Time to Recognize the True Ally

Rauf Naqishbendi | iKurd.net

The rise of fanatic Islamist Caliphates has brought a deplorable economic and social epoch to Kurdish history. At the same time, it has heightened the spirit of nationalism, and issuing an emergency call for unity amongst Kurds.

Jihadists from different terrorist affiliations have been ganging up on the Kurds. Although the Kurds are the most effective force fighting to thwart terror advances, the international communities’ assistance toward the Kurds in fighting this incendiary phenomenon has been inadequate and lukewarm by all accounts.

The Kurds are struggling to safeguard their land, shield their people, and preserve their way of life in the face of fanatic Muslim Jihadists. Kurdistan is at war; consequently, economic and social hardships of this war will be manifested in the life of the nation for as long as this inauspicious war continues.

The threat of Caliphate thugs has reinvigorated Kurdish nationalism, renewed national pride, and has attracted thousands of young volunteers to eagerly engage in fighting evil forces so that their way of life will be as dictated by the Kurdish culture, rather than by falsified Islamic Sharia.

The gallantry of resolved peshmargas and PKK fighters will be echoed in history as to how they selflessly put their lives on the line defending their sacred land and the sanctity of freedom which has been a part of a naturally altruistic, democratic, and tolerant Kurdish culture and society.

Kurdistan of Syria has been devastated, its infrastructure has been ruined, their villages vacated, and their farms abandoned. The great majority of its population has taken refuge in Kurdistan of Iraq and Turkey. They are suffering in Turkey as frigid winter is upon them, and their inhumane treatments by diabolic Turk beasts, as a people and government, is unbearable. The people have been distressed by lack of proper nutrition, healthcare, sanitation, and shelter. These are human faces with human needs; therefore, it is incumbent on the world to offer them their basic needs.

Kurdistan of Iraq is hard pressed due to a massive influx of Arab Sunnis, making Kurdistan a dumping ground for Arab refugees from other parts of Iraq whom they have to provide for due to insufficient international aid. While most of these people are Sunni Arab Muslims, yet the opulent Arab oil-rich countries haven’t extended helping hands to their Arab brethren, and they have shamelessly remained aloof. Arabs have to take lessons from Kurds when comes to compassion and helping the needy.

Kurds don’t have adequate resources to cope with this massive refugee population. It’s time for the international communities to pressure Arab countries and Turkey, who have created ISIS, to remedy their actions and have them compensate the victims of their atrocious crimes against humanities.

The mass influx of refugees to Kurdistan of Iraq is not only a financial and social burden at present, but rather, due to their enormous number relative to the whole Kurdish population, is a major demographic concern, and its adverse future consequences are to be feared.

Syrian Kurdish female YPJ/SDF fighter battling Islamic State group in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), 2017. Photo: AFP

At present and for a long time to come, the Kurds remain as a nation at war fighting for an apathetic world. The United States has squandered trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan in vain. The maelstrom circumstances ISIS have created, by far its threat and danger transcends the cause for which the US has fought in both countries.

Yet, the Obama administration hasn’t been genuine supporter of the Kurds, in particular Syrian Kurds. It has offered the brave PKK air attack support against ISIS’s positions. That is not enough, they need advanced weapons, and there are hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurds who are in dire need of humanitarian aid.

Furthermore, the US has shied away from directly supporting the PKK, fearing the Turks. President Obama must realize that the Kurds need more than his rhetorical nonsense; genuine financial, military, and humanitarian aid must match the White House’s public proclamations.

The current Middle-East situation is the fabrication of United States that for a long time let the Turks and Saudis outline American foreign policy in the region. The Saudis, since the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, have been openly creating fanatic Muslims by sponsoring their madrasas to indoctrinate school children throughout the entire Islam world in promoting their Wahhabi cult. Thus they created Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, while they supported the Taliban, and recently they have been instrumental, along with the Turks, in creating and sponsoring Islamist Caliphate thugs.

The most ominous terror group in the Middle-East is ISIS, which had been initially promoted by the US, and then sponsored by its allies Turkey, the Saudis, and the rest of the oil-rich emirates in the region. The US and the world know that the Islamist state of Turkey is ISIS’s best friend, while the US is fighting the same terror organization. This means that the US and Turkey are on opposite sides of this war, and the Obama administration is well cognizant of this fact, yet publicly calling the Turks an ally in fighting ISIS.

Kurdish PKK female fighter weapon rifle — Kurdish PKK female fighter, 2023. Photo: PKK/Firat News Agency ANF

The Obama administration recognizes that the Kurds are the only genuine and serious nation engaged in fighting Caliphate thugs, yet the same Kurds, in particular the PKK, who are admired and have full support not only from Kurdistan of Turkey, but throughout greater Kurdistan, are listed as a terror organization.

Now it’s time for the Obama administration to befriend the Kurds and give them the support and respect they deserve for being brave in fighting terrorism and being America’s genuine friend. To this end, the Obama administration should show courage by denouncing the Turks’ repression of the Kurds in Turkey and recognize PKK as a legitimate organization, offering them the military and financial support they deserve.

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.