Kurdistán (Continuación)

There has been much discussion in the U.S. and European media of Turkey as a rising star after its recent stance on Syria and its general support for the "Arab Spring."

Turkey is viewed as the successful merger of Islam and modernization. The Muslim religious coloring of the ruling Justice and Development Party is not seen as being at odds with its democratic, pro-Western outlook. The government has won popular support in the region, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan greeted rapturously on his recent tour of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Turkey's vibrant economy contrasts with the economic crises in Europe and the United States.…  Seguir leyendo »

Turkey often presents itself to the world as a model Muslim democracy, but it is in fact denying basic democratic rights to almost 20 percent of its population. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was re-elected on Sunday by a large margin, and he now faces a major domestic challenge. Despite Turkey’s impressive economic growth and increasing international profile during Mr. Erdogan’s eight years in power, his government has ignored the country’s most important and politically explosive issue: Turkey’s oppressed Kurdish minority.

Kurds have been struggling for freedom and autonomy in Turkey for decades — often in the face of violent state repression.…  Seguir leyendo »

With the Middle East coming apart at the seams and no coherent policy or set of principles to guide policy, the Obama administration should support the people of Iran, the one country where the population remains resolutely pro-American and firmly opposed to the dictators who have been waging war on America for the past 31 years.

President Obama appeared to be contemplating such an approach in March when he delivered traditional greetings on the occasion of the Iranian New Year (Nowruz) and named Iranian dissidents.

While greater emphasis on the human rights abuses of the Iranian regime is a welcome shift, the president spent the first two years of his administration in a failed effort to make nice to Tehran's terrorcrats, responding with stony silence in June 2009 when millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the fraudulent "election" of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and were calling out to the United States to give them the type of moral support the president offered on Nowruz.…  Seguir leyendo »

A trial that would shame any democracy is now in its fourth week in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Named the KCK trial, its processes have been widely condemned by the several hundred independent observers who attended during its first few days.

Charged with "violating the unity of the state" and "abetting terrorism" are 151 Kurdish politicians, lawyers, mayors and leaders of Kurdish civil society. Of these, 103 have already been in detention for the past 18 months, but details of the charges were not disclosed until 12 weeks ago.

This Friday is "crunch day" when the judge will decide whether to accept the defence team's argument that there is no case to answer and release those detained, or to let the trial continue with the "suspects" remaining in prison or released on bail.…  Seguir leyendo »

Last week, more than 600 delegates from across the globe headed to London for a conference on investment opportunities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

As the rest of Iraq continues to be beset by political wrangling, terrorist attacks and violent protests bemoaning the lack of electricity, Kurdistan continues to look more and more like an independent state. This was the underlying message to be taken from the conference – that the business opportunities in Kurdistan are also opportunities to play a role in the building of a nation.

And where better to start than with oil, the foundation of any future independent Kurdish state.…  Seguir leyendo »

Comme chaque printemps en Turquie, les affrontements entre les guérilleros du PKK (Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan) et l'armée turque ont repris. Débutée en 1984, le bilan de la guerre est coûteux (45 000 victimes et un coût de 100 millions de dollars). La capture du chef du PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, en février 1999 a décapité le parti, mais celui-ci a trouvé un nouveau vivier de combattants dans une génération de jeunes Kurdes heurtés par l'absence d'investissements à l'est du pays et par les brimades dont sont l'objet les formations politiques kurdes. Leurs candidats sont élus lors des différents scrutins, mais ils sont automatiquement soupçonnés d'accointances avec le PKK et d'arrière-pensée séparatiste.…  Seguir leyendo »

From my hotel balcony I can see this city of nearly 700,000 in all its modernity and all its madness. I can see the desiccated mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan encircling us — hills that on my last visit, during the rainy season, were covered in poppies. I can see the Ferris wheel that was built as a symbol of freedom on the ruins of one of Saddam Hussein’s prisons. And I can see 20 armed soldiers watching me from below, making me feel anything but free.

This is Sulaimaniya. I can see mosques around the city and I can hear their calls to prayer.…  Seguir leyendo »

Increasingly, Iraq's Kurds appear to be interfering with efforts to foster political accommodation among their country's major sectarian groups. Since Iraq's future hinges on establishing such a spirit of compromise, this trend has potentially grave implications for Iraq, its neighbors and the United States.

Two key issues stand out. First, Kurds are beginning to develop oil fields on their territory with foreign investors but with no role for Baghdad, claiming cover under Iraq's 2005 constitution. But the relevant sections of the Iraqi constitution (articles 109 through 112, among others) state that future oil wells will be developed by Iraq's provinces and regions in conjunction with the central government.…  Seguir leyendo »

Con la amenaza de invasión por parte de Turquía, el Kurdistán se ha abierto en los últimos meses un hueco en los titulares de prensa. Conviene recordar que no es una pequeña provincia remota que salta ahora casualmente a la actualidad; no se trata de otro Kosovo. El Kurdistán ocupa más de medio millón de kilómetros cuadrados -es decir, es tan grande como toda España- y tiene unos 35 millones de habitantes, la población que tenía nuestro país no hace muchos años.

Se trata de una región muy montañosa en la que los kurdos vienen morando ininterrumpidamente desde hace 30 siglos y que desde la Primera Guerra Mundial se encuentra dividida entre cuatro países: Turquía, Irak, Irán y Siria.…  Seguir leyendo »

The morass in Iraq and deepening difficulties in Afghanistan have not deterred the Bush administration from taking on a dangerous and questionable new secret operation. High-level U.S. officials are working with their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish guerrillas and capture their leaders. Through covert activity, their goal is to forestall Turkey from invading Iraq.

While detailed operational plans are necessarily concealed, the broad outlines have been presented to select members of Congress as required by law. U.S. Special Forces are to work with the Turkish army to suppress the Kurds' guerrilla campaign. The Bush administration is trying to prevent another front from opening in Iraq, which would have disastrous consequences.…  Seguir leyendo »

El Kurdistán iraquí es un remanso de paz y de estabilidad en un Irak desgarrado por los enfrentamientos confesionales y el terrorismo masivo de Al Qaeda, que cuenta con el apoyo multiforme de Siria y de Irán. Tras decenios de guerras y de dictadura, con su secuela de destrucciones, deportaciones e infortunios de todas clases, los kurdos han forjado su unidad, han reconstruido una gran parte de sus cerca de 4.500 pueblos y una veintena de ciudades arrasadas y han instaurado una democracia parlamentaria vibrante.

Las libertades fundamentales están aseguradas; desde los islamistas no violentos hasta los comunistas, todas las corrientes políticas se expresan y se organizan libremente.…  Seguir leyendo »

Empleada en su día para describir a los palestinos, la expresión "nunca pierden la oportunidad de perder una oportunidad" puede aplicarse actualmente a los kurdos iraquíes. Durante casi quince años las cosas han ido avanzando, pero de repente se ha echado a perder lo ganado: se pelean con sus congéneres iraquíes y sus importantes vecinos al tiempo que se ciernen nubarrones sobre su futuro...

Los casi cinco millones de kurdos iraquíes son liderados por Jalal Talabani y Maud Barazani; el primero es presidente de Iraq y el segundo del Kurdistán autónomo. Hasta hace unos dos años, los kurdos gestionaban positivamente sus asuntos, reavivando la lengua y cultura kurdas y promoviendo la creación de una entidad política kurda en el norte de Iraq.…  Seguir leyendo »

By Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq (THE WASHINGTON POST, 26/10/05):

In recent weeks Iraq has passed three important milestones. The constitutional referendum on Oct. 15 was a powerful demonstration of Iraqis' desire to establish democracy and save a country still recovering from its disastrous history. Two days later the remains of 500 of my kinsmen were returned from a mass grave in southern Iraq for reburial in Iraqi Kurdistan. Another 7,500 of my kin are still missing after "disappearing" from a Baathist concentration camp in 1983 in the first phase of the genocidal Anfal campaign, which caused the death of 182,000 Kurdish civilians during the 1980s.…  Seguir leyendo »

Por Semih Vaner, director de investigación del Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Internacionales (París) y director de Cahiers d'études sur la Méditerranée orientale et le monde turco-iranien (EL PAÍS, 12/03/03):

La crisis iraquí no podía llegar en peor momento para el AKP (Partido de la Justicia y el Desarrollo), que ganó de forma clara las elecciones legislativas del 3 de noviembre pasado en Turquía. Con una cómoda mayoría que podía traer consigo una estabilidad parlamentaria y, llegado el caso, política -que tanta falta hacía desde hacía 40 años-, tenía la intención de demostrar al mundo entero que el islam y la democracia son perfectamente conciliables (sin que se confundan los registros, como hacemos en Francia, bien por temor o para tratar de desacreditar a quienes llamamos abusivamente los "islamistas"); y que, por consiguiente, podía perfectamente ser "musulmandemócrata", igual que en Roma o en Múnich se dice "cristianodemócrata" para designar a una tendencia política.…  Seguir leyendo »