Kurds and their friends are organizing various actions in many parts of the world on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, which is based on destruction and denial. While messages of national unity against the fragmentation experienced for 100 years are given in the actions and events, the importance of not implementing new similar agreements in the new century is emphasized.

 

Rojin Mukriyan, an academic from Rojhilat, spoke about the painting that emerged after the Treaty of Lausanne and its reflections on women in particular.

 

Rojin Mukriyan

 

'DIVIDE AND CONQUER TACTIC IS IMPLEMENTED'

 

Saying that the geographical separation of the peoples living together with the intervention of the sovereign powers is a tactic, Mukriyan said: “Western imperialists wanted oil fields. For example; Britain and France were claiming the newly discovered Wilayah oil field in Mosul, in Southern Kurdistan. Britain sought to replace the United States with the Middle East as its primary supplier of oil. So, they did this with a common strategy of 'divide and conquer'. They imposed the idea of a Eurocentric nation-state on the peoples of the Middle East to seize the oil regions, and this idea deepened the fragmentation and conflict in the region. Making the oil-rich Middle East fragile and dependent on Western imperialism was a fundamentally undeclared intention, but that was the main purpose of the agreements from Sykes-Picot (1916) to Sèvres (1920) and the Treaty of Lausanne."

 

Stating that the possibility of establishing a nation-state emerged for the Kurds after the First World War, Mukriyan said: “Articles 62 to 64 of the Treaty of Sèvres, signed on August 10, 1920, envisaged the establishment of an 'independent Kurdish state'. However, these articles were abolished in the Treaty of Lausanne signed on July 24, 1923. The general interpretation of these events is that 'the Kurds missed the opportunity for independence'. However, this leads us to ask some important questions; Was Sevres really such a golden opportunity? If so, why did the Kurds kidnap it? Clearly, the Sykes-Picot agreement is a manifestation of imperialist ambitions. However, when we look at the events from 1919 to 1923, we can also find evidence that Bolshevik Russia assisted Mustafa Kemal from the beginning of the autumn of 1919 and thus played an important role in making the Treaty of Sèvres impracticable. By helping Mustafa Kemal and the Turkish National Movement, the Bolsheviks hoped to spread their revolutionary ideas to the Middle East and Near East and gain international recognition. Atatürk, on the other hand, completely opposed the revolutionary ideas of the Bolsheviks, and decided to make a strategic alliance with the Bolsheviks. By doing this, he found a way out of international isolation.”

 

THE EFFECTS OF LAUSAN ON ROJHILAT

 

Reminding that Rojhilat left the Kurdish lands with the Kasr-ı Şirin agreement signed after the 1514 Çaldıran War, Mukriyan expressed the effects of Lausanne in the Rojhilat region of Kurdistan as follows: “The Treaty of Lausanne had devastating consequences for Rojhilat as well as for other parts of Kurdistan. The Treaty of Lausanne not only reshaped and divided the borders, but also established a new political order based on the idea of the 'nation state, national sovereignty and territorial integrity'. Thus, the Treaty of Lausanne created a new political system both within the country and internationally. This new political system affected the entire Middle East and the world in general.

 

Iran at that time was no exception and integrated into this new political order. In addition, the invasion of Russia and England from the North and the South in 1911, before the First World War, and especially the British presence in the South, where Iranian oil fields are concentrated, had important political consequences in Iran. The Iranian administration carried out a comprehensive Persianization policy, just like Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's Turkification policy in the North.

 

Stating that they have encountered two different regimes in Iran throughout the 100-year history, Mukriyan said: “Pahlavi and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The first sought a monolithic Iranian nationalism based on the idea of secular Iran. The next period also sought a monolithic Iranian nationalism, but this time it was based on the idea of a theocratic (Shiite) Iran. Therefore, in both periods, assimilation, forced migration, culture, language extermination, mass murder, deforestation and environmental destruction were put forward to eliminate the will of the Kurds of Rojhilat. For example, the Pahlavi deported Kurdish tribes to Iranian regions in southern Iran such as Kirman and Fars. After the establishment of the short-lived Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad in 1946, the Pahlavi regime pursued a tense war policy against the Kurds, executing the founder of the republic, Qazi Muhammad, and massacred thousands of Kurds.

 

'SOCIAL LAUSANNE' THESIS

 

In a meeting with a lawyer on July 1, 2009, PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan said: “Lausanne in the 1920s is the national Lausanne. The republic was established with this Lausanne. This republic has not been democratized until now, now it needs democratization. That's why I call it Social Lausanne." Referring to the suggestion that all segments of society will be democratized with this social Lausanne, Mukriyan stated that the idea of "Social Lausanne" is the solution.

 

Mukriyan continued as follows: “Öcalan wants friendship and sharing among peoples by leading the 'Social Lausanne'. In other words, different political formations can live together while preserving their individual characteristics. According to Öcalan, this is possible through the implementation of a democratic confederalism system based on direct democracy, radical women's emancipation and ecology. In other words, Öcalan believes that the top-down structure that imposed the Lausanne Treaty on the people can be abolished by democratizing all segments of society and giving back the political power to the society.”

 

ROJAVA 

 

Emphasizing that the existence of peoples was not recognized in the Treaty of Lausanne, Mukriyan said: “It was a treaty formulated from the top and imposed on the people. Öcalan's 'Social Lausanne' proposal clearly goes in the opposite direction. It is not easy to implement a system like democratic confederalism in a world where a top-down nation-state structure is established; however, the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria gives us hope. It also shows that the nation-state system advocated by Lausanne can be democratized if society becomes sufficiently self-determined and empowered. In other words, to put it simply, Öcalan's idea of 'Social Lausanne' has a chance, but in these 4 parts, it is only possible if the public owns it.”

 

MA / Berivan Kutlu