'A Kurdish state is not possible'

Swedish Consul General in Istanbul, Ingmar Karlsson, left Turkey last month after publishing a book on one of Turkey’s most important problems: the Kurdish issue. “Bir Diplomatın Gözüyle Kürt Sorunu” (The Kurdish Problem from a Diplomat's Eyes), published two months ago in Sweden, is now available in Turkish.

“Two months is a really short time for a book to be published in another language. They normally come out three years later,” he told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, a few days before his departure.

His interest in the Kurdish issue started when he was at university in Gothenburg. At the hostel where he lived, he shared the kitchen with an Iraqi student.

“He told me he was an Iraqi Kurd. Before until then I had never heard about the Kurds,” said Karlsson. Then he started working in the foreign ministry and the first paper he wrote during his employment was on the Kurdish issue.

In Europe everybody knows about Kurdish issues, said Karlsson. “You often see a map of ‘Kurdistan,’ a big area, bigger than Sweden, covering the area where Kurds have lived for more then 5,000 years and for us nation-states, it seems obvious that these people should have their own state.”

Yet, the main theme of his book is that the situation is far more complicated than a map can show.

Divided between four nation states after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Karlsson said Kurds themselves have been divided through tribal systems and different affiliations. This seems to have led Karlsson to draw a parallel with the establishment of Poland.

“Poland was divided in the 18th century into three parts. It could only become a nation again after World War I with the collapse of the German Empire, the Russian Tsar and the Hungarian Empire,” he said.

As Kurds are living in four different states, the only way that the creation of a Kurdish state is possible in the foreseeable feature, is if Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq collapsed, Karlsson said.

His book draws attention to the Kurdish problem, but does not limit the discussion to Turkey. He argues that the problem must be solved by all the existing nation states in which Kurds live.

On the question of the Kurdish problem in Turkey, Karlsson said it might be a matter of the recognition of cultural rights. He said the problem is not as simple as a problem between Turks and Kurds. “Many Kurds are very integrated into society, 5 million Kurds live in Istanbul. It is very complicated. The socio-economic problem in the east and southeast of Turkey, and the denial of the Kurdish language, are part of the problem.”

In Syria, where most Kurds are refugees, the problem is statelessness, as Kurds are not given Syrian nationality. The Kurdish problem in Iran on the other hand, is of a totally different nature.

Although for the first time there is a Kurdish political setting in Iraq, namely the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, Karlsson said there are two Kurdish states in the region, the “Barzanistan” and the “Talabanistan.” Massoud Barzani, the current head of the KRG and Celal Talabani, current president of Iraq, are also leaders of two distinct Kurdish groups that fought a civil war from 1994 to 1998. Now that Kurds have universities and a cultural life in Iraq, this could be an opportunity to promote Kurdish culture to the world.

Book leads to debate among Kurdish diaspora
Karlsson said he does not believe all Kurds would want to unite with the 15 million Kurds in Turkey to become a minority in their “Kurdistan.”

“I do not think that they would want to share their oil. Swedes and Norwegians are very close, but Norwegians never want to share their oil with us, Swedes,” said Karlsson.

He said there is a lack of available information on the Kurdish issue. “People do not know much about the history and complexity of the Kurdish issue. That is why I wrote the book,” he said. The book was well received in Sweden, even the Kurds gave it good reviews, Karlsson said.

But some groups accused Karlsson of being anti-Kurdish and the book created a debate among the Kurdish diaspora. “We have to discuss our problems, not on the basis of the dream of a bigger Kurdistan, that is not realistic. The dream of Kurdistan is not possible. But problems can be solved,” Karlsson said.