First joint Forum UoS-SPU Universities Saulaimani

Summary Kozad Ahmed: Minimum requirements reconciliation Kurds-Arabs

Oppressed minorities
Iraq, as a multi ethnic country ruled by despotic regimes, since its foundation in 1921 has always been faced with the opposition of the oppressed minorities, the most prominent of which was the Kurdish opposition that often developed into armed conflicts.

Arab „Iraqism“
The regimes that ruled Iraq were fundamentally formed by Sunni Arab elites with nationalist ideologies, even in the time of the monarchy, although less harsh. The regimes have always tried to create and impose a common consciousness of “Iraqism,” i.e. a unified Iraqi identity among the Iraqi’s, however, due to the Arab nationalist background of the regimes; by this Iraqi identity an Arab identity was meant. Thus being an Iraqi meant being an Arab, which was reflected in education, politics, culture and all other important aspects of the Iraqi State. Instead of tighten the ties; this enlarged the gap between the components of the society. Naturally, such policies resulted in counter-effects.

Rewriting history of „Iraq“
The approaches by which the regimes tried to reach its goals were diverse, but had in common negligence of the history and culture of the “others,” re-writing – actually changing – the history of “Iraq,” and emphasizing on the past glories of only the Arab-Muslim nation as the only nation of Iraq in past and present.

Territorial claims
The significant point here is that as a fruit of these policies, the regimes were successful in creating the concept of one Iraqi soil along history among the Arab communities of modern Iraq. Since Iraq is an Arab country in the state ideology, thus the whole soil of Iraq also belongs to the Arab nation. The problem starts here; as long as the Arabs of Iraq think that the whole territories of modern Iraq belong to this Arabian Iraq, no territorial claims by the Kurds will be tolerated or understood. Accordingly, no compromise can be reached.

Cultural and territorial rigts of the Kurds
In the western democratic models, the countries have reached better agreements with the minorities by acknowledging their cultural and territorial rights. Thanks to the concepts of equality, freedom and rule of law the dangers of separatism and territorial collapse have been disappeared.