Essay on Kurds - A People Without a State - 1924 Words

Kurds - A People Without a State 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†¦show more content†¦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 conflictShow MoreRelatedKurdistan: Kurdish Statelessness653 Words   |  3 PagesKurdish Statelessness The Kurds are a large group of people who are from Kurdistan. Kurdistan is a large area of land in the Middle East that makes up land throughout Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Although the Kurdish people have lived in Kurdistan for centuries, their land has never been declared a state. Therefore, the Kurdish people are a stateless population. The Kurds mostly live throughout Iran, Turkey and Iraq. Also, some of them can be found living in Syria, Russia, Lebanon and Germany. KurdishRead MoreThe Iraqi Kurds1710 Words   |  7 PagesOn September 25, almost 93 percent of Kurds voted for independence from Iraq in a nonbinding referendum. 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