By John Dunkelgrün
After World War I, the Allied powers, mainly Great Britain and France, cut the Ottoman Empire down to size and divided the spoils into countries with British or French oversight. Messrs Sykes and Picot did this in an office far away with their infamous ‘lines in the sand’. They used pencil, paper, and rulers with little regard for the realities on the ground. Because the Arab-Jewish problem could not be immediately solved, Britain was given the mandate over roughly what is now Israel and the West Bank, and lines were drawn to mark Jordan, Libanon, Syria, and Iraq. There had been serious discussion about a homeland for the Jews in part of the mandate but very little for the different peoples, tribes, and religions in the area.
In 1920, in the treaty of Sèvres between the Allies and Turkey, it was decided that there would be a separate country for the Kurds, but the resolution was never ratified. The Kurds are an ancient people of over 30 million who have their own languages and cultures. They are spread out over parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, where they are second-rate citizens if not actually persecuted. Since then, over one hundred thousand of them have been murdered, tortured, or incarcerated, mainly by Turkey. The Kurds, more than anyone in the area, would merit their own country. Yet, there are no demonstrations anywhere with “FREE KURDISTAN” banners, or with “ERDOGAN MURDERER”.
Following the collapse of the Assad Dictatorship, Israel took the precaution of destroying much of the military installations in Syria and almost all of its navy, which had been used to ship Iranian weapons to Hezbollah. The media, the UN, and several countries immediately accused Israel of abusing the situation while ignoring that, at the same time, the Turkish airforce bombed Kurdish areas in Syria, killing hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians.
It is cynical to see politicians, academics, and other people proclaim that what their government is doing to help Israel is ‘NOT IN THEIR NAME’ without a word about Turkey, Hamas, or Teheran.
