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Event Summary: Shifting Alliances: The ISIS Crisis and U.S.-Kurdish Cooperation

David L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-Building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, spoke on “Shifting Alliances: The ISIS Crisis and U.S.-Kurdish Cooperation” at a luncheon hosted by Alston & Bird LLP on March 12. The event was part of the Transatlantic Global Agenda Series held in cooperation with American Friends of Bucerius. Mr. Phillips has worked as a Senior Advisor to the United Nations Secretariat and as a Foreign Affairs Expert and Senior Advisor to the Department of State. He has held positions as Executive Director of Columbia University’s International Conflict Resolution Program and Director of American University’s Program on Conflict Prevention and Peace-Building. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle East Studies. Mr. Phillips’ new book, The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East, was available at this event.

Mr. Phillips opened his remarks by noting that it is important for the U.S. and Europe to recognize the significant role now played by the Kurds in counterterrorism. The capacity of the Kurds should be strengthened in the fight against ISIS.

The swift and lethal rise of ISIS is a threat to the Middle East and the entire world. ISIS now controls half of Syria and one-third of Iraq. They are extraordinarily well financed, robbing banks and selling oil and precious archaeological artifacts to finance their expansion. ISIS is also well equipped, having seized weapons of the Iraqi Army garrison in Mosul. The U.S. has been reluctant to provide heavy offensive weapons to the Kurds. U.S. policy supports a united Iraq. The U.S. has been slow to replenish the Peshmerga arsenal. Indeed, both Germany and France have been more actively engaged in providing arms. The plight of the Yazidis captured the attention of the world, but it was actually the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that opened a humanitarian corridor providing safe passage. The Kurds now lead the campaign to regain the territory captured by ISIS.

Mr. Phillips outlined the long history of betrayal suffered by the Kurds throughout the 20th century. In 1916, the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France divided the Middle East into spheres of influence without recognition of Kurdish rights. In his address to Congress in February 1918, President Wilson advocated for self-determination, stating that people should not be bartered like chattel in a Great Game. While the 1920 Treaty of Sevres promised the Kurds a referendum on statehood, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk rejected the treaty and launched the Turkish War of Independence. The Treaty of Lausanne, negotiated in 1923, ended the conflict and created the Turkish Republic without reference to the Kurds. The Kurdish-majority territories were divided between Turkey, Iran, and British and French mandates in today’s Iraq and Syria. There are 34 million Kurds, the largest stateless group in the world.

Kurdish uprisings were suppressed throughout the region. Kurds were systematically isolated and suppressed. The Kurdistan Workers Party was created in 1978. A civil war in Turkey killed 30,000 people. In Iraq, the U.S. initially supported the Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani, but then withdrew. Between 1961 and 1970, 100,000 Iraqi Kurds were killed. The autonomy they were promised was never granted. Saddam Hussein accused the Kurds of supporting Iran in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). In the Kurdish Anfal, a genocide campaign waged by Saddam, 182,000 Kurds died. In response to Saddam’s Halabja chemical attack on the Kurds, the United States and Turkey established Operation Provide Comfort, enabling humanitarian assistance to Iraqi Kurds who fled to Turkey. Under pressure from Ankara, Syria put the PKK on its list of terror organizations and agreed to expel the Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Operation Northern Watch, the successor to Operation Provide Comfort, was a Combined Task Force of the U.S. and United Kingdom charged with enforcing a no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in Iraq. Its mission extended from 1997 to 2002. Iraqi Kurdistan enjoyed de facto independence, establishing institutions for self-rule.

Traditional Sunni allies in the region are concerned about America’s tilt toward Iran and the Shiite majority in Iraq. Mr. Phillips said the government in Iraq is not promoting national unity; rather, it is a client of Iran. At the same time, extremists from 90 countries have traveled through Turkey to join ISIS. Turkey denies support to ISIS, but it is the logistics hub for ISIS and other jihadi groups.

There is an adage: “The Kurds have no friends but the mountains.” Today in Iraq and Syria, Mr. Phillips maintains: “The U.S. has no friend but the Kurds.”

Written by: American Council on Germany