Who are the KURDS?

KURDISTAN: WHAT IS IT? AND WHO ARE THE KURDS?

Between 20 and 30 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.

A map of Kurdistan the land of Kurds

In recent decades, Kurds have increasingly influenced regional developments, fighting for autonomy in Turkey and playing prominent roles in the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, where they have resisted the advance of the jihadist group, Islamic State (IS).

Where do they come from?

The Kurds historically led nomadic lives revolving around sheep and goat herding throughout the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands in what are now south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-western Armenia.

Middle East map showing Kurdish areas

Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language, even though they have no standard dialect. They also adhere to a number of different religions and creeds, although the majority are Sunni Muslims.

Kurdistan: A State of Uncertainty

 

Independent Kurdish state

Why don't they have a state?

Despite their long history, the Kurds have never achieved a permanent nation state

In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland - generally referred to as "Kurdistan". After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.

Such hopes were dashed three years later, however, when the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. Over the next 80 years, any move by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed. Aiming to change the outcome of World War One.

Why are Kurds at the forefront of the fight against IS?

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have been fighting Islamic State in northern Iraq

In mid-2013, IS turned its sights on three Kurdish enclaves that bordered its territory in northern Syria. It launched repeated attacks that until mid-2014 were repelled by the Popular Protection Units (YPG) - the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD). The turning point was an offensive in Iraq in June that saw IS overrun the northern city of Mosul, routing Iraqi army divisions and seizing weaponry later moved to Syria.

Kurdish Peshmarga fighting against ISIS on the front line

The jihadists' advance in Iraq also drew that country's Kurds into the conflict. The government of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region sent its Peshmerga forces to areas abandoned by the army.

For a time there were only minor clashes between IS and the Peshmerga, but in August the jihadists launched a shock offensive. The Peshmerga withdrew in disarray, allowing several towns inhabited by religious minorities to fall, notably Sinjar, where thousands of Yazidis where sheltering.

Sinjar Mountain in Kurdistan 

Turkish military personnel deployed along the Syrian border have not intervened in the battle for Kobane. Alarmed by the Peshmerga's defeat and the potential massacre of the Yazidis fleeing Sinjar, the US launched air strikes in northern Iraq and sent military advisers. European countries meanwhile began sending weapons to the Peshmerga. The YPG and Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) also came to their aid.

Although the jihadists were gradually forced back by the Peshmerga in Iraq, they did not stop trying to capture the Kurdish enclaves in Syria. In mid-September, IS launched an assault on the enclave around the northern town of Kobane, forcing more than 160,000 people to flee into Turkey.

Despite this, Turkey refused to attack IS positions near the border or allow Kurds to cross to defend it, triggering Kurdish protests and a threat from the PKK to pull out of its peace talks with the government. However, it was not until mid-October that Ankara agreed to allow Peshmerga fighters to join the battle for Kobane. Syria's Kobane no longer so isolated.

Why is Turkey reluctant to help the Kurds in Kobane?

Abdullah Ocalan face on flags held by Kurds

PKK supporters demonstrate in Paris after the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan (17 February 1999)

Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan began peace talks with the Turkish government in 2012. There is deep-seated hostility between the Turkish state and the country's Kurds, who constitute 15% to 20% of the population.

Kurds received harsh treatment at the hands of the Turkish authorities for generations. In response to uprisings in the 1920s and 1930s, many Kurds were resettled, Kurdish names and costumes were banned, the use of the Kurdish language was restricted and even the existence of a Kurdish ethnic identity was denied, with people designated "Mountain Turks".

PKK fighters who are well known for having a high population
of female fighters

PKK fighters in parade in northern Iraq (11 August 2005)

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched an armed struggle in 1984

In 1978, Abdullah Ocalan established the PKK, which called for an independent state within Turkey. Six years later, the group began an armed struggle. Since then, more than 40,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

In the 1990s the PKK rolled back on its demand for independence, calling instead for greater cultural and political autonomy, but continued to fight. In 2012, the government and PKK began peace talks and the following year a ceasefire was agreed. PKK fighters were told to withdraw to northern Iraq, but clashes have continued.

Turkish soldiers filter refugees crossing the border near the Syrian town of Kobane (28 September 2014). Turkey has allowed in more than 160,000 people, most of the Kurds, fleeing the fighting around Kobane. Although Ankara considers IS a threat, it also fears that Turkish Kurds will cross into Syria to join the PYD - an offshoot of the PKK - and then use its territory to launch attacks on Turkey. It has also said it is not prepared to step up efforts to help the US-led coalition against IS unless the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is also one of its goals.

What do Syria's Kurds want?

Salih Muslim, head of the Democratic Unity Party (PYD) receives condolences from Syrian Kurds after his son Servan was killed in fighting with jihadist militants (15 October 2013)

The Democratic Unity Party (PYD) is the dominant force in Syria's Kurdish regions

Kurds make up between 7% and 10% of Syria's population, with most living in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo, and in three, non-contiguous areas around Kobane, the north-western town of Afrin, and the north-eastern city of Qamishli.

YPG fighters

Syria's Kurds have long been suppressed and denied basic rights. Some 300,000 have been denied citizenship since the 1960s, and Kurdish land has been confiscated and redistributed to Arabs in an attempt to "Arabize" Kurdish regions. The state has also sought to limit Kurdish demands for greater autonomy by cracking down on protests and arresting political leaders.

A Kurdish fighter from the Popular Protection Units (YPG) shows his weapon decorated with its flag in Aleppo, Syria (7 June 2014)

The Popular Protection Units (YPG) began clashing with Islamist and jihadist rebel groups in Syria in 2013

The Kurdish enclaves were relatively unscathed by the first two years of the Syrian conflict. The main Kurdish parties avoided taking sides. In mid-2012, government forces withdrew to concentrate on fighting the rebels elsewhere, after which Kurdish groups took control.

The Democratic Unity Party (PYD) quickly established itself as the dominant force, straining relations with smaller parties who formed the Kurdistan National Council (KNC). They nevertheless united to declare the formation of a Kurdish regional government in January 2014. They also stressed that they were not seeking independence but "local democratic administration".

IS meets its match in Kobane as Syria's Kurds fight to keep out jihadists.

Will Iraq's Kurds gain independence?

Mulla Mustafa Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, holds hands with Saddam Hussein, then deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of the Iraqi Baath Party (20 March 1970) A peace deal agreed by the KDP and Iraq's Baathist government in 1970 collapsed four years later.

KDP's official logo

Kurds make up an estimated 15% to 20% of Iraq's population. They have historically enjoyed more national rights than Kurds living in neighbouring states, but also faced brutal repression.

Kurds in the north of Iraq revolted against British rule during the mandate era, but were crushed. In 1946, Mustafa Barzani formed the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to fight for autonomy in Iraq. After the 1958 revolution, a new constitution recognised Kurdish nationality. But Barzani's plan for self-rule was rejected by the Arab-led central government and the KDP launched an armed struggle in 1961.

In 1970, the government offered a deal to end the fighting that gave the Kurds a de facto autonomous region. But it ultimately collapsed and fighting resumed in 1974. A year later, divisions within the KDP saw Jalal Talabani leave and form the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Iraqi Kurdish refugees take shelter at a refugee camp in south-eastern Turkey after fleeing fighting between Iraqi government forces and Peshmerga in May 1991. Some 1.5 million Iraqi Kurds fled into Iran and Turkey after the 1991 rebellion was crushed.

In the late 1970s, the government began settling Arabs in areas with Kurdish majorities, particularly around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and forcibly relocating Kurds. The policy was accelerated in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War, in which the Kurds backed the Islamic republic. In 1988, Saddam Hussein unleashed a campaign of vengeance on the Kurds that included the poison-gas attack on Halabja.

When Iraq was defeated in the 1991 Gulf War Barzani's son, Massoud, led a Kurdish rebellion. Its violent suppression prompted the US and its allies to impose a no-fly zone in the north that allowed Kurds to enjoy self-rule. The KDP and PUK agreed to share power, but tensions rose and a four-year internal conflict erupted in 1994.

Massoud Barzani's KDP and Jalal Talabani's PUK share power in the Kurdistan Region

The two parties co-operated with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein and have participated in all governments formed since then. They have also governed in coalition in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), created in 2005 to administer the three provinces of Dohuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniya.

 Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani

After the IS offensive in June, the KRG sent the Peshmerga into disputed areas claimed by the Kurds and the central government, and then asked the Kurdish parliament to plan a referendum on independence.

However, it is unclear whether the Kurds will press ahead with self-determination, or push for a more independent entity within a federal Iraq.

Thank you so much, I hope this gave you an insight into who the us Kurds are and what Kurdistan is. Next post will include the different groups in Kurdistan.