Kurdistan

The Kurds, a traditionally nomadic and semi-nomadic people, are ethnically and culturally separated from their Arab and Turkish neighbors. Kurdistan was a geographic area traditionally populated by the Kurds, but since being conquered by Arab armies in the 7th century, they have been under the rule of other nations and ethnicities since. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI, Kurdistan was to become its own region. Ataturk maneuvered for a more favorable treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne, which broke the old Ottoman empire into only four countries instead of five: Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. This left the traditional area of Kurdistan to sprawl across newly created boarders. Immediately following the the Treaty of Lausanne, Ataturk implemented policies that banned the use of the Kurdish language, cultures, and customs in an effort to eliminate the Kurds as a people. Now numbering approximately 25 million people, the Kurds are the largest ethnic group without a country. Their continued resistance to cultural suppression and efforts to develop an independent Kurdish state have led to terrorist attacks by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and numerous uprisings.

Today, the conflict centers around the Turkish Kurds. While Iraqi Kurds are by all respects independent from Iraq, Turkey continues attempts to suppress language and culture. Six Kurdish political parties have been banned by the Turkish Supreme Court, although restrictions on language customs have been lifted. Most of the the fate of the conflict rests on weather or not Turkey follows through with the threat to execute the PKK leader captured in 1999 and if Kurds can be peacefully integrated into the Turkish political system.