Kardo Bokani:
Kurdistan is currently invaded by Turkey to the north and Iran to the east. Both Turkish army and the Iranian Revolution Guards Corps have pledged to eradicate the Kurds from their roots. Although they have regularly carried out military operations aiming at the total capitulation of the Kurds along with the liquidation of Kurdish liberation movement, their increasing operations have reached a new level and it can not be ignored as it has been. Tremendous opportunities were given to the occupying powers of Kurdistan to solve the Kurdish issue in a democratic and peaceful way, but not only they haven’t taken a single step to solve the issue, they regard the Kurdish call for democracy and peace as a sign of weakness and then escalate military operations.
In the recent days both Turkey and Iran have extended their use of violence in Kurdistan because they see the Kurds as powerless, trapped among them, with no friend, and no one who could ever hear their voice. Thus let’s strike them with the utmost brutality, slaughter them as no one could ever tell, massacre them with all your might – they are surrounded by enemies from each side – who the hell is going to give a slightest thought? Murder them with all the power you posses, because they are powerless. No worry they can’t strike back, if they do, we hold the weapon of ‘terrorism’ that we can place it upon them to justify our inhumanity, our savagery… Any one who stands up to defend Kurdish identity will be labelled as ‘terrorist’ and their annihilation well be justified… So let’s bomb the their villages, besiege it then, entire villages, search it and arrest anyone who come out in defence of their national right, lets hunt them down like animals, put them in the concentration camps, torture them to death, we are the state agents and the violence committed by the state is justified. As Max Weber holds ‘the state has the monopoly of the power and violence’, and as his student Karl Schmitt outlined: ‘the violence is no more violence once it is practised by the state’. We are the state and hold all these rights, and if the unwanted Kurds defend themselves we hold the weapon of ‘terrorism’ that we can place on them. The entire world stands behind us on this anti-stateless-nation-war, because we are the state having allies!
Furthermore the Kurds are one of the most oppressed nations in the world; divided between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria by Lausanne Treaty in 24th July 1923. The Treaty denied the very existence of the Kurds as a nation, rendered them homeless, devoid of identity and the focal point of attacks by the regional colonialism. Having the population of 40 millions but not having a piece of land where they could live in peace and harmony; lacking homeland and always on the run for freedom and equality makes the Kurds as one of the thirstiest nations for freedom. This is why, although oppressed and subjected to genocidal policies of these oppressive states of Middle East, they are never prepared to submit to their colonial policies or occupation. The fact that the Kurds have been subjected to genocidal scale of violence in 1923-38 by Turkish state, 1979 by the Iranian state, 1980s by the Iraqi Baath regime, makes the Kurdish right of self-determination as an objective necessity.
In the current situation which the Turkish army and the Iranian Revolution Guards Corps have invaded Kurdistan with the aim of annihilating of the Kurdish liberation movement, and the consequent capitulation of Kurdish people, this is the legitimate right of the Kurds to defend themselves against such offensives. The problem with mentalities of the occupiers is that they have failed to realise that the Kurds of ‘today’ is not the Kurds of ‘yesterday’. They have stopped short of understanding that Apoist Movement is not Sheik Said rebellion or the Kurdish Republic which they liquidated for the short term. The Kurds now have become a main regional power and do not allow anyone to trample on their dignity. Kurds like many other nations in the world would benefit from the right of self-defence as enshrined in the United Nation Charter (Article 51) and defend their national and freedom values. Similar to the American citizens who hold guns to protect themselves against “I don’t know what…” the Kurds do hold similar right to protect themselves against the offensives of some of the most violent states of the world namely Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.