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Kurdistan's dance with history, modernity
14.11.2006
By Michael E. Ross |
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Region spanning five countries is an intriguing
blend of past and present
November 14, 2006
Iraqi Kurdistan, which has enjoyed relative freedom
since the 1991 Gulf War, in some ways is in an
enviable position.
That year the Kurds established a semi-autonomous
region under the protection of U.S. and British
forces. With oil reserves estimated in the billions
of barrels, two international airports and a new
investment law, Iraqi Kurdistan has been the
beneficiary of relative calm in a fractious country.
Kurdistan is defined as much by culture and
tradition as by borders, a place whose dance with
five partners -- Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and
Armenia, with whom it shares territory — has come to
define its character. |
Kurdistan autonomous region (Iraq), |
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Despite nationalistic aspirations that go back
generations, and the rise of a nationalistic
identity, the people of Kurdistan live in a homeland
without fixed boundaries, making them the largest
ethnic group in the world without a nation to call
their own.
Between 25 million and 30 million people live in
Kurdistan's 230,000 square miles, a land mass
slightly smaller than the state of Texas.
It is a region of broad contrasts in climate (from
subzero winters to warm summers), languages (from
Kurdish to Aramaic) and cultures (from the
supermarket-modern cities of Arbil and Sulimaniyah
to mountainous areas where change comes slowly, if
at all).
The dream of Kurdish independence has been
frustrated at least since the end of World War I,
when the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the
creation of modern Turkey led to a drive among Kurds
for their own homeland. In the 1920s and 1930s,
Kurds revolted in Turkey; thousands were displaced
after martial law was imposed.
War's legacy
War and a history of exploitation by the government
of Saddam Hussein are very much Iraqi Kurdistan's
legacy.
Iraqi Kurdistan was seeded with millions of mines in
the mid-1970s, as the Iraqi army under Saddam fought
to contain Kurdish rebellion.
That effort at suppression ultimately led to
Saddam's gassing of Kurds with chemical weapons in
Halabja in 1988. Some reports estimate that 5,000
people died in the gas attack.
About 4,000 Kurdish towns and villages were believed
to have been destroyed by the Iraqi army between
1975 and 1991.
msnbc msn.com
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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