Analyzing Stateless Nation with the Help of Cultural, Political and Historical Disciplines - Essay Example

Stateless Nation The term stateless nation refers to ethnic communities which are only minorities in a nation. Stateless nation deserves a state; but because of various reasons, they were deprived of that opportunity. There is plenty of stateless nation or stateless ethnic communities all over the world. Kurdish people in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia and Syria; Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, Scottish people in England and Scotland, Tibetan people in Tibet and China etc are good examples of stateless nation. One of the common characteristics of stateless nation is that they all face big oppression in this world. Palestinians were stateless nation until recent times; however, they are on the verge of getting approval for their independent state from all other nations in the world, except America and Israel. This paper analyses stateless nation with the help of cultural, political and historical disciplines. Cultural India is currently facing problems from Kashmiri militants. At the time of independence, colonial rulers attached Kashmir to India even though majority of the Kashmiris were Muslims. Pakistan on the other hand believes that Kashmir should be the part of them because of its cultural similarities with Pakistan. However, India is not ready to accept the claims of Pakistan. In short, the dispute about the ownership of Kashmir is causing big troubles in the bilateral relationships between India and Pakistan. As in the case of Kashmiris, Tamils also are stateless nation. Sri Lanka and India’s southern state Tamil Nadu are the major areas in which Tamils are staying. In India, Tamil Nadu is a state and hence Tamils do not have much problems. On the other hand in Sri Lanka, Tamils are only minorities and the majority Sinhalese people causing lot of problems to them. As a result of that Tamils in Sri Lanka are trying to form an independent state. Their attempts were successfully blocked by the current Sri Lankan president Rajapakshe who happens to be from dominant Sinhalese community. Tamil leader Prabhakaran was killed along with his innocent family members. Rajapakshe showed no mercy even towards Prabhakaran’s son. “Photographs have emerged which are said to show the 12-year-old son of a Tamil rebel leader alive and well in custody less than two hours before he was shot dead” (Balachandran Prabhakaran: Sri Lanka army accused over death). It should be noted that Kashmiris are culturally different than Hindus. Same way, Tamils are culturally different from Sinhalese. Cultural differences are causing problems in the formation of independent states by stales nations of minority communities. Majority communities always witness the claims of minorities with lot of concern and they will do everything possible to suppress such claims. Apart from cultural reasons, political reasons also can cause problems to stateless nations. Political Kurds are the largest stateless nation in this world. Kurdish people are dispersed mainly in five countries such as Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia and Syria. In all these countries, they are the minorities and hence facing lot of discriminations and oppressions from the majority communities. Former Iraqi president Saddam Husain was accused for the mass killing of innocent Kurdish people in Iraq. Saddam conducted massive raid on Kurds to suppress their demand for a free state. Same way, Turkey is also doing everything possible to prevent Kurds from forming an independent state. Ankara is not concerned about bloodshed or democracy in Syria. Nor is it alarmed about 50,000 refugees entering Turkey. Instead, Turkey is worried about its own Kurdish population. Turkey is currently occupying a major portion of historical Kurdistan. Nearly half of all 50 million Kurds in the world live in Turkey. Since the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the existence of the Kurds has been denied. They have been called “Mountain Turks.” Their language was banned in 1924. The Kurds have been forcefully assimilated, deported, and systematically massacred. Turkish armed forces, under Ataturk’s direct order, had killed more than 15,000 mostly non-combatant Kurds by 1938 in the province of Tunceli, in and around the city of Dersim. Most of the elderly, women, and children were burned alive (Dr. Koohzad). It should be noted that plenty of violent incidents are currently going on in Syria against the government. Thousands of innocent people were killed by the governmental forces in Syria. However, Turkey seems to be less interested in the agitation of the Syrian public for the establishment of democracy. It should be noted that Kurds are plenty in number in Turkey. Turkey believes that the public agitations in Syria might motivate the Kurd community in Turkey to fight for freedom and formation of a free Kurd state. Turkey has already done enough to suppress the call for freedom from Kurds. However, the recent revolutions in Egypt and Libya are causing sleepless nights to Turkish authorities. The perceptions about the Kurd people staying in different parts of the world are different at different parts of the world. Some people label Kurds as peace loving community whereas others consider them as terrorists. For example, “In Turkey, the Kurds are “bad” terrorists. Kurds from Iran morphed from being “bad” under the monarchy to being “good” in the Islamic Republic. The Kurds in Iraq also became very “good” after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003”(Dr. Koohzad). Kurds in Turkey is labeled as terrorists since they are demanding the formation of a free state. Kurds in Iran and Iraq are labeled as very good since they are not much violent in nature and less interested in agitations or strikes. It should be noted that culturally, Kurds and Turkey people are similar. Majority of the Turkish people and the Kurds believe in Islamic religion. Yet, Kurds failed to get their human rights approved by the dominant community. Apart from cultural and political reasons, historical reasons also cause damage to the interests of stateless nation. Historical The clashes between Israelis and Palestinians are of historical importance. There are plenty of clashes mentioned in Holy Bible between Jews and Palestinians. “The early history of Jerusalem is also rooted in the Bible. In addition to the events already mentioned, the Book of Joshua (ch. 10) describes how Adoni-Tzedek, the Canaanite king of Jerusalem, wages war against the Jews” (Rabbi). Even after thousands of years, still the problems between Israelis and Palestinians remain unresolved. This is because of the fact that plenty of places in Palestine are sacred ones for Israelis. For example, Jerusalem is a sacred place not only for Palestinians and Jews, but also for Christians. Therefore, neither Christians nor Jews like to see this place totally under the control of Palestinians. That is why America is silently supporting Israel’s massacre at Palestine. “Israel remains an occupying force in those first two territories and continues to severely restrict access to Gaza, ruled by the Hamas militant group” (Palestinians euphoric over UN endorsement of state of Palestine) In short, historical importance of Jerusalem is preventing Israel from accepting Palestine as a sovereign state. However, Palestinians were succeeded in gathering enough support from the external world for the formation of an independent state. UN has recently endorsed Palestine’s claims as an independent state. The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday endorsed an upgraded U.N. status for the Palestinian Authority, despite intense opposition from the United States and Israel. The resolution elevates their status from "non-member observer entity" to "non-member observer state," the same category as the Vatican, which Palestinians hope will provide new leverage in their dealings with Israel (Ariosto and Pearson). Conclusions Stateless nation refers to ethnic minorities who fail to form an independent state of their own. Cultural, historical and political reasons are preventing them from forming an independent state. Since stateless nations are minority ethnic groups, majorities will always try to suppress their demands. Kurds, Tamils, Tibetans etc are examples of stateless nation. Palestinians were stateless nation until recent times. However, UN has recently given the observer country status to Palestine. Works Cited Ariosto David and Pearson Michael. “U.N. Approves Palestinian 'Observer State' Bid”. 2012.Web. 17 March 2013. “Balachandran Prabhakaran: Sri Lanka Army Accused Over Death”. 2013. Web. 17 March 2013. Dr. Koohzad, M. “The Kurds: Still World’s Largest Stateless Nation, Syria’s Free Kurdistan Regional Government”. 2012. Web. 17 March 2013. “Palestinians Euphoric Over Un Endorsement Of State Of Palestine”. 2012. Web. 17 March 2013. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11/30/palestinians-euphoric-over-un-endorsement-state-palestine/ Rabbi, Spiro Ken “Jerusalem: Jewish and Muslim Claims to the Holy City”. 2013. Web. 17 March 2013. Read More