Kurdistan is a region that has existed in turmoil and is the “never was” country. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group of the Middle East, numbering between 20 and 25 million. Approximately 15 million live in the regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, an area they called Kurdistan, yet they do not have a country of their own. Formal attempts to establish such a state were crushed by the larger and more powerful countries in the region after both world wars. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I, the Kurds were promised their own independent nation under the Treaty of Sevres. In 1923 however, the treaty was broken allowing Turkey to maintain its status and not allowing the Kurdish people to have a nation to call …show more content…
Apo claims his main goal is the creation of a country for the world's 20 to 25 million Kurds, more than half of whom live in Turkey, the rest in Iraq, Iran and other neighboring countries. Roughly, a million are in Europe, in exile or as migrants, the bulk of whom are in Germany. He stated also that he wanted to put an end to Turkish colonialism and all forms of imperialist domination over Kurdistan.
Turkey has been a key player against the PKK. Geography, politics and history have conspired to render 30 million Kurds the largest stateless people in the Middle East. The Government of Turkey has long denied the Kurdish population, located largely in the southeast, basic political, cultural, and linguistic rights. The government of Turkey has in turn waged an intense campaign to suppress PKK terrorism, targeting active PKK units as well as persons they believe support or sympathize with the PKK. As part of its fight against the PKK, the Government forcibly displaced noncombatants, failed to resolve extra judicial killings, tortured civilians, and abridged freedom of expression. The Turkish government has also managed to burn over 4,000 villages forcing Kurds to flee from their homeland. Finally, the Turkish government estimates that the conflict with the PKK has exacted a high financial drain on the
On the 24 April 1915, as the Ottoman Empire was being dismantled, a fiercely nationalistic Muslim political party known as the Young Turks began the process of exterminating approximately 1 500 000 Armenian Christians. The Young Turks aimed to create a state that was free from any Armenians and from Christians in particular. The genocide lasted 8 years, until 1923, during which time the Armenian Christian population in the Ottoman Empire was reduced from approximately 2 million to approximately 500 000. Still today, Turkey refuses to call what took place ‘genocide’. The modern Turkish government argues that the intent was to relocate the Armenians or, in some cases, that the genocide was completely fabricated by the Armenians, as a bid to gain support from the outside Christian world.
Iraq and Iran have been subjected to a civil war since the seventh century (Murphy 1). This existing problem began because of political and theological divergence, but with the help of outside forces such as Britain, Russia, and North America, it developed into a more complex crisis.
Rather than fix the numerous problems, the KRG leaders utilize false rhetoric and fictitious scenarios to distract the Kurdish citizens from the struggles of their daily lives. Accordingly, the American public must employ its democratic power to compel the United States into using fiery propaganda and military strength to unite the Kurds and overthrow the KRG leaders. With the completion of the coup and the current officials replaced with active problem-solvers, the Kurds can fulfill their desire: a pillar of strength in a land of
Though a majority of the Armenian population in Turkey lived in poverty and despair, a small minority had excelled as best they could within their second class status, with many serving as professionals, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, artists, architects and skilled craftsmen. When World War I broke out in 1914, leaders of the Young Turk regime sided with the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). The outbreak of war would provide the perfect opportunity to solve the ‘Armenian question’ once and for all for the Young Turks. The world’s attention became fixed upon the battlegrounds of France and Belgium where the young men of Europe were soon falling dead by the hundreds of thousands. The Eastern Front eventually included the border between Turkey and Russia. With war at hand, unusual measures involving the civilian population would not seem too out of the ordinary. At this time, about forty thousand Armenian men were serving in the Turkish Army. In the fall and winter of 1914, all of their weapons were confiscated and they were put into slave labor battalions building roads or were used as human pack animals. Under the brutal work conditions they suffered a very high death rate. Those who survived would soon be shot outright. For the time had come to move against the Armenians. The decision to annihilate the entire population came directly from the
The Turks conquered a lot of Armenia’s ancestral lands, which became part of the Ottoman Empire. Today the Ottoman Empire is known as Turkey. The Turks let the Armenians have some freedom in the lands that they had conquered from the Armenians until 1890. There were religious rebellions, and Muslims wanted their religion to stay in power, so the Ottoman Empire leaders came up with a plan to use the Armenians as people who are against their religion. This put the whole religious rebellion blame on the Armenians. The Turks killed Armenian villagers periodically in different areas in the conquered Armenian lands, because they did not like the fact that there were Christians in their country. After the Ottoman Empire lost its national strength the Young Turks, which was a nationalistic movement took over Turkey. The Young Turks murdered the Armenians in order to create inspiration towards the Islamic nationalism. This is when the Armenian Genocide had occurred in the 20th century, which resulted in 1,500,000 murders of Armenians. These people were not just simply murdered with a gun shot, they were raped, enslaved, suffered from hunger, hung, and even had their heads cut off. Yet still some nations like The United States of America has still not declared the killings of the 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as Genocide. To this day the Armenian race is still struggling to conquer back their ancestral lands, which
This all started with the old constitution being brought back, a group called The Young Turks (TYT) seized power from the previous sultan and reinstated the constitution. The Young Turks would be the “bad guy” in the scenario, The Greeks, The Armenians, and the Assyrians are the
The genocide occurred in different locations considering they were relocated many times but the main war happened in iraqi kurdistan which was a common battle ground so basically the kurds were living in the no mans land which was also a battle zone and had destroyed many homes.
In 1991, a series of uprisings in Iraq turned into multiple rebellions in Northern and Southern Iraq started the “Kurdish War”. Millions of men,women and children were killed by the war. This was a genocide because this behavior resulted in torture devices, chemical
The region of the Middle East and its inhabitants have always been a wonder to the Europeans, dating back to the years before the advent of Islam and the years following the Arab conquest. Today, the Islamic world spreads from the corners of the Philippines to the far edges of Spain and Central Africa. Various cultures have adopted the Islamic faith, and this blending of many different cultures has strengthened the universal Islamic culture. The religion of Islam has provided a new meaning to the lives of many people around the world. In the Islamic world, the religion defines and enriches culture and as a result the culture gives meaning to the individual. Islam is not only a religion, it is in its own way a culture. It may be this very
This issue has been with Turkey almost since the foundation of the Turkish State in 1923. The Kurds were promised the creation of an independent state as part of the treaty of Sevres in 1920 but this part of the treaty was never ratified and Turkey has refused to recognize the existence of a separate Kurdish ethnic community within its borders.
Syriana is a movie revolving around the many facets of US – Middle East relations. The movie is split into various plot lines to identify roots of Islamic Militancy and Terrorism in the Middle East, prospects of democracy and full self-determination and the varying effects of current US policy.
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 250,000 IDP’s are displaced because of the conflict in South Sudan. Lizabeth Paulat, a member of Truthout, a think tank, writes that the violence is directly causing a potentially massive famine within the region. “This threat of starvation is not occurring because of a natural scarcity, or even a political attempt to starve out opponents,” says Paulat, “rather, this is an issue of South Sudan’s internal refugees, forced to flee their homes to escape violence.” With such a high volume of IDP’s and a projected record breaking famine, the international community must intervene to assist President Kiir and the South Sudanese Government.
In recent years, the Iraqi nation has endured a crisis that will forever remain in the hearts and minds of the Middle Eastern culture. However, the outcomes of the War on Iraq will not change the long-lasting and passionate traditions and memories that have been held in the country for decades. One major event that happened in Iraq’s history is that on October 3, 1932 Iraq was established as an independent nation. Iraq has always been a country in which respect and generosity have been highly valued and play an important cultural role in everyday life. Additionally, approximately ninety-five percent of Iraqis are Muslim, and therefore Islam is the official religion of this nation (Gutierrez 1). Furthermore, Iraq is a
Ethnic conflicts are well rooted in the world's history and perhaps inherent in human nature. This type of conflict is difficult to resolve as is evident in the situation in the Middle East. The ethnic conflict theory explains that it is not territory, politics, or economics that prevents the achievement of peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, instead, it is a deep-seated hatred of one another that neither group can overcome. The Camp David Summit in July 2000, the most recent attempt at fostering a lasting peace is a clear example of how ethnocentrism can prevents success.
were chosen by God to set up a state of Israel where they could not be