There are approximately 30 million Kurdish people who live in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and parts of the former Soviet-Union. The Kurdish people has its own culture and language, but not its own state. The majority of the Kurds is Islamic. A part of the Kurdish people strives to form its own state. The countries in which the territories for this supposed Kurdish states are, consider this as a threat to their territorial integrity and to the stability of the region. This has been cause for conflict.

Origin of the conflict
At the beginning of the last century the Ottoman Empire was divided. In the Treaty of Sèvres it was decided that the Kurdish people would become autonomous. However, due to the uprising of the Turkish nationalists, led by Atatürk, the treaty never came into force. In the treaty of Lausanne in 1923 the current borders of Turkey were established. The Kurds weren’t mentioned in this treaty. In the following paragraphs the situation of the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria are discussed.  

Turkey
In Turkey the Kurdistan workers party (PKK), a separatist movement, is quite active. It was created as a response to the repressive politics of General Kenan Evren in the 80s. The PKK’s fight for independence has already claimed many lives and it is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, United Nations, NATO, the European Union and others. The Kurdish people are more backward than the rest of Turkey: they have more illiteracy, a lower BBP and a higher enfant death rate. The governement  is however encouraging businessmen to invest in the region, by giving them tax reductions. The Kurdish language has long be forbidden in Turkey, but since 1991 this prohibitions has been removed. It's not an official language, but the Turkish Radio and Televion Corporation (TRT) began also broadcasting in Kurdish some months ago and a few universities opened programs in Turkish.     

Iraq
Since 1970 there has been an autonomous region for the Kurds with its own parliament. But since the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, Saddam Hussein’s cronies controlled everything and there was little autonomy. Insurgent Kurds were severely repressed and in 1988, during a chemical gas attack, 5.000 people in Halabja died. During the Gulf War many Kurds were afraid the regime of Hussein would eliminate them and therefore they tried to flee to Turkey. But they were stopped at the Turkish border where 800 to 1000 people died daily. The UN condemned the repression of the Kurds and sent an international force: Operation Provide Comfort, which provided aid to the Kurds. Kurdish fighters fought alongside the international troops against Saddam Hussein’s regime in the Iraq War in 2003. After this war, the Kurdish Autonomous region was established and since then the Kurds have been represented in Parliament. Moreover, in 2005 Jalal Talabani became the first Kurdish president of Iraq.

Iran
Over 4,5 million Kurds live in Iran. Already after the First World War the Kurdish tribes have tried to attain autonomy. However, the new strong Iranian leader, Reza Pahlavi, forced the Kurds to settle in villages in Central Iran. The Komalaye Jiani Kurdistan (Committee for Rebirth of Kurdistan) was established in 1942 and four years later the Republic of Mahabad was proclaimed, but Iranian troops soon invaded under the pretence of monitoring the elections. In the 60s and 70s there were several uprisings against the regime and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) became under the leadership of radicals. They decided to use armed resistance in order to gain autonomy for the Kurds. During the Iran-Iraq War since 1980 the KDPI managed to secure liberated areas. Nowadays the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which is strongly linked to the Turkish PKK, fights for autonomy.   

Syria
There are about 2 million Kurds in Syria, which makes out ten percent of the inhabitants and makes them the largest ethnic minority in Syria. The ethnic identity of the Kurds is repressed; the use of the Kurdish language is often prohibited, so are Kurdish private schools and books or other material written in the Kurdish language. Moreover there are about 200.000 stateless Kurds in Syria, because in 1962 the Syrian government decided it would no longer provide Syrian citizenship to a vast group of Kurds. These people are stuck in Syria as they have no passport to immigrate, neither can they possess land, houses or companies, work for government bodies or government owned companies, become doctors or engineers. They have no active or passive voting rights and cannot marry a Syrian civilian.