How diasporic Kurdish intellectuals promote internal dialogue to prevent a Kurdish civil war

The major Kurdish groups of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), alongside their followers, are in an overt conflict via their media outlets. This tension has currently reached such a level that the outbreak of an intra-Kurdish war is looming. This might be a serious threat to collective Kurdish claims for human rights, a peaceful environment in the homeland and recovery from the collective trauma experienced by Kurdish and Yezidi populations following recent conflicts against Islamic terrorism which produced their displacement.  The trigger of this long-standing dispute is the ongoing belligerent military operations of the Turkish state and the failure of the internal integration of Kurdish interests and demands. The Turkish attacks indiscriminately target civilian settlements in the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI) using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that have already taken the lives of many civilians and caused the evacuation of many Kurdish villages. Local Kurdish civil society groups, as well as diasporic intellectuals, writers, and artists, suspect that Turkey is pushing for an intra-Kurdish war. Moreover, different  Kurdish parties in the homeland have failed to integrate their political and ideological agendas, interests and demands and to create a peaceful dialogue for their political co-existence, mainly because of the impact and interventions of hostile ruling regimes in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

Diasporic Kurdish intellectuals do not idly sit by and watch this growing threat of civil conflict. They are engaged in facilitating a peaceful dialogue amongst their compatriots and urge them to refrain from falling into the Turkish trap. They have launched a campaign against the intra-Kurdish conflict via social media platforms by emphasising “Brakujî xwe kujîye” or “fratricide is suicide”. Petitions have also been organised to encourage compatriots in the homeland to settle their disputes through peaceful dialogue, avoiding a potential Kurdish civil war. What motivates diasporic Kurdish groups to interfere in and settle the disputes between major Kurdish forces in remote territories?

It can be argued that this intervention from diasporic groups can be seen as a form of reflection on violent conflicts since a large part of diasporic Kurdish intellectuals are refugees who have escaped from intra-Kurdish  conflicts as well as the repressive politics of ruling regimes in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey from the 1980s onwards. While the largest segment of exiled Kurdish intellectuals went to Sweden in the 1980s because of its welcoming refugee policies, the main groups of ordinary Kurdish refugees escaped to Germany in particular, but also to France, Austria, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom since the beginning of the 1990s. Although they became physically removed from the conflicts and affairs in their homeland, its implications did not fade away in the diaspora. These matters are still a part of their everyday lives and accompany them wherever they go and live. In other words, Kurdish refugees are mentally and emotionally involved in events in the homeland, since the plight of their compatriots is deeply entrenched in their minds and feelings and affects their attitudes, behaviours, and practices. During my recent ethnographic fieldwork in various European countries, for instance, Kurdish refugees narrated their permanent worries and concerns about the lives of their family members in the conflict areas. They become instantly nervous when they receive a phone call from the homeland since this could be devastating news that some of their family members were killed, injured, or displaced.

On the one hand, homeland affairs evoke a sort of feeling of guilt among refugees as they live in safe countries and left their dependents behind who live under threatening conditions resulting from violent conflicts.  On the other hand, they developed a sense of commitment to their compatriots by launching collective actions to save their lives and facilitate a range of welfare, wellbeing, peace-making, and political and social cohesion initiatives in the homeland. To put it another way, a common concern for, and commitment to their homeland compatriots as well as to collective ethnic, cultural and religious identities serve as the fertile source for the constitution of the Kurdish diaspora communities in Europe. These elements galvanise them into collective actions at times of crisis in the homeland such as natural disasters, political events, and conflicts or displacement and forced migration. Consequently, Kurdish diasporas operate as a dynamic panacea for influencing, responding to, and settling various political, natural and social crises occurring in the homeland and beyond.

Diasporic artists have pushed, for example, for unity in response to the Turkish invasion and the predicament of the Kurds in Rojava (an autonomous region in north-eastern Syria) through cultural productions in the form of music and film festivals. Moreover, diasporic groups have recently mobilized through their pre-established networks, and associations to meet the basic needs of their homeland compatriots by collecting and transferring donations as well as  offering  information to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic since the governments ruling their homeland fail to provide them with necessary services. In the case of conflict prevention, Kurdish diaspora groups seek to assert themselves in the promotion of internal peace initiatives and conflict resolution amongst their homeland actors. They live physically removed from the hot spaces of conflict in the Middle East and thus enjoy political freedom as they are outside the direct influence of conflicting parties back home or the immediate threats of hostile regimes. Therefore, they strive to contribute to the internal integration of conflicting Kurdish parties through an unconventional form of activism such as press conferences, petitions, long-distance calls, and social media posts with the demand to stop violent conflicts. They urge the Kurdish actors to avoid resuming devastating violent conflicts that engender hostile feelings within  the Kurdish community both at home and abroad, cause the displacement of local inhabitants and suppress the long-term claims of Kurdish people for human rights and self-determination in countries in the Middle East.

Most  Kurdish refugees and diasporic intellectuals had to flee violent conflicts and the repression of the ruling governments in their homeland. Despite their territorial remoteness, they have mentally suffered from their consequences. Therefore, they reflect on their past experiences  and thus, develop a sense of commitment to the creation of a peaceful environment as well as betterment of the economic, political and social conditions of their compatriots. Moreover, they have access to abundant research and educational resources and help to advise and convince belligerent Kurdish parties to change their ways of dispute and aim for peaceful conflict resolution. In this way, their opportunities, spatial environments, and knowledge provide them with broader perspectives that have far-reaching implications for rival Kurdish actors, pushing them to replace their guns with peaceful dialogue for internal integration as a new method for conflict settlement.

Featured Image. A conference organised by the Kurdish diaspora in Berlin with academics, journalists and artists. September, 2019. Image taken by author.