Kurds’ hopes revive

Press, 20 February 1979, Page 18

Kurds’ hopes revive

By

CHRIS MIDDLETON

The current turmoil in the Middle East has brought hope of new friends for a people who claim to be one of the world's traditionally most friendless—the Kurds.

At present, the Kurds are in disarray, their 16 million people spread across five different Middle Eastern countries, their leaders in exile or the grave, and with more than 150 years of fruitless revolution to look back on.

But now, with the increasing uncertainty in both Iran and Turkey, the Kurds, whose homeland is currently split between Iran. Iraq. Syria and Turkey, believe that for them, at least, a ray of political sunshine may have come through the clouds. Syria and Iraq have announced their intention to merge with each other, a move which the Kurds have interpreted as symbolic of great insecurity, especially on the part of Iraq, by far the wealthier of the two.

Just a year ago, Bagdad and Damascus were at loggerheads, with accusations and counter-accusations of guerrilla activity flying between the capitals. Now they are talking of “total unity,” and the Kurds are cautiously welcoming what they see as the discomfiture such a venture must be causing h is against the Bagdad Ba’athists that the Kurdish efforts have focused in the past ♦Ever since 1961. the Kurds have been carrying on

an almost continual guerrilla war with the Bagdad regime in an attempt to secure greater Kurdish rights and independence. In 1974 the Kurds came closest to their goal, when, with the help of Iranian weapons, their mountain army, the Pesh Merga (Those Who Face Death), won several victories against the Iraqi army. However, this revolt collapsed following the signing of the Algiers Accord between Iraq and Iran, under which the Shah agreed to cut off military aid to the Kurds.

That day—March 6. 1975— is regarded by the Kurds as the blackest day in their calendar full of black days. The Kurds claim that Iraqi reprisals were harsh and farreaching, including executions, destruction of Kurdish villages and mass deportations.

Small groups of Pesh Merga are still reported to be carrying out sporadic guerrilla attacks in the northern mountains, but it is certain that their hope of military victory against Bagdad completely disappeared in 1975. They had little hope of making political headway against the Ba’athists. until news came of the turmoil in Iran.

The Ayatollah Khomeiny, focal point of opposition to the Shah of Iran, is a Shi’ite Muslim. The Kurds believe that with the Ayatollah in power, the Iraqi Shi’ites could encouraged to move against the orthodox Sunni

Muslim-dominated Bagdad regime. That the Sunnis are worried by the potential Shi’ite threat was made amply clear in February, 1977, when a wave of Shi’ite demonstrations at a religious festival ended with eight death sentences, 15 life sentences and two of the sentencing judges sacked—for being too lenient. The Shi’ites comprise the majority of Iraqi Arabs; an alliance of them, the Kurds and even the Iraqi Communists (some of whom are believed to have fought with the Kurds in 1975) is undoubtedly an unpleasant prospect for Bagdad. Even if conflict never comes about, the Kurds hope the threat alone may encourage the Ba’athists to adopt a more lenient Kurdish policy. But things could also go very wrong for the Kurds. The Iraq-Syria merger could merely presage a tighter military clamp-down on all opposition, while internal rivalry between the hard-line Kurdish democratic Party and the less militaristic Patriotic Union of Kurdistan could also split the Kurdish effort. But now, at least, the Kurds say they have a previously uphoped-for prospect of acquiring some political muscle—far more effective than their romantic but unviable mountain war. Yet another hope is that their legendary leader, Mustafa Barzani, now 77 and being treated for cancer in America, will live to see those fhuscles flex.