HOW THE KURDS HOLD THE KEY TO STABILITY IN LEVANT

                                                                                            

This is the best time for Kurds since World War 1

                                                                                        -Adnan Mufti

Okay, the mandatory quote has been provided for. Let’s begin.

Everyone has been getting paranoid about the rise of ISIS lately, well it’s justified considering how rapid their expansion has been and how fanatically they’ve been trying to implement their interpretation of the Sharia Law. With countless massacres being reported on a daily basis and the well know ineffectiveness of the Iraqi Army being displayed marvelously, the world seems to watch nervously, how the fanatics of ISIS march on unopposed. IS has quickly seen and enjoyed influx of foreign fighters to the region, with people pouring in from not only Arab nations but also, North Africa and even Europe. Although IS maybe be spread out with only strength in various pockets, they’ve displayed the ability to carry out effective attacks and defeat other armies. Even with the massive airstrikes being carried by US and friends, IS’ expansion is largely unchecked, now controlling an area larger than that of U.K

 But, in this cocktail of destruction, there is one group of people that may have something to rejoice about. The Kurds are an ethnic group that span 4 countries Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria who are generally considered to be the same as Arabs, although they vehemently beg to differ, owing to them having their own language and arguably different culture as well. The Kurds have been time and again been persecuted and oppressed in the nations they are minorities in, most notably in Turkey and Iraq. During the Saddam regime, they were infamously subjected to massive chemical attacks that cost the lives of thousands. The fight for a separate nation has led Kurds, led by Abdullah Ocalan’s PKK (People’s Workers party of Kurdistan) to follow a very similar path to that of terrorists (Resorting to bombings and such) in Turkey due to which they have been banned or designated as terrorist organization by EU and several other nations including the United States. But at the same time they are not banned by countries such as China, Russia and even India.

The main region from which we can say the Kurds operate is the Iraqi Kurdistan where the Kurds have managed to form an autonomous region in northern part of Iraq. The KRG or the Kurdish Regional Government Is the functioning body of that region, it is democratically elected by the people of the region. There are several parties such as PUK (People’s union of Kurdistan) and KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party). PUK is based in Iraq while the KDP originated from Iran. The current president Massoud Barzani is from the KDP.

Under the Iraqi Kurdistan we have the Kurdistan Armed Forces popularly referred to as the Peshmerga, which roughly translates to “The one who faces death”. The Peshmerga’s size is said to be varied ranging from as low as 80,000 to as much as 2, 00, 000.

 They were the ones who had captured Saddam Hussein and also the ones who had captured Osama’s courier which eventually led to the US operation in Abbottabad. Most fighters in the force have received only basic training and are armed lightly in comparison to the IS militants.

Initially in 2014 when ISIS came into light for capturing major towns and large swathes of territory, the Kurds largely kept out of the conflict, preferring to only prepare defenses, but as the conflict worsened, the KRG saw the opportunity and began capturing key towns and positions from the ISIS. Backed by coalition airstrikes, the Peshmerga were able to rapidly advance onto several such locations. So far only the Peshmerga (setting aside some Shia Militant groups) have proven their battle capabilities against the ISIS. Only a couple of days ago the Peshmerga captured the town of Tal Afar and recently closed in on Ain Issa, a town as close as 50km from Al-Raqqa, the capital of the “Caliphate”. Another key reason to celebrate the capture of the town is the fact that it is the key town for the supply lines of IS.

Keeping their fighting capabilities aside, the Kurds are known for upholding the spirit of secularism. Several communities are said to coexist in the region including the Arabs, Armenians, Christians and Yezidis, with low number of cases being reported of discrimination. The Kurds also did a great favour to the Yezidis, a religious minority of the region (Interestingly, the religion bears a lot of things common with Hinduism), that were trapped in the Sinjar mountain when the IS militants captured the town eponymous to the mountain, killing all its men and taking the women as sex slaves. The rest who fled, fled to the nearby mountain of Sinjar and were trapped there without any food or water. After intense fighting the Kurds were able to drive away the militants and provided assistance to the people trapped in the mountain.

Also, apart from this the KRG region is said to be the most safest region in the whole of the Levant region, and has seen a great deal of development, in comparison to other neighbours

The capital city of KRG Erbil (referred sometimes are Irbil or Arbil) has had new townships coming up and large buildings being built .The region has also seen an increase in foreign investment in the region (Mainly due to oil).

 The Kurds have also been the only people to ever talk about Women’s rights and implement it in this part of the globe. It will also be interesting to note that there are several women serving in the YPG and Peshmerga as fighters. The Kurds have also been active supporters of the United States and have also said they are willing to supply troops to the Iraqi government if a large scale operation takes place against IS.

Although all this seems very favorable, there are some voices of dissent being heard from the Arabs who feel that if the Kurds are too empowered they shall seek revenge upon the minorities. There have been some reports that the Kurds have pushed out Arabs from their homes and have resettled Kurd families there. If this dissent keeps growing in the local Sunni and Shia population, it could thwart all the good advances and in turn arm the IS to fight in a longer drawn battle. The biggest challenge apart from the fighting remains the contentment of the minorities, if the minorities are subjected to the same treatment that was vetted on the Kurds, the battle may already be lost. Although it is hard for the Kurds to forget the alienation caused to them, if the Kurds are to survive and thrive in the long run, they will have to take everyone along with them, including the Arabs, so that they do not eventually make the mistake of choosing the IS as the lesser evil.