Political observers believe that if the separation of a federal unit is possible through peaceful means, there is no harm in applying the principle of self -determination.
For example, people in the Canadian province of Quebec and the British region of Scotland were allowed to express their opinion through a referendum on separation. In both cases, the majority did not decide to leave the motherland and express a desire to stay in the union with a larger economy.
In these two cases, people’s democratic will were respected, and those who had separatist tendencies resort to any armed struggle.
It is important to mention that Scotland led an armed battle in the past, but over time, pragmatics in the Scottish community realized that cooperation with London was better than counteracting it. The Scots were rewarded for their pragmatism, with many of them getting senior posts in the British colonial administration worldwide. Some of them became an integral part of the British ruling elite who thrives on colonial looting and theft, besides coming to the power corridors in London. This encountered tremendous Scottish society that witnessed more prosperity than Ireland, which chose the weapon’s way.
It is believed that industrial and economic productivity in Northern Ireland began to fall long before the turmoil that broke out in 1968. For example, the region’s manufacturing employment of approximately 15,000 jobs between 1949 and 1966. The financial consequences were disastrous to the region, which suffered losses of £ 14 billion due to personal damage, material damage and legal and order costs.
At the end of the day, the Irish had to choose the path for peace and reconciliation that benefit ordinary people. For example, the violence had reduced Northern Ireland’s GDP by up to 10%. In 1998, Northern Ireland’s GDP per. Per capita 20% lower than the total UK level, albeit higher than either Wales or Northeast (the poorest English region). In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, Northern Ireland’s GDP per Inhabitants grown 27% in real terms; The gap with the British level remained relatively unchanged, approx. 21 percent. Northern Ireland began to surpass Wales and Northeast.
The Basque homeland and freedom movement in Spain were not terrible in terms of death that killed more than 800 people, but it was very long -lasting, over 40 years that fought for the independence of the seven northern Spanish regions and southwestern France, which Basque separatists claim as their own. When it emerged in the 1960s, it lost its momentum in the 21st century and chose to participate in dialogues. The separatist group disarmed completely in 2017.
Unlike Spain, Canada and Britain showed nationalist rebellion or separatist movements to be very brutal and bloody in non-Western countries. For example, Kurdistan Workers Party’s decades led in Turkey to kill over 40,000 people. The Kurds of Iraq, Syria and Iran also contained separatist ambitions, some of which also fought for the affected states. All Kurdish groups had to make compromises somehow.
The Tamil rebellion in Sri Lanka demanded 20,000 to 75,000 lives. The Sri Lankan government claims that the toll was 9000. The hard militants had to surrender after paying a heavy price for their separatist movements. Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh in the northeastern part of India also faced rebellion and separatist movements that claim to tens of thousands of life.
The separatist struggle in South Sudan turned out to be one of the bloodiest events in modern times that killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced four million internally. Acrimony caused by the brutal separation has left deep marks on the Sundanese, who are still struggling with the effects of this conflict, in addition to dealing with more unrest and civil strife.
Most of the countries that secured independence after 1917 and more specifically in the wake of World War II had the blessing of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp that supported separatist and nationalist movements financially, morally and diplomatic. Most of the separatists who fought for independence led such struggles against colonial countries that were deeply despised over the global south. In 1945, 85% of the world was in the links of colonialism. It was the support of Moscow that helped liberation movements to break the springs in colonial submission.
After 1992, only separatist groups that enjoy support from the West succeeded in getting freedom. East Timor, South Sudan and Bosnian Muslims all had this support somehow. The West did not throw his blessing behind every group and failed to live up to its promises in all cases.
Nationalists will use their natural resources for their own people. The question is: If a nationalist group gets freedom using imperialist or global powers would it be able to exploit these resources for their people, or would they be across transnational corporations? Such companies overturned the nationalist governments of Iran, Guatemala, Chile and other parts of the world because the leaders of these unfortunate countries wanted to use their resources for their people and annoy the West.
Given all this, it may be advisable, critics claim that groups such as the Baloch paratists follow the reconciliation path and learn from the separatist movements in several parts of the world that eventually surrendered.
A few years ago, when emotions ran high in parts of Sindh, Dr. Qadir Magsi and other Sindhi nationalists youth against the catastrophic effects of such militantity. They mobilized the entire Sindhi civil society against the spectrum of military.
Today, Sindhi is reaping the yield of peaceful battle. Their representation in provincial, federal and local organs bureaucracies has witnessed a huge increase. Baloch could also follow the same way, but both the state and Baloch -political leadership will have to take initiatives to do so.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and does not necessarily reflect Pakinomist.tv’s editorial policy.
The author is a freelance journalist who can be reached at: [email protected]
Originally published in the news
