Topic: The Question of Kurdistan
Country: Afghanistan
Delegate Name: Garrett Auzins
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Afghanistan position papers GLIMUN 2014 committees
The end of the First World War prompted the drafting of many international treaties. Among them was the Treaty of Sevres (1920), which divided the Ottoman Empire and Turkey into numerous smaller states, including the proposed state of Kurdistan, which would have served as a state for the Kurdish people. However, the treaty of Lausanne in 1924 annulled the Treaty of Sevres, leaving the Kurdish people within the proposed within the new borders established through the newer treaty. Since then, the idea of a Kurdish state has largely been omitted from discussion by the global community, and the Kurds (approximately 35 million* residing primarily in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria) have often found themselves under the rule of indifferent governments. The main issue to tackle is how to alleviate the oppression of the Kurds, a mostly Muslim group. Once that issue is dealt with, most other issues should significantly lessen.
In Afghanistan, the importance of equal treatment is prevalent in our governing structure, with discrimination explicitly prohibited under the 22nd article of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. And while social traditions affect the typical behaviour and standing, the nation, as stated in the Constitution, is made of individuals, and all of those individuals are equal under the eyes of the law. And, as established by Allah himself in Al-Hujurat, verse 10, of the Qur'an, the believers are but brothers, so we should make settlement between our brothers. As such, the Kurds, as humans and fellow Muslims, should be recognised by the countries in which they reside.
We, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, propose that the Kurds would be full citizenship in their respective country, with a strong push for a committee established in each state to oversee the implementation and treatment of the equal rights and to abide for reassurance as to leave no room for any discrimination upon the state's. Negotiations and the establishment are vital and should be started when they are fulfilled. However, as the Kurds are an individual tribe, they do not have the right to establish a new country and, in the process, challenge the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of their respective states; rather, they have a right to function as individuals in the whole of them. Due to the nature of the subject at hand, the best proposition would be a push to grant the Kurds full citizenship in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
*Estimate based on population and ethnic information makeup across Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria located in the CIA World Factbook
