The recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights declaring the continued detention of Selahattin Demirtas in violation of law and the call from the European Union for his release have also drawn little attention from Western press. There is no coverage of the continuing execution of Kurds in Iran and no information is forthcoming about Turkish repression of Kurds in Turkey.
While there was coverage last year about the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum in Iraq — albeit mostly negative — then and now there was little coverage about the government and militia attacks on Kirkuk and the non-stop violence against the Kurds. None of this is new to the Kurds but put in comparison with other events it should be a cautionary tale for the world.
Had any of this happened to Palestinians the world would be outraged, there would be protests in every major capitol in the West, the UN security council would be holding emergency meetings and there would be 24/7 world press coverage. Why is there greater concern for the Palestinians, who number around 8 million and have a sketchy claim to an identity — other than Arab — than for the Kurds who number more than 50 million and have had a separate culture for millennia?
There are more people in the West who can tell you of the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar than even know about the Kurds and their culture. More is written and discussed about events that took place in the West a century ago than what is happening today to the Kurds, why? Not to say that these problems are not important, but we must ask why the Kurdish situation is not at least considered equally important.
While the root cause of the problem for the Kurds can be laid at the feet of the British, the United States must acknowledge it has now taken ownership and it must resolve the issue. To the disappointment of many, the United States continues to cling to the notion that the boundaries laid out after WWI are inviolate. While three of the four nations that continue to hold large Kurdish populations have traditionally been enemies of the West and the fourth is a western ally only in the sense as a remnant of the cold war, only intransigence allows the United States to keep its head stuck in the ground.
It should not be hard to convince Washington that it is right and moral to begin the process of carving out a Kurdish homeland, especially since the nations which hold the 50 million Kurds are unfriendly to the United States and have at times called for its destruction or have turned its back on the United States.
I hold out little hope that bureaucrats or politicians will soon change their views. I look to the education of the American people to push the issue. If the Palestinians, a group that openly hates the United States and supports terrorist acts around the world, can win support from Americans; what about the Kurds?
US news outlets must be forced to acknowledge the actions of Turkey as they attack foreign countries for the sole purpose of killing an ethnic group under the guise of fighting terrorism. Aerial attacks are not a counterterror measure because they indiscriminately destroy wide swathes of territory. Full-scale military attacks on villages and towns likewise are not tools to fight terrorism. Furthermore, the depopulation of areas and replacing the population with peoples from different areas is a violation of international law.
The current state of limbo for the Kurds must be presented to the world as intolerable. It is time for the Kurdistan Regional Government, Democratic Union Party in Syria and others to begin the process of shaming the world for its failure to act by taking lessons from the Palestinians who demanded observer status in the EU Parliament and in the UN.
Kurdish news organizations must form relationships with Western media to ensure coverage of Kurdish issues. Kurdish citizens and organizations must unite to form voting blocs which will get the attention of politicians and force the politicians to be held accountable. Protests do not work, especially in Washington D.C. were there are any number of protests on a given day. Kurds must get better at Western public relations and force light on the Kurdish problem that cannot be turned off.
Paul Davis is a retired US Army military intelligence and former Soviet analyst. He is a consultant to the American intelligence community specializing in the Middle East with a concentration on Kurdish affairs. He is the President of the consulting firm JANUS Think in Washington D.C. and is also a lecturer at Soran University.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
