Prashant Mavani, is an expert in current affairs analysis ...Treaty of Sevres: 1920 •In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland - generally

Prashant Mavani, is an expert in current affairs analysis and holds a MSc in Management from University of Surrey (U.K.). Above all he is a passionate teacher.

History

• The Kurds are one of the indigenous people of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands.

• Records of early Mesopotamia has frequent records of mountain tribes with names resembling Kurds.

• It is believed that the Kardouchoiwhom the Greek historian Xenophon speaks of

in Anabasis, may have been Kurds.

• Solid evidence of Kurds embracing Islam in 7th century is recorded.

• Religion: Most of them are Sunni Muslims and many practice Sufism and other mystic sects.

• Their reputation for military prowess has made them much in demand as mercenaries in many armies.

• The sultan Saladin, best known to the Western world for exploits in the Crusades, epitomizes the Kurdish military reputation.

Quick glance over social structure

• Tribe is the principle unit in traditional Kurdish society.

• Detribalization proceeded intermittently due to urbanization and spreading out to different nations.

• Marriages used to be endogamous.

• Comparing to Arab, Iranian and Turkish women, Kurdish women are traditionally more active in politics and have also embraced educational and employmentopportunities.

Language:

• The Kurdish language is a West Iranian language related to Persian and Pashto.

Occupation:

• The traditional Kurdish way of life was nomadic, revolving around sheep and goat herding throughout the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands of Turkey and Iran.

• Most Kurds practiced only marginal agriculture.

Role of foreign powers

• The British introduction of the concept of private property, the partition of regions of Kurdish settlement by modern neighbouring states, and the influence of British, U.S., and Soviet interests in the Persian Gulf region.

• These factors and others combined with the flowering of a nationalist movement among a very small minority of urban, intellectual Kurds.

• The first Kurdish newspaper appeared in 1897 and was published at intervals until 1902.

• It was revived at Istanbul in 1908 (when the first Kurdish political club, with an affiliated cultural society, was also founded) and again in Cairo during World War I.

Treaty of Sevres: 1920

• In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland - generally referred to as "Kurdistan".

• After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state.

• It provided for an autonomous Kurdistan but was never ratified.

• Impact of World War I (1914-18): New boundaries came into force, which impeded the seasonal migrations of the flocks.

• This political change forced them to quit their traditional occupation for a non-traditional occupation.

Treaty of Lausanne: 1923

• It replaced the Treaty of Sevres

• Such hopes were dashed because as per the new treaty the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries.

• Thus the opportunity to unify the Kurds in a nation of their own was lost.

• Kurdistan after the war was more fragmented than before, and various separatist movements arose among Kurdish groups.

• Over the next 80 years, any move by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed.

Current Status

• Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language, even though they have no standard dialect.

• Location:1. South-eastern Turkey

2. North-eastern Syria

3. Northern Iraq

4. North-western Iran

5. South-western Armenia

Turkey and KurdsPopulation 15-20%

• There is deep-seated hostility between the Turkish state and the country’s Kurds.

• For generations, Kurds received unsympathetic treatment at the hands of the Turkey government. • State calls them Mountain Turks and not Kurds.

• Kurdish language is outlawed.

• They are not allowed to wear their traditional dress.

• In 1978, Abdullah Ocalan established the PKK, which called for an independent state within Turkey.

• In 1984, the group began an armed struggle.

• Since then, more than 40k people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

• In 1990s: PKK rolled back on its demand for independence, calling insteadfor greater cultural and political autonomy, but continued to fight.

• In 2012, the government and PKK began peace talks and the following year a ceasefire was agreed, although clashes continued.

• In 2015, ceasefire collapsed due to a suicide bombing blamed on IS killed 33 young activists in the mainly Kurdish town of Suruc. • The PKK responded by attacking Turkish soldiers and police.

• The Turkish government launched what it called a

"synchronised war on terror" against the PKK and IS.

• In 2016, a suicide bomb in Ankara left dozen

dead and the government has said that the attack

was conducted by groups called YPG and PYD

which, as per the government are affiliates of PKK.

Syria and Kurds

Population 7-9%

• Syria's Kurds have long been suppressed and denied basic rights.

• Some 300,000 have been denied citizenship.

• Since the 1960s Kurdish land has been confiscated and redistributed to Arabs in an attempt to "Arabize" Kurdish regions.

• The state has also sought to limit Kurdish demands for greater autonomy by cracking down on protests and arresting political leaders.

• Before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011, they used to live in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo, and in three, non-contiguous areas around Kobane, the north-western town of Afrin, and the north-eastern city of Qamishli.

• The Kurdish enclaves were relatively unscathed by the first two years of the Syrian conflict.

• The main Kurdish parties publicly avoided taking sides.

• In mid-2012, government forces withdrew to concentrate on fighting the rebels elsewhere, after which Kurdish groups took control.

• In January 2014, various scattered Kurdish political groups got united to declare the creation of a democratic autonomous government, with branches based in the three Kurdish enclaves.• They are not seeking independence from Syria but they want a "local democratic

administration" within a federal framework.

• This united political group insists that any political settlement to end the conflict in Syria will have to include legal guarantees for Kurdish rights and recognition of Kurdish autonomy.

Iran and KurdsPopulation: 9%

• Kurds also felt strong assimilationist pressure from the national government in Iran and endured religious persecution by that country’s Shia Muslim majority.

• Shortly after World War II (1939–45), the Soviet Union backed the establishment of an independent country around the largely Kurdish city of Mahabad, in northwestern Iran.

• The so-called Republic of Mahabad collapsed after Soviet withdrawal in 1946, but about that same time the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) was established.

• Thereafter, the KDPI engaged in low-level hostilities with the Iranian government into the 21st century.

Iraq and Kurds

Population 15-20%

Iraq and Kurds

• Historically enjoyed more national rights than Kurds living in neighbouring states.• But also faced brutal repression.

• Kurds in the north of Iraq revolted against British rule during the mandate era, but were crushed.

• Short-lived armed rebellions occurred in Iraq in 1931–32 and 1944–45.

• In 1946, Mustafa Barzani formed the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to fight for autonomy in Iraq.

• After the 1958 revolution, a new constitution recognised Kurdish nationality. • But Barzani's plan for self-rule was rejected by the Arab-led central government.• Soon the KDP launched an armed struggle in 1961.

• A failed peace accord with the Iraqi government led to another outbreak of fighting in 1975, but an agreement between Iraq and Iran—which had been supporting Kurdish efforts—later that year led to a collapse of Kurdish resistance.• Thousands of Kurds fled to Iran and Turkey.

• In the late 1970s, Iraq’s Baʿth Party instituted a policy of settling Iraqi Arabs in areas with Kurdish majorities particularly around the oil-rich city of Kirkūk uprooting Kurds from those same regions.

• 1980–88 Iran-Iraq War: Authorities in Iraq believed that Kurds were supporting Iran in the war.

• What followed was one of the most brutal episodes in Kurdish history.

• Iraqi forces launched an operation named Anfal under which it used chemical weapons which led to the death of 5000+ Kurdish people.

• When Iraq was defeated in the 1991 Gulf War Barzani's son, Massoud, led a Kurdish rebellion.

• Its violent suppression prompted the US and its allies to impose a no-fly zone in the north that allowed Kurds to enjoy self-rule.

• The KDP and PUK agreed to share power, but tensions rose and a four-year internal conflict erupted in 1994.

• The two parties co-operated with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein and have participated in all national governments formed since then.

• They have also governed in coalition in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), created in 2005 to administer the three provinces of Dohuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniya, and sought to maximise Kurdish autonomy by building a pipeline to Turkey and exporting oil independently.

• After IS captured large parts of northern Iraq in 2014.

• The KRG sent the Peshmerga into disputed areas claimed by the Kurds and the central government, and then asked the Kurdish parliament to plan a referendum on independence.

• In February 2016, Massoud Barzani - who became president of Kurdistan in 2005 - reiterated the call for a referendum.

• However, he stressed that it would be non-binding and would simply allow Kurdish leaders to "execute the will of the people at the appropriate time and conditions".

25th September 2017 till now

• Almost 93 per cent of those who took part in the referendum on support for Kurdish independence from Iraq have voted to split from Baghdad, officials have said.

• The results of 25-09-17 Monday's vote were announced on 27-09-17 Wednesday evening by election officials in Irbil, the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)'s capital.

• A total of 92.73 per cent said 'yes' in response to the question, "Do you want the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistani areas outside the administration of the Region to become an independent state?, head of the electoral commission Hendrin Mohammed told reporters.

• Turn out had been high, with approximately 72 per cent of the 8.4 million strong population taking part.

• The vote was met with enthusiasm by the Kurdish diaspora all over the world

What does ‘yes’ actually mean?

• It is important to note that the vote has not been officially recognised by Baghdad, and it does not actually bind KRG President Masoud Barzani into taking any action, either.

• What the Kurds hope is that a ‘yes’ will give them a greater mandate in negotiations with Baghdad, as the support of international powers they have gained during the fight against Isis begins to wane.

• Though independence remains the proclaimed goal of Iraqi Kurdistan, Mr.Barzani himself has often signalled compromise. He once proposed a confederation, a united state in which Iraq and Kurdistan could co-exist, sharing resources and a vision on foreign and security policies.

Central Government of Iraq

• It has greatly angered Baghdad

• Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government has refused to recognise the referendum, declaring it unconstitutional.

• Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Abadi demanded in a speech that the Kurdish authorities "cancel" the referendum and its results.

• He ordered the KRG to give up control of its international airports by Friday, adding that Kurdish forces must also withdraw from disputed areas currently under KRG control such as Kirkuk.

• Parliament voted to approve a 13-point resolution giving Mr Abadi the mandate to deploy troops in Kirkuk

• Multiple attempts were made to delay or derail it, including a Supreme Court order last week.

• Baghdad also sees the referendum as a Kurdish effort to take control of Iraqi oil revenue.

People of Iraq

• Baghdad and Iraq's Arab population have expressed concerns that areas involved in the referendum include places such as Kirkuk, which is an ethnically mixed and oil-rich province.

International Community

• Neighbouring Iran and Turkey bitterly oppose Kurdish independence on economic and security grounds.

• Both countries closed their airspace to the Iraqi Kurdish region as voting took place on Monday, worried that the likely 'yes' result would fuel the desire for an independent Kurdistan within their own significant Kurdish populations.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent troops and tanks to the border with the KRG earlier this week, where they have been joined for joint exercises with Iraqi soldiers.

• Further economic and military action were both options on the table for Ankara, he said, adding that Turkey could shut off both oil pipelines and truck deliveries to the KRG, letting it "starve".

• Washington DC - had advised against it, worried the vote could stoke already inflamed Irbil-Baghdad tensions and affect the fight to destroy Isis in its remaining strongholds in the country.

The End

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