MIDDLE EAST REPORT \ \. \ i y 1.4 \i Number 189 $4.50 / £3.50 MIDDLE EAST RESEAi^CH & INFORMATION PROJECT July-August 1994 No. 189 Vol. 24 No. 4 Middle East Report (ISSN 0899-2851 ) is pub- THE KURDISH EXPERIENCE li',h«l SIX lifw;'; a yoar (bi-rnorithly) by the Middle East Research and Informabon Proiect (MERIP), Inc., Suite 119, 1500 Massachuselts Ave., NW. ARTICLES 2 The Kurdish Experience Wastiin(jton, DC 20005. Second-class postage paid Amir Hassanpour at Washintjlori, DC POSTMASTER: send address changes to Middle East Report, 1500 Mass¬ 12 Mad Dreams of Independence: achusetts Ave , NW, Washmglon,DC 20005. Sub¬ The Kurds of Turkey scriptions are $25 per year lor individuals, $50 Chris Kutscliera lor institutions Overseas postage additional. Other rates on inside back cover. Middle East Report 16 City in the War Zone is available in microform from University Microfilms, Aliza Marcus 300 North Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. Canadian Distribution: Doormouse Dis¬ 20 Kurdish Broadcasting in Iraq tribution, 65 Metcalfe St. 16, Toronto M4X,IR9. Ann Zimmerman Indexes and Abstracts: Abstracta Iranica, The Alternative Press Index, Index Islamicus, International 8 The Remains of Anfal Development Abstracts, International Political PHOTO ESSAY Science Abstracts, The Left Index, The Middle East Susan IVIeiselas and Andrew Whitley Journal, Mideast File, Migration & Ethnizitat, PAIS Bulletin, Political Science Abstracts, Universal Reference System. COLUMN 22 Washington Watch: Clinton, Ankara and Kurdish Human Rights Review Books and other items lor review should Maryam Elahi be sen! to: Joel Beinin, MERIP Review Editor, Dept. of History, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. Copyright: The entire contents of this publica¬ UPDATE 24 Algeria Between Eradicators tion are copyrighted. Requests lor permission to and Conciliators reproduce in any manner, in whole or in part, in any Hugh Roberts language, should be addressed to: MERIP Copyright, Suite 1 1 9, 1 500 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washing¬ ton, DC 20005 INTERVIEW 28 The Islamist Movement and the Palestinian Authority For the Blind: Selected articles from this publi¬ cation are available lor blind and visually handi¬ Bassam Jarrar/Graham Usher capped persons on audio tape from Freedom Ideas International, 640 Bayside. Detroit, Ml 4821 7. REVIEWS 30 DanConneW Against All Odds We encourage the submission of manuscripts Basil Davidson and photographs relevant to our locus on the polit¬ ical economy of the contemporary Middle East and 31 Salma Khadra Jayyusi Anthology of Modern popular struggles there. This includes general the¬ Palestinian Literature oretical contributions relevant to these issues and Salah Hassan connecting developments elsewhere in the world with the Middle East Letters to the editors are wel¬ come All manuscripts must be typed Ptease send 32 Editor's Picks: New and both a diskette and a hard copy A style sheet is avail¬ DEPARTMENTS able on request Recommended Reading Contributions to MERIP are tax-deductible Consider becoming a Sustainer with an annual con- Nadia Benchailah, R. Maro, Susan Meiselas, PHOTOS/ Iribution ol $100 or more, and receive compli¬ Ann Zimmerman. mentary copies ol MERIP special publications and GRAPHICS a one-year subscription. Cover Photo: "Saddam wanted to squeeze us." Halabja, Iraqi Kurdistan. R. Maro/Medico international. FROM THE BNT0R8 Board of Directors: Hady Amr, Dale Bishop, For many decades now, those states whose borders include and Judith Chomsky, Dan Connell, David Cortright, divide Kurdistan have alternately tried to ignore, deny, manip¬ Nina Dodge, Rhonda Hanson, Donna Nevel, ulate and suppress widespread Kurdish demands for political rights. David Nygaard, Doreen Tilghman, John Viste, In this, the rulers have enjoyed the unstinting support oftheir great Andrew Whitley. power patrons, the broad support ofthe majority communities, and often enough support as well among different Kurdish communi¬ Editorial Committee: Joel Beinin, Sheila ties and social strata. These policies comprise a disastrous record Carapico, Beshara Doumani, Sally Ethelston, that has exacted a horrible price in blood, treasure, and democra¬ Lisa Hajjar, Barbara Harlow, Joost Hiltermann, tic rights ofArabs, Iranians and Turks as well as ofKurds them¬ Peggy Hutchison, Suad Joseph, Fareed selves. These policies have failed miserably in their repressive Mohamedi, Julie Peteet, Marsha Pripstein, goals, and yet they continue as the order of the day. Yahya Sadowski, Susan Slyomovics, We have tried to highlight here several aspects of the Kurdish Joe Stork, Bob Vitalis. experience. One is the tremendous changes over the last two decades, Contributing Editors: Ervand Abrahamian, as new economic and social forces, as well as armies, have pene¬ Eqbal Ahmad, Noam Chomsky, Jean-Frangois trated and altered Kurdish societies. Another is the persistence Clement, Nigel Disney (1951-1978), Marion oftraditional political leaderships and rivalries. As Amir Hassanpour Farouk-Sluglett, Samih Farsoun, Michael points out, the serious clashes in May 1994 between the two dom¬ Gilsenan, Sarah Graham-Browfn, Alain Gresh, inant parties of the Kurdish Regional Government, the KDP and Fred Halliday, Bertus Hendriks, Jochen Hippler, the PUK, have similarities with the territorially-based opposi¬ Diane James, Penny Johnson, Rashid Khalidi, tion in South Africa of Inkatha to the African National Congress. Fred Lawson, Ann Lesch, Joan Mandell, Tim What is crucially missing, though, is a regional equivalent to the Mitchell, Lee O'Brien, Roger Owen, James Paul, ANC. While the main responsibility for this lies with the Kurdish Karen Pfeifer.MaximeRodinson, Miriam Rosen, leadership, other factors play a rolethe recentness and uneven- ness of social transformations, the meddling of neighboring rivals Philip Shehadi (1957-1991), Mohamed Sid- Iran and Turkey, and, not least, the punishing economic embar¬ Ahmed, Salim Tamari, John Tordai, Fawwaz go and political isolation imposed by the United States and other Trabuisi, Judith Tucker, Anita Vitullo, powers as well as by Baghdad. Martha Wenger, Sami Zubaida. The US remains, for the moment, a most reluctant "protector"of Publisher: Peggy Hutchison this experiment in Kurdish self-rule, forced by Turkey's need to stem the refugee crisis that would come with Iraq's reconquest. Editor: Joe Stork Here is where we see how little has changed: Western complicity Assistant Editor: Maggy Zanger and silence in the face of Baghdad's war of extermination in 1987- Circulation Manager: Esther Merves 88 is reprised, as we write, in the studious inattention to the lat¬ est Turkish "final offensive" to crush Kurdish political militancy Administrative Assistant: Ann Schaub within its borders. The dimensions of this current campaign are Review Editor: Joel Beinin staggering: some 400,000 Turkish troops are deployed against Design and Production: Julie Farrar 30,000 guerillas; nearly a thousand villages have been depopu¬ lated since 1993; tens of thousands of Kurds in Turkey now seek Interns: Elizabeth Hiel, Deevy Holcomb, refuge in Iraq, and hundreds ofthousands ofothers have been dis¬ Amy Schmidt placed within the country. The economic and political crisis which Review Intern: Rebecca Stein this war has exacerbated may well trigger a military coup. It is a war that Ankara cannot win, though everyone can lose. Proofreaders: Bryce Giddens, Sarah Shoenfeld What happens in Turkeywhere two-thirds ofthe Kurds live Printing: IVIcArdle Printing Co. and in the self-rule area of Iraq over the coming months and years © Copyrigrit; July-August 1994, Middle Easl Research & is likely to determine the political contours of this region for a Information Project. Printed in the U.S.A long time to come. It is a matter to which we will return. >:* 4 < . * . *^ ^4 % Voting lor tlia Congrett, Zakhu, 1982. Ann Zimmerman The Kurdish Experience Amir Hassanpour It is difficult to reach a firm assessment concerning the prospects for the Kurdish movement. The present circumstances the ability of the PKK- led movement In Turkey to survive extraordinary state repression, and the existence In Iraq of a Western-protected Regional Governmentare unprecedented. Yet the obstacles confronting a political resolution of the "Kurdish problem" are no less daunting than before. Middle East Report July-August 1994 Numbering over 22 million, the Kurds are one of the hardly be distinguished from the worldview oflanded nota¬ largest non-state nations in the world. Their home¬ bles of the past. land, Kurdistan, has been forcibly divided and lies most¬ ly within the present-day borders ofTurkey, Iraq and Iran, National Awakening with smaller parts in Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The greatest number of Kurds today still live in Kurdistan, One reason for this may be that Kurdish nationalism though a large Kurdish diaspora has developed in this cen¬ emerged as an ideology long before the formation of the tury, especially in the main cities of Turkey and Iran and Kurds as a nation, not in a middle class milieu but in a more recently in Europe as well. Between 10 and 12 mil¬ largely agrarian society with a powerful tribal component. lion Kurds live in Turkey, where they comprise about 20 From the 16th century to the mid-19th century, much of percent of the population. Between 5 and 6 million live in Kurdistan was under the rule of independent and Iran, accounting for close to 10 percent of the population. autonomous Kurdish principalities that produced a flour¬ Kurds in Iraq number more than 4 million, and comprise