The Kurdish Spring
2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 34; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01436597.2013.785339
ISSN1360-2241
Autores Tópico(s)Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics
ResumoAbstract Abstract The purpose of this article is to survey the Kurdish Spring (demands for meaningful democracy along with cultural, social, and political rights and their immediate implementation) that has occurred in the aftermath of the much better known Arab Spring which began in late 2010. To this end it analyses the situation in Turkey, Iraq and Syria. In Turkey the failure of the government's much heralded Kurdish Opening and the prospects for its renewal are investigated. This includes the continuing kck arrests and sentencings that seem more a war on dissent than on terror. In Iraq the rise of the Gorran Party, anti-government demonstrations which occurred in 2011, and Kurdistan Regional Government (krg) president Massoud Barzani's recent hints that the krg will declare independence are discussed. The failure to agree on a hydrocarbons law and on a boundary for the krg are two major reasons for Barzani's position. For Syria the article analyses the assassination of Mishaal Tammo in October 2011 and the rise of the pkk-affiliated pyd against the background of Syria suddenly becoming a major factor in the Kurdish Spring. Iran's relative quiescence will also be noted. Notes 1 For recent analyses of the Kurdish problem in Turkey, see MC Unal, Counterterrorism in Turkey: Policy Choices and Policy Effects toward the Kurdistan Workers' Party ( pkk ), London: Routledge, 2012; C Gunes, The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance, London: Routledge, 2012; and MM Gunter, The Kurds Ascending: The Evolving Solution to the Kurdish Problem in Iraq and Turkey, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. For recent scholarly work on the akp, see U Cizre (ed), Secular and Islamic Politics in Turkey: The Making of the Justice and Development Party, London: Routledge, 2007; M Hakan Yavuz (ed), The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the ak Parti, Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2009; and W Hale & E Ozbudun, Islamism, Democracy and Liberalism in Turkey: The Case of the akp , New York: Routledge, 2010. See also MM Gunter & MH Yavuz, 'Turkish paradox: progressive Islamists versus reactionary secularists', Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, 16, 2007, pp 289–301. 2 Author's contacts with Kurdish sources in Europe and the Middle East. See also C Candar, 'The Kurdish question: the reasons and fortunes of the "Opening"', Insight Turkey, 11, 2009, pp 13–19. 3 For my earlier analysis up to January 2011, see MM Gunter, 'Turkey's Kurdish initiative', Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, 34, 2011, pp 23–34. 4 R Wilson, 'Turkish election: an akp victory with limits', New Atlanticist: Policy and Analysis Blog, 13 June 2011, at http://www.acus.org/new_atlanticist/turkish-election-akp-victory-limits, accessed 2 September 2011. 5 'Kurds make big gains in Turkish election', Today's Zaman, 13 June 2011, at http://www.todayszaman.com/news-247215-kurds-make-big-gains, accessed 3 September 2011. For background on Turkey's legal, pro-Kurdish parties, such as the bdp, see NF Watts, Activists in Office: Kurdish Politics and Protest in Turkey, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2010. 6 H Guler, 'Parliament—boycotting bdp plans to take oath in October', Today's Zaman, 21 August 2011, at http://www.todayszaman.com/news-255011-parliament-boycotting-bdp, accessed 3 September 2011. 7 'Prominent Kurdish politician stripped of parliamentary seat in Turkey', Kurd Net, 23 June 2011, at http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2011/6/turkey3267.htm, accessed 3 September 2011. 8 The kck is a recently created umbrella organisation that supposedly includes the pkk. In effect, the kck is the pkk. 9 R Tait, 'Turkey's military strikes could herald closure for Kurdish opening', rfe/rl, 24 August 2011, athttp://www.rferl.org/content/turkish_offensive_could_close_kurdish_opening/24307002.ht, accessed 29 August 2011. 10 'Turkey prepares for ground assault on Kurdish rebels in Iraq', Deutsche Welle, 24 August 2011, at http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0, 15342116,00.html, accessed 29 August 2011. The pkk killed nearly 40 Turkish soldiers at the beginning of July 2011, claiming its attacks were in retaliation for earlier government special forces operations that had killed more than 20 rebels. 11 S Fraser, 'Turkey says it killed 100 Kurdish rebels in Iraq', Associated Press, 23 August 2011, at http://cnsnews.com/news/article, accessed 29 August 2011. 12 The following discussion and citations are taken from H Eissenstat, 'A war on dissent in Turkey', Human Rights Now, at http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror, 4 November 2011, accessed 13 November 2011. Although it is true that the pkk/kck occasionally still uses terrorist methods, when one looks at what the Turkish state has done in the past and still does, it should be clear who the real terrorist was and still is. For example, the kck arrests of non-violent Kurdish activists and their supporters were continuing into 2013. 13 'Leyla Zana stands by Erdogan remarks in spite of bdp reaction', Today's Zaman, 15 June 2012, at http://www.todayszaman.com/news-283606, accessed 18 June 2012. 14 'Zana reveals details of Erdogan meeting', Hurriyet Daily News, 1 July 2012, at http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/zana, accessed 13 July 2012. 15 Human Rights Watch, 'Turkey arrests expose flawed justice system', 1 November 2011, at http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/01/turkey-arrests-expose, accessed 13 November 2011. 16 Ibid. Meral Danis Bestas, the current vice-chair of the bdp, told me on 16 May 2012 when I spoke to her through a translator in London that more than 6000 had been detained by the Turkish authorities. 17 See J Hess, 'Behind the Kurdish hunger strike in Turkey', merip , 8 November 2012, at http://merip.org/auathor/jake-hess, accessed 10 November 2012. 18 See, for example, SA Cook, 'Arab Spring, Turkish Fall', Foreign Policy, 5 May 2011, at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/05/arab_spring_turkish_fall, accessed 5 July 2012. 19 On the need to replace Turkey's current tutelary, statist and authoritarian constitution written by the military in 1982, see E Ozbudun, The Constitutional System of Turkey: 1876 to the Present, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 20 See, for example, H Khoshnaw, 'North Kurdistan (Turkey): secret talks reported between Turkey and imprisoned pkk leader', Rudaw, 11 July 2012, at http://www.mesop.de/2012/07/11/north-kurdistan-turkey-secret-talks, accessed 11 July 2012. This article states that 'the English are mediating between the pkk and mit [Turkish National Intelligence Organisation]', and also refers to the intermediary roles of Leyla Zana (see below) and Ilhami Isik (Balikci). 21 This and the following data were garnered from A Donmez & A Albayrak, 'Government to put together a new roadmap on Kurdish issue', Zaman, 22 October 2012, at http://www.mesop.ed/2012/10/22/government-to-put-together, accessed 23 October 2012. 22 M Yetkin, 'A rare chance in the Kurdish problem', Hurriyet Daily News, 7 January 2013, at http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/a-rare-chance, accessed 14 January 2013. 23 D Bilefsky & A Cowell, '3 Kurds are killed in Paris in locked-door mystery', New York Times, 10 January 2013. As of this writing (1 February 2013) the Parisian police have a suspect under arrest, but it is still not clear if he is guilty and, if so, what his motives are. 24 '100 pkk militants to lay down arms: report', Hurriyet Daily News, 29 January 2013, at http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/100-pkk-militants, accessed 29 January 2013; 'pkk: disarmament & ceasefire in February?', Hurriyet, 29 January 2013, at http://www.mesop.de/2013/01/29/pkk-disarmament-ceasefire, accessed 29 January 2013; and 'Turkey and the Kurds: progress on the horizon', Guardian, 6 February 2013, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentsfree/2013/fe/06/turkey-kurds-progress, accessed 7 February 2013. 25 For background, see MM Gunter, 'Arab–Kurdish relations and the future of Iraq', Third World Quarterly, 32(9), 2011, pp 1623–1635. 26 For more background, see K Chomani & J Hess, 'Pro-democracy demonstrations in Northern Iraq/South Kurdistan', 2 March 2011, at http://www.mesop.de/2011/03/02/pro-democracy, accessed 3 March 2011. 27 'Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani seeks right to self-determination', Ekurd.net, 11 December 2011, at http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles, accessed 5 June 2012. 28 'US Senator McCain expects Iraq gov't to collapse and split into three different states', Ekurd.net, 11 January 2012, athttp://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles, accessed 5 June 2012. 29 JR Biden & LH Gelf, 'Unity through autonomy in Iraq', New York Times, 1 May 2006. 30 B Malone, 'Iraqi calls Turkey "hostile state" as relations dim', Reuters, 20 April 2012, at http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/21/us-iraq-turkey-id, accessed 5 June 2012. 31 For further background, see O Bengio, 'Turkey: a midwife for a Kurdish state?', Jerusalem Post, 12 June 2012. 32 'Kurdistan's Barzani suggests Iraq might use F-16s against Kurds', Ekurd.net, 9 April 2012, at http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles, accessed 5 June 2012. 33 L Jakes, 'Iraq's Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani hints at secession', Ekurd.net, 25 April 2012, at http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles, accessed 5 June 2012. 34 'Before a full-blown war?', Aswataliraq.ingo, 22 November 2012, at http://www.mesop.de/2012/11/22/before-a-full-blown, accessed 24 November 2012. 35 For background, see J Tejel, Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society, London: Routledge, 2008. 36 Assad's late father Hafeez al-Assad had long granted the pkk a virtual alliance and safe house in Syria until Turkey's threat to go to war in 1998 forced him to sign the Adana Agreement under which Syria finally expelled the pkk. The pyd had by that time been created in 2003 largely out of former pkk members. 37 The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna in March 1928 as a pan-Islamic, political, and social Islamist revivalist movement. Over the years it has gained support as arguably the most influential pan-Sunni Islamist opposition organization, combining political activism with Islamic charity work within the Arab world. It has apparently existed in Syria since the late 1930s. However, when the secularist, pan-Arab Baath Party came to power in Syria in 1963 it banned the Muslim Brotherhood. It became a capital offence to belong to it in Syria in 1980 under Emergency Law 49, which was only revoked in 2011. Bashar Assad's father Hafeez Assad brutally crushed an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama in 1982. Thus, the Muslim Brotherhood's support in Syria remains relatively weak because of its perceived support for extreme Islamic causes, sectarian violence and its diminishing by the Assad regime. See, on these final points, H Hassan, 'How the Brotherhood builds power in Syria's opposition', The National, 12 November 2012, at http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/how-the-brotherhood, accessed 12 November 2012. 38 'The murder of Mischa Al-Tammu', Kurdwatch, 15 June 2012, at http://www.mesop.de/2012/06/17/the-murder, accessed 18 June 2012. 39 A Abdulmajid, 'Violent confrontations between Kurdish groups in Syria', Rudaw, 10 June 2012, at http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4825.thml, accessed 11 June 2012. 40 In addition to Tejel, Syria's Kurds, see K Yildiz, The Kurds in Syria: The Forgotten People, London: Pluto Press, 2005, pp 23–42. 41 'Prominent Kurdish activist assassinated in Syria', Rudaw, 8 October 2011, at http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4040.thml, accessed 6 June 2011. 42 O Hassino & I Tanir, 'The decisive minority: the role of Syria's Kurds in the anti-Assad revolution', Henry Jackson Society Report, March 2012, at http://www.scpss.org/libs/spaw, accessed 6 June 2012. See also D Natali, 'Syrian Kurdish cards', merip , 20 March 2012, athttp://www.merip.org, accessed 18 June 2012. 43 E Uslu, 'How Kurdish pkk militants are exploiting the crisis in Syria', Terrorism Monitor, 9 April 2012, at http://www.jamestown.org/, accessed 6 June 2012. 44 N Shwany, 'Is that right to accuse the pyd for supporting Bashir Assad … ', Ekurd.net, 7 March 2012, at http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles, accessed 6 June 2012. 45 'Interview with Salih Muhammad, President of pyd', Firat News, February 2012, at http://en.firatnews.eu/index.php?, accessed 28 February 2012. 46 Rudaw, 6 February 2012. 47 Ibid. 48 Rudaw, 28 February 2012. 49 Pydrojava.net, 12 April 2012. 50 'Turkey's henchmen in Syrian Kurdistan are responsible for the unrest here', KurdWatch, 8 November 2011, at http://www.kurdwatch.org, accessed 6 June 2012. 51 I Avci, 'pkk allegedly kills another Kurdish politician in Syria', Today's Zaman, 28 March 2012, at http://www.todayszaman.com, accessed 6 June 2012. 52 Cited in 'Turkey's henchmen', KurdWatch, 8 November 2011. 53 Cited in ibid. 54 Cited in Pydrojava.net, 12 April 2012. 55 Cited in 'The Kurdish Patriotic Conference is nothing more than a name', KurdWatch, 21 March 2012, at http://kurdwatch.org.html/en/syria, accessed 6 June 2012. 56 Arango, 'Kurds prepare to pursue more autonomy in a fallen Syria', New York Times, 28 September 2012, at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/world/middleeast/kurds-to-pursue, accessed 23 October 2012; and A Al Tamimi, 'Syria's Kurds stand alone after rejecting rebels and regime', The National, 23 July 2012, at http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/syrias-kurds, accessed 25 July 2012. 57 Alliance for Kurdish rights, 'International support of Kurdish uprising in Syria', Kurdishrights.org, 6 February 2012, at http://kurdishrights.org/2013/02/06/international-support, accessed 8 February 2013. 58 'Exorbitant human rights violations in Iran', Voice of America, 8 June 2012, at http://www.mesop.de/2012/06/08/exorbitant, accessed 8 June 2012.
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