“Barzanistan”, Kurdish Aspect of the Philosophy behind ISIS Emergence

We are unaware of many huge developments happening around us. The formation of a new government in the region, namely the Kurdish Government of Barzanistan, is one of the most important reasons behind the creation of ISIS (Daesh) terrorist group.

Sadr-Mohammadi, in an article published by Fars News Agency and translated by IFP, criticizes the low rate of reading and the subsequent lack of awareness among regional nations of ongoing developments affecting their lives, and warns against possible abuses of the unawareness.

In this article, he writes about the philosophy behind the emergence of ISIS by focusing on Israelis taking advantage of Kurds. He then warns that after a Jewish Israel and an Armenian Israel, we should be waiting for a Kurdish Israel in the vicinity of Iran.

Here are excerpts from the article:

Years ago, I found a book in our school library. The book, published by Egypt in the 1970s, was about the issue of Palestine. It covered different topics on the political future and a resolution to the Palestinian issue. When I opened the book, it was written on its ‘dedication page’: “I dedicate the book to Arab nations; to those who do not read books!”

The expressions were very interesting to me, but I couldn’t get what the author meant. When I turned around the page, I was faced with an American newspaper clipping. In an interview with an American reporter, the Israeli Defence Minister had fully explained Tel Aviv’s plans for the future of Palestine. The reporter, surprised by the great details explained by the Israeli official, asked, “Don’t you fear that Palestinians read the interview and find out your objectives.” The Israeli minister replied, “Don’t worry. Arabs don’t read!”

The incident, and the sneer I could see on the Israeli minister’s face, deeply impressed me, and it still comes to my mind every now and then. I have related the story to my close and distant friends without any particular reason for several times. But what adds to my surprise and inaction is the continuation of the “not reading” situation among us. (The Israeli minister was referring to Arabs, but all Asian nations, including Iranians, share Arabs’ feature.)

Many huge developments happening around us will make a direct impact on the lives of our children and descendants; however, we are mostly unaware of them or show no reaction in dealing with them. The formation of a new government in the region, which I call the Kurdish State of Barzanistan though I know it is not limited to Iraq, is one of the these important developments.

State of Barzanistan

In 1992, Necmettin Erbakan delivered a speech at the Turkish parliament, and quoted an American colonel’s remarks about the formation of a Kurdish state. He cited the colonel’s interview with a Turkish newspaper, “That American official pointed to the map and said ‘the Kurdish state will be formed in those regions; [Iraqi dictator] Saddam [Hussein] will fall, and a power vacuum will be created in the region. Under such circumstances, Kurds will fill the vacuum by forming an independent government. They might even claim Turkish territories.’ When the American colonel was told that Turkey would definitely refuse to support the move, he answered, ‘then we will have to fight against each other.”

The Turkish reporter went on to say, “But Turkey has a powerful regular army, and on the other hand, Iran and Syria will also stand against the move. How do you see it possible that Kurds could resist these opponents?”

The American colonel answered, “In the near future, Iraqi Kurds will possess a huge amount of weapons; they will take over the weapons remaining from Saddam. They might even possess weapons more advanced than the ones your army has. They will have their own airplanes, choppers, tanks, machine guns, and special airports.”

When Erbakan was delivering the speech, no one expected it to be realized; no one could imagine Iraqi Kurds possessing the world’s most advanced arms; no one could imagine Erbil turning to one of the most prosperous cities of the Middle East; no one even imagined that the visa we obtain for going on pilgrimage to Karbala would be written in both Arabic and Kurdish. But today all these prophecies have come true, and more interestingly, many of us have unknowingly made contributions to its realization: because we do not read books!

Kurds are the only ethnic group scattered across the four counties of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, but they have never had an independent government. In recent decades, Kurds in these four countries have had different destinies.

Kurds of Turkey, both their left-wingers (PKK) and Islamists (Kurdistan’s Hezbollah), have resorted to armed conflicts.

Iran’s Kurdistan first came into conflict with the central government, but it later decided to obey Tehran.

Syrian Kurds also spent a tense era, but then the power of Bashar Assad worked and they lived in peace for several decades.

Kurds in Iraq, as the country’s Shiites and many of its Sunnis, were opposed to the Ba’ath party and stood against Saddam’s government.

American Colonel’s Plan Starts with Fall of Saddam

After the US invasion of Iraq, the first phase of the American colonel’s plan came into effect. The power vacuum was created in Iraq; Kurds started their disagreements with Baghdad, the process of making a distinction between an Iraqi Kurd and an Iraqi Arab was kicked off. Meanwhile, Kurds started to enjoy the considerable support of Europeans and Americans, and the volume of direct economic trade exchanges with “Barzanistan” sharply rose. Jalal Talabani, however, was removed from politics as he was not that much in favour of the “American Colonel’s” plan. The next one to rise to power was Masoud Barzani, whose photos with Mossad officers taken in the 1970s were released last year.

Nevertheless, no one thought they would go too far, because Barzanistan was in a deadlock; they shared borders with the Iraqi central government in the south, the Turkish government (which had years of civil war with the Kurds) in the north, the government of Iran (which no one dared to mess with) in the east, and the Syrian government (which did not tolerate any disobedience) in the west. Therefore, the plan for the formation of a Kurdish state in the Middle East was doomed to failure.

But it did not go on as frustrating as it seemed.

Erdoğan, Head of Greater Middle East Plan, Gives Barzani the Green Light

In Turkey, everything changed in a strange way. The Kurds, who were previously considered as terrorist elements, entered the political arena by establishing the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and even announced they were ready to lay down their arms. On the other hand, Erdoğan, who considered himself as the head of Greater Middle East project and had used the name for himself for several times, unexpectedly gave Barzani (the president of Iraqi Kurdistan region) the green light.

Barzani made a trip to Turkey, but he neither chose Ankara nor Istanbul; he rather visited Diyarbakır! There he held a meeting with Erdoğan. The first step to get Barzanistan out of the deadlock was taken. That was when Barzani was feeling the gentle breeze of companionship.

Meanwhile, Iran unintentionally began to cooperate with Barzanistan. All legal ways for financial transactions to and from Iran were blocked [due to anti-Iran sanctions], and Barzanistan, which had turned to a centre for every illegal job, was an escape route for Iran’s transactions. [Parliament Speaker] Ali Larijani’s visit to Erbil in late December, 2014, and his meeting with Barzani can be regarded as a turning point for Tehran-Erbil ties.

At the same time, Syria became a multidimensional card for the Kurdistan project.

On the one hand, once the central government of Syria was weakened, the Kurds, who happened to be supported by Damascus, started creating certain Kurdish groups for themselves with the aim of fighting the ISIS (Daesh) terrorist group; however, they suddenly turned their back on Assad, and thus, the Syrian puzzle of Kurdistan put an end to its inaction.

On the other hand, Barzani and the Kurds of Turkey, who were known more as political brokers and terrorists in the global community, posed as popular, heroic, and selfless advocates of human rights (the project was best manifested in Ayn al-Arab case, the city that was widely propagated in the media under its Kurdish name, Kobani). Syrian Kurds were even more important, because they could open a corridor between Barzanistan and the Mediterranean Sea. Barzani is ready to do anything, even to massacre the Arabs and Turkmens living in northern Syria, to have an open route to the sea without anyone to bother him.

In other words, the US has decided to enter a Kurdish element into the government, and facilitate the implementation of Greater Middle East project in this way. The US has actually assigned a new role to the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey; a role different from the past. The new role tasks them with pretending to be an intellectual and peace-seeker. This means that the US is almost sure about the formation of a Kurdish state in the region, and is trying to start taking required measures to raise the image of Kurds.

The first preview of the theory took place on June 5, 2015, after the bombing of HDP electoral rally in the Kurdish-inhabited city of Diyarbakır. Those who used to take up arms for minute issues and get 3 to 4 people killed visited the bombing area with flowers in their hands!

Even now, in spite of heavy conflicts between Turkey’s Kurds and the country’s army and two months after a curfew, pro-Kurdish parties and figures, particularly Selahattin Demirtaş (co-leader of HDP), have never lost their control, and are using the method “pressure from below, bargaining from above” in dealing with the government.

The current situation in some Kurdish-inhabited cities of Turkey is not better than that of Aleppo or Homs in Syria.

Formation of Kurdish State Was One of the Reasons behind Creation of ISIS

When we study the emergence of ISIS and at the same time think about the Kurdish issue, we understand that the main reason or at least one of the main reasons behind the creation of ISIS was to prepare the grounds for a Kurdish state.

On the one hand, the Arab-Kurdish dichotomy is no longer dominant in Iraq, and now, the country is totally split given the problems with Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, and at the same time Shiites and Sunnis.

On the other hand, the required grounds are now prepared for raising the image of Barzanistan, as Germany has explicitly sent to Erbil several planes containing weapons so that the Kurds would be capable of defending themselves against the ISIS.

Erbil, which has yet to incur any damage caused by ISIS attacks and threats, is shining today like a star vis-à-vis a totally-destroyed Iraq.

But why is really the Zionist front [Israel] trying so hard to create the Greater Kurdistan?

Although the influence of such factors as geography and spatial continuity in political equations should be discussed for hours before the question can be answered, the importance of the formation of such a state can be understood by focusing on two cases realized in the region and the history of Muslim world.

The first example is the state of the Zionist regime.

Israel is created exactly in the most civilized and homogenous part of the Muslim world. If Israel was not here, a series of allied governments with similar federative ruling systems or a union of several important countries could form a “united state” in any moment. But Israel is exactly like an arrow in the heart: if it remains there, you will die, and if you take it out, your heart will be ripped off and you will pass away.

If Arab countries surrounding the Zionist regime get along with it, they will be faced with one problem, and if they don’t, another problem would arise. In fact, the presence of Israel in Western Asia has made it impossible to establish peace and calm in the region, because it has made regional nations unable to have geographical connect with their surrounding countries without facing any problem. Tel Aviv has made any unpredictable move possible by refusing to define a specific border.

The second example is the formation of an independent Armenian state in Caucasia.

The issue is not related to the historical presence of Armenians in the disputed region; rather it is about the existence of an Armenian government there. This is the case for Palestine as well: we are not talking about the historical presence of Jews in that region, but the independent Jewish government is the focus. Russians managed to create a geographical-popular gap between Caucasia, Anatolia, and Iran by forming the government of Armenia and creating a wall between the government of Iran and the Shiites of Caucasia and between the Ottoman government and the Sunnis of this region. We are still seeing that the Russians are taking advantage of the geographical gap despite tens of years have passed.

The same thing is being implemented for Kurdistan as well.

If the independent state of Kurdistan is formed with the features Erbil, Tel Aviv, and Washington want, the possibility of connection between Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria will be ruled out. We will practically get engaged in a war that would last for tens of years. At the end of such a war, from a simple wire to our oil pipes will all go under the domination of Barzanistan.

Under such circumstances, we will thus witness the emergence of a Kurdish Israel in our vicinity after a Jewish Israel and an Armenian one.

To sum up, let me quote the remarks recently made by Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked during the ninth annual INSS (Institute for National Security Studies) Conference in Israel.

On January 19, Shaked stressed that Israel should “promote steps that would correct the injustice that [made Kurds] the biggest nation without a state.”

“The Kurds are an ancient people with thousands of years of history, and a democratic nation” – one that has “never attacked any other nation”, she added.

She stressed that the “20 million Kurds who didn’t get a state, and nobody takes care of” are the only ones who are serious about defeating ISIS. “[The] Kurds are the only ones fighting ISIS as their highest priority.”

It is worth mentioning that Erbil has been supplying one-third of Tel Aviv’s oil for several years, and in return, Israel has been deploying its special army forces to Kurdistan in a bid to train Kurdish fighters.

In an interview with an Erbil-based Kurdish website on April 23, Israel’s Deputy Minister of Regional Cooperation Ayoob Kara noted that he already had meetings in Paris about the Kurdish issue and that he supported the creation of an urgent Kurdish state.