XIV. IS OUTSIDE POWERS’ INTEREST IN KURDS MAINLY BECAUSE OF HUMANITARIAN CONCERNS?
Kurds’ becoming of center of attraction at an international level coincided with the ending of the Gulf War in 1991. In fact, Kurds became a point of attraction for the powerful states as early as in the beginning of the 20th century when oil fields were discovered in the Middle East and the weak Ottoman Empire controlling the region was in the course of disintegration (see CHAPTER III). There are lots of evidences from the past and today telling that the concerns for Kurds have been largely due to strategic and national interests in the region rather than humanitarian. Britain which brought emergence of a Kurdish state to the attention with the Sevres Treaty in 1920 took a quite different stand in the negotiations for a new peace treaty with the newly formed Turkish state in Lausanne in 1923. While the future of the Mosul province was being discussed, Lord Curzon, having noticed that the will of the people in the province was to unite with Turkey, argued as follows: "... why shall a plebiscite be invoked in the province? Ankara demands a plebiscite. Kurds have never demanded it. This poor nation even does not know what it means. Arabs and Turks in the province have also never demanded plebiscite. The only people demanding it are the Turks of Ankara."70
While there is no country with the exception of Turkey and Israel having a democratic regime in the Middle East, different stands from Western countries on the improvement of democracy and human rights for the same sort of oppressive regimes could be explained by the strategic and economic importance of the rich oil reserves as being the real determinant. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have 9.4% and 26% of proven world oil reserves respectively while Iraq has more than 10%.71 Russian and French firms signed agreements with Iraq for the development of its oil fields.72 Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian oil firms which are partly owned by the US and British companies, on the other hand, try to protect and increase their share in the world oil market in the absence of Iraq. These relations and common interests have their reflection on policy. While Russia and France tend to lift the embargo on Iraq, the two other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Britain and the United States of America insist on keeping it. For the autocratic regimes like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where dynasties reign, no word for the respect for human rights and democracy has been spelled.
The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in 1946 is an example of using Kurdish nationalism against the territorial integrity of regional states and for political reasons by the Soviet Union, predecessor to today’s Russian Federation. This Republic sponsored by the Soviets in Iran collapsed following the forced removal of Soviets from Iran under Anglo-American pressure. Military leader of the Republic, the Iraqi Kurd, Mulla Mustafa Barzani escaped to Soviet Union and lived there in exile from 1947-1958 and he was then called as "Red" Mulla.73 Russia with its brutal oppression and massacre of Chechens who do not desire to live under Russian rule had caused the most flagrant violations of human rights. Russia apparently implemented a policy that might be construed as backing to separatist violence in Turkey in retaliation of what Russia might regard as material or moral support from Turkey to Chechen resistance and also to have greater share in the production and transportation of Azerbaijani oil in which Turkey seemed a potential rival.74 It is likely that allowing Moscow to become the venue for the meeting of the PKK controlled "Kurdistan Parliament in Exile" on October 30, 1995 was one of the outcomes of that Russian policy. Furthermore, Communist and ultra-nationalist elements in Russian politics, particularly in the Russian parliament see Turkey as a potential expansionist force that will eradicate Russian influence in the newly independent states of Central Asia and Caucasus. In this context, pro-Kurdish movements and the PKK, the terrorist organization are considered as valuable policy tools to counter what is seen as Turkey’s expansionism. In a report presented to the Russian parliament on June 25, 1996, it was expressly stated that Turkey should have serious internal conflicts to stop its expansionist policies against Russia.75
It is a known fact that the insurgency in Northern Iraq from 1970-1974 by the supporters of Mulla Mustafa Barzani was backed by the US Administration, Israel and the then ally of the USA, Iran which had dispute with Iraq. But when the dispute between Iraq and Iran ended with the Algiers Agreement in 1975, the support given to the insurgent Kurds also ended leaving them in the hands of Iraqi regime.76
In the aftermath of the Gulf War in 1991 with the declaration of "Safe Haven" it was intended to save people living in Northern Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s oppression and the embargo on Iraq had been imposed. The fightings with many casualties among local Kurdish factions and between the PKK and those factions, and PKK’s use of the Northern Iraqi territory for its attacks in Turkey that cause the death of innocent civilians point to the fact that the lack of authority in the region should immediately come to an end. The worst suffering from the embargo on Iraq has been sustained by the people in the region. Poverty and the harsh conditions of living continuously in need of foreign aid are the problems that need to be urgently solved. From the humanitarian point of view, those problems might become more pressing than the overthrow of Saddam and the dismantling of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
It is argued that Kurds can benefit from the circumstances created by the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc in a time when the ideals of freedom, democracy and human rights are focused primarily.77 However, considering the developments in the Middle East, Balkans and Caucasus as a whole, it becomes harder to believe that the attention paid to the Kurds is based on humanitarian concerns and the importance attached to those ideals.
One of the biggest tragedies faced in the history of mankind was experienced in Europe, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The most flagrant human rights violations and the violations of the basic principle of no change of borders by force in International Law and violations of UN Security Council Resolutions were tolerated. The determination displayed against Iraq’s invasion of oil-rich Kuwait was not repeated in the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was also a recognized sovereign state. While one-fifth of Azerbaijani territory has been under Armenian occupation with more than one million Azeri refugees fleeing, the USA imposed embargo on Azerbaijan. When brutalities in Chechnya were exposed to the international community, Chechens’ human rights were not echoed and not defended accordingly by Western public opinion.
70 Hikmet Uluğbay, İmparatorluktan Cumhuriyete Petropolitik [Petro-politics From the Period of Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey] (Ankara: Turkish Daily News Yayınları, 1995), p. 217. For the inclusion of Kurds in Iraq against their will with the imposition by British colonialism because of the importance to the British of oil in Iraq’s Kirkuk region, see the footnote in Fuller, "The Fate...", p. 112.
71 Dr. Andrew Rathmell, "The Struggle for Control of Gulf Oil", Jane’s Intelligence Review, Vol. 7 Number 8 (August 1995), p. 356.
72 Rathmell, "The Struggle...", p. 357.
73 Gunter, The Kurds..., pp.110-111.
74 Mustafa Balbay, "Shell-Güneydoğu-Hollanda-Fransa" [The Shell Company-The Southeast-The Netherlands-France], Cumhuriyet, 7 December 1995.
75 A. D. Orlov, "Türkiye’nin Jeopolitik Yayılımı ve Rusya’nın Güvenliği" [Geopolitical Expansion of Turkey and Russia’s Security], Avrasya Dosyası, Volume 3 Number 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 93-98.
76 Turan Yavuz, ABD’nin Kürt Kartı [Kurdish Card of the USA] (İstanbul: Milliyet Yayınları, 1993), pp. 49-78; Izady, The Kurds, p. 68; Fuller, "The Fate...", p. 108.
77 Fuller, "The Fate...", p. 112.