Kurdistan

Categories: Kurds | Middle East

For the Iranian province of Kurdistan, please see Kurdistan Province, Iran.
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The Kurdish flag flown by Kurds in parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, and Syria.
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Areas with significant Kurdish population.

Kurdistan is an area in the Middle East, inhabited mainly by the Kurds, covering parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, and Syria. Its borders are hard to define, as none of the states in question acknowledge Kurdistan as a demographic or geographical region, but it is generally held to include those regions with large Kurdish populations. According to one account it includes 25 million people in a 190,000 km2 (74,000 sq. mi) area. Others estimate as much as 40 million Kurds are on the globe and their land covers an area as big as France. The Kurdistan Province in Iran and the Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq are both included in the usual definition of Kurdistan.

Kurds were first promised an independent nation-state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, which divided the former Ottoman Empire between the United Kingdom, Turkey and others, and gave independence to Armenia. Since that time Kurdish nationalists have continued to seek independence in an area approximating that identified at Sèvres. However the idea of an independent nation-state came to a halt when the surrounding countries joined to reject the independence of Kurdistan.

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History

Being ethnically Iranian, Kurds have been part of the Persian Empire since its beginning. The Kurdish inhabited areas were later split between Iran and the Ottoman Empire after long wars. Before World War I, most Kurds therefore lived within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire, in the province of Kurdistan. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies created several countries within its former boundaries. Originally, Kurdistan along with Armenia was to be one of them, according to the never-ratified Treaty of Sèvres. However, the reconquest of these areas by Kemal Atatürk and other pressing issues caused the Allies to accept the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne, giving this territory to Turkey and leaving the Kurds without a self-ruled region. Other Kurdish areas were assigned to the new British and French mandated states of Iraq and Syria under both treaties. These boundaries were drawn with more concern for the division of oil resources and influence between different colonial powers and for rewarding pro-Allied Arab leaders than for ethnic distributions.

Since WWI, Kurds have been divided between several states, in all of which they are minorities. Many Kurds have campaigned for independence or autonomy, often through force of arms. However, there has been no support by any of the regional governments or by outside powers for changes in regional boundaries. A sizable Kurdish diaspora exists in Western Europe that participates in agitation for Kurdish issues, but most of the governments in the Middle East have historically banned open Kurdish activism.

In Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, Kurdish guerrilla groups, known in the Kurdish culture as 'Peshmerga', have fought for a Kurdish state. In Northern Iraq, Peshmerga fought against the Iraqi government before and during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and now police the Kurdish Autonomous Region there. Another militant group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have fought an armed campaign in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran for over thirty years. In Turkey, more than 30,000 Turkish and Kurdish people have died as a result of the war between the state and the PKK, with alleged atrocities being committed by both sides. There are also some casualties in Iran, Syria and Iraq.

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The Region

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Northern Kurdistan

Northern Kurdistan is a geo-cultural region located in present-day southeastern Turkey. After the Treaty of Sèvres, Kemal Atatürk often refered to a "Turco-Kurdish cooperation" during the years of Millî Mücadele ("National Struggle"). This was in accord with acts of the Ankara government such as sending a team of instructors to train the Kurdish rebels, who were then fighting against British troops in modern day Iraq under the banner of the Kingdom of Kurdistan. It is argued, but not proven, that Atatürk promised Kurdish people in North Kurdistan to respect the conditions of the Treaty of Sèvres, implying self-determination for the Kurdish people in exchange for their crucial help in defeating the Allies (The Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara, which was formed in 1920, had rejected the Treaty of Sèvres within the first weeks of its meetings, hence the doubt). As soon as victory over the allies was secured, Kurdish people started uprisings in eastern Turkey, which resulted in several reactions as soon as they were suppressed: publishing newspapers and speaking in Kurdish in government property was forbidden, and the Turkish Government started a "geographical nation policy". Since then, the constitution of the Republic of Turkey calls everybody who lives within the borders of Turkey a "Turk," declares the official language of Turkey (and of Turkish Government) "Turkish," and that education will be made in "Turkish." Kurds were officially referred to as "Mountain Turks".

Until the 1960s - 1970s speaking Kurdish was forbidden in all areas of public and private life in Turkey. Since the 1980s militant Kurdish organizations, such as the PKK, have campaigned for an independent Marxist state through force of arms, while other Kurdish activists that were campaigning constitutionally for the same ends were suppressed, as the government sought to put down all forms of separatism.

In 1999, a joint opperation by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT), and the Israeli Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks Agency (Mossad) located and arrested/captured the leader of the Kurdish terrorist group PKK, "Abdullah Ocalan", in Kenya. The Turkish Intelligence Agency later declared that he was staying in the Greek embassy in Nairobi with a Greek Cypriot passport, issued in Greece. The Greek bureaucrats responsible were forced to resign, and Abdullah Ocalan was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in the island of Imrali, Turkey. This is the only proven case of foreign assistance to the PKK.

As of 2005, PKK/KADEK is described as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.

Meanwhile over the last decade, to comply with the European Union's standards to start membership accession talks, the Turkish Government has lifted almost all the bans on Kurdish speech, press, visual/audio production, and education, and also started broadcasting Kurdish language programs in the government TV and radio channels. This, however, did not stop the PKK from breaking its ceasefire of 1999. The PKK has come under pressure fom Kurdish leaders recently to end its campaign, following overtures from the Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan.

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Southern Kurdistan

Southern Kurdistan is a geo-cultural region located in present-day Northern Iraq. The southern boundary of the present-day Kurdistan Regional Government – known as the 'Green Line' – passes roughly through the middle of the area in which most Iraqi Kurds live, leaving a number of Kurds outside the autonomous zone. On the other hand, this transitional region (which includes the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk) is ethnically quite diverse, as it includes the bulk of Iraqi Turkmen and Assyrians as well as large numbers of Sunni and Shia Arabs.

The Kurdish Autonomous Region was designated for three northern provinces in 1970. Since the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the Kurdistan Democratic Party under the leadership of Massoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan under the leadership of Jalal Talabani have controlled much of Southern Kurdistan. The capital of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region is Arbil (also known as Hewlêr in Kurdish), although the main Kurdish parties have indicated their preference for Kirkuk as the capital of an eventual Kurdish state. The latter city is currently hotly contested by Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen factions, and there is a strong and vocal opposition of Turkey to permanent Kurdish control of the city.

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Iranian (Eastern) Kurdistan

This area in Northwestern Iran along the borders of Iraq and Turkey spans (parts of) the provinces West Azarbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Ilam.

Kurds have been part of the Persian Empire(Iran) since its very beginning around 500 B.C., along with all other ethnic groups which make up the present-day nation of Iran. Although Iran had declared its neutrality in the second world war, it was occupied by allied forces. A Kurdish state was created in the city of Mahabad in 1946 by Kurdish collaborators of the occupying Soviet forces. The republic of Mahabad, as it is often called, lasted less than a year, however, as with the end of the war and the withdrawal of the occupying Soviet forces the central government crushed the separatists and returned Kurdistan to Iran.

In the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, all language minorities including Kurdish speakers have the right to teach the language in schools and have publications, although these rights are often not respected by the government. Several newspapers have been closed by the Iranian authorities because of alleged "promotion of Kurdish separatism". In 1978-83, the Iranian government brutally suppressed the democratic aspirations of the Kurdish people living in its four western provinces. The government sent in mechanized military divisions to Kurdish cities including Mehabad, Sine (Sanandaj), Pawe, and Marivan.

Half of the Kurdish population live under the administration of the "west Azerbaijan" province, in which ethnic Turks and Persians (mainly Shiites) have held a monopoly over important posts for the last 60 years. These areas were cut off the Kurdistan province after the Fall of the Mahabad Republic lead by Peshewa Qazi Muhammad.

Kurds also suffer immense discrimination in the Iranian legal system, in which Sunnis (which includes most of the Kurds) are barred from standing as candidates for important posts such as the Presidency.

The Shivan Qaderi Incident On July 9, 2005, a Kurdish opposition activist, Shivan Qaderi (a.k.a Shwane Qadri or Sayed Kamal Astam) and two other Kurdish men were shot by Iranian security forces in Mahabad. According to witnesses, the security forces then tied Qaderi's body to a Toyata jeep and dragged it through the streets. Iranian authorities confirmed that Qaderi, "who was on the run and wanted by the judiciary", was shot and killed while allegedly evading arrest.

For the next six weeks, riots and protests erupted in Kurdish towns and villages throughout Eastern Kurdistan: Mahabad, Sanandaj, Sardasht, Piranshahr, Oshnavieh, Baneh, Sinne, Bokan and Saqiz (and even inspiring protests in Southwestern Iran and in Baluchistan in Eastern Iran) with scores killed and injured, and an untold number arrested without charge. The Iranian authorities also shut down several major Kurdish newspapers arresting reporters and editors.

Links on the Shivan Qaderi Incident

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See also

Historically, Kurds have been subject to very harsh treatment by successive Iranian governments. One important example is the deportation of Kurds in 15-16th century during Safavid rule. "These began under the reign of the Safavid Shâh Tahmâsp I (r. 1524-1576). Between 1534 and 1535, Tahmâsp began the systematic destruction of the old Kurdish cities and the countryside." http://www.kurdistanica.com/english/history/deportation.html

These policies are very similar to the ethnic cleansing policies committed against Kurds in 20th century by Middle Eastern governments.

"Large numbers of Kurds from these areas found themselves deported to the Alburz mountains and Khurâsân, as well as the heights in the central Iranian Plateau. The Laks suffered most. At this time the last remnant of the ancient royal Hadhabâni (Adiabene) tribe of central Kurdistan was removed from the heartland of Kurdistan and deported to Khurâsân, where they are still found today " http://www.kurdistanica.com/english/history/deportation.html

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External links

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