CENTRAL NEWS
During the past week, a meeting was held in Geneva at the United Nations (UN) to draft the Syrian Constitution. The UN-led meeting was attended by a predetermined number of participants, while no person or organization was invited to represent the Kurds and the Northeast Democratic Syrian Autonomous Administration, which constitutes over 34% of the territory within the Syrian state’s borders.
Before this meeting; A joint meeting was held with the representatives of Russia and the Republic of Turkey upon the call of the UN spokesman.
It is known that discussions, meetings and studies on Syria have newly been launched by the UN. Previously, meetings were held within the UN, with the participation of those representing the same composition however, these meetings had not achieved its object, as the UN Secretary-General has already confessed. For this reason, this assemblage on the Syrian Constitution has become a topic of controversy from the beginning.
The predecessor of the United Nations, the League of Nations, demonstrated comparable efforts, they held similar meetings. Beside international hegemonic powers, they set up tables for similar meetings. In all these meetings, the parties had reached the conclusions that they saw as negative or positive on their fronts. The Lausanne Conference, which took place in 1923, took its place amongst these.
The main actors of the Lausanne conference; England and France wanted to settle the borders of the Middle East by negotiating with the Republic of Turkey, which took over the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, in line with their own interests. The subject of bargaining between them being that Kurdistan is a strategically important land with rich oil deposits and rich underground resources.
On the negotiation table was Kurdistan, still, there was no one representing Kurdistan. The fact that İsmet İnönü, who was attending the Lausanne conference on behalf of the Turkish state, took Kurdish Sharif Pasha with him did not change this reality. Although İsmet İnönü said “I represent the Turks and Kurds here” referring to Şerif Pasha, the presence of Şerif Pasha was merely symbolic.
Because Şerif Pasha did not represent the Kurds in any way, he did not speak for the Kurds nor did he make any defence as to the rights of Kurds.
As a result of the negotiations made at the Lausanne Conference, it was agreed that Kurdistan, which was already divided into two parts until then, would be split into four. In addition to England’s ownership of Iraq, and France’s ownership of Syria, the two hegemons would also take a cut from the pieces of Kurdistan gifted to Turkey and Iran. Not only that, the domination of England and France over the Middle East was confirmed. Because of this reality, the Lausanne Treaty did not mean more than a death warrant for the people of Kurdistan. Which confirmed this reality in the aftermath.
Shortly after the Lausanne Treaty, the genocidal state of the Republic of Turkey began uninterrupted military occupation attacks in Bakuré (Northern) Kurdistan. During the years 1925-1940, Kurdistan was turned into a blood lake, gallows were established, hundreds of thousands of people were tortured and taken to dungeons and subjected to forced resettlement: region-by-region. The states of England and France became partners of these invasion and genocide attacks.
It has been nearly a hundred years since. Today, the position of the League of Nations has been replaced with the United Nations: France and Britain have been replaced by the United States and Russia. These forces have now gathered at a meeting in Geneva in the name of writing the Syrian constitution. To legitimize their coming together; The Syrian regime, the opponents and the third person they called “the extras” were invited to attend. They did not bring the representatives of the people living in the Syrian lands, especially the people of Rojava Kurdistan, to whom they discussed their fate, to this table. They considered the descendants of Serif Pasha to be the most reasonable persons for them.
The war in Syria is the Third World war itself, which was ignited in Iraq in the early 1990s. At this stage, Syria is wanting to be “reorganized” again. Because the main actors of the Third World War do not confront directly, they cannot afford a heated war that encompasses the Middle East as a whole and the regions that will be under its direct influence. For this reason, unlike the previous world wars, the global capital forces said “win-win” among themselves; In the Middle East, they organise the wage of this war in a controlled manner by realizing their-regulation part-by-part, bestowing with the agreements they have reached.
It has fitted that this is the case in their agreement on Syria. In this agreement, Erdogan has clearly confessed that “saying honey does not sweeten the mouth.” Erdogan wants to really share. In order to achieve this, after the Lausanne Treaty, occupation and massacres were simulated in Northern and Western Kurdistan. To date, the occupation attacks against Rojava have been carried out with the approval and support of the USA and Russia to attain this goal.
In Geneva, the meeting called the “Syrian constitution preparatory work” is nothing more than that. The US and Russia want to create new balances in line with their interests under conditions in which the balances established in the Middle East have deteriorated after the First World War. The genocidal Republic of Turkey sees this fact and tries to make it an opportunity for itself. It is none other than Kurdistan which was mainly invested in the bargaining table in Geneva.
It is important to see this reality set on the table in Geneva. It is indispensable to carefully monitor the possible experiences and to enter into what is required to be done against them. After the Lausanne Treaty, the necessary lessons have been learned.
Cemal ŞERİK
Kürdistan Strategic Research Centre
