Part II
(A Summary of Kurdish Linguistic Problems…)
1) The desastrous entry of the Kurds in the 20th century , causes and consequences
After Chaldiran , the Kurdish feudal princes had to pay homage, although often nominal,
either to the Ottoman or the Persian sovereigns . For nearly two centuries , Kurdistan
was actually to become a battlefield between the two enemy empires - one sunnit and
the other shi'it . The disunited Kurdish principalities lost their independence ,
one after another in both empires , the last ones by the middle of the 19° century.
In Ottoman Turkey in particular , the Kurds revolted all along the 19° century
, eager to recover their independence. Kurdistan was ruined, and the Kurdish society,
amputated of its traditional feudal aristocracy without having developed a sufficient
bourgeoisie, nor a noticeable intelligentsia, was not in a position to match with
the terrible challenge of the twentieth century. Yet most of the Western , and many
Russian , agents who had to do with the Kurds (such as the British Major E.B. Soane,
Major Noel, Sir Mark Sykes, the engineer A.M. Hamilton, Major F.Millingen , Captain
W.R.Hay, the French Henry Binder, etc) expressed their belief that the Kurds would
have a bright national future. Unfortunately such a future was not within the plans
of the major imperialistic Powers of the time, Britain and France.
Consequently to the Ottoman defeat in WW1 ,the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres provided for
an autonomous Ottoman Kurdistan , and for its full independence if such was to
be the wish of its inhabitants and the decision of the League of Nations. But Britain
and France had their own policy as to the fate of the eastern Ottoman possessions,
according to the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Britain occupied the south-eastern part of
Ottoman Kurdistan (the Mosul vilayet affair), because of its oil, and did its best
to incorporate this part , against the will of the Kurdish people , into the new
Iraqi state it was creating under its mandate , in Lower Mesopotamia . In 1921,
France incorporated the south-western part of Ottoman Kurdistan into the new state
of Syria which was under its mandate. Instead of getting access to independence
as provided for at Sèvres , Ottoman Kurdistan, which represented about 75 % of
the Kurdish country, was thus divided by imperialism. Iranian Kurdistan, representing
about 25 % of the Kurdish country, was not officially concerned by the Sèvres Treaty
, Persia having not participated in WW1. But the Kurds of Iran long to liberty and
democracy , as the other Kurds .
Mustafa Kemal Pasha , who served in the WW1 as General in the Ottoman army, promised
the Kurds of Turkey to recognize their 'ethnic rights' and obtained their participation
in the Independence War he was to launch against the occupation forces of the Allied
Powers . The Ottoman defeat was thus transformed into a victory, said Churchill.
As a consequence, the Conference of Lausanne , 1922-1923 , was held to cancel the
Treaty of Sèvres (signed but not ratified) and replace it by a new one. The 1923
Treaty of Lausanne , which consecrated the new Turkey , was negotiated in the absence
of the Kurds and against their interest . Cheated by " Ataturk " (The Father of the
Turks -so !), the Kurds were betrayed by the European Powers (see, on both treaties
and the debates at the Lausanne Conference, my book (ICV : Le Kurdistan irakien Entité
nationale : Etude de la Révolution de 1961, la Baconnière , Neuchâtel, 1970.) In
this latter work I referred to the official proceedings of the Lausanne Conference
, meeting dated 23 January 1923 , as published in French by the French Ministère
des Affaires étrangères : Documents diplomatiques , Conférence de Lausanne , Paris,
1923 (pages 279-303) . The same proceedings are published in English (by His Majesty's
Stationary Office : Lausanne Conference on Near Eatern Affairs 1922-1923, Records
of Proceedings and Draft Terms of Peace , London, 1923.) These Terms of Peace ,
so unjust toward the Kurdish people , a mere betrayal, were finally discussed before
the Council of the League of Nations , Geneva , 37° session , September 1925 (see
League of Nations, Journal Officiel , October 1925, excerpts from which are published
in ICV : 1970.) . Without forgetting the 1915 Armenian genocide , the Kurds , who
suffered much under the yoke of the Ottomans , like many other peoples, obtained
nothing from the dislocation of the empire. They are the sole dependent - and large
- people who, in the aftermath of WW1 , found themselves stateless, more divided
and more oppressed than before.
2) Why a Kurdish national question ?
There is a Kurdish national question because the Kurdish people were deprived by
imperialism, and thanks to their lack of preparation and their inexperience , of
their right of self-determination, to govern themselves by themselves in the country
they inherited from their ancestry. In Republican Turkey, which has kept within
its borders far the largest part of former Ottoman Kurdistan , the Kurds endured
forceful deportation, the Kurdish language was banned , the name of Kurdistan became
a taboo and was replaced by Eastern Anatolia, which is, besides, a geographical error
. Anatolia is an old Greek name meaning the Levant , that is the sunrise country,
which originally designated the eastern coast of the Egean sea, then its acceptance
stretched eastwards across centuries , to cover finally Cilicia and Cappadocia
, but the name had never covered the Kurdish areas before the advent of Kemalism.
Turkish Kurdistan became a nameless internal and under-developed colony , without
even having the 'privilege' of being recognised as a colony. To accept forceful
assimilation or to revolt and then be said 'highway robbers' (and later on 'terrorists')
by the state and its army, that was the choice left to the Kurdish people in Turkey.
Southern or Iraqi Kurdistan became 'the north of Iraq' and the uprisings of its Kurds
were fought by the British on behalf of 'the Arab King of Iraq'. The Kurdish people
are equally oppressed in Baathist Syria.
3) Estimates and data
I define Kurdistan as being geographically constituted of the contiguous regions
that had a Kurdish majority by the end of WW1 , not withstanding the 'international'
borders dividing it between four states, which are actually inter-Kurdish borders.
Its total area ( on the basis of governmental data for the districts with a Kurdish
majority) can be estimated at about 445'000 sq. km, as follow : 224'000 sq.km for
Turkish Kurdistan (said Northern), 124'000 sq.km for Iranian Kurdistan (said Eastern),
75'000 sq.km for Iraqi Kurdistan (said Southern) , and some 20'000 sq.km for Syrian
Kurdistan (which may be called southwestern).
Iranian Kurdistan covers about five contiguous administrative provinces called generally
ostan in Persian, which constitute together the mountainous borderland to the west
of the Iranian Plateau. From north to south they are : Western-Azerbaijan , Kordestan
, Kirmanshah , nearly one half of the ostan of Hamadan (to the east of Kirmanshah)
, and the governorate of Ilam (from the ancient name of Elam) . A northern part
of the ostan of Luristan is also Kurdish. One , just one of these provinces is officially
called Kurdistan , a name written above Kordestan , according to the Persian pronunciation,
with the city of Sineh as provincial capital. To distinguish one of the five or
so Kurdish provinces , with the name of Kurdistan (Kordestan) would suggest that
the other four are not Kurdish and do make part of Iranian Kurdistan . Besides ,
the two provinces of Kurdistan/Kordestan and Kirmanshah used to constitute together
one province , under the name of Kurdistan, till the early twenties, when shah Riza
separated them. This tells about the constant opposition of Tehran to any demand
of Kurdish autonomy and union within Iran. The province of Kurdistan created in
the 12° century by sultan Sinjar in the western half of the clime of al-Jibal/Kuhistan
, continued to be dismembered in later times. Persian is the official language of
education at schools in Iranian Kurdistan , but private publications in Kurdish are
tolerated, if they are not opposed to the government.
The number of the Kurds by 2002, including those who were forced to leave Kurdistan
and live in other parts of the states dividing it, can be estimated as follow :
about 23 or 24 millions in Turkey , 11 millions in Iran (including those implanted
in Khurasan by the shah Abbas the Great in the 17° cent.), 6,2 millions in Iraq
(including the Faili and Shiit or Ali-Ilahi Kurds , and the Ezidi Kurds) , and 2,5
millions in Syria . To these estimates one should add the Kurdish outer diasporas
(living beyond Kurdistan and outside the states dividing it) whose number may be
estimated at 1,3 to 1,6 million in western Europe (especially Germany) , more than
one half of a million in the former Soviet Republics of the Caucasus, Central Asia,
and Russia (see ICV, The Kurdish Diaspora in Russia and Former USSR , in the revue
Lêkolîn of the Kurdish Science and Research Inst., Berlin, No. 5 , summer 1997 :
16-32.) This beside Kurdish communities in some other countries (USA, Canada, Australia,
and elsewhere). The Kurds who suffered most of internal scattering (internal diaspora)
by and within the states dividing Kurdistan , are those of Turkey , then in Syria.
About 10 millions Kurds are found scattered across 'Turkish Turkey' , especially
in larger cities , outside Turkish Kurdistan. Istanbul is in a way the largest "
Kurdish " city (with more than 3 million Kurds inside.)
4) On the written Kurdish dialects
Kurdish is not a unified language , but divided into dialects , with local varieties,
in the image of divided Kurdistan and the contradictions of the Kurdish society.
There are two main dialects , North-Kurmanji and South-Kurmanji , with notable differences
between , which both possess a classical and a modern written literature. South-Kurmanji
has been more commonly known under the name of Sorani , from the early 1930s ,
while North-Kurmanji is more commonly called just Kurmanji . For commodity reasons
and by simplification, these designations will be used hereafter , Sorani for South-Kurmanji,
and just Kurmanji for North-Kurmanji .
Kurmanji (North-Kurmanji) is far the largest Kurdish dialect . Reserve being made
of what will be said about the Zazaki dialect in Turkish Kurdistan (see below) ,
Kurmanji is used by the Kurds of Turkey, and of Syria , by about one third or 30
% of the Kurds in Iraq , in the northern areas of Iraqi Kurdistan, usually called
Badinan , which is adjacent to the border with Turkey and Syria . Kurmanji is also
the language spoken by about one half , the northern one, of the Kurds inhabiting
the ostan of Western-Azerbaijan in Iran, and by the Kurds implanted in Khurasan (a
large group that reportedly would number about one million , who continue to speak
Kurmanji) ; it is as well the language spoken by the Kurds of former USSR (together
with Russian), and by most of the Kurdish diaspora in Western Europe. That would
make up about 75 % of the Kurdish people (internal and outer diasporas included)
whose common language is Kurmanji, with local varieties. A large and brilliant part
of the Kurdish classical literature , probably the oldest, was written in Kurmanji.
One of the most illustrious Kurdish classical poets, Ahmedê Khani, who lived in Northern
Kurdistan (died in 1706) and wrote in Kurmanji, is the very intellectual father of
the modern Kurdish national idea . He called for Kurdish social progress, dreamed
of an independent Kurdistan , is venerated by all the Kurds and has been taken as
a model by Sorani writers. Another master poet who wrote in Kurmanji , Melaye Jezri
(who would have lived in the 16° century) , is probably the unrivalled star in matter
of Kurdish spiritualism (soufism).
The Kurds who speak Sorani, with local varieties, and use it as written language
are those of south-eastern Kurdistan, on both sides of the Iraqi-Iranian border.
The city of Sulaimaniya, in Iraqi Kurdistan, is the historical centre of literary
Kurdish in Sorani . Many well known Kurdish writers and intellectuals are native
of Sulaimaniya.
This paper is not a study in Kurdish dialectology. Let us however notice that another
Kurdish dialect , Gorani , sometimes called Hawrami, was used as written literary
language at the court of the Kurdish principality of Ardalan , whose capital was
the city of Sineh , in Iranian Kurdistan. That is the past, since there is no longer
any Kurdish principality , the last ones having succumbed by the middle of the 19°
century. Most of the Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan use henceforth, more and more, the
Sorani dialect to write in Kurdish, the same as in Sulaimaniya and the larger part
of Iraqi Kurdistan. Gorani is no longer a living literary language , but is still
spoken by isolated mountaineers in the Hawreman ridge.
Another Kurdish dialect is Zazaki , spoken in some northern areas of Turkish Kurdistan,
by about 5 % of the Kurdish people in Turkey . Curiously enouph , Zazaki and Gorani
are linguistically close dialects, despite the large geographical space separating
them, space occupied by North-Kurmanji and South-Kurmanji (Sorani). But contrary
to Gorani , we have no information about any written literature in Zazaki , yet
there is an oral folklore in this dialect . To be noticed that Zazaki is pretended
by some Western authors - at the expense of the Kurds - not to be Kurdish, but to
constitute another Iranic language . This opinion , probably encouraged by the Turkish
government , is contested by the Kurdish writers (see Fêrgin Melik Aykoç, Kurdîzan:
Rûberkirina Zaravên Kurdi , in Kurmanji, pub. by the Kurdish Science and Research
Inst. , Berlin, 1996.) The Zazaki speakers call themselves Kurds and occupy an outstanding
place in the Kurdish national movement. Unfortunately , Zazaki is very much a menaced
dialect . Most of its speakers have replaced it by speaking either North-Kurmanji
or barely Turkish. ( See also Ludwig Paul, Zazaki : Grammatik und Versuch einer Dialektologie
, Wiesbaden, 1998.)
5) The Kurdish linguistic problématique
One of the arguments developed by Lord Curzon, chief of the British delegation to
the Conference of Lausanne , for the inclusion of the south-eastern part of Ottoman
Kurdistan - he said Southern Kurdistan- within the Iraqi kingdom the British were
working hard to put on its feet , was that the southern Kurds would enjoy some kind
of autonomy within the kingdom, in matter of language , justice and self-government.
We know how the southern Kurds had to fight , by arms , for such a regional autonomy
within Iraq , as they are today still struggling, by peaceful means, to obtain
full federalism and to practice their right of self-determination. But this is another
question. Let us continue dwelling on the Kurdish linguistic problématique (the word,
as a name, is French .)
In accordance with what was called Bill on Local languages , adopted by the Iraqi
government in the early 1930s , it was decided to open primary schools in Iraqi
Kurdistan to teach children in Kurdish (and some Arabic). The dialect chosen was
Sorani in its Sulaimaniya variety, which is special and practically confined in the
city . The variety spoken in Arbil was not as distant from Kurmanji , but Sulaimaniya
enjoyed an older tradition in matter of Kurdish literature. The choice was perhaps
political. Besides, the northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan, here called Badinan ,
where the people speak Kurmanji and represent about 30 % of the Kurds in Iraq, was
excluded from the reform . Teaching at schools only in Arabic was imposed on the
children of Badinan . That was obviously a political decision, probably British.
Of course, these children would not have understood Sorani, especially in the
variety of Sulaimaniya, but the question to be posed is different : Why not to have
decided to teach the children of Badinan in their own Kurdish dialect, Kurmanji ?
The answer cannot be but political . Turkey was by no means willing , and could not
accept, that North-Kurmanji be officially taught at its south-eastern border , while
the same Kurmanji was a forbidden language on the other side of the border . Let
us say it was a friendly British gesture . We were not far from the logic of the
1937 Saad-Abad Pact between Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, to keep the Kurdish people under
control , as it was to be inspired and blessed by Britain, and if necessary to take
joint measures against any Kurdish uprising.
The largest Kurdish dialect , North-Kurmanji , banned in Turkey and Syria , excluded
from official teaching in Badinan and everywhere in Iran where it is spoken , was
to become a menaced language . That was part of the national oppression endured
by the Kurdish people. Each time it seemed possible, the present writer wrote articles
and furthered proposals for a remedy against this injustice. Because this was otherwise
already published (on the Web www.kcdme.com or as papers), here is a brief mention
of what was done :
It should be first reminded that Sorani was and is still written in Arabic script
, as slightly modified to fit Kurdish, while Kurmanji was written - when that was
legally possible, or underground - in a Roman script slightly adapted to Kurdish
, much similar to the roman script adopted by the Republic of Turkey for Turkish
. This Kurmanji-Roman script was adopted, in the early 1930s , by an outstanding
Kurmanji grammarian, late prince Celadet Bedir-Khan ( Bedirxan in this alphabet),
who was heir to the Bedir-Khanid principality and an émigré from Turkey in Damascus
.
On July 14, 1958 , General Abdul Karim Kassem overthrew the Iraqi monarchy , proclaimed
the Iraqi Republic , and a Provisional Constitution saying (in Art. 3) 'the Arabs
and the Kurds are partners in the Republic and their rights are guaranteed by the
Constitution'. This constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people as partners
of the Arabs in the Republic was democratic, the very first and is still the sole
in the area (although Art. 2 of the same Constitution , presenting Iraq as an Arab
state , was to be openly criticized by this writer at a conference held in Baghdad
in October 1960 - but this is another story.) Yet the constitutional change in
Iraq furthered me the first opportunity to pose the elements that constitute the
Kurdish linguistic problématique . In an article written in English and entitled'The
Problem of the Written Kurdish Language, Kurmanji or Sorani , published in the
periodical Kurdistan , organ of KSSE (Kurdish Students' Society in Europe , of which
I was then the president), London, 1959 I said the question of unification of the
written Kurdish language , at the scale of all Kurdistan , is a matter of future,
and that some necessary steps should be made before envisaging a future solution
. The first step suggested was to transform teaching at schools in the area of Badinan
from Arabic into Kurmanji Kurdish , and to adopt for this teaching the Kurdish/Roman
alphabet , not exactly as made by Bedir-Khan, but after its reform . It was also
suggested that the same alphabet be adopted for Sorani , because with two so different
scripts , one based on roman characters and the other on Arabic characters, no unification
of the written Kurdish could be envisaged . On the contrary, differences between
them would go larger and larger. This article was also edited as a brochure in
Arabic translation , al-Ahali Press , Bagdad, 1960, by Hafiz Mustafa al-Qadi, with
a preface by Dr. Siddiq Atroushi .These two gentlemen, who hailed my proposals, were
Kurdish intellectuals from Badinan, speaking Kurmanji Kurdish.
In November 1992 , a parliamentary delegation , headed by Jawher Namiq, president
of the Kurdish National Assembly, seated in Arbil, visited Switzerland . I offered
them a reception. "It is decided that Sorani be the official language in Kurdistan"
, told me Mr. Namiq , " but we shall enrich Sorani with a vocabulary from Kurmanji.
" Having a different opinion, I said: " Then Kurmanji , the language of Ahmedê
Khani , should be reduced to the rank of an idiom spoken just by shephered and non
educated People ! " At that time, Iraqi Kurdistan was reduced , by Saddam Hussein,
to three districts or provinces, Sulaimaniya in the south, Dehok in the north, and
Arbil between them., making together the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government.) Dehok
is a new city, and its district covers only a part of the Kurmanji -speaking area
in Iraq , generally called Badinan . Depriving the Kurds of Badinan of their right
to be educated in their own Kurdish, is by no means democratic. This decision lacks
terribly insight into the future of the Kurdish nation. According to this view, Kurdistan
is limited to the sole KRG's territory, as it was decided by Saddam Hussein.
In 1993 I was invited to attend as guest the 11° congress of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), whose president was , and is, Mesoud Barzani, son of the legendary Kurdish
leader late Mustafa Barzani . I had known kak Mesoud (as we say in Kurdish) since
the 1960s , when he was a teenager and that his father had wanted me to be his spokesman
abroad, what I had accepted. That represented honour and responsibility for me ,
although I was not an Iraqi Kurd , nor member in any Kurdish party, but politically
independent, former president of KSSE , a free writer struggling for democracy and
the national rights of the Kurdish people. The KDP congress was to be held in August
in Arbil , seat of the Kurdish National Assembly (parliament) . We were a few to
travel together from Switzerland , by Turkey, to attend the congress : Ayyoub Barzani
(a cousin to kak Mesoud, and a free writer) , Siddik Zawiti , member of KDP and
its representative in Switzerland, Swiss journalists, and me.
When we reached Dehok , the first important Kurdish urban and cultural centre
after the border with Turkey (Turkish Kurdistan) , we made a stop for two or three
days . My two Kurdish friends and companions, Ayyoub and Siddik , suggested me to
call together on the city's Union of Kurdish Writer. Past the entry building there
was a large green lawn as part of the club , with groups of men and some women, about
sixty people, talking and drinking tea. They were Kurdish writers and intellectuals
speaking Kurmanji Kurdish , the flower of the Kurdish intelligentsia in Badinan
. Many were perhaps members of KDP, or sympathisers , and some had important responsibilities
in the Kurdish regional administration . It was clear they all knew me, at least
by name, and what are my opinions about what I call the The Kurdish linguistic problématique
. I ignore whether any meeting had been arranged between them and the present writer
, but the encounter was soon to be transformed into a kind of meeting. That was
possibly spontaneous. Addressing this distinguished assembly , I briefly repeated
what was written above , insisting that Kurmanji should become the language of education
at the schools and colleges in the Badinan area , preferably in a reformed Kurdish-Roman
script (see below), the question of unification of the written Kurdish being open
for the future. The spokesman of the assembly said : "Teaching in Arabic in Badinan
was imposed upon us, we were not in a position to change that, but Arabic is a foreign
language and it did not represent any danger for our Kurmanji Kurdish , that we
continue to speak and cherish." Then he added : "If they want to impose upon
us in Badinan an education in Sorani , now that we are free , it will be different
, because Sorani is Kurdish , and this means the death of Kurmanji, what we shall
never accept."
At the congress of KDP, when I had the floor, I spoke among other issues about the
linguistic problem at stake and that was made public ( I heard repeatedly myself,
in the next days, speaking about the issue at the KDP's television channel) . The
congress was a large one , attended , beside party's members, by a large number
of Kurdish guests from all parts of Kurdistan , representatives of the Kurdish parties
and of the Kurdish external diasporas (from Russia, Europe, and USA), as well as
by all the components of the Iraqi Arab opposition to Saddam Hussein. Jalal Talabani,
secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), with whom I had an old
friendly relationship since 1959, present at the congress, invited me to his private
residence in Qara Cholan , near Sulaimaniya, once the seat of the Kurdish Baban
principality. I travelled there when the congress was through and asked kak Ayyoub
Barzani to be my companion in the journey. .
At Qara Cholan , beside Mam Jalal (as we call Jalal Talabani in Kurdish, meaning
uncle Jalal), late Ibrahim Ahmed , his father-in-law , was present. Former KDP's
secretary general in the early sixties, who contested Mustafa Barzani's position
as the Kurdish national leader, Ibrahim Ahmed was ousted from Iraqi Kurdistan in
1964 springtime, and found asylum in Tehran with all his Politburo group, including
Jalal Talabani. By the beginning of October 1964 , I was asked by a friend of
the Politburo group , Dr. Kemal Fuad, to try to settle this conflictual situation,
no doubt at the demand of the group. The members of the politburo group were my friends
too, but for me as for the Kurdish people, Mustafa Barzani was our national leader.
We travelled together , Kemal Fuad and me, into Kurdistan. I was received by General
Barzani at his headquarters, then in Ranya; he authorized me to continue the efforts.
I returned back to see the Politburo group in Tehran , but time had actually not
come for Kurdish reconciliation at that moment.
I had known General Mustafa Barzani for the first time in Baghdad , October 1960
. It was after my participation, as president of the KSSE delegation, which included
Kemal Fuad and Tahsin A. Hawrami , in a congress of the International Union of Students
(IUS , seated in Prague) , held in Baghdad . In my speech on behalf of the KSSE,
which I wrote and delivered in French, I criticized Article 2 of the Iraqi Provisional
Constitution , presenting the Iraqi Republic - in contradiction with Art. 3 - as
an Arab state . I said 'Only Arab Iraq is part of the Arab nation, while Iraqi Kurdistan
is part of the Kurdish nation, which was divided by imperialism' . This having been
said, the IUS congress became the theatre of sharp discussions between our KSSE
delegation and that of the General Union of Students in the Iraqi Republic , which
was fully dominated by the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP). In a reception organized
by the city of Baghdad, the delegations were presented to General Abdul Karim Kassem
, including ours (a photography published by KSSE in its organ Kurdistan , shows
General Kassem shaking hands with this writer , in the presence of Kemal Fuad and
Hawrami) . One day later a security officer came into the congress quarters and informed
me that 'by order of the Iraqi Military Governor I have to leave Iraq within 24
hours' . I then called on General Barzani, who said not to feel safe any longer
to stay in Baghdad and was envisaging to return back to the mountains of Barzan.
The KDP Political Bureau held an urgency meeting in which it was decided to advise
me to comply with the order of the military governor and to leave Iraq accordingly
. I was not so much willing to obey that order , since I was invited to a journey
into Iraqi Kurdistan that, in 1960, I had never seen . Jalal Talabani came to see
me and explained : 'The KDP is not in a position to defend you if the government
wants to arrest and expel you' ; then he added : 'Thanks to your speech and the debate
it caused at the IUS congress , the KDP has won, in ten days , over the Iraqi Communist
Party , more members and sympathisers than in the last ten years'. Before leaving
Iraq , when the IUS congress was still ongoing , I had translated my KSSE French
speech into Arabic and Ibrahim Ahmed published it in Khebat , organ of the KDP .
He was to be tried for this before the Iraqi justice. Shortly after, General Barzani
returned back to Barzan, which was bombarded by Iraq , on 3 September 1961. Mustafa
Barzani took then arms , and led the Kurdish resistance known as the September Revolution
(1961- 1975) , on which I published a book up to 1970 (ICV : 1970 , op.cit. )
When , after the 1993 KDP congress, I began speaking , in Jalal Talabani's Qara
Cholan residence, about the Kurdish linguistic problem , Ibrahim Ahmed interrupted
me : 'There is no problem , the question is settled, Sorani is the official language
in Iraqi Kurdistan' . Mam Jalal asked whether I was in Kurdistan 'to make them
trouble ?' I did not appreciate the question, as if I were a foreigner and had
to say nothing about the issue. 'The problem does exist, but you do not see it or
you do not want', was my reply . I told them what had happened a few days earlier
at Dehok's Union of Kurdish Writers. I suggested, as an experience to be tried ,
that pupils at primary schools should begin by learning how to write their own
respective dialect, Kurmanji or Sorani , and that after three or four years , those
whose language is Sorani should also learn how to write in Kurmanji, and the contrary
for those whose language is Kurmanji . That would perhaps prepare the terrain for
a solution. Mam Jalal , whose Kurdish is Sorani, but he speaks an excellent Kurmanji
, said the proposal was good . The next day , at a reception in the city of Sulaimaniya,
it was reported to me that somebody had said I came " to kill Sorani " . Ayyoub
Barzani was present and heard it . Needless to say it was not my intention, nor
within my capability, 'to kill Sorani' , happily a prosperous language , but to
try to save Kurmanji.
We left Sulaimaniya back to Salaheddin , a beautiful hilly place not far from
Arbil, where kak Mesoud has his own residence , and where the closest KDP's guests
were accommodated, including me , in a guesthouse built by Saddam Hussein for his
guests and then used by KDP for their own . I asked to call on Osman Ocalan (Abdullah
Ocalan's younger brother) at Zeli , a valley to the northeast of Arbil, somewhere
to the north of Kalat-Diza and close to the Iranian border. It could not be recommended
for a KDP's guest to visit a PKK stronghold, but was I not a politically independent
person ? Kak Nechirwan Barzani , a nefew to kak Mesoud and then a young man,
arranged the journey . I travelled by a mountain car , with driver and a pêshmerga
(Kurdish soldier , mark of esteem) . The road was difficult , and by places dangerous
. I spent one night at Zeli , as Osman Ocalan's guest . He formulated proposals
to be submitted to kak Mesoud , for a good relationship between the two parties
. Back to Salaheddin, I met with kak Mesoud, who came to say me goodbye at the guesthouse.
I handed him the proposals made by Osman Ocalan , then I spoke about the linguistic
problem . He said it is a political question; besides, people in Badinan are free
to publish magazines or books in Kurmanji. That is true , as an expression of personal
freedom , but to make of Kurmanji the official language in the areas where it is
spoken , is another thing.
I visited Barzan , birth place of a legend amid mighty mountains , with Ayyoub
Barzani as a guide. Then I left alone Iraqi Kurdistan , but my journey across Turkish
Kurdistan , by bus, had been arranged . No airline existed at that time between Iraqi
Kurdistan and Europe. Upon arrival at the bus terminal in Diyarbekir, two men were
awaiting for me. Both welcomed me in Kurmanji. One of them, an engineer, was accompanied
by his two sons, the elder, about 15, spoke Kurmanji, but the younger, about
8 , spoke only Turkish . This means when the younger son was born , his parents
had stopped speaking Kurdish at home , for Turkish. I blamed the father for it.
The city of Diyarbekir was originally called Amida . By the time of the Islamic
conquest , the Arabs called it Diyarbekir (meaning Bekir's Country) . The Kemalists
changed the name into Diyarbakir (with a k close to q) , meaning in Turkish the
'Copper Country' , by way of turkization of the toponymy of Kurdistan. Few people
would identify the place if the name is written again Amida ; besides , such a change
would not be recognized by the Turkish state. Anyway, I keep writing Diyarbekir .
The city of Antep , in the southwestern part of Turkish Kurdistan, was renamed Gaziantep
under the Turkish Republic, meaning probably in Turkish 'The Antep of the Conqueror'
, the Conqueror possibly meaning Mustafa Kemal Pasha , himself renamed Ataturk. Anyway
, I keep writing the name just Antep.
6) On the proposals for reforming the Kurdish-Roman alphabet
In an article written in French (15 pages), I fully explained why and how the
Kurdish-Roman alphabet prepared by late Celadet Bedir-Khan , with the participation
of late Roger Lescot, a French orientalist and ambassador, as expert and adviser
, should be reformed . The Bedir-Khan alphabet is fully phonetical, as German
and Turkish (one can read more or less correctly even if he ignores the language),
contrary to French and English (where very often written characters are not pronounced).
Furthermore , the Bedir-Khan's alphabet is full with French diacritic marks ,
especially the accent circonflexe ( as in ê , î , and û) which represent a burden
on each word, that one would not find at a current computer keyboard . I call this
mark the " French hat ". In the Bedir-Khan alphabet the recourse to digraphs ( for
instance ee for ê) was excluded . The proposed reform is presently on the Web (www.kcdme.com)
, and a good summary of it was published, in Kurmanji , in the magazine Zend ,
No. 1 , Istanbul, spring 1994 , edited by the Kurdish Institute at Istanbul (in
Kurdish : ZEND , kovara Enstîtuya Kurdî) . Let us notice the two French circonflexe
marks , or " French hat " (on the î) found in this Kurdish designation are not necessary
but useless, a burden for writing . As to the name Enstîtuya (for institute) used
in Kurdish, it was borrowed from Turkish , and the Turks had borrowed it orally
from the French Institut,, where the final 't' is not pronounced . The name Enstîtuya
thus adopted in Kurmanji, would better be written Enstituta .My reform proposals
of this alphabet can be summed up in few lines : all the " French hats " (accent
circonflexe ) should be removed, and digraphs , instead, should be introduced. Here
are a few examples : ee for ê ; ie for î (if the vowel is long enough) ; ou for
û ; sh for the curiuos s with a " pick " at its bottom ; never to put a " French
hat " over a final 'i' in names or words such as Elemanî (German), Kurmanjî, Erebî
(Arab , or Arabic) ; not to write Tirk for Turk. Furthermore , the Arabic guttural
consonants such as the h (in heywan= animal) or the Semetic " 'eyn " do not exist
in Kurdish , but rural Kurds especially in Turkey use them, as well as the Arabic
" qaf " for k in words such as Council , Conseil in French, which they pronounce
Qonsey , with a Semitic qaf , while K does exist in Kurdish . Such words were borrowed
by the Turks from Western Europe, and the Kurds borrowed them from Turkish . Such
a Kurdish name presently written stêr (star in English , Stern in German, astre in
French), should be written steer in Kurmanji according to my reform proposals (with
no " French hat " over) . Western personal names of authors , philosophers , musicians,
scientists, politics, should be written as they are in their original Roman script
, in order to identify them, and not to corrupt them phonetically, as the Turks
often do . The Arabs write such names in Arabic script and nobody can identify who
they are or make any research about them.. Once in Istanbul I read a street name
wrtten in Turkish Pyerloti caddesi. I readily understood it was a street dedicated
to the French writer Pierre Loti , who had written novels about Istanbul , but few
foreigners would be able to identify the person. Some Kurds who wrote about a reform
of the Bedir-Khan's alphabet seem to think it should respond to local, say each
village variety, as if more complexity and confusion , if not a blind imitation
of Turkish syntax , were needed, while the aim of the proposed reform is simplification,
economy, and standardization . Sorani too needs a reform of its Arabic-based alphabet,
but this was beyond the knowledge of the present writer to further any proposals.
It is difficult to change one's habits and customs as socially established , the
Kurds are conservative with this respect. My reform project of the Kurdish Roman
alphabet has supporters , but it was not put into practice , save perhaps partially
and privately . It is worth the reform be tried by Kurmanji writers , to see the
results and possibly for any modification . While keeping writing Sorani with Arabic
letters, it is a good idea to try writing it in a suitable Roman script as well,
if the Kurds want to have one day perspectives for a future unification of their
two main written dialects. That can only be a slow and progressive process . Let
us notice that people knowing a Western language , or at least the Latin alphabet
, could easily read Sorani or Kurmanji written in this alphabet , but the Kurds in
Turkey will not understand even Kurmanji if it is written in Arabic characters, save
perhaps a handful of people among 'ulama in religion.
7) The Opening of the Kurdish Institute , in Istanbul
I was invited to the opening of the Kurdish Institute , in Istanbul, on April 18
, 1992 . The ceremony of the event took place in the presence of more than 2'000
Kurds and guests, men and women, representing the flower of the Kurdish intelligentsia
in Turkey . We were crowds in the modern headquarters, at the centre chic of the
large metropolis, on Istiqlal Caddesi (Independence Street.) I thought it might
perhaps be the beginning of some understanding by the Turkish state toward the Kurdish
language and culture . That was my hope. I was asked by the founders of the Institute
to cut its entry ribbon and declare it open. I did it while Dr. Ismail Besikci,
the Turkish sociologist who had written tens of books about the Kurdish question,
was standing by me . One of his books, in Turkish, is entitled "Kurdistan International
Colony" . To express their esteem toward Dr. Besikci , the founders of the Institute
had made him their president . Before cutting the entry ribbon , I declared open
the Institute 'in the name of the Kurdish people' and expressed the hope to see soon
the opening , in the cities of Turkish Kurdistan , of colleges and universities teaching
in Kurdish . This opening speech was concise and delivered in Kurmanji Kurdish.
Once that was done, the Kurdish responsibles suspended, through a window looking
at the Istiqlal Caddesi, a large wooden placard on which the name Enstîtuya Kurdî
was written , in bold black letters . We were at the 3rd or the 4th floor, but
the name was readable from Independence street . The Turkish police came soon into
the Institute and ordered the placard to be taken off. Why , asked the Kurdish responsibles
? 'Because the name Kurd is yasaq'(banned in Turkish) , said the policemen ,
who added : 'you can use any other name, but not Kurdish , it is illegal' . 'We
shall not take off the placard', said the Kurdish responsibles. 'Then we are going
to do it' , said the police , and they did it . The Institute's directors said 'We
shall bring the case before justice' . To offend in such a way a whole people numbering
more than twenty millions in the sole Turkey was unbelievable. Is it this 'democratic
Turkey', candidate at membership in the European Union ? Even Saddam Hussein, a
criminal as he was, would not have behaved so shamefully about cultural issues in
the region to which he had reduced Iraqi Kurdistan .
8) Repression of the Syrian Kurds by the Syrian Baath Dictatorship
The 2,5 million Kurds or so in Syria are as oppressed by the Baathist Syrian government
as the 24 million or so Kurds in Turkey , and they speak the same Kurmanji . The
Syrian Baath has since 1963 a planned policy of national and linguistic oppression
against the Syrian Kurds (see ICV, The Persecution of the Kurdish People by the
Baath Dictatorship in Syria, , Amsterdam, 1968 ; Kurdistan und die Kurden , Band
3, Pogrom 142, Göttingen, 1988 ; The Kurds in Syria and Lebanon , in : The Kurds
, A Contemporary Overview , ed. G, Kreyenbroek and S.Sperl, pub. Routledge, London
1992) . To avenge the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and " punish " the Iraqi Kurds
for their co-operation with the coalition forces (USA and Britain), the Syrian Baathist
state savagely aggressed , in March 2004 , its own Syrian Kurds . These revolted
and defended themselves with their hands. About one hundred Kurds were killed , 300
injured and more than 3000 others were arrested (see Radwan Badini, The Kurds in
Syria : An Appointment with History , in Arabic, Paris, 2005, possibly also ed. in
Russian .) There is, however , an important difference between the 24 or so million
Kurds in Turkey and the 2,5 or so million Kurds in Syria : these , to the exception
of those who had from centuries forgotten their language deep in inner Syria, continue
to speak and chrish their Kurmanji language , although it is banned by the Syrian
Baath . They know Arabic , since it is the sole official language, but they make
it a question of honour to bring up their children in the Kurmanji language . How
do they perform this, in all the Kurdish-inhabited areas of northern Syria, close
to the Turkish border , from Kurd-Dagh ( also said Efrin) , northwest of Aleppo and
adjacent to the former Sanjak of Alexandretta, to the province of Jazira (also
said Hasaka), which is close to both Turkish Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan ? It is
a matter of honour, and courage , a lesson to be meditated on by the Kurdish people
in Turkey.
9) Kurmanji An Endangered Language
The British academic David Crystal presents his book entitled Language Death (Cambridge,
2002) in these terms : " The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages
across the world is a matter of widespread concern , among all concerned with issues
of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized culture. " The author adds :
" Only 600 of the 6000 or so languages in the world are safe from the threat of extinction.
"
Michael L. Chyet , American author of a remarkable Kurdish-English Dictionary , the
Kurdish being Kurmanji ( entitled in Kurdish : Ferhanga Kurmanci-Inglîzî , Yale
University Press, 2003 , in both adapted Latin and Arabic alphabets) , remarks in
the introduction of his work :
" In the time I have spent studying Kurdish, I have familiarized myself with the
various subdialects of both Kurmanji and Sorani, and although they offer very interesting
and illuminating differences, I fail to see how these differences present a threat
: even the Kurmanji dialects at the two furthest extremes of Northern Kurdistan --
let us take as examples Efrîn in northwestern Syria, and Kars in northeastern Turkey,
on the border with Soviet Armenia --, readily possess a mutual intelligibility. In
San Diego, one even hears Kurmanji speakers conversing with Sorani speakers - each
speaking his own dialect and understanding the other. It is not possible to avoid
encountering regional differences in the dictionary of a language as rich as Kurmanji
(….). A factor that complicates matters even more is that in spite of the illiteracy
of the majority of the Kurdish populace, there exist three different alphabets in
which Kurdish can be written : Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic. "
Yet Michael Chyet concludes his introduction by raising the alarm as to the future
of Kurmanji :
" Kurmanji is an endangered language, and its survival is ultimately up to the Kurds
themselves. My motto to the Kurds is : Zimaneki wisa ku zarok pê nepeyivin, zimanekî
bê pasheroj e = A language which is not spoken by children has no future . Among
the Kurds , there are many who say they are so numerous that the language will always
be around . However, after the evacuation of the villages of Eastern Turkey - not
to mention those of Northern Iraq - , many Kurds have moved to large Turkish-speaking
cities, where the pressure on them to assimilate is enormous . In ten years , the
number of Kurmanji speakers can fall drastically(….). If they (the Kurds) continue
the recent trend of speaking to their children in more " prestigious " languages,
be it Turkish or the languages of Europe, Kurdish will share the fate of many of
the languages of the Native American Indians (…). If the beautiful Kurdish language
dies due to lack of interest on the part of its speakers , it will indeed be a pity.
"
It is unhappily true that the urban middle and upper class children in Turkish Kurdistan
speak increasingly Turkish and ignore Kurdish , while the Kurdish-speaking rural
population , whose villages were levelled to earth by the state security forces ,
in the early 1990s , pretexting the PKK fighting , had no choice but to seek a living
in Kurdish or Turkish cities, if not in Western Europe. The examples experienced
by the writer of this paper , some of which mentioned above, could be multiplied
by hundreds . We find the same trend in the Kurdish emigration from Turkey in Western
Europe. If we take the example of Germany , the children of the Kurdish workers
(Gast Arbeiter) speak Turkish , but very seldom any Kurdish . That depends on their
parents. In the places the Kurdish workers in Germany call komel, where they can
meet to chat, eat , drink tea and have some social life , one can read, in Turkish
" Please keep the WC clean. " The PKK's documents are published first in Turkish,
as the reference language - perhaps with the purpose to make them understandable
by the Turks -, then they are translated into Kurmanji.
The death of the Kurdish language has been the aim of the Turkish Republic, it is
the objective to be accomplished thanks to a Turkish utmost nationalism maintained
by what is sometimes called deap Turkey : a mixture of military, state bureaucracy
, and drug traffickers, who can mobilize the street mob against human rights and
democracy. The recent murder of Hrant Dink , journalist and Turkish citizen of Armenian
origin, who had mentioned the 1915 Armenian genocide in a paper, illustrates what
may happen with such a Turkish nationalism. His crime was to believe in the freedom
of opinion in Turkey.
10) Kurmanji , An Unwelcome Language in Iraqi Kurdistan ?
Of course Kurmanji cannot be unwelcome in Iraqi Kurdistan, since it is a part of
it, but the interrogation reflects the dissatisfaction of its speakers as to its
status, We are no longer in the early 1930s , when the matter was what dialect to
choose to begin teaching Kurdish. We have today three large universities in Iraqi
Kurdistan , one called Salaheddin (Saladin , the largest) in Arbil, another in Sulaimaniya,
a third in Dehok, engeneering,, medicine, and law schools , an important teaching
body, academics in different sciences, and students, young men and girls, in their
thousands.
In the present paper the name of Badinan has been used to mean all the northern areas
of Iraqi Kurdistan, close to the border with Turkey or Syria, where Kurmanji is spoken
. Once there was a Kurdish principality in these areas whose name was Badinan (or
Bahdinan) , but the name is today deprived of any administrative signification .
On the administrative field , parts of this Badinan, such as Barzan and Mergasor
, where Kurmanji is spoken, depend on Arbil , a Sorani-speaking city, and other parts,
such as Sheikhan and Sinjar , where Kurmanji is spoken, depend on the city of Mosul
, itself a mixture of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Christians, and placed beyond the territory
of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) . In other words, today's Badinan lacks
any unity and has no status and this situation is not healthy. I received about this
some recent reports.
Two reports were received from Mr. Rasheed Ali Miziry, from Badinan , plus copy
of an open letter sent by another Kurmanji writer , Xemgine Welat, to the Prime Minister
of KRG, kak Nechirvan Barzani. Here is a summary of Miziri's first report , dated
August 27, 2006 :
When Kurmanji is used , it is in Arabic script . It is used in primary schools from
the 1st year to the 4th year in Dehok district only . All other stages (intermediate,
secondary) are in Sorani. In Dehok University : Sorani is used in Geography and
History Depatments , but in the colleges of Economics and Administration and the
college of Law, Arabic is used , not Kurmanji . All scientific colleges , Medecine,
Agriculture, Engineering, use English . In Dehok Institutes Sorani is mostly used
. In Arbil District : Sorani is used in all stages , sometimes Kurmanji , and English
in scientific colleges. In Sulaimaniya District (Government) : Kurmanji is never
used . Mr. Miziri adds : " Most of the officials in Sulaimaniya and some from Arbil
dedicate all their efforts to remove Kurmanji from Kurdish dictionary and deprive
Badinan area from that right and from their mother tongue. We have the confidence
they will fail in their attempts, because most of the educated people in Badinan
area and Arbil are protesting against that idea. " In a second report dated 31/08/2006
, R.A. Miziri furthers some other information : Study in Sinjar is in Arabic, but
after the liberation of the district some new classes have been opened where pupils
are studying Kurmanji beside Arabic . In Sheikhan area study is in Kurmanji in a
number of villages, while in the town of Sheikhan itself, which is under the control
of the Iraqi government , study is in Arabic, except for some new classes where study
is in Kurmanji . In Barzan the study is in Sorani ,written in Arabic characters,
though the population there are kormanjophon !
The open letter by Xemgine Welat (apparently a symbolic name , meaning in Kurmanji
: Unhappy Country), dated September 26, 2006, to the KRG Prime Minister, Nechirvan
Barzani , is a moving yet brilliant defence of Kurmanji , its outstanding role in
the Kurdish Classical literature , the calamities it endures in Turkey , where "
25 million Kurds " , one half of all the Kurdish nation , are repressed . It is
also a homage paid to Ahmedê Khani , the immortal poet and father of the Kurdish
national idea. A Kurmanji periodical, Evro (Today) writes openly about the issue.
11 ) What to do ?
The dissatisfaction of the Kurmanji-speakers in Iraqi Kurdistan as to the status
of their language, about which I had a personal experience in 1993 , mentioned above,
at the Dehok's Union of Kurdish Writers, when the 11th KDP Congress was to be held
in Arbil, is obviously ongoing , No solution has been found, nor even tempted . This
situation should not continue . It is a nonsense that the Kurds of Barzan, Sheikhan,
or Sinjar should begin their education in a language other than Kurmanji . It is
not democratic , and contrary to the interest of the Kurdish nation, if this interest
is well understood, to impose education in Sorani on the university of Dehok for
such departments as history and geography, or an education in Arabic, as in the law
school of this university. It is not patriotic to be insensitive to the unhappiness
of the Kurds in Syria and to their calamities in Turkey, not to speak of their trouble
in Badinan, as to the future of Kurmanji. The Sorani Kurds in particular, who enjoy
a far better linguistic position than those of endangered Kurmanji, should not let
the language of Ahmedê Khani, dwindle away. They can be helpful. Then what to do
? Here are proposals which , being generally interlinked, would require a global
appraisal . I was asked by Kurds from, and in Iraq, and I feel it my duty, to further
them :
A --We have noted the absence of any administrative unity for the area called Badinan
, where Kurmanji is spoken in Iraqi Kurdistan . The Iraqi Kurds fought for a long
while with arms to obtain within Iraq a political autonomy for Iraqi Kurdistan
. Today that they have obtained, by the Iraqi Constitution, the recognition of the
KRG's territory as an Iqlîm , that is a state within a federal Iraq , they are
still struggling , by political and peaceful means, to bring other Kurdish areas
, or having a Kurdish majority, into the KRG territory , such as Kirkuk, Khanaqin,
Sheikhan, Sinjar.
Modern Spain is a democratic state constituted, according to the Spanish Constitution
of December 29, 1978, of 17 regional autonomies , with an elected central government.
Tony Blair's United Kingdom includes Scotland , with its own parliament and regional
government, and Wales, with its National Assembly. Canada is a federal state with
two official languages, English and French . Switzerland is an old federal state
made of 23 small states called cantons , with three official languages , German,
French, and Italian , in which all federal laws - but not those of the cantons -
should be published. Should we add to this list, Brasil , India , Belgium , etc.
(see : Multinational Democracies , ed. A-G. Gagnon and J. Taylor , Cambridge,
2001.)
What the area of Badinan needs , and is demanded , not to be made another Iqlim ,
nor an autonomous region in the political sense, but to be officially recognized
as a united Kurmanji space , endowed with some cultural, that is linguistic autonomy.
Within this space education at all stages, primary, secondary and at universities,
should be in Kurmanji , be it by progressive steps (for the formation of Kurmanji
teachers and professors if need be) , save the use of other optional languages (see
below under C) : That is the wish of the Kurmanji-speaking people in Iraqi Kurdistan
, and this wish should be respected . No Kurdish leader has the right to ignore the
people's wish. The united Kurmanji space should include , not only Mergasor and Barzan
, but also such areas as Sheikhan and Sinjar , which are beyond today's KRG's territory
. Even if an area as Sinjar cannot supposedly have a direct territorial contact
with Dehok , it should be placed within the Kurmanji space . Since all Badinan is
part of Iraq , as the KRG itself , the Kurmanji space can be created only by the
top political responsibles in Iraq ,that is Mesoud Barzani, in his double quality
of President of KRG and KDP, Jalal Talabani , in his double quality of President
of the Iraqi Republic and leader of PUK, and probably the Iraqi Prime Minister, or
their representatives. This should be done by a law instituting a KURMANJI SPACE
COUNCIL , endowed with necessary legal capacities, administrative and finanancial
means , to manage the Kurmanji space. A General Director should be designated, or
elected, at the head of the Council . The members should be qualified Iraqi Kurmanji-speaking
Kurds , but a representation of Sorani Kurds at the Council is desirable for the
purpose of co-operation and matters of common interest. Distinction should be made
between present administrative divisions, that could be easily changed, and a united
Kurmanji space covering all Badinan, which should be kept as inherited from history.
B-Since the Iraqi Constitution and the KRG Constitution both guarantee individual
freedoms of citizens, the writer of the present paper launches an appeal to create
a civil society institution independent of political parties, called DEFENCE COUNCIL
OF KURMANJI KURDISH (hereafter : DCKK),.seated preferably in Dehok city as main centre,
but structured as a federation , or a confederation , with branches, or similar civil
society institutions, in the four parts of Kurdistan , and in the Kurdish emigration
abroad, in Europe, the Russian Federation , and USA . If DCKK is structured as a
confederation, co-operation and union between its components (or regional branches)
are required . The aims should be : defence of democracy, human rights, self-determination,
and defence of endangered Kurmanji . This defence , by peaceful means, should be
done before the states dividing Kurdistan , the KRG , and on the international field,
before the Council of Europe and the United Nations, possibly by mandated known lawyers
. A foundation (waqf) , or several ones, should be created for fundraising to support
the Council . Membership at DCKK should be open to qualified persons. A representation
of Sorani intellectuals at the Kurmanji defence council is desirable , I would say
required, for Kurdish and democratic solidarity , and common interest. Since the
DCKK's aims are the defence of Kurmanji Kurdish and democratic rights , and because
Baathist Syria and a militarily threatening Turkey are actually still aiming at the
death of Kurmanji , the Iraqi government, together with KRG, could perhaps be helpful
, face to any threat , to bring the case before the United Nations.
C - As a general rule, the Kurmanji-speaking Kurds of Badinan should be educated
in Kurmanji . Yet teaching scientific matters in English, such as medicine and engineering
, for both Sorani and Kurmanji students, is a good choice. As to Arabic, it is the
most important oriental language , in which treasures of knowledge have been vehiculed
to us from the Middle Age, particularly the Abbasid era. Persian is probably the
second language in importance with this respect , before Turkish. Teaching the Arabic
, Persian , or Turkish languages, in their own script , as foreign languages , at
official universities and institutes of Iraqi Kurdistan , should be made possible
for the Kurdish students who want it, as optional programme, whether they speak Sorani
or Kurmanji. It should be made similarly possible to educate Kurdish students to
become specialists in matter of other foreign languages and civilisations , such
as English, French, German, Spanish, or Russian, thanks to an optional choice.
Ottoman Turkish , thanks to the Koran , was stuffed with Arabic words and Koranic
sentences , perhaps up to 70 % of its vocabulary , and with persian if not Kurdish
words, perhaps up to 20 %. French was over centuries the first international language
, not English, till the end of WW1 . French was used by the Ottomans for their diplomatic
relations , and by the European aristocracy as the cultural language par excellence.
The Turkish Kemalist Republic tried to " purgate " Ottoman Turkish of Arabic, and
to replace it by French words and expressions. Yet modern Turkish is still stuffed
with Arabic in matter of law and religion, and has become stuffed with French words
and expressions, probably up to 10 % , if not 15 % . Once , for example, I read at
a railway station in Istanbul : 'shef de gar burosi' which is entirely borrowed from
French, to the exception of the final possessive suffix 'si ' : " Bureau du chef
de gare = Office of the railway station chief. " I heard such French words and expressions
in their hundreds, if not by thousands , pronounced by Kurds in Turkey, speaking
Turkish or Kurmanji , but both Turks and Kurds believe them to be " pure Turkish
" , unless they had been educated in French. Once I misunderstood Kurds in Turkey
saying Kurdan and thought they were unduly meaning the plural of Kurd, who had
nothing to do in the story . Then they explained they meant toothpick= cure-dent
in French , phonetically pronounced as Kurdan . Kemalist Turkey had borrowed the
word from French (as a mark of civilisation !), and the northern Kurds took it from
the Turks. In modern Turkish most of the words related to arts , movie and culture
are French , but today's Turks ignore it.
D - I repeat the idea I suggested to Mam Jalal , at his Qara Cholan residence, in
August 1993, a few days after the KDP 11th Congress, that he said it was a good idea
(see above under subtitle 5) . But I would somehow modify it , since it has never
been applied . Why should Sorani be excluded from any teaching in Badinan and, vice
versa, Kurmanji teaching be excluded in the Sorani-speaking areas ? Why should we,
the Kurds, treat ourselves as if we were still constituted of antagonistic tribes
? Why should sorani speakers never study any Kurmanji, and Kurmanji speakers never
study any Sorani, are we wild beasts? Should one of these two Kurdish dialects kill
the other to survive ?
It is recommended that at primary schools teaching be in Sorani in the Sorani areas,
and in Kurmanji in Badinan , as this area is defined above. At the stage of secondary
schools (lycées in French, high schools in English) it is desirable, if not requested,
that Sorani-speaking students may have a few hours per week to learn Kurmanji , and
vice-versa , in Badinan, the Kurmanji-speaking students have the same time to learn
Sorani . It is also desirable that at the stage of higher education -university
level - students may have , as personal option, an education enabling those who
want it to become experts , or professors, in Kurmanji in the Sorani areas, and in
Sorani in the area of Badinan.
12) Recent News About the Kurdish People in Turkey
Information about the number of the Kurdish people in Turkey (one half of all the
Kurds), the extent of Turkish Kurdistan (one half of all Kurdistan) , the denial
by the Turkish state's racist and nationalistic ideology of the mere existence of
the Kurdish people and Kurdistan in Turkey , the economic under-development of the
Kurdish areas , reduced in fact to the level of an internal , but nameless colony,
the banning of the Kurdish language, Kurmanji , henceforth menaced with extinction,
all this is summarily said above, under several subtitles, as a consequence of the
Turkish state policy. A few examples experienced personally by this writer have
been mentioned. It was also mentioned the recent murder, in Istanbul, of Hrand Dink
, Turkish citizen and journalist of Armenian origin whose crime was to have mentioned
the Armenian genocide of 1915. Let us add to this that the Turkish writer Orhan
Pamuk , winner of the 2006 Nobel prize in literature , who became the pride of Turkey,
was obliged to flee his country to the United States, under threat with death by
Turkish ultra-nationalistic bands, because he had paid homage, on January 21, 2007
, to the memory of Hrant Dink, and to have mentioned a Kurdish genocide , after
the Armenian's .
Yet recent events seem to put in evidence a positive mental change among the Kurds
in Turkey, with more courage and demands on their part, even on the political ground
:
-- By mid-January 2007 , a symposium was held at a room of the Belgian parliament
in Brussels, by Kurmanji-speaking Kurds from Turkey . In its final declaration ,
Turkey was requested to authorize education in the Kurdish language at the state's
public universities and institutes ; the European Union was requested to ask Turkey
to abolish, or review Article 3 of the Turkish Constitution , so that education in
Kurdish, at state's universities, may become legally open .
-- At the same time, mid-January 2007, a Kurdish conference was held in Ankara, with
a general thema entitled Turkey's Search (or Road) For Peace , and a subtitle , The
Kurdish Question and its Solution. The meeting was political as well , attended
by about 200 persons, writers, MPs, politicians. Among the participants there were
the internationally known writer Yasar Kemal of Kurdish origin (born in Van) who
wrote in Turkish and was translated into foreign languages , and the well known Kurdish
novelist Mehmet Uzun , who published in Kurmanji , especially in Sweden, and is back
home (unfortunately he has a health problem.) This conference demanded , as the
Brussels symposium, that Kurmanji Kurdish be recognized as an education language
at the state universities in Turkey . The political and social demands can be summed
up as follow : A general amnesty for the PKK members and their reinsertion in the
civil society ; liberation of the political prisoners ; the return of the Kurds whose
villages were destroyed by the security forces to their original places, and reconstruction
of their villages by the state ; abolition of the so-called village-protectors units
(armed Kurdish auxiliary units under the order of Turkish security or military forces)
; economic development of the Kurdish-inhabited areas ; abolition of the " election
dam " requiring 10 % of the valid voices for a party or a district to be represented
at the Turkish parliament. These demands are mentioned in a final declaration of
the conference, which was read by Yasar Kemal .
-- There are Kurds , and Turkish democratic people, who demand a federalist solution
for the Kurdish national question in Turkey . One of them is Abdul Melik Firat, former
MP and grandson of late Sheikh Said, the leader of the 1925 Kurdish uprising who
was executed by Turkey (we still ignore his burial place.) Another is Serefettin
Elci , former Kurdish minister in the Turkish government.
-- Since 2004 , private broadcasting or television programmes are authorized in Kurmanji
, under many conditions : They should be only cultural, no international news , no
programmes for children ; limited to a total of 4 hours and 5 days per week . At
a Turkish state television channel , there is a programme in Kurdish , 45 minutes
per day , with a Turkish translation on the screen. In the electoral campaigns ,
whether municipal or parliamentary , the oral or written use of any language other
than Turkish is forbidden .
-- The Kurdish municipality of Diyarbekir has trouble with the Turkish state . It
is known that in the Islamic lunar calendar, the end of the fast month of Ramadan
is celebrated as a feast, with exchange of good wishes and gifts. On the occasion
of the last feast celebrating the end of Ramadan (in September 2006 ?) , the municipality
of Diyarbekir expressed its good wishes on its Web site , and apparently by sending
written cards, in three languages , Turkish, Kurmanji , and English (in Kurmanji
: Jejna we pîroz be.) Because of the use of Kurdish by the municipality of Diyarbekir
, the Turkish minister of Home Affairs has opened an official inquiry against it
. Furthermore, the two municipal counties, or subdivisions of Diyarbekir, Sur and
Yenishehirof, have instituted a bilingual service , in Kurmanji and Turkish, according
to which no new municipal civil servants can be employed unless they know Kurmanji
. This had as a consequence the opening of another inquiry by the Turkish home affair
minister, and of a criminal inquiry by the Turkish state prosecutor , against the
Kurdish municipality. Those initiatives, accomplished by Kurdish duly elected municipals,
are considered as illegal and anticonstitutional by the so-called democratic Turkey
, said to be " advancing on the way of democracy " by the European Union.
-- Apparently the PKK leadership , present on the terrain, pays more attention that
Kurmanji be learned and spoken by the guerrilla , even by those who are not Kurds
. I have with this respect a personal experience. A Swiss idealistic young man named
David Rouiller , from the district of Lausanne , with whom I had once met (he preferred
to be called Patrick rather than David) , left suddenly the easy life in Switzerland
, his studies, and disappeared one day of December 2003, when he was about 30 ,
without giving any news to his worrying parents. I was told by Kurds in Lausanne
who had known him that he should have joined the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan . I managed
by a space phone number to talk with my old friend Osman Ocalan, still in Iraqi
Kurdistan , who said David was there and in good shape . He was unwilling to leave
Kurdistan, even to write to his parents. I told the parents about the good new ,
and his courageous mother arranged a journey to see her son in Kurdistan, together
with a Kurdish film-maker living in Bern. The result was a movie documentary and
somehow family film , which was projected as a special programme at the Cinémathèque
suisse , in Lausanne, in January 2007 . Together with the Rouiller family and hundreds
of Swiss and Kurdish spectators , I heard David , who was promoted to the rank of
a unit responsible, speaking Kurmanji Kurdish , amid mountain forests, in the presence
of his fellow-PKK partisans, boys and girls , defending justice and the rights of
the Kurdish people. David has learned Kurmanji within the PKK . The PKK's guerrilla
camps in Iraqi Kurdistan are scattered over a large area , and camouflaged, face
to the threat represented by about 200'000 Turkish soldiers concentrated at the border
, with an air force . The film shows life at the PKK camps extremely Spartan ; everybody
has something to do in house-, or rather cottage-keeping ; men's and women's quarters
are separate and any romance between them is strictly forbidden ; yet sociological
and political lectures, arms training , and if need be, defence operations are shared
by the two genders. Those bases are not terrorist , as they are said by Turkey ,
but patriotic camps , animated by men and women with a purpose in life , to do the
Kurdish people justice , if possible by peaceful means. That was said by David in
Kurmanji, and French , in the presence of his mother . Apparently, David has won
to the case he defends the support of his family, including his father, former judge
at the Swiss Federal Court .
13) Turkey, the European Union, and the Kurds
During the years of fighting between the PKK guerrilla and the Turkish state (1984-1999),
especially in the 1990s, the European Parliament and the Legislative Assembly of
the Council of Europe , by successive resolutions , launched appeals asking the Turkish
government and the Kurdish people, including PKK , to reach a political solution
to the Kurdish question by dialogue and peaceful means. When Abdullah Ocalan, president
of PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), thanks to an international conspiracy , had been
arrested , handed over to Turkey, in February 1999 , and unjustly condemned to a
death penalty by the Turkish State Security Court , the European Union (hereafter
: EU ) stopped suddenly to speak about a Kurdish people in Turkey and the need of
a political solution to the Kurdish question. That was shameful. Besides, PKK had
no other choice but uprising against injustice.
At the Helsinki EU's summit of December 1999 , the name of Turkey was put on the
list of states "candidate at membership" , without any reference to the Kurdish question
. The European Commission , following the summit, adopted in 2000 the general criteria
of Copenhagen , about democracy, respect for human rights and the rights of national
minorities, as the basis for the democratisation of the candidate states , in their
constitution and their practice . Turkey was similarly requested to comply with
those criteria, without mentioning the mere existence of the Kurdish people, nor
any reference to their old and ongoing national question, while the future of democracy
in Turkey depends on a just solution to the national question of the Kurdish people.
In the Turkish program for compliance with the European criteria , no reference either
was made to the question , not even to the existence of Kurds in Turkey . When the
project " Turkey 2000 Accession Partnership " , prepared by the European Commission
, was submitted to the European Parliament for discussion, the Parliament adopted
on 15 November 2000 a document entitled " Turkey's Progress Towards Accession " containing
29 points, which constitute addenda bringing precision to the project , or bridging
its gaps. Several of these addenda concern the Kurds, especially points Nos 11 to
14 , which mention specifically ' the Kurdish people' and the need of a 'political
solution' to their question, demand "an international fund for the reconstruction
of the Kurdish destroyed villages and the return of their inhabitants." These addenda
about the Kurdish people were not mentioned in the final document submitted to Turkey
. In other terms, the EU has no respect for the resolutions of its own parliament
. If the EU , proclaimed as being based on the highest principles of justice,
peace and democracy, has no respect for the European Parliament itself , how could
it have respect for the Kurdish people and their rights ?
I do not make it a mystery , I was much surprised by the hypocrisy of the EU . I
denounced the Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi , and Syrian oppressive policy toward the Kurds
at the federal Canadian Parliament, in Ottawa , on 6 June 2000, on the invitation
of Canadian parliamentarians . I said publicly what I think about the shameful
attitude of the EU's executive bodies , regarding the Kurdish question in Turkey
, in my speech at the meeting held at the House of Commons (British Parliament) ,
Grand Committee Room, London , on Tuesday 23 January 2001 , in the presence of British
MPs, Lords, intellectuals , artists, friends of the Kurdish people , and before the
Kurdish intelligentsia at the British capital . I repeated the same criticism at
the meeting held the next day at the National Assembly of Wales, in Cardiff, and
, at another date, in a press conference held at the European Parliament , in Brussels
. I presented the same criticism toward the EU, in courteous terms, to Mr. Romano
Prodi , president of the Euopean Commission , in a letter dated 14 November 2002
. I requested in this letter the EU to work for a real and political solution to
the national question of the Kurdish people in Turkey , by peaceful means, in consultation
with representatives of the Kurdish people. I repeated this criticism again at the
KNK's General Assembly of December 2002 , before our European guests and friends
. It is to be afraid the EU attitude means the Kurds in Turkey were considered
as a respectful people , worth efforts for the resolution of their national question
, as long as they were fighting by arms for their rights, and that they are worth
nothing since fighting by arms has been brought to an end ,
Only a few examples of my action as president of Kurdistan National Congress (KNK
in Kurdish initials), are mentioned above . There are many other examples, by hundreds
, from 1999 to 2004 . That was done with the assistance of my brothers and sisters
at the KNK's Executive Council. I tried as KNK's president to be helpful to the case
of the Kurdish people in the four parts of Kurdistan and the outer diasporas . My
old and basic idea , over more than fifty years , for the solution of the Kurdish
question , has been political federalism for Kurdistan , and between the Kurds and
their neighbours. There can be no federalism without democracy and self-determination.
As to KNK , my intention was to resign its presidency already in 2003 . On the demand
of its Executive Council , that was postponed for a year, in order to prepare an
extraordinary general assembly ; the assembly took place in June 2004 , then I resigned
. I was president of KNK over five years (1999-2004) , as an independent Kurd expected
to bring together , if it was possible, the Kurdish political parties , including
PKK, according to the KNK's charter . When I had seen this was impossible, I resigned
. Time had apparently not come for a Kurdish nationwide, and efficient , organisation.
In a column of Le Monde , issue of 19 November 1998 , the French daily says : "
The Kurds are the last grand people to whom self-determination is refused " . The
Time magazine , issue of March 1st , 1999, put it in these terms : " The Kurds
constitute the world's largest ethnic community without a status of nationhood
" . The present writer would have said " the world's largest stateless nation. "
Helmut Schmidt , the former social-democrat Chancellor of Germany, in an interview
with a German daily , Berliner Tagesspiegel , dated 31 December 2000 , says : "
The Allied Powers committed a gross mistake at the Versailles Treaty of 1919 , in
not deciding to create an independent Kurdish state." Then , criticising the decision
admitting Turkey as candidate at accession to the EU , without a prior solution
to the Kurdish question , Mr. Schmidt adds : "The Kurdish and Turkish communities
are fighting each other in the streets of Hamburg , sometimes with arms . Are
we going to introduce this serious conflict into Europe ? The admission of Turkey
as candidate at accession to the EU was a gross mistake . The price to be paid by
Europe would be very high."
Valerie Giscard d'Estaing , former president of the French Republic, who chaired
the European Convention that laid down a draft Constitution of EU , stated repeatedly
in 2003 and 2004 that "Turkey is not European". He said "only 5 % of the territory
of Turkey is at the edge of Europe, all the rest belonging to Asia.. " We know both
the French and Dutch peoples have rejected, by referendum, the draft EU constitution,
essentially because of Turkey's candidature , while a unanimous acceptance by member
states, of a new member , will be required . Besides , Turkish membership is nowadays
more than problematic and, supposedly , it could not be attained before 10 or more
years, if ever.
Yet , since the Turkish candidature has not been cancelled , and although the EU
seems not to know how to go on and is deprived of a constitution, it may however
be recommended to the representatives of the Kurdish people in Turkey, to ignore
these Turkish difficulties and to present , perhaps by mandated lawyers, their linguistic
and political demands - such as the official recognition of the Kurdish people ,
of the name of Kurdistan, a status for autonomy, perhaps a federalist status - to
the European Commission, or to a EU's summit , as Kurdish demands within Turkey.
It was said above there are in the world many examples of Multinational Democracies.
I have the unpleasant feeling that the far largest part of Kurdistan - in Turkey
- , has become the weakest part , the sole in which the Kurdish language is menaced
with death, not only because of Turkish oppression , but also because of the attitude
of the Kurds themselves, who prefer to speak Turkish than Kurdish , by personal interest
or fear . This feeling is shared by the other Kurds, in Syria, Iraq, and Iran . If
I should have any advice to the Kurds and their representatves in Turkey , it would
be this : be courageous ! , speak Kurdish and teach it to your children! let the
EU and the world know your wish, your will , that you want to live in a truly
democratic, and binational Turkey, representing its two main nationalities, the Turks
and the Kurds , and respecting the rights of its different minorities . It should
also be known, and demanded by the Kurds in Turkey , that their Kurmanji language
can be saved from death only if it is made an official language , be it together
with Turkish , in a geographical space called Kurdistan , a name that existed under
the Ottomans. This name , Kurdistan , should be reintroduced in a democratic Turkey,
as the homeland of its Kurds and the space where Kurmanji could be maintained and
prosper.
Something more should be said : if one day Turkey becomes supposedly member at the
EU, its Kurds would become, as " Turkish citizens " , " Europeans " too , while the
other half of the same people , the Kurds in Syria, Iraq , and Iran, will continue
to be non-European, just Kurds beyond Europe . I don't believe this would be in the
interest of the Kurds and Kurdistan, while a partnership between EU and Turkey,
between EU and Kurdistan, is something possible, and probably in the interest of
all concerned parties . V. Giscard d'Estaing says Turkey is not European , geographically
speaking . I would add it is not European on the cultural field either, although
some layer of its political establishment presents itself as European , in opposition
to the culture of the large mass of the Turkish people.
14) A request to the Authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan
By way of conclusion, Sorani enjoys a dominant position in Iraqi Kurdistan, including
Badinan, thanks to a political decision taken by the Kurdistan National Assembly.
The Kurmanji speakers resent this situation as oppressive and do not accept it. They
demand that Kurmanji be the main official and education language in Badinan. This
democratic demand is also justified by the fact that Kurmanji is menaced with extinction
in Turkey, it is banned in Syria and not used for official education where it is
spoken in Iran.
The official responsible authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan are requested to reconsider
the issue, to give satisfaction to the democratic demand of the Kurmanji speakers
in Badinan in the light of the strategic interest of all the Kurdish nation. I submit,
with confidence, the proposal mentioned above, to their consideration.
15) The Kurds and regional threats
The Saad-Abad logic , despite globalisation, is not totally dead . The Kurdish people
live within non democratic states , Turkey, Iran and Syria, and an utterly chaotic
Iraq . Even the Iraqi Kurds , seen by the other Kurds as enjoying the best position
, are not completely sure of the future . Will the KRG recover the other Kurdish
areas in Iraq , such as Kirkuk ? Nobody knows . Have they the right to extract the
oil fields discovered within the KRG territory, to their own profit ? The US Secretary
of State, Condoleezza Rice, said recently they don't have this right , they should
share their oil with the other Iraqis. Will Turkey violate once more the KRG territory
, at the pursuit of PKK ? Nobody knows, it is not to be excluded.
The US President Bush lost his Republican Party's majority at the Congress, in the
mid-term general elections , before the Democratic Party . The war in Iraq , with
its savage blood shedding , especially between its Sunni and Shii Arabs , has become
unpopular in the United States . The US " Iraq Study Group Report ", a group co-chaired
by James A. Baker and L.H. Hamilton , representing respectively the Republican and
the Democratic parties , recommends co-operation between the United States, Iran,
Turkey, and Syria , to bring an end to this war . Both Mesoud Barzani and Jalal
Talabani protested against this report. President Bush tried to quiet them by a phone
call , but the US President cannot go for a third mandate at the White House. What
could be the consequences , for the Kurds in Iraq and all the Kurdish people, of
such a co-operation ? Would the Kurds be , once more, betrayed by those who are supposed
to be their friends ?
It is difficult to foresee future . What one may say , without being mistaken, a
Kurdish-Kurdish solidarity, and perseverance , in all circumstances , are required
for salvation.
Ismet Sherif Wanli Lausanne,
mid-March 2007 .