When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks about genocide and the denial of homeland rights, he knows exactly what he's talking about. For years, and with increasing intensity in recent months, Turkey, under his leadership, has been brutally targeting the Kurdish people – both within its borders and in neighboring Iraq and Syria – in an effort to deny them the right to self-determination and their own state.
Erdogan didn't invent this playbook. Turkey, as heir to the Ottoman Empire, already has one of humanity's most horrific massacres of the 20th century registered in its name – the killing of more than a million Armenians during World War I. To this day, Turkey refuses to acknowledge this atrocity. Regrettably, Israel has never recognized the Armenian genocide either, fearing damage to its relations with Ankara.
In recent decades, the Turks have found a new target: the Kurdish people, whom Ankara pursues with fierce determination, destroying their villages and erasing their heritage and identity, all to prevent them from claiming their right to self-determination. Turkey isn't alone – the Kurds face persecution in Iran, Syria, and even Iraq.
The Kurdish people, numbering between 30-40 million, represent the world's largest stateless minority. They inhabit a region stretching from Iran in the east, where they make up 10% of the population, through Iraq, where they constitute a quarter of the population and have established an autonomous region in the north. In Syria, where Kurds comprise about 10% of the population, they have established an autonomous zone along the Turkish border under American protection. Finally, in Turkey, Kurds comprise a quarter of the population, mostly residing in the country's south.
However, the world chooses to ignore the Kurds, avoiding support for their struggle and demands out of fear of antagonizing Turkey and other nations with significant Kurdish minorities. Throughout history, Israel has been the only nation to actively assist the Kurds, maintaining ties with Iraqi Kurds during the previous century.
The Kurds saw an opportunity at the beginning of this century when the Americans toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and granted them autonomy, albeit not independence, within the framework of the new Iraqi state. Meanwhile, in Syria, the Kurds took advantage of the bloody civil war to establish an autonomous government in the north under American protection.
Turkey fears that the Kurdish awakening in Syria and Iraq might spill over into its territory, leading to an intensification of its anti-Kurdish campaign and a series of military strikes against the autonomous Kurdish governments that emerged along its border. In these attacks, civilian populations are both the target and primary casualties. When ISIS controlled eastern Syria and Iraq, the Turks avoided confronting them and didn't assist American efforts to eliminate the terrorist organization.
Currently, the Kurds enjoy American protection. However, during his first term in the White House, Donald Trump planned to withdraw American forces from the Middle East, effectively abandoning the Kurds to their fate – or, more precisely, to Erdogan's hands. The Americans ultimately remained in Syria due to its strategic importance as a transit route from Iran to the Mediterranean coast to Hezbollah and Hamas. However, Trump's potential return to the White House has renewed concerns about a possible American withdrawal from the region.
The appointment of Senator Mike Waltz, a strong supporter of the Kurdish cause, as Trump's national security advisor and the Biden administration's public rebuke of Ankara for considering granting asylum to Hamas leaders suggest that Washington might be reconsidering Ankara's negative role in our region. However, historically, the Americans have accommodated Erdogan's whims.
Israel could play a crucial role in supporting the Kurds' struggle for their rights. In the mid-1990s, Israel assisted Turkey – though it was a different Turkey then – in its fight against Kurds within its territory. Perhaps it's time to change direction, raise our voices, and exert pressure in international forums and Washington on behalf of the Kurdish cause. This serves not only Kurdish interests but Israeli ones as well.
