anmeldung

Minority Rights for Turkomans, Assyrians and Armenians

in Iraqi Kurdistan

by Abdulrehman Nakshbandy

Arbil Representative, Kurdish PEN Centre

Paper to be presented

at the Diyarbakir PEN Seminar on Cultural Diversity
Diyarbakir, 20 – 25th March 2005

Esteemed guests,

Dear friends and colleagues from UNESCO, International PEN, Turkish and Kurdish PEN Centres,

Such a pleasant day is today because the wind of March made us closer to Newroz and the latter brought together North and South, East and West. The history is being written by the fact that we succeeded to organise a meaningful event under the international umbrella. The people of Kurdistan move and work together with the rest of the world for the sake of co-operation and progress. The peoples themselves – whether Kurds or Turks, Persians or Arabs, Muslims or Christians, Jews or Yezidi, Sunnis or Shi’as, Alevites or Assyrians – are eager to see a self-confident a democratically oriented Kurdistan.

Let me share with you how the Kurds view all this, how they try to support, protect and encourage non-Kurds living in the Kurdish homeland.

Some may doubt on our position towards the minorities living in Kurdistan. It could be explained by three factors. Firstly, the Kurds have not been in a position to rule over their country and until recently could not display their attitude towards minority groups. Secondly, the surrounding countries were not giving positive examples of full respect of minorities, their languages, religions and cultures. And thirdly, the Kurdish history has not been satisfactorily recorded and studied to show the world outlook of the Kurds concerning minorities. Therefore, there has been a sense of fear that if the Kurdish political class was to obtain a power, it would behave similarly to other Middle Eastern regimes.

What was unknown is that the Kurds have a strong tradition of hospitality and that their dream of independence lasted so long that they would not risk their achievements by acting irresponsibly. The Kurds know very well that a person alone, a tribe alone or a nation alone are unable to create a prosperous life.

Dear guests and colleagues,

If there had been doubts on the issue of minority rights in Kurdistan, the year of 1992 did away with them. Immediately after the Kurds liberated a part of their country from the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein, there were issued sincerely motivated laws and decrees to accommodate the whole population of Kurdistan, both Kurds and non-Kurds. Let me refer to the clauses of few legal documents treating minority rights in South Kurdistan.

Clause I:

1. There is a unanimously agreed special law on Assyrian, Chaldean and Turkoman minority communities in South Kurdistan.

2. There has been an adopted legislation concerning Christian and Yezidi religious groups who alongside the majority Muslims enjoy equal rights; representatives of other religious are also free to exercise their beliefs in accordance to the principle of free consciousness.

3. There is no restriction to religious practices, all of which are being respected both legally and socially.

4. The communities’ estates are protected by the Kurdistan authorities who are legally responsible for their well-being.

Clause II:

1. The Kurdistan regional government undertakes responsibility to grant every ethnic and religious minority the same set of rights – political, social, cultural and economic - that is being granted to the majority population of Kurdistan. In doing so, the regional government makes a very strong case for equality.

Clause III:

1. The abolishment of every kind of inequality between individuals living in Kurdistan and fight against any form of discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, culture, gender and race. The individuals living in Kurdistan are free to choose their religious and ideological adherence without any restriction to this right by any state body.

Clause IV:

The Kurdistan regional government works towards the creation of a unified legal document providing minorities with religious and linguistic rights that will contribute to general progress and make them proud of their roots.

Clause V:

The Kurdistan regional government supports any effort of minority communities to go back to their former residential places and re-claim their properties (including houses, land and political rights). As is known, due to unlawful practices of former Iraqi regimes as well as previous phases of instability in Kurdistan, some of them were compelled to leave Iraqi Kurdistan without any compensation.

Clause VI:

There are legal provisions of representative rights for various ethnic and religious minorities in the Kurdistan Regional Parliament as well as in municipal councils according to their numbers.

Clause VII:

1. The minorities in Kurdistan have the right of education in mother tongues. The Kurdistan regional government is responsible for enabling, financing and providing other forms of assistance for their education in mother tongues.

2. There is no restrictions or bans on linguistic and cultural expression of minority groups in mass media, broadcasting and other printing forms.

3. The Kurdistan regional government works towards preservation and developing regional languages and dialects.

4. The members of religious communities – if their number allows this - are entitled to be instructed in their religious traditions in state schools.

5. The non-Muslims are not obliged to learn Islamic religion.

Clause VIII:

1. The residents who have been expelled from their native places, including Assyrians, Chaldeans, Turkomans, Yezidis and Kurds are being financially encouraged by the authorities to return to their former residential areas.

2. The Kurdistan regional government pays a special attention to villages and townships populated by ethnic and religious minorities. The government prevents changes in their specificities as minority areas.

Clause IX:

The ethnic and religious minorities have the right to freedom of speech on political, cultural, economic and social matters.

Clause X:

The various minority groups exercise their right to set up cultural and social centres and associations.

Clause XI:

The native population together with ethnic and religious minorities have the right to celebrate their festivities and fast according to their traditions. During such events, in the areas where they constitute a considerable number, they may stay at home in working days.

Clause XII:

1. The ethnic and religious minorities have the right to give their children names according to their specificities.

2. The Kurdistan regional government makes every effort to preserve and give historical locations their original names and specificities by reversing, if needed, the Baathists’ policy of renaming and forceful demographic changes.

Clause XIII:

The Kurdistan regional government joined or rather regards itself a party of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Dear participants and guests of the Diyarbakir Seminar,

These are a part of law and decrees adopted by the Kurdistan regional parliament and adhered to by the Kurdistan regional government. These documents give us sufficient grounds to overcome doubts and concerns about the readiness of the Kurds to respect minority rights and freedoms in any future development in Kurdistan.

The question may arise, why the Kurds do all this?

The answer is very simple.

A person who smokes cannot ban smoking.

A person taking his kids to the school cannot ban schools.

A person who struggles to speak his language cannot ban other languages.

We, the Kurds are well aware that a person who had previously been starving will never agree that anyone else has to starve.

I wish you every success!

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