(AINA) -- With aggressive American prodding, the two main Kurdish groups in northern Iraq, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), met in Washington D.C. in September to discuss a reconciliation process to promote closer ties between the two warring sides. Following the Gulf War the various Kurdish groups had become embroiled in a vicious conflict that led to the deaths of thousands of people and the subsequent disintegration of the parliament in northern Iraq.
The recent American sponsored talks led to a final statement issued by the PUK and KDP on September 17, 1998 that called for closer cooperation manifesting as the reformation of the previous parliament that disbanded after the fighting. The agreement calls for reestablishing the parliament in three northern Iraqi provinces including Dohuk, Arbil, and Suleimaniyah on the basis of a "unified, pluralistic, and democratic Iraq."
According to the final statement, the new parliament will ostensibly have seats "set aside for the Kurdish, Turkomen, and Assyrian and Chaldean communities... based on the best available statistical data on the population of the three northern governates and the distribution of ethnic and religious groups there." The interim assembly is asked to "conduct a census of the area in order to establish an electoral register."
Former Illinois State Senator and current Secretary General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) Mr. John Nimrod, the President of the Assyrian American National Federation (AANF) Mr. Sargon Lewie, along with other Assyrian American representatives recently met with the leaders of the KDP and PUK in Washington. Secretary General John Nimrod reportedly told Mr. Barzani and Mr. Talabani of the KDP and PUK, respectively, that there are three million Kurds and two million Assyrians in all of Iraq and that any Iraqi proportionate representation ought to be based on that ratio. Other Assyrian Americans have noted the contradiction of recognizing the territorial integrity of Iraq by all parties involved yet only counting those Assyrians in the northern three provinces where Kurds are more numerous rather than counting Assyrians in the whole of the country.
The Kurdish plan to separately include categories of Assyrians and Chaldeans, who speak the same language and practice the same culture, is also seen by Assyrian Americans as a crude political scheme to split and trivialize the Assyrian community. Already ignoring the bulk of the Assyrian community just to the south, the Kurds hope to further diminish the demographic significance of these people by applying different religious or ethnic labels. Recent statements by the Patriarchs of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Church have affirmed that members of these churches belong to one people. In addition, the AANF and the Chaldean Federation in the U.S. have issued a proclamation confirming that their members are of one people.
Ironically, this new insistence by the PUK and the KDP to split the Assyrian community is a departure from the original understanding of the first parliament. As an example, Mr. Francis Shabo, a member of the Chaldean Church won a seat in the parliament while running as a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement. Although Mr. Shabo was subsequently assassinated by gunmen who Amnesty International suggested were affiliated with the KDP, his election none the less showed the irrelevance of classifying Assyrians into different categories.
Kurdish goals appear crudely aimed at the sectarian splitting of Assyrians under the pretext of "democracy and pluralism". Meanwhile, the KDP and PUK do not allow their own classification under such terms as Bahdinani (Kurmanji speakers) which the KDP draws its support from, while the PUK relies on the Sorani Kurds. Contrary to claims by nationalist Kurds, linguists explain that Kurmanji and Sorani are not simply dialects of the same language, but rather they are distinct languages. These and other terms such as Feyli, Shikaki, and Surchi apply to different and usually warring Kurdish factions that are linguistically, culturally, tribally, and geographically distinct. Furthermore, Kurdologists state that the so-called Alevi Kurds (Dersimlis/Kizilbash) and the Zaza (Dimli) are 'ethnically distinct' from Kurds and like the Hawrami (Gorani) speak non-Kurdish languages (refer to Ethnologue Iraq, Ethnologue Turkey and Kurdish Study Group websites for more information on this).
In response to these developments, Assyrian Americans are considering pressing their political leaders in the U.S. government to push for reconsideration of American support for the reestablishment of the parliament if artificial splits are formally institutionalized. In addition, Assyrian Americans are considering aggressively pushing for a boycott of the census and subsequent elections. In the past, the Turkomen have refused to join in the parliament. With the possibility of an official Assyrian boycott of the election process, the resulting all-Kurdish parliament will be seen as a radical institution whose singularly focused scheme is to promote Kurdish policy objectives. Without Turkomen and Assyrian cooperation, even the appearance of a "democratic and pluralistic" parliament in northern Iraq will vanish.
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