Kurdistan A state for the Kurdish nation which has not yet been established. The Kurds inhabit the border region of Turkey (around eleven million people, or 20 per cent of the population), Iran (around four million people, or 8 per cent of the population), and Iraq (2.5 million people, 15 per cent). In addition, there are smaller Kurdish minorities in Syria (800,000 people, 8 per cent of the population) and Georgia (400,000 people, 8 per cent of the population). As elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, nationalism and a (vague) sense of common identity emerged in the late nineteenth century. The establishment of an independent Kurdistan was determined by the Treaty of Sèvres. However, this never materialized, as Mustafa Kemal's (Atatürk) victorious military campaigns forced the abrogation of the treaty by the Treaty of Lausanne. In addition, Britain was interested in the Kurdish oilfields of Mosul, which it incorporated into its League of Nations Mandate in Iraq.

On account of the rich oilfields of Iraqi Kurdistan, it is here that Kurdish demands for independence have been most forceful and, for that same reason, it is here that these have been most brutally repressed. The first intermittent revolt (1924–32) was triggered by the incorporation of the northern areas around Mosul and Kirkuk into the administrative structure of Iraq. A further prolonged, armed struggle (1958–74), which peaked with the 1962 rebellion, was caused by the 1958 revolution in Iraq and the challenge by the new government to Kurdish rights. It was ended by promises for a limited autonomy, but fighting broke out in 1975, after the deportation of the Kurdish leader Mustafa Bazarni. The Kurds in Iraq sought to profit from the Iran–Iraq War, when, supplied by Iran, they made considerable territorial gains against the Iraqi army. Ultimately, they were defeated, mainly through extensive use of gas warfare by the forces of Saddam Hussein. Lacking any protection after the end of the war, Kurdish leaders were brutally imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Renewed Kurdish resistance during the Gulf War was again brutally repressed.

After its defeat in the war, however, Iraq had to accept the UN's declaration of northern Iraq as a Kurdish ‘safe haven’, so that any Iraqi troops north of the 36th Parallel would be attacked by Nato aircraft stationed in Turkey. For the first time, the area thus gained effective autonomy (challenged by Iraq) that was outside the purview of Iraqi troops. Elections could thus be held in 1992 for a Parliament, in which the Kurdish Patriotic Union (KPU) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) each gained fifty out of 115 seats. The presidential elections of that year were narrowly won by Dzalal Tabani of the KPU, though neither of the elections were recognized by Iraq. The economy of the area continued to be badly affected by the international trade embargo against Iraq, as a result of which Iraq was unwilling to share its scarce resources with the breakaway region. Constant friction between the KPU and the KDP weakened autonomous Kurdistan still further, so that in August 1996 Saddam Hussein was able to reimpose some of his authority in alliance with the KDP, against the Iran-backed KPU. The Kurdish areas in Northern Iraq were subject to occasional attacks by the Turkish army, which in 1999 and 2000 pursued Kurdish separatists on Iraqi territory.

In Turkey resentment against economic underdevelopment and Turkish unwillingness to recognize Kurdish distinctiveness led to the formation in 1984 of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Declared illegal by the state, it committed numerous terrorist attacks, which claimed around 6,000 lives in the first ten years. The Turkish government was thus forced to recognize Kurdish cultural distinctiveness, but this did not lead to any political autonomy. The brutality of the PKK found its equal in that of the Turkish authorities. Hundreds of Kurdish activists were tortured and maltreated in Turkish prisons each year. Even after 1999, when the PKK's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was imprisoned and sentenced to death, the brutality against Kurds continued. Despite the PKK's effective disbandment, civilian Kurdish leaders continued to be subject to official harassment and even imprisonment. In 2002 much of this pressure eased as Kurds were the main beneficiaries from sweeping new laws introduced under pressure from the EU. These established the right to the maintenance of Kurdish culture, and gave Kurds some protection against arbitrary imprisonment.

KURDISTAN

The land of the Kurds.

Kurdistan does not have boundaries on any map, but it extends over five Middle Eastern states: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and parts of the former Soviet Armenia. It is a 620-mile (1,000 km) strip of land that, stretching from the southeast to the northwest, extends from Kermanshah (Iran) to the Gulf of Iskenderun (or Alexandretta, Turkey). Its width varies from about 150 miles (250 km) to 250 miles (400 km) between Mosul and Mount Ararat. The heart of Kurdistan is two long chains of mountains, the Taurus and the Zagros, which have many summits towering over 9,800 feet (3,000 m), while Mount Ararat reaches 16,900 feet (5,157 m).

Two long rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, have their sources in Kurdistan, which is also watered by two huge lakes—Van in Turkey and Urmia in Iran. Despite its harsh climate, Kurdistan is very fertile and rich in natural resources, particularly petroleum (especially in Kirkuk). Sulaymaniya, Diyarbakir, and Sanandaj have long been considered the "capitals" of Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, and Iranian Kurdistan, respectively. Iran is the only country where the word Kurdistan officially appears on the map, as a province.

There are no official statistics, but it is estimated that the Kurds number more than 25 million. Sharing a common culture (although they speak three different Kurdish dialects—Kurmanji, Sorani, and Zaza) and artifically divided by international borders that were imposed on them after World War I, the Kurds have not been able to develop a single and unified Kurdish national movement. They have fought separately in Turkey (Öcalan's Kurdistan Workers Party), in Iraq (KDP and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), and in Iran (KDPI, Iran), sometimes even allowing the neighboring countries to play upon their divisions. Long considered an obscure minority problem, the Kurdish issue has become an international question since the invasion of Kuwait (1990), the Gulf War (1991), and the creation in northern Iraq of a Kurdish Autonomous Zone, which is now shown on all maps of the Middle East.

see also diyarbakir; gulf crisis (1990–1991); kurdish autonomous zone; kurdish revolt; kurds; sulaymaniya.

Bibliography

McDowall, David. A Modern History of Kurds, 2d revised and updated edition. New York; London: I. B. Taruis, 2000.

Randal, Jonathan C. After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?: My Encounters with Kurdistan. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.

Van Bruinessen, Martin. Aghas, Shaikhs, and State. London: Zed Books, 1992.

chris kutschera

Kurdistan (Arabic: Kurdestan), Iran‐Iraq‐Syria‐Turkey ‘Land of the Kurds’, a large geographical area that extends mainly over Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, and slightly into Syria. Despite never having been united under a single ruler nor acquiring the status of a nation‐state, the Kurds, numbering some twenty million, have been able to maintain a distinct sense of identity and culture for at least the last 2 000 years; they do not, however, share a common language or religion. They are by far the largest group of people in the world without their own country. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres raised the possibility of an autonomous homeland for the Kurds. But at the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 the new state of Turkey acquired much of what would have been Kurdistan and so its creation never took place. Nevertheless, an independent Kurdistan did exist on Iranian soil between December 1945 and December 1946 as the Kurdish Republic of Mahābād before being extinguished by Iranian troops. The name ‘Kurd’ can be traced back to the 7th century and may come from the Assyrian kardu ‘strong’ or ‘heroic’; it has also been suggested that it originally meant ‘nomad’. See Kordestan.

Kurdistan Extensive mountainous and plateau region in sw Asia, inhabited by the Kurds and including parts of e Turkey, ne Iran, n Iraq, ne Syria, s Armenia and e Azerbaijan. Plans for the creation of a separate Kurdish state were put forward after World War I but subsequently abandoned. Area: c.192,000sq km (74,000sq mi).

Kurdistan see under Kurds .

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