Kosovars and Kurds: Same Game, Different Rules

There was once a land-locked province in a distant country. One ethnic group formed the majority population in the province, but it was oppressed by the ethnic group which formed a majority in the whole country.



The oppressed provincials finally rose in revolt. After some hesitation, Western nations eventually came to their assistance and by military means, including bombing of the national capital, forced the oppressive national government to withdraw its forces from the province.



The local ethnic majority then set up its own government in the liberated territory. Only one more political step remained to be undertaken. The government would wish to declare national independence and create a new state in the world.



This story outlines the course of events in not one but two oppressed provinces in recent history. One is Albanian-dominated Kosovo, part of Serbia (former Yugoslavia), and the other is Iraqi Kurdistan, the most northerly section of the republic of Iraq.



Recently the Kosovar government in Pristina has been allowed by its Western sponsors to take the final step. National independence has been declared, a unilateral declaration, without even the fig leaf of a favourable popular vote on the subject. Although nobody can doubt the majority of Kosovars support the declaration, the lack of a referendum sets a dangerous precedent.

The situation has been very different in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Despite the declared wishes of both politicians and people, the Iraqi Kurds will not be allowed to declare national independence. While the United States denies the Serbian government in Belgrade has any right to prevent the secession of Kosovo, it is determined to keep Iraqi Kurdistan at least nominally linked to the national government in Baghdad

Why is national self determination permitted to the Kosovars but denied to the Iraqi Kurds? David Miliband, the British foreign minister, declared when he announced UK recognition of the independence of Kosovo that this was 'a unique case' which would not serve as a precedent for dissident regions in other countries. But how can that be? The principle of national self determination must be generally applicable around the world or it is no principle at all.

Mr. Miliband is no doubt keen to stress Kosovo's supposed 'uniqueness' because if a regional government can be allowed to declare its independence from the wider nation without even a referendum on the subject then the United Kingdom will soon be on the road to dissolution. A Scottish nationalist government is already in power in Edinburgh and if it took Kosovo as a precedent, it could declare the independence of Scotland at any time.

The crucial difference in the treatment given by the United States and its allies to Kosovo and Iraqi Kurdistan derives from their different geo-strategic positions and how neighbouring countries will react to such provinces claiming national independence.

With regard to Kosovo, the United States will suffer little damage to its interests from backing independence. Indeed there is already a major US military base in Kosovo and the country is slated to be on the route of an American-backed energy pipeline. Serbian and Russian threats are no more than hot air, with the attack on the US embassy in Belgrade signifying the impotence of Serbian nationalists rather than their strength. With Kosovo independent, the Albanian-majority areas of north-west Macedonia will no doubt demand autonomy at the very least, but whatever the reaction of the Macedonian government, the United States will have the final word.

How different the situation would be if the Iraqi Kurds were allowed to declare national independence. The Baghdad government and neighbouring countries with Kurdish populations would be outraged. The biggest outcry would come from Turkey, where Kurds make up at least twenty per cent of the national population and form a clear majority in the south-eastern provinces of the country. Even more than Israel, Turkey is the most important strategic ally the United States has in the Middle East. Its wishes cannot be ignored.

The Americans who in 1999 rained bombs on Yugoslavia in support of Kosovar guerrillas now try to look the other way while Turkish forces invade Iraqi Kurdistan to hunt down Kurdish guerrillas. The great Irish patriot Charles Stewart Parnell said that no man can set a limit to the march of a nation. Having encouraged the national independence of Kosovo, it will be interesting to see how long the United States can continue to hold back the national aspirations of the Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the world still without a state of their own.