The Kurds’ quest

Who are the Kurds?

The Kurds are tribal groups living primarily in a sprawling mountainous region that lies inside the borders of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. The 25 million Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a homeland. Although they consider themselves distinct from Arabs and Turks, they are probably descendants of ancient Arab and Turkoman tribes. About 12 million live in Turkey, 6 million in Iran, and about 3.5 million in northern Iraq, with the rest scattered throughout the Caucasus. Most are Sunni Muslim and speak various dialects of Kurdish. After centuries of conflict with other peoples, the Kurds have a strong cultural identity and a strong suspicion of outsiders; they describe themselves as a people with “no friends but the mountains.”

Why don’t they have a country?

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For more than 2,000 years, their homelands have been ruled by a succession of dynasties and nations. The Kurds have resisted this domination, often fiercely, but have also feuded among themselves and been repeatedly betrayed by world powers claiming to have their interests at heart. “They’ve been fairly regularly screwed throughout history,” says Larry P. Goodson, director of Middle East studies at the U.S. Army War College. Every foreign power who’s meddled in the region, he says, has followed this rule: “Make sure you screw the Kurds at least once.” The Arabs were among the first to take their turn, back in the sixth century B.C., and were followed by the Persians, Greeks, Macedonians, Armenians, Romans, and Byzantines. In the 11th century, the Ottoman Turks took over; their rule lasted until World War I. After the war, the Europeans decided to redraw the map of the Mideast.

Where did that leave the Kurds?

Mostly, in a new nation called Turkey. In 1932, the southern portion of the Kurdish lands was enclosed within a new nation called Iraq, whose borders were drawn by the British.

How did the Kurds react?

With periodic, violent uprisings against both their Turkish and Iraqi rulers. The rebellions were squelched, though for a brief time in the 1970s, Kurdish resistance leaders thought they had America’s support. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger promised them $16 million to bankroll a revolt against Saddam Hussein. But the offer was all part of a geopolitical chess game involving the U.S., Iraq, and the Shah of Iran. After secret negotiations, Saddam ceded some disputed land to the Shah, a U.S. ally. Kissinger then withdrew American support from the Kurds, and Saddam crushed the Kurdish uprising. When U.S. intelligence agents protested this bit of realpolitik, Kissinger remarked, “Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”

Did the Kurds give up?

No. When Iraq and Iran went to war in the 1980s, the Kurds seized the chance to rebel again. This time, Saddam decided to rid himself of the Kurdish resistance once and for all. First, he sent in troops to flatten Kurdish villages. Then his cousin Gen. Ali Hasan al Majid—nicknamed “Chemical Ali”—directed the Iraqi air force to drop mustard gas, nerve gas, and other chemical weapons on about 200 Kurdish villages. The single most deadly attack occurred in Halabja in March 1988; in just a few minutes, deadly chemicals wiped out 5,000 men, women, and children. When Saddam’s genocidal campaign was over, about 200,000 Kurds were dead.

Did this campaign succeed?

It only left the Kurds more determined to fight Saddam. In the Gulf War’s final stage, they heeded President George H.W. Bush’s call to the Iraqi people to rise up, and Kurdish fighters took over the entire north of Iraq. Their success, though, alarmed Turkey, which feared Turkish Kurds would be tempted to join their Iraqi cousins in forming a Kurdish state. With Turkey threatening to go to war against the Kurds, Bush decided not to help the Kurds when Saddam once again sought to punish them. As the U.S. stood by, Saddam sent in his helicopters and gunned down about 20,000 Kurds; about 2 million Kurds fled their homes. Only then did the U.S. and Britain establish a no-fly zone in northern Iraq, to prevent Saddam from inflicting any more damage.

Was the no-fly zone effective?

Yes. Under the protection of U.S. warplanes, the Kurds have enjoyed relative peace and security for 12 years. Though they still do not have a formal nation, there is an autonomous Kurdish government, with an elected parliament. The two main parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, fight frequently, but have so far managed to work together. Their stated goal is not independence but a role in a federalist Iraqi state. Some admit this is a temporary strategy designed to please the West. Sooner or later, says Rashid Karadaghi, a Kurdish columnist, his people will seek a state of their own. “Kurdish land is not Arab land, it is not Turkish land, it is not Persian land,” he says. “It is Kurdish land.”

What do the Turks think?

Sentiments like those deeply worry the Turks. Turkey already has several thousand troops stationed in northern Iraq to defend its border and keep its Kurdish population from getting any ideas. So far, the U.S. has been able to keep the Turks from sending more troops into Iraq. But that could change if the Turks feel threatened. A worst-case scenario would see a new war break out between Turkey and the Kurds, with U.S. troops in the middle. “The bottom line,” says Mensur Akgun of the Turkish Social and Economic Studies Foundation, “is that the Turks will do whatever they can to hinder the development of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq.”

The Kurd named Saladin