Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka C;ape-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti FINANCIAL TIMES TUESDAY NOVEMBER 7 2006 Iraq: demographic breakdown Idea of dividing Iraq into three wins adherents As the US casts around for an exit strategy from the Iraq morass, the possibility of partition is increasingly talked of But the cure could be worse than the disease, reports Roula Khalaf In the run-up to the Iraq war m 2003 Arab allIes of the US unIted In warnIng that regIme change must preserve the country's temtonal mtegrity The only fear that loomed larger than the threat of Saddam Hussem was the msmtegratIon of an Important Arab states Three years on, as Iraq is tom by sectarian stnfe and the US looks for an eXIt strategy, some voices in Washmgton have started to ask whether the pnce of terntorial mtegrlty IS worth paying The WhIte House stIll mamtams that partitIon IS a "non-starter" But some form of separatIOn has now become a fashIonable concept, promment in the US debate over Iraq's future Advocates say the Kurds have enJoyed autonomy in the north for more than a decade and SULUlland Shia milItants have been slaughtenng each other for months so they too mIght be mIght be better off going theIr separate ways Suoh a solution, the argument goes, would allow fot an orderly outcome and permit US forces to WIthdraw Yet Implementing any plan for separatIon has dangerous ImplIcatIOns that extend beyond the borders of Iraq, provokmg a much nas- ~ tIer and WIder COnflIct over control of tern tory and OIl resources. WhIle Kurds and some Shla Islamlst partIes indeed favour a loose federatIon, a survey by the US InternatIOnal RepublIcan InstItute m June showed most IrC'qls, mcludmg m the Shla communIty, oppose partItIon "That people are talkmg about It [partItIon] IS an mdlcatIon of how bad the SItuatIOn IS and a recogmtIon at last that there IS CIVIl war ragIng," says Lakhdar Brahlml, the former UN envoy to Iraq. "But one must be extremely careful and people have to understand that the alternatIve to a umted Iraq IS not three mdependent entItIes, but chaos that will expand to all the regIon" Federalism has been one of the most dIVISIve Issues smce the collapse of the Hussem regIme It was at the heart of the mspute over the constItutIOn last year, WIth Sunm Aiabs leaders opposed to Shla partIes' mcluslOn of a clause that allows for the formatIOn of southern federal regions, worned It would eventually lead to the break-up of Iraq and depnve their oil-poor regIOns of mcome Another objectIon was over oil dIstnbutIon the constItutIon says the central Majority groups a Kurd !!!!!!!!!!I Sunm Arab _ Sunm Arab/Kurd mix ~ ShlaArab o ShlaiSunm Arab mix ,0 Sunm Turkoman o Sparsely populated government should be allowed to control eXlstmg 011 fIelds but IS vague on who should control newly developed fIelds In the US, advocates of partItIOn mclude Senator Joe Blden, the rankmg democrat on the Senate ForeIgn RelatIOns CommIttee, and LeslIe Gelb, preSIdent Emeritus of the CounCIl on ForeIgn Relations They fIrst argued m a New York TImes article m May that US polIcy should shIft to establIshmg three autonomous regIOns, each The minute you say we're going to make three autonomous . , regions, you re likely to kick off a huge civil war' responSIble for their own domestIc laws, admiOlstratIon and u'ltemal security. The central government would control border defence, foreIgn affairs, and oil revenues. Baghdad, under the plan, would become a federal zone, WIth areas of mixed populatIons receIVIng multI-sectanan and internatIonal polIce protectIon But James Baker, the former US secretary of state who IS leadmg a group set up by Congress to make recommendatIOns on Iraq pol- ICY, has raised senous doubts about partitIOn, pomtmg out that many IraqI cItIes have mIXed Shla and Sunm reSIdents "How do you draw the boundanes?" he told ABC TeleviSIOn last month "And the mmute you say we're gomg to do that and make three autonomous regIons, you're lIkely to kIck off a huge CiVIlwar." MIchael O'Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookmgs InstItutIon m Washmgton, says one way IS for the US to help enable voluntary ethnic relocatIon WIthin Iraq Some 100,000 IraqIS already are mternally dISplaced, he notes, argumg that the Sunm could be persuaded to accept a form of partItIOn If the central governmg body mstributed oil revenues eqUItably, on a per capIta baSIS, rather than on geography In the Arab world, diVIdmg Iraq - takmg It back to a three-provlUce system that eXIsted under the Ottoman empIre - puts m questIon the whole structure of modern states m the regIon and sets a dangerous precedent "Many Arabs who WIllcertamly mterpret the (partitIon) proposal as an effort to fragment Iraq to Israel's benefIt," analyst Michael Young wrote recently m Lebanon's DaIly Star. "You will hear the famIlIar tropes that thIS IS all part of a vast neo-conservatlve project to weaken the Arab world" In admtlOn to facmg stIff resIstance from the Sunm of Iraq, Arab analysts say that partItion would upset the balance of power In tile regIOn and potentIally spark multIple conflIcts A separate Shla entIty could encourage other Shla mmontIes to demand theIr own autonomy, and fIrmly put southern Iraq under Iraman mfluence. A Kurdish entIty, meanwhIle, could provoke interventIOn from Turkey, afraId of the impact on its own KurdIsh minonty. A SUllllI region may well be controlled by extremIst Islamlsts, invitmg mterventIon from Sunm Arab states "PartitIon IS a mghtmare - you'd have a faIled Sunm state, an al-Qaeda state," says Nawaf Obald, a Saum security analyst and government adVIser Anthony Cordesman, MIddle East expert at Washmgton's Centre for StrategIc and International StudIes, says some form of partItIon may become meVItable but It would only be practIcal If It is the product of politIcal comprOmIse by IraqIs themselves, not an ImposItIon from the outSIde "One of the great problems IS that thIS has to play out Wlthm Iraq," he says But Mr Ilrahimi, the former UN envoy, says the unfortunate thing about the Iraq debate IS that "no one IS talkmg about Iraq any more, but about how the BntIsh and the US will get out" IraqIs, he adds, are diVIded enough as it is "ForeIgners should not make diVISIOns worse than they are " 17
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka C;ape-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti Narrative of exile among Kurds and the formation of Diaspora Khahd KhayatJ Globe PolItIcal Commentator Adjacent to welate ghliribiye, which is commonly used in the dialect of North Kurdish, there are further appellations such handaran, tarawga, awarabun, manfa that correspond to the experiences of exile among Kurds. Accordingly, one can find similar signs, vocabularies and reflections of melancholy, anger, nostalgia and trauma in numerous Kurdish epics, traditional recitations, poems and cradlesongs. They evoke commonly the awareness about a specific way of being or a state of mind, which is alluded not only to a traumatic experience of being away from home but also a powerful homing desIre that is displayed simultaneously. The experiences of trauma and the homesickness, which are abundantly and expressively exhibited in the narratives of the exiled Kurds, correspond to a large extent to the general social and political conditions that prevail in the KurdIsh homeland. Evoking regularly some salient utterances such as discriminatIOn, persecution, maltreatment, massacre, destruction, Anfal, forced displacement, etc. by the Kurdish refugees is a way to not only recall the experience of trauma and oppression from theIr homeland of origin but also an effort to legitimize their escape from It. Estimated to be between 30 and 35 million, The Kurdish author Mehmet Uzun who has been living in Sweden for more than 27 years used often to evoke the epithet welate gharibiye in his interviews and his public appearances, the Kurdish equivalent of exile which is habitually alluded to the narratives of those numerous Kurds who in one way or another have been forced to leave their native homelands throughout the centuries. the Kurds, outnumbered only by Arabs, Turks and Persians constitute the fourth largest ethno-national group in the Middle East who are denied their natIOnal rights. They are primarily divided between the neighbouring countries of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria but there are additional Kurdish populations who are scattered throughout Central Asia, Caucasus, Middle East, Western Europe, Australia, North Amenca and many metropolitan areas such Istanbul, Baghdad, Tehran, Izmir and Ankara. The outcome of thIS Kurdish dispersion is the emergence of a considerable Diaspora that today marks its presence beyond and within the borders of many states both quantitatIvely and qualitatively. Diasporian Kurds maintain their imaginary, symbolic and practical ties with their homeland of origin not only through those translational political, social, economic and cultural practices that they uphold over the borders of many natlOnstates but also through those narratives that they produce in different forms. The meta-narrative of exiled Kurds which IS mainly made upon the experience of repression, forced displacement, genocide, exile, etc. constitutes in one way or another the collective memory of the Kurdish Diaspora that appears at the political level as the practice of the long distance nationalism, upheld visa-vis the homeland of origin. The formation of the Kurdish Diaspora has both a pre-modem and a modem history. The experiences of trauma and the homesickness, which are abundantly and expressively exhibited in the narratives of the exiled Kurds, correspond to a large extent to the general social and political conditions that prevail in the Kurdish homeland. :. \ , 1he Kurdish Globe November 7, 2006 The cartography of the Kurdish Diaspora The presence of the Kurds outside the geographical area of the Middle East is not a new phenomenon. During the last 500 years the Kurdish tribes who lived under the aegiS of the both Persian and Ot- toman Empires have often been the subject of manIpulative displacement or forced deportation; principally due to their speCific position that they were holding III those confhcts that ensued between these two classic rivals. Habitually, the old empires used to resolve their differences WIth the Kurdish tribes most of the time through various forms of taCIt agreements. The attribution of autonomous spaces to them was an effective method to prevent major conflicts. But, III spite of these regulatory mechanisms a good many of Kurdish tribes who were branded by the central empires as "trouble makers" were deported to the Central Anatolia and the region of Khorasan in the North-Eastern part of the current Iran during the 18th and 19th centuries, where they were given lands, cattle and other forms of recompense. These resettled Kurds have in spite of all odds been more or less successful in preserving their language and unity. In the former Soviet Union, Kurds were considered as a separate ethnic group, though without any particular territory which was attributed to them. The soviet census of 1979 numbered 150.000 Kurds in the USSR, but Kurdish national- IStS themselves give 18
Page 1 and 2: KURDE INSTITUT DE PARIS Bulletin de
Page 3 and 4: Sommaire : • SADDAM HUSSEIN CONDA
Page 5 and 6: n° 260 • novembre 2006 Bulletin
Page 23 and 24: Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhev
Page 29 and 30: 8 Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berh
Page 37: Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhev
Page 89 and 90:
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhev
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
show all

Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?