U.N. Representative Unimpressed by World Kurdish Congress

[unitedkurdistan]

U.N. Representative Unimpressed by World Kurdish Congress

By UBAID RASHAQI
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Wirya Qaradaxi, the United Nation’s representative in Central Asia, says the second Kurdish congress in Erbil was not well-organized.

“That may be why Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani didn’t attend,” he said.

Qaradaxi has been working as the U.N. representative in Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan for the past two years. He also coordinates the U.N. in Armenia and Azerbaijan.

While he believes that holding events like the congress in Kurdistan is important, Qaradaxi said they must be well-planned. He noted that the conference ended without any important decisions being finalized.

“I came with a handful, but I left with empty pockets,” Qaradaxi said, blaming conference organizers for the errors. “I told them I came as the representative of 1.5 million Kurds. What am I suppose to tell them about the conference?”

Qaradaxi was disappointed that not one single Kurd from Russia or Central Asia was invited to the conference.

“I referred the conference organizers to three intelligent men from Central Asia: Aziz Badirxan, an economist who was awarded medal of honor by the president of Kazakhstan; Knyaz Simailovech, the head of the history department at Almaty University; and professor Nadir Nadirov,” Qaradaxi said.

Nadirov is a physicist who is currently running Kazakhstan’s petrol company which exports 6 million barrels of oil every day.

Qaradaxi said that someone like Nadirov would have been honored to open the conference. In 1957, when Mustafa Barzani -- the deceased leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and father of Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani -- escaped to the Soviet Union, Nadirov opened his door to him.

For his part, Qaradaxi prepared a PowerPoint presentation about diplomacy and international relations. “I wanted to discuss how the Kurds in this situation should deal with their friends and enemies and how to develop local and international Kurdish organizations,” he said. “However, I wasted my time, because no one bothered to ask me to present the lecture.”

There were also technical issues at the conference. “The sound system was not working properly while Kurdistan’s president was giving his speech,” Qaradaxi said.

During his visit, Qaradaxi hoped to meet with President Barzani, but there was no opportunity.

“I had seven points to discuss with the president,” Qaradaxi told Rudaw. “I wanted to propose that KRG representation offices be opened in Kirgizstan and Kazakhstan, since both countries have shown interest in the idea.”

Qaradaxi said that these countries are economically developed and it is important for the KRG to have representation there. “These countries provide one-third of the world’s beans. They produce 36 million tons of wheat every year. They also export a large number of sheep to Muslim countries,” he said.

He also wanted to discuss the letters that had been exchanged between Josef Stalin and Mustafa Barzani. According to Qaradaxi, copies of these letters have been kept by a Kurd living in Kazakhstan.

Mustafa Barzani, along with 500 Peshmerga, planned to escape to the Soviet Union after the fall of the Republic of Mahabad. Before they crossed the Aras River in the Macho region, Barzani sent a message to the governor of Azerbaijan regarding entering the Soviet Union. The governor sent a message to Stalin about his request, who replied that he should tell Barzani to leave his weapons and horses before crossing into the Soviet Union so they could be accepted as refugees.

At first, Barzani refused to meet this condition. Stalin wrote back, saying, “The law of our country requires this, therefore we must implement it.” Barzani accepted and they crossed into the Soviet Union.

“Barzani and Stalin exchanged 13 letters,” Qaradaxi said. “A man by the name of Ahmed Habo kept copies of these letters along with some letters in Barzani’s handwriting.”

“If Kurdistan’s president requests these letters, Habo will give them to him or the KRG can request the original copies from the Azerbaijan government,” he added.

Qaradaxi said that he has seen the letters, and it appeared that the governor of Azerbaijan told Stalin it was not a good idea to allow Barzani to remain in Azerbaijan as it had many Kurds who sympathized with his cause and might create a problem. Therefore, Stalin decided to send Barzani somewhere far from the Kurdish population. Six months later, Barzani’s comrades crossed the Qazvin Sea to Uzbekistan where they settled in a village 20 minutes away from the capital.

Qaradaxi’s curiosity compelled him to visit this village and find the house where Barzani stayed. “When I knocked on the door of the house where Barzani lived for six years, a man opened the door and said, ‘I heard a great general lived in this house a long time ago.’” The man told him about three people who were with Barzani at the time and were still alive.

Qaradaxi said that the Kurds from Central Asia take pride in being Kurdish. “You can’t find a single Kurd who doesn’t speak Kurdish,” he said.

These Kurds also love Mustafa Barzani. According to Qaradaxi, they say, “He is everything to us. He is our identity. If it was not for him, we wouldn’t be Kurdish now.”

“Many families named their children Barzani.” Qaradaxi added.

“The Kurds there look up to the KRG, and this is why it must reach out to them,” Qaradaxi said. “Often, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) reaches out to them, but I would hate to see the Kurds there being led astray.”

[Qonyeyi]

Thats not so good to hear. But given that it is one of the first major conferences, you can not expect too much.

I think the reason that KRG and Barzani did not invite Central Asian Kurdish communities to the congress was due to the fact that PKK has a natural strong support base up there. Still, KRG should of invited them. Just like when BDP invites representatives from all Kurdistan whenever they do big conferences.