Years ago, a dashing and genteel young man called Casanova de Seingalt met a ravishing young lady called Kudi. The young man met Kudi during turbulence, when alliances were a scarce commodity, and one needed a paisano to overcome the hellscape. Throughout the blizzard, Kudi stood firm like a totem pole. Knowing full well that one good turn deserves another, the loving young man promised to walk down the aisle with Kudi as compensation for loyalty.
Sadly, the promise made 106 years ago was never kept, even as the unfulfilled promises, heartbreak, and trauma continue to pervade our world.
The fiction above aptly describes the Kurds and the statehood promised by the superpowers on August 10, 1920, under the Treaty of Sèvres, following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. As a result, the Kurds became a stateless nation — a term that refers to ethnic or cultural groups that share a common identity, history, language, or territory but lack their own independent sovereign state.
If stateless nations were to be grouped into pots like FIFA does before a major competition, the Basques, Catalans, Tamils, and Uyghurs would all be in the same pot as the Kurds. While the first three nations are sliced between two countries, the Uyghurs — with a presence in China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan — are like the Kurds: among the largest stateless nations, with 30–40 million people shoehorned into four different countries: Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran, with varying degrees of assimilation and autonomy.
What also makes the Kurdish question a Gordian knot is the fact that they remain the only nation promised a state by the superpowers and overwhelmingly denied.
The ultimate denial has resulted in 18–20 million Kurds in Turkey, 8–10 million in Iran, 5–6 million in Iraq, and 2–3 million in Syria seeking autonomy, recognition, and the preservation of Kurdish culture and education. Kurds abhor oppression and play on the fringe of the political order in their respective countries. The rugged nature of Kurdish topography is not merely a lesson for geography classes in the Middle East; it is also a reflection of a ballsy national character in the face of intimidation by their traducers.
This culminated in the emergence of the Republic of Mahabad in 1946 and the hanging of Qazi Muhammad — the arrowhead of the Kurdish cause — in Charchra Square, where the petals of nationhood briefly unfurled but withered before reaching their majestic grandeur.
From Turkey (Bakur), Iraq (Bashur), Iran (Rojhelat), and Syria (Rojava), the trajectory of the Kurds has been marked by revolts and insurgencies against the forces of oppression and intimidation. Despite the inveterate heartbreak, the heart of the Kurds is filled with love and their mind with the spirit of camaraderie.
Pushed to the wall in 2003 against Saddam Hussein — the mastermind and executioner of the Anfal Campaign (1986–1989) against the Kurds — the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan fought alongside the United States, overthrowing Saddam and the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, defending their historic capital, Kirkuk, and acquiring semi-autonomy.
Also, in 2014, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a “caliphate”, giving Islamic State a very firm foothold in Iraq, the Kurds in Syria and Iraq — through the YPJ (Yekîneyên Parastina Jin), an all-female Kurdish military force based in Rojava, northern Syria, and the Peshmerga (those who face death), the official military forces of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq — became allies in arms and went to the trenches with the United States to quench the raging fire of ISIS.
Isn’t it an irony that a jilted bride is fighting alongside the very nation that jilted her?
While the Kurds see this act as a fight for survival to bring about change, the superpowers see the Kurds as a pawn to clip the wings of their enemies.
To ensure reconciliation, stability, and growth, the Kurds are gradually being allowed to sing from the same hymnal as their respective governments. While Turkey is doing so through broadcasting and education, Syria has recognised Kurdish alongside Arabic as a national language, repealed discriminatory policies, and begun a gradual integration of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces institutions into the state structure. For Iraq, the Kurds have long enjoyed a de facto semi-autonomy through the guardrail of the United States since 1991.
The Kurdish story is a story of promises not kept, of cavalry called upon to fight, then denied the right to share the spoils. A political scientist sees geopolitics and intentional fragmentation of nations. A brand strategist, however, sees something different pervading the landscape. Their story mirrors the super brand that dominates the market, a challenger brand that unsettles and challenges the status quo, and the flank brand, the habitual pawn in the hands of the super brand, can move anywhere on the chessboard to counter-effect.
The superpowers, like market leaders, don’t focus solely on their area of comparative advantage alone; doing so makes them one-dimensional thinkers.
To continue to be relevant in world polity, they have to be three-dimensional thinkers; they think about deepening the market, to negate competition of regional powers (challenger brands), and how to raise the flank brands — the pawn — to knock the sail of the wind of the regional powers (challenger brands) that are usually disruptors. In Nigeria, MultiChoice’s DStv was the market leader in the pay-TV network.
The coming of StarTimes disrupted that market segment until DStv responded with a flank brand, GOtv, their pawn to fighting the challenger brand frontally. Also in Kenya, when locally brewed alcohol challenged the dominance of Tusker, East African Breweries Limited responded, introducing their pawn, Senator Keg, to change the market colouration.
As it is, the current face-off between the United States, Israel, and Iran is fixated on the superpower, regional power, and pawn vignette. Already, the United States is seeking a bromance with the Kurds. Reports are everywhere of Donald Trump inviting Iranian Kurdish leader Mustafa Hijri to the White House. In an interview with Fox News, Bafel Talabani of the PUK confirmed speaking with Trump about the Iran war.
For Operation Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, the Kurds, who are the flank brand, would be moved like a ballerina on the chessboard by the superpower (Super brand), to counter the challenger brand posture of Iran. But in the end, the superpower won’t be a pencil to redraw the map; rather, they would only peck the pawn for a job well done, as oxidation has taken its toll on the chessboard.
Toluwalope Shodunke, an international affairs enthusiast, writes via [email protected]
