Kurds, Arabs, Persian and Turks are very large ethnic groups spread across the Middle East. Approximately thirty million Kurds live in Middle East, primarily in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, placing them as the 4th largest ethnic group in the Middle East. However, living side by side with three large ethnic groups is not always free from quarrels and conflicts between each other, throughout the twentieth century and into the present day, the Kurds have faced significant political and social challenges, including systemic discrimination, repression, and violent conflicts, notably in Turkey and Iraq. The long history of the Kurds is very thick with struggle to be recognized and to establish their own autonomy as a big nation, Moreover, this identity conflict is rarely highlighted in the media, making the Kurds seem forgotten from the world's perspective. Despite many political challenges, they have remained steadfast with their own culture and until now, the Kurdish people are still fighting for their land and rights to independence.
The Kurds themself are one of the original and oldest tribes/nation which is categorized by scientists that classify the Kurds as belonging to the Iranian branch of the large family of Indo-European races. In prehistoric times, kingdoms called Mitanni, Kassites and Hourites reigned these mountainous areas, situated between the Iranian plateau and the Euphrates. In the 7th century BC, the Medes, the Kurds’ equivalent of the Gauls for the French, founded an empire which, in 612 BC, conquered the powerful Assyria and spread its domination through the whole of Iran as well as central Anatolia that settled in the Middle East. Traditionally, Kurdistan (Land of Kurds) spans a mountainous region stretching between the Iranian Plateau and the Euphrates River, making them one of the native people that live there for centuries.
At the end of 6th BC after the Medes, their religion and civilization were to dominate Iran until the time of Alexander the Great from this date right until the advent of Islam and Arabs Civilization, the term "Kurds" It first appeared and was widely used by Arabs to refer to nomadic people in general. From the many records of Arab conquests in Central Asia, Middle East and Africa shows the resistance of the Kurds to fight the Arabs from the mountains of kurdistan, however between 630s-640s. Due to suffering many defeats, most Kurds from these Tribe chose to convert to Islam in the following centuries. This mass conversion to Islam opened a big door in the cultural history of the Kurdish people and helped them to integrate into the broader Islamic world where the Kurdish nation made an extraordinary contribution to the history of the Middle East.
Following their integration of the Islamic world the Kurds gradually began to establish political influence through several local dinasty, after the disintegration of the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century, a number of Kurdish chieftains implement self-rule in their homelands. The most significant are the Shaddadids (951 to 1174) in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Rawwidids (955 to 1071) in Azerbaijan, the Marwanids (990 to 1096) in Diyarbakir and Lake Van, and the Hasanwayhids (959 to 1095) in western Iran. The Kurds also reached their peak during the Ayyubid Caliphate, led by Sultan Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi (r. 1174 to 1193), however even with the Ayyubids, which became a kingdom that was able to unite Kurdistan, even at their peak, the Ayyubids could not secure it entirely, when the kingdom became increasingly weakened and the invasions of the Mongols shook the Islamic world, once again breaking them apart, and opened a new chapter for the Kurds which will later become the servant of the two great empires, the Ottoman and the Safavid.
The Kurdish nation was not immediately destroyed after the collapse of the Ayyubids, many Kurdish principalities managed to maintain self-rule throughout the 17th century by switching allegiances between the Ottoman and Persian empires. Despite occasional clashes with their overlords, the Kurdish emirs largely oversee a period of relative stability, economic prosperity and cultural development, even though The Kurds have always been an important key for powerful countries to achieve their political goals, the border dispute between the Ottomans and the Safavids, shows how the two empires struggle to spread their influence to the Kurds, because of their strategic territory became a front line fortress if at any time a conflict occurred between the two empires. After the setbacks experienced by the Safavids in the Chaldiran war which is very detrimental, including reducing Persian influence in the Kurdistan region, the Ottomans quickly spread their influence to gain the loyalty of the Kurdish nation.
The Ottomans, who ruled the Kurds for centuries, did not escape their conflicts with local rulers and important Kurdish figures, in the 19th century when the Ottoman establish legal equality for Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as the growing European political and cultural influence in the Near and Middle East. They believe these parallel developments threaten the traditional social and political superiority of Islam in the Kurdish regions. Which led to the rebellion of Sheikh Ubaidillah Even though the rebellion was successfully crushed, the rebellion marks the emergence of modern Kurdish nationalism, however, with Sheikh Ubeydullah seeking to establish a Kurdish state consisting of territories within both Ottoman and Iranian Kurdistan.
In the aftermath of World War I, the Middle East is reshaped by the collapse of the Ottoman and Qajar dynasty. Many Kurdish activists begin to favour autonomy or the formation of a Kurdish nation-state, and their aspirations are ostensibly secured by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. However, the combination of a revival of Turkish power, the shifting ambitions of the Great Powers of Europe (particularly Britain, France and Russia) in the Middle East, and political divisions within Kurdish society, thwarts any movement towards Kurdish independence, the failure of the Treaty of Sèvres and its replacement by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) marked a bitter turning point for the Kurds, since then, the Kurdistan region has been divided into four nation states and also carried out rebellions in all four countries (Türkiye, Iran, Iraq, Syria) which led them to a bloody path and new chapter, fragmentation and revolution.
In the aftermath of World War I, the Middle East is reshaped by the collapse of the Ottoman and Qajar dynasty. Many Kurdish activists begin to favour autonomy or the formation of a Kurdish nation-state, and their aspirations are ostensibly secured by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. However, the combination of a revival of Turkish power, the shifting ambitions of the Great Powers of Europe (particularly Britain, France and Russia) in the Middle East, and political divisions within Kurdish society, thwarts any movement towards Kurdish independence, the failure of the Treaty of Sèvres and its replacement by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) marked a bitter turning point for the Kurds, since then, the Kurdistan region has been divided into four nation states and also carried out rebellions in all four countries (Türkiye, Iran, Iraq, Syria) which led them to a bloody path and new chapter, fragmentation and revolution.
This fueled so many Kurdish rebellion and revolution, at the year lf 1924-1930 revolution of the Kurdish people against the Turkish Republic was one form of Kurdish disappointment towards the betrayal of promises regarding their rights and towards the end of the century battles, the insurgency was continued by Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK). In the Ottoman successor countries where the Kurds settled (Türkiye, Iran, Iraq, and Syria), each part, tries to strengthen each other to maintain their strong sense of national identity, to firm it’s power and therefore Kurdish identity viewed as a threat and an obstacle to Turkish, Arab, and Persian national unity, which will be the reason for the long conflict between the great nations of the Middle East. All of these national government taking measures to curb Kurdish political activity, which in some cases has sparked strong resistance from the Kurds.
For a century, the Kurdish people had to go through many bloody insurgencies for their autonomy and identity, eventhough they briefly had achieve their national dreams with the rise of the Mahabad Republic in north west Iran, they had to swallow the bitterness when Soviet withdrew their support and leave Iran. Iranian forces subsequently overrun the Kurdish republic’s capital, Mahabad and hang it’s leader Qazi Mohammed, in the city’s central square, they also fought the Baghdad government in 1960s-1970s only to get crushed in 1975 when Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi backed by United States under President Gerald Ford, betray the Kurdish allies to win territorial concessions from Iraq. In Türkiye following the Kurdish revolt in 1924s-1930s, the Turks deport large numbers of Kurds from their home regions, and in the latter half of the century the Turkish government even resorts to violence against civilians in their ongoing conflict with the PKK. In Iraq, Kurdish civilians are similarly targeted for reprisals: in the late 1980s, up to 182,000 Iraqi Kurdish villagers are massacred during Saddam Hussein’s Anfal campaigns across rural Kurdistan, which saw widespread chemical weapons attacks on largely civilian communities.
After experiencing so much pressure, the Kurdish nation started trying anything to fight for their nation, sometimes fought under the control of superpowers because of their contributions and roles that can change the course of war, from the end of World War II, until the advent of the Cold War, the Kurds have played an important role in their battle for control in the Middle East and it’s rich oil resources, from Iran-Iraq war (1988), Persian Gulf War (1990), Iraq war (2003-2011), and other wars in the Middle East, the Kurds have never been absent from those conflicts. their reason is simple, to gain international recognition for a sovereign Kurdish nation. Only by asking for help from a superpower can the Kurds at least gain the strength to take a step closer to realizing their dreams, even though their hopes sometimes end to an unwanted expectation.
The 21st century begins promisingly for the Kurds of Iraq, the American involvement in the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011 resulted in practical independence for the Kurdish regions in Iraq, prompting the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to unite once more to form a unified Kurdish administration in 2006. The Kurdish Regional Government was recognized as the most politically secure area in Iraq. Kurdish militias sought to assist in achieving overall tranquility in Iraq, despite the ongoing strife between Sunni and Shia groups. In 2014, Kurds from Iraq, Syria, and Turkey engaged in combat against the Sunni extremist organization called the Islamic State (ISIS), which intended to establish a new caliphate in the region. This conflict persisted for the subsequent ten years throughout the Middle East.
Meanwhile in 2002, Turkey elects the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to office, a conservative, Islamic-oriented party which initially seeks to resolve the country’s long-running ‘Kurdish question’. The AKP initially seeks to do so by easing public restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture in Turkish public life, and even enters into negotiations with the prisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader, Abdullah Öcalan. In the same period, political groups backing the Kurdish cause in Turkey are increasing their influence within the national political scene, culminating in the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) winning almost 13% of the votes in the Turkish general election conducted in 2015. Still, this is the height of Kurdish electoral success in Turkey. Following a botched coup attempt in 2016 carried out by a segment of the Turkish military against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government, the Turkish authorities initiate a campaign against the military, civil services, educators, the media, and opposition political figures. This period sees a significant intensification of hostilities between Turkish security personnel and militants associated with the PKK, which Erdoğan consistently labels as ‘a terrorist group’. In a comparable manner, members of the HDP in parliament, local government representatives, and party members encounter legal action and detention, facing accusations of promoting ‘terrorism’.
In Iran, the Kurdish political party that once dominated Iranian Kurdistan in the 1970s and 1980s are largely exile in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, despite this, they continue to resist and challenge the authority of Islamic Republic, established following the 1979 Revolution, however despite the protest, the Iranian government remains firmly in control. In contrast, the 21st century witnesses Syria experiencing possibly the most significant change in modern times. The Kurdish community in Syria, primarily located near the Syria–Turkey border, has often faced neglect from the Syrian authorities. In fact, in 1962, between 120,000 and 150,000 Kurds in Syria were denied their citizenship due to claims that they had entered the nation illegally from Turkey or Iraq after 1945. The growing dissatisfaction among the Kurdish people towards the regimes of President Hafez al–Assad (who served from 1971 to 2000) and his son, President Bashar al–Assad (from 2000 onward), triggers intense protests, particularly notable in 2004. Nevertheless, after the commencement of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Kurdish forces aligned with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a faction of the PKK, succeed in taking control of a significant part of northern Syria by 2012. They create an autonomous region that they call Rojava (‘The West’ in Sorani Kurdish) and organize it into three self-governing cantons. In the backdrop of the Syrian Civil War, the PYD has achieved significant accomplishments, gaining military assistance from the United States to fight against ISIS. Nevertheless, in spite of their achievements over ISIS, the future of the Kurdish population in Syria is unclear, as both the Syrian administration in Damascus and the Turkish administration in Ankara show antagonism towards the PYD’s presence along the Syria-Turkey border.
The future of Kurdish Nation is likely not a fully independent state, but rather a continuing struggle to maintain the actual autonomy they have achieved in Iraq and Syria. The scenario of a cross-border confederation though ideal is difficult to achieve due to the hostility of Turkey and Iran. Thus, the fragile status quo seems likely to persist, but not without the risk of a new eruption in the next regional crisis. The current status quo shows that the Kurds already have their own regional autonomy, however, economic crises and conflicts still frequently hit them, conflicts and discrimination with Turkish, Arab, Iranian Nation, became the reason why it will be difficult to see the future of the Kurdish nation. In fact, the Kurds have all the requirements to create their own state, however, other major nations see the Kurds as a real threat if they unite with a strategic geographical location, the Iranian, Arab and Turkish nations have made various efforts to eliminate the influence and restrictions on the Kurdish nation. Injustice and human rights violations always haunt the minds of the Kurdish nation, even though they have received international recognition, the interests of the superpowers, Regional stability and rejection from many countries have made it seem as if the Kurds have disappeared from the international spotlight.
Reference
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