Kurdistan - The Country

Kurdistan is one of those Alice in Wonderland type countries that do not officially exist. The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a country of their own. Take a step through the looking glass, though, and you'll find the Kurds geographically split between modern-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. Welcome to Kurdistan. Historically, the Kurds have been cut something of a raw deal. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I the Kurds were promised an independent Kurdistan by the British under provisions made by the 1920 Treaty of Sevres. In 1923, though, the Brits changed their minds and cut a deal with Kemal Ataturk, the calculation being that it would be better to have an anti-communist Turkey than an independent Kurdistan. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne left the Kurds viciously shortchanged, but then you'd expect that from perfidious Albion. Since then modern Kurdish history has been one of rebellion and repression.

As many as 12-15 million Kurds live in southeastern Turkey (a third of Turkey's politicians are of Kurdish origin), 5-7 million live in Iran, 1.5 million live in Syria and about 4 million live in northern Iraq. There are also approximately 1.5 million Kurds scattered over the former Soviet Union.

Currently, there are four main Kurdish groups: the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) represents Turkish Kurds and is led by the now imprisoned Abdullah Ocalan. In Iran, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) has been active politically but not militarily.

The other two main factions are made up of Iraqi Kurds. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is led by the Barzani tribe, the current leader being Massoud Barzani. His grandfather, Ahmed Barzani, led the initial Kurdish revolts in the 1930s, which were continued by his son Mustafa Barzani in the 1960s and 1970s. The other main group is the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani.

In 1991 the United States created a safe haven for Kurds in northern Iraq to protect them from nasty old Saddam Hussein. In our humble opinion, this was in part due to the efforts of people such as ,oskun, whose photos of Kurds fleeing into the mountains and fighting over bread were published internationally, including Time magazine. These photos, along with graphic TV footage, helped force the United States to instigate the safe haven policy when the Kurdish rebellion was crushed at the end of the Gulf War.

The area is currently divided between the KDP, who control the northwest, and the PUK, who control the southeast. The capital of Iraqi Kurdistan is Arbil. In 1992 Iraqi Kurds held their first ever free elections. The KDP beat the PUK with a small majority, but being nice guys, they decided to split the seats in the new parliament evenly.

The nice guy stuff didn't last for long, though. In 1994 warfare erupted between the PUK and KDP. The PUK accused the KDP of hogging the cash from the border trade with Turkey. With as many as 1,000 trucks crossing the border every day it is estimated that the revenue derived from taxing the trucks is about US$100 million a year. Needless to say, the KDP control the border. The KDP said "don't." The PUK said "do," leveled the antiaircraft guns and started blasting. In 1995 the PUK took the self-declared Kurdish capital of Arbil after fierce fighting. There was a breather for a while when the United States brokered an agreement between the two parties in Dublin, Ireland. When the United States then refused to put up the cash for the elections (a whole $2 million), both factions decided to resolve their differences with artillery instead.

This time, though, Barzani dumped Uncle Sam for Uncle Saddam and invited the latter into Iraqi Kurdistan to kick the PUK out. On August 31, 1996, 10,000 Republican Guards plus tanks rocked up outside the gates of Arbil. With Saddam's elite soldiers issued with real bullets the PUK left in a hurry. Saddam's folks got down to the busy task of blowing up the Iraqi National Congress, rounding up and shooting a number of CIA-trained flunkies, and leaving behind a number of Iraqis who had changed into Kurdish uniforms (See "The Players").

Clinton's election meisters scrambled to see how they could spin this confrontation. They vaguely remembered that footage of cruise missiles, stealth bombers and a stern president were good for the opinion polls. What they forgot was back then, Saddam was choking off our oil supply and Bush had Swartzkopf in the field with a multinational army instead of Dick Morris in bed with a hooker. Darn, it all worked so well for the Republicans.

About 69 percent of Americans supported Clinton's decision; 0 percent of Americans know how many people the cost of one cruise missile will feed. (DP figured that 44 cruise missiles at $1.5 million each equals $113.20 per Kurd in Iraq). Saddam was totally unfazed. His new Kurdish allies went on to capture the rest of Kurdistan over the next few days. The PUK retreated to their headquarters in Zahle, way up on the Iranian border, for some counseling and weapons.

It didn't take long for the PUK to hatch a plan. A month later they stormed down from the border (with a bit of help from Iran), recapturing most of their traditional areas. This time Saddam didn't come running to Barzani's aid. He simply informed the PUK that if they took the town of Degala then he would come back into the conflict again. A tad miffed, the PUK called a halt to the offensive, sat back in Sulymanya and waited for their next opportunity. Things really went haywire in October 1997. Earlier in the year the KDP had allied themselves with the Turks in their war against the PKK operating from the border area. With most of the KDP peshmerga tied up along the border the PUK rubbed their hands with glee and started planning the next offensive. October saw the beginning of the PUK blitzkrieg, and boy, was the KDP in trouble. It was double double, toil and trouble, when the PKK kids then moved down from the border and joined in the offensive for a lark. The KDP dialed 911 (or 312 as the case was) and the Turkish military came storming in with everything they had. A month of fighting saw the PUK reluctantly call a halt to the offensive. With the preferred option of exterminating the KDP no longer an option, the PUK decided to negotiate. After months of wrangling, both Kurdish leaders went to Washington in September 1998, where they signed a temporary-sorry, a permanent-peace agreement. Totally fixed and unfair elections were due to be held in June 1999, but as DP goes to press have yet to be held. Watch this space for round four of the Kurdish wars.

In Turkey the Kurdish struggle is led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) whose leader, Abdullah Ocalan-aka "Apo"-has moved from a comfy house in Damascus to an even more comfy one in Rome. Who says a revolutionary can't have his creature comforts? Well, to be fair, he has since moved into the rather less salubrious confines of a Turkish prison, after his capture in Nairobi, Kenya by Turkish intelligence operatives. He has always sensibly left the fighting to the kids who are actually in southeastern Turkey, or "northwestern Kurdistan," as he wistfully calls it. After 15 years of all-out war with the PKK someone in the Turkish government decided to add up the cost: US$179 billion, 4,000 trashed villages, 3 million internal refugees and over 37,000 dead.

Despite the war, which started in 1984, between the Turkish military and the PKK in the southeastern provinces of Turkey, the Kurds as a people do not necessarily support the PKK's demand for a united Kurdistan. The chances of an independent Kurdish state being carved from hunks of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria are about as likely as Saddam Hussein being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Many, if not the majority, sympathize with the PKK's anti-Turkish motivation. The August 1999 announcement of a cease-fire by the PKK has meant that there is currently considerably less fighting. How long the situation will last is another matter. But over the years the Turkish military have torched about 4,000 villages in their bid to destroy the PKK. In turn the PKK have gunned down civilians who weren't quick enough to shout "long live Apo."

The PKK controls much of the countryside at night and sets up roadblocks to "tax" the local drivers and kidnap any foreigner dumb enough to be traveling after dark. During the day the Turkish Special Teams (_zel Timler) take back control and go PKK hunting. About 20 or so foreigners foolish enough to hang around the southeast have also been kidnapped by the PKK. If you're kidnapped you can expect to be doing a lot of hiking through the mountains as the PKK will want to take you far from the reaches of the Turkish military. You can also expect to be shelled and bombed. If it's not your ideal holiday, you can take consolation in the fact that you are guaranteed to come back a few pounds lighter. Far more effective than dieting. All the foreigners kidnapped have subsequently been released unharmed.

Not content with waging a war in Turkey, the PKK have also carried out bombings in Europe. A wave of attacks against Turkish embassies and businesses in 1993 sent the alarm bells ringing amongst European governments. With some 2 million Turks-a quarter of them Kurds-in Germany the government quickly banned 36 Kurdish organizations rather than see the battleground spread to Germany. The German government got so panicky that they actually sent a high-ranking member from the German secret service to have a chat with Ocalan in Damascus in 1995 (more like a grovel to beg Apo to reign in some of the wilder PKK elements). More recently, the German prosecutor has declared that the PKK is not, after all, a terrorist organization.