POLS 446A
Kurds
“I am reminded daily since I returned to Iraq, your western societies took hundreds of years to get that far. Modernity is the rejection of so many traditions and sources of identity. We are not anywhere near that point.”
Barham Salih, Kurd and Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq
Who are the Kurds?
- World’s largest ethnic group without a state
- Estimates of 30 to 38 million divided up into four states and diaspora
- Turkey: 15 to 20 million
- Iran: 6-8 million
- Iraq: 6 million
- Syria: 2 million
- Large diaspora: Europe (Germany/France), Azerbaijan, the Stans
- Indo-European people
- Ethnically closer to Persians that Arabs
- Sumerian cuneiform
- “in the land of Karda”, 5,000 years ago
- Religion:
- Mostly Sunni Muslims but there is a wide variety of belief systems
Language
- Kurdish language has two main, distinct dialects and numerous other dialects
- Kurmanji in the north and Sorani in the south
- Kurmanj speakers
- More tribalized, clannish, less modern
- Soran speakers
- More urban, culturally more advanced, in comparison
- Sometimes so diverse as to be unintelligible
- Written language divided in to Arabic, Cyrillic and Latin scripts
- But mostly an oral tradition
Kurds
- Before 20th Century
- Traditional Kurds were nomadic goat and sheep herders in the highlands of modern day Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria
- Agriculture not their strong suit
- Lived in hovels and tents
- Isolated in mountainous communities they were mostly cut off from civilization
- Frequent feuds and power struggles between different factions and tribes
- Nature of the terrain lend itself to isolation and distrust
- There was at one point an Ottoman province of Kurdistan
- Essentially a buffer region between the various Persian empires and the various Arab/Byzantine/Ottoman Empire
- Lived in more or less harmony with the sedentary, agricultural valley folk
After the Ottomans
- Treaty of Sevres (1920): Ending WWI
- Created Iraq, Syria, Kuwait and included the possibility of a Kurdistan
- Turkey refused to acknowledge the Treaty of Sevres and any ethnic differences between Turks and Kurds
- Attempts to stop their nomadic wanderings
- Forced urbanization
- Kurdish language and dress prohibited
Post World War I
- Not in the British or French self-interest to further dilute their mandates into a Kurdistan
- Kurds effectively divided into four separate pieces
- Their little political and economic power, once divided, had no chance against the larger relatively more modern states rising up around them
- Series of sporadic revolts against the states they found themselves in
- Little trust or coordination between the various groups within the region of Kurdistan
Kurds: Between Iraq and a hard spot
- Kurds in northern Iraq under the British mandate
- Revolt in 1919
- Again in 1923
- And again in 1932
- All are crushed
- Kurds struggle against the Iraqi government but can not win any decisive victories
- But they can at least publish books, newspapers and magazines in Kurdish
- Peshmerga: “those who face death”
A plaything for the more powerful: 1946 to 2003
- Post World War II
- Soviets attempt to establish a client Kurdish state in northern Iran
- Crushed by the Iranians after 11 months
- Marxist ideology throws in another complication
- The United States also becomes interested in preventing a Kurdish Nation
- Support for Turkey and a pro-west government in Iran become an increasingly desirable goal
- Shifting loyalties of the states in the region created opportunities for Kurdish movements but difficult to parley into an independent nation
A plaything for the more powerful
- Iraq’s shift to the Soviet sphere in 1958 induced the West, and their client state Iran, to encourage the Kurds in Iraq to agitate for more autonomy
- Meanwhile Kurds in Iran were being encouraged by the Soviets, and their client state Iraq, to agitate for more autonomy
- Both states wanted to use the Kurds for their political purposes and would abandon them when that purpose was achieved
- Iran 1975
- Betrayed by the Shah
A plaything for the more powerful
- No state in the region wanted an independent Kurdistan
- Only provide enough weapons and support to be a nuisance to the other state
- Once armed, the Kurds struck for greater political power within their respective states
- The states usual response:
- settle when the state was weak and distracted
- Renege on settlement when they regained their power
- The Kurds’ internal dissonance was enough to prevent them from becoming a more powerful cohesive force
A plaything for the more powerful
- Various moves and counter-moves by the Kurdish leaders made perfect sense but they are limited by their own weakness
- Each incursion into Kurdish dominated territory by a state would unleash thousands of refugees
- Population repeatedly whipsawed back and forth
- Very little economic development by their states
- Dependent upon the other state sponsorship for critical supplies
Kurdish Players Scorecard
- PUK
- Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
- Led by Jalal Talabani
- More urban/modern and less tribal. Left leaning. Border with Iran
- KDP
- Kurdish Democratic Party
- Led by Massoud Barzani
- More clannish and tribal based. Northwestern Iraq-Turkish border
- PKK
- Kurdistan Workers Party
- Mostly based in Turkey
- Seeks an independent Kurdistan in the Kurdish areas of Turkey
Kurds: Between Iraq and a hard spot: 1980 to 2002
- Saddam and Arabization project
- Ethnic cleansing of the Kurds
- Thousands of Kurds pushed north
- Arabs encouraged to settle
- Kirkuk
- 2nd largest oil field in Iraq
- One million barrels a day
- 10 billion barrels of proven reserves
- Others may be nearby
Kurds: Between Iraq and a hard spot
- 1980s
- Saddam attempted to completely suppress Kurdish society
- thousands killed
- Tens of thousands jailed
- Hundreds of villages razed
- Chemical attacks on Kurdish towns and villages
- Halabja: 5,000 killed in 1987
- Nerve, mustard, sarin
Kurds: Post Operation Desert Storm
- 1991
- After the defeat of the Iraqi army in Kuwait the Kurds rose up in rebellion
- Saddam crushed the rebellion, killed thousands
- Cut off all food, fuel, power to the region
- Drove nearly a million north toward Turkey and Iran
- Turkey protested heavily
- Operation “Provide Comfort” and the Northern No-Fly Zone was established
- U.S. and Turkey needed to convince the Kurds it was safe to return to their homes north of the green line
Kurds: Post Operation Desert Storm
- 1994-98
- Civil war between the two main Kurdish factions
- PUK and the KDP
- PUK slightly more successful until the KDP leader invited in some Iraqi Army forces to regain territory lost to the PUK
- KDP’s leader branded as a traitor to the Kurdish cause
- September of 1998
- Two sides agreed to a power sharing arrangement
- Two capitals
- Irbil
- Sulaimaniyah
“Kurdistan”: Post Saddam
- Setting up a nearly autonomous federal republic within the confines of an Iraqi state
- Own flag
- Kurdish language
- School curriculum
- Need Iraq
- Access to the sea
- Sovereign power
- Neighboring countries too powerful
- But vast majority of Iraqi Kurds want independence
- Leaders are not so keen on self-determination
- Shifting and evolving power relations between Sunni, Shiite Arabs and the Sunni Kurds
- Turkey: Majority of Kurds in region
- A separate Kurdish State in Iraq or Syria inherently destabilizing all of southeast Turkey
- Syria/Central Iraq:
- ISIS: Rise of Arab-Sunni Nationalism under the guise of fundamentalist Islam
- Kurds not especially keen to fall under the sway of a Sunni Arab dictator anytime soon.
- Power vacuum in Iraq and Syria
- Sunni and Shia Arabs weakening each other
- Can the Kurds take advantage?
“Kurdistan”: Regional
“Kurdistan”
- What are the options for the current leaders of the Kurds?
- Iran
- Turkey
- Shiite dominated Iraqi central government
- Syria
- How are they similar to the Palestinians?
- How are they different?
- Effects of Nationalism?