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Study Guide: United Nations Security Council IsarMUN 2016 www.isarmun.org 1 TOP

Study Guide: United Nations Security Council IsarMUN 2016 www.isarmun.org 1 TOPIC A: TERRITORIAL CONFLICTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST THE KURDISH QUESTION lthough they seem to be carved in stone, state borders are often a matter of conflict, whether between two states (e.g. India and Pakistan, Russia and Ukraine) or from within, when a part of a population pleads for their independence and their own national territory (e.g. South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011). Many more examples of such struggles for independence could be named here. Probably the most famous example – representing a yet unsolved question – is the fate of the Palestinian people, claiming territory to establish their own sovereign state. Over the decades, many diplomatic attempts have been made to solve this question but a solution seems further away than ever. In the light of this prominent case in the Middle East, the issue of an own national state for the Kurdish people has got lost over the years. If the Security Council can find a solution for this ‘Kurdish Question’, involving multiple factions of Kurdish population groups and various countries, it could serve as a blueprint for the solution of many other territorial conflicts around the globe and bring the world one step closer towards a peaceful coexistence of peoples. HISTORY OVER THE MILLENNIA The Middle East has always been a region of cultural and ethnic diversity and has seen the rise and fall of many different civilizations inhabiting the area over the millennia: Turks, Persians, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Chechens, Azeris, etc. One important A 2 group, the Kurdish people, has been a natural inhabitant since even before Common Era. Kurdish-inhabited areas, also called ‘Kurdistan’, spread from the origin of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris in the West, all the way to the northern part of the Zaragos Mountains in the South and Lake Van in the North. Located at the center of the Middle East, Kurdistan has always been the scene of ethnic conflicts and conquered and ruled by a variety of different civilizations: Muslim Arabs in the 7th century, Seljuk Turks (11th century), Mongols (13th century) and medieval Persians (16th century). From the 16th century on, most of the Middle East including the Kurdish-inhabited areas was under the rule of Ottoman Turks for almost 400 years. WORLD WAR I AND THE TREATY OF SÈVRES During World War I, in May 1916, the Allied Powers France and the British Empire formed the secret Sykes-Picot- Agreement, carving up the Middle East into nation-states and spheres of control in case of a defeat of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman provinces Syria and Mesopotamia should be divided in five nation states: Lebanon and Syria under French control, Jordan and Iraq under British control and Palestine under international administration. After the war and the victory of the Allied Forces over the Central Powers, the Treaty of Sèvres portioned the Ottoman Empire according to the previously made agreement. Furthermore, the treaty scheduled a referendum for the Kurdish people to decide the fate of a Kurdish national state, Kurdistan: “A commission […] shall draft […] a scheme of local autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish areas lying east of the Euphrates, south of the southern boundary of Armenia as it may be hereafter determined, and north of the frontier of Turkey with Syria and Mesopotamia […].” 1 Even though the outlined borders of this truncated Kurdistan left out Kurds of Iraq, Syria and Iran and therefore did not meet the expectation of many Kurdish representatives that advocated a territory including all of the Kurdish-inhabited areas, the referendum was the first chance for an own sovereign Kurdish national state. Representatives of the Ottoman Empire who signed this treaty even agreed in case of a positive outcome of such a referendum and the approval and recommendation of the League of Nations, “ […] to execute such a recommendation, and to renounce all rights and title over these areas.“ 2 THE TREATY OF LAUSANNE However, the Treaty of Sèvres was never implemented. The new Turkish Republic under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk rejected it and a new treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne, was negotiated and signed in 1923. The Treaty of Lausanne annulled the Treaty of Sevres, giving 1 Treaty of Peace with Turkey, Ottoman Empire-Principal Allied Powers, 10. August 1920, Section III, Art. 62. 2 Treaty of Peace with Turkey, Ottoman Empire-Principal Allied Powers, 10. August 1920, Section III, Arts. 64. 3 control of the entire Anatolian peninsula to the new Turkish Republic including the Kurdistan homeland in Turkey. There was no provision for a referendum for Kurdish independence or autonomy in the new treaty. With the definition of and agreement on the current Iraq-Turkey border in July 1926, the last possibility for a Kurdish national state after World War I was buried. KURDS IN THE MIDDLE EAST Following WWI and the definition of new state borders in the Middle East, the Kurdish people was divided into four geographically separated populations: Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Despite their common ethnical roots, each population had to face different struggles in their respective countries, which shaped their individual and independent development. NORTH KURDISTAN (TURKEY) Kurds represent almost 20% of the total Turkish population. Even though nowadays Kurdish people can be found everywhere in Turkey the Kurdish population is still mainly centered in the southeastern part of Anatolia, IC 2226 Upper left panel: Historic Kurdish- inhabited areas in the Middle East (red). Upper right panel: Historic Kurdish- inhabited areas in the Middle East (red). Suggested Kurdish national state as specified by the Treaty of Sèvres (blue). Lower left panel: Kurdish-inhabited areas today. North Kurdistan/Turkey (yellow), West Kurdistan/Syria (red), South Kurdistan/Iraq (green) and East Kurdistan/Iran (blue). 4 spreading from the provinces of Gaziantep and Malatya in the West to Hakkari and Kars in the East, also called ‘Northern Kurdistan’. With Kurdish populations also inhabiting parts of central Anatolia, the Kurdish- inhabited areas make up almost 25% of the total area of Turkey. TURKIFICATION Following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey after WWI in 1923, the new Turkish government tried to suppress Kurds by categorizing Kurdish people as ‘Mountain Turks’ and banning words like ‘Kurd’, ‘Kurdish’ or ‘Kurdistan’, denying the existence of the Kurdish population in Turkey. During the 1930s, this policy was aggravated in a process called ‘Turkification’ implementing various assimilation measures and forced resettlements of minorities – mainly of Kurdish ethnicity. In the course of the late 1920s and 1930s, an estimated number of 1.5 million Kurds were displaced or massacred going along with the destruction of villages and deportations triggering multiple protests and violent rebellions on Kurdish side (e.g. Dersim Rebellion). ARMED REBELLION – THE PKK In answer to Kurdish rebellions, the Turkish military presence and surveillance in the southeastern part of Turkey was increased and led to a cooling down of the conflict over the next decades. In the 1970s the Marxist Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded aiming for “the liberation of the people of Kurdistan from the imperialist and colonialist system […] as well as the foundation of a democratic people’s dictatorship in an independent and unified Kurdistan.”3 After the coup d’état in 1980 and an intensification of repressions against Kurdish and left-wing organizations, e.g. by officially prohibiting the Kurdish language in public and private life, the PKK gained supporters through violent attacks on Turkish military and police station turning protest into an armed rebellion with kidnappings, sabotages, bombings and armed conflicts during the 1980s and 90s. A short period of cease fire following the capture and incarceration of PKK founder and leader Abdullah Öcalan, was interrupted through escalating violence in the mid- and late 2000s until, in 2013, official peace talks between the Turkish government and the PKK were held. Lately, these peace talks were discontinued and conflicts flared up again after the involvement of the Turkish military in the war against ISIL and the accompanying bombing of PKK targets in Iraq. The PKK has been on the terrorism blacklist of Turkey. Also, the military alliance NATO and many individual states such as USA, all members of the EU, Iran or Syria regard the PKK as a terroristic group. The conflict between the PKK and Turkey is estimated to have caused up to 40000 lives since 1984. 3 Founding program of the Kurdish Workers’ Party. 5 DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATION Today, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a pro-Kurdish, pro-Minority party, which evolved from a union of leftist movements in 2012, represents the voice of the Kurdish people in Turkey. Even though it sees itself as representatives of the whole Turkey, the HDP mainly finds support in the Kurdish-inhabited areas of the Southeast. Due to its connections with the PKK, the HDP participated in the peace negotiations between the Turkish government and the PKK on behalf of the rebel group. In the latest elections, the HDP polled more than 13% of votes representing the third- largest party in the Turkish parliament. WEST KURDISTAN (SYRIA) Kurds represent less than 10% of the Syrian population and uploads/Geographie/ study-guide-sc.pdf