Agence Global - Article

Agence Global - Article: "The Kurds are Betrayed �Again
by William O. BeemanReleased: 10 Jun 2004


'The Kurds have no friends,' is a bitter Kurdish proverb stemming from centuries of mistreatment at the hands of outside powers. In the Iraqi settlement agreement, pushed through the United Nations Security Council by the United States, the Bush administration has now proven the truth of the Kurdish proverb once more. Only this time, this American mistake may launch the long-feared Iraqi civil war.

The U. N. settlement agreement, Resolution 1546 (2004), endorses the timetable for the political transition leading to a constitutionally elected government by 31 December 2005, as well as the convening of a national conference. However, the resolution makes no mention of Kurdish independence or even autonomy, thus cheating the Kurds of the homeland for which they have longed for centuries.

It further tells the Kurds that they will never be able to be selected as President or Prime Minister of the country. In the interim government Kurds were indeed represented, but the highest echelons of power eluded them. The best they could do was Vice-president (Roj Nuri Shawis), Deputy Prime Minister for national security (Barham Saleh) and perhaps most important, Foreign Minister (Hoshyar Zebari). Barham Saleh in particular will be under a great deal of pressure from his own community as a result of the U. N. resolution, since he has been heavily backed by the United States.

This is not the first time the Kurds have been sacrificed to expediency. Articles 62 to 65 of the Treaty of S�vres, signed on 10 August 1920 between Ottoman Empire and the Allied powers (including the United States), provided for the formation of an autonomous Kurdish administration out of the Southeast Provinces of Turkey. The Kurds of northern Ir"