Kurds in Iraq

The Kurdish people are an ethnic group whose origins are in the Middle East. They are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world that do not have a state of their own. This geo-cultural region means "Land of the Kurds". Kurdistan Region is a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq has a population of approximately 6 million people. Kurdish populations occupy the territory in and around the Zagros Mountains. These arid unwelcoming mountains have been a geographic buffer to cultural and political dominance from neighboring empires. Classical period , of Kurdish origin, who founded the Ayyubid dynasty, was born in Tikrit in present-day Iraq. Several Kurdish dynasties such as Annazids (990/1–1117) and Hasanwayhids (or Hasanuyids, 959–1015) ruled in northern Iraq. The Kurdish Marwanid dynasty (983–1096) temporarily ruled over Mosul. The Ayyubid dynasty, was a powerful Islamic dynasty of Kurdish origin and also ruled northern Iraq. Ottoman Conquest and Aftermath In the 1500s, most Kurds came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, where they were governed as part of the empire's administrative structure. Iraqi Kurds began to emerge as a distinct subgroup of the Kurdish population following the creation of the modern state of Iraq by Great Britain under the terms of the Sykes–Picot Agreement during World War I. The Kurdish expectation of independence, promised in the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, was short-lived. In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne established the Republic of Turkey, redefining borders and negating provisions for a Kurdish state. Similarly, the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922, which laid the groundwork for Iraqi independence, did not include any guarantees for Kurdish autonomy. In the year 1958, Abdul Karim Qasim made a coup against the British and the Republic of Iraq was established. The Kurds had hoped that now they would receive their promised rights, but the political environment was not favorable. So the KDP began an insurgency against the Government in Baghdad in 1961. Their insurgency was in part successful as in 1966 official Kurdish groups gained some rights with the Bazzaz Declaration and with the 1970 Peace Accord a principle of Kurdish autonomy was reached. In the 1970 Peace Accord, Kurdish cultural, social and political rights were recognized within fifteen points. These rights were never implemented, not due to unwillingness on the part of the Arabs, but rather because of political developments. Nevertheless, the Kurds had a period of greater liberty from 1970 to 1974. But in March 1975 the Iraq and Iran reached an agreement and within a few hours after the agreement, Iran stopped all support to the KDP, whose members and their families had the choice between go to exile to Iran or surrender to the Iraqi authority. Most KDP members chose to live in exile and the KDP declared the end of their insurgency. Therefore, in 1975, another political party emerged in Iraqi Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani—the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). From March 1987 until 1989 the Anfal campaign lasted, with which the Kurds were supposed to be Arabized. During the Anfal campaign the Iraqi military attacked about 250 Kurdish villages with chemical weapons and destroyed Kurdish 4500 villages and evicted its inhabitants. The campaign culminated in the Halabja massacre in March 1988. After the Gulf War and an unsuccessful Kurdish uprising in 1991, Kurds fled back to the mountains to seek refuge from the government forces. Though civil war broke out in the north between Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan from 1994 to 1998, Kurds were still able to maintain a democratic and prosperous foundation for their region. US invasion of Iraq When the US invaded to oust the Iraqi government in 2003, the northern Kurdish border with Iraqi central state was moved considerably southward. Different opinions emerged on whether the Iraqi government should be centralized or not, how the US should respond to civil conflict between the Arabs and Kurds, and how previous promises to the Kurdish and Iraqi people would be achieved in a future state. Kurdish people have played an important role in Iraqi state-building since the United States invaded in 2003. Many Kurds seek to build an autonomous federal state in the post-Hussein era, however, a solution for Kurdish problems in Iraq was not even mentioned in the 2004 UN resolution that established Iraq's interim government. == Politics ==

Factors that play into their future include Kurdish diversity and factions, Kurdish relationships with the United States, Iraq's central government, and neighboring countries, previous political agreements, disputed territories, and Kurdish nationalism. in September 2017 Disputed internal boundaries have been a core concern for Arabs and Kurds, especially since US invasion and political restructuring in 2003. Kurds gained territory to the south of Iraqi Kurdistan after the US-led invasion in 2003 to regain what land they considered historically theirs. Article 140 Article 140 of the 2005 Iraqi constitution vowed to place disputed areas under the jurisdiction of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) by the end of 2007. The three phases that were going to aid this process were normalization, census, and referendum. The normalization phase was supposed to undo the 'Arabization' policies Kurds faced from 1968 to 2003 that were designed to alter the demographic in the city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas to favor the Arab population. Internationally, the move to gain independence was overwhelmingly opposed with the UN security council suggesting it may lead to further destabilization. ==Culture and diversity==

Religion Before the spread of Islam, many Kurds were followers of Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, or local pagan beliefs. Kurds were assimilating these religious practices into their cultural domain as early as 800 BCE. Arab conquests, however, began in the seventh century AD, eventually overpowering Kurdish resistance. Unlike the other sunni Kurds the feylis speak the southern Kurdish dialect which is closer to the Persian language. Today, many Muslim Kurds consider themselves religious when it comes to adhering to the call to prayer as they often try to keep up and pray all five prayers, also secondary practices of Islam have a stronghold in Kurdish culture. But the Language Law was not fully implemented, in the Governmental Offices in the Liwas of Kirkuk and Mosul the law has never been applied and following the release in independence of the Kingdom of Iraq by the British Empire in 1932, schools and Governmental Administration were arabized in the Qadhas of Kirkuk and Mosul. In Arbil of the 15 issues of the official gazette eight issues were in Arabic, six in Turkish and only one in Kurdish. Language has been foundational to the building of a national identity in Iraqi Kurdistan, for the vast majority of Kurdish peoples speak Kurdish. Kurdish belongs to the Iranian language group and is rooted in the Indo-European family of languages. Kurdish leaders in Iraq have pushed for the prosperity of divided local governments rather than an independent state; this is because leadership is derived from tribal legitimacy, rather than political institutions. Talabani and Barzani, for instance, did not come from the most populous Kurdish tribe, but rather from well-organized tribes. This could be an inhibitor to democracy in the region since those trying to preserve the status quo hold power but do not represent the majority. From 1986 to the present, Turkey has held different alliances with the KDP and PUK parties of Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey has protected the KDP from the PKK and PUK. Turkey has also attacked the political parties PUK and PKK, while keeping good relations with the KDP, partially for access to cheap Iraqi oil. The KDP holds the representation of tribes along the Turkish border, so favorable relations with them ensures trading for Iraqi goods. Turkey then shifted its relationships to favor the now social-democratic PUK party. Since this party sat in the southern region of northern Iraq, it had stronger relations with the central Iraqi government. After the independence referendum of 2017 the relations between Turkey and political parties in the KRG cooled down. ==National identity==

Throughout the 1990s, when Kurds were given regional control after the Gulf War and a no-fly zone was established, a stronger Kurdish identity began to form. This has stemmed from increased international support and the pull-out of the Iraqi central government from Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdish language crossed over into the public sphere, taught and spoken in schools, universities, the administration, and the media. There has also been an influx of national symbols, including the Kurdish flag, a Kurdish hymn, and public recognition of the Kurdish people. Development of Kurdish infrastructure has also become an integral aspect of their successful autonomy. Previously dependent on the socioeconomic infrastructure of Baghdad, Kurds were able to efficiently build up their region, physically and politically, from scratch. They built a fully functioning autonomous government, free from Ba'athist Iraq. They were able to manage local governments, establish free and active Kurdish political parties, and institutionalize a Kurdish parliament. With these developments, the de facto Kurdish government gained recognition for the first time in the international sphere. They have quasi-official representation in Turkey, Iran, France, Britain, and the United States. Though Kurdish people had some success in forming a national identity, there have been factors that have stunted its growth. Under the state of Iraq, Kurds were subjugated to the nationalism process for all Iraqis, given the arbitrary state lines. Kurds were starting to think of themselves as Iraqis, rather than focus on their collective development as Kurds. Nationalism was also hindered by divisions of tribes, languages, and geography that prevented the Kurdish people from identifying completely as one unit. No leader has yet to rise above this tribal status and the infighting hurts those fighting for Kurdish autonomy because they are divided by other factions or political boundaries. For example, during the Iran–Iraq War, from 1980 to 1988, Turkey supported one Iraqi Kurdish group over another in order to play the Iraqi Kurds off against Turkey's own rebellious Kurds. Technology and telecommunications have helped Kurds to establish an ethno-national group, or self-defined national identity. Though this has developed a sense of pride and definition across political boundaries, it reveals a less promising scenario of Kurdish statehood. It has disclosed disparities across countries about which Kurdish populations are gaining international support and relief. For Iraqi Kurds, this international network was established after the Gulf War of 1991. They had new forms of financial and political support as well as the resources and the legal geographic space to advance their nationalist agenda. This access allowed Kurdish language publications, texts, educational programs, and cultural organizations to flourish—benefits that Kurds only were experiencing within the state of Iraq and in European academic institutions. Transnational social and cultural networks for Kurds were still tied to characteristics of certain states. ==Autonomy==

With a Kurdish diaspora, legitimizing a Kurdish state is even more unlikely. Many Turkish Kurds have migrated outside of their historic homeland in the southeast of Turkey, westward for more prosperous lives. In September 2017, the Kurdistan Regional Government headed by Massoud Barzani announced the intention to secede from Iraq by conducting an independence referendum. Following numerous unheeded warnings by the Iraqi government to stop, an armed conflict ensued between Iraqi governmental forces and Kurds which resulted in the defeat of the Kurds and the Iraqi government subsequently reasserting control over Kirkuk. Since then, Iraqi Kurdish officials have complained about a perceived return to Baathist Iraq-era Arabization policies in the disputed territories, including oil-rich Kirkuk. In a leaked letter published by Al-Monitor in September 2023, Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of KRG warned about an imminent collapse of the federal model in Iraq (i.e. a return to centralism) and urged the United States to intervene, saying: "I write to you now at another critical juncture in our history, one that I fear we may have difficulty overcoming. …[W]e are bleeding economically and hemorrhaging politically. For the first time in my tenure as prime minister, I hold grave concerns that this dishonorable campaign against us may cause the collapse of … the very model of a Federal Iraq that the United States sponsored in 2003 and purported to stand by since." According to a report published in 2024 by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Kurdistan Region's autonomy "hangs in the balance" due to several punitive measures imposed against the former by the government of Iraq in an effort to punish it and ultimately strip it completely of its autonomy. ==References==