Kurd and Proud

Kurdish Dance - Halparke - هه‌ڵپه‌ركێ

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:42:55 +0000

Kurdish dance (Kurdish: Govend, هه‌ڵپه‌ركێ / Hilperkê ) is a group of traditional hand-holding dances similar to those from the Balkans, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. It is a form of round dancing, with a single or a couple of figure dancers often added to the geometrical centre of the dancing circle. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Kurds sing and dance in all of their festivals, birthdays, circumcisions, marriage ceremonies, peasant gatherings and some religious ceremonies. Its noteworthy that these folkloric dances are mixed-gender which distinguishes the Kurds from a few other neighbouring Muslim populations^.

Roots of Kurdish dance

Kurdish dances reflect samples of Kurdish life over the past thousands of years. Rhythmic and elegant movements (originating from historical record, geographical location, the Kurdish way of living, beliefs, work and struggle, war and quarrel), are called called Halparke (or Helperkê/Hilperkê in Kurdish alphabet). Halparke has got its special place in Kurd’s culture in a way that knowing about that needs the deep and valid slight of the viewer to watch the dancers’ singing and giving thanks in Hoshar fighting against cruelty in Zangi joy and happiness in Garyan, etc..

The dancers, hand in hand, are depositaries of centuries of revealed culture in Halparke that indicates their unity in history. These movements differ in different parts of Kurdistan from the variety point of views, and joy and worry have their own special place. Some kinds of these rhythms wear out and are forgotten through the passage of time.

Variations

In every dance one dancer falls or comes to the head of the circle whom is called ‘Serchopí’, holding a colorful or symbolic object in his/her right hand. It is a tradition that no one take his/her place until he/she leads the dancers group at least one circle. The rest of dancers are called Gawaní. Sometimes Gawaní is also primarily called to the last dancer of the circle.

Some Kurdish dances have various and numerous versions such as following:

Dilan
Sepe
Chapi

The Geryan version is a fast motive dance. In the Dilan version, the dancers on the circular path consist, usually, of alternating men and women holding hands and colourful handkerchiefs called desroke, in a semi-circle, and moving around the circle with the leading and trailing persons waving their kerchiefs in elaborate motions. The leading individual often accentuates the customary steps and motions for the dance by displaying more energy or even by adding to the standard moves some of his own personal liking. Chapi comes from the word “chep” or “chap” meaning “left”. It is one of the more simple Kurdish dances. It consists of stepping forward on the left foot twice and then stepping back on the right foot twice while traveling in a circle. Sepe is similar to chepi but with motion towards the center of the circle and hitting the right foot roughly to the ground. There are also other variations used by Kurds.

Who Are the Kurds

Kurd — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:59:12 +0000

A brief survey of The History of the Kurds

Who Are the Kurds?

Brushing over a depiction of 25 centuries of history in half an hour is obviously a tough task. That means about one minute per century! In this quick skimming through 1 can limit myself to merely pointing out a few major landmards and mentioning facts likely to help in the understanding of the present situation of the Kurds. 1 hope the specialists present here won’t hold this approach of reducing and simplifying against me and, in response to questions raised during the discussion, I’d be happy to consider any aspect, which seems to you to have been insufficiently covered, in more depth.

The first question which comes to mind is that of the origins of the Kurds. Who are they? Where do they come from? Historians generally agree to consider them as belonging to the Iranian branch of the large family of Indo-European races. In prehistoric times, kingdoms called Mitanni, Kassites and Hourites reigned these mountainous areas, situated between the Iranian plateau and the Euphrates. In VII BC, the Medes, the Kurds’ equivalent of the Gauls for the French, founded an empire which, in 612 BC, conquered the powerful Assyria and spread its domination through the whole of Iran as well as central Anatolia. The date 612, is moreover, considered by Kurdish nationalists as the beginning of the 1st Kurdish year; for them we are at present in 2601!

The political reign of the Medes was to end towards the end of 6 BC, but their religion and civilization were to dominate Iran until the time of Alexander the Great. From this date right until the advent of Islam, the fate of the Kurds, who geographers and Greek historians call Karduchoi, was to remain linked to that of the other populations of the empires which succeeded one another on the Iranian scene: Seljuks, Parthes and Sassanids.

Having put up fierce resistance to the Arabo-Muslim invasions, the Kurds ended up joining Islam, without, as a result, becoming Arabized. This resistance continued for about a century. The Kurdish tribes resisted the Arab tribes for social rather than religious reasons. All methods were used to coax the Kurds and convert them to Islam, even, for example, the matrimonial strategy, the mother of the last Omayyad caliph, Marwan Hakim, was Kurdish.

Due to the weakening of the caliphs’ power, the Kurds, who already had a key role in the arts, history and philosophy fields, begin to assert, from the middle of the IXth century onwards, their own political power. In 837, a Kurdish lord, of the name Rozeguite, founds the town of Akhlat on the banks of Lake Van and makes it the capital of his principality, theoretically vassal of the caliph, but in actual fact virtually independent. In the second half of the Xth century Kurdistan is shared amongst 4 big Kurdish principalities. In the North, the Shaddadids, (951-1174), in the East, the Hasanwayhids (959-1015) and the Banu Annaz (990-1116) and in the West the Marwanids (990-1096) of Diyarbakir. One of these dynasties would have been able, during the decades, to impose its supremacy on the others and build a state incorporating the whole Kurdish country if the course of history hadn’t been disrupted by the massive invasions of tribes surging out of the steppes of Central Asia. Having conquered Iran and imposed their yoke on the caliph of Baghdad, the Seljuk Turks annexed the Kurdish principalities one by one. Around 1150, the sultan Sandjar, the last of the great Seljuk monarchs, created a province from Kurdistan.

Up until then the Kurds’ lands were cal - led the Media by Greek geographers, the “Djibal”, which means the mountain for the Arabs. It’s thus a Turkish sultan who, in homage to the distinctive personality of the Kurdish country, gives it the name Kurdistan. The province of Kurdistan, formed by Sandjar, had as its capital the village Bahâr (which means spring), near ancient Ecbatane, capital of the Medes. It included the vilayets of Sindjar and Shahrazur to the west of the Zagros massif and those of Hamadan, Dinaver and Kermanshah to the east of this range. Thus, as a whole this designation only recovered a southern part of ethnic Kurdistan. A brilliant autochthonous civilization developed around the town of Divaver-today ruined - 75km North-East of Kermanshah, whose radiance was than partially replaced by that of Senna, 90km further North.

Only about twelve years after the disappearance of the last great Seijuk, a Kurdish dynasty, that of the Ayyubids (1169-1250), founded by the famous Saladin emerges and takes over the leadership of the muslim world for about a century, until the Turko-Mongolian invasions of the XIIIth century. The high-ranking figure of Saladin and his exploits against the crusaders are sufficiently well-known in Europe. His empire incorporated, as well as almost the whole of Kurdistan, all Syria, Egypt and Yemen. It was a bit like the Germanic Roman Empire claiming to reassemble peoples, kingdoms and principalities of Catholic Europe. It was the time of the Crusades, of the hegemony of the religious on the political and the national. Saladin was, thus, no more of a Kurdish patriot than Saint Louis was a French nationalist.

With the emergence of Kurdistan as a recognized geographical entity, the supremacy of a Kurdish dynasty on the muslim world and the blossoming of an important written literature in the Kurdish language, the XIIth century is assuredly a rich period in the events of Kurdish history. It’s also during the course of this century that the Nestorian church with its metropolitan centre in Kurdistan, develops with extraordinary rapidity, its missions spreading across the whole of Asia, as far as Tibet, Sin Kiang, Mongolia and Sumatra. The most spectacular success of these missions was the conversion of the great Mongolian Khan Guyuk in 1248. Also in 1253, Saint Louis sent Guillaume de Rubrouck, who played an important role in what was called the “Mongolian crusade” to him in Baghdad. In 1258, when the Mongolian Hulagu, influenced by these missions, takes Baghdad, he puts the caliph to death but sees to it that the palace is given to the Nestorian Catholics. At the end of the XIIIth century, Islam gains the upper hand over the Mongolians and the Nestorians are massacred. The centre of their patriarchate moves in the course of the centuries but still remains in Kurdistan.

In the second half of the XVth century the Kurdish country ends up by recovering from the effects of the Turko-Mongolian invasions and by taking the form of an autonomous entity, united by its language, culture and civilization, but politically split up into a series of principalities. However, at least amongst the well-read, there’s a keen awareness of belonging to a single country. A XVIth century poet, Melaye Djaziri, from the principality of Bohtan, considered as the Kurdish Ronsard introduces himself in these terms:

I am the rose of Eden of Bohtan.
I am the torch of the nights of Kurdistan.

At the beginning of the XVIth century the Kurdish country becomes the main stake of the rivalties between the Ottoman and Persian empires. The new shah of Persia, who has imposed Shfisme as the state religion, tries to spread it across the neighbouring countries. The Ottomans, from their side, want to put a stop to the shah’s expansionist aims and to assure their Iranian border in order to be able to embark on the conquest of the Arab countries. Caught in the pincer movement of the two giant powers, the Kurds, politically split, had no chance of surviving as an independent entity. In 1514, the Turkish sultan inflicted a bitter defeat on the shah of Persia. Fearing that his victory, would be short-lived, he looked for ways of assuring this difficult Iranian border permanently. At this point one of his most valued advisors, the Kurdish scholar, Idrissi Bitlissi, came up with the idea of recognizing all the former rights and privileges of the Kurdish princes in exchange for a commitment from the latter to guard this border themselves and to fight at the side of the Ottomans in the case of a Persan-Ottoman conflict. The Turkish sultan Selim the 1st gives his support to the plan of his Kurdish advisor, who went to see the Kurdish princes and lords one by one to convince them that it was in the interest of the Kurds and the Ottomans to conclude this alliance.

Confronted with the choice of being annexed at some point by Persia or formally accepting the supremacy of the Ottoman sultan in exchange for a very wide autonomy, the Kurdish leaders opted for this second solution and thus Kurdistan, or more exactly its countless fiefs and principalities entered the Ottoman bosom by the path of diplomacy. Idrissi Bidlissi’s mission was facilitated by the fact that he was a well-known and respected scholar and, above all, by the immense prestige of his father, the Sheikh Hussameddin who was a very influential sufi spiritual chief. Bidlissi is also the author of the first treaty of the General History of the Ottoman Empire.

This particular status was to assure Kurdistan about three centuries of peace. The Ottomans controlled some strategic garrisons on the Kurdish territory, but the rest of the country was governed by the Kurdish lords and princes. As well as a string of modest hereditary seigniories, Kurdistan totalled 17 principalities of hukumets possessing a wide autonomy. Someof them for example those of. Ardalan, Hisn Kaif’ Bohtan, and Rowanduz were endowed with attributes of independence. Despite interferences from time to time from the central power, this particular status, to the satisfaction of the Kurds and the Ottomans, functioned without any major hitch until the beginning of the XIXth century. The Ottomans, protected by the powerful Kurdish barrier against Iran, were able to concentrate their forces on other fronts. As for the Kurds, they were virtually independent in the management of their affairs. They lived in seclusion of course and their country was split amongst a series of principalities, but in this same era Germany totalled some 350 autonomous states and Italy was much more broken up than Kurdistan. Every Kurdish court was the centre of an important literary and artistic life. And as a whole, despite the political division, this period in fact constitutes the golden age of Kurdish literary, musical, historical and philosophical creation. In 1596, prince Sheref Khan finishes his monumental “Sherefnamch or splendours of the Kurdish nation”. The theological schools of Chre and Zakho are renowned in the entire muslim world, the town of Akhlat endowed with an observatory is known for its teaching of natural sciences, masters of suffism like are revered even in Istanbul for their spiritual teaching and their musical genius. Certain ambitious Kurds such as the poets Nabi, Nefi, write in Turkish to win the favour of the sultan.

With the exception of some visionary spirits like the great XVI I th century Kurdish poet, Ehmede Khani, the well-read Kurds and Kurdish princes seem to believe that their status is going to last eternally and feel no need to change it. In 1675, more than a century before the French Revolution, which spreads the idea of the nation and the state-nation in the West, the poet Khani, in his epic in verse “Mem-o-Zin”, calls the Kurds to unite and create their own unified state. he’ll scarcely be listened to by either the aristocracy or the population. On Islamic ground, like elsewhere at the same epoch of Christianity, the religious conscience generally prevails over the national conscience. Every prince is preoccupied by the interests of his dynasty, and family, clan or dynastic dynamics often count more than any other consideration. It wasn’t rare to see the Kurdish dynasties reign over the non-Kurdish populations. In the XIth century, for example, Farsistan, a Persian province par excellence, was governed by a Kurdish dynasty; from 1242 to 1378 Khorassan an Iranian province in the North-East also had a Kurdish dynasty, and from 1747 to 1859 this was the case for distant Baluchistan, which is to day part of Pakistan. So the fact that a certain proportion of the Kurdish territory is governed by foreign dynasties oughtn’t seem unacceptable to contemporary people.

The idea of the nation-state and of nationalism is an avatar of the French Revolution. It quickly found a particularly prosperous ground in two divided countries and partly subjugated Germany and Italy. It’s German thinkers such as Goerres, Brentano and Grimm who laid down the postulate in accordance with which the political, geographical and linguistic borders were to coincide. They dreamt of a Germany reassembling in one state the string of its small autonomous states. Pan-Germanism in turn inspired other nationalist movements such as pan Slavism and pan-Turkism. These ideas were to find success rather later on, towards 1830, in Kurdistan where the Prince of Rowanduz, Mir Mohammed, was to fight from 1830 to 1839 in the name of his ideas for the creation fo a unified Kurdistan.

In fact, up until then, since they hadn’t been threatened in their privileges, the Kurdish princes contented themselves with administrating their domain, whilst, at the same time paying homage to the distant sultan-caliph of Constantinople. As a general rule, they weren’t to rise up and attempt to create a unified Kurdistan until, at the beginning of the XIXth century, the Ottoman Empire interfered in their affairs and tried to bring and end to their autonomy.

Wars for the unification and independence of Kurdistan mark the first part of the XIXth century. In 1847, the last independent Kurdish principality, that of Bohtan, collapses. Sign of the times, the Ottoman forces, are advised and helped by European powers, in their fight against the Kurds. We notice, for example, the presence of Helmut von Moltke, at the time young captain and military advisor.

From 1847 to 1881, we observe new uprisings, under the leadershipof the traditional chiefs, often religious, for the creation of a Kurdish state. This will be followed, up until the First World War, by a whole series of sporadic and regional revolts against the central government, all of which will be harshly quelled.

The causes of the failure of these movements are multiple: breaking up of authority, feudal dispersal quarrels of supremacy between the princes and the feudal Kurds and interference of the major powers at the Ottoman’s side.

Having annexed the Kurdish principalities one by one, the Turkish government applied itself to integrating the Kurdish aristocracy by distributing posts and payments fairly generously and by setting up so-called tribal schools, intended to instill in the children of Kurdish lords the principal of faithfulness to the sultan. This attempt to integrate à la Louis XIV was to an extent crowned with success. But it also furthered the emergence of elite Kurdish modernists. Under their leadership a modern phase in the political movement became apparent in Constantinople whilst charitable and patriotic associations and societies multiplied, trying to introduce the notion of organization and to set up a structured movement in the Kurdish population.

It’s important to specify that at the end of the XIXth century the Ottoman Empire was prey to severe nationalist convulsions, each people aspired to the creation of its own nation state. Having tried in vain to keep this conglomeration alive by the ideology of pan-Ottomanism, then of pan-Islamism, the Turkish elite themselves became pan-Turkish and militated in favour of the creation of a Turkish empire going from the Balkans to Central Asia.

Kurdish society approached the First World War divided, decapitated, without a collective plan for its future. In 1915, the Franco-British agreements known as the Sykes-Picot forecast the dismemberment of their country. However the Kurds were in conflict over the destiny of their country. Some, very open to the “pan-Islamist ideology of the sultan-caliph, saw the salvation of the Kurdish people in a status of cultural and administrative autonomy within the frame of the Ottoman Empire. Others, claiming to take inspiration from the principle of nationalities, from the ideas of the French Revolution and from President Wilson from the United States, fought for the total independence of Kurdistan.

The split became accentuated in the days following the Ottoman defeat by the Allied Powers, in 1918. The independantists formed a hurried delegation at the Conference of Versailles to present “the claims of the Kurdish nation”.

Theiraction contributed to the taking intoaccount by the International Community, of the Kurdish national question. The International Treaty of Sèvres, between the Allies: France, Great Britain and the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, concluded on the 10th of August 1920, actually recommended, in section 111 (art. 62-64), the creation of a Kurdish state on part of the territory of Kurdistan. This treaty was to go unheeded, however, the balance of power on the terrain preventing its application.

For its part, the traditional wing of the Kurdish movement, which was wellestablished in Kurdish society and which was mainly dominated by religious leaders, tried to “avoid Christian peril in the East and West” and to create “a state of Turks and Kurds” in the muslim territories liberated from foreign occupation. The idea was generous and fraternal. An alliance was concluded with the Turkish nationalist leader, Mustafa Kemal, who came to Kurdistan to seek the help of the Kurdish leaders to liberate occupied Anatolia and the sultan-caliph, who was a virtual prisoner of the Christians. The first forces of Turkey’s war of independence were in fact recruited from the Kurdish provinces.

Up until his definitive victory over the Greeks in 1922, Mustafa Kemal continued to promise the creation of a muslim state of Turks and Kurds. He was openly supported by the Soviets, and more discreetly by the French and Italians, displeased with the excessive appetites of British colonialism in the region. After the victory, the Turkish delegates were to affirm, at the peace conference at Lausanne, that they spoke in the name of the Kurdish and Turkish sister nations. On 24th July 1923, a new treaty was signed in this context between the Kemalist government of Ankara and the allied powers. It invalidated the Treaty of Sèvres and, without giving any guarantee, with regard to the respect of the Kurds’ rights, gave the annexation of the major part of Kurdistan over to the new Turkish state. Beforehand, in accordance with the Franco-Turkish agreement of October 20, 192 1, France had annexed the Kurdish provinces of Jazira and Kurd-Dagh to Syria, which were placed under its mandate. Iranian Kurdistan, a large part of which was controlled by the Kurdish leader Simko, lived in a state of near dissidence with regard to the Persian central government.

The fate of the Kurdish province of Mossul, very rich in petrol remained undecided. The Turks and the British claimed it, whilst its population, during a consultation organized by the Society of Nations, reached a decision, in a proportion of 718, in favour of an independent Kurdish state. Protesting that the Iraqi state wouldn’t be able to survive without the agricultural and petroleum wealth of this province, Great Britain ended up obtaining the annexation of these Kurdish territories with Iraq placed under its mandate, from the League of Nations Council on December 16th, 1925. It nevertheless promised the setting up of an autonomous Kurdish government, a promise kept neither by the British, nor the Iraqi regime, which succeeded the British administration in 1932.

Thus at the end of 1925, the country of the Kurds, known since the XIIth century by the name “Kurdistan”, found itself divided between four states: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. And for the first time in its long history, it was even to be deprived of its cultural autonomy.

The former conquerors and empires contented themselves with certain economic, political and military advantages and privileges. None of them set about preventing the population from expressing its cultural identity or hindering the free practice of its spiritual life. None of them devised a plan to destroy the Kurdish personality or to depersonalize an entire race by cutting it off from its ancient cultural roots.

This was the project of the Turkish nationalists, who wanted to make Turkey, an eminently multicultural, multiracial and multinational society, into a uniform nation; this was later taken up again by Iraq and Iran. We can join Nehru in his surprise “that a defensive nationalism turns into an aggressive nationalism and that a struggle for freedom becomes a struggle to dominate others”. Indeed, since these lines were written by Nehru from the depths of prison, the nationalist or messianic ideologies have caused other ravages under other skies, often in the name of progress, modernity, mission of civilization, even freedom. Victim of its geography, of history and also, undoubtedly of its own leaders’ lack of clear-sightedness, the Kurdish people have undoubtedly been the population who have paid the heaviest tribute and who have suffered the most from the remodeling of the Near-Eastern map. To paraphrase a formula formerly used for Poland, I’ll say that since the dividing up of Kurdistan, the Near-East has been a sinner against itself and this sin hasn’t finished poisoning its relations.

Kurdistan unbound

Kurd — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:27:27 +0000

For the first time in centuries, Kurds have a nation they can call their own — on the Internet.

By Christopher Farah

Apr 7, 2004 | Three weeks ago in northern Syria, clashes erupted between Arab police and the ethnic Kurds who call that area their home despite being granted a bare minimum of rights by the Syrian government. Kurds account for about 2 million of the 17 million people in Syria, but they are not recognized officially as a minority community, and many of them haven’t been granted citizenship.

The rioting was sparked by a fight at a soccer match, but quickly tapped into deep Kurdish resentment over their status in Syria. Political protest of this nature is almost unheard of in a country known for dealing quickly and brutally with insurgents, and the protesters paid a steep price. About 30 people died, most of them Kurds, and hundreds were imprisoned.

But thanks in part to the Internet, even as Kurds in Syria were experiencing the familiar helplessness of an oppressed minority, their kin throughout the rest of the world were able to fight back — mere hours after the unrest began. Through an increasingly sophisticated network of Kurdish Web sites, news of the clashes spread throughout the Kurdish diaspora to Kurdish population centers in Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland and Canada.

“Kurds everywhere were on the Internet following the situation,” says Nijyar Shemdin, the U.S. representative for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the political party currently governing much of northern Iraq. “Kurdish organizations everywhere began attacking embassies, organizing demonstrations. Before, this would have taken a long time.” [Editor's note: After the original publication of this story, Mr. Shemdin contacted Salon to note that he did not recall using the word "attacking" and to state that "While we believe in civil demonstrations to express our concerns and positions regarding certain political issues, we do not approve of violence nor terrorism."]

The American military presence in nearby Iraq undoubtedly had a deterrent effect on the zealous Syrian military, but did the public attention generated by the Internet also play a role? It’s impossible to say for sure. An active, unified diaspora and the watchful eye of foreign governments could strengthen the position of the millions of Kurds living in Turkey, Syria and Iran — aside from Iraq, the nations with the largest Kurdish populations. But outsiders generally have little direct influence on the day-to-day actions of authoritarian regimes.

This much, however, is certain: In countries like Syria where the media is state controlled and strictly regulated, outsider Web sites like that of the KRG help Kurds there see that life can be better, that they can have more rights and more self-determination, just like the Kurds in Iraq. “They see a live example of democracy working that all of Iraq and the region can follow,” says Shemdin.

And that, in turn, means that the governments of Turkey, Syria and Iran are worried more than ever about the “Kurdish question.”

Cyber-gurus have long speculated that the Internet would lead to the creation of politically and culturally viable communities that defied traditional categories. Instead of being defined by a shared physical space, these communities would be defined by shared interests or common goals, with only Internet connections and computers linking the individuals. Historically disenfranchised groups like the Kurds — a people who have not ruled themselves in hundreds of years, instead living as minorities under other regimes — provide an intriguing test of the virtual-reality theory, a test that has real implications for a people whose tenuous political status demands a real solution.

The Internet has allowed Kurdish communities across the globe to connect in ways never before possible. So much so that new research suggests that these networks of ethnic nationalist Web sites have become “cyber-states” — nations created in cyberspace because of the lack of a nation in real space.

“This form of mass communication allows for the creation of a community without the need for a space, for a territory,” says Kari Neely, a doctoral student in Near Eastern studies at the University of Michigan, who is researching the impact of the Internet on ethnic minorities in the Middle East. “Cyberspace allows people to coalesce in a new kind of territory to maintain cultural traditions that might otherwise be threatened with extinction through assimilation, warfare and population displacement.”

Neely is quick to point out that this “new kind of territory” will never be able to replace the obvious benefits of possessing a shared physical territory. And other scholars caution that, even when used as a tool to affect situations on the ground, “virtual” nations have very real limitations. “Reality is in real space, not cyberspace,” says Amir Hassanpour, a professor at the University of Toronto who has written extensively about the effects of modern media on Kurdish nationalism. “In the case of Iraq, for example, the Internet may give Kurds some ability to promote ideas, but the reality is that the United States is an occupying force, the majority of people are Shiites, and Kurds are a minority.”

The historic minority status of the Kurds is part of what makes the idea of a Kurdish cyber-state so provocative. Although a Kurd, Saladin, is credited with having liberated much of the Arab world from Crusader rule in the Middle Ages, Kurds have long been a persecuted minority in the Middle East. The traditional (but internationally unrecognized) Kurdish homeland, Kurdistan, is on land divided by four nations, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey. Although Turkey has been carrying out a prominent military campaign against Kurdish nationalists for decades, Americans are probably most familiar with Iraqi crimes against the Kurds. Remember all those times you heard the Bush administration talk about Saddam gassing his own people? Those people were the Kurds.

That kind of persecution aided the creation of a large Kurdish diaspora throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. It also meant that the Bush administration and the American occupation authority have had to handle an emerging Kurdish republic in northern Iraq with kid gloves. Although the Kurds have largely — and democratically — been managing their own affairs in Iraq since soon after the first Gulf War, America had to deny the Kurds’ request that they be allowed to establish their own independent nation following Saddam’s ouster. Turkey, Iran and Syria were terrified that this new Kurdistan would inspire their own Kurdish minorities to revolt, and the last thing the United States needs is more instability in the Middle East. Meaning that Kurds dreaming of a nation of their own can keep dreaming.

According to Neely, this gap between dreams and reality is exactly what Kurdish Web sites are trying to fill. “There’s an abundance of Web sites that have been established for and by these communities that include not only chat rooms and political forums, but minority literature — poems, short stories, novels, calls for original writings by community members — and even dating centers,” she says. “While the quality of the literary work being produced on the sites is certainly open to question, the point is that people use these sites to feel a connection to a larger community, a cyber-nation.”

What’s striking about the wide range of Kurdish Web sites is that so many of them attempt to provide a kind of one-stop shopping for Kurdish culture and nationalism. A Web site that happens to be operated by an American will not necessarily have content devoted to American literature, history and music. But many Kurdish sites link to all of the above — a history of the Kurds, samples of their literature and music, chat rooms, along with Kurdish news from all parts of the diaspora and “Kurdistan.” KurdTeens.com focuses on a younger audience, for example, but still connects people to all things Kurdish, for all ages.

“Other people say it is very nice to have your own country, so we try to create that feeling online,” says Bryar Fattah, a 20-year-old student who founded KurdTeens when he moved to Great Britain from Iraq in 2000. “We sometimes feel like each Web site is like a city from the Kurdish cities. Our virtual Kurdistan is not on the ground. It is in our minds.”

Some sites, including Kurdland.com, Kurdistan Net and KurdistanWeb practically sound like countries in their own right, while others such as Kurdish Media and the Kurdish Information Network have slightly less conspicuous names but perform the same kind of role.

“The site helps bring about a common bond in terms of language and cultural events,” says Dilan Roshani, an Iranian Kurdish engineer living in Great Britain who has operated KurdistanWeb since 1995. “The bond makes it easier for them to overcome a long history of Kurdish oppression and makes them feel a connection that no international border could give them.”

Neely says the “cyber-state” model can also apply to a host of other dispossessed peoples, particularly those with large diasporas — for example, the Druse, a religious minority; the Armenians, who have experienced an extensive diaspora and only recently received a territory of their own; and the Palestinians, who are part of the dominant Arab majority but who lack a state. A Web site such as the Electronic Intifada tries to represent, by definition, an electronic uprising, carrying the Palestinian struggle for a nation — nonviolently, through information, education and communication — to Palestinians beyond the West Bank and Gaza, helping to create a unified Palestinian community that extends from Europe, to America, to the Middle East.

The prototype for the Electronic Intifada was established on the Internet in September 1996, when Nigel Parry, who was in the West Bank, posted photos of a clash between Palestinians and Israelis. The photos reached Ali Abunimah, an ocean away. Parry, Abunimah and two others founded the Electronic Intifada soon afterward — even though the four never met in person until April of last year. “The first Palestinians I came into contact with who actually lived in Palestine were through listservs in the late 1990s,” says Abunimah, a writer who grew up in Great Britain and currently lives in Chicago. “It gave me an incredible, crucial sense of connection and community.”

But for all the feelings of community engendered by Kurdish, Palestinian or Armenian Web sites, can a cyber-Palestine ever rival a real Palestine, or a cyber-Kurdistan a real Kurdistan? The short answer is no, absolutely not.

Even the most popular Kurdish Web sites, which record several thousand unique visitors a day, don’t come close to connecting to the entire Kurdish population, numbering about 25 million, spread across the world. And while it is often a good tool for diaspora communities in Europe or America with easy access to computers, the Internet simply is not available for many of the Kurds living in small towns in ancestral Kurdistan.

And for those who do have Internet connections, a cyber-state may help people connect with each other, but it won’t keep them warm at night. After all, this is reality, not a scene from “The Matrix.” “You cannot take a plane and go to the Internet and live there,” says Shemdin, the Iraqi KRG’s American representative. “You can’t go home and visit relatives there or build a house there.”

But while a cyber-Kurdistan will not alleviate the need for a real Kurdistan, it may help realize one in the future. The disadvantages of a cyber-state — being ungrounded first and foremost — can be distinctly advantageous for ethnic minority communities and their nationalist movements.

“Cyberspace can provide a type of protected space for dangerous political views, minority viewpoints that aren’t legal in other settings,” Neely says. “I think this might be a reason for the numerous sites published in the Kurdish language. When a state bans something — like Turkey has done with the publication of Kurdish — then it can find a place outside the establishment.”

While simply maintaining the Kurdish language itself serves a nationalist goal — it’s difficult to establish a state politically if there’s no distinct culture to define it — many of the Web sites have explicit political content promoting a nationalist agenda. In countries such as Turkey, where Kurdish newspapers are banned, Kurds can learn about the progress of the nascent Kurdish republic in Iraq through the KRG Web site, which features not just news in depth but also descriptions of how the regional government works and biographies of all the elected officials — in other words, the basic building blocks of the democratic process.

“In the past, you couldn’t send a Kurdish paper to Iran or Turkey because of security checks,” says Hassanpour, the University of Toronto professor. “Subscribing to a Kurdish paper published in Holland meant I would go to jail as a secessionist. There can still be state surveillance of the Internet, of course, but in spite of this, Kurdish political parties have their own sites and people are free to propagate their politics.”

Shemdin says the KRG’s Web site has also helped curb the tide of Iraqi Kurds emigrating to Europe and America because they feared the domestic situation was too unstable. The site demonstrated to people that there was a consistent government presence, in addition to spreading news about increasing employment rates and improving health statistics, he says. “It helped create national unity by holding together society and preventing any more people from leaving.”

While access to these sites may be limited by Internet availability, Neely makes the point that even in real space, cultural and political institutions are almost never utilized by the entire population. Political elections in many countries, for example, fail to attract even a majority of the citizens, much less all of them. User statistics, particularly in places with limited access to computers, are vague at best.

“When I was in Syria I would see one person paying for an Internet connection while five of his friends would be standing behind him looking over his shoulder,” Neely says. “How can we get an accurate count of how many people are affected?”

Almost 15 years ago, satellite television first began the modern revolution in the Kurdish national consciousness. The Kurdish Satellite Channel, a station licensed by Britain, started broadcasting in Europe and the Middle East, causing fervent protests from the Turkish and Iranian governments. In Turkey, the army smashed satellite dishes to prevent people from seeing images of the Kurdish flag and map and from hearing the Kurdish national anthem. “I knew a family in Turkey,” Hassanpour says. “They never believed they’d be able to see Kurdish on television, but when they saw the shows, they changed their mind. They believed the Kurdish nation could exist.”

The growing cyber-state is creating a similar effect — with one crucial difference. Now Kurds all over the world aren’t just passively watching content, they’re creating their own, and they’re connecting directly with thousands of others like themselves. The impact of this burgeoning nation in cyberspace on the formation of an actual Kurdistan may one day be very real.

“News on a daily basis, blogs, and especially chat rooms are very popular, and most of the content is nationalistic, of course,” Hassanpour said. “Kurds from Iraq and Iran are communicating with each other in chat rooms — even people from small towns in Iran. I myself am very surprised.”

Kurds - A People Without a State

Kurd — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:16:19 +0000

Introduction

Of all the ethnic groups in the world, the Kurds are one of the
largest that has no state to call their own. According to historian
William Westermann, “The Kurds can present a better claim to race
purity…than any people which now inhabits Europe.” (Bonner, p. 63,
1992) Over the past hundred years, the desire for an independent
Kurdish state has created conflicts mainly with the Turkish and Iraqi
populations in the areas where most of the Kurds live. This conflict
has important geographical implications as well. The history of the
Kurdish nation, the causes for these conflicts, and an analysis of the
situation will be discussed in this paper.

History of the Kurds

The Kurds are a Sunni Muslim people living primarily in Turkey,
Iraq, and Iran. The 25 million Kurds have a distinct culture that is
not at all like their Turkish, Persian, and Arabic neighbors
(Hitchens, p. 36, 1992). It is this cultural difference between the
groups that automatically creates the potential for conflict. Of the
25 million Kurds, approximately 10 million live in Turkey, four
million in Iraq, five million in Iran, and a million in Syria, with
the rest scattered throughout the rest of the world (Bonner, p. 46,
1992). The Kurds also have had a long history of conflict with these
other ethnic groups in the Middle East, which we will now look at.
The history of Kurds in the area actually began during ancient times.
However, the desire for a Kurdish homeland did not begin until the
early 1900’s, around the time of World War I. In his Fourteen Points,
President Woodrow Wilson promised the Kurds a sovereign state
(Hitchens, p. 54, 1992). The formation of a Kurdish state was supposed
to have been accomplished through the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 which
said that the Kurds could have an independent state if they wanted one
(Bonner, p. 46, 1992). With the formation of Turkey in 1923, Kemal
Ataturk, the new Turkish President, threw out the treaty and denied
the Kurds their own state. This was the beginning of the
Turkish-Kurdish conflict. At about this same time, the Kurds attempted
to establish a semi-independent state, and actually succeeded in
forming the Kingdom of Kurdistan, which lasted from 1922-1924; later,
in 1946, some of the Kurds established the Mahabad Republic, which
lasted for only one year (Prince, p. 17, 1993). In 1924, Turkey even
passed a law banning the use of the Kurdish language in public places.
Another group of people to consider is the Kurds living in Iraq. Major
conflict between the Kurds and Iraqis did not really begin until 1961,
when a war broke out that lasted until 1970. Around this time, Saddam
Hussein came to power in Iraq. In 1975, Hussein adopted a policy of
eradicating the Kurds from his country. Over the next fifteen years,
the Iraqi army bombed Kurdish villages, and poisoned the Kurds with
cyanide and mustard gas (Hitchens, p. 46, 1992). It is estimated that
during the 1980’s, Iraqis destroyed some 5000 Kurdish villages
(Prince, p. 22, 1993). From this point, we move into the recent
history and current state of these conflicts between the Kurds and the
Turks, and the Kurds against the Iraqis.

Causes for Conflict

The reasons for these conflicts have great relevance to
geography. The areas of geography relating to these specific conflicts
are a historical claim to territory on the part of the Kurds, cultural
geography, economic geography, and political geography. These four
areas of geography can best explain the reasons for these Kurdish
conflicts. First, the Kurds have a valid historical claim to
territory. They have lived in the area for over 2000 years. For this
reason, they desire the establishment of a Kurdish homeland. Iraqis
and Turks, while living in the area for a long period of time, cannot
make a historical claim to that same area. The conflict arises,
however, because the area happens to lie within the borders of Iraq
and Turkey. Even though the Kurds claim is valid, the Turks and Iraqis
have chosen to ignore it and have tried to wipe out the Kurds.
Second, and probably most important, is that this conflict involves
cultural geography. The Kurds are ethnically and culturally different
from both the Turks and the Iraqis. They speak a different language,
and while all three groups are Muslim, they all practice different
forms. The Kurds have used this cultural difference as a reason to
establish a homeland. However, the Turks and Iraqis look at the
contrast in ethnicity in a much different sense. The government of
Turkey viewed any religious or ethnic identity that was not their own
to be a threat to the state (”Time to Talk Turkey”, p. 9, 1995).
Saddam Hussein believed that the Kurds were “in the way” in Iraq and
he perceived them as a threat to “the glory of the Arabs” (Hitchens,
p. 46, 1992). For this reason, he carried out his mass genocide of the
Kurds in his country. A third factor in these conflicts is economic
geography. The areas of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria that the Kurds
live in is called Kurdistan, shown on the map “Confrontation in
Kurdistan” (Hitchens, 1992, p.37, map). Kurdistan is a strategically
important area for both Turkey and Iraq because it contains important
oil and water resources which they cannot afford to lose (Hitchens, p.
49, 1992). Also, there has been no significant economic activity in
the region, due to the trade embargo against Iraq that has been in
place since 1991 (Prince, p. 22, 1993). Still, an independent Kurdish
state would be economically viable and would no longer have an embargo
placed against it.
A final cause of the conflict is political geography. The Turks
and Iraqis do not wish to lose their control over Kurdistan, and have
resorted to various measures such as the attacks previously described.
The Kurds, on the other hand, have political problems of their own.
There is a sharp difference of opinion between the two main Kurdish
political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) (Hitchens, p. 36, 1992). The
parties are at odds about how to resolve the conflicts in which their
people are involved. Until this internal conflict among the Kurds is
solved, it will be difficult for them to deal with the Turks and
Iraqis.

Recent History and the Current Situation

In 1991, after the defeat of his country in the Persian Gulf
War, Saddam Hussein had the Iraqi army attack the Kurds again. As a
result, the United States and its allies launched Operation Provide
Comfort in April 1991 that created a safe haven for the Kurds in Iraqi
Kurdistan. Eventually, the Kurds were able to secure a small measure
of autonomy in Kurdistan and on May 19, 1992, the Kurds held their
first free elections in Iraq (Prince, p. 17, 1992). The Kurds had
sovereignty in part of Kurdistan, called Free Kurdistan, but not to
the point of being recognized as an independent state. Seeing how the
Kurds in Iraq were able to hold elections, the Turks got scared and
banned the People’s Labor Party, a legal Kurdish party in Turkey, from
the Turkish Parliament (Marcus, p. 9, 1994).
In Turkey, a civil war between the Kurds and Turks has been
going on for the last ten years; approximately 15,000 people have been
killed so far (”Time to Talk Turkey, p. 9, 1995). The Turks launched
an invasion they called Operation Steel against the Kurds in March
1995, sending 35,000 troops against them, but the plan backfired, as
only 158 Kurdish rebels were killed in the first week (Possant, Doxey,
& Borrus, p. 57, 1995). To sum up the Turks attitude toward the Kurds,
Tansu Ciller, the Turkish prime minister, said, “Turkey has no Kurdish
problem, only a terrorist problem” (Marcus, p. 9, 1994).
As far as the United States is concerned, Kurdistan probably
should not exist. During Operation Provide Comfort, the U.S. helped
out the Kurds in Iraq, but did nothing to help the Kurds in Turkey.
The reason for this is that Turkey is a NATO ally, while Iraq is one
of the U.S.’s worst enemies (Marcus, p. 9, 1994) By helping out the
Kurds, the U.S. would be siding with enemies of the Turks, which could
create problems that the U.S. government would rather not deal with.
This type of situation does not exist in Iraq, however, since the U.S.
is not on friendly terms with Hussein’s regime.
There are two main views on how to deal with the conflicts. The
KDP, led by Masoud Baranzi, seeks limited political autonomy within
Iraq (Hitchens, p. 36, 1992). Interestingly, many Kurds would accept
being a state of Iraq, holding some autonomy, provided that Hussein
was removed from power, a democracy was installed, and the Kurds were
treated as equals (Bonner, p. 65, 1992). This means that some of the
Kurds do not believe it is absolutely necessary that they have their
own state, only that they are recognized as equals by the Iraqi
government. On the other hand, Jalal Talabania’s PUK says that the
Kurds should hold out for more political concessions from Iraq
(Hitchens, p. 36, 1992). It is possible that they would try to use
guerrilla warfare tactics to frighten the Iraqi army into meeting its
demands.

Analysis: Looking Ahead to the Future

Looking at the current state of the conflict, the end does not
seem to be near. On one hand, the Kurds have been struggling to gain
their independence for a number of years, and even though they have
been locked in a ten year guerrilla war with the Turks, have come too
far to stop fighting and accept the harsh treatment they have received
from the Turks and Iraqis. Even though Turkey has lost a large number
of troops dealing with the perceived Kurdish “menace”, they do have
the support of the U.S., and that in itself seems to be a good enough
reason to keep the war going.
As for the situation in Iraq, the situation is a bit more
complicated. The plan of KDP seems like a plausible solution.
However, the plan is not likely to succeed until Hussein dies or is
forced out of power. The Iraqis also do not seem very willing to give
up their territory to the Kurds. The plan of the PUK has a small
chance to work, assuming that guerrilla tactics would scare the Iraqi
government. By simply holding out, the Kurds would gain nothing,
because the Iraqis are not threatened by the Kurds per se. However, by
attacking the Iraqis, the Kurds run the risk of a counterattack which
they probably could not effectively deal with. Basically, that would
make the situation for the Kurds even worse than before.

Conclusion

Without the support of a large powerful nation such as the U.S.,
the Kurds will probably never establish an independent Kurdish state.
The Kurds do not have enough military power to fight off the Turks and
Iraqis without help. The Iraqis and Turks would not be willing to give
up their economically important territory to people which they
perceive a “threat” to their way of life and will most likely continue
to fight the Kurds. The Kurds have no choice but to continue fighting
until either they or the Turks and Iraqis are defeated, as both groups
are unwilling to allow them to remain in their countries. The future
definitely looks bleak for the Kurds.

Kurdish Flag

Kurd — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:15:16 +0000

by: Dr. B. A. Eliasi
1998

INTRODUCTION:

The aim of this document is to introduce in brief the history of the current National Flag
of Kurdistan and to help those who use the Kurdish national flag to reproduce it correctly.
The document contains the basic rules for the construction of the flag as well as
the standard colors to be used.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

The National Flag was first introduced by the leaders of the Khoyboun, (”independence”) movement to represent the Kurds in their struggle for independence from the moribund Ottoman Empire. It was subsequently presented to the members of the international delegation at the Paris Peace Conference that devised a plan for Kurdish independence as a part of the Treaty of Sèrves with Ottoman Turkey in 1920. Under the same flag the Khoyboun announced the formation of the first “Kurdish Government in Exile” in 1927 and fought a drawn-out war until 1932, in order to revive the Kurdish national independence, lost since 1848.

In 1946 and the creation of the Republic of Kurdistan at Mehabad,
the old “sunny flag” was adopted by its parliament as the
official Flag of the Republic. Following these historic background,
the National Flag is widely adopted in Kurdistan and has been set
aloft by various Kurdish movements and entities in all sectors of the
land.

The “sunny flag” has thus been consecrated by the blood of all
Kurdish patriots of this century, from tens of thousands who fell in
defending the independence movement under the Khoyboun, to the
President of the Republic of Kurdistan and his elected cabinet who
were hanged in sight of this flag by the foe. The flag was aloft when
Dersim was immolated in 1938; it was aloft when wounded Kurds on
stretchers were placed before the firing squads in 1980; it was aloft
when Kurdish civilians were gassed in their thousands in cities and
towns in 1988; it was aloft when millions were driven from their
villages and towns that have been set alight since 1989; and, it
remains aloft everywhere today–150 years after the loss of Kurdish
independence–when Kurds are redoubling their perennial struggle to
regain their dignity and equality with other nations by reviving
their right to choose the course of their own future.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NATIONAL FLAG:

The National Flag of Kurdistan consists of a tricolor field and
central emblem.

TRICOLOR FIELD:

The Kurdish flag has three horizontal bands. The upper stripe is
red, the middle one white and the bottom band green. The width of the
flag is two-thirds of the length.

Figure 1

NATIONAL EMBLEM:

The primary Kurdish characteristic of the flag is the golden
sun emblem at the center. The sun emblem has a religious and
cultural history among the Kurds, stretching into antiquity. The sun
disk of the emblem has 21 rays, equal in size and shape. The
number 21 holds a primary importance in the native Yazdani religious
tradition of the Kurds.

Figure 2

Using the given flag dimensions of 2:3, the sun disk has a
diameter of 1.0 including the rays and 0.5 without them. These rays
have straight sides, come to a sharp point at their outer end, and
form an inverse point where they meet each other and the central
disk.(Figure Three)

Figure 3

The sun appears in the exact center of the flag. (Figure 4)

Figure 4

The sun is placed so that the flag’s vertical meridian passes through its topmost point. (Figure 5)

Figure 5

REGULATION COLORS:
The flag is in the following colors:

Red      PMS 032
Green    PMS 354
Yellow   PMS 116
PMS = PANTONE Matching System

Prepared by: Dr. B. A. Eliasi at Kurdish Worldwide Resources (KWR)
Of consultation: Professor M. R. Izady

Kurdish Anthem

Kurd — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:46:28 +0000

SORANÎ LYRICS (Latin script)

Ey raqîb her mawe qewmî Kurd ziman,
Nay sikên danery topî zeman
Kes nelê Kurd mirduwe
Kurd zîn duwe,
Zîn duwe qet nanewê alakeman

Ême roley rengî sûr û soris în,
Seyrîke xuênawiya raburdûman
Kes nelê Kurd mirduwe
Kurd zîn duwe,
Zîn duwe qet nanewê alakeman

Ême roley Midya û Keyhusrew în,
Dînîman û ayînman her Kurdistan
Dînîman û ayînman Kurd u Kurdistan
Kes nelê Kurd mirduwe
Kurd zîn duwe,
Zîn duwe qet nanewê alakeman

Lawî Kurd hestaye ser pê wek dilêr,
Ta be xuên nexsîn deka tacî jiyan
Kes nelê Kurd mirduwe
Kurd zîn duwe,
Zîn duwe qet nanewê alakeman

Lawî Kurdî hazir û amadeye,
Giyan fîdan e, giyan fîda her giyan fîda
Giyan fîdan e, giyan fîda her giyan fîda!!!…

—

SORANÎ LYRICS (Arabic script)

—
KURMANCÎ LYRICS

Ey raqîp her maye qewmê Kurd ziman
Nashikê û danayê bi topên zeman
Kes nebê Kurdin mirin
Kurd jîn dibin,
Jîn dibe qet nakeve ala Kurdan

Em xortên rengê sor û shoresh in
Seyr bike xwîna rîyan me da rijand
Kes nebê Kurdin mirin
Kurd jîn dibin,
Jîn dibe qet nakeve ala Kurdan

Em xortên Midya û Keyhusrew in
Dîn îman û ayîn man, her nishtîman
Dîn îman û ayîn man Kurd û Kurdistan
Kes nebê Kurdin mirin
Kurd jîn dibin,
Jîn dibe qet nakeve ala Kurdan

Lawê Kurd rabûye ser pê wek shêran
Ta bi xwîn nexshîn bike tacê jîhan
Kes nebê Kurdin mirin
Kurd jîn dibin,
Jîn dibe qet nakeve ala Kurdan

Xortê Kurd tev hazir û amade ne
Can fîda ne can fîda, her can fîda
Can fîda ne can fîda, her can fîda!!!

—
ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Hey enemy, the Kurdish nation is alive with its language
Can not be defeated by the weapons of any time
Let no one say Kurds are dead
Kurds are living
Kurds are living, their flag will never fall

We, the youth are the red colour of the revolution
Watch our blood that we shed on this way
Let no one say Kurds are dead
Kurds are living
Kurds are living, their flag will never fall

We are the children of Medya and Keyhusrew
Both our faith and religion are our homeland
Both our faith and religion are Kurd and Kurdistan
Let no one say Kurds are dead
Kurds are living
Kurds are living, their flag will never fall

The Kurdish youth have risen like lions
To adorn the crown of life with blood
Let no one say Kurds are dead
Kurds are living
Kurds are living, their flag will never fall

The Kurdish youth are ever present and
Forever will be ready to sacrifice their lives
Sacrifice each life they have, each life they have!!!…

Kurdish Map

Kurd — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:44:34 +0000

Click on images to view a larger version

Download ROJ-GNOME Linux

Kurd — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:08:40 +0000

ROJ LINUX is a Kurdish Linux operating system that combines the best that free, open source software has to offer (community involved, freely distributed, open source code, etc.).

ROJ Linux is a Kurdish Debian-Ubuntu based Linux distribution. It is available in two versions:

• ROJ-GNOME based is entirely in Kurmanci and uses only open source software. Roj-Gnome includes turn-key, out-of-the-box support for MP3, Music, Movie players, OpenOffice, many games, applications, and so on. It comes with VirtualBox to run another Operating System in linux, such as Windows XP.

Click HERE to download ROJ-GNOME LINUX

The United States and the Kurds: Case Studies in United States Engagement.

Kurd — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:05:43 +0000

Accession Number : ADA341020

Title : The United States and the Kurds: Case Studies in United States Engagement.

Descriptive Note : Master’s thesis,

Corporate Author : NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA

Personal Author(s) : Lambert, Peter J.

Handle / proxy Url : http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA341020

Report Date : DEC 1997

Pagination or Media Count : 128

Abstract : The United States has developed a unique relationship with the Kurds throughout the course of the 20th century Significant American engagement with the Kurds has been carried out twice this century, between 1969- 1975, and 1990-1996. Both eras saw the United States able to influence events relating to the Kurds in support of a larger regional policy, only to find no easy solution to the Kurdish quest for autonomy. The result of these two periods of American engagement for the Kurds has been similar; both settings marked the collapse of a de facto Kurdish autonomy and the consequential splintering of the Kurdish resistance. The United States faces a variety of issues in its dealings with the Kurds. Foremost is the issue of autonomy for the Kurdish nation, and its impact on the territorial integrity of the states of the region. Secondly, is the lack of Kurdish unity, and its impact on any American initiative regarding an end to the repression of the Kurds. The United States has the ability to move the primary countries with Kurdish populations in the direction necessary for a settlement of the Kurdish situation. The result of not pursuing this matter could lead to further turmoil in a region which can ill afford it.

Descriptors : *FOREIGN POLICY, *GEOPOLITICS, *INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, MILITARY HISTORY, UNITED STATES, POLICIES, THESES, CASE STUDIES, INDIGENOUS POPULATION.

Subject Categories : GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

Distribution Statement : APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

CLICK HERE to download .pdf file

Chupi - Siya Cemane

Kurd — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:05:46 +0000

Chupi Siya Cemane
DOWNLOAD