The Kurds fight on

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33664, 14 October 1974, Page 16

The Kurds fight on

The long struggle for independence by Iraq’s Kurdish minority continues. This struggle has been generally forgotten by the world, but when prospects for a settlement are being examined, the fact the problem has an international dimension must not be overlooked. The settlement cannot be confined to Iraq, for the simple reason that the Kurdish people live on the frontiers of four Middle Eastern countries. The Iraqi Kurds number, in round figures, 2.5 million. More than 5 million Kurds live in Turkey, 4.5 million in Iran, 750,000 in Syria, and a smaller number in the Soviet Union. These figures no doubt explain the fears of the four Governments that a nationalist revolt in Iraqi Kurdistan, if not contained, might spread across borders and strengthen the case for creating an all-embracing Kurdish republic, as contemplated by the Treaty of Sevres after the First World War. The possibility of such a revolt may be regarded as remote, but it probably explains the concern of the Iranian Government for the 80,000 refugee Kurds who are being cared for in camps in Iran. In the arena of international politics, the threat may also explain why the Russians have transferred their aid from the Kurds to the Government in Bagdad. They attach more importance to cultivating relations with the Ba’athist regime. Having lost influence in Egypt, Moscow now sees the importance of securing Iraq as a dependable ally in the strategically important Persian Gulf area. The Kurdish irregulars, numbering some 60,000 and still under the leadership of the redoubtable General Barzani, are carrying on their war of liberation with unfaltering courage. They have been forced deeper into the mountains than at any time in the past and the campaign against them is reported to be engaging more than 100,000 Iraqi troops equipped with hundreds of Russian tanks and bombers. Many of the bombers, according to one report, are manned by Soviet crews. This latest campaign was planned, according to Radio Bagdad, finally to destroy a “ treasonous clique and the campaign is about to be checked by the winter snows, which make the Kurdish mountains impenetrable. General Barzani’s force, the Pesh Merga ("Those who face death”), will reorganise again: they say that they will never abandon the fight for full autonomy by way of a settlement which must concede to them the Kirkuk region, which is rich in oil, and offers them guarantees of a fair proportion of the oil revenues. Although the Kurdish cause may be a just cause, the goal is not likely to be attained until the oppressive. Soviet-aligned Ba’athist regime is itself destroyed. Iraq has not known an election since 1958: and. as yet. the emergence of a political and military front with the capacity to achieve a return to democratic government cannot be foreseen.