Will we see Lausanne again?

When it rains it pours on the Kurdish people with the end of the First World War, as the interests of the powers intersected to loot, steal and fragment Kurdistan, from the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, to the treaty signed in 1920 in the French city of Sevres, up to the Cairo Agreement of 1921, and ending with the Lausanne Treaty of 1923.

The geography of Kurdistan, which covers an area of 550,000 square kilometers, and has a population of more than 40 million, was lost between the claws of (Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran) in unfair agreements, in which the rights of the Kurdish people were marginalized.

The meetings between Britain, France and Russia led to the division of the Middle East into states, and put in place plans and arrangements for 100 years, to develop the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 and the division of Kurdistan into 4 parts, after it was divided into two parts in the Treaty of Qasr Shirin 1639 between the Ottomans and the Safavids for the first time.

Kemal Ataturk did not fulfill his promises to grant autonomy to the Kurds after their participation in the 1919 War of Independence, and thus received  a great betrayal.

In the aftermath, the Ankara Treaty of 1921 was signed, and France was granted, according to it, areas such as; Bhutan Island, Nusaybin, Merdin, Urfa, Malatya, Gaziantep, Amed, and Iskenderun, which were under Turkish mandate, and this is what caused distress to the Kurds. Where western and northern Kurdistan was separated from the motherland.

This agreement was concluded in exchange for ending the conflict between the two parties, according to which the Treaty of Sevres 1920, which stipulated the right of the Kurds to establish self-rule, was canceled. The Cairo Agreement of 1921 consolidated practical steps, and the autonomy was canceled.

Then came the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, and hammered the last nail in the coffin of the Kurdish issue, as the artificial Turkish borders were built on October 29, and Britain raced before everyone else to recognize it, after Ataturk acquiesced to Britain’s demands to give up Kirkuk and Mosul.

The borders between Turkey and Iraq were drawn after the conclusion of the Mosul Agreement of 1926, and Britain kept the regions of Kirkuk and Mosul under its control, thus separating Southern and Northern Kurdistan from the motherland, and the two sides pledged that the borders are final and cannot be changed.

In 1937, Iran and Iraq signed the first border demarcation treaty, in Saadabad Palace in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where the British had planned the Iraqi borders in 1911 during their mandate.

Britain and France practiced a policy of push and pull against the Kurds, inciting them and investing them to push the dominant parties to make concessions. Britain ended the revolution of Sheikh Mahmoud al-Barzanji, and thus the Kurds entered a dark tunnel, as the decision to exterminate them was put into effect.

About each of (Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran) mocking the Kurds a lot, seeking to melt their culture, belittling them and underestimating them, by spreading the phrases "How happy I am to be Turkish."

The differences of these countries did not stand in the way of the hostility of the Kurds, as they formed tripartite and quadruple mechanisms, and exchanged security and intelligence information.

In 1963, the Yarmouk Brigade of the Syrian Army was involved in the battles of the Iraqi Baath Party to suppress the Kurds in Başûr Kurdistan.

A similar agreement was concluded between Turkey and Iraq in 1982, to eliminate the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, and under this agreement, Iraq allowed Turkey to enter its territory at a depth of 5 km.

The development of the Turkish invasion of Iraq, after the repercussions of the catastrophic wars it witnessed, linked to the attack on the State of Kuwait in 1990, and the second Gulf War in 1991, and after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and Iraq falling under the weight of international wills, Turkey strengthened its presence.

Turkey has invoked (terrorism) the occupation of Başûr (Southern Kurdistan), and the installation of its headquarters and intelligence hideouts, and its military bases today exceed 40 bases.

The weakness of the central government in Iraq made greedy Turkey go further, and it was no longer satisfied with the 5 km distance, as it entered today a depth of 150 km into Iraqi territory.

Turkey openly declares it, and with time it revealed its ambitions. Erdogan claimed in 2016 that Mosul, Kirkuk, and Syrian Aleppo are Turkish cities originally, and that they must be annexed to Turkish territory.

The Turkish media promotes the maps of the Mîsâk-ı Milli, which show Syrian, Iraqi and Greek cities within the borders of the Turkish state, in addition to calls from officials from time to time to amend the Treaty of Lausanne.

Erdogan is pushing to awaken the dreams of the buried past, taking advantage of the fragile and turbulent conditions on the ground in Syria and Iraq.

To reinforce this on the ground, Turkey has always supported the (PDK), which has become a tool against the Kurds.

While the Kurds seek to arrange their home and reunite them, and to form a political reference capable of leading the stage politically and militarily, so that they do not collide with the wall of Lausanne again, the (PDK) legitimizes the Turkish presence on the lands of Başûr (Southern Kurdistan), and fights alongside its executioners against the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, and deepens its differences with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

The PDK does not attach any importance to the seriousness of the stage and its repercussions, nor does it care about the Turkish goals of drawing new maps at the expense of the Kurds.

After 2023, Turkey aspires to be dominant in the exclusive economic zone and adjacent territorial waters, especially the Mediterranean, Black and Aegean Seas, allowing it to freely use all marine resources.

T/ Satt.

ANHA