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The
Kurds, Israel, and the Future of Syria |
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The Kurds, Israel, and the Future of Syria
27.6.2008
By Joseph Puder |
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Interview with Dr Sherkoh Abbas
June
27, 2008
Israel has a longstanding relationship with the
Kurdish people. In the early 1960’s, Mustafa Barzani
and his Peshmerga fighters received training and
support in the Jewish State. David Ben Gurion, then
Israel’s Prime Minister, possessed an acute vision
and understanding of the regional geopolitics – so
lacking in today’s realities. He reasoned that Arab
hostility encircling Israel necessitated alliances
with the leadership and people of non-Arab states
like Iran, Turkey and the Kurds (understanding that
the Kurdish connection needed to be somewhat
secretive, as it continues to be today for fear of
upsetting the Turks.)
Israel’s military and diplomatic establishment is
heavily invested in Turkey and trade relations are
of growing significance. Turkey represents, as far
as Israel and the U.S. are concerned, a model for a
“secular” Islamic democracy. It is the Turkish model
that is competing with the radical Islamist model of
the Islamic Republic of Iran throughout Central
Asia’s Islamic states, and for that matter, in the
larger Muslim world. |
Dr Sherkoh Abbas is the President of the Kurdistan
National Assembly of Syria. |
But the government of
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (since 2003),
leader of the Justice and Development Party has been
accused by the secular military establishment of
attempting to appoint Islamist judges. He has also
gravitated closer towards the Muslim world as
negotiations regarding membership in the European
Union have dragged on since 1987. It is precisely
for this reason that Israel must not place all its
chips on a continued strong relationship with
Ankara.
Massoud Barzani, the current president of the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Northern
Iraq, has expressed his government’s positive
feelings towards Israel and relations with the
Jewish State. Similarly, Kurds elsewhere have
attempted to establish channels of communications
with Israel. Israel, mindful of the reactions from
the Turks, has refrained from open expressions of
support for Kurdish rights.
Elsewhere around the region, democratic opposition
parties in Syria have indicated their interest in
ties with Israel and hopes that Israel would be less
protective of the Baathist regime. Israel,www.ekurd.net
fearful that the removal
of Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority/Baathist regime
would unleash radical Islamist (Muslim Brotherhood)
forces from the majority Sunni-Muslim community, has
preferred to see the status quo in Damascus remain
in tact. It appears as if Washington shares the
Israeli fears. Are such fears real and justified?
Sherkoh Abbas, President of the Kurdistan National
Assembly of Syria has a different view.
Joseph Puder (JP):
Should Israel fear a Muslim Brotherhood takeover if
the Assad regime were to fall?
Sherkoh Abbas:
It depends, if the status quo remains or if there is
sudden change, the Islamists might take over with
the backing of Sunni-Arab countries. Alternatively,
if the U.S. and the states in the region including
Israel support the Syrian democratic opposition and
the idea of a federated Syria, where all
stakeholders share power, it might prevent the
Islamists from taking over. I mean to say that a
decentralized federal Syria would boost the power of
ethnic and religious minorities. After all, almost
50% of the Syrian population is comprised of Kurds,
Druze, Alawite, and Christians.
JP: Could Syria
transform into a democracy with a federal system
that would provide increased powers to various
regions within the country, as well as cultural, and
political autonomy to the Kurds, Alawite, and Druze?
Sherkoh Abbas: A
federal democratic Syria is a realistic option.
Syria under our envisioned system would have five
regions or states, with increased power for each
state over legislative, political, and economic
affairs. The central government in Damascus would be
limited to foreign affairs, monetary and national
defense policies.
JP: You
mentioned five regions, could you name them?
Sherkoh Abbas:
In the South, bordering Israel would be the Druze
State or region. In the North and Northeast, the
Kurdish region East of the Euphrates River, and the
Turkish border in the North. Aleppo, Arab region
would be the third. Damascus would be a separate
Arab region as well. The fifth region would be
Alawite along Syria’s Mediterranean Coast.
JP: Why do you
think Syria requires a federal system, what was
wrong with the Baathist system?
Sherkoh Abbas:
Syria is comprised of Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Druze,
Alawite, and Christians. We must have a system that
provides protection for minorities and satisfies all
the stakeholders in the nation instead of just a
select group at the expense of all the others.
The Baathists are not much different from the Muslim
Brotherhood. The Baathists conceal their pan-Arab
nationalistic ideology in a secular form, while the
Muslim Brotherhood conceals its pan-Arab
nationalistic ideology in an Islamic form.
Both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Baathists are a
threat to the region and to the world. Consider what
the Baathist parties did in both Iraq and Syria over
the last three decades, and you will notice that the
Baathist regimes supported radical terrorist groups,
caused wars, denied people freedom, human rights,
and democracy, and used WMD on their own ethnic
populations.
JP: Do you
believe that Assad’s Syria can detach itself from
Iran?
Sherkoh Abbas:
Absolutely not. Iran has positioned itself in Syria
and Lebanon to such a degree that even if the Assad
regime wanted to separate itself from Tehran it
could not. Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the spread of
Shiaism in Syria as well as the over 100,000
Iranians who gained citizenship in Syria, would not
allow such a separation. Also, the Iranians have
developed alliances with the Syrian elites that
guarantees their continued presence in Syria and
influence over Syrian policies.
JP: In the
context of an Israeli-Syrian peace deal, how do you
see the future of the Golan Heights?
Sherkoh Abbas:
We know that the current governments in Damascus and
Jerusalem are not serious about peace. They simply
need each other to stay in power. In the context of
a real peace the Druze would have the right to
settle with Israel over the Golan. Of course a
federal Syria will be involved, but the Druze must
approve such an agreement.
JP: How do you
see the relationship between Israel and the Kurds?
Sherkoh Abbas:
The Kurds are Israel’s natural allies. They are
moderate Muslims and tolerant towards other
minorities. For Kurds, religion is not as important
or emphasized as ethnicity. The Kurds geographic
location and acculturation makes them a barrier to
the spread of radical Islam-whether Shia or Sunni.
The Kurds also aspire to become a democratic society
modeled after Israel.
A democratic Syria would be less of a threat to both
Israel and Turkey, and a Kurdish region in a federal
Syria would be no more of a risk to Turkey than the
Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq is today.
Israel’s fear of a regime change in Syria should be
mitigated by the realization that the current regime
in Damascus allied with Iran and Hezbollah,www.ekurd.net
and harboring radical
Palestinian terrorist groups while promoting terror
against the U.S. forces in Iraq and Israel, is as
bad as it gets.
Sherkoh Abbas is president of the Kurdistan National
Assembly of Syria. He may be contacted at sherkoh
(at) gmail.com. Dr. Sklaroff
is a hematologist, oncologist and internist. He may
be contacted at rsklaroff (at) comcast.net.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
frontpagemagazine com
** Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria
making up 10% of the country's population i.e. about
two million.
Kurds in Syria often speak Kurdish in public,
unless all those present do not. Kurdish human
rights activists are mistreated and persecuted. No
political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish
or otherwise.
Suppression of ethnic identity of
Kurds in Syria include: various bans on the use of
the Kurdish language; refusal to register children
with Kurdish names; replacement of Kurdish place
names with new names in Arabic; prohibition of
businesses that do not have Arabic names; not
permitting Kurdish private schools; and the
prohibition of books and other materials written in
Kurdish.
More about Kurds in Syria - (Kurdistan-Syria)
From Wikipedia
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