Kurdistan

By: Dr. Kaveh Farrokh

As the year 2005, draws to a close, the dogs of war and separatism against Iran howl ever louder. What is especially alarming is the alarming rise of "information warfare" against Iran - especially after the recent AEI conference questioning Iran's very legitimacy as a united nation. Consult the link below:

http://www.niacouncil.org/pressreleases/press302.asp

AEI Panel Lambasts Iran’s Ethnic Policies

One of my students informed me of a new site posted by Dora Sor, a young pan-Kurdish nationalist who is a public advocate of destroying Iran as a nation.

Mr. Sor is an active supporter of Mr. Morteza Esfandiari (Representative for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan). He is based in Norway as a "fashion student" - he posted the following site on October 5, 2005:

Land of the Sun: Kurdistan

Message From East Kurdistan (meaning West Iran)

http://landofthesunkurdistan.blogspot.com/2005/10/freedom-invasion-iran.html

 

What is very interesting is Sor's main topic: "Freedom Invasion; Iran". Simply put, the author states the following:

"Iran is a country which is made up of many ethnicities...a coalition, like the one that operates in Iraq should be established...UN to legitimize the invasion..."

The author then justifies the invasion in the name of the following:

"...Women rights, religious rights, ethnic minority rights, HUMAN RIGHTS, freedom of speech...the Kurdish issue, Azeri issue and Baloch issue..."

Sound familiar? The same tunes were played to pave the way for the dismemberment of Yugoslavia - just as they are being used to support a Basque Seperatist movement in Spain. By the way (this will shock you) - ETA (the Basque Seperatist Movement) is a creation of British Intelligence and MI6 continues to support this against France and Spain. ). ETA signed a cooperation treaty with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan in 1971. An excellent summary of the relationship of British intelligence to ETA (as well as the alliance with Kurdish separatists) is provided below:

 

ETA: the 'mother' of separatist terrorism

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2246_eta.html

[This also appeared in November 17, 1995, in the Executive Intelligence Review]

 

Allow me to provide select quotes from that article:

 

“Basque separatism was created…around a manufactured ethnic identity, in the cauldron of race scientists and ethnologists who were working in the British orbit [in the late 1800s to early 1900s]… This artificially created identity has been used to foment terrorist irregular warfare on London's behalf…provided a perfect vehicle for undermining the nation-state, thus serving British geopolitical aims on the continent of Europe…Basque provinces were a center for industrial development that threatened British economic hegemony…”

 

Allow me to focus on some of the highlights on the above passage and draw the comparisons between ETA and the separatist movements now forming against Iran and the Near East:

 

(1) Manufactured ethnic identity: The manufacture of a separatist identity among the Basque has been an effort that has spanned nearly a century, just as it has in the Near East with Kurds. A new “history” began to appear among London-based ethnologists who were hostile to the legitimacy of Spanish and French historical unity. A prominent proponent of "Basque human rights," was Fernando de Salas (died 1993). He has been accused by Spanish authorities of links with “our supposed allies in the Anglo-Saxon establishment”. “Maps” of the Basque began to appear. Interestingly, the first “Map of Kurdistan” appeared in 1905, not on the Near East, but in the Offices of the London Geographic Society.

 

            Interestingly, only 3 percent of people in the Basque region speak Eskuri (the Basque language). ETA has been known to engage in intimidation of local residents to “de-Latinize” and abandon French and Spanish as their vernaculars. The “Kurdish issue” is even more interesting. Perhaps the greatest success of the Kurdish separatist movements has been to convey the false message that Kurds speak a single language and have a history unrelated to Persia. Both are patently false.

 

             “Kurdish” is not a single language. There are five distinct languages that are as distinct as Portuguese is from French. In general there are the five vernaculars of Sorani (South Kurmanji), Bahdenani (North Kurmanji), Gowrani and Zaza. Sorani is widely spoken in Iran and Iraq, Bahdenani mostly n Turkey but in parts of northwest Iran also. Zaza is now found inside Turkey. While Kurdish activists continue to state that they all speak “Kurdish”, this is false if they mean a single mutually intelligible language. Gowrani is as distinct from Bahdenani as it is from Luri or Persian. What all of the “Kurdish” languages share with Persian, Luri, Gialki, Mazandarani and Baluchi is that they are all derived from Middle Persian, known as Pahlavi. Pahlavi developed in the Parthian and Sassanian eras, and by the time the Arabs began their invasions of Persia in 637 AD, two dialects had developed: Parthian Pahlavi and Sassanian Pahlavi. Kurmanji Kurdish (Sorani and Bahdenani) is a combination of both, whereas Zaza is the last vernacular of Parthian. Gowrani is probably close to what the Sassanian Persian dynasty spoke, a language known as “Parsee-ye Dari”. The London strategists who worked closely with their ethnic scientists in the early 1900s, were looking for ways to undermine the Ottoman Empire and Persia – they quickly realized that much of Western Iran and Eastern Anatolia is teeming with a large number of West Iranian speakers.

Like the Basque who are being used to destabilize Spain and France, the Kurds are being used to destabilize Iran, Turkey and the Near East. Kurdish activists reject this information and insist that their “nation” has existed for 7-10000 years. Their “evidence” has been amassed in much the same way as the London-based “Al-Ahwaz” movement for Khuzistan as well as the SANAM movement for Azeri separatism. Information is either manufactured, re-interpreted/re-labelled or deleted. The aim is to produce books that expunge Iran’s legacy in Kurdistan. Azerbaijan and Khuzistan… 

  

            Basque historiography constantly portrays the Spanish as cruel, unjust and racist – just as Mr. Sor does with “the Persians” in his website. Note the multitude of pictures that he posts as evidence of “Persian brutality against the Kurds”. The pictures are of course never explained in context. Turkey has long accused London of sponsoring separatist media aimed at Turkish Kurds.

 

(2) Undermining the nation-state: Why would London be hostile to the Spanish and the French? After all, they are fellow “Europeans” and are seemingly united today under the banner of the EU. We must look beyond the realm of news smiling politicians at photo-ops: enter the real world of geopolitics. Spain and France are potential industrial and economic rivals of England. The Basque region which straddles both Spain and France through the Pyrenees is key centre of industrial and economic development. Western Iran, especially Azerbaijan, are important centers to Iran with respect to natural resources, agriculture and industrial development. This greatly enhances Iran’s geopolitical position towards the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf: regions awash in oil and gas.  

 

To undermine Iran as a nation, Professor Bernard Lewis unveiled the following map at Baden, Austria at the annual Bilderberg Conference (May 27, 1979):

 

 

Note how Iran is renamed as “Iranistan”. This “Iranistan” is now a puny ineffectual state with virtually no access to the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile a series of mini-states have been developed that are rich in resources and beholden to geopolitical-petroleum interests. How will this be achieved? A series of geopolitical constructs have been mobilized against Iran usually under the banner “Rights”. As in Yugoslavia, “human Rights” is used in the endeavor to ignite ethnic conflicts.

Like many separatist groups hostile to Iran, Sor provides an itinerary of who is to be involved in Iran's "liberation":

"...a list of those prefered to be involved in the invasion of Iran...US, UK, South Kurdistan,  Azerbaijan, Turkemenistan, Pakistan...South Kurdistan should be given comend over East Kurdistan, Azerbaijan should be given command over South Azerbaijan

..."



After the setting up of "Free and unbiased Elections"

Iran would cease to exist:

Note the striking similarity of this map to that proposed at Baden 27 years ago. The Bernard Lewis plan has spanned generations. And why not? It’s tough to dismember an ancient civilization and to brainwash its people against themselves: this is why so much taxpayer dollars, Euros and Pounds have been wasted in the west.

 

Mr. Sor quotes the usual "statistics" and pastes pictures of "violations" - and insists that all of Iran's "oppressed minorities" crave for "Liberation". Yet, he produces no fieldwork or credible census to see how many people actually feel as he does. The figues that are cited cannot be statistically verified.

It has been suggested that Mr. Sor is directly or indirectly associated with the recent seperatist platfrom of "scholar" Michael Ledeen (photo below). Mr. Ledeen's AEI platform intentionaly hosted select individuals with seperatist politics, while attempting to bar the majority of Iranians who reject such narratives from speaking.

 

 

The "Liberation" of Iran is wholly consistent with unconfirmed reports for an intended surprise attack on Iran - as I have humbly stated numerous times before - the real agenda is geo-economics: Petroleum Diplomacy. Translation: Oil of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia. The above "Maps" remove the last united political-cultural entity in the "way" of that endeavor.

These efforts are doomed to fail - irrespective of Sor's passionate Pan-Kurdism. Perhaps Mr. Sor may wish to meet my wife Parnian who is herself a proud Lur-Kurd and whose family has very ancient roots in what he calls "East Kurdistan" (see photo below).

 

 

Parnian is a descendant of Karim Khan Zand from both sides of her family. She, like the majority of Kurds and Lurs vehemently reject people like Sor who are designated as "Jash". Jash in Kurdish means a stupid man who behaves like a braying donkey for his enemies. People like Mr. Esfandiari, Mehrdad Izady and Dora Sor keep forgetting that the majority of Iran's population, including Lurs and Kurds reject their message and know what the real agenda of the "Human Rights" activists is.

Mr. Sor is indeed what Kurds call "Jash" - the west Iranian equivalent of what Marx, Lenin and Stalin called "Useful Idiots". It is almost certain that he would disagree of course. To that end, may we suggest that Mr. Sor enlighten himself by reading some genuine history books and confining his creativity to the world of fashion. 

Regards
Kaveh Farrokh