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Timeline: Iraqi Kurds and Kurdistan
20.9.2006 |
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A chronology of key events:
1918 - After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in
World War I, British forces occupy the oil-rich
Ottoman vilayet (province) of Mosul, bringing
extensive Kurdish-populated areas under British
rule.
1919 - Mosul area is added to the new Iraqi state,
which comes under a British mandate.
1920 - Treaty of Sevres, signed by the defeated
Ottoman government, provides for a Kurdish state,
subject to the agreement of the League of Nations.
Article 64 of the Treaty gives Kurds living in the
Mosul vilayet the option of joining a future
independent Kurdistan.
1921 - Emir Faysal crowned king of Iraq, including
Mosul.
Uprising
1923 - Shaykh Mahmud Barzinji rebels against British
rule and declares a Kurdish kingdom in northern Iraq
(Kurdistan).
1923 - Kemal Ataturk's newly founded Turkish
Republic gains international recognition with the
Treaty of Lausanne. The Treaty of Sevres is not
ratified by the Turkish parliament.
1924 - Sulaimaniyah falls to British forces.
1932 - Uprising in the Barzan region to protest at
Iraq's admittance to the League of Nations, while
Kurdish demands for autonomy are ignored.
1943 - Mullah Mustafa Barzani leads another
uprising, and wins control of large areas of Erbil
and Badinan.
1946 August - British RAF bombing forces Kurdish
rebels over border into Iran where they join Iranian
Kurds led by Qazi Mohamed, who founds an independent
Kurdish state in Mahabad.
1946 - Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) holds its
first congress in Mahabad. Within a few months, the
"Mahabad Republic" collapses under attack from
Iranian forces, and Mustafa Barzani flees to the
Soviet Union.
1951 - A new generation of Kurdish nationalists
revives the KDP. Mullah Mustafa Barzani is nominated
president while in exile in the Soviet Union, but
the real leader of the KDP is Ibrahim Ahmad, who
favours close ties with the Iraqi Communist Party.
1958 - Overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy allows
Kurdish nationalists to organise openly after many
years in hiding.
A new Iraqi constitution recognises Kurdish
"national rights" and Mullah Mustafa Barzani returns
from exile.
1960 - Relations between the Iraqi government and
Kurdish groups become strained. The KDP complains of
increasing repression.
1961 - KDP is dissolved by the Iraqi government
after Kurdish rebellion in Kurdistan (northern
Iraq).
Autonomy granted
1970 March - Iraqi government and the Kurdish
parties agree a peace accord, which grants the Kurds
autonomy. The accord recognises Kurdish as an
official language and amends the constitution to
state that: "the Iraqi people is made up of two
nationalities, the Arab nationality and the Kurdish
nationality."
1971 August - Relations between the Kurds and the
Iraqi government deteriorate. Mullah Mustafa Barzani
appeals to the US for aid.
1974 March - Iraqi government imposes a draft of the
autonomy agreement and gives the KDP two weeks to
respond. Mullah Mustafa Barzani rejects the
agreement, which would have left the oilfields of
Kirkuk under Iraqi government control, and calls for
a new rebellion.
1975 March - Algiers Accord between Iran and Iraq
ends Iranian support for the Kurdish uprising, which
collapses. Barzani withdraws from political life.
1975 June - Jalal Talabani, a former leading member
of the KDP, announces the establishment of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) from Damascus.
1978 - Clashes between KDP and PUK forces leave many
dead.
1979 - Mullah Mustafa dies, his son Massoud Barzani
takes over the leadership of the KDP.
Iranian involvement
1980 - Outbreak of war between Iran and Iraq. KDP
forces work closely with Iran, but the PUK remains
hostile to cooperation with Tehran.
1983 - An Iranian counterattack opens a northern
front in Kurdish northern Iraq. With support from
KDP fighters, Iranian troops take the key town of
Hajj Umran. Human rights organisations say Iraqi
troops killed around 8,000 men from the KDP leader's
home area of Barzan in revenge.
1983 - PUK agrees to a ceasefire with Iraq and
begins negotiations on Kurdish autonomy.
1985 - Under increasing Iraqi government repression,
the ceasefire begins to break down. Pro-Iraqi
government militia men kill Jalal Talabani's brother
and two nieces.
1986 - Iranian government sponsors a meeting
reconciling the KDP and PUK. Now both major Kurdish
parties are receiving support from Tehran.
1987 - Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani join
forces with a number of smaller Kurdish factions to
create the Kurdistan Front.
1988 - As the Iran-Iraq war draws to a close, Iraqi
forces launch the "Anfal Campaign" against the
Kurds. Tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians and
fighters are killed, and hundreds of thousands
forced into exile, in a systematic attempt to break
the Kurdish resistance movement.
1988 16 March - Thousands of Kurdish civilians die
in a poison gas attack on the town of Halabjah near
the Iranian border. Human rights watchdogs and
Kurdish groups hold the Iraqi regime responsible.
1991 March - After the expulsion of Iraqi troops
from Kuwait in March 1991, members of the
pro-government Kurdish militia, the Jash, defect to
the KDP and PUK, but the uprising grinds to a halt
and US-led forces refuse to intervene to support the
rebels. Around 1.5 millions Kurds flee before the
Iraqi onslaught, but Turkey closes the border
forcing hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in the
mountains.
Safe haven
1991 April - Coalition forces announce the creation
of a "safe haven" on the Iraqi side of the border.
International aid agencies launch a massive aid
operation to help the refugees. Meanwhile, Jalal
Talabani and Massoud Barzani open negotiations with
Saddam Hussein on autonomy for Kurdistan.
1991 July - Talks continue in Baghdad, but Kurdish
peshmerga forces take control of Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah, in defiance of Iraqi government
orders.
1991 October - Fighting between Kurdish and Iraqi
government forces breaks out in earnest. Saddam
Hussein fortifies the border of Kurdish-held
northern Iraq and imposes a blockade.
1992 May - Elections held in areas under Kurdish
control give KDP candidates 50.8% of the vote, while
the PUK takes 49.2%. The two parties are equally
balanced in the new Kurdish government.
1992 September - Newly-established Iraqi National
Congress (INC), which brings together a wide-range
of Iraqi opposition groups, meets in Salah-al-Din in
the Kurdish-held north. KDP and PUK representatives
take part.
1994 May - Clashes between KDP and PUK forces spill
over into outright civil war. The PUK captures the
towns of Shaqlawah and Chamchamal from the KDP.
1996 May - UN agrees "Oil-for-Food" programme with
Baghdad; 13% of the proceeds from Iraqi oil exports
are earmarked for the three northern governorates,
which are largely under Kurdish control.
1996 August - Masoud Barzani appeals to Saddam
Hussein for help to defeat the PUK.
1996 September - With the help of Iraqi government
troops, KDP forces seize the northern city of Erbil
and take the PUK stronghold of Sulaimaniyah. A new
KDP-led government is announced at the parliament
building in Erbil.
1996 October - PUK forces retake Sulaimaniyah.
1997 January - PUK announces a new government based
in Sulaimaniyah. Both the PUK and KDP claim
jurisdiction over the whole of the
Kurdish-controlled north.
1998 September - Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani
sign a peace agreement in Washington, but government
of the Kurdish region remains split between the two
rival administrations.
2000 November - In a letter to the United Nations
secretary-general, the PUK accuses the Iraqi
government of expelling Kurdish families from Kirkuk.
2001 September - Fighting breaks out between the PUK
and the Islamic fundamentalist group Jund al-Islam,
later renamed Ansar al-Islam.
Moves toward unity
2002 June - PUK and KDP officials take part in joint
discussions with other Iraqi groups aimed at
coordinating the work of the opposition in the event
of a US-led military campaign against Iraq.
2002 October - Joint session of the Kurdish
parliament convenes in Erbil. KDP and PUK
parliamentarians agree to work together during a
"transitional session" until new elections can be
held.
2003 February - US Secretary of State Colin Powell
accuses Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam
of playing a pivotal role in linking Osama Bin
Ladin's al-Qaeda network with the Iraqi regime.
2003 February - Kurdish leaders reject proposals to
bring Turkish troops into Kurdistan (northern Iraq)
as part of a US-led military campaign to oust Saddam
Hussein. Anti-Turkish demonstrators take to the
streets of Kurdish towns.
2003 February - Failure of a parliamentary bill
allowing US troops to deploy on Turkish soil hits
American plans to open a northern front against
Iraq.
2003 3 March - KDP and PUK create a "joint higher
leadership" in the Kurdish-held north, under the
chairmanship of the two party leaders, Massoud
Barzani and Jalal Talabani.
US-led campaign against Iraq
2003 20 March - US-led coalition forces invade Iraq
and begin bombardment of Baghdad and other cities.
Mosul and Kirkuk near the Kurdish enclaves come
under heavy fire.
2003 22 March - Coalition forces launch Cruise
missile attack on bases held by Ansar al-Islam in
the north. Dozens killed in the headquarters of the
Islamic Group, an unrelated radical Islamist faction
when a missile hits the Khormal area.
2003 27 March - Hundreds of US paratroopers land
near Erbil, signalling the opening of a northern
front in the war on Iraq.
2003 9 April - US forces advance into central
Baghdad. Saddam Hussein's grip on the city is
broken. In the following days Kurdish fighters and
US forces take control of the northern cities of
Kirkuk and Mosul.
2003 July - Interim governing council (IGC) meets
for first time. Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay killed
in gun battle in Mosul.
2004 1 February - At least 56 people die and more
than 200 people are injured after a double suicide
bombing at the offices of the two main political
Kurdish parties in the northern city of Erbil.
Several senior political figures are among the dead.
2005 January - An alliance of Kurdish parties comes
second in Iraq's landmark national election, sending
77 deputies to an interim parliament.
2005 April - PUK leader Jalal Talabani is elected as
interim Iraqi president by MPs.
2005 May - At least 50 people are killed in a
suicide bomb attack on police recruits in Erbil.
2005 June - First session of Kurdish parliament held
in Erbil; KDP's Massoud Barzani is president of
autonomous region.
2005 December - News that a foreign firm has begun
drilling for oil in the Kurdish north sparks new
fears of secession among Iraqi Sunni leaders.
Kurdish authorities later report a "major discovery"
of oil.
2006 September - Massoud Barzani orders the Iraqi
national flag be replaced with the Kurdish one in
government buildings. But Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki says: "The Iraqi flag is the only flag
that should be raised over any square inch of Iraq."
2006 September - Five blasts caused by one suicide
truck bomb and four car bombs kill 23 people in
Kirkuk.
The BBC's Newsnight programme reports that former
Israeli commandos secretly trained Kurdish soldiers
in (Kurdistan) Northern Iraq to protect a new
international airport and in counter-terrorism
operations.
bbc
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
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"
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