***THE SPHINX'S BEARD***

[Diri]

The Sphinx`s Beard


27 March 2003
KurdishMedia - By Prof Mehrdad R. Izady



Kurdish leaders would rather damn the Kurds than damage their misguided magnanimity.

This propensity for misplacing priorities and generosity continues today. Documents of the first session of the recently established Kurdish Parliament in Exile (first held in 1995 in The Hague ) included a curious passage which vividly brought to mind the Paris Peace Conference. Ratified in 1995--a good 76 years after Paris --Article I of the Declaration of the Founding of the Kurdish Parliament in Exile entitled "The Peoples of Kurdistan and Religious Congregations," reads:

"In addition to the Kurds, there are the Assyrians and the Armenians living in Kurdistan . They too have suffered at the hands of the invading forces. Subjected to the policies of divide and rule, the people of Kurdistan have, at times, fought one another and forced one another to migrate from the common homeland. These factors have kept the population of Assyrians and Armenian slow. Today, in Kurdistan , they constitute a figure of some 10% of the total population. The people who live in Kurdistan have differing faiths and various religions. A vast majority of believers are Muslims. This diversity of beliefs has enabled the occupiers of Kurdistan to pit one group of believers against the other, to their mutual detriment..." [Emphasis added]

Ten percent of Kurdistan ’s population is Armenian and Assyrian? Say, how many would that be? In the same document the Parliament declared that 40 million Kurds are living today. This pronouncement translates into 4 million Armenians and Assyrians living in Kurdistan today. Someone should inform the Armenians and the Assyrians of the good news! By the prudent decision of the Kurdish Parliament there are more Armenians and Assyrians living in Kurdistan than in the Republic of Armenia (and in a yet-to-be-created Assyria ).

Even were we to deflate the Parliament’s figure of 40 million Kurds to a more conservative 25 million, still we end up with 2.5 million Armenians and Assyrians now living in Kurdistan . Armenian statistics indicate 75,000 Armenians in Syria , 10,000 in Iraq , 150,000 in Iran and 75,000 in Turkey (Bournoutian, 1994, 183-86). This makes a total of 310,000 Armenians living in all of Iran , Iraq , Syria and Turkey . Even if all of them lived on territories of Kurdistan - and most certainly they do not they would constitute about 1.2% of the total population? In reality there are less than 10,000 Armenians in Kurdistan , while Assyrians number some 250,000. Together, Armenians and Assyrians constitute about 1% of the Kurdish total and their numbers are dropping fast, thanks to the explosive growth of the Kurdish population and Assyrian emigration to the West. Where in the world did the Parliament find either evidence or justification for its ten-fold increase of these two minorities in Kurdistan at the expense of the Kurds they are supposed to represent?

But there is more. Kurdish parliamentarians go even further. They believe that even their figure of 4 million for Kurdistan ’s Armenians and Assyrians is too low. Read Article I again. It emphasizes that "These factors [strife and emigration] have kept the population of Assyrians and Armenians low." Then what is the- right figure, ladies and gentlemen MPs? 20% or 40%?

Perhaps the reverse! Why not 90% Armenians and Assyrians and 10% Kurds? You see, it is not just the Egyptian leaders that would sacrifice Egypt ’s heritage to save their own faces. Kurdish leaders would rather damn the Kurds than damage their misguided magnanimity.

The damage does not stop at numbers. Take a closer look at Article I where in the Kurdish parliament pronounces that "...The peoples of Kurdistan have, at times, fought one another and forced one another to migrate from the common Homeland." By implication, since Kurds are still where they were prior to the fights that forced others "to migrate," it was Kurds who forced every one else out.

Even the Armenians and Assyrians admit it was the Ottoman army and Talaat Pasha’s brutality that forced them to leave or die. Kurdish parliamentarians must be the only representatives in the world who attach guilt to their people where there is little or none. This is in a world, mind you, where all other national leaders whitewash their constituents of all sins, old and new, big and small.

Without doubt, Armenians and Assyrians have their own able leaders and vociferous organizations around the world to fend for their rights. Should not Kurdish leaders and parliamentarians fend for Kurdish rights? Or have they never heard the old maxim, "If I am not for me, who will be for me?" Instead of worrying about the rights of "4 million" imaginary Armenian and Assyrian citizens, should not the Constitution of the first Kurdish Parliament in Exile concentrate on the tens of millions of real citizens of Kurdistan--the Kurds?

Where in the constitution of the Republic of Armenia are Kurds mentioned byname? From 1991 to 1994 Armenia expelled nearly all of its Kurdish inhabitants. In the same period, the republic helped Armenian troops from Nagorno-Karabakh to thoroughly annihilate historic Red Kurdistan in the Caucasus. These actions created 200,000 Kurdish refugees and caused an untold number of deaths, injuries and misery. But one finds not a word of remorse, not an expression of regret, or even an acknowledgment from Armenian sources of these abuses of Kurds over the last 8 years. Kurdish parliamentarians went to great lengths to express sorrow and to apologize to Armenians for bloody events which occurred 80 years ago and left 400,000 to 600,000 dead Kurds. Armenians, Assyrians, Russians and Turks have yet to apologize for these Kurdish victims.

Exiled Kurdish parliamentarians, you are indeed worthy descendants of the Kurdish delegates to the Paris Peace Conference. But you need not look backward to 1919 and Paris. You have equally worthy count arts today among local Kurdish sheiks, aghas and political party leaders.


At: http://www.aanf.org/midwest/apr2003/sphinx.htm

[Rumtaya]

interesting text haha cause assyrian are mentioned in it .


well if its the kurdistan you always show me in maps yes then it can be that there are more then 2 millions in this region.

because of the urmia area, the khabour area plus qamishly many westassyrians live there and like we know the northen iraq which got the bigges parts on assyrian inhabits.

what i didnt understand so good what do they want to say with that text that the kurdish leaders arent suppourting their own nation????

In reality there are less than 10,000 Armenians in Kurdistan , while Assyrians number some 250,000. Together, Armenians and Assyrians constitute about 1% of the Kurdish total and their numbers are dropping fast, thanks to the explosive growth of the Kurdish population and Assyrian emigration to the West.

hmm it has a reason why assyrian emigrated to the west but its not nice to hear that they are saying this is good.

[Diri]

From a KURDISH point of view it is good... You don't like it and we wouldn't be happy if there were more Assyrians in Kurdistan than Kurds... So it is natural - just like Norway doesn't want there to be more foreigners than Norwegians in Norway...

And about the article - it is written by Prof Mehrdad R. Izady - a highly educated man who keeps to FACTS...

And yes - he is saying the "Kurdistan parliament in exhile" is not being nationalist enough - not the other leaders... And no - there are VERY FEW ASSYRIANS IN URMIYE - I am from there and my tribe has much land on both sides of the border and north to Selmas and south to Shino - so - no there are not "many" Assyrians in Urmiya/Hakkari... It is as Mehrdad says - Christians make a total of 1-2% of Kurdistan's population...

And I believe they have emmigrated because they are christians and Turkey/Iran/Syria were not so kind to christians - and by the way - everybody knows that Assyrians in Iraq supported Saddam... (Maybe not all of you - but most) And that is why they are still in large numbers in Iraq...