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March 22, 2007
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The most admired Independent Kurdish Newspaper from the heart of Kurdistan.
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From the Heart of the Kurdistan Region. The first and only English paper in Erbil.
SOMA Digest, Iraqi Kurdistan's one and only English-language news digest
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The Factors Preventing The Realisation Of The Nation Of Kurdistan
Kurdish Aspect - By Peter Stitt
As a westerner who first discovered “the Kurds” through reading the Economist in the build up to the 1991 Gulf War and then began to realise the magnitude of the Kurdish population when I first met your people in the year 2000, I was initially amazed that such a logical state as Kurdistan did not exist. Further study and first-hand experience of the Kurdish people and Kurdish culture made the lack of a Kurdish homeland, sadly, very understandable.
I base my findings not on the opinions and attitudes of the minority of highly educated and well travelled Kurds but on what I have seen from what one might call the “average” Kurd. When asked why there is no Kurdish state, most people cite Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq as being to blame. Others will say American foreign policy and its relationship with Turkey whilst some will look to the past to explain today’s disasters and blame France and Britain for the “carve up” of the middle-east after World WarII. Being of a polite but confident disposition, I have attracted friends who can be brutally honest in their criticism of me and my actions. Equally, before “judging” anyone else, I must look for fault within myself. I normally find some! I believe the main reasons there is no Kurdish state today lie within the Kurdish people and within Kurdish culture.
I find it painful to write critically of a people I love and a nation I believe in as much as I do my own beloved Scotland, but to not do so would be to not speak the truth as I see it. I have always promised my Kurdish friends that I would tell them the truth even when they did not wish to hear it. They have done the same with me which is why there are so many strong friendships in my life. I would hope I could have an equally honest relationship with the Kurdish nation.
When I first met Kurdish people I would visit their houses to give English lessons, help with contacting Immigration, solicitors, terrible landlords etc. Wanting to learn something your beautiful language I would go to one house and they would teach me some “Kurdish” words, telling me this was the “true” Kurdish language, then visit another and the same thing would happen, I would learn the “true” Kurdish language. I used to write these words down on pieces of paper, cigarette packets, anything. When I came to typing them up properly to make “translation sheets” to help Kurds learn basic English phrases, I found I often had two Kurdish words or phrases for one English word or phrase. When I asked about this people would say one of two things: “Oh that’s not original Kurdish, that’s Bahdini” or “Oh that’s not original Kurdish, that’s Sorani”.
I then found that Kurds were socialising largely within the limits of their own dialectal group, at its best this voluntary segregation bred mistrust, at its worst it erupted in conflict between two groups of people who both pleaded their love of their Motherland. Well informed friends have assured me that, whilst these dialects have been around for a very long time, this “competition” and antipathy did not exist until the Parties started competing with each other for domination. I have already spoken at length in Kurdish Media of my low opinion of Kurdish political leaders and the way in which they use and divide the Kurdish people, often along the fault-lines of the clan system. By the time I arrived in Amed (Diyarbakir) for the first time in August 2002 it had long been clear the US would depose Saddam and it had been obvious that Talabani and Barzani HAD to create a “united Kurdish front”, hence the reformation of the Hewler Parliament. Are these two men capable of putting country before family interests over the long term? History says “no” and the fact that only certain Ministries have become united in the KRG implies they will vie for power against one another someday. Why else would they retain their personal militias? There is a mutual mistrust that undermines any chance of even South Kurdistan being properly united whilst these two Parties have the same leaderships. As for PKK, they are just as self-serving but more vicious whilst replacing the clan system with an equally primitive soviet-style hierarchy.
But, as I said at the outset, one must often look deep “within” to find the roots of a problem. Without the support of large numbers of Kurdish people Ocelan, Talabani and Barzani could not exist, the clan system could not exist. So let’s look at Kurdish culture and attitudes at the grass roots level.
I have had the privilege of meeting many Kurds who were as “modern minded” as anyone in the West, ironically many of them were Kurdish women (a powerful breed of people who deserve much respect), nearly all of them were highly educated. They are not the norm in their outlook.
Young Kurdish men came to Hull in the year 2000 and many of them were extremely innocent in sexual matters, many had never taken an alcoholic drink. They were Muslim and I was proud of their respectful and dignified behaviour. As time went by they became more “westernised” and were very popular with the local girls! Some have now married English women and are starting families, something I see as very positive because the “marrying cousins” system is genetically disastrous for a society. Other young men have just gone crazy, like children given the keys to a sweet shop, and are behaving promiscuously. Many, when asked if it would be alright for a Kurdish man to marry an English girl will answer “Yes.” but, when asked if it would be alright for a Kurdish girl to marry an English man, they answer “No”, and some go on to say that, if their sister married an English man or a non Muslim, they (or other members of their family) would kill her. That is racist, sexist, and is also divisive in religious terms, it is also too common in the thinking of Kurdish men.
A rather more humorous example of sexism occurred when I was watching a video of a family wedding sent from Kurdistan with one young Kurd. “That’s my sister.” He said as he pointed her out on the screen. “She’s very pretty.” I replied. “You like her?” he asked, “Then I shall give her to you, you can marry her.” I burst out laughing and he didn’t seem to understand why I found his words so funny so I tried to explain: “She’s a human being, not a piece of property, you cannot just give her away to someone!” He still didn’t understand but, when I saw him again later he told me he had spoken with his family on the telephone and they were fine with me marrying his sister!
We are now overlapping the thorny issue of religion. I was brought up strictly Roman Catholic whilst my Father was a Protestant. I am only slightly less Conservative than my Father was and I still pray everyday and thank God for this world and the amazing people in it. I have read the Quoran and see little in it that should inspire violence, it seems largely to continue the “peaceful” and “loving” teaching of Jesus. The Taurat contains far more violence than the Quoran. What most people (not just Kurds) fail to understand is that these books were written for the times in which they were written and, whilst the basic principals may still hold true today (Thou shalt not kill etc), the specifics belong in the past.
The “honour killing” in London of poor Banaz Bakabir Agha recently was a despicable act of murder. There is no “honour” in destroying the life of a promising twenty-year old, a life that God created if (like me) you believe in the Bible and the Quoran. Sadly this sort of event is much wider spread than is officially reported within Kurdistan and beyond. My fifteen-year-old son, who lives with me, often does things I disapprove of and will probably choose to marry someone I have doubts about but it is his life, we do not own our children.
Given that there are nearly forty million Kurds around the world, many with access to computers, I wonder why Kurdish names are not flooding the petition to save Malak Ghorbany from being stoned to death in Iran.
Is this because many Kurds still follow the culture of Abasidic Islam (believing it to be “the original”) rather than the more compassionate form I identified within the pages of the Quoran? If this is the case then it is extremely sad and also bad news for any Kurdish future. When, as a twenty-year-old, I told my Father that my girlfriend was pregnant and the family would have its first “illegitimate” child he was horrified. There was never any thought of stoning my girlfriend and I to death though and, eventually, my Father joined me in looking after my girlfriend and our child.
I have met well educated Kurdish women and some of them were married to donkeys no British woman would put up with, they could not leave those relationships due to family pressures. I know your government and education system have been more open to women’s rights than many other middle-eastern states but that is not a great challenge given the oppression in such places as Saudi Arabia. What really matters though is not the attitude of governments but the underlying attitudes of the people and I think there is a need for a great deal of education.
In short, you are surrounded by enemies, America and the other powerful nations do not care about Kurdistan. Your leaders are inadequate and divided, your clan system continues to undermine your nation, your people are allowing this status-quo to continue due to conservative voting, a conservative culture and an insular attitude. I believe Kurdistan, more than ever, belongs “out there” as a player on the world stage, Talabani and Barzani putting nation first and acting more like statesmen rather than tribal village leaders. Your youth is largely scattered around the west, learning to learn, learning to be open to change. The children of the diaspora are the future of Kurdistan.
I pray for Malak Ghorbany and I pray for Banaz. I also pray for Kurdistan and the Kurdish people. I have seen the best of Kurds and the worst of Kurds and the best outweighs the worst, I love Kurdistan and pray the diaspora Kurds will return to bring Kurdistan into the modern world. Without that happening, the Arab wilderness is where Kurdistan will remain. I prefer to see Kurdistan as a future member of the European Union. It is possible but everyone, from leaders to teachers to shepherds, from Kirmanj to Sorani to Bahdini, all must pull in the same direction at the same time and talk in a cultural language the modern world understands, not tribal, clan, feudal, archaic Islamic babble. God bless Kurdistan.
___________________
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