Genocide
Genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, national, or religious group, in whole or in part. The crime of Genocide is defined in international law in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. This term was first used in 1933 by Professor Raphael Lemkin at a conference in Madrid. It was officially recorded in writing in 1944. After the end of World War II and the establishment of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), this Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1948. The Convention entered into force on January 12, 1951. The Genocide Convention has been ratified or acceded to by 153 States by 2022, and 41 other United Nations Member States have yet to do so. Over 80 countries have provisions for the punishment of Genocide in domestic criminal law. Article II of the Genocide Convention was included in Article 6 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Article 2: In the present Convention, Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy a group in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such:
a)Killing members of the group.
b)Causing serious bodily or mental harm to group members.
c)Deliberately imposing living conditions calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction, in whole or in part.
d)Imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group.
e)Forcibly transfer the children of the group to another group.
Article 3: The following acts shall be punishable:
a)Genocide.
b)Conspiracy to commit Genocide.
c)Direct and public incitement to commit Genocide.
d)Attempt to commit Genocide.
e)Complicity in Genocide.
Types of Genocide
1)Killing members of the group (Physical Genocide).
2)Imposing measures to prevent procreation within the group or physically harming group members (Biological Genocide).
3)Prohibition of its use in education, writing, expression, or denial of publication. (Cultural Genocide).
4)Paralyzing economic infrastructure, nature destruction, agricultural product annihilation, and looting of people’s wealth (Economic Genocide).
Considering the research, when looking at the history of the Kurdish Genocide, including the Barzani Kurds, Halabja, and Anfal campaigns, it can be said that various forms of Genocide have been committed, which we address below:
Physical Genocide
Direct or indirect murder and destruction of individuals in a society by (shooting, mass killing, disappearance, execution, or use of mass destruction weapons). For example, the chemical attack on Halabja and Kurdish villages by the Iraqi regime, using phosphorous and toxic weapons against Kurdish people, burying the Anfal victims in the south deserts of Iraq, killing and annihilating young Kurds, and bombing the city of Qaladze with napalm bombs are the most notable forms of physical cleansing against Kurds in Iraq.
Biological Genocide
Involves preventing the reproduction and growth of a homogeneous group of individuals through sterilization, forced abortions, male sterilization, and long-term forced separation of men and women. These crimes were committed during the Anfal operations in 1988 and the Barzanis genocide in 1983 in Kurdistan, especially at the collection centers for Anfal victims. All of them were killed immediately.
Cultural Genocide
Includes the prohibition of the mother tongue, the distortion of the history and culture of a group of people, and the destruction of civilizational and historical monuments. Destruction and distortion of ancient sites remnants of old and new residents of the area, such as the destruction of mosques, churches, ancient castles, and statues that represent the historical identity of the residents of the region. Most dominant countries try to use their powers to support racial and ethnic cleansing and to destroy the language, culture, and history of nations that live among the majority nations. Cultural Genocide is being carried out in many parts of the world, such as against the Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, against the Amazigh in North Africa, the Darfur population in Sudan, and the Muslims in Myanmar.
Economic Genocide
They are starving people by flattening agricultural farms, destroying water resources, preventing people from working for a living and destroying the production means of a group. This type, like others, is visible in Kurdistan. More than 4500 Kurdish villages were leveled to the ground.
However, each Genocide has specific characteristics necessary for interpreting this phenomenon, fighting and confronting it, and having clear and general guidelines for identifying and examining the problems for improvement. The systematic and intentional eradication of a group or nation is the ethnic cleansing, the systematic and forced transfer of a specific ethnic group in a particular region. Ethnic or population cleansing can be seen as a continuation of Genocide to destroy a people or a plan to expel them.
Thus, the intentional destruction of the language of a nation, prohibiting its use in education or writing and expressing, or not allowing its broadcast (audio and visual), as is now the case in most parts of Kurdistan, is a kind of genocide policy.
Therefore, more attention should be paid to art and literature, especially the language, as the national language is the foundation of society and is a testament to the existence of a nation. The only weapon will be the language.
A nation that preserves its language, culture, and history and studies them will feel freedom and independence. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk told the Turkish History Academy members in 1930, “Do you know why we lost the Balkans? Bulgarians, Serbs, and Romanians initially created their alphabets, researched their language and literature, developed their language, literature, and culture, spoke and wrote in their language, and ignored Turkish and Ottoman culture. When they saw they had advanced in this field, they decided to separate from the Ottomans and wage war.”
İsmail Beşikçi, a Turkish researcher and friend of the Kurds, says, “Preventing the development of language, culture, literature, and folklore is the most successful way to enslave people.”
Kurds and the History of Genocide
History of the Kurds: The Kurds are one of the oldest peoples of the Middle East. Their history spans various empires and civilizations, and they constitute the majority in a region called Kurdistan, which extends parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. They are among the people who live without an independent state in their homeland. They have been placed in a situation intended to keep them under control forever, devoid of a national identity. Their enemies have exploited every opportunity to obliterate this oppressed population. Therefore, a transparent representation of the situation of occupied Kurdistan and its political, social, and economic status is essential. Kurdistan should be interpreted based on consecutive international treaties like Sèvres and Lausanne and establishing an independent country for the Kurds, which was betrayed in the first quarter of the 20th century. It was the opposite of what the Kurds had hoped for, leading them to demand their rights from the global community and countries that forcibly annexed them. However, the response they received until now included crimes such as Genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The history of the Kurdish Genocide is ancient, and enemies have tried to eradicate them since the Median era. In Iran, Persians, under the guise of Iranian and Aryan nationalism, have perpetuated extensive oppression and injustice against the Kurds. In Turkey, a policy of obliteration was pursued in Kurdish regions. In Syria, until the Arab Spring, the existence of the Kurds was constantly denied, with ongoing efforts to negate the presence of a land called Kurdistan. As a result, Kurds in Syria have been eradicated in various ways.
In the dissolved Soviet Union, where all nations, people, and national minorities enjoyed their rights, the Kurds lacked republic, autonomy, and cultural rights and were scattered. They treated Kurds in Lebanon, Jordan, and Afghanistan as strangers.
“Stages of Genocide”
Stages of Genocide from the perspective of Gregory Stanton, Head of Genocide Watch:
In 1996, Gregory Stanton, the head of Genocide Watch, presented a summary titled “Eight Stages of Genocide” to the Department of State, suggesting that Genocide occurs in eight expected stages, but preventing it is challenging. Later, in 2012, it was reported that Stanton formally added two more steps to his theory of discrimination and repression, turning the idea of Genocide into ten stages:
1)Classification: People are divided into “us and them.” The primary preventive measure at this early stage is the development of global institutions that go beyond divisions.
2)Symbolization: “When symbols are combined with hatred, they may be imposed on unwanted members of cursed groups. “hate symbols can be legally banned, just as hate speech can be prohibited.”
3)Discrimination: “Law or cultural power exempts groups from full civil rights: segregation or apartheid laws, deprivation of the right to vote. “Passing and implementing anti-discrimination laws. Full citizenship and voting rights for all groups”.
4)Dehumanization: “One human group denies the humanity of another group. They equate its members with animals, pests, insects, or diseases.” Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and culturally reject it. Leaders inciting Genocide should be banned from international travel and their foreign assets frozen.”
5)Organization: “Genocide is always organized. Special army units or paramilitaries are often trained and armed. “The UN should impose arms embargoes on states and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres and create commissions to investigate violations.”
6)Polarization: “Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. “Prevention might mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. “rights groups…Coups d’état by extremists should be countered with international sanctions”.
7)Preparation: “Victims are identified and separated because of their ethnic or religious identity…”At this stage, a genocide emergency should be declared…”
8)Persecution: “Confiscation, forced displacement, ghettos, forced labor camps. “Direct assistance to victim groups, targeted sanctions against persecution, mobilization of humanitarian aid or intervention, support for refugees.”
9)Extermination: “For the murderers, this is “extermination” as they do not believe their victims are fully human. “At this stage, only a swift and decisive armed intervention can stop Genocide. Genuine safe zones or refugee escape corridors must be heavily armed with international protection”.
10)Denial: “Criminals deny committing any crime. “The response to denial is punishment by an international court or national courts.”