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The History of Arabs Bridging Cultures with Knowledge of the Past By Wafaa Al-Natheema

My comment:

I agree with what Ms. Wafaa Al-Natheema says in her presentation (see hereunder) that we no longer hear of Arabs, especially when speaking of the people of Iraq since the 2003 invasion and occupation of  the country: –

“In the recent war on Iraq, which was followed by occupation till this very day (November 8, 2012) despite the claim that the USA army has completely withdrawn, we no longer hear of Arabs! The industrial west (and the world that imitates westerners) refers to Iraqis as Sunni, Shiite, Kurd and Christian! And the more than 75% Arabs have suddenly been omitted from any reference except occasionally mentioned in negative anecdotes and news or curses!”

However, the same can be said of the Turkmens of Iraq who have been ignored since decades by the successive Iraqi governments and since 2003 by the U.S. (neo-cons) who invented a ‘new and artificial’ classification of the Iraqi people: “Shiite, Sunni and Kurd” in order to divide the Iraqi people, ‘Divide and Rule’.

The Turkmens who represent the third main ethnic group in Iraq after the Arabs and Kurds and the second main ethnic group in the north of the country alongside the Kurds, have been marginalized, undermined, underestimated and discriminated for political and economical reasons (the oil of Kerkuk),  they were not allowed to learn their language in schools and were not allowed to speak their language in government offices, they were denied the right to publish newspapers and books in Turkmen (Turkish). Under the Baath regime Turkmens were forbidden to buy properties and they were only allowed to sell their properties to Arabs and not to other Turkmens. Several Turkmen villages (e.g. Beshir) were  forcefully emptied from their population under the Baath regime and their inhabitants have never been compensated for the loss of their properties and agricultural lands. Under the chauvinistic Baath regime Turkmens could not register as ‘Turkmen’ but were obliged to register as ‘Arab’ or ‘Kurd’. 

When they invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003 the U.S. favoured the Kurds who collaborated with them, to the detriment of the Turkmens who do not have armed militias to protect their population,  the U.S. military allowed the Kurdish militia (the peshmerga) belonging to the Kurdish warlords,  to invade, occupy and rule over cities (such as Kirkuk) and villages inhabited by Turkmens in the north of Iraq.

Until recently, the name ‘Turkmen’ was omitted in the western media when speaking of the Iraqi people, especially concerning  the population of Kirkuk, where they were referred to as “others” (Arabs, Kurds and others).  The majority of people in the West did not even know about the existence of Iraq’s third main ethnic community, the Turkmens, despite the fact that Turkmens have inhabited Iraq for over a millenium and that they have largely contributed to the building of the Iraqi State:-

The Musul Region was called ‘Turcomania‘ by the British geographer William Gutherie in his map of 1784. The Musul region was the power base of the Atabeg Turkmen states in the 12th and 13th centuries. Its 3 major cities: Mosul, Erbil and Kerkuk were the capitals of those states.
Later, it became part of the larger Turkish-Turkmen states. The total statehood of the Turkmens in Iraq lasted for 9 centuries. It was called the “Musul Province” by the Ottomans in the 19th century and it was one of the three provinces (beside Baghdad and Basrah provinces) that formed Iraq.

The Musul region, despite its multi-ethnic nature, is geographically, economically, historically and culturally a connected unit. The cities of Musul, Erbil, Kerkuk and Suleymaniye as well as the towns and villages of the mountains and steppes have always been interconnected and in close relations with each other.

Up until the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the British occupation of Iraq, Musul, Erbil and Kerkuk had always a Turkish character.  However, after the British occupation of Iraq and the formation of the state of Iraq, the Jazira Arabs (Jubur and Shammar Arab tribes) began to influx into Musul from the twenties and on. The mountainous Kurds began to influx into Erbil from the fifties and on. With the fall of the monarchy in Iraq in 1958 and for political and economical (oil) reasons, the Kurds (in the sixties, seventies and recently after the American invasion) and Arabs (in the eighties-Baath era) settled in Kerkuk in mass numbers. Those politically and economically motivated settlements have significantly changed the demographic structures of those three cities.

Currently, the city of Mosul is dominated by the Arabs. Erbil is dominated by the Soran Kurds. The struggle for domination in Kerkuk city and its region is going on and the ethnic tension is quite high.

Finally, I would like to say that I sincerely hope that none of the different ethnic groups who live in Iraq will be considered as ‘second class citizens‘ in the future. Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Chaldeo-Assyrians, Shabaks, Mandeans and Iezidis are all Iraqi citizens who have shared a rich and very long history in ‘the land between two rivers’, they should all enjoy equal rights and equal opportunities and this does in no way diminish the fact that, today, Iraq belongs to the Arab world.

Hereunder is the text of the presentation given on Thursday, 8 November 2012 , by Wafaa Al-Natheema  at a Berlin conference with the following theme:

The History of Arabs
Bridging Cultures with Knowledge of the Past
By Wafaa Al-Natheema
(Participant in the ICD conference, November 2012)

Today’s Arab Spring and the behavior toward Arabs by easterners and westerners have made it crucial to address and understand Arab history and contributions including pre-Islamic.
The new generation has little or no knowledge of history, even when the past is part of a person’s or society’s worth. What we did and how we did it determine our value today, like a bank account of accumulated deeds. The nature and diversity of one’s contributions can influence how people look at and treat him/her.

One of the main reasons why Arabs have been mistreated and misunderstood is the lack of knowledge about their history, contributions and perceptions.

I mean the very Arab identity today and as a result of wars and destruction as well as globalization has been seriously challenged to the extent that some Arabs fear that they may go extinct within 50 to 100 years just like Australians and Americans. [when I say Americans and Australians, I mean the natives, not the new European comers who took their land and even nationality]

The reference to Arabs by the industrial west (and later all around the world by those who imitate the west) has been everything else, but it; for nearly two centuries, Arabs have been referred to as Moors, Middle Easterners, Near Easterners, North Africans, and other names just to avoid saying the term ‘Arab’. In the recent war on Iraq, which was followed by occupation till this very day (November 8, 2012) despite the claim that the USA army has completely withdrawn, we no longer hear of Arabs! The industrial west (and the world that imitates westerners) refers to Iraqis as Sunni, Shiite, Kurd and Christian! And the more than 75% Arabs have suddenly been omitted from any reference except occasionally mentioned in negative anecdots and news or curses!

Continue Reading The History of Arabs Bridging Cultures with Knowledge of the Past By Wafaa Al-Natheema…