Text 18331, 75 rader
Skriven 2005-12-10 08:01:54 av SHANNON TALLEY (1:275/311)
     Kommentar till en text av Paul Sanders
Ärende: Re: Copyright
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No, perhaps in Turkish media, but certainly not in our or even your media. 
The Insurgents are those who are killing the different factions in Iraq and 
are leaking across the boarders from Syria & Iran. They are largely the 
Syrian bathists who want the bathists back in power.

> ST> thousands of peopl that Saddam had put to death for being
> ST> Kurdish, he could use a little 'pick-me-up'.
> That would be the people who were often described as being
> 'insurgents' in western media, right.

Of all the ethnic groups in the world, the Kurds are one of the largest that 
has no state to call their own. According to historian William Westermann, 
"The Kurds can present a better claim to race purity...than any people which 
now inhabits Europe." The desire for an independent Kurdish state has 
created conflicts mainly with the Turkish and Iraqi populations in the areas 
where most of the Kurds live. This conflict has important geographical 
implications as well. The history of the Kurdish nation, the causes for 
these conflicts, and an analysis of the situation will be discussed in this 
paper.(Kurds - A People Without a State)

The Kurds are a Sunni Muslim people living primarily in Turkey,Iraq, and 
Iran. The 25 million Kurds have a distinct culture that is not at all like 
their Turkish, Persian, and Arabic neighbors. It is this cultural difference 
between the groups that automatically creates the potential for conflict. Of 
the 25 million Kurds, approximately 10 million live in Turkey, four million 
in Iraq, five million in Iran, and a million in Syria, with the rest 
scattered throughout the rest of the world (Kurds - A People Without a 
State)

Major conflict between the Kurds and Iraqis did not really begin until 
1961,when a war broke out that lasted until 1970. Around this time, 
SaddamHussein came to power in Iraq. In 1975, Hussein adopted a policy of 
eradicating the Kurds from his country. Over the next fifteen years, the 
Iraqi army bombed Kurdish villages, and poisoned the Kurds with cyanide and 
mustard gas. It is estimated that during the 1980's, Iraqis destroyed some 
5000 Kurdish villages . From this point, we move into the recent history and 
current state of these conflicts between the Kurds and the Turks, and the 
Kurds against the Iraqis.(Kurds - A People Without a State)

Saddam Hussein believed that the Kurds were "in the way" in Iraq and he 
perceived them as a threat to "the glory of the Arabs". For this reason, he 
carried out his mass genocide of the Kurds in his country.(Kurds - A People 
Without a State)

Kurdistan is a strategically important area for both Turkey and Iraq because 
it contains important oil and water resources which they cannot afford to 
lose.(Kurds - A People Without a State)

In 1991, after the defeat of his country in the Persian Gulf War, Saddam 
Hussein had the Iraqi army attack the Kurds again. As a result, the United 
States and its allies launched Operation Provide Comfort in April 1991 that 
created a safe haven for the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan. Eventually, the Kurds 
were able to secure a small measure of autonomy in Kurdistan and on May 19, 
1992, the Kurds held their first free elections in Iraq (Prince, p. 17, 
1992).(Kurds - A People Without a State)

As far as the United States is concerned, Kurdistan probably should not 
exist. During Operation Provide Comfort, the U.S. helped out the Kurds in 
Iraq, but did nothing to help the Kurds in Turkey. The reason for this is 
that Turkey is a NATO ally, while Iraq is one of the U.S.'s worst enemies By 
helping out the Kurds, the U.S. would be siding with enemies of the Turks, 
which could create problems that the U.S. government would rather not deal 
with. This type of situation does not exist in Iraq, however, since the U.S. 
is not on friendly terms with Hussein's regime. (Kurds - A People Without a 
State)

, u. (n.d.). Kurds - a people without a state. Retrieved Dec. 10, 2005, from 
Kurds - A People Without a State Web site: 
http://www.cyberessays.com/History/65.htm.

Here is an 'ok' reference for the Kurds (Wiki), 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Kurds . 

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