Why the Kurds are friendles

          
          5/27/2011
          Article - Untitled Article
          Publication: Guardian 1821-2000; Date: Oct 16, 1979; Section: None; Page: 12
          Why the Kurds
          are friendless
          If the Palestin1a s, why not the Ilurds?
          The practice whereby legitimate rights are
          recognised only if those who claim them
          can cause enough international turmoil is
          well established. It is probably essential to
          the sanity of foreign secretaries, whose
          work-load would otherwise know no bounds.
          But it is ¼ hard to justify on any other
          grounds. The Kurds have been fighting for
          autonomy siinertEf ore the Second World
          War (longer, but that is about as far back
          as the prSent link goes) and their periodic
          defeats have restored the blissful rormality.
          They IdlE no ambassadors. They hijack no
          planes . They live in the hills. Who cares?
          The ICurds are once• again pressing
          hard the authorities under whom they Jive.
          7hey are concentrating especially en Ir an
          (keeping Iraq fur relief and supplies) T7
          every success calls forth more determined
          vows of vengeance Iron the conclave of
          © Guardian News and Media Limited
          ayatollahs. There Is no ‘noticeable dissent
          Indeed the çnly people who appear to sup-
          port the Kurds are the Soviet Union and Its
          outliers. They 4 0' not' support them rhetori-
          cally or with draft resolutions at the Unite4
          NaUons ; and that I . only prudent, for the
          Kurt ir , 'j1kely to lose once again. Mow
          over the Idea that ethnic minorities have
          special rights Is not' one which the Soviet
          Union wlshep to encourage, lest it be put to
          the test at; home. But the Kurdish
          weaponry, unless captured n the flew . is of
          Sbviet and Czech manufacture. In so far as
          the iCurds keep a sector of the! Middle East
          unstaoie they are to be' encouraged. Mos-
          + cow's reasoning is as simple as that. Convere
          sely iran finds it easier to represent the
          Xurdfl% a Marx1st insurgent force rather
          than a disaffected national minority like the
          Iranian Arabs.
          The studied amblguity qf the, rest of
          the world is almost as cynically explained
          as the Soviet interest. One difference be-
          • tweeri the Palestinians and the ICurds is
          that the former are fighting an OK enemy _C
          Israel—whereas the latter are fighting Mos-
          lem governments which collectively speak
          for the Third World. Another difference Is
          that Palestinians .have a vicarious hold over
          the West's oil supplies 1 through their spon-
          sors in, the' producing states; whereas the
          Icurds are opposing the oil producers of
          iran and Iraq. Justice (however defined) for
          YRT Palestinians Is therefore at the top of
          the agenda. A meeting to advance the cause
          will end with prolonged cheers. Justice for
          theKurds is not even on the agenda and no
          mQe R lake place.
          There are said to be 12 million Kurt ,
          though it is unusual knowingly to meet one.
          Since the land they claim, Kurdistan , over-
          laps Iran , Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, they face
          a powerful establishment. ‘The many fewer
          Palestinians, whose envoys are everywhere,
          face an. establishment of one. On the face of
          it there is little in equity to distinguish the
          one liberation movement from the other. In
          politics there Is a great deal 1 A thought for
          the day is that all who support “the legiti-
          mate rights” of the Palestinians without a
          fleeting reference to Kurdistan should at
          least examine their niotwes. For either the
          Palestinians attract too much international
          attention or the Kurds do not attract enough.
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