The triple of danger to the Kurdistan region

By Dr. Abdul Hakim Bashar
A few days ago, I saw a video of a seminar prepared by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Germany, and a group of independent intellectuals attended the seminar, to discuss the problem of the illegal presence of the party’s gunmen in the region and ways to deal with them.

Before getting to the heart of the matter for me, I see that the Kurdish intellectual is not the one who is fluent in the Kurdish language and writes in it only, despite the importance of writing in the mother language, however, describing some ready-made sentences, words and phrases, such as those memorized by young people without their knowledge of the content of what they are saying, does not fall within the framework of serving the issue. Rather, it is the educated person, first of all, who asks questions related to the essential issues and answers them according to logic.

With regard to the topic of the seminar, which was, in its entirety, revolving around the prevention of fraternal fighting, as they call it, between two parties, one of whom is represented by the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and moves within its territory and sovereignty, and another party imposed itself by force and coercion, and it is not welcomed by the people, represented by the PKK, however, in that seminar, there was a clear tendency to defend the illegal presence of the PKK, and throughout the seminar, none of them asked the essential question: What are the PKK forces doing in the territory of the Kurdistan region and what is the function of these forces? Does the Kurdistan Region seek help? Are they really guests and abide by its laws? And that because of their need for a safe haven, they entered the territory of the region, or did they forcibly enter it by force of arms, occupy the villages and desert their people?

Among the strange propositions in the seminar appeared those who seek to transcend a thousand chapters of logic and reason, it says that the Kurdistan region is a Kurdish land and therefore the PKK forces have the right to be there without anyone's consent, if we applied this crooked logic in other parts of the world, would those countries as a whole turn into open arenas for permanent antagonistic conflicts due to the entry and exit of gangs from and to them? There is no doubt that this logic makes the Kurdistan region in permanent danger, and the following conclusions are based on it:

First- It means that the PKK does not recognize the region’s sovereignty over its lands, its laws, or its legitimate government, even though Iraq and most countries in the world, including the permanent members of the Security Council and the European Union, recognize the region’s legitimacy and deal with its government on that basis.

Second - If the PKK is based on the assumption that it is a Kurdish land and has the right to be there whenever it wants, then this logic gives the Popular Crowd the right to build bases for it in the Kurdistan region outside the will and laws of the regional government, based on the fact that the region is still part of Iraq according to the constitution and even the reality on the ground, and therefore they can tamper with its security and stability.

Third - The logic on which the PKK builds its theory or ideology gives legitimacy to the terrorist Da’esh also to be present in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, based on the principle that Iraq is an Islamic state and part of the Islamic nation.

Thus, what is the justification for the presence of PKK fighters in the Kurdistan region? If they are there in order to secure a safe haven for them, should they not obtain the approval of the regional government? And to abide by its laws, and to place themselves under its protection and administration, and not to cause any harm or damage to the interests of the region, and therefore that they do not take its land as bases for attacking neighboring countries, or are they occupiers like ISIS and the Popular Mobilization, and therefore the region has the right to expel the occupying forces? Or are they based on their ideological convictions, which produced terms contrary to reality, such as the illusory democratic nation, and then set themselves up as guardians of all Kurds?

What happened in the seminar is that the participants were talking ideally about the dangers and opportunities facing the Kurds, but none of them put a finger on the wound and stood on the main fault point in this regard, and since the Kurdistan region is like a semi-independent state and it needs the best relations with neighboring countries, especially Turkey, and if there is a danger to the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan, especially to the Kurdish issue in general, the danger comes from three sources: ISIS, the Popular Mobilization and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Finally, if the PKK wants to mitigate the danger to the Kurdish issue in general and to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in particular, and in order to establish security in the region and the return of the people who were abandoned by the gunmen of the aforementioned party, they have no choice but to obtain the approval of the Regional Government for its presence and to abide by its laws and decisions, including handing over their heavy weapons and their status in specific places under the supervision of the security services of the region or to permanently remove its fighters from the region according to a short timetable. As for following any other path, this means that they, together with the Popular Mobilization and ISIS, pose the greatest danger to the Kurdish cause, like the aforementioned parties.

8-8-2021


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