Introduction
Although I have written this book of mine more than
twenty years ago, the issues I have stated and changes I
anticipated as well as my views regarding the international
and regional relations were all proven to be right. Also
the subject of the book remains important and temporary
as it is regarding the independence of Kurdistan, which
the Kurdish people are still struggling to achieve. The
non-achievement of the independence for Kurdistan up
to now is due to several internal and external factors.
Hence the question that I would like to ask our Kurdish
people is that why did the Vietnamese manage within
ten years of struggle to force their freedom and inflict
defeat upon the Americans who have the mightiest military
powers in the world? Why did the Algerians also manage
just within ten years of struggle to force their freedom
and inflict defeat upon the French who have one of the
mightiest military powers in the world? This is at a time
that the Kurdish people have not been complacent with
their duties and the sacrifices they have made were not
less than those of the Vietnamese and the Algerians.
That is why I am absolutely convinced that the main
problem of the Kurdish people is the fact that there is no
Kurdish leadership free and independent in its decisions
from the states that occupy Kurdistan. Indeed the
liberation of Kurdistan can never be achieved from Tehran,
Ankara, Damascus
or Baghdad, and anyone who depends
on any of those Capitals would not get a result better
than the fate of the September Revolution under the
command of the late Mella Mustafa Barzani and his still
vivid experience. The revolution commanded by him,
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during its 14 years from 1961 to 1975, achieved a lot of
historical victories both politically and militarily.
Nevertheless, it dissipated on 6 March 1975, within
24
hours, as a result of the Treaty of Algiers between Iran
and Iraq. The reason was the late
Mella Mustafa put his
trust in the Iranian state (in order to gain from the conflicts
between Iraq and Iran)
despite the fact that the revolution
had more than 150 thousand armed fighters in 1975.
Unfortunately, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the
Kurdistan Workers Party, repeated the same mistake of
the late Mella Mustafa by putting his trust in the Syrian
state that colonises a part of Kurdistan. As soon as the
Syrian – Turkish agreement was signed in the city of
Adhana in November 1998, the revolution of the Kurdistan
Workers Party that also lasted for 14 years, 1984–1998,
fell. However, its fall was not quick and obvious but
gradual. That is because they did not have liberated
areas as was the case with the late Mella Mustafa. For
this reason, once again, I warn all organisations not to
distance themselves from the holy aim of the Kurdish
people: the independence of Kurdistan and reject any
patchy solutions for the Kurdish cause including
autonomy, federalism or confederacy and not to put their
trust in the colonisers of Kurdistan because they, however
different on the face of it, are always united on not allowing
the Kurdish people gaining even the smallest and the
most unworthy of rights, for they do not accept in principle
the existence of the Kurdish people. For the thousandth
time I repeat that the destiny has put us among savage
states that do not recognise the human and democratic
rights of their own people, so how can we then ask them
to recognise the national rights of another people!! The
only solution, with such people, is to put borders between
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our homeland and their homelands. Those who think
that the Turkish generals and Iraq’s
nationalists or other
occupiers of Kurdistan could be democrats and then do
us a favour by giving the Kurdish people their national
rights are definitely dreaming!! Furthermore, suppose
those regimes colonising Kurdistan by a stroke of magic
became democratic regimes, who told the democratic
politicians that those colonisers would get rid of their
colonial ambitions… as the majority of empires and
colonising states in history were democratic or even the
philosophers of democracy. So, the demand for a Kurdish
state is not a fantasy but demanding anything else or less
is the real fantasy.
Since I was a leading member of the Democratic
Kurdish Party in Syria between 1964
and 1969 and a
comrade to my teacher the late Apo Osman Sabri, the
Secretary of the Party then, and later as a leading member
of the KAJYK Party in 1970 and a comrade to my teacher
Dr Jemal Nebez the founder of KAJYK thought, I have
been calling for the formation of a Kurdistan government
and parliament or a national assembly in exile. As I
have written in page 96 of this book, which was titled as
“Kurdistan, a Homeland and a Nation Without State” in
its first Arabic edition in 1985:
“Until that starting time the Kurdish liberation
movement should take first practical steps towards
the establishment of a Kurdish state by getting the
permission from a neutral country to act as a center
and headquarter for a Kurdish government in exile
for the time being. Also to take the responsibility for
all the questions and affairs that are intended to
liberate the Kurds and Kurdistan and from the date
of its announcement carry out all the functions and
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authority of a Kurdish government in the fields of
diplomacy, media and military. Until the time of the
decisive strike to end the unnatural circumstances in
Kurdistan, the Kurds must have the awareness to
observe all the changes and transformations in the
international and regional politics and create
conditions for those changes and transformations and
accelerating them to be used for the advantage of
initiating the moving of the Kurdish government in
exile to Kurdistan and announcing a Kurdish state
there.”
Had the Kurdish liberation movement carried out what
I said in the above paragraph of my book in 1985 they
would have been able by now to prepare the Kurdish
nation for practising power in Southern Kurdistan as it
was given to them by the international community in the
aftermath of the Gulf War of 1991.
In the years 1989 and 1991 with the cooperation of
the preparation committee the first and second Kurdistan
National Congress were held in London in order to form
a Kurdistan national assembly and a Kurdish government
in exile for all the parts of Kurdistan. This exactly as
Ghandi of India, Mandela of South Africa and many
other liberation movements of the world did and liberated
their peoples via a national congress. In 1996 the third
Kurdistan National Congress was held in Paris (1), which
was on time and successful despite the opposition of the
direct and indirect, open and covert enemies of Kurds
and Kurdistan. For the sake of the truth and history we
should emphasise that the success of this third Congress
was due to the efforts of the martyr Rahbar Jalal Mamesh,
the Secretary of the KNC in Finland.
In addition the fourth Kurdistan National Congress
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was held on 10-11 /10/ 1998 in London in the presence
of a massive audience from the representatives of Kurdish
and foreign organisations. The Congress received several
supporting letters from international political personalities
such as Boutros Boutros Ghali the general secretary of
the UN (third Congress) and Mr Tony Blair, head of the
British government (fourth Congress). The Congress
adopted the Kurdistan National Pact. The KNC holds
regular contacts with all parts of Kurdistan in addition to
international contacts in order to explain the national
cause of Kurdistan. One of such was the visit of a
delegation of the KNC to the Libyan Jamahiriya on 20-
29/1/1997 and meeting the leader of the Arabic
revolution
brother Moamar Al-Qaddafi by an official invitation.
Brother Moamar showed a kind of understanding of the
Kurdish cause unprecedented by the Kurdish people. He
is the only head of state in the world calling for a Kurdish
state since a quarter of a century. When the Kurdish
delegation introduced the Kurdistan flag as a present to
the leader of the Arabic revolution, he stood to his feet
as a sign of respect to the flag of Kurdistan, then he hold
a side of it examining it warmly and then folded it and
kissed it, then put it on his head. These were wonderful
religious moments for Kurdistan in the presence of the
hero of Africa and the East Colonel Moamar Al-Qaddafi
that could not be described by any language.
The fourth Kurdistan National Congress held on 10-11
October 1998 in London was a great quality leap as the
first cornerstone was set on the path of a Kurdish state in
the presence of a massive audience from the
representatives of friendly Kurdish and foreign
organisations. The congress discussed the project of
constitution, amended and agreed it. A committee was
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formed to follow up the question of forming a Kurdistan
government in exile that issued the congress’s
announcement in this regard and commenced its contacts
to announce a Kurdish government in exile. The KNC
is still continuing its efforts without any tiredness or
hesitation with all Kurdistan organisations and
personalities to hold a fifth Kurdistan National Congress
and declaration of a Kurdistan government in exile (for
all parts of Kurdistan). As only this would be the first
practical step towards the independence of Kurdistan and
liberation of the Kurdish people.
However, the Kurdish uprising in Western Kurdistan
on 11-12 March 2004 presented the opportunity to declare
the Western Kurdistan government in exile and the KNC
held a special conference in the German town of Herne
on 25/4/2004 in order to announce the Western
Kurdistan
government in exile. The conference made several
decisions the most important of which was the declaration
of the Western Kurdistan Government in Exile.
And may God dispense success.
Jawad Mella
London 11
March 2005 A.C. = 2705 Kurdish
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Necessary Words
The Kurdish Question is that of a persecuted people
aiming at forming an independent nation and lifting the
rule of persecution and social injustice. The Kurdish
Question has existed since the beginning of the nineteenth
century and has, at different stages, occupied the forefront
of events in the Middle East. It remains one of the earliest
national questions in the region without a resolution to
date due to its complexity and numerous external factors.
These are crude oil, strategic geographic position, water
supply, in addition to Kurdistan being divided between
five countries and political units (Turkey,
Iran, Iraq,
Syria
and the Former Soviet Union). The break-up of the Soviet
Union has further divided our Kurdistan into two
parts,
the first bordering the Republic of Armenia
and the second
the Republic of Azerbaijan.
That is why the issues involving the identity of the
Kurdish people and its particularity had to be dealt with
in this book as a realistic background for the right of the
Kurdish people to build their own united and independent
nation state. In explaining the roots of the Kurdish
Question, the issues that take up much of the space in
this book are the geography of Kurdistan, the history of
the Kurdish people, its cultural and intellectual
characteristics and its political inclinations. Consequently,
we can identify the factors that have contributed in
preventing the social, economic and political development
of Kurdistan and its national liberation objectively and
subjectively, as well as the role of tribal leaders, thinkers
and scientists in this.
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I present this modest work for the use of research and
study in good faith, judgement, conscience and belief for
the solution of the problem of the national liberation of
Kurdistan and the Kurdish people. I hope the readers
will come forth with suggestions, with further research
and study of a more complete and encompassing nature
including the bases and broad outlines proposed in my
book.
And may God bless Kurdistan.
Jawad Mella
