Dr. Zorab Aloian,

Bremen, Germany

Sense of Frustration

It is an old sad story. The Kurds are fighting and making immense sacrifices to achieve the right of self-determination with their heroic stand being a matter of pride to the Kurds and dignity to the mankind. And the Kurdish leaders narrow the wishes of their compatriots to the degree of humiliation, achieving even less than symbolic tokens of Kurdishness. The new leader of Iraq wears traditional Arab clothes, the presumably pro-Kurdish party in Turkey subdues its electorate to the Kemalists and makes statements against the background of the angrily looking at them Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The whole world is laughing at the Kurds and rightly so. We are terrified to hear and read the compliments of the Turkish policy-makers and state-linked journalists to Massud, Jalal Talabani, Roj Shaweyis and Bahram Salih. That is a clear sign of a mistaken policy. Indeed, we would have preferred verbal attacks of our foes displeased by our successes.

For decades main Kurdish military-political groups, under the misleading title of parties, waged a self-destructing war against each other. It is not an exaggeration to state that this long  fratricide cost the Kurds more lives than the murderous actions of Saddam, Turkey and Iran combined. Last year the chances for freedom seemed so attainable, but the Kurdish leaders, miraculously sent to their people from the heavens – not elected at fresh poll stations, over-tried to establish positions in Baghdad and underestimated the necessity to gain influence in Mehabad, Diyrabakir, Afrin and Lachin. Unable to share power and merge their funny but yet power-hungry administrations, they demonstrated to the world that the Kurds are not rife to  concentrate on national goals. As unfortunate as it can be, the radically framed views of Dr. Kemal Mirawdeli, who had been warning of such a fiasco, came true.

Ralph Peters, Shlomo Avineri, Peter Galbraith and many other passionate friends of ours have exhausted themselves in propagating Kurdish independence. True, the Kurdish politicians, instead of blaming the Americans and Sistani, should have rather read Nicolo Macchiavelli and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The former proved that the victors need to get rid of their collaborators who subsequently become a burden to them; they must reward their opponents to retain power in a fair manner. The latter deeply penetrated into human soul and became terrified by the feelings and behaviour characteristic of every man and woman: ingratitude, envy, evil intentions and aggressive egoism.

We congratulate Kurdish ministers in Baghdad, we wish all the best to the Kurdish-born and fluent Turkish-speaking bureaucrats in Diyarbakir and mourn the postponement of our ancient dream. It is naïve to think that people locked in Imrali and Baghdad will ever be able to justify what appears to be the decisive blow to the idea of Kurdish state. Do they hear how millions lost in wars and genocide cry and curse them? Are they able to comprehend what a frustration we all feel in the face of recent developments?