Kurdistan: Kurdish Statelessness

Iraq is very attractive to colonizers due to its high amounts of oil and other natural resources. this made it the perfect target for a post world war one great britain, who needed oil to supply their machinery and troops after they had used so much of it. after the ottoman empire fell after WWI, Iraq became a mandate of the British empire in 1919 and was used primarily for oil and gas. when they took over many arab states after the ottomans, they drew random borders, which mixed ethnicities and beliefs. This resulted in many conflicts between cultures, the kurds and sunnis, and made life for many in the country hard. The anti colonial movement began the next year in 1920, during the Iraqi revolts, which were

Turkey's key internal conflict centers on the role of its large Kurdish minority, ethnically and linguistically distinct, in a state that constitutionally consists of Turks.

Nevertheless, the Kurds believe that the threat of intolerant Shiite Arabs coming into power requires a formidable response to ensure their security (Source C). Even though the foreign affairs pose a threat to the Kurds,

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

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

Long time ago, the deep religious splits between Shi’ites and Sunnis as well as the racial separations between Arabs, Kurds, and other minorities such as Christians and Turkmens people shaped a growing level of violence between citizens in Iraq. The greatest threat to Iraqis has

US support and agendas within the Middle East have been extremely complicated in the last century. Starting with the backing of the Shah of Iran in the early 1950s to the present-day conflict in Syria, there appears to be no decision without adverse secondary and tertiary effects. Since the Persian Gulf War, US policy has been fully supportive of the Arabs and Turks while limiting official support for the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Nevertheless, unofficially, the US has fully supported the Kurds militarily through the establishment of long-term partnerships between military forces. While always a point of contention with Turkey and the Government of Iraq (GOI), the recent increase in support for Kurdish forces in Syria to oppose the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) brought the issue to the forefront. The time for US policy to withhold support for the Kurds is past due to their critical role in the campaign against ISIL. The US attempted to establish a coalition amongst the Turks and the Arabs but this has largely failed to turn the tide of ISIL’s advance. However, following the consistent successes of the Kurds advance wresting control of northeastern Syria away from ISIL, it is a foregone conclusion that the US requires an alliance with the Kurds if they wish to establish some semblance of stability in the Middle East. In the end, can the US ethically and morally provide support to the Kurds, ignoring requests from US allies in the region?

Another specific conflict area that this paper will examine is Syria. The area, today known as Syria, is in a unique location which has made it subject to many empires, including the Roman and Ottoman. Since the area has been at the center of history for thousands of years it is home to a diverse ethnic and religious culture. Currently the country is home to “Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shia and Arab Sunnis, the last of who make up a majority of the Muslim population,” (BBC). Prior to World War I, the area was under control of the Ottoman Empire, after the war the empire was broken up and France took control of the area. In 1946, France granted Syria independence, and the country has been dealing with political instability ever since. From 1958-1961, Syria joined up with Egypt to create the United Arab Republic. The following years brought about a succession of upheavals within the government. In the 1960’s the Arab-nationalist group, Baath, took over power, and in 1970 one of their leaders, Hafiz al-ASAD, took control, which brought about political stability. In 1967 there was a war taking place between Israel and Syria, which resulted in Israel occupying a southwestern region of the country. In 1970, Syria’s neighbor of Lebanon broke out into civil war and Syria extended their military power into that country. The Baath government has been known to be a strong authoritative power and has powerful anti-western policies in place that

The sharing of the image across social media of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi’s dead body washed up on a beach in Turkey has brought the Syrian’s plight into the eyes of the world. Thousands of men, women, and children make illegal and unsafe journeys across entire oceans just to get away from the conflict that is occurring in their home country. In view of the root of this horrible situation, one observes events dating back to 2011, when pro-democracy protests began throughout Syria. These protests displayed the anger prevalent among the people against President Bashar Al-Assad’s authoritarian government. The attempt by Assad to suppress the numerous protests with violence only induced more wrath from the irate Syrian people. Rebel militias

The sharing of the horrifying image across social media of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi’s dead body washed up on a beach in Turkey has brought the Syrian’s plight into the eyes of the entire world. Thousands of desperate men, women, and children make illegal and unsafe journeys across entire oceans just to get away from the ongoing conflict that is occurring in their home country. In view of the root of this horrible situation, one observes events dating back to 2011, when pro-democracy protests began throughout the country of Syria. These protests displayed the anger prevalent among the Syrian people against President Bashar Al-Assad’s authoritarian government. The attempt by President Bashar Al-Assad to suppress the numerous protests with

Not only were the Yezidis in Iraq affected by the two Ottoman attempts at Yezidi genocide, but the Yezidi populations in Armenia and Syria were also targeted as the Ottomans sought to coalesce power and strengthen power through violent domination and oppression of subgroups within the Ottoman state (Fuccaro 1999; Golbasi 2008). Yezidis in Armenia have enjoyed relative peace and respect post- Ottoman decline. The community receives accommodations from the Armenian government including language instruction in Yezidi (distinct from Kurdish and Armenian), funding for a Yezidi national news paper, and Armenian public radio air time for Yezidi-language broadcasting programs (Yezidi National Union 2017).

A good point to start with is Iraq during the Ottoman Empire. In that tenure, there were five grounds in which have raised the sectarian animosity among the Iraqis. 1. The Ottoman to favor the Sunnis' at the expense of the Shia, due to the religious proximity of Shia in Iraq to the Safavid Empire, and due to the fact that the Ottoman envisaged the Safavid as a political rival; thus, this erupted the Ottoman to marginalized the Shia and considered them as an existential threat to the empire. 2. Tribe and Klan, which were profound incentives for the Ottoman, were an excellent way for the Ottoman to grant loyalty out of the tribes. The Ottoman permit the tribes to act individually "semi-autonomous" to collate taxes and ensure populace loyalty

The Al-Anfal genocide ended late in 1988, at around the same time as Iraq's war with Iran. Since then, despite some of the long lasting effects such as reproductive problems thought to be caused by the chemical attacks inflicted upon it, the Kurdistan region of Iraq, currently has a population of about 5.2 million, made up of a combination of kurdish, Assyrian, Arab, Chaldean, Armenian and Turkish people.​

They endure near daily causalities and recently Ankara has undertaken a bifurcated anti-terror program against the PKK and the IS. Frequent attacks in Turkey by the IS and the PKK has driven Turkey to kill 260 Kurdish militants as of August 1, 2015. The reasoning for these death tolls within a week-long air raid in northern Iraq is due to nine civilian causalities in Turkey and Iraq. "For the peace and security of our people, the fight against terror organi[z]ations will continue without interruption,” as stated by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The PKK’s rebellion for rights and power for Turkey’s Kurdish minority has been ongoing for the past thirty years and has left tens of thousands dead. Though a ceasefire was issued in 2013, Turkey’s Kurdish militants have sought refuge in northern Iraq where the PKK has been tolerated and continue to dodge such attacks. The PKK has been instructed to terminate fire in populated areas. Turkey’s president Erdogan hopes to shut down this “fascist” organization by the end of the year. Turkey’s and Iraq’s goals are to see the Kurds and their parties purged from their

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