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Vol. 82/No. 1 January 1, 2018
(front page)
Kurdish people’s independence fight under attack in Iraq, Syria
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Washington, Moscow and the Shiite- and Sunni-led capitalist governments
in the Middle East have been jockeying for position to defend their
national interests as the wars against both the Bashar al-Assad regime
in Syria and Islamic State in Syria and Iraq wind down. A key facet has
been the shifting prospects for the Kurds — the world’s largest
nationality without their own state. There are more than 30 million
Kurds divided among Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
As the final battles to oust the reactionary Islamic State from Iraq
were shaping up, leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government organized
a referendum on independence. Over opposition from Washington and its
imperialist allies, and almost all capitalist governments in the region,
the referendum took place, passing overwhelming. Tens of thousands of
Kurds took to the streets to celebrate.
Saying there could be no independence, the Shiite-led Iraqi regime
organized its troops along with Tehran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias
to seize Kirkuk, nearby oil fields and other territories in the north
that had been under the protection of the KRG. The confrontation was
unequal — the regime had air power, tanks and heavy artillery the Kurds
lacked, all provided by Washington — and the Kurds were divided between
followers of the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan. Washington gave backhanded support to Baghdad’s forces.
The result was a serious setback for the Kurds. Their peshmerga troops
withdrew from some 40 percent of the territory they had held. Kurdish
toilers already faced difficult economic circumstances — Baghdad had cut
off essential finances in 2014, oil prices plummeted, and the KRG took
on the expense of caring for some 1.8 million refugees who sought
protection there. The Kurdish people also face government corruption at
every level.
With working people squeezed for cash, one-third of the markets in
Erbil, the KRG capital, have closed over the past four months.
Protests broke out Dec. 17 in the Kurdish provinces of Sulaymaniyah and
Halabja, with teachers, cops and thousands of other government employees
demanding an end to further cuts in their wages and for improvements in
electrical services. They also protested government corruption.
In Chamchamal, protesters rallied and then attacked a power plant and
blocked the road between Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk. Actions also took
place in Raniya, Saed Sadiq, Taqtaq, Kalar, Qaladze and Ruwanduz.
In some places protesters set fire to the offices of all five Kurdish
political parties. The Kurdistan region’s parliament and all the parties
issued statements saying they agreed protesters demands were just, but
urged them to keep the actions peaceful.
Syria’s Assad calls Kurds ‘traitors’
Kurds in adjoining Syria are also facing threats. Washington relied on
Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces to drive out Islamic
State, and tries to limit territory in which Tehran and its ally
Hezbollah had free sway. With U.S. air support, they defeated IS at
Kobani, Raqqa and Deir el-Zour to the Iraqi border north of the
Euphrates River.
As the Assad regime tottered, Moscow in September 2015 sent bombers and
troops to prop up his rule. This effort has been largely successful,
defeating the anti-Assad rebel forces that grew out of the mass
mobilizations in 2011.
Damascus and Ankara have both threatened to attack the Kurds. Washington
has said it will stop arming the YPG, and has asked for the return of
heavy artillery “loaned” to them.
Assad called Kurds in Syria “traitors” for collaborating with Washington
and carving out their own autonomous region. “All those who work for a
foreign country, mainly those under American command, are traitors,” the
Daily Sabah quoted Assad Dec. 18.
Ankara, which fears that Kurdish gains in Syria or Iraq would stir
nationalist pride and protest in Turkey, where some half of all Kurds in
the region live, also looks to target the YPG.
As part of a deal with Moscow and Tehran to monitor a so-called
de-escalation zone in Syria’s Idlib province, Ankara sent troops and
artillery there. They are now deployed along 22 miles of the border with
Kurdish-run Afrin province, many within 1.3 miles of YPG fighters. The
YPG reports daily exchanges of fire.
“We will clean Afrin of terrorists, we will clean Manbij of terrorists,”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Dec. 18. “We will clean Tel
Abyad, Ras al-Ayn, and Qamishli of terrorists.” In other words all the
Kurdish border areas in Syria.
John Studer contributed to this article.
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