells us those places that have problems with culture and national identities are ripe for creating extremism, including terrorism. Iraq’s history proves that exact point. In the history of Iraq, the Kurdish region has always been in the middle of wars between the central government and the Kurds. This conflict has come to a complete halt since the KRG was established within a democratic Iraq.

Mr. Rubin’s mistaken theory continues and prolongs his misconception without any knowledge when he compares the Kurdistan Region to the Palestinians. Mr. Rubin says “Just as Arafat transformed the Palestinian Authority into a safe haven for terrorists, so too does Barzani.” However, there is a significant difference between Kurdistan Region and Palestine. Anyone with a little brain can see that but the Dr.’s Turkish glasses have clouded his eyesight.

1. Palestine is fighting for independence, while the Kurds are seeking a federal system within Iraq and have accomplished that goal. That is one of the reasons that the Kurdish region is the most peaceful since the creation of Iraq.

2. There are radical groups within the Palestine movement that will not stop at independence alone, but rather ask for elimination of Israel. On a contrary, all political parties in Kurdistan have never once denied Iraq or any other neighboring states of existence. All Kurdish movements in Iraq have always asked for peaceful co-existence within a federalist Iraq.

Hence, I find it necessary to ask the Dr. to take off those Turkish glasses that have clouded the simplest truth about the history of the region and have caused him to lose site of all the knowledge he gained in U.S. universities. Obviously, the Dr. has not learned much in all those years of education about liberty and justice for all. If the Dr. wanted to get a PhD in how to become an oppressor, all he had to do is join the Turkish government and become a true Turk that he appears to be. He could have saved himself lots of wasted years and money.