Separatism Introduction I’m going to compare Kosovo
Separatism
Introduction
I’m going to compare Kosovo, Ukraine, The Kurds and Catalonia by their similarities and differences but also explain their fight for freedom.
Catalonia
Catalonia had some independence before the 20th century which was when the Spanish civil war happened. Because of the victory of the said war, dictator Franco Bahamonde ruled over Spain which took away the independence Catalonia had. Fortunately, in 1975 when Franco Bahamonde died, Catalonia regained some of their freedom. In 2015, separatists won the regional election which made the leaders who wanted independence to go to court and ask for a referendum, but it was declared illegal. In the Catalonian Parliament 37% participated in the vote where 90% of them voted for the separatists. However, the Ciudadanos party got the majority of the votes and their wish was for Catalonia to continue being a part of Spain.
Kosovo
As for Kosovo, it had been a part of Serbia under a long period of time before their independence was taken away during 1459. It wasn’t until 1878 that Serbia was independent again. During the 2nd world war, about 100 000 Serbs were banned and weren’t allowed to return to Kosovo but also many Albanians migrated there. For starters, there was a conflict in Serbia surrounding the Albanians being Muslim and the Serbs being Christians and it wasn’t until 1999 that the Serbs were forced to leave Kosovo and it ended up as a state full of Albanians. Kosovo finally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, but Serbia and their ally Russia refused it.
Eastern Ukraine
Ukraine wasn’t their own country until the Soviet Union fell in 1991. Thanks to President Yanukovych who didn’t want to sign a deal with the EU about becoming partners in late 2013; many started protesting in Kiev about Ukraine’s position in Europe. Since a lot of Russians lived in Eastern Ukraine, they wanted to support Russia instead of the EU as the rest of Ukraine wanted. In 2014, the accusations of corruption in the government became too great that the President was forced to migrate from the country. Thus, Ukraine got a new temporary president and an election that was set in May. The government was afraid that Easter Ukraine would become a part of Russia because of the protests that were taken place in the government buildings, so they had the Pro-Russians removed. The results of the election in May 2014, most of the people in Eastern Ukraine voted for dependence but it was declared illegal by the government.
The Kurds
The Kurds doesn’t have their own state even though they’re one of the largest ethnic groups in the Middle East. There are Kurds in an area in the center of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Armenia together, Kurdistan, and they are united e.g. by race and culture. The Kurds wanted their own nation a long time ago and after the 1st World War they were close to be a Kurdish state. But in 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne made the borders of Turkey as it is today, and they weren’t able to become a Kurdish state. The Kurds were crushed for every attempt to become an independent state in the next few decades. They later became a part of the war against IS since they attacked their territories in Syria and Iraq. In the latter of 2014, IS surprise attacked them and killed thousands of people; fortunately, the Peshmerga got support military wise from multinational coalition led by the US and also from PKK. When IS later attacked a Kurdish town in Syria, many Kurds had to escape to Turkey but weren’t given help by them. The Kurds are now fighting against IS together with local Arab military, Syrian Democratic Forces and with help from the US-coalition by airpower and have taken back control and forced IS to leave areas in Syria and along the Turkish borders. There’s still tension between the Kurds with their allies and Syria, supported by Russia, and Turkey.
Comparison
Eastern Ukraine, The Kurds, Catalonia and Kosovo have all been victims of the corruptness of their government. In Spain, Franco Bahamonde took away Catalonia’s independence after the Spanish civil war. Same with Kosovo and the Yugoslav communist authorities where they forbade Serbs to migrate back to Kosovo in 1945, the relocation of the Kurds in exchange for Arabs and the President in Eastern Ukraine. However, unlike the other countries Kosovo is an independent country even though their independence was declared illegal. All three of the countries, except Kosovo had separatists fighting for independence while in Kosovo they were so greatly oppressed that they couldn’t protest and had an independence war instead.
