Topic: The Question of Kurdistan
Country: Turkey
Delegate Name: Aaron Baker
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Turkey position papers GLIMUN 2014 committees
For three decades, the PKK, a radical Kurdish separatist group, has struck terror across Turkey. The blood of over 40,000 civilians is on their hands. In 2012, Prime Minister Erdogan decided that the fighting needed to stop, and the solution process began. Turkey has made substantial concessions in the hope of creating a lasting peace which is beneficial for all. The Turkish government has opened talks with Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK. Prime Minister Erdogan has given substantial cultural and legal concessions to the Kurds figures and is willing to extend further conciliation. However, while the PKK has reduced the level of violence and terror, it has by no means abandoned it. This refusal complicates the peace process and stymies progress. This is exacerbated by the overall regional turmoil, which stretches Turkey’s attention and efforts. Turkey must emphasize that we are here to deal with the issue of the Kurdish people in the Middle East, not the question of Kurdistan. In the same way that a UN commission recently came to investigate civil rights for citizens in the US South, but did not address the question of the Confederate States.
Turkey has no problem with the Kurdish people, who are Turkic speakers and have lived in the former Ottoman Empire for centuries. The Republic of Turkey has a serious problem with radical Kuridish terror groups, who are just as barbaric as the so-called Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria. The PKK alleges Turkey is willfully neglecting the Syrian civil war with the intention of allowing radical militants to weaken and slaughter Kurds. This is nonsense. Since the onset of the fighting in Syria, 1.5 million refugees have come to Turkey from Syria, with over 200,000 of these being Kurds. Like all other refugees, the Kurdish refugees receive food, care, and housing.
If Turkey wished to see the Kurdish people suffer further, Kurdish refugees would be turned away. Turkey has spent hundreds of millions of dollars US on humanitarian aid for those affected by the Syrian conflict, including Kurds. If it was Turkey’s policy to work towards the detriment of the Kurds, we would not be investing millions in maximizing the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s oil pipeline. Turkey has allowed PKK Pershmega fighters to cross through Turkish territory to fight ISIS and defend Kurds in Syria. The nation that is the largest menace to the Kurdish people is the odious Syrian regime.
The Kurdish question can be redressed. We must discern that the fate of the Kurdish people is tied to the events in the broader Middle East. Solving the Syrian Crisis is paramount if this body intends to better the Kurds’ situation. First, international succor must be provided for the refugees and victims of Bashar Al-Assad’s brutal oppression of Syria’s people, especially the Kurds. Second, Turkey believes that a safe buffer zone on the Turkish and Syrian border is necessary to protect refugees and civilians, many of whom are Kurds. The US led air campaign should expand against Bashar Al Assad’s murderous regime. Aid and trust to the moderate rebels in Syria must be maximized. Those who claim that there are no moderate rebels are blinded by Islamaphobic malice. The moderate rebels in Syria fighting for their freedom are no different from the American patriots led by George Washington, or the rebellious forces in Europe during Nazi Occupation.
If the Syrian conflict is properly resolved, then a majority of Kurdish suffering will cease. The Kurds’ fate elsewhere depends on their actions. If the PKK drops the mantle of terror, the Kurds will be granted their reasonable cultural and legal demands by Turkey, and likely by its neighbors. With ISIS defeated and a unified Iraqi national government, the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region will prosper in peace and security. In summation, the Kurdish situation can be augmented by addressing the turmoil that stems from Syria, and to a lesser degree from Iraq. And once radicalism is dropped by Kurdish groups, negotiations for their demands within the legal systems of their respective countries will come to fruition. Turkey looks forward to working with all nations towards a responsible solution to the Kurdish question. However, if this body attempts to work toward an independent Kurdistan, it will receive no support from Turkey, nor likely from other neighboring states.
