• Thursday, 28 March 2024
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Mesopotamia from the Cradle of Civilization to a Nest of Terror

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Mesopotamia from the Cradle of Civilization to a Nest of Terror
The Good
All historical records are witnesses to the golden ages of the Mesopotamian civilizations and what that area has contributed to the world throughout the past centuries. Many of the oldest civilisations have flourished in that area and their developments have given enormously to the world with their impact running throughout the whole world to the current day. These grand contributions have made it to earn the title of The Cradle of Civilisation with no contest. The very first attempts in setting up systems of justice and the first legislative act that is known as the Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1792-1750 BC) are born in that area. As in Gilgamesh Epic that was written sometime around 2000 BC, the first attempts of mankind for protection from disasters and floods are recorded there. The discoveries of “Zero” as a number and “Algebra” as a Latin version of al-jabr that was first used in a book by al-Khwarizmi sometime 825 AD in Baghdad are only a few testimonies.
A careful look into these giving civilisations show that they have lived within their territories and been responsible of their internal affairs and that remained mainly in some form even until the end of the Ottoman Empire and as the regions within that Empire were set politically as Emirates with each governed by local noblemen.
The key to such successes can be seen in the provision of opportunities to talented and able individuals to pursue their quest under a decentralised political system with local empowerment that had prepared the grounds for the growth and innovations that made what the world is calling the cradle of civilisation.
The Bad
Following the World Wars and the breakup of Ottoman Empire, the allied forces, in sharing the invaded land, each took control of a part drawing the Middle Eastern map on their coffee tables without consulting its inhabitants. As a result, a list of countries was born among which Iraq was one. The surfaced oil springs found in Kirkuk area got the British interested in Mosul Wilayat (Kirkuk included) and linked it to form the Iraq of today again without any considerations for social implications. The embryo of unrest and internal conflicts was injected into the entire region and to sustain it, they all made a grand agreement making any intervention in the internal affairs of set boundaries illegal. This provided a passport to the puppet dictators to suppress their populations at their will often driven by external policies raising their demand for armament often heated up by the socio-demographic diversities. To protect their interests, the Winner Nations united and created what is called United Nations giving themselves the supremacy for global decision making each vetoing any collective decision that may be taken if it went against its interests. Amongst other issues, the vetoing right has become self destructing and incapacitating as a protector of the weak making it the sick man of the world. Even in the areas of crisis management and service deliveries, the Oil for Food programme of Iraq is a good example (the programme gave rise to graft on an international scale, amounting to billions of dollars: UN Report, Reuters 21 Jan 2013).
It took decades and the tragic 9-11 incident for The US and the rest of the developed world to realise that they cannot keep trouble at bay while other parts of the world and especially the dictators that they protect to protect their interests in different wealthy countries adopt every inhumane atrocities like the gassing of supposedly own populations, genocide and the Anfal operations as they took place in Southern Kurdistan by Saddam Husain to revert their international policy a 180 degree making a case for revising the law on the internal affairs of countries that violate human rights to unacceptable degrees. Removing The Afghan rulers followed by Saddam from power were among the starters of this new policy.
The Ugly
Soon after the removal of Saddam, all attempts for restructuring the region based on homogeneity of their inhabitants for a sustainable piece in the area was put under the carpet and the ugly 'Territorial Integrity' preservation became the slogan from the Russian to the American policy makers. This has been followed by the pseudo politicians’ short-sightedness and personal benefits in the area. The bell of introducing democracy started ringing in every corner without much knowledge of what democracy is about and under which conditions it can mean something of value. That is to say that unless there is a reasonable degree of harmony within the community, democracy will be ill defined. It is certainly not enough to argue in favour of preserving the territorial integrity of an ill defined state just because they are all human beings or they can speak one common language or they all share one religion.
Historically all attempts to unify all the Muslims or all the Arabs in one state have failed and even if such a state was ever formed by force, it will neither progress nor it will prolong. In reality, words have been exchanged on a plan for redrawing the map of the Middle East which would make harmonious enough regions that democracy can respectably be established and protected. Knowing that once a harmonious set of systems were established, the entire region will start its golden age which unfortunately the superpowers ill understandably think that it will go against their benefits, they work hand in hand to preserve or re-establish the statuesque.
It is therefore not surprising to read all attempts by the US administration advising against a historic relationship that has begun to develop between the KRG and the Turkish State on one hand and playing the mediator between the KRG and Baghdad knowing that the mismatch of beliefs, approaches and even mentalities between different sects of the ill defined Iraq have not only remained for decades but has been on the increase. The revival of centralism and dictatorship in Iraq has already started and such attempts have already been realized even by laymen through the violations of human rights and disregard for the will of nations self determination at the expense of securing bigger deals.

Thanks to the advancements in Information Communications Technology that has made it unnecessary to wait 30 to 50 years for under-carpet policies to come on the surface. As a result, secrecy has become a much more complicated if not impossible task. Not surprising to hear Mr Erdogan of Turkey asking the US policy makers "To keep their nose out of their relationship with Kurdistan Regional Government" that has lately been pursued which would not only benefit the two sides but also become a cornerstone of stability in the entire region. It is pleasing to know that the power of communication and dialogue have started to replace the use of force and power for establishing sustainable piece in the area reverting the classical all losers scenario to all winners.
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