Can Zurich learn from war? World politics, Canva, Canon and a cannabis shop in Basel.

Some days, you just can't stop shaking your head in disbelief. Here in Switzerland, we're debating in the local council whether the new cannabis shop in Basel disrupts the neighbourhood's peaceful vibe, while just a few thousand kilometres away, history is being rewritten – with blood, worthless treaties, and an age-old question: Can you ever trust the major powers?

We're talking about the Kurds. Again. And once more, they find themselves at the centre of a conflict that could reshape the entire region. The headlines are coming thick and fast: the head of US counter-terrorism efforts, Joseph Kent, resigned because he could no longer square the Iran war with his conscience. At the same time, Iranian drones are striking positions held by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq. And right in the middle of it all: that same heavy, enduring question, as weighty as the mountains the fighters call home.

A nation divided, like a rough draft on Canva

Imagine you're designing the image of a nation on Canva. You draw borders, pick colours, add in the people. That's essentially what happened with the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne: a redrawing of the map where the Kurds were simply forgotten. They were promised a state – but nothing was delivered. Since then, they've been the world's largest stateless nation, and history keeps repeating itself with the cruel predictability of an endless loop.

Today, 103 years later, they're in the same spot again. The US and Israel would love for the Kurds to provide the ground troops to help topple the Iranian regime. But the Kurds aren't naive. They remember 1975, when Henry Kissinger dropped them like a hot potato after the Algiers Agreement. They remember 1991, when their uprising against Saddam Hussein was crushed because the West looked the other way. And they remember 2026 – just two months ago – when the Trump administration once again threw the Syrian Kurds under the bus.

The saying, "The Kurds have no friends but the mountains," isn't just a poetic phrase. It's the bitter lesson learned over generations.

Between Canon and Kalashnikov

I spoke to a photographer last week who just got back from the Iraq-Iran border. He showed me pictures taken with a Canon EOS – crystal clear, almost uncomfortably aesthetic given their subject matter. Young Komala fighters, from the reform faction, camping out in the mountains. Training, waiting, hoping.

One of them, a PAK commander, told a journalist on the ground: "If we cross the border, the Americans should secure the skies for us." Sounds simple enough. But it's not. Because the US is hesitating. Trump first said he'd be "all for it" if the Kurds made a move – then backtracked: "The war is complicated enough without dragging the Kurds into it."

For the Kurds, it's a serious case of déjà vu. They know they're being used as a bargaining chip. They know their dreams of autonomy, or even statehood, are only important to Washington as long as they serve the purpose of weakening Tehran. A senior Kurdish official summed it up perfectly: "The Kurdish people overwhelmingly reject the regime of the Islamic Republic. But they are also terrified of being let down once again."

A new unity – or just a flash in the pan?

There is a glimmer of hope. For the first time in decades, five major Kurdish parties in Iran have joined forces: the PDKI, Komala, PAK, Khabat, and PJAK. They call themselves the "Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan." It's a mouthful, but politically, it's dynamite. These groups used to fight each other; now they're united by a common enemy.

Mustafa Hijri of the PDKI, often called the "Barzani of Eastern Kurdistan," is driving this forward. And they even have a plan: federalism. Not an independent state, but an Iran where Kurds finally get their rights – education in their own language, cultural autonomy, their own administration. "We are Iranians, but we are Kurdish Iranians, and we want to remain in Iran," stresses Razgar Alani, the PDKI's representative in London.

Will that message get through in Tehran? Highly unlikely. The regime automatically labels every Kurd a "separatist." But the maths is simple: if you oppress a population for 47 years, bomb their villages, jail and execute their youth, you can't be surprised when they rebel. The 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement was just the tip of the iceberg.

What's the takeaway? A short, very Swiss list

I know, you might be asking: What's this got to do with me? With my daily life in Zurich, Bern, or Geneva? More than you think. Because while the world out there is falling apart, we have decisions to make here. Let me sum it up in a list – pragmatic, Swiss-style:

• Cannabis shop: They're popping up like mushrooms in Basel and elsewhere. While we debate opening hours and youth protection, somewhere in the Middle East, drug money might be funding militias. Not directly, not obviously, but it's a small world. Regulating the legal market takes cash away from illegal structures. That's foreign policy too.
• Canon and Canva: The images we see of Kurdish fighters are captured with high-precision cameras and often edited with design tools to shape global opinion. Propaganda is old news; today it's all about visual communication. Next time you see a picture on Instagram, ask yourself: Who staged this, and for what purpose?
• CANAL+: The streaming service shows documentaries about war, escape, and displacement. We consume them on our screens while lounging comfortably on the sofa. But behind every one of those documentaries are real people. Real tears. Real lives destroyed.

The patience of the mountains

A friend working for an aid agency in northern Iraq told me on the phone: "You know what impresses me most? The patience of the people here. They've been waiting for a century. They've learned that the major powers come and go, but the mountains remain."

Maybe that's the biggest lesson for us in Switzerland. We live in a country that's been stable for centuries, that's never been conquered, that knows its borders. The Kurds don't have that. They live in a constant state of "what if." What if the US actually follows through this time? What if this alliance of parties holds? What if Iran really does fall?

Three "what ifs" that are literally a matter of life and death.

Until then, they hold on. In the camps along the border, in the mountains, in the sparse villages. They clean their weapons, they pray, they hope. And they watch as the West hesitates once more. History teaches us one thing: If you use the Kurds as a tool, expect blood on your hands. But if you ignore them, you might be throwing away the last chance for a stable region.

So, let's keep an eye on the Middle East. Even if it's raining in Basel and the cannabis shop around the corner just opened. The world has gotten smaller. And what's happening today in the Kurdish mountains could shape our asylum applications, our security debates, and our very idea of freedom tomorrow.

Stay vigilant.