The Right to Independence

In his text called "Three cheers for Kosova!" published at Pakistan's Daily Times, Uri Avnery states this:

But a more general question arises: when does a national minority have the right to secede and establish a nation-state of its own? If the Kosovars have this right, why not the Basques in Spain? The Corsicans in France? The Tibetans in China? The Tamils in Sri Lanka? The Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria? The Luo in Kenya? The Darfurians in Sudan?

That is a subject best left to professors of political science. Reality has its own language. No one case is the same as another. There is no international tribunal to decide, according to established standards, who has this right — and who does not. The matter is decided in practice: when a particular population is determined to achieve independence at any cost, and when it is ready to fight and sacrifice for its independence — then they have the “right” to independence.

The aspirations of a minority depend also on the attitude of the majority. A nation that is wise enough to treat its national minorities with decency and accord them real equality will succeed in keeping the state intact. Countries like Canada and Belgium understand this and endeavour to prevent the breaking up of the state. But when the dominant people mistreat the minority — as the Serbs did in Kosovo and the Russians are doing in Chechnya — they reinforce the motivation to achieve independence.

But the paradox is that a small state, even a medium-sized state cannot maintain real independence in a world that is inevitably moving towards globalisation. States like Germany and France are compelled to transfer large chunks of their sovereign powers to regional super-states, like the European Union. The French economy and the German army are subject to Brussels more than to Paris and Berlin. So what is the sense in creating even smaller states?

The answer lies with the power of nationalism, which is not decreasing, but rather the opposite. One hundred or two hundred years ago, Corsica could not defend itself. To be secure, it had to be part of the French kingdom. The Basque homeland could not sustain an independent economy and needed to be part of a larger economic unit, like Spain. But today, when decisions are made in Brussels, why should Corsicans and Basques not have their own states and be separate members of the EU?

That is a world-wide tendency. Separate nations do not unite in new states, but on the contrary, existing states break up into national components. Anyone who believes that Israelis and Palestinians will unite tomorrow in one state does not live in the real world. The slogan “two states for two peoples” is relevant today more than ever.

So Israel, approaching its own 60th anniversary, should recognise the Republic of Kosova and wish it well.

I do not agree with his statement regarding Euskal Herria not being able to sustain itself in the past, after all, it was both Euskal Herria and Catalunya's economies the ones that maintained Spain afloat for the longest time.

One more thing, if you read the entire article you will find that Tito and the Serbs aided the Jewish during WWII, just like the Basques did.

You will also read about how Serbia lost its right over Kosovo the day Milosevic unleashed an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Albanians, just like Francisco Franco did against the Basques.

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