The Kurds of Iraq: Tragedy and Hope

The end of World War I marked the collapse of Ottoman power and the decision by Britain to carve out the new, artificial state of Iraq from part of the Empire's ruins. The Kurds who found themselves within Iraq have been in an almost permanent state of revolt ever since. For its part, the Iraqi government has always feared Kurdish separatism, not only for itself, but because of the precedent it would set for the Shiites, some 55 percent of the population, and thus the very future of the Iraqi state. This book briefly reviews the background of the Kurdish national movement in Iraq, and then devotes the bulk of its analysis to the uprising that followed the 1991 Gulf War, the subsequent negotiations, the UN peacekeeping operation, the creation of a de facto Kurdish state and the important policies of Turkey. The analysis concludes that despite many remaining difficulties, there is now reason to hope that the long nightmare of the Kurds in Iraq might perhaps be nearing its end.