Kurdish Oppression in the Middle East
- The Ripple Effect
- Aug 22, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 10, 2021
by Cynthia Li and Ashki Shkur
Who are the Kurdish people?
The Kurdish are the 4th largest ethnic group in the Middle East, comprising 30 million people that do not have a permanent nation-state.
Indigenous group residing in the areas that are now Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Armenia
The Kurdish culture is distinct and unique, although the community consists of various races, dialects and religions.
The Kurdish were promised land in order to form Kurdistan during World War I, however, a few years after the war, the Treaty of Lausanne left no homeland for the Kurdish.
In the modern-day, the Kurdish continue to fight for autonomy and become a nation of their own
Why do they need help?
“Syria's Kurds have long been suppressed and denied basic rights. Some 300,000 have been denied citizenship since the 1960s, and Kurdish land has been confiscated and redistributed to Arabs in an attempt to "Arabize" Kurdish regions.”.
Oppression in the government
In the early nineties, the Kurds managed to get representatives elected into the Turkish parliament. However, shortly after, members of parliament were dragged out of the parliament by the police to be arrested. Four of them are still in prison even though their only crime was asking for recognition of cultural rights of the Kurdish people. Turkey saw this act as supporting the PKK "terrorists". Since the eighties, at least two Kurdish parties were declared “illegal” and closed by Turkish courts.
Involvement in the Syrian Conflict
Key actors:
Bashar al-Assad, generally supported by Iran, Russia and Hezbollah
ISIS
Kurds, supported by the last US president, Barack Obama
Rebels, supported by Turkey, Golf states, Jordan as well as current president Donald Trump
Conflict highlights:
The conflict began in March 2011 when shots were fired by the government against peaceful Arab Spring demonstrators
In July, the demonstrators begin shooting back, and the protest escalates into a civil war
In 2012, Syrian Kurdish groups take up arms and informally secede from the Assad’s rule
In 2014, the Syrian government uses chemical weapons to perform mass killings of innocent civilians, shocking the world
In Feb 2014, ISIS broke away from the rebels to become a separate entity. They generally fight other rebels as well as the Kurdish, not Assad.
Late 2014, the US begins bombing ISIS
Around 2015, Turkey began bombing Kurdish groups in Iraq and Turkey, even as these groups are at war with ISIS. Turkey doesn’t bomb ISIS. This shows a difference in priorities between allies.
In 2016, US president Donald Trump is elected and announces that he hopes to stay out of the Syrian conflict. At the end of that year, Assad, helped by Russian air power and Iranian militia takes back the rebels last remaining stronghold city.
In 2018, Assad once again uses chemical weapons against civilians, initiating the US to once again take action against the regime and launch a direct missile attack against Assad.
As of 2019, the US continues its process of withdrawal from the conflict
Oppression in everyday life
In everyday life, the Kurds have been oppressed from many basic rights such as listening to Kurdish music, practising Kurdish culture and speaking the Kurdish language.
CASE STUDY: Zilan Valley Massacre
Despite Kurds making up 20 percent of the population, the Turkish state denied their existence until 1991. They were referred to instead as “Mountain Turks.”
In Turkey, racism and ethnic discrimination are present in its society, throughout history, Kurdish people have experienced discrimination perpetrated against them by the Turkish government and the Turkish population.
Since the establishment of Turkey, massacres have periodically occurred against the Kurds
One of those massacres includes the Zilan massacre in 1930 which was a massacre of Kurdish residents of Turkey in which around 47,000 innocent Kurdish people were killed.
The Zilan Valley Massacre was one of the campaigns to stop Kurdish independence. The secret mission was referred to as “cleaning up.”
The Kurdish Villagers were tied to each other and shot by Turkish soldiers under the command of Captain Derviş Bey. Those Kurds who did not die from gunshots were bayoneted, including babies, pregnant women, and elderly.
A soldier who was part of the massacre tells the story:
“They made women, children, babies, everyone living in the region, thousands of people to get into the Zilan river. Then these people were surrounded by machine guns. They [the commanders] put us, the privates, on the machine guns. Behind us, there were corporals and sergeants who had their rifles aimed at us. Behind the corporals and sergeants, in the third row, there were commissioned officers waiting with their loaded pistols, ready to fire. If we didn’t fire, the noncommissioned officers were going to shoot us. If the noncommissioned officers didn’t shoot us, the commissioned officers were to shoot them and us. We pulled the triggers. Thousands of bullets spit fire on the people in the river. The horrible cries of women, children, old and young men echoed in the river. After a while the cries turned into moans. Then the moans ended too. Along with old and young men’s bodies, corpses of thousands of women, children, babies in swaddling clothes were left in the pool of blood. The corpses began to rot after a while.”
In recent years, racism in Turkey has shifted towards Syrian refugees and Arabs in general.
How to help
Speak up! Spread awareness by sharing this post
This is the most important aspect for the Kurdish people. The oppression they face is unknown to most of the world and buried under the various issues in the Middle East. Telling people about the injustice and fear that many of these people are living in, simply because of where they live and who they are is so important.
If you have personal experience to share, you can use the hashtag #MyKurdistan
Educate yourself: You can learn more about Kurdish oppression at:
Donate and support
As many of the people living in the unofficial area of Kurdistan are refugees, donating to refugee agencies such as the UNHCR will help them help themselves
Organizations to check out:
Centre for Kurdish Progress
Harikar NGO
Kurdish Community of America
Kurdish Human Rights Project
Kurdish Human Rights Watch
Kurdish Institute for Elections
Kurdish Institute of Brussels
Kurdish Institute of Paris
Kurdish Studies Network
RISE Foundation
Rwanga Foundation
Bibliography:
"HDP’S Draft Bill On Zilan Massacre Rejected Over ‘Kurdish Geography,’ ‘Massacre’ Remarks". Duvarenglish.Com, 2020, https://www.duvarenglish.com/politics/2020/07/30/hdps-draft-bill-on-zilan-massacre-rejected-over-kurdish-geography-massacre-remarks/. Accessed 22 Aug 2020.
"13 July 1930 - Zilan Valley Massacre". ANF News, 2020, https://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/13-july-1930-zilan-valley-massacre-45241. Accessed 22 Aug 2020.
"Shedding Light On The Zilan Massacre In Turkey ". Ekurd.Net, 2020, https://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2012/6/turkey3988.htm. Accessed 22 Aug 2020.
"Get Involved | The Kurdish Project". The Kurdish Project, 2020, https://thekurdishproject.org/get-involved/. Accessed 22 Aug 2020.
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