by Frederick P. Isaac

Copyright (c)  Frederick P. Isaac, 2004. All Rights Reserved.

(posted 22 February 2004)

Kurds, who are they? The prehistory of the Kurds does not exist. Their ethnic origin is poorly known.  Since the emergence of the name "Kurd" from ambiguity, the Kurds have been known as nomadic tribes of the mountainous region extending from the Zagros of mid-western Iran to the eastern extension of the chain of the Taurus Mountains. Though they live as subject citizens of many Asian countries, the Kurds are considered as encroachers and alien to all such countries.  Their racial origin is obscure, and their national identity is ambiguous, making their origin questionable. Perhaps, their conversion to Islam has led to their racial identity being fused with converts of other races, and in the course of time, have alienated themselves from part of their lost past.

Historically, the Kurds have never been mentioned as native inhabitants of Mesopotamia. They do not speak the Syriac language and have no tangible landmarks to relate to their name in Mesopotamia. Kurds are no more than an amalgam of nomadic tribes that grazed their goats and sheep in the Zagros-Taurus Region.  Though they have occupied the region for centuries firmly since the 12^th AD, the Kurds have never achieved a nation-state status.  As previously mentioned, the Kurds are no more than sequesters.  Kurds are scattered all over the Middle East. Some countries describe them as encroachers and others as brigands.

Their population is estimated at more than 15 million.  They are scattered in all directions, from Iran to Azerbaijan and Armenia, including small communities in several south, southeast and southwest Asian countries, and Europe.  They are squatters.   They have inhabited the upland region beyond Assyria Proper for centuries. Yet the origin of their obscure roots relates closer to the South Asian and Stan-prefixed countries than anywhere else. Since the Islamic conquests in the 7^th century AD, the Kurds have infiltrated most of their neighbouring countries. Their roots have since taken firm hold in the chain of mountains of the Taurus-Zagros Crescent, as the centre link of their nomadic home.

Their language is an amalgam of Farsi (Persian) and Pashto (a native language of Afghanistan), plus a blend of foreign words, except Aramaic.   They do not have a script of their own. They use the script of their neighbouring countries, Arabic and Latin, but not the Syriac script, which dates from 50AD.   The Kurds are alien to the Aramaic language and to Assyria itself. The Kurds do not relate to Assyria, geographically, culturally or politically.  Yet, only over the last 80 years or so, they arrogate the Ninveh, Arba-Eilu and Arrapkha Region, the birthplace of Assyria.

The Kurds are engrossed in removing the name "Assyria" and replacing it with the name  "Kurdi-stan" - the land of the Kurd.  This name change is being carried out, with tact and vigour, in collusion with Iraq and the neighbouring Islamic countries of Iran, Turkey and Syria. The Islamisation process of Mesopotamia and name change had actually begun centuries earlier - since the Arab conquests of the Middle East in 7^th century AD. In subsequence, in 11^th century AD, the invading forces of the Seljuk Turks swept the whole region, and followed in the 12^th century AD by the Mongol, all the way to Iran and beyond.

Since the eleventh century AD, the Kurds, who had converted to Islam to escape the Turkish Seljuk sword, joined hands with the Mongol invaders in consolidating their hold on territories that principally belonged to the native Assyrians. Subsequent Turk invading forces supported the Moslem Kurds. They helped the Kurds seize the region of northwestern Zagros Mountains and part of northwestern Mesopotamia. The Kurds staked claim over the whole region and named it Kurdistan, as the Ottomans did to Eastern Europe and named it the Balkans.  In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, a renewed effort by the Turks, later supported by Iraqi Arab regimes, led to unrestrained encouragement of the Kurds to continue to occupy Assyrian lands.

Iraq's policy of its Arab, Kurd and Turkuman majority has always favoured an Islamic style governance system.  They traditionally ignore the basic rights of the original native dwellers of the country. Since creation of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1921, its successive rulers have deliberately placed the Mosul Vilayet under loose Kurdish control. Its objective is to drive off the Christian Assyrians from their towns and villages, and to give the region a purely Kurdish image, under the manufactured name of Kurdistan, a name completely unrelated to the region on Northern Iraq.  Iraq's intent is to put an end to Assyrian claim to Ninveh, to deny their existence in their traditional homeland of northern Mesopotamia (Iraq), for just being Christian.

Islam is bent on annulling the name "Assyria" from Iraq.  By accepting and including the name "Kurdistan" in the forthcoming Iraqi constitution, the name becomes legitimate. It thus stamps final official approval to the crimes committed against the Assyrians and legitimises Kurdish occupation of Assyrian lands. It would eliminate the name Assyria and replace it with "Kurdistan".   Its main objective is to cut it off from the indigenous Assyrians. The neighbouring countries would most gladly support such a sly move.  Their aim is to annex the historical land of Assyria to the outpost Kurdish Region. Ultimately, Kurdistan will proclaim full independence.  It will ally itself with the neighbouring states and become an extension of the Islamic States of the Abode of Peace, part of the ever-expanding Islamic Umma Nation. Thus, the name "Assyria" will constitutionally be eliminated from existence, declaring the whole Middle Eastern region Islamic.

The Kurds have recently put a proposal to the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) [Article Three, Sections (a) and (b)] to recognize the name Kurdistan and its government as the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government.   The proposed Region includes the territories that were beyond the previous 36 parallel green line, from the governorates of Ninveh, Duhok, Erbil, Kirkuk, Sulaymaniah and Diyala.  The said six additional cities are historically Assyrian property.  The proposal is devious.  It is unconstitutional and acrimonious. The Assyrians reject it.  The world body of nations should likewise reject it.

The world body of the United Nations is called upon to look into the plight of the Assyrian native inhabitants of northern Iraq.   If the name of the game is religion, then the displaced Assyrians, being Christians, need to be returned to their part of the world of Assyria of northern Iraq, and be granted equal rights as those of the Moslem Kurds, within their own delineated area.  Why is it that the world recognizes the Kurds as a race and not the Assyrians? The Assyrians have historical rights to their traditional land Ninveh, Arbil and Kirkuk.

Assyrians have all the prerequisites that qualify them to return to their home.  They are the indigenous and original inhabitants of northern Iraq.  Assyria of northern Mesopotamia belongs to the Assyrian nation.  Its people have since the early 20^th century been banished and live in diaspora. If the UN and the international community feel for the Kurds, they should similarly feel for the aggrieved Assyrian nation and treat them on equal terms.

Kurds that abandon their nomadic lifestyle, move into urban areas, with the firm intention of squatting, to occupy Assyrian land illegally.  They have been doing so for generations.  They accept menial jobs and low wages, just to stay put. They are used as cheap labour.  In the case of the current Iraqi Islamic coalition front (known by the official name of The Iraqi Governing Council), it is scheming to legalize the Kurd's usurpation of Assyrian land and give it a legal status, under the dodgy name "Kurdistan".  Putting it mildly, it is in breach of the international law and betrayal of the Assyrian small nation that has put his trust in the hands of the world body of nations.

The Islamic movement, in an upsurge, is moving forward to creating a new Islamic state under the name "Kurdistan", to meet its hidden agenda of Islamising the whole of the Middle East.  Lebanon will be the next target. Israel will be the last ground for Islam's testing of its true mettle to prove that they had been right all along.  Time will tell.  Yet, it is hoped that it will not come to that, and that reason, in the end, would prevail.

Claims of the nomadic Kurds to the Ninveh, Arba-Eilu and Arrapkha region, as being Kurdish, is farcical and nonsense.  Such transgression will be legally challenged at the United Nations Organization, the International Court of Justice at The Hague and through other legal means.  The Kurds have plagued the East with their continuous intrusion and disrespect for other peoples' property.  Historically, the three Assyrian cities, currently situated within the political boundary of the State of Iraq, do not relate to Kurdistan.  Northern Iraq, previously known as Vilayet Mosul, under the Ottoman rule, is historically Assyrian. It has always been part and parcel of Assyria.  It is the heartland of Assyria. Assyrians still live there.  It is their home - their last bastion.

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