Kurdistan, the Middle East
The Kurdish people are an ethnic group native to western Asia whose population of around 30 million people is divided chiefly between four Middle Eastern countries – Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. Having been split between the Ottoman Empire and a succession of Iranian dynasties throughout the early modern period, the end of the First World War and the resultant dissolution of the former entity presented a unique opportunity for the realisation of Kurdish independence. This chance looked set to be taken when, in 1920, the victorious allied powers met with the defeated central powers in the Parisian commune of Sèvres to discuss the post-war settlement and division of the Ottoman territories. The proposed settlement, signed by all parties (including representatives of the Ottoman Empire), stipulated for the ceding of large swathes of Ottoman land to the Allied administration together with the creation of a sovereign Kurdish entity in the former Empire’s east. This entity would include only those Kurds currently living in what is modern day Turkey – Iraqi and Syrian Kurds would be included within British and French Mandates.
Nevertheless, this proposed autonomy was never to be realised. The terms outlined in the Treaty of Sèvres provoked the ire of Turkish nationalists, instigating what would later become known as the Turkish War of Independence. The nationalists’ victory saw the recapture of much of the land of which it would have been stripped by the settlement of Sèvres, including Kurdistan. The final settlement, reached by the Treaty of Lausanne three years later, had no room for an independent Kurdish entity after the region’s recapture by the forces of Kemal Atatürk. The Kurds in the east of what was formerly the Ottoman Empire would be subsumed into the Republic of Turkey, declared in October 1923, while those further south were split between the British Mandate for Mesopotamia and the French Mandate for Syria.
The Kurdish desire for independence began in earnest largely as a reaction to the Turkish ethno-nationalism which had become increasingly prevalent throughout the First World War and in its aftermath, expressing itself most tragically in the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides. During the war, over half a million Kurds had been displaced by Turkish military forces, partly with a view to frustrating their political unity. Several Kurdish agitations against Turkish rule ensued throughout the 1920s, culminating in the brief declaration of the Republic of Ararat in October 1927 – an entity which would only last for three years before being defeated by Atatürk’s forces (a similarly short-lived Kingdom of Kurdistan existed from 1922-24 in what is present-day Iraq, before the British defeated its forces and included the territory within its Mesopotamian Mandate). Continued revolts against Turkish rule throughout the 1930s led to the declaration of martial law and further displacement of Kurds before, during the 1950s, Kurdish parties began to integrate themselves into the Turkish political system. It was at this time, in 1946, that the Kurdistan Democratic Party – which would come to dominate Iraqi Kurdish politics from the 1990s onwards – was founded in Mahabad in Iran.
With increasing prohibitions placed on Kurdish communities and enforced resettlement in both Turkey and Iraq after the Second World War, Kurdish nationalism grew more prominent throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the former, this culminated in the founding by Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 1978, which raged a prolonged guerrilla war against the Turkish state from 1984 until Ocalan’s capture in 1999. In the latter, after continual strife throughout the 1960s produced a peace agreement ostensibly granting greater autonomy to Kurds, it seemed that similar conflict could be avoided. However, the failure to implement this agreement and its replacement with a weaker Law of Autonomy in 1974 reignited tensions. After the Iran-Iraq War erupted the following decade, the Iraqi army would soon turn brutally against its Kurdish citizens, displacing them, sending them to detention camps, and using chemical weapons against them. Eventually, autonomy would be realised in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) following the First Gulf War in 1991. A brief intra-Kurdish civil war would follow between the two parties administering this region – the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – before reconciliation was achieved.
The KRI remains the only legally mandated autonomous Kurdish region in the world having been recognised as such in the 2005 Iraqi constitution which followed the Anglo-American invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein. Since 2012, de facto autonomy has also existed for Rojava in Syria – a region with a substantial Kurdish population – since being established during fighting against the Syrian government and ISIL during the country’s ongoing civil war. Despite low-level guerrilla warfare being waged by a secessionist Kurdish group in western Iran since 2004, the relationship between Kurds and their central government here has been much more cordial (although there is still a considerable desire for greater autonomy). Tensions between the government and the Kurds continue in Turkey, as do concerns that Iraq could face further disruption in the wake of a 2017 Independence Referendum which demonstrated an overwhelming desire within the KRI to secede.
This problem is not one that can be solved purely by security measures. It requires all political parties, NGOs and all sections of society to act responsibly together in harmony.
Key Facts
5,196
People killed
2,000,000
People displaced
30 Million
Population
Where:
Kurdistan (crossing borders of Turkey, Iran , Iraq, Syria, Armenia).
Recognized Kurdish Regions: The Kurdistan Region (in Iraq) and the de-facto Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
The Key Actors
Turkey maintains 20% of the Kurdish population, yet the political ideology of the Turkish state has focused on the disarmament of PKK soldiers instead of improving minority rights and equality. Turkish officials have viewed the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Syrian Democratic Front as rebels of terrorist organizations. Furthermore, the Turkish state has continually countered the progress of Kurdish Independence and accuracy of information of the Kurdish conflict – especially in civilian deaths. Western Turkish cities such as Istanbul and Ankara have been heavily impacted by terror attacks allegedly conducted by the PKK and its affiliates.
Initially forming as a political interest group, the Kurdish Workers Party was a response to the ethnic discrimination and state repression of the Kurdish people in Turkey. Until 1984, the Kurdistan Workers Party became a body of armed resistance fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey. It has been deemed as a terrorist organization internationally ever since.
The People’s Protection Unit (YPG) is a homegrown defense force of Kurdish Syrians allied with Syrian, Assyrian, and Armenian Christians formed to combat against the Islamic State. Created after the Syrian Civil War, the YPG is a democratic socialist organization in which higher officials are elected by troops and equality regardless of gender, religion and ethnicity. Turkish leaders view the People’s Protection Unit as an extension of the Worker’s Peoples Party, which are both seen as terrorist organizations to the state. However, in reality they are separate entities entirely that at times may be closely allied.
The United States has developed a close relationship with the People’s Protection Unit (YPG) while assisting them in the fight against the Islamic State in 2016. Additionally, US multinational coalitions have helped the Syrian Democratic Forces in fighting for the Autonomous Administration in Northeastern Syria against the Islamic State. Ultimately, the US and the EU have opposed the referendum for Kurdish Independence in 2017 and Western powers fear that it could fragment Iraq causing broader ethnic and secular conflicts.
Iraq hosts 20% of the Kurdish population and implemented a new constitution in 2005 to form the Kurdish Region in Iraq (KRI) under a separate regional government. The central government of Iraq strongly opposes the cause for Kurdish Independence as it has the potential to fragment and weaken the country. Not only this, but also the development of a Kurdish state could cause more a threat to them than allyship. The Iraqi government has deemed the KRI’s Independence Referendum of 2017 as unconstitutional, denying the Kurdish people the right to autonomy at all costs.
With 11% of the ethnic Kurdish population residing in Iran, the state has ushered success in advocating for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Iran has exploited the concerns of the Kurdish people to expand its political strength and challenge the authority of neighboring countries, specifically Iraq. In 2014, Iran provided military support to fighting Peshmerga units (Kurdish) fighting the Islamic State before Western assistance arrived. Many Iranian militias have infiltrated the Kurdistan Region in Iraq maintaining a stronger influence than the Kurdish Regional Government.
Since the Syrian civil war, Kurdish militias have allied with other forces in defending Syrian territories against the Islamic State. This has allowed Syrian Kurds to develop de-facto autonomous Kurdish provinces, under the name Rojava. Although the country hosts 10% of the Kurdish population, the Syrian government still rejected the vote for the KRI Independence Referendum. Another contributing factor is that many Syrian Kurds are also satisfied with remaining a part of decentralized Syria.
The Israeli state is one of the few countries in the Middle Eastern region to support the autonomy and independence of the Kurdish populations. In 2017, Israel supported the Kurdish Independence Referendum while Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria backed out of the vote. Israel has had extensive security and business ties to the Kurdistan region and sees the autonomy of the Kurdish population as a potential ally.
The rise and fall of the Islamic State has been a unifying opposition to the Kurdish populations in these neighboring territories of the Middle East. The People’s Protection Unit (YPG), the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and Iraqi Kurds were crucial components in the fight against Islamic State. Not only did this conflict allow the Kurdish diaspora to gain ally-ship from the Soviet Union, the United States, and the European Union, but also showcased the Kurdish pleas for autonomy to be recognized by democratic countries internationally.
Russia has created alliances with the Kurdish populations for years, especially Syrian Kurds while fighting against the Islamic State in 2016. Russia’s stance on Kurdish Independence has been uncertain but the country supports the territorial integrity of the countries in the region. Russia has also delivered arms to Iraqi Kurds to support their fight against the Islamic State, and Russian oil investments are increasingly growing in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Situation
Classification: Ethnic Conflict/Independence
Analyst’s suggestions:
- Coming soon
Similar Humanitarian Crises
- Coming soon
Worsening
The Kurdish population has continually been denied full independence by the government of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The agendas of these neighboring countries is worsening the ethnic conflict for Kurdish independence. Turkish troops have recently been accused of 'ethnic cleansing' by burning the fields of Kurdish farmers. Turkey has also cut off water supplies to Kurdish refugees, which has impacted the welfare of the ethnic population especially as COVID-19 cases spike. Additionally, the end of 2020 also marks the first time that the populations of the autonomous Kurdistan region will be counted in the Iraqi census.
Timeline
The HEP is banned by the constitutional court of Turkey, limiting Kurdish representation. The court claimed that the HEP conducted actions that was against the Turkish constitution.
Turkey and Iran sign an agreement in order to tighten border control and prevent Kurdish rebels from illegally roaming across borders.
Turkey was largely violence free for 5 years. Pro-Kurdish party, HADEP, is able to win a sizeable amount of seats in the Turkish government.
PKK goes on to pursue political representation within the Turkish government. Death toll for this first insurgency is around 37,000.
Two Kurdish political parties, the Democratic Union Party and the Kurdish National Council form the YPG in order to protect Kurds in Syria
YPG defend Syrian Kurdistan from Al-Qaeda
YPG joins forces with the Free Syrian Army in order to battle ISIS
YPG engaged in further offensive attacks on ISIS with the monetary and military support of the United States
Turkey will carry out an operation east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria, in an area controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.
Tehran said it would internationally recognize three border crossings between the Kurdistan Region and Iran for trade and tourism.
Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria say their forces have started to withdraw from outposts along the Turkish border after the United States and Turkey reached a deal to establish a “safe zone” there earlier this month.
Turkey will launch its own operation to establish a “safe zone” in northern Syria if talks with the United States fail to give Turkish troops control of the area “within a few weeks”, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
The President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Masoud Barzani, has called on his party deputies in the Iraqi Parliament to defend the interests of the people of Kurdistan. Barzani on Sunday received a delegation from the Iraqi Council of Representatives which consisted of KDP members in the Iraqi government.
Political concerns among Kurds and Turkmens in Iraq may impede the country’s census, set to be held by late 2020, especially in the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Iraq’s last population census in 1997 put the country’s population at 16 million, excluding Iraqi Kurdistan. It was estimated there were 3 million Kurds. Those figures are now out of date, and the real population unknown.
U.S. President Donald Trump has given Turkish President Erodgan the greenlight to begin a military operation in northern Syria and create a safe zone” in the area by withdrawing U.S. troops from the area, in a statement released on twitter. The area is currently controlled by the Kurdish forces and their allies, and is home to the ethnic Kurdish population.
Turkey’s army has launched an offensive in northern Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday, as part of an operation to move US-backed Kurdish forces away from its border.
The Syrian army has begun deploying its troops to northern Syria battlefronts to “confront a Turkish aggression” on Syrian territory, after the Kurds asked the Syrian government in Damascus for support.
The United States is poised to withdraw some 1,000 troops from northern Syria, its defense secretary said on Sunday, after learning that Turkey planned to extend its military incursion against Kurdish militia further south than originally planned.
Turkish forces approached a key Kurdish-held town in northern Syria on Sunday, setting off clashes that allowed hundreds of ISIS supporters to escape from a camp for displaced people near a U.S.-led coalition base.
Germany and France said Saturday they would not export any more weapons to Turkey that could be deployed in the country’s military operation in Syria.
Washington and Ankara have agreed on a five-day ceasefire in Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria. The U.S. said Ankara would pause its offensive, dubbed Operation Peace Spring, for 120 hours in order to allow the Kurdish Protection Units (YPG) to pull 30km back from the Turkey-Syria border.
A senior Syrian Kurdish official has said his forces will pull back from a border area in accordance with a US-brokered deal after Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters and civilians from a besieged town in northeast Syria.
Russia has warned Kurdish forces to quickly withdraw from the Turkey-Syria border – after a deal between Moscow and Ankara – or be crushed by the Turkish army, adding that the United States had “betrayed and abandoned” the Syrian fighters.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have not fully withdrawn from the Syria-Turkey border territory as agreed in a Russia-brokered accord, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said, as Turkey prepares to discuss its next steps with Russia.
One-hundred-and-fifty delegates representing Syria’s government, opposition and various sectors of civil society are meeting in Geneva to try to draft a new constitution. The UN says the talks will be “Syrian-owned and Syrian-led”, and could pave the way for reforms and elections. It suggests they might, eventually, lead to peace negotiations.
Russia and Turkey on Friday began jointly patrolling north-eastern Syria after a deal that stopped Turkey’s military offensive in the region and forced the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.
At least 13 people were killed by a car bomb in the northern Syrian border town of Tal Abyad, Turkish authorities said.
United States Vice President Mike Pence has arrived in Iraq on an unannounced visit to US troops at the al-Asad airbase in Anbar province in the western part of the country rocked by weeks of anti-government protests.
Pence, on his first visit to Iraq, on Saturday also spoke on the phone with the embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and met the president of the autonomous Kurdistan region, Nerchirvan Barzani, in Erbil. According to a source at the premier’s office, the phone call involved a discussion around ways to strengthen bilateral relations between the US and Iraq, and possible solutions to the current crisis in the oil-rich country.
Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) has reached an agreement with Baghdad on the budget and oil, which includes providing Baghdad 250,000 barrels of oil per day for the first time since 2014, said the region’s finance minister on Thursday in a conference.
Mazloum Kobani, commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has expressed the group’s readiness for dialogue with Turkey.
Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi is set to announce his new government, but he has not consulted major Kurdish and Sunni parties about the formation of his cabinet. Kurdish and Sunni leaders met to call for an Iraqi government which is representative of Iraq’s culturally diverse population.
In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), a dispute between the Sur Gas Company and Golden Jaguar – each aligned to opposing factions in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) – leaves many in the region without gas for cooking or heating as temperatures drop below zero. Public anger leads to some anti-corruption protests across the region.
Nine people are killed in a terrorist attack carried out by white supremacist Tobias R in the German city of Hanau. The 43-year-old strikes two shisha lounges frequented by Turkish and Kurdish communities, who number among the victims.
A report commissioned by the UN finds that rebels allied to Turkey committed abuses in Kurdish-held areas of Syria which could see Turkish commanders held liable for war crimes.
As 80 cases of Covid-19 are confirmed across Iraq, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq scraps Friday prayers in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.
The Turkish defence ministry attributes the deaths of two soldiers to mortar attacks allegedly carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey boasts of “neutralising” PKK targets in retaliation.
US-led forces pull out of K1 airbase from which they had been launching attacks on ISIL forces and Iranian-backed militias. The surrounding area remains disputed territory between the Iraqi government and the autonomous Kurdish region.
The director of the National Iranian Gas Company, Medhi Jamshidi-Dana, accuses activists from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of carrying out a “terrorist attack” on a gas pipeline inside Turkey, halting gas exports to the country from Iran.
After rejecting the candidacy of Adnan al-Zurfi, Nechirvan Barzani – the president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq – confirmed his backing for Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
In the Kurdish-run areas of north-east Syria, medical personnel are forced to fashion protective gear out of rubbish bags amid a shortage in supplies. The provision of UN shipments via Iraq had previously been vetoed by Russia.
A fuel truck explosion in the Turkish-controlled northern Syrian town of Afrin claims the lives of at least 46 people. The Turkish government blames the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) for the attack.
Turkish warplanes launch a series of strikes against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) strongholds in northern Iraq. More than 80 sites are hit, drawing condemnation from Iraq’s Joint Operations Command which condemned the strikes as “provocative”.
Turkish fighter jets continue to bomb Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and claim to have hit more than 500 of their targets in the country. Iraq has called upon Ankara to stop violating its sovereignty and bring an end to the strikes immediately.
A Kurdish shepherd has been revealed as the first known casualty of Turkey’s air strikes against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq. Turkey’s “Operation Claw-Tiger” has ostensibly been launched in response to increased cross-border terrorist activity by the PKK. Iraq has condemned the actions.
One is killed and 6 wounded as a Turkish air strike hits a car in northern Iraq. The strikes are part of the continuing operation ‘Claw-Tiger’ purportedly targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the region. At least 5 civilians and 3 soldiers have so far been killed during the operation.
The Turkish defence ministry confirms the death of a soldier during clashes with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) forces in northern Iraq. The death comes following days of heavy aerial bombardment of the area by Turkey in an operation dubbed “Claw-Tiger”.
Three Kudistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters are killed by Turkish jets in northern Iraq, according to a statement released by the Turkish defence ministry. Military equipment belonging to the group is also purportedly destroyed.
The Turkish-held Syrian town of Ras al-Ain is hit by an explosion at a vegetable market. The blast kills 8 people and wounds a further 19, with Turkey’s defence ministry blaming the attack on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
A car bomb targeting a checkpoint operated by forces supported by the Turkish government results in the deaths of five people in north-eastern Syria. The bombing in the village of Tal Halaf leaves a further 12 people wounded, with Turkish officials suggesting Syrian Kurdish fighters may have been responsible for the blast.
The Syrian government has accused the US of trying to steal its oil, after one of its oil companies signed an agreement with the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Statements in recent days indicate the US government was both aware and in favour of the deal, which Syrian officials have described as “without legal basis”.
The Iraqi army has claimed that a Turkish drone strike has killed two border guard battalion commanders in the Bradost area of northern Iraq. The strikes form part of a weeks’ long raid on the area, which is intended to stifle Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militiamen who allegedly operate in the area.
Iraq has responded angrily to the apparent violation of its sovereignty by Turkish military forces attacking Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in the north of the country, which saw two high-ranking Iraqi military officers killed in a drone strike. Iraqi officials are set to provide the ambassador with a letter of protest and will no longer welcome the Turkish defence minister for a scheduled visit later in the week.
Turkey vows to continue its assaults against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq, despite heightened tensions over the violation of its neighbour’s sovereignty. Turkish officials have remained defiant, claiming it is Baghdad’s duty to deal with the “terrorist threat” represented by the PKK’s presence in the country.
Over 600 former ISIL fighters are released by Kurdish authorities in northern Syria, as the head of the Syrian Democratic Council Amina Omar says that they have relinquished any ties to or affinity with the terrorist group.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) offices in Baghdad are burned down by supporters of Hashd al-Shaabi. The group is dominated by pro-Iranian, anti-US factions and some were seen carrying posters of assassinated general Qasem Soleimani.
The lawyer of an imprisoned Kurdish journalist in northern Iraq has accused authorities of torturing him while he is being held in Erbil prison. Sherwan Amin Sherwani has been kept in solitary confinement for almost two months. He was arrested after being openly critical of Kurdish authorities on social media.
Increasing skirmishes between the forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have led to fears that a full-scale war could break out between the two bodies.
Masrour Barzani, the Prime Minister in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, has blamed the central government in Baghdad for the region’s economic concerns. Unpaid salaries, which have been the cause of protests across the region, have apparently resulted from the failure of the capital to send the KRG’s share of the national budget.
The Kurdish Peshmerga and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) forces exchanged fire in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as tension between the groups intensifies. One member of each of the groups was killed in the skirmish.
Leyla Guven, a former deputy of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), is sentenced to a 22-year term in prison by a Turkish court for terror-related offences. She was convicted of being the member of a “terror group” and disseminating “terrorist propaganda”.
Increasingly violent clashes between the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in north-east Syria and the Turkish-supported Syrian National Army (TSNA) have seen nearly 10,000 people flee their homes in Ain Issa. Turkish-backed forces have been shelling the city daily for the past week.
Lawyers Walk Out Of Turkish Court At Pro-Kurdish Party Members’ Trial, Alleging Further Abuse By Turkish Authorities To Harm The Party And Crush Dissent
On Monday 26th of April, at a trial of members belonging to Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, defence lawyers walked out of court after alleging unfair
Pro-Kurdish Former Lawmaker Imprisoned On Terrorism Charges, Growing Concerns Over Turkey’s Violations of Rights and Freedoms
On Monday 21st of December, a Turkish court sentenced former Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Guven to more than twenty-two years in jail for three separate terrorism
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Since early 2011, civil war has raged in Syria after anti-government protests turned violent and spiralled out of control during the wave of uprisings across
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