Iran and Syria confront US with defence pact

[a_majoor]

From David Frum on NRO:

Dennis Ross of the Washington Institute attributes the surge of democratic feeling in Lebanon to a "disappearance of fear." Nice phrase - and one that suggests what Syria's next move is very likely to be: the restoration of that fear.

Restoring fear has been the goal of the insurgents in post-Saddam Iraq: every time they kill, they hope to show Iraqis that it is they and not the new government of Iraq who control life and death. (Today they have served another such notice, by murdering a judge on the tribunal that will judge Saddam.)

So expect more terror in Lebanon - and of course in Israel as well, as Syria's terrorist proxies seek to destabilize the Abbas government in the Palestinian Authority and to warn Israel against lending its support to Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon.

Will terror work? A fierce confrontation is already emerging in Lebanon, powered by these contending facts:

1) Syria cannot afford to set Lebanon free. Lebanon is by far the wealthiest portion of the Assad family domains, thanks in part to the Syrian-approved drug trade. Possession of Lebanon, which Syrian nationalists regard as a natural part of greater Syria, is also essential ideologically. Finally - and maybe most important - a retreat from Lebanon under American pressure would be interpreted in Syria and throughout the region as a confession of weakness: which is fatal to any dictatorship.

2) On the other hand, if Syria does not now withdraw after the joint American-French demand, it will be the United States that will have confessed weakness - repeating past mistakes in the region and inviting further attacks on American interests and American friends, like Rafiq Hariri.

3) The Syrian policy of covert war against the United States has failed. The Syrian-backed insurgency in Iraq did not drive US troops out of the country or defeat George W. Bush. Instead, it has provoked the US into intensifying its pressure on Syria itself.

4) Syria accordingly now faces a choice of options: Find some way to appease the United States short of true withdrawal from Lebanon - or else move from covert war to an all-out anti-American terror campaign.

5) Appeasement is the logical first strategy. Syria is full of terrorist operatives who can be handed over to the US. As well, Syria can in a pinch agree to withdraw its 15,000 troops from Lebanon. A Syrian troop withdrawal would look like a big concession, but would not much alter the power-dynamic in Lebanon, since Syria controls Lebanon through its intelligence agencies and its penetration of the Lebanese government and cabinet. Better still, a troop withdrawal might give France an excuse to end its uncomfortable association with the Bush administration - short of actually changing anything important in Lebanon.

6) The Bush administration is unlikely to be fooled by an appeasement policy. The joint US-French demand for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon followed the surrender of Saddam's half-brother. And Condoleezza Rice made clear that both the Syrian troops and Syrian intelligence services must go.

But will the Bush administration press the point if the Syrians seem to meet them half-way? That will be a real moment of testing for the Bush policy. Will the Bush administration hold firm? Will it insist on total withdrawal, including the spy services, on the full restoration of Lebanese sovereignty, and on genuinely free elections in May? If so, expect a furious response from Syria, from its ally Iran, and from the terrorist militias they control inside Lebanon. Make no mistake: For the Syrians, Lebanese democracy means war. It's a war the United States can and must win - but only if the US is as tough, as determined, and as clear-eyed as its new Syrian enemy.

A reader from Mansfield Ohio notes that the authors of II Chronicles foretold the predicament 2500 years ago:

16:7 And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said
unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on
the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of
thine hand.
16:8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many
chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he
delivered them into thine hand.
16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to
show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have
wars.
07:49 AM

 

[Kirkhill]

http://www.ebarzan.com/syriankurd.htm

The Kurds in Syria

The kurds in syria number about 8% of the total poulation. They are found in three main areas, in Kurd Dagh, the rgged hill country in the north-west of Aleppo, in north-west Jazira (the 'island' between the Tigris and Euphhrates) around Jarablus and Ain al Arab, also against the Turkish border, and thirdly in their largest concentration in northern Jazira, around Qamishli, and in the 'back'of north-eastern Syria against the borders of Iraq and Turkey.

The inhabitants of Kurd Dagh, and some in the Jarablus area have been living there for centuries. These, and smaller groups dating back to the mediaeval military çamps'of Kurdis troops, in Damacsus and elsewhere, have virtually no longstanding relation with the Kurds of Iraq or Turkey. Although they may still speak Kurdish many are either half or wholly 'arabicized', that is, they feel they belong now to the local Arab culture.

The largest community, in north Jazira, is found of those who become permanently settled inside Syria's borders follwing the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. A relatively small number of these traditionally used northern Jazira as winter pasture, driving their livestock down from the anti-Taurus each autumn. They shared this area with Arab nomadic tribes, notably the Shammar, who also used the area during summer, when driven northwards by the heat and absence of grazing further south. The overwhelming proportion, however, were Kurds fleeing from Turkey in the years after 1920, and particularly after the collaps of Shaikh Said Piran's revolt and the subsequent risings. These settled what was a relatively uninhabited and fertile area. It is amongst these Kurds that national awareness, and tensions with the Arab majority in Syria have been most felt.

During the 1920s refugee Kurdish aghas from Anatolia continued to raid to and fro across the Syrian-Turkish border. The presence of a considerable number of Christians - mainly Assyrian and Armenian refugees from Anatolia, who hoped for relative freedom from Muslim rule in Damascus - contributed to tension, particularly since the French mandatory authorities encouraged minority separatism in Syria. The latter made a practice of recruiting minorities, including the Kurds, into their local force, les troups spéciales du Levant. They also encouraged the Kurd nationalist party, Khoybun, thus giving Arab nationalists a cause for unease. During the 1930s Kurds maintained an ambivalent attitude both toward Muslim Arab Damascus and also their Christian neighbours. Following effective Syrian independence in 1945, the tension between arabs and Kurds was initially neither conserned withe separatism, nor minority persecution. On the contrary, the first three military coups in Syria, all in 1949, were carried out by officers with part-Kurd backgrounds. All of these relied on officers of similar ethnic background. Some arabs felt such behaviour was an undesirable carry-over from Kurdish participation in les troups spéciales. Following Shishakli's fall in 1954 it is said that high-ranking Kurds were purged from the army, and cerainly by 1958 this was the union of Syria and Egypt in United Arab Republic in 1958 triggered the first round of oppressive behaviour towards the Kurds.

This was partly because of the intensity of Arabism following Nasser's triumphal first years in Egypt. It was also because some Kurdish intellectuals had founded the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria a few month earlier. This called for recognition of the Kurds as an ethnic group, and the democratic government in Damascus, drawing attention to the lack of economic development for Kurdish areas, and also to the fact that the police and military academies were closed to Kurdish applicants. Psychologically the timing could hardly have been worse. Those caught with Kurdish gramophone records or publications, which had hitherto been tolerated, saw them seized and destroyed, and themselves put into prison. In August 1960 the authorities arrested a number of the new KDP leadership, and 5000 'suspects'. Teh question of ethnic and religious indentity has bedevilled the development of political parties in Syria. Pressure on the Kurds intensified after the collapse of the union with Eygpt in 1961. That year a census was carried out in Jazira as a result of which 120,000 Kurds were dicounted as foreigens. The following year a plan to create an 'Arab belt' 10-15km deep along the border of Jazira began to be implemented, but was changed to one of establishing model farms, staffed by Arabs. Although these plans were never fully implemented they caused enough concern and distress for up to 60,000 Kurds to leave the area for Damascus, Turkey and mainly for Lebanon, where they found work during the 1960s building boom. Like Christians in Iraq who find themselves without full citizenship those Kurds stripped of nationality still found themselves required to serve in the Syrian army.

There was no relief from perscution when the Ba'th assumed power 1963. This was partly on account of the Kurdish revolt against Baghdad, and fears of the infection spreading. The Ba'th launched an absurd publicity campaign to 'save the Jazira from becoming a secound Israel', a manifestly unconvincing slogan. Some Kurds were actually expelled, in addition to those already stripped of nationality, and the state refused to implement land reforms where the beneficiaries were Kurdish rather than Arab peasantry. There was also a sense of solidarity between the Ba'th in Baghdad and Damascus before the slit in 1966. The Syrian Ba'th had already demonstrated its distrust of Kurds. When it had merged with the Arab Socialist Party a decade ealier it had denied Kurdish peasant members of the ASP membership of the new Party. This may well have been partly because of the Hashemite Amir Abdullah's intrigues amongat the Syrian minorities, including the Kurds, in the late 1940s. It should not be thought that the Ba'th , or the Arab, were alone in such behaviour. The Kurds themselves were considerably responsible for the failure of the Syrian Communist Party to attract a wider following. It was led for many years by the remarkable Khalid Baqdash, and dominated by other Kurds. One party member commented bitterly of the 'narrow nationalist chauvinism' of the party. As for KDPS, it broke up under the hostile pressure of government Repeated arrests of its members and alleged torture had a divisive affect. Although it continued to struggle on it has never achieved a wide following, and its different factions reflect personality or localist clashes more than any ideolagical difference.

Ba'th persecution of the Kurds began to ease from 1967 onwards. In 1971 it implemented those land reforms in Kurdish areas already implemented elsewhere. However, it was not until 1976 that Persident Hafiz al Asad officially renounced the longstanding plan to transfer Kurdish and Arb populations in this sensitive area, a leftover from the 'Arab Belt'policy of a decade earlier. Arabs already moved into predominantly Kurdish areas were allowed to stay, but the programme as such was halted.
Today Syrian Kurds feel a good deal safer than in the 1960s and early 1970s. nevertheless there are still thousands of Kurds who remain stripped of citizenschip but were required to serve the armed forces.

The Kurds in Lebanon

Until the Civil War of 1975-1991 there were about 70,000 Kurds in 1975-1991 living in Lebanon. The overwhelming majority hail from Mardin in south-east Antolia. The earliest arrivals, during the French mandate, numbered about 15,000. These secured Lebanese citizenship. Since 1961 a few thousand more had residence premits which indicate that the question of citizenship is 'under study'. The mjority of Kurds, however, have no premit at all. They arrived to participate in the building boom, because they could earn more than in Syria.

Both socially and economically the Kurds in Lebanon have been a weak postion, carrying out unskilled manual labour for which they have been ill-paid, and unable to press for better condiations for fear of deportation. Since the Civil War began the Kurds have been amongst the most oppressed. They, together with other Syrian and Shiítes from south Lebanon, caught the first round of Phalangist fury in the sack of Qarantina and Naba'.some were mssacred, other fled and since then have led a twiligh existence in the beach slums of St Michel and Ouzai, south Beirut. Almost cretainly the number of Kurds has dropped by at least 10,000 and possibly by a good deal more, as Kurds have drifted back to Syria on account of the bkeak outlook in Lebanon.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~konews/8-10-02-kurds-ask-syria-back-citizenship.html

Syria's Kurds ask Assad to give them back citizenship

DAMASCUS, Oct 7 (AFP) Syria's minority Kurds on Monday demanded President Bashar al-Assad restore citizenship to almost 200,000 of their people left stateless four decades ago.

In an open letter to Assad, the Kurdish Democratic Alliance (KDA), slammed a 1962 census which stripped some 100,000 Syrian Kurds, mostly in the northeastern Hasakeh governorate, of citizenship and left them stateless.

The government said the aim of the census was to discover how many people had illegally crossed the border from Turkish Kurdistan. Kurds had to prove they had lived in Syria at least since 1945 or lose their citizenship.

However, the Kurds and human rights groups have charged the stripping of citizenship was part of a plan to Arabize the resources-rich northeast of Syria, an area with the largest concentration of non-Arabs in the country.

They are denied the right to vote, own property, have marriages legally recognized, or be treated in public hospitals. They carry special red identity cards and are not allowed passports to travel outside of Syria.

Since children of these Kurds are also not granted citizenship, their number has grown to almost 200,000, according to the KDA.

"These statistics are proof of an injust act, against international and Syrian law, and aim to undermine the political, economic, cultural and social evolution of the (Syrian) Kurds," it said.

The group complained that the restrictions also "seriously undermine the national interests of Syria," and said "Syria's Kurds are not isolationist, consider Syrian causes as their own and place themselves first in line to defend Syria."

"We ask the Syrian president to intervene, 40 years after this unjust census, to end the suffering and end the segregation and special laws" against the country's largest non-Arab minority.

The KDA, based in the northern city of Kamechli, 680 kilometres (410 miles) from Damascus, groups five Kurdish political groups. Kurds are estimated to number two million in Syria, in the absence of official figures.

 

[Kirkhill]

Time to Back Syria's Kurds

FrontPageMagazine

By Ariel Natan Pasko

April 15, 2004

In 1982, the Syrian government carried out mass murder against it's own citizens, killing over 20,000 people in the Syrian city of Hama. Since 1976, Syria has occupied its neighbor to the west, Lebanon, viciously suppressing any sparks of freedom. Recently, Syria carried out a new massacre, murdering almost 100 Kurds and arresting thousands, in over a week of fighting.

According to Kurdish sources, the arrests and suppression are continuing. "Syrian authorities have not stopped their nighttime raids, arrests, and oppression of safe Kurds in their homes, continuing the policy of persecution against the Kurdish people," said Abdel Baki Youssef, leader of the Kurdish Yekiti Party.

Amnesty International - the human rights monitor - in a recent statement, urged Syria to launch an independent judicial inquiry into the clashes and called on Syrian authorities to end repressive measures against its Kurdish minority. The Amnesty statement called on authorities to release hundreds of Syrian Kurds it said were still detained.

Israel too should speak out loudly about these Syrian atrocities, and support the Kurdish minority against Syrian Arab violence.

It all started several weeks ago as riots between Arabs and Kurds at a soccer game in Qamishli - in the northern Kurdish region of Syria or what Kurds call Western Kurdistan - but quickly spread to several northern cities. Pro-Assad, Baath Party loyalists responded by murdering Kurds in several towns. It's been reported that Syrian security services conducted mass arrests. Kurdish sources claim that some 2000 people have been detained in Damascus and Aleppo, and that in Damascus, almost every male Kurd over the age of 16 has been arrested.

The Kurds in Syria, Iran and in Turkey are severely repressed. In Turkey, even their identity as Kurds is still denied; they are called Mountain Turks. In Syria, they are denied most civil and political rights. About 2 million Kurds live in Syria. But the seething anger that exploded in Qamishli is generated most, by the fact that almost 200,000 Kurds are denied citizenship outright. They cannot vote, own property, go to state schools or get government jobs. Kurds in Iran live under similar repressive conditions. With the rise of an autonomous region in a post-Saddam federated Iraq, the question of Kurdish rights in other parts of the region looms large.

As the discussion of "democratization" of the Middle East continues, an important point that must be made time and time again, is the importance in building structures that liberate the minorities of the region from oppression.

Non-Arab and Non-Muslim minorities live throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Contrary to the propaganda that the region is Arab/Muslim, these minorities are remnants of the indigenous peoples, before the great Arab imperialist wars of the 7th century, and "Islamicization process" that followed. Non-Arab Muslims like the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran; the Berbers - known as Amazighes - in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, have all resisted "Arabization" for over 1,000 years. Non-Muslims like the Assyrian Christians in Iraq - who argue that they are not Arabs - the Copts in Egypt, Christian Lebanese - many who claim not to be Arab but Phoenician - the Christians in Sudan, and other Christians throughout the region, have been persecuted minorities, since the rise of Islam. Others like the Druze and Jews have also been persecuted by Arab/Muslim regimes throughout history. And we can now see, from the recent Sunni terror attacks on Shiites in Iraq - and Bin La den's recent statements that Shiites are heretics - that even some Muslims - Shiites and other non-Sunnis - are persecuted minorities in parts of the Middle East.

Only Israel, the Jewish State, has fully liberated itself - in the political sense - from this Arab/Muslim oppression, although it still suffers from physical violence against her people. Israel should take the lead - in it's foreign policy - to support "democratization" and "regime change" throughout the region. Israel shouldn't wait until countries of the region "reform," but should pro-actively support the legitimate aspirations of the oppressed minorities of North Africa and the Middle East, and build alliances with them.

Kurds were brutally suppressed by Saddam's Baathist regime in Iraq through his "Arabization" program, expelling Kurds from their traditional areas and replacing them with Arab settlers. It's no secret that close relations existed between Israel and the Kurds throughout most of the sixties and into the seventies, until the collapse of the Kurdish revolt in Iraq, in 1975. Reflective of this, and that Moledet Party founder and former leader Rechavam Ze'evi was involved in Israeli-Kurdish relations, the 1996 Moledet Party Platform, Chapter 9: Foreign Policy, paragraph 17, states "Israel will act against the oppression of peoples like the Kurds..." Ze'evi - as a military officer - had been to Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani had even been to Israel. With this in mind, Israel should actively revive the former policy of support for the Kurdish people.

The idea of reviving this relationship hasn't been missed by Kurds themselves, as Kawa Bradosti wrote - in Kurdish Media - back in Sept. 2003, "...the potential is there for Israel and the Kurds to have a much closer relationship especially when considering the often hostile attitude of the neighboring countries in the region both to Israel and to the Kurds. It would be good common sense for the two nations to support each other and to forge an alliance together."

Some might ask about Israel's relationship with Turkey, and how will active support for the Kurds, be seen in Ankara - since Turkey also oppresses upwards of 15 million Kurds. I believe that Israel's relationship with Turkey is mature enough to weather the storm. I don't see Turkey throwing tantrums at the US for its role in Iraq, helping the Kurds there. Turkey, I believe in the long run, will come to see the benefits of a re-structured Middle East, where the threat of Islamic radicalism and terror - also directed at Turkey - is greatly reduced.

Turkey also has its problems with Syria. If the Kurds, Israelis, and Turks (along with a democratic Iraq?), could come together, Syria - the bad boy of the neighborhood - could be put in her place for good.

For a while now, I've written about Syria's oppression of the Lebanese (see my article, "Lebanon's Real Economic Woes Are Syrian Induced"). I've written about Syria's help for the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq (see my article, "Syria, UN resolution 520, and the Security Council"). I've written about how Syria has pushed drugs, supported terror, and needs to be forced back to its "natural" size and influence in the region (see my articles, "Free Lebanon Now" and "Israel, Don't Hit Hizbollah, Hit Syria!"). And in a recent article, I've called on the Israeli government to say ("It's time for Syria to get out of Lebanon"). Now we need to turn a magnifying glass onto their behavior towards their Kurdish minority.

In the past I've written a survey article, "Democracy in the Middle East," about the oppression of minorities in the region. Now I'm calling on the Israeli government to make a policy decision to actively support the Kurds and other minority groups, to build a non-Arab and non-Muslim regional alliance for change.

Till now, I haven't mentioned the so called "Palestinians," and I won't beyond saying, that they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Aren't they an oppressed minority? No, as Arabs, they are part of the greater Arab Nation who since the 7th century has conquered, oppressed, and occupied everyone else in the Middle East and North Africa. As radical Muslims, everyone can see that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the other terror groups are continuing down the same path as Bin Laden. In fact recently, not long before his assassination, Hamas "spiritual leader" Sheikh Yassin had begun speaking about the "Global Jihad" in Bin Laden and al-Qaeda type terms. Hezbollah has also been working in the "Palestinian" administered territories for a while already, as evidenced by Israel's recent capture of a Hezbollah cell in Gaza. So, they are part of the regional oppression network, not the future liberty and freedom alliance that Israel should work to build with other minorities i
n the area.

Israel's Foreign Policy toward Syria should be built on the demands that it leave Lebanon unconditionally, end it's support for Hezbollah and "Palestinian" terror groups, dismantle it's Weapons of Mass Destruction, and keep it's hands off the Kurds. Israel's greater regional policy should be based on supporting the rights of minorities in the area. Only that way, based on democratization, liberation from oppressive regimes, and encouraging freedom, will the Middle East and North Africa be transformed into a region worthy its millennia old history.

A pre-Arab and pre-Muslim history I might add!

http://home.cogeco.ca/~kurdistan2/16-4-04-help-kurds-syria.html


All of the above, coupled with the curious comment that Iraq is getting help from Inside Syria to recover Iraqi Baathists that appears to be coming from Syrian Kurds suggests this as a possibility to me.

This latest capture was done not by Syrian authorities, but in spite of the authorities. The authorities were then offered a fig-leaf to say that they were the instigators.

In point of fact what may be happening, rather than letting the Syrians monopolize the fear game, the US is adding a little fear to the mix itself.

The Kurds have much to thank the Americans for recently, the Americans having atoned for some of their previous sins against the Kurds.

The Kurds can relatively freely wander across Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. (If people can get into Iraq from Syria and Iran then they can get out again. Once inside those countries they would blend an awful lot easier than your average Texan or Londoner.)

The Kurds have demonstrated a desire in Iraq to take on Baathists.  Not sure how they feel about Iranian Mullahs.

Retaliation against the Kurds by any jurisdiction could give the US (and Canada for that matter) a casus belli under the auspices of "responsibility to protect".

Sum total of message to Syrian Baathists from Americans?

You can co-operate and climb down as gracefully as possible or we will come and get you personally - and, to paraphrase a Hoosier buddy of mine "there ain't nuthin you can do about it".

By the way Iran, are you listening.

The Giant Hammer that the Americans may be wielding is the prospect of a united Kurdistan.

 

[Kirkhill]

http://home.cogeco.ca/~kurdistan2/11-3-04-opinion-gurgur-riots-eastern-kurdistan.html

Just found the answer on Iranian Kurds.

The Kurds point out that it is actually easier for them to get around in Iran than Turkey because Iran is a Multi-Ethnic society.  Turkey is largely unitary with the Kurds being contained behind internal borders in a military administration or buffer zone.

And now the Kurds have 150,000 American troops covering their backs.  IMHO.

 

[Spazz]

The people who make accusations about WW IV being "for oil" do not apply elementary logic to their accusations. Given the facts: Canada has lots of oil; Canada is very close; Canada has no effective military capability to prevent a take over; there should be only one outcome.

Since it is demonstrably true that the United States has not invaded Canada, or installed a procouncel to collect taxes and tribute for the American government (as much as George W probably wants to right now, I can imagine Dr Rice trying to give him a briefing on Canada while Laura massages his neck....), then the hypothisis is false, the United States does not invade coutries for oil.

You are thinking way to much a_majoor...

 

[Wizard of OZ]

Majoor maybe they are saving us for last?

They tend to strike while the Iron is hot and right now that is Iran, Syria and North Korea.  The time for Canada could come. 

Slow but steady disagrements between the two elected leaders of the US and Canada.  Check

A thawing of relations between two nations that were thought to be the best for friends.  Check

Lacking international support when one steps onto the world stage. Check

Mutal disagrements when it comes to defence of the continent. Check

Trade starting to suffer between two supposidely dependent economies. Check

How do you pay for three wars?

Hey neigbour with all them riches and no army to defend your self, guess what? You now belong to us k good.

I also think this pact may be the best thing for GW this will give him amo to get the EU on his side and with the Kurds already in the area, things could go real bad for Iran really quick.