The Kurdish Problem
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Resolving the “Kurdish Problem”
War is a difficult thing to understand. It will always be a part of human history, and yet we as humans never become numb to the fact that our fellow man may be killed by something that seems so old and outdated. There is a war being wagged in Iraq right now, people are dying, and yet there seems to be hope for some. The Kurdish people who mainly occupy the northern parts of Iraq have an opportunity now to prosper as a whole community, something that has not been granted to them since before Great Brittan artificially conceived the country of Iraq.
The British determined to add the mostly Kurdish vilayet of Mosul to Iraq for the reason that its great amount of oil resources. This was the only way that Iraq could be made workable, the British believed. This, however, could be a reason behind the tension between the Kurds and the Arabic community of Iraq. I say this because it seems as though the Iraqi government has always feared the Kurdish people separating themselves from the rest of the country, and therefore “would not only deplete the Iraqi population but also would set a precedent that the Shiites, some 55 percent of the population, might follow, thus threatening the future of the Iraqi state.” In addition, because roughly two-thirds of the oil production and reserves were in the Kurdish area, the government felt that Kurdish secession would strike at the economic heart of the state.
The same reasons why the Kurdish people were persecuted in the past could be a reason for them to have prosperity in the future. Right now the world has a dependency on oil, and until that dependency is lessened, the Kurdish people have a great opportunity to have economic prosperity. The idea right now is to have some sort of parliamentary system in Iraq, therefore giving the Kurdish people elected officials representing them on the national stage. Because of this, along with the great amount of autonomy that the United States has granted them thus far, how they do (as long as there are no drawbacks in the establishment of a democracy in Iraq-which is ultimately still up in the air) is some what up to them. As stated before, the area in which the Kurds occupy has around two-thirds of the oil reserves in Iraq, this more than anything will give them a voice in the new government.
One thing that is a necessity for the Kurdish people to become a mainstay in the new Iraqi government is to educate the youth of the area, therefore protecting their future. The Kurds are already making strides to accomplish this goal, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, “Ðsaid that the future of education in Iraqi Kurdistan and in Iraq as a whole looks very promising now that the former regime is gone and the country can introduce new programs to improve teaching methods and raise education standards.” As of September 2003, there were a reported “2,986 schools in the governorates of Erbil and Duhok and 544,937 students are expected to enroll at kindergarten, primary, secondary, vocational schools. Of the total student population, 308,330 are males and 236,607 are female. The number of teachers this year is 25,782, of which 15,179 are women and 10,603 are men.” The goals are to improve teacher training programs, improving schools educational amenities, eradicate illiteracy, and promote athletics and arts education at the schools. This is a