Lebanon, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Among them, Iraqi Kurds account for one fifth of Iraq's total population and are the most populous minority in Iraq. Iraqi Kurds have been seeking to establish their own independent country.
Kurdish nationalism in the modern sense is the product of the influence of western European nationalism in the19th century.
Hussein ibn Ali
It is also deeply influenced by Britain, France and Russia's intervention in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire, just as various ethnic problems spread all over the Ottoman Empire from the Balkans to the Arabian Peninsula.
During World War I, Hussein Ibn Ali, who dreamed of becoming an Arab king, proposed to Britain on 19 15 the territory of Arab countries as a condition for participating in the war, excluding Kurdistan.
1920, the Paris Peace Conference reached the Sever Treaty on how to deal with the defeated Ottoman Empire, which stipulated the establishment of an autonomous Kurdistan, and the Ottoman Sultan accepted this treaty. However, Mustafa Kemal, the father of modern Turkey, changed this historical process.
Taking advantage of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, in 19 19, Greece, with the acquiescence of Britain and France, attempted to seize the coastal areas of Turkey where the Greeks were scattered by force. Turks' nationalism was aroused. Kemal, a 38-year-old officer, led the remaining imperial army, defeated the Greeks, drove away the British and French occupation forces, and established the Republic of Turkey. Kemal sided with Turkey and denied the Severus Treaty. 1923, Kemal signed the Treaty of Lausanne with the allied forces, and never mentioned the issue of Kurdish autonomy or independence. At this point, the Ottoman Kurdistan was divided into three parts. Together with Persian Kurds, Kurds are mainly distributed in four countries in the Middle East.
In the 1970s, mustafa barzani, the leader of Kurds, said to hoagland, a journalist from Washington post, USA, "Our destiny is to be betrayed."
Stateless country
Kurds are related to Persians, but most Arabs belong to Sunnis in their beliefs. What different Arab dynasties have in common is that the generals are mostly Kurds. In the post-Ottoman period, Arabs became the biggest winners of the Middle East awakening movement, while Kurds were divided into four countries and suffered too much.
The division of Kurds
After the founding of Turkey, Kemalism, which emphasized national unity, did not legally recognize the national attribute and status of Kurds. The Constitution explicitly denies that Kurds have independent and legal national status and calls them mountain Turks.
Since the 1960s, the Turkish government has taken measures to change the names of Kurdish places and names into Turkish, and all newborns are named in Turkish.
The Turkish government's assimilation policy triggered strong resistance from Kurds, and then the above uprising broke out. The Turkish government has taken severe repressive measures against these activities.
1937 and 1938, Turkish government forces bombed and attacked the Kurdish province of desim, followed by a massacre. According to official figures, 13806 people were killed at that time. After the massacre, the province was renamed as Tunceli Province (Turkish, meaning "land of bronze", formerly known as Dersi'm 65,438+0936, meaning "Yinmen" in Zazazi).
1978, Abdullah Ocalan established PKK, and started armed guerrilla struggle from 1984. In the past 10 years, the fighting between guerrillas and government forces has caused more than 30,000 deaths and millions of people have left their homes. The Turkish government called Abdullah Ocalan the number one terrorist. He was arrested by Turkish agents in Africa on 1999 and sent back to prison.
Since 1999, Turkey's many reforms on the Kurdish issue have proved that the EU has become a key force to promote the settlement of the Kurdish issue. 20 1 1 Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan apologized for the massacre of tens of thousands of Kurds by government forces in the 1930s. This is the first time in Turkish history that a government prime minister has apologized for this incident.
1980, the Iran-Iraq war began. In order to create trouble for Iraq, Iran once again supported the Iraqi Kurds and created trouble behind Saddam Hussein. In this regard, Saddam adopted a high-handed policy towards the Kurds. From 65438 to 0988, Iran invaded the Kurdish residential areas in Iraq and received strong support from the Kurds. It was in this situation that Saddam launched the Anfal military operation and ordered the use of chemical weapons against Kurdish areas.
Iraq
Kurds in Iraq account for about 20% of the total population, with about 5 million people. Kurds have been fighting for autonomy since the founding of Iraq in the 1920s. Most Kurds live in northern Iraq, including Dohuk, Sulaymaniyah and Erbil provinces, as well as Kirkuk, Mosul and Diyala provinces, covering an area of about 80,000 square kilometers. The terrain here is dangerous, the oil production accounts for more than half of Iraq, and the agricultural and animal husbandry products are rich, so it is known as the "barn". Kurds mainly live on agriculture and animal husbandry. With the rise of the oil industry, some Kurds have become oil workers. Kurds have a strong desire for national independence. The Kurds have held many negotiations with the Iraqi government. 1970 In March, the Iraqi government signed a peace agreement with the Kurdish Democratic Party, which stipulated that autonomy would be granted within four years, but the Kurds believed that the Iraqi government only granted them limited autonomy within four years. 1975 In March, the Kurds reached an agreement with the Iraqi government to establish an autonomous region in northern Iraq, including three autonomous provinces such as Sulaymaniyah.
During the Iran-Iraq war, Kurds joined forces with Iran. So at the end of the war, in March 1988, the Iraqi army retaliated and attacked the Kurdish town of Halabja with chemical weapons. After Iran and Iraq reached an armistice agreement, the Hussein regime tortured the Kurds and forcibly relocated them to suppress the Kurdish autonomy movement.
199 1 after the armistice of the gulf war, the United States and Britain called on Iraqi nationals to overthrow Hussein's regime, so they stood up and responded to the Shiites in the south and started the Iraqi civil war. However, due to the inaction of the United States and Britain, it was suppressed by the Iraqi army, and the Hussein regime was not overthrown. Thousands of Kurds who were afraid of retaliation began to take refuge in Turkey, Iran and other countries. In order to urge these refugees to return home, the International Security Council decided to protect Kurds. The multinational force regards the area north of 36 degrees north latitude in northern Iraq as a no-fly zone for Iraqi aircraft, and the US and British air forces take off from bases in Turkey to monitor flights in this area.
Iran
The total population of Iran is about 10%, or about 7 million people are Kurds. In order to seek independence and autonomy, Kurds established the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). In Iran, most people are Shiites and most Kurds are Sunnis. Kurds have been seeking autonomy.
turkey
1/4 of the total population of Turkey is Kurdish, about150,000 people. Since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey 1923, the government has said that there are no Kurds in Turkey, only "Turks who forget their mother tongue and live in the mountains". There have been several incidents of suppressing the Kurdish resistance movement by force. Another stage of Turkey's Kurdish issue is in Europe. Turks working in Germany are mostly Kurds, with an estimated number of about 500,000. They have set up organizations all over Europe. 1999, Ocalan entered a state of armistice after the leader of the Kurdistan Labor Party (PKK) was arrested.
In recent years, in order to join the European Union, Turkey has also adopted a concession gesture of allowing Kurdish to be used. However, the explosions made by Kurds and many Kurds were influenced by Islamic militants.