Dr. Jawad Mella, president of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNC), has a strong character and great personality that impacts on others. He is a man of morals who holds on to his beliefs, even when political trends change. Talking to him brings many significance issues and questions to the surface.

Behind this thoughtful and calm person there is a long journey of struggle to achieve rights for his nation, a struggle for the right to have an identity.

Dr. Mella was born in Syria in 1946, grew up there and studied at its schools. His grandfather and father, like other Kurds, faced constraints, racism and misery from the Syrian occupation forces.

From an early age he started to fight against the oppression of the Kurdish identity. The driving force was his father and grandfather, and the noble political family he came from. Despite human rights violence against the Kurds by the Syrian government, he stood strong and was always proud of being a Kurd.

Life was hazardous in Syria, especially for those who demanded to have their rights implemented. When many of his friends became victims of terror, and their fate was in the hands of Syrian intelligence officers, he decided to move to Beirut to study political science and law. His dreams and ambitions were, and still are, that the world should know the Kurds’ miserable fate.

He talks about a divided homeland and a nation without a state – a nation of more then 40 million people whose destiny has been governed by chauvinist centres of power. At the same time their own political leaders have decided the future of these people with an incompetent, divided political-strategy.

Kurds in Western Kurdistan

When I asked him to tell me about the Kurds and their political and social rights in Syria he didn’t know where to start. He surprised me by describing how endlessly chauvinistic the Syrian regime has been. He said that he was not surprise about my ignorance of the situation.

“This Syrian’s government goals are to eliminate the Kurdish question and existence, wipe out the Kurdish population form the history”. I would agree with Dr. Mella that the world media knows more about the situation of the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey and little about Western Kurdistan, so that in a way the Syrian government has achieved its goal to wipe out the existence of the Kurds.

The assimilation process, the violation of human rights, the forced expulsion of Kurds from their homes and villages to be replaced with Arabs, currently occurs in modern Syria. A fact and cause of gloom for us, but mystery for the rest of the world says Dr. Mella.

Kurds do not have the right to Syrian citizenship and as a consequence, they are not allowed to buy or rebuild a house. They do not have access to Kurdish education, media or even basic rights including, the right to celebrate their festivals, such as the Kurdish New Year ‘Newroz’.

In Syria a person can study any language including Hebrew, but not Kurdish.

Government population figures state that there are less than two million Kurds in Syria. However, this figure is misleading. If we count those who have experienced Arabisation, Kurds in Syria represent at least 4 million. These people were terrorised and all kind of obstacles put in their way, both by society and government, so progressively they were obliged to forego their Kurdish identity.

The Kurdish people are not recognised in West Kurdistan by the Syrian administration. In 1962, 150,000 Kurds in the Jezira province were deprived of their Syrian nationality. From then until now the only identity papers they possess is a plain piece of paper saying that they are foreigners. What kind of foreigners they are, or where they come from, or what rights they are entitled to are not declared on the paper. Today these people are more then 300 000, but they still don’t exist, and not only has the government forgotten them, history and the rest of the world has as well.

When I met Dr. Mella for a second interview I also met a young man from the Jezira province, who is now in London trying to make a living. He told me that people like him cannot study at school for more then the 6 years in Syria and he does not even have a birth certificate. Officially, his mother is still single according to Syrian law, because to register a marriage a paper of identity is needed and that is something she and 300 000 others do not have. The house his grandfather and father lived in has been confiscated, and if they want to remain there they have to pay rent. He said that finding a job is also difficult, because he does not exist as a human in Syria.

Arabian Belt?

Since 1967, the dictatorship of Syrian Baath-party used its “Arabian Belt” policies to methodically depopulated areas, which were peopled by Kurds for thousands of years over a region that is 375 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide. It cleansed areas of Kurds and instead, Arabs were replaced into their homes. Since that time, more than 33 villages have been built for these Arabs settlers, equipped with every convenience. In addition, the government gave them weapons and excused them from doing military service.

One the other hand, Kurds were denied citizenship, but forced to do military service. The government gave the Arab settlers weapons so they could defence themselves against any attack from the Kurds, who had been thrown from their houses. Dr. Mella says that there were hardly any clashes between Arabs and Kurds, mainly because the Kurds were empty handed, and the brutality of the Syrian intelligence officers killed any resistance. Kurds who did not like the situation kept silent, because they were afraid of what could happen to their family members.

The aim of the Arabian Belt policy was to eradicate the Kurdish struggle and its spirit. However, it primarily sought to eternally separate the Kurdish population in Syrian from the Kurdish regions in Turkey and Iraq.

Since Al-Assad come to power the Baath-party has not introduced any “fresh” policies, besides the Arabian Belt. In Dr. Mella’s view this is because the “new” government are terrified to lose their governmental chair and points out that they are also a minority, the alwaiter.

He suggests that there is little hope that essential changes will take place under the leadership of the new president, Basher Al-Assad, as he has already initiated a course of alliance with the Iraqi sister party, and its leader Saddam Hussein.

Why Kurds do not have a national state yet

“We Kurds should always keep our great effort in mind. We cannot sit around and wait for the centre powers of Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran to give us our rights. It is our fight and our fate, and this why it is important that we should all reunite and work together. These governments have used us time and time again, but despondently our leaders have not learnt their lesson. It is a fact that all occupying powers in Kurdistan are constantly united to dominate Kurds”.

“We have a living example,” Dr. Mella confirmed, “Abdual Ocalan, whom Syria hosted for about 15 years, and just asked him to leave one day. These regimes have for the past decades supported Kurdish groups against each other, for selfish political gains. Any constructive political changes that have taken place in any part of Kurdistan, they gathered and worked to uproot them.”

“These regimes do collaborate, meeting and discussing what measure they should take to eliminate the Kurdish struggle. Their meetings were conducted in secret, when the non-fly zone was created in South Kurdistan in 1991. They started to get concerned for the positive development Kurds got as a result of the Iraqi invasion on Kuwait. This was the first opportunity in modern history that conditions for Kurds improved.”

Gulf War highlighted Kurdish issue

Dr. Mella stated that the invasion of Kuwait put the oppression of Kurds in the spotlight. The International community provided aid and assistance, not as political but as humanitarian intervention.

I asked Mr Mella, “What changes, if any, have the Gulf War brought about in the Kurdish arena?”

The sudden change in the political amphitheatre in the Kurdish question did not change with Iraqi invasion. But the worldview on Saddam Hussein transformed. Saddam Hussein swiftly became an international terrorist and “A contemporary, rather cheap copy of Hitler”. For the first time newspapers and media start to write seriously about Saddam Hussein’s war crimes against the Kurdish civilians. According to Dr. Mella, all this was because Saddam Hussein became a gigantic threat to US and the Western interests in the region.

Dr Mella praised the role of media. “The media and the international press played a focal role in the oppression of the Kurds in South Kurdistan. Kurds - children, women and elderly - in millions were terrified, not knowing what Saddam’s troops would do to them; and they took to the mountains for shelter and to hide. Millions fled without knowing where to go. Children died of hunger and starvation. Elderly became a burden, and were too heavy to take care of. In two months, two cold months of human misery, the international press was beaming to our living rooms through televisions, showing how Kurdish children suffered and died. Viewers could only read one thing in their faces, ‘We need Help!’ These pictures put a hard press on the international community to interfere and assist.”

In 1994 and 1995, when the two Kurdish political parties PUK and KDP started to fight within themselves, Dr Mella said that the oppressive regimes were only too happy to watch this. They stopped their three-monthly regular meetings, because they were satisfied to see that the development worked for saving their interests in the region. The aim is plainly destabilisation and splitting the Kurdish unity.

“Our problem, as Kurds,” said Dr. Mella, “is that our leaders do not see the importance of supporting each other. Supporting other Kurdish parties and organisations is of great importance to our well being as whole. In my opinion, if things go very well in South Kurdistan, then it is a triumph for all Kurds and Kurdistan. It is very much like a structure or human body, if a disease or damage hit one part than this will unbalance the whole body.”

“The parties in South Kurdistan must try to work with and support each other. They should stand on two legs rather then one. Kurdish political parties are not always in good terms with each other, because Kurds in general overlook the importance of united national identity.”

Dr Mella related this to the structure of Kurdish society, “Kurds have loyalty to the leader or the tribe, but not to the nation as a whole. This is a tribal mentality.”

KNC maybe the solution

Why the situation does exist? I wondered. “Because Kurds have no national education,” Dr Mella says. Another reason, he identifies, “Our leaders are seasonal. They work for the Kurdish issue for one or two semesters, and then take a long break, sometimes a break lasting for years.”

“The leaders are selfish and single minded.” He recalled a visit of Kurdistan National Congress (KNC) delegation to Libya, where they met the General Moamhar Al-Qadfi, whom he regarded as a good supporter of Kurds rights of their own national state. KNC asked him to assist in an establishment of a Kurdish intellectual centre and Kurdish television station. He also asked a Libyan presenter in the United Nations to adapt the Kurdish issue.

Dr. Mella blamed the PKK’s spokesperson Mr. Yasshir Kaya, and other Kurdish parties for not achieving these objectives. They protest that KNC are not in an authority to have any demand.

In Mella’s view the fighting and disagreement between the Kurdish parties are more geopolitical then ideological. Their desire to gain power is more important than uniting Kurdistan. Mella also blamed the oppressive regimes, “the tension is a result of centre powers aim to split the Kurdish unity.”

“There is not any objective or discipline among the Kurdish political parties. We have two ideological schools dividing Kurdish intellectuals. One school recalls that rights should be achieved and recognized by the centre power’s capital first, before Kurds can demand their own national state. This school wants to achieve their goals gradually.”

“The other school”, Mella elaborated, “believe that Kurds achieve all their rights now. This school argues that the regimes ruling Kurdistan are not democratically elected; they also abuse their citizens’ rights. So how can we ask them to fulfil our rights? This school works and wants to gather all the Kurds together in national state with its own borders and government. Autonomy would have been a possible solution, if the government now ruling over us were democrats. But they are dictatorships and Kurds cannot invite them to the negotiation table. It would be beyond comprehension to ask Saddam Hussein or the Turkish generals to the negotiations.

“We Kurds are no less a nation than other people living in our neighbourhoods. Why should we therefore tolerate life under the domination of occupying or patronization of any kind?” demanded Mella.

The second school has brought its beliefs from Kajik, a political party who was founded in 1959 by Dr. Jemal Nebez, who believes that there is no such thing called autonomous rights. Kurds will never have their voices heard of they don’t ask to have all their rights on focal. An independent national state is the only solution. At the same time we say that we will never achieve our goals if we don’t get united under a mother organisation or an umbrella organisation whose aim is to gather all Kurdish political groups and parties in solid unity.

Dr. Mella, the president of Kurdistan National Congress, described his organisation as “an unarmed umbrella organisation above party lines, functioning in diplomatic ways to create Kurdish unity and to put the issue of independent Kurdistan in the top of the international agenda.”

KNC was established in April 1985, and have had four general meetings: three in London in 1989, 1990 and 1998 and one in Paris in 1996. Their message to the world is that Kurdistan is divided unfairly and that Kurdistan and Kurdish nation has been divided in five pieces. They are also suffering and should be rejoined back together. So these 40 million people can breathe the air of freedom.

How different KNC is

KNC is distinctive from other Kurdish organisations. It has been formed from Kurdish organisations and individuals of all parts of Kurdistan and across the full political spectrum. Its aim is to create a Kurdish national state, to guard the unity, peace and stability of Kurds and Kurdistan.

KNC conferences received thousands of messages and support from all over the world, from the King of Jordan, United Nations’ former general Boutrous Ghali, Tony Blair, John Major and many others.

KNC’s activities have two aspects. One is political-diplomatic, which is set out to create awareness in the international arena about the Kurdish issue and about human rights abuses in Kurdistan. This is achieved by giving seminars, participating in conferences, giving out information about Kurds and Kurdistan and demanding that Kurdish voices should be heard.

Policymakers and state heads, for the first time, received information about the Kurdish issue. This was produced to assist all the Kurds and Kurdistan. Dr. Mella said that “Policymakers and international organisations are used to receive letters and information about Kurds on specific area. But we work differently here at KNC. Our purpose is that the whole world should be familiar with the Kurdish issue. There is only one Kurdish nation; there is only one Kurdistan. There are no such things called West (Syria) or South (Iraqi) Kurds. We are one nation, whose history has been forgotten by the rest of the world”.

The second section is the social and cultural activities; they are many. One of them conducted with the help of Kurdish children to create a five-minute cartoon movie in Kurdish. The movie has been broadcasted in several Kurdish TV stations. Another substantial project is a Kurdish film-documentary about a young Kurdish man’s journey. The film addresses issues of racism in UK, asylum seekers and Halabja. The film has been filmed in Glasgow and has been broadcasted in the UK Channel 4.

But why KNC?

My question to Dr. Mella is why the Kurds need the KNC and national pact of Kurdistan. Because, he says, the Kurds today are more then ever divided. They need to have one goal, one flag, and one map of Kurdistan. One population, one national anthem, and one national set of national security concerns. The KNC is for all Kurds, and is responsible for all the people of Kurdistan.

Who has the right to say that he is Kurd? “The one how cares about the suffering of the Kurds. Kurdhood is not only been able to speak Kurdish. Unfortunately there are many Kurds who speak Kurdish but disloyal to the Kurds and Kurdistan, and they distance themselves from Kurdistan.” On the other side, there are millions of Kurds who cannot speak Kurdish because they never had the chance to be free to learn and speak their mother tongue, but they are Kurds nonetheless. In his opinion, the feeling of belonging and the spirit of being a Kurd are more important elements in Kurdish identity than the language itself.

“I am not saying that language is not essential. Rather, what I am trying to clarify is that the Kurds are oppressed people; they face forced assimilation, torture, and death simply because they are Kurds. This unfortunate set of circumstances explains why many Kurds cannot speak Kurdish,” says Dr. Mella.

Kurdhood is in the heart and the mind. It is the spirit and motivation that leads many Kurds to continue their struggle for recognition of their forgotten nation.

Dr. Mella says that the key to success in the struggle for Kurdish rights is political unity. The Kurdistan National Congress aims to become representative of the entire nation of Kurdistan, and asks all Kurdish parties and organisations to join us. We are not asking people to abandon their political beliefs or parties’ principles and programmes, rather, we desire that all Kurds gather under an umbrella organisation, united by the common ultimate goal of an independent Kurdistan!

But how will Kurds achieve their rights?

The first requirement is determination. The second requirement is a sense of priorities, the top priority being that we should put aside our differences and work towards our common goal. The third requirement is patience. This is not a task that can be achieved instantly; a concerted effort will be required of all involved to see our goal come to fruition. The fourth requirement is the complete cooperation of the people and policy-makers from all parts of Kurdistan.

Nothing comes free. The price of liberty, as Thomas Jefferson stated two centuries ago, is eternal vigilance.

Dr. Mella also speaks of “historical moments”, referring to the latest news from the United States of America. He believes that this is a golden opportunity for Kurds in southern Kurdistan to liberate themselves from their oppressors and call for an independent Kurdistan. “They have all the features of an independent state—their own parliament, administrations, television channels, and newspapers—so what they are waiting for!” According to Dr. Mella, the United Nations and the United States will attack Iraq, Iran, and Syrian, because they are guilty of hosting terror organisations, and they are the network and centre of terrorism. “It is the perfect moment to call for the independence of Kurdistan; these regimes will be to busy with their own problems.”

The sad truth of human relations, however, is that you cannot get peace without fighting for it. Doing nothing would invite far worse consequences than doing something.

Jund al-Islam

Kurds as well should try to eliminate all domestic terrorism in Kurdistan. Dr. Mella chiefly refers to Jund al-Islam, which he strongly believes is aided by those regimes that host terror organisations. These oppressive regimes support Jund al-Islam as a means of eliminating the possibility of the establishment of a Kurdish national state once and for all. Jund al-Islam is an organisation composed chiefly of Afghans and Arabs. This group is in strict opposition to the democratic movement within Kurdistan, and opposes individual rights and free expression in society.

Source: Interviews conducted in Arabic with Dr. Jawad Mella on 20 September 2001 and 1 October 2001.