| While
Turkey has not been very successful in educating the international community
regarding its thesis that Turkey does not have a "Kurdish Problem" that
it only has a terrorism problem, this statement is very close to the truth.
"Turks" have always been confident that they do not and will not have any
unresolveable problems with "Kurds".
This confidence is notably demonstrated by the fact that after Turkey had won its anti-imperialist national independence war, she insisted that lands inhabited by a majority of TURKS AND KURDS remain within her national boundaries. After all, they had been together for a 1000 (?) years. After all, during the independence war "Kurdish Turks" had fought alongside Turks of other diverse human origins. Had this reasonable and justified proposal had been acceeded to, the "Kurdish" population would not have been sentenced to live under four different states, and who can guess what would have developed. When this proposal was refused during the Lousanne negotiations in 1922, Turkish delegate, Ismet Inonu, proposed a plebiscite for Musul to allow the "Kurds" to decide on what they preferred, but Lord Curzon-- the British Imperial delegate-- the representative for democracy (?)-- vetoed the proposal stating that "in a region where the majority of the population is illiterate, nomadic, and with strong ethnic and religious beliefs" self-determination would not be applicable! So, guess who is responsible for the current mess... |