The Kurds- a People Without a Home

Out of all of the ethnic groups in the world, the Kurds are one of the largest that has no state, no homeland to hang their hats. According to historian William Westermann, "The Kurds can present a better claim to race purity....than any other people which now inhabits Europe." For the past hundred years or so, the Kurds aspiration for an independent state has created many conflicts with the Turkish and Iraqi people in areas where most of the Kurds live. In order to understand the Kurds and their current plight, we must first take a look at the history of the Kurdish nation and the causes for conflicts breaking out between the Kurds and other races in the Middle East today.

The Kurds are a Sunni Muslim group that inhabit various parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran. The Kurds have a culture and a way of life that is diverse from all other races in the middle east. It is partially this cultural difference between the groups that sets the tone for conflict. The Kurds are scattered to the winds, not having a homeland, a state to unite them and call home. Out of the 25 million people of this race, about 10 million live in Turkey, 4 million in Iraq, 5 million in Iran, 1 million in Syria and the rest are living amongst other peoples in other countries in the middle east.

The Kurds have been around since ancient times, but the desire and fight for a Kurdish state did not begin until the early 1900's. The formation of a Kurdish state was supposed to have been accomplished through the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 which stated that the Kurds were indeed entitled to an independent state, if they so wished. In 1923, after the formation of Turkey, Kemal Ataruk took the reigns and threw out the treaty, denying the Kurds the right of their own homeland. This action prompted the Turkish-Kurdish conflict which still goes on today.

These setbacks have not stopped the Kurds from wishing, and even attempting to fulfill their dream of a homeland of their very own. Twice the Kurds attempted to create independent states, the Kingdom of Kurdistan, and the Mahabad Republic, but neither one lasted more than two years, which brought the Kurds back to square one.

The Kurds also exist in large numbers in Iraq. Iraq has its own problems without taking the Kurds into account and the conflict between the two groups did not occur until 1961, when a war broke out between them that lasted nearly nine years. After the war Saddam Hussein came to power, and implemented a policy to extinguish the Kurds from Iraq. For the next fifteen years the Kurds in Iraq were a persecuted people, enduring attacks on their villages, brutal treatment of any and all prisoners captured, and poison through cyanide and mustard gas. The numbers of Kurds killed by Saddam Hussein's reign in this time is unknown but it is estimated that over 5000 Kurdish villages were destroyed.

The Kurds have been inhabiting the middle east for nearly 2000 years and therefore have a legitimate assertion of the territory. The Iraqis and Turks have not been living in that area for anywhere near the same amount of time and cannot make the same historical claim to the land. The area in question lies within the borders of Iraq and Turkey and therein lies the conflict. As stated before the Kurds are also culturally and ethnically diverse from the Turks and the Iraqis, speaking a different language and practicing a different type of their religion. The Kurds have tried to use these differences to their advantage, stating that it is because of these differences that they deserve a homeland, a state of their own, under independent rule. The Turks and Iraqis have chosen to ignore the Kurds legitimate claim to what should be their state and in their hearts, is their homeland, and have indeed attempted to exterminate said people.

The Kurds do not have the support of any powerful nation, or of the U.N. They have been fighting for years, and still maintain their desire for a homeland of their very own though their future does not seem bright. The Kurds simply do not have the manpower to fight off all of the Turks and Iraqis, especially as the majority of their people are scattered throughout the middle east, and it does not seem that this is a fight that they will win. Still, the Kurdish people have and will soldier on, until the day comes, however far off, that they attain their wish, their need, of an independent state of their own...a home.