Beyond the frank and open hostility of the neighboring states of Iraq, Iran and Turkey to the referendum on the independence of Kurdistan; in Kabylie, it is with particular interest that we observe the reactions of international institutions that are supposed to guarantee respect for the right of peoples to self-determination; just as we observe with attention the “edifying” reactions of the great Western nations, especially those who claim to be “references” in the defense of human rights.
And since the best-fitting masks always end up falling, the negative reactions to the effective exercise of democracy and the right of peoples to self-determination expressed by the UN, the EU, the USA and France merely expose the reality of their true nature, that is to say, neo-colonialist. All would like to see the Kurds stick to the borders of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which has divided Kurdish territory over four nation states in order to manage, in their best mercantile interests, the exploitation of the natural resources that concentrate there.
The same applies to Catalonia, where Spain, Europe and the UN declare the Catalan popular consultation “illegal”, proving for the second time that Western democracy and its uncertain notion of legality are values with variable geometry, valid only if they are subject to their own interests.
In any case, it is certain that colonized peoples and all peoples put under the tutelage of others, in spite of their widely expressed will, will sooner or later free themselves from the chains that hinder the self – legitimate acquisition of their sovereignty.
Today, it is the Catalonia and the Iraqi Kurdistan which test the international authorities by publicly confronting them with the laws of facades that they have erected.
Tomorrow, it will be the Kabylie, the Rif or the Azawad that will hit the doors of the right. Notwithstanding the answers we will receive, it will not be said that it is the colonized peoples who are illegal.
Whatever the differences that may exist between the different Kabylian sovereigntists political actors, they share the same strategic objective: The liberation of Kabylia. Therefore, any step aimed to give more visibility to the fight of the Kabyle people on the international level is to be welcomed and supported.
All our solidarity with Kurdistan and Catalonia.
Bouaziz Ait Chebib. Kabylian activist