It is a foregone conclusion that most regional balances of power, compromises, and international arrangements feed on the sacrifices of the people and their interests. Even countries that seemingly have control over their destinies could not, in this climate of multiple crises and vested interests, avoid the problems of poverty, oppression, immigration, and conflicts along sectarian, territorial or even tribal lines.
Even more, the current era dubbed the “Arabic Spring” has served to expose and entrench the deep divisions and animosity between various elements in the region. These divisions remained invisible for a relatively long period of time at the backdrop of the painful memories of suffering and injustice during the colonial era. The despotic regimes of course manipulated the noble feelings of their people. They made sure to keep people ignorant, marginalized, divided and afraid of the future. It was as if they were punishing people for loving their countries and rejecting to be used and humiliated by colonial invaders.
After realizing the importance of the values of democracy, freedom, equality and peaceful coexistence and their contribution to sustainable development, nations sought modern governing systems based on peaceful transfer of power and the rule of law to build civic nation-states. It was inevitable that the popular revolutions to restore people’s rights would clash with the oppressive governments that sought to derail and smear such revolutions.
As a result, the revolutions drifted away from their principal goals and got stuck in fruitless fighting and bloody conflicts that made it seem as if they were goals of the revolutions. At the same time, the leadership in both Iran and Turkey were still working against the hopes and aims of the people as they seek to build alliances and achieve a regional balance of power. All of which comes at the expense of the people of the region and even the people of their own countries.
Both deprive the Kurds of their civic rights, and both are trying to recreate the oppressive police state. They are trying to benefit at the expense of the Kurds in the region thinking that by doing so they would bring prosperity and stability to their nations and the rest of the region.
The Turkish-Iranian agreement includes the rightful phrase “unity of Syrian lands” only as a subterfuge. Syrians of all stripes have always agreed that the unity of Syria was non-negotiable. Even if there is a moral argument for their actions that our minds cannot fathom, why then did Iran bring Afghan and Persian mercenaries and other sectarian militias that have committed heinous atrocities against Syrians as they did in Iraq and are doing in Yemen now? It was all done under the same pretext, the unity of Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni lands. On the other hand, Turkey was responsible for implicating the Syrian revolution in the quagmire of militarization. It also immorally and illegally backed opportunists and created thousands of war lords in the body of the Syrian opposition.
Both Iran and Turkey are still working to reinvent their colonial ambitions through proxies and mercenaries at the expense of people in the region including their own citizens. This eventually will breed terrorism that will resurface in new forms using new tools. As a result, the region which is already a living hell would be even worse. That’ why it is incumbent on the political class in the region to stand up to these divisive and irresponsible schemes and oppose such colonial ambitions to usurp what remains of Syria, especially in the resulting current atmosphere of mistrust between the various elements. The Kurds will not be an easy target for Turkish and Iranian manipulation. And those Kurdish forces that have aligned with Iran to disturb the Kurdish project led by Mr Masood al-Barazani should have a modicum of morality in response to the destructive new project adopted by Turkey and Iran with Russia’s blessing.
This ugly opportunistic mentality of those Kurdish groups is dragging the Kurds to a catastrophe. One thing that the opportunists fail to recognize is that their individual groups that lives off Iranian leftovers, did not and will not have what it takes to build a national project similar to what Mr Barazani have done in Iraq. It would have been possible for him to play a similar role in Syria, have it not been for the petty opportunists. Mr Barazani enjoys unprecedented levels of regional and international respect and recognition. He is an icon of the ancient Kurdish struggle. The efforts to disturb Mr Barazani would only serve to drag the Kurds back to the days of slavery and servitude at Persian shrines that were falsely linked to Islam.
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