Kurdistan A Stateless Nation A Brief History of

Kurdistan A Stateless Nation

A Brief History of Kurdistan • Early Conquerors • Ancient Persians from the east and Alexander the Great from the west • Muslim Arabs in the 7 th Century from the south • Seljuk Turks in the 11 th Century from the east • The Mongols in the 13 th Century from the east • Medieval Persians from the east and the Ottoman Turks from the north in the 16 th Century • The United States in its 2003 invasion of Iraq • Their traditional nomadic lifestyle and the inhospitable mountain homeland provide a natural means to evade marauding armies that would subject indigenous people to rape, murder and genocide. • Because the Kurds have remained a separate ethnic group, they’ve always sought autonomy and independence. These aspirations have resulted in almost continuous conflict and a history of repression, resiliency and reinvention in the face of existential threats by the Turks, Arabs and Iranians and their forebears.

• After a series of colonial treaties put forth by the United Kingdom and France after WWI formed spheres of influence in the form of nation-states, the Kurds were essentially written off as a sovereign nation, and all forms of referendum failed. • From the end of World War I to the Gulf War in 1990, the Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria fought separate guerrilla campaigns to achieve autonomy. All of the campaigns were forcibly put down and the Kurdish people suffered greater repression each time. • After the Gulf War in 1990 -1991 and the enforcement by the Americans of a no-fly zone in Iraqi Kurdistan region, the Iraqi Kurds had autonomy. However, supply routes were blockaded by the Iraqis and the Kurds suffered great hardship. • What has proven to be the key in establishing independence for Kurdistan, but has been missing in Kurdistan’s quest for autonomy, is the support of a superpower. Other minority nation-states who have established their own nation-state in the region have done so with the support of a superpower: Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan had the Soviet Union; Israel had Great Britain and the U. S.

Kurdistan Today • The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the latest existential threat, now controls a large swath of land straddling the Iraq and Syrian borders. ISIS is attacking Kurdish cities in both Syria and Iraq. The Peshmerga, which also includes women, is defending and attempting to retake cities which were previously under the control of the Kurds. • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=ts. Ok. Wgzg. W-o • Kurdistan is a land-locked country dependent on its neighbors for access to markets for both supplies and to export oil – Kurdistan’s main economic resource. Given the history of the region and the geographic significance of Kurdistan as one of the crossroads of the Middle East, the potential for continued conflict is extremely high. If Kurdistan hopes to survive as an independent nation-state, it must prove to be strong enough to defend itself against the inevitable existential threats that will present itself and establish peaceful relationships with its neighbors despite a history of conflict, distrust and grievances

• https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=r. FQdw. Nzz. TP 4