Edouard Lagourgue, President of Solinfo, has been visiting Kurdistan since the 1990s. He has recently carried out several humanitarian missions in Iraq and Syria, and shares with Défis Humanitaires his up-to-date view of the two Kurdistan regions.

« Le Malheur Kurde » … as described by Gérard Chaliand, Kurdistan is once again facing an existential threat far from the spotlight. Solinfo, a French NGO, has been working in both Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan since 2012, running psycho-social support sessions and art therapy workshops for child victims of war, displaced from Kobane to Raqqa, as well as orphans and young people in Erbil and Suleymania.

In Syria, today, in the middle of winter, more than 12 million Syrians – 65% of the population – are not eating regularly, according to the World Food Program (WFP), and are in need of vital humanitarian aid. In North Eastern Syria (NES), acute and chronic malnutrition rates are twice as high as the country’s national average. This primarily concerns the displaced people in the NES, who are fleeing the conflict zones in ever-increasing numbers. The Humanitarian Affairs Office (HAO) based in Raqqa deplores the humanitarian disengagement marked by a reduction in contributions and in the number of active international NGOs.

In Irak, the Kurds in the north no longer have independent access to revenues from their oil resources, and are facing a major financial crisis of their own. The salaries of civil servants (nearly 40% of the population) are being paid 3 to 4 months late. The entire social balance of the region is threatened.

At the same time, both Kurdistan regions fear the departure of the Western anti-terrorist coalition based in northeast Syria (NES) and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Indeed, both the central government in Baghdad and the Syrian government have little taste for the Kurds’ desire to consolidate their autonomy in territories internationally recognized as belonging to them.

The Kurdish-populated regions, divided mainly between Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, have a population of almost 40 million. The promises of the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, which announced the creation of a Kurdish state on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, have come to nothing. Since then, mistreated and sometimes denied their identity by their national states, the Kurds are once again under threat in the current geo-political context, amplified by the consequences of the war between Israel and Hamas.

In Northern Iraq or Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is dominated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party and also includes the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), various parties such as the Assyrian and Yaesidi parties. The current President of Iraq, Abdel Latif Rachid, is a member of the PUK.

Tensions are currently running high again in Iraqi Kurdistan, exacerbated by the financial conflict with the central government and international upheavals linked to the Gaza conflict. This is reflected in attacks by Shiite militias under orders from Iran on international coalition bases, and opportunistic destruction by the Turks on sites supposedly housing the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK). In this way, the Iranians are said to be exerting pressure on Iraq to get the international coalition forces to leave.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, road, agricultural (large farms), energy, real estate, educational and productive (factories) infrastructures have developed considerably in recent years, thanks to oil revenues, foreign investment and numerous Iraqi businessmen from other regions. The slowdown in oil revenues has led to a drop in public spending and an economic crisis, even though the central government in Baghdad may finally pay the KRG a share of its oil revenues, which is currently the subject of negotiations and hopes.

Iraqi Kurdistan does not wish to lose the protection of the international coalition forces and its financial autonomy, which would threaten the very balance of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

In Syria, North East Syria (NES) includes Rojava with the main Kurdish towns (Qamishli, Kobane, Hassaké, Afrin) and the provincial towns of Raqqa, Mambij, Derezor, Shaba in Aleppo, which make up the NES under an autonomous administration democratically managed by Kurdish, Arab and Syriac representatives.

Everyone will remember that the NES includes the presence or occupation of all the players in the conflict in Syria: the Syrian government, Russia, Iran, the coalition of Western forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (FDS), Turkey and its armed wing, the National Army, and other Jihadist groups… The configuration of these heterogeneous forces is quite complex, with a geographical presence scattered across the entire Syrian territory. These parameters make the NES very fragile in the face of the initiatives of the various politico-military players, whose fundamental interests are, moreover, profoundly divergent. The Kurdish ethnic group remains a minority in the territory it controls. For the time being, movements by certain Arab tribes, renewed jihadist pressure, attacks by Iranian proxies on international coalition bases and pressure from Turkey, which is destroying electricity, water and agricultural infrastructures, carrying out targeted drone attacks and reducing water levels in the Euphrates, make the situation in the NES extremely unstable.

At the same time, on a social level, the population of the NES is living in extreme poverty, with an average income estimated at 40 US$/month. It faces unprecedented annual inflation, making life unbearable in the region. For example, the price of bread (standard bag) has risen from 500 to 1000 Syrian Pounds in the space of a year. The population is living in a state of survival, resigned, with no hope of a better life, growing uncertainty about the future and an idleness that affects even the most talented. This encourages emigration, even if the Turkish border seems to be a deterrent and a danger to those who attempt to cross.

Northeastern Syria is also hanging on the departure of international coalition forces, under pressure from Iranian proxies, threatened by the control that Turkey wants to extend to its northern border, and finally under pressure from the Syrian regime and the real threat of a resurgence of armed jihadist groups.

This chaos in Kurdistan, far from the spotlight, raises two humanitarian issues: access to populations in danger and the financing of humanitarian aid in these circumstances.

Thus, both Kurdistan are hanging on the rumor of the threat of departure of the forces of the international coalition, whose mandate is to combat the reminiscence of international jihadism, not to defend the autonomy of the Kurds of Iraq or Syria. Some have no doubt not forgotten this, and will be playing it up in the months ahead… the Kurds are aware of this, and want to convince people that they are still reliable allies of peoples threatened by jihadist terrorism.

 

Edouard Lagourgue

Edouard Lagourgue: Adventurer-humanist and former Chairman of Solidarité International (2013-2018), he is an expert member of Défis Humanitaires and supports a number of associations, including two working with the injured and victims of terrorism. Formerly head of a company in Africa, he is now a director of companies and associations.

 

 

Discover here Solinfo’s website : https://solinfo.org/en/