NASSER
By A. Said
After much agony, destruction and bloodshed, the war against the Kurds of Iraq came to an end February 10 and the Kurds were assured of their "national rights in the framework of the national unity of Iraq."
It is a victory not only for the insurgent Kurdish people, but for the anti-imperialist movement of the whole Arabic East.
The war waged by the rulers of Iraq against the Kurdish people divided the forces of the anti-imperialist movement in this area and embroiled the Arabic and Kurdish freedom movements. It also caused the Iraqi rulers to co-operate with SEATO (Turkey, Iran, Great Britain). Israel, too, took a benevolent attitude toward this war because it weakened the whole Arabic nation in its struggle for freedom and development.
Nasser and Ben Bella, who understood the problem very well, had advised the Baath government in Iraq to recognize the rights and de~ mands of the Kurds, But the Baathists, who were relying on Iraqi chauvinist forces, refused to follow this advice and launched the dirty war against the Kurds.
The overthrow of the Baath regime and the prominence of Nasserite forces in the one that replaced it, made it possible for the Iraqi government to take a new look at the Kurdish problem,
In the upsurge of November 18, 1963, against the Baathists, besides the pro-Nasserites led by Abdal Aref, strong forces of the old regime of Nur el-Said participated, These included military people of the British school, high civil servants of the old state apparatus, and friends and allies of the big landowners and compradores, These still remain in the government.
Consequently ruling circles are torn between the pro-Nasserite tendency led by Aref and the most conscious neocolonialist tendency represented by pro-imperialist elements of the army and the state machinery. The solution of the Kurdish problem hinges on the outcome of this struggle,
Public opinion in Iraq was not sympathetic with the war against the Kurds nor with the rulers who oppress Arabs as well as the Kurds, The early bankruptcy of the Baathist regime encouraged a mass move~ .ment which was met by repressive measures against the Nasserites and the Communists,
The summit conference of the rulers of the Arab countries in Cairo was essentially a test of the relative influence of Nasser and the Baathists in the Arab world, The result was defeat of the Baath and a decisive victory for the Nasser line. This was decisive for
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Iraq, too. Without any doubt, the step taken by Aref conoerning the Kurdish problem was a direct consequence of this conference and a component of the general strategic line of the Arab movement elaborated there.
Arefts step was thus greeted with enthusiasm in Egypt and Abdel el Nasser immediately congratulated Aref, At the same time, the Baath apparatus in Syria, where it is still ruling, started a campaign against the Iraqi regime. In press commentaries and editorials it chargéd Iraq with granting secret conditions to the Kurds,
The step taken by Aref towards the solution of the Kurdish problem is nevertheless only a beginning of his new policy, In the near