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Kurdistan Map
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Peace For Kurdistan
Kurdistan
 The
Kurds are the world’s largest national ethnic group without its own
state. More than twenty million Kurds—who constitute the majority of
the population in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, the far
northeastern corner of Syria, and the far northwestern corner of
Iran—have been denied basic political rights and, in the case of
Turkey, even basic cultural rights. The divisions within the Kurdish
nationalist movement have been exacerbated by the manipulation of
outside powers. In Turkey, which hosts the largest Kurdish
population, the U.S.-backed Turkish military—until a recent
cease-fire—has engaged in severe repression against Kurdish
nationalists. A radical nationalist guerilla group known as the PKK
has suspended its armed struggle and has been negotiating a
cease-fire and greater cultural and political rights. Despite the
desire of many Turkish Kurds for an independent state, most Kurds
are now scattered throughout the country to such a degree that
carving out a separate Kurdish entity would be highly problematic.
The Kurds of Iraq constitute the largest percentage of the
population of any Kurdish-populated country and were subject to
severe repression, including widespread massacres and forced
relocation by the Iraqi government, particularly in the late 1980s.
Over the past ten years, autonomy for part of Iraqi Kurdistan has
been preserved through an internationally enforced safe haven,
established in response to an Iraqi crackdown on an
almost-successful Kurdish uprising in March 1991. Internal
divisions, along with efforts by the United States and other
countries to use the Kurds in their fight against Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein, have weakened the Kurdish movement for autonomy or
independence.
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