On Nov. 25, the commander of U.S. forces in Europe, Gen. Bantz Craddock, became the third U.S. general to travel to Turkey in one week. Two other two generals, including Patreaus, went to Turkey on Nov. 20. The purpose of the visits is to reassure the Turkish government of U.S. support against the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK.
The visits followed a decision by Turkey’s parliament to authorize its military to go over the border to Iraq’s Kurdistan
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If a larger-scale military incursion occurs, it will constitute a blow to U.S. interests in the region, which strives for stability in both Turkey and the Iraqi part of Kurdistan while it continues to occupy Iraq.
Kurdistan is a region divided between four countries, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Of the approximately 30 million Kurds, more than half live in Turkey. Kurdish people comprise the largest nationality in the world that lacks its own state. From a Marxist perspective, every oppressed nation has the right of self-determination, including the right to secede and form an independent state.
But imperialism, through a constant policy of divide and conquer, has intensified national oppression. Imperialism perpetuates national oppression not just between imperialist countries and oppressed ones, but also amongst different nationalities of oppressed countries.
The political geography of the Middle East is the product of deals made between victorious colonial powers following World War I. With the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the British and the French drew the maps of the countries in the region in consideration of their colonial interests. The people of the region had no say in this process.
Since World War II, U.S. policy on the Kurdish question has exemplified imperialist manipulation of legitimate struggles against national oppression to advance imperialist aims. The United States simultaneously has supported and opposed the Kurdish national struggle depending on the nature of the state of the country in which it has been waged.
In the 1970s, the United States supported the Kurdish struggle in Iraq, where U.S. strategy after the Iraq revolution of 1958 was to destabilize the Iraqi state. At the same time, Washington opposed the struggle of the Kurds in Turkey and in Iran under the Shah, a U.S. puppet. In fact, the United States funneled supplies to Iraqi Kurds through Iran’s Kurdistan region, while Iranian Kurds were repressed by the Shah’s U.S.-armed military.
Today, Turkey is a member of NATO and an ally of imperialism in the region. Turkey is the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel and Egypt. Turkey has carried out a brutal campaign against the Kurdish population, destroying 3,000 villages and killing tens of thousands of Kurds. Throughout this bloody campaign, the United States has been its major supporter and supplier of arms.
At the same time that the United States aids Turkey in its oppression of the Kurds, it actively supports the cause of Kurdish independence in Iran. Turkey has by far the largest Kurdish population, and the most oppressed.
Imperialist intervention
The United States and the European Union officially classify the PKK as a terrorist organization. A wing of the PKK, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan or the PJAK, has been engaged in attacks against Iran’s military inside Iran. These attacks are very similar to attacks carried out by the PKK against the Turkish military. According to the Oct. 23 New York Times, the PKK and the PJAK “appear to a large extent to be one and the same.” They have the same overall goal and guiding leadership. However, the United States and European imperialists do not consider the PJAK a terrorist organization. In fact, they support the PJAK.
In August, the PJAK’s leader, Rahman Haj-Ahmadi, visited Washington, D.C. and appealed for U.S. military and financial support for the group’s campaign to overthrow the regime in Iran.
Support for the wing of PKK in Iran while (openly) opposing the PKK in Turkey is only one aspect of the imperialist manipulation of the Kurdish cause.
Much of Turkey’s ruling establishment has been strongly opposed to the Justice and Development Party, led by Prime Minister Erdogan. In an electoral victory in August, Abdullah Gul, Erdogan’s close ally, was elected president and strengthened that party’s control of the state.
This Erdogan/Gul grouping has exhibited some level of independence from the United States, earning the wrath of the traditionally entrenched ruling establishment in Turkey, including the military leadership. There was speculation about the possibility of a military coup following the August elections.
Some have speculated that Turkey’s military would like to use the PKK to whip up a nationalistic frenzy among the majority ethnic Turks, win support for military action against the Kurds and strengthen the military’s position vis-?-vis the civilian leadership.
To the extent that it does not spill fully over to Iraq, this would be a welcome development for Washington. It would jeopardize the position of Erdogan and Gul and make them less able to pursue independent policies.
In Iraq, since the first Gulf War in 1991, Kurdistan has been an autonomous region. The main political forces in Iraq’s Kurdistan, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party, have since been close allies of the U.S. imperialists. In fact, the Kurdish militia, the Peshmerga, has been fighting the Iraqi resistance on the side of the imperialist occupying forces of Iraq.
Whether the Kurdish people eventually form an independent state, remain as an autonomous state within their respective countries, or choose any other path through their struggle, it is for them to exercise their right of self-determination. Imperialist intervention and manipulation can only weaken the aspirations of the Kurdish national struggle.
Whatever short-term gains the Kurdish leadership may make through forming alliances with imperialism are subject to take-backs, as dictated by future imperialist tactics. Such “gains” sow the seeds of division among the region’s people, perpetuating the objective conditions for continued oppression.
Real gains can only be won through forging unity with the anti-imperialist struggle of the other oppressed peoples of the region against imperialist domination.
