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The catastrophe of October 16 wasn’t the first in the history of Kurdistan and it may not be the last. It sure was a fatal blow and a close a call for the Kurdistan Region proper. It, however, gives a number of clues into what being a Kurd means.
October 16 again reconfirmed that the Kurdish individual has been suffering for decades, persecuted and harmed on their own land under the guide of “imposing the rule of law” or fighting saboteurs.
In 1975, an international and regional conspiracy brought to an end the freedom movement of Mustafa Barzani behind which almost all Kurds rallied.
From the early ‘80s onwards, peaking in 1988, Kurds were attacked with chemical weapons and subjected to mass disappearances far and wide.
But the October 16 blow was so painful that it still is and may forever remain in the Kurdish psyche. We are yet to overcome it. It has garnered a feeling that nothing short of total victory in the future would ever make up for that loss.
October 16 also brought to the surface once again the deeply ingrained Kurdish rivalry and the tendency for treason and among some. As they say, the tragedy of treason is it never comes from the enemy, but within.
In this case certain individuals, under the pretext of protecting Kirkuk, shattered the hopes, the dreams of millions of people who wanted to free themselves from the yoke of Iraq.
The turn of events following the independence referendum and the invasion of Kirkuk further corroborated the belief that we have no friends but the mountains. The US government failed to deter Iran, and Washington’s inaction in support of the Kurds emboldened Tehran.
But above all, October 16 showed the true face of Iraq. Up in the Kurdistan Region we had deluded ourselves into thinking Iraq had changed.
Few of us thought about the fact that Iraq never willingly acknowledged our rights. It was the US liberation of the country in 2003 that pressed Baghdad to come to accept, at least on paper, a fraction of Kurdish rights.
October 16 lifted the lid on the so-called democratic, federal, pluralistic Iraq, and showed us it is anything but.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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