Endless Kurdish gloom under Talabani and Barzani's reign

Rauf Naqishbendi | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The soul of Kurdish nationalism imbedded in Kurdayati (The Kurdish Nationalism) struggle aimed at our liberty and pursuit of independent Kurdistan based upon Kurdish history and culture, that was well defined in the Kurdish movement (کاژیک Kazhjek’s) political and philosophical literature .

Our forefathers failed to clear the path away for the descending generations for they ignorantly and naively adhered to the rigid Islamic fundamentals; consequently, they put Islam ahead of our sacred national ambitions, thus they forfeit our right to freedom and pursue of happiness in favor of Islam. All other Muslim nations the majority of their population were not as educated as Kurds remained as Muslim, yet they didn’t compromise their national independence. So, we Kurds happened to be not only the world’s largest nation without national recognition, but also the largest Muslim nation without sovereignty.

That was our forefathers, yet our present generation had opportunities our forefathers didn’t have; one of which religion is not high priority as it was in the past; and people are more educated and aware of their national rights, yet our leaders slummed the door of every opportunities time bestowed upon us for our leaders’ tribal mentality, lust for power and their insatiable greed left us in a chaos, disarray and national humiliation to add another page to our national disgrace.

The divided nation caused by the power struggle between two rival parties Barzani and Talabani for no reason other than their personal and tribal ambitions. The national humiliations brought to us not only by our forefathers but this generation’s leaders. Our forefathers were naïve but present leaderships are abominable. Then, what about the future? Given the mentality of Kurdish leadership as a looter of the national resources and agents of our occupiers, a dark ominous cloud is on horizon leading us from current tragic condition to an inevitable calamity that has no historical precedents.

Let us shed a light of nation’s current affairs; dissecting major chaos that has been resulted from these wicked leaderships; and plagued the nation with ailing infirmities through their hideous actions that robbed the nation from their dignity through promoting unethical conducts, luck of trust amongst people, briberies, cronyism and the corrupted system they created.

Masrour Barzani with Qubad Talabani — Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (R) with Qubad Talabani, the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan region and co-leader of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), May 2023. Photo: Barzani’s Press Office/via iKurd.net

The heart of nations beat in economic prosperity; and for that matter the failing economy is a mother of revolution, civil unrest and chaos. The engine of economic prosperity of any nation is measured by the size of the middle class through employment with living wages. For that matter, the major employer in Kurdistan is the government whence in advanced nations is mostly owed to the private sectors. But in Kurdistan the size of the private sector is almost nonexistent or exists as a primitive society, that means the government is the sole provider of employment. The fact is: the government can’t employ everyone who demands employment, as a result few are employed, and most remain idle.

The corrupted ruling authorities running the life of the nation; let us dissect just one major problem that ailing Kurdish society, the employment and its lack thereof, and the consequences of unemployment that has plagued the nation causing most nefarious ailing societal infirmity running lives of our most precious resources, the well-educated college graduates and others.

The new ailing social disease that has no precedent is the spread of narcotics that is running the lives of the young generation. Iran is the culprit for they have done their job in Kurdistan of Iran, and now their mission is to expand the domain of their Hideous offer to encompass Kurdistan of Iraq whereby they offer narcotics free or at an affordable price.

Men are more receptive to narcotics when in state of despair for they use these agents to escape their dire anxiety, and hopelessness caused by the circumstances far beyond their own control.

There are thousands of young college graduates who majored in engineering and sciences who are unable to find a job, they are not alone but others, too. Even during Saddam’s regime the college graduates were granted employment.

Bafel Talabani with Nechirvan Barzani — Bafel Talabani (L) with Nechirvan Barzani (R) in Sulaimani city, Iraqi Kurdistan, May 22, 2022. Photo: Talabani’s FB

The daunting scenario is some graduated five or even ten years ago, now their knowledge is faded and mostly outdated. They are financially dependent on their family to live. Thus, their hopes and ambitious gone with the wind; and they become a burden on themselves and their families. They stay idle day after day feeling not only as burden to society, but furthermore able to work but not contributing to society for they are unemployed, thus taking its toll on their morale, and their standing in their communities.

This feeling of disappointment and hopelessness resulting from lack of future prospect implies these victims can’t have family for they have no job to support family, let alone they can’t support themselves. Thus, this new well-educated youth, and others find comfort from narcotics to escape their miseries and to hide from their realities. This is not a panacea to their problems; but rather another excruciating dimension to their ailing hopelessness, long suffering, and turning into being drug addicts which means they registered themselves as a great cost to society which have no resource to combat.

Drug addiction in an environment of easy access to substances can spread quickly. Drug dependency can take its toll on economic and social morale of the nation, that to say the generation of well-educated youth instead of contributing to society they end up useless and burden to society.

Talabani and Barzani are not only has been a national looters stealing all Kurdish national resource and deposit it to their own coffer, but furthermore they created a demoralized and miserable situation for the people in every aspect of life, their persistent hold of power means the worse of calamity is upon Kurds on horizon, that is why Barzani and Talabani’s dynasties has not only to end, but furthermore members of these dynasties should be brought to court of justice and have God’s justice to prevail; and this nation to breath an air of freedom, justice and restore its national dignity.

Rauf Naqishbendi is a retired software engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. A long-time senior contributing writer for iKurd.net. His memoirs entitled “The Garden Of The Poets”, recently published. It reads as a novel depicting his experience and the subsequent 1988 bombing of his hometown with chemical and biological weapons by Saddam Hussein. It is the story of his people´s suffering, and a sneak preview of their culture and history.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.